Bullets

When we play, we must realize, before anything else, that we are out to make money.
David Sklansky

The table was quiet except for the tick of the clock. Everyone's eyes were looking at me as I plinked the chips into the pot, "I call," I said quietly. Sixty million isk sat in the middle of the table, and more than a few people had enough money in that they'd seen it through to now.

"Pocket Aces beat Pocket Kings," I said with a smile, "Thank you very much,"

"Fuck you, you lucky prick," Came a voice from across the table as I stood up.

"Heh, that's enough for me I think,"

I nodded to the dealer who counted the chips before making a deposit in my account.

__________________

"Hallan?" I had only barely settled into my pod when NOIR.'s voice comms came alive, "We've got a few targets in a wormhole, interested?"

"I'm in my Stealth Bomber, will that do?"

"Sure, get into space,"

I undocked and entered warp. After a few jumps, I warped to my fleet, already assembled at the wormhole.

"Ok," I heard moments after landing, "I've got 'em, warp to me. There's another wormhole here,"

I flung my ship into the wormhole and entered into warp. The entire fleet moved through space in formation and we landed on a Scorpion. Our heavy interdictor went through and bubbled the other side. There was no getting away for our target.

It's Watching You.

I was over fifty kilometers away and began to lock the Scorpion. As my targeting resolved, my target painter, range damps and torp's came alive. Just as he entered structure, a Drake landed as well. The Scorpion exploded and we turned our attentions to the Drake just as the Scorpion's pilot died.

The Drake didn't last long, but as we finally bit into his armor, a Typhoon landed. I let a small laugh be heard on comms as our interceptor pointed it. One of my torpedo volleys ripped hard into the Drake, and suddenly it was no more. We then turned our attention to the Typhoon.

It went down, quickly, and we took the time to take down his escape pod. After clean up, I warped back to the other wormhole.

"Real quick, who's the Manticore on scan?" voice comms chimed for a moment.

"Sorry, that's me. Pocket Aces.," I said with a laugh, "Cloak timer,"

"No problem,"

A Peach of a Hand

Well, I suppose I'm deranged, but I guess I'll just have to call.
Doc Holliday - Tombstone

"I raise ten million," Gerald, a freighter pilot, smiled and looked around the table. Half of them were just shaking their heads.

"God damn it, I wanted to see the flop," Said a man on his left, throwing his hand down.

"I will," Hallan added with a smile of his own.

"I'm in too," Came another voice, that was Hawking the docking manager.

"All in," A Hulk pilot added, shoving his meager stack into the center of the table.

"Call," Came the voice of the station's director.

"I'll call too," Paxton, an Ishtar pilot lazily pushed his chips forward.

"I raise ten million," Gerald added again, touching one of his stacks of chips and pushing it in front of him.

"Call," Hallan said with an interested look on his face. He checked his cards again for a moment. Two kings. Did he have aces?

"I'm out," Hawking threw down his cards and drank a gulp of his beer with a frown.

"All in," The Director pushed his small stack of chips into the center of the table and leaned back.

"Ten million more then," Paxton said, still seeming uninterested in the game.

The dealer looked around the table with a smirk.

"All in," Gerald pushed his entire stack into the middle of the table. Sixty million chips.

Hallan studied Gerald's face for a moment, cocked his head to the side and pushed sixty million chips into the center of the table, "Call,"

"All of it then," Came the Hulk pilot's voice from beside him, clearly agitated.

"That and a million more," Came the voice of Paxton, obviously enjoying himself. Hallan and Paxton were the only men with chips left that weren't in the pot and Hallan had only a million left in front of him.

"All in," Hallan said with a smile, pushing his last few chips into the center of the table.

Everyone flipped their hands down and the dealer separated the stacks into four pots. The largest was a hundred million, the next fifty, the next twenty, and the next twelve.

Hallan almost laughed as Gerald flipped down two fours. The Hulk pilot had an ace and a seven. The Director had an ace and a four. Paxton happily showed his two aces and Hallan sighed wearily as he threw down his two kings.

"A three," The dealer said as he began to lay the cards on the table, "A seven," He looked up at the Hulk pilot who let out a little breath just before the next card came down, "An eight,"

The dealer stopped for a moment, and the suspense began to build, then down came the turn, "A four," and now the director was leaning into the table along with the rest. It all hinged on the last card.

"A King," and everyone breathed again. Hallan looked around and laughed as he raked in his chips.

"Alright then," The dealer said as Hallan began to sweep his chips into a bag, "Next hand?"

"I gotta be going," Hallan said as he finished grabbing his chips, "It was nice playing with you folks,"

Mutters rose from the table, and so did he.

Knowing When To Fold

Nonsense, I have not yet begun to defile myself.
Doc Holiday - Tombstone

There are always going to be things that no one can teach you. Things you just have to learn by screwing up. Today I've encountered one. Lets go back a couple of days and start from the top.

Stealthfield's one of those corps I found through the blogosphere. As I contacted their CEO I found out they'd just broken away and formed up their own corporation. I inquired about the chance to work together and got a go ahead. So this weekend, while they went out to harass some folks, I came along in a stealth bomber.

The first night I was out there, I was still an unknown quantity. I managed a couple of kills under their noses before the capital ships came out to guard everything. I was happy with that and went to bed.

The next day I managed to get online with some others, but before I got started, and just after coming back from AFK cloak, I found a Blackbird guarding a mining Osprey. Aligned, bombed, got out. Too quickly in fact, I shoulda hung around because the Blackbird died in one volley of bomb and torps, and the Osprey was caught in the bomb blast. I was still happy with the kill and moved on.

As the gang started looking around for targets later, it was obvious they were scared and well protected, so we decided to move on. Securitas managed to catch an Armageddon on a gate, and that gave me my nicest kill so far in this thing. Four Steath Bombers, one battleship dusted.

Then today I hit a snag. Right now I've set up my overview to show planets and ships. So I can release a bomb and then warp away immediately. As long as an Arazu isn't out, I should be fine. Well today we decided to bomb the station undock where some frigates were sitting. We aligned, dropped bombs and then I hit the warp button.

Only nothing happened. I keep spamming warp and I get no messages, no anything. No lag either, I can see the Ishkur coming for me. An Ishkur burns my way and pretty soon I'm space dust myself. I let them have the pod and then went to write a petition.

About half way through it I realize my mistake. The Station was actually at a planet. I must've picked out that one randomly and that's why nothing happened when I hit warp. I cursed even more at that though because that meant it was just something I had to learn the hard way.

It's an expensive loss, the most expensive loss so far in my Eve career. I had missile implants in even, but I was annoyed so much that I just let them have the pod rather than try to jump back out. I calculated about a 200 million isk loss.

So I got pissed off and decided to play some poker. Mynxee has written and excellent guide on how to get started, and I highly recommend reading it.

Some of you who've been with me a while might remember my last foray into poker. It was one night, and I lost seventy million. I promised to never play again, because I'm not a patient man. I like the thrill of playing for a lot of money, but that's not how you win.

With a bit of luck, poker has paid for my bomber loss, so it stings much less(I never would have played it if I'd not lost a ship anyhow, so it's kind of a free lesson in what not to do next time)

I'll probably write up a story about that later, as for now:

Good Day.