Bubbling Bubbles

Despite not feeling very well yesterday, I hauled my arse down to the Alea Casino in Glasgow just in time for the start of the £22 turbo game.There were 71 starters and I felt quite sharp during the first few levels.As a mainly turbo sit and go player I'm not used to making many laydowns, ( as it's mostly a preflop game) but about midway through the third blind level I raised 1010 from the button and a solid player flat called from the small blind.I led out on a dry 9 8 5 rainbow flop,got flat called again by the sb and when I checked the turn and he led out, I thought through his hand range and folded my overpair to the board.He showed his set of nines and I felt like I'd adapted my play from my usual sng mode.

After that I was dealt a few decent hands and managed to keep chipping up with a few steals when I was the big stack at my table.After just under four hours I'd made the final table and was hoping for a decent cash.There was talk of a 10 way chop ( £148 each)but we decided to play on until the money at least ( top 7 paid).The main reason for the chop talk was that it's a turbo with 15 min blinds and even the bigstacks didn't have much over 10bb.

I felt I'd played well ( and run well) up until that point and then I was dealt AK under the gun.For some reason all my proper thinking about ranges/position/chip stacks went out the window and with the blinds at 4k/8k and a stack of 95k I chose to raise 22k instead of just shoving.I suppose I had it in my head that a just less than 3bb raise from UTG would look very strong, but it was a stupid move.One of the guys keenest on a 10 way chop ( not a shorty) flat called from the blinds and alarm bells should have rung.The flop was a J 6 4 rainbow and again I feel I made the worst play possible by leading out for 30k,leaving myself just under 40k behind.The villain tanked for ages before shoving and suddenly I was left in no mans land.It was my own fault and I was left knowing I had to call off the rest of my stack to try and hit two overs or fold and be left with 5bb.

I chose to fold,he showed 1010 and I could have kicked myself for the way I'd butchered the hand.There were plenty of loose donks around but this was the final table and I was against a guy with a big stack who had been talking about a ten way chop.After my preflop raise mistake even check shoving the flop ( assuming he didn't just shove) would have been a better option.Anyway I folded my big blind to a raise in the next hand and then shoved 7h6h when it folded to me in the small blind only for the big blind to wake up with QQ.Out 9th for a payout of precisely hee haw!

I arrive home in time to watch Barcelona wipe the floor with Man Utd in the Champions League Final.Messi,Iniesta and Xavi and co were an absolute joy to watch and thoroughly deserved their win.After that I fired up some poker tables and played sngs as I watched "The Deer Hunter".There are a ton of classic films I've never seen and this was one of them.I did enjoy it and parts of it were gripping but it did seem to drag on a bit ( the wedding especially) and it certainly won't go down as one of my all time favourites.

On the online dating front I've given up on the idea of trying to be honourable and just emailing/chatting to one woman at a time! The only problem is that I think I need some kind of spreadsheet to remind me what I've said and to who!

Back soon...

Blessed Stump

I didn't play any poker all week and although I played some Call of Duty online I was feeling somewhat bored and restless, which isn't really like me.I even had a look at flats for sale nearer a train station and a bit closer to my work as the 45-60 minute slow commute through a ton of traffic every day was doing my nut in.

The winds were strong enough earlier in the week to knock over some trees nearby and my neighbour across the landing ( not the one downstairs) has decided that having a large tree stump outside her front door ( and therefore outside mine too) is a great idea.It would be hard to sell up and move on with such a blessed stump sitting outside.She's performed reiki on it apparently and intends to engrave it with the the words "War and Peace".I can see Nacho performing something else on it if it sits there much longer!



Nacho has finished his meds and although he still has a slight cough after eating/drinking I think he's on the mend and has hopefully seen off the worst of the kennel cough.The vets were great last week but I'm a bit annoyed that I thought I had my boy fully up to date with all his jags and they didn't recommend one to prevent the kennel cough.Perhaps there are dozens of vaccinations available and all dogs only tend to get a couple.

I did have a crap week but I was cheered up when I heard from the old friend I mentioned in my post last Saturday.She's really busy at work and not even getting time for a lunch hour, but we're hoping to meet up for a cuppa at some point when things quieten down for her and just exchanging a few emails has reminded me of the laughs we used to have.

I had a pastrami and cheese sandwich for lunch yesterday instead of my usual ham/turkey and cheese combo and I think it must have been past it's best because my stomach was really sore last night and I felt so tired I could barely focus at times.I did play some poker though and won $80 from a few $22's on Party and $73 from a set of six $15's on Stars before nearly going to my bed before 11pm.I couldn't focus on the poker anymore so I switched off the laptop, finally got round to watching the first few episodes of "The Shield", and I'm loving it so far.Dare I say it's even better than "The Wire" and I didn't expect to ever be writing that as I've now watched two series of McNulty and co and intend to buy series 3 soon.

It's nearly 1pm as a write this and the plan is to walk Nacho and head down to the Alea for their 2pm £22 turbo tourney.Tonight's plan is to chill out,maybe play some poker and watch the Champions League Final between Man Utd and Barca.I can't see past a Barca win but I just hope it's a good game as so many Champions league finals have been distinctly average over the years.

Ok,thanks for reading.Back soon...

I've Always Liked Mtt's....

For the first time ever last night I decided to start around 8pm and register for most of the decent looking $7-$55 Mtt's in the Stars lobby.Of course I've played Mtt's before but not since the days when I was only able to play a couple of tables at a time and even then I doubt I've played over 50 in all the years I've played poker.I did cash for over $4k in the only $55 I've ever played back in '08, but I've never really caught the Mtt bug and given them a real go.Perhaps after last night that will change!

At one point in the evening I'd spent over $200 in buy-ins and the Mtt adventure seemed like a waste of time.Bubbling the final table of a $27 after having my QQ busted by the other big stack calling with KJ was a kick in the balls and crashing out of the $55's to sick beats also had me cursing.

I did manage to build a stack on some of my tables though and eventually made it to the final table of a $7 turbo with 969 starters.I knew that the decent money only started at the final table and after that I just played my game and didn't even check the lobby for payout jumps.The FT played just like a sng and I didn't feel out of my depth at all.When we got heads up we were quite evenly stacked.I would have considered offering to chop but the other guy was a complete donk and I fancied my chances.If my A7 had held v his J10s I would have won.My 22 fell to his KJ in the next hand and I shipped $905 for 2nd place.

With two other smaller cashes it actually felt like I'd made more $$ but the buy-ins all add up and I went to bed just delighted to have had such a good night at the felt.

Even when I was crashing out to two outers earlier in the evening I was still really enjoying the change of pace from playing sit and go games.Having stats and reads on players over hundreds of hands meant it felt like there was far more poker to play than the usual ultra tight/shove a lot sit and go mode which works so well.

The other good news is that I felt the games were really soft compared to the usual $15/$22 sngs I play.Sure I was frustrated at some of the beats, but people calling off huge bets with hands like J5s are only going to be spewing money in the long run.Overall, despite the huge variance, the skill gap between the donks and decent players seemed far bigger than in my usual sng games.

I can also see that several sessions of $200 worth of buy-ins with no cashes must be pretty standard too and I'm certainly not kidding myself that Mtt's are easy money after one decent night.

Too tired to write anymore.Back soon...

The Oil Painting Speaks...

I caught up with my neighbour tonight and as per my last post I told her I agreed that we'd better off as friends and friends with benefits would be even better.I didn't get a slap and who knows,it may even get me a shag one night.

The online dating thing is quite amusing.My theory is to start messaging women who are well out of my league first of all and work my way down.Knowing my luck, by this time next year I'll be married to the elephant man's sister.

There's a gallery option to view twenty pictures at a time and it's a fair mixed bag!As well as the hot chicks and cute girl next door types, there are women with horsey faces,shiny women with shiny chins and foreheads and ladies with Tefal heads.Not that I'm any great oil painting but some women don't even have faces,just teeth! Then there's the women who claim to be in their 30's when they look like they've seen more than a few frosty mornings,pictures of women with their arms round an ex or on a ski slope to show what an all round action girl they are.

The daft quizzes people post make me smile too.If chemistry was based on answers to questions about likes/dislikes and views on life I doubt I'd have got together with any of my ex's!

I had intended to go and play some poker today, but Nacho started coughing badly last night and I took him to the vets today.It seems he may have something called Kennel Cough.It's almost like he's choking on a fur ball at times but hopefully the antibiotics the vet gave me ( well didn't exactly give at £45 a go!)will do the trick and clear things up.

I did hit the tables last night and played some of the $22's on Party and the new $15's on Stars.The $15's are actually $13.89+ $1.11 and I've already read a post on 2+2 showing a 5% roi grinder will only make 48c per game profit instead of the 80c per game that a 5% roi would have made at the old $15+$1 buy-in level.It's hard enough to grind out decent hobby money and make it worthwhile due to the reduced traffic and tougher games without this development.Maybe it's time to finally give Mtt's a real go.

Just off the phone to my Dad and my folks bumped into a girl I used to go out with in my teens at a local fair today.We were best friends with for years afterwards too until we all kinda fell out over nothing in particular about 12 years ago.She hung about in our group with the s-man,Miami Trout,Mrs Trout and another bloke I haven't seen for years.I asked my sister to pass on my email/blog addy as neither the s-man or I are on the Facebook thing and it would be nice to catch up and say hello.If you do happen to read this W then Lightbulb says hi from the back of the wardrobe somewhere!

The s-man and I are probably the only people in the world still not on Facebook/Twitter, but I like my privacy and would much rather share my thoughts with just some of my friends and all the fine strangers who stop by this space to read my witterings.

It'll be six years worth of pish spouted by May 31st and although it often feels like I'm repeating myself and running out of blogging steam I still enjoy getting things off my chest on these pages.I've also met some amazing people ( and Dudley hehe) via my scribblings here,gained/lost a girlfriend from it and even been on an all expenses paid trip to London to watch a poker show being filmed.( whilst watching out for spaniels eh Bully!)

Now that bloglines has gone and I've never really got the hang of google reader I don't read or comment on as many other blogs as I used to.I do try and keep my blogroll up to date though so if any genuine bloggers would like to swap links just drop me a comment/email and I'll add you to my sidebar thing.

Thanks for reading.Back soon...

Triumphant Losers

Thanks to Waffles,Rosie,Juice and Dudley Do-Right for the comments on my last post.I took Step A out for a Mcd's on Tuesday night and she came back to my flat to see Nacho and play some Call of Duty afterwards.She was on good form and just being with her cheered me up hugely.It's almost four years since I split up from her Mum and I'm really pleased we still meet up on a regular basis.

I haven't seen my neighbour since Monday and the painful feelings I went through on Monday night and Tuesday have just about gone now.When I do see her I plan on saying that although part of me still thinks we would have made a good couple,being with her didn't feel like the start of a new relationship usually does for me either and that although I put that down to us already knowing each other quite well,maybe she was right that there wasn't enough there to be boyfriend/girlfriend.

Perhaps she won't think I'm as nice as guy as she thinks when I add that we certainly seemed to hit it off on the sexual chemistry front and that if she fancies a more casual/no strings type of fling then I'd be up for that too!

Either way she'll know I'm over any hurt feelings and that should make it easier to get on as friendly neighbours rather than feeling awkward about the situation.( unless I get a slap for the no strings suggestion I suppose!)

I may not have time for that anyway as I've already responded to a couple of emails I've receieved on the dating site I use and having got the neighbour out of my system I'm looking forward to meeting more women and enjoying myself a bit.

Not much else going although now the football season is over I do plan on playing more live poker and will probably head down to the Alea Casino on Saturday afternoon for the £22 turbo tourney.

I also had a laugh this week at Celtic and the front cover of their latest club magazine.Most of the pic below has been photoshopped but they genuinely did include the quote about defeat being a greater triumph than a victory.Here's hoping they are celebrating yet another triumphant 2nd place next season!




Back soon..

Sometimes It Hurts Instead

As a tight Scotsman I'd better share the bad news with my dear readers that I won't be getting any free cleaning done anytime soon after my neighbour gave me the "I'm probably being an idiot but it's me, not you and lets just be friends" speech last night.She said there is a spark between us and and she enjoys kissing me, but she doesn't think there's enough there to give a relationship a go.

We did go out on Friday night and had a good night at the races before she came up to my place for more snogs and fumbles.The kissing happened as she was leaving though and in truth before that when we were just sitting chatting it really didn't feel like the beginning of something special.I wondered if that was because we already knew each other quite well and there wasn't much left to share in terms of life stories,ambitions and the usual stuff you discover when you start going out with someone.I was probably kidding myself.

I'd like to look at it as a crush/infatuation that didn't live up to my expectations, but whatever I tell myself I can't deny I feel pretty gutted as I really liked her.Last night I rolled up one after another and sat staring out the window listening to my music and trying to resist punching the walls.That was a one off though and won't be repeated.It would be easy to turn inwards and mope about every time I hear her close a door or watching tv downstairs, but I'm not some lovesick puppy and there's no point in letting a relationship that didn't even get off the ground bother me for too long.

I do wonder if it was easier to live with a bit of a fantasy about her in my head instead of asking her out sooner or making a real effort to get out and start dating.At least I gave it a go though and can move on with a clean slate and start taking advantage of my regular "your profile is proving popular today" status on the dating site where I've already re-activated my account.Since being back at work fulltime and cutting out the smokes on school nights I've been a lot happier and felt much better within myself so it's probably as a good a time as any to start going on a few dates.Heck I may even contact my ex fiancee and see if she fancies the back seat of my car again!

On a much cheerier note Rangers won three league titles in a row on Sunday after beating Kilmarnock 5-1 to clinch a world record breaking 54th Championship.Two Pies and I went to Ibrox after the game where it was bedlam as 40,000 fans welcomed the team onto the pitch with the League trophy.It was also the end of an era as our manager Walter Smith left after winning 10 league titles over two spells in charge.We have a new owner now too and hopefully he proves to be the real deal and backs Super Ally next season in the transfer market during the summer.

On another happy note the Play Station Network is finally back online and I'm looking forward to catching up with the s-man and co online and blasting some 12 yr olds away.I'm also looking forward to taking Step A out for a Mcd's tonight.

As I've made a few wasted journeys going to pick Step A up I sent her a wee text today to say "Don't forget I'm coming to pick you up around 6.30" and got back the short to the point reply "I know".I texted back "Just a reminder" and got back "Mkay".Teenagers eh!

Ok,thanks for reading.Back soon....

Bye Bye Stars $16's

Ahh so typical.Just as I start to get back in the swing of grinding the $16's on Stars they go and change the rake/blinds structure.The new $21.70 games seem to fill very slowly and hopefully Stars will take note of all the dissenting voices on 2+2 and other forums and at least bring the $15+ $1 games back.

Despite never using Sng Wiz or doing too much work reviewing my game I don't find most sngs spots too difficult, but I've never had much faith in my Heads Up game.The sng changes on Stars have also introduced Heads Up Hyper turbos ( only at $5.21 level so far) and I've played 42 so far and lost 3 buy-ins.I quite like the format though and the rematch option that means it's possible to own the same fish over and over until he/she declines is fun too.( as usual I'd just like to run little better than I have so far!)

Last night I was going to go and play some live poker again but was waiting on a man about a dog.That never happened and with the PSN still down and no $16 sngs on Stars I was feeling quite bored.I had just started another $5.21 Heads Up game when my hot neighbour sent me text ( just before 2am) to say she was just back from her Birthday party with her family and did I fancy a wee smoke.I sent a text back to say thanks but I was playing Pedro from Portugal in a $5 poker game and I'd hopefully catch her soon....Ha,of course I sent one back asking her up to my place and spent 5 mins going all in on every hand to finish up as quickly as possible!

She was quite drunk so I necked a few buds to catch up and we ended up chatting till 4am and snogging until just after 7am! ( she was getting picked up just after 8 to go and watch her Mum start a 10k run) We did clear one thing up.I posted that when I asked her out last Monday she said "If you like", but what she actually said was "Sure,no bother", and replied "If you like" when I asked if she wanted to go out for dinner.That minor detail probably doesn't matter to anyone else but me but hey ho!

We were already set to go out this coming Friday to the races at Hamilton and although I wasn't too nervous about it as we've known each other a while, at least last night takes care of the "will we kiss" question! I did have a huge smile on my face when she left this morning but she was very drunk ( that was the reason we only snogged) and I'm still just happy to go with it all and see where it takes us.I've tended to over analyse small details in the past and hopefully I've learned from that.

On the football front Rangers and our rivals both won this weekend meaning we are a point ahead with two games to go.The nerves will be jangling at Ibrox on Tuesday night when we play our last home game of the season before the final round of games next Sunday.

Righty,enjoy the superb talking dog clip below.I'm off to discuss the new series of The Apprentice ( starts next week) with Nacho....

Carlsberg Don't Do Wednesdays....

My hot neighbour came up to clean my flat on the holiday Monday and afterwards we shared a couple of spliffs and a cup of tea.I was feeling too zonked to say anything but as she was leaving I managed to blurt something out about not wanting to embarrass her and wanting to take her out for dinner.She said something like "If you like" and I said I'd give her a shout later in the week.

To be honest I felt like I'd probably caught her on the hop a bit and I've spent the last couple of days expecting a text to say thanks but no thanks.Well I called in to see her tonight to tell her I hoped I hadn't freaked her out and she said that she was just a bit stoned and surprised on Monday and wasn't freaked out at all.I managed to say a few of the things I'd meant to say on Monday and we've agreed to go out for dinner soon.She goes to college once a week and has a ton of work to hand in soon so we've not set an exact date but hopefully some time next week.I think she's a little wary of us being neighbours ( she stays in the flat below mine)and getting into a relationship and I suppose that was part of the reason I haven't asked her out before now too.We've agreed to go out and go with the flow which sounds good to me.

On the football front Rangers were a point ahead of our rivals before tonight, but they had a game in hand and with 3 points for a win,the title was in their hands.I was out for a curry with my Mum and Dad earlier and having heard our rivals were drawing 1-1 at half-time I expected them to go on and win it comfortably.That was until I got a text from Bully to say it was 3-1 to Inverness! With time left to play I still wasn't overly confident and kept checking livescores.com for updates.It went to 3-2 on 90 mins and Bullys text confirming the final score caused me to yell so loudly someone at the other end of the restaurant shouted across asking what had happened and then danced round his table when I told him the score.There are still three games left to play and although I'm not counting any chickens we just need to win all three to retain our title and win a 54th League Championship.

Step up and play Rangers...



Back soon....

April Stats

I cashed out $920 from Stars on pokers Black Friday and redeposited $396 just over a week later due to the Scoop reload bonus.That means I still have $524 sitting ring fenced in my bank account as part of my poker bankroll in case I need it.

Pokerstars $593 ( + $524 in bank) = $1117 ( - $6 for month) 287 Sng's played.
Party $1013 ( + $168) 87 games played.

Total $2130 ( + $163 for April)

My Stars roll includes $30 of released bonus money and a few $$ profit from $50nl cash games too.

After an awful month in March and a bad run for most of last month I'm quite pleased at the volume and small profit I achieved in April.I don't remember the last time I played nearly 400 Sng's in a month and I'm not sure if I've ever racked up 71 sngs over 24hrs like I have this weekend.The swings are as swingy as ever though.My Stars roll has been as low as $180 and as high as $650 over the last 30 days.

Away from the poker it was good to catch up with the Big Chap and Jinxy on Wednesday night for the Rangers v Celtc Under 19 Youth Cup Final at Hampden.There were nearly 10000 there to see our rivals win the cup in extra time and it was a decent game to watch.Two Pies and I were also at Motherwell yesterday to watch the Gers thump the 'Well 5-0 in the sun.

One of the advantages of being a single bloke is not having to watch crap Saturday night tv like dancing shows ( on ice or not),X-Factor,Pop Idol etc.As I was finishing a set of six sng's last night I happened to flick over to a repeat of "Britain's Got Talent" and it was just as bad I thought it would be.The producers must be trying to find a new Susan Boyle style audition ( one rigged "ugly duckling that can sing" shocker is more than enough) as some old alcoholic looking bloke called Herbie came on and murdered one of his own songs before some talentless judging woman ( the one that Les Dennis used to pump) suggested ole Herbie sing a song "we would all know".

When he started singing "Have a told you lately that I love you" just slightly more tunefully than his previous home written dirge and the audience and panel went wild for it I switched over.Perhaps the audience don't even care how real it all is and just dream of being part of something that will hopefully get one trillion hits on youtube.Anyway I like more intelligent,challenging television and watched the whole of series nine of "South Park" instead...

The long weekend has been great so far although I slept in and missed the Royal Wedding on Friday.The girls in my team at work had an "order of the day" sheet going round giving the rough times of the service,balcony kiss etc and were not overly amused that I had added "10pm: Royal Porking" to the list.Hopefully Prince Harry will get married soon too and I can have another day off work!

Nacho has been staying with Step A this weekend.Time to go pick him up and get the dinner on.

Back soon..