New Scaratings

OPIEE and I are visiting the Tampa area beaches for New Years Eve and beyond.

We are staying in St Pete beach for a few days and will play some buzztime at Players which is on the beach. It's been around a long time but dosent get as many regular players as they used to. It's a standard sports bar, nothing fancy, mostly tourists. This beachcomber property also has a big, busy, outside bar called Jimmy Bs, bands night and day, no BT out there though.

We will also check out Riptides a tiki beach bar up the street with BT, Boardwalk pasta is to the south but might not check out the limited trivia play there.

Then on Sat. till Wed. we'll move up to the Maderia beach area with a few more BT bars. The obvious one here is Angry Peppers waterside, owned by an avid full time BT player, very nice guy, all about the players. Everyone has seen their large "team play" style on the boards daytime through happy hour for years. Great open air place to play with a lot of people.

We'll also check out Brodie Cains in Treasure Island, the Sports Bar and Buffalo City bar in Seminole. Cody's roadhouse is also on the list to visit.

So lots of places to visit, not sure about times of play, but if anyone is in the area send me a PM and we'll bang some numbers. I have been in contact with some of the usual suspects down here. Blumax will be around next week. SOB is going through some serious health issues and can't get down to the beaches, please get well soon, Bob. Girlie is way to the north and probably busy?

I'll see if I can get some pics of the bars on here and further reviews of the action at the multitude of BT bars around here. Much better than the 3 boring BWWs we have to chose from in central Maryland.

Happy New Year to all!

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BUD - Stained Glass Pub Silver Spring MD
OC BUD - Grotto Pizza DE near Ocean City MD

LET'S GO ....Caps and Os!!!!

So far we have only made it to 2 BT bars. There are just so many non BT bars along St Pete beach that it's tough to get far away. Opiee loves the Toasted Monkey bar.

Players bar which has blue boxes has been fine but a little boring. Not many players other than Joneb and Margeb a retired couple from the NY area. They are very friendly and play 6 or 7 days a week, usually hitting a few bars in their daily travels. I can see Opiee and I having this lifestyle down here in few years. They were already giving us tips on the Florida retired BT lifestyle and how to hit all the specials.

Riptides on Blind Pass rd is completely different. It's a rowdy, open air smaller tablet bar that does get a varying number of players. This one is a smoking bar with no food but you can order pizza or subs from a variety of shops that advertise on the tablets. The smoke wasn't bad at all because of the open front and fans. The bartender Denise was from Baltimore and kept us entertained. JAC is the main player here. This bar was much more interesting than Players with its cast of local riptide characters.

2 pics from each bar below, if I figure out how to do that from this iphone.
(No luck on that, I'll try later)

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BUD - Stained Glass Pub Silver Spring MD
OC BUD - Grotto Pizza DE near Ocean City MD

LET'S GO ....Caps and Os!!!!

Sounds like fun.

Thanks Scott. How the hell do we post pics here in the post body from an iPhone? Always done from pc before.

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BUD - Stained Glass Pub Silver Spring MD
OC BUD - Grotto Pizza DE near Ocean City MD

LET'S GO ....Caps and Os!!!!

Sorry, don't know. My cell phone skills rival my Facebook inclinations.

Thanks very much, Andy. It kills me that I haven't been able to join you for a pub crawl. Hope you've had an enjoyable visit.

I don't understand why they don't have NTN in hospitals...you think it's because they don't serve beer? I mean, I guess it's okay to play without alcohol--I don't really understand it but I guess it's okay.

They do provide me with morphine. Wouldn't that be just about as good?

s o b
Down but not out yet

Bob SOB! Sorry to hear you are not doing so well! I still loved meeting and playing with you a few years ago at the Chase Club. Awesome time! I hope you get better soon as we look forward to seeing your name in the top 20 every week here in Orlando! Your friends WARZNE and STIGMA aka David and Susan Martin.

I'm truly irritated with Buzztime for doing away with bar reviews! They just lost a bunch of history there! I always looked forward to reading and posting reviews of places I went to. Your reviews were always a highlight to go and play wherever you were! Truly another dumb decision from BT! Dave

Bud, I've played at Players many times as we stay at the Grand Plaza the sister property for Rays games in the summer. It's definitely a nice bar but beware the prices on food. I swear we've been ripped off twice by this place. Ridiculous bills and one chicken tender for my daughter for about ten bucks??? Stick to just beers! Also Brandon/Hadley doesn't work there anymore and be always took care of us when there playing.

We didn't have any trouble with food prices at Players. We were there for 4 or 5 days this year and last year, never saw anything out of line, decent bar food. Even got a couple free beers when getting them up in the national east rankings. We did have our Players Card which gets you happy hour drink prices all day and larger glasses if you do draft beers. Also 10% off food. So if you plan to go often enough get a Players Card, the application will be emailed to you if you call and ask for one. They do make it a bit difficult to get one.
The card is good out back on the beach at Jimmys bar as well. It takes a month to get the card so you can't really apply for it when you are there, got to plan ahead.

I suspect they treat customers with the card better than others. Mike and I think Mark? were the bartenders most of the time. One of them played BT when it was slow.


So, we do enjoy the Beachcomber hotel and its 2 great bars. Absolutely recommended as is the Drunken Momkey bar next door, good bands there and at Jimmys.

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BUD - Stained Glass Pub Silver Spring MD
OC BUD - Grotto Pizza DE near Ocean City MD

LET'S GO ....Caps and Os!!!!

Thanks very much, Dave. I remember your visit very well. Sorry I never got to hook up with you guys at the Friendly Confines. What a great bar that is.

Don't know when I'll be playing again, if ever. Health is not so good.

S O B

Bob,

Susan (Stigma) and I will keep you in our prayers and thoughts. You were so welcoming to us when we played at Chase Club. Take care my friend. Dave (Warzone)

Thanks. I was just in St Pete last month -- I bought my parents condo at Point Brittany about a mile from the beach on the the first island of the Pinellas Bay Way.

There's a bar/restaurant called Boardwalk that is ~1/3 mile from my condo that had BT, but it wasn't working so we went to Players. I see from BT's site that Boardwalk no longer has BT -- Darn!

Players is exactly as Bud describes -- sports bar but few players. As a sports bar it is dissappointing as the TVs in the bar are tiny. We watched the Caps vs Islanders out by the beach at Jimmy B's, no BT but a great beach bar and lost of big screen TVs -- better for sports than Players. Interestingly, as we were walking back to Jimmy B's through the center courtyard of the hotel I noticed hockey equipment bags outside most rooms and hockey equipment hanging off the railings. Turns out there was a big adult league tournament in St Pete that week (and if you've ever smelled hockey equipment you'd understand why they'd chance having it stolen off an outside balcony than keep it inside their room!).

I'll be back at the condo from the Saturday before Thanksgiving until the Saturday after New Years -- I convinced my boss to let me work from there -- and will try out some of the other places Bud mentions.

I'm back here at my condo. So far I've only played at Players and Angry Pepper. Angry Pepper is by far the better of the two. Even though Players bills itself as a sport bar, the TVs at Angry Pepper are bigger. We had 6 players Saturday afternoon when I stopped by, including the local "pro from Dover," WPM. The owner was playing, too, and gave us all a free beer when we came in #1 as a team in Countdown. The food was great, too -- they have their own smoker and I can attest to the pulled port. I'll try the brisket next time I'm their.

Based on Buzztime stats it doesn't appear Angry Pepper has much activity in the evenings. Neither does Players. I may give Riptide a shot before I head back North in January.

Forgot to mention, Angry Pepper also has a great selection of craft beers on tap.

Hey Lumpy, OPIEE and I will be back in the St Pete beach/ Maderia beach area soon.

We will be down there Sun Dec 13th through Sat Dec 19th when we then relocate south to Siesta Key for another week through Christmas. We will be staying at the hotel where Players is. We would love to play some games with you. Haven't seen you since the Hardtimes days. (RIP)

Players, Riptides, Angry Peppers, Cody's roadhouse and others are on our list.

We hope to run into Higgie and Pepper at Angry Peps. Also Girlie and Ran D may stop by the beach sometime. Of course there's Blumax, but he doesnt travel as far these days esp. at night. Long drive from north of Clearwater.

I will PM you my cell number and we can play as we go, no plans set for any day yet, other than we are staying at Players, easy to crawl 100 feet to the room.

As you said the prime night time play doesn't exist down there, so we do plan more for day and happy hour play and then seeing bands etc at night. Exceptions, of course, for when meeting up with others.

We'll hope that all the bars will have BT on a screen so we can play. Wouldn't want our vacation to be ruined because we couldn't play Playback. Know what I mean Ardvark.

See you down there in the warm weather.

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BUD - Stained Glass Pub Silver Spring MD
OC BUD - Grotto Pizza DE near Ocean City MD

LET'S GO ....Caps and Os!!!!

Dec 13, 2015- Players is still the same Players, no competition but nice surroundings at the beach. We played some late shift on Sunday night after seeing a cool band out back at Jimmys. There has only been 2 scores prior in Dec.

Then Opiee and I played a few games last night at Riptides with Lumpy. One other player (JAC) there, cheap beer prices and nice open air layout. But the bartender said BT probably wasn't going to be at riptides for long, the owner doesn't think it's worth the $135 they're paying and won't be renewing the contract. We put Ridtides on the top 10 several times. As always there was Liljol on the boards along with LILBRO, not sure who's been sending that salute recently.

Today will be Angry Pepper's turn to be invaded. We"ll have Lumpy, Girlie and Ran D joining us. Like Angry Pepper needs any help in getting on the boards. At least they will stay on the boards past happy hour tonight. Hope Higgie and Wpm will be present today. We will see how Showdown goes tonight.

Oh, right, the weather is great here in St Pete Beach, mid seventies, no rain, light breezes, water still warm enough and plenty of palm trees and cold Budweiser.

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BUD - Stained Glass Pub Silver Spring MD
OC BUD - Grotto Pizza DE near Ocean City MD

LET'S GO ....Caps and Os!!!!

Hi Bud. I will be in St Pete Wednesday, December 16. I plan on playing at Angry Peppers early to mid-afternoon. I hope to see you and Opiee.

Ok we will see how things go on Wed. Higgie and the owner Pepper will be there to welcome you. Great bar. They treat visitors great. We will try to make it in the afternoon.

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BUD - Stained Glass Pub Silver Spring MD
OC BUD - Grotto Pizza DE near Ocean City MD

LET'S GO ....Caps and Os!!!!

Tues at Angry Pepper was fun, thanks for Girlie and Ran D making the drive from Tampa to the beach. Lumpy, with his wanted picture of Tiefly, also made an appearance. Higgie and some of the locals were friendly as always, even though we took up 5 of their prime chairs.

We kept Angry Pepper on the boards until Showdown, where Opiee and Girlie guessed the correct final answer and let the rest of us go down in flames. Opiee made the rankings but not the bar. Sandbagger.

We played a live trivia game on Thur with Lumpy. Took 2nd with our little team of 3 at the Blue Parrott. Cool bar, but mostly retired folks forming large teams.

Gilligans in Siesta Key is up tonight for Playback. Noles, Girlie and Ran D should be joining us.

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BUD - Stained Glass Pub Silver Spring MD
OC BUD - Grotto Pizza DE near Ocean City MD

LET'S GO ....Caps and Os!!!!

Going to 2 long time BT bars today. Clancys and Tommy Knockers of Bradenton. We see them both on the boards all the time.

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BUD - Stained Glass Pub Silver Spring MD
OC BUD - Grotto Pizza DE near Ocean City MD

LET'S GO ....Caps and Os!!!!

ALL MY FRIENDS!!!

Saw y'all on the boards Saturday. Nice group of players...except for LUMPY, of course. EGADS!!!

Hey Tie, I think we saw you on the boards, too long ago and too many drinks.

I know, getting behind on the recap of the festivities. Still have to do Sat. at Gilligans and Tues. at Clancys and Tommy Knockers. That second one was a step back to the 50s chain smoking bars that could have been located near the New Mexico nuke tests.

Going to Primetime in Tampa today.

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BUD - Stained Glass Pub Silver Spring MD
OC BUD - Grotto Pizza DE near Ocean City MD

LET'S GO ....Caps and Os!!!!

I'm back in St Pete to mothball my condo until we return next November. Tell OPIEE I failed (by ~100 points) to knock her off #1 on the Showdown leaderboard at Angry Pepper. It looks like that'll be my home when I'm down here. Lot's of good players, good food and good beer.

Hey Lumpy, good to hear you were back at Angry Pepper. Done with Players and their small tvs and lame plastic beer mugs? Opiee says hi and keep on trying to get her score off the top.

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BUD - Stained Glass Pub Silver Spring MD
OC BUD - Grotto Pizza DE near Ocean City MD

LET'S GO ....Caps and Os!!!!