"The Pen:" Live NLHE Chat Thread

I don't even get how that's a functional and funny joke.

Maybe that's why it's funny? Like anti-humor? Shrug.

Do you even broccoli band, bro?

i think donnie brasco said just use brocolli rubber bands and i've been doing that and it works well and just around the time i'm buying more broccoli i need a new band as well

a couple people said they were going to be in LA around this time of year and wanted to hang out but if I’m fully honest I can’t remember who lol so feel free to reach out!

What would Andrew Tate say?

It’s a tough one. Honestly I think the answer is that it depends on your Mrs and your read on how tired/flat she is plus what the gesture of not going vs going would mean to her

Pro tip is prollly to tell her you’re not going and are gonna sell the ticket and be immovable on it unless she absolutely insists and makes a giant deal about you going and ‘forces’ you to go. If she doesn’t do that….then you have your answer and even if she does do that you can still make a call to not go

Solid advice regarding the ticket.

She is definitely over the edge.

I think I’ll follow your recommendation , thanks buddy.

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I remember those days. Can be a real grind

Still…buckle up…you’ve got vaping and bullying from their peer group, social media addiction and horrific boy/girlfriends to look forward to

Sounds like a treat.

Are you still in the middle of that or reporting from the other side?

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mainly out the other end tbh. eldest is away at college and girl 2 will be doing her final HS exams in a few months and has mainly been settled the past 6 months - she's the one who has had a very difficult few years but is coming out the other end of it. she will probably go away to college next year too

youngest boy is almost 15 and 14-15 is the standard 'most difficult part' for boys (12-14 for girls I think) so we'll see. He's probably had the worst of the marriage split and his mother's issues as he is still living with his mother 40% of the time, but he's doing ok. not doing much in school right now but I think that should sort itself out.

The final tour is never really the final tour.

I believe this really will be their last. They are not a major act, have broken up multiple times and went about a decade between releases. Outside of 2 random singles, they haven’t put out new music as a band in 5 years. The tour is pretty sparse only hitting a few cities. Of course, I hope to be wrong.

Crazy to see your kids up there in age.

How are you doing with the eldest being away?

Sorry to hear about the negative experiences your middle had. For bullying, is it mostly text/social media these days or in person?

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Is wife aware of upcoming planned show / what it means to you as last chance at seeing ~fave band? (too obscure for 20 questions?)

Could she get help that evening from a bestie / mother / etc.?

Could you take a bit of a hit by getting up early the next morning to help?

I never went thru the small child rearing stage (which sounds like a very taxing stage on relationships, tbh), so good luck!

Wife and I just celebrated our 15th anniversary yesterday, went out to a fancy smancy jorts-less restaurant and everything.

Always found this points bit funny (skip to 1:00):

GcluelessmarriagenoobG

She is aware of the show / the implications

Unlikely in terms of help.

In theory I could get up and help, but I’m trying to be realistic in terms of what will actually happen if I stay out until 3am and the kids wake up at 6/630.

Congrats on 15 years!

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Thx! Pretty easy peasy, looking forward to the next 15.

Obvously post fave song by ~fave band and Pen will decide how important it is to go? 😀

Gwe'llchipinandhireSkippyasbabysitter?G

lol - I’ll put it this way. I don’t have any friends who listen to this band. I’d be curious if any even know they exist.

I don’t expect high ratings but they’re my jam.

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Just go to the show. Your wife and kids will be fine

Lol, my friend / family circle is completely clueless to the music I typically listen to. Just do you man!

GcluelessmusicnoobG

So last Friday we had our annual beer league golf tourney / BBQ. Later that night, 9 of us sit down to play a lol $20 BI poker game. One of the guys on the table has a Hendon Mob of $326K in cashes, over 135 results, going all the way back to 2005.

And all I can think to myself is...

GcluelesssmokeandmirrorsnoobG

How about hiring someone to help for Saturday? i.e. babysitter etc

You've been a fan for over 20 years but have never seen them? How important could they be? John Cleese said years ago when people asked him if Monty Python would tour again, "People don't want to really see us today. They want to find their youth."

All you're going to do is see them on a stage and listen to them on a recording as they go through the motions. Sell the ticket unless your wife says, "why the f*** are you going to be with me?"

Valid question

They are a smallish act that has not done that many national tours.

The last time they were here was right after Covid started and we were already playing it safe (apr 2020).

They effectively were broken up from 2010-2016/17

Prior to that, who knows. I don’t recall if they were in my area 2005 -2009, but I didn’t do many concerts those years while doing the whole athletics thing.

In the grand scheme of things, it means nothing, but it would be cool to see one of my favorite acts that hasn’t happened for whatever reason.

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this is the wildest viral marketing for an upcoming miamicheats mix tape release 😀

How binding are verbal declarations at the table?

Playing 2/5 at a popular cardroom in California. For legal purposes won't mention the name but it rhymes with a word a certain popular poker player is known to say. Anyway, game is seven-handed with a button straddle. Big blind raises to $45, it folds to the HJ who raises to $250. Folds back to BB who tanks.

HJ asks, "Are you gonna call?"

BB responds: "Psssh! Call? I'm going to raise!" before putting a full stack of greens in.

HJ says: "He said call! Verbal is binding!" House is called over. Now, the written transcript of what transpired shows that he did, indeed, say "call," but anyone at the table could tell from his intonation that he did not say it to announce a call.

BB points out that the first word he actually said was not "Call," but "Psssh!" HJ challenges that "Psssh" isn't a word. A player pulls out his phone and asks Google Gemini, "is P-S-S-S-H a word?" Google Gemini says yes, but then HJ asks if Google Gemini is a valid source for resolving a word challenge. Gemini responds "Official Scrabble rules say you can use any word found in the official Scrabble Players Dictionary. The word must be at least two letters long. You cannot use proper nouns, words with hyphens, or abbreviations."

Google Gemini is getting distracted. Houseman cites previous case where a man was facing a bet when asked by his brother if he'd visit his mom for mother's day. He said he wouldn't. His brother said "You need to at least call." The man said "I'm going to call." It was found in this instance that he was not committed to call the bet, but he was required to actually call his mother, as verbal commitments at the poker table are binding.

HJ says he's not sure why the Houseman is citing case law like this is the Supreme Court and Houseman looks annoyed and says HJ is committed to the call.

Flop comes Jc Jd 10c and BB checks. HJ says clearly, aloud, "I raise all in." A brief argument ensues about whether he's allowed to raise a player who checked. It's agreed that check-raising is allowed, and also that this isn't what check-raising is. HJ's stack is counted down -- he's got a little more than $1800.

Now BB counts his stack, he's in the tank a bit. He finally says, "I don't have enough to call you. I only have $1535. But I'll tell you what -- I'm gonna call you anyway, and if you win, you can sleep with my wife."

BB was in the tank for a while so HJ wasn't really paying attention, but at this, he turned to the BB and said, "Okay, what?"

Now, you guessed it -- he said "Okay." Is verbal binding?

So now the discussion is, if the BB wins, does he win HJ's whole stack or just the $1535. HJ says he's never seen BB's wife. BB looks to be about 60 years old, HJ is in his late 20's. HJ says he's not able to put a value on BB's wife. BB says that HJ already verbally committed to a value of a little over $300 in chips.

Well, before the Houseman could be called over to rule, the dealer said action was complete and dealt the Qh and the 3c, and when HJ turned over AKc, BB mucked and the question became moot. However, now BB grabs his phone and is texting, and soon a young girl we assumed was his daughter has shown up from the blackjack tables and he's explaining that she has to sleep with HJ. She insists she made no such agreement, but BB insists that their hands are tied, they have no choice because "verbal is binding."

Now, I'm confused, because this girl looks way too young to be his wife. I say as much and BB clarifies that she's his second wife, and that she'd agreed to marry him at a poker table in Salt Lake City. The Houseman finally comes over and affirms that their marriage is legitimate if it was verbally announced. "It's binding," he's saying.

The HJ laughs and says he figured there would have been an age problem. The BB, no hesitation, confirms that there would still be an age problem here in California because "she's only seventeen." Now, I know what you're all thinking -- what's she doing in a poker room then? But no one's listening to me, they're trying to figure out if HJ is verbally committed in light of this statutory thing.

Now the dealer (finally) pushes the pot towards HJ, and we're all confused when a uniformed man shows up and starts arresting the dealer. The man explained he was from the FBI and that by facilitating an agreement that involved sexual payment, he was guilty of sex trafficking. Is the dealer actually on the hook for that, though? It's hard to say as the Houseman hadn't yet ruled on whether the wife-sharing proposal is legitimate. He says it's comparable to an agreement to run it twice or to chop the pot, which leads some ******* to ask what would have happened if they ran it twice and chopped? Would the BB get back more than the $1535? Would the wife be committed to something? We were, of course, shocked, because this is half of a seventeen year old we're talking about.

Anyway, things calmed down when the Games Manager was called in. Apparently verbal isn't binding in statutory matters in California, so the dealer isn't a sex trafficker. But the agent had announced his intent to arrest him while still at the table so apparently he still had to follow through and take the dealer to jail.

So the question is -- I had pocket tens in the cutoff and only $1400 effective preflop, so do you think my fold was correct?