Wee battle won..

I’m feeling a bit more flush today after winning a wee battle with my car insurance company over the £600 excess they wanted to charge me for the repairs to my car.( after hitting that poor fox the other week) £350 was my voluntary excess and I’d originally missed the fact that there was a £250 compulsory excess also due. Luckily I still had the original quote and confirmation of purchase and neither of those emails mentioned the £250 charge so I complained.In the end I had to pay another £57 to upgrade my policy, but they agreed to waive the compulsory £250 charge ,saving me about £200 overall.As the repair ended up costing over £1200 I suppose that was a bit of a result.

I thought my week was getting even better when an attractive young lady at my work asked if I was doing anything on Friday night. As it happens I’m going to York with the family for my cousins wedding on Saturday, but I am free next Friday...which thankfully I didn’t mention as she was only looking for someone to cover her 6pm finish!

I am looking forward to the York trip although I’ll be heading back up the road quick style on Sunday to be at Ibrox for the vital Rangers v Hearts game. I hear our rivals ground has been closed due to the swine flu outbreak.It seems it has affected most Piggery’s. Oh and I did call the swine flu helpline but couldn’t hear the operator due the crackling on the line.No more hogging this post with crap jokes …

On the poker front things have been looking up a bit over the last few days. I’ve managed a few wins at the $22 Party turbo sngs to leave me close to breaking even across all sites for the month.( including bonuses) I’ve cashed out $1k from ‘Stars and intend to stick mostly to Party from now on as I’ve made over $200 in bonus and cashed in Party points this month.

Ok,thanks for reading.Back soon….

The OMG Man...

I had a fine evening before hitting the tables quite late on last night.I wish I hadn't bothered!

If I was the "wow" man on Monday,last night I became the "omg" man as that was one of the comments in the chat box after another miracle two outer duly arrived for my opponent.I felt as if I never really got into that zone where most decisions are automatic and the game just seems to flow.

The repeated beats and lost races took it's toll in a couple of the 15 games I played and I had to correct myself after a couple of tilty bad calls and plays.Running into monsters constantly was a continual problem and I even finished the night with a horrible bubble finish after being chipleader.

I'm not going to moan and whine too much though.
I lost $130 last Monday and about $160 last night, however those were my only losing nights over the last wee while and overall I'm happy with my profits.

Dinner tonight at Mother and Father Acorns followed by the RTR league game at 8.30.I'm struggling to stay awake writing this but if I'm still even half alert at 1am I'll be joining the Canadian and US bloggers for Kats $1 rebuy donkament.

Home game tomorrow at Ibrox and the s-man will be over later on Sat evening.

Oh it's great being back at work.My first complaint letter from a customer informed me that our company have "pulled-down their over sized corporate pants and done a diarrhoea-shit all over me",followed by the information that "I wont write to the Queen,she's elderly now and I don't want to trouble her".Lucky old Liz!

Ok,back soon...

Double Donk Out + PT Screen shot

After spending hours throwing together yet another cullinary delight, ( 5 mins in microwave for a ready made chicken meal) I watched an Sbrugby HU vid and loggged on for the Bloggerment and RTR game.

It was a bit of a letdown that the pro's who were supposed to be playing in the RTR game didn't show, as it was watching guys like Simon "Aces" Trumper on Ch4's late night poker that brought me to poker in the first place,however the overlay and chance to go to Nottingham were still worthy prizes.

In the Bloggerment I was lucky enough to beat Kats QJ with KK on a board which gave us both a full house in the end, but I didn't really seem to catch many other hands there and I soon found my stack dwindling.Another blogger tourney and another case of running into Aces for me as Hammerheid scudded my Nolan sisters ( QQ) with his pocket rockets.

I had just crashed out of the RTR game ( 11th I think) after making a move on Kronsdat with 44.I obviously didn't want him calling when I shoved over the top of his raise and had hoped ( he's solid enough to lay a hand down) to get him to fold A5-AJ and 22-99 and hands like KQ.He probably realised I was making a move though and made a good call with his 88.

I came 6th in a wee $6 turbo ( 18 player) I played with Rosie and Juice afterwards before playing 10 minutes of cash poker at 365.

One big difference watching Cardruner vids has made to my game is that I used to want to wait until I had a very tight image before making any moves at cash tables.

Last night on the 2nd hand I had A10 in the small blind and there were two limpers before the action was on me.( 6 max $50nl table) I had considered a 5bb raise and even thought about folding ( due to being out of position) but instead I raised 6bb ( to $3) and they all folded.It was only a tiny pot but one I probably wouldn't usually make a move at and I'll need every edge going if I'm to move beyond $100nl.

On the topic of moving up I've already played a good few thousand hands at $100nl but mostly at full ring tables.I feel I can say after 3 years that I can beat $50nl 6 max but I've not proved to myself that I can consistently beat $100nl 6 max yet and that has to be my next step.( along with shots at $200 and $400nl).

I'd love to have it in my nature to be able to take $1k from my roll ,sit at a $5-$10nl table and take a real shot at taking a shortcut to success, but the thought of losing $1000 of hard earned ( hours of $50 nl grinding) profit over a few bad beats stops me taking the plunge.

Looking after Nacho tonight,Barcelona at Ibrox tomorrow night,Wed night I'm looking after Step A,Thus I have Nacho again and then it's the weekend.Roll on...

Pokertracker screenshots for my records.

Caledonia

I didn't play much poker on Tuesday after the game and none at all on Wed night when I was up at the ex's looking after Step A.It was great to see her, although I must remember her hair is "crimped" and not curled.( apparently!)

I usually ask her what subjects she is doing at school that day and when she said she had PE ( physical education) first thing on Thursday morning I said "well that'll wake you up" to which she replied "you always say that".I do?!!

I probably repeat myself just as often in this blog and I'm surprised I don't get more "you always say that" type comments!

Last night after giving Nacho a good run out at the local football pitches I eventually hit the tables,running KK into AA in my first $16 turbo and crashing out of the second.I fired up a third one and was doing fine until I ran 88 into QQ.The flop was all clubs and also brought me my 8!

Although I was happy with my set ,the villain held the Queen of clubs and after the turn brought a blank ,the river delivered.....another blank and I actually felt stunned that for once I had sucked out and inflicted a beat on someone!

Of course normal service resumed when I went out fourth ( in the money at least as it was an 18 player)after having my KK busted by AK when an Ace flopped.

I'm really looking forward to this weekend.I have Nacho again tonight and after a dinner and a long walk it's the raisetheriver league game.

Tomorrow I'm off to Ibrox to watch the Gers play Hibs and around 7 ish The Big Chap,Dudley and Hammerheid are meeting at my place.My cousin will be driving us down to the S-mans place where we'll meet up with the San Jose Salmon,have a few drinks n smokes and play some poker.

Ok, before I go I posted an youtube clip of the amazing Amy Macdonald the other day and Mr Cloud and I agreed on what a great album she has out.I didn't realise though, until last night, that at the end of the last track ( if you leave it running), she does a cover version of Frankie Millers "Caledonia", which is one of my favourite songs.In fact it's the only song I've ever attempted to sing Karaoke style.( and even that was thousands of miles away in Gran Canaria!)

Here's Frankies original version..

Tourney time

I seem to play an awful lot of tourneys for a cash game player!Last night I played three,starting with the Raisetheriver league game, where I managed to scrape into 6th place after a tough game.I don't remember many hands apart from forcing Burnley Mik to lay down his 77 with my overpair to the board, and then going out when I pushed my k2sooted into Dudleys k10.( blinds high by that point)

After I crashed and burned I watched the game play out, and then hit the 365 cash tables where I left with a $5 profit after playing for more than an hour.

A Stars $16,18 player turbo was calling my name and I managed to take it down for a nice wee boost, before remembering Katitudes Friday night $1 donkament rebuy game on Full Tilt, and that was my next stop.One rebuy and one add on was all that I required, and eventually out of 15 runners, I finished 2nd at 5.15am for a $33 pay out.It may have been a $1 donkament but the play was pretty solid most of the time,especially at the final table.

The headsup battle lasted around 20 minutes and swung one way then the other with both of us hitting the occasional miracle card to stay in at times.I eventually went out when my J10 push on a King high board was called by J9soooted and the flush hit on the river.

Not long back from Ibrox where Rangers continued the good start to the season with a 7-2 win over Falkirk with goals from Cousin ( 2), Darchville, ( 2) Whittaker,Boyd and Broadfoot.It's still very early in the season to be thinking about bringing the league title back home, but the chances of us winning a world record 52nd league title are certainly looking better than they were last season.( which isn't saying much considering how crap we were then!)

I had to laugh at the guy behind me as he spends most of the 90 mins abusing our own players and the moment Boyd fired off a long crossfield pass today he was yelling "Boyd ya useless c*nt,what the f*ck is that?" and when it finally landed with pin point accuracy right at the feet of another Gers player he quickly added "lucky,very lucky".The motormouth then asked if we were on drugs for singing Boyds name ....just before Boydy swept the ball into the net! To be fair the motormouth is always willing to laugh about it when he gets it wrong like that and the games wouldn't be the same without him.

I've had my season ticket for about 11 years now ( ever since I started my Mon-Fri office monkey job)and there's a fair few characters near my seat in the traditional Rangers end.I detest the politically correct attitude pervading all of society these days and enjoy letting off steam at the game on a Saturday.I'm not one to sit and politely applaud my team.I begin in a fairly calm ( usually exhausted after a 5am poker finish!)manner, before getting to my feet at the first bad tackle or poor refereeing decision.As the match rolls on I get more and more animated and passionate about what's going on, until it's time to cheer the team off,hit the board overhead on the way out, and get ready to do it all again next week.

Pasta and poker are the plans for this evening.Don't forget to register for tomorrows Bloggerment 22 game.See previous posts for details...