.

4th of July, According to KPT

Last year's 4th of July is quite a stark contrast to this year. I spent the holiday in Malibu with a girl basking in the beautiful Malibu sun in one of the private beaches, sort of fortuitously. We walked accidentally thru this gated community. That gated community, the houses even though so close together giving the feeling of convolution and the children running around barefoot, was unmistakably wealthy. Every home was adorned with not the immaculately manicured front yards or the long driveways like those in Beverly Hills, but rather with exotic sports cars. One tiny garage had a cherry red F430 Spyder and a yellow 996 Carrera 4S sardined, peering out ostentatiously to other garages containing lesser vehicles... Logic tells me the 430 Spyder is the weekend getaway car making the Carrera 4S one expensive daily driver. One guy had two versions of the American Sports car Panoz Ezperante powered by a Ford SVT Supercharged V-8. Although they're nice cars, for that amount of money i'd settle for 1 German exotic...

But anyway Malibu and the off-shore fireworks was a wonderful way of spending Independence day. Although we got lost and wound up in the wrong beach we had an un-obscured view of all the fireworks... it was absolutely spellbinding.

Fast forward to 4th of July 2006, 3 PM. Marco calls me up "what's going on today" he ask curiously. About two years ago a phone call from Marco only meant Poker. But anyway after a couple more calls from other friends we came to a common understanding that Poker is the only possible way we as friends will conjugate on this National Holiday. So in the spirit of the Holidays i decided to host a Poker Tournament. Our own way of celebrating Americas Independence...

Surprisingly 14 out of 17 players responded to the KPT Poker beacon. I guess i grossly underestimated the power of KPT. Considering its last minute and a holiday, i expected no more than 9 people... Jerome was the first to arrive with some marinated chicken and corn to BBQ. Around 7:15 PM we had two poker tables setup and a prodigious amount of beer that my large cooler couldn't accommodate. We had to set a couple of 12 packs aside to await its turn to be chilled. It was sort of heartbreaking haha...

At the 4th level of the Poker Tournament the fireworks start to dominate the California skies. Unfamiliar with the noise, Foxy my Siberian Husky scurried underneath the Mercedes (my mom's car) while Toby took it all in stride barking at the scintillating skies. In the Poker Room with the double doors wide open allowing a clear view of the southern skies from the final table, we enjoy the fireworks without interrupting play. I tried haplessly many times to take a picture of the Poker table with the fireworks display in the background. I wanted to post it along with this blog as proof of our patriotism but i failed at it miserably...

At 3 am, tired and 50 bucks lighter we call it a night. But not after Hana told us the greatest story ever told this side of Chris Moneymaker. According to Hana he drove home from a Hollywood Club the previous Saturday morning and had consumed 4 double shots of Crown Royal. And just like every drunk idiot he was driving erratically. Two white cops spotted him and pulled him over, north bound on the 101. A drunk speeding Korean in Hollywood and two white cops on any given night pretty much spells out JAIL... Not to mention the North Korean warheads zooming over the Atlantic. Somehow even though he reeked of whisky and was doing 30 MPH over the speed limit, they sent him off without so much a speeding ticket. Shiet man he might as well have been Caucasian. Lucky bastard...

He practically got away with murder. So put yourself in Hana's shoes for one second. What would you do? Or better yet what would a normal human being do? Go home go to bed and thank your lucky stars, right? Not Hana. Feeling like the luckiest man in Hollywood, he exited the freeway and headed 25 miles due south to Commerce Casino to try his luck in Poker LOL. But i think the more interesting aspect or stupid depending on how you look at it is the fact that gambling his last $200 was the first thing on his mind after such an ordeal. But it turned out to be a brilliant idea because he turned $200 to over $1500 in less than 1 hour hahaha.

But anyway. Scott said it was a fun day and up until he said that i didn't realize how much fun i had myself. Although a world of difference from last year's 4th of July, the unpromising day turned out to be a heck of a day... No Ferraris parked on the streets, no long walks at the beach or couples holding hands with their gaze fixed on the brilliant skies of Malibu. But rather BBQ chicken, Poker and lots of Beer...

Posted by: Marc Gabay
Wednesday, July 05, 2006