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...