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Old 12-18-2015, 09:39 AM
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Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: Sarzana,Italy
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Default Amsterdam

Jo da Fish gets filleted in Amsterdam
For my 77th birthday present, Franca booked a trip to Amsterdam and included the sum of three thousand Euros to play live poker at the Holland Casino located on one of the many canals there.
I take pride in my poker skills, and ability to read my opponents. So it was that I entered the casino and found my way to the poker room, bought 400 euro in chips and took a seat at the Texas hold-em cash game. After 2 and ˝ hours I found myself in the unfortunate position of losing my buy in.
This is not an uncommon occurrence and it happens to the best. I left the game went back to our room and got a good nights sleep. The next day we went touring the city, visiting the Dutch flower market, The Rijksmuseum and Van Gough Museum and feeling a bit guilty I took her to a very pricey restaurant for a lunch of oysters and champagne. Although I was sorely tempted to buy a bit of cannabis in the Bulldog coffee shop, I resisted and settled for inhaling the secondhand smoke that trailed every group of young tourists.
The next night I returned to the card tables found a seat at a no limit game with blind bets of 2 and 4 Euros, bought another 400 in chips and settled down for the night. With patience, skill and of course luck, I recovered my losses from the night before and was winning one hundred or so. I now had about nine hundred in chips in front of me.
I have two nephews that think of me as their hero, when I was in Mexico they came to visit me and I took them fishing on my boat. They both caught a sailfish and my status with them grew. They were both expecting me to win in Amsterdam and I did not want to disappoint them.
It was two thirty in the AM, the casino closed at three. I was in the last position on the table when I picked up my cards and saw that I had been dealt Ace, Jack of clubs. The first player bet 10 euro and five of the players call his bet. The sixth player was a young man who had accumulated a good size pile of chips buy raising the bet to 150 before seeing what the first three cards would be turned over. I was sure that he was trying to buy the pot. When my turn to call his bet I could have folded my cards and left the game even for the two nights of play. Instead I decided to pressure him into folding his hand, win another three hundred, in doing so and be able to maintain my hero status with my nephews. I raised his bet to three hundred fifty. He became very nervous and took a long time making up his mind but he called my raise. The first 3 cards were a 10, 5 and 3.He checked to me. (I knew that a large bet from me would make him throw away his cards.) I had my chips in stacks of three hundred, calmly I grabbed a stack and bet .As I put the chips in the pot I realized too late that I had bet my anti chips and my bet was 60 euro instead of 300.Naturally he called my bet. The next card gave him the one of only two cards in the deck that he could call me with, a six, giving him three sixes. He bet all in and I called, losing all my hard earned chips for the night’s play. When I got up from the table I said to the player that he should not spend his winnings all in the same place.
It was not the loss that bothered me .It was my mistake, but the thought that I would have to tell my nephews that I went out of the casino not winning .When I got to our accommodation Franca was still up. As soon as I walked into the room she knew by the look on my face I did not have a good night .I asked her what I should tell my nephews. Her very practical answer was that I should say that I won but not tell them how much I cashed out. Her reasoning was that until the last hand I had been winning and to say it in this way was not a lie. This solved my dilemma as I have not told a lie in a very long time.
So now only you know how Jo da Fish got filleted at the Amsterdam Holland Casino Photos inside the casino are not allowed nor could I take them in the museums, however here a few of Amsterdam which is one of the nicest, but expensive places I have had the pleasure of visiting. Perhaps the things that I found most interesting are that bicyclists are unionized, English is the second language and is taught from kindergarten through college. And there is little graffiti anywhere. As for the poker games “I will be back.” Have a Merry Christmas and a prosperous and healthy New Year. Here also is a new painting. The title is Two Old Men Strolling.
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