So long, Ante Up!
It's been a long and winding road (cue Beatles music), but one I am very glad I took. Most of you who read this blog likely have already heard our final podcast for the St. Petersburg Times, so this post may touch on some of those thoughts.
On my last day at the Times I just want to thank the Ante Up! Nation one more time for tuning in, for subscribing, for re-subscribing because we changed the feed AGAIN, for arguing with me about Random Card Generators, for making us our own Ante Up! Ale, for buying our shirts (which you can still do!) and thongs (which you can NOT still do!), for getting us plastic bananas and for cherishing them when we gave them back to you for an AIPS victory, for sucking out against me when we were heads-up for a banana, for playing me heads up and losing every time, for sending us lucky pieces of your clothing to carry with us when we played in the World Series, for coming out and meeting us at Binions and Foxwoods and the Commerce, for providing theme music that we could and could not use, for the 4-colored Lucky Charms Copags, for calling me when you made the final table of the WSOP Main Event in 2007, for starting an Episode Guide for our shows, for hosting our results, for running a forum for us, for the Most Wanted Playing Cards, for providing interesting (and not so interesting) Hands of the Week, for calling the Hotline from your car over and over again, for hosting Ante Up! Nation chapters throughout the world, for getting together in London and thinking of us, for acting as rogue reporters for us at poker events around the globe, for getting up in the middle of the wee hours on the other side of the world just to play with us, for buying our first item on the Ante Up! Store even though you live in The Netherlands, for sending us pictures of you with famous poker players, for the large pepperoni pizza, for the classified ad you ran in one of our north regional newspapers supporting Ante Up! even though you live five states away, for calling me after you won the AIPS Main Event because you were so excited you had to call me, for driving all the way from Manhattan and other places in NY just to play cards with me in CT, for screwing with our MySpace page and trying to make it cool, for running the controls for us in the studio and for running the controls for us at the radio station, for sponsoring us when no one else had the brains to do it, for giving us news and results when we didn't have any, for watching our promo video and making fun of my "Space Shuttle" Magnum Kems, for voting for us to win Bluff Magazine's Readers Choice Awards and the Chicago Poker Club (TWICE!) and for practically overloading the servers over at Pokerati to let them know who has the best damn poker podcast on the planet, for informing us our show was featured on iTunes, for having flashing-green lights, for being the Cowboy, for introducing me to the Cowboy, for calling me and saying you really are AJ Benza and then doing a kick-ass show for us, for standing behind us no matter how narrow-minded others were being, for feeding my ego ... and, most of all, thanks for being our friends.
It's been great, and this would be a sad post if it were not for the fact that we will be continuing this great relationship with you over at anteupmagazine.com.
Keep on listening!
-- Chris
Christopher Cosenza is co-host of the longest running poker podcast on the planet, Ante Up! He started playing poker seriously in 2003 and his favorite players are Phil Ivey and Kenna James, though he tends to act like Phil Hellmuth if you make a bad play against him.
Scott Long, Ante Up!'s other co-host, is the author of the monthly Bet on It column in tbt*. He began gambling way too young (don't tell the fuzz!) and in the seventh grade, named his state "Gambleland" for a school project (State Animal? Loan shark, of course).
lol you basterds! you had me all the way...i was so sad...
Posted by: Mig | July 11, 2008 at 03:48 PM
"for sucking out against me when we were heads-up for a banana" ... ha! you were way behind the whole way!
Posted by: RiceF88 | July 16, 2008 at 02:00 AM
I was starting to get upset thinking the end was here, but I now see that this is a new beginning for you. Great work and continue the great coverage.
Posted by: Carbon Poker Affiliate | September 21, 2008 at 10:50 AM
Alright anteupmagazine.com here i come!
Posted by: PKR Bonus Code | November 24, 2008 at 01:24 AM
Just got word NOW you guys were leaving (I know, I'm so late), but am obviously looking forward to checking the podcast at your new web home. Here's to continuing the best poker show online.
Posted by: Poker Kid | December 21, 2008 at 04:28 AM
I'll definitely listen to the podcast, I just found this site now.
http://www.pokerjerk.net/
Posted by: The Poker Jerk | December 24, 2008 at 06:39 AM
Nice blog! More people should read it. If you want, you can register your blog Pokerweblogs.com. .It is free and and it automatically updates when you do an update, so visitors of our site can see when you updated your blog. The big advantage is that it will attract much more visitors to your blog.
Greets Peter
Posted by: Peter | January 09, 2009 at 04:45 PM
Nice blog! More people should read it. If you want, you can register your blog Pokerweblogs.com. .It is free and and it automatically updates when you do an update, so visitors of our site can see when you updated your blog. The big advantage is that it will attract much more visitors to your blog.
Greets Peter
Posted by: Peter | January 09, 2009 at 04:45 PM