My wife leaves....and "weird" poker

Each year my mom, g-ma, sister, aunt, etc. all meet in Vegas for one week during October. This year my sister tryed to talk my wife into going out there with them. She really wanted to go, but in the end decided against it. This past Saturday night, my sister and her b-friend (Crazy Asian) come by our house and she starts talking my wife into going to Vegas with them. After checking flights, pricing and availability, she again decides against it. Sunday morning she talks with my sister who is now in Vegas and decides to go out there. So yesterday afternoon me and the kids drive my wife to airport and see her off.

Now for the next 4 days and nights I am Mr. Mom - taking care of all FIVE of my kiddos all by myself (ages 11, 8, 6, 2, 6 months). So what does any responsible father do in a situation like this ? Have people over for poker of course :)

My sister's boyfriend - Crazy Asian (he is half Vietnamese and half American, and loves to talk trash at the poker table) wants to change it up from the usual Hold'em tournaments and have a dealer's choice cash game or what I call "weird" poker. Before the Hold'em boom, I don't think I have ever played one hand of any kind of poker. The Crazy Asian on the other hand has played every home game variation of poker, plus will gamble on just about anything. (He had a bet with my sister whether or not my wife would end up going to Vegas at the last minute)

So at 7:30 we had five guys buying in for a cheap $20 and after a quick 15 minute tutorial on how some of these games (criss cross, little L, 44, 55, 33, two or none, guts, follow the queen, elmira, little chicago, etc.) are played, we are off and running. Some of these games have progressive pots, so even though the antes are only a quarter or fitty cents, you could be playing for $20 or more on one hand.

Fast forward to 12:30am and I am stuck like $60, my wife calls to say she has landed in Vegas and asks how I am doing. :) After that conversation we play a hand of 55. (Each player gets five hole cards and there is 5 community cards that are turned over one at a time with betting on each round. The third card turned over is called the "splitter", if this card is 8 or lower, whoever has the lowest card of this suit automatically gets half the pot, if it is 9 or higher whoever has the highest card of this suit gets half the pot). Long story even longer, the splitter is a 2 of diamonds and I have the 3 of diamonds and I have a full house. So after two rounds of capped betting along with more betting on the other rounds. I scoop the whole pot for $75 which gets me unstuck. I just love that feeling of getting unstuck, it's almost better than booking a nice win.

By 1:00 am everyone has left, and I spend the next hour and a half getting stuff ready for the kids and school the next day, preparing bottle for the night for the baby etc. When the alarm goes off at 6:45am this morning, I have about 3 hours of sleep in me. Geez do I miss my wife already :)