Silver Awaits...

I only require 151 frequent player points to reach Silver status on Stars for only the second time and I'm determined to make it by the end of the month! I have about 11,000 Fpp's and can't decide what to do with them.I've always fancied another crack at the Sunday Million for 13.5k fpp's even although it's probably not the most ev + option.Hmmmm.

Last night I was hoping to be looking after Step A but she was staying with a friend.I've not looked after her now for a wee while and I find that quite tough to deal with.I did have Nacho staying with me and it was a chance to test his new extended lead.It took him about 2 minutes to get it tangled and accidentally pee on it! For anyone wondering how he coped with his shower at the weekend,the answer is with great reluctance! My newly medicated mutt now reckons the bathroom is rigged and won't go near it without his tin foil coat on..

I was very tired and decided to take a break from poker last night.As a true degenerate this means I only played a couple of turb's late on and I managed a second place finish in one of them.I now start work at 8am on Thursdays and Fridays and sensibly went to my bed after those games.

I'm no maths expert but I enjoyed this Radio 4 programme on probability.The part on coin flips ( aprox 11.30mins into it) was of particular interest as it feels like I've not won a flip at the poker tables since about 2005...


Ok,that's all I've got..Oh apart from a bird crapping on my colleague when we were out for a walk at lunchtime.Good excuse for this tune....

I'm the "Wow" Man...

I came up with the post title after this hand. ( which I've managed to mention at least three times in this post!) Yes,it always seems to be my hands which generate a "wow" in the chatbox...

*** RIVER *** [Tc 3h 6c As] [Qc]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
zagga: shows [Kd Ah] (a pair of Aces)
Ms Langhorst: shows [Ac Qd] (two pair, Aces and Queens)
Ms Langhorst collected 3070 from pot
Ms Langhorst said, "wow"
*** SUMMARY ***

Our title rivals drew 0-0 last night at home which now leaves Rangers three points ahead with a game in hand,eleven games left and three of those games are against the rivals we've beaten the last three times we've played them.

It's looking more likely we will go on and win it now, however I remember Helicopter Sunday a couple of seasons back when they thought they had it in the bag and were undone in the last two minutes of the very last game.As a poker player I've been all in with AK v AQ ( last night as a matter of fact!)and watched as the Ace fell on the turn and the river brought a Queen so I'm certainly not counting any chickens yet.

I did mention previously that every time the league is close, celtc supporters look to refereeing conspiracies as an excuse and this season they have picked on a ref, Mike McCurry ,in particular as supposedly being biased against their poor hard done to club.They have injured a ref by throwing coins at him ( Hugh Dallas in '99),had private detectives follow another and broken windows at the homes of others.I don't believe any refs are biased, although I do worry that they are only human and can be affected by intimidation.Here's a quote from last nights Herald match report for example.. "Barry Robson, the £1.2m signing from Tannadice in January, was a relieved man after Mike McCurry, the match official, spared the second-half substitute a penalty concession when he momentarily appeared to cradle Mark De Vries' shot in his arms".Hmmmm!

I had fun chatting to Step A last night before arriving home and firing up the tables.I joined Al Eleven for a $16 and promptly exited with QQ v KK on the first hand and crashed out of a $12 ,180 player game too.

Next up at 2am was The Mookie blogger game on Full Tilt and I was keen to make a decent go of it,starting well after I doubled up when I actually hit my straight draw on the turn v top pair.I didn't get many more playable hands and only a couple of steals added to my dwindling stack.

It was now 3am and I could feel a serious munchie attack was required as I was starting to sweat and shake a little! I don't play good poker when hungry and it was around then that I completely screwed up and donked out.There were two limpers before it got to me in the big blind position with 66.( I may have positions wrong as my memory of the hand is rather hazy)I had about 1.5k and my first instinct was to shove and try and pick up the dead money.I convinced myself that as it was a slow speed game I should simply limp and try to take the pot post-flop.

The flop came a ragged 10 high rainbow ( no flush draws)and I decided I would check-raise if the button took a stab at it....which he did.My reasoning was that the button had limped in on a few hands and backed down and I felt he would take a stab here even if he'd missed the flop.So far so good, but when he reraised me I should have folded and fought on with my last 1k in chips instead of making the donkey call against a fairly obvious top pair top kicker.( A10)

All very disappointing especially as Change100 of Pot Committed had just sat down on my left and I was trying to work out how to say " I think your blog is great and has the best title of any blog in history" without sounding like a sad fanboy!Check out the superb Marijuana Commercial posted on March 1st.Pure class!

Anyway I was a little annoyed at myself,ate a large bowl of coco-pops and fired up four $16 turbs determined to put my Mookie donkery behind me.In the first game I lost with the AQ V AK I mentioned earlier and also went out of another with an interesting hand against a solid regular.I have decent sharkscope stats and have often wondered if I've played enough games to be considered a "regular".Regulars tend to be very very tight early on and liable to steal with a wide range at the later stages when required.

Regulars also tend to have very tight calling ranges and that's partly why I shoved my K6 sooted here against Bong in the first place.Of course if he did recognise me as a regular that's perhaps why he made the call with his A4 as he must have expected my range ( correctly) to be very wide in that spot.I'm still not sure I love his call but I've made similar with worse against regulars I think are shoving lightly.


*********** # 61 **************
PokerStars Game #15941324664: Tournament #80702250, $15+$1 Hold'em No
Limit - Level IX (300/600) - 2008/03/13 - 00:06:43 (ET)
Table '80702250 2' 9-max Seat #9 is the button
Seat 1: voltage101 (4650 in chips)
Seat 2: Bongdieeze (2972 in chips)
Seat 5: GuitosBR (8302 in chips)
Seat 6: tunarealmonn (3495 in chips)
Seat 7: teddypat (4350 in chips)
Seat 9: zagga (3231 in chips)
voltage101: posts the ante 50
Bongdieeze: posts the ante 50
GuitosBR: posts the ante 50
tunarealmonn: posts the ante 50
teddypat: posts the ante 50
zagga: posts the ante 50
voltage101: posts small blind 300
Bongdieeze: posts big blind 600
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to zagga [Kc 6c]
GuitosBR: folds
tunarealmonn: folds
teddypat: folds
zagga: raises 2581 to 3181 and is all-in
voltage101: folds
Bongdieeze: calls 2322 and is all-in
*** FLOP *** [3h As 3c]
*** TURN *** [3h As 3c] [2c]
*** RIVER *** [3h As 3c 2c] [4d]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Bongdieeze: shows [4s Ah] (two pair, Aces and Fours)
zagga: shows [Kc 6c] (a pair of Threes)
Bongdieeze collected 6444 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 6444 | Rake 0
Board [3h As 3c 2c 4d]
Seat 1: voltage101 (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 2: Bongdieeze (big blind) showed [4s Ah] and won (6444) with two
pair, Aces and Fours
Seat 5: GuitosBR folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: tunarealmonn folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: teddypat folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: zagga (button) showed [Kc 6c] and lost with a pair of Threes

One more mildly amusing ( to me at least!) tale of a close shave before I go.I logged onto Stars on Tuesday night determined not to mess about and to register quickly for my chosen games.I had already enjoyed my first herbal smoke of the night and although I believe the herb helps my play,it nearly cost me big time as I followed a link on a Stars pop up about their WSOP Steps programme.I wasn't really paying attention and as I clicked another link to open the highest step sng available( $2.1k entry fee) ,I must have automatically clicked the "register" button.Thank the poker gods that these things fill slowly because there were 6/9 already in and I was number 7 for about 2-3 minutes before I realised and withdrew quicker than a Northern Rock account holder.Phew!

Back to the four $16's I played.I've posted the two crashout hands so it's only fair to mention I won one of the other ones and I reckon I'd have taken down the last one if this hand had held.

Ok,I've got Nacho with me again today and if the rain ever stops I'm taking him a long walk before settling down to watch Rangers 2nd leg game against Werder Bremen from Germany at 7.30pm.I can feel the nerves starting already!

This is my 800th post ( wow!) and I'd like to say a quick thanks to all who read this space and who take the time to comment.I never thought I'd reach 8 posts never mind 800!

Nice to lay some foundations which is a tenuous way of linking to this very catchy tune by Kate Nash....