NDPT Year End Tourney Dec 12th, 7pm

Seeing as there are so many things going on this year, I've made the decision to forgo the December qualifier for the NDPT Year End Tournament and instead just have the Final Tournament. Below is the listing of EVERYONE who accumulated points throughout the 2009 NDPT Poker Season... Congratulations! The money that each person paid in to this qualifier has yielded us a pot of $550 that we'll be playing for. The number next to each of your names, signifies the number of chips that each of you will of course will be starting with. The blinds will be in line with the original NDPT blinds schedule (where everyone would normally start out with $1,000 in tournament chips.) This tournament will be held at my house, where it all began. This is a smaller group and a little easier to manage here...

The date will be Saturday, December 12th, 2009 at 7:00pm. (YES, that is THIS weekend!!!) Please let me know as soon as possible if you will be attending. If there are conflicts I may have to make a change, but I'll let everyone know as soon as possible. Depending on the actual number of people that show up to play, we will be playing for either 3 or 4 payouts.

JR Ruble 2,940
Teresa Murray 2,280
Eric Freed 2,130
Brian Murray 2,040
Del Minturn 1,985
Julie Wolfe 1,930
John Johnson 1,700
Steve Allman 1,625
Vince Post 1,550
Matt Hensley 1,050
Mike Westbrook 953
TJ Sellers 630
Julie Miller 480
Dennis Rempel 315

Hope to see you all here!!!

Regards,

cheer_dad

NDPT 2009 Points Race, and Year End Planning

Greetings all fellow NDPT'ers! The points race for the 2009 year has nearly drawn to a close! We have only one more qualifier tournament left for the year, which will coincide with the Eagles Tournament in December. You know the drill the extra $5 that has been collected from the members of the NDPT. We need to begin planning now for when we will hold the Year End Tournament. I know that the holidays get VERY hectic for us all and I don't want this to sneak up on us and leave anyone out in the cold! So be thinking about when you would like to have it. This tournament will return to OUR basement. The points that are shown below are the current standings, and reflect what each of you will be issue in tournament chips. Of course the December qualifier will add to this as well, so the totals are not yet carved in stone. We will be playing for an approximate $600 prize pool. That's not bad for a total of 14 qualified players! So, plan on being there! If you have some preferences on time and dates for this little game, please start replying here or to my email. I want to be sure to dodge the many other games and other holiday type functions too. Remember only those who have paid in and qualified will be playing in this event. Thank goodness I qualified for my own tourney!!! Check out the points standings below:

JR Ruble 2,940
Teresa Murray 2,280
Eric Freed 2,130
Brian Murray 2,040
Del Minturn 1,985
Julie Wolfe 1,930
John Johnson 1,700
Steve Allman 1,625
Vince Post 1,550
Matt Hensley 1,050
Mike Westbrook 953
TJ Sellers 630
Julie Miller 480
Dennis Rempel 315

Regards,

cheer_dad

NDPT Points Race update

I have updated the NDPT Points Race here: http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AkU945DT3QQ5cHRObDZfY3BYREhsLXJVQmxnZDlmT1E&hl=en

For those of you unable, unwilling to click here you go.

JR Ruble, 2940
Teresa Murray, 2280
Eric Freed, 2130
Del Minturn, 1985
John Johnson, 1700
Steve Allman, 1625
Brian Murray, 1590
Julie Wolfe, 1330
Matt Hensley, 1050
Mike Westbrook, 953
Vince Post, 800
TJ Sellers, 630
Julie Miller, 480
Dennis Rempel, 315

Since our "regular" game has migrated to the Eagles, I will likely discontinue the points race after this year. It's been fun while it lasted but it's been like running a tournament within a tournament since obviously not everyone participated up there. Plus, even many of the regulars have changed. At any rate we'll be battling it out for prolly just under $600 by the end of the year.

We'll need to discuss options for the End of the Year game, likely at next month's tournament at the Eagles. I will post all the information here to the blog, so stay tuned. I will most certainly coordinate it to stay out of the way of any other scheduled pokery type events!

Regards,

cheer_dad

Hiya Gang! : )

Your friendly neighborhood cheer_dad has been a busy guy lately. Work has presented its share of unique challenges and speedbumps lately, but I'm still standing, and perhaps in a sick sort of abuse kinda way to motivation I'm working better and harder. All the while doing my best to crush mine ENEMIES! : ) Okay, a bit extreme. Comic book virtues like "truth, justice, and the American way" actually seem like worthwhile pinnacles to reach to. Along the journey to these admirable heights, there are a number of idiots in the way. Go figure. I'm resisting urges here people, work with me huh!!!

Anywho, first let's cover the really important things in life, and you know the original reason for creating a "POKER" blog in the first place. FRIDAY, September 18th, 7:00pm SHARP, there will be yet another of our highly successful and popular Texas Hold'em Tournaments at the Eagles Aerie 2307. Registration begins at 6:00pm. Get there early to insure your spot, and give yourself to drink your weight in beer. You'll be easier for me to dispatch in that condition! : P But seriously, I hope to see each of you there. We are still holding things to a maximum of 50 players. (for now, more chips are on the way...) But hey, if tournaments aren't your cup of tea, show up anyway, as the subsequent "games" which inevitably fire up as folks bust out, have become VERY JUICY! Thanks all for making Poker night such a success for the Eagles most recently and the even all of you members of the greater NDPT collective.

And really I thank each of you who still drop by this blog, even though I've been less chatty lately. Things are coming back around. Normalcy is returning to life, and the blog posts will increase and be better than ever.

Regards,

cheer_dad

FIDDY!

A great big bunch of you's showed up to play poker last night at the Eagles. And we set a new attendance record of 50 players! Can you say FIDDY! Additional chips are being ordered by the Aerie as a result. I thank you for your support of the Eagles, Uncle June, the NDPT, me, all things "pokery" in nature!

The top spot was chopped last night by Mr.'s Pugh and Wolfe, congratulations you guys! Nice payday! I was chipping up nicely early on, picking only a few careful spots to play, as the first table was pretty loose, and there were a couple of guys who'd never met a poker hand they didn't like. My demise came when I moved to a new table. 3 hands sealed the fate. I got involved in a hand with Frank. He called $100 from first position, I was after him and looked down at pocket 8's. I bumped it to $300. Only he called... the flop came K-Q-X, and he checked to me. I bet out, and then came the check raise-all-in. I conceded, and mucked. (And no Frank, contrary to what you might have thought, this was NOT one of my little position plays.) Still I had some chips to play with. A couple hands later, I look down at A9 of crubs, and opt to see the flop with another guy. I flop an Ace, but I'm cautious about my kicker. The other guy bets out the minimum, I call. In fact it went that way on every street... Unfortunately, the other guy who hadn't raised preflop, was sitting on a pair of Queens, and had also flopped a beautiful set. Now I was on life support... When the big blind finally got to me I just went all in dark. Same guy called me... with his AKos. I turn over the mystery 7-5os. He hit two pair, and I made my walk of shame. Of course I later saw that he busted out before the final table.

I opted to leave not long after that... Big Red stuck around for some cash game antics. I hear that the pots, and the buyins were juicy. In the span of like 5 minutes while I was still there I say a $100 buyin and a $200 buyin. Both had just busted and were coming back in for revenge. That's a dangerous time for all at the table but also one which can be extremely profitable. Hope everyone had a great time at both the tourney and the subsequent cash games.

Thank you all again for making it a great night, and we look forward to seeing you all again really soon!

Regards,

cheer_dad

NDPT #6 is TONIGHT at the Eagles! 7:00pm

Don't forget my fellow NDPT'ers... tonight at 7:00pm EST at the Eagles Aerie 2307 I will be hosting NDPT #6 Texas Hold'em Tournament. This one will count toward our year end points totals if you choose to participate. Otherwise, just pay your $25 and come out for a great time of playing poker and knockin' back a few cold ones. I honestly don't even know how many to expect tonight, so get there early and get yourself registered. Hope to see you there!

Regards,

cheer_dad

Along the way_1

whatever... post didn't make it from the cell...

But here you go...

Have said before... Still hate this game! Thru 3 blind levels and not a single hand won at the Wolfe's. I such a woozer! Uncle June even confirms it... Now heading to cash game.

Regards,

cheer_dad

Facebook is evil

Facebook... is evil! Something that could so quickly begin to occupy my time, and have me turn all obsessive compulsive can be nothing other than evil... Wow, I've reconnected with people that I haven't seen or heard from in the last couple of decades. I had resisted diving in to Facebook and MySpace and all their ilk thinking it was "just for the kids" and that it would interest me. I mean honestly I've got this here blog as a presence on the intertubes. What more could I want. I was wrong! There's a big shocker huh? Anyway, I'm on Facebook now, posting up pics and commenting around on the pages of friends new and old. I'm sure the newness will die down at some point, but right now it's a lot of fun. I'll hold off on the MySpace thing. There just aren't enough hours in the day for me to build a whole new existence. Find me on Facebook here: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/profile.php?id=639437439&ref=name.

NDPT Poker tournament starts tonight at the Wolfe's at 7:00pm. Prolly 20-30 folks will be there... hope you're one of them! Gotta get going, if I'm going to get my errands done before it's time to go.

Regards,

cheer_dad

NDPT #4 Results

Thanks to all who came out to play, but as usual not everyone can win, including me. But your winners for the night were Julie Wolfe in 1st, Eric Freed in 2nd, Big Red in 3rd, and Jenny in 4th. Only the top three were awarded "chips" toward the year-end-tournament. Currently they are 11 people who have qualified for the year-end game. Chip stacks range from 2,360 to 315, bearing in mind that the blinds start out at 10-20. There are still many more tournaments to come folks, and I'll remind you that at the Yanok game where this "method" began the short stack that showed up to play their year end game took it down, after a long fought battle. So, this thing is far from over.

Congratulations to the winners. The ladies made another brilliant showing. Thanks again to all who showed up to make it a great night.

I was able to minimize my tourney and cash game losses by winning about a buy-in yesterday in about an hour of play online on Bodog. Again, I've been noticing a crop of players that are new, or at least new to me. Some of my old rivals haven't been around. They've either gone busto... or moved up or down. But maybe they've just been on a break. I'll keep my eye out for them, and my notes on their play handy.

Regards,

cheer_dad

NDPT #4 is tomorrow night

I'm leaving work early today, and not due to some level of over-indulgence last night at the club. Indulge yes, over no... Actually, I've got a number of errands to run, including I must get my cable modem replaced as it went kaboom, and at home at least I've been internet-less. I might as well not exist, don't you agree!?! I also have to go pick up part of the uniform order for my baseball team. Check in on the kids who are still on Spring Break. And then grab Cole and head to the baseball fields this evening for practice. After that, Cole is heading over to his papaw's house to spend the night, and then in the morning get up to go turkey hunting. Great white hunter indeed!

He'll be back tomorrow early evening, cause then we have baseball practice again! I'll spend the day cleaning up the basement, and other honey-do like projects, and I'll have to get the chips and tables set up for tomorrow night's NDPT Tournament #4! Turnout is going to be light, if the response I've received is any indication of things, but you just never know. It'll be good to come home after baseball and hang out with friends, drink a beer or twelve and play some cards. I'm looking forward to it.

Work's kept me busy, and I'm very thankful for the weekend.

Regards,

cheer_dad

NDPT #3 Results

Congratulations to JR for besting the field of 20 players in last night's poker tournament (NDPT #3) which was held at the Wolfes house. A hard fought final table, with lots of ups and downs for a lot of folks, including yours truly. Del secured the 2nd place finish, followed by Jamie, and Westbrook. I for the second tournament that I've played in a row, finished on the bubble.

The points awarded have been updated, please find them here: http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=ptNl6_cpXDHl-rUBlgd9fOQ&hl=en.

Thanks to everyone for making it a great evening.

Regards,

cheer_dad

Luck be a Lady...

Last night's Credit Union banquet was a good choice for me last night. Not only was it a good night with friends and libation. But Lady Luck decided to grace me with her presence. Chris, JR, and I left the banquet when they started to break out the Bingo cards, and went next door to the Eagles. And as the night went on of course the drinks flowed. While sitting at the bar, just hanging out I look up to see Santana running from the other side of the bar. To those of you who know her... well that in itself is a sight to behold! But no, she's running toward me... and yelling that I'd just won the Quarter Jug drawing. Now, me and Lady Luck have ourselves a strained relationship at best and so I tend to err on the side of subdued optimism. I mean how good could it be, being a "quarter" right? Well try $429 on for size, cheer_dad! And I'll be damned, I'd even remembered to register that night. At the same time on the other side of the bar, I spot my wife, whose waving like mad to tell me that she had just hit the "rip-off" tip for $100. To top it off, later on I end up splitting the next $100 tip prize with another person who Big Red had decided that we would split since we each had even numbers of viable tickets in the drawing. All in all, not a bad night. I think I'm gonna give up poker altogether and stick to true games of chance from here on out. Oh wait, I can't make that promise just yet... there's an NDPT game tonight at the Wolfes house!

I'll see several of you real soon.

Regards,

cheer_dad

Comfort food

Oddly enough, I caught myself reaching for comfort food yesterday. Nothing in particular was wrong other than a little irritability on my part but there I was grabbing for the potato chips and later on some chocolate. All the while doing it I recognized it merely sabotaged my efforts in the health and fitness department. Guess I'll have to run a marathon on the treadmill to counteract the stupidity and weakness of the moment.

I have updated the standings for the NDPT End-of-the-Year Tournament, find them here. Recall that for those who contribute the extra $5 at the monthly tournaments and subsequently score a "cash" in the game that night are awarded chips for the year end game. The more you win, the more chips awarded. I've got the whole "scheme" outlined in the Google Doc found here. There is plenty of time for you to get in on the action. The prize pool for the end of the year game will likely be in excess of $1,000. Currently Uncle June finds himself perched atop the leader board.

Regards,

cheer_dad

NDPT #2 in the books...

Well tonight's poker tournament was a bit "light" on turnout. We did manage to rally beyond a couple of cancellations and put together 12 players for the night. But it gave the game some very cool action and interaction. Uncle June and I ended up chopping the pot after we fought back and forth for a while heads up. When we went heads up... there was no way he could offer up the choppy chop, since he was a dominant chip stack. But there were two hands the he doubled me up and we got close. When it got that way I mentioned the chop saying that we could be a while and the cash game looked inviting. We agreed... The lovely and talented Julie M made a respectable showing finishing 3rd on the night with some good solid play.

The cash game was a lot of fun too. Jenny was schooling the boys on how the game was to be played. Del and I tangled on some hellish pots that just happened to fall my way. Had the roles been reversed I would've been in there too.

Last night at the Yanoks was not so profitable. The big hand for me of the night was my Pocket Kings meeting up against the small blind's Pocket Aces. But I'll make that move all night long, and for the most part the cowboys'll hold up!

I've had some bad news hit me... and although I'm not directly involved it still hurts just the same. If you're reading and you know you are... know that my thoughts are with you, BOTH. I'm not happy about it all, and you always wish things turned out better, but life has its little curveballs. I wish you happiness. I think that's prolly the most I can muster up.

Regards,

cheer_dad

You name it... I'm bloggin' it

Trips to the doctor are getting pricey.
Today, I had to go to the doctor, to see about a "funky" patch of skin on the side of my face. Nothing grotesquely disfiguring though when you've got so very little to work with in the first place... Anyway a prescription for some creams and then he whips out "the canister" of nitro and freezes the badboy right then and there. Freeze? HA, burns like hell! I know, I know suck it up cheer_dad! Anyway, of course I pay on my way out, just the co-pay, but the receptionist whispers to me, by the way your insurance "cough" BlueCross "cough" won't cover those prescriptions. Joy. This, all on the heels of yesterday's visit to the oral surgeon with my daughter, who at 16 will be getting her impacted wisdom teeth removed. CHA-CHING!!! Initial consult for the day, NOT included, I will need to come up with and fork over 1/2 of the total fee for the whole Extraction of Wisdom Teeth. My 1/2 equals $780, so you do the math. Oh and incidentally this particular doctor is not within the list of preferred providers of the almighty "cough" Blue Cross "cough." Still they cover somewhat. If I stay in the network of BlueCross's beautiful people then they pay 85% of the "allowed" fee. Meaning they set the total fee and then pay 85% of it. They muscle the doctor into accepting a lower fee than usual with the threat that if they don't play nice, they'll lose business. I get that some doctor's may willingly gouge the prices but not to this degree. The doc's got as much right to make a buck as do I. There I said it. But since this doctor's NOT in the network (which by the way NONE of Parkersburg, WV's oral surgeons are.) I can drive another hour to the west or to the south and find one, but wtf... Anyway, since the local/trustworthy/recommended doctor... the insurance company will pick up 70% of the accepted fee. I am directly responsible for the 30% more of the accepted fee AND any and all amounts in addition to the accepted fee. Aha, I didn't realize I'd visited the proctologist. How 'bout ya lube up there next time, big fellah. Ooof! Anyway, said extraction of teeth will occur in a week and a half. Brother can you spare a dime... a bankroll perhaps?!? I kidding... I'll survive or rob a bank.

Bodog account is just back over the 5 hundy mark. I had a minor setback just before Vegas that cost me during a night of play. Got some Big Sets crushed... the one that hurt the most was the frackin' QUEENS, which lost to the douchebag holding 3-6os, who called the preflop raise in the first place. There's a special place for you in hell, my friend. I'll refrain from posting the things I said and wrote about you that night. I'll keep the internet safe for the PG-13 crowd.

I've got poker this weekend on Friday at the Yanoks house. 2 qualifier games, which move fast and the chips fly. Then, on Saturday I've got the NDPT tourney at my house. I'm hopeful of a decent score somewhere in there. So, beware lil fishies! On the heels of that I'm feeling the urge to next week head down south to CrossLanes and play for the night in the poker room at the Tri-State Casino and Racetrack... call it an itch, call it Vegas withdraw, it is what it is... Let's see I need to work on the begging/pleading aspect to Big Red.

Cover me boys... I'm goin' in! Suppressing fire!

Regards,

cheer_dad

NDPT #2 February 28, 2009 @ 6:00pm

NDPT Tournament #2 will be held at my house on February 28th, 2009 at 6:00pm.
Sorry things shifted a bit, but we were in Vegas last week and we couldn't get things together for last weekend.

Anyway, same format as last month. Hope to see you all there!

Begin the RSVP'ing NOW!!!

Regards,

cheer_dad

Rode the 600

Half a league, half a league,

Half a league onward,

All in the valley of Death

Rode the six hundred.

"Forward, the Light Brigade!"

Charge for the guns!" he said:

Into the valley of Death

Rode the six hundred.

~excerpt from Alfred, Lord Tennyson's Charge of the Light Brigade

(most enjoyed as delivered by Alfalfa in Little Rascals, episode Two Too Young.)

Another milestone of sorts here at the old NDPT Blog. This is the 600th post! I don't know if it even comes across your radar of observation, or if it's an event of note at all. Still, it's a pretty big deal to me! Thanks for continuing to visit me here, and I hope (at least on occasion) I write something worth reading. Regardless though, the thing does me good.

Today's a busy day, Whitney has to cheer at two basketball games today, at both high schools. Cole has bowling in a few minutes, followed immediately by Rec League basketball. Then, Big Red and I will be cramming clothes and cash into a suitcase in preparation for tomorrow morning's flight. Ring...ring... It's VEGAS calling! We've got a lot of things to get done before we leave, but we'll be there soon.

That's all for now... there's just no more time. The day begins...

Regards,

cheer_dad

P.S. Just as I'm wrapping up my post... the door bell rings with a delivery for Whitney. A dozen red roses for my baby-girl from the boy child who fancies himself to be her boyfriend. Okay Jordan I'll cut you some slack, you're a good guy and you seem to treat my daughter very well. Thank you for that... but let's keep it that way, shall we? : ) Nevertheless, kudos on the flowers. And Happy Valentine's Day all!

Happy Harry Hard On

Everybody knows that the dice are loaded
Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed
Everybody knows that the war is over
Everybody knows the good guys lost
Everybody knows the fight was fixed
The poor stay poor, the rich get rich
Thats how it goes
Everybody knows
~Concrete Blonde

A friend of mine dropped off a movie that I haven't seen in quite a while, Pump Up The Volume, starring Christian Slater. Since then, I've been listening, pseudo watching it. I have a habit of tuning out the work world by putting on the headphones and listening to a movie. Sometimes I opt for music, but just having the sound in my ears to drown out everything else is very nice.

Any in the movie Slater plays Happy Harry Hard On, a pirate radio personality that gathers a cult like following. He's a teen who shines a light on the hypocrisy of his school, and really gave some insight into feelings of depression, angst, and isolation that I think we've all faced and felt at some point or another.

Aside from the fact that the movie's got Slater as its star, and a kick-ass soundtrack, there are some great quotes as well that make it one of my favorite movies. Here are some of my fave quotes:

1. Talk hard, I like that. It's like a dirty thought in a nice clean mind.
2. All the great themes have been used up and turned into theme parks.
3. I'm dedicating this unusual song to an unusual person who makes me feel kind of... unusual.

Don't even make me start on the co-star Samantha Mathis... :P

But on to other things...

The kiddies once again had the day off today from school due to the inclement weather. Now the question becomes, well, we've had every other day off this week, should they bother to come back for a single day on Friday? Awww, who knows, and who cares. They are getting a little stir crazy after being home for so long.

I hope you all got a chance to check out LOST last night! Once again, another fantastic episode. The writers are really pulling out all the stops for this season. Make sure you head on over to http://darkufo.blogspot.com/ check out all the latest in discussion on the LOST phenomenon!

Tonight is an Eagles night, although last night was sorta one too. So sue me. Sadly I didn't get in any drunken poker, in fact I haven't played any since the NDPT tourney last Friday. I'm having withdrawal here people.

This'll have to do for a post, I've rambled enough.

Regards,

cheer_dad

NDPT #1 2009

The first tournament of the year for the N Debt Poker Tour is now over! Nice turnout and a lot of fun was had by all. Prolly some more than others! Anyway 23 players in all showed up to play, and when the dust settled and the smoke cleared Matt Hensley stood a top the mountain of chips to claim the victory. Congratulations! JR (the birthday boy) cashed out in 2nd to continue his winning ways on the birthday tournament (cheer_dad did not fare so well.) TJ came in 3rd, while Mike Westbrook grinded out a very respectable 4th place finish. Dennis rounded out the winners in 5th. All of these fine players have assured themselves a place in the year-end tournament, with their win. I will work on putting together the points totals on a new and improved spreadsheet that I'll reference here on the blog and website. I hope everyone had a great time. With one tournament in thus far, the year-end pot that will be battled for is already at $110.

Congratulations to all the winners!

Regards,

cheer_dad

NDPT 2009 begins tonight

The new NDPT poker tournament year will officially get under way tonight at the house when the 25 signed up miscreants and malcontents show up and we get the cards in the air! Uncle June has predicted victory for us, in the form of him in 1st place and me in 2nd, as it was last year. And I think the year before (at least for him.) This has been a trend for him/us since we started celebrating our birthdays at the first NDPT gathering of the year. Today is his birthday, yesterday was mine, and we got in some serious celebrating last night. We even had a shot called a "Chocolate Cake" that was VERY tasty! I'm gonna have to find out how to make it. After drinks and appetizers at the Outback we headed to the Eagles for the weekly drawing, which none of us won. That's okay, though I'm saving up my luck for tonight. : P

Today has been long and I'm sorta dragging, but there's no time to let up now. There's a lot to get done! I leave work at 3:00pm. Pick up my daughter at the high school at 3:20pm and take her to the house. I'll have a few spare moments to maybe set up the tables for tonight in the basement, and count out some of the chips. Leave to pick my son up by 4:30 from basketball practice, and take him to the bowling alley, so he can pre-bowl tonight, in advance of Saturday morning, since he just learned that he's in a basketball tourney all this weekend. He must finish 3 games by 5:30, since another league starts. Then I get him home, and changed and packed up because he also plays the first basketball tourney game tonight at 9:00pm! Thank goodness, the mom of one of his friends is taking him, since we already had the card game scheduled. So she will be stopping by later to pick him up.

Then, if that weren't enough, Whit has a basketball game to cheer at tonight at 5:15pm, then immediately following that one of her girlfriends is having her Sweet 16 party, so Whit is driving a friend and herself to the party. Who knows when she'll return! I'm kidding, she's a responsible young lady, when she wants to be.

Somewhere in the midst of all this turmoil and rushing around, I've got to get ready for the tourney and all you happy people. So, if I'm running a little behind cut me some slack. Regardless, there will be a card game running at the house TONIGHT!

Oh and another thing... drunken online poker is somehow profitable to me. I three tabled latenight again on Bodog and moved up another $35 at the .10/.25 NLHE level. Was 500 hands too many? : )

Regards,

cheer_dad