Quarter finals here we come....

Hey Y'all,how ya doing already? That seemed an appropriate opening line to todays post as my body clock seems to have moved on to Eastern Standard Time over the course of the last week,with last night being no exeception.5.15 am to bed and up just before 2pm today.It'll have to stop!

My night began with the most nervy 90 minutes of football I've watched in a very long time.Rangers were 2-0 up from the first leg and the Germans threw everything bar the kitchen sink at us in their home leg,scoring not long after half-time and continuing to pile on the pressure right until the final whistle.Big Shagger McGregor in goals was superb and made several great saves and one world class effort where he pushed a certain goal bound shot onto the bar.

We did see it through,winning 2-1 over the two legs and now face Sporting Lisbon in the quarter finals and PSV/Fiorentina in the semi-final if we can beat the Portugese giants.Roll on!

To the poker and I played two $16's before the Riverchasers game and took 2nd in both.The Riverchasers game was at 1am and I didn't get off to a great start after raising AJ in late position and betting on every street of an Ace high ragged board,only to lose to AK.The only saving grace was that I controlled the pot size and didn't completely cripple my stack...until a few hands later when I raised the hammer,took a stab on a missed flop and had to fold to a reraise.Not long after that I shoved A10 and ran into AQ.

I fired up some $12,180 player turbs on Stars and didn't have any joy at all,despite getting quite deep in a couple of them.My cousin popped over, we chatted about the Rangers game and I blamed him for being a cooler as I bombed out of yet more $16 and $12 turbs!

Three more before bed was the cry and although I bubbled one in teeth gnashing fashion,I took down the last two games of the night to leave me $178 up over 14 games played.

The turbs are such a rollercoaster though.On Monday night I lost $130 and hated the sight of them and now after a decent week at 'em I feel like I've finally found the poker niche that works for me.Making 8bb/100 at $50nl was fine but I never felt that I had as good a handle on those games as I do at the turbs where I feel like I can compete with most players on my day.( at my level and cards willing!)

My major game weakness is still the mid stages of standard speed mtt's.I struggle balancing my turbo instincts with adjusting to the slower structure.I only really play Blogger games at slow speed and although I'd like to have won a few more ( Kats Donkament and 2nd place in the first season of the RTR league are as good as it gets)I'm quite happy to play 'em for the fun and chat,focusing on my core turbs for profit.


Tonight is the first RTR league game of season 3 and hopefully I'll be there! I had been hoping to get across to the s-mans tonight but Mrs A is going out and has asked me to look after Nacho.

Great news on tv just now.Shannon Mathews,the wee girl missing for weeks,has been found alive.Sadly these type of cases all too often seem to end with a body being found so it's fantastic that she's been found unhurt.I don't know the full story yet but the main thing is that she is ok!

My cousin popping over last night reminded me of an amusing moment we had when attending the launch of The Alea casino in Glasgow a couple of weeks ago.We were standing on the smoking terrace over looking the River Clyde when my cousin asked about the bridge we could see further down.I informed him that it's Glasgows newest bridge,known as the "Squinty Bridge".He then proceeded to enquire as to how the cars managed to get up and down over that big arch safely....( if it's not obvious ,I had to explain to him that the big arch is above the road!)



Ok,that's about it for today.I know it's late but if anyone from the UK is still up tonight and fancies letting off some steam ,hit up Kat's game on Full Tilt.Let's keep the title on these shores!

Katitude's Friday:Blogger Donkament
Full Tilt, 9:00 PM EST 1:00 AM GMT
Password: donkarama
$1 + $1, unlimited rebuys + one add-on, NLHE

The beats go on...

I chatted to Rosie for a wee while last night before a friend popped over for a wee smoke and the usual fine banter.Many things can seem more amusing after a little herb and the sight of my friend donning a rubber glove to ensure his fingers didn't carry any smell home with him certainly tickled my funny bone.

After he left I hit the tables and continued to be screwed over at almost every turn.I kept Klopzis comment about staying positive in mind and managed to only lose $45 over 18 games but once again if the team from Candid Camera had jumped out from behind my sofa and asked me to "smile",I wouldn't have been too surprised!

I four tabled at times but mainly stuck with 2-3 which allowed me to play better and pick up some reads on the villains.Looking closely at my own play,I felt I was on form and playing well for most of the night.In fact I take it as a positve that my luck could run so very badly and yet I only dropped $45.That may seem odd, however I've been playing long enough to recognise a cold streak and that is most certainly something I'm having to deal with right now.I was almost tempted to make another video on the subject of running badly and playing through it.

My Stars roll is down nearly $400 this month and I'm determined ( cards willing) to get that sorted as the downswing I'm on can't last forever.It reminds me of my first casino visit on my 18th birthday.I worked as a driver for a Chinese restaurant and the owners took me for dinner and some roulette.As I ate a fine steak and chips I could see display boards which showed the numbers/colours that had come up at each roulette table.I had no idea of ( still not much of a clue)how probabilty worked and everytime I saw there had been a streak of 10-15 red or black numbers coming up in a row,I wanted to dash up to the gaming floor and bet the other colour as the red or black streak just had to be on the verge of ending...

I'm trying to view my recent downswing as just being one of those statistical streaky runs.If red was winning a coin flip or even an 80/20 then my display board just happens to be very black with only the occasional red thrown in.Apart from staying emotionally stable ( not tilting) there's not much I can do other than to keep banking my $3 Sklansky bucks profit per game and hope there's more red appears on my personal display board sometime soon.

I don't like getting myself so tired ( see last Sundays pathetic self-pitying post) that I can't retain a sensible perspective on the game but I suppose most poker players find that occasionally it all just seems so damn tough at times.

I have discovered the joys of Ginseng tea this week and now drink a few cups of it per day along with the green tea I've also been drinking a lot of recently.One of the cardrunners vids talked about drinking tea to help the mind.( talked about using excercise too but one thing at a time!)I honestly believe the mental boost these teas give can really help with focusing and making correct decisions at the tables and in life.It's hard to describe but they seem to help with an overall feeling of wellbeing and positivity.Maybe there's a reason the Chinese have been drinking them in one form or another for over 5000 years...

Hmm just checked my post and there's an invite for the grand opening of the Alea casino in Glasgow on Feb 28th complete with champagne reception and entertainment.I reckon I fancy a bit of that!

Ok,time to drop Nacho off shortly before hitting the tables to see if the good people at Riverstars have come up with any new unique ways to piss me off even further at their tables....

Much more and I run away....!