All Time Low

Not only was it Nacho's 5th birthday the other day but it's also almost exactly two years since I moved back to my flat after 3yrs living with the ex.My only feelings for the ex these days are ones of anger and frustration over her plans to move to England and leave her 15yr old daughter ( Step Acorn) behind.I took Step A out for dinner last night and she's pretending she doesn't care and will be fine.The ex has another child ( in his 20's now) I never met she left to live with his Dad years ago and Step A reckons it's just her turn now.The ex has also shown no interest at all in seeing Nacho or hearing how he is after asking me to take him full time since back in May.I just can't understand that mentality.

Anyway it was great to see the wee one and I even got a hug from her as I dropped her off.( perhaps the free dinner,celeb mag and £10 helped!) I showed her the pic of Nacho I have as my mobile phone screen saver and got the verdict "cute pic,shit phone"! I also lost street cred for never having heard of her current favourite band,"All Time Low" but will hopefully gain some kudo's by giving her their cd when I give her a lift tomorrow.I am tempted to call my ex or even write to her regarding her plans but I doubt any contact with me would change her mind and if it was a phone call I can see myself losing my temper very quickly indeed.

I arrived back home just in time for Two Pies arrival to watch Rangers away game to Stuttgart in the Champions League.Rangers didn't seem to turn up for the first 20 mins but we clawed our way back into it after going a goal down and scored a cracking equaliser to take a point from the 1-1 scoreline.

Things that have got my goat part 9901010120:Listening to the radio on the way home the other night there was a report about a guy who had been sprayed in the face with cs gas by the police at close range after he had already been arrested and restrained.Radio 5 live said there was footage on the BBC website and that his parents were shocked by what had happened.I was shocked too, especially as he was only arrested for being drunk and disorderly....until they mentioned that this poor innocent had also allegedly spat in a paramedics face.Of course there were no interviews with the paramedics parents to get their views on how they felt about their son/daughter being ( allegedly) assaulted by this vile piece of scum as they were trying to do a professional job.

It's quite right that the gas in the face incident is being investigated because we live in a civilised society and can't let ourselves always be reduced to the lowest common denominator,however tempting, but my guess would be that there's more to this story than first meets the eye.( no mention of why paramedics were required in the first place etc).

Ok,enough for now.I promise to post an actual poker hand in my next post...

Friday Grump

Babysitting for Step A the other night was a pleasure as always.She was on good form ( for a moody teen!)and I'm pleased that even although I split from her Mum last year,the wee one is happy to sit and watch crap tv and chat away to me.They now have a kitten in their house along with a hamster and Nacho.( when he's not at my place) I said it reminded me of the old woman who swallowed a fly song and the wee one looked at me as if I had two heads! "She swallowed the spider to catch the fly,I don't know why she swallowed the fly,perhaps she'll die..." Ahh never mind!

I watched the highlights of Scotland's 0-0 draw with Northern Ireland.My gran was from Portadown and I've always had a soft spot for Norn Iron.It was great to see the away support take over Glasgow city centre during the day and I hope their trip wasn't marred by the embarrassing actions of Strathclyde police who confiscated a Northern Ireland flag, believing it to be illegal for sectarian reasons! The flag was returned and an apology rightly issued.One Scotland,many cultures eh!

The Scottish national team followers are often referred to as the "Tartan Army" for obvious reasons.I don't mind that monicker at all, but ( and maybe I'm turning into an old grump!)it really does my nut in to read those fans constantly referred to in the media as "foot soldiers".Real foot soldiers fight and risk life and limb for their countries as opposed to getting drunk abroad and lifting their kilts to moon at by-passers.

A few other things making me grumpy these days are the daily newspaper headlines that state "Fears grow" or "Fears sparked by..".Not a day goes by without a paper telling us to be fearful for one reason or another.Calling arsonists "firebugs" also annoys me! Dunno why,it just does.

The newspaper stories which do make me smile are the ones where Mum has opened a supermarket pizza for example and found metal slicer/human hair/elephant.It's not so much the story which tickles me but the accompanying photograph of the family invloved all looking as glum and downcast as possible.We spent our lives being told to "say cheese" and smile for the camera and I'd love to be a fly on the wall as the papers photographer snaps the pizza family.Even the kids are made to pose as if their world has just fallen down around them.I may just start a "glum photo" scrapbook or blog..!

To the poker ( at last eh!) and I played a couple of $11,18 player turbs on Full Tilt and watched my 66 fall to A5 ( and noted that Full Tilt deck also contains 14 Aces just like Stars!) and came fourth in the other when my 88 fell to 33.( 3 on river obviously)

I fired up two Party $22's before bed and when my AK lost to K9 in the one of them,I was beginning to get that "Why does it always rain on me?" feeling.I did take 2nd in the other and hit the sack straight afterwards.

I've got Nacho until Sunday and plan on visiting the S-man this evening.Poker,watching the Gers and catching up on my sleep are my plans for the rest of the weekend...

Monday rant + Christian Dailly

I heard a good one at work today and thought I'd offer a Bloggerment buy-in to the first person to answer this football question.Leave any answer in the comments.( prize will be Stars transfer so leave your username)

Which player has been previously relegated from the Premiership but currently plays there and has won the Champions League,Uefa Cup,English Premiership and FA Cup?

Congrats to my mate Al Eleven for outdonking the rest of the Bloggerment and taking down the game last night.Nice to see yet another Scottish win!

My game lasted until I reraised ( all in) with AK and didn't improve after being called by 66.

I hit the turbos afterwards and after a few false starts I scraped into the money in a couple of $12 ,180 player games before finishing 6th in one for $99.I'm still unsure if I donked out or just got unlucky in that last one.I don't recall the exact detail but the blinds totalled around $12k,I had $42k and I shoved A10 from the button and ran into AQ.

There was at least one far shorter stack and perhaps I could have been more patient or even made a smaller preflop bet and I could have folded to a reraise.The payouts rise quite steeply near the end and I wanted to try and gain momentum and push on.I also didn't expect to be called by anything less than a premium hand.Ah well, at least I cashed!

I also made around $80 on Sat night from thirteen $16 turbs which I was quite happy with as it felt like I couldn't win a race all night.

My next goals are to break the $5k profit barrier on Sharkscope at Stars and to take my Stars roll through the $4k mark.

Time for a quick rant about the use of the word "literally"."He literally exploded after that bad beat?" Well unless he's in a zillion pieces he didn't literally explode at all! Grrr.He/she may have been angry and upset but wasn't ever in danger of "literally" exploding.

Oh and "so" as in "so what" is not a word when written as "soooooooo".That says Sue! The St Enoch shopping centre in Glasgow is being refurbished but has a notice saying it's still "soooooooo open".grrr!

I also woke up to a bit of snow today.It barely covered my trainers and although the roads were a bit busy I was only 5 minutes late for work.Cue the headlines in the Glasgow Evening Times "Travel Chaos as Blizzards sweep Scotland".I realise "small snowfall causes minor delays" isn't quite as dramatic but at least it's accurate!

Dog fouling notices on lampposts! Why?! Ok,nobody wants to tread in crap but ffs,a free phone number to call and report any offenders? Will a call to that number result in sirens and screeching tyres as the dog crap police rush to attend or will there be the same slow response as there is when its neds battling in the town centre on a Sat afternoon?! ( the police arrived but nobody was caught according to the local paper)

I may even call the hotline just to find out...


Don't even get me started on the great global warming scam which has people feeling all warm and fuzzy because they've turned down their washing machine wash temperature from 40 to 30.... ***

Ok,enough of being an old grump! Back later in the week...

*** No debates with tree huggers will be entered into!

As a bonus for all that whinging here's a quality clip of football fans serenading a Christian Dailly lookalike steward..

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