Saturday, March 18, 2006

UB is still working out the kinks

As you all know - there was no Holdem Affair this week. Looks like UB is still working out the bugs in their new "upgrade". For those of you who didn't catch Marti's email on the topic here is what UB has to say about the situation.

Dear Marti.

We would like to let you know
that due to changes in our department and a reorganization of our functions we
will not be setting private tournaments for the next 15 days. Private
tournaments will be back on April 1st.

We apologize for the
inconvenience, and please we kindly ask you to understand this measure made only
in order to provide the best service our site can offer to all our customers.

Thank you.
Best Regards,

Luis
L.
Tournament Member Services.

Let's hang in there with UB. They have been very good to us, so we can cut them some slack for a little while at least. Once they get the kinks out of their new software they will be back to being the best site to play poker.

In the mean time, send me your bragging about how well you are doing in other tournaments. Let's not forget that we know what we are doing.

Peace,

Sunbob


Friday, March 17, 2006

Letter from Txmom


I got an email from Txmom22 telling me about how much fun she had playing in the Bellagio Super Satellite entry tournament last Tuesday. She ran into several Holdem Affair members and had a great time. . . Well let’s let her tell you in her own words.


On Tuesday night, 3/14/06, 10:30 p.m., several Warriors, Mac Attackers, and Holdem Affair players entered a Bellagio Super Satellite tourney. Top three finishers would leave the event with a piece of the prize pool and a trip to Las Vegas for the $2,500 Bellagio Super Satellite. The Bellagio prize consists of the buy-in to the super satellite plus $1,000 travel expenses. Pays top 140 players. Sounds great so far!
The tourney began with 1,239 players and ran 5 hours, 21 minutes. Along the way, TxMom22 met up with Gjones on a couple of different tables. Hemi Henry and Deadmanshand played on the same table for a lengthy amount of time. We also saw Unionthug and the inimitable Annieboom. I believe there may have been a few more of us in the mix, but it was difficult to concentrate and keep up with the crowd at the same time. I apologize for missing any of our other buddies. In fact, I think Gjones and I were at the same table for about an hour before we even discovered each other. LOL
Tons of encouragement going back and forth. A few bad beats, a few rounds of bad cards or no cards, Hemi Henry was out in 661st place. Unionthug hung in until 147th. Gjones played so well but just couldn’t get the cards, he escaped going out almost as many times as TxMom22, finally succumbing in 85th place... in the money. We decided at that point we probably made about half of one cent an hour. Shortly before that time, I was down for the count, blinded out with pocket 10s. Good fortune came my way, as well as a couple of extremely good hands all in, and I was back in the chase
Annieboom was down (I believe) as low as 140 chips when I first found her. She rebounded with a vengeance and was hanging in for the long haul. Four hours or so in, Annieboom went out in 59th. I was tossed out on my rear in when I pushed in my 47,000 or so chips, in 24th place, in the money, but not in the top three. However, this was one of my best events so far, I didn’t make any major mistakes (we won’t talk about the last hand Ac 5c) so I was happy and relaxed.
The point of this missive is this...while playing, there was such a sense of friendship and family among those of us who managed to find each other (without the assistance of the still dead Ultimate Buddy). Second, we were so very difficult to get rid of. Each and every one of us made the other players work really, REALLY hard to put us out. We rebounded time and time again. At one point, someone said we were WARRIORS! It was true, we were definitely warriors. Winforlife would have been so proud.
I came away from this tourney feeling more strongly bonded than ever to this group of people we call friends. I felt like we encouraged other in a positive way, we leaned on each other, and we laughed and moaned together. Most of all, we were strong and persistent players who never gave up no matter how low the chip count fell. It was a superb evening. I believe that our small weekly games make each and every one of us a better player, a stronger player, and Henry and I wanted to take this opportunity to thank Marti, Winforlife, and DebiMac for making this possible week after week after week. You guys are great!
Marsha

Thursday, March 16, 2006

Its Flu Season

Ok folks, this isn’t about poker but being sick isn’t fun and it definitely cuts into your time on the tables.

I’ve had the flu before and I had always just gone to bed and ridden it out. I didn’t think there was much the doctor could do for me. But things have changed in the doctoring world. They now have a medicine that will attack the influenza virus and slow it down or even stop it from replicating. I don’t know how long this type of medicine has been on the market but it was new to me. I have to thank my wife for tipping me off on this one – unfortunately that just means that she had the flu first and had to learn from our family doctor.

So here is the drill. Get to your doctor early – don’t wait. If you can start the meds within the first 48 hours, it can all but eliminate the disease.

I started feeling funky Sunday night and by Monday morning I had a headache, a dry cough, no energy and ached all over. I tried to go to work but went home by 11 am. I slept all afternoon but didn’t go to the doctor. I heard about it from my wife when she got home – she chewed me good. I had a very rough night. I added chills (fever?) to the headaches, aches, and cough. I saw my doctor on Tuesday morning and he said I really did have influenza. He prescribed Tamiflu. I’m told there are three or four antiviral medicines on the market but that is the one my doc uses. He also said I was getting a secondary case of pneumonia so he filled my butt with an antibiotic and added that script to my list.

By Wednesday I was already feeling much better. Now, on Thursday afternoon, I am feeling almost 100%. I saw my doctor this morning and he confirmed the pneumonia is clearing as well as the influenza. Only two days of being sick. I’m kicking myself now for not going in on Monday.

I’m writing this because I’m told that we are having a late flu season this year and maybe someone else will go see their doctor early and not just ride it out. Even if you don’t go in the first 48 hours, the medicine will still shorten the length and lessen the intensity of the illness. At least that was my wife’s experience.

So, if the flu bug gets you this year, consider seeing if your doctor can help you out. You will feel better and be back at the tables quicker.

Saturday, March 11, 2006

Rankdizzle was the Man

The Holdem Affair was back at it again this week as we volunteered to help UB test their invite tournament software. Rankdizzle was the man this week shutting down 21 other members of our little tournament family. Glenso and Maronie47 filled out the money table.

I owe Rankdizzle a big apology. My hand grabber program wasn't working so I don't have the detailed notes that I usually use to write my stories. (Now you know my secrets).

I can tell you that Rankdizzle was our chipleader at the first hour break. Here are your leaders.
1. Rankdizzle = 4955
2. Maronie47 = 3745
3. Sengar = 3550
4. Glenso = 2795
5. txranger2 = 2600
6. Laeshalady = 2290
7. unionthug = 2210
8. Txmom22 = 2155
9. Jennifear = 1965
10. DebiMac = 1900

We had 16 at the first hour break and it was only 30 minutes to pare that down to the final table. In that half hour Jennifear had been demonstrating why so many like to stay out of her way when she is at your table. Jennifear went from 9th place to leading when we sat down at the final ten.
1. Jennifear = 9480
2. Maronie47 = 5725
3. unionthug = 4390
4. Rankdizzle = 2800
5. Glenso = 2515
6. txranger2 = 2150
7. DebiMac = 1955
8. Txmom22 = 1855
9. Laeshalady = 1125
10. Sengar = 1005

The final results were:
1. Rankdizzle
2. Glenso
3. Maronie47
4. txranger2
5. unionthug
6. jennifear
7. Txmom22
8. Sengar
9. DebiMac
10. Laeshalady


Great game to all and congratulations to Rankdizzle. You have been threatening to do this for weeks and it was your time.

See you Saturday.

Peace.

Saturday, March 04, 2006

No Holdem Affair This Week (& Maronie)


There was no Holdem Affair this week as UB is still trying to get their new update to work properly. For you old-timers, we have seen this before. I think it was a couple of years ago that we went through this with UB. No problem. They will get it back up soon and it will be better than ever (I hope).

In the mean time let me introduce you to Maronie. She sent a picture to be added to the gallery and this is the first time I've had to post it. I have filled the photo gallery on the original site so when new people send me pictures I am going to just post them here. There will be a link in the blog archive so people can find them. At least this will have to do until I figure out another way to post more pictures of our group. If anyone has any good ideas let me know.