I love the sound of poker chips clinking on a glass table. The first ones tossed in as an ante always make the loudest and most crisp sound. As the game progresses and the pot grows, the clattering dulls ever so slightly....
Yes. I admit it.
I have a gambling problem.
I remember during Pro-Grad, (project graduation.. where the rich, bored mothers of the rich, pampered children in our school put together a huge festival-like party at the school the night of graduation to try and get students to go there and not get drunk instead. I think they should spend more time teaching their damn children the difference between right and wrong and less time planning these events to try and bribe them into doing the right thing 18 years later..sheesh)
Anyways. It was pretty fun. And I have to admit, they did a pretty impressive job. It was done with good intentions, after all.
There were tricycles you could ride through the school, prizes, pool tables, karoake, moonwalk, sumo wrestling in these big blow up suits, raffle tickets, etc. You got free money to spend at these different places with the purchase of a 20$ ticket.
I spent 6 hours at the blackjack table.
Other than some raffle tickets at the end, I did nothing else.
Nothing.
It's addicting as hell. You go around until you found a table and dealer you liked (usually the dumbest guy there) and say nothing the whole game, because the guys there are loud enough already. MAn do men get rowdy when they're gambling. So if you're a little girl, and you're quiet.. you can soon learn how each person operates.. How risky they are, how high they're willing to bet.. etc. Then there are some people that are just so damn lucky, and you bet on his cards and win a whole crap load of money. You start off with your 1 dollar white chips. Those soon turn to ten dollar black chips. Those turn to hundred dollar orange chips. Then five hundred dollar gold chips. Every time I got a gold chip I'd place it in my pocket, and play with what I had out. Soon your bets begin to grow in 100 dollar increments. goD I loved the feeling of those gold chips clinking softly in my pocket.

Oh. Back to my gambling problem.
I am convinced Joe is the devil and has gotten me addicted to gambling again.
Shanna, joe, chris & gene, and I played mah-jongg ... I kinda knew the basics, but I've learned a lot of different types of combinations and a little about how you count the points, etc. Then we played some type of poker called 'show hand'.. Holy crap what a great game.
Instead of getting all 5 cards at once, you get one card placed face down in front of you, one card face up. You raise. You add one more card face up. Raise again. You do this until you have 4 cards facing up. You can fold anytime. The point is that people have to speculate what your covered card is, and since you don't know what cards you'll get, the betting in between is a lot riskier, and therefore more exciting. There's more to it, it's just hard to explain online.
But I really enjoyed watching everyone's expressions. I'm all antsy right now. I really want to play again. AHH! this is so bad...
We also watched some Chinese flick "God of Gamblers" where they played this type of poker... great movie.
Anyways, it was fun. We will have to do this again sometime.
Nobody let me ever go to Vegas, k?