After the IPO weekend: trouble with Boylepoker and the final table pronounced

This year IPO missed one decent player, who should have been there playing: me. I had trouble registering to Boylepoker, which is the only way to buy tickets. Hindrances in the development of social security system has also a few drawbacks when it comes to proving your own identity. Although customs in most countries around the world, including Ireland, use passports as main proof of identity, here in Ireland that is just a perk which opens you doors a lot faster. I have opened my account in Boylepoker few months ago and I got my account suspended because I could only produce a copy of my passport, but no proof of address. When I finally got my proof of address delivered to Boylepoker's customer service agents, it didn't do no good. Why, you might wonder. Well, the proof of address I produced is for my current address, but not to the one which I gave when I registered. I had also an understandable excuse for this, for I had moved to a new address and my previous address would have been invalid anyways. But for some reason, this was not good enough for the good lads of Boylepoker.

IPO is probably the Europe's biggest poker tournament with lots of amateurs playing. This year's final table didn't give any surprises. The table is full of amateurs of sorts and no famous poker pros. There aren't any big winners in the final table, but people with lots of experience. Some of the players have been playing poker for ten years with one exception; Colum Horan, an accountant from Dublin, says he has been playing poker for 11 months, not ten or twelve, but eleven months. Maybe the subtle knowing of numbers gives an edge to the newcomer of poker.

10th of November the new champion will be pronounced. Maybe I'll get my identity cleared by the IPO 2013 or else there is going to be a very sad pokerpanda.

Last weekend I mostly played Mass Effect.

Desperate-Dex

And the story continues. We're did we leave off? Oh yes, the girl was finally ready to confront her true feelings. Careerminded man was out in the dark. Everything hadn't been going well at work. There we're even some financial issues mentioned, but appearances we're kept well.  There was a tragic ending to marriage. Marriages sometimes end bad. It was a fairy tale gone bad. There we're even children involved.

If you're looking for a great antihero, then you should get interested in Jeff Lindsay's work: the books and the tv-series based on Lindsay's work. Although the similiraties with the book and the tv-series is like comparing Christian Bale's Batman to Adam West's Batman. Mostly, I mean in the good way. The book series offers great sense of humour to cerial killing. The newer version of the tv-model stands mostly on it's own merits like earlier mentioned Batmans. Even though the tv-show never really shows the dark humour which infests in Dexter Morgan's mind, but it still gets of the ground, just to say that the tv-series has a great cast. For my kind of a boring and a passive guy, it seems easier to not let your imagination ruine great characters. And just to spoil most of the stuff already: most of the cast in tv doesn't live to see the next sequel. And those who die in the series continue to live in the books for what their limbs are worth.

Now after seeing the first two episodes of Dexter's 7th season and after reading first three books of Jeff Lindsay, it feels like experiencing two parallel universe of fiction. It's like you've been thrown from this life to another and you feel two perfect universes joint together and neither one of them is the reality.

On my behalf I must say, I'm a new fan. I started watching the show during last spring. Then I heard that the books are bit more wicked. I just wanted to read the first one, just to get the idea of how these two art forms with the same topic differ from each other. Having to say that, if you are feeling going to the dark side, you have to feel both sides of the dark passenger. One cannot simply just read a few books and watch couple of seasons of Dexter.

I don't know how much this season differs from the books, but it seems that I have three more books to be read before next week. Dexter Morgan is still a mystery to me, but I like the way that big budgets sometimes like to take risks with storylines. The show reminds me a lot of Desperate Housewives. Those who have taken to like Desperate Housewives, will probably find something comfortable in that sinister world, where you can never really take sides with anyone.

Preparing for IPO

It seems Poker is alive and kicking in Ireland with several casinos and pubs arranging games. I've been mostly attending games that are handled by Dublin poker nights. Usually it's on thursday at The Bell. Thursday is a good day to go out, because most people get their weekly paycheck on thursday. Today's event is as followed:

"€110 added and double league points tonight by Dublin poker nights tonight @ The Bell Pub Blanchardstown. 8.30 start €40 freezeout plus €3 per player to €3000 DPN league. Complimentray Hot Food on the break. Cash table later. Dealers we play and deal if we cash it carries over to following week. Text or phone rob 0864046570 to book your seat"

 It seems I have already ranked in Poker night's league as 57th. 24 of the players will qualify for 3000 euro tournament and the winner gets an IPO ticket. I think that is bit faraway to reach, but it would be nice to improve my ranking.

Poker nights also arrange monthly deepstack tournament with East coast pub poker tour, and this month's tournament is set to start at 3 pm in Clarion hotel on saturday. Entry is 80 euroes including 15 euro registration fee. If there is any consistency the tournament will end at about 7 am next morning. So it doesn't just take skills to win, it also takes a stamina, which requires a goodnight sleep and a good breakfast.

There will also be a satellite tournament starting at 9 pm. Winners get tickets to annually IPO-tournament, which is said to be the Europe's biggest poker tournament when counting participants. Previous years attendance has been somewhere around 1500 players. That is the big event, which required me to use two of my holidays. I must post something about that event as it will be my biggest tournament ever.

According to Irish Poker Boards the deepstack event has already 70 pre-registered players. Promoters are expecting 150 players. Last month's attendance was more than 200. 220 if I remember correctly.

"1. Who is running the event. Dublin poker nights and East coast pub poker tour.
2. The purpose of the event. Commercial.
3. Date. 6th of October 2012.
4. Location. The Clarion Hotel, Dublin Airport.
5. Any guaranteed prize pool. €3000.
6. Registration and start time of event. 1.30pm game starts at 3pm.
7. Any prerequisites. None.
8. How can tickets be purched and is there a maxium number. On the Day.
9. Type of Tournament. NLH Freeze-out.
10. Cost of entry. €80.
11. How much of reg fee is made of registration fee. €15.
12. If a rebuy, cost of rebuy/top-up. N/a.
13. How many and what duration are rebuys available. N/a.
14. % of entry fee/rebuys/top-up going into prize fund. 100%.
15. How many places been paid. 10% of the feild.
16. Is any money from the prize pool held back for future tournaments. None.
17. Any tickets for future events given out as prizes. None.
18. Any additional prizes given out. None.
19. Starting chips. 25,000.
20. Re-buy and top up amounts. N/a.
21. Blind Levels.
25-50
50-100
75-150
100-200
150-300
150-300 ante 25
200-400 ante 50
300-600 ante 75
400-800 ante 75
500-1000 ante 100
600-1200 ante 200
800-1600 ante 200
1000-2000 ante 200
1500-3000 ante 300
2000-4000 ante 400
2500-5000 ante 500
3000-6000 ante 1000
4000-8000 ante 1000
5000-10,000 ante 1000
6000-12,000 ante 2000
8000-16,000 ante 2000
10,000-20,000 ante 2000
12,000-24,000 ante 2000
15,000-30,000 ante 3000
20,000-40,000 ante 4000
25,000-50.000 ante 5000

22. Blind time frames. 30 minutes.
23. Are there going to be dealers. Yes high skill.
24. Will there be a documented list of rules. Yes.
25. Is there a tournament director. Yes.
26. How are disputes handled. Tournament director has final say.
27. Are there cash tables on offer. Yes 5% capped at €15."

Here's to you Mr. Guinness

My first time, as I recall, drinking Guinness, was when I was thirteen or fourteen. We we're on a cruise from Finland to Sweden with my mother and stepfather. They had an evil scheme to deploy me back to Sweden because I had behaved worse than most people of my age. There was an idea to soften me up for the trip that could be the end of me. We were in a bar, and as I used to look a lot older then I really were, we drank all evening and perhaps small part of the night with my stepfather. At that time I didn't know Guinness was really a stout, not a lager. Not that it mattered at all. Next day my mouth tasted like old cream.

Years later I learned the beauty of the Irish brewermanship. I did a very long career in bars as a paid worker and as a paying customer. During this path I collided with an old forgotten friend, which I wasn't that fond of.  I used to work in a big beerhouse where they had 120 different brands of beer for sale and one of those brands was Guinness. As a first step working there I had to learn how to serve this black beast. Officially Guinness is supposed to be filled up to three fourths of the pint's size and take a 119,5 second break and then pour rest of it in the pint. My interest grew during the work hours. I tasted it again and the black beast was turned into a black beauty.

It's 27th of september and today at 17:59 we'll all drink one for Arthur. Just in case, we could make it again on 28th. Arthur Guinness' real birthday is still a mystery, but historians seem to very certain that he was born on dates between fall of 1724 and early 1725. So if we'll really want to celebrate the guy who gave us the black stuff, we should drink one every day. Just in case.

Spiderman's almost amazing reboot

When it comes to superhero stories, I'm a real fan. Specifically Marvel syndicate's Spiderman and X-men have been my favorites since I was a child. I remember how I connected to unbreakable and self-healing Wolverine and the nerdy, but loud-mouthed Peter Parker alias Spiderman.

I think I've seen most of the Marvel universe's movie adaptions, even the infamous The Punisher (rated 5.3/10 on IMDB) starring Dolph Lundgren, the Swedish megastar of late 80's and early 90's. Punisher's only connection to comics were characters with a same name, which can not be regarded as a plus for an antihero, who brutally kills mobsters without mercy, and seems to be enjoying justice as a revenge only served with as much as pain as a man can inflict on another.

Marvel has had it share of excellent characters, story arcs and stories shining on the silver screen as well as adaptations which have brought shame to the makers and is solely the main reason I hate big production companies which turn things that should be loved to things that get despised. And in some cases I don't believe the producers are so much interested in artistic integrity as they are of money.

For me, Sam Raimi's Spiderman trilogy should have gotten it's fourth installment produced and I wasn't very happy with the idea of a new Spiderman reboot - specially so soon. But that was just prejudice on my part.

Last weekend I went to see the movie's 3D version. My only disappointment was that the movie didn't let me hate it and rant about it all over the internet, which is my true ranting arena. I could say Andrew Garfield is somehow missing a bit of Tobey Maguire's silent charisma, but he still does a magnificent job as a sarcastic wise guy superhero and a shy but scientifically unique young boy with hormones splashing through his body while he also has to deal with tragic childhood and surviving teens.

*Here starts spoilers* (if you're not familiar with Spiderman comics in full - you might just want to stop here)

With the new Spiderman movie you get introduced to many of the original things that differentiated in Raimi's trilogy. First of all, this time Gwen Stacy is introduced as Peter Parker's first teenage love. Second of all, Spiderman doesn't have a mutation to web. Instead he works on a webbing machine attached to his hands, just like in the original comics. It might have seem like an easier way to explain Spiderman's webbing ability instead of portraiting the process of Peter Parker getting the idea for webcannons.

Also it might have been seen as a great groundshaking idea to introduce Mary Jane (Kirsten Dunst) as the greatest love of Spiderman-Parker, but for someone else it might have felt like the necessary nuisance to keep the story short in a sense that the Spiderman story has been continuing for decades with a big family of characters, which would have been easier to be introduced in a tv-series lasting for several seasons.

One Bell for the cards

Unlike in so many other developed countries, Ireland has next to none regulations concerning poker. It's almost a national sport. There are cash games, tournaments and freerolls in every district of Dublin.

I've been now twice in The Bell (Blanchardstown), where they organize a bar tournament of 40+3. First time I came last and the second time third. So there's my baseline so far. I can get through the bubble and I also have the amazing ability to finish just before the second last.

I found the place through Dublin Poker Nights. They seem to be handling a few tournaments on weekly basis. I haven't made sure that the information on the site is valid, but that's on my checklist.

Amy and Bono in heaven

When Amy Winehouse died, she went to heaven, which is a subject that some people might feel strongly about. For being raised in a jew family for instance might be a distinguishing characteristics for some to believe that there's no heaven for likes of her. Also doing an airfield full of drugs before turning 30 could be another distinctive reason for other's to believe that Amy is going to be given lots of reasons why she cannot enter tonight at the gates of heaven. Some people have a very strong belief that her not being a suitable role model for children and teenagers is reason enough to ban her from heaven and hell altogether. Anyways, she went to heaven cause of the popular belief that god is an all-loving man, who doesn't give a rat's bottom about how mortal people like to mix their beliefs and politics together.

In heaven, there is a special place for rockstars, and Amy for being one was naturally accepted to this 24h party people's club. That's the club where there's literally a band playing the best of rock and all the other genres as well 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and everything is free, there's no queues to the bar, no sexually transmitted diseases (or any other diseases), beer cold as hell, err, cold as heaven, no injuries for falling down intentionally or unintentionally. Place which could be by many indicators defined as the Greatest Invention of God.

At the heaven's heavenly rockstar club, Amy was given a tour by St. Peter and Jesus themselves. "When we looked at your record, we thought that this would be your final resting place so to speak."

Everything seemed swell. There we're beer that didn't make you sick for days and a lots of famous rock stars. "There's John Lennon", said St. Peter to Amy. "He is still preaching about Utopia, but that's allright here in heaven." "Oh, Kurt Cobain", said Amy. "Live and well so to speak", replied Jesus knowingly, "and there's Jimi Hendrix, Wolfgang Mozart, Elvis Presley, of course, and Freddie Mercury."

"Oh, but who is that?", asked Amy. There was a man in a black suit rounded by the elite of the heavenly rockstar groupies. Man was wearing sunglasses which reminded a bit of honeybee's eyes. "I didn't know that Bono was dead", said Amy.

"He is not. That's just my dad, the god almighty, thinking that he is Bono", said Jesus and went back to his room.