Monthly Stats

Rangers played poorly yesterday but still won the cup in the Hampden sunshine after Nacho Novo scored a peach of a goal just after half-time.I nearly missed the goal as I was looking for a steward in order to complain about the hot girl in front of me who insisted on distracting me from the game by flashing her skimpy thong every time she leaned forward in her seat.To say I was appalled would be an understatement...( and a complete lie obviously)

Later on after the game the s-man was over for a night of Pure and Motorstorm action on the PS3.I did hit the tables for an hour when he left and managed to go 0/5 in sngs at Party after the usual lost races,suckouts and running into Aces when I shoved.Standard stuff.

The WSOP seems to have come round far more quickly than usual this year.Perhaps that's because the main event winner was only decided in November of last year.I'm not a huge fanboy when it comes to who wins what, but I'll be following the action over at Hardboiled Poker and Tao of poker as usual this year.

I would love to play in the main event of the WSOP one day although for now I'll stick to far tougher tourneys like....this evenings Brit Blogger game on Full Tilt.

There's probably not been much ambition shown on this blog over the years.I never really expected to beat the low stakes cash games when I first started and certainly couldn't have dreamed I'd end up leaving cash games to be a sng tourney donk.Mtt's are the only side of No-Limit holdem I haven't given a proper go and I despite a good result in the $55 on Stars last July, I've barely played any since.Maybe big mtt cashes would make up for the variance but I think I prefer the psychological boost of cashing in roughly 1/3 or 1/4 sng games to going for long barren runs but cashing for bigger $$ in Mtt's.

My secret "If I got fired and had to play poker" plan used to be to try and get up to 8-12 tabling $16's, but I'm not sure I'll ever feel fully comfortable playing more than 3-4 tables at the one time.It's all talk of course until I prove it can be done but if I was forced by circumstances, I'd 3-4 tables the $22's and $33's on Party,hopefully make around $2-$3 per game,play 8 per hour for 6-7 hours per day and also make some $$ from cashing in frequent player points and from reload bonus's.

If I could up my gulp limit some more ( and failing to do that is probably one of my biggest poker problems) and had the right sized bankroll behind me,I'd also love to have a go at some $100-$500 sngs. ( or even higher)

When I watch highstakes cash game training vids I don't mind admitting I'm watching for entertainment value and most of time don't have a clue what I would do in the pro's situation.Sit and Go tourneys though are far less complex at any level and although there are less fish and more sharks as the stakes go up in sngs I'm still dumb enough to think I could cope if I wasn't overloaded with tables.

I'd simply play twenty $500 sngs per day at 3% roi for $300 profit and play 20 days per month.What could be easier than that?! I resign from work tomorrow!

Back to reality and here are my monthly stats.I'm pleased to have made a decent profit from around only about 150 sngs.I'll edit these later to reflect todays play but here goes for now..

Party $2303 ( +$386 profit and less $1k cashout),Pokerstars $536 ( + $70) Full Tilt $103 ( -$91)

Total $2942 ( + $365 profit for month)

Back soon and apologies as I don't know why there's a big blank space below this sentence or why it wouldn't let me separate this post into proper paragraphs!

Fishy Weekends

With dinner and a dvd planned for tonight and the s-man visiting tomorrow night, it looks like I’ll finish the month having made a reasonable profit at the virtual felt. That will be quite a relief after the last couple of months of pokery hell. The secret this month has simply been running a little better at the tables and taking far more breaks from the game. Online poker tends to be far fishier at the weekends, however although I’m may be missing out on juicier games,feeling fresher when I do play more than makes up for that.To be fair it’s easier to feel fresh and less burned out when winning and there’s no doubt results influence my feelings on the game from week to week.

It does still amaze me the number of players who post on forums like Pocketfives stating they can’t beat the micro-limits and that they want to move up to play better players where their “bets will be respected”. It’s all about adjusting to each unique poker hand and not being afraid to play your own game regardless of what would be the considered the “standard” default move.

As an example of the above another thread had online legend Jonny Bax posting to defend a re-raise all in he had made with J10sooted in an MTT.Now I’m no MTT player and at first glance his all in shove over a raise looked dodgy, until he pointed out that the original raiser had raised him off several hands on that orbit of the table. Players who replied ( before Bax did) that they would never reraise all in with J10 sooted probably play the game too rigidly to ever make decent money.

That’s probably part of the reason why I don’t like playing more than 3-4 tables ( and four is pushing it for me).It’s not that I timeout very often, but more because I like to be able to pick up reads and play the same hand differently depending on the situation.

Along with my colleagues I've once again been offered a years salary to leave the company I work for.This time as I'm running a little better at the poker it seems more tempting to take the money and try and make a go of playing sngs fulltime.Once again though I'll be taking the safe option,sticking to the 9-5 and the guaranteed monthly salary that goes with it.

No poker tonight and tomorrow is cup final day when I'll be at Hampden to hopefully see Rangers beat Falkirk and secure the Double.Roll on...

Operation Tango

I may have mentioned that Rangers won the Scottish League Championship the other day on the last day of the season.Our rivals were at home to Hearts and needed to win whilst hoping Dundee United beat or drew with Rangers as this scenario would have given them the title.Most of the fans at the games were relying on text messages to keep them up to date with how their rivals game was progressing, although so long as Rangers won, it didn't matter how celtc got on.Glasgow may be a divided city but most of us know season ticket holders who support the enemy and there were certainly plenty of text messages/emails being exchanged last week about where the league title would end up.

In one of the best wind-ups for years,a group of Rangers supporters agreed on a set time to text their celtc supporting friends/colleagues/aquaintances with the completely made up news that Dundee United had scored.Of course on the day Rangers were 1-0 at the time and when "news" of Dundee United's equalising goal came through by text a huge roar went up and even their coach leapt from the dugout ( sadly no footage of that) in delight at the prospect of being right back in the title race.Of course Dundee United hadn't scored at all and they were all well and truly tangoe'd.Hardy har har!

Played two $22's and won them both last night before losing one earlier today when I had my Aces busted.Off out tonight.Back soon...

Yankee Doodle

GLASGOW RANGERS CHAMPIONS Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh.

Repeat forever to the yankee doodle tune!

I did make the bloggerment last night afterall, although I was probably too hyper after the football to give it much focus.( the match replay was on too!) I lost a big hand with JJ v 33 and was preparing to exit when I won a couple of flips and chipped back up again.It was a tough table and I ended up having eventual winner Joanne sitting on my left which didn't help my prospects.I ended up making the final table and donked out in 5th when I pushed the bottom of my range ( Q10) into the top of someone elses ( AA).It was a marginal push but I wanted to make a move before I lost my fold equity and don't have any complaints.

I finished watching a reply of our title win and fired up a few $22's on Party.I ran horribly there on Sat night ( down about 10 buy-ins) and last night was more of the same until I managed a few cashes late on to leave me only $10 down for the night.It only takes a few lost flips and beats to make life costly at the turbos so I was glad to keep my loss to a minimum.

The s-man is coming over tonight, I'm seeing the good lady tomorrow night and it's the champions league final on Wed night so I'm not sure how much poker I'll squeeze in.Mr Edge asked about the new lady in my life and all I'll say for now is that she's cute,bright,funny,down to earth and did the dishes on her last visit.She's a bit older than me and can't have kids so I'm not sure where it'll go but for now it's just nice to relax and enjoy myself a bit.

Back soon..

Rangers FC:Champions

Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees! 3-0 to the Gers.

Championeeeeeeeeeees!

Cheerio 4 in a row!



I had a poor night at the felt last night after the s-man left.Here's my Sharky graph for Party since they started coverage.Downswings/upswings.Ain't poker great...




Thanks for reading and good luck to Bully's Burnley tomorrow.
Hope to play in the Brit Blogger game later if I manage to get off the ceiling...

I see fishy people

The mindset of the poker fish has always interested me.How can people be so stupid we ask ourselves? Lack of experience,the urge to gamble,the thrill of making mooooves,tilt and people with plenty of experience who simply don't "get it" are a few of my theories.I keep reading about how tough games are thanks to poker forums,training sites etc and although there may be a little truth in that,I remember reading a load of snooker books as a lad and they never turned me into Stephen Hendry! ( good enough to play blindfold with a hand tied behind my back and still beat Juice though! )

People who type "may as well be playing bingo" in chat boxes forget that thousands of people do play bingo online with no edge at all and probably see poker as just another gambling game.

I wrote about channel 5''s rip-off late night quiz recently and how daft people must be to think they stand a decent chance of winning.The fact is that most poker players just aren't as bright or smart as I'm sure my readers are and you have to take this into account when playing them.This means not using your own default hand ranges for villains.You may well only call that big bet or shove with a better hand but this doesn't mean a fish won't pay you off with something far worse.Of course it's highly frustrating to feel like your being continually be outdrawn but when I stepped down and played a few $12 ,45 player games last night I simply found the donkey calls provided a good general guide to the standard of play.Having my JJ cracked all in preflop by someone ready to get it all in early in the game with 23 o/s genuinely made me smile.

Maybe it's a bit of a leap and no offence meant to believers, but reading this recent Guardian CIF post on the growth of the psychic industry also demonstrates to me just how many more stupid and gullible people are out there.It's mentioned in the article that psychic,Sally Morgan,received more than 250,000 emails after her tv show was aired.This was just before they all logged on to Pokerstars....

Anyways I had another decent night at the tables and was also pleased to see that twat Ben finally get the boot from The Apprentice.( though some thorough media training meant he managed to come across as decent enough on the "You've been Fired" show afterwards.)

Back to the poker and I took down another $22 at Party before deciding to try out a few of these low stakes multi-table sngs I keep reading are so juicy.I fired up three $12,45 player games and can't deny the fishieness of the play on show.The bottom line is that I crashed out of two but managed to hit the final table with a big stack in one game and bullied my way to a win from there.The prize was only $154 ( $54 more than 1st in a $22) but it felt good!

Visiting my parents tonight,seeing the good lady tomorrow night and the s-man is coming over on Saturday night.The nerves and tension are also building already for Sundays league title showdown.I can barely think about it without getting butterflies and I can't put into words just how much it would mean to me to see the league flag returned to it's rightful home for a world record 52nd time.

Ok,thanks for reading.Back soon...

Running Goot

I wasn't out too late on Monday night as I hate leaving Nacho for long after he's been left all day.Having said that, my neighbour has been taking him into her place sometimes to play with her sisters dog which is great.

I fired up four $16's on my return,won two and cashed in another for a decent wee profit.Last night the s-man was over and after he left I hit the Party tables and had another short but successful stint at the $22's.I've actually won three from my last six games there and cashed in the others.In my last $22 of the evening in particular, hands held up and I seemed to hit the board hard whenever I entered a pot.I just hope this mini-heater lasts as long as my recent variance nightmare in the other direction.

I mentioned trying to live a more balanced life in my last post and there's no doubt that bringing a little less intensity to the tables is helping my game.Letting poker affect my mood or invade my thoughts too much just isn't healthy especially when going through a rough time at the tables.

I've also cashed out $1k from Party to cover the cost of my Amsterdam trip next month.This leaves me only aprox $2.5k online and this probably as low as my online roll has been in a while.It's still well within my comfort zone for the games I play and as the pound seems to be gaining on the Dollar it's probably as good a time as any to not leave too many US Dollars online.

Tonights plan is to hit the tables, watch The Apprentice and get a reasonably early night.

Back soon..

Monday update

I've been playing so much Motorstorm Pacific Rift recently that when I saw a truck with it's back down this morning I nearly tried to use it to jump the upcoming roadworks.The S-man and I even tried playing it online on Sat night, but our reputation as top racers must have scared off the competition.( or the 10 yr old ps3 superstars were all in their beds as it was past 9pm!)

I gave Step A a lift to her Dads on Friday and it seems the ex Mrs A is telling me she's moving down South this summer and telling Step A and her Dad that it will be next year.Either way I get on fine with Step A's Dad and have agreed to let Nacho go there every couple of weekends so Step A can see him.He also said that as Step A is 14 ( can legally decide for herself) and wants to stay with him,that I'd be welcome to spend time with her as I've known her since she was 5 and have been good to her.It's horrible for Step A to have to decide ( assuming the ex is on the move) but I hope she does stay locally and we stay in touch.

To the poker and after some cashless sng's I ran well at Party and managed a couple of wins yesterday.I fired up the Brit Blogger next and finished in the middle of the pack after bluffing off my stack with AQ.After raising when it folded to me,the flop came with two kings,I led out,got called and reckoned I could make my opponent fold an Ace or a medium pair type hand when a 7 came on the turn.He made a donkey call with 77.I could have had quad Kings afterall.....Congrats to Aposec72 who took it down.

I hit the $16's ( 18 player) on Stars afterwards and could not seem to win a hand.Shoving AQ and being outdrawn by A10 on the bubble of one game summed it up and only winning the last game of the night saved it from being a complete nightmare.I now have just over 10 buy-ins left ( for $16's) on Stars and will stick at it until I build that back up or bust it.I actually prefer the 9 man $22's on Party but I'm a stubborn git and determined I can go back to raking it in at the $16's if only they would flick my doomswitch off.

Seeing the new lady in my life tonight and don't plan on hitting the felt.Back later in the week...

More Balance

I was out for a lovely dinner on Friday night and it ended up being a late one.Yesterday I was at Ibrox to see Rangers beat the sheep 2-1 which gained us 3 points but didn't feel good enough as I was sure our rivals would win today.Just finished avoiding the end of their game and they only managed a 0-0 draw.We are now two points clear with 1 game to go and are 1 goal down on goal difference.We haven't beaten Dundee Utd away from home for a few years but this is our chance to be champions and bring the league flag home.Just do it Rangers!

I hit the tables for a while later yesterday and after bubbling three $16's ( 18 player) in a row I managed a few 3rd places for a small profit.The s-man came over and we had a fine night smoking top herb,playing Motorstorm and watching yet another Brando like performance from Mr Segal in Renegade Justice.I did play two $22's on Party afterwards and didn't cash in either.In fact I've no idea what my exits hands were.

My poker focus seems to have lessened for the moment which I think is probably a good thing.I've also actually been enjoying the games I've been playing far more than usual despite not exactly raking in the profits.I have run more badly than I've ever done before over the last few months and I think it's time I began to think less about results and more about concentrating harder and playing better poker.

I've also booked up a 3 day stay in Amsterdam with Two Pies for next month.Roll on!

Ok,my brain feels like mush today.Don't forget to play in tonights Brit Bloggerment on Full Tilt.Come and see Rubbish defend his title!

RIP Elaine

I'd written the paragraphs below about the football and about that AQ hand before I checked out my favourite blogs this morning on bloglines.Most are poker blogs, but I've also found myself drawn to a few blogs I never expected to get hooked on and Elaine's blog over at oldageisabitch has always been one of my first reads of the day since '07.We never swapped links and I only left the occasional comment, but her personality,humour and sunny outlook shone through her posts no matter how badly her health problems were affecting her.

Sadly Elaine has not been well recently and I logged on this morning to read a post from her sister to say that Elaine had passed away peacefully yesterday aged 67.
It's a strange medium this interweb thing at times.Sitting here with a wee tear in my eye for someone I never knew but felt a connection with simply through reading their daily posts just goes to show the strength of her writing style and content.Apart from being Scottish and having a love of Christopher Brookmyre books we probably had little in common, however I thoroughly enjoyed reading about her love for her family,daily life stuff and the small things like the content of her latest veg box or who was being stroppy at the bridge club.My sincere condolences go to all her family and friends.The blogging world will be an emptier place from now on.



Watching sport is supposed to be an enjoyable hobby but I felt sick with nerves watching Rangers last night.We managed to come back from 1-0 down to draw 1-1 with Hibs thanks to Nacho Novo's equaliser.We also had good goal ruled out because the ref said the ball hadn't fully crossed the line.Very frustrating and it leaves us even on points, but two goals behind our rivals on goal difference with two games to play.

This is a hand from the bubble of a $16,18 player turbo which has been bugging me ever since I played it.I've not run it through any Sng software, but I'd be interested in any comments on my fold as on reflection I think I should have called.The bigstack was quite loose/aggressive and had been exploiting the bubble ( rightly!) with quite a few recent preflop raises.I felt weaker Aces were a huge part of his range and the fact that he had only raised 3600 felt weak too as my guess would be that he would fold to shove from the 8k stack but get it in with the rest of us.It was close and I folded as I didn't want to be a pot with Ace high v two live cards on the bubble and I always want to be the raiser not the caller where possible in bubble situations.( though there is an art to calling lighter v regulars on occasion for meta-game reasons).



Anyways my night at the $16's wasn't the best.KK v QQ and QQ v 77 are not coinflips for most folk, but they feel that way at the moment for me as those were my first two exit hands.I then donked out of another game on the bubble and didn't cash until I won the last game I played which left me just a few $ down.

I did have a wee funny moment at a Party $22 the other night.A regular had typed "nh" after my Kings amazingly held up v his medium pair.I rarely chat but typed "ty",hit the enter tab and inadvertently min raised A3o/s! The reg shoved over his last few hundred chips,someone else called and I bet out and won on an Ace high flop.Lucky misclickaments for once.

Ok,thanks for reading.Back soon..

Poker Post..

Monday night was enjoyable and last night I was out for dinner with my parents before hitting the ps3 with the S-man later for a fine session.On the football front our rivals won last night which means we need to win tonight to stay two points clear with two games to go.Squeaky bum time!

I've played far less poker over the last few weeks than I usually do and as a result I've felt a lot more focused when I do play.Playing turbo sng's using the same set formula of ultra tight early and highly aggressive when the blinds go up doesn't really involve a lot of thinking and often I find myself ( even when 3 tabling) watching tv/surfing the net and only paying attention when it's push/fold time.

Having said that, I still don't seem to play my best game when I've got over 3 or 4 tables open and I think this comes down to missing the game flow aspect of when to push/fold.By that I mean that it may be ev+ ( positive expected value) to shove any two cards from the button or cut off when the blinds are high, but I like to know how often I've done that recently in the game,how the players behind are likely to react, and how my shoves affect my table image for future moves.It's also very easy to look at a players actions early on and make my mind up quickly if they are decent or not, but I have to actually be looking in the first place to gain that info.

Amatay posted about enjoying the game and I recently mentioned a Bluff magazine feature where they wrote about how playing just 150 sngs per month was mind warping.( in terms of variance and swings).There's no way I've gained any pleasure from playing over the last couple of months.Working hard during the day and then sitting down night after night and being outdrawn is a horrible soul sucking experience and about as enjoyable as I imagine sucking the farts from dead seagulls to be.

Phrases like "Money doesn't grown on trees" and "there's no such thing as a free lunch" ring true for me in life and I suppose part of the reason I keep playing is because I don't naturally expect profits to flow easily.Money doesn't come easily in any other walk of life so why should poker be any different? Even winning $1k months ( oh for one of them again soon!) are still a tough minefield of variance and swings.

I can beat the game.Variance in poker is part of the game,downswings happen, and it will turn around.It is very frustrating to go from making a decent ( for low stakes,low-ish volume) monthly profit to making very little or having a losing month.So far this month I'm about even which means I've made aprox $80 over the last 2 1/2 months! I'd have made more going round with a bucket offering to wash neighbours cars.

If I make $2 per game with a 10% roi at $22's I'd rather simply see $2 added to my roll after every game regardless of my finishing position.I do try and see it that way but the swings/variance are what make it so tough to deal with mentally as there's no fairness in poker and doing the right thing so often doesn't mean right outcome will follow.

Ok,thanks for reading.Back soon...

Segal back on form...

Yesterday was tough.I picked up Step A as usual to give her a lift home from her Dads and the first thing she asked was "Where's Nacho?".I had to explain that her Mum had asked me to have him fulltime as they were moving in the summer.Step A said she was told any move was next year and tears followed.( I held mine until I'd dropped her off!)

I gave her a note with all my contact numbers/email and told her she could call me anytime 24/7 and that she could see Nacho anytime she wanted.The ex has been quite dismissive saying that Step A doesn't bother with the dog, but she's a teenager and I remember not walking/moaning about feeding our family dog Kim when I was her age and I loved that dog to bits.I'm seeing my date tonight, but may call the ex Mrs A and ask if I can take Step A to my Mum and Dads tomorrow night.

On the good news front the girl next door has offered to take Nacho out with her sisters dog who she looks after Mon-Fri and I'm also extremely grateful to WeeGem for his kind offer in yesterdays comments.( Great pics too,Lucky looks just like my old dog Kim) Hopefully Step A's Dad ( Nacho has stayed there when the ex and I went on holiday) will be an option too whenever I go away or want a night out.

It was great to catch up with some old( very old in Dudleys case as he's 142 yrs old) friends too this weekend.The S-man and I enjoyed Segal's "Pistol Whipped" ** and a fine Fear 2 session on Saturday night.Heard from The Big Chap,the San Jose Salmon,Bullmeister the happy claret and Dudley in the Bloggy chatbox!

** a fine return to form!

To the poker at last and congrats to Rubbish on taking down the Brit Blogger game last night on Full Tilt.Nice to see a British winner! I enjoyed the game despite making a donkey call with AJ v AK and crashing out eventually when fours hit a set v my tens.

I played some more $16's at Stars and didn't have a good session with only a couple of cashes preventing it being a total nightmare.Not much to write about really as I find it hard to get excited about winning or losing $100-$200 over one sitting as that's just how sng variance works.I will say that although the beats came thick and fast,playing less recently and feeling fresher did help me brush them off more easily.

Ok,thanks for reading.Back soon...

The Times They Are A-Changing..

Well Rangers did the business today and put the Forces of Darkness to the sword at a rainswept Ibrox.The 1-0 scoreline leaves us 2 points ahead with 3 games to play.It's going to be nervy as hell but I'd rather be in our position than theirs.

I hadn't intended posting today but I thought I'd post about the shock I got when I picked Nacho up from the ex Mrs A's.I had called her workplace a month or so back ( Chinese takeaway) to ask if the dog had been fed.She put me on hold,not recognising my mobile number and I heard her being all lovey dovey on the other line.Now that in itself didn't bother me much, but today she announced she is moving down South and asked if I would take Nacho full-time from now on.She said she has been seeing someone since last year and I have to say I did find it amusing that she's so in love with her new man that she couldn't resist the Acorn sausage back in December!

It's easy in life to always want what you can't have but when I really thought about it I realised that I'd stopped loving the ex Mrs A long before we split up.I thought that when we split and although sleeping together before Xmas brought back some of the feelings from when we first met, I think it just muddied waters which didn't need muddying.This was why I was able to jump into another ( doomed) relationship quite quickly after I moved back in Sept '07.

Step A is moving with her and this probably means I wont see very much of her at all which certainly hurts.According to the ex, Step A is playing truant from school a lot and is generally behaving poorly.The ex seems to think a move down South to live with her new man will do Step A good, but my feelings are the exact opposite.I hope I'm proved wrong on that one because as far as I'm concerned Step A is a good kid who just needs lots of love and support.( and proper discipline when reqd!)She's a teenager and teens are meant to be selfish,unruly etc etc.

Anyways I agreed to take Nacho full time.It's not ideal as I hate leaving him in my flat when I go to work, but as the alternative may be the ex handing him into a cat and dog home I have no choice.My Mum has said she will take him on occasional evenings ( when I'm at football etc) and I suppose there's always kennels when I go on holiday.At least it saves me from having to drop him off and pick him up from the ex's.She has been full time at college over the last year so it's not as if being left will be new to him.One of my neighbours may even agree to let him out during the day.

This is a poker and life blog so I'm not going to apologise from straying away from posting bad beats! I did play last night and won at Party and crashed out of a few of the old 18 player $16 games I used to play all the time on Stars.

It's feels like cheating as I've always used Sharkscope as my guide but they have missed 3 Party $22 wins from my stats ( I even emailed them the tourney numbers to no avail) and including those wins I'm running at about 10% roi over 655 games.It's only a tiny sample but hopefully now I'm back in profit at Party I can stay ahead of the game there.

Ok,that's enough for today.Don't forget to play in tomorrows Britbloggerment...

Smart Move

Two evenings have now passed without me playing a hand of poker.This must mean I'm either ill or have been busy dating.Thankfully I don't require medical attention! Very early days on the dating front though and I don't intend posting any details here.

I will mention that the s-man popped round before his sewing class ( he says it's some martial art thing called Krav but I reckon he's a black belt cross-stitcher) to borrow a pair of tracky bottoms and I kept him at the door,telling him I had a visitor in. Five minutes later I get a text saying "Acorn looking smart-can only be a lady".Cheeky bassa.I'm cutting edge trendy when it comes to kitting myself out.I wear classic trainers such as the legendary Hi-tec Silver Shadows and Adidas Samba's and always wear white socks with trainers and dark ones with normal shoes.Perhaps I am guilty of thinking I'm getting the latest designer gear whenever I cash in frequent player points for Pokerstars T-shirts though....

The plan for tonight is to hit the tables and try and get a reasonably early night as I'm up early ( for a weekend) to go to Ibrox for the big game at 12.30 between Rangers and our hated rivals.We're one point behind with 4 games to go and it's pretty much a must win game if we're going to bring the league championship back home.No predictions and as always in these games I'm not greedy and would happily settle for a scrappy 8-0 win....

Back soon...

Donkey Punch

I thoroughly enjoyed the bank holiday on Monday.The s-man was over and after pizza and getting stuck into Motor Storm ( on ps3) we watched the movie "Donkey Punch" which was excellent in a disturbing kind of way.When the s-man hit the road I fired up a couple of $22's on Party and cashed in both.

Last night I stopped off on the way home to pick up a couple of tasty pasta dishes from the local Italian place and after watching the football I fired up some $11 sngs on Full Tilt.After playing $16's and $22's for so long it's actually quite tough adjusting to the added donkery at the $11 level.When I raise from the button with QQ and get reraised after c-betting an 8 8 10 flop I can give my opponents credit for the 10 but 78 o/s surprised me a little! My overall roll means I don't need to be playing $11's ,but as I only had less than $200 on FT I thought I'd be sensible about my bankroll management there.

I'll be playing $3 sng's on there soon at this rate after playing about 10 games without cashing in any of them.No boring beats.I simply ran poorly and probably didn't adjust well enough to the players or the blinds structure.( which differs from Party and Stars)

It's an ego thing really as I hate to think there's a site I can't seem to win on.Stuff the ego,it's back to Party for me!

On another note when are poker sites going upgrade and allow players to use voice commands to play instead of the current key mashing which does so much damage to wrists and fingers? Surely it can't be too difficult to instigate? "Raise all in table 3" etc.Maybe one day..

More pasta,poker,football and The Apprentice on the menu tonight.

Back soon...

Why People make stupid calls..

....because they're stupid and can't help themselves!

I enjoyed my trip down to York for my cousins wedding at the weekend.It was great to catch up with that side of the family and everything went smoothly for the most part.( taking the scenic route home yesterday to Glasgow via Edinburgh and missing the Gers game wasn't planned though!)

York is a beautiful city and I just wish I could have stayed a bit longer and taken some more time to look around.( and eaten more roast beef n yorkie pud)

On arriving back at the hotel just after midnight on Saturday I rolled up a couple and decided to watch some tele before bed.Being pretty much a non-drinker most of the time I was well blootered on the 8 ( ok maybe 6!) beers I'd drunk earlier and ended up watching "Quiz Call" on ch5.As a former salesman I have to confess I actually like watching QVC and stuff like that sometimes and Quiz Call caught my eye too as it made me realise just how sad and stupid some people really are.

They show a letters grid on the screen and contestants have find the word that comes after the word the hostess gives.In this case the word was "water" and the grid contained answers like proof,falls etc.The hostess encourages the stupid and gullible to call the rip off premium number to get the chance to go on air and win about £150.The screen also displays the number people who entered over the previous minute.

In effect this means there are around 400 people hanging on at £1 per minute and roughly one a minute actually getting on air.The best bit was when the hostess introduced the birthday jackpot which meant that if you got the first answer correct,she spun two wheels and if they landed on the birthdate the contestant gave,they won far more money.There's more chance of me running well at the tables than of that happening!Oh and the other good bit was that the obvious answers such as "proof" and "falls" were wrong and some of the right ones included "bag" and "dog"!! Where's my water bag?! Even the hostess seemed surprised by that one.

Ok,so to recap, first you have to be selected from 400 others and then you have to guess some obscure nonsense answer.After that, to get a top prize, the two wheels of fortune have to land on the exact date you nominate.I felt sorry for poor Martin from Manchester who guessed "melon" but spelled it "mellon".Hehe.I imagine there's plenty of Martins online calling off their stacks with Q2 soooted simply because although they have a basic understanding of the game,they are just not very bright at all.( to be fair most of the contestants sounded thick as pigshit)

Anyways after hanging on the phone for 45 mins I gave up and went to bed.( that's a feckin' joke btw!)

On the poker front I donked out the Bloggerment in 13th when my AJ couldn't beat 88 ( 8 on the flop made sure of that) and decided to take a step down from the $22's and play some $11 games on FT.I was 3-4 tabling and once again struggled to win a race or even get any big hands to hold.( Aces losing to 66 on the bubble of one game summed it up).I did manage to win a few though and got back to around even by the time I hit the sack.

Off to pick Nacho up soon ( I was too hungover yesterday to move when I got home!)and the s-man is coming over later for some Motorstorm/Fear 2 action.Should be seeing a man about a particulary tasty dog ( skuff this time!) too.

Thanks for reading.Back soon...