Due to a clamouring for another poker event, BobCon is holding a Fall Texas Hold 'em Tournament to help us raise funds for this year's convention. We will not be having a poker tournament at BobCon, so these satellite events are meant to fill our needs. Here's the basics:

• $25 entry fee, 60% of which will be awarded to the top 3 players.
• Re-buys will be allowed until the first break and will only cost $15.

This event is open to anyone who wants to play or learn Texas Hold 'em. Invite your friends, co-workers, etc. The only caveats are that we will need an RSVP by September 12 in order to ensure we are properly prepared and, due to its nature, this will be an adults-only event.

Check the BobCon Fall Texas Hold 'em Tournament event page for more information!

GenCon attendees have their Dark Sun campaign books already, but everyone else is "patiently waiting." Pre-order yours today from our Amazon Store and a portion of the purchase price will go to benefit BobCon!

The World is a Desert

"Athas is a hot, arid planet covered with endless seas of dunes, lifeless salt flats, stony wastes, rocky badlands, thorny scrublands, and worse. From the first moments of dawn, the crimson sun beats down from an olive-tinged sky. Temperatures routinely exceed 100 degrees F. by midmorning and can reach 130 degrees or more by late afternoon., The wind is like a blast of a furnace, offering no relief from the oppressive heat. Dust and sand borne on the breeze coat everything with a yellow-orange silt."

"In this forbidding world, cities and villages exist only in a few oases or verdant plains. Some places don't see rain for years at a time, and even in fertile regions, rain is little more than a humid mist that falls during a few weeks each year before giving way to long months of heat and drought. The world beyond these islands of civilization is a wasteland roamed by nomads, raiders, and hungry monsters."

"Athas was not always a desert, and the parched landscape is dotted with the crumbling ruins of a planet that once was rich with rivers and seas. Ancient bridges over dry watercourses and empty stone quays that face seas of sand tell the tale of a world that is no more."

GLaDOS and the gang at Aperture Science are coming back to a PS3, PC, and Mac near you. Some of us here at BobCon are huge fans of Portal, Valve's sleeper classic from 2007. Check out the trailer for the sequel below:

There's also a more detailed write-up of Portal 2's gameplay over at Ars Technica.

Saturday night we held the first BobCon Poker Tournament fundraiser. We had 12 participants. Though we were hoping for a larger attendance, everything seem to run very smoothly and a good time was had by all. And we raised nearly $250 for this year's BobCon!

We started the evening by splitting into two tables of six, each of us with 4500 in chips. There was plenty of room in Dave's place to easily accommodate us. A big THANKS to him for hosting the event! Play remained pretty steady for the first couple of hours with the two groups remaining split. The optional rebuys helped to keep people involved and gave several of us a chance to redeem ourselves. Our most inexperienced player was the only one who had to dip into the rebuy pool twice. He also had the best hand of the evening, showing quad Jacks against two pair (AAJJ).

Once each group had lost a player for good, we combined into a single table. John Carlton and Dan Justice were the chip stack leaders from Table 1, while Dave Phillips and Terry Eldred were the leaders from Table 2 (Dave having just tripled his stack before the merge). The change from six players to ten players definitely effects the card play, but Dave quickly took advantage of a monster hand to eliminate another player. We lost another shortly after and were now at eight players. The chips were gravitating toward the leaders and the field of play began to dwindle at a steady pace. Terry's luck went south while Bob Iliff began to hit some cards. With two sets of 5's within three hands he was able to join the top four.

It wasn't long before we were down to John, Dave, Dan and Bob. One of these players would walk away empty handed while the others would take home some of the prize pool. Only Dave and Bob from Table 2 had had to post rebuys earlier in the evening. Play remained steady for a short time, with Dan using his chip lead to effectively bully the other players, but eventually he succumbed to some lucky draws by opponents. And then there were three, all with similar chip stacks. We had quite a few spectators remaining to watch the outcome (thanks for dealing, guys). The hands were going fast and some thought it would take a while to finish since all three looked strong. Once the blinds increased to 1000/2000 things started to go fast, even though those blinds were easily covered the cards began to come out. Dave's chips were flowing away at a rapid pace. A couple of times when he was short stacked he was able to double up, but it wasn't enough. He took third and walked away with 20% of the prize pool.

John Carlton and Bob Iliff were now playing heads-up poker. Both were playing aggressively, but Bob took a decisive lead when he called an all-in bid by John and took away most of his stack. The audience thought the writing was on the wall but John doubled up two hands later and was again the chip leader. John took a fatal wound when he raised the blinds then matched Bob's "all-in" re-raise. Bob's pocket Aces held on and it took only a couple more hands to end tournament. John took 30% of the prize pool while Bob won lion's share of the winnings (50%).

A new member to the BobCon community, Robert, suddenly realized why it was called Bob Con. ;)

Photo Gallery

» Check out the event photos available in our Gallery.

Thanks to everyone who was able to attend Saturday night!

Everyone who played received a custom Card Cover and Chip Magnet for participating (some of you left before they were handed out, so we will get you yours). If any of you who were unable to attend would like support the tournament by purchasing your own Card Cover or Magnet with a similar design, please send us an This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it which one(s) you want and how many. The cost of each are only $3 and would take a couple of weeks to come in.

Crude, unsightly, and wildly impractical... but filled with potential. Is this how our grandchildren will play tabletop RPGs? View the latest Microsoft Surface D&D demo below...

Mark your calendars for Saturday, June 12. BobCon will be holding a Texas Hold 'em tournament to help us raise funds for this year's convention. An official flyer will be coming out in the next week or so, along with complete information and rules on the Website, but I wanted to give you the basics.

• $25 entry fee, 60% of which will be awarded to the top 3 players.
• Re-buys will be allowed until the first break and will only cost $15.
• There will be a silent auction for some neat, unique items.

This event is open to anyone who wants to play or learn Texas Hold 'em. Invite your friends, co-workers, etc. The only caveats are that we will need an RSVP by June 6 in order to ensure we are properly prepared and, due to its nature, this will be an adults-only event.

Check the BobCon Spring Texas Hold 'em Tournament event page for more information!

Hey everyone, just a note that we've got our new photo and video Gallery section up and running. Here's a sample!

It Begins!

Last year's convention is behind us and now we begin preparations for BobCon 2010. Overall, BobCon 2009 went well but there are several areas in which improvements could be made. With that in mind the BobCon Council has been born. The BobCon Council consists of seven dedicated men and women who have volunteered to take on key roles in order to make future BobCons even more... wait for it... AWESOME!

Learn all about the Council, their vision for 2010, our new auctions, fundraising efforts, and social media outlets...

BobCon Council

Let's introduce your 2010 Council:

• Bob Iliff – Communications Director, the voice of BobCon in emails, tweats, blogs, etc.
• Janet Iliff – Treasurer, the keeper of gold and counter of the beans
• Dan Justice – Secretary, taskmaster and historian
• Brad Kelley – Website Coordinator,
• Marshall Pelot – Sponsorship Coordinator, in charge of acquiring donations, soliciting ads, etc.
• David Phillips – Events Coordinator, the scheduler of events (the basis for BobCon)
• Brad Warriner – Executive Director, who prefers the title Supreme Leader, who is the man in charge

Be sure to thanks these fine people next time you pass them on the street. Their efforts will make BobCon better than ever.

Vision

Surveys were sent out after the completion of last year's convention to help us assess how we did and what direction the BobCon attendees saw for our future. We had a disappointing amount of responses (a heartfelt thanks to all of you who did fill out the survey and send it in), but from those surveys that we did receive we were able to create a roadmap for the future.

Several of the key points that came from this were:

• Keeping BobCon a grassroots convention
• Making BobCon financially viable
• Increasing our event offerings

The first point should be easy, as we can continue as we always have — the attendees inviting those people we feel will fit into the group. It helps keep us an intimate convention. The third point should also be fairly easy, especially since we now have a dedicated person who will concentrate on soliciting events from you, the attendees. Lastly, in order for BobCon to remain an annual event we need to ensure that it becomes financially viable, not by burdening the attendees with high entry prices or event fees but through fundraising, corporate donations/sponsorships and ad sales. With these goals in mind, the Council has already begun the process for making BobCon 2010 a success.

Fundraising

The Council has several fundraising events planned for the months preceding this year's convention. The most immediate one is the BobCon Auctions. Originally it was planned to be a blind auction to the BobCon community of games, services and materials donated from stores, game companies and members. But why limit the scope to just us (and our pocketbooks)? The BobCon Auctions will be posting to eBay. We will inform the community of the items as they are launched so that you not only have the opportunity to acquire these wonderful goods, but so that you can help to support the convention through bidding, feedback, etc. Our official username on eBay will be bobconauctions, so be sure to add us to your favorites list and keep on eye on our items. We are launching our first auction this weekend, but you will receive an specific email about it shortly.

Another fundraising opportunity we plan on pursuing is the running of several single-day tournaments. These tournaments will have an entry fee but will also boast other offerings, like food and beverages being provided for an Axis & Allies tournament or cash prizes for Texas Hold'em. More information will be provided on each tournament as they are scheduled.

Social Networking

Just to be on the cutting edge, BobCon now has both a Facebook Fan Page and a Twitter account. We also hope to update the BobCon website to allow us to blog. There isn't much happening on these social sites yet, but one never knows. Follow us or become a fan to help support BobCon. It does ad legitimacy to our organization, which helps us to acquire sponsorships, donations and sell ads to businesses and game companies.

• Facebook: bobconkc
  Twitter: bobconkc

Wrap Up

We, the BobCon Staff, would like to thank all of you for your support. You are we we do this! We hope to make this year's BobCon better than ever before and ask for your help, and indulgence, in making this happen. Whether it be through support, participation or just good word of mouth (tell your local stores you'd love to see them support BobCon), anything you do helps make BobCon a reality. Thank you, again.

And just in case you didn't note this year's header, BobCon 2010 is set for October 1, 2 & 3. Mark your calendars now! We want to see everyone there this year.