The Ugly,Bad and the Good + Mthly Stats

First up I'm pleased to post this exclusive photo! Dudley's not been around for a few weeks but I think I've spotted him.I hope he's heading for Full Tilt to register for tonights Brit Blogger game...



If I only had normal luck I'd be stinking rich by now.MF may be joking, but we all know it's troooo!

Prepare to skim because here a just a few of last nights little beauties.My hand first and all losers...KK v QQ,K5 v J9 (late in game),JJ v 99,A6 v A4,1010 v 47 o/s,AK v AQ,55 v A10,AA v KJ,AK V AJ,KQ v K10,QK V Q10.Zzzzzz I know, but I feel better for getting them off my chest!

That was the bad and ugly.Thankfully despite bubbling in my last game of the night,I did quite well on Stars and won about $300 overall, including a $27,18 player win.I also played Dr Paulys PLO game and donked out quite early on.

To the monthly stats and after the month I've had I'm just grateful to be ahead at all!I've taken £100 out of Bet365 to cover my lads vet bill and may take out more to help towards Xmas .

The patient..


Party $2529 ( - $15),Pokerstars $8248 ( + $286),Full Tilt $730 ( + $2),Ladbrokes $423 ( + $50),Bet 365 £187/$285 ( + $14 at poker and less $153 cashout),Pokerroom $36 ( =).Total $12404 ( + $337 Nov 1st -Nov 30th).Total including cashout $12251.

With the pound gaining slightly against the Dollar I'm still debating withdrawing a big chunk of my roll.I don't like the idea of it sitting in my current account as somehow it wouldn't seem like part of my poker roll despite the fact I could re-deposit any time.I am disciplined enough to keep it separate from my household money and it would be earning interest at least so I probably will go down this route before the pounds gains too much.( Great advice over at Poker Pains as always!)

I've run badly recently and not lost thousands and even a 40 buy-in downswing at $55 is only just over $2k.I suppose I partly see my roll as savings and I also like having so much because if I do keep running as badly as I have in November,I'll still have enough to cover the bigger stuff next year like car expenses,holidays,Council tax etc.The vague plan of paying my car loan off at some point still appeals too.

Righty, time to take the patient up the road.More football,dinner and the Brit Blogger game are planned for later...

Twisting my melon

Start time for Brit Blogger is 4pm est/9pm gmt...All welcome!




The patient is doing well and I'm sure he'll be back chasing his football in no time!I've hidden in it the cupboard so he doesn't need to walk past it every time he goes in and out my flat.I do wish he'd stop trying to chew his bandage off though.My carpet isn't doing so well unfortunately and I may need to get someone in to give it a proper clean.

The poker continues to twist my melon.



I only played a couple of games on Thursday evening late on and my heart and head weren't really in it.Last night I 4 tabled the $16's on Stars and continued to run like crap.It's the same boring old story of sick beats and lost races.I did manage a win and second place from the last of my 16 games to leave me $50 up for the night, but it's getting quite sickening on Stars just now.



Thankfully ( although this month has been quite static)Party and other sites have been a little kinder.I just hope my Stars curse lifts shortly and I can put together a decent run there.On the upside I'm not bleeding money running this badly and if I can hit a wall like this and still almost break even I suppose I shouldn't complain too much.

Plan for tonight is to remember to play Dr Paulys PLO game and to enjoy Jacks company! There's a possibility of some white widow coming my way next week.Wipeout!

Righty,thanks for reading.Back tomorrow with my rubbish stats for the month...

My Boy

The ex Mrs A was working tonight so I picked Nacho up and brought him to stay with me.I took him out for his usual game of football and when we arrived back I noticed blood on the the stairs leading to my place.He's had wee cuts before and I wrapped some tissue round his leg.When he got up from his bed though,the bleeding started again and I had to take him down to the emergency vets.

The ex Mrs A is in the PDSA ( free treatment) and I could have taken him to them first, but because the ex was working and I didn't have the right documents I wanted to be sure he'd get treated.The first vet told me he had burst a blood vessel and charged £115 for a bandage.As they wanted £350 for the op,I've now taken him to the PDSA where they said they'll keep him overnight just to keep an eye on him and give him stitches in the morning.

I know anesthetics are pretty safe and it's a fairly standard wee op but for some reason it's really upset me and I've been in tears since I got back without him.I suppose like most dog owners he's more than just a dog to me, and when I've struggled at times since moving back to the flat last year,he's been around to keep me sane.

I also hate leaving him there although I know he's in good hands.Anyways I've cleaned up the blood stains on the carpet as best I can and the ex Mrs A has promised to text me tomorrow and keep me updated.Fingers crossed all will be ok.

Scottish men don't cry so I'm off to get a grip and roll a fat one...

Edit: No post today but I'm happy to report that Nacho is fine.He's just like his Daddy now.He runs badly too...

Ho Ho Ho

I was in a great mood last night when I hit the tables after watching celtc lose again away from home in Europe.No wins from 18 away Champions League games and 1 point from a possible 54 made today a fine day at work too! As the song goes ( to tune of Yellow Submarine) " FU Celtc,you'll never win away"...

I managed a crashout and a 2nd place at Party $22's before moving to Stars and doing the same.( a 2nd and a bubble finish).I fancied a wee $33 on Party before bed, but there were none filling up and I ended up being tempted by a $55 turb instead....

The first thing I noticed at the $55 was that I was noticing things! I was only playing on one table ( easier than 2-4 tables ) and it made me realise how lazy I've become when playing my usual $16's and $22's.Some hands still make me stop and think, but the majority of the time I can play on auto-pilot at these games and there's not much thinking required.

Back to the $55 and here a couple of key hands I played.The main read I picked up early was that Alladin114 was most likely to be a fish based on the frequency of his preflop raises.He had raised most hands up until this point and had won with an uncontested continuation bet after every flop.

When he made his fishy min raise and I looked down to 88 I decided to just flat call and chose to check call the flop and turn, as I reckoned I was miles ahead and he would fold if I reraised.I felt I had to bet the river and when he used his full timebank before calling I reckoned I couldn't have squeezed anymore from him.( especially when I saw his hand!) Taken to Valuetown as the forum kids would say!



Not much to say about my exit hand.Just a bad beat.The good news was that I went to my bed excited by the poor standard on show at the $55 ( KJ V A3 soooted was one early all in preflop confrontations) and not gutted at crashing out.If I'm honest I think part of the reason for that was because I knew I was still up about $25 for the night even after that crappy $55.If I'd been $50 down and then lost the $55,I'm not so sure I'd have slept quite as soundly!



Ok,just back from a fine pub meal.Got a few calls to make and then time to hit the tables....

Slice of action

Congrats to Mark over at Pokerpains on taking down this weeks Brit Blogger game.After playing it for so long on Stars I'm still trying to work out who is behind most of the screennames on Full Tilt.I'm not sure it's any disadvantage to co-host Mr Cloud and I, as our cunningly disguised pseudonyms of Cloud71 and Acornman allow us both complete anonymity too…..

I’m really enjoying the new turbo bloggerment format.I think people realise suckouts are the norm in speed games and the fact that anyone can go from bigstack to shorty and back again within a few hands spices it up nicely.I sucked out with some Ace raggy hand before being sucked out on and bubbling.All goot!

I moved to Party afterwards and took 2nd in a $22 before firing up Stars for some $16’s.I went 0/5 without cashing before finally taking down the last game I played.I’m going to campaign to get the phrase “thank your lucky stars” removed from universal use as there’s nothing bloody lucky about feckin’ Pokerstars for me!!

There wasn’t much poker on the agenda last night.I watched the football plus another poker training video and only played two $16’s later.I probably doubled my profit over the last three months on Stars by managing two second place finishes.Even then I wasn’t happy! In the first one my HU opponent was multi-tabling and with a bit more patience I could have seen him off.Instead I made a daft call with q9 soooted v his QK preflop shove and didn’t improve.I gave myself a sharpen up pep talk when the second game got down to HU and bombed out in typical Stars ( just seems that way,I don’t really think Stars plays any differently to any other site) style when my Tens made a set on the flop and lost to a runner runner straight.

Ok,time for a quick shower before my pizza arrives....

Hot Feet

Actual start time is 16:00 est/21:00 Gmt.Find the Brit Blogger game under the Private tab on Full Tilt.Open to all.


Thanks to Rosie I'm now the proud owner of a pair of luxury cashmere socks, and I'm pleased to say they made a successful debut at yesterdays zero degree 2-0 win over the sheep ( Aberdeen) at Ibrox.Who has ever heard of socks which require to be hand washed?! Not me! I'll maybe need to pop to the post office as Rosie forgot to include some SAE'S ( stamped addressed envelopes) for posting them back to Bristol when they need cleaned...( I wonder if the Post Office sell brave pills too!)

Rosie also sent me "The Yiddish Policeman's Union" book and I'll give it a go when I've finished Christopher Brookmyre's "A Snowball in Hell", which I'm really enjoying so far.I'd also recommend Iain Bank's "The Steep Approach to Garbadale" and Irvine Welsh's "Crime" which were both decent reads.I'll be picking up the two poker books ( Phil Shaw's on sng's and Gus Hansen's latest) I ordered from the Post Office this week too at some point ,giving me plenty to read over the dark winter months.

To the poker and there's not much to report.Time flew by on Friday night as the s-man,Jack and I tackled the Bond shooter on his PS3 and the few games I played later on didn't go well.

Last night I forgot the Dr Pauly ( I blame Jack!)PLO game and logged on too late to play.I had a decent night at Party though at the $22's and banked a few nice cashes.Normal service resumed with a nasty bubble exit in my last game there and I decided to move to Stars for some more beats!I just can't seem to get going at all on Stars this month and the usual runner runner flushes and 2 outers were out to get me it seems.I played fifteen games and only two wins kept my losses to only $35.It was still a +$140 night after my Party fun and one of those two Stars wins was my last game of the night at 4am so I probably shouldn't grumble too much!


I liked a quality thread Burnley Mik started over on Raisetheriver about controlling tilt.I started a reply, however the influence of my good friend Jack Herer ( google him from home if you’re wondering what I mean) meant I wasn’t sure if my words made perfect sense or were complete mince.I think I decided on the latter and deleted before hitting the submit button!

BM mentioned that he finds being very competitive makes him tilt more at times as he wants to win so badly.My reply was intended to be something along the lines of advising him to try harder to channel that competitive spirit into an absolute determination to deal with beats better than the next player.If we can compete on skill, then why not compete on emotional control too? We can’t control our luck ( or villains actions),only our reaction to it.

I can honestly say that with the exception of the very occasional sarcastic "nh" or "wp",I have never ever berated anyone in a chatbox.To me it shows weakness and reminds me of a spoilt child stamping his feet.I know ye auld "we profit from donkeys" line seems to invoke ye auld "but I still want to cut them into little pieces" reply from many, but I prefer to think about what happens when there's not much donkery at all.The answer is that the blinds end up sky high for everyone and it's even more of a crapshoot than usual.

Perhaps it's also an ego thing too if I'm honest.If some fish gets lucky and outdraws me, there's no way I'm giving them the added satisfaction of showing that it's affected my mood.My gut reaction is to blame my luck rather than the villain and that's probably the main thing which stops me spewing in the chatbox.


Poker as we know is a game of information and giving anything away can cost some of the small precious edge we have over the fish.A quick glance at my favourite spot on the ceiling,rapid controlled breathing,clenched fists and a wee pep talk to myself are a few of my standard ways of controlling my tilt monster.

Now don't get me wrong,away from the tables ( on the roads for example!)I'm can be just as childish and petulant as the next person.Honking my horn loudly, furiously pointing at my indicators, whilst also shouting "Are they not fuckin' working?",is, I'm afraid, a fairly regular occurence!

I also get that "nobody,ever, anywhere in the world of poker runs as badly as me" feeling all the time too, but I console myself by looking at previous results and knowing that "This too will pass".It had better or I'm throwing my lappy out the window...

Back soon...

Friday Update

On Wednesday night after watching Scotland go down 1-0 to the Argies ,I hit the tables for a wee while.I won two out of the four games I played, although I actually went to bed a little annoyed at myself for initially feeling quite pleased that I had a winning night.When I play 20-30 games per night at the weekend I focus on decisions and if I crash out of one game I fire another up without a second thought, and yet this week when I played 4-6 games per evening I seem to focus far more on the results of individual games.

Perhaps I shouldn’t be as hard on myself.I have run like crap recently and it was good for my poker soul to bag a quick couple of wins from four games.I did say I’ve mainly been feeling that way this week, as last week I nearly titled a post “Good News, Bad News”. The good news being that I’m getting better at being indifferent to results, and the not so good news being that indifference makes it harder to blog about how I’m doing with any degree of passion.( except for the occasional bad beat rant)

Last night for example I played about six games and only cashed in one of them.Yes there were a few boring bad beats and the usual lost races, but it was just an average not so great night at the tables and nothing worth writing home ( or here!) about.

Ok,I've got Nacho all weekend.Time to take him out before the s-man arrives for an evening of PS3 shoot 'em ups with our good friend Jack Herer....

Don't Cry For Me.....

Stars continues to kick me in the junk on a nightly basis.I've only played 100 sngs there this month and just can't seem to get going at all.( down $120 )

It seems every single time I sit down at Stars I'm destined to get screwed over.I don't like complaining after one bad night or a few bad sessions as that's just the way turbos roll, but this is just relentless.If you play a couple of games per evening, imagine running like this over the next 50 nights...

Aq losing to QJ started Monday night off.Of course I folded 108 on the very next hand and watched nearly the whole table ( maybe just felt that way!) going all in on an A 8 8 flop.Next up was AK losing to A9 ( 9 on river ) and late on in my next game I had 44 beaten by AQ rivering an Ace.I made it as far as the bubble in my last game that night and duly crashed out on yet another suckout.

In my first game last night I had my QQ busted by 88,the two outer arriving on the river as usual.Ok,don't lose the plot,stay calm,shove this AJd and laugh at the fish calling with his Kh7h on the Jack high flop.Stop laughing when said fish hits a runner runner heart flush.

Next up a fish limped on my big blind late on in a game and I shoved K10 over the top of his limp.Insta-called by his 106 and of course the 6 duly falls on the turn.( just to make a change from being rivered)

Somehow I managed to take 2nd in one game before the crap kicked in again.On a positive note perhaps I should be grateful I'm only down $120 so far on Stars despite my the variance fun.

Thankfully I have the support of my family to see me through this nasty spell."Thought you'd just love to know that over the last month my ROI is 18% and yours is 7%!!!! ", wrote my Mum in an email today!

Letting crap variance get to me and affect my game is not on the agenda.I may brush off bad beats quite well most of the time, but this doesn't mean I'm not competitive and don't care.I just know that caring too much in the short-term can affect my long term bottom line and that cannot be allowed to happen.

I'm looking forward to the arrival of a couple of new poker books this week.I've ordered Gus Hansens "Every Hand Revealed" and Phil Shaws sng book.Shaw is Jackal69 on Cardrunners and I've enjoyed learning from a ton of his videos.Hopefully the book will be as good.

Ok,tonight I'm about to get the dinner on and watch the friendly between Scotland and Maradona's Argentina.I've only seen footage of Pele playing and would rate Maradona as the greatest player ever to grace a football pitch.( except possibly Carlton Palmer).His "hand of god" goal against England made him a national hero in Scotland and I'm sure he'll get a good reception tonight.

Personally, I preferred his other goal from the same game...

Social Sunday Review...

I warmed up for last nights games by watching a BigJoe training vid on Sngicons.At 9pm it was time for the Brit Blogger game on Full Tilt and the RebelsofPoker forum game on Stars.

Congrats to Lexluther on taking down the Blogger game and thanks to everyone who showed up to play.I went out 6th and I'm afraid my new herbage is so good I've no idea what my exit hand was! If it was a suckout I'm sure I'd remember, so I probably donked out!

I'd joined the RebelsofPoker forum after seeing many of the best Stars Sng players using the forum avatar at the tables.Sixteen players entered the $10 game and there were a few bounties on the pro ginders too.

I had notes ( extensive notes like "shark" or "solid winner") on a few of the players at my table and a "friend" ( ahem) kindly supplied me with Sharky stats on the others.( Stars now bans Sharkscope use) It was one of the toughest line ups I've faced at the tables and depsite the fact they were probably all playing 20 tables at the same time,I knew I'd have my work cut out for me.

I felt I held my own quite well overall and there was only a short spell when Vectile was shoving over my pre-flop raises that left me feeling like I was being completely outplayed.Winning a big race with AQ v 88 set me up for a final table run and I tried to pick my spots carefully from then on.I was card dead for most of that final table and had to make a few steals and resteals to stay in the hunt.

Finally we were down to the bubble and unfortunately for me that's where my game ended.I'm struggling to recall all the details of my exit hand but here's a rough idea of what happened and the logic behind my move.

My donkey ears flapped in front of my eyes,I shoved and lost.( that's the simple explanation!).Ok, Skitzofrenik had a huge chiplead,scone-on was on around 2k and giRL90ihqdaa just had my 4k covered with about 4.5k.I picked up K10c utg and decided to shove as scon had been tight in the bb and I reckoned I'd be ahead of his random hand.As it was the bubble I didn't expect giRL90ihqdaa to call me light and my only worry was Skitz who had respected my raises so far during the game.

I don't remember the exact blinds (at least 400/800 I think).Although I had a lead over scon in third place, he wasn't about to sit there waiting to be blinded out and as it would be me he would be shoving on,I felt pushing my K10c and getting him to fold would put me in a much better spot.I mentioned steals earlier, and when I'd made one with K4 a bit earlier he had pegged me for a premium hand and that was also a small factor in my decision.The upshot was that giRL90ihqdaa called from the button with AK and I didn't improve.

I was also playing a wee $6 ,20 player game on Party with Juice and Rosie.I scraped into the money in that one and bubbled a $22 before bedtime.

Thanks for reading.Back soon....

Hoovering....

After watching Rangers beat St Mirren 2-1, I grabbed a quick sausage supper,took Nacho for a game of football and logged onto Stars in time for Dr Paulys Saturday PLO game.I'm still pretty clueless when it comes to PLO starting hands and I probably folded a few monsters and played a few fishy hands.I'm not sure if it's possible to get the hammer at PLO,but I did enjoy raising with 772K and showing the table! I took 5th again ( 5th last time I played)and more importantly, I really enjoyed the game.I'm still drooling at the thought of Kats cookies!

After that shennanigans,I decided to calm things down a little and only play 2-3 tables of $16.I didn't want to be chasing Friday nights losses and pushing too hard.It seemed to work as I only played 10 games and won $218.



Although I did write recently that I'm trying to stop focusing so much on short-term results,I can't deny I did feel quite relieved to get back to winning ways.( for now at least!)

I finished at Stars around 3am and decided on a couple of $22's on Party before bed.In truth, short-term thinking was at work again, because I was about $45 up for the month at Party, and knew even losing a couple of $22's would leave me about even.

The traffic was quiet on Party at that time, and I ended up playing just one $22.If every $22 went as well as this one did, I'd give up my day job tomorrow and play fulltime.Seventeen minutes and thirty three hands after the first card was dealt, I'd taken first and went to bed a happy Acorn.

A few premium hands holding,a bit of luck ( yes it's true!),a complete donk villain and playing with my confidence full restored certainly helped.Carlsberg don't do sngs but if they did.....



( Carlsberg ad below)


Ok,off to drop Nacho off soon.I've also seen a man about a partiularly potent smelling dog this afternoon and I'm looking forward to sampling that fine herbage a bit later too!

Don't forget to register for tonights Turbo Brit Blogger game on Full Tilt,starting at 4pm est/9pm UK time.Find it under the Private tab or do a player search for "Acornman".I'll be playing in it and also the RebelsofPoker league game on Stars at the same time if I remember!

Best of luck to Matty ( won his ticket via the Brit Blogger game a couple of weeks ago) and to Mr Cloud in the FTOPS Event 24.I was tempted to buy-in too, but I got fresh herb and two games to play already tonight and I like to keep my Sundays more for some chilled out social poker.

Thanks for reading.Back soon...

Long Cold Winter

It will be a long cold winter if I continue to run like I did last night!I played 20 games on Stars,bubbled 4 times and lost $240.When I have good nights I don't list all my winning hands and I'm not about to induce insomnia by going into the ton of suckouts I suffered last night.I think I managed one 3rd place and one 4th place finish from those 20 games, but in the cold light of day I just have to sook it up and move on.

Here's one wee sample of last nights nonsense.Ok,I thought,I'm finally going to win a hand even if it is against a shortstack.Maybe I can build from here...

I'd like to be winning around $1k per month and although sitting about $250 down half way through this month aint good,there's still plenty of time to get back into profit.For some reason the last few months have all been similar.I was actually down about $750 at the same point so I'm not going to panic or get too worried now.Don't get me wrong,it is very very frustrating to run like complete and utter shit over many sngs but I've read enough downswing tales from pro grinders to know it may be shit but it's pretty standard shit!

Apart from at weekends I've not put much volume in either recently.I'm considering cashing out about $10k of my $12k roll to pay off my car loan.The value of the pound v the dollar means it may be a good time to withdraw some funds and a smaller roll may help me focus more.( not that focus had anything to do with last nights poker carnage!) Perhaps I'll wait a month or too first.Hmmm.

Ok,off to Ibrox for the football and then buying a new vaccum cleaner.Ain't life exciting....!

The Dollar Rulz!

I had a fine evening over at the s-mans on Tuesday playing Quantam of solace on his PS3.I played four turbs before bed when I arrived home and didn't cash in any of them after running horribly yet again.

Last night I hit the tables after watching the Rangers game.We drew 0-0 and had yet another perfectly good goal ruled offside,this time by the same linesman who recently gifted our rivals a goal which actually was offside.Of course we should have taken some of the many chances we made too, but it's frustrating when inept officials cost us points again.

Maybe the focus on the phone-ins will move back to the football now after all the talk this week on about our rivals being the only club in the UK to hold a minutes applause ( instead of the tradtional silence) in remembrance of those fallen soldiers who lost their lives at war.The official line was that this is the new "celtc way", but the reality is that they knew a small minority of their scummiest fans would disrupt the silence with booing and catcalls.I try and stay away from commenting much on the intense rivalry between Rangers and celtc, but sometimes I despair at how pathetic a country Scotland can be.

My horrible poker run continued after the football.I had my QQ busted by 1010 rivering a 10 in my first game and that seemed to set the tone for more of the same.At least I know the sites aren't rigged as I had the same crappy luck on Stars and Party.Only a 2nd place finish in my final $33 at Party helped keep things respectable.

The good news is that the Pound falling to $1.50 against the Dollar has increased my roll by about $500 without me having to lift a finger.Nice to be up for the month when I'm not ahead at the felt!

I've also cashed out ( well I'm counting it as a cashout) $105 from Full Tilt to buy 2.75% of Amtay in a few live tournies.It's more than I've ever backed myself for in a game, but the boy has skills and if his luck holds, I reckon it's worth a punt.

Just back from a fine steak pie dinner at my Mum and Dads place.I had good fun helping my Mum win a $16 and hopefully she picked up a few useful tips too!

Ok,I was going to write a bit about focus but I think I've lost my concentration...

Chatbox Glitch

Thanks to all 15 players who showed up to play Sundays Brit Blogger game on Full Tilt.Congrats to Mr Cloud on winning and to Rosie for giving the monkey a home this week.( he stays with the first to exit) I scraped into the money,donking out third before heading off to play some $22's on Party.

I read a quote on a poker forum referring to Mtt's which said that "success in poker is dealing with failure and coming back for more with just as much enthusiasm".I've played twenty sngs in a row without cashing on quite a few occasions now.I can't imagine playing for 3-4 hours each time in an Mtt before being blown out twenty times in a row.

Back to Monday nights $22's and I only managed one cash from five games.Last night was a bit better with a win and a 3rd place at $22 before crashing out of a $33 when some donkey called a my preflop raise and busted my QQ with his flopped two pair.( 68 off is such a monster!) I also took a 3rd place in a $16 after bubbling the first one I played.

I was lucky to win the $22 I mentioned after being caught out by the Party chatbox fault, which means that if you type something in chat box and hit the return key when action is on you,it seems to auto-call.I rarely chat but was about to "lol" at a hand when I called a tighty shortys shove with my K5 off.That wiped the "lol" off my face! I lost the hand and was tempted to let table know it was a mislick.I didn't and I'm sure my blinds were stolen far less as a result....

Ok,over to the s-mans this evening,watching the Gers tomorrow night and visiting my Mum and Dad on Thursday night.Back soon...

Back in Black

Just a short post as I'm off to Kilmarnock for the Rangers game in a minute.

My night at the tables began with yet another bubble finish and a bad beat and I thought I was in for another evening of poker hell.The s-man arrived just as I took one $16 down and came 2nd in another.I donked out the Dr Paulys PLO game and the s-man and I watched Cloverfield before he hit the road and I hit the tables again.

Pulled back Friday nights losses and finished off by taking down a $22 on Party and coming 3rd in a $33.Good to get back on track....

Shaken all night long

Actually 4pm/9pm starting time for Brit Blogger..





Blogging almost seems to get tougher as I play more and more sngs.I lost $195 over 24 $16's last night and in the past I may have been tempted to rant about how badly I ran and how variance can be so unfair.It probably doesn't make for great reading but I didn't go to bed with a bloodied fist and feeling like crap.( mind you I was pretty wasted by 4.30am!) Having played over 3000 sngs on Stars I can just accept that last night was just one of those nights where nothing goes right.At one point I did actually win a game and was hoping to bounce back, but it wasn't to be.Even at $195 down it only takes a couple of wins/decent cashes to wipe that out and I'm actually quite pleased at how calm I feel about a standard night of the turbo long knives!

Of course maybe they flicked my doomswitch after I clicked Tools,Internet options,Programs,Manage add ons and then disabled the Pokerstars option.Apparently this stops them snooping about on your pc/laptop.( not that I'd be using Sharkscope when on Stars as they have rules about that!).I've no idea about how computers work.Does anyone have any idea if the above info is correct? ( not the doomswitch bit obviously!)

Back in June,July and August every night felt like last night and I suppose that experience has also helped toughen me up a bit.Hitting the one year mark and showing a decent overall profit has also boosted my confidence and makes it easier to keep a sensible perspective about a bad night.I'm also aware that top pro grinders wouldn't blink at a 500 game downswing let alone a bad run of 24 games! That's the kind of mindset required for turbos as they will suck your soul out if you let them.

I've always felt that even if I can't be as skilled as the best players,if I can bounce back from bad runs better than the average player then that would give me an edge.Four years into my real money online poker adventure and I now feel that I am a match for most players skillwise at my level and if I can keep my head in the right place too,there's no reason why I can't keep making some decent hobby wonga!

Ok,enough of that bollocks! I missed Dr Paulys PLO game last week due to the clocks going back ( doh!) but intend playing tonight.The Brit Blogger game is also on Full Tilt this Sunday at 9pm UK time.( 4pm est under Private tab).All are welcome to play in our Sunday turbo donkfest!

Here's are a couple of classic Chic Murray lines which made me smile...

There was a man standing stationary at a funeral, some 60 yards from the graveside.

"Who's that?"

"I'm not sure. I think he's a distant relative."


This man came home to find his wife in bed with three men. Hello! Hello! Hello!', he said. What!' said his wife. Are ye nae speaking tae me?'


Two more snippets I liked this week from the paper...

Someone in New York the other day got a flavour of the run-up to the presidential elections when he spotted a T-shirt on sale which stated: "So many righteous right-wing Christians.

"So few lions."


An American who arrived at Glasgow Airport was asked at immigration: "Occupation?"

"No," he replied. "Just visiting."


Ok,here's a wee tribute to Stars rng...

Sharky Ban

I read through a few forum threads about the Sharkscope ban Pokerstars are now enforcing.It seems fairly obvious that the main reason behind this is the number of complaints they have to deal with from fish who have been berated in the chatbox.Well done glass tappers!

I would love to see some of those emails of complaint...."Dear Stars,I was happily running over my table for once,hitting lucky 2 outers and berating the table for their donkey moves when someone asked in the chatbox was why I was being such a loudmouthed arse when I had actually lost more then the GDP of some small countries,simply through playing $2 sngs....."

When I first started playing sngs ( just one table) I found SS invaluable and used to scope my table and even delete the players from the list as they donked out.These days when playing 2-4 tables I prefer to use it to quickly scope anyone making a move against me in a pot or to confirm my suspicions of donkery or sharkery.It's also great for letting me track my own play and profits.One more reason to keep playing the bulk of my sngs on Party.

Sharkcope doesn't work on Party for single table games, however the standard is so bad I'm playing more and more there.Last night I came 2nd in a couple of $22's and took 3rd in an $11 game for a decent wee profit.I mentioned before how in general I feel Party players are more clueless when it comes to bubble play in particular.It sometimes feels like the stt's there are almost as quick as super turbs on Full Tilt.I was chatting on IM last night and mentioned that blinds had hit 200/400 and there were still 6 players in my sng.I'd just hit the send button when two crashed out, and within a couple more hands I was suddenly heads up!

Ok,off to babysit for Step A shortly.Just time to say thanks to the s-man for this excellent story from The Register re cannabis causing schizophrenia.

Daily Fail

I ditched a planned rant last week about the Halloween decorations put up around my office ( to add fun and joy to my day no doubt) as apparently, according to a happy go lucky fellow blogger, I was being a grumpy old man!

I'd dispute that title, but no wonder I like the occasional moan when the world is so full of crap.I don't know why I read the Daily Mail or Guardian online as they usually make my blood boil at the sheer nonsense they spout.Without getting political or into my views on drugs, here's a quote from the awful Melanie Phillips in the Mail under the headline "The shameful truth about the great drugs disaster".

She wrote that "The only reason cannabis use has gone down is that - appallingly - users have moved on to cocaine instead." Of course she has no evidence or stats of any kind to back up that idiotic statement.Reminds me of their frequent "Killer was on skunk weed" type headlines.Said killer is usually a schizophrenic, alcoholic, smack addict but hey he probably smoked a spliff once....

One more quick moan and this relates to workplace emails and not personal ones.Does anyone else feel when work emails are signed "Many Thanks" that the sender may aswell have written "GIRUY"? ( Get it right up ye) Acorn,Here's my big excuse as to why I can't deal with this ongoing customer nightmare.I've passed it back to yourself to deal.Many Thanks,Lazy Useless Tosser

Before I get to the poker I loved the yahoo homepage link to favourite George Bush quotes.He had obviously never played poker with Rosie before as one of his quotes was "I know the human being and fish can coexist peacefully." - Sept. 29, 2000 George Bush

To the tables and I had a decent night on Monday,winning a Party $22, a Stars $16 and scraping into the money in a $27.Last night I was at Ibrox to watch Rangers draw 3-3 with Dundee Utd before coming home later and playing just two turbos.In the first one on Party I won the first hand with AQ and was feeling good when the software froze.Bottom line is it was Partys fault and they were quick to refund my buy-in.( frustrating when sitting with chip lead but better than nothing)

For my second game I fired up a $38 turbo on Stars and crashed out 6th when I shoved A10 from the sb and was insta-called by the fish in the bb with A3.( 3 on flop obviously)

Tonight I'm watching the football ( come on Utd) and I'm babysitting tomorrow night.Back soon...

Monday update

Thanks to all 22 players who showed up for last nights Brit Blogger game on Full Tilt and congrats to Matty on taking it down and winning the FTOP's Event 24 ticket! Good to see some new faces ( or avatars) too.Personally I played quite poorly and after letting Bam Bam catch a cheap set on me,I crashed out 15th when my AK soooted was no match for J10.Hope to see you all again next Sunday...

I've decided to change my attitude towards the game slightly and try and focus more on playing well and less on results.I've played enough turbo sngs now to realise they will always be soul sucking streaky high variance games.I also feel I've proven to myself I can beat low limit sngs and I can always go back to my old attitude and make $$ every month if my new outlook fails.

It's easy to write about thinking longer term and harder to actually feel that way though.I didn't play much at the weekend, but when I did it was suckout city and I lost about $100 overall.

I was temped to cheat a little,edit my annual stats post, and include that loss there to somehow fool myself into starting this week with a new clean slate for my new poker year.I've not done that and hopefully can lose some of my obsession over the short-term and start getting some volume in.For example if I played a couple of $22's and cashed in both I'd usually be tempted to quit for the evening.Afterall, I've played 12 hour sessions and lost before, so why not bank a quick win and go to bed happy? In some respects poker is a tough nasty game at times and playing a wee psychological trick like that on myself is probably not a bad idea at times.

I've also stayed up far too late, too often, chasing losses, because I know my game is good and it's only the crap end of variance that's kicked me in the junk.In a perverse way I've mentioned before how actually feel I can thrive on running badly and it makes me more determined than ever to keep to my best game and come out on top.Maybe that attitude has also helped me fend off the tilt monster, as there's no way if I'm running badly that I'd want to add to my losses by throwing money away too.

I do worry that a more carefree attitude to my roll may cost me some of that tilt control and focus, but hopefully that wont be the case and I can play a bit more freely.Time will tell...

I also wish there was a facility within poker site cashier pages to run sub-accounts, as I'd like to be able to ring fence part of my roll for taking more shots.My loose plan for this month is not to worry about actually making a profit, but to take more shots at higher games and not lose more than $1k in the process.

Ok,looking after my boy tonight,I'm off to Ibrox to watch Rangers again tomorrow evening and on Thursday night I'm over at the ex Mrs A's looking after Step A.

Before I go be warned to stay away from this shark if you come across him...



Back soon...