by My 18-year-old student cancelled last night’s lesson two hours before we were due to start, so that meant only one thing: poker. And as it happened, a nice win. I won the fixed badugi from 153 entrants, making a $79 profit in 4½ hours. That felt pretty good. I took me a while to get going though. My starting stack of 3000 had dwindled to three figures before I made a monster on the last hand prior to the first break, giving me a toehold. From there it wasn’t plain sailing. I’d chipped up to just over 10,000 not long before the money, but I gave back almost half of that when my opponent underplayed a big hand. I should have lost more. When we reached the eight-man final table I quickly relinquished over half my chips to become the short stack, but when I recovered from that I came into my own. In fact at times I was just about running over the table. That’s always fun. I entered heads-up with just over 60% of the chips. My opponent wasn’t bad – he knew how to bluff – but he was too passive at times, not betting when he had a clear advantage and giving me the chance to catch up. We swapped the lead a few times, but after our 70-hand battle I emerged the victor. My bankroll is now $420, and hopefully that win will give me the confidence to play with more freedom, to bluff more, to make make more moves, and to be less timid in bounty tournaments. Let’s see.
This week I’ve been thinking more about my long-term plans. I’m pretty they involve Timișoara which I still absolutely bloody love. The place makes me happy. I have everything I want here, or at least I will when we finally see the back of this virus. Having a job that works for me is the biggest thing of all, but the architecture, the parks, the markets, the squares, I can’t think I’ll ever tire of all of that. And I’m part of it, slap-bang in the middle, not stuck out on the ninth floor of Building D in some god-awful shoot-me-now business park.
On Wednesday my student was clearly still feeling the effects of the Astra Zeneca vaccine he’d had five days earlier. I would have taken that vaccine in heartbeat, and would still take it for sure, but seeing his pallor and lethargy, several days after the jab, gave me pause.
Yesterday was the tenth anniversary of the Japanese tsunami. It came on the back of the Christchurch quake, and in the middle of my horrible long wait to find out the Wellington job. Not fun times.
