Run Fred, Run!
For something a little different, ourselves and Aaron and Alyssa (fellow lovers of poker, food and wine) made plans to head to Cannington Greyhounds on Saturday night to be part of the canine spectacle that is Fred Bassett (“The Listeners’ Dog”), the greyhound purchased by radio comedians, Hamish and Andy. For the full story, you can check out the website, but briefly: Andy was a contestant in the Cleo Bachelor of the Year competition. Hamish took a whole load of money (allegeldy) saved for a house and put it on his co-host to win the competition. Andy won the title. After Hamish got his money back, the pair decided to buy a greyhound with the profits. Neat eh? Marie had really gotten into the spirit of the event and made shirts for the four of us using a nifty Fred Bassett comic she nabbed online. If you look carefully, you can make out the dapper shirts in the snapshot above.
But before the races, we decided that we’d stop by Must Wine Bar in Mt Lawley for a bite before the race. For those who don’t know, Must is the business and boasts one of the best wine lists in the entire state. (Incidentally, the Mt Barker Hotel is, somewhat surprisingly, also home to a ripper wine list) Unlike previous visits, we were going to get more than a drink, which of course meant getting stuck into the charcuterie plate, the wine bar’s signature dish and the personal favourite of owner-chef Russell Blaikie.
Now for some strange reason, I felt like celebrating and decided to splash out on a bottle of something nice to go with our food. And since enjoying the Billecart-Salmon Rose a few weeks earlier just a few doors down the road at Jackson’s, I’ve been looking for an excuse to buy a bottle for Marie and I to enjoy. I figured Saturday night with friends was as good a time as any. Ignoring the mark-up and “how much cheaper it is at the bottlo”, I ordered a bottle and four flutes, much to the delight of our waiter Jamie (who incidentally, had listed the wine as his staff favourite on the board) who I poured a drop of the Champagne for as well. As expected, everyone was bowled over by the freshness, delicate flavours and length of the Billecart Rose: a marvelous, marvelous wine and a wonderful match with the oysters, chicken parfait and of course, charcuterie we ordered.
At 6:30pm we were off to the races and arrived to find a long but quickly moving queue. Once inside it unfortunately stayed like this, the worst being the 20 minutes-plus Aaron and I had to wait to grab a drink. There wasn’t much on offer, so we just decided to get what the girls were getting and off we went with four UDLs. Finally it was Fred Bassett’s turn to race and it was over in less than a minute. The teeny boppers and drunken louts won out in the end and we decided to call it a night at around half eight…
Except we were still hungry. And didn’t really feel like calling it a night.
So what did we do? A quick stop to IGA (ex Dewson’s) on Canning Highway and veal, prosciutto, cheese and other odds and ends were bought and back to ours we went for some late(ish) night veal saltimbocca with chips. Oh, and Aaron thought he’d pay me back for getting the bill at Must: not content with just paying for the groceries, he thought a bottle of Billecart would be perfect with dinner. God bless his soul! So back to casa de AceHighVino for another round of completely unnecessary gourmet hijinx while watching Aussie Millions and WSOP episodes on the idiot box. And yes, the Billecart was as fresh, pretty and sensational as ever. Oh, if only every weekend in the world of AHW was like this…
Looking back on last night’s events, on an evening where decisions where made around going to Cannington Greyhounds to watch a dog race, it’s almost fitting that our drink of choice was Billecart (for those that don’t know, the highly Australian “billy cart” is a four wheeled platform that kids used to race down hills and grassy knolls on: usually very fast, very dangerously and with a very high likelihood of sustaining injuries that required plenty of Dettol.)
Oh and some obligatory poker comment, a very interesting $1/$2 hand:
I’m dealt Kh4h on the button ($123 behind). Two limpers to me. I call. SB folds. BB checks. 4.5BB pot.
Flop: Ah Kc 3h
Nice, flopped second pair with a crap kicker, but drawing to the nut flush with the Ah on the board. BB bets $4 ($140 behind). UTG calls ($100 behind). MP folds. I call $4. My call here is criminal as I really should have raised to build a pot as these players looked like they were smart enough to let go of a hand on a flushed board. Pot 10.5BB.
Turn: 4s
Not the perfect card, but still pretty good. BB bets $4 again. UTG calls. I call. Another criminal call by me here. Suddenly I realise that the $4 bets on the flop which I had taken as pot sized bets were intentional. Now I think the $4 was just a default amount. Pot 16.5BB
River: 4d
Not the hand I was hoping to make, but runner-runner full is alright by me. BB bets $12, UTG calls (?!?). Pot here: 28.5BB. In the heat of the moment, I try and calculate the perfect amount to bet that will get called, but fail miserably as I pot it with a ridiculous $60 (30BB) bet. They both fold and I manage to chase all the value out of my hand that a min-raise would have surely scooped. Way to shoot your table image Max. Here’s hoping I run into them again and ridiculously overbet my hand on the river and get them to call thinking I’m just trying to buy the pot as usual.
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