Happy New Year

Mrs A and I had a fine Hogmany and anniversary on the 31st.Had some friends round and smoked and drank our way into the wee sma' oors. Watched "Only an Excuse" and "Chewin' the fat" which were both excellent are now regular Hogmany tv specials now Ricki Fulton is no longer with us to do his Rev I.M Jolly and Supercop stuff in "Scotch n Wry".

Me and my mate even squeezed in a little heads-up poker action.I gave him my "Bluenoze" account at Pokerroom with a million play chips as I never use it anymore and he was worried about telling me he'd blown 700k of it in one night.Now I may be a tightass but even I don't care how many play chips get tilted away!

They stayed over and left about 2pm just as I was getting up.

I had a nice chilled afternoon with Mrs A and hit up the poker when she went up for a lie down.

I mentioned I've been really enjoying playing Mtt's ( Multi table tourneys) and I played a few more yesterday and had some minor success.

I came 12th from 429 in a Ladbrokes $5 turbo sng.I was chipleader again by 15000 chips at one point but the blinds were so high (15k big blind) it was a bit of a crapshoot although I still don't think I adjusted well enough to the changing conditions near the end.I sat back too much for a turbo game then pushed at the wrong times.$19 for my efforts but would have been nice to have made the final table.

Played my first ever paid entry Satellite tourney which was at Interpoker to qualify for the £10k tonight at 9.30 gmt.Made the top 7 ( from 74) and qualified and while its hardly a wsop ticket it felt good to get a £25 ticket for £2.50. 57 registered to play with 4 hours till it starts.I'm not sure how big the field will be but hopefully not too large.

I'm going to play more satellites and mtt's in the future as they are a welcome diversion from the cash game grind and give my poker brain new challenges and angles which can only help improve me as a player.

I've never been a goals and ambitions type of person.I would love to state my goal would be to double last years profits and move up a few levels but I've found I've played better poker over the last few days after having got the "oh no I've lost a ton and need to catch up" monkey off my back and as this is a hobby and not work I'm not going to put too much pressure on myself.

I had a good night two tabling .25-.50 6 max nl last night at Laddies after my tourney fun.Possibly I should be pushing myself harder and if I was 18 I probably would but I've made decent money from the very low stakes nl over the last 14 months and I'll probably try and continue where I am for just now.I only really began to focus on 6 max from August and despite a recent downswing Aug-Jan has been very kind to me in poker terms.

It may be down to where I keep my money on line.The latest figures are Interpoker $1339 , Pokerroom $684 and Ladbrokes $792.

Total of $2815 but I tend to play at the right level for my roll at each site which should minimize my chances of going broke but doesn't give much scope to take a shot and I believe we should all take a shot every now and then.

It's possibly just a mind trick I play on myself.If I had all my money on one site I'd probably feel happier about playing $100 -$200 buy-in nl but I prefer having it spread around a bit and trying to build each roll on each site before moving up.

Also the truth is that I know I'm at my most comfortable at .25-.50 6 max nl. I'm not the rock I am at the higher levels.I'll call a raise from the button with almost any two sometimes because I'm confident I can out play the villan post flop.Bet sizes are a dead give away. Raises to $1 preflop and then a min bet on a low flop is AK or AQ most of the time.Just having the courage to bet the pot or 3/4 pot would represent a high pair and probably take the pot.

It's not a goal or ambition but the plan for the immediate future is to stick to what I'm good at and continue playing more Mtt's.If I make as much as last year I'll be delighted and if I can improve on it then all the better but I'm not going to put too much pressure on myself.Mrs A has a part-time job earning £30 per evening for two nights work each week.The moment I mentioned she could give it up if my poker profits continued can be pin pointed as the moment my downswing began.

That's why I think players that play online for a living do not have the easiest job in the world.Sure there's no boss and no early Monday morning alarm call but the pressure of knowing you had to win to afford food and the bills when your being slapped about by the variace beeetch kind of takes the fun out of it I would think and I'm not sure even if I had the skills I could deliver under that kind of pressure or get much pleasure out of it even if I did.

Having written that some of my best nights have started badly and there's not much more satisfying than knowing you've had to dig deep and rely on mental toughness and good reads to pull a night round.

I've been watching the World Darts Championship on tv.Its amazing how a player can be down and out then dig deep to turn his game round when it all seems to be going wrong.Unpredictability is what make all sport so exciting.Any dog can have it's day.Phil Taylor ( 12 times World dart Champion and greatest of all time) was 3-0 up in sets but Mardle got momentum from nowhere and won 4 in a row to lead 4-3.It was first to 6 sets and just as Taylor looked dead and gone he showed the grit, determination and skill to pull it round and win it.

Chelsea's ( my fav English team) fans sing "That's why we're Champions" and indeed they too have a kind of X factor ( not that trashy pish tv show) that sets them apart.

Looking forward to Phil "The Power" Taylor V Peter "One dart" Manley tonight.

Rangers ended the year beating Dundee Utd 3-0 at Ibrox but our season is all about the Champions league now.17 points behind them is probably too much but hey we've won more titles than any other team in the world.Missing out for one season while we make history in European competition is not the end of the world.

Not back to work until the 9th which is magic news.We usually go away when I'm off so it'll be unusual to be at home for the week.I looked at trying to take Mrs A away for a short cruise to Norway ( from Newcastle) last year as a surprise but I couldn't get the weekend so that or another trip to good old Amsterdam could be on the cards.

Last time I went to Norway was with Wendy about 10 years ago.My sister met her a few weeks back and Wendy told her she doesn't speak to her sister or Mum which is quite sad.She apparently is also quite down at times and said hello.I said to Vicky ( Mic n Vics) when she was back that I may try and get in touch with Wendy this year but I'm not sure how it would go or if it's a good idea.I mentioned before we were best friends and on/off boyfriend/girlfriend so maybe its better to just let things lie.

Ok what a rambling start to a new year! Mrs A is working so off to walk Nacho then come back and chill out watching the darts till £10k tourney time.

I may have to dig my dart board out the cupboard.I can feel a 9 dart finish coming on.....