It's the wee hours of the morning after poker night at the "melon ranch." It's been years since I've had a regular poker game and I've missed it. I never played with this group before, so I was a little worried I was coming into a situation where I'd be the rube and they'd all be the sharks, but that was happily not the case. (Unless it was their strategy to lure me into complacency for next time.) I actually walked away from the table with $6.75 in profit, which I think made me the third biggest winner out of seven players. I'm happy with that. Plus I learned even more crazy poker games, including my new favorite, "Screw Your Neighbor," which is sort of the Survivor of poker games and at which I kicked much ass.

So - more poker in '04!