Battle of the Conglomerates

Went over to Lauren's place for some last minute festive cheer and some food and drinks coz it was the last day of the Lunar New Year already. Somehow, after pigging out to some delicious Kueh Pai Tee, bee hoon, chicken wings et al, we settled down for a good old favorite pastime of CNY - gambling.

It's freaking funny I tell you coz Meiting had to go and introduce us to a brand new way of parting with our money in the form of "In-between" a poker game where you combine two packs of cards together and take out two cards from the top. Now if the third card that is drawn has a value that is between the two cards that were drawn earlier, you win money. If it's not, you lose. Worse, if the third card is the same as either one of the two cards revealed earlier, you lose double of your bet. Sounds easy? Sure it is, but is it easy to win? Let's just say that I would rather go play chee ko pa with a kid and still stand a higher chance of prevailing. Now, all the losers' money will be piled into a sort of kitty in the middle that if it goes well, will keep on getting higher and higher in value. At one point in time, I could swear that there was at least $5 - $6 at stake. A ridiculous amount when our bets are actually anywhere between one dollar to twenty cents, or should I write it the other way around, hmm...so you can imagine how many times we lost, lost and lost to the ever burgeoning cash pile.

Anyhow, Mona and Nani were roped into the fray. Yea, I know good Muslims don't gamble but hey, it's all in good cheer and after all, they claimed that they have exploited some loophole in the sense that they are not gambling with their own money (they exchanged their stakes between themselves so Nani's dough is now Mona's and vice versa), talk about divine law-mongering. Haha!

Anyhow, what's a good Moonie game without name-calling and under the table bitching and ruthless trash talking? We just took it to another level and masqueraded ourselves as huge-ass global conglomerates like Disney, HSBC, Microsoft, Apple (ever the perennial enemy), the local Capitaland (backed by Lee Foundation, ok? Donch play play, jagan main main) and the sick-assed Enron (spearheaded by the Muslim duo) who not only went absolutely fucking bust but also made the most amazing comeback in winnings only to lose it all to a peasly thirty cents when the dust settled.

Most memorable moment?

A certain Lee who shall not be named caused Capitaland to almost go bankrupt when she betted a whopping $2 for a pile of $4 in the kitty when she was presented with a Ace and King opening duo (the difference between these two cards is so big, it's alomost a sure win, almost) with only 5 - 6 cards unrevealed. Then when it comes to the crunch, this certain Lee drew an Ace!!!! Resulting in heart-wrenching looks (from her) and butt-whooping cheers from all around as the kitty swelled to 8 bloody bucks!!!! Capitaland is clearly not very loved! Lol!!!

Seriously, we have never been this noisy since the cool years in Ngee Ann Poly. Here's to more guffaw inducing, wallet emptying CNY visitings in years to come. Thanks to everyone who was there that have made it such a good time and thanks to Lauren for a day well-spent.

Credits

Disney: Jo "Poor as a Church Mickey" Tan
HSBC: Grace (Meiting's partner for the day)
Microsoft: The DjA Meiting herself
Apple: Jason "Steve Jobs" Woo aka the one who made off with $2+ dollars in winnings
Enron: Mona "the Muslim Hand" Wahab and Nani "There must be some inner corruption going on" Dom
Capitaland: Lauren "Ace of Base" Lee

Cameo by Rae (who left early after scooting off with a bulk of what we believed were Microsoft's opening capital in an ealier game of Blackjack)