First Post - How I became Bucky

So, I'm Bucky. Originally Buck the Canuck. AKA Mark Dodd.

I picked up the nickname at the tables in Grande Prairie. The game was populated with the same crew every week and it ran every Thursday. We played 20-40 Half/Half, which was a big game for me at the time (still is surprisingly). Anyways, I know I have some non-poker related fans so I better explain what a 20-40 Half/Half game is.

This game is played in the limit variety, as opposed to No-Limit, which you are used to seeing on TV. In a limit game the betting ammounts are fixed, they are static. On the first two rounds of betting all bets and raises are in multiples of $20 (in the game I am describing) and on the second two rounds of betting the bets and raises have to be in multiples of $40. They can be one bet and three raises maximum on each round of betting at which point the betting for that round is "capped".

Half / Half refers to what we were playing. We played Limit Holdem and Limit Omaha. After a half an hour of one game we would switch to another. You are all aware of what Holdem is so I'll just explain Omaha. It's the same as Holdem, kind of. You are dealt four cards instead of two and you have to use two of your cards to make your hand. In Holdem you can use 0, 1, or both of your cards but in Omaha you have no choice - you must use two cards. Simple right? Right. Don't worry I don't play in this game anymore and you will almost never see a limit Omaha High game because the game sucks.

Back to my nickname. So we are playing in this game and I am about 23 and the next youngest person would probably have been 40 and I was a regular. I had just learned how to play about 9 months earlier and had starting playing for real money about 5 months earlier and had been in this game for about 2 months at this point. Also, I was absolutely killing the game. It wasn't because I was a good player (I wasn't) it was because these donkey's were SO bad as to be unbelievable.

Anyways, the biggest donator in the game was rambling on about how he had no luck or some shit. Probably lamenting his latest bad beat and I was sitting beside him. I was sick of listening and probably said something like, "Stop playing every hand and you will last longer."

To which he replied, "Shut up, Buckwheat."

At which point the table erupted with laughter. Another dude pipes up, "We should put him in the World Series of Poker and when they ask him his nick name he should say Buck the Canuck." Which only got a few laughs, but it stuck. You see, Buckwheat was a character on some old TV which these guys all knew. I think he was supposed to be a nerd or something and I guess I fit the mold because I used to quote the olds and percentages to these donkeys all the time (I don't do that anymore - never educate the opposition).

Maybe it should have bothered me - but it didn't. I was taking their money and money heals all wounds. Buck The Canuck was born.