Bad Beats:The Movie

I was going to do some editing and add this to my 1000th post, but I reckon it deserves a post of it's own.Big thanks to Wee Gem for posting this in my comments section.

Assumes deep Cinematic voiceover tone.."First he made your eyes bleed and now he's starting on your ears...It's the Oscar nominated true story of one mans battle with the Stars and Party poker Random Number Generator... Littleacornman:The Bad Beat Movie".

Coming Clean...

Ok, it's time to come clean and try and retain any readers I have left after my last posting...

I recalled Dr Pauly rewarding his loyal readers by hosting a tourney with a huge overlay to celebrate a blog posting milestone and I thought it would be a laugh to find a way to do something similar...but cheaper.( much cheaper!)

After a few smokes last week I read Ricky Rosa's post on the RaisetheRiver forum where he mentioned he hated reading bad beats in blogs( I always thought they were so popular...)and as it was my 1000th post I reckoned it would be a hoot to write the ultimate bad beat eye bleed post ,but include the words "20 dollars to the first three readers who comment on this post with only the words nobody runs as badly as you.Transfer to stars or tilt".

I could barely bring myself to proof read it before I posted ,but hats off to my most dedicated reader,Mr Cloud from Twitterpoker, who actually waded through all the crap and left the "nobody runs as badly as you" comment to earn himself $20.Mr C was also kind enough to turn it into a staking deal for a few Bloggerment games.It does look like poor Rubbish struggled through the whole post too, but being a tightarse Scot I'm only paying out on comments framed exactly as I requested.I'm sure ribs are pinging all over the world as the mirth of such merry japery takes hold...

Weekend wise I've not been up to a lot.The ex Mrs A was over to clean the flat on Friday night and after I dropped her off I hit the tables and continued to run like the beats posted last time.The S-man and Two Pies were over to watch Scotland lose 3-0 to a fine Dutch side on Saturday night.The main football highlight came earlier.I'm 1/4 Northern Irish and was cheering on Norn Iron v Poland when celtc goalie Boruc took a fresh air kick at a backpass and the ball rolled into the net.Rangers fan and Norn Iron player David Healy's grin at the hapless keeper just added to the happy moment.

After the game the s-man looked on in awe as the King of First Person Shooters ( me) destroyed the Helghan leader to complete Killzone 2.I don't mind playing it on "New Recruit" mode to give the S-man a chance, but I think I'll need to be switch it to "Very hard" or "Legendary" mode to at least try and make it a little more challenging....

On the poker front I've won back most of my Party losses and continue to struggle at Stars.The S-man is popping over shortly for another PS3 session so that only leaves tomorrow night to pull back the near $300 Stars has hit me for this month.Being in a "must get even" mindset is no good for playing decent poker so I've ( almost!)accepted it's going to be a losing month.

Righty,thanks for reading and I promise never to post another ton of bad beats again!

1000th Post:Reality of Running Badly

Ok,as promised I have decided to reward my dedicated readers with a self-indulgent running like crap post.No paragraphs as I want it to be as painful to read as the hands were to play! These are just a sample of life at the turbos recently.

I was off work on Monday and after PS3 sessions on Fri+ Sat,I decided Sunday night was for poker and hit the turbos tables after losing a flip in the Blogger game.As I've been running like crap I loaded up some $12 ,180 player turbs to start with and played 17 without cashing in any of them.In the first game I got it in with 88 v AK,AQ and KQ.King on flop.In the next game I shove KQs from the cut off and the button snap calls with KK.Out.Next I shove A5,get called by Q10 and the 10 hits on the river.At 200/400 in the next game I shove AQ,get called by K4sooted and he obviously rivers a flush.I still had time to shove my remaining 600 chips in with JJ and ran into QQ.AQ loses to J10 in my next game when the villain rivers a straight after the money went in on a Q high flop.AQ loses to A9 in the next game crippling my stack before my 77 fails v AK to knock me out.JJ falls to the mighty K6sooted all in preflop in the next disaster before I run A5 into JJ ( nice to lose to a better hand for a change) in the next one.I actually make it to 400/800 blinds in the next game and shove A10d from mid position..into Aces.Remaining chips in that game go in with A5s v QK.Queen on flop.Next I shove A2 from the cut off and the button snap calls with A6.Possible split pot? Nope,6 on flop.KK goes down to AJ next ( Ace on turn)and shortstacked in a new game I shove K2,get called by J9 and obviously a 9 comes on the turn.Run AQsooted into QQ in the next game and fire up some $16's too.In the $16 I check A10s in the bb.Flop comes 10 4 9.Mr Q9 leads for the pot,I reraise,he flats and calls my bigger turn bet too.River is a Queen and I don't get away from my tptk.Short in another $12,180,I shove K10 and run into AJ in the blinds,run A4 into AJ next and then have KK busted again,this time by A10.( two aces on flop just to make sure).I shove J10sooted in a $16 next at 200/400 and lose when snapped off by AQ.It's one of those "unexploitable shoves" next in a $12 as I push A2 in the small blind...into 88 in the big blind.In the next game my 77 loses to QQ for half my stack and the other half goes when AK loses to A5.By this time I'm just grateful the 5 came on the flop to put me out of my misery early in the hand!In the next $16 I run QQ into KK and 88 with 88 obviously spiking the 8 to win.Presto isn't gold for me as it loses to 33 in my next $16.Another sickener.AJ loses to KJ in the next game for half my stack and the other half loses with Q8s to 33.AK goes down to K8 in the next $16 sending me out 4th ( just in the money).HU in another $16 I shove K6sooted into AK.Those were most of the games I played.I did manage a few cashes and restricted my losses to $88 for the evening.Previously on Party ( 9 man $22 turbs) here's how I've been running this month.AK into KK,AJ loses to 33,AQ into AK,3 handed at 400/800 I shove K8 and run into QQ,shove K4 into Q10 in a blinds battle next and he makes his straight.44 into 55 on the bubble of another was a lovely kick in the nuts,followed by AK losing to A8 in the next game.88 into AA for another bubble finish was next followed by AJ losing to Q7 and then A10 falling to J9.( yet another bubble finish).AK to 1010 next is standard and by now totally expected and when I bubble again after running QK into AK ( sb into bb) I give the kiss of life to the penguin I killed earlier just so I can kill it again.My own AK goes down to 66 and KQ in the next game before my 88 is beaten by good old big slick in the next turbo.AK loses to A8s ( 8 on flop) next and my QKsooted runs into Aces in another new game.I try not to get disheartened when my AQs loses to the mighty 96d all in preflop next and try not to think what a feckin set up it is when I bubble again after shoving K2 from the small blind at 200/400 into Ak in the big blind.20 dollars to the first three readers who comment on this post with only the words nobody runs as badly as you.Transfer to stars or tilt,AQ obv loses to 1010, it's a flip and I don't win them,before AK loses to 99 in my next game.( bubble again obv).HU I shove 77 and A10 rivers the 10.Nice to cash though.77 into JJ next and then KK loses to J10 in the first hand of the next game.That's another $22 down the drain.AQ obv loses to KJ next and then AK doesn't hit v 1010 for another exit.I shove K10 at 200/400 and get called by QJ.Q on flop and turn.Next I shove A4 at 300/600,get snap called by K2 and yes the King fell on the flop.3 left in the next game,I shove AKs,get called by AhJs.Board comes 4h 2s 7h.Turn is 6h and river obv is 5h.A10 into QQ late in next game sees me crash out before my Aces are busted by good old K6sooted next.Of course it's AK into AA on the bubble of another one before I bubble yet again when my AQs shove is called by 22 and I fail to hit.It's A10 all in pre v QJ next and I had to love the JJA flop,Queen on the turn and the Jack to give him quads on the river.Soooperb.A5 beaten by QJ was next up in the lost race stakes and I once again ran AQ into QQ to go out of the next $22 I played.I have cashed in enough games and made enough from my Party points bonus ( $150) to mean I'm ( at time of writing on 23/3) down about $250 for the month.Looking at the above perhaps I should be grateful it's not more.

I hope that was as worthwhile for you as it was for me....

Epic Fail

On the way home from work last night I stopped at a local garage for some fuel.I remembered my pay as you go mobile phone was getting a bit low on credit and duly requested a £10 Vodaphone top up voucher.Sitting back in the car, I dialled the number for top ups and listened in frustration to a 10 minute message telling me how much quicker it would be to top up using the Internet.It would a lot feckin' quicker without having to listen to that crap first!

Anyway, I keyed in the 12 digit number on the voucher and a polite automated voice tells me there must be some error.I joyfully listen to the "using the internet to top up couldn't be easier" message another six times as I try again and again to put in the number I was given, before eventually I give up and stomp back in to the girl at the garage serving counter to let her know there's a problem with the voucher."You need to phone Vodaphone customer service",she says."No,I bought the voucher from you 5 minutes ago and if it's not working I'd like another or a refund", I retort.She repeats her opening gambit and I make it clear that as it was the garage who sold me a faulty voucher, it's up to them to sort it and I wouldn't be fobbed off.

This went on for a while and at one point the assistant even tried keying in the voucher number on my phone herself to get the top up to work.( as if I'd be too dumb to manage something as simple as that)."Look,it's asking for a 16 digit number and the voucher your garage has supplied to me only has 12 digits so there must be something wrong with your voucher machine" I told her."Whatever the problem is though,it's not mine and I want my money back, right here,right now".

The manager wasn't available and after taking head office details, the supervisor on duty agreed to call Vodaphone customer service to try and sort it,taking my voucher through to the back shop with her.As the assistant handed me back my phone,I pressed a button and was greeted with the message "Welcome to O2".It's my pay as you go laptop dongle for broadband which is with Vodaphone.My mobile has been on the O2 network since I bought it.Aghhhhhhhh!

Did I immediately confess my mistake to the assistant and wait to get my voucher back from the supervisor, ( still on the phone to Vodaphone) or did I quickly bolt out the door whilst uttering crap like "I'm late for my dinner and just don't need any more stress"?

I'm never,ever going back to that garage..

I did actually play some poker last night after that shenanigans and had my first winning night for a while.It was only $46 but it was very welcome.Back soon.

Next post is number 1000....

Ultimate Bad Beat

Ran like crap again for most of last night and dropped $88 over 30 games on Stars.Detail to follow in my 1000th post soon!

Congrats to SMBoatdrinks on taking down the BritBlogger game.I finished 22nd after repopping a late position raiser with AQh.He had JJ,I hit a Queen on the flop....and of course the Jack came on the river.GG.

Here's a hand which has been doing the rounds on the forums.I couldn't resist posting it here.The Bad Beat Jackpot is usually won when Quad 8's or better are beaten.The loser in the pot gets the biggest payout and the winner benefits too.What were they thinking?!


UB Bad beat Jackpot is $350k. Rake must reach $.25 for hands to qualify for the BBJ, so $5.00 pot.

Stage #1324603887: Holdem No Limit $0.50 - 2009-03-20 23:56:45 (ET)
Table: BATTLEFORD DR (Real Money) Seat #2 is the dealer
Seat 2 - OWPTOUR ($34.50 in chips)
Seat 3 - WUHAAA ($60.05 in chips)
Seat 4 - XMAN9 ($28.05 in chips)
Seat 5 - DANIELMARIO ($49.82 in chips)
Seat 6 - RELOADNGO ($57.82 in chips)
Seat 8 - MITZU ($32.55 in chips)
Seat 9 - THE_TAZZ ($51 in chips)
Seat 1 - ROCNRON ($17.50 in chips)
WUHAAA - Posts small blind $0.25
XMAN9 - Posts big blind $0.50
*** POCKET CARDS ***
Dealt to THE_TAZZ [10c 2s]
DANIELMARIO - Calls $0.50
RELOADNGO - Raises $2 to $2
MITZU - Folds
THE_TAZZ - Folds
ROCNRON - Folds
OWPTOUR - Folds
WUHAAA - Folds
XMAN9 - Folds
DANIELMARIO - Calls $1.50
*** FLOP *** [7c Qh Jh]
DANIELMARIO - Checks
RELOADNGO - Checks
*** TURN *** [7c Qh Jh] [10h]
DANIELMARIO - Checks
RELOADNGO - Checks
*** RIVER *** [7c Qh Jh 10h] [8c]
DANIELMARIO - Checks
RELOADNGO - Checks
*** SHOW DOWN ***
DANIELMARIO - Shows [9h 8h] (Straight flush, queen)
RELOADNGO - Shows [Kh Ah] (Royal flush)
RELOADNGO Collects $4.55 from main pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total Pot($4.75) | Rake ($0.20)
Board [7c Qh Jh 10h 8c]
Seat 1: ROCNRON Folded on the POCKET CARDS
Seat 2: OWPTOUR (dealer) Folded on the POCKET CARDS
Seat 3: WUHAAA (small blind) Folded on the POCKET CARDS
Seat 4: XMAN9 (big blind) Folded on the POCKET CARDS
Seat 5: DANIELMARIO HI:lost with Straight flush, queen [9h 8h - B:Qh,B:Jh,B:10h,P:9h,P:8h]
Seat 6: RELOADNGO won Total ($4.55) HI$4.55) with Royal flush [Kh Ah - P:Ah,P:Kh,B:Qh,B:Jh,B:10h]
Seat 8: MITZU Folded on the POCKET CARDS
Seat 9: THE_TAZZ Folded on the POCKET CARDS

VIP Host: yes I just got it
VIP Host: RELOADNGO - Shows [Kh Ah] (Royal flush) So he won
VIP Host: DANIELMARIO - Shows [9h 8h] (Straight flush, queen)
Player1: OMG its real
Player1: this idiot
Player1: so it didtn pay out becuase there wasnt $5 in the pot?
VIP Host: RELOADNGO Collected $4.55 from main pot
Player1: so is that why the JP didnt hit?
VIP Host: the amount of jackpot rake that has to be collected is 0.25 and this amount was not collected

Brit Blogger Game Tonight

Until the clocks go forward next weekend the start time is actually 8pm Gmt.Hope to see you there...

Thanks to all who commented on my last post.I was tempted to take the redundancy offer, but in the end I've gambled on staying put for now.There's always the chance of being offered a lot less in future or being "performance managed" out, but that's just a chance I'll have to take.If I had a degree I'd have jumped at it and done a one year post grad teaching course.Maybe next time...

I've not played a lot of poker since my last post.The downswing continues whenever I do play and every time I tell myself that the next hand is a new one and cannot logically be affected by any perceived swings...I get screwed again.Every.Damn.Time!

This is post 997 and I intend to reward my dedicated readers with a self indulgent "reality of a downswing" post which I'm sure will provide a fascinating insight into running badly and may even help boost your poker roll!Ahh the excitement....( or should that be excrement?!)

I do often wonder if I come across as having quite a negative poker outlook.When running better/winning there often doesn't seem much to write about.There's no secret winning formula to witter on about.Big hands hold,more coin flips are won and the profits grow.

In truth I probably need to be more accepting of the fact that despite being a winning player,I can't win all the time and losing days/weeks and even months are all possible.I do worry that I end up making the same excuses to myself that losing players make.Nobody runs as badly as me,maybe it is rigged,it's impossible to beat donks calling with crap,the games are getting far tougher,I'm falling behind the curve blah blah blah.

Of course standing still is not an option and adjustments will always need to be made, but I wasn't kidding when I wrote previously that I actually found it reassuring to go through all my sng exit hands from March and find that it's mainly been the shitty side of variance which has cost me and not my own play.

Casinos and bookmakers have losing days,weeks and even months and I doubt they spend their time whining in blogs about it.Perhaps if I didn't blog I'd just get on with it a bit more rather than analysing every session as I do and feeling like every losing session is the end of the world. I think that comes from my poker ego which is desparate to win and absolutely hates losing!

Not going to moan any more in this post.Poker profits allowed me to eat out for most of last week,have recently paid for my car and are about to pay the whole years council tax upfront at the end of the month.I'd also need to look back to find my last losing month as I honestly couldn't say when it was.If dealing with running like crap over a few hundred ( please don't let it be another 1000 game downswing/break even stretch!)is the price I have to pay to win overall then so be it.Knowing that doesn't make me any more keen to fire up a game and get fcked again but it probably should!

Ok,enough! Thanks for reading.Back soon.Until then,give me Real Love....

Royal Flush

My colleagues and I have just been offered a years salary upfront to leave the company at the end of this month.My first thought was that giving up a well paid job ( for what I do) in the middle of the worst recession in years would be complete madness.My second thought was that life is too short to spend years stuck in an office job dealing with complaints all day and I should take this chance to try something new.If I already had a degree I'd jump at the chance to do a years post-graduate teacher training and have a go at the career I really wanted to get into when I was younger.

Of course if I didn't have Nacho and close family and friends around I could take the money and sit on a beach in Thailand and play poker for a few years or even stay on these shores and give the pokey a real go.If I make it to old age I'm never going to look back and think "I wish I'd spent more time as a cog in the corporate machine",that's for sure.Despite that we only have this evening to decide, and although I'll give it some more thought, I don't see me taking the plunge.

I've been feeling a bit pokered out over the last couple of weeks.The good news is that I've reviewed every sng exit hand over my recent/current downswing and the vast majority were the nasty suckouts and basic "running bad" stuff I expected to see, with a few daft shoves and silly calls thrown in.Watching hand after hand in the replayer actually made me laugh at how sick and unnatural the downside of variance can be.

A run like that also affects confidence and I'm probably not the most self assured person at the best of times.Although I've put in a lot of games and studying, I'm still constantly surprised that I find myself in the small percentage of players who beat the game for profit.It's probably sad to say, but apart from being a decent salesman in my day,I've never particularly excelled at anything.I'm a decent pool player, but not great, and I was never much of a footballer or any good at other sports.There's no degree of any sort on my cv and I'm crap at everything from woodwork to sewing!

I am however half decent at poker.Otherwise how would I ever have been dealt this hand..Royal baby!

The villain was loose and I was pretty sure I was ahead of his range.

Ok,back soon...

Final Table?!

Our family had the good news last week that my sisters latest ( nearly 4 years on) cancer test has come back negative.News like that puts results from games like poker and football into perspective and to say I was delighted would be a huge understatement.She copes with a high pressure top marketing job whilst going through IVF and still manages to find time to make me the best Spag Bol I've ever tasted and to organise gifts for any upcoming birthdays/Mothers days etc.( I just give her half the cost) I really hope the IVF stuff works out for her and her hubby as they would both make great parents and it doesn't look as if I'll be providing grandkids any day soon!

The weekend was ok.The s-man was over on Saturday night for more ps3 action.This time he managed to kill himself in Half-life2 Ep2 after launching tree stumps at a swaying crate above us ( to knock the health kits and ammo from it) and then standing still,allowing the law which says, "what goes up,must come down" to kick in.He was twatted by falling stumps.

On Sunday I went to the cup final.Crap game.We lost.

Later in the evening I fired up the Brit Blogger game on Full Tilt despite being in the mood from hell after the football result.Thanks to all 61 who showed up to play,congrats to ElSnarfgrande on winning and to Lex Luther for doing the UK proud and coming 2nd.Thanks also to Blaaaarg86 and the guys at my tables who cheered me up with their chatbox banter.

Gamewise I played like a complete nit,made a few resteals to stay afloat and managed to go out 9th after the shortest final table appearance in history.I'd run Kd8d into Mookies AQ ( blinds battle) ,typed "gg" and left.It was only later on checking to see who had won overall that I realised it was hand for hand to make the final table and I must have had more chips than the 10th place finisher who went out at the same time as me.

I'm still running like crap at Party and finished $10 down from 5 games after the Blogger game.Overall I'm down about $230-ish overall this month and can't seem to get going at all.It was raining at lunchtime today so I played two $22's using my old lappy and new dongle.In the first I called a raise with 99,saw a 9 high all diamond flop ,got it in and lost to the preflop raisers flopped flush.In the 2nd I hit my Ace with AK only for Mr 33 to river another 3.Thankfully I managed to come back from the resulting shortstack to win that one.

Ok,back with a post on good/bad losers later in the week...

Like a Rolling Stone..

Looks like it may be time for a change of career.I saw the full page advert in the Metro the other day for a Comic Relief t-shirt featuring those old comedy favourites,Morcambe and Wise with red "comic relief" noses painted on.Retro t-shirts are popular at the moment ( I like my own "Mr Messy" one from Next),but what caught my eye was that it said at the foot of the advert that the Morcambe and Wise design was the work of top clothes designer,Stella McCartney.Easy peasy.I have found a suitable photo of those other comedy legends "Little and Large" ,bought some plain white t-shirts and I'm now ready to become a top clothes designer!

As I approach nearly 1000 posts and 4 full years of blogging I'm wondering what direction this blog is taking these days.I called it a "poker and life" blog when I began in order that I wouldn't be restricted to writing about poker and I've enjoyed being able to go off on other tangents at times.I also read most other blogs via a reader and don't get to comment as often as I'd like on some of the excellent stuff being posted by the bloggers linked on the right of this page.

I reckon I'll stick to poker,daft rants,a bit of personal stuff and of course excellent advice and lifestyle tips...like don't attempt to shave your unruly sideburns after smokin' da herb.I ended up with a cut nose and sideys about as even as a Heads Up match between Ivey and Tuff-fish.

On the poker front I finally got back to winning ways last night and hopefully I can stay on that track.I ran a bit better than I have recently and I was also determined to "grow a set" and stop feeling sorry for myself.I did sleep well last Saturday night but I can't say losing over $500 in one night didn't affect me at all.With a bit of luck my gulp limit ( the amount I can lose in one night without wanting to top myself)has risen and the next time I'll cope better.

Ok,the ex Mrs A is away visiting her brother down South and I have Nacho until next Wednesday.The s-man is popping over shortly and the Nach needs a walk!

Here's an old Paul Simon classic...

Tues Update

I had planned on playing a couple of warm-up games before the Brit Blogger game on Sunday, but I didn't plan for the US clocks going forward and I missed the first 20 minutes.I ended up ticking along nicely until I ran AK into AA in a blinds battle to finish 30th.

The $22's were calling and Party don't appear to have switched my doomswitch off yet as I ran horribly for most of the evening.I'm not going to post a ton of crappy hands but it was relentless and very frustrating.I finished for the evening after taking a 2nd place when 73o/s outflopped my AQ.Not a bad beat by any means but just typical of how I seem to be running just now.Last night the S-man was over for a Half-Life 2 session and I won't induce insomnia by detailing the virtual kicking which saw me crash out of two sngs before bed.

I've been following a few new blogs recently and I'd highly recommend adding this one to your daily reading list.Call me a poker geek for seeing poker in everything, but his last two posts ( March 6th and 9th) seemed particularly applicable to the game we love.Feel free to read them and draw your own poker/life analogies.

I suppose part of the reason I didn't lose sleep over such a nasty losing night on Saturday is because I know that even if it takes some time,my roll will get back to where it was at the start of the month and will at some point reach the high point it was at before the variance biatch hit me hard.Time to forget the bottom line and just keep the focus on making the next decision a good one ( just scoring one goal) and if I keep doing that then profit will eventually follow.

Some poker players remind me of the Germans mentioned in Daves post from March 6th.(Cock-ups v Conspiracy). They don't like to grind and do the same old simple profit making stuff over and over again.They constantly want to make clever moves,showcase their awesome skills and heaven help anyone who tries to raise their blinds during the first few levels.This prompts the full timebank to be used, deep level 15 thinking about ranges,steals and resteals before their 93 o/s reluctantly hits the muck and they add "I'm just not getting any hands" in the chatbox.( usually with 3 minutes gone of level 1 in the 10,0000 chip,45 min blinds levels mtt).FFS just fold and be done with it!

I'm not saying making moves based on reads isn't what poker is about, but it's only a small part.In general low stakes players need to stick to keeping it simple and doing what works over and over again.

Ok,thanks for reading.Back soon...

Dead Money

I had my worst night maybe ever at the virtual felt last night after taking a pounding at Party.To start with I played twenty $12 180 player turbos on Stars and fell just short of breaking even.

The Party $33's were calling and I played 26,4-6 tabling and getting scudded on nearly every hand,finishing with a fruitless shot at a $109 around 5.30am.The bad news is it cost me $535 in total.Excluding the $109 it is only around 13 buy-ins which I suppose is pretty standard for a night of nasty variance.I was going to keep saving my Party points, but have cashed in 4500 of them for a straight $150 paid into my account.The good news is that I still slept like a baby and I'm not that annoyed about it.Nights like that are going to happen and although it's wiped out my decent start to the month,I'm down less than $40 after cashing in those points.

Ok,off to Ibrox now to watch Rangers play Hamilton in the cup.Hope the Gers don't run as badly as me...

Friday Moan

So Chris Moyles and other celebs are climbing Kilimanjaro for Comic Relief.Call me a grumpy old man, but it would certainly be a relief if he fell off and took a few other z-list celebs with him.Seems a shame to me that they can't just donate the no doubt enormous cost of the whole operation straight to charity and get their numerous sad fanboys/girls to support a sponsored silence instead.Still I suppose that wouldn't allow them to make a personal journey of discovery...the tossers.

As regular readers may know,I don't have much respect for today's celebrity worshipping culture.Having said that, I came across a couple of top UK celeb blogs recently (via the Sunday Times best blogs list) and after a few smokes I thought it may be an idea to invite them to play in the Brit Blogger game.I wonder if Paul Daniels would be as good with the virtual cards as he is with real ones or if Juice's political hero would be interested in a game.

On to the poker and I've probably mentioned here that I don't have a rakeback deal and very rarely take advantage of deposit bonuses.I don't ever need to put money in,I like being able to move between sites at will and this time last year I was only playing one or two tables at once which made clearing bonuses difficult.I have accumulated 4600 Party points and with 1500 points paying $50 in cash and 12000 paying $500, I've decided Party will be my main site for the foreseeable future.Even with the improvment in Pokerstars VIP programme I reckon I can make more $ at Party.I'm going to stick to Party for single table games and try and play some more 45/90 player turbos on Stars when I do play there.

Party are offering double points this week and despite feeling dog tired most nights,I'm still trying to play 10-12 games to try and get closer to the 12k points I need for the $500 cash payment.

I've had a decent start to the month, although I'm a bit frustrated by Sharkscope after they missed recording another winning $22 from the other night.I know they've not been covering Party sngs for long, but if they're going to do it they need 100% coverage or at least the option to submit any sng's they miss, otherwise it becomes useless as a tool for tracking my results.

Ok,thanks for reading.Back soon....

Da Variance Biatch

A recent poker training video mentioned not constantly checking the cashier/account page when grinding and instead simply keeping the focus on making the right decisions.The theory being that this helps prevent tilt and short term thinking.

The bad news for me is that despite finding the "hide cashier" button on Party,I still check my balance after almost every game.Ideally, I'd like to be able to not check it for weeks at a time and hopefully be pleasantly surprised when I do.When I'm four tabling sng's I do see my buy-ins as money spent and this allows me to play unhindered by any thoughts of crashing out.It does still play on my mind a little that if I'm four tabling $33's I have around £90 in play.£90 would pay for my broadband,phone,mobile and cable tv package every month so it's not exactly a meaningless sum to me.

I wrote about being a bit more "baller" a few weeks ago and I think that helps when it comes to not worrying about money in play or having a losing night.I don't panic anymore if I do lose 10 buy-ins after a particularly bad session because although it hurts,I know my winning sessions have more than made up for those losses in the past.Don't get me wrong,despite pretty decent sngs stats my confidence still gets affected at times after a poor run of games.Am I playing my best game? What is my usual default move in this situation? Are the games suddenly too tough to beat? Will I ever win again? All those questions are hard to answer when running very badly.

When posting about winning say 4/6 sngs or winning 5 in a row my aim is not to brag or to try and convince anyone other than myself that if I'm on my game, any losing streak will come to an end and I'll keep making money overall.Having hit a variance wall of well over a 1000 games at Stars last year ,I'll use every trick in the book to try and keep myself playing well, because if my playing standards slip then I may never get back to winning ways no matter how the variance biatch is treating me.

Ok,back soon...

Weekend Recap

I did squeeze a few turbos in on Saturday night before the lads arrived and it seemed like I’d never get a hand to hold or hit again.( hence the edited monthly stats) The Big Chap arrived first around 7.30-ish and watched as I crashed out of one game after another before the s-man and San Jose Salmon showed up about 8-ish and one mighty fine smokin’, drinkin’ session began.

Ordering a food delivery and replying “heavy sprinkles” when asked if I’d like salt n vinegar on our battered sausages and fries seemed quite amusing at the time, although having my A10 scudded by the SJS and his Q3 in a wee poker tourney we played later felt like being back at Party and wasn’t funny at all! The SJS took down both £5 games we played with a display of dubious donkery not seen since…. his last visit! It was a truly great night and I only wish the SJS and Big Chap lived a bit nearer so we could repeat it on a more regular basis.

The Big Chap was staying over ( hopefully he didn’t keep Nacho awake with his snoring) and I fired up a couple more turbs when the SJS and s-man headed off around 4am.It probably shows just how fishy Party is that I’d been smokin’ da herb for about 11 hours by this point and still managed to take down a $33 to finish the night off.

I hit the sack just after 5.15am and was up at 1pm to watch the football and see the Big Chap off. I was then lucky enough to catch a classic game between Athletico Madrid and Barcelona which produced some cracking goals and a 4-3 win for the Madrid side.

Later I also played a couple of $22’s before the Brit Blogger game and didn’t cash in either game .Next up I fired up Full Tilt ,took my seat at the Blogger game and was then totally baffled by Mr Cloud telling me in the chat that I was in the wrong Brit Blogger game! For some reason two had been set-up and I managed to jump into the other one too before registration closed .As joint host of the game I’m happy to offer a sincere apology for any confusion. If anyone would prefer a heartfelt apology just let me know…

Thanks to all 66 who showed for the main game and to those who made the same mistake as me and played in the other one too. The s-man made it into the 65 player main game too with his excellent “Yerabawbag” name. I’m not sure that most of the US/Canadian players at our table knew that "baw" means "ball" in Glasgow and his name translates as “You’re a ball bag”.His “sookraboaby” name on Stars isn’t bad either…..

I shoved AQ sooted into KK in the main game to exit in 50th positon and AQ off into AK in the smaller game to go out early too. Both were standard speed which it also took me until just before I crashed out to realise due to tiredness and the many herbal smokes I’d consumed! All goot though and congrats to Shabazz Jenkins on taking the main game down.

After my outstanding Brit Blogger success I hit the Party $22’s,began poorly and soon found myself down more a few more buy-ins after my first set of four games.It may be the long run which counts but I was glad to finish off by winning 4/6 of the last $22’s I played before bed.

Back soon...