Poker Night

My buddy Omri recently got a nice set of poker chips, and last night we broke it out for an evening of Texas Hold 'Em. Partly because I don't like to gamble (as many of my friends back home already know), and partly because I had to teach the game to more than half the people at the table, we decided no money would exchange hands.

Learning the game.

Omri and I knew poker the best coming in, but I had an additional challenge. Being the only non Israeli at the table, I quickly had to learn poker table talk in Hebrew. I picked up a handful of useful terms, like לערבב (to shuffle), קלפים (playing cards), נסיך (Jack), and that Israelis pronounce the game "Po-care." I was a little better at keeping up with the chatter unrelated to the game. We played two seperate games, going for about 3 hours. We had 8 people playing at one point, which made the game much more interesting.

Nimrod celebrates with his winnings.

I ended up heading home around 1 A.M. I won the first game outright, but went out pretty quickly the second time around, so I guess this just reinforces that I'm not good enough at gambling to make it a profession. Speaking of professional news, I am excited to tell you all that I have now been accepted to both the Loyola University Chicago and Depaul University law schools! I'm going to have some difficult decisions to make once I have heard back from all the schools I applied to.

Katja smiles while Omri grimaces.

Today is a "get back to work" kind of day for me. Yesterday afternoon I got the books I needed to research my final paper for "Arab-Israeli Relations." Today I need to begin culling all that information so I can put it into print. I also did two full loads of laundry, I had lunch with Menachem, I'm going to the gym this afternoon, and I've got my cooking club as usual this evening. For those of you who know Menachem, he is smiling and feeling more comfortable after have dental implants put in last week. Send him an email or something to wish him well!