Addiction

Victor Sweet: You know what? You don't pay a ho to fuck you. You pay her to leave.

"Four Brothers"

We've been wanting to see "Four Brothers" for a while now. And for all it's faults, I still enjoyed it. Sure, there is nothing in it that hasn't been in a million movies before, but it was worth spending two hours onand that is all you can ask for.

We've had a really poor run with movies so far this year. Nothing in the cinemas has made me really want to buy it on DVD. Except the Aristocrats, but I can't remember if that was this year or last. Pretty sure that was January. Anyways, we made a few DVD purchases in the last few weeks to keep the collection going. "Kiss the Girls" and
"Along Came A Spider" were long overdue in our DVD cabinet. I also picked up one of Ricky Gervais' stand up DVD's called "Animals". It's some pretty funny stuff, but man does the guy just have no idea how to end it. Without spoiling it, he leaves the stage to one of the poorest received jokes on the night – thankfully he comes back for another 10 minutes or so, but then leaves on a half decent joke that had nothing
to do with the rest of the show. It was just weird, and a shame because the rest of it was really good stuff.

Had another really good session of poker on Saturday night. It was a last minute call together and I was happy I made it. We only had five runners in the end, with two more giving a maybe to dropping by later(they didn't). We would be playing 20c/40c no limit with a $20 buy in.

Very early on I had pocket jacks hit their set on the flop, and got paid off when the small blind also had a flopped set of 2's. That caused the first rebuy of the night for him. 30 minutes later I had AA also hit their set, and caught another guy with a pair of aces and a draw, causing him to rebuy. We allow rebuying off players in these
games so there isn't as much money in play, so I has about $30 in front of me and already $20 profit in my wallet. It was looking to be a good night.

Nothing went wrong – I picked great spots to bluff on maybe 4 occasions, and didn't get caught on any of them. I knew when I was behind and folded some tough hands maybe half a dozen times. All my big hands got paid off – and I layed down queens to an all-in post flop that would have cost me.

Ok, so that was an easy lay down really. Against one of the players I had already cleaned out once, I raised his big blind from the button. He joked that I was picking on him and called to see a King high flop. He went all in with about $14 left, and I had to think about it as he could be doing this with just 2nd pair. I decided that I'd rather loose my $1.40 already in there than risk $14 for it, so we'll let it go. Turned out to be the correct move as he had a king and rabbit hunting showed no help coming for me.

I guess it was just that kind of night for me. I only ever put one bad beat on someone. The flop was AJx, and he bet out. I called saying "I'm going to suck out on you here" when all I had was a jack. The turn, yep thanks for that, was another jack. I almost started laughing at that one. He checked, and I bet out but I could already see that he knew what was happening, as did most of the other players. The river put out a possible flush, so I followed his check with one of my own and trips were good.

"I just can't beat this guy" he cried. And on the night, it was true. Good reads, better cards and some very nice flops.

When on the big blind, the guy who claimed I was picking on him raised it up. I had been dealt the rockets for the second time in the night, and decided to play it up a bit. I said he was trying to pick on me this time, and even thought the raise was only $1 I went all-in over the top of it. I never expected him to call, but if he did and won then I was still way up for the night anyway. He thought about it for ages and then folded his KT suited.

Strange, but when I said that my raising was saving them money, they didn't seem to see the silver lining. When I proclaimed to be a saint for my actions, I think I lost the congregation. Well that, and explaining that I was atheist and not agnostic earlier in the night.

Had some surreal moments though, when one of the more experienced players in the game didn't know the proper rules for flushes – like that you count all five cards when determining who has the higher hand, not just the first two. It was really hard to play poker police without sounding like a dick – as it is when you are trying to tell
someone to ship their chips over to another player. But I was just so surprised that they didn't know the proper rules.

They were also under the impression that some suits were valued higher than other suits in poker. This is of course not true, but I did learn that for games like stud, the bring in can be decided by which suit is higher if cards of the same value are showing. I never knew that, so there was something new for me. I was surprised to see that Spades was the highest, as I'm from the 500 school of thought where the order
from lowest to highest is spades, clubs, diamonds then hearts. So there you go, you learn something new every day.

When it came time to cash out at 4.30am, I already had four buy ins in my wallet, and $47 in chips on the table. Because there wasn't really a proper "banker" in the game and no coins or whatever to do the cash outs properly, I lost a bit in the mix by topping up other stacks and forgoing some shrapnel for my own, but that is all "swings and merry-go-rounds" in the end. Why just last week another player sent $5
my way to make the cash out easier, and a few weeks before I was stripped of $10 because of a miscalculation, so I guess I'm still well behind on this fact. Damn, I only just realised that. In the end though I'm still counting it was a $100+ night, making two out of the last three in that category.

I have been trying to catch up on some reading, as I am months behind on most of the blogs that I used to read on a daily basis but am no longer able to. Through a little snippet on some blogs, I managed to find my way to "Silent Bob Speaks", Kevin Smith's Boring Ass Life blog. He is currently telling the story of his Hetero Life Partner's
struggle and victory over drug addiction, and it is one compelling story (almost near completion in the blog). It is well worth the read and written so well coming from the obvious first person point of view. I think it is easier reading it knowing that Jason Mewes obviously overcomes his demons in the end.

Firstly, about Kevin Smith. His "Boring Ass Life" seems fucking ideal to me. I love the fact that he stops in once a week to his local store and picks up whatever new release DVD's are for sale. Ok, obviously this is a little perk of having more money than you know what to do with, but it shows that he is just a fan of whatever comes up on that screen, something that I and many of his fans can easily relate to. He's also a pretty bad poker addict too, so I can pass that off as reason alone to mention his blog here. He seems to bleed money online as Annie Duke tops him up regularly.

But the guy has plenty of time to spend with his wife and kid, and all the movies he could ever wish for. The majority of his diary days end with him falling asleep with his wife to tivo'd episodes of Simpsons or Law and Order. That's just such a simple pleasure I think, something that I would love to be a regular part of my life/job.

And he is very open about…well, everything in his life. I went right back through the year long archives and read it from the start. Nothing it seems is off limits – well, except spoilers for Clerks 2. Even the most intimate moments with his wife are on display for all to read. Even his most intimate moments without with wife, in the bathroom with porn in hand are on display for all to read.

While I'm not a big fan of reading about a tubby guy jacking off in the bathroom to nudie pics on his laptop, there is something oddly sweet about it. As ah…inspiration…the porn pics in question were of his wife. I found that really weird, but strangely it kinda makes sense and shows what a lucky life that guy does have.

But getting back to the story, what got me reading were the current posts about Jason Mewes beating drug addiction. Addiction is a funny thing, and I remember author and wrestler Mick Foley (who reminds me of Kevin Smith a lot, both in looks and their work ethics) talking about addictions in one of his brilliant books. Basically he was
admitting an addiction to pumpkin. You would have to read it to understand it, but it was all about how he could understand addictions and why people would do anything to chase that next hit. If he was told he couldn't have that next piece of pumpkin pie, he would do anything to chase one down. I don't know if he would knock over a
convenience store, but it was just a way of illustrating a point – we're all addicted to something.

Now I'm anti-drug as they come. I mean, passively that is. I'm dead against it, but couldn't give a fuck about if anyone else wants to do it. I'll tell them they are stupid for it, but only if they ask. I've never tried drugs mind you, except alcohol. But I get addicted to stuff all the time. It usually lasts a few months before it wears off and I start looking for a new addiction. Yeah, I try to find a new addiction rather than have one find me, which is how I guess most drug addicts get hooked.

At one stage I thought I could have been addicted to poker, maybe about half way through last year. But now I know I'm not, because some times I just could not be arsed to play – online especially. I guess the shine has worn off, but I still love playing cards and the social aspect of the game. I think I love the fact that you can actually make money on a social thing, and that makes it more appealing than other pursuits.

Addictions are a funny thing. While some people would say a person beating a debilitating addiction like drugs should not be applauded because the person in question was stupid for getting mixed up in the first place, I'm left to agree and disagree with them. Anyone who goes through drugs for whatever reason, and then remains dry for more than a full year deserves praise methinks. Kicking the habit aint easy, but staying out of it is a real achievement. If you went dry for twelve months and then had a bit of a party, then you've let yourself down and all those around you. Getting clean isn't worthy of praise – that's just finally succumbing to common sense. Staying clean is a real challenge, and as Jason Mewes celebrates 3 years without going back to his demons, I think he deserves some kudos.

Oh, and Nicole Ritchie fucked him in the bathroom of a night club. No wonder he got off the drugs.