Poker Fever...

At football practice the other night, a kid announced that he is having a poker party at his house. It hit me at that point that the popularity of poker has become something that is starting to bother me. Now let me explain why. I found the pic above as I was digging throgh my archives the other day and I realized that truly Marty, Hauser, Nordic Man, and I are trendsetters. We would just put the call out, move the juke and the poker table to the garage and get a game on. That is another thing I truly miss about Wisconsin is the Garage parties. As I write this now, it is snowing. Really. Sometimes I wonder truly how crazy I am to live in Canada. Anyway, those games would always end way too late with someone saying something stupid and losing a big pot. I will always remember those games. The whole world and all my problems just faded away...along with all my change.

And it started even before that for me. Back in 1994 or 95 Don Schmith and Mr. Jay Villwock got a friendly floating game going on Thursday nights in Dead Moines. Which still goes on to this day weekly I hear. I am dissappointed that we do not have any pics from these games. It truly became what we looked forward to every week. There were some guys who came just to hang out. Murphy came to just be cool like us. Cal 'Morning' Wood always had one more card to beat you. Bastard. Scmithy's quiet cool at the table annoyed me. I liked to yell and swear at the table. No, really? Yeah. Great games. Mark Boden sucked ass always though.

Even, when I was in the Forest Service back in 1987 we would have a game at least every other week. So Poker for me has been a part of my life for a long time. It is just too bad I still suck at it. You would think I would have learned something over the years.



I have had a few games up here since I have been here. Good games except that bastard Robbie Macannally (in the middle) is that guy who always has one or two cards to beat my hand. We had a game at Strike Headquarters during the strike. Robbie came to that game. Here is Rob, a guy who is not on strike, taking all these guys money who have no money to lose. Cutthrought. Rob did buy pizza for everyone. I guess that makes up for it.

I am truly in a slump. Sandy Muldrew (front) is also a good card player. Jordi (back) also fancys himself as a card shark. I am not so sure about that. We don't play as much up here, mostly because I am too lazy to drive accross town to play or too busy to call one. Blair has a floating game going on a regular basis, but it is a bit too serious for me. I can't afford the stakes.





Really what I believe the game was about for us was a chance to get together with the boys, shoot the sh*t, have a few tasty beverages (and at Marty's place little smokeys), and just play cards. NO WILD CARDS. Missonary poker, as the boys called it, was my game of choice. Meaning just play with what is dealt you. Baseball BLOWS. Then we would get an occasional game of table hockey going while someone would make a trip to the can. Hauser could put it on the shelf and it drove me crazy.



Check out this pic of Marty late in a game at my place in Green Bay. Daryl M looks like he had had WAY too many. I believe that this was the game where Marty uttered those infamous words "I'm no queer or nothing, but I would fu*k Dee Snider in the ass..." Now, before you lay judgement on Marty let's think about it. 'We're not gonna take it' had just played on the Juke, and Marty had REALLY had one to many Leinies. Imagine us just minding our own business, playing cards, humming along to the song, and he drops this on us. Beer comes out of my nose. It was one of those lines that will forever remain in infamy. Let's hear from Marty and what he says about the event and in general his poker experience....He recently sent me an article on Dee Snider and it sparked this conversation...

"I was laughing when I read the Dee Snider thing too... I still don't know how much I had to drink when I made that statement, but I remember that Hauser couldn't play for like a half-hour because he was laughing so hard..

I built a room in my house that looks like a '50s diner with my juke box and beer fridge and I still get to play poker about once a month with some Wisconsin ex-patriots that nearby...

Rob Bub - an LA homicide detective from Glendale, WI
Pat Hanson - Set designer for The West Wing from Crivitz
Mitch Sanchez - Percussionist for Stevie Nicks from Racine
Paul McKinnon - His wife is the unit Publicist for Days of our Lives - from Milwaukee

We drink beer, smoke cigars talk/complain about the Packers and generally act like idiots while playing poker for nickels, dimes and quarters.

But nothing compares to the semi-regular games we used to play where men were men, we played poker with no more than 2 wild cards, bathroom breaks were kept to a minimum and Dee Snider got it right up the a**."

Wow that is quite a list of whos who. Marty truly has status. The guys I play with are camera guys and guys who work for a living. Sounds like a good game though. I wonder how the Dee Snider remark would play with those guys? With me up here I am the only one who talks about the Pack. Boy do they have problems. Let's not get started on that....yet.

So all you poker wanna bees better recognize that me and the boys have known for a long time ,what you discovered in the last few months. Poker is a great game. They have one thing wrong though. These newbees like to play texas hold 'em for big bucks, we played for change. It ain't about the money, it's about the social event. The BS, running smak, bitching about the Pack, drinking tasty beverages, and sometimes about "Fu**ing Dee Snider in the ass". You better recognize! Can I get a witness?

Anyway, so much for the rant about poker. Maybe I will have to put a game together here soon. I think I will wait till the snow goes away. Canada.

So as I was going thru my archive of photos I noticed that I had a lot of pics with 'famous' people. Now famous to me is different than the actual definition of famous. I won't go too far on this because this is the teaser for next week......




So have a nice day and GET BACK TO WORK!!!