Time to Relax....

The four days I had off work for the Jubilee celebrations calmed my stress levels down somewhat and finding out my manager has gone in for a last minute minor operation she's been waiting on and won't be back for 4-6 weeks also cheered me up ,although her replacement is as useful as an ashtray on a motorbike.I finished up yesterday for two weeks and I walked out the building with a spring in my step, looking forward to my well earned break.

Step A was over on Wed night and I did consider asking her if she wanted to stay in my flat and look after Nacho for a couple of nights so I could get away somewhere for a change of scenery, but although she's a good kid ( she's 18 in August)I think I'd still be worrying about having a flat to come back to if I chose that option!

After the Mtt cash I posted about last week it's been all downhill since then and I appear to be stuck in another of those runs where I can't get a hand to hold up or win a flip when it counts.

I've written that I enjoy playing Mtt's even when running like crap but last night really tested that theory.Everton Yorkie started a thread on Raisetheriver asking how people review their Mtt hand histories and I nearly replied to say my reviews tend to consist of looking at my exit hands the next day and thinking "Yeah I was fuckin' robbed again".

After crashing out of most of the Mtt's I was in last night I had built a big stack in a $16.50,$25k gtd turbo and was a top 20 stack with 168 left ( just in the money).After having countless premium hands busted all night I really thought that game could have been the one to help get things moving in the right direction again.That was until I 3-bet an early position raiser with two black Aces,he flat called and the rest of the money went in on an all diamond board.I expected him to have at least a flush draw but no,his Ad8d had flopped the nuts at odds of over 120-1 and I was screwed again.That really stung!

Even when I wasn't getting tortured by the deck at showdown it was just one of those nights when every c-bet I made was reraised when I had nothing and everytime I did have it they folded or sucked out on me.

Ahh well once again I'm down to the barebones of a bankroll,although I do still have some Party Poker cashout money sitting in my bank account.If I burn through that too I have a decision to make.I do have enough spare cash to put more in but I've been fortunate enough over my 7 years of online poker play to have never needed to do that and just the thought of it makes me feel a bit grubby.

The last time I added some Party money to my Stars account the software asked me if I wanted to add an "instant deposit" button to my tables and for a second I felt a bit guilty about all the losing ,gambling addicted players who use that option to stay in the games and keep donating their money to me.

If I do blow through my remaining roll and Party money I'll probably back myself with a couple more deposits before going back to sng's and grinding my roll back up if that doesn't work.

I do also plan on playing some live poker during over the next two weeks although my local casino offering a "re-register within the first hour" option on most of their tourneys does put me off a bit as I'd imagine they'd play a bit more like rebuy games and I generally stay away from them.

Unless I have anything decent to report from my online/live games I'm going to take a wee break from the blog over the next couple of weeks.

Time to relax...

God Save the Queen!

After a highly stressful horrendous week at work I'm off until next Wednesday thanks to a days annual leave on Monday and the day off we've been given to celebrate the Queens Diamond Jubilee on Tuesday.After my 3 day week next week I'm off work for my two week summer break.

At work I moved into a new team a few weeks ago.I work dealing with complaints and we are measured on our closure rates as well as other factors.My new team has a far higher closure rate than my old one and when I looked into why it was because another team ( who do related work) were handing them cases that had been dealt with and just needed closed.I bit my tongue at the first team meeting I attended where my new boss was telling everyone ( except the three of us who had just moved to her team) how great they were for doing so well.

When she informed me I was on a "pre-coaching" plan for under performing over recent weeks I emailed her the evidence of all the cases her team were handed on a plate and she sent me some bullshit reply and said we would discuss it at a one to one when I'm back from my hols.Part of me thinks "Bring it on biatch" but really I just want to get on with my job without all this crap going on.

A company wide offer to leave with a years salary is on the table again and for a moment I was tempted.I'm lucky enough to earn aprox double what people doing a similar job in other companies earn though ( the only reason I've been there 17 yrs!)and in todays job market walking away now just doesn't make much sense.I'd certainly have a more than decent bankroll to grind Mtt's though!

I was due to go on a date with another internet burd last night but she emailed on Wed to say she had a throat infection and to be honest after the week I had I was quite glad to just be able to come home,eat a nice big juicy steak with chips,roll up a fat joint and hit the poker tables.She goes to Tenerife next week so if "throat infection" isn't the secret code for " beat it,I've met someone else" maybe we'll meet up when she gets back.

Would be great to find love,have kids and then to quote Irvine Welsh in Skagboys suffer "the four Ds: disenchantment, divorce, disease and death." I'm such a cynic!

To the poker and I hit the Mtt's last night after dinner,playing a mix of buy-ins from $5 to $55 while watching "The Apprentice" and a bit of "Question Time".I used to love QT when Sir Robin Day hosted it but stopped watching a couple of years ago after becoming bored of MP's trotting out the same tired old crap week after week.Vicky Coren was on this week ( introduced as Broadcaster and Columnist with no mention of her poker skillz!) and as I've always liked her and admired her fine set of chebs I tuned in.

Not for long though as A)There was no sign of her fine chebs and B)she pissed me off when an audience member asked about the drop in standards with the budget being leaked early and how that used to be a resignation issue compared to these days when leaking the budget seems standard practice.Vicky completely ignored the question and went off on her own smug wee rant about the budget.

Ahh poker.Sorry! I managed a couple of small cashes before finally making a deep run in the $9 ,$5k Gtd Final Table Only Pays tourney.Until the final table ( 4th time I've final tabled this tourney) I tried to treat it as a winner takes all game and played a bit more aggro than usual to try and chip up.With Mtt's being such bet/3 bet/4bet/shove it all in fests these days I actually think playing a more TAG type style can be very effective much of the time.The games can be so aggro that whenever it does finally fold to me it's tempting to make a move simply because the chance to open raise without any action previously doesn't seem to come round very often as the tourney goes on.

Anyway this post is long enough so I'll finish by saying I should probably have picked up more pots at the final table but after starting it 9/9 coming 5th for $458 wasn't too bad.( ran Q9 into KK).

Back soon...