Monday, May 23, 2005

Have Game Will Travel

It was just under a year ago that I took a risk that has turned out to be very +EV on the social scale. I'd only been blogging for a few months and played in only 1 blogger tourney, so I was quite new to the scene and had certainly never met anyone in person whose blog I had read.

After a few misfires (I emailed CJ thinking he was Otis), I finally realized Otis lived very nearby. I weasled my way into a Brad-o-Ween tourney invite and met a great bunch of guys, many of whom have become friends.

When I realized there were a couple more bloggers from our Palmetto state, I figured it was my duty to extend some invites to my home game, just as Otis had extended an invite to me. One week, the Big Pirate showed up; the next week it was Gamecock. Each took a risk driving more than an hour to play in my home game and meet someone who could have easily been a dick. (Aside: Maybe I am, and nobody will tell me.) (Aside #2: I predict G-Rob will call me a dick in the comments.)

Returning the invite, Big Pirate invited me to his home tourney this past Sunday.

It was great. I met a great bunch of guys with similar interests (duh, poker) and managed to confirm that my live tourney play is still much less than stellar. Finishing 9th was simply a formality, I did last longer than the host so I've got that going for me. *cough* re-raise with 9's *cough* I managed to win the tourney buy-in back in a ring game, which appears to be a strength of mine. I can't count the number of times I've lost in a tourney and won back the buy-in plus some extra afterwards. I shouldn't bother trying to win a satellite to Event #2, I should just play some Rio side games. Stop laughing.

The point of this post is that even if I didn't win a dime back in the live game, the trip would have been worth it. I'm sure I'll be playing more poker with Pirate and Gamecock in the future, they've tentatively reserved a spot in the BadBlood Poker Superstars Invitational on July 2nd and 3rd. Blogging this stuff has brought me friendships I'd have never made before and for that I'm glad. Time for a group hug.

Sheesh, who said that? That was quite......well, you know.

****

In other blogger news, there have been quizzes floating around, asking who among you scraggly-ass wannabe's can beat me in arm wrestling. One must only look to "This Is Spinal Tap" for the answer. During a pre-concert buffet, Nigel picks up one green olive and notices the pimento inside of it. He laments that another similar green olive is in fact pimento-less. "Look, this one has a little guy in it. But this one, who's in here?"

Exactly. NO ONE! \m/

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