There's only one Nacho Novo!

The Nacho man did the business again for Rangers yesterday,scoring the equaliser against the Greeks with less than ten minutes to go to send us through to a tough last 16 game with Werder Bremen.It wasn't pretty to watch but it was effective.Roll on the next round!

After the game I ventured out to the local pub to join their pool club and spent an enjoyable couple of hours playing my cousin.The jukebox was playing 80's stuff and I did find it quite funny that my younger cousin thought Fergal Sharkey was a snooker player rather than a singer and had never heard of OMD or Heart.Mind you I checked with Juice later last night and he thought Mr Sharkey was a historian!! The ignorance of todays yoooth!


I've been stuffed with the cold all week and didn't really feel like playing poker when I got back from the pub.....so I fired up a couple of Stars $16 turbs and promptly got suckered again.It was especially frustrating as I'd built a decent stack on both tables before being scudded.I did manage to win one on Wed night which helps, but I feel like I've gone from making decent money in these games to treading treacle.

My main poker goal is to make as much money as possible and my next attainable goal is to break the $4k profit barrier at turbo sngs.According to sharkscope I'm at around $3.5k and it's getting very frustrating trying to get over that $4k hurdle.

Overall I reckon I handle the huge variance in the turbo games quite well but I think that mentally I'm still a long way from where I want to be.I'm also worried about my multi-tabling abilities and wonder if I'll ever be able to 4-8 table the $16's and still make decent money.

I mentioned I've not been enjoying the turbos recently.Why do I play them? $$$$$! I've got my Rangers season ticket to pay for in May ,my car insurance in June and I'd quite like to use poker profit to get a holiday and pay next years council tax bill.

I did hit a Bet 365 $50 nl 6 max table after last nights turbo beats and although it was only a short 20 min session and I only won $20,it really felt good to be playing some post flop poker for a change.

Ok,Don't forget to register for Sundays Britbloggerment.Open to all bloggers,readers and friends of bloggers and readers!

I run so goot...

I really enjoyed the RTR league game last night.Congrats to Burnley Mik on winning the series.It was between BM and Rickyrosa and it was fun reraising BM until Ricky had his Aces busted and BM had the title in the bag!

I continued to run badly and bubbled in the RTR game after my JJ was rivered by 22.I hit up a $6 turbo with Juice afterwards and bubbled in that one too, before Juice headed off and I ran into beat after beat to go about 0/12 without cashing.

I think the forumla for beating turbos is probably about 30% skill,30% luck and 40% emotional control.My Stars roll at the beginning of Feb was $2742 and at one point last night that had been reduced to $2382 and I felt like I'd never cash again!

I even remembered Kats rebuy donkament but I was in poker hell at the time,3 tabling and getting scudded at every turn and was in no mood for light hearted fun and rebuy donkery!

I told myself to keep playing as well as I could and thankfully I managed three wins which meant I actually finished the night up $82 over 18 games.I hit the sack about 4am because my neck was really stiff and painful.Thankfully it feels far better today.

I only have about £1200 outstanding on my credit card at the moment and I'm due a cheque from the insurance company for £700 ( after the ex's car was torched a while back) which will go towards that.I've just withdrawn $1000 ( £509) from Ladbrokes to completely clear the card balance.( for now!) It seems daft to have about $7k online at various poker sites when I'm still paying interest every month to a card company and I don't intend playing much at Laddies from now on.I'm also hoping the poker will pay for my Rangers season ticket in May and car insurance in June.( not likely if my luck doesn't change!)


The plan today is to pick Nacho up shortly before heading home for more poker and a visit from the s-man later.Until then,I'm off to the discoland...

Smashing night

Woke up this morning to find someone has thrown something at my living room window and shattered the outside pane of the double glazing.I heard a noise about 2am, but my hall lightbulb had fallen out the previous night and in my half asleep state I assumed it was that again.When my tennant was in my flat I had to pay for new glass in 2005 and I have a feeling he had problems with the local neds/chavs.So much for the area being quieter than I remember!

It's not the end of the world though.My buildings insurance means it's going to cost me £50.What really makes me mad is that although he wasn't there last night,Nacho sleeps below that window ( I actually suspect he moves to the couch when I go to bed!) and it could have scared or even injured him.

I didn't want to post negative stuff today because with the Bloggerment and the Pokerstars Wccop raging last night ,the tables were buzzing.

Big thanks to Wolverine, GCox and Al Can't Hang for the Bloggerment pimpage.Obviously it helped that it started only 1 hour after the main Stars event.( and to think we nearly cancelled it this week) It was great to see 38 players turn out for the Bloggerment and even better to see so many US/Canadian playing.Every table seemed to have a good mix of nations and characters.The chat/trash talk seemed to flow easily enough too, as did the aggressive moves!

The good news for the UK/Europe is that after 30 Bloggerment games,the title stayed on these shores after Burnley Mik won heads up in the end against Bin-golfing.Congrats to BM and well done to all who took part for helping make it one of the best attended Bloggerments to date.

My own Bloggerment story came down to two main hands.I raised Rosie with A9 from the small blind,had to fold to her reraise on a Jack high ragged flop and then ran 99 into JJ.Game over in 20th position!

In the WCCOP Stars game I managed to build my stack to 32k before losing most of it when I semi-bluffed 77 and ran into K9 on a nine high flop.I hung around like a bad smell before finally going out in 337th place.

Burnley Mik was tearing up the tables and I railed him until he went out around 60th in the Wccop.I was also playing a $100 nl full ring table and left $20.No major hands to report but the cardrunners vids I have watched so far did give me the confidence to raise my aggression prefop, which seemed to work.

Ok,that's it for now.Thanks for reading...

Pushing the envelope + Monthly stats

Thanks to all who took the time to leave the emminently sensible comments I received on yesterdays post and for that long overdue confession Juice :-)))

I agree with the general consensus that although it's probably better to keep this wee ghey poker blog outwith my family,it's not a "panic,hit blog delete key" issue if it doesn't remain that way.

After Sunday evenings tomfoolery last night seemed a bit tame.I did find it quite amusing that I wrote about why I'd rather be all in when shorthanded with 56off than A7, because 56 is less likely to be dominated by a bigger Ace.( AQ,AK etc) Amusing because I came 3rd in an 18 player $16 turbo last night at 'Stars after pushing with A7 and running into the solid players AQ.The poker gods do like their fun.Two more turbo's out of the money meant a tiny profit for the night.

On the subject of fun I've mentioned my somewhat frugal nature on this blog and my workmates took advantage of that last week.I detest the "put money in an envelope" office practice which seems to see an envelope go round the office for everything from engagements to somebodys flippin cat sneezing.I've been here twelve years and have never been the beneficiary of such an envelope.( despite trying to start one for my own birthday a couple of years back!)

Well last week a colleagues house was burgled and as she was off dealing with the insurance and police I came back to my desk to find yet another collection taking place for her.I was staggered that we now have to donate our hard earned cash for such an event, but reluctantly added my generous ( £2!) donation to my colleagues before the bassa's told me the next day they were winding me up.

To the stats and here's the update for the month ending April 30th....

Pokerstars $532,Pokerroom $772,Party $812,Ladbrokes $1429,Full Tilt $1248.Total $4793(+ $160 since 15/4) Monthly profit since 31st March = +$575