Payday and Poker

Friday was payday - always nice.  My boss stopped by to drop off my check and pick up some software I had worked on while in Boston.  He needed to take it up to a client in Reading.  Unfortunately the software did not work as planned.  Disappointing but not surprising.  It was the first time I've written code for an I2C bus, and I had to do it without a system to test on.  We tried fixing things over the phone (him working at the system, me telling him what to look at and what to change), but that didn't work out.  In the end he stopped back at the office with the test system, and I was able to get everything running in about 30 minutes.

Some of the folks in the shire have been getting together to play poker, and Friday was also poker night (good thing I got paid...)  It was only the third time we've played, and the first time barely counts.  The first time it was just four guys (the girls were doing a fitting, and we all had to be out of the house).  We played nickel ante, dealer's choice and had a good time.  The top winner went away with an extra $4 and change.  The second time we played, we had seven people for No Limit Texas Hold'em.  $20 to play, with the money going to the top three finishers.  I got lucky enough times to be the last man standing and took home the $100 prize, of course $20 of it was mine, $20 was from my wife, and what was left didn't cover the money spent on food and drinks :).  But we all had a great time, even the folks just hanging out and watching. 

Last night's game was similar to the second one.  We changed some chip values, and the final prizes (now they are $80/$50/$30).  The guy who placed second last time couldn't make it, but we had two new players ready to jump in.  I'm sad to report that I was the first to get knocked out of the game, but by that time we had been playing for several hours.  My wife stayed in longer, going out third.  If I remember correctly, the next two people were taken out in a single hand, leaving only three left.  The game wrapped up fairly quickly at that point, but we had been playing for almost five hours.  Next time we may lower the buy in to $10 so that it's not so much of a burden of couples.  The trick is to keep it high enough so that people treat the chip as "real" money, but low enough that you don't mind spending it for an evenings entertainment.

Ok, time to get ready for K&Q Bardic Champions.  I figure this will be an event where I have nothing I need to do, nothing I want to get done and plenty of time to just hang out, relax and enjoy the surroundings (which will include bardic entertainment and food :) )  My wife is staying home to work on site tokens for Games & Galliards, so it will just be me this trip.

Payday and Poker

Friday was payday - always nice.  My boss stopped by to drop off my check and pick up some software I had worked on while in Boston.  He needed to take it up to a client in Reading.  Unfortunately the software did not work as planned.  Disappointing but not surprising.  It was the first time I've written code for an I2C bus, and I had to do it without a system to test on.  We tried fixing things over the phone (him working at the system, me telling him what to look at and what to change), but that didn't work out.  In the end he stopped back at the office with the test system, and I was able to get everything running in about 30 minutes.

Some of the folks in the shire have been getting together to play poker, and Friday was also poker night (good thing I got paid...)  It was only the third time we've played, and the first time barely counts.  The first time it was just four guys (the girls were doing a fitting, and we all had to be out of the house).  We played nickel ante, dealer's choice and had a good time.  The top winner went away with an extra $4 and change.  The second time we played, we had seven people for No Limit Texas Hold'em.  $20 to play, with the money going to the top three finishers.  I got lucky enough times to be the last man standing and took home the $100 prize, of course $20 of it was mine, $20 was from my wife, and what was left didn't cover the money spent on food and drinks :).  But we all had a great time, even the folks just hanging out and watching. 

Last night's game was similar to the second one.  We changed some chip values, and the final prizes (now they are $80/$50/$30).  The guy who placed second last time couldn't make it, but we had two new players ready to jump in.  I'm sad to report that I was the first to get knocked out of the game, but by that time we had been playing for several hours.  My wife stayed in longer, going out third.  If I remember correctly, the next two people were taken out in a single hand, leaving only three left.  The game wrapped up fairly quickly at that point, but we had been playing for almost five hours.  Next time we may lower the buy in to $10 so that it's not so much of a burden of couples.  The trick is to keep it high enough so that people treat the chip as "real" money, but low enough that you don't mind spending it for an evenings entertainment.

Ok, time to get ready for K&Q Bardic Champions.  I figure this will be an event where I have nothing I need to do, nothing I want to get done and plenty of time to just hang out, relax and enjoy the surroundings (which will include bardic entertainment and food :) )  My wife is staying home to work on site tokens for Games & Galliards, so it will just be me this trip.