Beer, death, and poker

I recently revisited my blog posts as I have it linked as my home page on beeradvocate.com. A beer trading friend of mine from Ohio recently passed away after a short bout with bone cancer. He was almost 32. I am happy to have had electronic conversations with him over the past 6 months and to have been able to share the wealth of great west coast beer with him. Though he was dying I never once heard or read a negative remark from him. He was a remarkable man and was fondly remembered by all that knew him. RIP and Godspeed Dev Padamadan (Buckeyesox).

In toast to Dev I feel the need to crack open a beer he sent me from the midwest...

Founders Imperial Stout it is. Dev was the only person I traded with in 2009. Yumm!

I haven't been trading much this year as I overdid it last year and I am trying to catch up on my "hit-list" which is getting harder and harder to do. I started with 100 beers on my list and though I've probably tried double that many in the past year, I have less than 25 remaining from the original list. Several of these will take nothing short of a miracle to locate (Cable Car anyone?).

I have a lite/macro beer drinking friend visiting from WI, the beer drinking/making capitol of the US. I didn't think I could turn him on to craft brew, but I made a little progress with Goose Island Bourbon County Stout. His wife says "why don't you buy more beers like this?" He was impressed that it was 26 proof (13% alcohol). I guess I need to pull out some more premium beers for them. Watch out Woodman's, you might start upselling Barrel Aged beers soon.

So this same friend, since he arrived, has been trying to convince his wife he needs to spend time at the Commerce Casino in L.A. Says it is the poker capital of the west coast. He likes no-limit Hold'Em. So I've been playing him for pennies ($20 buy in) all week. If you ever play him, just offer to buy him some beer and you'll come out ahead. Smart guy, good at math, but the weakness is the malts and hops. No wonder we are best friends for over 20 years now...

I like poker, but I am a complete novice. Been playing free games for a while, but never for any real money. I like strategy games like Risk, M.U.L.E. and CATAN, so I guess it only makes sense that I enjoy poker. My problem is I have an attachment to money and have a hard time gambling it. The wife likes slots, but I don't see the appeal in 100% chance, might as well play the lottery. Anyway after a week of saying "I don't know how" she actually offered to sit down and play poker tonight! Miracles never cease.

So off we go to drink beer, play poker and celebrate the the life of fallen comrade.