I'll see your $10 and raise you $30.

Last night was our monthly poker night and while I usually have a pretty good relationship with cards, yesterday proved that it’s not always going to be rosy.

After a non-profitable trip to the casino to get one last session in before beginning Octoberfe$t, I headed over to Scoot’s place to join up with Seth, Brandon, and Codding. Roller was out of town while Nik hasn’t made a poker night yet. His excuse this month? He had to study…on a Friday night…riiiiiight.

On the last Friday of every month, someone hosts our monthly card fests complete with food, snacks, and lots of beer. We have a very low stakes entry (boo!), play a Texas Hold ‘Em tournament and then alternate games by dealer’s choice. Our poker nights have been going on now for the majority of this year and I can honestly say that I’ve enjoyed every single one of them…even when I lose.

One guarantee that I can always count on during these card games is laughing until my sides hurt. Everyone in the group has a sharp sense of humor and we enjoy telling stories on one another and trash talking throughout the entire night. Inevitably, as the hooch kicks in and the hours pass, the laughter comes much more easily. Last night’s high point was in the discovery of a page from Scoot’s first grade yearbook which included a hand-written “worst enemy” label in pencil next to a kid named Steven Hall. If that wasn’t funny enough, we later discovered a misspelled “best firnd” next to Allan Chancellor. The icing on the cake to all of this was in the fact that Scoot had spent a total of four months at this school before moving elsewhere.

I ended up staying over at Scoot’s talking with him and Brandon until damn near 5:15 in the morning. Brandon and I had about a solid hour meltdown of laughter in which we went through other photo albums of Scoot’s from back in the day. If I had the picture of Scoot in full on African garb, I’d post it in a heartbeat. Jesus. Talk about good stuff.

Just don’t let Steven Hall catch you in that stuff…or he’ll beat your ass.