Waiting for the Worms

"Same old celtc,always cheating" as the song goes and after making such a fuss about Eduardo's penalty winning fall against Arsenal during the week,I find it highly amusing that their overrated one trick pony Mcgeady has just been sent off for diving in their game v Hibs.Will there be quotes from the SFA chief exec,a Uefa investigation and blanket media coverage all week in Scotland? Hmmmm.

I bet they wish they'd never opened one of these...




On the poker front an Sngicons training vid inspired me to play a few 45/180 $12 games on Friday night and I managed to grab 2nd place in a 45 player game to help boost my tiny Stars bankroll a bit.Over at Party I've had a decent month so far although I did end last nights play ( a few late games after the s-man left) with two frustrating bubble finishes.

Pud posted a few top links this week and one post title in particular, "The perils of emulating your own success" caught my eye.( aswell as the excellent Phil Galfond article)

I haven't added up my monthly totals, but as I approach the last two months of my 5th year of online poker play ( I played my first real money game on Oct 31st '04)I'm pretty sure I'm way behind on matching last years $15k profits.Those profits included a $4.2k Mtt cash and I've barely played a handful of Mtt's over the last ten months.I think in truth that I allowed my poker ego to think I'd made some kind of a breakthrough with last years profits and that in reality it was always going to be tough to get close to that mark again.

That reality may not be good for the ego, but at the end of the day I'm a part-time hobby player and simply don't need to worry about beating some previous stat or making more one month than another.Perhaps it comes down to being competitive.When playing Motorstorm Pacific Rift on Time Attack mode I'm always desperate to complete the perfect lap and beat the previous time set even if it was me that set it.( usually the case when the s-man and I play) Of course being rather fond of money also helps drive me on, but pushing too hard at times( 12 tabling comes to mind) trying to emulate previous success has probably hindered me at times during '09.

I've realised too that no matter how well I'm playing or how much of an edge I feel I have, that the nature of sng variance means that there is no escaping long breakeven/downswings of hundreds and sometimes thousands of games.When only playing a couple of hundred or so games per month that can make life at the tables seem like hell at times.Thankfully I've only recorded one losing month over the last 10 months and I do feel I've become a far better at the 9 player stt's which have now become my main game over the last 12 months or so.

Righty time to go and pick Step A and Nacho up.( Nach was staying with Step A at her Dads last night) I had to laugh at the wee one's attempts to be cool in front of her friends when I collected her yesterday,greeting me with "Sup Son" as I opened the car door.She told me the latest date her Mum has given for moving down South ( and leaving Step A to stay with her Dad) is the end of Sept.She was leaving "in a few weeks" back in May and hopefully for Step A's sake the move never happens as fucking off down South and leaving your 15yr old daughter behind is just selfish beyond belief.

On a happier note it looks like I'm finally meeting up with Hot Chick this week.She's assured me she's not always this busy and after getting on well by phone and text I'm looking forward to seeing if we click in person.

Back soon...

Decisions Not Results!

Ahhh Friday at last.My Ipod is now loaded with tunes,plays through my car stereo and I've even downloaded my first podcast from Hard Boiled Poker ( some great stories from the 1976 WSOP) and listened to it whilst walking round Glasgow at lunchtime yesterday.Of course my much loved work colleagues just had to pinch it out of my pocket and leave me sweating for hours thinking I'd dropped it.

I still haven't played much poker this week although I did get a further insight into the mind of a less than stellar player ( as it's my Mum I'm referring to I'll refrain from calling her a fish!) when I helped my Mum to a 3rd and a 1st in two $6.50's yesterday.Despite all I've told her in the past she still wants to limp behind or raise hands like QJ from early position.Folding AJ from under the gun early in the game seemed completely shocking to my poor Mother who nearly fell off her seat and gleefully pointed out that folding was wrong because a Jack came on the flop.It's about correct decisions not results! Grrr!

I explained about dominated hands and pointed out that folding crap hands allowed us to still be in the game to catch some decent cards later on and take down one of the games we played.

In our winning game one player was sitting out on the bubble and my Mum lacked any sense of knowing how to play the remaining stacks off against each other.For example once we'd made a couple of moves and built a reasonable chip lead another player raised preflop.We were in the small blind and the big blind was sitting out with almost zero chips left.Simple stuff like shoving all in and forcing the preflop raiser to fold or play for his tourney life when he is almost guaranteed to make the money didn't even cross my Mum's mind.

To be fair ( obv checked Sharkscope afterwards and not ingame) even most of the winning players at the table still had huge leaks in their games.It just makes it all the more frustrating that my Mum can't make a few basic adjustments and start beating the game.

Back after the weekend...

Notta lotta Poka

I've taken a break from the virtual felt over the last couple of nights as I believe taking regular breaks helps keep me sane in the face of the wild swings and variance which are part of the game for any sng player.( I did play and cash in a couple of $22's on Sat night)

The trip down South went well on Sunday and we enjoyed a fine roast dinner for my uncles 60th followed by a few games of pool.I was also constantly checking my mobile for the update on the Ger's score and was delighted that we came back from 1-0 down with 10 men to win 2-1.That's why we're Champions!

I spoke to Hot Chick on the phone for the first time last night and we're going to meet up for lunch later this week/early next week.The call went well apart from when she said I spoke well and I tried to repay the compliment,nearly said she sounded posh, and then botched the rescue attempt by telling her she sounded like a news reader! Ahhh no wonder I'm using dating sites with chat like that...

In other exciting news ( not read by Hot Chick I hasten to add) I'm close to buying an Ipod Nano thingy to replace my gubbed car cd player.I would have preferred a Sony Walkman cassette player but no doubt I'll be ripping,burning with listening to far more podcasts very shortly....

Hmmm, what has got on my tits this week? Well I buy The Sun everyday to read on my ten minute morning break,mainly because I like the sport,the Striker cartoon and obviously Deirdrie's photo casebook.I don't pay much attention to the rest of it and get my news from The Times,Guardian,Mail online etc.I did happen to flick through The Sun though and caught the tragic story about Eastenders actress Samantha Janus's father being found hanged in his flat.Maybe it's just me but why the hell did The Sun not just use a standard publicity shot of her for the story instead of a pic of an obviously distraught and upset Ms Janus entering her fathers flat to clear out his belongings.Disgraceful.

Far more trivial but also annoying me this week are the police dog handlers on those "Cops with Camera's" type shows who give the dog some work to do and then say they have to give Fido a break in case the dog suffers from "nose fatigue".I'll need to bear that in mind when taking Nacho out.Nose fatique eh.Do I smell shite? Yes I do!

Ok,thanks for reading.Good luck to Arsenal in the 2nd leg of their Champions league game v celtc.If they beat Everton 6-1 at home recently surely 9 or 10-0 isn't too much to ask...

Pandaemonium

After forking out for a new alternator and battery the other week I noticed the battery light was still comimg on.Cost me another £100 to get the smart charge wire sorted and get a cat converter bracket fixed.I seem to run bad when it comes to cars as I bought a Blues compilation yesterday,popped it in my car's cd player and now the cd player is gubbed.If it's not one thing...

I've accepted my sisters offer to do the driving tomorrow.We're heading down South to Lancashire for my Uncles 60th Birthday lunch.Two Pies will be popping round to my place to watch the Gers game and keep an eye on Nacho in the afternoon and when I get back I've arranged to give the hot chick I mentioned in my last post a call to see how we get on.( we've exchanged a few emails n texts)

On the poker front I ran like crap at Party last night and compounded that by playing like a donk too at times.It was a frustrating night.Everytime the game reached the bubble stage it didn't matter how short the small stacks were,they always doubled through.Even when two big stacks went to war with Aces v AK they both split the pot with the board showing 3 10 J Q K.I can't complain too much as I've had a good run at Party recently making nearly $800 over my last 200 games and nearly $1300 over the last 500 I've played there.

I do think there's some adjustment required when playing at the weekends as the fish v regulars quota seems to increase greatly and in the wee small hours the games seem to attract the tilty ( probably drunken) gambling types who used to pad my roll at the Ladbrokes cash tables.One minor change I make is to raise 4bb preflop in the early stages instead of 3bb.I used to always make it 4bb at the Stars $16 ,18 player games and gradually moved to 3bb as I got used to the Party single table games, but it's horses for courses and none of my plays are set in stone.

Ok,thanks for reading todays witterings.I'm off to read some more of Christopher Brookmyres new book "Pandaemonium",play a few sngs and await the s-mans arrival for a night of Motorstorm online nonsense.

Back soon..

Baby Eater

"Online Poker mmm !!!! My mum said you should never trust a gambler !" was the reply I got from one hot looking babe who made the mistake of asking about my hobbies on the dating site I'm on.Telling her I eat babies and like to kick the crutches away from old people may have given a better impression.Maybe I should send her a link to my Sharkscope stats or my blog....

Actually the blog issue does worry me a little when it comes to future love interests. "Here's a link to check out if you want to read about my life + poker over the last 4 years" doesn't trip off the tongue ( or keyboard) easily.We choose the info we wish to reveal to new partners and having blogged about everything from splits with ex's to what an asshole I can be, I'm not sure how I'll play it should it arise.I detest dishonesty/deceit in relationships and perhaps if the blog starts to feel like some kind of dirty secret then it's time to stop.

On the subject of dirty secrets, and admitting this is probably grounds for blog deletion,I'm a confirmed hater of the celeb/OMG look at me culture we now live in...but have to confess to watching quite a bit of Big Brother this year whilst playing poker.( the poker part makes it far more acceptable than watching it on it's own!) They seem to have a few less weirdo's in this year and the interaction between them is certainly an improvement on the snoozefest the last few years have been.Bea is the most self-obsessed annoying cow I've seen on tv for a while and I'm torn between wanting her out this week ( she's up for eviction) and enjoying watching her antics wind up the other housemates.

Now that I've wrestled the keyboard back from the alien who typed the above paragraph I suppose I should try and squeeze a bit of poker into this post.Not much to report other than I've noticed previously when I played my first games of the night that I tried to play too much poker.By that I mean getting involved needlessly in hands and trying to force the action too much.Now I feel I've slipped into the opposite mode and play my first few sngs' too passively.Having the ( probably incorrect) feeling that I always seem to lose the first big hand/race of every session doesn't help but maybe I should start with a few lower buy-in games to get in the zone a little before hitting the $22's.

Back soon...

PLO + JaffacakesJane

I began my weekend at the felt by cashing in a $1 Double or Nothing PLO game and winning a $5 PLO turbo sng on Stars.I should have taken that tiny profit and run as I broke even over the ton of $16's/$27's I played until I hit the sack at 3am.

On Saturday afternoon I was in my seat early ( I usually turn up 2 mins before kick-off) to see the League Flag unfurled and to watch us begin our title defence with a comfortable 4-1 win over Falkirk.I also enjoyed watching Arsenal destroy Everton 6-1 on Sunday and can only hope they carry that form into tonights game and rip celtc apart.( preferably 3-0,3-1,4-0,4-1,5-0 or 5-1 as I've a few £ riding on it now)

Back to the poker and I'm still having a decent run at the Party $22's.I have over 4000 hands on some players at that limit and I suppose that despite my low volume I'm probably considered one of the regulars.

Away from the felt I've been persuaded to give the online dating scene a try.Hmmm!

I can assure anyone thinking of trying it that contrary to popular belief there are some honest profiles out there.For example, one glance at "Jaffacakes Jane" profile photo really does reflect the fact that the girl loves her biscuits...

I did screw up on my own profile by stating that I looked after my dog full-time ( made sense to me as I had him part-time previously) which probably gave the impression I sat at home all day with the dog on my lap watching Loose Women and Bargain Hunt.Since I changed that small detail I've had quite a few "winks" + emails and have replied to a few.

I'm probably too honest for my own good though as it only seemed honourable to be in contact with one lady at a time and I've now worked out that everyone else seems to have a few prospects on the go.Perhaps I got lucky previously, meeting someone I only knew online ( not dating site related) and finding enough sparks to start a fire in a foam factory, but I'll give this a go and see where it takes me.

Ok,thanks for reading.Back soon...

Waiting for the Man

I was waiting for the man last night before heading out for a fine pub dinner.I popped into my Mums later and helped give her poker account a wee boost by winning a couple of $6 and $16 turbs later before heading up the road.I did have fun at one $16table the other night when some poor fishy insulted me in the chat box because I'd stolen his big blind several times in a row on the bubble.( he should trying playing a Raisetheriver league game with Amatay on his right!).

The top 4 pay in $16 ,18 player turbs and the stack sizes were ideal for stealing so it was nothing personal.( obv) It was folded to me again in the small blind and I happily shoved my A9 only for the daft fish in the big blind to snap call with J7 despite the button player having about 100 chips left.My A9 held and I enjoyed a wee " ooops lol" at fishboys expense in the chat.Ahh the fun n games...

Speaking of which, I'm just back from the local Tesco where I managed to get involved in an argument with a stupid ned/chav bitch who was giving abuse to the checkout girl simply for asking to see some ID as the Ned Bitch was buying vodka.Pointing her finger in the girls face and shouting about how she should be "fuckin' sacked" after the checkout girl tried to lighten the mood by saying she was new and would probably get fired was bang out of order as was the reaction of the shop manager who apologised to Ned girl for the ID request.

Advising the checkout girl that Ned Bitch had probably never done a days hard work in her life and should learn some manners prompted Ned Bitch to start on me which is never a good idea when I'm tired,hungry and on my way home from another week dealing with complaints! As I left after giving as good as got I had other shoppers congratulating me on my stance and offering themselves as witnesses if I wanted to report Ned Bitch for threatening behaviour.I've heard worse in the Stars chat box...

Not much planned for the weekend.The s-man is coming over tonight and I'll be at Ibrox tomorrow to watch Rangers unfurl the League Championship Flag for the 52nd time.

Mr Origami mentioned football providing good material for rants/posts and I'll finish this post by mentioning the MOPE's ( Most Offended People Ever) celtc fans who called Ofcom ( tv/radio watchdog) to complain that a Rangers fan had called Scott Brown ( a thick as mince celtc player)a "lego eater" on one of the football phone-in's.It really doesn't get much more pathetic than that.

Back soon...

Wed Update

I do sometimes feel like this blogging lark has run it's course for me.There seems to be only so much I can write about my ventures at the virtual felt or my exciting ( !) life at home with Nacho.I've never claimed to be a writer of any sort and I suppose during my less inspired times this space reverts back to being a personal diary written for my own reference and records.I've also discovered that it's hard to predict sometimes what type of post will grab peoples interest.

In sales there's a saying that "people buy from people" and to a large extent I think that's true with blogging.I usually write these posts by starting with 4-5 bullet points and then just see where they take me,usually dropping one or two as being crap or because I've rambled on enough.Sometimes the bullet points look quite interesting and I just get too lazy when actually writing up the blog post to expand on them properly and make them worthwhile reading.I suppose writing on my breaks at work doesn't help in that regard.

As I've played more and more sng's and grown more used to the swings involved it becomes tougher to write passionately about each particular winning or losing session.In general losing/running badly seems to help as I can keep looking at my game/mental state and try and use this space to let off some steam.When running well I don't want to come across as running my mouth off and lets face it, posting hands showing where I feel I made a good play/read are probably as boring as bad beat moans.

Last night for I played some more $16's on Stars and couldn't hit a cows backside with a banjo.After a quick post on RTR and getting a bit of fresh air with the dog I calmed down and all the two outers and nasty river cards I was going to angrily blog about just didn't seem to matter.I'm down $488 over my last 500 games on Stars but even that shitty run would only require a small heater to overturn and besides I'm well aware 500 games means virtually nothing.( equally I've made $$ at Party over the last 500 which is just as meaningless a sample size)

Back soon...

Motoring..

The S-man was over on Sat night and brought the excellent Clint Eastwood film "Gran Torino" with him.Sharp dialogue,a fine looking cast and the film wasn't bad either....

After the s-man hit the road I fired up some $16 18 player turbo's on Stars,eight tabled for a couple of hours and finished down about $100.As there are 14 players and usually two tables to negotiate before cashing, I think the 18 player games are slightly tougher emotionally than the 9 player games I've been playing at Party.I think I prefer cashing for a smaller win more often at the 9 player games as opposed to going on longer cashless stretches but winning more when I do get in the money at the multi-table sngs.This is maybe why I've never really given the 45/180 player turbo's much of a try despite their reputation as gold mines.

On Sunday evening I enjoyed playing in the final RaisetheRiver league game of this series.The prize was a trip to Paris and congrats to Snakeeyes on taking it down.I usually run terribly in blogger games and last night was no exception as I shoved the hammer ( 72) from the small blind into 88 and didn't hold up...

I enjoyed my day off yesterday,only played a few $22's at Party and had another winning session there,continuing my decent start to the month.Looking back over recent weeks I think playing in Dr Pauly's PLO game and cashing in 6th from 48 helped give my poker confidence a massive boost.I'm sure I got lucky to make that cash and as mentioned I was pretty dang clueless when it came to hand values, but I did feel in control when it came to stuff like game flow,stack sizes,blind levels,reading weakness and strength etc.

I'm trying to learn to always have that confidence in my game.I still find it hard to look at hands posted in forums and come to a conclusion as to what I would do as there are just so many factors you cannot possibly know without actually being in the hand.I only occasionally use sng power tools to check hand ranges/tough spots and I don't have sng whizz or spend very long reviewing my games.Maybe I should!

Ok,thanks for reading.Back soon..

The Gambler

I may be 37 now but one of the younger girls at work ( 24) assured me that I'm still young....when compared to "really,really old people".I was disappointed too that despite dropping subtle hints like "I'm going for my break,now would be a good time to start a birthday collection" that my colleagues haven't got round to buying a calculator big enough to handle totalling up all the £20 notes I'm sure have been donated...

Wearing my ( height of fashion in Milan at the moment) Stars t-shirt also prompted an interesting chat with another colleague.I confirmed that yes I do play poker and actually make decent hobby money out of it.She asked how much I'd made and when I gave her last years net profit figure ( $15k) she replied,"Ahh but how much did you lose though?" My explanation about how I play other players, not the house and how over the long term poker skills will triumph over short-term luck were met by a disbelieving smirk.

It's probably a belief shared by some players too.One loose fishy at a $22 last night asked a nitty regular if he was "tightening up until the gambling starts later" which gave me a laugh.I realise the fish meant that with high blinds compared to stack sizes players will be shoving/calling far wider than early in the game and this can give the appearance of it simply being about luck.Obviously in the short-term it's a big factor, but there's no doubting there's a decent amount of skill required to be able to put other players on correct ranges and to be push/folding as optimally as possible.

I had a decent night at the felt last night mainly 2-3 tabling the $22's and finishing off with a $33 which I took down.( 15 games in total) I was also watching "Family guy",a re-run of that BBC show "Survivors" and some "South Park" too.

On the football front I was interested to see Arsenal drawn against celtc in the Champions League Qualifier.The tv money paid to English teams means there's no way Scottish football in general can compete with the EPL in the transfer market and I hope this is reflected in a record breaking and humiliating defeat for the mutants across the city.Come on you Gooners!

Thanks for reading and thanks especially to those who wished me a happy birthday in the comments box and elsewhere.

Back soon..

RIP Benson Da Feeesh

I read today that the British angling community is in mourning after the death of a legendary giant carp called "Benson".Apparently she was caught around sixty times during her fishy life.I loved the quote from one fisherman, "I think she liked having her picture taken".How the fuck did he come to that conclusion?! Perhaps her "smile" may have been slightly forced due to the large hook that was no doubt protruding from her mouth at the time.The good news is that there are still plenty of huge fish at the Party $22's just waiting to replace Benson....

The other big news of the week is that the s-man finally won an online Motorstorm Pacific Rift race, although rumours that his fellow competitors were too busy laughing at the s-man slamming into yet another "tree of death" to race properly are as yet unconfirmed.

I've not played much poker this week, although I did get annoyed with Stars stopping a small money transfer to my account from another player due to an "age verification" issue.Considering I've been playing and cashing out from Stars over a few years now the request seemed silly enough, but even if they had a valid security reason I don't know why they couldn't just have put the transfer on hold instead of declining it altogether.

In the few games I have played I've either run horribly or run hot.Instead I've been playing ps3 games and watching fine movies like the new Seagal film "Driven to Kill" in which Stevie boy plays a Russian gangster type who administers his own brand of justice.( a staple of the Stevie boy franchise)

Not much else going on.I turned 37 today and was out for a fine curry with my family this evening and got a new Gers top from my parents.My Mum wanted "Nacho K9" on the back!

Back soon...

Hands in the Air

Just as I arrived at work today my car decided to conk out.I don't have any breakdown cover and was very grateful to the guy next to me at the lights for getting out in the rain and pushing the car hard enough to allow me to jump start it and drive it to the garage, not far from my work where I got it serviced just the other week.It actually broke down again just at the entrance to the garage and needed pushed into their work area.

The alternator had packed in and replacing it set me back £200.Was it bad luck or good luck that it didn't pack in on the country road I was driving down with the dog in the back on Friday night?( in yet more driving rain)

Was it good luck that the car made it into town this morning and more good luck that the guy next to me at the lights was kind enough to help a stranger in the pissing rain? ( saving me a fee to get it towed, a parking ticket or both)

I had also booked this Monday off and if I'd been driving round my local area ( I live 8 miles from Glasgow city centre) I'd also have had to get it towed from there and may also have had Nacho with me too.At the last minute I decided on next Monday off instead.Lucky?

Of course I'm not exactly happy that I'm £200 worse off than I was when I woke up this morning, but it could have been worse I suppose.

My luck at the tables this weekend could also be looked at from a couple of angles.I arrived home late on Friday night,played four $22's and took down two of them for a nice profit.I then played a further 38 games ( all $22's) over the weekend and finished with my Party roll sitting just about where it was after those cashes on Friday.( and even that was only due to winning the last game I played last night).It's a funny old game eh!

I did at least win some praise from Step A on Friday evening for my new Mackenzie sandshoe thingys which apparently are quite trendy.She's mentioned last week that my jeans and t-shirt weren't exactly matching and my trainers ( the legendary Hi-tec Silver Shadows) had seen better days.I've never been one to bother much about fashions but new jeans,t-shirts and shoes were bought and hopefully I've spruced my image up a little!

I'm going to be 37 on Thursday and I can't believe how quickly the years continue to fly by.I still like my trance/dance tunes and was listening to Radio One's essential selection live from an Ibiza club at the weekend made me feel my age.I remember the DJ's cries of "put your hands in the air" and looking across a sea of hands as the thudding bass stopped and hundreds of clubbers felt the rushes which came with top drawer class A's as the musical pace temporarily slowed.Ahh happy days.I felt about 103 the other night,listening to todays top trance tunes with the DJ shouting for everyone to "put your camera's in the air".



Ok,thanks for reading.Back soon...