Chopped The Big $4.40 for $3.2k

This was going to a post that asked the great cultural questions of our time such as "Is there a Japanese woman alive that doesn't have a pixelated vagina?".

However, I did manage to win my first MTT after doing a deal when it got heads up and flipping for the actual first place so I'll write about that instead!

It was a long night and this probably wont be much of a recap as I only slept for about 4 hours when I did finally hit the sack around 9.15am this morning.

The game itself is a bit of a blur.Not surprising really considering I bought 20 cigs yesterday ,didn't smoke one and still finished the packet with a last joint at 8am this morning!I remember thinking at about 3.30am that with the blinds going up surely the game couldn't go on too much longer.By 5am I was telling myself not to make any rash moves.The game had been going so long that to blow it all with an ill thought out move would have been stupid.

As usual as the money bubble burst and the pay jumps increased I didn't pay any attention to the lobby.It was only actually when I got heads up and the other guy proposed a deal that I realised there was almost $1k of a difference just for seeing off the 3rd place guy.( My QJ out flopped his 33)

I took the deal ( based on ICM numbers) as the chipleader had 10 million chips and I had 7 Million and with the blinds so high it was going to be a luckfest as to who took it down.I was pleased because I started 3 handed play as the shortstack and kept chipping away at the other shorty and trying to play smart ICM poker.My brain was mush by that point and all my sng experience helped get me through.

Some stats.I played 909 hands ,won 23/30 pots at showdown and won 105 pots without showing down my hand.The $3186.20 score is my second biggest MTT cash ever.

Away from the poker I've enjoyed my week off so far.On Monday night I cheered on Andy Murray as he won his first Major in New York.Not bad for a wee guy from just down the road!He's not everyone's cup of tea ( my Dad says Murray has no personality) but I like the fact he's just a normal Scottish bloke and doesn't feel like he has to act like he's some X Factor contestant on a fuckin' "journey"!Hopefully the US Open title is the first of many for him.

On Tues I was over helping Step A fill in a grant request form and yesterday I was out at the local soft play place with my sister and my 2 yr old nephew.

Not sure of tonights plan.I'm too tired to play much poker but I did use some FPP's to buy a ticket to the Big $55 on Stars so I may play that.Either that or some Call of Duty followed by some Dexter/Breaking Bad.


Back soon..

Staked by Daniel Negreanu!

Well at least I'm hoping Daniel follows up on his email about the Pokerstars WCOOP with a staking offer as his email today advised that " Based on your recent tournament history, we've composed the following personalized WCOOP schedule for you ".Notice they said "we've".Wow,Daniel's sat down with his good friends at Pokerstars and come up with a schedule just for me! The "personalized" ( I'll forgive Daniel for using the US spelling when sending the email to his close personal British friend Zagga) part was in bold, but it was the recommended schedule that made me smile.Daniel must have had a few shandies at Pokerstars HQ that day. Of the 14 suggested WCOOP tourneys the lowest buy-in is $109 and the list also includes one at $530,a $1050 and the high roller $10300 entry game! Considering the highest buy-in Mtt's I play are $55 games and even then I'm taking shots on a less than $1.5k bankroll I'm just waiting on Dans staking transfer of around $13k in order that I can register for those big money tourneys.I wont hold my breath tough...


I may in fact be in jail by the time Daniel gets round to sending me that staking email offer as I had a crazy run in with the police last night.On Wednesday evening I was driving slowly up my street and had indicated to park in my usual space near my flat when a big dog shot out in front of my car.I braked hard and just clipped the dog who ran back to his owners without any injury.( or damage to my car!) The owners ( skanky looking couple) shouted something about driving too fast up the street and a neighbour who had been in the car behind me shouted back something in my defence as ( thankfully for the dog) I had slowed right up to park and had managed to apply my brakes the moment I saw the dog run out onto the road.I shouted back after the woman dog owner asking if the dog was ok ( it had vanished out of sight by then) and she ignored me so although I was a bit shaken I headed into my place and didn't think any more of the incident.


Last night after visiting my folks and playing with my wee nephew I arrived home tired and hungry and there was a police van parked on my street.What have the neighbours been up to now I thought before the officer rolled down the window and said it was me he was looking to speak to about the "accident" on Wednesday evening.It wasn't the dog owners who reported it and apparently they admitted shouting at me and said it was out of character ( which is fair enough as they probably got a shock when their dog ran out like that) but I've been charged with failing to report an accident within 24 hours which is an offence when it involves a dog.The policeman seemed quite apologetic and said it was a waste of his time and there's a 99% chance the fiscal wont proceed with any case against me but it's still hanging over me until I get that confirmation.


Still,at least my two week break from work starts now! As well as catching up with Step A,friends ,taking my nephew and sis out I also plan to play a ton of poker and watch more of my boxsets.I'm halfway through season two of the brilliant "Breaking Bad" ( season 3 has just arrived),I've watched the pilot of "Dexter" and bought season 2 today.I also have the first season of "Sons of Anarchy" and "Entourage" to watch.I only watched the first episode of "Prison Break" when my sister lent me it a couple of years back but in light of recent events perhaps I should start with that series and study it very closely.....


Back soon ( if a friendly screw lets me post from the prison library!).....

100% Effective and Fast Technique....

to make any lady wet.I had a quick check of my spam emails and found that cracker.I didn't open it as I know the answer will be "spend a summer in Glasgow". Apparently this is the wettest summer since 1912!

No posts over the last week or so because the poker had been more of the same,making deep runs occasionally but ultimately getting nowhere.I've cut down the number of $44 and $55 tourneys I've been playing to try and avoid busting my roll, but I did manage a 112th place finish in the Big $55 ( $160 Gtd) for just over $200 and last night I boosted my roll by coming 8th in the $44,$25k Gtd Turbo for $886.

It's hard to keep the faith sometimes playing Mtt's, as telling myself to keep plugging away and the big/decent score will come is the same kind of talk addicted gamblers use when playing casino games etc.Poker is different, although I think I'm beginning to appreciate just how lucky I need to run to hit a decent score and how rare those good runs of luck are.Of course that's why boring old bankroll management should be a top priority for pro players.I'm certainly not a Pro though so I'm going to keep playing a bit higher ( yeah maaaaan) than I should just for the fun of it.

I feel I played well in that $44 game last night but I also ran well too and although I don't remember sucking out very often I was on the right side of a few big hand v big hand situations and when I checked my stats just before the final table I'd won 7/8 pots at showdown.Even if those 8 showdown pots had all been AA v 72 winning seven must still be lucky despite the natural urge to feel that winning every one of those hands is just the way it should be!

I also won a ton of hands without showdown and that's where the skill edge comes into play in poker.Through watching Mtt training vids I'm also learning to look for spots more often and not to just rely on getting value from my big hands.It's a lot more satisfying inducing someone to make a spewy squeeze play when I have the nuts or 4-betting with rags and taking it down when I know the villains are weak than it ever was playing push/fold poker in Sit and go games.

Away from the poker I've been taken off the "coaching plan" I was on at work which is a bit of a relief because while they pretend "performance management" is about helping staff achieve impossible targets, the bottom line is that it can mean only months between being a hard working employee and being out the door.It kind of goes against my instincts to skim the complaints I deal with and throw more money at them than I think is right but that's how the few folk hitting the closure target do it and you can't pay the mortgage with "good instincts"!

I'm up to episode 5 of the second series of the brilliant "Breaking Bad" and thanks to Juice's recent comment on my blog ,I've also just bought the first series of "Dexter" and "Sons of Anarchy".I'm off work for two weeks from next Friday so they should keep me busy.Looking forward to taking Nacho up to see the Big Chap too and hopefully catching up with the s-man and other friends.

With the 2+2 Pokercast taking a break last week I tried a couple of new pods this week."The Brit and the American" is quite amusing although it mainly got me hooked due to the posh English Brit woman and her sexy voice.( I'm a sucker for English women with posh accents as some readers may know!)I did find their webpage after listening to a few episodes and having discovered the hot sounding English burd has ( as the Big Chap would say) seen a few frosty mornings, I'm not as keen to download any more of their shows!

Having seen the link I posted to the brilliant 50 Shades of Glasgow twitter page,my cousin Two Pies sent me this pic.50 Shades of Grey for men....