My wife is right...again

I have to hand it to my wife, when she's right... she's right. It seems with the advent of social networking site Facebook and other notification methods, although I did "post" results from the NDPT 2009 Year End Tournament elsewhere I failed to do so HERE on the NDPT blog! I even need to get the original website updated to reflect that too. (Hmmm, wonder if I can even remember the account information for that!?!) Been awhile since I've even touched that html!

BUT without further delay, the results of the tournament which we hosted on December 12th, 2009 are:

Eric Freed 1st
Teresa "Big Red" Murray 2nd
JR Ruble 3rd
Vince Post 4th

A "loser's" honorable mention goes to yours truly cheer_dad, for bubbling in 5th. : ( Yeah, thanks DEAR!!! Now you know why she wanted to see a post, dontcha, AND likely why I "forgot." hehe!

But, it was a great night, with great friends and some great card play. Thank you all for continuing to feed this poker degeneracy in me!

Regards,

cheer_dad

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

We are the Champions...

Uncle June and I seem to be making this particular outcome into a habit! December 5th, 2 tables of poker miscreants gathered at the Yanok's house at High Noon, to play out the Year End Tournament. Over five hours of play ensued...With lots of ups and downs for us all. This tournament has people starting with dissimilar chip stacks in proportion to their level of wins throughout the year. We had each paid in $5 for every tournament we had participated in throughout the year. Usually 2 per month, since Yanok began holding "double" qualifiers for the whole year. Matt finished in 4th, Steve in 3rd... and Uncle June and I chopped 1st and 2nd... To determine the winner of the championship and the coveted YSOP (Yanok Series of Poker) bracelet, we played it out and I ended up with the BLING! It all sort of erases any and all bad poker mojo throughout the year. Don't think I'll be able to claim anything like "I never win" or that "I'm running bad" without having someone laugh at or slap me in the face.

Great time, great friends, and an incredible hosting job by the Yanoks. Thank you for inviting us into your home time and time again! I look forward to many games to come with you ALL!

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

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

I'm a WINNER...

Despite the fact that somebody said I was a "woozer" last night, I'm a WINNER! In last night's NDPT End-of-the-Year Extravaganza I miraculously took down the top spot. Although turnout was light we still played and had a great time. (14 players showed up to flaunt their poker prowess.) For a while there in the beginning, I was getting spanked by an unforgiving river card at my first table, and Jody was all too willing to stick it to me. She drew out on me a number of times. TJ commented on that, and it helped me keep my sanity in check for a while. But I managed to get myself back up to treading water level and I just hovered around the original buy-in level for a while. When the table got extremely short, I hit a few hands, which pumped me up a little higher than I'd been all night. I do have to say that a late position call into a family pot with Q-9os did wonders for my stack, when I hit QUADS and got paid with them. We went to a single table, when we went down to 9 players. I just don't like collapsing to 10 players, it seems too crowded. At any rate, I drew the small blind and it turned out to be the best place to be. Although, it didn't feel like it at the time. I nearly bubbled the tournament in 5th place. A couple hands before I got tangled up with Steve, when I looked down at pocket Queens, and I pushed hard preflop, for around 5X the BB. Steve called my all-in, all-in himself for less... His A-5os found a lucky Ace and had me reeling from the feeling! So, there I was with only one option left in the arsenal. I had only 375 in chips left and the blinds were 150/300. I had dismal cards until the BB rotated back around to me. I didn't even bother looking and just sat my total chips in front of me on the cards and declared that it would cost 'em the additional 75, as I was going all-in blind. I got two callers! The cards came down, and Steve missed, and TJ flipped over a pocket pair of 5's. So, now I had to look, and found a K-8os, but I had hit the 8 on the River! That helped... Scott finally went out in the bubble position, so now it was just time to see who would get paid the top spot. I started hitting cards, and some fantastic position bluffs too. There was some good fortune involved there... I guess Lady Luck thought I had it coming after the beat-down on the pocket Queens. Anyway, Steve, and then TJ went out leaving it down to Mike R and I. Mike had a chip lead on me, and at first when the cards were far below average there for a few hands, I thought I was going to fold my way into 2nd place, but then things turned around. I started hitting 2 pair on the flop. The final hand, I held J-8os and hit two-pair. Mike bet out on me, and I went over the top for all of it. Mike called with his J-4os, and was basically drawing dead. So, finally I put a good game in the "W" column and end the year on a positive note. Wahoo!

Thanks to all of you who showed up to play, and thank you for the great times that we've had throughout the year. I look forward to many more NDPT poker in the coming year.

Regards,

cheer_dad

NDPT End-of-the-Year Extravaganza

It's here! The NDPT End-of-the-Year Extravaganza!!! Tonight is the final game of the year for the "N Debt Poker Tour" clan. Turnout tonight is going to be light, but the competition will still be fierce. Gametime is at 6:00pm here at my house. I won't be in as big of a rush as I thought, since I'm not taking Cole to his basketball game now. His Mamaw Flanagan is taking over that responsibility for the evening. That way I'll be a little more relaxed and not so stressed out when we shuffle up and deal.

Hope to see you all real soon.

Regards,

cheer_dad

Merry Christmas Eve

Well here I sit... awaiting an impending (hopeful) early dismissal from the dismal (work.) It's Christmas Eve and the government does "usually" kick us to the curb around the noontime hour on such occasions. Then again, you just never know with some members of management. Regardless though, one way or the other, early dismissal or no... cheer_dad will be leaving early. I'll take the leave if I have to. Today beginning at 1:00 - 2:30 the Eagles is having their members' Christmas Party. I know that seems awful short for a party, but hey they close up the joint after that, and to soften the blow, they open up the bar and hand out free food and more importantly BOOZE!!! Oh yeah, I may just find out how much Jack Daniels can be downed in a single sitting. : ) Reacquaint myself with one of the 3 wise men (so to speak) during this holiday season. Okay, I can't get totally shnockered, I have to save some wiggle room for the Christmas Eve party tonight at the Brothers' house. I know I've lost time and killed brain cells at some of these previous parties. At my age I can't stand to lose much of either!

Saturday is the NDPT End of the Year Extravaganza at my house. Turnout may or may not be light. I'm fairly confident that I will have around 16 of you degenerate gamblers at the house to play. It's been a great year playing with each and every one of you, and I hope to continue it for many years to come. As long as you keep showing up, I'll keep dealing, that's a promise. As for Saturday game time is 6:00pm, although I may be in a rush, since I just found out that Cole has a basketball tournament at 4:30, so I may be hustling to get there in time for my own damn tournament. Go figure.

If I don't see you before... have a Merry Christmas. Hope Santa brings you everything you asked for.

Regards,

cheer_dad

The Yanok Poker-Palooza

The poker weekend with the Yanok's has now come and gone. Recall on Friday the December qualifiers were held there, to allow everyone to beef up their starting chip stacks which they would hold on Saturday's BIG GAME. Respective finishes throughout the year determined the size of your starting stack. I didn't cash in either game, but did "point-up" in one of them. I watched a lot of sick beats through the night. But the most treacherous part of the evening was actually the hill into their development! I did manage to get up it, but halfway up, was forced to stop and drop the truck into 4-wheel drive. Not a move I recommend on that hill. But I managed to get up. Then, I opted to drop off Teresa and Cole and drive back down to the lower level and park. I figured a slippery walk in the wee hours would be a safer "bet" than careening down the hill and plowing into some random house. That was likely the smartest thing I did all night. The cards just didn't really stack up very well for me. I had a few decent starting hands, that just never panned out. AK's and AQ's a few times which failed to connect. Too many people calling. There was a LOT of calling station action. Even by some people that don't even know it.

Anyway, we survived the drive home, after failing to cash, so we were out $120 total, $60 each. Ehhh... We arose the following day, and got ready and headed back to the Yanok's for the High Noon Year Ender! Chip stacks ranged from $1,400-ish to just under $200... I was in the 750 range and content. I was able to chip up to as high as $1,500 and felt pretty good about things, but then the cards dried up and I simply blinded away, and finally took a shot with Ace high from late position, and got spanked by my wife, with a much bigger Ace. She held AcJc and hit the nut flush. I only paired my measly 6, and my tournament life was over.

Then things got HAIRY! Not long after the group was down to the final four, the ones who were getting paid. Frank had managed to wrestle the chips to his side of the table thanks in part to a Hail Mary Play when he was down to his last $400 and called all in with a pair of 7's. Three other players were in it too! When they all flipped up, there were 4 pocket pairs! 77, 88, 99, and QQ!!! Frank boated by the river and Quadrupled up and a few rounds later found himself with a monster stack of chips. Scott Eddy had been chipped away for a while too, having started the final table with a monster stack too, but he was still surviving. Jerry and Teresa were also to be found, still struggling to survive. I watched as chips moved from person to person for quite awhile, and fortunes gained and lost by each of them. Jerry was the first casualty. Teresa battled her way back and played quite well, and hit some great hands to boot. She and Scott managed to wrestle away the chip lead from Frank. One key hand was between Teresa and he in which Teresa held AQos, to his A6. He hit a 6 on the flop, but Lady Luck dealt a fatal blow giving Big Red a much needed Queen on the River. Soon after Frank hit the rail, finishing in 3rd. Teresa and Scott played on for a bit, but not excessively until they got into a race situation that ended with Scott on top and with all the chips. Scott remarkably had started the day at the shallow end of the chip pool, with just over $200 chips in play, but had managed to outlast and chip up through the day to the eventual win. For his efforts he took down over $400, and Big Red happily settled for over $200 for the day. Not bad for a freeroll huh! So, she continues her winning ways and supports my poker habit. And you know what I'm just friggin' FINE with that!

Big Thanks to the Yanok's for hosting a fantastic time and we look forward to next year! Congratulations to Scott on the come from behind victory!

Also, one last note, I am considering CHANGING the day of the NDPT End-of-the Year Extravaganza to the 27th of December instead of the 20th, since there appear to be a lot of conflicts for that day. Please let me know your plans and if this works better for any of you that are planning to play in this $50 buy-in event.

Regards,

cheer_dad

NDPT 2008 Series coming to a close...

Well gang, the N Debt Poker Tour (NDPT) 2008 Series is coming to a close. I want to say thanks to each and every one of you who have made this a fantastic year! From the looks of things one of three people will be taking down the Points Race for the year; Steve, Vince, or JR. Steve is currently in the lead with 190 points (by a margin of 4 points to both Vince and JR who are tied at 186.) Big Red and I are tied at 176, but I think a stray lightning bolt would have to take Steve, Vince, and JR out right after I announced "shuffle up and deal" at the next tournament for either of us to have a prayer of taking it down. Good luck to you all, and I'll be checking the Weather Channel for the extended forecast...

I'm going to go ahead and make the announcement for NDPT #18 to be held December 6th at 6:00pm at my house.

And also, the Year-End-Extravaganza $50 buyin game will be held on December 20th at 6:00pm, again at my house.

You may begin RSVP-ing to either one or both of these games now!

Regards,

cheer_dad

Congrats to the NDPT Year-End Winners!

I trust that everyone had a really good time last night at the NDPT Year End Tournament. I did, and it was more than obvious that the Red Snappers had their fair share of fun. Congratulations to all of the winners:
Jim Lucas took down the top spot, followed by Julie Wolfe, Del Minturn, Teresa Murray, and Mike Robey. It has definitely been quite a year for the ladies. Maybe one of these days I'll start playing well again (now there's a real laugh!) I'll post this info to the website soon, just today, I'm in vegetate mode. A late lunch at the Olive Garden with the Wolfe Pack today, has me overstuffed and feeling tired, so I'm finding a comfortable spot on the couch, from which I may never move again.

I do want to give a BIG THANKS to Chris Brothers for being the Pit Boss for this year. I've really appreciated all your hard work, and patience. Except for that one incident with JJ, but that one was worth the price of admission, just wish I had it all on video to relive that moment.

Also, thank you all for joining Big Red and I in our home for poker every month (and more.) I hope you all enjoy coming here as much as we enjoy having you. Thanks for another great year, and I look forward to many, many more. As soon as Frank, JR, and I get our ducks in a row we'll get out a notice for the first game of the year, and a semblance of what's ahead for us this year.

Regards,

cheer_dad

Oops

My tournament life ends against Scott E, when I raise preflop w/ pocket 4's. He calls, the 3x bet and the flop comes 3-5-6. I push all in, right before we're heading to 3 table play. He insta-calls, and tables his pocket 5's!!! My open ender never hits...although the poker gods laugh in my direction and give me another 4!!! FRACK! But that's how it goes. No faulting his play. I don't really fault my own, not making him for a low card in the first place. He played it well. I suppose in retrospect I did not. But...I actually put him on either big slick...or lil slick. The smallish pair hadn't really crossed my mind. I did it to myself...and deserve my fate. Now in the role of rail bird...or hey, there's a cash table. Hopefully Lady Luck will pay me a visit in the cash game.

Why...

Regards,

cheer_dad

Last night recap, and NDPT Year End tonight

Despite the fact that both of my kids took off to spend the night elsewhere last night (Whitney with Jordan, and Cole with my parents) and then last minute Big Red decided to take off for Bingo Night with her mother, I opted NOT to go play poker over at Shuman's! What's wrong with me? I dunno, I just really wasn't in the mood to play "live" poker. Go figure...I must be sick! Instead, in an odd mood I just wanted to be alone for a while. I sat down in front of my new Acer 22" monitor to put it to the online poker test, iTunes smooth jazz channel playin' in the background (no friggin' wonder I'm so melancholy) I was just dabbling around at a few tables of the .05/.10 NLHE variety on PokerRewards.com. I played looser than ever, tracking back I saw that I was seeing the flop over 50% of the time! Absurd, unheard of for the cheer_dad! Despite that initially I was winning 7%!!! That just won't cut it. Glad I was playing low stakes online rather than at Shuman's trying to grind that out at one table at a time. I would have been out of my mind. I remember really only 3 key hands of this losing night. By losing I'm talking less than $8.00 total, : )... I had my set of 10's rammed up my arse when the limping AKs on the other end of the table, called my reraise post flop, with his top pair (duh) and then proceeded to hit runner/runner for his straight and the rest of my chips. I rebought, and not many hands later, I looked down at wired Aces, from the Big Blind. It is raised and called by lots of folks. I bump it hard, wanting to thin the herd, and still get 2 callers. I had already decided whatever came out on the flop, I was smackin' the All-In button. I did and got a single caller. My rockets held and that put me back on track at that table. Then back to the other table, which had been slower, and I wasn't catching much. I call I small raise from late position with pocket 3's. I flop my set, and my grin sets in. The guy in front of me bets out, I raise him, he reraises, I go all in. Unfortunately the 2-3-4 rainbow had given my worthy opponent his high end straight, with his 5-6s. The board never paired, and he took it down. So that was the hand that would have put me back on the positive side, but in the end knocked me for the 8 bucks. Hey, it could've been MUCH worse. About that time, Big Red returned from Bingo and felt like going to the Eagle's for a bit, to check on the tips from the previous night, that she'd played (which turned out to be duds!) We dropped a few bucks in the one armed bandits, and just spent some time together, just the two of us. We had a good time.

Tonight's the BIG NIGHT! NDPT Year-End Tournament time starts at 6:00pm. I've had a few callers today, asking if there's room for them, and thus we are now at a total of 28 players for tonight. Assuming everyone shows up, which is highly likely...minus Julie (since she won her seat) the prize pool will be at a nosebleed level of $1,350. This is the kind of night that could really turn the year around for anyone who's been in the poker cellar this year. Why...I resemble that remark. Y'all BEWARE!!!

Hope everyone is looking their best for tonight since the "Flip" camcorder will be in full use throughout the night by anyone wants to give it a go. I get dibs on anything crossing the lines of prudish decency. Say cheese! Nonetheless it'll be hard to top Big Red's Heely's demonstration. : ) It just never gets old does it!

Game time now 2 1/2 hours from now. See you bunch of degenerates real soon.

Regards,

cheer_dad