52-49
I predicted a 50-49 shootout win for Berkeley over the Hokies from Virginia Tech. Guess I wasn't that far off. Both Karen and Cal (12/28) have good writeups on the game itself, so I won't try to recap everything here. Can't remember the last time I cracked up so hard during a sporting event, however, as we awaited the eventual game-winning kick from our hard-luck kicker. Glad that he has a happy ending to his varsity football career.
We had a heckuva lot of food for dinner - two large pizzas from Jake's, ribs provided by Danny, green beans, hot wings, honey bbq wings, cake for dessert. After the game ended, we watched the Warriors beat the Kings, then hung out for a while with people playing mahjong, poker, and jamming on guitar to some old-school Vineyard and Maranatha songs from high school and college. Apparently Danny and Eric cleaned up at the poker table.
Modern-day gaming
Observation: In the past two years or so, two games have come to the forefront of popularity in group situations that I've been a part of, but I don't play them much myself: Texas Hold'em poker and Settlers of Catan.
Poker has exploded in popularity and visibility with the World Poker Tour and the World Series of Poker drawing high ratings on cable television, and you even have celebrity poker showing up on Bravo with guys like Ben Affleck taking money from David Schwimmer. Many of my guy friends are regularly throwing around terms like "flopping a nut straight" and have learned how to casually shuffle poker chips in a very effective intimidation method.
I haven't yet figured out why it's become so popular - any ideas? - but I suspect it has something to do with the conversation I had with the 5824 guys a while back about the very thing about competition that draws guys in particular is the chance to exert your will over another person on multiple levels. Whereas games like blackjack pits your money against the house's money, and non-gambling games like Deuces or Hearts pit you and your wits against another player, poker gives a person the opportuntity to pit both your money and your wits, as well as your general presence - physical and mental intimidation - against another person. This is probably pretty addictive.
Settlers of Catan is another story. I know almost nothing about the game, except that it seems to have shown up within the past year and now everyone's playing it. Why is it so popular? My coworker says that one reason is because it's a very well-balanced game - it's unlikely that any one player will dominate, and you almost always have at least 3 out of the 4 players competing for the win. Also, it's very community-based because there's a lot of trading and evaluation of other people's resources going on. Perhaps one of you Settlers out there can enlighten me.
I predicted a 50-49 shootout win for Berkeley over the Hokies from Virginia Tech. Guess I wasn't that far off. Both Karen and Cal (12/28) have good writeups on the game itself, so I won't try to recap everything here. Can't remember the last time I cracked up so hard during a sporting event, however, as we awaited the eventual game-winning kick from our hard-luck kicker. Glad that he has a happy ending to his varsity football career.
We had a heckuva lot of food for dinner - two large pizzas from Jake's, ribs provided by Danny, green beans, hot wings, honey bbq wings, cake for dessert. After the game ended, we watched the Warriors beat the Kings, then hung out for a while with people playing mahjong, poker, and jamming on guitar to some old-school Vineyard and Maranatha songs from high school and college. Apparently Danny and Eric cleaned up at the poker table.
Modern-day gaming
Observation: In the past two years or so, two games have come to the forefront of popularity in group situations that I've been a part of, but I don't play them much myself: Texas Hold'em poker and Settlers of Catan.
Poker has exploded in popularity and visibility with the World Poker Tour and the World Series of Poker drawing high ratings on cable television, and you even have celebrity poker showing up on Bravo with guys like Ben Affleck taking money from David Schwimmer. Many of my guy friends are regularly throwing around terms like "flopping a nut straight" and have learned how to casually shuffle poker chips in a very effective intimidation method.
I haven't yet figured out why it's become so popular - any ideas? - but I suspect it has something to do with the conversation I had with the 5824 guys a while back about the very thing about competition that draws guys in particular is the chance to exert your will over another person on multiple levels. Whereas games like blackjack pits your money against the house's money, and non-gambling games like Deuces or Hearts pit you and your wits against another player, poker gives a person the opportuntity to pit both your money and your wits, as well as your general presence - physical and mental intimidation - against another person. This is probably pretty addictive.
Settlers of Catan is another story. I know almost nothing about the game, except that it seems to have shown up within the past year and now everyone's playing it. Why is it so popular? My coworker says that one reason is because it's a very well-balanced game - it's unlikely that any one player will dominate, and you almost always have at least 3 out of the 4 players competing for the win. Also, it's very community-based because there's a lot of trading and evaluation of other people's resources going on. Perhaps one of you Settlers out there can enlighten me.
posted by Bob at
5:01 PM
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