Keith Urban Concert, Charleston WV

This is just one of the many pictures that were taken at the Keith Urban concert last night. This one wasn't bad for being taken by my cellphone's camera. Uncle June says he's got a lot of good pictures, that he has to get to me. Teresa, Laura, JR, and I ALL had a great time last night. Teresa claims to have pawed Keith Urban as he made his way through the floor crowd. The man may never be the same, after gettin' just a little of Big Red! We had great seats, although we abandoned them for the 2nd half of the concert, and hung out with the whole mob in the aisles. Very entertaining show to say the least. And the confetti you see flying around... that stuff ended up in some very interesting places. I'll get some more pictures uploaded soon.

WSOP 2009 Event #2 is underway

This is the 40th Annual NLHE (4-day) event which has a $40,000 buyin, as a sort of celebration of the WSOP's 40th year. According to initial player counts by the folks over at http://www.pokernews.com/wsop/2009/event-2/day1/ "change100" and "Shamus" there are 184 players registered to play; however they clearly note that players can join in through the first two blinds rounds! I'm not sure I can imagine sitting down at a $40,000 buyin event, much less showing up late for the thing! The reporters have made mention of a "Table of Death" which most of the time would be the table you want to avoid, but with so many pro's and heavy hitters in the room for this event, they remark that nearly every table is fraught with disaster! I really can't do this justice by commenting further. Reading through the list of names on the chip counts tab reads like a Who's Who of Poker!

That's really all I have time for, as it's time for me to head for the house and get ready for tonight's Keith Urban concert. See ya!

Regards,

cheer_dad

WSOP 2009 Event #1, and a concert

A grueling 13-hour day of poker kicked off Event #1 of the World Series of Poker. As "FerricRamsium" puts it the Casino Employees NLHE Event is a "sea of relative unknowns." My buddy JR takes issue with that, saying that we degenerate gamblers would likely recognize various dealers and casino employees from our trips to Sin City. A total of 866 players ponied up the $500 entry to play in Event #1, and at the end of the day, only 81 remain. All of those remaining are in the money. We'll have to stay tuned to see who walks off with the $83,778 first prize and the coveted WSOP bracelet. Action resumes today.

Also slated for today is the 40th Annual NLHE (Event #2) which has a whopping $40,000 buyin! The event was added to the mix as a celebration of this the 40th anniversary of the WSOP. The field will obviously be limited to the heavy hitters and perhaps a few wannabes. It's going to be a long 7 weeks or so folks while the series plays itself out. I for one will be glued to the live-reporting, blogs, and forums. Do I have a problem? Like last year, I'll continue to provide some blurbs on the action, from what I gather out there, and write it up here on the blog. I know a number of you are "proxy challenged" and you may not be able to follow along. Fear not, your ole buddy cheer_dad's got your back.

In other news, we're going to a concert tonight in Charleston, WV. Big Red, Laura, Uncle June, and I are all headed down this evening to see Keith Urban and the Zac Brown Band. We've seen Keith before in concert with Kenny Chesney and he puts on a really good show. Red just couldn't pass up the tickets, when she found floor seats yesterday. Way to plan ahead. So sad is the fact that because of work the next day, we won't be able to drive on down to Cross Lanes to play a little live poker afterwards. Sad indeed! But it's gonna be a lively road trip as usual when this group gets together. I'll try to get pictorial evidence. See ya!

Regards,

cheer_dad

Kenny Chesney concert weekend.

Like I said more than a couple days ago, the weekend was sizing itself up to be very busy, and a whole lotta fun. It did not disappoint! The collection of misfits pictured there to the left crammed themselves into a few vehicles and departed Parkersburg, West by-god Virginia and headed for Cleveland, Ohio for a stadium concert. The billing included Kenny Chesney (who my wife will eventually leave me for) Leanne Rhimes, Sammy Hagar, Gary Allan, and Keith Urban. The concert and the company were phenomenal! Take a look at some of the additional debauchery which took place.





Keith Urban pictured here on the bigscreen put on a great show, and my wife has added him to the list of replacements should the Mrs. Chesney thing not work out for her...





A crew indeed! At this point in the concert, clothing had not yet become optional.





Kenny lights up the night. I cease to exist to Big Red! : )




Who am I kidding, here's the happy couple, looking a little bleary eyed but having a ball with several thousand of our closest friends.

We spent the night at a hotel before crawling out of bed the next morning and heading home. It should also be noted that Frank and Chris both came along, but neither attended the concert itself and opted to hang in the parking lot tailgating their asses off for the duration. Chris recalls from the count of beer can tabs that he downed 29 beers, not counting the ones we had on the restaurant and various other libations throughout the day. I must say that when the concert let out and we headed back to the vehicle we found hot dogs and bratwurst waiting on the grill. Nothing has ever tasted so good.

I can definitely say we'll do this again, this was a great time. I'll add also that it blew the trip to Pittsburgh for last year's concert all to hell! Cleveland was easier to get in and out of. No 3-hour sit in traffic this time around. Hope everyone else had as good a time as we did. See you all back at work real soon.




When asked if he was having a good time, JR responded as such... oh and who knew he was SUCH a Cleveland Browns Fan!




Big Red and Nikki help exemplify the catch-phrase for the night, abbreviated as L.L...

I'll leave it at that!

Regards,

cheer_dad