Maudie at PokerWorks

A couple of weeks ago I hit the pause button where this blog is concerned. I believe most people who know me are aware of the reason why, but for those who don’t, the reason was due to the death of my father.

He’d lived a long, full life - 90 years worth. I returned to Oregon to be with my family, which ended up being the “B-12″ shot in the arm I was in dire need of. I wrapped myself in the comfort of my brother, niece, nephew, niece-in-law, grand-nephew and grand-niece and was sans internet, sans poker, sans work.

We shared a ton of laughter, memories, and celebrated my grand-nephew’s eleventh birthday. I also learned that my niece and niece-in-law are both pregnant and due in December!

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It’s poker tournament season not only in the Las that is Vegas but in the Okla that is Homa.

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At Cherokee Casinoin Tulsa, the third installment of the Scotty Nguyen Poker Challenge is underway. The tournament runs through the end of the month and attracts some of the best players in the region if not best players, period.

Sunday, Oklahoma Poker is sponsoring a tournament at which yours truly just might make an appearance. The buy-in is a mere $55 for 3000 chips - that, plus I’ve only been to Firelake Casino once, may get me out of the house on Saturday afternoon. Plus, I’d like the opportunity to meet some of the guys who’re are behind Oklahoma Poker and say “hey.”

Riverwind Casino is blowing up a Storm of a poker tournament in June. It’ll be a $250,000 prize pool if they get 250 entrants. They’ve kept that fact buried in the teeny tiny print. Don’t bother going to the web-site for any more information - the website is a joke and completely useless. Satellites are running now with sit-n-gos at $100 a pop and muti-table rebuys at $50 a pop.

For many years a small group of us gathered from time to time for an evening of poker. During that time, I gained a nickname. I don’t know how it came to be - I was certainly not a skilled player as these were pre-WPT Texas Hold-em years mind you. The nickname, however, gained new meaning when the theatre company I worked with acquired a space of its own. It was a storefront near campus known as (surprise) Campus Corner. Our space was soon dubbed The Corner Stage (clever, huh?).

As it is with the majority of small theatres, we were a poor company so the task of remodling the space was placed squarely on our shoulders. Most of us had experience in constructing sets, but none of us had experience with real construction. We were pondering this problem over a newly delivered pile of lumber when a carpenter literally walked in off the street and offered to help.

He put us all to work and instructed as we toiled. I was tasked with wall building and quickly learned about wall studs, sheet rock, taping, sanding, painting, etc. Before long, I was hailed by the nickname for my wall prowess.

The nickname has lingered over the years, occassionally bandied and evoking some awesome memories of an awesome time with the theatre company, as well as good times with friends over cards at the kitchen table. That is why I chose it as my vanity tag for my new ride. The tag arrived today:

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You know, it’s funny - with a casino not ten minutes from my own front door, I find it a little odd that I get a bit excited at the prospect of coming to the Cherokee Casino in Tulsa to play poker.

I mean, my local casino, Riverwind, is a fine one with a good poker room. It’s tastefully colorful with the only major drawback being the poker room is in the middle of slot chaos, thus rendering it noisy and confusing at times. Still, it lacks something else I couldn’t quite put my finger on until this evening.

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