Can't say no to $1.50

We were supposed to go out for one beer. That's it. One. And then I was going to go home and clean my apartment for my next day, early afternoon punch party. We started with one. We did not stop.

My new local hangout has a special on Thursday's that include $1.50 bottles of PBR. I like this for three reasons. One, PBR reminds me of home, though all my previous experiences with it were in the can variety. Two, when you drink PBR out of a bottle you learn that under the caps are playing cards and if you are nice to your bartender he will let you keep those caps, and someday, if you try real hard, you can own a complete deck of PBR cards that you can then play bar poker with. Three, I can not do anything in this city for $1.50. I can't even ride the train for less than $2.00.

So for these reasons I headed down last night to meet a friend for the already mentioned one beer plan. Well, that plan quickly unraveled into a much longer plan when I figured out how to bet on the NBA draft. I'm a bit of a gambl-aholic and have had a pretty dry existence lately so when the opportunity sprung to my slightly addled mind I couldn't pass it up. It started with us noticing how damn young these kids looked as they were ushered out of college and into NBA history. Then we started betting a dollar each time one of the kids were in the audience (the ones not there had their stats flashed right away which cut off the betting process) and shouting "Freshman!" or "Junior!" with the winner taking the pool. If we were both wrong the money stayed in until one of us got it right. I think I ended up walking away $5 up. I was a big fan of this game.

So as we were absorbed in this process, which took awhile since there was a 5-7 minute break between each pick and we couldn't bet on the kids not there, our one beer night stretched out till we both had a full hand of PBR cards. Lucky for me we never set a bet on that because my buddy ended up with two pair. And that's with me trying to rig it by looking at both and picking my favorite. Looks like I should have paid more attention to what I was handing over.

3 and half hours after I came in I found myself with a full hand of caps/cards, an extra $5 and ready to go home. I settled my $10 bar tab with a $20 and hit the road. My goal now is to figure out each Thursday how I can turn whatever is on the sports network into a betting adventure. Wish me (and my liver) luck.