Monthly Stats

I may edit these later if I manage to squeeze in any games before the lads night planned for this evening.Ran like crap at the $24,45 player games last night and finished with a couple of horrible $33's on Party too.That's poker though and it's still been a decent month considering I've only played around 300 sngs.

There are a few minor differences to my actual totals.I only made $444 at Party for example because some of the profit shown on Sharky since Feb 1st was included in last months stats.This is mainly due to 5 hour time difference and games played on or around the monthly cut off point.I also made $$ from FT cash games at the beginning of the month and did a few transfers between Stars and FT to other players.( mainly to help those with no Stars funds be able to play the RTR forum game)



Pokerstars $1560( + $7 ),Party $2905 ( + $444),Full Tilt $503 ( + $336).

Total $5077.Monthly profit $787.

BBT4

I remember reading postings from US/Canadian bloggers about BBT3 and thinking it would be great if we could somehow get UK/Euro bloggers to participate and have a chance of winning WSOP seats.Once again SirAlcan'thang has come up with the goods ( if I was a photoshop expert, a pic of SirAl in a fairy godmother outfit would be here) and the Brit Blogger game has been included in the BBT series which is pretty freakin' awesome.(as our US friends would say!).

The Brit Blogger game was cancelled previously due to lack of numbers and I've no doubt there will be plenty of US/Canadian players joining the Brit game on a Sunday evening.To be frank,SirAl didn't need to include the Brit Blogger game at all and it would be a shame if Brit/Euro bloggers didn't take advantage of this opportunity.It's open to all bloggers/readers and there's no need to post banners etc to qualify.A UK blogger could win this years WSOP having qualified via Bloggerments.Don't miss your chance!

Here is the game rotation.More detail to follow.

Tournament: Brit Blogger Game
When: Sunday's at 16:00ET
Game: NLHE
Buyin: $5+.50
Password: donkament

Tournament: PPI / Riverchasers Tournament
When: Monday's at 22:00ET
Game: Deepstack NLHE
Buyin: $24+2 or token
Password: riverchasers

Tournament: Blogger Skillz Game
When: Tuesday's at 21:30ET
Game: rotation of non-NLHE games
Buyin: $10+1
Password: skillz

Tournament: The Mookie
When: Wednesday's at 22:00ET
Game: Deepstack NLHE
Buyin: $10+1
Password: vegas1

On Monday night I only played two $11 six max games and came 2nd in both.I was so tired I just wanted the HU ( heads up) battle to be over and I was wise enough not to play any more after that.I was over at the s-mans on Tuesday night and didn't play at all when I got home.Last night I was out for dinner and visiting my wee sis in hospital.( minor op to help with IVF) I fired up a couple of $16's ( 18 player) later on and after donking out of the first two,I managed a 1st and 2nd to leave me about even on Stars for the month.I'll post monthly stats soon and hopefully they will be my best for a while after a good start to the month at Full Tilt ( $24,45 player win) and another decent month at Party.

Bought Killzone 2 yesterday and the s-man is popping over this evening to help me take on the mighty Helghast.Tomorrow night the ex Mrs A is coming over to clean the flat and Saturday night is going to be a lads night with the s-man,San Jose Salmon and the Big Chap all heading over to my place.

I linked to Limmy.com a couple of years back as the swearing xylophone and "gies yer jaiket" playthings were pretty damn funny.Tv execs must have liked his site too as he now has his own show on BBC Scotland.Maybe I was just tired the other night or in too bad a mood to laugh at anything but I'm sorry to say the show ( comedy sketches) was absolutely dreadful and didn't do anything for me at all.

One more wee thought before I go.Does anyone outside London drive a van or is it a legal requirement that every radio ad for van sales or van insurance must contain a voice over done by a cockney geeza? Bish,bash,bosh,know wot I mean? I suppose the Hairygymnast has to keep busy between competitions....

Ok,back with the stats post soon....

Burns can rest easy....

This week I shall mostly be making sure I get to bed at a decent hour. I only got 5 hours last Thursday night and that left me in a really dark mood on Friday evening .Picking Step A up and giving her a lift to her Dads cheered me up a little, but I was in no mood to face the world. I even saw someone I knew really well whilst food shopping after work and walked the other way to avoid having to make conversation.

The dark mood passed after I caught up on lost sleep with a long lie on Saturday morning and watching Rangers go back to the top of the league with a 3-1 win certainly put a spring back in my step.

I had a vague idea the San Jose Salmon and Mrs Salmon ( close friends who emigrated years ago) were back in the UK and a quick call after the game soon organised a fine session at mutual friends on Saturday night. The S-man was there too and I’m pleased to say that I definitely take last place in the "who has become the fattest,baldiest bassa over the years" competition!! I’m sure Step A only calls me “The Monk” due to my wise worldly ways and liking for meditation….

It was great to catch up properly and we’ve already organised a PS3 night for tomorrow and a wee home poker game for this weekend. They go back to the States next week and I hope it’s not too long before they visit again.

I would have been in Newcastle for the RTR forum weekend if I’d been able to get today off work and I was glad I wasn’t asleep and was playing my last turbo of the evening when Dudley and Bully rang my moby just after 3am on Saturday night.Top geezers and congrats to the RTR team on cashing in the team poker event.

To the poker and my next post will have some pretty exciting news for bloggers/readers about the revival of the Brit Blogger game and the chance to win WSOP seats.Watch this space!

Last night I watched a few more training videos. One handy wee tip I picked up was to avoid looking at the cashier when grinding turbos.It’s human nature to be results orientated and despite all my witterings about right decisions and the long term,I’m just as bad as the next player when it comes to checking exactly how much I have in my account after each game ends.Party software makes it easy to hide the cashier.

Inspired by the training vids and by The Kid’s comment on a recent post asking why I didn’t play more tables,I fired up eight $22’s on Party and found the action just a little too quick for my liking.Cascading six tables seemed to work quite well ( though I did fold Aces preflop by mistake) and I was happy to finish up about 10 buy-ins over 22 games.

Reading the paper today, I see that Melinda Messenger has been voted/thrown off some primetime tv dancing show.She was "The Sun's" page 3 ( topless girl on Page 3 of the paper every day for non UK readers) girl for the millenium and readers were invited to send in a poem in her honour, with the lucky winner getting to meet her.



My effort ( below) was never printed for some reason....

There once was a girl called Mel,

Whose tits were incredibly swell

Her face 'aint a worry,I'd get into her furry...

And probably her ringpiece aswell


Here was my ode to a girl at work who left to have a baby she hadn't planned....

There once was a lady called Jo

Who never expected a kid

She went off on her hols,

Her man emptied his balls...

And now the bump canny be hid....


Spotted this on Pocket Fives...NSFW!




Ok,thanks for reading.Back soon..

Skates On

I played in the RTR challenge game on Tuesday evening as planned and it provided a welcome break from the usual grind.Aside from winning a small pot with a set in a blind v blind battle,I was completely card dead throughout and ended up shoving A3 from late postion,running into AQ and crashing out 6th.Congrats to Bully on taking it down and also to Dudley ( Resdent Evil) who managed to make the money despite his preflop raise button failing to work.( hehe)

Two Pies was over on Wednesday night to watch Rangers win 4-0 in the cup and to play some more Resistance 2.Last night it was the s-man who was over for some Half-Life 2 action and he also helped me register my ps3 and get it online.Watch out for top gamer, Stinkyp1nky, wandering around aimlessly firing at thin air whilst getting pwned by 10 yr olds shouting “pussy faggot”.

I was looking for ice skates for Step A online earlier and came across this gem.Yep,customers who bought ice skates also bought a bag...and a dart board! "Torvill,you require forty"....




Back to the poker geekery and here's one that was so close I thought it was interesting.It folded to me in the small blind and I shoved my 88.The result shouldn't influence the decision, but when he hit his Ace, it felt like I'd made a big mistake.If I played it again I think it's a marginal fold.





Back soon..

Troll Time....

Regular readers of this space will probably know that I don't have much time for the Daily Mail or the Guardian.This weeks Daily Mail story about the 13yr old lad who recently became a Dad and the fake moral outrage which ensued has particularly got my goat."And people wonder why I left the UK" wail Ex Pat commenters at the foot of the online story.This is from people who detest our country so much that they left and now spend their time reading UK Newspapers online and leaving smug stupid remarks.Nevermind the fact that cases of 13yr old fathers are very rare indeed and the teenage pregnancy rate has fallen substantially over the last decade.

To satisfy my inner goat ( he's just a kid),I'm proud to say I managed a bit of successful trolling on the comments section of their headline story today.The item is about a guy who broke into a heroin dealers house and flushed bags of smack down the toilet after threatening the dealer.( the guys brother in law is a regular user and customer).He was arrested for this.Of course all the usual comments from the hang 'em/flog 'em brigade followed, along with the standard "No wonder I left poor old broken Britain" comments from ex pats who live in crime free havens such as Jamaica.

Mark Renton was of course the main character in Trainspotting....

"Quite right that he was charged.You can't go barging into peoples houses threatening them.His brother in law is an adult who chose to buy drugs of his own free will.Nothing was "pushed".The pathetic war on drugs will never be won.Legalise,tax and make it safe.It's the only way."- Mark Renton,Edinburgh.

Click to rate Rating -472

I'm particularly proud of the -472 rating Mark achieved.Managing to piss off nearly 500 Mail readers makes me smile.I just wish I'd added "choose life" to my last sentence!



On the poker front I only played four sngs last night and the contrast between both sets of two games couldn't have been greater.Perhaps I need to play a couple to get into my stride as I was completely card dead in the first two and didn't make any moves to stay afloat.At one point it was folded to me in the sb with Jh2h.The big blind was a multi-tabling regular I knew wouldn't call me too lightly and yet I meekly folded.After those two warm up games I played a $22 + a $33 and took them both down...which was nice.

Righty just back from the pub after a fine bison burger meal.Time to chill out before playing in the RTR forum game at 9pm.

Back soon...

Pump up the Volume

After a fine evening at the s-mans on Friday I hit the tables on Saturday/Sunday and racked up over 50 sngs at Party and a few at Stars too,making about $120 from Europe’s largest fishbowl and losing about the same at good ole Riverstars.The good news is that I racked up a load more Party frequent player points ( 3900 total) and now have to decide if I’m going to cash in 1500 of them for a straight $50 cash or wait until I hit 12000 for a $500 payment.I’ve probably missed out on a fortune in bonuses and rakeback over the years and some free money would be very welcome.

Yesterday I watched the most boring turgid Old Firm game in years and felt disappointed that Rangers couldn’t grab a win after dominating the second half and being denied a decent penalty claim.My cousin,Two Pies,was over for the game and later we fired the PS3 and enjoyed a nice relaxing Sunday afternoon blasting the Chimera.

Two Pies left to play fives about 7.30 and that was when I hit up Stars.I did play a few of my usual $16’s but also got stuck into some $27,18 player turbs and a few 45 player games too.The 45’s are obviously going to be high variance and I wasn’t too bothered about not cashing as one decent in the money finish covers a lot of buy-ins.I know they say that we want to play with bad players, but I was tempted to the 45’s after seeing Bigjoe2003 ( another of the worlds top sng players and sngicons instructor) was playing in a few.

I hope he wasn’t making a video as I was card dead in one game, ( shoved K7 with a shortstack) and made a complete idiot of myself in the other game where we shared a table, when I lost half my stack making a move, and the rest when I shoved k4 from the small blind in the next hand and was insta-called by the big blind’s A4.

I can see the appeal of playing more 45 player games though as the standard of play was dreadful and it was far fishier than I expected for a $27 game. I just need to avoid playing like a fish myself…

I hate poker snobbery and smart asses who spend time in forums ( 2+2 comes to mind) berating others for not playing a hand in what is generally seem as the “correct” way. Unless you are actually in the hand and aware of all factors I don’t know how much can be gained from forum hand advice.If 90% of all players lose online I’m also not sure I want to always agree with the majority view. ( although I do think the winning 10% are more likely to contribute to forums and study the game)

Having written the above I still had to piss myself laughing at the players lucky enough to be at the tables when a Pokerstars milestone hand was being dealt as part of their 25 Billionth hand promotion at the weekend. There were a load of milestone hands and I did fire up a few low stakes cash tables every time the countdown approached another one ( along with 228,000 others).The chat moderator halts play for a few minutes before the hand to congratulate the table and to tell them the rules.( basically the winner of the hand gets a huge payout in relation to the blinds and everyone dealt in gets something)

Despite getting huge implied preflop odds, the number of players who folded to a raise astounded me. I’d be all in with any two cards to any shove at a cash table and so too would anyone with even a modicum of common sense. Even if they were unsure of the payouts/rules there was plenty of time to check out how the promo worked and play accordingly.

My own thicko moment this weekend came at around 3.30am early on Sunday morning when I spotted fellow blogger Tan Orpheus at my Party turbo table.I was a bit wasted from a few smokes at the time and playing 5 tables, but that wasn't going to stop me saying hello in the chatbox..until I looked again and realised "Table Options" is not a fellow blogger....

Back soon..

Follow Follow

After a fine steak and chips pub meal on Wednesday evening I realised I was too tired to play much poker,fired up the ps3 for a bit and only played a few games later on whilst watching the excellent “Shaun of the Dead.”The s-man was over last night for some more Half-life 2 Episode 1 shenanigans and I’ll be heading over there later to get stuck into Farcry 2 and Fallout 3.

A reoccurring theme on poker forums recently seems to be that the game is getting far tougher thanks to the likes of training sites,poker forums and the sheer number of books available.I’ve only been playing sngs for about 1 ½ yrs and haven’t noticed any great improvement in the standard.Playing Half-Life 2 and reading an online walk-through guide helped shed some light on the reasons why this may be the case.

The walk-through guide, for anyone unfamiliar with gaming, does what it says on the tin and literally guides you move by move through the game.Even with such a guide, and despite the author insisting the game was easy to complete on the hardest setting,the s-man and I still progressed more slowly than a Dutch MP trying to get through immigration at Heathrow.

The point is that you can read all the detailed instruction in the world but that isn’t necessarily going to transform your game.Personally I reckon I could make a small stakes sng winner out of just about anyone prepared to listen.( that rules my Mum out, although she has improved greatly!) If anyone wants any free sng turbo help just let me know as I’d be interested to see if it would be as easy as I imagine.

Not much else going on and no plans for Valentines day ( unless Vicky Corens card arrives in the post tomorrow...) other than to pick Nacho up and have a chilled out day.The ex Mrs A did stay over a few times in December,but I think there's probably too much water gone under the bridge for anything to come of it and things have cooled back down a bit since.

Yeah,not much else going on besides the biggest most important Old Firm ( Rangers v Them) game since....the last one.Kick off is 12.30pm on Sunday at the Piggery and as I don't have a ticket this time I'll be stuck cheering my team on via the tv.I was saddened to hear that Gadger,one of Rangers most dedicated fans,died suddenly last week and I hope the Gers can win it for the big man who follow,followed Rangers everywhere.

Ok,thanks for reading and thanks to Poker Playa and Donkey Face for your comments on my last post.Back soon...

Live Game

On Monday night I didn't play one hand of poker and instead got stuck into Resistance 2 on my new PS3.I did watch a couple of sngicons training vids and both Spacegravy and Kenny05's vids were excellent.Kenny05 is on a downswing at the moment and I actually found it quite comforting to check Sharky and note that although he's up over $200k from sngs,he's down about $5k over his last 600 odd games.Variance really is a biatch.Even for one of the worlds best!

Last night I grabbed a roll + burger in batter and a roll n chips after work.I listened to a bit of the football phone-in and then headed to the Wabash club in Glasgow for some live poker action.It was my first live game in a poker club for quite a while and although I didn't cash,I really enjoyed the experience.

Including rebuys the game cost me just over £20 and I certainly felt I got my moneys worth.For quality trip reports see High on Poker or other fine blogs.My memory isn't good enough! I do recall raising from the sb with A3 when I thought the action had folded to me,only to realise the utg player had limped.I made a straight on a 2 4 5 7 board and had visions of raking a big pot until the utg player showed 68....

I ran 88 into QQ after that before sucking out bigtime with 99 v kk.A king fell on the flop and I was almost out the door before I realised I'd hit a fluke flush on the river to win.I lasted a few more orbits before raising from late position with 10c8c.The board was Kc Qc Js and I led out with my draws.The guy on my left struck me as a pretty competent player and I wasn't happy when he called my continuation bet and another Jack fell on the turn.I reckoned he would have raised a King or Queen on that flop and could very well have spiked trip jacks on the turn.That didn't stop me shoving most of the rest of my stack in and losing a big pot when my draws failed to hit v J10.

Overall I don't think I played great poker but I'm glad I made the effort and went along.It's so easy after a long day at work to just want to sink into the sofa and do nothing other than surf the net/play poker.

At Xmas I had my sister and Mum lecturing me ( obv just looking out for me) about getting myself more of a social life.It's certainly not so easy when your single.The ex Mrs A and I had a few other couples we used to see on a semi-regular basis whom I don't see anymore.Other friends moved away or lost touch.I've always preferred having a few close friends rather than a large group of aquaintances.

When I was younger there was always a mix of male/females in my group and I never hung out with a load of other lads and got into the pub scene.( clubs n raves maybe but not pubs) Standing in a crowded place unable to hear myself or friends,drinking over-priced alcohol has never really appealed to me.Give me a nice smoke and somewhere social to enjoy it with my friends any day.I should have been born in Amsterdam!

I don't think I'm particularly anti-social although I do find parties full of strangers can be quite toe curling experiences.Perhaps it's because I'm not great with small talk.I like to cut to the chase and get through the bs.That's probably why poker appeals to me so much.The cards speak and the rest is just waffle.

Anyways enough waffle for one day.Back soon...

Room with a view

It does feel a bit odd having no Brit Blogger game to play on a Sunday evening.Hopefully it'll get a bit more support when it comes back in some form around April/May time.

I did watch the football as planned yesterday and then fired up 'Stars and took yet another pounding.I recall uttering outloud to myself "well f*ck me with a pointy stick" after another sick beat and the next thing I know there's a knock at my door and there's a man from Pokerstars with said stick and a tube of lube....**

To be fair I wasn't in great form either.I bubbled one $16 after shoving KQ over the top of a limper's raise when I would have had more fold equity making a min raise from utg at a play money table.Of course Mr Fishy Calling Station called with his 66 and I didn't hit.

I was about $150 down from 16 games when the S-man arrived around 9.30 for a ps3 frag fest.As seasoned gamers we seem to have no problem at all find new and exquisite ways to kill ourselves.( always on the "Easy" setting)The S-man has a particular fondness for stepping off platforms into the darkness and an instant certain death.Last night he surpassed that,dying after releasing roller mines from above ( Half-Life2 Ep 1) which dropped down and knocked him into oblivion again.( and again and again!)

After the s-man left I fired up 8 $16's on cascade mode,determined to play well and keen to bank a few $$. I wasn't on tilt, but I was highly motivated to pull back my Stars losses for the weekend and thankfully my set of 8 went quite well and I managed a win and other cashes.The best bit was that apart from folding QQ preflop by mistake,I coped ok with playing 8 tables,even when it got shorthanded.

I'm too lazy and work too hard during the day to come home and simply fire up 8 tables and play for a few hours, although I've noticed a definite tendency to rest on my laurels when I'm ahead for the month and to want to get really stuck in when I'm behind.

Ok,not much planned for this week other than an exciting upwards move at work.Have years of hard work finally paid off? No,we're all being moved to the top floor to allow my company to rent out the floor space we currently occupy.I've not checked out my new seat yet, but according to the seating plan it's right by the window.The window from which, according to my detailed calculations,I'm going to have a view looking right at the treadmill used by nubile girls with large bouncy boobies, who use the gym room kindly made available by the company housed across the road.I mentioned last week I was interested in reducing my hours.This week I'm enquiring about increasing them.....

Back just as soon as I've ordered those binoculars I've been thinking of buying for my new bird watching hobby.....

** Obviously untrue.Stars wouldn't bother supplying lube.

A Dollar Down

After a nice wee session at Party I decided to enter the world of aliens and assorted mutant freaks.Yep,I put my new PS3 aside and logged onto Pokerstars...



I began at the $16's ( all 18 player games) and just for a change on Stars I ran like crap.( heavy sarcasm!)It really is possible to simply lose hand after hand after hand when you get your money in good.I do know that already but it still almost takes my breath away just how one sided luck can be at times.Still,I don't feel any great sense of entitlement and I'm not going to start acting like a whiney spoilt kid.The only justice in poker is over the long term and that can be a very long term indeed.

I was a little annoyed with myself that I didn't just quit ahead after my Party session.It is one long game though and as I keep writing here,the only way to beat variance is volume.I should really look at last nights 42 games and tell myself I won about $140 regardless of actual results.( 10-15% roi)

Anyways I moved up,played seven $38 turbs and didn't cash in one of them.Only winning $243 over eleven $27's kept me from making a poor night on Stars even worse.The margins are so thin though,that just one or two flips going my way at the right times in those $16's and $38's would have seen me into the black at Stars for the night.

The other downside of last night was that I didn't get to bed until just after 5am.I was up at 12pm today for the Rangers game which I then discovered has been postponed due to the weather.I can feel my eyes shutting as I write this and have promised myself an early one tonight.

Ok,time to watch the second half of the Spurs v Arsenal game,review last nights exit hands,drop Nacho off and play some Half-life 2.

Here's one hand from the bubble of a $16 I was keen to run through a Sng software tool today to see if I made the right call.Looks like ( result irrelevant) I did.It wasn't a snap call because calling here no matter what the result,effectively means the other similar sized stack ( Bccy on 2630 who is next in the 800 big blind)is freerolling into the money.I'd also noted that Bccy ( 2% roi at $25 over 1300 games) seemed to be a bit of a calling station and I wasn't keen on pushing any two cards into his big blind from the sb if it folded to me on the next hand.



Here's one where I make a bad call.My reasoning was that the shorty could easily double up,the big stack was shoving a huge range ( he was but my call still wrong)and that if I doubled up here I'd be almost certain to cash.

Even if the big stack is shoving any two cards,77 is still a fold.( action folds to big stack who shoves all in)





I'm off to clean out my stable.Heeee haw!

Strong Urge to Fly....

In their latest attempt to try and boost flagging sales I see the gutter press have jumped on Jeremey Clarkson's comments labelling our beloved Prime Minister a "one eyed Scottish idiot".Cue fake moral outrage from self righteous hypocritical lefties and a great chance for the sh*trag Daily Mail to try and stir up the "little Englander" attitude it loves so much.

He does have one eye,is Scottish and after his "No more boom or bust comments",he certainly looks a bit of an idiot these days.Case closed! It reminds me of the awards given for the UK's crappiest town/city.Some indignant MP or Mayor type figure,usually living in the leafy suburbs of "Shitsville", always give the same defiant comments about how wonderful the nominated shithole really is, when the reality is that even the people living there would admit they're not fond of the crime ridden concrete jungle they inhabit.

I'm probably just a jaded cynic but I don't buy into the Saint Obama hype either.A committee of Pokerstars micro limit donkeys could have done a better job of running the US than Bush did and if any improvement is deemed a success, then I'm sure he'll be popular.Copying Bob the Builders "Can he fix it?,Yes he can" slogan certainly worked for him, but only time will tell if there's any substance beyond his fine rhetoric.Still if Obama can "provide an example to so many people around the world of what dedicated leadership can achieve" ( his words of praise for Tony Blair the other day when they met) we'll all be better off....

Not much to report on the poker front.Things are a bit stagnant at Party due to running like crap.$50 up from my last 137 games at $22/$33.Last night I hit the tables for a wee while after the ex Mrs A had been round to clean my flat and after I'd watched the excellent "28 Days Later".

I'm also just about to nip out and buy a Ps3 at long last and then I'm picking up Nacho.The s-man may be over later and if he brings games,we'll have a decent choice to pick from.Looking forward to Killzone 2 coming out soon and I've also already bought Half-life 2 and Fallout 3 to play on it.I doubt having a ps3 will be the end of my poker days, but I do too much mindless surfing when not at the felt and it'll be nice to have an alternative.( sick of the 13 channels of shit on the tv to choose from * )


* A lyric from this classic Floyd song.When I was a teen I even owned a silver spoon on a chain.Ahh The Floyd.Still love 'em!

Min Raise...

I rattled through nearly forty sngs on Monday,three tabling the $22’s on Party, four tabling the $16’s on Stars and made a small profit.I gambled on the forecast of more snow blizzards being correct and played through until 2am, expecting to wake up,make a quick call to my work ( one day of annual leave left) and go back to bed.No snow meant that was a coin flip I didn’t win and as a result I spent most of yesterday in zombie mode.To read a far more interesting ( non poker) coin flip tale head over to the Taoofpoker and read today's post about the fatal plane trip Buddy Holly and Richie Valens undertook 50 years ago.

I ended up feeling too tired to go and play live poker as planned and only played a few turbos before getting to bed early last night.( 12.30am is early for me) As the game is always changing and moving on,adapting to trends is essential to try and stay ahead of the pack..I had noticed that many good players min-raise the very top of their range to get action from fish who would otherwise fold to a shove in the mid/late stages of sngs.I reckon more people have caught on to this and I’ve added making min raises with rags ( no more than once per game) to my moves when playing against good players.

My usual mode is extremely tight and if I’ve been completely card dead,the min raise can look very strong indeed and has the added benefit of not costing much if someone comes over the top and I need to fold.Funnily enough I folded 1010 to a top player ( Loxxi on Stars) min raising utg ( first to act), expecting a monster… and watched his A8split a pot with another villains A6 at showdown!

Not a lot else going on just now.I’ve enjoyed following Rossi’s blog posts on cutting down his hours at work and using poker money to make up the difference. Reading his posts really drives home how hard even part-time poker can be when you’re relying on the money.I’ve been vaguely tempted to try and escape at least part of the 9-5 grind by doing something similar.I’m contracted to work a 36 hour week and cutting back to 29 hours would,in theory,allow me an extra day off every week and would cost me just short of £400 per month after tax. (assuming 20 working days) Would I have the discipline to put in 6-7hours of three tabling the $22’s on that day off or would I just cut back on the extra’s poker pays for without playing any more?

If I had any kind of guarantee that I could try it for 6 months and go back to 36 hours if I wanted to then it would probably be a more serious consideration.In some respects though I’m quite enjoying being better off than I’ve ever been thanks in part to my hobby and maybe ,especially in the current climate,it’s better to just keep things as they are and enjoy knowing that if I can’t be bothered playing,I don’t have to.

Thanks for reading.Back soon…

Finally...

Not that big a deal really but after running/playing like crap in these it felt great to take one down.Made a bit of profit from six $22's too for a decent night at the felt.

I'm back home this morning after attempting the drive to work and getting caught up in the gridlock after a bit of snow last night.( comes off my flexi-time of course)
It's not quite as bad as the pic Gcox posted on Jan 27th but the roads are like an ice rink and I don't fancy pranging the car I've just used half my poker bankroll to pay off!

At times like this I rather enjoy having no responsibilities beyond looking after myself.Time to roll a fat one,grab a couple of hours more sleep and have a nice chilled out day...

Fleck of Gold

I was at Ibrox yesterday to watch 17 yr old John Fleck win a penalty before picking the ball up and slotting the spot kick away for his first goal for Rangers.He looks a very talented kid and hopefully that will be the first of many goals he scores for us."Fleck...Fleck will tear you apart...again"...( Good excuse to post the excellent original by Joy Division)



After watching a couple of Cardrunners vids I fired up the Party $22's about 10pm and put in a 5 hour session,playing 28 sng's in total.I've emailed Sharkscope about my two missing Party games, but noticed they missed two more last night ( two I didn't cash in)so perhaps there are a few minor coverage problems.I've just had a reply to say they can only add games from Stars,Merge and Ongame.Ahh well.

I ran like crap at the $22's and was anticipating writing another boring "won no flips and got rivered all night" type of post.Just before 3am I decided to fire up a $55 and a few $33's.I was chasing my losses a bit and trying to get unstuck I suppose, but I also reckoned I was still playing well and would have a decent chance of cashing.Thankfully I took the $55 and a $33 down to bring me back into profit for the night.

The $55 had it's share of fish and didn't seem much of a step up at all.I've seen enough Jackal69 training vids to know that games above $33 are not some mystical place where only the very best sharks hang out.It's not really the standard which puts me off.It's more the thought of running badly over 10-20 games at that level.A 20 game downswing would cost about $1100 and I don't think I'm quite ready to lose £750 in one session! I do think I've upped my gulp limit quite a bit already over the last year and maybe I'll hit the $55's on a more regular basis one day.


Last nights graph:



I was buzzing a bit after that wee comeback and decided to roll another one up before bed.I couldn't be bothered folding my way through the early stages of yet another sng and decided to hit up a Full Tilt $50nl 6 max table.I was lucky enough to pick one with two tilty fishy donators and I left $65 up after a quick 40 minute session.I didn't get to bed until 5am and feel too tired to go through PT3 and try and find noteworthy hands.

Today I watched the Newcastle v Sunderland game and have just switched over to see our rivals drop two points up in Inverness.They only have a two point lead over us now and we play them at their midden in two weeks.Roll on..!

St Mirren played their first game yesterday at their new stadium in Ferguslie Park in Paisley having moved from their old ground at Love Street.Ferguslie Park is known as being a bit of a shithole and the new ground has already been nicknamed "The Methadome".Classy!

On the good news front I was chatting to the San Jose Salmon last night and they ( Mrs Salmon too) are coming back to Glasgow on the 14th Feb for 3 weeks.I've not seen them since Xmas '07 and it'll be great to catch up properly.

Found a superb link via Brystmars Cardrunners blog.Very funny stuff.Not safe for work!Bloodninja's cybersex transcripts.

Ok,Back soon...