When Zen Meets Poker

The Mookie was last night, and I may as well have not signed up.

Let's backtrack a bit.

My condo's annual general meeting was last night. I was on the fence if I wanted to go or not, as there were no major issues being brought up, no items that needed voting on other than a building rep, and I generally don't like the meetings and the endless bitching. The only thing I'd have to contribute would be my usual call for a green bin program or some means of dealing with organic waste other than tossing it out with the rest of the trash. (FYI - Toronto has a city-wide organic waste collection program, but older condos and apartments haven't been forced to abide by it yet for various logisitical reasons).

In the end, I stalled until my mind would be made up for me. Then my brother called from the street below, ensuring that I wouldn't be going as he wanted to stop by and kill some time. We watched Cecil get demolished in the 5th by Boston (4 home runs in one inning? There's a post in there), and he left around 9.

Thing is, I had originally wanted to get a few things done if I didn't go to the meeting. There were some chores that needed doing, and the ingredients for a lemon meringue pie coming up on expiry. After he left, I decided the pie was the important item on the list.

So I got to work on that around 9:15, figuring it wouldn't take too long, as I already had the dough made and the rest was fairly easy. 10:00 and The Mookie rolled around and the crust was pre-baking while the filling and meringue ingredients were just being assembled. I opted to sit out and work on the pie.

I checked in from time to time, saw I'd been fairly card dead, and got back to work. It's no secret that cooking and baking relax me. I may get stressed during the process, but it's a pressure I enjoy as things come together. Once the break rolled around, the pie was in the oven and I was relaxed, albeit surrounded by a messy kitchen.

I decided to split playing and dishwashing, sliding between laptop and sink as my cards showed up. This isn't anything new, as The Mookie, especially in the first hour or two, doesn't really reward complicated play.

The problem was that since I'd been auto-folding for an hour, it apparently created a tight image. I saw KK, AA, and a few A-face and suited paint that I decided were worth a raise, and got nothing but blinds. My stack was far from healthy, and a few necessary laydowns hurt it more. In the end, my AK flopped top pair while the 77 I was against flopped a set. Another A on the river didn't really help any, and IGH.

Oddly, there was only a tweak of caring. I was upset that I'd wasted a BBT4 TOC shot so needlessly, but I was in a good place. The poker had been terrible on my part, and rushed, but the mess around me was clean and the cause of that mess was cooling on my counter.

And tonight I'm going to one of my favourite places for food and beer before watching three of the funniest guys on the planet go acoustic with songs like "Old Joe's Place", "Break Like the Wind", "Stonehenge", "Never did no Wanderin'", "Bitch School" and others from the Folksmen/Spinal Tap catalogues.

This weekend will be spent sipping wine while eating food paired to it, spotlighting fresh herbs in one the more picturesque areas of my province.

Can I really get upset about donating $11? Besides, Smokkee won again, shrinking that TOC field even more. Every time a seatholder wins another spot, I want in even more.