TP Forum Toronto Meetup
 

So, it's been bantered about in various game chats about a meet and greet when TP is up in Toronto for Mathbabe's wedding. I think it was generally agreed upon that Sunday, March 26th would be the day. But other than that, no details have been worked out.

There's been mention of getting a little cash game going too but no details for that have even began to be discussed. If we do that, the absolute MOST that Nikki & I can put up is $50 each. Hopefully we can get a few of us from this area in on it. I know Mayhem's expressed interest. Not sure what happened to Chipfish, but he's in the T-Dot area too.

So, let's make this thread where we plan everything out. Dinner? (preferably somewhere relatively inexpensive - Kelsey's/Montanas/Outback type thing)

GeoffM is in TO as well, so hopefully he'll make it too. I enjoyed meeting Chip last time and hope he can join us, but I haven't heard a peep of of him in ages. I think he may have pulled a Penguinfan on us.

Anyhoo... I've been planning on starting a thread about this, but I'm waiting on MathBabe to get back to me with some details. I believe I will be involved in post-wedding things earlier in the day, so I'm not sure when we can get started. I know MB is planning on joining us, as well as her less than 24 hour husband, the MoH, and maybe even some other wedding peeps. I'm not sure.

I'll be staying at , and I'm hoping they will have a nice lobby/bar/whatever where we can get a game going. MB is supposed to call them and ask. If not there, I'm not really sure where we will play. We could always just do dinner and drinks, of course, but I think a couple of small buy in tourneys or a low limit cash game (or both) would be more fun.

As soon as I (or "we," if she comes here first) hear back from MB, I'll post more info.

Actually, I just looked around that site a bit more and found these pics of their lobby. This should do nicely, with a little furniture rearranging. As long as someone can bring chips, I don't think we'll have any problems (legality wise).

Hey, maybe we should play by the pool!

Yeah, the lobby doesn't look too bad. They may have a meeting room too that we may be able to get since it would be Sunday night. I know MB mentioned that she had chips, but we can easily throw our chips in the car with us as well, just in case :).

Low buyin tourneys would be good too (actually, I'd prefer that over a small cash game, but I'm flexible).

I just checked the website - they do have meeting rooms - 16 of them all the way up to 4000 sq. m (whatever the hell that works out to in sq. ft). It says to email them for booking and pricing. Maybe if we're lucky, one of the hotel peeps will just be getting off their shift and happen to love poker...

EDIT: Do cards float??? Screw BY the pool...

Hey TP, rumour has it that when you land, there is a shot of Jaegar waiting for you in the bar at the hotel. I could throw a stone at that hotel and hit it from my desk.

Yeah? Sweet! I'm not sure what "other" plans I have on Thursday night and Friday yet, but maybe we can have a few drinks or something...

Sounds like a plan, I'll pm you my office #. My schedule is definately open Thursday, weekends are usually a whirlwind so not sure about Friday yet (something tells me I'm suppose to be heading out of town or something).

is this thing happening for sure?? If you guys are getting a small tourny or couple games going I wouldn't mind coming by for a few lessons, I know I'm a newbie still but it could be fun!!

TP is DEFINITELY coming to Toronto. Nikki & I, unless something happens and TP is forced to cancel, are DEFINITELY driving up to Toronto on Sunday the 26th. So, yeah, it looks pretty solid.

I will definitely be eating dinner in Toronto that night, so there's no reason it can't be with you guys. And I will definitely be playing poker Sunday night. If everyone cancels, I'll play online in my hotel room :) But I'm planning on playing wit ha combination of friends (from the wedding) and TP people.

All are welcome, of course.

Where in TO is are you guys going to be playing???

Well, we're still hashing that out, but it looks like it's going to be at TP's hotel which is College & Yonge I believe.

Yes, scroll up and click the link. They have a map on their site.

This will be great!
 

I'm looking forward to this!

Realistically, I'm not going to get around to calling the hotel. It's unlikely we can formally book anything ahead, like a meeting room, unless we're willing to pay for it, which I don't think we are.

I have some chips, but they're the kind you get at the grocery store in a tin box - good for MadDog and the boy and I, but definitely not enough for a real game!

I'm not going to plan on joining you for dinner... I assume I'll be exhausted, so I'll probably be napping over the supper hour and catch up with you after dinner.

MathBabe

EDIT: Sorry I didn't reply earlier... I took a stupid one-month contract that I really should have turned down, and for the past three weeks I've been crazy busy with that. It's over tomorrow!

Okay, so this is what we know:

1) Nikki & I will bring poker chips.
2) We still need a place to play :)
3) I *think* there's tentative plans for a Sunday dinner somewhere - again nothing too expensive (around $20/pp is max)
4) TP said something about buying beer :D

We still need to co-ordinate meetup times and such. Nikki & I have the day cleared so our schedule is completely flexible.

I've been trying to get MathBabe and company to give me some sort of idea about the Sunday schedule and what tiome I should tell you guys, but with limited success. I hate to make you guys wait until the last minute to know any better, but I may not get good answers until I see them fact to face and shake it out of them. :D

For now, let's assume we'll meet up at my hotel in the 5 or 6 PM neighborhood, and head out for dinner/drinks at one of the local pubs. That should be easy enough, right? Then we can go back to the hotel and play some poker in the lobby for a couple of hours or however long we see fit. From the pictures, I think that will suffice.

Who else is coming? Is it just Robb and Nikki? That's fine, of course, but the more the merrier. Geoff? Mayhem - you know you want to. Unknown Adam? Anyone else?

For those that are coming and NOT taking mass transit, I think the best, closest place to park (other than paying $25 at the hotel) is the Toronto Parking Authority Carpark at the corner of Yonge & Dundas. It's about two blocks south of the hotel. All day is a max of $14.

5 or 6 sounds good for supper and then poker afterward is great.

We may head up earlier and do some window shopping and people watching. I haven't strolled Yonge in YEARS. (I *think* the last time was when I went to see Phil Collins in concert for his Dance With The Light tour)

Gonna totally play up the whole Joe Tourist thing :)

Sunday is a definite no-no for me, but I am free on Thursday or Friday. I live close to 2 hours from the city and coming out Sunday with a scheduled 8am client insurance program renewal meeting probably isn't the brightest thing for my career.

How about Thursday or Friday though TP? I'll definately be around.

Friday won't work for me, but Thursday may... well, Thursday late afternoon, anyway. I won't be able to stay long (other friends arriving, etc), but I'd like t oat least get together for a couple of drinks.

Monday night may be an option for me too (I don't leave until Tuesday). I just don't know yet, and probably won't until then.

TP, Thursday name a time, I'm sure I can slip out of the office around 4:30 ish, would be good to have a few.
Monday, well, same thing, would be good to have a few :D .

Edited to add: Would be real nice to have a few both days, believe it or not, haven't drank much lately...tell you about it later, I got some rather erotic texts from the new girl ;) , so have been rather tame (according to what my close buddies have seen) lately.

Let's shoot for 5:00ish in the lobby of my hotel. I'll keep you posted on my progress with text messages.

For anyone joining us on Sunday, bring your laptop with you if you have one. With free wireless internet access in the lobby, maybe we could play some "battleship" style heads up matches. Who knows, maybe we'll even get a few vitrual railbirds from the forum!

not a bad idea. I was planning on bringing mine anyway in case I fill up my memory stick on my digital camera. It's not much more work to throw Nikki's in the case too!

Cool, that sounds interesting. So I will definitely bring mine along too.

EDIT: Next time I'll read the entire thread.

See you soon, punks. I have a flight bright and early tomorrow. Should be settled into my hotel and having a drink with Geoff by 5 or 5:30. Will see the rest of you on Sunday, sometime after 5:00, I'm thinking, probably closer to 6. We can keep in touch through here until then, and then via Text Message Sunday afternoon. Sound good? Good!

P.S. Rumor has it there may be some TP goodies for the attendees. ;)

I'm here.
I'm checked in.
I'm waiting for GeoffM to show up.

I'll scope out the place and make sure it's suitable for Sunday's game. There are tons of places near here where we can eat, so we'll have our pick.

Good to see you, Geoff... Sorry I couldn't hang longer. Maybe we can have a couple more on Monday.

Not sure what your plans are, but here's my timetable,
Friday night 11pm and after--- available.
Saturday 12noon to 4pm --- available.

If you can make it out to Bloor and Jane, there's a good sports bar here.
Get on the Subway, and it's about 25 minutes from where you are.

Look up Mick E Fynns for a good chillen tavern, and NewHo's(sp?) chinese food for the best chinese in the city. I have no idea what streets any of these are on, as anytime I am in T. it is in a drunken haze. My buddy goes to Ryerson and anytime we go visit those are the places he drags us.

Well if your buddy's at Ryerson then they should be close by as Ryerson is almost literally across the street from TP's hotel.

Neither of those times is open for me. Sorry....

Any chance you are available to join us Sunday evening?

Look like we're not going to have a huge turnout tomorrow, but I hope you guys (RR/N1k) are still planning on coming. I actually haven't even seen MB yet, so I don't know what her exact plans for tomorrow night are or how many people she will be bringing to the "game." As long as she doesn't cancel on us (booooooo!), we'll be good to go. But dinner is probably going to be just the three of us.

Let's shoot for meeting around 5:30 or 6:00 in my hotel's lobby.... I'll text you from my cell phone to confirm as the time gets closer.

BTW.... I'm not sure how late it's open, but the lounge here should do just fine for our game. The tables are a bit low, but beggers can't be choosers. It will work. Don't forget your chips, cards, etc...

See you tomorrow!

And now... off I go to the wedding. Congrats in adance, MathBabe.

Congratulations Mathbabe.

Hope you have a wonderful wedding day.

edit: (within a few seconds from this post) :

TalkingPoker: Have a great time too.

You bet your ass we're still heading down! We'll probably be in town around 2 or so and we're going to play Joe Tourist wandering around downtown, through the Eaton Centre, HMV, etc. 5:30/6 sounds perfect for meeting up for dinner! I look forward to your text!

I cant make it this time for sure. I have to do a huge ass presentation on Nanotechnology on wednesday and have a smaller project due on monday that I get to work on with the hottest girl in class tomorrow. If this meetup was sometime in the summer, I could swing it no problem.

That gives me an idea. Maybe I will throw a big home game at my new place sometime this summer. Everyone is invited.

MathBabe... correction, MRS. MathBabe's wedding was great. I've never been to a wedding quite like it and really enjoyed myself.

Dim Sum in the morning!

Rob and I are making our preparations to head down (it's fun packing up a baby to take to Grandma's). Looking forward to meeting anyone who does join us.

And Congrats Mathbabe!

Guess who is sitting about 4 feet directly in front of me right now.

I give up. Who????

Daniel Negreanu. I shit you not.






Ok ok. I shit you.

Robbie Robb and I are out of our little homegame tourney already, finishing 5th and 4th respectively. N1k is taking on MathBabe and Mr. MathBabe as I type this.

I still can't believe MathBabe called all in with 10 high against me.... AND WAS RIGHT! LOL.... Remind me to post that hand sometime. It was interesting, to say the least. And I was totally asking for it.

What were the stakes? How many people played in it?

How come Mr. & Mrs are not honeymooning?

5 players. $20 SNG. Nice blind structure.

Mr. and Mrs. are honeymooning on Tuesday - going to Cuba, in fact. They are sticking around until then to hang out with ME, of course!

The chicks are heads up right now. :o

And N1kita takes it down! Well done!

Thanks again for making the drive tonight, guys. It was really great meeting you.

Until we meet again.............

It was nice to get away for a while. And it was fun to meet a few people from the forum.

And I appreciate everyone donating their money to me. :D ;)

Thanks as well to TP for hosting a great evening for us. Everything was greatly appreciated! Next time we're in FL, drinks are on us! Print it.

Thanks!
 

It has been a busy month or so, that's for sure. First that contract I should have turned down... then the wedding weekend... then a week in Cuba. But I'm back now!

Thanks Bunny, TP, N1kita and Robb for the good wishes!

Thanks TP for making the trip and arranging the hotel lobby tourney!

Thanks N1kita and Robb for getting a babysitter and driving all that way for such a minor game - it was great to meet you!

Oh, and TP, Mr. Mathbabe loves his TP hat and wore it all week in Cuba. Best wedding gift ever!

Mrs. MathBabe (now safely married and planning my return to poker...)

Wish i was canadien after reading this thread

It was a lot of fun. I'm glad Rob convinced me that I could leave my son for a whole day. It was still tough though.

Welcome back, MB. I expect to head all about Cuba sometime, and hopefully see some photos.

Glad the Mr. likes his hat... :)