Real Money Aniversary

This time last year I logged onto Pokerroom to find they'd shut down the play money tables and were offering bonuses to sign up for scary halloween real money.You won't force me to play for real I thought and opened an account at Pokerstars which I lasted 10 minutes at before heading back to PR to make my first deposit.Played there until August when I discovered Interpoker and looser fishier European players and thats when my bankroll started making more progress.

Not going to try and go into my learning curve over the last year.In the main though I would say that after a years play and tens of thousands of hands that I have become more used to the bad beats and can deal with them far more easily.I used to deny the pain and tell myself it didn't bother me and never noticed I was tilting until it was out of control.Now I accept the blow,feel the hurt and try and move on keep playing my best game.If Im going to enjoy the heart thumping buzz of winning a big pot I have to learn to deal with those soul crushing moments when it all goes wrong. Indeed I keep telling myself that if I can do that then I'll have an edge over many players who are far more skilled than me but tilt easily.


Onto Sundays shannanigans...

Woke up late and had a chilled out afternoon.That changed at about 7ish when I thought I'd make a small deposit at Royal Vegas in time for our mini tourney at 9pm. "Theres been a problem with your transaction".Phoned support who helpfully suggested leaving it 1/2 hour.Errr ok. Still no joy 1/2 hr later or after 3 more calls and more payment methods tried.

8.30pm and the door goes.Pizza has arrived.Door goes again and its next door asking if I'd come and take the new freezer Mrs A has bought from them.Royal Vegas support still on line and getting nowhere.

9pm and with a few runners sat at the private table I created I still can't get in!

Finally I ask for a supervisor and after having explained the situation as politely and as forcefully as I could he finally agreed a goodwill credit of $6.50 to get me started.The fact that he was in South Africa and I was able to give him an update on his rugby team beating Glasgow went a long way to helping I think.Not often having a day job dealing with "high level" complaints helps but I think it did last night.

All this after I started my evening with a chat with The Poison on my yahoo messenger thingy.Veneno has a mic and it was beyond cool( maybe I'm easily impressed) to hear her lovely accent fill my poker cupboard. Gonna have to get a mic too at some point although I have mentioned before that the last time I was in America the Mcdonalds drive thru girl had to get a manager to come out to my car to take my order as they couldn't understand my accent! ( think Billy Connolly!).

The sng didn't fill up as hoped so we moved to another $5 sng which I was too late for! The bloggers kicked ass though and made up 3 of the final 4.

$2 sng next just for fun and this time I finally got to sit down and play some poker! I couldn't even find the damn fold button at first! Thanks Gcox for realising I wasn't taking the piss and actually helping me out there!I chickened out of an early all in with JJ as and folded to The Edges bet on a flop with a Q.Not my A game maybe but I just wanted to hang out some more and avoid yet another sng wooden spoon!
My 99 lost to QJ and I never recovered.The blinds did go up very quickly and we only started with 1000 chips so it became a bit of a lottery after not too long but I reckon we all enjoyed the game which was afterall the main reason for playing.
Hopefully next time we can choose a better site and get more players.

After that The Edge left and Juice and I hit the .10-.20nl full ring table where Juice cleaned up and I made $1.70 for about 2 hours play.No sniggering.I didn't lose and that's nearly 9*bb!!

Finally crashed out at 1am.Would have left earlier but despite being card dead Juices funny patter kept me going.Maybe he was just rambling...

Halloween today and the wee one is going out tonight as a Majorette complete with baton.Here's her trick or treat poem....

Trick or treat,smell my feet,give me something nice to eat... or I'll hit you with my stick.

Hmm the kid is a genius!


Rangers play celt*cs conquerers Art Media Bratislava tomorrow night in the Champions league.The 1-1 draw at home to Inverness Caledonian Thistle was not good enough and even a result tomorrow night may not be enough to save the managers job. To be 10 points behind a very average celt*c team this early in the season is not acceptable.We do have a lot of injured players but should still be beating teams like Inverness Caley.At least we didn't lose I suppose.I remember the famous Sun headline when Caley beat celt*c 3-1 in the cup in 2001.( when Caley were league below us)I still play my dvd of the game every now and then.Happy memories!











Will probably postpone Marks weekly visit as Mrs A worked last night so she can help the wee one get ready for tonight. I'm getting the hang of Ridge Racer on my PSP.The graphic are amazing for such a small machine.I do tilt a bit though if I start a race badly..


Ok just time to say that if you'e not checked out Gcox's new blogging template you should.Created by Tripjax and looking mighty fine.

Back with my bankroll update post ( 1 year on ) shortly.More for my records than any fun reading. Goals and targets for my poker year ahead? Make more money,possibly move up and definitely play more bloggers games.

Deal me in!