The Real San Francisco

Last night I went downtown with Joey. We ended up at the office of some of his friends for a game of poker. It ended up being me and 9 dot com startup execs and employees from various companies. I'd never really played much poker before, much less for money, so I decided if nothing else I'd be paying to get a lesson.

I lost most of my money before I finally got a good feel for what I was doing, but eventually I found a rhythm and started choosing the right hands to play. I was down to $3.25 when a really good hand followed by a really good bluff turned my game around. I took the $3.25 and turned it into nearly $100. I managed to be one of the final four at the table, but my strategy of never backing down to Joey failed me. I'd called his bluff twice already and won, but the third time we went head to head he took me all in and his trip 2s beat my pair. This is his stack of chips after he took my stack and took me out of the game.



It wasn't a bad strategy and I didn't mind passing chips to Joey anyway, but I knew I was testing my luck going all in. And now I know how to hold my own in a poker game.

Today we played kickball in Golden Gate Park. It took a little while to get things organized, but once we did it was a lot of fun. Sloshball, as it's called, is made difficult by the fact that you always have to have a cup in your hand, so you basically only have one free hand to field the kickball. That and the fact that you're drinking hard cider.



Joey did his typical Joey thing. Our team strategy of kicking right at him never paid off as time after time he seemed to manage to make unbelieveable catches.



Later we saw the city hall building, and now I'm inspired to do more touristy things tomorrow. Tentative plans are Fisherman's Wharf, Embarcadero, Coit Tower, Chinatown, and The Palace of the Legion of Honor (or however much of that I can fit in).



Tonight we had some amazing Mexican food on Mission St. I plan to continue to take advantage of the authentic offerings around here while I can.