The King Of Kong: A Fistful Of Quarters
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
First off, some poker content, since this is still a poker blog.
I almost played online poker last night. It was almost awesome.
Moving on...
I did manage to watch some poker on TV - the WPT Championship to be exact - and though it was a damn good show, it was not my favorite viewing of the night. Before I fired up the WPT, I watched a documentary called The King Of Kong: A Fistful Of Quarters. I'll go ahead and gank the plot synopsis from the IMDB page I just linked, 'cause it pretty much sums it up.
Diehard video game fans compete to break World Records on classic arcade games.
If you haven't seen this movie, I think you should check it out; Doubly so if you are an avid gamer or a poker player, as I suspect you just might be if you are reading this blog. The movie focuses on two people, Billy Mitchell and Steve Wiebe. Billy is a long time video game geek who has held world records for numerous video games, with Donkey Kong being his true claim to fame. To classic arcade video gamers, he is the shizzle. Steve Wiebe, on the other hand, is a down on his luck average joe who decides he wants to try and finally be the best at something after years of FAIL.
I won't go any deeper into the movie as I would rather you just watch it than read about it here. All I can say is just check it out if you are looking for something to fill up an hour and a half. It's a documentary, so don't expect it to knock your socks off, but I think you'll enjoy it nonetheless.
I don't play many video games these days, but I grew up playing them all the time. I was a Nintendo kid and, before that, I was always near an arcade. My Dad owned a bowling alley with an arcade for a while when I was a child and having an arcade to play free games whenever I wanted was like crack for me. I pretty much pwned Frogger. I also loved me some Joust.
I may have to go buy the classic Donkey Kong game now. Damn you King Of Kong!
Until next time, may the felt be with you.
posted by TripJax @ 10:09 AM,
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No Refunds Fail
Friday, August 22, 2008
buy, return or exchange anything, but I almost wish I had so I could
'cause a scene.
I'm pretty sure a Ukranian had a hand in this one. I'm pretty sure
Ukranian's have their hands in everything at North Myrtle Beach these
days. I swear EVERYONE that works here is Ukranian...or Somethingian.
Not that there's anything wrong with that.
We leave for home tomorrow morning, so you won't have to deal with my
short picture posts any longer...
North Myrtle Beach, SC
posted by TripJax @ 10:51 PM,
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What It's All About
Thursday, August 21, 2008
posted by TripJax @ 9:50 AM,
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What It's All About
posted by TripJax @ 9:39 AM,
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Nano Brew
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
since I've been sending dumbass posts this week. I'm on vacation at
North Myrtle Beach, SC. If you need a quick refresher, just scroll
down (unless you are on RSS reader).
It's been an interesting trip. We normally just go with the kids, but
this year we decided to go with ChickJax's family - specifically her
sister/husband and her Mom/husband. We signed the contract for the
beach condo and 2 days later the accident happened (not sure how to
link via iPhone, but the accident in question was ChickJax's Mom and
husband nearly dying in a motorcycle accident, which I chronicled a
while back).
A few months later and here we are, with an entirely different
vacation landscape. Pawpaw, as he is called, didn't even come as he is
struggling with his injuries. Ninny, as she is called, made it, but is
wheelchair bound. It's been interesting making that work, but we've
all come together and are having a good time. This is definitely a
lesson in how good you have it and how quickly things can change in a
heartbeat.
Now on to other things. In my Wish You Were Beer post from a few days
ago, I caught some heat from Chipper Dave. You would think I was
catchin' the bitness for cold calling with the nuts when my opponent
clearly caught second best, but that was not the case. I was
catching heat for drinking a macrobrew instead of a local microbrew.
Now first off, allow me to set a few things straight. In no way am I
giving Chipper a hard time, but I must clear the air. I loves me some
microbrew. I'm lucky enough to live in a city that, to the best of my
knowledge, has at least two breweries. And those breweries are
excellent.
As it turns out, from what I have found, North Myrtle Beach - or to be
more specific, the places I have been - are not exactly microbrew happy.
As an example, let's take the post in question. We were having a nice
family dinner at a local Mom & Pop fish fry; not exactly a champion of
fine beers, if you will. Given the choices, which were macro from top
to bottom, I went with Bud Lite Lime.
When it comes to macrobrews, I've always taken a liking to Bud. My
Brother In Law works for them and I've always enjoyed their beers. I
went on the tour in St. Louis last year and was pretty much blown
away. When Bud Lite Lime came out, I thought it put Miller Chill to
shame.
Let me get back on focus here, for my thumbs are getting tired
(posting from a phone is pretty tiring). When I read the comment from
Chipper about the local beers, I knew there wasn't much I could do,
but damn if I wasn't up for a challenge. Unfortunately I'm on a family
vacation, so it wasn't like I could bar hop until I found the
microbeer Mecca.
I did manage to hit another local bar hoping to partake in some fresh
beerage, but was swiftly denied. "Do you have anything on tap," I
inquired? "We got Bud, Miller, Coors, Corona and Heineken." Nice. Way
to go all out. But that's what it is like around here. Great beaches,
but not much for beer selection.
Which brings me to the picture in this post. After that last bar
episode I rushed to the closest grocery store to check out their
selection. The only beer worth speaking about that wasn't a complete
macro was Flying Dog.
If you haven't tried Flying Dog yet, you have to give it a whirl. We
came across this beer in a not so round about way. We were partying at
ChickJax's sisters house one night and started talking with her
neighbor. He was a brewer and had come to Greensboro to work for one
of our local breweries, Red Oak. He was advised that he would no
longer have a job and ended up having to look elsewhere.
Turns out that party would be his last in Greensboro, as he soon moved
to Colorado to work for Flying Dog. We had never heard of the company,
but were immediately intrigued.
ChickJax is very picky when it comes to beer, but she now loves her
some Flying Dog. And I must admit, I really dig it too. With that, I
offer the best I could do for a microbrew in North Myrtle Beach, SC. A
bottled beer from Colorado - an immediate neighbor of South Carolina!
Peace out beaches.
The title is, I hope, now obvious. Nano brew as in I can't find any.
Someone who is a local or a regular, please set me straight on where
to go at this beach for good beer.
posted by TripJax @ 11:09 PM,
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Lazy Liver
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
posted by TripJax @ 5:01 PM,
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Wish You Were Beer
Monday, August 18, 2008
posted by TripJax @ 8:01 PM,
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Beach and Beer
posted by TripJax @ 7:43 PM,
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How I Roll
Saturday, August 16, 2008
posted by TripJax @ 5:23 PM,
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IMG00096.jpg
Friday, August 15, 2008
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T
posted by TripJax @ 4:46 PM,
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Bash At The Boathouse 2008
Thursday, August 14, 2008
It seems like just yesterday I won the Drunken Lewey award for my terarded ass shenaninigans at the Bash At The Boathouse 7. As you may recall, I pretty much did absolutely nothing the whole time. Yeah, that's it.
While reading AlCanDrink recently I was reminded that it has actually been two years since that bash. Al set me straight and reminded me it's time to get my ars there this year. Good sir, I will do my best. I've put ChickJax on notice that she should make it as well. She can help push my wheelchair around when I am no longer able to walk due to the alcamahol. Let's do this!
I'm headed to the beach for a week on Saturday morning and I'll probably be annoying the fuck out of you all with a bunch of short, pointless picture posts. Enjoy!
Until next time, may the felt be with you
posted by TripJax @ 10:02 PM,
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iPhone Means No iPoker
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
I may have written about this before, but I've been thinking about it again lately, so here it goes. An interesting thing has happened since I changed my cell phone to an iPhone 3G. I almost never go on my laptop at home anymore. I have so many options available on my phone that I just don't see a need to spend time on my laptop as much these days.
The above duly noted, there has been a sharp decline in my poker play since I purchased my phone. I was already barely playing poker, but now I almost never play online. It used to be I would fire up the laptop at night while watching tv in order to check my email or the latest news. And wouldn't you know it, while reading my email the Full Tilt Poker icon would just magically open up. It was if I was meant to play poker. I swear it wasn't me opening the software *cough*.
So a fair amount of my poker play was just because I was on my computer and, well what'dya know, there is poker ready to be played. Isn't it convenient that I am on a computer, where online poker is readily available for me to play. Why I guess I should just play it right away! Now that rarely happens anymore.
I guess it is to be expected that the fervor I once had for the game when I started this blog is some what diminished. I'm not saying it is gone or won't make a serious come back, but for now it has subsided. Once I am online and the cards hit the felt, I definitely feel the vibe, but getting me to the felt these days is the toughtest part.
Damnit when will someone create a Full Tilt, PokerStars or Bodog application for the iPhone!
Over the weekend I was all excited about a cornhole tournament I was going to play. You may recall the posts here and here. Well I did end up playing, but I absolutely stunk up the place. I fancy myself a pretty damn good cornhole player, but I played like a fonkey the whole day. I know you have to play the course, but I had gotten so accustomed to my own board that it was difficult to adjust to a random board with random bags at a different distance than I was used to.
Like I said, that is no excuse because, to be a good cornhole player, you have to adjust to the current game play, much like golf. I just didn't do a good job of it. We lost all three games we played and, in fact, didn't even put up enough points the whole day to win even 1 game! You have to score 21 to win and I think our final scores were 6-21, 11-21, 1-21. That's right folks. There was a game that we only scored 1 point. It was brutal out there. The competition wasn't even that good, we were just that bad.
I could easily pack it in and never play again after a showing like that, but that just motivates me even further to get my ass in gear. I know the true reason I stunk it up so bad. That was the first time I've ever played cornhole without a beer in my hand. The 11:00am start threw me off my normal game play. Usually it is mid-day or late evening and I have a belly full of brewskies to help my game. This time I was *gasp* playing sober. How dare I!
In my previous post I mentioned I would explain our team name, The Cr0nholers. At work my email is scrutinized by big brother so anything remotely potty mouth will cause the email to get quarantined for review. Even the words potty mouth probably cause a quarantine. It doesn't stop the incoming or outgoing email from being sent, it just quarantines it for a supervisor to review. That said, the word cornhole is a guaranteed word that will always cause a quarantine. In order to get around the filter my buddy MTW started writing cr0nhole; hence, The Cr0nholers were born.
On a random note, Jordan is cracking me up lately. And for the record J, I digs me some social networking these days now that I have the iPhone. I need to get you hooked too so you can know when I am eating at Chik-Fil-A, completing a mad ass sudoku game or dropping a deuce. Word.
Until next time, may the felt be with you.
posted by TripJax @ 10:30 AM,
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Cornhole Tournament
Saturday, August 09, 2008
posted by TripJax @ 10:50 AM,
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The Cr0nholers
hours. My team name is The Cr0nholers. I'll jave to explain that name
at another time. It won't be long before you'll see me at the finals
of the World Series Of Cornhole on ESPN 12.
After building the deck, building a cornhole set with my buddies was a
breeze (see below). We still need to spice it up with paint, but for
now it gets the job done.
I've been practicing the last two nights so I'm ready to light this
candle. I'll try and live blog the tourney if I can.
posted by TripJax @ 9:19 AM,
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Local Poker Game Robbed ~ Local Robber Pwned...Redux
Thursday, August 07, 2008
Before you read this post, if you haven't done so already, be sure to read part one here.
10:03am Text from me to Erin: Dude???
10:04am Text from Erin to me: What?
10:04am Text from me to Erin: What happened at the game???
11:52am Text from me to Erin: Okay then...
One minute later I got a call from Erin who immediately said, "Man I'm at work and I'm really busy...that's why I didn't text you back." I called bullshit at first, but then figured maybe he was busy. I basically wanted to here the story of the shooting straight from the horses mouth. Turns out the story is pretty much as I wrote about previously, except the dude wasn't shot in the chest 3 times. He was shot in the leg once and the arm twice. That makes more sense, since he wasn't pronounced dead at the scene. Not many people get shot 3 times in the chest and see the sun rise.
Erin said the police didn't care about the poker game, they were "just concerned about the robbery." I have to call bullshit on that one. Sure maybe the cops on sight aren't worried about the game, but when that police report hits the chief's desk, you better believe they will be delving a bit deeper. We're talking about an illegal poker game in a decent neighborhood where someone just got shot. If I lived in that neighborhood I'd be raising holy hell. I'm just sayin'.
As Erin was relaying the story to me, I heard a sound in the background over the phone. I immediately knew what it was. It was the timebank clock from Full Tilt. I had to throw a jab at him after hearing that. "Oh your REAL busy, eh?!"
I asked him if this was his wake up call to finally shut the game down and he said, "I don't know, I think I might lay low for a couple of weeks, then start it back up." Some people will never fucking learn. Degenerates...the lot of us.
posted by TripJax @ 12:53 PM,
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Local Poker Game Robbed ~ Local Robber Pwned.
Wednesday, August 06, 2008
"Dude, did you hear what happened at Erin's house last night?"
It's interesting when someone makes a statement as such. It all comes down to if you know what normally is happening at Erin's house, right? In this case I did know what normally happens at Erin's house - an underground poker game. Not so much underground as in a garage. A garage turned poker room.
When I first heard those words coming out of my buddies mouth, I wanted to believe it was the beginning of a great story. You know the one where one friend tells another friend about how yet another friend won some massive all-in pot against some fonk. Or maybe how a semi-celeb poker player showed up to the game, which isn't so far fetched with the number of NC poker players making tv tables these days.
Alas, my gut feeling was more spot on than my high hopes of a good story.
"Two guys with guns tried to rob the game and Pep shot one of them 3 times in the chest."
Oof.
So a little background before I go on. I helped start this game and I even dealt it for the first year. I've mentioned the game many times in the past on this here blog. When I was in the mix the stakes were tiny and it was just a bunch of guys who liked playing tournaments and figured we should give the cash games a chance.
It didn't take long for the game to grow. The stakes slowly rose and the word started to get out. One table became two, which occasionally became three. I went from playing and dealing the game for fun to dealing the game for a little extra cash in the pocket. It wasn't much, but it occasionally paid a bill here or there when we were struggling. Eventually the stakes started to rise to a level that I was no longer comfortable playing or dealing. The type of stakes where the guy running the game decided it was time to hire Pep to guard the door and keep an eye on the game. At that point I didn't even want to be in the neighborhood, much less at the game. So I quit. I quit going all together.
Ever since I left the game I've had a mindset of not if but when. I always new something bad would happen - be it a police raid or a robbery - so I chose to move on. I'm all for a good poker game, but when you start to need a security guard like Pep at the door and cameras to keep up with the action in and outside, it is no longer a fun game for me.
I hate it for the guy who was shot and is apparently in critical condition; however, I believe when you choose to rob someone at gunpoint and end up getting shot, you 100% had it coming to you.
I currently have no other details on the story, but if anything else crops up that I can brog about, I'll definitely do so. And if I come across any new links about the story, I'll add them here. In the meantime, I gotta tell ya it was nice donking it up at a $5 onrine game to celebrate 5 years with a friend instead of sitting around a smokey garage watching some dumbass get capped.
By the way, names were changed to protect the degenerate.
posted by TripJax @ 10:04 AM,
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