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....

40 and Counting....

I mentioned the vid my Dad emailed me and decided to post it.This may be a public blog but it's my personal diary too so don't bother clicking the youtube thing unless you want to see 16 day old Acorn ( yes my Mum was in Hospital for 16 days after I was born) being brought home for the first time set to the old "Our Tune" music!

Yes I finally made it to the big 40 on Monday and went clothes shopping with my folks and then out for dinner with them and my sister.The highlight of the day was being asked if I had a student card in a clothes shop, although so far all the friends I've mentioned this to reckon the shop assistant must have had a white stick and a guide dog!

While at the shops I bouught a book called "My first thousand words" for my wee nephew.It amused me no end that on flicking through the book one of the words was "customs officer".Ok,so it's two words but why does any two year old need to know learn that?!




Two Pies was over last Sunday night and I hit the tables as usual.I'd taken Monday off work for my birthday so I registered for about 20 tourneys and included a few shots at $44's and $55's.The pain from my $55,$160 Gtd exit hand ( below) has almost gone now but it was very frustrating to finish 224th from thousands for $131 when the big money was just around the corner.



Here's a sexy wee AQ from another game....


Not much else going on this week.I did get an email out of the blue yesterday from the ex girlfriend I was engaged to 20 yrs ago and met up with last March.It simply asked if I was still single and subsequent emails/texts have been about how unhappy she is in her relationship and how she could use cheering up.That suits me fine as I don't think I really want to get back together with her but if she wants to jump my bones who am I to argue.Her man sounds like a total prick so I certainly wouldn't feel any guilt about it! She certainly knows the way to my heart though.When I mentioned being asked for a student card in that shop she replied "wow you don't look 40,no wonder you got asked for id".Couldn't agree more.....

I mentioned a while ago I've never really watched many of the mainstream HBO boxset type series.Well I've finally finished "The Shield" and would highly recommend it to anyone.I intend to go back to "The Wire" too and start off from where I left off at the end of series 2.That will have to wait though as I bought season one of "Breaking Bad" and after two episodes I'm hooked.It certainly lives up to the hype.

Time to walk Nacho and hit the tables.Back soon....