PLH Skillz, and Buddydank Radio

So Tuesday night was a mixed bag on the poker front for me. After winning about a buyin at the $100 nl tables on pokerstars, I went 0-for-3 in the earlier part of the evening in the $55 turbo sngs on full tilt, two of those losses coming on stoopid suckouts (AK losing to shorty's A5 allin preflop, and 88 losing to AQ allin on a JJ5 flop). The third loss came when I literally saw one flop (and no turns or rivers) for the first 28 hands dealt to me -- which is basically death right there in a turbo format sitngo -- and then finally found AJs which I pushed allin with on a short stack, only to get called by AK and IGH in 7th place. I also got recockulously beat out of the 5050 fairly deep into it when some assclown insta-called my top-pair flop bet with just an inside straight draw (no overcards even) for crying out loud, then filled on the turn and stacked my aggro ass because I could not put him on that hand. Silly me. Yes it happens, but all that sucked the big one. Fortunately, I ended the night by running my first $110 turbo sng in a couple of weeks -- thank you, end of year Iron Man bonus! -- and after surviving not one but two recockulous suckouts in that thing as well, I still managed to hold on for the victory. I've mentioned this before, but it is pretty sweet winning one of these $110 turbos, as it pays $495 for the win and even $297 for second place which is also pretty great. So my cash wins along with that $495 more than made up for the rest of the day's losses and left me solidly up overall on the night, which is always a good result whenever I take my usual 10-15 suckouts like I certainly did throughout all my Tuesday evening play. I swear it is a serious curse getting in ahead all the time, it really is.

Moving on to the latest Skill Series tournament, I really enjoyed myself as 42 buttclowns got together for some pot-limit holdem on full tilt at 9:30pm ET. I played fairly well, but somebody hit me for a large loss early on to get me short stacked, where I basically would stay for the next 90 minutes of the tournament. I don't remember the hand that got me, but I do remember thinking it was pretty funny so that probably means it was a setup, a suckout or just a bad play by someone. Who knows. And it doesn't really matter anyways, I play these tournaments to have fun and that's what I did. I do know that I played the short stack pretty masterfully, sitting within the bottom few spots remaining almost all throughout the first hour and a half of the event, until finally someone got me. Again I don't remember the hand or who it was who mercifully ended my annoyingass short-stacked run, but again I do remember thinking it was pretty funny. Who knows why, like I said it doesn't really matter. But I think these Skill Series games have been a great time for everyone, and as long as we can continue to keep the chatbox clean then I think they are some of the most fun our group has every single week. And congratulations out to this week's Skill Series winner, everyone's favorite disc jockey Buddy Dank himself! Buddy wins his first of the Skill Series events and shows that he is more than just a bubbly on-air personality and a tangy piece of eye candy, but he can also play this game and play it well. PLH is generally thought of as a higher-skill game than limit or in many cases even than no-limit since you can't generally just push allin before the flop, and to win this really says something about someone's skills as a holdem tournament player in general, so congratulations to Mr. Dank for the big win.

And this makes for a perfect segue into what I wanted to talk about today: Buddydank Radio. Now I know I have written here on the blog about this incredible web-broadcast radio program that Buddy has been putting together for the better part of the past year now, but today I wanted to take some time to really talk about some aspects of the show. Every Wednesday night, the Mookie runs, which as most of you know is the largest gathering of bloggers every week to play in a private tournament,and which is also the Tournament That I Simply Cannot Win. Every Wednesday night, therefore, I get absolutely sloppy sloshed on Captain & Coke or a number of beers, preparing for the inevitable running an overpair into quads on the flop, the flonkey calling my preflop allin with T9o and winning or some other shit like that which I have to get good n liquored up just to be able to handle. And for the past several months, Buddydank has been saving his best stuff of the week on Wednesday as well, broadcasting live over the intertubes all during the Mookie, and bringing on some awesome guests on occasion to help liven things up a bit. Last week as you may recall, I joined Buddy and co-host Miami Don, and guest hosts ScottMC and KOD in a marathon 4 1/2-hour broadcast session where we shared online poker stories, told some jokes, did some serious degenerate gambling and even spent some time evaluating the poker luck of some of our fellow blogger brethren. And I have big news for you all regarding this week's show:

We're all coming back on again tonight.

That's right. The "Asshat Frat Crew" as we have been dubbed of Don, Scott, Chad and myself will be joining Buddy back on Buddydank Radio again this week for a repeat performance in what I believe is Don's last week of "controlling" the show thanks to the Jaguars beating down on Buddy's Pittsburgh Steelers in the first round of the playoffs a few weeks back. For those of you who listened last week, hopefully you had a good enough time to want to tune back in tonight for the festivities, where I can promise you we have lots more good stuff planned for your listening and laughing pleasure. And for those of you who did not tune in last week:

Why the hell not? I'm serious here now guys. I'm sure there are a few people with valid reasons, as I myself have had some issues in the past with sleeping kids and sleeping wives "and whatnot" to make it a little difficult to tune in to Buddydank Radio, but at least in the early part of the evening, I can almost always dial in for some ghey good tunes, good entertainment and great laughs. Now here's the thing: I know that Buddy's all-time record for concurrent listeners has been in the 50s. This is a number that has been reached on two occasions -- first, the live-from-Vegas broadcast from Chad's basement during the week of the live blogger gathering this past December. The second time we had 50 people tuned it at once was last week with the AFC in da house along with Buddy to guide things along. Now don't get me wrong, I love that 50 different people are tuning in to Buddydank Radio at one time, I think that is great, it helps foster our community and just in general I am really pleased to have a bunch of people logging in all at once to hear the guys do their show. But here's what I don't get -- if the Mookie has, say, 80 to 90 runners, then why are only 50 people listening to Buddydank Radio? Shouldn't that number be at least 80 or 90, or at least somewhere close to it? That's what I'm thinking anyways.

So I've spent some time this week since getting on air with the AFC last week in trying to figure why even more people haven't been listening. Yes I know we were up at a near-record last week, which is great, but I can't help but think, there are hundreds and hundreds of people who read these blogs, and therefore hundreds and hundreds of people who would love the shit out of listening to Buddydank Radio if given the chance, which we all have. The major thing I can think of is that people either don't know how to get it all set up on their pc's, or just don't want to take the time to do what people assume will be a big effort. In reality, it could not be easier to listen to Buddydank Radio on any regular old computer. You don't need any special plugins or special external software to listen. Today Budday updated his blog with instructions on the best ways to listen, which I am going to just copy right here directly from Buddy's blog:

I recently had some requests for information on the best way to listen to BuddyDank Radio. I'd written this up awhile ago but it needs updating, so here we go.



First off! BuddyDank Radio is here!



You have several options for listening to the broadcast. On the main page you will see a couple links.
1. IceCast Test(low latency) - This is the best way to listen to BDR. It has the shortest delay so you can hear everything as close to when it happens as possible. This link will work with Windows Media Player, Winamp, iTunes, and many other media programs. When you listen to this stream it is usually only about 5-10 seconds behind the action.



2. WinAMP/iTunes - This link easily works with the two players listed. BUT! When you listen to this version of the stream you will be hearing everything 30 - 90 seconds behind. If you have a slower internet connection or a problematic one then this may work better for you. We are slowly trying to eliminate this stream and go completely to the IceCast in the next few weeks to why not use that one now?



3. Media Player - This link was designed to work specifically with Window Media Player. This stream is also 30-90 seconds behind the live action. This link is normally a last ditch effort for those having trouble listening to the stream at all. If the other 2 don't work for you and you have Windows, Try this one.



And that's about it, simple eh? Having problems? Got questions? Contact BuddyDank at buddy@buddydank.com or you can find me on Yahoo messenger. Screen name is Cracksmokingrobot.



Tune in tonight for the last special broadcast of MiamiDon/Instant Tragedy radio! The same crew that brought you last weeks show will be back! MiamiDon, Cracknaces, ScottMc and Hoyazo will be your hosts, so tune in damn it.
We are doing our best to attempt to break the maximum number of listeners at one time for BDR. The record is 54 and last week we had 52 so this should be doable.

So it really is that simple, folks. At most you might need to download a free media player from someone on the intertubes, but even that is unlikely. I used to listen on Winamp as recommended above by Buddy, but one day for whatever reason I had some trouble with the audio on the feed, so I went and downloaded the free Yahoo! Music application, something Buddy does not even mention as an option in his writeup above, and since then I have had absolutely no trouble whatsoever tuning in every week I can to listen to Buddy and his boys kick it old school on the airwaves. I just open up Winamp or Yahoo! Music, click on "open up URL", and type "http://www.buddydank.com:9000/listen.pls" for the URL address to open, and after about five seconds or so, voila! Buddydank Radio live, coming right out of the speakers on my pc. It could not be easier, and anybody with a computer that accesses the full tilt application to be playing in the Mookie should obviously be able to listen to Buddydank Radio as well. Except for you donks who actually play online poker from your work, I don't know if you can listen to Buddydank Radio from there or not.

But the rest of you, what is your excuse at this point? I know a ton of people read this blog, far more people than have ever tuned in to Buddydank Radio at one time for one of the weekly broadcasts during the Mookie. So let's make tonight the night and everyone get on there and listen in and see what you think about making this part of your weekly Wednesday routine. Ever wondered what my voice sounds like live? Ever wanted to know if I'm as much of a whiny pompous-ass bitch as I seem on the blog? Tonight is your chance to find out, as I plan to be on hopefully from the beginning to the end just like last week.

Last thing -- just like last week we have some fun stuff planned for tonight's broadcast, so we're really hoping that people will tune in to follow along with the progress in the Mookie and whatever else comes up along the way, in addition to hearing whatever else the AFC has on our minds during the evening's festivities. I will update right here later if we have any more details as to just what else is going to be on the show for the night, but otherwise, I'll see you tonight at 10pm ET on full tilt for the Mookie (password as always is "vegas1"), and I'll see you tonight starting sometime before 10pm ET on Buddydank Radio!!