Let's Get Ready To......
Wednesday, July 01, 2009
......go on a much needed, well-deserved vacation.
Tomorrow night at approximately 4:29 pm officially, I am on vacation for 10+ days. I'll probably check out un-officially somewhere around Noon, but when I clock out tomorrow evening, I'm headed straight to the lake to enjoy some fishing and some fun in the sun.
If you know me, that means that I'll be roasted-red sunburned by the time you make it here for Okie-Vegas, which begins, by the way, next Wednesday when I pick Kat up at the airport. After a few emails and a few conversations over some cold beer, we've got our typical loose agenda and our guest list.
Hosting with me, as always, are Miss Maudie, Oossuuu and the lovely and talented, MrsGCox25, as well as Turdchaser and IceBox.
Kat is flying in from Canada. SpecialK is flying into DFW from the Carolinas and then driving up from Texas. Instant Tragedy and his crew are driving in from West Texas and last, but not least, Yestbay is driving up from the Dallas area. A smaller crew than the last couple of years, but about the size I expected this year, what with the economy in the shitter and the costs associated with travel. That's okay, we'll still have a big time, I can promise you that.
Here's the loose agenda, if you're interested:
Wednesday - I pick up Kat at the airport and we head to Bricktown, here in downtown OKC for some sightseeing and lunch. Once the heat wears us completely down, we'll head back to my house for a little relaxation before heading to Oossuuu's house Wednesday evening for a little pool party, hamburgers and poker. I hear he's arranged for a little 2-table $20 buy-in NLHE tournament right there on the premises with some of his home game buddies. Bets on who lays down the first hammer??? We're going to try to work in the Mookie Wednesday night, but without Buddy and Joanada here, I don't think we could ever top last year's broadcast anyway.
Thursday looks to be the day that Kat, Oossuuu and I get to sling some chips with the locals. We'll probably end up going to Riverwind down in Norman, just for convenience, since we are meeting Miss Maudie at Ozzie's for dinner and Chicken Fried Steak bigger than your head. Following that, we'll all need a nap, I mean, we'll head over to Maudie's house for a little desert and some nickel-dime-quarter dealer's choice poker at her place.
Friday will see the rest of the arrivals. Special K will be up some time after Noon and we plan on heading to Okarche, Oklahoma for fried chicken at Eischen's, the oldest bar in Oklahoma. It's really a restaraunt, although they do serve beer, but we'll load up there on food and need another nap, no, we'll head from there to El Reno and the fabulous Lucky Star Casino for a few hours of poker with the locals. Depending on what time Yestbay is going to be arriving that evening, we'll head to the lake from there in time to get things cooled down in the trailer and things unloaded from the vehicles.
That evening, after Yestbay arrives and Tragedy and his crew arrive, we're going to just hang out. We might play a little cash game at the trailer or we might just head down to the Crows Roost Bar and knock back a few cold ones.
Saturday is tournament day and, rather than drive all the way back to the city, we're going to stay at the lake and do it down there this year. MrsGCox25 has a mexican fiesta menu planned this year, with enchiladas, stuffed jalapenos, 7-layer dip and, of course, that world-famous OkieCaviar salsa that she debuted last year. I'm pretty sure a couple of folks made themselves sick on that last year, including me, but it's too good to pass up.
The plan is to play the tournament around 1:00pm-ish and have it over some time around 5:00 pm and then play cash games and hang out at the trailer for the rest of the evening. Of course, if anybody wants to get up and ride jet ski's on Saturday morning, we'll be ready for that too. We'll head back to the city around 11-ish on Sunday morning in order to get Kat to the airport on time and I guess everybody else will head home from the lake and it will all be over again, seemingly before it started. Time does fly when you're having fun.
I guess that's about all I know. If you couldn't make it this year, well, I understand completely and we'll be sure to hoist a cold on in your honor. If you are coming, I'm grateful and I can't wait to see you. If you thought about coming and just didn't pull the trigger, well, you're missing out. Make plans to be here next year, when, we're going to do our best to move the dates around either before or after the WSOP in hopes of accomodating a few more people. I'm looking at you, Reverend Al and F-Train.
Of course, dial-a-shots are welcome at any and all times, just be patient, we don't get great reception down there in the middle of nowhere.
Until next time, I fold.
G
posted by GaryC @ 3:32 PM,
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Truckin' Is Out
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Truckin' - June 2009, Vol. 8, Issue 6
Welcome back to the birthday issue of Truckin' as we turn seven years old this month!
1. Pink Dragons by Paul McGuireCharles was skeptical and accused me of being a CIA or DEA agent, not to mention the evil offspring of George Bush. There was a strong anti-American sentiment in New Zealand and Charles epitomized that angst. When I unfurled a wad of multi-colored Australian dollars, he abruptly ended his rant and asked me how much I needed... More
2. Holly of Houston: Google Me! by Johnny Hughes Holly was a former board member of Houston's chapter of the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). She had donated $140,000 to the Texas Strippers for PETA tour. Her frequent comments in Texas newspapers were strongly anti-gun... More
3. I'll Read Your Madness Later by May B. Yesno The agent freezes; there on that glorious bed lay two figures. The face and name was banging a woman. The woman clawing gently on the back of the face and name, eyes silted in pleasure, yet aware enough to look at the agent coming through the doorway... More
4. The Collector by Milton T. Burton He was questioned by two detectives from the Organized Crime Squad---one older, tall, thin and gray haired; the other younger, short, thickset and bald. Raymond Chandler said they always came paired that way. But the old man didn't read Chandler... More
5. Morrison's Lament By Michael Friedman Society no longer values the divinity of the self, so I find myself amiss all of the technology, discontent, and terror and although it takes only a moment to imagine that I am free from the nastiness that the universe leaves on my lips with every gut-wrenching soul kiss... More
What a Long Strange Trip It's Been...
From the Editor's Laptop:
The June edition of Truckin' marks the seventh anniversary of this monthly rag. I'm honored to have a stellar cast of writers this month including veterans Johnny Huges, Milton T. Burton, and May B. Yesno. And Michael Friedman makes his debut with something inspired by the Lizard King.
Please spread the word about Truckin' and increase your karma tenfold! Tell your friends and family and co-workers about your favorite stories. The contributors write for free and you'll be doing me a huge favor by helping get their name out and about.
If anyone is interested in being added to the mailing list, or perhaps you are interested in writing for a future issue, then feel free to contact me.
Seven years. Hard to think that we're still alive and kicking despite the many instances when I wanted to pull the plug and give up forever. I have to sincerely thank the writers for sharing their blood work. Thanks for taking this leap of faith with me.
And a special thanks goes out to you, the reader, for your loyalty and support over the years.
Be good,
McG
"Do one thing and do it the best you can." - Harry Snyder, founder of In-N-Out Burger
posted by GaryC @ 3:32 PM,
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Thoughts
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Since it is now just 3 short weeks away, I give you the tourney structure. A tad different this year as we will be doing the tourney at the lake place, rather than our house in the city. If you need directions, give a holler.
2009 OKIE-VEGAS TOURNAMENT STRUCTURE
SATURDAY, JULY 11TH, 3:00 P.M.
$40 BUY-IN – 5000 CHIPS
ONE SINGLE $20 ADD-ON OR RE-BUY(during the first hour) – 2500 CHIPS
I treat the add-on/re-buy as a save just in case somebody takes a horrific beat during the first hour, they are able to get back into the tournament, however, after the first hour, you may use it as an add-on after 60 minutes (three levels) if you haven’t rebought –OR- you can re-buy immediately and sit down with 7500 chips. Your choice.
BLIND LEVELS
10-20 - 20 MINUTES
25-50 - 20 MINUTES
40-80 - 20 MINUTES
Break-color up
50-100 - 20 MINUTES
100-200 - 20 MINUTE
200-400 - 20 MINUTES
400-800 - 20 MINUTES
Break-color-up
500-1000 - 20 MINUTES
1000-2000 - 20 MINUTES
2000-4000 - 20 MINUTES
4000-8000 - 20 MINUTES
I fully expect the tournament to be over at this point, but if not, we will continue on probably capping the blind levels at 4K-8K. I expect to have one table of players and will decide on the payout structure after the first hour when I have a total amount in the prize pool. It will probably be something in this neighborhood though:
1st – 60%
2nd – 25%
3rd - 15%
The cash game to follow will be $.50-$1 NL with a max buy-in of $100.
If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to call me on my cell phone, if you have it, or shoot me an email at work. That address can be found here on the blog.
Until next time, I fold.
G
posted by GaryC @ 3:22 PM,
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Boog And Me
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Here's my boy Boog last January. He was still a bit small for those big old ducks, but hopefully we'll have him out there in the lake this year, fetching them up.
posted by GaryC @ 3:27 PM,
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Agenda + A Bad Beat Story
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Well, after few emails back and forth yesterday, it appears we have settled on a "loose" agenda for the upcoming Okie-Vegas 4.
In case you are unaware, the dates for OV4 are July 8th through the 12th, right here in fabulous Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. That's in the "flyover state" for those of you unfamiliar with our little part of the country.
Wednesday will be day one of the arrival(s). As of now, I only know of one arrival, that being Kat from the Great White North. The tentative plan for Wednesday will be for anyone interested to meet up at Oossuuu's house on Wednesday evening for a little cookout, pool-time, maybe a few Keystone Lights and then to play the Mookie. No live broadcast this year as Buddy and Jo are busy planning their impending nuptials, so they unfortunately cannot attend. Perhaps we can hook up through the miracle of the interwebby, girlie chat thingy though and supply a bit of drunken humor.
Thursday will bring a trip to Norman, America, home of the fabulous Miss Maudie and the now-annual trip to Ozzie's for chicken fried steak that is bigger than your head. There have been enough bloggers make this trip and enough pictures posted regarding this, if you look hard enough, you can find them, but suffice it to say, it is so big that they have to bring your side orders on a totally different plate. Ummm, okra.
Following this excursion will be an immediate 2 hour nap, er, I mean a one-table SNG at Maudie's house. I've been told that there might be some desert involved, as well as a few Keystone Lights to boot.
Friday, and this is the part that is still "loosely" planned, we are thinking of a road trip to Okarche, Oklahoma, population +/- 1100. now, you might be asking yourself, what in the world could be worth driving an hour out into the country for? Fried Chicken, that's what. Eischen's Bar, which bills itself as Oklahoma's oldest bar, is actually a restaraunt in this little town and they serve Fried Chicken that is famous state-wide.
You don't go in and order a 2-piece meal here though, it's a whole chicken for everybody and it's well worth the trip as the leftovers that you take home are as good or better than they were the day you ate them.
After the Eischen's trip is still a bit up in the air. I'm waiting to hear from a couple of people regarding attendance and arrival times, but we might be skipping the trip to the lake this year. If not, of course, we will drive straight to the lake after Eischen's and play some poker down there. (and maybe sneak in a trip to the world famous Crows Roost Bar) If we do decide to skip the lake, we'll probably head to the Lucky Star Casino for a while on Friday and sling some chips with the locals there in El Reno.
Saturday is shaping up to be just like every other Saturday in the past. A little barbecue, a little poker, a little karaoke and whole lotta Keystone Light. I'm working now to woo a few local friends into coming over and we will hopefully have a full table for the tournament.
I'm going to change the structure just a bit this year, as last year took 19 hours to play down to the final table and it was entirely too long, so it will be a bit quicker structure. I'm working on that and finalizing the rest of the plans, but if you would like to join us, come on! We'll find a place for you to stay, if need be, and I promise you won't regret making the trip.
--
What do you think about a short post containing some actual poker content? I know, I know, dogs and cats are now officially sleeping together, hell hath frozen over, etc. etc. etc.
I had to tell this story, because I played this hand about as poorly as one can play it and you know what? I sucked out and doubled up! Score one for the donkeys out there. I won't even owe you a dollar because the bad beat was administered by me, not against me.
First off, a little background. I was tilting due to a couple of 60-40 spots playing PLO that, needless to say, went the way of the 40%, as is often the case, what, 2 out of 5 times or so, right? Anyway, I had an old site slide me $10 free money last week and I had managed to get that up to about $25 and I jumped on a .25/.50 NL table, shortstacked, with my whole roll. It was 6-max, so patience was out the window.
I was in the big blind with 4-5 of diamonds, nice little sooted connectors that usually either play very well or are very easy to get away from post-flop. There was a raise to $1.00 ahead of me and everybody else at the table called, so I called too.
Flop was 2-4-6 with one diamond.
With my gutterball, small pair and backdoor flush draw, I forcefully checked. The original bettor bet the near $6 pot and everyone folded around to me. I am hovering over the foldl button when something evil takes over my body and I ship the rest of my chips in with what I believe are 9 outs twice.
This is one of those sites that does not turn over hole cards until the end, giving the loser the opportunity to muck, but they also have the hand replayer so you can go back and see what they had.
When he insta-called, I knew I was going to need some help and here came the help. Diamond on the turn and diamond on the river for runner-runner flush and it wasn't even crubs. I looked back and the opponent had 10-10 and was way ahead of the donkey in the 2 seat.
Oh well, I didn't hang around for the berating. I was already in a bad mood and didn't want to read his insults or type back any of my own, so I checked out, $25 richer. He probably got me tagged with all kinds of flowery names, but he probably won't see me at that table again any time soon.
What a donkey am I!
Until next time, I suck out runner-runner!
G
posted by GaryC @ 3:49 PM,
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So, Who's In?
Thursday, June 04, 2009
Well, here we are one month away from Okie-Vegas 4.
It doesn't seem possible that it is that close. When we (meaning all my smart friends) put the web-site up with the countdown on it, it seemed like it was years away and yet, now, it's just a tad over 30 days. I'm nowhere near ready for it yet, but that should change in the coming weeks.
Right now, it appears that we will have a much smaller group as there are a lot of people that are either still "on the fence" or otherwise tied up in Vegas during the time we will be gathering.
I know that Tragedy and his fiancee will be making the drive in from Texas.
I know that Kat (God bless her) bought her tickets in January and will be flying in to OKC International Airport.
I know that Oossuuu will be joining us locally and perhaps even hosting the Mookie pre-party on Wednesday night. (if not, he'll be joining us at my house for sure)
I am assuming that the fabulous Miss Maudie will be joining us at times for the usual hijinx in and around OKC.
We have one added wrinkle this year. We are still going to eat Chicken Fried Steak bigger than your head at Ozzie's in Norman, perhaps on Wednesday this year, depending on travel schedules. I am going to include a little side trip to Okarche this year, home of Eischen's, Oklahoma's oldest little bar. They serve some tremendous fried chicken down there and it is worth the couple of miles out of the way to stop there and eat.
It is also only about 15 minutes north of one of the casino's here so swinging through either before or after a little poker will work out just fine. It is also sort-of on the way to the lake.
I guess if anyone that I didn't mention is planning the trip, I probably need to know here in the next few weeks. I've heard from many people that "we're gonna try" or "we'd love to" or "we're thinking about it." It's time to get off the fence and make those plans.
I've even been playing a little poker of late, trying to get myself stoked up for the event. Unfortunately, I'm more stoked for the Keystone Lights at the lake than I am about the poker, but you know, that's nothing new either.
Let me know if you have plans to attend, so I have an idea how many to expect. Also, if you've already booked, email me your travel info and I will start my annual airport run spreadsheet.
Until next time, I fold.
G
posted by GaryC @ 5:21 PM,
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Special Weekend
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
I went and did something I haven't done in more than 13 years this weekend.
It started off the way so many weekends at Fort Cobb Lake start off, with karaoke rocking the Crows Roost Bar on Friday night. Some time around 1:15 am, it came to a close and we loaded up our equipment and headed back to the trailer.
My wife and mother-in-law beat me home and had the frozen pizzas heating up in the oven and by the time I finished hauling all the equipment inside the trailer, they were piping hot and ready to devour. And devour I did, I don't even remember the pizza or that last beer I drank, as I woke up around 7:30 am, still groggy, but in definite need of coffee.
I got up and wandered around the house, turning on the coffee pot and straightening things from the night before. I knew I had a full day of yard work to look forward to, but was hoping for nice weather and to finish it early. I stepped outside with my first cup of coffee and made my way to the newest addition at our place. The dog run.
My buddy Bill and I finished the fencing last weekend to allow the dogs somewhere to roam outside of the porch and the trailer. All that is left is to add a doggie-door on the back side of the porch and it will be ready for their approval. Anyway, I headed out to the dog run to rake leaves and try and get it semi-presentable for our dogs to go about their business.
I sat my cofffee down, grabbed a rake and the skies opened up. We've received more than our fair share of rain lately, in fact, the last count I heard was 14 of the last 15 days, including several very hard, very long downpours. Lord knows we need the rain down there as the drought lasted nearly a full year, but enough is enough.
It finally subsided and I took care of bagging the leaves, mowing the grass, weedeating and general maintenance that comes with owning a lake place. It was now about 11:30 and I was happy to be finished with the "work."
The girls were packing up to head home as they had to attend a baby shower for a family friend and I was ready for nap, but it appeared that would have to wait. As I lay there on the couch daydreaming, I heard the door of the trailer swing open and in came my buddy Bill's dog, Storm. Right in my lap. Licking me all over.
Now, Storm is our hunting dog, so she and I have developed quite a relationship over the last two hunting seasons. She minds me almost as good as she minds Bill and Rhonda. If Booger turns into half the dog that Storm is, well, I'll have me a good little duck dog and a very good buddy, as well.
Anyway, Bill wanted to know if I was ready to go.
Let me preface this with a little post-dated information. I haven't fished since well before my Dad died. In fact, before he got sick, some 14 years ago now, was the last time I had been fishing. After they retired and moved back home, I would take a Friday off work on occasion and drive over there on Thursday night to get up and go fishing with them. I still remember that last trip like it was yesterday. We got into the catfish pretty good on that Friday morning at Fort Gibson Lake, over on the eastern side of the state.
Back in the early days, when I was growing up, my Dad and GrandDad and I fished all the time. There was hardly a weekend that went by where we didn't go fishing at some point. Even during winter, we would drive down to a heated dock at Lake Eufala and fish for crappie inside the marina.
Bill and I had talked about going fishing last year and we just never got around to it. Between prepping for the next hunting season and working around the trailer and riding jet ski's, etc. we let the summer slip away and I never wet a hook. We were determined not to let that happen this year and I had already bought my fishing license so I was ready to go when the time was right.
Saturday afternoon was that time.
Much like my first deer hunt, now 2-1/2 years ago reminded me of spending time with my Dad, sitting there on the bank of the lake with a couple of lines tossed out on bottom, waiting for a nibble reminded me of the past. I very much enjoyed that time on Saturday and we went again on Sunday for a few hours. I even managed to sneak in a call to my Momma from the lake while we were fishing and wished her a Happy Mother's Day.
I'm excited to say that it was sort of like riding a bike. I missed the first couple of bites I got on Saturday, but soon enough and all day Sunday, I was catching fish with regularity.
I didn't want that weekend to end, but, of course, it did and I'm back at work today. The emotions that I've started to feel as I've aged are none too comfortable and often times, I find myself keeping my mouth shut and my head down, trying hard to bottle it up. It only comes out later, when I have a chance to reflect, by myself, on the events that occurred. Again, it's hell getting old.
Until next time, I fold.
G
posted by GaryC @ 4:25 PM,
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