OK, so poker on Monday night kinda sucked. I played well with what I had, but I never really got anything worth playing, and was out in the first 45 minutes or so. When Julie decided that she'd have a girl's night on Tuesday night (which she bailed on anyways to catch up on some much needed veg/relaxation time), I went out to play again last night. What a difference a day made. I still had a rocky start, and eventually was down to 2,000 (out of the original 10,000 that everyone starts with) and antes of 500. What a great time to start catching some cards. Not only did I recover from that deficit, but I knocked 2 people out in the process, giving me the chip lead for the table. At one point, I was so distracted by having to deal, stack chips from the last hand, and play my current one, that I miscalled my hand at the end. I called it as a pair of aces, which was good enough for the win, and then someone else pointed out that I actually had a straight and somehow hadn't noticed it! That was the joke for the rest of the evening. Unfortunately, in the next 2 hands, I lost about 40k of chips as two different people pulled flushes on me to beat my two pair and trips. But I made up for that in the next 10 minutes or so as I knocked 3 more people out over the course of 4 hands and took the chip lead for the tournament. At one point in this, I was holding 460k worth of chips, which with 86 people playing was over half of the total chip count. I bounced around a lot on the final table, and finally ended up going out in third place. One hand after I went out it was over, and the guy who at the final table was down to his last chip 3 times pulled it off. I got a hat and tshirt free out of it, and I'm right on the bubble of getting an invite to the final tournament. One more decent finish and I should get in without a problem. OK, so that was a ton of typing, but if you couldn't tell, I was excited over having such a great night of poker!

Tonight is the instructor's meeting for Outdoor Emergency Care, the ski patrol class that I'm running. Next week the candidates start showing up, and then the real fun starts! I should have plenty of good stories from the first few weeks of classes, as we teach them how to do full body assessments. That is always good for a few laughs for the instructors. Privately, where the candidates can't see of course. We all gave our instructors the same amusement I'm sure.