Cold Fact

The monthly VIP points statement from Stars shows I played 514 Sngs in April and 252 Mtt's.Not bad for a weekend warrior! I mentioned before my poker goal of achieving the $100k in cashes badge on Pocket Fives and I'm over half way there now at $58,419 in total tourney cashes.Of course as they say in the business world about turnover and profit, in poker it's cashes for show and profits for dough too and that can't be forgotten.


I also played in the @RFCfanspoker play money game again last Sunday and took it down this time.The funny thing about that was that I was also playing 7-8 real money tourneys at the same time but found myself mainly focussing on the free game.So much for only playing for the money.Looking forward to including it again as part of my Sunday grind and hopefully The Big Chap will get himself on Stars in time to play too.Info below from the guy who runs the game if fellow bluenoses are interested in playing...

No money needed as games will be free.

~~Next FREE tournament is Sunday night at 8pm~~

You can invite friends and family to join but they must be Bears... NO TIMS ALLOWED!!

- If you don't already have it, download the free PokerStars software from www.pokerstars.com
- Open the main poker lobby, then click on the Home Games tab
- Click the 'Join a Poker Club' button
- Enter my Club ID number: 739960
- Enter my Invitation Code: wearethepeople1872

That's it! Once I've approved your membership request, we'll be ready to start playing Home Games online together.



On the real money front I cashed out enough the other day to pay a few bills including the annual council tax,car tax,car insurance and my Rangers season ticket.It means I only have about $2k left on Stars now and won't be playing many $27's and $33 tourneys.That's the downside but it's also nice to feel like all the hours I put in playing poker actually have a real life benefit too.

Last nights grind at the virtual felt actually started quite well as big hands held up and I won a few flips.In the end though I only managed a few small Mtt cashes including coming 22nd from 2647 runners in a wee $5,$10k Gtd Turbo for $40.What cash out curse? Ahh that one! Later on a second place in a $8 180 Turbo Sng for $264 and a couple of other 45 player turbo final tables covered most of the evenings buy-ins.

Away from the poker I'm looking forward to going to see Pink Floyd tribute band "Pond Floyd" at the Glasgow Classic Grand next week.Managed to persuade the S-man to drive and I've already warned him he'd better buy some damn effective air fresheners! I can't believe it's nearly 20 years since I went to Paris in '94 with an ex to see the real Floyd.The tribute band have tweeted that Dark Side of the Moon is going to be in the spotlight for their gig and I'm one lunatic looking forward to being on the grass next weekend.

On the subject of weed and good music Two Pies and I watched the "Searching for Sugarman" documentary last weekend and I'd highly recommend it.It's about an American musician who makes a couple of superb albums in the 70's ( sounds a bit like Dylan only with a better voice).The albums don't sell and he's not heard of again....except in South Africa where a bootleg copy of his first release becomes a huge hit.The less you actually know about this amazing story before seeing it the better so just buy the dvd and don't google it.








Ok,thanks for reading.Back soon...

Funeral Songs+Ramping up the Volume

Just a wee post today and I'll stick one up tomorrow with my monthly stats.I had a great Xmas with my folks and discovered that eating a curry for Xmas dinner beats the crap out of the traditional turkey meal.My wee nephew ( 18 months) loved his toys, although I think the adults were keener on the wee toy plane that turns when it reaches the end of a surface and never falls off.

My dating run good continued before Xmas when Rugby Shirt girl sent me a text an hour before we were due to meet to say she was still in her home town and running way behind schedule.I sent her one back suggesting we meet up another time and hopefully we'll do that early next year.With my 40th and impending mid-life crisis coming up next year I intend to step things up on the dating front and try and step outside my comfort zone a bit more in general too.

My football teams run good has also run low after losing the Old Firm game to our bitter rivals the other night.We did score a goal which was wrongly not given ( ball was over the line but ref didn't see it) but overall we didn't create many chances and probably didn't deserve to take anything from the match.We're now 2 points behind them in the league although we're only half way through the season and have two more games against them.

On the poker front I've played 425 sngs since Dec 23rd and I even had another night of Mtt's where I managed 6th place in a $25 Hyper turbo game for $600.( just under 600 runners) That was my only Mtt cash though and with all the other buy-ins included I was only up a couple of hundered $$ that night.

I mentioned I've been reading the latest book by Devilfish and although most of it contains wild stories about his life and poker play I have taken one lesson from it from it.He writes about how when a degenerate gambler wins money he doesn't see it as banked winnings but as fuel to be used to try and win even more cash.Although I don't aspire to be a degen gambler type I do like that way of thinking about my bankroll.

I've been trying to persuade myself to get down to the casino to play some more live tourneys.I do enjoy live poker but it's just so slow and playing one £22 game for 4-5 hours live when I can wager a couple of thousand per night playing hypers just doesn't have much appeal.Perhaps stepping up and playing a £50 buy-in might get my juices flowing a bit more.

Without wishing to get too morbid I was asking my parents about funeral arrangements etc the other week.Like anyone I dread anything happening to my folks, but I would like to be prepared and know their wishes etc.Anyway they asked what songs I would like played if anything happened to me and as I've not written anything down anywhere I thought I'd use this space!

I'll resist going for Highway to Hell/Road to Hell type stuff and instead if I bite the dust in 2012 I'd like the Pink Floyd songs "Brain Damage" and "Eclipse" ( the last two tracks on Dark Side of the Moon) played followed by Cat Stevens "If you want to sing out" with Frankie Millers "Caledonia" to finish!

Thanks for reading.Back soon...

Orly!

I'm back in the habit of not playing any poker during the week.This can be a bit of a problem when trying to come up with poker related stuff for my blog,especially as beyond dreaming of playing in the main event one day,I really don't have much interest in which young hotshot has taken down the latest tourney at the WSOP in Vegas.

I will be hitting the tables tonight though before heading into Glasgow for another internet date tomorrow evening.I've been texting two women this week and felt a bit guilty telling Woman 1 that I was visiting the Big Chap in Ledhills ( a place miles away with no mobile reception!) on Sat night.I was thinking about asking W1 out tonight, but she said she's visiting a friend for a couple of hours which is probably her way of avoiding having to tell me she's going out on a date!

Ahh well its' a ruthless game and if she is still free and it doesn't work out with Woman 2 on Sat night then maybe I'll take her out next weekend.

I've never been the most stylish of blokes and although I don't think I have any issues with confidence/self-esteem,I don't delude myself that I'm particularly special either.( special needs maybe!) My philosophy on life tends to be that nobody else is that special either and that as the Pink Floyd put it, we're "all just bricks in the wall". I'm not at all religious and John Grays "Straw Dogs" book which ( in simple terms) says us humans are not separate from animals and are simply driven by the same instincts and urges made a lot of sense to me.

Having said that if I don't want to be single forever I suppose I need to learn to play the game a bit better and try and sell myself a bit more pro-actively.All of this is just a roundabout way of saying I splashed out nearly £50 this week on a couple of new Bench shirts! I did have a look in the Diesel shop today though and nearly fainted when I saw they were selling t-shirts for £70 and jeans at £130.The much used internet forum "Orly Owl" pic below sprung to mind at those prices!



I'm probably just being an out of touch old slob!

Before I hit the publish button on this post I turned on the tv and there was a kids quiz show on.They played a bit of music and the kids had to guess it's name.I loved one kid asking if it was the "National Theme Song" and the presenter enquiring further and discovering the kid meant the national anthem! It would be great if they took a lead from that kid at next years Olympics and asked the crowds to "Please be upstanding for the National Theme song of the United Kingdom"....Made me smile anyway!

Back soon...

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...

Keepyourdayjob

The post title was also the excellent screename of a villain at one of my tables recently.Checking the news yesterday it looks like I may get the chance to keep my day job but take a break of up to a year on 1/4 pay.( paid up front)Of course I may be getting ahead of myself and the offer won't apply to my department but if it does I intend to take advantage and have at least a few months away from the Mon-Fri office grind.I'm in the fortunate position of having a small mortgage and no other debts so I reckon I can afford to do it,especially as I've paid all the major stuff already this year ( car insurance,council tax,car loan,RFC season ticket)If they paid me my remaining 17 days holiday pay I may even be tempted to stay off until the end of next March.

The aim would be to use my existing poker roll as required and make at least $800 per month at the virtual felt.If I fail to do that I could remortgage,take enough equity to tide me over and still have plenty left available.That would probably be a better idea than selling my car and buying a cheap run-around or even using my credit card.( and obv paying it off when back to work full-time).

To the poker and I had a good night at the felt last night.I was only two tabling and for once the tv was off,I had the tunes on ( Floyd,Dylan,Acdc,Queen,Trance tunes, Classic FM) and I was focussing as hard as a man smoking "power plant" possibly can!

I was close to registering for one of the $11 rebuys on Party that Liquid Eyes and The Kid have recommended but apart from Kat's Friday $1 donkament I've never played a rebuy Mtt and like those Headhunter games,I'm not sure it would suit my style of play.

Anyways the $22's were good to me and I even made a few $$ playing $16 single table turbs at Stars.I'll be back on Stars tonight for the first RTR league game.

Righty I'm off to watch the Wimbledon Final....

Strong Urge to Fly....

In their latest attempt to try and boost flagging sales I see the gutter press have jumped on Jeremey Clarkson's comments labelling our beloved Prime Minister a "one eyed Scottish idiot".Cue fake moral outrage from self righteous hypocritical lefties and a great chance for the sh*trag Daily Mail to try and stir up the "little Englander" attitude it loves so much.

He does have one eye,is Scottish and after his "No more boom or bust comments",he certainly looks a bit of an idiot these days.Case closed! It reminds me of the awards given for the UK's crappiest town/city.Some indignant MP or Mayor type figure,usually living in the leafy suburbs of "Shitsville", always give the same defiant comments about how wonderful the nominated shithole really is, when the reality is that even the people living there would admit they're not fond of the crime ridden concrete jungle they inhabit.

I'm probably just a jaded cynic but I don't buy into the Saint Obama hype either.A committee of Pokerstars micro limit donkeys could have done a better job of running the US than Bush did and if any improvement is deemed a success, then I'm sure he'll be popular.Copying Bob the Builders "Can he fix it?,Yes he can" slogan certainly worked for him, but only time will tell if there's any substance beyond his fine rhetoric.Still if Obama can "provide an example to so many people around the world of what dedicated leadership can achieve" ( his words of praise for Tony Blair the other day when they met) we'll all be better off....

Not much to report on the poker front.Things are a bit stagnant at Party due to running like crap.$50 up from my last 137 games at $22/$33.Last night I hit the tables for a wee while after the ex Mrs A had been round to clean my flat and after I'd watched the excellent "28 Days Later".

I'm also just about to nip out and buy a Ps3 at long last and then I'm picking up Nacho.The s-man may be over later and if he brings games,we'll have a decent choice to pick from.Looking forward to Killzone 2 coming out soon and I've also already bought Half-life 2 and Fallout 3 to play on it.I doubt having a ps3 will be the end of my poker days, but I do too much mindless surfing when not at the felt and it'll be nice to have an alternative.( sick of the 13 channels of shit on the tv to choose from * )


* A lyric from this classic Floyd song.When I was a teen I even owned a silver spoon on a chain.Ahh The Floyd.Still love 'em!

Run like hell

RIP Richard Wright of The Pink Floyd.

Appropriate title and song to describe my recent ventures at the virtual felt.The usual Aces busted all over the place,Ace flushes beaten by straight flushes and no doubt some tilty decisions along the way.

I blame smoking too much....weak herb! Seriously I don't usually punch walls during my sessions but last night had to be one of my most frustrating nights ever at the tables.Thumbs down to being mentally alert whilst playing! I'm actually only half joking.I like to smoke good weed when at the tables.It helps me tune into the game and brush off the beats more easily.Without it I find I'm too eager to make plays and get my money in the pot.

I lost nearly $400 over 46 games last night and only the $1500 credited to my Full Tilt account as a result of winning the Brit Blogger challenge put a smile on my face.I nearly fell off my seat when I happened to check the Full Tilt cashier.Ship it!

Edit:Played four $16's tonight,won two and took third in one.Played two $22's on Party and took one down and came third in the other.Ahhhh that's better!

Huge thanks again to SirAlcanthang and the generous folks at Full Tilt for putting up such an amazing prize.

I've been in touch with Bullmeist and we're sorting out the final details for the trip to London where we're going to get to watch the Full Tilt pro's playing the $1m cash game!

Ok,thanks for reading.Back with a London trip report in a few days...

One of these days...

I'd apologise for the self indulgent musical post, but sometimes this space is simply my place to let it out.It's also late, I'm tired and feeling the effects of more than a few smokes! Feel free to skip over to the fine bloggage and sponsors links on the right.


Bad day...





It's Madness...




Played 22 games,won one and still down $105.Ahhh variance.I've had better nights.I've also got plenty to say but Nachos asleep and letting sleeping dogs lie seems the best idea.

One of these days...



or Hey there Delilah..




Answers on a blog post,probably...


ps At least celtc lost today! There's a new hotline for their supporters: 0800 10 10 10 ( won nothing,won nothing...)

Wish you were here...

Rosie is booked up to come back to Glasgow on Fri 25th April which is the best news I've had all week! Only about 504 hours to go...

It's not been a great week at work and I even managed to fall out with a colleague over our new start/finish schedule.My company are taking away our flexi-time in all but name and this colleague was shouting about bringing in employment lawyers to fight it at a union meeting a few weeks ago.Imagine my surprise when I raised the issue at our team meeting and this same colleague riled against the "negativity" being expressed and said we should just accept it and get on with it! There was no way I was just going to let that go...!

I don't talk much about poker at work but was forced to access my Sharkscope stats from my mobile to prove to one disbelieving colleague that it is actually possible to profit from gambling.I explained all the usual stuff about poker being different because it's the other players I'm competing with and not "the house" but the idea that all gamblers lose and any wins are only temporary seems to be ingrained in some peoples psyche.

I did lose the only two $16 turbs I played in last night and although the first crash out was unlucky,I pushed an open ended straight draw too hard in the other because it was creeping past 1am and my eyes were almost shut!

Tonight I plan on playing in the RTR league game although I may have to give Kats excellent Friday night donkament a miss as the UK clocks have gone forward and it's back to a 2am start time ( Full Tilt,pass:donkarama).

Mini driving rant time.When it's late at night and your creeping along at 5mph under the speed limit on a quiet road,don't feckin' flash your headlights at me when I overtake you.Overtaking is not illegal and if you weren't driving like a geriatric on tranquilisers I wouldn't have had to make a move in the first place!

Just time to pimp the pud before I go.I was sorry to hear fellow UK blogger Yorkie Pud was sacked from his job last week.His fine blogging has led to a well deserved gig on Betfairs blog.Get over there,have a read and join the Pimp the Pud campaign ( sounded catchy!) by linking him up on your own blog/site and by stopping by his new place on a regular basis....

Blind bubble

Last night Rangers managed to lose 3-0 to Lyon and crash out of the Champions league,landing in the Uefa cup.We looked outclassed during the first half and despite rallying well at the start of the second,we probably didn't deserve the point required to qualify.Of course when Lyon were 1-0 up, our striker ,Darcheville,hit the crossbar from about 2 yards out!I left the game feeling gutted and being stuck in traffic for over an hour didn't help either.

After listening to some Floyd,I fired up the IM and chatted to Rosie and Mr Edge.Rosie was at her 2nd mtt final table of the day and played very well indeed to come 8th.Meanwhile Mr Edge and I decided to copy Annette_15 and play a sng without looking at our cards.

We fired up a $1 standard speed sng and the fun began.I saw the first couple of hands as it took a while to get my post-it notes placed correctly.I then got very lucky when I raised with Q10 ( obviously didn't know it was q10) and the flop brought two tens.The villain bet into me and I shoved,expecting an early exit.

That nearly doubled my stack and the fish were knocking each other out so quickly I could probably have folded to the money.I got a little bored of that idea and was caught when I raised with J8 and lost half of my stack.

Mr Edge ( after shoving with 34 off) had gone out and I was trying to stay afloat on the bubble by shoving on the other shortstacks big blind, and betting if folded to me.The problem was that when I was called ,I had no idea where I was in the hand postflop.

Eventually I shoved with j7 and was called by Q4 ( gotta love $1 sngs) and bubbled but I did really enjoy the experience.Reraising someone off a hand when you don't know what you have is very satisfying!

Tonight I'm going to be looking after Step A and watching some more Cardrunners videos.I wasn't in bed until about 2.20am last night and I can't wait to get a lie in at the weekend and catch up on some much needed sleep.

Ok,back soon...

The Wall

The Wall is the title of one of my favourite Floyd albums but unfortunately it was also the story of my poker night last night as one hand after another seemed to get sucked out on no matter how much of a favourite I was when the money went in.I blame Miasdad as I'd just read his post about bad beats before mine started!

To be fair many were simply races where I was only a slight favourite but I saw some crackers too including my QQ falling to Mr JJ flopping quads,Aces cracked by AQ and 46 soooted,KK gubbed by KQ ( two queens on flop) and a couple of set over set nightmares.

In between most of these suckouts I was chatting to Mrs A and resisting the urge to say "just give me a minute babe" and then sticking my head out the window to scream at the moon.( before gently closing the window and calmly retaking my seat as though nothing happened!)

I did lose most of my races last night and I do wonder if I was seeking out too many of those situations too early in some of the games I played.Yes my chips went in as favourite on most occasions ( I did run into better hands a couple of times too) and in turbo's chipping up when ahead in the hand is vital ,however I do think I was so disbelieving of how badly my luck was running,that perhaps it was almost a masochistic desire to feel sorry for myself and lose another race just to reinforce my negative feelings.

I must have played about 14 turbo sng's and it was only after a long break from the tables that I managed to grab a couple of 3rd places ( 18 player,top 4 pay at 'Stars) and a second to prevent me from feeling the night was a total disaster in poker terms.

The break was to watch the derby match between Barcelona and Real Madrid from the Nou Camp.It really was El Grande Classico and finished 3-3 after an injury time equaliser by 10 man Barca.I've no real preference for either side but was cheering on Barca due to the prop bet with Mrs A on the outcome.( the draw means I'm off breakfast cooking duty next weekend).

We also watched the superb "Last King of Scotland" on dvd last night and I'd highly recommend it to anyone looking for a quality movie.Some of the lines were great though with Mrs A being a redhead ( no hair,just a red head...!) she wasn't too impressed with "Idi Amin's" view on gingers.hehe.

I played some cash ( down $20) at Laddys before finally crashing out around 6am so it's going to be struggle to stay up for the blogger freeroll tonight at 12am on Full Tilt.I may even try and grab an hours sleep shortly.Yawn!