I made great time to Chicago. But as usual, it takes 4 hours to get TO Chicago and 2 hours to get to where I’m going IN Chicago. Its times like these I’m glad I don’t live in a big city! I’ve already got the phone call from Sheila; she’s checked in, always ahead of the game that woman. She tells me John (sly) and his wife, Dawn, are only about 20 minutes behind me coming in thru the same grotesque traffic.

After I arrive (thank the heavens for GPS) we decide to wait for John and Dawn and see if they are ready for some dinner. The rest of the Friday night crew probably wouldn’t be around till later, so might as well kill time drinking and eating!

Of course it was NO surprise that John and Dawn were just lovely people. He has the same quiet and fierce humor he does online, and these two were just making me sick they were so damned cute! They are absolutely perfect for each other, so it doesn’t surprise me they have been married 22 years. Completely laid back, easy to make conversation with, fun and hell he paid for dinner, so how cant you like the guy?! And Dawn was a total pleasure to meet, what a great gal, she is someone I`d like to be able to call my friend, fo sho.

When we get back to the hotel we got to meet Mike (eriver). I hadn’t played or chatted with Mike much but he fit right in! He brought pictures of his Safari trip in Africa that I never got to finish, but the ones I went thru were FABULOUS! He had just gotten back from a trip with his wife, who is an analyst of some sort, and she was doing a conference there. I was totally jealous right from the git go!

I wanted to go change clothes before the games that night so I headed over to our room. The phone rang and there was a strange voice on the other end “Where’s the poker room” he asked. I said “Bill?” the voice replied “No.”. “John?” I said in wonderment, “No.” said the mysterious voice. “Well who the hell is it then?? Frank? Mike?” I had finally had enough of these shenanigans. “No, just tell me where the poker room is” “I think its 311, wait that’s our room, no its 312, well I think it is (Sheila walks in the room thank goodness because I have no idea what I’m talking about) hold on Ill ask Sheila”. Of course Ms. Nosy can’t stand the suspense and takes that phone call over!! I was glad, I felt awkward talking to someone in my bra. I stood in the background “ASK IF ITS JEFF (zerbet)!” I had suspicions that he might be showing up unannounced, “Its either Jeff or Tom” I said. Then I heard Sheila say “Well how bout I head down there and you head down there and we will just see who you are”. Sounds good to me, and we head over to the poker room (313 just for verification). And what do you know… IT WAS JEFF!!! THE ZERB! What a great surprise! Sheila, Zerb and I (I’m sorry but calling him Jeff is hard still) talk regularly, or I should say, he cracks us up on a daily basis as we are home most of the day and he’s well “at work” as he calls it. I donut know exactly how much work is involved tho.. NTTAWWT.

Anyhow, shortly after, the culprit to the surprise, Bill and his wife Beth arrive, I’ve met Bill several times and just played poker with him the week before actually, but I hadn’t seen Beth for several months and she had become pregnant since I had last seen her so it was nice to be able to congratulate her.

Soon Dan the Man showed up. This was the biggest surprise of them all. I’m not sure what I was expecting… ok I lie... I was expecting some gnarly teenager that wouldn’t know how to open the front door without asking first. Dan must put on some persona on the forum, or maybe we just don’t get his sense of humor, but this kid is awesome. Not only is he absolutely adorable, but he’s smart, funny and not the least bit obnoxious! Maybe he was toned down in front of a bunch of people that reminded him of his parents, but the entire weekend I didn’t see a glimpse of stupidity. (and no he wasnt drinking any of that)

We started off the poker with a $5 sng. Sheila didn’t miss her opportunity to introduce everyone to the four color deck. Bill started the night off right with his re raising with the HAMMER! Shortly after he busted me out first when his A2 took down my 77. Gotta love the 3 outer. And the butt head even said “But it was sooooted!”. vv/e

Huck showed up a little bit later. I had never met him before, although I chat and play with him often and consider him a good friend. He soon had us convinced to start a cash game. I think his $60 was burning a hole in his pocket and he just couldn’t stand it anymore! REBUY! Although I did lose about half my buy in to him in one hand where I called his raise with A9 sooooooooted. I wouldn’t normally do this sort of thing, but all of you that have played with huck online know when Hucks raising every pot ya gotta get in while the gettins good. I was unfortunate to have an A flop and he just happened to have AJ. YOU DONKEY!

By the way, Huck is a great guy, but I knew that already. However, I did not know how studly he looks in his work clothes. NH huckles.

Shortly after that my KK ran into Dans AA… live poker is so rigged. REBUY!

All kinds of crazy things were happening, Zerb flopped QUAD QUEENS, outdraws galore. It was JUST like sitting at the forum table on a Friday night when everyone shows up. We end up taking each others money. At one point I suggested we pull in a few strangers to prey upon!

By 2am we were all toasted and ready for a rest.

The next morning we were planning on going to IKEA, but when I was SO RUDELY awoken by my roommate *cough*Sheila*cough* at 7:30 AM I was in no condition. We grabbed the free breakfast and I hit the showers to wake myself up. Then I decided to wake everyone else up for some more POKER! “Good morning, get your ass up; I need to break even today”.

We played two sngs before going to lunch, with golf on the TV in the background at the old men’s request! I made $5 between the two so I was already on my comeback! I lost in one to Zerb when we got HU. I made a FANTABLULOUS call on the flop when zerb pushed all in with bottom pair. I took a bit to think about it, did the right thing, and like the good pokerslut I am, got skrewed by the deck.

Then it was off to lunch at Portillo`s, a Chicago Beef place that Bill wanted us all to try. I was all for it as I had tasted Beth’s recipe at home and was ready to taste the real thing. I was NOT disappointed. It was eeeeexcelent!

But once I got back to the room I was ready for my nap. It wasn’t long till it was 5pm and we couldn’t believe we had slept that long! So we suited up and headed out to run an errand and then back to the poker room!

Tonight Dan the Man brought a friend he called “Asian”, a little NON PC but hey, it’s his friend. Turns out his name is Jon and I prefer to stick with that! Another nice guy who played very well for a “newbie”. I think DTM may have been trying to swindle us!! Especially when Jon showed the powers of CBL to take down QQ!!! I mean this guy is no amateur.

Also, tonight two other forumers decided to join us, Firsttimer (Frank) and Maffia (Melvin or Jr.). And all I have to say is Melvin likes da ladies, or is it Sigmund and Roy.. We weren’t sure where he stood at the end of the night, NTTAWWT. But seriously, Frank and Melvin are roommates and both stand up guys, and it wouldn’t have been as much fun without them. I hope to get to know both of them better.

Then to top it all off, icing on the cake, Rev (Rob) and his girlfriend Tina got in! They came in from Indy and I’ve played with them before in Indy last year. I’ve always liked these two, I mean how many people do you know would spend their Saturday night at a hotel with two chicks they barely know playing poker, just the 4 of us???? NOT MANY! I especially like playing with them, Tina is a total hoot and I love the way she calls down Rob on his BS. Of course they didn’t come empty handed, Rob rolled in a big ol cooler and Tina had a blender… these two are my kind of people!!! Especially when they started passing out Daiquiris and Mud Slides… you missed your calling Rob, dem drinks was good!

The poker on this night was intense. I mean Rob had these glasses on that made him look SKEERY, in fact I’ve decided to wear sunglasses at the WSOP because of it. I realized I couldn’t see where he was looking but he could see where I’m looking... kind of a weird feeling. So, although I don’t usually wear em, I’m gonna have em close by. Anyhoo… Rob luckboxed his way into 1^st in the first turney where he took down Bill HU by sucking out with TEN EIGHT!!!

He and I split (although I had the chip lead*cough*) in the 2^nd. I had to get lucky SEVERAL times in this game tho, the most memorable being this hand where my KK ended up hitting trips on the turn VS A2 who flopped the Ace! So, overall I was able to actually come out ahead for the weekend as far as poker goes!

Oh and BTW does Rob look like Hoyt Corkins or WHAT!?!?!

We ended up with enough people to have two tables going. I can’t even tell you how much fun I had. I told my husband on the way home that I hadn’t had that much fun since high school, I mean seriously thanks guys, it was a freakin blast and I hope all the gatherings to come are as much fun! I also got pretty liquored up, so that may have skewed my opinion.. maybe. That could also be why we forgot to take a full group photo the 2nd night and we are missing Bill in this photo, so here`s a lil pic of him pwning instead!