Monday, November 29, 2010

Stream of Bollocks...

I didn't make Dr Pauly's PLO game on Saturday night as I was too busy playing Black Ops instead.I'm sad enough to subscribe to a few good players on youtube who put out vids showing how to improve game play etc.Black Ops has a "theatre" mode which means all games are digitally recorded and can be viewed again from any camera angle or from any other player in the games point of view.I watched a vid the other day where one of the good players replayed a game from a bad players point of view and ripped ( or it it still dissed?!) on him for playing like a "noob".( new player for anyone not up to speed with their net slang) My first thought was "Don't tap the tank" as every poker player knows it's a bad idea to scare the fish as they provide us with our profits.

In video games there is no money at stake and although parts of the vid were quite funny ( the bad player trying to shoot down his own air support was great!)I thought the guy commentating was a bit guilty of forgetting it is only a damn video game! That thought also crossed my mind again today as I listened to Barry Greenstein on last weeks excellent 2+2 pokercast.He was talking about high stakes poker players and their obsession with money and related a conversation he heard where one player was telling the other he was going Scuba diving only to me met with the reply "But how do you make money doing that?".

Now I'm only a low stakes hobby playing donkey but I recall when the s-man used try and get me to play Call of Duty 4 and my reply was that even if I got good at it I couldn't see it paying any bills! It's all about balance and having a healthy attitude, but I sometimes feel that only truly obsessing about something will bring success.I recall reading ( one of Malcolm Gladwells books I think) that rather than natural talent it's really 10000 hours of practice which helps one excel in any particular skill or craft so perhaps there's something in my obsessing theory.

It also crossed my mind that it would be quite amusing to watch a genuine all cards revealed video made by a terrible player and may even help in terms of understanding their ranges and why they may play a particular hand a certain way.I say that because I'm forever reading forum posts where the OP ( original poster)assumes the villain in a hand will think like the OP does and will only call,raise or fold correctly.( as the OP sees it) I was reminded of that playing a little Rush poker with my Very Josie winnings at the weekend.I raised with KK and faced a shove from a fish with 1/2 a buy in.Hmmmm JJ+ AQ+ maybe? Now I wouldn't shove there with AQ but I'm wise enough to know other players would and what do you know.....he showed Q3 off suit!

Ok,I usually write down a few words and work from there when writing a post, but tonights was more a of stream of consciousness affair.Apologies if it was complete bollocks! I'm in a hurry to get my dinner and walk Nacho as the worlds second biggest ( just behind Burnley v Bastard Rovers* )football derby starts in 1/2 hr and I can't wait to see how champions Barcelona do against "The Special One's" Real Madrid team.Of course I still wouldn't swap Messi or Ronaldo for Lee McCulloch....

*Obviously Rangers v Celtic is the number one derby game!

Friday, November 26, 2010

Saturdays with Dr Pauly 9.20pm Stars...



Not much poker content today aside from mentioning that Dr Pauly is bringing back his PLO tourney this Saturday at 9.20pm UK time ( see banner above) and if I'm not slaying 12 yr olds on Call of Duty then I'll be there to try and take it down.It may be hard to believe after the last PLO hand I posted, but I actually won one of the Docs PLO games when they ran on a weekly basis.(although Dudley has won about forty of them so perhaps that doesn't say much!)

I enjoyed taking Step A for a Mc'ds last night, although the fact she can now put a Mcd's straw through the pierced holes in her ears was a bit worrying.She also has a pill capsule tongue stud which for those not familiar with such things makes it look like she has a pill on her tongue.She is a good kid though and is only rebelling like this because her dear mother fecked off to England to live just over a year ago.

No home game for the Gers this weekend and almost no games at all due to the ongoing farce over the referees striking due to our sad rivals questioning their honesty and integrity.There wasn't a squeak from them when they won three titles in a row, but now Rangers are on a bit of a roll all the old conspiracy crap gets raised again.I genuinely don't recall the last time they lost a game without complaining about something.I did enjoy our midweek Champions League game with Man Utd ( thanks to Dudley and Bully for texting me updates in the other game in our group) although it was disappointing to lose to a late penalty.

My boss did finally speak to me about increasing my hours and after next week I'll be working four days per week instead of just three.Next week will be a bit busy as my car is going in to get the expensive ESP light problem sorted on Wednesday and on Friday I'm getting an eye test due to seeing wee floater things ( like wee wisps of smoke).Amazingly a quick google search didn't point to eye cancer or anything fatal and it looks like it's just down to age.( although at worst it could be a detached retina hence the test)

Ok,thanks for reading.Back soon...

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Out for Justice...

I'm just off the phone to Step A and have arranged to take her for a Mc'ds on Thursday evening.Her latest favourite band are called "Dot Dot Curve" and I thought I'd search for them on youtube and keep an open mind before deciding if I liked them.Well I managed to keep an open mind for all of about three seconds before quickly closing youtube.Check them out if you need to clean the wax from your ears!

I have played a few sets of sng's over the last week although most of my free time has been taken up with Black Ops and football.Check out this vid to find out how to change your clan tag colour without prestiging! ( I'm guessing Josie's boy probably knows all about this glitch already!)

My lack of poker volume has definitely affected my poker heart and I'm finding I'm only enjoying sit and go games when I play six tables.Any less and the beats really piss me off whereas when playing a set of six I'm far more likely to make a profit as the only counter to variance is volume.Playing two stacks of three tables is actually quite straightforward and I may try and increase that to eight soon and see how it goes.

Stacking seems to be far better than tiling the tables although I still don't know why when I do tile four tables they don't fill my 17" laptop screen without me resizing them to fit.I'm also finding when I try and drag a table to the top of my screen my laptop keeps resizing it and making it fit almost my whole screen.If anyone knows how to stop that happening please let me know!

As I was off today I stayed up last night and watched the Arnie classic "Commando" and then Stevie Segal's "Out for Justice". The Segal film had a wee guy in his 60's at the foot of the screen doing sign language for deaf people and watching him do the sign chat for the Beastie Boys "No Sleep till Brooklyn" was quite surreal! The added advantage of the sign language guy was that if I ever need to threaten a deaf person or call them a "chickenshit fuckin' pussy asshole" I now know the lingo!

Ok,thanks for reading.Back soon...

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Monday, November 15, 2010

PLOnker

Pot Limit Omaha is still a bit of a mystery to me but that doesn't stop me messing around at the low stakes cash games. When I used to play NL Holdem cash games ( mainly 6 max $50 nl a few years back) I suffered from "last hand syndrome" which meant I always seemed to loosen up and play the last table orbit of the night like a complete donkey.With PLO my lack of knowledge means I no longer need to wait until the end of the night to pound the keyboard with my hooves.

I've never read a PLO book or paid much attention to strategy in forums and the only consolation is that many of my competitors behave like they've never seen a deck of cards let alone read a book.

I should also add that I had consumed more than a few herbal smokes before playing the hand below and that this was near the end of my session.Ok,so I look down to Qc Qs 6s 4c and although it's double suited, it's not the nuts if I flop a flush so I take a weak line and limp.On the flop I hit a set of Queens on a scary board ( 9s 8h Qh) and bet.When I'm raised I feel pretty sure the villain has J10 and I need the board to pair to win.My hoof hits the call button and when he leads on a seemingly blank turn I call again...

When the river comes and the board hasn't paired, the villain sticks in his last $9.93.I'm almost certain he has the J10 as part of his hand but the 3-1 odds convince me it's worth a call in case he doesn't have it.The moment the cards are revealed I see he does indeed have J10 and I instantly leave the table and curse myself for drawing like a donkey to an unlikely full house.

Before shutting down Stars I take a look at the cashier and to my great surprise I find I won the hand! I looked out the hand history from the Stars options page and laughed as I realised the flush draw I wasn't even aware of had hit on the river....

Perhaps if I had been alert enough to spot the flush draw on the turn then my play wouldn't have been as bad, but as it stands I reckon I'm this weeks Audley Harrison of the PLO tables!

PokerStars Game #52502198697: Omaha Pot Limit ($0.10/$0.25 USD) - 2010/11/11 1:15:54 WET [2010/11/10 20:15:54 ET]
Table 'Polites VI' 6-max Seat #6 is the button
Seat 1: 0legik ($19.84 in chips)
Seat 2: jan3594 ($12.73 in chips)
Seat 3: zagga ($25.79 in chips)
Seat 4: Schmucke ($2.40 in chips)
Seat 5: Rayno001 ($17.27 in chips)
Seat 6: TyTu^oIoPyTu ($14.04 in chips)
0legik: posts small blind $0.10
jan3594: posts big blind $0.25
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to zagga [Qc Qs 6s 4c]
zagga: calls $0.25
Schmucke: folds
Rayno001: calls $0.25
TyTu^oIoPyTu: folds
0legik: calls $0.15
jan3594: checks
*** FLOP *** [9s 8h Qh]
0legik: checks
jan3594: checks
zagga: bets $0.75
Rayno001: folds
0legik: raises $2.25 to $3
jan3594: folds
zagga: calls $2.25
*** TURN *** [9s 8h Qh] [3s]
0legik: bets $6.66
zagga: calls $6.66
*** RIVER *** [9s 8h Qh 3s] [7s]
0legik: bets $9.93 and is all-in
zagga: calls $9.93
*** SHOW DOWN ***
0legik: shows [Tc Js 8s Jh] (a flush, Jack high)
zagga: shows [Qc Qs 6s 4c] (a flush, Queen high)
zagga collected $38.23 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $40.18 | Rake $1.95
Board [9s 8h Qh 3s 7s]
Seat 1: 0legik (small blind) showed [Tc Js 8s Jh] and lost with a flush, Jack high
Seat 2: jan3594 (big blind) folded on the Flop
Seat 3: zagga showed [Qc Qs 6s 4c] and won ($38.23) with a flush, Queen high
Seat 4: Schmucke folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: Rayno001 folded on the Flop
Seat 6: TyTu^oIoPyTu (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)

Not much else going on.I did speak to the Big Chap today and he's doing well and is out and about again which is great news.

Back soon...

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Black Ops Arrives

A huge first prize,celebrations long into the night,signing autographs for strangers and being the envy of poker players everywhere after a victory most of the community can only dream of.Yeah,it's been a busy week for the current Very Josie Champion and of course I'd like to pass on my congrats to Jon Duhamel for winning some wee tourney out in Vegas this week too....

I've had a decent run at the tables since my last post and now have $288 on Party and nearly $1k on Stars.The plan is to withdraw $600 from Stars and deposit it on Party as this would allow me to move back to the $22 turbo's with a 40 buy-in cushion.

Call of Duty:Black Ops was finally released yesterday and with the day off work I headed out to HMV and traded in Medal of Honor to secure my copy.I'm still unsure if I like it as much as Modern Warfare 2.It definitely has a different feel to it and although I like the lack of noob tubes and commando lunges it's not completely won me over yet.Perhaps as I get to know the new maps and weapons better that will change.

I've not heard back from the girl I was texting previously and I've not sent her another text either.( although if she looked like Isla Fisher or my favourite danger shag Foxy Knoxy I'd need a loan to pay my phone bill!) I'm actually quite happy being single and despite being on dating sites for a while now I've made very little effort to give it a real go.Even before the crash I only replied to a few of the ladies who emailed me and I've only ever made the first contact a couple of times.I'll need to throw myself into it next year though before I stop getting the "Your profile is proving popular today" emails and become the fat baldy git I'm no doubt destined to end up as in my 40's.( no offence to any fat baldy gits reading this!)

I can honestly say that although I live by myself ( Nacho would dispute that!) I rarely feel lonely and I'm actually quiet enjoying life at the moment.Although that's a good thing, it's also made me wonder if I'm actually a bit of a loner.To be fair to myself I was just getting into the swing of dating again before my car accident and it has taken me almost a full year to recover.I'm also very choosy indeed and probably still need to get rid of the old fashioned notion that it's only right to chat to one lady at a time.

Part of the reason for not bothering much at the moment is that I was expecting to be back working fulltime ages ago and have a plan to take three weeks off work when my current "back to work plan" does end.Playing Call of Duty,hitting the tables and enjoying a smoke will be my main holiday activities.Does that make me an anti-social saddo? I dunno!

Righty I'm off to watch the Gers tonight with Two Pies ( my cousin) and have a trip to the dentists to look forward to tomorrow.Thanks for reading.Back soon....

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Thursday, November 04, 2010

Very Josie Win

After arriving home last night around 11-ish I played a few Call of Duty games online with the s-man before deciding I was definitely going to play in the Very Josie game at 1am.I watched a floattheturn Mtt training vid to get me in the mood and rolled a nice big fat one just in time start of the VJ.I've not played an MTT since the Bloggerments demise a few months back and I opted for a more aggressive approach than my usual nitty sng tactics.The chat was hilarious and kept me awake as I chipped up and rolled more smokes.When someone crashed out and typed something about going out early the clock read 1.45am and I reckoned it was probably going to be a late one.

I'm struggling to recall the actual hands but I did pick up a AK a few times, Aces twice and I'm pretty sure I managed to win a few flips along the way too.As the game wore on I tried to keep the pressure up and although I did fold my way through a couple of orbits at times, I never let myself get short enough to have to make desperate shoves.I remember Josie calling me a "pain" which had to be a sign I was doing something right!

Raising to aprox 2.5bb preflop meant I could easily fold to a reraise or make a relatively small c-bet to take a lot of pots down which helped a ton especially when the antes kicked in.I don't recall sucking out on anyone too badly though, which probably means I still wasn't raising often enough!

Despite being half asleep at the final table I felt I was focusing well on the game until Josie and Waffles mentioned that PushMonkey was sitting out.It was news to me although I did spend much of the game replaying hands to see exactly how they had gone down as I was so busy laughing at the chat.Anyway with PushMonkey being absent and knowing how much Waffles was looking to finish ahead of Josie I continued to pound on his blinds and chipped up further.( which did make me feel a bit better about the bad beat Waffles put on me back in 1937!)

As the final table numbers were reduced I ended up detaching the chatbox thing to try and keep up.Josie did well to come back from a few bb near the bubble and I was lucky enough to pick up a higher pocket pair against her 33 when the bubble did come around.Once we were down to 3-4 players and the blinds were getting high ( not as high as me by that point!) it felt more like the end of a sng and I've played enough of them to feel confident enough about my end game

By the time I got heads up with HeffMike I decided to minimise the chatbox and focus on the action.I did catch BamBam wishing me well, but apologies if I missed anyone elses chat as I was too busy trying to claw back HeffMikes chip lead and stop myself drifting off to sleep! After a long-ish ( well it certainly felt that way) battle with a tough opponent my AQ held up v KJ and I'd won the Very Josie at my first attempt.( which makes a change from The Bloggerment where I won on about my 84th go)

After a quick celebratory dance round the living room ( which certainly surprised the dog at just after 3.30am!) I finally hit the sack and slept like a log until just after 12.30 today.Thanks to everyone who played last night for being so welcoming and for the generous chip donations! It will probably be a one off guest appearance for me ( especially when the US clocks change too) but it was great fun and the double stacks format certainly allows for a lot more play than I'm used to in sng's.

Back soon...

Wednesday, November 03, 2010

Where to stick your phone...

Thanks to the folks who commented on my last post.I never use the chat box at the tables, but I did echo Pud's comment and wrote "wow" after that AA v KK hand.Rubbish asked about the chat afterwards and most of it was players moaning that the whole table would have won a fortune if it had happened at a cash table with a bad beat jackpot.

I've only played six sng's since my last post and even winning $94 at the $11's hasn't really reignited my passion for the game.The clocks did go back at the weekend though and as I'm off work tomorrow and there's temporarily only a 4 hour time difference between GMT and EST ,I may try and have a go at Very Josie's tourney on Full Tilt.Double stacks and slow blinds may yet put me off ( due to the potential late finishing time)however gambling it up early and trying to knock out Waffles by spite calling with rags may be too tempting to avoid.It's funny how I have a terrible memory, but can still recall shoving with A6 against the Waffle Meister and losing when he called with 94h and flopped a flush in the later stages of Kat's Friday donkament game a few years ago.Bitter? Of course!

Not much else going on really.It's exactly a year to the day since my near fatal car accident so I suppose not having much going on can also be a good thing! I still have some pain in my back and side and although I'm still hopeful of completely healing, I've kind of resigned myself to knowing that there won't be a day goes by without my mind wandering back to that horrible night.I drove to the Docs on Monday night and it was another very wet,windy dark night and I was probably the slowest car on the motorway!

On a happier note it's only a week until Call of Duty:Black Ops is out and I'm really looking forward to it, although hopefully it won't stop me putting in some decent volume at the poker tables this year! I say this year as Oct 31st is the anniversary of the start of my real money poker play.I was quite happy to use play money on Pokerroom until they withdrew those tables for Halloween and offered a decent deposit bonus to get started with scary real money! I've played so little poker this year I haven't even bothered with monthly bankroll updates.Perhaps I'll start them again this month and try and motivate myself to get properly back into the game again.

Anyway I'm off out to my sisters to help her bath my wee nephew and then heading over to my folks place for dinner.Thanks for reading and if you've ever been messed around or kept on hold when calling a big company then the song below is for you.I used to have a tape of Kevin "Bloody" Wilson songs a long time ago and like all his stuff it's definitely not safe for work....


NSFW

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