Thursday, April 07, 2005
It's not real tough to finish off a bottle when your afternoon begins with these. We actually had a little buzz before the sun went down. Starting at 4pm doesn't hurt.
I managed to get one of the Boathouse Bingo suggestions photographed last night.
But I did pull an 0-for-the night trying to get blogger welcome pics. I had the perfect setup. 3 cuties, 3 guys writing Up for Poker. Alas, no amount of smooth talking could get them on camera. Only two weeks left in Summer Drinking Spring Training. I've gotta step my game up.
Say hi to Adrian and Pete.
One Lacey that will talk to Landow.... and one that won't.
~
Sequeing nicely from booze to..... booze. A recent comment on the Up For Poker site requires a response.
Dear Kevin,
Confessing to not being a blogger is not bad. It's commendable. If I wasn't a blogger already I wouldn't start. Don't you realize that most bloggers are degenerate drunks and are a complete drag on society? Oh wait. That's just me. Nevermind.
What's that next sentence? It doesn't make any sense to me. "I HATE Southern Comfort" Wha? Who? That's just not possible. Try drinking an entire bottle and then get back to me. You'll love it or hate it even more.
Of course you're welcome to join us in Vegas for the gathering. The one thing about this little group of bloggers is that they are very inclusive. I can't think of a single example where anyone has been turned away or ostracized.
And if you think hanging out with Grubby was cool, wait until you meet Grubette in June (hint hint hint).
So you'd like to introduce me to real whiskey. You're going on the assumption that I don't, or haven't, taken nourishment from other sources. I choose to drink Soco because of the buzz. I'm not drinking to have a couple sips here and there. Bombed. Blasted. Rip roaring good time. Soco gets me there. Proper whiskey + AlCantHang = Raging Lunatic
So we'll see you in June.
Al
~
Reason #3762 why I'll have a management position in hell. Someone passed this along to me. The Dicky V Popapalooza 2005 bracket.
Express lane to hell. I've got Duke and Angelo Scola.
~
For CJ....
Michelle Trachtenberg, born 11 October, 1985
It's safe to enjoy another.
~
ScurvyDog was kind enough to bestow upon me The Laugh Yo' Monkey Ass Off Award in Poker Blogging: April 2005
My acceptance speech:
~
Finally, I can't believe I missed Angus Young's 50th birthday. Cheers. The song of the day goes out to Iggy, StB, and all my blogger drinking brethern.
|
I managed to get one of the Boathouse Bingo suggestions photographed last night.
But I did pull an 0-for-the night trying to get blogger welcome pics. I had the perfect setup. 3 cuties, 3 guys writing Up for Poker. Alas, no amount of smooth talking could get them on camera. Only two weeks left in Summer Drinking Spring Training. I've gotta step my game up.
Say hi to Adrian and Pete.
One Lacey that will talk to Landow.... and one that won't.
~
Sequeing nicely from booze to..... booze. A recent comment on the Up For Poker site requires a response.
I have two confessions: (1) I'm not a blogger, and (2) I HATE Southern Comfort. And you know what, if I showed up for the Aladdin Classic Weekend, I would be welcomed. How do I know this? Because I had the pleasure of meeting the illustrious Grubby about a month ago in Vegas and within 5 seconds of meeting he said I should come to Vegas for the Aladdin Classic.
That's why you should go to Vegas. My goal: win airfare and hotel money in the next month for a last minute trip to Vegas so I can be a railbird.
That way I can introduce Al Can't Hang to real whiskey.
Kevin
Dear Kevin,
Confessing to not being a blogger is not bad. It's commendable. If I wasn't a blogger already I wouldn't start. Don't you realize that most bloggers are degenerate drunks and are a complete drag on society? Oh wait. That's just me. Nevermind.
What's that next sentence? It doesn't make any sense to me. "I HATE Southern Comfort" Wha? Who? That's just not possible. Try drinking an entire bottle and then get back to me. You'll love it or hate it even more.
Of course you're welcome to join us in Vegas for the gathering. The one thing about this little group of bloggers is that they are very inclusive. I can't think of a single example where anyone has been turned away or ostracized.
And if you think hanging out with Grubby was cool, wait until you meet Grubette in June (hint hint hint).
So you'd like to introduce me to real whiskey. You're going on the assumption that I don't, or haven't, taken nourishment from other sources. I choose to drink Soco because of the buzz. I'm not drinking to have a couple sips here and there. Bombed. Blasted. Rip roaring good time. Soco gets me there. Proper whiskey + AlCantHang = Raging Lunatic
So we'll see you in June.
Al
~
Reason #3762 why I'll have a management position in hell. Someone passed this along to me. The Dicky V Popapalooza 2005 bracket.
Express lane to hell. I've got Duke and Angelo Scola.
~
For CJ....
Michelle Trachtenberg, born 11 October, 1985
It's safe to enjoy another.
~
ScurvyDog was kind enough to bestow upon me The Laugh Yo' Monkey Ass Off Award in Poker Blogging: April 2005
My acceptance speech:
I'd like to thank the academy and ScurvyDog for this honor. Truly it was just an honor to be nominated.
I'd like to thank my liver who has stood by me for all these years. Never failing to step up to every challenge and getting me through the rough times.
I'd like to thank my friends. BigMike, Lewey, and Landow have never ceased in their efforts to provide comic relief. When things are slow, I can always count on another Running of the Lewey.
Finally I'd like the thank the makers of Southern Comfort. Without which I'd be just another boring ol' idiot instead of a jackass drunken idiot. I also wouldn't have the alcoholic courage to ask silly questions and write silly posts.
Thanks again to the academy, good night.
FREE TIBET!
~
Finally, I can't believe I missed Angus Young's 50th birthday. Cheers. The song of the day goes out to Iggy, StB, and all my blogger drinking brethern.
Wednesday, April 06, 2005
78 degrees and sunny here in the greater Philly area. That calls for one thing. Drinking on the deck. Today will be nothing but counting down the minutes until I'll be knocking back the first drink.
Not much blogging, even less work will be done today.
~
Everyone needs to head over to Up For Poker and check out Otis' Top Ten reasons to come to Vegas in June.
It's worth it. Trust me.
~
I want to introduce a new blog that I started. We all know what Felicia is going through and how it could be very easy for her spirits to drop. With that in mind, I started up "Felicia's Joke of the Day" blog. Everyone is welcome to become a contributor. I can either add you as a member of the blog, or you can just email me the jokes and I will put them up there. We can't have too many jokes.
Now I know there are funnier people out there than myself. I also know that every day we all get those emails sent with stupid, weird, funny jokes.
Send them along.
If you don't, I'll have Felicia come to your house and kick you in the junk.
I've already had some bloggers join but the more the merrier.
~
Finally, since I saw Eurotrip again (yummy), I'm posting the song from the movie as my play of the day via the ScubaSteve research wing.
Scotty Doesn't Know
|
Not much blogging, even less work will be done today.
~
Everyone needs to head over to Up For Poker and check out Otis' Top Ten reasons to come to Vegas in June.
It's worth it. Trust me.
~
I want to introduce a new blog that I started. We all know what Felicia is going through and how it could be very easy for her spirits to drop. With that in mind, I started up "Felicia's Joke of the Day" blog. Everyone is welcome to become a contributor. I can either add you as a member of the blog, or you can just email me the jokes and I will put them up there. We can't have too many jokes.
Now I know there are funnier people out there than myself. I also know that every day we all get those emails sent with stupid, weird, funny jokes.
Send them along.
If you don't, I'll have Felicia come to your house and kick you in the junk.
I've already had some bloggers join but the more the merrier.
~
Finally, since I saw Eurotrip again (yummy), I'm posting the song from the movie as my play of the day via the ScubaSteve research wing.
Scotty Doesn't Know
Monday, April 04, 2005
Borgata with the Bloggers
I keep forgetting how much fun it is to get together with fellow bloggers and play some poker.
Take the original Party .50/1 limit blogger tables, add in some live poker, plenty of booze, and you have the recipe for a rip roaring good time.
The plan was to meet up at the B-Bar in the Borgata around noon. The wifey, Brian, and myself arrived early (despite the gale force winds and rain). 11am and the B-Bar is packed already. Not a good sign for the cheapskate (hand up) looking for a cheapy 25c video poker machine to milk free booze from the bar.
Helixx showed up first followed by a very tired Pinky and -EV. Apparently Pinky and EV had spent some quality poker time until the sun was well up. So now I have two bloggers running on 3 hours sleep. What to do? A healthy round of Guinness.
Followed by another round.... and another....
Someone brings up the number of pics I manage to get and how it happens. I figured a little demonstration was in order. There were three girls sitting a little ways around the bar. Say hello to Becky and her friends. Down there for her 21st birthday.
For the record. In the first hour playing video poker, the wifey hit 4 quads and 4 boats.
After a few cocktails, we made the now traditional move to Noodles of the World for some pre-game carb loading. Excellent food as usual.
Now it was time for the poker fun. We knew we were in trouble halfway down the escalator. The waiting area was completely packed. We signed up for several tables before hitting lunch, but the lists were crazy at this point.
There had to be 50 some people waiting on both the 2/4 and 3/6 tables. I didn't feel prepared to hit the NL action this trip so I was determined to stick to the smaller limits but I preferred some O8 action. There were absolutely no running O8 games in the room and the only game on the List of Interest was 60/120.
Screw that.
Apparently I made some sort of joke with a floor guy because he laughed at me when I asked for the chances of any O8 table opening.
The four of us came up with the plan that Helixx would call the Trop and Taj. If we all had a decent chance to get on a table, we'd move over there. At the Borgata it would have taken Helixx and myself HOURS to get on anything. Pinky and -EV got their NL seats rather quickly, but right as -EV had his seat I tracked them down.
The Taj had promised that their lists were relatively short and we should have no problem. The Trop on the other hand was also packed.
God bless -EV and Pinky, they didn't even blink. They just racked their chips and off we went to the Taj.
Not long after getting to the Taj, we found ourselves sitting at a very entertaining 2/4 table. Helixx, Pinky, and myself started off on the same table with -EV at the neighboring one. He was locked into a table change for the first available seat at ours.
This was the live version of the old blogger .50/1 Party limit tables. A lot of pleasant banter, crazy betting (hand up again), and booze. Pinky grabs his first double Soco and is officially part of the CantHang crew. Welcome to the club!
First things first. Da booze. One big difference between the Borgata and Taj is the drink service. Glass vs plastic. Fast vs slow. Hot waitress vs ...not so much. Our cocktail waitress at the Taj was one of those bitter ones. Grumpy. I was determined to win her over. And I did. She was smiling (hands full of chips for tips will do that) and joking around. More importantly, I never had to order again. Every time she came around she was holding out TWO (2) cups of double Soco's. Score - Good karma 1, bad karma 0
Now for some ridiculous poker.
I quickly lost my original $100 buy-in. Several times I chased down with the second best hand KNOWING it was the second best hand. I call this my IGGY play. Styled after watching the blogfather play loosey goosey with the first buyin to set up his imagine and see what others are playing.
Hand 1 - I was holding a middle pocket pair when the board came out 622. The old guy in 3s lead out betting. I told him I was going to call him to the river just because I wanted to see what kind of hand was worth calling a raise AND contained a 2. Sure enough, 52sooooted. I made an off-hand comment about playing the 52 of spades and he actually says, "hey, at least give me credit that they were suited".
Sure pops. I'll be with you in a second.
Hand 2 I find KK, raise it up and I end up capping with Pinky. With a J on the flop and a raise by Pinky, I'm fairly certain my Kings were just cracked with JJ. But it's a blogger, so I have to be prepared for The Hammer. After the last round of betting I ask if he has a set of Jacks and there they are.
Hand 3 (the very next hand) I get JJ, raise it up and cap with the old guy in 10s. Now I'm looking for a little Pinky magic with my JJ. Junk on the flop and old guy can't wait to get his chips in. I looked at him and announced that I was check/calling his AA all the way to the river. Bingo again. Two read Aces.
Hand 4 I wasn't even involved in. After the final bet on the river, I just said "A6 vs AJ". Both flipped up and there they were.
So now I'm broke but I think I have a good read on the table and they definitely think I'm the world's biggest tool.
REBUY!
-EV gets his table move to the 3s, Pinky in 4s, and I slide over to the 5s after the previous gentleman left but not before telling me that we were "disturbing". It's also at this point that -EV and Pinky decide to buy more chips just for fun. They both had a huge castle of chips in front of them. And me, with my puny stack.
Bloggers in 3, 4, and 5 with Helixx on the other end in the 8s. Let the magic begin. I started off by throwing more chips to the dealer. Karma tipping for the new stack. Plus a couple of tips for him when the cheapskates "forgot" to tip.
-EV begins the insanity by innocently straddling the blinds UTG. Soon after, it was common practice when -EV was UTG, he straddles, Pinky would 3-bet, and I'd cap..... All before any cards were dealt. Now the table is thinking they've either met the nuttiest players in the world or they'd hit a jackpot. Probably both.
From what I could tell by the end, the only ones hitting the jackpots were the three of us.
While Helixx was getting hit with the ass end of a cold deck, the other three of us were raking some monsters. Including one that will have to be told by -EV. Some poor player decided to make a stand against "the idiot, playing-in-the-dark, drinking-too-much-bloggers". And the old guy ran smack into the middle of.....
You'll just have to wait for his writeup.
Somewhere along the lines I manage to build up my own castle of chips and also tie quite a load on.
We had an interesting character sitting in 2s. Young kid. Solid player. But his demeanor was stone cold. You would have sworn he was sitting the final table of the WSoP Main Event. No smile, no talking. Bet, rake, tip, post. With the three of us sitting right behind him, we put the test to him and his stoney stare. No flinching. -EV decides to go into full-on WPT mode. Big Erik Estrada sun glasses, PartyPoker hat (BONUS CODE IGGY), iPod head phones in, jacket up tight around his head.
2s bets out and -EV just stares him down. For a $2 call. He finally broke a smile and turned out to be another pleasant bloke from the UK. Good times.
Then it happened. -EV finds us two seats at the 5/10 O8 table. This was the game I really wanted to play.
I'm already setting up my image when I sit down. After the first hand is split, I lean over to the lady next to me and ask why the pot was split. "oh honey", she said, "didn't you know this with hi/lo". "no", I responded, "I thought this was just a hi game".
She gives me the tsk tsk sound and off we go. A big pot gets taken down and I see the dealer throw another odd chip to the winner. A Kill button.
What what!
Of well fuck me running. Turns out it's 5/10 Omaha8 with a full kill. And this is the loosest craziest table. I'm sitting at what is basically a 10/20 O8 table with not nearly enough chips to handle the swings.
I caught some great starting hands which never worked out and I quickly lost half my stack and I decide to call it a night. This table was so juicy I should have sucked it up and cashed in for the proper amount. It was that good.
That table knocked me into the negative for the day but definiltey couldn't erase the good times of the night.
One note from that table. The old goofball in the 9s was reading Poker Player between hands. There, nice and big, on the front page.... "Announcing PokerPlayerNewspaper.com". I told the bloated fool he should check out the website because I'd heard they have some really good writers over there.
We made our seperate ways. -EV and Pinky were heading back to the Borgata and a very tired I hopped into the backseat for the ride back down the AC Expressway.
~
I am always amazed at how much fun getting together with other bloggers can be. It was a relaxing, poker playing, booze-fueled good time. The June get together is soooo close......
~
Another rambling post. I started at the beginning and just started writing. No edits or re-writes. I hope it meets with your approval.
Stop on by later. I will be posting about a new blog coming up.
Cheers.
|
Take the original Party .50/1 limit blogger tables, add in some live poker, plenty of booze, and you have the recipe for a rip roaring good time.
The plan was to meet up at the B-Bar in the Borgata around noon. The wifey, Brian, and myself arrived early (despite the gale force winds and rain). 11am and the B-Bar is packed already. Not a good sign for the cheapskate (hand up) looking for a cheapy 25c video poker machine to milk free booze from the bar.
Helixx showed up first followed by a very tired Pinky and -EV. Apparently Pinky and EV had spent some quality poker time until the sun was well up. So now I have two bloggers running on 3 hours sleep. What to do? A healthy round of Guinness.
Followed by another round.... and another....
Someone brings up the number of pics I manage to get and how it happens. I figured a little demonstration was in order. There were three girls sitting a little ways around the bar. Say hello to Becky and her friends. Down there for her 21st birthday.
For the record. In the first hour playing video poker, the wifey hit 4 quads and 4 boats.
After a few cocktails, we made the now traditional move to Noodles of the World for some pre-game carb loading. Excellent food as usual.
Now it was time for the poker fun. We knew we were in trouble halfway down the escalator. The waiting area was completely packed. We signed up for several tables before hitting lunch, but the lists were crazy at this point.
There had to be 50 some people waiting on both the 2/4 and 3/6 tables. I didn't feel prepared to hit the NL action this trip so I was determined to stick to the smaller limits but I preferred some O8 action. There were absolutely no running O8 games in the room and the only game on the List of Interest was 60/120.
Screw that.
Apparently I made some sort of joke with a floor guy because he laughed at me when I asked for the chances of any O8 table opening.
The four of us came up with the plan that Helixx would call the Trop and Taj. If we all had a decent chance to get on a table, we'd move over there. At the Borgata it would have taken Helixx and myself HOURS to get on anything. Pinky and -EV got their NL seats rather quickly, but right as -EV had his seat I tracked them down.
The Taj had promised that their lists were relatively short and we should have no problem. The Trop on the other hand was also packed.
God bless -EV and Pinky, they didn't even blink. They just racked their chips and off we went to the Taj.
Not long after getting to the Taj, we found ourselves sitting at a very entertaining 2/4 table. Helixx, Pinky, and myself started off on the same table with -EV at the neighboring one. He was locked into a table change for the first available seat at ours.
This was the live version of the old blogger .50/1 Party limit tables. A lot of pleasant banter, crazy betting (hand up again), and booze. Pinky grabs his first double Soco and is officially part of the CantHang crew. Welcome to the club!
First things first. Da booze. One big difference between the Borgata and Taj is the drink service. Glass vs plastic. Fast vs slow. Hot waitress vs ...not so much. Our cocktail waitress at the Taj was one of those bitter ones. Grumpy. I was determined to win her over. And I did. She was smiling (hands full of chips for tips will do that) and joking around. More importantly, I never had to order again. Every time she came around she was holding out TWO (2) cups of double Soco's. Score - Good karma 1, bad karma 0
Now for some ridiculous poker.
I quickly lost my original $100 buy-in. Several times I chased down with the second best hand KNOWING it was the second best hand. I call this my IGGY play. Styled after watching the blogfather play loosey goosey with the first buyin to set up his imagine and see what others are playing.
Hand 1 - I was holding a middle pocket pair when the board came out 622. The old guy in 3s lead out betting. I told him I was going to call him to the river just because I wanted to see what kind of hand was worth calling a raise AND contained a 2. Sure enough, 52sooooted. I made an off-hand comment about playing the 52 of spades and he actually says, "hey, at least give me credit that they were suited".
Sure pops. I'll be with you in a second.
Hand 2 I find KK, raise it up and I end up capping with Pinky. With a J on the flop and a raise by Pinky, I'm fairly certain my Kings were just cracked with JJ. But it's a blogger, so I have to be prepared for The Hammer. After the last round of betting I ask if he has a set of Jacks and there they are.
Hand 3 (the very next hand) I get JJ, raise it up and cap with the old guy in 10s. Now I'm looking for a little Pinky magic with my JJ. Junk on the flop and old guy can't wait to get his chips in. I looked at him and announced that I was check/calling his AA all the way to the river. Bingo again. Two read Aces.
Hand 4 I wasn't even involved in. After the final bet on the river, I just said "A6 vs AJ". Both flipped up and there they were.
So now I'm broke but I think I have a good read on the table and they definitely think I'm the world's biggest tool.
REBUY!
-EV gets his table move to the 3s, Pinky in 4s, and I slide over to the 5s after the previous gentleman left but not before telling me that we were "disturbing". It's also at this point that -EV and Pinky decide to buy more chips just for fun. They both had a huge castle of chips in front of them. And me, with my puny stack.
Bloggers in 3, 4, and 5 with Helixx on the other end in the 8s. Let the magic begin. I started off by throwing more chips to the dealer. Karma tipping for the new stack. Plus a couple of tips for him when the cheapskates "forgot" to tip.
-EV begins the insanity by innocently straddling the blinds UTG. Soon after, it was common practice when -EV was UTG, he straddles, Pinky would 3-bet, and I'd cap..... All before any cards were dealt. Now the table is thinking they've either met the nuttiest players in the world or they'd hit a jackpot. Probably both.
From what I could tell by the end, the only ones hitting the jackpots were the three of us.
While Helixx was getting hit with the ass end of a cold deck, the other three of us were raking some monsters. Including one that will have to be told by -EV. Some poor player decided to make a stand against "the idiot, playing-in-the-dark, drinking-too-much-bloggers". And the old guy ran smack into the middle of.....
You'll just have to wait for his writeup.
Somewhere along the lines I manage to build up my own castle of chips and also tie quite a load on.
We had an interesting character sitting in 2s. Young kid. Solid player. But his demeanor was stone cold. You would have sworn he was sitting the final table of the WSoP Main Event. No smile, no talking. Bet, rake, tip, post. With the three of us sitting right behind him, we put the test to him and his stoney stare. No flinching. -EV decides to go into full-on WPT mode. Big Erik Estrada sun glasses, PartyPoker hat (BONUS CODE IGGY), iPod head phones in, jacket up tight around his head.
2s bets out and -EV just stares him down. For a $2 call. He finally broke a smile and turned out to be another pleasant bloke from the UK. Good times.
Then it happened. -EV finds us two seats at the 5/10 O8 table. This was the game I really wanted to play.
I'm already setting up my image when I sit down. After the first hand is split, I lean over to the lady next to me and ask why the pot was split. "oh honey", she said, "didn't you know this with hi/lo". "no", I responded, "I thought this was just a hi game".
She gives me the tsk tsk sound and off we go. A big pot gets taken down and I see the dealer throw another odd chip to the winner. A Kill button.
What what!
Of well fuck me running. Turns out it's 5/10 Omaha8 with a full kill. And this is the loosest craziest table. I'm sitting at what is basically a 10/20 O8 table with not nearly enough chips to handle the swings.
I caught some great starting hands which never worked out and I quickly lost half my stack and I decide to call it a night. This table was so juicy I should have sucked it up and cashed in for the proper amount. It was that good.
That table knocked me into the negative for the day but definiltey couldn't erase the good times of the night.
One note from that table. The old goofball in the 9s was reading Poker Player between hands. There, nice and big, on the front page.... "Announcing PokerPlayerNewspaper.com". I told the bloated fool he should check out the website because I'd heard they have some really good writers over there.
We made our seperate ways. -EV and Pinky were heading back to the Borgata and a very tired I hopped into the backseat for the ride back down the AC Expressway.
~
I am always amazed at how much fun getting together with other bloggers can be. It was a relaxing, poker playing, booze-fueled good time. The June get together is soooo close......
~
Another rambling post. I started at the beginning and just started writing. No edits or re-writes. I hope it meets with your approval.
Stop on by later. I will be posting about a new blog coming up.
Cheers.
