rimdog

Here are some pictures of the completed renovation of Rimdog Barn, transforming it from a dirt floor into a finished poker room/man cave.   These are just pictures of the interior; to find out more about Project Rimdog, and to see exterior and road construction pictures, click on About Rimdog.

Want to know & see more about Project Rimdog?   Click on About Rimdog!

Dave @ Regal Poker Tables drove up all the way from Iowa with his beautiful wife and daughter to hand deliver and set up the tables… something that he’s done for Daniel Negreanu, so I’m honored and humbled that he did so for us as well!

The tables are better than I could ever have imagined… they are just fantastic.   Have a look for yourself, click here for a hires picture!

Deep brass cup holders, leather padded arm rests, deep chip trays carved into solid cherry wood, green table felt, and walnut accents.

Here’s the dining top on the second table, made of out oak with beautiful wood grain, and walnut accents on the corners.

This is the “prince” cabinet base, with storage for poker chips, cards, etc.   You can also see the studded brass accents on the leather arm rests from here.

…the tables look fantastic, everything is impeccably crafted, and they feel very spacious to play at, yet fit in the room exceedingly well.   Let’s play some poker, boys!

This is very likely to be my last progress update… because the Rimdog Barn is essentially done!   If you want to see more, you’ll have to get your lousy-ass over to the barn to play some poker with us!

The outside of the barn has been painted and the trim & doors primed:

The hardwood floors are in, the padded chairs assembled, and the round oriental carpets grace our floors (note the “Dogs Playing Poker” pictures on the wall).   2 carpets, 2 tables (on the way), 20 chairs, all good to go:

The ceiling is all together with track lighting, and a variable speed whole house fan to evacuate cigar smoke.   The fan is strong enough to exchange all of the air in the room (over 5,000 cubic feet) in 1 minute.

Wooden venetian blinds, a rack for coats, and a leather couch for lounging:

Close-up of the kitchen area, where you can see the coffee maker & grinder, storage for various things in the cabinets, running water for the sink, etc.:

Our fireplace-like propane heater & blower, with “Lady Rimdog” on top:

…and finally the entertainment center, hooked up to HD cable, an LCD TV mounted to the wall, AM/FM radio, and a computer for poker tournament timing/web browsing.   We of course have wireless Internet in Rimdog Barn, too:

First, a thanks to  Chin, Jimmy, JoeD, Carlo, Russler, Hat, and Jay for coming out to help set up the barn last weekend.   Everyone did a great job, and we now have all of the chairs together, pictures hung, and ashtrays together.   Nice work guys!

I think everyone who came to help out can attest to the fact that Carlo has done a bang-up job on Rimdog Barn, the place really looks fantastic.   We hung out for a while enjoying our cigars, watching the PGA, and shooting the shit… the barn is working really well already!   I’ll take some more pictures of it soon.

The last state of the project I posted was approximately 3 1/2 weeks ago.   We’ve come a long way since then, including (but not limited to):

• The interior is essentially done, other than a few very minor things (noted below), and it looks absolutely fantastic.
• We now have the TV and stereo mounted, hooked up to the entertainment center, and have HD cable as well as wireless Internet in the Rimdog Barn
• The electrical systems, light, and fireplace are all hooked up and working, trim is all installed & stained, we even have blinds for the windows, coat racks, and other accoutrements all in
• The sink is in, and hooked up to the plumbing, so we have a really nice kitchen area in the barn now too, with running water and a quick disconnect for winterizing
• The ventilation system is in, with a variable speed control, and one whole house fan to suck up the air, and another to blow it out the side of the building
• All of the chairs have been put together, pictures hung, cleaning and kitchen supplies purchased… hell, we even have an ice cube maker and a coffee maker (with a grinder, for fresh whole bean brew)!

The following things remain to be done:

1. 1 Rimdog Way still is not paved… Wesley Corp. stated they might be paving it on Thursday and Friday of this week, but their scheduling is not firm yet.   The base road is in place and fully usable now anyway, so no rush on this, it’ll just be nice to have done.
2. We need to arrange for a propane delivery company to drop us a tank.   I figure I’ll wait on this until the road has been paved and cured properly… we have a number of months before we really need to even think about heating the place anyway.
3. Some minor landscaping will be done outside, along with motion-sensitive exterior lighting and a landing for the doorway, and the doors & outside of the barn need to be painted
4. Some minor interior work needs to be finished, such as hanging the cabinets over the sink, installing an electronic keypad entry system, installing a “speakeasy-style” peep hole in the door, and other really minor frills such as installing screens in the windows
5. The poker tables still aren’t here yet (see below)

“We are looking at the week of the 28^th  for shipping the tables. We are trying to get everything done and shipped out to you, We are still way behind but your tables   are the next two out the door. Sorry I don’t have any better news for you at this time. I will let you know if we can get them out quicker, however I realize you are planning the first game in the barn and don’t want to make a promise and miss it with a game planned again.”

“If we ship on the 28th and there is a delay again like before then I would  shoot for the 8th as being a more realistic opening date as the shipping  company says 3 days to get it to Syracuse then the 3 day delay will put it  at your barn Tuesday or Wednesday of the next week.”

Mistress Polly took some more pictures of Rimdog Barn while I’m away in Vegas… it’s beginning to look a lot like a kick-ass poker room!   Here we go!

The Stereo Shop mounted the LCD TV, put the speakers in the wall, and set up the entertainment center… and you can also see the sink in the left corner of the photo:

Kumba likes the shiny new laminate floors… and this is probably the first time I’ve said “Nice trim” in a non-vulgar way!   The carpets we ordered are in too, and Carlo is mostly doing finishing work on Project Rimdog now.

The fireplace-looking propane heater/blower is mostly set too, to keep us warm in the winter:

The ceiling is 100%, lighting all set and wired, and the ventilation fan covered in trim:

The Rimdog approves!   :)

So what’s left to do?   The list is getting pretty short, but here we go:

• Time Warner is coming on July 9th to lay cable HD TV to the barn and drop a cable box
• The Stereo Shop needs to come back in after the cable is laid to the barn to finish up wiring & programming
• Carlo needs to finish the floors & trim, finish up the sink, paint the outside of the barn, and other minor detail work
• We need to arrange for a propane tank to be delivered and hook it up to the fireplace heater
• Wesley Corp. needs to come pave 1 Rimdog Way (though we don’t need to wait on this)
• Then we wait for the custom poker tables to arrive (should be 3rd week in July)

That’s about it!   Then we just need to put the chairs together, lay the rugs down, and mount the pictures to the walls, and we’re good to go!   Anyone want to play poker?

I’ll post updates here as I play through some satellites to the Main Event.   I haven’t played any poker since the HORSE tourney, because I’ve been busy doing work.

$300+30 Satellite 7/1

The satellites are indeed very soft, but that can be dangerous as well (no, Virginia, suckouts don’t just happen on the Internet).

I arrived to this satellite about an hour late, because I was wrapping up some unfinished work.   I arrived second-shortest stack at the table, so I decided I had some work to do.   I quickly doubled up, and then got into an interesting hand.

With one limper behind me, blinds at $100/200, I raised it up from middle position with KcQc, because I’d noticed the table was fairly passive.   Everyone folds except for the initial limper.   I have about 4,000 in chips, and the limper, who I have seen make some very “interesting” plays has me covered.

The flop is Q92 rainbow.   I lead out with a sucker lead of 400, and sure enough, my opponent comes over the top of me with 1200.   I go all in for my remaining 2800 chips (after the call), so he has to call 2800 to win a pot of  5900.   He’s getting slightly better than 2:1 on his money.

I say out loud “Well, I don’t think you limped in with AQ”… and he calls… with 9c10c… he has mid pair, no draw, so he has 5 outs, or 10% each or so on both the turn and the river.   He’s not getting odds to call, but hey… I’m happy.

Turn is a 5s… no help to him, things are looking good that I’m going to double up, he now has one draw to his 5 outs, or 10%.   Turn is a 10s… and he hits one of his 6 outs on the river, and I’m out.

meh.

7/4/2008 Update:

I haven’t been playing much poker… I’ve actually been working my ass off getting our iPhone / iPod Touch games shipping.   Now that that’s done, I’m going to be doing satellites today and tomorrow!   Wish me luck!

While I’m away in Las Vegas at the WSOP, Carlo has been working hard on Rimdog Barn… and my lovely wife was kind enough to take some pictures of the progress!   So here we go!

The interior of Rimdog Barn is actually fairly expansive… larger than the old Havana Club room, I believe.   Here’s a nice shot of it (albeit a bit cluttered with work materials):

The pinewood ceilings look beautiful, and you can see one of the two track lighting clusters here, along with the main whole house fan (a white grate will cover this when we’re done):

This shot gives you an idea of the ceiling/panel/leatherboard decor (a cherry-stained railing will separate the two), and floor molding will be in place as well, once the floors are in:

Here you can see the fireplace-looking heater/blower for those cold winter games, as well as the cabinet counter that will also hold the sink:

…and finally, a shot of an assembled chair (as well as a close-up of the wall paneling):

The Stereo Shop will be installing and mounting the TV/speakers/entertainment center on Tuesday July 1st… and Time Warner Cable will be running the cable from my house down to the barn (burying it so the dogs can’t get at it!) on Wednesday July 9th.

The 12′x12′ round carpets I ordered should be showing up in the next week or so… but alas, it looks like there might be a delay on the poker tables.   ”Mid July” is what I was told for completion, and then of course they need to be shipped here as well… so unfortunately, we might be looking at Friday July 22nd for opening night… I’ll keep you updated.

I am in the HORSE tourney now… Mikon is at my table again, and I am sitting next to David Slanski. Pretty dry so far, but I am having fun!

So here I am sitting at the HORSE table in WSOP Event #51 (thanks to Jeannie for the picture)… you can see Mikon just behind my perfectly formed head

…and in fact, Mikon was really cool.   He wrote up the story about Phil Helmuth blowing up at him on his blog… makes for entertaining reading.   Say “Hi”, Mikon!

He gave me this donkey hat at my request, and I’d intended to bring it home and give it to Chin… but based on my play… I dunno, maybe I should keep it:

I was busted out by David Slanski.   No real stories or bad beats… just making bad calls for no apparent reason, and went out after about 4 hours of play.   Outlasted a number of pros again, but… I really felt I would do well in this event, and just played like dogshit.   C’est la vie.

Unless I manage to parlay a Mega Satellite into the Main Event, it looks like my WSOP is over… but hey… I had a blast, I really did.   I would have liked to have at least cashed in one event (and I did come close in the NL HE one), but it was not to be.