The Times They Are A-Changing..

Well Rangers did the business today and put the Forces of Darkness to the sword at a rainswept Ibrox.The 1-0 scoreline leaves us 2 points ahead with 3 games to play.It's going to be nervy as hell but I'd rather be in our position than theirs.

I hadn't intended posting today but I thought I'd post about the shock I got when I picked Nacho up from the ex Mrs A's.I had called her workplace a month or so back ( Chinese takeaway) to ask if the dog had been fed.She put me on hold,not recognising my mobile number and I heard her being all lovey dovey on the other line.Now that in itself didn't bother me much, but today she announced she is moving down South and asked if I would take Nacho full-time from now on.She said she has been seeing someone since last year and I have to say I did find it amusing that she's so in love with her new man that she couldn't resist the Acorn sausage back in December!

It's easy in life to always want what you can't have but when I really thought about it I realised that I'd stopped loving the ex Mrs A long before we split up.I thought that when we split and although sleeping together before Xmas brought back some of the feelings from when we first met, I think it just muddied waters which didn't need muddying.This was why I was able to jump into another ( doomed) relationship quite quickly after I moved back in Sept '07.

Step A is moving with her and this probably means I wont see very much of her at all which certainly hurts.According to the ex, Step A is playing truant from school a lot and is generally behaving poorly.The ex seems to think a move down South to live with her new man will do Step A good, but my feelings are the exact opposite.I hope I'm proved wrong on that one because as far as I'm concerned Step A is a good kid who just needs lots of love and support.( and proper discipline when reqd!)She's a teenager and teens are meant to be selfish,unruly etc etc.

Anyways I agreed to take Nacho full time.It's not ideal as I hate leaving him in my flat when I go to work, but as the alternative may be the ex handing him into a cat and dog home I have no choice.My Mum has said she will take him on occasional evenings ( when I'm at football etc) and I suppose there's always kennels when I go on holiday.At least it saves me from having to drop him off and pick him up from the ex's.She has been full time at college over the last year so it's not as if being left will be new to him.One of my neighbours may even agree to let him out during the day.

This is a poker and life blog so I'm not going to apologise from straying away from posting bad beats! I did play last night and won at Party and crashed out of a few of the old 18 player $16 games I used to play all the time on Stars.

It's feels like cheating as I've always used Sharkscope as my guide but they have missed 3 Party $22 wins from my stats ( I even emailed them the tourney numbers to no avail) and including those wins I'm running at about 10% roi over 655 games.It's only a tiny sample but hopefully now I'm back in profit at Party I can stay ahead of the game there.

Ok,that's enough for today.Don't forget to play in tomorrows Britbloggerment...

A Dollar Down

After a nice wee session at Party I decided to enter the world of aliens and assorted mutant freaks.Yep,I put my new PS3 aside and logged onto Pokerstars...



I began at the $16's ( all 18 player games) and just for a change on Stars I ran like crap.( heavy sarcasm!)It really is possible to simply lose hand after hand after hand when you get your money in good.I do know that already but it still almost takes my breath away just how one sided luck can be at times.Still,I don't feel any great sense of entitlement and I'm not going to start acting like a whiney spoilt kid.The only justice in poker is over the long term and that can be a very long term indeed.

I was a little annoyed with myself that I didn't just quit ahead after my Party session.It is one long game though and as I keep writing here,the only way to beat variance is volume.I should really look at last nights 42 games and tell myself I won about $140 regardless of actual results.( 10-15% roi)

Anyways I moved up,played seven $38 turbs and didn't cash in one of them.Only winning $243 over eleven $27's kept me from making a poor night on Stars even worse.The margins are so thin though,that just one or two flips going my way at the right times in those $16's and $38's would have seen me into the black at Stars for the night.

The other downside of last night was that I didn't get to bed until just after 5am.I was up at 12pm today for the Rangers game which I then discovered has been postponed due to the weather.I can feel my eyes shutting as I write this and have promised myself an early one tonight.

Ok,time to watch the second half of the Spurs v Arsenal game,review last nights exit hands,drop Nacho off and play some Half-life 2.

Here's one hand from the bubble of a $16 I was keen to run through a Sng software tool today to see if I made the right call.Looks like ( result irrelevant) I did.It wasn't a snap call because calling here no matter what the result,effectively means the other similar sized stack ( Bccy on 2630 who is next in the 800 big blind)is freerolling into the money.I'd also noted that Bccy ( 2% roi at $25 over 1300 games) seemed to be a bit of a calling station and I wasn't keen on pushing any two cards into his big blind from the sb if it folded to me on the next hand.



Here's one where I make a bad call.My reasoning was that the shorty could easily double up,the big stack was shoving a huge range ( he was but my call still wrong)and that if I doubled up here I'd be almost certain to cash.

Even if the big stack is shoving any two cards,77 is still a fold.( action folds to big stack who shoves all in)





I'm off to clean out my stable.Heeee haw!

Daily Fail

I ditched a planned rant last week about the Halloween decorations put up around my office ( to add fun and joy to my day no doubt) as apparently, according to a happy go lucky fellow blogger, I was being a grumpy old man!

I'd dispute that title, but no wonder I like the occasional moan when the world is so full of crap.I don't know why I read the Daily Mail or Guardian online as they usually make my blood boil at the sheer nonsense they spout.Without getting political or into my views on drugs, here's a quote from the awful Melanie Phillips in the Mail under the headline "The shameful truth about the great drugs disaster".

She wrote that "The only reason cannabis use has gone down is that - appallingly - users have moved on to cocaine instead." Of course she has no evidence or stats of any kind to back up that idiotic statement.Reminds me of their frequent "Killer was on skunk weed" type headlines.Said killer is usually a schizophrenic, alcoholic, smack addict but hey he probably smoked a spliff once....

One more quick moan and this relates to workplace emails and not personal ones.Does anyone else feel when work emails are signed "Many Thanks" that the sender may aswell have written "GIRUY"? ( Get it right up ye) Acorn,Here's my big excuse as to why I can't deal with this ongoing customer nightmare.I've passed it back to yourself to deal.Many Thanks,Lazy Useless Tosser

Before I get to the poker I loved the yahoo homepage link to favourite George Bush quotes.He had obviously never played poker with Rosie before as one of his quotes was "I know the human being and fish can coexist peacefully." - Sept. 29, 2000 George Bush

To the tables and I had a decent night on Monday,winning a Party $22, a Stars $16 and scraping into the money in a $27.Last night I was at Ibrox to watch Rangers draw 3-3 with Dundee Utd before coming home later and playing just two turbos.In the first one on Party I won the first hand with AQ and was feeling good when the software froze.Bottom line is it was Partys fault and they were quick to refund my buy-in.( frustrating when sitting with chip lead but better than nothing)

For my second game I fired up a $38 turbo on Stars and crashed out 6th when I shoved A10 from the sb and was insta-called by the fish in the bb with A3.( 3 on flop obviously)

Tonight I'm watching the football ( come on Utd) and I'm babysitting tomorrow night.Back soon...

Bloggerment tonight...

If you're at a loose end tonight fire up the Bloggerment on Stars and join in the donkery! It's under the "Private" tab and is open to all....

My Bloggerment co-host ( Mr Hannah Montana ) has emailed me re moving the Bloggerment to Full Tilt again for a while,starting it at 8pm and making it a turbo.I'd be happy to give that a go.All thoughts on the subject welcome.

On the poker front things continue to go reasonably well.I cashed $2k out of Pokerstars and finally ordered my new tv and took out enough to cover next months road tax bill too.The tele and a new Virgin + box arrive next Saturday.Roll on!

Thanks to Poker Jones for the comment left on a recent post about me stepping up a bit.I have been pushing myself out of my comfort zone more often over the last couple of weeks and it's made me realise how poor my concentration and focus had become at my usual $16 games at times.I suppose this is partly because I'm way over-rolled for them and partly because the opposition is so bad that it really doesn't take a lot of skill to beat them.

I've played a few $27's and a $38 on Stars now and haven't had any breaks.My $33 and occasional $55 ventures at Party have been much better.The Stars $38 was an 18 player and I busted in 6th after running my 1010 into AJ.That hand would have given me the chiplead and hurt for a moment or two before I realised it was basically a standard flip and not something I'd think twice about at $16.

I'm actually down $78 overall at Stars sngs for the month but that's only over 36 games.My PLO/Bloggerment wins ( On the PLO front Dr Paulys game was set up as HU Omaha by mistake this week and I was pwned in my first game) mean I'm still in profit on the site for the month but I can't believe I've only played 36 games on my favourite site!

Actually I can believe that.Why play regular filled $16's on Stars when the Party fishbowl is so much jucier?I just hope they never let the Americans back in to ruin a good thing! Keep Party full of fishy Euro/Canadians!

Ok,too tired to post anymore today.Back soon...

Tuesday Update

For yesterdays post see any recent Monday offering where I offer congrats to someone ( Tan on this occasion)on winning the Bloggerment and then post a tale of woe about the 2 outer which scudded me in the tourney.Rinse and repeat every week it seems!

I had a frustrating night at the tables after the Bloggerment too,culminating with a bubble finish at a $27 turb after shoving Q10 and running into KK.

After a long lie in yesterday I took Nacho to the local pitches for a run and hit up a Party $22 turbo on my return,taking it down for $100.Party have sent the hand history and I may post it or the highlights with brief explanations if anyone is interested.

I chatted to Rosie and played a few turbs on Stars later last night.My Aces were busted several times and I wasn't running well, however I did manage to beat a player I admire headsup in my last game to finish on a high.( although he was probably playing about 14 tables to be fair!)

This week I shall be mostly trying to get the zillion things needing done around my flat before Rosie arrives on Friday.Tomorrow night I'm taking Step A and her friend ice skating.

Ok,I'm feeling a bit done in and not very inspired today so that's about it.Here are a couple of snippets from the paper which made me laugh.The second one is for Katitude...

News from America. Our Washington correspondent tells us that President Bush has told the country not to worry about the current economic downturn. As Bush put it: "If you look at the numbers overall, even though things may seem bad right now, they're actually very, very good, compared to how they're gonna be."

We overhear a teacher after a fraught day at school tell her pal: "I'm thinking of sending all the parents a letter telling them, If you promise not to believe everything your child says happens at school, I'll promise not to believe everything he says happens at home'."

Decent wee night

On Friday night I spent just over 3 1/2 hours playing an $11 mtt on Stars and scraped into the money by finishing 156th from 2487 starters for a whopping $19 pay out.I'd pushed with A10h from the button and ran into the Big Blinds QQ.

Last night I began by playing a $25 ( $5k gtd) mtt and managed 70th from 211 when I ran my JJ into QQ.I think on reflection if I'm going to play mtt's then I'd prefer a slightly higher entry fee and a smaller field of players.

Multi table tourneys are the only poker game now where I feel very inexperienced compared to cash games and sng's.Not much fun playing for hours then going out on one nightmare type hand but I suppose if you can live with the variance,the rewards are good.

After my last mtt I looked around for a juicy cash game and began two tabling $100nl full ring tables at Party.The good news for my roll is that I played some half decent poker and my big hands held up, which resulted in me leaving about $300 up.My biggest hands included flopping quads Kings and getting action from QQ ,flopping a set of Jacks v QQ ,and good old top pair top kicker holding up ( AK) v a donkeys J10 on an A 10 8 6 K board.

I feel I'm getting used to $100 nl and I'm not feeling at all out my depth at the tables I've played at.I was happy with my play last night and the result but strangely I didn't feel a great deal of joy.This is probably a good thing because I'm trying not to go too much the other way if I have a poor night at the virtual felt.I saw a lot of bad beats at my tables and I think I'm well aware of how quickly a buy-in or two can be lost on the turn of a card and this helps stop me getting too excited by a few decent hands holding up.

Ok, I'm annoyed now! I read an excellent comment by Wil Wheaton yesterday and now I can't find it anywhere.I'm sure he left it as a comment on someones blog and I liked it so much I thought I'd link to it today.Dang!

The general gist of it was that when it comes to poker and results there's no great score keeper reading blogs etc and marking you up or down for the week.I often feel if I don't include absolutely every result from every game played in my blog, then I'm not being true to myself or anyone reading, which on reflection is actually quite silly as my roll updates are regular and honest.

I do log most results anyway, as one of the main reasons I started this blog was for exactly that reason.I am more wary now than ever though about being a slave to short term results.I do still find myself playing less poker near the end of the month ( or fortnight) if my stats are due to be posted and I'm ahead, or getting annoyed at making a bad start when I've just posted them and I'm in a new period of results.It was as if I could sense people reading and judging me when really the only person doing much judging is myself.

Sure we're all happy for blogging friends who do well and can certainly empathise when the poker gods turn nasty, but at the end of the day poker isn't a team game and the only person we're all truly accountable to is ourselves.

Righty that's all for this weekend.Don't forget to register for tonights Britbloggerment game on Stars...

Weekend is here...

Thanks to Miami Mark for the wise words in his comment on yesterdays post.

I did jump back on the horse last night ,starting with three Stars $15 turbos.I was suckered again in the first one which led to semi-tilt donkery in the next one.I was playing quite poorly in the next one too ,when my Mum said hello in the chat box.I bucked up my ideas after that and had built a decent stack until I clashed with the fishy chip leader who had played 67% of flops....

I'd raised with AK,he put me all in,I called,he showed 8d9d and rivered his flush.By this time thoughts of a few days off were at the front of my mind so....I moved to a Party $50nl 6 max table and AA and QQ holding up against some donkey won me just over a buy-in, and put a smile back on my face.The table broke leaving me on my own which is always a nice feeling.

I moved to 'Stars with renewed confidence and within 20 minutes lost a buy-in ( $50nl) to a rivered flush.I'd called a preflop raise with QQ at a loose table and bet big on the flop and turn after no scary Ace or King fell.When the villain bet out on the river after I'd shown major strength all the way through, I should have folded but I simply didn't put him on the flush draw after his preflop raise and it smelled like a lower pocket pair than mine.

I stayed at the table a while longer and calmed down enough to appreciate just how poor some of the play I witnessed was, and that sticking to a solid game plan will win the money over the long term.

I should be around to kick the variance biatches ass tonight,out with Mrs A tomorrow night and then back for the Britbloggerment 5 game at Stars on Sunday at 9pm BST.Password donkmanent.

So until next time..make up yer own ghey tagline. ( aint that right Kat!)

Party time

I was feeling quite tired last night so I didn’t play too much poker although I did manage to win half a buy-in at FT’s cash tables and lose it in a couple of $11 turbo’s.I got a “lol” “ 7’s?” in the chat box after I’d reraised a donkey all in,he called with AQ and my sevens held up.I’m usually silent in the chat but couldn’t resist pointing out he’d made the call and was behind when he did.There was already a limper when he made a small raise ( he’d been raising on a regular basis) so I hoped to squeeze out both players with my bet.Not my fault he called off his chips with the worst of it!

I’ve not made the money in my last few FT Turbo’s and decided to play one at Party for a change.I’ve played very few turbo sng’s at Party because sharkscope only works in beta mode there and doesn’t give stats for more than a few players at the table.On the upside though ,the tourney history they send is great and was well worth checking over to see where I made mistakes.( I came 3rd $11 turbo).

The hand histories helped illustrate how situation poker can be.I folded A10 to a raise in one hand and called a raise with A3 in a later hand.I don’t remember the last time I called a raise with A3 when 7 players were still in an sng, but it had folded round and it was an all in move from a shortstack (930 raise,I had paid 200 in bb) which I just sensed was a bit of a desperate move and called.He showed J9o/s and I won.I’m still not sure about the call but at least I went with my instinct.

Not long back from visiting Mother Acorn where I was well fed and in return helped my Mum to a 3rd and a win at Party $6 turbo sng's.She said she did try playing a standard speed sng but it was too slow.I know the feeling!

I'm off to the Gers game at Ibrox tomorrow night and I'm going to try and stay away from the tables when I get back.Friday nights plan is to go to the cinema to see "The Last King of Scotland ".Right I've wittered enough for today...