Poker at Nik's

Last night, Rafi, Gary, Adrian, Jonah and Eric played poker at Nik's. Yossi let it be known in advance that he would not actually be coming, despite his email saying that he would be. But not everyone went to those lengths... We ate hot dogs and chips, though Nik should have put the chips in the oven earlier. There were left over green Doritos for Nik to enjoy over the next few days. Adrian complained he was hot, but I think he just wanted to show us his underwear.

We discussed Rafi's mother. We listened to pop music. Raf and Gary won nicely. Nik lost stacks to some very good hands; this is in no way a reflection of his skills as an Israeli Poker King.

So here's an interesting graph. I'll tell you what it shows. You know how some people's lines in the regular graph go up and down like crazy, while others are more stable? So this graph represents that. It shows the amount that each IPK has won OR lost per week. So you can see, for instance, that I tend to be involved in big money transfers each week, while Gary neither wins nor loses big. Quite fascinating, no?

Poker at Eric's

Last night we played poker at Eric's. Present were Eric, Yossi, Jonah, Rafi, Gary, and Nik. Eric made a couple of chickens and burnt chips for supper. Nik ate some lovely vegetarian lasagne. There were no green Doritos at all, though the cheesy Mexican ones were ok. Drinks were good, except for the Melon Fanta, which gave Jonah neck spasms. Michal had bought it, though to be fair, Eric had told her to go for "toxic".

The evening finished with some confusion, as the winnings and losings were ten shekels out. Someone had made a mistake, but who? We shall never know. During the evening's play we coined the phrase, "full house fuck up", which is when you think you have a full house in Hi-Lo but actually you don't because you can only use two cards from your hand. "Full house fuck up" sounds good because of the alliteration of the letter F. And it has the word "fuck" in it, which is always nice to say. We played a lot of poker, going round the whole table one and a sixth times. There were no HUGE hands or amazing cards. Jonah told us about his miluim. It sounded ridiculous.

Poker at Yossi's

On Monday night, Jona, Rafi, Adrian, Nik, and Eric assembled to play poker at Yossi's flat, with its high ceilings and the son of a bitch musician living just upstairs. We ate spaghetti bolognese. Yossi made us drink his left over fruit juices. Nonetheless, he is to be commended for providing a bag of green Doritos per poker king. (Though I'm still not sure whether this is enough. How much would enough be?)
The chart shows a lot of movement. Nik forfeits his place at the top, lurching downwards uncomfortably, along with Yoss and Jona (who made one of those classic hi-lo mistakes). Raf and Adrian shoot upwards gleefully. So does Eric, but he still doesn't manage to creep over the zero line.
I don't really remember what we talked about. I just remember losing loads of chips to Adrian's four fours. And I remember that Jona's name is still causing no little trouble to certain of the PKs.

Poker at Gary's

Last night poker was played at Gary's. In attendance were Gary, Rafi, Yossi, Jonah, and Adrian. Gary put on a BBQ (hurray!), but failed to provide green Doritos (boo!). Rafi was the big winner (if big is the right word for being 23.5 shekels up), while Jonah lost about that amount, thereby dropping 3 places in the rankings. Yossi failed to take advantage of Nik's absence.
Adrian talked about arses and the sun in a stupid way. And there was a lively conversation about wives and lesbianism. (The best conversations seem to happen when I'm not there. Doh.) While mobile phones were kept deep in pockets, the television was left on in the background, much to Jonah's annoyance. In an email correspondence, he said that the "billiards" was on; however, I suspect that he is in fact referring to the final of the most important snooker tournament of the season. He should be thankful that he didn't have to stay up to watch it until the end, as it wasn't over until 12.52am UK time. And that's even later than we stay up to play poker.

Documenting the Poker Kings with Rafi's phone

Brace yourselves for a multi-media onslaught. First up are some photos of us looking great.
And now for some ridiculous videos.

Poker at JonaH's

After a short break, forced upon us by Israel's 59th birthday party, we were back in full force at Jonah's house. Present were Jonah, Eric, Adrian, Nik, Jona, Gary, Rafi and Yossi. Jonah served chicken wings and undercooked chips. There were plenty of green Doritos (though I'm sure I heard someone looking for some more after they had all been eaten). More interesting than the Doritos, however, was the range of soft drinks, which included Pepsi and Miranda.

We played hi-lo all night long, which suited me great, but Jona less. Yossi was the night's largest loser, leaving 92 shekels on the table - not bad for an initial stake of 75. His losses cost him poll position in the poker chart, which was quite remarkably taken by Nik, who last week was floundering in last place. In fact, lots of people changed places this week. Jonah and Gary pulled themselves out of the red, overtaking the freefalling Rafi and Adrian in the process. Eric and Jona continue to do badly. Possibly the most wonderous sight of the evening was Nik's extraordinary pile of chips - over 200 shekels of them. Nik, we salute you!

Other news: Rafi's phone seriously excited Yossi. But from next time, phones are to be kept discreetly in pockets.