60

So, yesterday was the 60th birthday. Yes, I was born on Armistice Day, a holiday no longer on your calender.

A quick run down of the day's itinerary:

7:00 am at Hibiscus and played 17 holes, (they were still mowing the tee boxes and green on12 so I skipped ahead one hole. Played as poorly as one would expect after such a long time away from the game, though I had no more than two putts on any hole, driving and other shots were sporadically good and bad. I finished in two hours thirty five minutes.

Noon, I entered a live poker tournament at the Naples/Ft. Myers dog track. Shaky play, shaky hands throughout (no tell if you shake all the time), managed to stay in the game for two hours and busted out 29th of 73 who started.  The following is my account of that portion of the day, as related via email to Mat Sawicki:

So, I did go to the dog track and I entered the 12 noon tourney. 

I admit that I was nervous, and everybody could surely tell. But, I was careful to play premium hands, won a few, and got blinded into my last hand after two hours of play.

So, the last hand, my second all-in of the day; blinds were now up to 1200/600 from a start of 50/25, I had just lost 6000 while holding top pair to a fellow who had to go runner-runner to make a flush and was left with only 700 when they decided it was time to consolidate the players to the final three tables, my unlucky draw put me in the big blind on the first hand, I didn't even look at my cards until someone bet away the others players leaving it heads-up, then we all saw my two holes cards, 8, 4 to his pocket nines, the flop comes 4, 4, 6, followed by an 8 on the turn which gave me a full house, I'm going to win the hand until he rivers another nine, I lost full house over full house.

Now, the statistics you are dying to hear, the numbers man that you are. The field began with 73 players, I went out at number 29 left; I beat over half the field, and got my feet wet on how the tourney feels. Next time, I won't go so easy on them.

R

ps- I was out in time to bet the last two races. The seventh gave me a Quinella win of $38, the eighth delivered more, $62.60. So, adding up my costs and profits

Betting the dogs           $  28.00

Polish sausage                   3.50

Admission                           2.00

Program                              1.50

Poker entry                       55.00

Total Spent                       90.00

7th race payout            $  38.00

8th race payout               62.60

Total winnings               $100.60

Profit earned                 $  10.60

3:30ish pm, arrived home to find an email from Steve Johnson confirming that he and Bruce would meet me to watch the Dolphins/Tampa Bay MNF game. I arrived at Pelican Larry's (Davis Blvd) ahead of them, Steve only a few minutes later, Bruce never showed. The two of stayed until 10:30ish eating wings, iced tea, and watching the game between all the catching up and world problem solving; it was much like the god old days yet again.

The rest of night was spent with the television on and I was awake until at least 11:30.

Now I know one other way to spend a birthday when you decide to not work on that day.