I Wanna Be Like You....

After the Scottish Football Assocation chose to kick my club when we're down and impose a 12 month transfer embargo I've had enough.It's time to fight back and I'll be there on Saturday for the march to the SFA offices at the national stadium.

We took a world record estimated 150,000-200,000 fans to Manchester back in '08 ( can you spot me in the pic below?!) and hopefully there will be a good turn out at the weekend.

My cousin Two Pies and I are also going to the last Old Firm game of the season at the Piggery on Sunday.It's likely to be our last away game for a long time because if Rangers do stay in the SPL I won't be giving a penny of my money to the clubs who have put the boot in during the biggest crisis in our 140 year history.Rangers ( and our rivals) keep most of the other Premier league clubs in business with the money they take in from our large travelling supports and their actions during our current crisis will not be forgotten.


To the poker and it looks like Pokerstars is going to buy Full Tilt and pay back all the players who had money on there when Black Friday struck just over a year ago.It's a smart move by Stars if it does happen as players like me who would never have put another penny( it was never my main site anyway)on there if someone like Bernard Tapie had bought it over will have no problems with trust if it's Stars who own it.Perhaps too a Pokerstars Spam bot will read my kind words about the company and finally let me win a coin flip again!

On the subject of kind words I tried to point out on one of Josie's posts entitled "No Sweat" that horses sweat and ladies glow and finished up with Josie thinking I'd called her a horse! I'm such a smooth talker...

It did remind me of my favourite internet meme and now youtube allows videos ten hours long I can watch this one all night as I grind the tables.Could it be Waffles on the horse talking to Josie? Hmmm I think so!



One quick funny story before I'm done.I was over at my Mum and Dads yesterday after work and spent most of it playing with my wee nephew.He's only 22 months old and has just started walking, albeit like a wee drunk old man.I've mentioned before how my brother in law has taught him to do a Fonz impression where he puts his thumbs up and says "Ehhhh".Ask him what noise a lion makes and the wee man does a roar,he does an "Oooh Ooooh" for a monkey,Baaaa for a sheep etc.

All very cute until my sister was at the checkout in Tesco the other day being served by a big black guy.... and the wee man starts making "Oooh Oooh" monkey noises beside her.My sis tried to keep the guy talking and didn't think he noticed but also added she has never been more embarrassed in her life.Kids eh!

Back soon...

No Limping Zone

With the exception of a $15 180 final table where I came 6th and a few small cashes I had no joy at all playing Mtt's last weekend and my Stars roll has crept under the $2k mark for the first time in a long time.Despite the usual ton of beats and coolers and the overall frustration of losing key hands at key times I did still enjoy playing.

Sadly though it looks like the next couple of weekends will be my last playing Mtt's and I'll be heading back to Sng's to rebuild my roll.I suppose it was always a bit foolish to try and play $400-$500 worth of Mtt buy-ins every Fri/Sat/Sun on a relatively small bankroll.Great fun though!( apart from all the sickening exit hands)

Going back to Sng's and avoiding sharks like Moorman1,Timex and GuitarJ doesn't really appeal much but while I don't kid myself I can outplay those guys,there is still plenty of dead money in Mtt's and I hope I can bink a decent cash soon to keep me in the game.

Poor Nacho was running/limping badly at the weekend too after badly cutting his paw on Saturday.When he did the same back in '08 he needed stitches at the vet and I remember carrying him up and down the stairs that lead to my first floor flat.He wasn't too keen on the carrying part at all and I've now discovered that the easiest way to cure his limp is to simply ask him if he would like carried.The limp vanishes and he speeds up dramatically.Of course that made me smile and several times when walking him on Sunday I wound him up by offering to carry him the rest of the way.He likes a laugh though and took it well…

El Classico on Saturday night wasn't the greatest game in the world but I thought Real Madrid were worthy 2-1 winners.I'm a bit torn tonight as I have a soft spot for Chelsea and would like to see them get through against Barcelona but I'd also love to see a Barca v Real Champions League Final.


Thanks for reading.Back soon...

The Russians Are Coming...

...to visit my blog.I have more readers from Russia than any other country and I've no idea why! Добро пожаловать Русская readers.Thank вас за посещение моего блога.


Things seem to be coming to a head with the crisis my team Rangers are in at the moment.It looks like American truck tycoon Bill Miller is favourite to be named as the preferred bidder on Monday and that worries me as I know nothing about the man or how honest his intentions are.If any of my US readers can shed any light on him please leave me a comment.


I had my third date last night with the girl I first met last September.We went to Frankie and Bennys in her home town for pizza and I'm still a bit unsure how I feel about her.She was in Amsterdam last weekend and I did wonder if perhaps she liked a wee smoke but the truth was she was with her 78yr old Mum and they only stopped off there for an afternoon on their way to some big flower festival near the border with Germany.I asked her how it was etc and if she had a garden of her own and from there somehow discovered that she still lives with her Mum.She did mention her Mum getting very tired at one point in their holiday but it doesn't sound like she only stays with her Mum to care for her.


The chat did flow freely and I enjoyed her company.I walked her back to her car not long before the place closed and we had a few long goodnight snogs.She didn't use her tongue at all though and for me no tongues is about as passionate as pushing two goldfish together.She also kept her hands in her pockets which seemed a bit odd too.

With the earlier news that she stays with her Mum all hope of going back to her place had long gone, but I did like her enough to ask about going on another date.She was busy all next week and although she mentioned I could come along to her jogging club ( yeah right!) I wasn't going to push it and we haven't arranged anything.I even joked with her that she's so "busy" she must have a husband and kids at home.We had a laugh about that ( her hubby is probably not laughing!) and I did mention I quite liked the fact she was very independent.I like my own space too and in some ways although we do text each other I quite like the fact it's not in a constant pain in the arse type way.Having said that I've been in relationships where I can't wait to swap text messages and I wonder if I'd still be so bothered about my own space etc if I met someone where sparks were flying in all directions.


I wasn't sure I'd hear from her again and I certainly wasn't going to do any chasing but she did text me this morning to say it was good to see me again so who knows if we'll get together again in future.


After the holiday Monday last week this week has felt like a long one and I'm looking forward to chilling out and hitting the poker tables this weekend.Im looking forward to catching up with "The Apprentice" and a few other current favourites like "Homeland" and "The Undatables" though if I'm not careful I may be starring in the latter one day.

It's El Classico time again on Saturday night and I can't wait to see Barcelona and Real Madrid go head to head again.Still tame compared to a Rangers v Celtic game but it should be good none the less!

Right time for a big greasy sausage supper then da poker....

Glam's the new Gorgeous...

After a decent start to the month at the virtual felt the last four Mtt sessions have been a bit of a nightmare.I remember reading Kennl ( top Mtt pro) say recently on Raise the River that the secret to Mtt success is to "play well and run well".I'm definitely still working on the first part and if I'm going to stick at Mtt's I'm not going to moan too much about running badly at crucial moments over a few sessions.Afterall, unless I actually win every Mtt I play there's always going to be a sob story somewhere!

Here's one hand I wasn't sure about.When I looked back over the hand history I saw that it was a $27 Bounty Turbo tourney ($5 bounty) and perhaps it was a nitty fold.My logic was that the first raiser was very tight and I had been very tight too.It was the first blind level and after all the 3 and 4 bets went in I just couldn't see what I could beat.




Mind you by about 2.30am early on Sat morning I could barely see the tables never mind what I could beat.I played a wee bit of $50nl Zoom before bed and came very close to shoving all in preflop with 6h7d when I glanced at my screen and thought I only had 50 chips left in a tourney instead of the $50 cash game stack I really had!

On the poker superstar front I did have Elky at my "Hotter $55 Turbo" table for a short time before his AK was beaten by some fish overplaying A10.It did amuse me that one minute I'm sitting on the pan reading his "Raisers Edge" book on my kindle and the next he's at my table.

Despite being about $300 down for April I'm still enjoying playing Mtt's.I won't play any more $51 Hypers though as the variance is just too high.I should also probably cut down the numbers of tables I play to try and focus more on individual decisions, but Mtt's are such a numbers game I'd rather learn by playing as many as I can.

Away from the poker life isn't too bad.Tomorrow night I'm catching up with Step A and on Thursday evening I'm going out on another date with the girl I was out with last September.She went away for 8 weeks to New Zealand to follow the rugby world cup and I didn't hear from her again until just before Xmas when we were due to meet up again.She cancelled as she was running behind schedule that day and although we talked about meeting up over Xmas she never got in touch and I thought that was that.She got back in touch last month and I'm just going to play it cool and see how it goes.

There's also a girl I meet sometimes with her dog when walking Nacho.I've always thought she was quite cute but I met her on Friday night as she was heading out for the night and she looked stunning.Being the master of smooth chat I asked her if she was going somewhere special and when she replied saying she was just going to her friends I paid her the ultimate compliment of saying she looked " very glam". FFS! Gene Simmons looks glam and so did Marc Bolan.No wonder I'm single.

Thanks for reading.Back soon...

Spikeaments!

As per yesterdays post I stuck to my plan,had an earlyish dinner and hit the tables after watching a TPE training video to get me in the right frame of mind.I also added No Cash
,Awesome Hutch ,The Riverbed Diaries and Greg's Seo1990
blogs to my sidebar.If any other genuine poker bloggers would like to swap links just drop me a comment or email.( especially if I've deleted your link and you've made a blogging comeback!)

Anyway to the poker and I registered for 19 Mtt's ranging from a $5 Hyper to a $55 standard speed game,rolled a few up and waited for the fun to begin.It didn't and I crashed out of game after game and even fired up some $15 180 player turbo's to keep me busy.With no joy in those either I was left with only a few tables open and my Stars roll down under the $2.6k mark.

Going out of a $25 Hyper in 14th from 897 starters for $161 after shoving AJs from the button into the big blinds AA caused Nacho to look up as I loudly told nobody in particular to "f*ck off"!

I did at least get the pleasure of beating Mr Watch Name again in another hand,although to be fair it was completely standard and it's not as if I outplayed him.



I was still in the $44 ,$25 Gtd Turbo although I was left crippled when I lost the hand below right on the money bubble.



On the next hand I was left with 965 chips in the big blind and got lucky after calling a raise with K10 v KQ and hitting a 10 on the river to stay alive.My A9 beat KQ a couple of hands later and I was back to having 10 big blinds and a fighting chance.I did miss a couple of spots where I could have got my money in ahead and doubled up, but overall having played a ton of sngs/hyper sngs,I'm quite comfortable playing a shortstack.

I managed to duck and dive a bit,stealing around once per orbit to stay alive.There were quite a few big names left in the game too and I found it quite amusing that only last week I'd downloaded an interview with Moorman1 from Oneouter.com and had been listening to it as I walked Nacho and here I was at his table.He's won over $7.5 Million at online Mtt's ( more than anyone else)and with the exception of Burnley Mik
he's considered to be the best Mtt player in the world.

Still,he did say in the Oneouter interview that his greatest fear in poker was tangling with the mighty Zagga at the virtual felt and I'm sure that was reinforced when I completely outplayed him.... in this plays itself, totally standard hand below!



I also kept an eye on the other tables in the tourney and was hoping to play with Stars pro TalonChick at some point.I can't be the only bloke to constantly rewind the bit on her 2+2 Pokercast advert where she threatens to put listeners in a "downward dog" in the sexiest voice I've ever heard! ( well maybe apart from Clare Grogans in Gregorys Girl) What do you mean I am the only bloke that does that? Ahh well!

I mentioned before that in the run up and at previous final tables I've been shaking with excitment and trying very hard to keep myself calm enough to play well.I think I'm over that now as I didn't feel any nerves at all playing this one.Perhaps that was down to so nearly going out after that AK hand and the fact that even when I did make the final table I was very shortstacked and had pretty much satisfied myself with cashing for the $520 that ninth place brought.

As it was I managed to creep up a couple of places before I shoved A2 and lost to J7 for a $1371 payout.

As with nights where I've lost $400-$500 in buy-ins, aside from a quick fist pump I didn't really feel too up or down about it.$1371 may be my 2nd biggest Mtt cash but it really just gives me the fuel to keep taking shots at the $44-$50 level when I should probably be doing it the hard way and learning Mtt's at lower limits,especially with my limited bankroll.

Off work tomorrow for Easter Monday.I read an article in the paper last week that said most kids in the UK think Easter is a celebration of the birth of the Easter Bunny.Made me smile!Hopefully I'll be celebrating more Mtt cashes as I plan to get a bit of a Sunday grind on later.

Back soon...

Tainted Tainted Tainted!

Congrats to Celtc on their tainted,hollow league title win!

As our captain says,“Celtic went on a great run and there is no taking away from that, but we were just four points behind when we went into administration.

“Losing the ten points was a big blow. Then you know about everything that was going on. We lost games I don’t think we would have lost had we not been put in that position.

“If it was the other way round, we’d have received a massive boost had they been deducted ten points.

“It was a hammer blow to us to get that and we had a bad run of results after we went into administration.

I also liked this article
from the New York Times on my teams predicament this season.

Overall it's not been a bad week.I took Step A over to my Mum and Dads place on Tues evening to see my wee nephew.The wee man has now added putting his thumbs up when asked what the Fonz does.

The girl I met up with last September has been back in touch and we've arranged a date for a week on Tues.She's away looking after her brothers kids this weekend and is off to Amsterdam next Sat/Sun.She did say she was free this Tues but with me being off work for Easter Monday I'd rather leave it until my head is a bit clearer as I intend to enjoy late smoke filled nights tonight and tomorrow night!

I was reading that the company behind Full Tilt are recruiting and people are taking this as a sign the site will be back soon.With the Tapie group behind it I'll certainly never be depositing another penny on FT.Still,I'm looking forward to seeing how the much talked about big live poker game at Wembley stadium goes next month.....

I suppose I was quite lucky in that I only had a Step 2 tourney ticket on Full Tilt when Black Friday struck.I think I initially signed up via a referal from my mate Al Eleven and took a $25 bonus instead of the 27% rakeback deal most players seemed to be on.That always pissed me off but in hindsight it was definitely a blessing.

I usually write a few bullet points when writing a blog post and expand on them.I had intended writing about how playing Mtt's has really helped me fall in love with poker again after I grew a bit bored of the mindless button mashing auto pilot mode required for hyper/sng games.

I only played about 8-10 Mtt's last night and my new found love of those games was tested to the limit as I crashed to two outer after two outer.I did win a couple of buy-ins at the $50nl Zoom tables before hitting the sack at least I suppose.

There was also a guy from the Moshman staking company on the 2+2 Pokercast this week and he described winning Mtt players graphs as "down,down,down,down,spike" so hopefully if I keep plugging away and getting better I'll hit a few upward spikes soon.

Right,time to head to Ibrox to watch the Gers play St Mirren in front of another full house.The plan is to grab dinner on the way home and get a decent amount of Mtt's fired up.

Back soon...

Stats + Donking with the Stars

Poker results are about the long term but at 3.30am this morning I was looking at losses of about $800 for the month of March and wondering if I was deluding myself that I was simply running badly and that I was only a few key flips away from making a decent profit.

By 4.15am I'd managed 6th place in a $44 Turbo for just under $500 and although it was still a month of bad beats and lost flips that certainly was a welcome boost.

I played around 21 Mtt's in total yesterday with my buy-ins coming in at around $400-$500 and having bought in for similar amounts most nights when I play I suppose a net loss of $300-ish for the month is really neither here nor there as far as letting me know if I'm going to make a long term profit playing Mtt's.

Anyone that knows me or reads this blog will know I don't do celebrity culture and big names don't impress me.Having said that it did feel quite cool to play at the same table as the WSOP Main event champ Pius Heinz in one game last night, although I managed to completely donk off my stack to someone else within a few minutes of being at his table.

I also had Mike "Timex" McDonald on my left for over 100 hands in another game and even managed to win a couple of decent pots from him.Stick that on your wiki page alongside your $3.4m in tourney winnings Mr watch name!

I knocked John Dayton ( used to watch his training vids on Float the turn) out of one tourney and also shared the same table as this weeks 2+2 Pokercast guest "Mement Mori" as well as guys like Kleath,Busto_Soon,BigHuni and Tournament Poker Edge pro DannyN13.

I'm pretty sure I even spotted the legendary "Blue Scouse" at my $50nl Zoom table ( and up 5 buy-ins!) as I played a few hands before bed.

Watching the TPE vids is certainly improving my game although after years of cash and sng poker I almost feel like I'm starting over again with trying to learn how to play Mtt's.

I'm not sure how many final tables I'll have to make before I stop shaking with excitment when I make one, although I did discover last night that some vigorous excercise in between hands seems to burn off a bit of the adrenaline and lets me calm down and focus on playing well.

Pokestars $3228 ( - $298) Party $0 ( cashed out $597)

Total Roll $3228

Back soon...