Ok Let’s Crank it up Again!
November 16, 2007
Oh boy.. It has been an age since I last strolled into these not-so hallowed halls. My last entry was on… August the 8th holy schmoley! That is three whole months to catch up on!
Shoot I can’t sit here and type up three months of missed blogging I’d be here for the next three months doing so, then I’d be three months behind again and wouldn’t have got anywhere.. So I’ll have to satisfy myself with cherry picking the events I failed to document here and maybe give a brief synopsis of things.
As some you will have noticed the blog title has changed. This is because the blog has always been a mix of poker stories and everyday stories, and now with me playing less poker I suspect the rest of “Life, The Universe and Everything” outside of poker, will become a more dominant theme.
Anyhow let’s start the ‘catch up’, so in no particular order….
An easy topic for me to start with would be the meet up of the PokerChipSquad forum, in Birmingham U.K. in September of this year. The meet up was geared around a weekend Friday thru Sunday. some people arrived earlier in the week, and some stayed on a few days after the Monday, especially those flying internationally. There were Canadians, Americans, Danish, Scots and a smattering of English.
I was (as what seems the norm lately) quite ill in the week leading up to the meet-up weekend and was not planning on going. But around 11pm on the Friday itself, dog berated me on Skype and bullied and cajoled me into getting my ass into the car and attending. I was like cussing him and groaning out aloud as I threw a bag together, he really knows how to press my buttons, by the time he had finished he had me feeling so guilty I was just about ready to walk there if I had too.
As it was, the first 24 hours there I was truly off colour and not very well, but by late Saturday evening I was just starting to get into my stride again. I suspect it was the fact I had caved into the seductive ol’devil, alcohol !
It was mildly amusing when at around 1am that Friday night I walked into the conference room that had been booked for us to play poker in and a dozen or more faces looked up at me from the poker tables and a dozen or more eyebrows ‘quirked’ an unspoken question, “who is that then?”. I had forgotton the only pictures these people had seen of me were probably a year or more old and I wasn’t wearing glasses in the picture. So I just said “Blagger” to no one in particular and the raised eyebrows were all replaced by grins and handshakes and some kisses from the girlies.
As expected I was at once very comfortable with the guys who I Skype with on a regular basis, it was just like meeting old friends again. The other members I knew but not so intimately, yet there was a casual friendliness amongst everyone, very pleasant people.
A couple of people were still at the Casino and these eventually turned up around 2:30am. GotMeWrong (Anne Marie) and Ashmaniac (Ash) so another two guys from the Skype crew rolled back to the hotel all grins, as Anne Marie had picked up a nice wedge of cash for finishing at the final table.
Ash is one tall dude and exactly as he is online, mellow, easy going and good natured. Anne Marie’s first words to me were “Hey Blagz! Oh man you are grey!”.. sheesh.. Which is weird cos I ain’t that grey? I have some peppered around my noggin but man.. look at the photo’s of the meet up and make your own choice.
I nearly replied “Hey GotMeWrong! Wow your boobs are bigger in real life than they look in your pics?” But I didn’t, wish I had but, not sure I could have outrun her. Anyhow everyone seemed a little bit lit, either from alcohol, or from those funny smelling cigarettes some of the guys were puffing out in the car park, or simply getting a buzz from the experience. Anne Marie was actually staggeringly drunk (see what pointing out a few grey hairs gets yah?)
Gordon (Gopher) was as likeable and easy going as he is online, it was a shame he went home a day before the majority of us, on the Sunday, seemed like I didn’t get to sit and drink and chinwag with him nearly as much as I had wished. I am not going to list the whole entourage of people at the meet, but as I said earlier they were all nice friendly people.
Man I forgot Pinky’s ginger nuts! Whilst driving up there at midnight on the Friday it went through my head, “oh no.. hope she forgot about the ginger nuts!” She didn’t and of course took the opportunity to chide me about them.. sheeesh..
GotMeWrong took down the Saturday league championship game, after hitting a 3rd Queen ON THE RIVER, beating my pair of Kings and kicking my sorry ass off the final table and then on to beat Jock in the heads up. Did I say I was still quite ill on that Saturday and that she (GotMeWrong) hit her 3rd Queen ON THE RIVER? I thought I did, but just in case you missed it, she hit her 3rd Queen ON THE RIVER and took me out of the comp.
On the river no less, a 3rd Queen hmm yup sireee, on the river, 1 of 2 cards left in the pack turns over. A 4% percenter and me 96% to take the all-in pot, am I bothered? No, no not at all, that after all is what grey hair gets yah, I mean that is what they call poker.
We ended up playing poker and having fun until 5:30am well I say we, those of us with the grey hair managed (even though some were ill) to hold our own and party till dawn. Unlike the blonde Nordic members who were last seen trying to sneak away unseen off to their beds around midnight. Gopher has explained that Saturday Night Sunday Morning session here in his blog. It was a rib achingly funny session and KBVital is a splendid bloke, always smiling and totally chilled out.
Sunday was all about the evening session where I think I got more smashed and stoned than I have been for a decade. I laughed so hard that it was extremely painful, but man I couldn’t stop. Ash and GotMeWrong and myself had run up to my room around midnight to sample some of Ash’s tobacco. I had left the game downstairs with a “be right back 5 mins guys” at around 12:30am.
Next thing it is 5:00am I am staring at Ash’s arse sticking up in the air as his squashed face was mumbling into the bedroom rug. Allegedly he ended up there after Anne Marie had pushed him off the bed which she had commandeered and he face planted the rug and was so stoned he was unable to get up again. It had me confused for a couple of minutes cos I swear for a while there I was holding this amazing (stoned) conversation with a talking arse it was only when he flipped over onto his side did I realise that it wasn’t a talking arse at all. Quite disappointing really.
Monday and everyone was leaving, blurred hung over memories of shaking hands, kissing cheeks and waving good-byes. Anne Marie’s flight got postponed by 24 hours so I stayed on another day to keep her company as she would have been bouncing around an empty hotel on her own. To be honest I needed a rest before driving back home again. So Tuesday and Anne Marie flies out, I say cheerio to Popa, Steph and Pinky and drive home and directly into bed where I stayed for the next 18 hours.
To be ctd… with all the pics shortly.. well in a week or so I am on vacation tomorrow for a week. 
Have fun and good luck on the felt……..
Comments
4 Responses to “Ok Let’s Crank it up Again!”
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Well Well Well, welcome back my friend.
It is good to hear from you again.
Of course, I think you may be in a little hot water with AM on this one!
I sure wish I could have come to the meet. Maybe next year. It sounds like a real fun time and, you get to play poker..lol.
So, is the underlying point of the post saying that you should have/would have won if it wasn’t for the RIVER? lol
Keep up the posting.
Have fun on your vacation! Hopefully, we will hear about that too. We need to get Lippy unconfused…lol
See ya Bud
Hoorah! Another one gets back to posting!!!
I’ve got great memories of the meet this year, but as you said, just not enough time to have a good chin-wag. If we get back together early next year, I’ll be sure to take an extra day or two off.
And as I remember correctly, Queens were killers the whole weekend for a lot of us. I was put out of the game holding pocket queens when a King rivered. I was put out with pocket Queens when all in with an AK.
But AM definately had a golden horshoe wedged somewhere!!
Good to have ya blogging again mate. Hope you keep it up!
Hey Guys … thanks for the welcome back.. hey Dave I would win nearly every tournament if it wasn’t for the river.. wouldn’t we all? lol.. Yeah I can handle AM and her queens.. wait till the next blog entry I’ll tell yah about her “queens” in a live game we played recently in Copenhagen.
Well I would have been massive chip leader if it wasn’t for that river but as I said we’d all win em if it wasn’t for “that” river, right? And I spun the truth of the matter, she was in with the all-in with the best hand, QQ v AK suited. King hit the flop, queen hit the river. Still.. think I am gonna ease up on that after the grey comment? Does the pope poop in the woods? Is the bear catholic?
I remember one of those queen incidents now you mention it Goph! And yeah that is a gimme an extra day minimum for the next meet!
@ SVCMGR Oh.. LMAO I just remembered what it is you are alluding to when yah say “We need to get Lippy unconfused…”