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January 02, 2006
A Busy Year - SXSW & WSOP
Once again, a new year, full of promise. Like everyone, I have a slew of goals for myself this year, most of them personal/professional, with a few random poker goals in the mix. I have no idea what the coming year will bring, but I do know that this will be a very bittersweet year.
Assuming the cooperation of the UT summer schedule, this will be my last year in Texas. Growing up, I never thought I would leave Houston, much less Texas. Having been raised a good East Texas girl, the romantic notion of what it meant to be a Texan was firmly implanted in me. I was living in the best place on earth - everything I could ever want was no more than a day's drive away. Beaches to the south of me, mountains to the west, rolling hills to the north - why would I ever need to leave?
Once college called though, I debated between several schools, all of them in Texas but not a one in Houston. While I loved my hometown and everything it offered, I wanted a change. I turned down a scholarship from a school in Dallas and packed my bags for UT. I left home just as soon as was possible, without it appearing as if I simply couldn't wait to get the hell out of home.
I hated Austin at first. Such a slow, laid back town. It was a bit of culture shock, coming from Houston, where leaving the house at 6 to make it to a show by 7:30 was the norm, to Austin, where a typical response to a request for a ride somewhere was a whine of "Dude, that's 15 minutes away!!". In addition, there was the comical aspect of the nightly news. Headlines of the murders and other various crimes of the day were replaced with human interest stories about the first day of classes at UT (a week long news-event) and the politics surrounding salamanders and bike lanes.
It wasn't long though before I, like so many before me, fell to the charms of this great town. A booming tech-central city offering jobs that attract people from all over the world, all while retaining its college-town, hippy vibe. I quit watching the news because there was nothing of interest on. My 10 minute drive to work became the longest journey I would take. Instead of raising an eyebrow when I spotted a homeless man in a pink tutu on a downtown corner, I voted for him for mayor. And while I missed the museums, familar clubs, plays, concerts, and sports offerings of my home town, I fell into place, embracing the Live Music Capital of the World status and taking advantage of all it had to offer.
I had never heard of SXSW before I moved to Austin. Once I did though, it seemed like a dream come true. Thousands of bands from all over the world, descending upon my city for a week, and all I had to do was buy a $65 wristband and I could see them ALL? I invited my best friend Jana and our friend Mike to come into town for the week. Jana and I, having always been prone to the more obscure and lesser-known bands, poured over the festival listings and made our plans for what shows to hit. We had a great time, just hanging out in smoke-filled bars and lounges, listening to good music.
That was 10 years ago. I've never bought a wristband since.
The reason for that can best be summed up via the graffiti I spotted on a bathroom door during a trip to a popular downtown club to see The Decemberists. SXSW had recently come and gone, and things downtown were slowly returning to normal, it taking a bit longer last year due to the presence of the Real World kids as well. Upon entering the stall, I laughed outloud at the big black letters on the door which proclaimed "Welcome to Austin. Now go the fuck home." Suffice to say, some of us handle the tourist invasion better than others.
The problem is, they're not just normal tourists. They're record industry execs, film producers, big name web-types, ego-inflated muscians and their entourages, and starry-eyed wannabees. They manage, as I told Ryan over lunch at Caesar's, to turn this town into a mini-LA. Normally I would follow up with a "Not that there's anything wrong with that" but in this case, there is. Austin is supposed to be the anti-LA, a place where movies get made but no one gives a damn, a place where a group of guys can go from practicing in their garage to sharing the stage with big-name musicians, because the big-names play in the same little dives that are open to the little guys. For a couple of weeks every March, that spirit diminishes just a little - you're more likely to run into a yuppie hipster passing out business cards than you are the aformentioned mayoral candidate. It's hard for someone who lives here to take, as all the places that make Austin cool and unique suddenly become the center of the mainstream world. That said, it's still a great experience and an awesome time, one where you can see big-names and get a look at those who are just beginning their path to stardom. And did I mention the cold beer?
It's because of this love-hate relationship with SXSW that my first reaction to Scott's suggestion of a blogger tourney held at the same time was something along the lines of "Hell no". But then, during a drive home where I reflected on the future, it hit me - this would be my last year in Austin. No more Magnolia. No more Shady Grove. No more 6th Street. No more South Congress. While I know I'm not leaving forever; I'll be back to visit friends; I know I won't be coming back to the same place - it changes far too fast. While I'm excited at the prospect of moving on and doing different things, the fact remains that I chose to make Austin my home and it's not going to be easy to leave. Hence the decision that I can't think of a better time than a week of cold beer, good music, and good friends. Hot Texas women should be an enticement to many of you as well.
The very loose plan at the moment is to a have a tourney on Saturday, March 18th, and in general treat the weekend as one big party. Scott is checking with his connections to see if we can take over a downtown bar for the day, but baring that, Adam has the facilities and has (as always) graciously offered to host. Details are just starting to come out on the SXSW website, but in general, every club in town will have a full lineup every night, and while there is certainly no harm in getting a wristband or other registration for the conference, it's not a requirement. However, between the film, music, and interactive/web portions of the conference, I imagine some of you could make a case for writing the trip off as a business expense. I mention this little party so early in advance because hotel rooms in the city go fast this time of year. I can certainly offer shelter to a few, and perhaps some of my blogging brethren can as well. Just let us know if housing is an issue. Otherwise I'm seriously considering playing host family to a hott young band from some far-off locale.
If you've never been to Austin, here's your chance to visit one of the coolest cities in the world during one of the best times possible. The weather is amazing in March, there's tons to do, and you can take it all in along with your fellow bloggers. And with three blocks of bars on 6th Street alone, we'll never run out of SoCo.
_____________________________________
Planning this little weekend should serve as a nice warm-up for the other big item on my plate - planning the next WPBT trip. Because I want this to be the post with the most comments ever, I'm opening up the floor for discussion on that all important issue of when. Where is also a consideration, but given that the (albeit limited) tradition is to hit Vegas during the WSOP, I'm operating under the assumption that the general consensus is to do that. Alternative suggestions are certaintly open. As we get bigger as a group, we start to create our own little gatherings, like our Austin tournies, Bradoween, and the LA Classic. It's only natural for that to happen - it just takes one person announcing they're having a party and inviting everyone to it. Given that only the most jet-setting amongst us can possibly make every little event, I personally think that it's great that we all manage to find our way to Vegas at least once a year. There are other gambling locales though, and we can certainly give them a try. Bill did a great job running down the possibilites, rather than re-inventing the wheel, I'll just point you there.
But again, if we're talking about a summer trip, it seems only natural that a bunch of poker-obsessed degenerates would end up at the WSOP. If we do go that route, the question becomes when to go. Take a look at the schedule. Do we go at the start, like we did last year, and hit the $1,500 NL event? Or do we go at the end, during the Main Event, and try to get a blogger in there? There are $1,000 NL events during that time too, but remember most of the pros and other big names will be otherwise occupied.
Some things that have crossed my mind in thinking about this -
- If we go for the Main Event, in August, how will that affect the Winter Classic? Assuming that trip remains in December, you're talking about taking off again (possibly for Vegas) within another 4 months. I of course would head to Vegas every month if I could, and I know some of you who do, but everyone's situations are different. How would having two events so close to each other affect turnout? Do you push the Winter Classic back? Or head out as early as possible in the summer?
- What do we want to focus on - getting as many bloggers as we can into the WSOP (in the low buy-in events) or getting one, maybe two into the Main Event? [Details on how we might do this can be found here and here.]
- If we put someone in the Main Event, there's no way we can all be there for the duration of the event. So do we go for the start or the final table?
- Online sats to the Main Event are a dime a dozen. To the smaller events, not so much. Both events are equally star-studded.
- Also, consider the weekend of July 14th. You've got two NL events, a LHE event, and two Omaha events running then. Do we want to consider branching out to other events? How about we go on the weekend of July 22nd and storm the Razz event?? Come on, who's with me??.......Wimps. ;)
These are just the things that happened to pop in my mind at first glance. If anything else jumps out at you, by all means speak up. We are, at the core, a bunch of random people who happened to meet via our shared love of poker and writing, and who have thus far been able to acheive great things without having any sort of formal organization. If you have an idea, let's hear it. My e-mail, comments, and IM are always open. I do ask that you please keep in mind that in planning an event such as this, there is no way to make everyone happy. The dates won't work for some, some people would rather play in a $1,500 event vs. the Main Event, and vice versa, etc. etc. We can't debate everything to death, but everyone can speak up on their preference.
So get to it...
UPDATE (1/2, 8:51pm)
Gracie brings up a good point about the weekend of the 9th. Also, in talking with Iggy, we think it would be great to get some people in a limit event as well. There are really only three weekends that offer both a limit and NL event. (For the purpose of weekend, I'm counting Thursday-Monday). Below is a chart that breaks those weekends down.
Posted by April at January 2, 2006 06:15 PM
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Comments
There's a nice selection of NLHE events the weekend of the July 9th, including the Women's Only I'll likely play in. I believe Facty's up for it as well. If you can stomach it, you should play too! (I know not everyone feels the same about such events.) Anyway, it's early in July leaving a nice six months between blogger get-togethers. Assuming we all go back next December, that is. And it's a good month before the pure madhouse Vegas becomes during the Main event.
Just an idea!
Posted by: gracie at January 2, 2006 06:58 PM
I'm planning to be there for the weekend of the 9th to play the $1K event on the 10th, so that would be my vote :).
Posted by: Falstaff at January 2, 2006 09:48 PM
Hey now! The 10K PLO event is the weekend of the 9th as well!
Posted by: gracie at January 2, 2006 10:02 PM
My thoughts...
1) I can take vacation between June 29th and July 26th. So if the decision is to go then, I won't be able to join you :-(
2) I've sent out feelers about getting bloggers into various events. If you want to take on the task of scheduling the WPBT live event and everything, perhaps someone else (maybe me) could take on the task of setting up tourneys to get bloggers into the WSOP.
3) If we have these WSOP satellites, I don't think we need to schedule our trip around the events. For example, if you guys go in the middle of July and I win a satellite, I'll probably just go out on my own in August. The player who wins the satellite can choose whatever event they want.
Not sure I've helped at all... but that's all I got right now.
Posted by: CJ at January 2, 2006 10:34 PM
I'm with Gracie - I like Weekend B. :) If you do it much later, a second trip in December becomes an improbability for a lot of people.
Posted by: Shelly (phlyersphan) at January 2, 2006 10:42 PM
Regarding the sats, I had no plans on taking that over. Several people had already posted about plans for running sats, plus I kinda defaulted to Iggy spearheading that, just cause he's Iggy and he does that sort of thing. :) Whoever wants to do it can, but I think we need to coordinate what events we're doing sats for and not have three different groups of people running them. If the point is to get as many people in as possible, no sense in having competition of sorts between the sats. (If that makes sense).
I understand what CJ is saying about people using the buyins they might earn for whatever event they want, regardless if it happens to fall during the WPBT event. However, I think that part of the fun is that you're there to support the people you've helped send to the event, like we did last time. And then that way when they win, you can demand they pick up the bar tab. :) This could just be me though, and if the group decides it doesn't matter, cool. Of course if someone were to win a sat and not be able to attend during the same time as the rest of us, I doubt anyone would deny that person the opportunity to buyin to another event.
Posted by: April at January 2, 2006 11:11 PM
Oh, and Vegas actually isn't that bad during the ME, at least during final table time. You get a little tougher competition in some of the ring games as a result of the ME players dropping out, and there being less tourists in general because it's 130 outside. But as far as the crowds in the rest of the casinos, not that much worse than any other time. In my experience at least. :)
Posted by: April at January 2, 2006 11:14 PM
Thanks for starting this discussion now! Most of my vacation time for the year is already planned. The week of the Austin blogger tourney is our annual Spring Break trip, and then we have our family trip in the middle of June.
I will do my best to make it out to Vegas for the next get-together.
Posted by: Jaxia at January 3, 2006 12:31 AM
Not that I have much hope of making it to Vegas this year but weekend B looks like it does have a nice mix of events.
-Mike
Posted by: Mike H at January 3, 2006 12:34 AM
I've been eyeing the weekend of the 9th myself for the ladies and the non-rebuy $1K. But I'll drive out whenever...;)
Posted by: change100 at January 3, 2006 12:36 AM
Thanks for stepping up, April.
I'm down for whatever the consensus is, but I'd rather have the plans set sooner rather than later so that we can get the best deal possible on rooms.
Posted by: StudioGlyphic at January 3, 2006 02:48 AM
Studio said 'exactly' what I was gonna say...
Posted by: Slayre at January 3, 2006 07:18 AM
Of course I'm biased towards playing in Weekend A, but would settle for Weekend C for the O8 tourneys.
But, I'll go whenever the bloggers will be there since two weekends of Vegas in the same month would be out of the question.
Posted by: Drizztdj at January 3, 2006 11:08 AM
Drizz, how bout I start saving pennies now to put you in the event on the 6th?
Posted by: April at January 3, 2006 11:55 AM
I suck at poker so it doesn't matter. Plus, I'm ugly and fat. I'm in for Austin but where is the tournament going to be held? What is going to be the buy-in? What pros are going to show? If I win can I meet Willie Nelson, George Staight, Stevie Ray...oh, he's no longer with us. O.k. just put me down for both events.
Posted by: Joaquin Ochoa at January 3, 2006 12:16 PM
You have your picture taken with Stevie Ray...'s statue. We might be able to find Willie, but I haven't seen George around town lately.
Tourney will probably be a $50 buyin. Hopefully we can get a bar downtown to host, otherwise we'll play over at Adam's.
It's gonna be a blast, glad you're heading out.
Posted by: April at January 3, 2006 12:26 PM
Any of those dates work for me so whatever the consensus decides is fine. Thanks for taking this on, I know you'll do great.
Posted by: April H. at January 3, 2006 05:39 PM
I can make it any time so there is no preference. Just tell me where to be and when.
Posted by: StB at January 3, 2006 05:58 PM
Like I said before I'm fine hosting.
There's questionable legality in us hosting a cash buyin tournament in a bar (or other public venue).
AFA Vegas - I'll already be out there the first two weeks of the WSOP.
Posted by: Adam at January 3, 2006 07:08 PM
Oh, you and your "legality". You just don't want to leave the house. ;)
Posted by: April at January 3, 2006 07:17 PM
I spoke to the "MAN" that owns the bat I had in mind and he said no go for that weekend becuase he will have bands open to close everyday that week.
Adam how you feel bout hosting?
Posted by: ScottMc at January 4, 2006 12:00 PM
I'm in for just about any weekend for Vegas. I likely won't be playing any events so it's all the same to me.
As for the Austin blogger tourney, I would be unlikely to play unless the band selections *really* suck on Saturday and there are no good day shows. I'm a sucker for SXSW so I'm actually going to be taking wed-fri of of work so I can go to all the day events too. If anyone is interested in coming along for that, let me know.
Posted by: gus at January 5, 2006 12:11 AM
I haven't played with you all yet, but I am hoping too. I would love to meet some of you local players...
Posted by: Brian at January 10, 2006 10:32 PM
Hello there,
I've seen some of you in the WWdN PokerStars tourneys, and you may have seen me as yestbay1. It doesn't look like my schedule is going to fit with a trip to Vegas during the WSOP; other vacation plans for that time frame are in the works. However, I might be able to make the drive down to Austin from up here in Dallas for the March tourney; I'll have to check on that. I would love to get out to Vegas next December if there is another Winter Classic then. I hope to meet some of you in person sometime soon. Meanwhile, I'm thinking of driving up to Winstar in OK on Friday to check it out. Live poker for real money - I hope I remember how that works.
Posted by: Dave Westbay at January 11, 2006 12:13 PM
I'll be there whenever it may be - no preference. Cant Wait!
Posted by: Joanne at January 26, 2006 12:59 PM