High Stakes

I don’t believe that gambling can be dangerous for children, though it is of course important to not let it go too far. Raising kids into competition is never healthy, naturally. But it is a good way to activate the family in my opinion.
In my family we play once a week, if not more often. Everybody likes it and are looking forward to the game day when we gather in the kitchen for some poker.
My husband and I have two sons and one daughter, which are all very skilled in poker. We play Texas Hold’em most of the time, since that is the most famous kind of poker. Then it becomes more fun to watch it on TV as well.
It is such a joy to see my children develop their strategies and me and my husband are doing all we can to encourage them in their game. They aren’t bad losers and the atmosphere is always good.
Apart from the thrill of playing, it is a good opportunity to get some insight in their lives and ask them how their day has been. It is crucial that you, as a parent, take each chance you get to have dialogues and discussions. So we talk about school and their class mates, what is coming up during the week or simply how everyone feels. It is of course also good fun to talk about the actual poker game with my children to see how they think strategically and make up their own game plans. I think it is good practice for them in terms of thinking mathematically, training their memory and keeping a straight face when they have to.
Naturally, the gambling culture can be a dangerous world, and I would never allow my children to take part of those dangerous things (like betting or lending money). If they would ask for my permission to go to Las Vegas for example, they know very well what my response would be!
I don’t want my kids to be interested in the way of living they have there, and neither does my husband. Also, I don’t think that it is healthy for young people to have to much stress, so we try to make it clear that it really doesn’t matter that much who wins, as long as everyone has fun.
All in all, I am happy that we have this tradition in the family, and I hope for us to have it a long time!

In a few weeks the World Series of Poker finally begins.
I am so excited, there is no competition that is so fun for me to watch. If it hadn’t been aired I am pretty sure that I would have headed off to Las Vegas to follow the whole ordeal from there. Now I can sit safely in my coach instead with crisps and beer to see the whole tournament from beginning to end. Thank god for cable-tv!
It has been about seven years since I first saw WSOP. Back in those days I wasn’t very interested in poker, it was just a nice way of making the times pass. I wasn’t well aware of the rules and the culture behind it, but after having seen the WSOP final in 2001 my attitude changed a lot! My friends couldn’t believe their ears when I evening after evening suggested poker playing instead of video games or going to the pub. But soon I had made them like poker as much as I do and when the WSOP of 2002 began we were all ready by the biggest television that was available in our posse.
Since then, we (and particularly I) have been following the competition. Every new year you learn something new about the culture, the rules, the strategies and the psychology around poker.
Sometimes I rent or download old poker tournaments from the ‘80s and ‘90s. To watch legends such as Stu Ungar and Jonny Chan deliver the way they did is extraordinary. They were really skilled and disciplined. I barely understand how they keep the kind of poker faces that they did. Even if I by now is a fairly experienced player myself, I still have a hard time hiding triumph or disappointment. There are so many details in your body language to expose your secrets. Even if you are totally still and try not to do anything particular at all – then that in itself is a tell!
Yes, I have a lot to learn from the big poker legends. That is why I am happy that the competition is being aired so that it is available for anyone that has Internet or a video player.
And now it is only a matter of days until the WSOP starts again.
I don’t know how I will be able to wait! I guess I will have to play some poker in the meantime, just to calm myself…

I am a bit tired of watching movies in the evening. I used to love watching movies. I don’t know how many hours, days, even weeks, that I’ve spent in front of the TV. But when I look at it from a larger scheme I no longer think that my everyday life is as well planned as I’ve always thought: I get up in the morning and work until it is literally dark outside. Or, in the summertime, at least until most people have had their dinner. After that I go home, which takes about one hour, so the time we’ll be at least eight o’clock for my dinner. If I do watch a movie after that, I will have spent the whole day doing things that don’t actually supply me with any valuable memories.
Sometimes I play poker online, which is more fun than watching movies. But I don’t really like to play poker IRL, and what I lack the most in my life is the social part. So that is no real solution either. Sometimes I think about doing radical things, such as moving away from the country, quit my job and go look for fortune somewhere else. There are so many things that I could do, yet I fear that none of them will ever be done. I would like to travel more, and see Scotland, Egypt, New York, the Indian countryside, the quiet desert and the jungle. There are so many things that I could do, but I know that I won’t have the courage to get my act together. And the worse thing is that all of my friends seem to feel the same about their lives.
No, I think that the solution to the problem lies in the small means: To watch less movies. To try to learn more while at work. To try to connect to more people, and get influenced by them. Maybe the best deal would be if I tried to start to like IRL poker, and then I would meet new people that way…
In that case I would want to do it abroad. I reckon I should just head to Las Vegas and see how that works out! But then again, maybe I would just lose my money on the casinos, and then I’d be back where I started.

The time has come for me to finally buy a really decent watch. I have been looking at the Watch On Watch-site, where the most luxurious brands and watches are listed. I have fallen for Omegas “Seamaster Planet Ocean”, which has water protection down to 600 metres and looks really nice. They sell it for less than they do in most stores.
I love Omegas watches, as does Pierce Brosnan’s Bond, and I have always been a bit interested in it’s status and history.
Omega has existed since 1848 when it was developed in Schweiz. 1903 they got together with Tissot, which was followed by several other collaborations. It feels like Omega is the brand that has the most profound place in modern culture. Look at NASA, for example: they specifically chose the brand to be worn at the Apollo-assignments. The watch’s name was Speedmaster.
The first watch on the moon was an Omega: Speedmaster Professional Chronograph. The James Bond-connection is pretty cool as well. When Bond “turned 40” there was 10007 Seamaster 300M Professionals being made. That is the watch that is worn in Golden Eye. Earlier, James Bond wore a Rolex, but that brand feels a bit too classic and worn out, I think.
Another piece of trivia is that the name Omega originates from the last letter in the Greek alphabet and means “large”.
They were also the first watch manufacturer that was timekeeper in the Olympics. Sports and Omega has gone hand in hand through the decades in general. That also means that few watches have been tested so much – and passed those tests. I can’t imagine an authority as careful and accurate when it comes to “test-driving” their equipment as NASA is. Not that I will spend too much time in outer space in the near future, but it feels wicked to know.

Another nice example from the Watch On Watch-collection is the Seamaster Aqua Terra. It can only take water pressure down to 150 metres, but has a very, very nice design. It would look splendid together with black shirts, but if I want that I would have to spend a little more money than on the Seamaster Planet Ocean. I have a hard time deciding if I like the bracelet in steel or in dark leather the most. It feels like steel bracelets are more suited for the younger generation, while later in life one will look more handsome in a discreet leather bracelet.

I guess that that is what I like the most with Omega: that their collection holds so many different types of watches, but all of them come with the same air of dignity and strength.