I guess you could call it that.  Had a fine traditional feast at Dolce Vita last night.  Thanks Jim and YJ!

We had 14 players in the dart tournament that followed dinner. The draw was nice in that the teams were pretty evenly matched (which does not always happen in a blind draw).  I teamed up with Ron and we wound up meeting Alistair and Matt for the championship.

Dolce features live music on Thursday nights and the tourney ran a little longer than expected.  So, by the time we started the finals the band (well, two guys on amplified acoustic guitars) was going full bore.  The dart boards in play are right next to the ‘bandstand’ as it were, so it was a lot louder than normal playing conditions.  And the place was packed with darters and music fans, with the music fans sometimes forgetting darts etiquette and walking through the game.  Suffice to say, appropriate levels of concentration was difficult.

Giving the environment (I really hate throwing while the band is playing if for no other reason than it seems rude and disrespectful somehow) I suggested that we call the tourney a draw and split the combined prize money of 160,000W equally.  Alistair wanted to play it out and so we that’s what we did.  And after a tremendous battle with some great darts on both sides, Ron and I prevailed.  Sweet.

It was a blessing to throw some decent darts for a change.  I had a real up and down season and somewhere along the way I’ve developed a flaw in my mechanics.  I really focused last night on reacquiring a smooth rhythm with a consistent release point.  For the most part I succeeded.  The challenge will be maintaining that week in and week out.

We shall see.

Ok, time for an addition to the “dart bars of Itaewon” series.  Next up, Manila Bar.

Manila is in the second alley on the right walking up from Hamilton Hotel towards the Itaewon arch.  It is upstairs from Nana Bar.

Alright, let’s be honest about it.  I have a lot of affection for this bar.  Owners Jovie and Teddy always make sure their customers have a good time.  But, it is really unfair to call this a dart bar.  This photo was taken on a Saturday night, and they take down the board on weekends to facilitate a DJ/videoke/karaoke thing.  Which is nice by the way.

There is a second board behind the picture to the right, although I have never seen it in play.  The phantom board pictured above plays ok, but the oche is real close to the bar so it can at times be tight.

Now, this is the nice thing the bar offers.  A great place to sing if that is your thing, and Teddy is an excellent musician.  He will occasionally accompany you on the piano while you do a videoke song, and he also does some lounge singing, whic is quite pleasant.

This is the bar looking back from the dart board.  If it looks small, well, consider it cozy.  One of the smaller “legitmate” bars I’ve visited in Itaewon.  Doesn’t take much to fill it up, but again, a full bar is a fun bar, right?

Like I said, it is somewhat unfair to compare Manila Bar to some of the other dart venues in town.  Although the sport a team or two in the lower divisions, this really isn’t a real darts bar.  Fine for chucking a few with friends on a weeknight, but if you are a serious darter this is probably not where you go to play.  Great for good times otherwise though.  A “D” rating for darts.

Rubbies were victorious against our rivals from Bless U Pub, Cake Mix,  tonight 19-15.  It was a sweet victory indeed!

I am on a real high because FINALLY I played some decent darts, contributing a 9-3 showing to our effort.  It’s been a long time coming.  Next week we have the Korean team XOX at Friends Bar.

We can beat ’em.  Stay tuned.

Tonight the Rubbies take on the Cake Mix boys at Bless U Pub in a first round playoff match.

We split our two games this season and we’re going to go all out for victory.

Details of the match tomorrow (or tonight is I’m still sober).

Tonight they had the inaugural Wednesday dart tourney at Sam Ryan’s Pub.  Lots of fun, which was enhanced by the fact that my partner Ben and I walked out of the bar with first place money.  Woo Hoo!

It was a nice set up: double elimination and we split the high “A” and “B” players to keep the teams balanced.  Nice night, and something I will look forward to on a weekly basis.

See ya there.

Well, we managed to take down Cake Mix, the second place team from Bless U Pub, 20-17 which keeps us in the fight for a playoff spot.  We have a make up match against Kaibigan at Friends Pub Sunday which should decide who’s in and who’s out.

I got demoted to six legs and managed a 4-2 performance.  Pretty frustrating to have the team lose confidence in me that way, but I have to admit I earned it.  In fact, I am seriously considering firing myself next season.  I’m just not playing “A” caliber darts these days.

Oh well.

The Rubbies took down Blue Bulls last night 22-15.

I turned in a 2-7 performance.

Six legs against Seung Youb will do that (not to make excuses).

We had a singles tournament at Dolce Vita tonight and yours truly successfully clawed his way to a hard fought victory.

I took out Grant in the first round 2-0, then lost to Dustin1-2.  Through the losers bracket I pulled out wins against Dave. Jim and Dano.  Then I faced my nemesis Alistair (ranked 1st in “A” division) and surprised us both I think with a 2-0 victory.  A tough win against Ali put me in the championship round against the undefeated Dustin.

I needed to beat him in two matches to take the crown, which I managed to do to walk away with 90,000 cash and 30,000 in bar credit.

A good night’s work to be sure and it felt good to be on the winning end of things for a change…

Time for another “dart bars of Itaewon” review.  This week:  Pub Scrooge.

The Pub is located in the alley behind Hamilton Hotel, across the street from 3 Alley Pub/Sam Ryan’s.

I’ve not eaten here, but as you can see they have a nice menu.  This is basically your full service pub.  I guess its niche is they televise all those bizarre European/Aussie sports like soccer and Rugby.

It sports 3 well lighted dart boards.

A somewhat small bar…

But more than ample table seating.

And of course a regulation size pool table.

And they have a rather impressive trophy case.  I assume Scrooge sponsors a rugby team or two in addition to their dart teams.

Here’s the old Walrus keeping track of the score during our more than a little disappointing match against the Scrooge Dartoholics last night.

So, although I rarely frequent Pub Scrooge unless I’m playing darts I think it is a very pleasant environment; clean, modern, and comfortable.

But this is a dart bar review, so let’s talk about the play at Scrooge.  The boards we used were in good condition and the lighting is good.  The third board was in poor shape, but I expect they would put up a new should it be required for league or tournament play.

It gets a tad crowded with both boards in play, but its not really an issue, you just need to maintain situational awareness so you don’t bump a shooter.  What I didn’t like is the chalking (scoreboards) being BEHIND the oche.  Technically speaking, the shooter should be able to see the scoreboard at all times.  For this reason, most bars have the chalker set up next to the board.  Obviously, not room for that at Scrooge and I found myself constantly stepping off the line to check the board, which is at best an unnecessary distraction and at worst takes you out of your throwing rhythm.

The other thing I don’t like is that the wall on which the boards are mounted is not perpendicular–it slants about 5 degrees right to left.  Which means the oche line is slanted (as it must be).  Now, I guess if you played here on a regular basis you’d get used to it, but I found it somewhat disconcerting for most of the night as I lined up for my shots.

Therefore, although I find Scrooge a pleasant enough pub it is not amongst my favorite venues for darts.  Certainly fine for chucking darts with friends while quaffing some brews, but not great for competitive play.  I’m going to rate Pub Scrooge a B- overall.

And that’s all I have to say about that.

Dartoholics put an ass whuppin’ on us last night, 23-14.  We actually pretty much matched them mark for mark, but they were getting the the out dart and we were not.

Three of their four players are in the top ten and it was tough sledding in some of our matchups.  I had a pathetic 3-9 performance despite throwing some decent darts.  Oh yeah, those three guys are Korean and play the “point whether we need to or not” game.  They are pretty good at it too.  In one of the legs I played we both finished with over 600 points (I won).

Anyway, a disappointing night but I still like our chances in the playoffs…

Next up in the Dart Bars of Itaewon series is Friends Bar.

Friends is located about halfway up Hooker Hill on the right hand side above Old Town.

What can I say about this place besides it being just about my least favorite bar in Itaewon?  Well, the owner JJ and manager Jonas are both good guys.  And the walk up the hill can be shall we say interesting at times, in a Paul Simon kinds of way “just a come on from the whores on 7th Ave”.   Other than that, there’s nothing good I can think of.

The bar is dark and dingy.  Overwhelmed the flash on my camera dark.  I actually lightened each of these photos, otherwise there would be nothing to see.  I’m not kidding, when I had a couple of bounceouts I could not see my frickin’ dart on the floor right in front of me.

Anyway, the bar sports 4 dart boards.  These two are in the back alongside the bar and we play our “A” division games here.  The boards were in decent shape on Monday, but that has not always been the case.  The boards themselves have adequate lighting, but otherwise it’s like being in a cave.

These are the two front boards which also looked to be in good playing condition.  The problem here is the traffic as folks make the way to the toilet (unisex) and pool tables.  As you might be able to see, Friends has one of the few soft tip darts machines left in Itaewon.  Koreans are big on the soft tip, but it just never took off in Itaewon for some reason.  Fine with me as I really don’t like the game.

Here’s the backside of the bar.  Yeah, the bargirls were pretty cute so there’s that.  Then again, they don’t serve draft beer which I prefer.  You can get your favorite Korean brew in a large sized bottle for Won 5000 however.

Friends does have two pool tables which is pretty unusual.  Of course, that means nothing to me but I suppose the pool players of the world appreciate it.

I understand this bar caters to a younger crowd and gets very busy on weekends.  They generally play rap at loud volume and have music videos on the big screen, although the mix on Monday night wasn’t bad (after some friendly hints to the bar staff). 

As a darts venue, I just don’t like this place.  I think the general consensus of SIDL members is similar to mine. They do support two “A” teams and at least one lower division team as well.  Frankly, this bar is just stuck in the past and has been far surpassed by the Dolce and Sam Ryan’s venues, which are newer, cleaner, and well-lit.  Hemingway would hate this place and I grade it a “D” for darts.

Still to come: Scrooge Pub, 3 Alley Pub, and Manila Bar.

Well, we faced off with the league leading gents from XOX at Friends Bar last night.  It was a bit of a grudge match for us as they had destroyed us 28-9 earlier this season.  We came out with a 20-17 victory which satisfied our thirst for revenge. 

I contributed a 6-6 effort, which although middling, I feel pretty good about.  I drew YK, their top ranked player, in both of my singles matches and came out 2-4.  For the most part I threw strong darts, but YK is tough to beat when he is on his game, and he was pretty much on his game last night.

The highlight of my night was in the final mixed doubles (501/cricket) match.  Dan and I took on HK and Mr. Lee and we beat them at their own game.  That is to say we pointed mercilessly in both cricket legs.   XOX is a Korean team and their style of play is more aggressive than most.  Generally speaking, most players will not continue pointing after they have a “comfortable” lead.  For me, that’s one bull (25+ points) for others it’s a two bull lead.  The XOX guys will continue pointing until you’ve closed the number.  I’m not sure it is a good strategy (although as mentioned, XOX is leading the league), but it can be damned disconcerting if you let it get into your head.   So, I think we surprised them a bit last night by giving them a taste of their own medicine. 

Anyway, it was a sweet victory indeed.

I said in my earlier post there was a lot of darts on tap this weekend.  There was, but not as much as I had anticipated since our Sunday make-up match against Kaibigan was once again postponed (this time at the request of Kaibigan).  The cancellation did not occur until game time, and we had been warming up at Gecko’s for over an hour so that kinda sucked.  Since the Rubbies were all dressed up and ready to play we played a little 301 game amongst ourselves.  DIDO, but with a little twist in that once you were under 100 points you had to double out on one throw.  Failure meant going back to 301 and adding another thousand won to the pot.  I really hated that game after a couple of hours of frustration.

Saturday’s league doubles tournament was a bit of a disappointment as we only had 8 participants.  So, the league leaders decreed that we would shift to a round robin format instead of double elimination.  That meant we got to play more darts which is a good thing.  Even better, all four teams would finish in the money (1st=120,000, 2nd=80,000, 3rd=60,000 and 4th=40,000).  The teams were David and Lonnie, Seung Youb and Chris H., Mike and Ron, and me and Lucky.  It turned out to be a very competitive match.  Seung Youb and Chris finished with 6 legs won and 1st place, while David and Lonnie and me and Lucky had 5 legs each and a playoff round for second place.  Which we won 2-1.  Yeah baby!

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention we picked up a new player on Rubbies to take the recently departed Dave’s spot on the roster.  While Dave was and is irreplaceable, we scored a major coup by picking up a former Rubbie–Billy.  He is a great darter and more importantly a good and comfortable fit for our team.  We are all feeling and playing with more confidence and have high expectations for success in the playoffs.

And that’s the way it is darts-wise.

Busy darts weekend in store.  We have the league doubles tournament today, a make-up game with Kalbigan at Friends Bar on Sunday, and our regular Monday night game against XOX, also at Friends.

Pretty nice night at the Friday Dolce Vita tourney yesterday.  A first and a second place showing and some very competitive matches.

I had a rather unusual request from a reader the other day.  Seems that in one of the pics in the Wolfhound review included he and a young woman in the background.  As he wanted to avoid any potential unpleasantness should this woman’s husband happen upon the photo, he asked that it be deleted.  You know, I accommodated his request, but really I couldn’t see anything identifiable in the photo.  Plus, although I have a cadre of loyal readers, it’s not like random jealous Korean husbands drop by with any regularity. 

And that was about the extent of my excitement this week.  Wish me luck today.  As always, you can check back here for an update on the outcome. 

Last night’s dart match was postponed until Sunday so I used the offnight to visit Wolfhound Pub.  This is a venue I do not regularly frequent, but it was the only place in town that was not hosting a league match headed over for some practice with Tom, the only other Rubbie who did not attend the Charlie Daniels concert on base  last night.  We played 15 legs and Tome took me 8-7.  What can I say?

Anyway, it gave me the opportunity to do my next “Dart Bars of Itaewon” review.

So Wolfhound is in the alley behind Seoul Pub.  Just walk past Gecko’s, turn right and about a block up the alley you wil see the Wolfhound signs. It’s the only Irish Pub I’m aware of in Itaewon.  Tom lived in Great Britain for a number of years and he said it had the same “feel” of Pubs he used to frequent.

 It has nice touches like this throughout the place.

There are two floors of goodness at Wolfhound.  This is the “first floor” bar (on the second floor of the building), it is also a pretty spacious dining area.  Wolfhound has a nice menu of Irish specialties and other offerings.  I had the fish and chips which was well prepared and plentiful at a fair, if moderately high, price. Talk around town is that the entire menu is quite delicious.  Eh, I don’t mean the actual menu, but you get my meaning.

The upstairs bar is where all the darts action takes place.

Plenty roomy with ample seating for players and spectators.  Same menu as downstairs.  Service was prompt and efficient, although it seemed a little impersonal.  A warm greeting and a smiling welcome to me is a good thing, but nothing I’ve experienced in my few visits at Wolfhound.  Not sure that is a fair criticism, because if I went there often enough to gain “regular” status I’m pretty sure I’d been treated like, well, a regular. 

Anyway, here is the dart board set up.  As you can see, the bar features two boards.  I’ve not played in competition here since my “B” division days.  That was pre-remodeling when there was a single board in the downstairs bar.  So, this is at least twice as good.  Tom reminiced that it was here where he hit the winning dart in a championship game.  I recalled that I had my first ever 9-mark at Wolfhound

On the plus side, the boards are well lit.  We played the left board last night, and there was plenty of room at the oche.  The boards were in good condition and they played well (not too many bounce outs).  On the down side, the board was not mounted tightly, which meant we had to frequently center the 20 between throws.  Another issue was that the oche was not centered on either board (it was lined up for a non-existent center board).  Also, there was no out chart.  Technically, this means the bar is not up to league standards and requirements.  I know that Wolfhound has a lower division team, so I guess no one has complained.

Those are all easy fixes though.  It is otherwise a nice venue and warrants a solid “B” rating as a darts venue.  So, if you got a hankering for some Irish cooking and ambiance, head on over.

Rubbies defeated Blue Bulls tonight 22-15.  I contributed a 9-3 performance that included several marks and an 82-out.

Now, if I can only replicate those darts the rest of the season.

Well, one week at a time.  It’s good to be back over .500 regardless.

And yes, we all missed Dave.

Ok, time for another in the “dart bars of Itaewon” series.  This week, Bless U Pub.

Bless U is located about 20 yards up the alley from Dolce Vita.  From the Hamilton Hotel, you’d walk towards the Itaewon arch, at the first traffic signal (a pedestrian crosswalk) you turn right, head up the alley and it’s on your left.

I really like this bar and spend more time here than I do anywhere else outside my home bar Dolce Vita.  As regular readers know, I played out of here last season with the Blue Bulls.  It’s a comfortable place, good and friendly service, frosty beer mugs, and a nice menu of well prepared western and Asian dishes.

The bar sports 3 darts boards, although these two are the only ones really worth a damn (the third board is crowded and poorly lit).  That’s Alisteir the Scot warming up in preparation for the hurting he was about to put on us Monday night.

Another view of the boards.  I’m included because John Rule, one of my faithful readers here at LTG, insisted I should be in one of the dart bar reviews.  I do cut a handsome figure, I must admit.  (oops, there goes my credibility!)

The bar area is a tad small, but comfortable.  That’s Kevin Glover bellyin’ up.

The bar also hosts a regulation pool table and two teams in the pool league.  They have a team chant in the pool league that goes “1-2-3-bless u, achoo!” which seems a little bit out of order when you think about it.  Us dart leaguers don’t go in for much of that chanting stuff, becuase as everyone knows, darts is a much more dignified sport.  Heh.  That’s Jay Waddell of Cake Mix fame doing his pregame warm-up routine.

As I mentioned, Bless U has good food and it is one of the few bars I actually eat at before a league match.  Monday I had a hankering for the famous Bless U burger and was not disappointed.  Yum!

So, I do enjoy the bar and it is a nice place to play.  They host two “A” division teams and a couple of more in the lower divisions.  My major complaints are that board one encounters a lot of bar traffic and chalking from behind the oche is a bit of a pain in the ass.  Board two is ok when the pool table is closed (as it is on league night), but I don’t like the oche which is not centered on the board properly (at least the oche with the measurements on it is not, they realigned the boards and now a strip of tape serves as the oche).  As mentioned, board 3 pretty much sucks, but this season the lower divisions play that board, so no problem (or excuse) in “A” division.

Although Bless U can’t meet the high standards set by Sam Ryan’s and Dolce Vita, it’s a fun and welcoming venue.  A solid B grade for Bless U Pub as a darts venue.

Monday night we faced the league leading boys from Cake Mix at Bless U Pub.  We fought hard but came up short, losing 19-18.  Alisteir the Scot was en fuego and it seems his teammates are all working hard at keeping up with his game.  Each leg was a battle that’s for sure.

I had a decent night in singles with a 5-1 showing and a few marks.  It was good to have some game after my recent lackluster efforts.  I couldn’t carry it forward in doubles, and I take the blame for losing a leg in ’01 that included a Ton-80 by my partner Rod.  When you are playing a quality team like Cake Mix you better hit the out on your first try.

Hated to have our departing teammate Dave New take a loss in his last match as a Rubbie.  He had the misfortune to run into the buzzsaw of Alisteir, but in truth, he was probably the only one of us who could keep it close with the best player in SIDL.

So, we will carry on of course, but the Rubbies just won’t be the same without Dave and his killer 50 gram darts.

L-R Jamie, Rod, Me, Jessie, Dave and Tom

Seeing as how our league match was postponed yesterday it gave me the chance to visit a bar I haven’t been to for quite some time.  And of course I snapped some photos for the Dart Bars of Itaewon series.  So this week I present Hollywood Grill.

Hollywood is located on the main drag of Itaewon, about half a block “up” (towards Hannam-dong) from the Hamilton Hotel.  It’s on the 3rd floor, upstairs from Kraze Burger and La Tavola.

Hollywood features two dart boards, although you would have to rearrange some furniture to comfortably play the board on the right of this photo.  I’ve not actually thrown at Hollywood since my “B” Division days, but back then it was not a great place to play.  From my observation, not much has changed.  There is an aircon unit next to oche on the far board (which is what we played in those days).  Some darters complained about the breeze created by the airconditioner, others didn’t like throwing with cold, numb hands.  What I hated most was the lighting.  Not that great to begin with, but the fixtures where almost on top of the board and shooting for the double top (20) was sometimes an adventure as it seemed you were as likely to hit the light as the board.  I note they have definitely improved the lighting in that regard, which is a plus.

But note how there is some shelf like thing directly above the boards.  I don’t remember that from before and it certainly creates the same type problem.  You can see from the damage that many darters have been missing “high”, but with this setup, it doesn’t take much of a miss to be in the wood.

As I don’t frequent this bar at all these days, I can’t say much about what attracts the customers.  I surmise from the football jerseys and banners (that would be soccer for you Yanks) and the numerous TV monitors, they must be big on sports.  To the left of the above photo you can see a pretty impressive collection of wines.  So, I guess there’s that.  I also understand they show Hollywood films on Sundays.

This is the front half of the bar area.  The bar arcs around to form a full half circle, so there is ample bar seating.  On the other side of the bar is a regulation pool table.

Overall, I’d say this a pretty comfortable place to quaff some brews and watch sports and movies.  As a dart venue, not so much.  I believe Hollywood only hosts a “C” division team this year, and I guess the setup is adequate for that.  I’d rate this bar a C- for competitive darts.

Having some free time on my hands on a Monday night, I indulged in a little norebang…

I look better than I sound, if that gives you any indication of my singing ability…