Friday night I headed around to Adrian’s house for our monthly poker game (that I’d missed for the last few months). We tried something different for the first game with a 2-hour 10/20 limit game. I got a rush of cards early and managed to muscle out a few big pots (even though it was limit). I stayed chip lead for about 1:45 until I got cocky with a flush and got busted by a full boat. I knew the board had paired, but said (internally) the four most stupid words in poker, “what are the chances…”

At the two hour mark I ended up a few hundred short of Theo… oh well.

The second game reverted back to no limit, and after a slow start I began to build a solid chip count thanks to a couple of mid-high pocket pairs and a few friendly flops. Elaine got dropped off at Adrian’s a few hours in with only four of us left. Then the turning point – Theo to my right pushed in his last $950 to call the $1,000 big blind. As chip lead I felt it my duty to call… pocket queens probably made that decision easier. Action goes round and George with the second highest chip count checks the big blind. Then the flop comes.

Q, Q, A.

I peek at my cards again just to make sure I got it right… yup… flopped quads. So there’s fireworks going off in my head, and I look over to Elaine who looked at my cards pre-flop – she’s putting on the best poker face I’ve ever seen. George bets, implying he has the other ace, I call to slowplay. Turn is junk. River comes down 6 and George goes all in. Naturally I call and bust his A, 6 two-pair with the quads. Two players knocked out by quads. Table erupts.

Two hands later into heads-up Spiro goes all in on a very short stack. I call with Q, 10 figuring he’d need to double up at least four times to beat me. He shows A, K so I’m heavily dominated.

Flop comes X, 10, 10.

Turn, 10 for quads again.

I think I lost consciousness sometime before the river.

More photos from New Zealand! These were taken on day three as we made our way down the west coast towards Arrowtown.

We got up real early this particular morning and were rewarded with the amazing sight of low-hanging cloud wrapping itself around the nearby hills.

Need I say more about what we got up early for? This is Lake Matheson. Seen on a still morning it mirrors the towering Mt Cook and Mt Tasman.

Yay! A helicopter ride!

Seeing the world from a different perspective.

This is Fox Glacier. New Zealand’s glaciers form on the peaks of their tallest mountains, and carve steep valleys as they make their slow journey to the sea.

Of course the glaciers don’t make their way all the way down to the sea in solid form. Past the terminal face they melt and form great streams of ice cold water.

Here’s a close view at the top of the glacier.

Here’s an even closer view! As part of our helicopter ride, we got to wander around the top of the glacier.

Elaine wandering.

As you can see, the helicopter ride provided many photo opportunities.

After arriving safely back on earth it started to rain quite heavily. Thankfully we found a haven in the form of the South Westland Salmon Farm. The left plate holds a smoked salmon sandwich, while the right plate displays a scone smothered in jam and whipped cream. Yum.

From the viewing deck you can watch the jumping salmon.

A pebble…

On a pebble beach…

Call me juvenile… call me immature… but I found this sign hilarious. Now, where’s my paddle??

Thunder Creek Falls. Can you believe that this is yet another stunning scene just off the highway?

Elaine showing her strength at Puzzling World.

We passed through Wanaka, a small laid-back town on the banks of a beautiful lake surrounded by majestic mountains. This dog just so happened to be wandering around and decided to follow me to the end of the pier.

Lake Wanaka.

The autumn colours of New Zealand.

In the last few days I’ve completed a ton of THIA Photography work. So finally I’ve put some time aside to get more NZ photos complete. Here’s day two! 

Just another glorious NZ sunrise.

Punakaiki – up in the north-west of the South Island there are these really spectacular rock formations. They look like they’ve been stacked on top of each other like stacks of pancakes, hence the name… Pancake Rocks.

A closer view of the awesome textures.

After the Pancake Rocks we drove to Hokitika – the greenstone capital of New Zealand. Greenstone is a variant of jade that is highly valued by the Maori community. It was used for both practical (eg. weapons, knives) and decorative purposes (eg. pendants, ornamental jewellery). Unlike the Oriental jade variant which is found over a large geographic area, greenstone is only found in a small part of NZ’s South Island.

Free Public Library – Just a pretty building.

We found this guy in a wood-product shop. The little sign under him says:
“Don’t laugh. Creative daydreaming is a pleasant and profitable experience when you are good at it!”
It’s sometimes funny where you find profound inspiration.

Superb fush & chups.

Even the back of buses have a distinctly NZ flavour.

I just had to prove how big the campervan really was. It felt like driving a bus.

I really love driving. However sometimes when I think back to what I saw of the NZ countryside, this is all I remember.

We stopped by a little isolated town called Okarito. It was raining and cold so kayaking was out of the question, however they had this really cool… jetty/building thing. It housed a few simple displays inside that gave a history on the area.

Taken on the jetty/building thing… looking out on the lagoon.

Even though it was raining, this jetty/building thing really captured my attention. It stands on stilts because it’s built on a tidal flat, meaning that at high tide it gets enveloped in water.

Yet another time where we pulled off the road and found a great picture waiting to be taken.

Nearing day’s end we finally arrived in Glacier Country. This is our beloved Maui at Franz Josef.

The melting glaciers produce freezing cold streams that shoot off in all directions.

I know that this is the third straight entry on the same saga, however I also know that a lot of you are following it with great interest.

Today there’s at least been some resolution between _rebekka and flickr. See flickr’s official response here.

If you feel like this particular photography scandal is losing momentum, check out Al Abut’s website for an introduction to the other big photography scandal occurring over at JPG Magazine.

The story of _rebekka and her plight has (quite depressingly) deepened. For background on her story, see the previous post.

Photographers treat flickr as an online haven to share their photos and thoughts. So, when they heard that one of their own had been stolen from, over 100,000 members viewed over 450 comments of support and advice, all within 24 hours

Then Yahoo, owner of flickr, deletes it and threatens to cancel her account:

“Flickr is not a venue for to you harass, abuse,
impersonate, or intimidate others. If we receive a valid
complaint about your conduct, we will send you a warning or
terminate your account.”

That’s crap IMHO.

However thankfully the story continues. Check out _rebekka’s update, blog and Thomas Hawk’s take on it.