You were lookin' for that third three, but you forgot that Professor Green folded on Fourth Street and now you're representing that you have it. The DA made his two pair, but he knows they're no good. Judge Kaplan was trying to squeeze out a diamond flush but he came up short and Mr. Eisen is futilely hoping that his queens are going to stand up. So like I said, the Dean's bet is $20. -- Mike McDermott, Rounders

Yeah, poker night. Same old story. I play it safe and smart on the standard poker games and try to reel the fish in when I have a hand. The *problem* is, ever time I'm not dealing, someone calls a crazy game like 7-inning baseball, follow-the-queen, or WORST OF ALL the new game George introduced us to, low in the hole roll over or whatever the sam heck its called. I still can't explain that game, so help me. Its about as far from poker as Tokyo from...Mars. Anyway, I lost less than the buy-in, so I didn't really care. Poor PK, the guy who always cleans up, finally didn't have a winning night - ended up buying back in twice. Joel bought in once, I didn't buy in at all (by the skin of my teeth), and Georgie went home fat-wallet.

It was fun. Lots of pre-party Napolean Dynamite talk. 16 new RSVPs when I checked tonight...can you say 'last minute flurry?'

Meanwhile we had the Yankees game on as pitiful Oakland dropped another one to the freakin Yanks, furthering our slump and helping them erase theirs. Sheesh. If we can 2-win the weekend we should be about even with them again, which ain't sayin much.

And that's all I've got. A worthy blog post, for 2 in the morning. I have to be up in 6 hours for a Sams club trip to stock up on party essentials (read: corn dogs, tater tots, wife beaters).

I lost with 5 nines. I had 5 nines in my hand. These are the kind of hands you can LOSE WITH when half the freakin deck is wild.