Runner Runner..

First up all the best to my mate The Big Chap who is now recovering from a heart attack he suffered the other week.Thankfully he's ok and back home already.Good luck staying off the smokes mate and get well soon!

My date for tonight has called off again.This time her boy was sent home from school with flu.She sent me a text saying she would understand if I felt she was a time waster and I replied wishing her boy all the best and to say I think we should leave things for now and maybe try and meet up in a week or so.Perhaps I'm being harsh as she's probably being truthful, but I just don't see the point in continuing to exchange endless text messages when no matter how well we appear to be getting on,only actually meeting up will determine if there's any real spark between us.

I enjoyed taking Step A and her wee pal out for a Mc'ds on Wednesday night although I didn't offer much comment on the cannabis leaf she drew in the condensation on my car window on the way home.I did find the "I'm gay" she wrote in reverse for the world to see quite amusing! She's back at the "Right track" training centre after two week work placement ended.She now wants to do game design and go to college next year.I did my best to make her aware that jobs are scarce at the moment and I also gave her a bit of paper with jobs I'd found on gumtree that might suit her.

To the poker and I'm still breaking even at sng's on Party at the moment.I had a tough session the other night where I ran like crap,nearly busted and only winning my last two games saved the day.When someone types "wow" in the chatbox after a runner runner bad beat or when Aces get cracked I usually assume they don't play much poker as I feel I've pretty much seen it all by now.I did get a laugh from the hand below though....

3-1 to The Champions!

After playing well and creating some great chances in the draw against Valencia in the Champions League I was a bit worried about the team tiring in today's first Old Firm game of the season.Two Pies and another mate came over to watch it and after going 1-0 down just before halftime,we all just about hit the ceiling when the Gers came storming back to score three in the second half.Both teams had won their first eight league games this season and nine wins in a row is a new SPL record.My only worry is that we have a small squad and a few more injuries combined with the extra European games will still make retaining our league title a tough job.

To the poker and I played just a few sng's on Friday night,got screwed and ended up going and doing something less boring instead.( wee "Why don't you?" reference for older UK readers!)

That's been the general pattern over the last few months where a lack of table hours has greatly reduced my appetite to keep playing after a bad start to a session.Playing so much Call of Duty has also meant I've brought some of the "rage quit" mentality to my poker game which hasn't helped.If I have a crap start to an online video game either through poor play or a laggy connection it's easy to just quit that game and begin another.Applying that thought process to poker just doesn't work as it's totally standard to lose more sit and go's than I'll ever win.Having the confidence in my game and the heart to keep grinding are the keys to success.

The other key for me appears to be top quality herbs! I saw a man about a particularly pungent aromatic dog yesterday and after a few failed Call of Duty games ( I see you and I'm going to shoot...ahh bollocks I'm dead again)I felt the urge to hit the felt and I ended up tuning right into the games ,playing 27 and winning $50.I was still a bit frustrated by beats ( and too many second place finishes) but it was easy enough to brush them off and keep playing my best game.I also usually play four tables tiled on my screen however last night I played six,stacking them in two piles of three and had no bother keeping up with play.If anyone knows if it's possible to automatically use the timebank on Party without additional software let me know though as that would have been useful at times.

I enjoyed the smoke and the poker, but I do feel damn tired today ( despite the high of the Rangers result) and I'll be sticking to my no smoking before work days rule so I'm not sure I'll be increasing my poker volume by too much.( though I'm still on alternate full days and have 35 days of leave to take before the end of March!)

My date on Friday night didn't happen ( family illness on her side) and has been re-arranged for this Friday.Hopefully we'll click when we meet, but I'm quite relaxed about it and if nothing comes of it then so be it.

Ok,thanks for reading.Back soon...

Congrats to the Cod!

First up I was delighted to read a comment from the Connecticut Cod letting me know that his new twin boys will be home soon ( after arriving early!).Great news and hopefully it won't be too long before Mrs and Mrs C bring the wee fishies back home for a visit!

Not much to report on the poker front as I've not played a hand of poker on Party since my last post and only a couple of hours of breakeven cashgame PLO on Stars.I did splash out on the new Medal of Honor video game and although it's ok,I'll probably end up trading it in for the new Call of Duty:Black Ops game due out on Nov 9th.

I had a fun drive to work this morning.Roadworks and lashing rain meant even longer queues of traffic, although the monotony was broken by one woman who obviously took one look in her rearview mirror and decided I was too attractive to resist and came up with the cunning plan of leaping out of her car and accusing me of running into the back of her.After telling her my car never touched hers she had the cheek to say "Well don't worry,there's no damage"!

Tonight's plan is to watch the last episode of "The Inbetweeners" on E4 at 10pm and maybe even play some poker.It's a big week for Rangers with a home game against Valencia on Wednesday night and the first Old Firm game of the season at the Piggery on Sunday.Nacho gets his second booster jag on Thursday evening and on Friday night ( yeah I may need to apply a quick ninja edit to my last post) I'm going to the cinema with the girl I mentioned before.

I reckon I've still got this internet dating thing all wrong.Even my Mum says I should be chatting and dating lots of women as it's such a hit and miss way of meeting someone.I'll probably be 90 before I meet the next Mrs A as I prefer to chat to one at a time,meet 'em and then usually move on after realising there's just no spark at all.

Bring on the 4 Card Bingo...

VeryJosie asked about "The Rangers" in a comment on my last post and I thought it would be easier to provide a wiki link to info on the club and repost a youtube clip from January's Old Firm game to show just how noisy and passionate our fans are.Quite scary to think it's over 30 years since I attended my first game and I've had my season ticket for about 15 years.( ever since I stopped working Saturdays)



International jet setting blogger Yorkie Pud asked if there was any particular reason I've logged very little poker volume this year and I reckon that being hooked on the Call of Duty ( Modern Warfare 2) game has been the main reason! Being off work for so long and generally having no life has meant I've now logged over 36 days worth of online playing time since it was released last Dec.On Sunday I even looked up Stars MTT schedule and planned on registering in 5-6 games from 7pm.I ended up teaming up with the s-man and playing MW2 instead.( KD now 1.34!)

I've always been a bit that way I suppose.With music I find myself getting into a singer/band and listening to their stuff non-stop for a few months,reading up on them etc and then the obsession fades and I move on to something else.It does take a lot for me to change though as I'm a definite creature of routine and habit and trying new stuff doesn't come easily.I thought The Inbetweeners was probably a crap sketch show until I watched the first two series a couple of weeks back and now I wouldn't miss it.Being a huge South Park fan meant I've never watched a whole episode of The Simpsons and it was only the s-man that got me into the excellent Family Guy after much persuasion.( not that there's any rule that says you can only like one cartoon!)

I've played thousands of sng's over the last few years ( aprox 300-400 per month until this year)and used to shake my head when reading other blog posts about folks bad beats over 4-5 games.Playing 25-50 games per night helps even out the extreme variance in poker, but these days I find if I crash out of four games in a row to lost flips and suckouts then I just can't be bothered with that shitty feeling and I'd rather go and do something else.As I mentioned before I also find the first 4 levels of sit and go games to be boring fold fests and at the moment I'm fortunate enough to not need the money enough to just grit my teeth and play if I'm not enjoying it or making much money.

I have been playing some PLO cash games on Stars although only at 10c-25c blinds.I actually like the fact that I've not read much strategy and don't know the bones of the game as I have to really think hard to estimate ranges and to have some sort of idea of where I am in a hand.Being up a few buy-ins helps and my roll now stands at $865 on Stars and a measly $134 on Party.

Life isn't too bad at the moment.I had a great time taking my wee nephew out for a walk in his pram ( instant clunge magnet obv!) last Thursday,I'm off to the Scotland v Spain game tonight with The Big Chap and I finally caught up with Step A again and we're going for a Mcd's tomorrow night.I'm also still on alternate full days and have 35 days of annual leave to take before the end of March.

I haven't met the girl I was texting yet for our cinema date.In truth ( yeah call me superficial if you like) she sent a photo through and between that and the tone of a few of her texts I didn't make texting her back a priority! Once I'm back working fulltime I'll try and get my arse in gear and do some more dating.

Ok,thanks for reading.Back soon...

Wednesday Wibbles

Ahh this time last year I was looking to take a 6 month sabbatical from work for two main reasons.Number one was that I was absolutely hating my job and could afford to live on a reduced salary for a while and number two was to give the poker more of a go and see if accepting a years salary and leaving my current job to grind sng's was a possibility.Of course in Nov last year I managed to nearly kill myself in a car crash which resulted in just over 6 months off work on full pay and although I was in a lot of pain, I ended up playing very little poker and haven't really put in much volume since then.

I'm still on alternate full days at work and although proper fulltime hours ( coming soon!) will be more intense, I'm actually not hating my job as much as I used to since I quit smoking da herb most nights.I think it was a vicious circle of being stressed out dealing with my workload and complaints all day and then coming home and smoking until the early hours to escape and hide from it all.This left me feeling zombie tired most days and made the job even tougher.

Hmm maybe I spoke too soon as I've just been allocated a letter of complaint containing 266 pages of woe and seeking over £100k in compensation.Where's my weed?!!

There were a few reasons for cutting right back on my herbal intake.The first was that I felt I really did smoke the urge to get high all the time out of my system during my 6 1/2 mths off sick.My impending 38th birthday and knowing I couldn't go back to work and deal with it as I used to do were other reasons.I suppose nearly killing myself ( and despite my moans about running badly at poker recently I really did hit a one outer walking away from the crash I had) was another and in a strange way one of my best friends telling me he had quit and it hadn't bothered him ( and he was known as Iron lungs back in the day!) awakened the competitive part of my brain which said that if he could do it I could too.

Of course it'll be tougher when I'm back working every day but even now when I'm off the next day and can sleep until noon,I'm still only having a couple of smokes before bed and don't seem to have the desire to spark up just after my dinner.Part of that is probably down to the fact that nicotine is far more addictive than weed will ever be and I do have a cigarrette after eating whereas before it would have been a joint.

Anyways I'm not really sure where this post has come from.I intended to write about Rangers fine win in the Champions League last week,the latest episode of "The Inbetweeners" being superb ( e4 10pm on Mondays),the ESP light being on in my car woes and my plans to take my nephew out on Thursday.I was also going to have a rant about footballers ( celebs too) being described as "brave" or "courageous" when real bravery and courage are traits displayed by our soldiers in hellholes like Afghanistan.This post is long enough so I'll leave it there! Thanks for reading...