A Russian Reg Jeez, I didn't think I was viewed as that nitty... (or maybe it is my user name , (which is German)).

Yeah, I have been running good at 888, especially 50 NLHE (definitely not 100 ). Thx for following, I am originally from Laval (and was just back visiting a month ago).

Told myself I was taking the day off today, but, the problem with having poker buddies, is that our form of entertainment is usually found on the live felt Played 4h at the casino, made 230$.

By the way Mfbkevin, do you play live poker in Montreal? Is it worth it with the bigger rake? I just play online when I go back to visit the family...

Challenge : +7797.20$

Week 5, Day 3

Perhaps it was the rain. The grey skies. The 65h grind last week or just a sense of heaviness felt underneath the gravitational weight of the world, but God did poker seem uninspiring this morning... A sentiment that slightly concerned me, as I averaged a meager 25h/week for 2 months before the start of this challenge...

Thankfully though, getting AA pre became a thing of joy again Or 4betting A3 Or... you get my grip -60$ in 90 minutes online, +320$ in 5h live.

Tomorrow should be quite exciting, as 10-20 Omaha L08 will be the game. In a town where 70% of the players play 90% of their holdings - and chase their third nut low like no tomorrow -, hi/lo is definitely one of my favorites, from a profitable or pleasurable angle


Hand of the day

As most of you probably know from my travel thread, coming from a live background and online MTTs, adapting to online cash has been a slow and tedious process for me ; yet here I am, fairly comfortable in my game and somewhat less fishy The next hand will demonstrate my ever improving hand reading skills (I probably would of folded this holding a couple of months back...).

100 NLHE, Party Poker

I open 108 to 3$ from hijack ; BB defends (no reads on villain).

Flop (6.50$)
1034

When villain checks, I would X back vs a reg, but decide to cbet 4.50$ vs this villain which I assume is a rec player ; he raises to 13$. Since he is not repping anything outside of flush draws, I make the call.

Turn (32.50$)
1034 Q

He pursues his nonsensical story by betting 16$, I call.

River (64.50$)
1034 Q 9

I am folding all day here, but when he checks, I happily check back


Challenge : +8057.92$

I played at montreal casino two times, won both. I never played 1/2 before so i played a little bit scared money there, but the game was truly soft, you can surely make over 25$/h despite the huge rake.

One of my friend's buddy won the badbeat jackpot earlier this year for 130k as the hand winner, so i guess all in all montreal casino is worth your time.

Playground is a very professinal place, i guess the reg there must be tougher,and less fish, never been there due to traffic.

NL100 snap at 888 is def soft, but i think you have to play more solid than you think, cuz all the regs are just not believers, they call you down rly light in 3bet pot.

Interested in how you feel about the 50 and 100 pool at 888 snap.

Week 5, Day 4

It is one thing to have variance bite you in the ass, eat you up, spit you out and stomp you while lying on the ground, but another all together to get to showdown, make the call on the river and muck the winning hand in a 200$ pot Can you say brain fart Live missclicks suck -1200$ in 5h live,
-350$ in 1h online.

Nice, I do want to play a live event at the Playground one of these days... As far as Snap goes, I think 50 is quite soft and I oftentimes get away with murder (people will frequently donate their stacks), where as the field in 100 seems tougher. I am still not beating 100 and will not move up - or at least 3 table it - until I am a proven 3bbs+/100 winner.

I think I will spend tomorrow afternoon simply chilling away from poker before the weekend kicks in, as it will be a long one and need to redeem myself

Challenge : +6475.70$

Week 5, Day 5

Even after booking a 400$ win online in 1h, I was still feeling somewhat vulnerable heading to the casino... Perhaps crushing a few souls was necessary in order to restore mine...

I definitely did not show up with my A game and left a few hundred on the table that were up for grabs ; +200$ in 7h. That said, I did get away with murder a few times


Hand of the Day

Understand that nl holdem showed up late up in Dawson, making the players progress slowly in this format. My aggression/winning ways has obviously influenced the way the game is played here, and a couple of players have adopted my tendency to light 3bet. Because a frequent opener was to my right followed by one of these players, we had an interesting dynamic of light open to 7$, 3bet to 25$ and me light 4betting to 55$ It was a fun high variance game That said, this next hand took place vs the light 3better.

5 limpers, I check back my BB option with J2

Flop (12$)
A107

It gets checked around.

Turn (12$)
A107 5

SB leads for 10$, I raise to 40$, she calls. When no one else overcalls, this pot is mine unless she hits her draw/2 pairs

River (92$)
A107 5 2

When the river bricks, I bet 100$ to get her to fold her range capped at Ax ; she snap-folds.


Challenge : +7084.34$

Week 5, Day 6

I was quite content with the turn out today for the rebuy tournament - 21 players, which has unfortunately been our peak thus far -, and had my mind set on making a deep run. There wasn't a ton of rebuys, but with the slow structure, I managed to chip up to second in chips by the time we made it to the final table. And then I simply ran like God ; easy game +950$ in 6h.

Played a few hands at the cash game, but decided to take the evening off in order to chill out with the my housemates by our courtyard fire pit (and where I will be heading back to after this post...).


How I got away with murder today


The good thing about playing against the same players year in and year out (even the out of towners from Whitehorse, Pelly, Mayo and Alaska are always the same familiar faces ), is you get to know all their tendencies.

Rebuys has just finished, effective stacks 40bbs, blinds 25-50. After 2 limpers, I raise to 155 with KJ from hijack and get BB and the limpers to call.

Flop (645)
478

It gets checked to me ; I elect to check back, not willing to attack this board, especially after BB made a motion towards his chips before changing his mind...

Turn (645)
478 10

BB leads for 150. Having played with villain for a couple of years, his sizing smells of a second pair/gutter combo draw, and since utilizing blockers to the nuts as part of my bluffing range is my favorite thing in the world, I raise to 420, planning on bombing most rivers. He tanks, but ultimately folds, knowing that I will barrel river




Abandoned church. There are a ton of churches in Dawson, but only 1 where mass is served. Numerous stories revolve around the latter, where couples show up in the wee hours in the morning, drunk, a bottle in 1 hand while their clothes promptly find the floor... Not that I would ever do such a thing

Challenge : +8024.34$

Week 5, Day 7

Bahhhh, poker sucks Whiffed the tournament for 150$, came back home, meditated, showered, got myself mentally prepared for an evening of grind, walked back to the casino underneath the sunny skies and, you know, even though life is good and all, played 20 minutes of cash, lost an all in flip, got coolered 3 times (one of them where villain almost mucked the nuts at showdown ), tilted and snapped-quit , booking a 600$ loss in the process, FML

My lack of desire to play the game over the past couple of days has been worrisome, as is my tendency to tilt... I do have this thread to keep myself accountable and take no pleasure in posting about failures and tilting... Oh well, I will play tennis tomorrow, probably go for a small hike in order to get myself mentally back on track +150$ online in 20 minutes.




I think I need me a bit of nature to get my head in a better space...


Challenge : +7445.26$

Week 6, Day 1

A heat wave hit us today - not one encountered in tropical countries, but still somewhat surprising for a pseudo-arctic town -, which did not stop me from playing tennis : 0-6 vs my Czech buddy that takes pleasure in crushing me - as do I, at the poker table -, but redeemed myself 6-3 vs another fellow

I feel rejuvenated, refreshed, feisty enough to pursue this challenge and to crush it , for it sucks to have to show up here, ITT, and to claim failure publicly Anyhow, despite the 250$ loss in 3h at Gerties playing the 5-10 DC game, I will have a good week, variance permitting

Most of you guys are probably subbed to my travel thread, but if not, check out my latest post which is somewhat of a continuum of the Dawson narrative established ITT :

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/sh...&postcount=267


Challenge : +7180.26$

Week 6, Day 2

OK, lets get 1 thing straight : sure my head has been in a bad space for some unknown, unintelligible reason, and yes I did spew a couple of BIs in the first hour of my session, but LadyLuck - pleassssseee - when I am 92% favorite to win a 250bbs pot at 100 NLHE and need a mental boost, please let variance fall my way... Give me a little bit of slack, would you, so I can get my **** back together... Is that too much to ask




Or perhaps you are just a self-absorbed bitch...


On the + side, I took pleasure in grinding today and also got a little unexpected gift... I had 2 emails from Party Poker waiting for me ; one of them, a welcoming message to the Palladium VIP club - bla bla bla, whatever -, followed by a sweet, God sent, 500$ bonus to the... casino games I was going to snap-tilt-rage reply, when I noticed yet another email, this one apologizing for the bonus originally destined to another customer, thus compensating me with a 250$ bonus to my poker account... SWWWEEEEET


The little things... The little things... There is nothing bigger, is there...
Tom cruise, Vanila Sky

Challenge : +7205.62$

Week 6, Day 3

Jeez, I am the one that is taking a whipping by the old lady Things went alright online - ran bad, but booked a 150$ win in 2h -, only to drop 550$ live

Since the table was 5 handed for the longest time, we opted for a mandatory straddle, creating an interesting 1-2-5-20$ dynamic in the process But variance bit me in the ass, once again...

Bad beat hand

I raise to 15$ with 99, LAGgy villain 3bets to 35$ IP, BB calls as do I. We are 150bbs effective (100bbs, I shove here).

Flop (106$)
942

Gin BB makes a motion towards his chips, but decides to check, making me donk lead 35$. 3better shoves 250$, I snap-call. Turn is A, river 5


Interesting Hand 2

Same dynamic of 1-2-5 and I make it 15$ OTB with AQ, BB calls, straddler makes it 40$, we both call.

Flop (121$)
88J

Villain continues his story by cbetting to 60$, I think about folding, but elect to call, with position and all.

Turn (241$)
88J J

Villain bets 100$ ; I tank for 30 seconds before shoving 265$. He tanks for a minute, but ultimately lets go of what he says was A10. I mean, this hand is a combination of live tells and villain's merging and multi-barrel tendencies. I am never getting a better hand to fold, yet did not want to face a shove on the river or to give him a chance to realize his equity (and get him to fold Ax, obviously ).


Oh well, am pretty happy with my mental state (even that spewy 5bet shove with A4 was acceptable...), but God damn do I need one of those 2k nights...

Challenge : +6821.76$

Week 6, Day 4

I mean, for someone that has played a few million hands online, 10 years live, been broke a few times, rode the swings like none other, played in a few different countries and so forth, for someone like me that has supposedly "seen it all", "been there, done that" in poker terms, God this game can still be surprising at times

And I just don't mean the never ending rollercoaster ride. The bumps. The ups. The downs. The heavenly skies and the hellish lows. Or the spiraling sideways. The sleezy angling at the tables. The thieving, scamming, bad etiquettes and other selfish endeavours. The obsession, long hours and tilting. Nope, none of these surfaces that we have numerous times walked upon, dug into, excavated, nope... I just mean that regardless of our respective longevity in this game, it remains a puzzle with new pieces to discover... A bit like life, isn't it

+400$ online in 5h.


A few more comments on this ; it remains somewhat of a shock how someone like myself that averages just short of 6bbs/100 at 50 NLHE (which is also just short of crushing the game), can have such difficulty beating 100 NLHE speed games It remains a mystery. Of course, it is harder to get away with murder at 100, especially with the frequency with which I open-raise at 50




Outskirts of Whitehorse. There is nothing quite like taking a chopper and flying across half of the Yukon, over a few hundred kms, and watching nature slip by at bird's eye

Challenge : +7242.93$

Week 6, Day 5

Well, that was a fun evening The 10k+ dispersed on the 2 tables kind of helped spice things up as well (7k on our table)

The thing about alternating on a daily basis in between online and live, is that I am a bit too tight pre in the live game (but my aggression factor postflop is up the ceiling )... Anyhow, I opened up my range tonight in order to get more involved, especially IP, and boy did I get away with murderssss But it also created a higher variance game, and I did cbet light/commit myself in dubious situations

After the weekend is done, I think I will try to be more creative and write a few Yukon stories...




Top of the World Highway. We are about 60km from the northern border of Alaska, with nothing but wilderness separating us In fact, the first town within the USA - about 1h past the border - holds 60 odd souls Yup, this is the north

Hope you guys are enjoying this thread ; +200$ online in 4h, +725$ live in 7h.

challenge : +8175.00$

Week 6, Day 6

Bah, whiffed the flipament, -225$, then up 360$ in 3h cash.

The action was lacking, the table was boring, dude on my right was annoying, there was some bad vibes floating and all that boring jazz, so I snap-quit. Not really happy with my volume the past 2 weeks, but whatever, will focus on putting in more hours online this coming week.




Mining roads. These often extend quite the distance into the bush and strictly serve mining purposes


Challenge : +8310.00$

Week 6, Day 7

Bah, it is hard to justify going to the casino from a strict winrate perspective - at least, when the action doesn't justify it -, but it remains a sweet and necessary social interaction. This said, I will call it a night - and a week -, rest some, then focus on the virtual felt for these next few days...

Whiffed the tournament, -150$ in 2h, +575$ online in 2h.

Alright, will try to bring you guys some original material this upcoming week - for entertaining purposes and also to get those creative juices flowing up in-this-here-head




Keno is a minuscule town of 100 tucked into a valley on the far eastern side of the Yukon. Some adventurous travelers make their way there, but few get to see the charm of this remote secluded area of the globe




House on the outskirts of Keno

Challenge : +8673.61$

note : someone (bilingual) made me realize this week that us, French people and most of the world really, put the $ sign after the numbers, not before... was it strange to any of you English natives the way I write it?

Week 7, Day 1

We need a few elements in order for myths to work : a ton of interest, a popular folk background and a small dose of credibility - albeit, minuscule. As far as the northern Canadian folk goes, none other is more grandiose and mystical then the BIG BAD BEAR

Of course, like wolves - or sharks, for that matter -, bears are usually pretty harmless and prefer a vegetarian diet, yet have been instilled in pop culture - mainly through movies -, as human predators. A bit ludicrous, when you think about the fact that most bears will flee the smell of humans miles away and are largely disinterested in human activities all together. This said, I will myself perpetuate the bear myth because, well, who doesn't like a good ole bear story





A few bear facts :

- 80% of bear charges are "fake charges" and meant to intimidate humans (the bears are usually taken by surprise by a human presence, hence reacting in a alpha-male sorta way).

- If a bear comes into or close to town, it gets tagged and relocated, thus monitored by Park's Canada.

- A fed bear is a dead bear : human food has a ton of addictives in them, making the craving for it more of a factor than the human fear.

- Bears can run up to 48km/h They are faster than us, better swimmers and climbers Good thing they don't care for human meat much

- Black bears rely mainly on berries as their form of diet ; considering that berries blossom heavily in August, they thereby only have a few weeks to fatten up before wintertime.





Anyhow, as far as our story goes, it takes place a few years prior to me showing up in these here lands, and it remains a hearsay story, so part of the good ole Yukon folk

There is usually no bear sightings in the wintertime unless they have had their hibernation interrupted by hunger So our hero, a typical Yukon trapper that spent most of his time on his land and trap lines, left his house without his gun, feeling safe and all. He went to do his daily checkups on his trap lines when he stumbled upon our villain, a grizzly bear

Sometimes nothing can be done. Sometimes, there is no dodging a fight till death... Our trapper tried his best, stabbed the bear numerous times, but fell to his death, in the snow banks. The bear did not fare much better : he was found, 1 km away from the trapper, dead from the knife injuries.





Well, that was our brief little story today. Hope you enjoyed it! Up 250$ in 5h online.

Challenge : +8936.11$

Week 7, Day 2

Played the SnG format tourney at the casino (90 minutes, chip count afterwards) where an interesting scenario happened on the last hand before the inexorable chip count :

Villain 1, OTB, is chip leader (I forget the exact amount of chips, but bare with me...) and opts to fold. Villain 2, in SB, is 3rd in chips (we are down to 3 handed, top 3 pays) and is an out-of-towner tourist. He tanks for 3 minutes while I explain to him the situation : because he is last in chips, he needs to shove 100% of his hands here, as he is freerolling before the chip count. He finally shoves, I look down at A2, tank for 30 seconds, but considering the payout is 50-30-20%, I call and get there vs 1010. I think I need to call about top 60% of hands or perhaps more... thoughts?

Up 400$ casino in 2h, down 100$ online in 4h.

Standard triple barrel this WE, imo, yet that caught the table completely by surprise when I flipped over my cards at showdown :

Early in the tournament, just after the add-on, I look down at 96 in MP and raise to 55 (blinds 10-25) and get 3 callers.

Flop (230)
KK5

After a couple of checks, I don't love life, having no backdoor flush equity and all, but still bet 55, when I notice that no one seems interested. I get 1 caller.

Turn (340)
KK5 7

Just the card I needed to add some equity and thus get invested again in this hand ; I bet 155, villain sighs, breaths heavily, basically lets me know that he has 5x, then calls.

River (650)
KK5 7 A

Just the card we needed I was going to bluff any A, Q and value any 9, 8, 6, but, alas!, villain snap-calls my 275 bet

Challenge : +9293.99$

Week 7, Day 3

As per standard in small rural towns, rumors travel faster than facts : if you wish to find out what is going on in your personal life, put on a jacket, step outside, go knock on a neighbor's door and inquire on your own activities. Easy game Simply ask about what your plans are for the rest of the day/week, therefore never having to contemplate weekly activities again Rumors, they travel fast, I tell you...

To the extent where one fine day, I woke up dead. Yup, you heard me : dead. It didn't matter that the victim in question was JF (initials for Jean-Francois) and not JS (my French initials) ; nope, in the popular subconscious mind, I was dead. I was the one that had been brutally attacked, on the outskirts of Whitehouse, when the mother bear thought her cub was at risk... Rumors wander faster than facts and are more gullible

In a small town of 1500 souls, when one of us dies, a little part of each one of us agonizes : grievance becomes a collective act. Nobody complained when the search team was unnecessarily prolonged to find the local canoer's corpse... We all felt the pain when our dear friend's husband took his life, at the top of the mountain, when he asphyxiated himself in his car with a picture of her by his side... The music did stop that night at the Pit, our local bar, when the fiddle player left us... Sometimes, the echo of our actions resonates more in rural settings...




Northern lights. They show up every night from August until April, often vibrating like none other up there in the heavenly skies

Up 450$ live in 3h, down 150$ in 2h online.

Challenge : +9582.00$

Week 7, Day 4

After online took a turn for the worst (-400$ swong in 90 minutes), I stepped outside not only to get the **** out of the house, but as a friendly reminder that the outside world still exists... It felt good to lay in the grass, under the golden afternoon, at ease with the peaceful environment... Being on the bad side of variance didn't matter anymore... yet, something was missing. Despite these tranquil surroundings, emptiness was settling in : God I miss getting drunk

Not only the taste of the liquor or that serene hot wave that drowns all sensibility away, but the camaraderie, the never-ending party, the cheers to life, the adrenaline rushes ; anything, really, that withstands absurdity... That blissful serenity is forever lacking : that numbing moment where it all makes sense, where we become one with our drunkenness, our debauchery at a perfect euphoric level.

I think that we, addicts, will chase the absolute until the end of times : we are those desperate romantics, forever pursuing the horizon, as step by step, it flees and mucks our aspirations... Perhaps beyond the horizon lies enough space to contain our exponential longings... Perhaps...




Google pic


-100$ live in 3h, -100$ online in 3h.

Challenge : +9388.60$

Week 7, Day 5

On life tilt after this out-of-towner drunkard made me quit the game early (our altercations had only 1 possible outcome, which I chose to avoid...), so this update might be a bit shaky, but bare with me...

After gazing for a bit 2 minutes at the google pic of Top of the World Highway that I posted ITT, it suddenly struck me that "jeezus, all this beauty is in my backyard ", so we went on a small road trip today, as a picnic on top of the world seemed in order.




Got a funky mix of sun, clouds, thunder and then ultimately rain




Picnic area. It was about a 10 minute hike to be on the highest peak. The Alaskan border is about 5-10 km west of us


How I got away with murder tonight

Action is folded to me and I decide to open J9 to 20$ from CO. I have been widening my open-raise range in late position, as initiative + cbet cannot be overstated in this game ; BB and straddler call.

Flop (61$)
Q87

Not a great flop and after both of them check, I decide to cbet 35$. Not a great spot and it is close in between checking and betting, but I don't feel I have enough equity to give up initiative in order to take free card, so I opt to semi-bluff... I get 1 caller.

Turn (131$)
Q87 7

After villain checks, I tank for 30 seconds before checking back. I feel that I will need to triple barrel in order to take this down and prefer to delay my move until the river on most non runouts...

River (131$)
Q87 7 Q

Villain bets 50$, I take little time in raising to 125$, he snap-folds. This is one of the better players in town, except he has a tendency to not only value light on the river (8x, 99, 1010), but to turn hands with some showdown value into bluffs here (Ax). +925$ live in 7h.


Challenge : +10, 303.60$

Week 7, Day 6

Whiffed the tournament for 175$, or perhaps, in a more poetic terminology :

Funny how 2 dudes become best friends after almost getting into a fist fight the previous night... Turns out dude is a friend of a good friend (we all know each other in the north) which, you know, makes us friends... I guess... Was looking around in the casino tonight and noticed 2 of the toughest dudes in town hanging out (they usually don't come often) and realized that I escaped death fights vs those 2 as well (one of them, the cops separated us, thus saving my life in the act ) : God it can be dangerous to be French and stubborn at times...




Ferry crossing on the Yukon River. Ferry runs 24/7, May-September. An ice bridge is artificially made in the winter, meaning that West Dawson is separated from Dawson for 6 weeks/year during freeze-up and break-up

+550$ in 6h live.

Challenge : +10, 673.60$

Week 7, Day 7

Bah, couldn't win a flip to save my life in the flippament (bubbled it losing 70 < 30, 55 < 45, 40 < 60 ), then ran bad in the cash game (-200$).

The table was absolutely hammered tonight, making it a fine line in between being hilarious at times, and totally obnoxious

Bah, I guess I should be satisfied with the 1k I made this weekend, given that I alternated in between a C+ and B+ game... Bah, whatever, I am out. Will try to bring some interesting and creative material for you guys this upcoming week, but at the moment, my creative juices are dry as they come.


Challenge : +10, 338.60$

great thread,gl with the challenge!

Week 8, Day 1

Alright, after having some tilting out-of-towners this weekend and in order to start off the week with a positive outlook and all, here is a list of things that should be condemned with nothing less than the death penalty when done on the live felt :

- That new player that stumbles to the table, reeking of alcohol, sits down, takes one look around and internally decides that sober people are boring as **** ; "such a serious table", says the douchebag... sigh and a thousand times sigh

- Every time that you hear "I had such and such cards", given them the nuts, trips, 2 pairs or whatever else, I mean yeah, your 82o did look great preflop and I really want to have a prolonged/deep/metaphysical discussion about this buddy

- The whole "online poker is rigged" discussion coming from losing/breakeven llsnl players... shoot me in the head please

- The same old/repeated a million times/desperately boring poker jokes. The ex-wives, the ole "I got 2 pairs" before flipping over quads, "but they were suited" etc.

- The semi-pros. Crazy the amount of breakeven 1-2 players that have played for a living That one time they spent in between 2 jobs and grinded the tables for an hourly of 6$/h, you know... or the drug dealer that tags himself as a "pro", while obviously being the biggest donator at the table. Or the whole "I could play professionally if I wanted to". Yeah, right, because grinding professionally is such an easy thing to do buddy

- "But how much do you lose?" Nuff said.

- Poker can be a great way to introduce yourself in parties where you barely know anyone, yet you will always be on the bad side of the stories tossed your way by the non-initiated, sigh!

- Loved this phrase from Party Poker blog, so will simply paste it : "Yes…yes…we know you are a super-duper-nova-elite, who has out leveled a leveler, but we don’t want to hear about your 12-bet squeeze thingymajig.".

- That broke-sleezy-scummy-coffee-smelling-unshaved-dirtbag that plays all the possible angles in order to scrape an unwarranted pot or 2




The Yukon Quest is a dogsled race over 1000 miles from Fairbanks, Alaska, to Whitehorse, Yukon

+200$ online in 6h.

Challenge : +10, 534.09$

Week 8, Day 2

Whiffed the live 100$ SnG, -200$ in cash game in 3h. Not too much to say, except why are drunk players just cracking my nerves lately... a combination of impatience and them being obnoxious, obviously... But being in a redneck town and all, drunk-annoying-fellows are inexorably part of the décor...

Bah, it is a Tuesday, so I snap-quit when we were a meager 4 players, 2 of them buying short (one of them even nit-rolled me when he bet river 20% pot, giving me 5 to 1 on my call, yet I almost folded my trips, A5 on AA board )

I am quite the patient dude, yet impatience seems to be the norm lately... That is all for today, I promise to show up with a more inspiring post tomorrow




I googled Yukon men and got this as a result I'll take it... would you guys

+300$ online in 3h.

Challenge : +10, 508.24$

Week 4, Day 3

When you live in a Loonytown, half of the façade is based on appearance : if it wasn't for tourism, we wouldn't have the casino, all those buildings owned by Park's Canada and a bunch of other heritage sites... All a façade... A pastiche that we wish to present to the passerby tourists : a bit like the cancan shows at the casino, we are but a premeditated script, a polaroid shot, a colorful canvas...

In the background, we have the mountains, the river, the forest... pretty much the core of what brought all of us up here (natives included)... yet, a certain dichotomy creates itself in between the more liberal/artsy crowd (represented by the art school, the film festival, the music festival, the music scene etc.) and the redneck/roots/trapping, hunting and fishing essential living - a clear, albeit scission might I add. Nonetheless, we are all Northerners. And to endear ourselves as such, one must spend a full year on these here lands, from river freeze-up until spring break-up. And it is for this reason that the siren awakes the sleepy-winter town, every spring, once the Yukon River breaks.




Dawsonites gathering by the dike following the call of the siren. Witnessing summer break its way outward and winter being washed away towards the Bering Sea, remains an unmatchable collective experience of delivrance


The more benign and touristic way of being initiated to the Northern parts is :




Sourtoe cocktail. The soon-to-be-initiated has to touch the toe with his lips while gulping his drink of choice


Article in the Toronto Star describing the initiation act of the toe : http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2...aves_town.html


-200$ online in 4h or, in a poetic enhanced narrative :

+400$ live in 3h.


Challenge : +10, 592.72$