I Can't Believe I Ate The Whole Thing!

This is my 1000th published post here. 1000 posts in under 3 years? Not a bad posting rate. Shame about the quality though.

I guess I'm doing SOMETHING right after multiple pagerank discussions over the weekend and looking at the stats. You seem to either come here once, or hundreds of times. So to the hundreds of unique vistors (or the dozens daily)... thanks.

I COULD look back over the last 999 posts, but why bother? They're all here for perusal.

So enough celebration of arbitrary numbers. Maybe I'll do a big 1327th post retrospective in 8 months.

Eh-Vegas is over! The streets of Toronto are flooded with the tears of both those who had to leave and those who will miss those who left. That's a lot of thoses' tears. Was it like last year's? Nope. Nor was it like the year before that. Such is the Vegas of Eh, always changing, always new.

It seems there was rue that I did not cook for this year's group. My apologies. I opted to sun myself in Florida for a week instead of walking 2km in the icy cold to buy frozen meat. I shall rectify that next year. How about a labour day Eh-Vegas next year? Just a suggestion, because then there could be BBQ, and the elk (or bison, or boar, or beef, or whatever) would maybe be fresh instead of frozen.

Regardless, I'm sitting here exhausted and wondering how a weekend that seemed so long now seems so short. Drinks and dinner, 0.05/0.10 that wasn't, 90 minutes HU battle with NutzCarson in the Eh-Vegas tourney that ended with me worn down and in second, and Carson licking beaver (a beaver that I wanted sooooo bad!), hanging out, wandering the Falls without rolling a single dice or flinging a single chip (did you know there are waterfalls in Niagara? Quel surprise!), and discussing the quality of strip clubs between Toronto and Niagara with a guy who lives in a cornfield or something.

Now if only the bleeding would stop.

To Dawn Summers, Bacini Mary, OhCaptain, and VinNay - Thanks for coming up to the great white north. It was great to see you all. To the TuckFards (NutzCarson, DonK, QueenK, SuzyQ, NutzFirth, Matt, Leslie, etc?), Bankwell, Pokertart, Guin (happy birthday! Have fun in Vegas with the daughter), and the rest of the "locals" (Tawny, Taylor, Moose, other people who's names I never got) who made it out (I think I covered everyone...), it's a shame events need to be organized for everyone to get together, as it's always a good time.

And to Kat, thanks again for organizing a great time, even if you think you didn't do that much. I mean, I did even less!

So... what's next?

Nobody told ME Julius Goat was going to be on BDR on Wednesday. I would have listened! Umm.. I mean, while I obviously WAS listening, I wouldn't have turned down the volume during that segment when I smelled something funny.... yah, that's it.

Eh-Vegas is.... TODAY! Let's say the official kickoff is in... like... I dunno... 8 or 9 hours? Sure, why not. No idea what the plans are other than at some point tomorrow we'll be at Kat's playing poker and drinking and snacking and laughing and totally not calling up every stripper in the GTA (Greater Toronto Area) to come party with us. I imagine there will be food and drink tonight... I'm hoping it's downtown so I can stumble home from wherever it is. Niagara on Sunday? Huh? Huh? I gots me a jones for casino action.

Fuck! I just realized I'll be in Whistler during Goat's BBmT! Well, I'll be done with the slopes by the time it kicks off, and I'll have my laptop... network access is another question. No, I can't commit. Even though that would be the ultimate in bad management. I mean, I'm visiting my brother, and that's the last night I'm there. Stupid Gregorian Monks and their calendars.

Sometimes (okay, most of the time), XKCD nails it. I wonder if it works with the Candyman too...

Speaking of funny - Dimetri Martin? Hilariously low-key. This kid could be something. If nothing else, he gave the world the proper answer to the question "Are you ticklish?"

Great Daily Show last night - entire show dedicated to Jim Cramer... Stewart did his usual slow build to destroying someone. People go on this show figuring he's the funny guy, but he's possibly the most dangerous interviewer on TV when he wants to be.

Powered speakers at my desk? Oh, that's dangerous for a professional environment.

98 Runners. I went out 48th. Smack dab in the middle as predicted.

For no good reason.

Scotty puts forth a standard raise UTG. Breeze pushes. I have QQ and come over the top all-in to squeeze out Scotty.

Scott calls with AA. Breeze has AQ. I have them both covered, but Scott only by 145 chips.

I don't improve.

Thing is, when Scott raised, I thought "Hmm... how do I play this? I think he's strong, but is it Aces strong?" I debated just calling Scott and pressing on the flop. I thought about re-raising to see how strong he was. I wasn't sure how I wanted to play it.

Then Breeze pushed, I figured him on a strong Ace, and I completely discounted Scott's holdings and focused on Breeze. I pushed to isolate, and it obviously backfired. Lost focus.

For what it's worth, I would have lost to Breeze anyway (turned A... because there's 12 of them in the deck), but this is the first ousting from a BBT4 event where I regret the hand that killed me.

Luckily, there are no more events until Sunday, and I won't be playing until Monday. Unless Eh-Vegas fizzles out by 4pm on Sunday... not gonna happen.

Wow, is Eh-Vegas almost here already? Crazy.

Yup, next weekend is booked. I've contributed far, FAR less to this year's effort than last year's, but am of course at Kat's disposal if there's anything she needs that I can provide.

The "details" are on her site, but here's a recap, just in case you're too lazy to click there and never updated your feeds when she moved to her own domain.

Friday - People get in, locals get off work, gathering, drinking, and the like occur. For what it's worth, I support any and all downtown activities, as it requires less effort on my part to get to them. If I have to drive places, I have to drink much less. In fact, if the numbers aren't too large, I'd even be willing to just break out the cards and chips at my place with some beverages and pizza if that works. Note - I only have poker seating for 8, but some more space for non-poker (big couch, couple chairs, etc..). Or we can hit a bar/pub/tavern/restaurant/lounge/whatever. If it's up in Kat-town, I'll be sure to find my way up there.

Saturday - Coffee at Kat's, which I imagine I'll miss. Brunch in the Katbourhood, which I will make every attempt (ie.- get my ass out of bed) to make. Then comes the pokering and merry-making. $50 + 1R + $20 add-on.

Sunday - Brunch in the Distillery District. Which would check off another of those "things I've never done in my own city for some stupid reason". Oh, I've been to the area, but never during the day. By this point, I imagine I'll be in it for the food more than the drink. Not sure what everyone else's plans are, but I'm more than happy to head Niagara-wards after brunch for some chip slinging, be it at the poker table or the $5 Sunday craps table.

I know OhCaptain and Kat were looking to do some photography (nudge nudge wink wink... oh, nevermind) during the weekend. Obviously the Distillery District offers some prime opportunities for this, as does the Falls. Wandering the streets of downtown Toronto at night provide a few shots as well. It's looking like a pretty sunny weekend at the moment, if a touch cool. We'll see if that holds as we get closer.

It's not too late to decide to come! Especially with the Canadian dollar trading at nearly a 30% premium these days. That's like 1/3 of your trip free if you're from the States! Think of it as buy 2 get the 3rd free. Or buy 1, get 1 60% off.

Come see a country who's economy isn't in the shitter yet! People with jobs! Streets paved with gold! Well, okay, not the streets, but the buildings! Oh alright, only one building made with gold. Seriously. It's pretty big though.

Just get up here. C'mon!

C'moooon.

Note to self: If you have a premium hand against this guy, just fold.

QQ < TT donchyaknow?

3 games in, no points, 3 suckouts to end it for me. Sure, I've laid a bad beat or two myself to stay alive, but it still stings. My average middle-of-the-pack finishes just aren't going to cut it, but at least there's some solace in the fact that I have yet to regret how I played a final hand.

As for the other ones... I liked my play last night more than the previous games. I made some moves... some worked, some didn't, some required me getting lucky when they initially failed. In the end though, I felt I played better than in The Big Game and Riverchasers. Obviously, there's still room for improvement, but this is just the first leg in a very long trek.

Oh, and feeling better today... for now. Another decent night's sleep helps. Good thing too, since I'm meeting up with some friends tonight to wish them well the day before their marriage and a few days before they head off to Australia for a year. In the 3 1/2 years since we've reconnected (old high school friends), my friend and his fiancee have been all over the place. 3.5 years ago, he was in Montreal and she was in Toronto. Then he was in Toronto with her, then he moved to Newfoundland, where she eventually joined him before she moved back to Toronto to essentially go on strike at the University she enrolled in for grad school... and now they're off to Australia. I couldn't move around that much... Toronto is home. Always has been, always will be.

And I'm glad to hear there's some of you who are making the trip here next weekend for Eh-Vegas! I don't think I'm cooking this year (although I'll definitely help if needed), but I am at least consulting.

Nothing overly coherent to say today, so it's all in bits.

- First and foremost - BBT4 is coming! Brit game, new Monday Riverchasers $26 game, Skillz, Mookie, and maybe some Big Games? Kickoff is March 1st, when I'll be in the middle of heading back home from the Keys. It ends May 31st... so much for Spring.

- Second and foremore - Eh-Vegas is just THREE WEEKS AWAY. Get your asses up here! Not that Kat, me, VinNay, and some Tuckfards can't have fun in the city by ourselves, but you'll cry yourself to sleep at night over missing it.

- Like the new Mac. Now that I'm getting used to the trackpad gestures and just accepting that my Applications folder is going to be a mess, it's becoming quite easy on the brain. Hey, as long as Full Tilt and Stars have clients for it, I'm happy. No, I'm not a Mac preacher, nor will I be. But Delicious Library is awesome.

- The desktop issue is slowly being revealed. After upgrading the Intel Matrix Storage Manager, it was able to verify that one of the disks in my RAID 1 setup was fracked. Sadly, it wasn't specific to what the problem was, but suggested reconnecting the drive so it could be rebuilt. Last time I disconnected a RAID drive, I accidentally disconnected my RAID 0 array, which resulted in a complete computer overhaul. This time though, it's all backed up. Let's see what happens tonight when I start it up.

- I'm off to do some advance scouting on Al's new home in two days. Well, not his actual residence specifically, but the bars, boats, and restaurants around it. Also, I won't really be reporting to Al necessarily, unless drunken text-a-shots saying "How hot is this bartender??" count. The downside? Al won't be there. Stupid timing.

- Dow is under 7300, S%P 500 is under 760... good times. Still not near the bottom.

- Some black dude who claims he's the President of the United States was in my country yesterday. People were crying, hugging strangers, cheering, and generally being orgasmic over Obama's 7 hour visit. People are pathetic. Still, a warmer reception than Bushy got. But one of the best lines of W's career was uttered here - "I'd like to thank everyone who waved to me... with all five fingers." I wish we had a likeable leader. Or even one with a personality.

- So much stuff to do before leaving. Place needs to be cleaned, batteries charged, groceries bought. My brother (not the one in Whistler) is house/catsitting while I'm away, which means the place has to be liveable for company. Yes, my place will be in better shape for someone ELSE to live there. At least I got my laundry done yesterday.

- Dell is willing to arrange a pickup for the laptop sleeve they sent me. Dell also called me to talk about setting up a high speed Internet connection with Bell since I bought a new computer (I'm already WITH Bell and I cancelled the computer... bravo Dell, proving once again your integration of departments is top notch).

- Donkament tonight? Maybe. Lots of stuff to get done first though.

- Logitech VX Nano? Looks like the route I'll be going for a mouse. Stupid RF.

It's that time again. Kat's getting the Eh-Vegas ball rolling for 2009! This year it will be in the much warmer month of March! March 14th to be exact. Trust me, this is better than February or January here in sunny TO. There could be snow, but -20C is far less likely.

You know you want to come. What else you gonna do the second weekend of March?

Here we gooooo...

The first course... soup. Butternut squash and roasted garlic bisque.


It seems that people were enjoying themselves.


This is what the elk looked like a couple hours before it was served.


Gonna be sooo good.


Three amigos.


Now they're seasoned. Kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper. By hand. In a mortar and pestle.


Ready for the oven.


And out of the oven. Damn did this smell good.


A touch more roasty.


The main course. Elk, vegetables, mashed potatoes. Ugly plates.


Now THAT is a pairing.


Droooool...


And finally, dessert. Crème brûlée ice cream.


You have to use real vanilla folks. Delicious.


And THAT was the meal you missed out on if you didn't come.

Not food related, but since Kat's got her side of this pic up, I figure that mine should be too.

My camera battery died while I was taking pictures of dinner on Saturday. I haven't gotten around to charging it, and I don't have a CF card reader. Once the battery's charged, I'll get the pics up. Likely sometime tonight.

Tonight will also be when I finally finish the dishes and other cleanup from Saturday. Bloggers aren't necessarily a messy group, but 15 nuns would take me some time to tidy up after.

That said, I'm glad I've got plenty of leftovers. Even after giving a few servings of leftover soup and 1/2 an elk roast to my friend, I've still got 1/4 of a roast and at least 3-4 meals of soup left. Plus some potatoes and veggies. Lots of ice cream too.

Yah, I'll start that diet any day now.

-----

Here's a story from Eh-Vegas.

We were walking from the hotel to dinner on friday night. Along the way, the group split a bit. A group in the front, another straggling, and me alone in the middle. Some guy is standing in the street trying to hail cabs that already have passengers, and yells out randomly "get me a cab!"

Then he wanders over to me. "Hey man! Get me a cab! I've got like 10 minutes and I'm done!" I look around, no cabs.

"Don't think I can help you man."

"I need a cab man, I've got too much money."

?

"I'm serious, check it, I'm strapped. I've got a gun."

He opens his jacket to reveal a gun in his belt. I'm confused, but hardly worried, because he has a gun and too much money.

"I don't see any cabs."

"Portuguese man. Serious. The boss though, he's Italian. He's serious. I'm getting out man. 10 minutes, that's all I got and I'm done. I need to get there."

"Sorry man."

"Alright, keep it real man."

Fist comes out, I meet it with mine. Don't turn down a friendly gesture from a guy packing heat and obviously not entirely there.

He wanders off into the street again, and yells "get me a cab!"

Kat and Joanne wander up and I say, "I don't know what he's on, but keep it the fuck away from me."

------

While I hear the Pro-EH-dure was fun for those involved, the Friday night visit to the Brass Rail was somewhat dull. Dancers who have the enthusiasm of a wet boot and don't venture into your private area until one unfortunate drops $180 on one of them first can have that effect. Next time? We get a limo to Whiskey A-Go-Go's in Concorde. Waaaaaaay more fun.

Not that we didn't make our own fun after a little while on Friday.

------

Saturday I spent getting things ready. The tourney at the club was fun, even if BamBam flopped his set of 3's over my fishhooks. What he fails to mention is that as soon as we flipped over our cards (all-in preflop), he says, "I'm winning this one, just so you know." Followed by the 3 coming down HARD. Crippled me. Soon thereafter we merged to the FT and CK knocked me out of our second consecutive blogger live game with HER JJ vs my QJ (I pushed my small stack in early). D'oh.

The cash game (1/2) was equally fun, with a bunch of the crew, plus a couple of the club's staff/players who didn't feel like hitting the 5/5 game going on one table over. I was up for a bit before donking off a healthy portion to Kat's nut straight over my baby.

Iakaris showed up shortly after we all wrapped up. Kat, Jo, and I stuck around to chat with the good Dr. for a bit before calling it a night. The only Iak sighting of the weekend unfortunately.

------

Sunday was Niagara. I swung between donkey play and solid play. I made a few great calls, with one being useless when VinNay rivered 2 pair after I agonized on whether or not he had the straight or just a flush draw (neither) to my overpair. That stung. Mostly because I only called instead of listening to the voice that was yelling at me to push.

AA twice btw, both times when I was below my initial buy-in to more than double up. CK couldn't take 'em down with T7s. The other time, some donk decided that pushing with QQ into a 994 board was a good idea. No way he had a piece of that after pre-flop action.

But I ended up down after playing on tilt for a bit. I eventually decided to just have fun and keep the table chatter going at my end. I played the table entirely wrong, but had fun nonetheless. Final hand?

QQ. Raise before me to 12, I re-raise to 25, some prepubescent kid goes all-in short, raiser puts me all in, I call. K7KQ7 board... prepube has JT or some crap, and the raiser has... AKo!! Suck, re-suck, re-re-suck! I yell "BOOYA!" and show my cards nonetheless, and the say "I hate that river... I'm done." I stand up, put on my coat, and turn to leave when I hear "hey! why are you giving him the chips?" The dealer bought my act and pushed the pot to me! HAHAHA!! I, being far too honest for my own good, and knowing everyone at the table knew what was what, pointed out that kings full of 7's beats queens full of kings and left.

------

Skill game is tonight. I don't know if I'll be there or not. HOE ain't bad, but I've got shit to do, and haven't had enough sleep of late. Need to rest up for BBT3: Electric Boogaloo. Let me say, if you thought what Al had lined up for the Aussie millions was good... you ain't seen nothing yet.

As my alarms blared this morning, I was dreaming that it was 9:30am, and I was officially screwed in terms of work. In my dream I knew that I wasn't getting out of my place until 10:00 at the earliest, and yet I still didn't get out of bed. I figured I was fired.

Then my brain woke up a little bit more and made me look at a real clock. It was 7:20, and I had oodles of time. My body, however, decided it was exhausted and I wasn't going anywhere. Such is the morning after the end of Eh-Vegas 2008.

There will be pictures. In my case, mostly of food and possibly people enjoying it.

Drinking, dinner, drinking, being told we had to leave the hotel by a couple besuitted members of the staff, unenthusiastic strippers, cooking, cleaning (I hear others were brunching and checking out the Eh-fternoon shift at this time), feeding, drinking, pokering, Niagara, more poker, lots of losing, and tons of fun, all surrounded by good conversation, good times, and good people. If you weren't here... your loss.

To Al, Riggstad, CK, IG, Joanne, BamBam, Pebbles, DonKaa, QueenK, Carson, SuzyQ, Matt, PokerTart, Bankwell, VinNay, Iakaris, and anyone I missed - thanks for coming, and I hope you all had fun.

To Kat - great job organizing! Thanks you SO much for putting forth the effort yet again. The only thing I'd change? Somehow find a way to stop the weekend from ending... because today sucks ass in comparison to the past three days.

As evidenced below - soup's done!

Forgive the mixed measurement systems. 9 lbs of squash, 3 1/4 litres of chicken stock, around 10 cups of other veggies, and a few other ingredients = one big pot of butternut squash and roasted garlic bisque. Good thing I made space in the fridge.

A couple litres of crème brûlée ice cream in the freezer.

I'm getting there. The roasts are slowly thawing. I'm glad I'm giving them a few days to do so.

Tonight - round one of cleaning. Round two will be Saturday, along with setup of tables, chairs, and various other accoutrements. Forgive my lack of placemats, I'm sure it won't be a problem.

Tomorrow - I plan to get home as early as possible, change, and head out to wherever my fellow degenerates are at the time. Let's figure out where we're eating. Everything else can go from there.

A couple more options on the "things to do" list:

- Icefest in the Bloor/Yorkville area is this weekend, which is pretty close to you people staying in the Sutton Place.

- Or if you're the morbid type, check out the devestation of the biggest fire we've seen in a while here. Huge plume of smoke over the city most of yesterday.

Wow, is it Wednesday already? Yikes.

Eh-Vegas kicks off in 2 days! I have to feed 20 people in 3!

Last night I did the grocery run. Bag of potatoes, bag of onions, bag of carrots, bunch of celery, herbs, garlic, and 8.5 lbs of butternut squash, and lots more. Let's say 1 box and 8 or 9 bags of groceries. I still need to pick up some mix and bread.

Ice cream was finished Monday. It's all frozen up.

Soup will be done either tonight or tomorrow. I'm so happy I have an immersion blender. If I'm late for the Mookie, blame the soup.

And of course, there's over 3kg of elk thawing in my fridge. My friend Alyce just put up a post extolling the health benefits of Elk. Look at that chart and tell me you aren't even more tempted... low fat, low cal, aaaaalllll kinds of tasty. You know you want it.

By the way - dinner last night was an elk burger with caramelized onions, sauteed garlic mushrooms, tomato, dill relish, sweet & smokey mustard, sun-dried tomato pesto, applewood smoked cheddar, and a fried egg, all on a fresh onion bun. I have more elk in my freezer than anything else (11 patties, 2 tenderloins, a small roast, at least a dozen sausages... plus the roasts and a couple packs of pepperettes in the fridge). I may have a slight addiction...

Anyway, it should be all ready to go in the oven come Saturday afternoon. Now I just need to make sure I've got the extra table, chairs, plates, bowls, and cutlery all together and setup by then.

Oh, and I have to clean my place somewhere in there too. The less cat hair floating around, the better.

Ok, roasts are in stock, so I'll be heading to the store tonight to pick them up. Ice cream will be done this weekend (first batch is finished, 2nd batch will be cooked tomorrow and frozen Sunday). Soup ingredients and veggies for roasting will be purchased early next week and soup should be made by Thursday.

Saturday will involve roasting meat and vegetables, mashing potatoes, and making the yorkshire pudding once the meat is out of the oven. Kat - you've got the garlic bread handled, right?

Somewhere in there I'll restock whatever beer shortages I have. They should be minimal. I need to inventory my wine to see if I need something more suitable for the meal. Fuel suggested a Cab Bordeaux, and if there's any blogger I trust for wine selection, he's the man.

Of course, there's SoCo and copious amounts of other booze as well. That reminds me, I need to get some white grapefruit juice.

I'm just warning you now, you may have to eat off your laps. I have the space for everyone, but the seating/table availability could be tricky. I'm sure you'll manage. Or I could just buy a damned coffee table already...

Okay meat people. Quick question re: Eh-Vegas. This may just be for my sake of "talking" it out.

Any preferences on the roast? Current options are:

Sirloin Tip
Eye of Round
Top Sirloin

Bearing in mind that it's elk, and therefore incredibly lean (ie.- ZERO marbling). All three make a decent oven roast. The trick lies in not overcooking, especially since I'll be doing multiple roasts simultaneously (tend to come in a 3lb range.. with 14+ people coming to dinner so far, that means 3 roasts likely).

Right now, I'm leaning towards the top sirloin. Eye of round tends to be tougher. If I was slow-cooking instead of oven-roasting, then this would be fine. Sirloin tip is also tougher than top sirloin, and not as textured. This leaves the top sirloin, where the only major drawback is that it can be touchy and easy to overcook. That said, I'll be monitoring the temperature constantly, so it shouldn't be an issue.

So at the moment, top sirloin is the leader. Any objections?

That's pretty much where I am right now... guessing.

Let's ge to the point. Who's coming to my place for dinner Saturday night for Eh-Vegas? I need an idea of the attendees, so I know how much I'm making and how much stuff I need. Plus, I need to send you my contact info, address, directions etc.. Like hell I'm putting that stuff up here.

I can guess:

Me
Kat
Joanne
CK
Al
Riggstad
PokerTart
Bankwell
BamBam
Pebbles

How many other Tuckfards?
Who else? Are any of those wrong?

Leave a comment, or fire me an e-mail - astin at sympatico dot ca. Or fire Kat an e-mail and she can let me know. However you want to complicate things.

Menu recap.

Start

Butternut squash and roasted garlic bisque
Garlic Bread

Main

Roasted elk (or prime rib if elk unavailable)
Roasted vegetables
Mashed potatoes
Completely unnecessary jus/gravy
Popovers/Yorkshire pudding

Dessert
Homemade crème brûlée ice cream

Beverages
A selection of premium beers
A liquor selection to put many bars to shame
Wine if desired
Plenty of non-booze (juice, pop, water)
A selection of teas
Fresh roasted, fresh ground, fair trade, hand-brewed coffee.

Please let me know if you have any allergies or dietary restrictions.

Because you can never post too early, here are some tips for those coming on up in February, mostly for our US friends.

- If you're flying in from the States, you need a passport. This is your fault, not ours. We were quite happy with our friendly and open borders. Your special needs government pushed this requirement.

- If you're driving in from the States, you don't need a passport. You do need some ID (it used to be a driver's license and birth certificate... might still be.)

- Bring CANADIAN MONEY. Right now the exchange rate is pretty much back to par value, but that doesn't mean it's interchangeable. Lots of places here will take US cash, but you'll get raped on their exchange rates. Find a bank or money-changer and exchange it. Yes, our $1 and $2 only come in coin form. Yes, we have $2 coins. $1 is called a Loonie, $2 are a Toonie.

- Chances are pretty good it will be a tiny bit chilly here. Remember, we do things in CELSIUS up here. Conversion is (C x 9/5) + 32 to get to F. The quick & dirty method is (C x 2) + 30, but you'll lose some degrees here and there. So -5C = 23F. The mean temp in February in Toronto is -5C, so it's not that cold. It's NOT Siberia (or Winnipeg). That said, we have that lovely "wind chill" that makes it feel like -40C sometimes, but that's unlikely in late February. In short - bring layers, a warm jacket, gloves, and a hat, otherwise a 2 minute walk will feel like 30. It's a wet cold. Of course, we're on the positive side of the thermometer next week, so who knows where it'll be then.

- It also snows from time to time. Sidewalk cleaning is the responsibility of the building owners, so sidewalks are spotty at the best of times in terms of ice. Wear boots or shoes with a good tread, or you'll be on your ass. We also use a lot of salt around here, so if you're doing leather, protect it.

- Booze is sold from specified retailers in Ontario. Liquor, wine and some beer from the LCBO stores, Beer from... The Beer Store. There are also a few winery-specific wine stores. It's not available in grocery stores, convenience stores, or anywhere else. The latest any of these places is open is 10pm, with most closing earlier on weekends (8 or 9pm). So if you want some for your own consumption while here, go early. The club is BYOB, and there's an LCBO nearby, which is open until 9 nightly.

- Bars are abundant, and last call is 2am. You're out the door by 3am.

- Sulfur dioxide is only breatheable if you've been here for at least 3 months. Otherwise, pull the mask towards you and breathe normally. Affix your own mask before helping others.

- Public transit is easy. The TTC runs 3 subway lines, you'll only be concerned with 2 at most. There are numerous streetcar routes in the core as well, and some buses as well. Generally, the subway is done by 1:30am, with most of the streetcars running all night. When the subway is done, the blue line buses start up, nicknamed the "vomit comet". Cash fare is a flat $2.75, but it's cheaper if you buy tokens.

- Taxis are also abundant, and easier to catch than in NYC. Avoid looking like a moron and realize that if the light is off, they've already got a fare. Wave down the ones with the light on.

- Generally speaking, the CN Tower is south of you. Unless you can see the water behind you, in which case it's north. It's visible from just about everywhere.

- Yes, there's water. Toronto is on the shores of Lake Ontario - one of the Great Lakes. We Torontonians take this for granted, but you'd be surprised at how many people think we're completely land-locked.

- We lose gravity at 1:45am every night for about 15 minutes. Grab on to one of the readily-available handholds to avoid floating away. The bigger problem is if you're 5000ft up when gravity returns.

- Despite the proliferation of bottled water and Britas (I have one myself), Toronto has some of the cleanest drinking water in the world. The tap is perfectly safe.

- If you're mobile on Saturday and looking for something touristy to do before the evening: The CN Tower, Greek Town, Chinatown, Skating at City Hall or Harbourfront, The Eaton Centre, The Distillery District, Yorkville (high-end shopping), St. Lawrence Market, Queen St., Kensington Market, AGO, ROM, etc.. I personally find Toronto incredibly walkable, but it depends on your cold tolerance in the winter.

- Toronto's generally safe. I don't recommend strolling down dark alleys or large parks at 2am by yourself though.

- Asking "So what you got underneath that parka?" is a perfectly acceptable pickup line. If it actually works, I want full credit.

I've been sporadic in my appearances at blogger games of late. I have good reason for this. I expect that after next week however, I'll likely be back to my regular schedule of play. In fact, I might ramp up the play a bit for a while as a means of distraction. But I choose not to dwell on that part of the future right now as there will be plenty of time for that when it's time.

I think two people that read this will know what I'm talking about. The rest can guess.

Anyway, let's talk of more interesting things... like Eh-Vegas!!!

Less than a month to go before some brave souls make their way north (or south if you're a Tuckfard, and east if you're Joanne) to the Big Smoke, Hogtown, the T-Dot, T.O., Toronto, Ontario, Canada. I have no idea what the count is like. Last I checked it was something like 16 or so people, with a bunch of fence-sitters on top. CK just announced she's a lock, coming up with Al and Riggstad. Awesome. I haven't heard if our old compatriot Guin is making an appearance or not. He's practically non-existant these days with a new(ish) house, new company, and those other life-related things. Anyway, I'm not going to mention everyone, because I'll miss them. Except maybe that Iakaris is coming back to his hometown for the event too.

It'll be a blast. Gambling, drinking, degeneracy... and we have an all-night diner or two kicking around (although no Denny's. I think you have to drive a good 20-30 minutes before you hit one... no worries, Fran's is better). There's even more all-night Chinese restaurants though.

Quick details as I know them:

Friday Feb 22nd - Sunday Feb 24th

- Friday is dinner, drinks, and debauchery in various forms.
- Saturday is open during the day (good time to recover and sleep), with dinner and drinks at my place (let's say 5ish) and a tourney at our local club around 7 (800m walk from my place, or 1/2 mile for the yanks). I have no idea what I'm going to do for plates, bowls and cutlery...  a cheap dish run may be in order.
- Sunday, for those still around and willing will likely involve brunch and a trip to Niagara for some casino action.

Kat's got hotel suggestions and whatnot as well.  Do you really want to miss out? I didn't think so.

First, Kat's got the latest Eh-Vegas deets up. Go check 'em out, I'll wait.

So you're coming, right? The igloos are all cleaned, the polar bears have been shooed away, and the seal hunt should be very productive. Remember, the pups are the most tender. You should see the strippers too. After the 17th layer of furs is off... HAWT!

Man, you are so gullible. It's not like that at all here. They only wear 10 layers. It's not Winnipeg. The Canadians are laughing now. The Yanks are scratching their heads and/or bellies in confusion. Replace "Winnipeg" with "Fargo" and you'll get it.

Basically, it's 1:39pm, and I can't believe it's not 3 yet. I'm avoiding work. Funny that. I've already ranted about the Leafs and given out Ballet info. So what to write about? Poker maybe? Can't say I really have much new to say on the subject. I'll randomly take some words and see if I can come up with something poker-related.

Wow.. that was interesting. "poker monkey esso spectrum analgesic" is not a very useful Google search.

But it did have the word "ante" in the top result. Let's go with that. I promise nothing revolutionary, but you never know what might strike a chord.

Back in "the day", when all I knew about was draw poker (let's say I was 12 or 13), the ante was king. I'd never heard of a "blind". You tossed in your chip to play the hand. It was the way of things. Phrases like "penny-ante" or "ante up!" made sense.

Then I discovered Hold 'em (let's say I was 25 or thereabouts... yah, bit of a run of ignorance in there), and was introduced to the blinds. I was very confused. Small blind? Big blind? How could you tell the difference? It's totally unfair that I have to pay but nobody else does. This makes no sense! That lasted about 2 orbits. But where had the antes gone?

Then I found out they come much later, and then only if you play tournaments. Again, I was confused. Why do we need antes now? Blinds were working just fine. Now you want MORE of my money when I might not even want to play my cards? WTF? And why is this only sometimes? How come some places don't have an ante? Again, after sitting and thinking for a moment, it all kind of made sense.

Nothing should open your eyes to tournament structure more than the introduction of antes. They change the game profoundly. The number of orbits you can survive drops drastically as you're now adding at least 225 chips per orbit you have to pay out on top of the blinds. Say it's 100/200/25. 3000 chips, instead of being an M of 10 at 100/200, is now an M of 5.7. You'd better hurry up and play Mr. tighty-pants.

But as with most things in poker, you're paying this extra price for something in return. In this case, it's everyone else's antes. Watch the table tighten up as people realize they stack is less healthy than a level before. If you're live, the confusion of having to put in that extra chip plays a deep psychological role as well. People tighten up. Position's value just increased tremendously. Steal those antes and blinds. So much dead money in the pot without anyone playing a damned thing. If you're playing online, the confusion is replaced by ignorance and apathy. People don't even realize an ante is being taken from them then, and don't adjust their play accordingly. Again, an opportunity for some steals and draws to pay off huge.

Pay attention to your bet-sizing when the antes kick in too. 3x the BB without antes means someone outside the blinds is looking at calling 3:2 odds of the pot. Once antes kick in, that same 3x bet means that same person is calling just over 2:1 for the pot. That's no small difference in pot odds. Ignorance of this fact can lead to missed opportunities for the caller and seemingly bad beats against the raiser.

What antes SHOULD do is open up the aggression. If it's a blogger game, this means you have to weather push-n-pray bingo until stacks get consolidated into larger amounts. If it's a bigger tournament, it means fighting against selective aggression from the 1 or 2 players who are paying attention. In reality, antes tend to open up the weak/aggressive divide even more. The tight players will make moves at pots with hands they're willing to see cards with, and will ramp up the aggression with solid hands only. The loose ones will go with ATC based purely on position or the play at the table. Weak players will fold themselves into oblivion and lie down to reraises with anything other than premium cards. Aggressive players will be the ones taking advantage of this. Again, the amount of dead money in the middle of the table makes risk-taking far more worthwhile for some. Stealing a couple pots pre-flop will do wonders for your chipstack. Enough that if you get caught once in awhile, you can afford to recoil back, hissing and clawing.

If you're a shortstack when the antes kick in, this is your time to fly up that ladder. The chips you're losing every time you don't play are far more valuable than they are to the big stacks. Remember, the increased pot sizes means your fold equity has just dropped dramatically, so take advantage of what little you have. Hmm.. fold equity. That's another post.

So antes. Love 'em or hate 'em? Personally, I like them fine in a slow structure, but they absolutely suck in a rapidly-escalating blind structure, where you're already looking at a low average M with no end in sight. 10-15min online, or 30 min live and antes are okay by me. Less than that and you're just flipping a coin by the end.

Wow, that's far more than I expected to write about a random poker topic.

Right! Procrastination... I'll get to that later.

Alan asked a question re: Toronto's... entertainment during Eh-Vegas. Anyone offended by the idea of a strip club should just skip the rest.

Things to note before I write any more:

- The smallest bill we have here is $5. Dancers don't take kindly to coins being held out for them.
- A private dance generally runs $20 per song. If you make the effort, you can probably swing a bulk deal.
- Toronto = fully nude + booze.
- Buy in bottles only. I think this holds true for clubs the world over.
- This ain't Vegas. Last call is 2am.

Okay. So are there numerous strip clubs in and around the city. Or as they're more affectionately called... the ballet.

From best to worst that are actually IN Toronto:

The Upper Brass (upstairs Brass Rail - $20 cover)
The Brass Rail
For Your Eyes Only (upstairs = $20)
Zanzibar
Jilly's
Filmore's

They really drop off after For Your Eyes Only, with the bottom two being best avoided, for both neighbourhood and quality. There could be a few more in there that I've overlooked.

About 15-20 min west of downtown, you'll find The House of Lancaster, which is dated, but decent.

Once you get to Mississauga you've got The Landing Strip (by the airport naturally), and others.

Then comes the best in the area, which is in Concorde, about 30min by car out of downtown - Whisky A Go-Go's. Busy, fun, more.. discerning hiring practices, features, etc.. The first rule of Whisky is if a woman comes on stage she has to show the goods. So there's even a bit of amateur action happening. The downside being that it IS a drive away... and there's a $5 cover.

A lest we forget Niagara Falls and the Sundowner (and others, but really, the Sundowner has the rep).

There lies about all the info I can provide.

Maybe I should talk to Kat about this first. After all, she is the organizer of Eh-Vegas.

Okay, talked to Kat.

Let's see. BamBam expresses an interest in perhaps a meal by yours truly. With BamBam comes Pebbles, and I'd imagine the rest of the TuckFards. Al is pretty certain he'll be making it up, but "lock it in" if I'm doing a prime rib. Where goes Al, so goes Riggstad, or something. I know LJ and CK have both drunkenly said they're coming (but I won't hold them to it), and I imagine the promise of food would add further enticement. Irongirl and Kat have both threatened to randomly show up one day and demand food. And if Joanne is really coming, how could I possibly not have her over for dinner?

So I guess I'm cooking. IF it fits in the schedule. If we're going to the club, then it's ideal. If we're doing a home game... well it depends where that will happen. I lack the necessary table and chair numbers to host anything larger than a single table game. I suppose if people wanted to bring extra seating equipment, then I could accommodate. Haven't picked which night yet.

Anyway, here's my tentative menu, just to add further incentive. I can't really think of a different option with the potential numbers:

Starter:
Butternut Squash and Roasted Garlic Bisque
Garlic Bread

Main:
Roast Elk (if not available, or prohibitively expensive, the alternate is prime rib)
Roast Vegetables
Mashed Potatoes
Gravy

Dessert:
Creme Brulee Ice Cream

Everything homemade of course. Except maybe the bread... we'll see.

As for drinks... the list of what's in my fridge is always to the left. Toss in a hard liquor collection that puts most bars to shame and worries my friends (I tell them that as long as the bottles are full, I'm not an alcoholic), an ever-growing and improving wine selection, and of course a bunch of non-alcoholic options, and I think that's covered. I suppose this bottle could be opened:



So who's interested?