Back in the Day

Finally picked up my new Samsung 17" laptop last Friday after work and spent most of the evening getting it set up.To test the Pokertracker Hud I fired up a couple of micro heads up games but the players were so bad the Hud barely had time to kick in before the games were over.Despite hardly playing a hand of poker over the previous week I really haven't had much desire to start grinding sng's again.I did two wee sets of four games last night though and after six cashless games I was quite relieved to win the last two for a small profit.My roll is currently just under the $1k mark, and as I'm still playing far more Modern Warfare 2 than poker, I can't see it increasing by much anytime soon.

I've not been jogging again, but after 6 months off sitting on my backside on the sick, I have at least been either taking the dog for long walks or heading for an hour of stoating around the town on my lunch hour.I'm so unfit that even walking the dog round the local pitches for an hour resulted in a tight hamstring!

I have stuck to the no weed before work rule which I'm quite pleased about, although my current batch of herbs weren't cured properly before I got them and tend to give me more of a headache than a high.Perhaps I'll use all the annual leave I've accrued for a trip to the Dam after all.

At work I'm still on alternate full days and waiting to find out if they'll allow me to to a 4 day week for 6 months without having to change my contract.After such a long break, working 9-5 certainly seems like a long day!

My favourite tv show at the moment is the "Home Movie Show Uncut" on the BBC.Now I have to be honest and say when I saw on at 1am it wasn't showing quite the kind of amateur home movies I was expecting, but what it does show is footage of peoples home made films from as early as the 1930's.( many in colour) They showed a great clip the other night from the 30's where a wee old woman was complaining about all the cars on the road and saying that life just wasn't the same as it used to be 30 years ago.( Dudley was born in 1905 and says the same)

I've also been watching a few Floattheturn training vids and some Modern Warfare 2 vids on youtube.The MW2 vids make me feel old sometimes as the kids making them refer to life "back in the day" and then go on to talk about things that happened in March/April this year. Back in the day is about 1989 for me!

Ok,thanks for reading.Back soon...

Tango Sucka!

Congrats to Rosie on winning The Bloggerment last Sunday.Just a pity neither of us could cash in the sngs's we played afterwards.

I've not posted this week as my poor run has continued at the tables and I really don't feel like writing about it.I will say that this is easily my worst run for over a year and the only upside is that my luck has been so bad that I know it can't continue indefinitely.It doesn't feel like it will ever end, but I've been through huge downswings and long break even spells before and have always come out on top and I'm sure I will again.

It was heartening to check another Party reg's Sharkscope stats and see that despite being ranked number 4 on the overall 2010 profit leaderboard ( $16-$35, 9-10 seat sngs) he was still down about $1k from his last 1355 games.It's easy to slip into a "woe is me and only me" mode and forget that I'm not the only one capable of running like a sick joke.

Party Leaderboard reg: 15,299 $1 $31 4% $12,643 Party Poker SNG Only x
Party Leaderboard reg: 1,355 -$1 $36 -2% -$1,045 Party Poker <1Mths SNG Only

My cashout from Party did hit my bank account last week and although it was quick,I was a bit annoyed that Party gave me a rate of $1.56 per pound instead of the actual rate of $1.52 at the time of the withdrawal.

First on the agenda is paying for my Rangers season ticket which has been frozen at £425 for next season.This season ( so far) is going like a dream and our rivals being gubbed by a first division team ( 2-0 to Ross County) in the cup semi at the weekend was the latest joyous moment for the blue half of Glasgow."Oh Robbie,Robbie,came up to celtc and he won fuck all".Happy days and only two more league wins required to seal a world record 53rd title.

Not much else going on.I was at the Docs on Monday and got a new line for four weeks.The new sick notes introduced on April 6th give more scope to do some work and I've spoken to my boss to let her know I could work from home if required.My back is still sore but the next step is half pay ( been on full pay since the accident in Nov) and I want to get back before that happens.

Righty before I go here's a quick random tip on how to avoid having to watch those annoying adverts at the start of youtube videos.Press F5 and it skips the ad.

Ok,the s-man is coming over this evening for some more Modern Warfare 2 shennanigans.Tango Sucka!

Cashout + Silly New Poker Idea....

I played ten more $22's without a cash before winning the last two of the evening on Tuesday and hoped the worst of my bad run was over.I played three without cashing on Wednesday before deciding I'd had enough and got back to blasting peoples heads** off in Modern Warfare 2!

** Usually their toes if I'm lucky,I'm a duff shot!

Last night I went 0/9 with more of the same sick beats and coolers before finally scraping a couple of second place finishes.I've been biding my time to cash out $2k to cover a few upcoming bills and now that the election has been announced it made sense to go ahead just in case the Pound strengthens v the Dollar on the back of a new Government being elected on May 6th.( honeymoon period for the new guy etc )The cashout was approved in only a few hours ( wp Party) and it felt good to remind myself why I keep playing even when I can't seem to win a hand.I resisted the temptation to take the whole bloody lot out and never play another hand of poker again! My roll now sits at just over $2000 between Party and Stars.

All this downswinging crap has given me a nonsense idea for a new addition to poker tables.



It's been years since I read Super System but I'm pretty sure Doyle writes about playing more when running well and less when running badly.( or something along those lines) This does seem to conflict with the maths/logic which says every new hand is completely unrelated to the last one and there's no greater chance of my Aces etc being busted this week than at some other time when I was running hot.

Anyway my new idea for poker will allow everyone who always runs badly ( usually called losers!) to still profit! The idea is to add a type of betting exchange to some of the tables,allowing players to give the rest of the table better odds than the maths if they want to participate.

Ok here's an extreme hypothetical example of how it would work in a standard 10 player sit and go: I'm dealt KK and get all in preflop against AQ.The maths says I have a 71.5% chance of winning and the AQ is a 28.5% ( just under 3-1 in betting terms) underdog.Play is halted before the community cards are dealt, because despite being a big favourite mathematically to win this hand, I've not had a hand hold up since Dudley was a boy, and as I just "know" the Ace is coming,I reverse the odds, ( in reality I wouldn't be quite as generous, but you get the picture) and offer the table 3-1 on my KK holding up.They all pile on and although I still crash out the sng when the inevitable Ace hits the board,I win the sidebets!

The shortstack gets it all with QK ( one from tonight!) v the bigstacks QQ on the bubble and the maths says he is an aprox 3-1 underdog to win the hand.I'm the other shortstack and on planet Acorn right now,he's a feckin' dead cert to suck out and win, so I offer the table a small edge over the real odds and despite my upcoming bubble boy status,I laugh like a hyena as the King falls on the river!

Yep dig out the sillyosaurus,I've finally completely lost the plot!

Back soon, if I can still type with a straitjacket on...

The Lunatic is on the Grass

Playing a ton of Modern Warfare 2 has seen the poker take a back seat again over the last few days.In Playstation land there's no money at stake so multi-accounting is quite acceptable and I've now racked up a decent rank as both Stinkyp1nky and GusterBonad.Feel free to drop me a friend request on the PS3 if you're up for some Team Death Matches...

On Thursday after physio I was over visiting my folks and having been bitten by the multi-table sng bug,I encouraged my Mum to get into them and managed to help her to a win at a wee $3.40 ,45 player game.She still wants to play too many easily dominated hands ( like KJ) early in the game, but her game has certainly improved!

Last night after more COD ( Call of Duty) I decided to play a set of six games.Five $6.50's and a $12 game,all 45 player turbo's.I've played thousands of 18 player games, but I'm just starting on the 45/180 player ones and want to get a handle on exactly how they play before playing them for slightly higher stakes.

Anyway in the $12 game I shoved my 5.5k stack in the middle with AJ from the cut-off +1 at 300/600 blinds and a shortstack on the button made a standard call with 66.As the table popped up I noticed the shortstack was US blogger Change100.It was late,I could barely focus on the screen and when I won the coin flip I quickly typed " ul gg" and added " I was pot commited!".I was very wasted and it seemed quite amusing to reference her blog,( called "pot committed") despite me not even being able to spell "committed" by this point!

I can't remember if Change replied "classy" before or after I made the excuse that I was too stoned to spell, but I do recall wishing I'd just said "Hi" and I do hope Change didn't think I was trying to gloat as that's just not the way I roll at the tables or in life.



I only cashed in the $12 game,broke even on the set and hit up the Rush poker tables for a while before bed.Kat's Mammoth rebuy blogger game was tempting however I think I was going to have a whitey if I'd stayed up any longer!

Back soon...

Nailed

The s-man was over the other night when the Playstation network was down.With no Modern Warfare on offer we watched a couple of movies and even had to make conversation at times...

The first one we watched was a Chanwook Park film, "Oldboy".I was expecting a Liam Neeson "Taken" type film and didn't even realise it was going to be subtitled until it began.It was nothing like "Taken" or any Hollywood movie I've seen and I'd highly recommend it.For a complete change of pace we watched "Bruno" next and although I didn't think it would be much good,it was actually very funny and at times it was hard to spot what was real and what was staged.

"Clock end to return to Arsenal" was one of the sports headlines yesterday as they plan on bringing the old Highbury clock to the Gooners new stadium.I had to laugh at one of the Rangers message boards suggesting a similar "Bell end returns to Spurs" headline when Keanes loan spell at the midden.

Also like this one from the Herald diary:

A reader tells us: “I was driving past Celtic Park this morning and I saw nine season ticket books nailed to the gates and I thought, ‘I’m having them’.
“You can never have enough nails."

On the poker front I've come up with another top excuse as to why I've not put in much volume recently.I seem to spend most of the week waiting for a call from my manager at work.Sometimes she is returning my call and at other times I'm simply waiting for her weekly call to check on my progress.I do not want to be in the middle of a set of sng's when the phone rings as it would just be burning money.

I did play some more $6.50,45 player games last night and this time I took a couple down and managed to get my 45 player stats into profit after a horrible run at them during the RaisetheRiver challenge.I was only 4 tabling as I was also watching Scotland win 1-0 v the Czechs in Craig Leveins first game in charge.The $6.50's are incredibly soft and I'll be adding a few more $12's to the mix in my attempt to finally give multi-table sng's a real go.

Just back from physio and it went well with a few more new exercises to keep me stretching the right muscles.Time to hit the COD before Nacho and I head over to visit my folks later.

Back soon..

You're still a...

I thought poker players were egotistical until I read a blog post from a World of Warcraft player. What a complete tool.Writing about being overwhelmed by fans in an internet cafe he says ,"but all of them had one thing in common: they were complete scrubs in-game. I don't really mean that in a negative way, either. They all seemed pretty nice and funny, but their characters all seemed like they had just freshly dinged 80, yet they've been playing since the release of Wrath." He seems stunned that these "scrubs" are actually nice people in real life and probably a lot more rounded than he is.

I suppose when it comes to COD:Modern Warfare 2 I'm a bit of a scrub,a tard or a newbie.Yeah it's more fun killing than being killed but hey,it's only a video game and as long as I'm enjoying it I'm going to play.Best not to take it too seriously.....



On the subject of taking things too seriously I thought I'd share the narrative from a high level intellectual debate I had with a fellow Motorstorm player on the PS3 via the message system.

Villain: "Don't attempt to punch me again,I will always win in those situations"

Me: Cock

Villain: You threw the punch,and I still won the race....I'm pretty sure that makes you the cock.

Me: You're still a cock.

End of correspondence!

From the tone of his messages I thought I'd probably insulted a 12yr old kid and felt a bit guilty, but I googled his name and he's actually 24!

To the poker and I played six $22's one Wednesday night without cashing before winning a couple and breaking even overall.Last night I moved to Stars for a change and went 0/3 at the $16's before bed.

I did finally finish the Victoria Coren
book and I'd highly recommend it.I'm going to lend it to my Mum next and hopefully it will inspire her to not be so scared to play live!

Back soon...

Have a Good One....

Other people dreams ( along with holiday photo's) are very boring so you may want to skip to the next blog at this point.My dream last night was a weird mix of being upset at it being 10 yrs since I met the ex Mrs A,running and gunning in Modern Warfare 2 and Sarah Connor advising there was a storm coming!

It does amuse me to think that if I could step into a time machine,go back ten years and then jump forward I'd be asking who the heck let in the black and white dog currently lying beside the radiator! I'm probably too reflective at times,pondering so many what ifs and different paths my life could have taken.I did have regrets when I split from the ex over me being too selfish,playing too much poker and smoking too much.I can look back now and also remember feeling bored,restless and stuck in a relationship which felt as if it had run it's course,perhaps because neither of us worked hard enough to keep it going.

I suppose there are regrets too because only one relationship since has come anywhere near the universes colliding,stars exploding feeling I had back at the start of the Millennium when I met the ex Mrs A.I'm certainly not putting the ex Mrs A on some kind of pedestal.She was sleeping with me last year whilst seeing the guy she's now moved in with down South.That and the shock that she was so willing to leave her 15yr old daughter behind to make the move almost make me wish I'd just gone home when I popped out for a takeaway a couple of days after we met ( we spent first week of 2000 in bed).

Of course knowing how strong my feelings were and the overall crappy outcome makes it harder to give up much emotionally again in a relationship.I'm certainly not convinced internet dating is the answer.Then again maybe I'm just too fussy these days and have no intentions of changing a lifestyle I actually quite enjoy.( despite occasional lonely moments) The last woman I met online was good looking,had a nice enough personality and was dirty as hell but there just wasn't that special spark between us.Earlier in the year I did try giving it a month or so in case those feelings came with time but the "I'm nuts about you" phonecalls she made to me at 1am made me realise I was never going to feel like that about her.

Anyway to far more important matters and congrats to Kris Boyd on beating the diving Martian's SPL scoring record after he bagged five last night in the 7-1 drubbing handed out at Ibrox to Dundee United.Let's hope he can repeat the dose on Sunday against the mutants.That's why we're Champions!

I'm visiting my sis tomorrow for drinks with her friends and the s-man is coming over on Saturday for our usual Call of Duty/ Motorstorm ps3 session before I go to the game on Sunday.

I did play six $22's last night and the plan for today is to grind some more and get back to newb tubing on Modern Warfare...

Thanks for reading and here's to a healthy,happy 2010!

Sng turbo's n shwings

Everything went well with the baby scan today so I'm still on course to be an Uncle by the end of next June.

My Mum also brought round my 2 week sick line and it's been posted off to my work.I think I must have further torn a muscle in my sleep last night as I'm in a bit more pain today and any coughing hurts even more than usual.

The s-man popped round this afternoon,the Big Chap called and I've also had a couple of calls from work and texts from old friends which are helping to keep my spirits up.I used to give the Big Chap and his neighbour a lift to the Rangers reserve games a few years back and his neighbour called to say there is some particularly pungent green herbs on the go down his way just now so hopefully I can get something sorted later in the week!

The poker continues to go ok although I keep telling myself to have a proper go at the $33's whenever my Party roll breaks through a certain total and I keep chickening out and firing up more $22's.I did cash for 3rd in one $33 and it's not that I'm worried about the standard of play.It's mainly that 10-20 buy-in downswings happen a lot and although I can stand losing $300 or so in a really bad $22 session,I don't fancy dropping over $600 when running bad at higher stakes.

To try and put the swings into perspective I won two and took 2nd in the last three $22's I played last night for a profit of $200.If I play 8 games today,run like crap and cash in none of them that would still give me decent return on investment figure of about 10% over those 11 games in total.10% roi over a reasonable sample size ( at least a couple of thousand games) is very respectable.Obviously 11 games means nothing and maybe I'm not actually making sense ( I blame the pain killers!)but my point is that even if you're maintaining a good roi ,you're still going to see an awful lot of beats and lost flips in a row.

My worst excuse to myself when running badly is to tell myself that some players are obviously going to be in the bottom 5% overall when it comes to luck at the felt and I'm just unlucky enough to be in that 5%.Reading 2+2 threads and seeing graphs of winning players with break-even streaks of a few thousand games helps bring it home to me that going 10 games without cashing or even hitting a 25 buy-in downswing are completely standard and that I will play through it and eventually get back in the black again.

I probably do need to avoid playing $6.50 PLO turbo's as despite winning a $16 the other night I'm still crap at them.I usually have to check the chat box for the dealer summary to tell me which hand won at showdown and a couple of times I've been genuinely surprised when the pot ships to someone else when I thought I held pretty much the nuts! 2 cards goot,4 cards bad.I blame Dudley!

Ok,I do have another post I wrote a month or so back that I may fire up but I don't intend posting much over the next week or so until I feel better.I do intend getting onto Amazon and ordering COD:Modern Warfare 2.I never really got into the other COD games,preferring the Medal of Honor series but with plenty of time on my hands over the next wee while I think I'll give the new COD a go.

Thanks for reading and don't forget to register for Sundays Bloggerment game on Stars.It's only $5.50 and is open to all....