Run Good Karma?

Despite seeing myself as quite hard headed,cynical and not at all into religious or spiritual mumbo jumbo I do still say hello to lone magpies and slap the roof above me twice as I leave the football.

I'm more of a ( Terminator philosophy,I'm very cultured) "No fate but what we make" than a karma kind of guy but the supermarket checkout operator who served me today reckons I have good things coming to me after I paid the bill for the old lady in front of me in the queue.She had a ton of stuff all picked from the reduced section and even although it only came to less than £3 she said the total wasn't what she expected and started to pick out items to return.

Does karma still work when I only paid her bill because I was in a hurry to get to the post office before it shut? Who knows!

Come to think of it I do try and go through the same turnstyle at the football if we won the week before and was cursing myself for recording the Old Firm game last week because we never seem to win when I tape ( or whatever the digital word is) Rangers v them.I suppose all these wee superstitions come down to trying to feel as if I have some control over the outcome which is obviously nonsense.

Before reading "The Mental Game of Poker" I used to regularly predict the turn and river card that would crack my poker hand and it seemed that more often than not I'd be right.It's a hard habit to break but I try and focus on believing the board is going to brick out and although deep down I know it doesn't make a hoot of difference what I'm thinking as the cards fall I reckon using "positive confirmation bias" in this way can only help my mental state when playing.

It's sometimes hard to shift illogical thoughts.I was sad to hear that poker and gambling legend Amarillo "Slim" Preston died last Sunday.I have an Ace of Spades he signed with a good luck message in my wallet ( the fact that it's made out to "Janice" is only a minor detail) and when I walked away from my near fatal car crash in Nov '09 part of me put my luck down to that being in my wallet.Now despite knowing
my fate had nothing to do with a playing card it's still there tucked away in my wallet.

Perhaps it's like people who are not religious praying to God in situations of serious crisis or illness in the family.They don't actually suddenly believe in a sky fairy but they don't lose anything by praying just in case they're wrong.

Enough wittering for what was going to be a very short post.It's taken so much longer to write than I expected that I've not eaten yet and have probably missed registering for an early evening tourney I was destined to win....

Ok,one more wee thing.I had a laugh at the front page of my local paper last week.It carried a story about a guy who went to his kids school for a parents night and lost the plot because it turned out to be a meeting about a new curriculum.He shouted "This is a lot of shite" and punched an off duty police woman who tried to restrain him.

He was hauled up to court and the bit that tickled me was his defence lawyers quote that this was "completely out of character" for the accused.This was just before he was found guilty and fined at which point he lost his rag again and starting shouting "Do you think I'm a fuckin' Millionaire?" at the judge.Obviously just another "out of character" moment.

Back soon...

The Russians Are Coming...

...to visit my blog.I have more readers from Russia than any other country and I've no idea why! Добро пожаловать Русская readers.Thank вас за посещение моего блога.


Things seem to be coming to a head with the crisis my team Rangers are in at the moment.It looks like American truck tycoon Bill Miller is favourite to be named as the preferred bidder on Monday and that worries me as I know nothing about the man or how honest his intentions are.If any of my US readers can shed any light on him please leave me a comment.


I had my third date last night with the girl I first met last September.We went to Frankie and Bennys in her home town for pizza and I'm still a bit unsure how I feel about her.She was in Amsterdam last weekend and I did wonder if perhaps she liked a wee smoke but the truth was she was with her 78yr old Mum and they only stopped off there for an afternoon on their way to some big flower festival near the border with Germany.I asked her how it was etc and if she had a garden of her own and from there somehow discovered that she still lives with her Mum.She did mention her Mum getting very tired at one point in their holiday but it doesn't sound like she only stays with her Mum to care for her.


The chat did flow freely and I enjoyed her company.I walked her back to her car not long before the place closed and we had a few long goodnight snogs.She didn't use her tongue at all though and for me no tongues is about as passionate as pushing two goldfish together.She also kept her hands in her pockets which seemed a bit odd too.

With the earlier news that she stays with her Mum all hope of going back to her place had long gone, but I did like her enough to ask about going on another date.She was busy all next week and although she mentioned I could come along to her jogging club ( yeah right!) I wasn't going to push it and we haven't arranged anything.I even joked with her that she's so "busy" she must have a husband and kids at home.We had a laugh about that ( her hubby is probably not laughing!) and I did mention I quite liked the fact she was very independent.I like my own space too and in some ways although we do text each other I quite like the fact it's not in a constant pain in the arse type way.Having said that I've been in relationships where I can't wait to swap text messages and I wonder if I'd still be so bothered about my own space etc if I met someone where sparks were flying in all directions.


I wasn't sure I'd hear from her again and I certainly wasn't going to do any chasing but she did text me this morning to say it was good to see me again so who knows if we'll get together again in future.


After the holiday Monday last week this week has felt like a long one and I'm looking forward to chilling out and hitting the poker tables this weekend.Im looking forward to catching up with "The Apprentice" and a few other current favourites like "Homeland" and "The Undatables" though if I'm not careful I may be starring in the latter one day.

It's El Classico time again on Saturday night and I can't wait to see Barcelona and Real Madrid go head to head again.Still tame compared to a Rangers v Celtic game but it should be good none the less!

Right time for a big greasy sausage supper then da poker....

Dates,Donks and Dirty Talk.....

My internet date the other night got off to a bad start when I arrived at the cinema and spotted a sullen looking blonde haired woman who looked much older than her profile photo.After glancing across a couple of times and only getting a hard stare back I was ready to make a sharp exit.

Thankfully she wasn't my date for the evening and when the girl I was due to meet showed up a couple of minutes later I was quite taken aback as she was far nicer looking than her online pics.I did mention that to her, however I'm not sure implying she looked quite plain in her photo's online but surprisingly hot in person is actually much of a compliment!

I had pretty much decided beforehand I was going to enjoy the film and anything else would be a bonus.As it was the movie ended up being totally sold out and we ended up going to a nearby pub instead where the chat flowed quite easily, despite me calling her Laura instead of Lorna a couple of times! Perhaps it helped that approaching the situation with very low expectations ( after previous dates) meant I managed to resist talking complete crap at a million miles per hour like I usually do on first dates!

Anyway we've exchanged some texts and have made plans to go back to the cinema to see "The Inbetweeners" this Tuesday so as ever I'll take it easy and see how it goes.

Of course if I can learn to talk dirty like Simon in this NSFW Inbetweeners clip I'm sure my second date will be fine...


On Thursday night I was at Ibrox to see Rangers go out of Europe to Slovenian minnows Maribor.On the balance of play and chances created over the two legs we should have gone through, but football is about scoring goals and defending well and we did neither well enough.Back to trying to get excited about being being slightly better than that mob across the city.( who also crashed out of Europe)

On the poker front I'm still only playing at weekends these days and thanks to a Stars promotion I'm only 45 fpp's away from reaching platinum star this month.I pay that much attention to that kind of thing that I only just noticed this week that I had $80 worth of free rewards to collect!

I warmed up by owning a couple of donks at $1.50 Heads Up games.I like the rematch option as it keeps some fish coming back again and again.I beat one particular donkey several times before he declined a rematch and the competitive part of me loves the thought that somewhere in Canada there was someone sitting in front of a laptop/pc feeling sick and frustrated at being outplayed.Even if it is only tiny stakes, heads up games always seem more personal.

The $1.50's and $3.50's were only a warm up for 6 tabling the $15's and after my usual rocky start I played good poker and ran well to finish the night with a decent wee profit.After playing 8 tables ( and rolling!) last week I felt more comfortable going back to 6 and beating one of the better regulars heads up a couple of times felt good too.( though the heads up part could have gone either way to be fair)

The standard of play was reassuringly awful and at times it felt like Sng's from a few years ago when it was possible to almost fold into the money.

Ok,that's enough for today.Quick question for anyone using Blogger.Any idea where the spell check option has gone when posting or why there's a small gap at the foot of every post since I hit some upgrade button?

Back soon...

Bloggerment + PLO game tonight...

I've also registered for the RaisetheRiver PLO game at 8pm on Stars ( pass:snowing) although I'm going for a pub dinner with my family at 6pm so I may be a little late for that one.

After playing very little poker in Nov and Dec I have stepped it up a wee bit over the last week or so and ending last night with a couple of wins at $22 and $33 meant things are looking a bit rosier on the bankroll front.

For any readers not familiar with poker it's a game played against other people where the house make their profits from the rake paid when entering a game.The $22 games I play at Party are actually $20 games with additional $2 rake going to Party Poker.I don't often give the rake much thought ( some sites offer a % of rakeback as an incentive)but if I'm making aprox $2 per game at a 10% Roi ( return on investment)it strikes me there's a big difference between paying $2 to enter a $22 on Party and the $1 fee Pokerstars charge for their $15+$1 sit and go's.I have looked at other sites with rakeback but very few seem to have the SNG player traffic required to be able to play sngs over $20 without waiting hours for the tables to fill.

On the football front I was delighted to see Rangers go 9 points clear at the top of the league yesterday.Monkeyheid's team still have a game in hand and there's a long way to go yet but it's quite amusing that for all our rivals gloating about my teams financial worries,we're still Champions and are looking good for title number 53.

I finally got round to buying a bluetooth headset for my PS3.From now on any 10 yr old squeaking about what a "noob" I am after blasting me in the head wont get away without a resounding lecture on respecting their elders.I expect my PS3 message box to be flooded by apologies from such kiddies....

Using the headset did make me wonder why poker sites don't use any kind of voice chat.It would certainly liven up the games a bit to hear people going ape after bad beats and as with the PS3 there would always be the option to mute any other player.

Back soon...

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...

More Balance

I was out for a lovely dinner on Friday night and it ended up being a late one.Yesterday I was at Ibrox to see Rangers beat the sheep 2-1 which gained us 3 points but didn't feel good enough as I was sure our rivals would win today.Just finished avoiding the end of their game and they only managed a 0-0 draw.We are now two points clear with 1 game to go and are 1 goal down on goal difference.We haven't beaten Dundee Utd away from home for a few years but this is our chance to be champions and bring the league flag home.Just do it Rangers!

I hit the tables for a while later yesterday and after bubbling three $16's ( 18 player) in a row I managed a few 3rd places for a small profit.The s-man came over and we had a fine night smoking top herb,playing Motorstorm and watching yet another Brando like performance from Mr Segal in Renegade Justice.I did play two $22's on Party afterwards and didn't cash in either.In fact I've no idea what my exits hands were.

My poker focus seems to have lessened for the moment which I think is probably a good thing.I've also actually been enjoying the games I've been playing far more than usual despite not exactly raking in the profits.I have run more badly than I've ever done before over the last few months and I think it's time I began to think less about results and more about concentrating harder and playing better poker.

I've also booked up a 3 day stay in Amsterdam with Two Pies for next month.Roll on!

Ok,my brain feels like mush today.Don't forget to play in tonights Brit Bloggerment on Full Tilt.Come and see Rubbish defend his title!

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...

You're only....

Here to see the Rangers....

Just back from Rangers 3-0 Scottish Cup semi-final win over St Mirren.We scored early and the result was never in doubt after that.With only 5 games left in the league ( including one v the great unwashed) it's all to play for.Rangers are in a pretty poor state financially at the moment and winning the league to get into the Champions League is vital.

Stopped off at the shops and bought Resident Evil for the PS3 on the way home.A new game,some Stevie Segal justice being dealt out, a nice puff and the company of the s-man and Nacho are on the cards for tonight.

Last night I had another decent night at the felt and cashed in a few $22's on Party.I'm still down for the month there but I'm over $500 up on my lowest point which is quite pleasing.I'm hardly on a heater, but at least I don't seem to be running dreadfully until I get in the money which is progress at least!

All this running badly crap just makes me admire guys like Boku87 even more.He turned $100 into over $10k in less than 2 weeks playing low limit sngs and endured a couple of huge downswings during his challenge.I wish I had the confidence, resilience and stamina to grind it out like he does.Mind you I read some poker magazine article where the writers had to play 150 sngs in a month and they claimed the variance they suffered doing that was mind warping.

Who knows if I'm over the worst of my downswing but gaining a bit of confidence has helped me learn to trust my instincts again and play accordingly.I've called off my stack too often on these occasions recently.This time I listened to the wee voice in my head! Of course there's an arguement for raising AJ from the button preflop but I hate AJ early on in sngs and with more fishy calling stations playing at the weekend I preferred to play it this way.



Ok,thanks for reading.Back soon...

Brit Blogger Game Tonight

I think I need to work out how to place the Brit Blogger banner down the side of my blog to avoid me having to post on a Sunday to pimp it.

I'm in a decent Easter mood today after watching Rangers close the gap at the top of the league to just one point after we beat Motherwell and the mutants could only draw away to Hearts.Sadly the young lad in his 20's next to me informed me the usual seat holder,his Great Uncle,had passed away last week.As a season ticket holder for over a decade ( since I stopped working weekends)it's the same bunch of lads around me for every game and I wouldn't want to sit anywhere else in the ground.I don't believe in the afterlife or any of that stuff ( now seems as good a day as any to mention that!), but I'd still like to think auld Jimmy was looking down as the Gers goals hit the net yesterday.

I picked up Nacho after the game and took him for a long walk round the pitches before arriving home and enjoying a fine late night PS3 session with the s-man.The Party tables were quiet when he left at 2am-ish so I decided to hit up Full Tilt for a change,firing up a $33 to start with.I bubbled when I reraised a button raiser with AQ and Mr A8 sooted called and flopped a flush.As I was only playing one table I stepped up and finished the night with a $55+$5 turbo.I shoved over a button steal with 99 only find the button wasn't stealing and had QQ.There must have been a blue moon as a beautiful 9 came on the flop and despite my certainty that a Queen would follow,it never did and I had a healthy stack.Someone even said they folded J9 and I'd hit the case 9.I felt like typing "Lucky? Did you see my last bubble exit?!".I ended up coming 3rd ( for $99) when I shoved 73h from the button and ran into A9.

Playing 3-4 tables of $22's using pretty much the same technique every time does get a little repetitive after a while and it was nice to just focus on one table and actually feel like I was playing poker rather than just bashing moles.



The $55 table only had a few winners too according to Sharky and the way the first few hands went it was hard to believe it wasn't a play money game.I actually suspected chip dumping until I realised Mr 910 and Mr A4 had gotten it all in preflop ( first hand).

Back to munching Easter Eggs....

Cheerio Tae F**K

I'm still on a blogging break, which makes sense as I've spent more time playing MotorStorm on the PS3 than playing poker over the last couple of nights.I watched the Gers game last night ( 2-1 v St Mirren) and the S-man popped over later for more PS3 action.When he left at midnight I watched "The Apprentice" ( why didn't that twat Ben get fired?!) before bed so I'll probably be too tired to have a real go at the poker tonight.( up at 6.30 this morning)

Anyway the point of this post is to relate a wee tale from work.Yesterday afternoon a wee "Get well" card did the rounds for Sue,a no nonsense, outgoing woman in her early 50's who has a bad skin complaint affecting her hands and feet.We've all worked with her for a few years and know she enjoys a laugh and a joke.She loves to shout "Cheerio tae fuck" as she departs every night and I duly wrote that on her card,adding a standard get well message too.Her other friends in the office wrote stuff like "Don't hurry back" and one of the older guys wrote a couple of lines and signed it off with a few kisses.

It had been round everyone and the card organiser was about to pop it into an envelope ready for posting when Dour Face ( looks like a bulldog chewing a wasp) announced she hadn't signed it yet.She was handed the card and questioned the tone of a few of the scribblings written by us all.This was met with a few raised eyebrows and general mutterings about how this was typical Dour Face behaviour.It was explained to her that as we all know Sue pretty well the tone of the card was just fine.

At this point we noticed a look of growing horror on organisers face as it dawned on her just what was going on.The card was not intended for Sue at all, but was meant for Bill, a homeworker we all deal with on a daily basis who has unfortunately been diagnosed with kidney cancer....

Needless to say the card with it's "cheerio tae fuck" and "Don't rush back" sentiments was quickly binned.

Thanks for reading.Back to my blogging break...

Dead Money

I had my worst night maybe ever at the virtual felt last night after taking a pounding at Party.To start with I played twenty $12 180 player turbos on Stars and fell just short of breaking even.

The Party $33's were calling and I played 26,4-6 tabling and getting scudded on nearly every hand,finishing with a fruitless shot at a $109 around 5.30am.The bad news is it cost me $535 in total.Excluding the $109 it is only around 13 buy-ins which I suppose is pretty standard for a night of nasty variance.I was going to keep saving my Party points, but have cashed in 4500 of them for a straight $150 paid into my account.The good news is that I still slept like a baby and I'm not that annoyed about it.Nights like that are going to happen and although it's wiped out my decent start to the month,I'm down less than $40 after cashing in those points.

Ok,off to Ibrox now to watch Rangers play Hamilton in the cup.Hope the Gers don't run as badly as me...

Sharky Curse...

I had been toodling along nicely at the Party $22's, with my roll there peaking at $2628 about a week or so ago.On checking my Stars sharkscope stats ( finally over the $9k profit mark) I noticed Party sng results are now covered.Sadly for my poker ego they begun coverage just as I hit that $2628 peak and have only recorded my swing down to $2200 and back to $2430.

My luck last night at the $22's reminded me of the 1000 game almost break even streak I suffered at Stars a couple of months back.Thankfully,having been through a streak like that,I've developed a far thicker poker skin and appreciate that nights as bad as last night are part of grinding turbos.Apart from a couple of hands, I felt I played well, which is all you can ever do when the 2 outers and lost flips are piling up.I even came back from 25 chips on one table only to bubble when my 22 fell to 86.

Tonight I'm off to Hampden to watch Rangers v Falkirk in the league cup semi-final.It's cold,wet and miserable here in Glasgow tonight and hopefully my team can rattle in a few goals.

I also intend to play some more live poker soon as I didn't play at a poker club or casino at all last year.In truth I always seem to feel like a total poker newbie whenever I've played live,never having a clue when it's my turn,what the stack sizes are or even who is supposed to turn over their cards first at showdown.I'm a lazy sod and having it all worked out online for me means I really don't pay any attention to the workings of the game.I do wish it was possible to smoke da herb during live games though! I rarely play online without a puff and find without it I get too keen to get involved,tilt more easily and generally find it tougher to tune into the flow of the game.

Righty,back soon..

Brit Blogger Game Tonight

Actual start time is 9pm gmt/4 pm est under the Private tab in the Full Tilt lobby.

The football was crap yesterday.Rangers lost 1-0 and the police sunk to new depths,this time confiscating a banner from the Rangers end which showed the same "Offended bus" I posted the other day.( reason given was that someone might be offended by it!) Still,at least nobody risked arrest by singing the Hokey Cokey.One Scotland,Many Cultures (unless you're a Rangers fan).

I picked Nacho up after the game,took him for a long walk and watched some poker training vids before having a baby.Ok,I didn't have a baby, but apparently my Mum would like me to have one. No casual relationships or FWB's for me eh! My sister and hubby are going through IVF stuff at the moment and hopefully that will work out and my Mum can get her wish for a kid in the family.I have always wanted kids of my own and who knows what the future holds.It's not on my list for the January sales though!

To the poker and I began last night with Dr Paulys PLO game on Stars as it's a nice break from the NL turbo grind.Even after glancing at the occasional starting hand chart I'm still a PLO donkey, although I actually enjoy having to give hands some thought instead of operating on almost auto-pilot.( even if these thoughts only extend to "It looks shiney,I call"!) The good Doc even questioned my move when I raised KKK4 and took a pot down at showdown.My logic was that it had folded to me in late postion,it was Xmas time and three Kings are always good at this time of year.... **

I bowed out the PLO game in 11th place,fired up a couple of $22's at Party and managed to take one of them down.As Sharkscope doesn't work on Party and I'm too lazy to keep a proper record, I'm going to email Party support and see if they can provide me with some stats for the sngs I've played there.There is certainly a lot less variance when 3/10 get paid instead of the 4/18 I'm used to at the two table games.

I moved over to Stars and two wins and a few wee cashes from 21 games saw me finish the night with a $35 overall profit.I was 4 tabling for most of the session and was glad to finish ahead after not playing particularly well for most if it.Tiredness,being in a crappy mood after the football and suffering from a frustrating start ( usual beats and lost flips) are my feeble excuses!At least I hit the sack around 3.30am ( 6am finishes really are not healthy!)and made around $80 overall.

My plan tonight is to play the Britblogger game on Full Tilt and also the Million Dollar Turbo Takedown Mtt on Stars.

Ok,thanks for reading.Back soon...

** My PLO strategy guide will be available soon.

The Dollar Rulz!

I had a fine evening over at the s-mans on Tuesday playing Quantam of solace on his PS3.I played four turbs before bed when I arrived home and didn't cash in any of them after running horribly yet again.

Last night I hit the tables after watching the Rangers game.We drew 0-0 and had yet another perfectly good goal ruled offside,this time by the same linesman who recently gifted our rivals a goal which actually was offside.Of course we should have taken some of the many chances we made too, but it's frustrating when inept officials cost us points again.

Maybe the focus on the phone-ins will move back to the football now after all the talk this week on about our rivals being the only club in the UK to hold a minutes applause ( instead of the tradtional silence) in remembrance of those fallen soldiers who lost their lives at war.The official line was that this is the new "celtc way", but the reality is that they knew a small minority of their scummiest fans would disrupt the silence with booing and catcalls.I try and stay away from commenting much on the intense rivalry between Rangers and celtc, but sometimes I despair at how pathetic a country Scotland can be.

My horrible poker run continued after the football.I had my QQ busted by 1010 rivering a 10 in my first game and that seemed to set the tone for more of the same.At least I know the sites aren't rigged as I had the same crappy luck on Stars and Party.Only a 2nd place finish in my final $33 at Party helped keep things respectable.

The good news is that the Pound falling to $1.50 against the Dollar has increased my roll by about $500 without me having to lift a finger.Nice to be up for the month when I'm not ahead at the felt!

I've also cashed out ( well I'm counting it as a cashout) $105 from Full Tilt to buy 2.75% of Amtay in a few live tournies.It's more than I've ever backed myself for in a game, but the boy has skills and if his luck holds, I reckon it's worth a punt.

Just back from a fine steak pie dinner at my Mum and Dads place.I had good fun helping my Mum win a $16 and hopefully she picked up a few useful tips too!

Ok,I was going to write a bit about focus but I think I've lost my concentration...

Chatbox Glitch

Thanks to all 15 players who showed up to play Sundays Brit Blogger game on Full Tilt.Congrats to Mr Cloud on winning and to Rosie for giving the monkey a home this week.( he stays with the first to exit) I scraped into the money,donking out third before heading off to play some $22's on Party.

I read a quote on a poker forum referring to Mtt's which said that "success in poker is dealing with failure and coming back for more with just as much enthusiasm".I've played twenty sngs in a row without cashing on quite a few occasions now.I can't imagine playing for 3-4 hours each time in an Mtt before being blown out twenty times in a row.

Back to Monday nights $22's and I only managed one cash from five games.Last night was a bit better with a win and a 3rd place at $22 before crashing out of a $33 when some donkey called a my preflop raise and busted my QQ with his flopped two pair.( 68 off is such a monster!) I also took a 3rd place in a $16 after bubbling the first one I played.

I was lucky to win the $22 I mentioned after being caught out by the Party chatbox fault, which means that if you type something in chat box and hit the return key when action is on you,it seems to auto-call.I rarely chat but was about to "lol" at a hand when I called a tighty shortys shove with my K5 off.That wiped the "lol" off my face! I lost the hand and was tempted to let table know it was a mislick.I didn't and I'm sure my blinds were stolen far less as a result....

Ok,over to the s-mans this evening,watching the Gers tomorrow night and visiting my Mum and Dad on Thursday night.Back soon...

Britblogger Challenge

I had a fine evening over at the S-mans watching "Batman Begins" and chewing the fat.Came 3rd in a $22 at Party,crashed out of three $16's at Stars and went to bed when I got home.

Today I've just finished watching Rangers draw 1-1 with Aberdeen after having a legitimate late winner ruled out for offside.Our rivals drew 1-1 last week after their opponents ( Dundee Utd) were denied a stonewall penalty and it seems the decisions which helped our rivals win the title last season are continuing this year.

Just time for a wee clip from one of my favourite movie opening scenes.I love this tune!Probably NSFW.Is it just me or does anyone else reckon Shamus over at Hardboiled poker sounds a bit like K-Billys super sounds of the 70's on his excellent poker podcasts?




Ok,off to walk Nacho before it rains and then it's time to play some poker.

RTR Challenge win

I played the 5000 fpp Turbo Takedown as planned and although I cashed for $90, I was knocked out after I made a redonkulous move.I was sitting on a 9k stack with about 3000 players left,the blinds were about 1k/2k and I raised to 3bb to steal from mid position with Q3.I'd been totally card dead for ages and planned to fold if reraised.Of course the biggest fish ( -37% roi over 1200 games) at the table flat called with A7,I missed the flop,shoved all in regardless and the fish hero called with C3PTK.( Crap 3rd pair,top kicker!)

Idiot play by me ( never bluff a fishy calling station) and when I remembered much later that the format meant that the blind levels slowed again after level 18,I was cursing my impatient stupidity even more!

I turned my focus to the Britbloggerment and RaiseTheRiver challenge games. ( Mods and Admin V rest)Thankfully we managed to get a full table for the Bloggerment this week.Not much to report from it for me.Card dead and out 6th after shoving over the top of one of Amatays ( frequent!) preflop raises with A10 ( I had less than 1k left) and lost to his QJ when the Queen flopped.Congrats to Amatay on winning it, although I'm sure Mr Cloud would dispute the rumours that he deliberately finished second just to secure the bridesmaid dress for himself.

The RTR game was far more fun for me and I'm pleased to say I beat 23 fellow RTR donks to take it down for the forum members.I did have a laugh at Burnley "Comical Ali" Mik using an obviously rigged scoring system ( hehe) to declare the admin/mods team as winners ( on the RTR game thread) despite a forum member winning and taking three bounties in the process! How does that "Dads Army" theme tune go again?!!

Anyways I got off to a good start when I shoved from the big blind with QQ after the sb had raised AK.He called and ( rare words for this blog) my hand held!

I didn't get my money in behind once ( that I recall) during the game which means I must have been runnning well.( all winners of tourneys are either cardracks or suckout kings!)

I did double up when my Aces held v Cadmunkeys KK and that gave me a decent stack going to the final table.Next I got a bit lucky v Yorkie Pud.He had just lost a pot after making a call with a mid pair on a ragged King high board and when he made his standard 2.5bb preflop raise, I looked down to 99 and decided to flat call.I hit a set,Pud hit top pair and when he shoved after my check-raise, I couldn't call quickly enough.Pud did have outs for a gutshot, but thankfully my set made a boat by the river and suddenly I had quite a large chip lead.

As the numbers dwindled I reverted to sng turbo endgame mode and stepped up the aggression further ,trying to gradually grind down the remaining stacks and seal the win.Lou Saban played a great game as usual and was unlucky to bubble.A bit later my 99 held v Mairs A10 and it was quite a short Heads up battle with Hull Jimi, which ended when my 1010 held v his 44.$60 for the win and another $25 in bounties.Ship it!

I fired up four $16's before bedtime and cashed in two for a $44 profit before dropping about $40 playing a few more $14.50 super turbos on Full Tilt.

Tonight I'm looking after Step A,Wednesday night is Rangers first competitive home game ( Champs league qualifier) and I'm also hoping to get across to see the s-man too at some point.

Thanks for reading.Back soon..

Royal Flush

Stepped down to the $6.50 turbs and ran a lot better,winning $88 over 13 games.After this fine hand I came back and won that game and hoped my bad run may be over.I was wrong.The $16's were calling and once again I felt like I couldn't win a race or get a hand to hold up.Thankfully I won the last game I played and made $31 profit over my total of 25 games.( mostly 5-6 tabling)

PokerStars Game #18921555030: Tournament #96484148, $6.00+$0.50 Hold'em No Limit - Level IX (300/600) - 2008/07/18 - 20:06:59 (ET)
Table '96484148 1' 9-max Seat #3 is the button
Seat 3: zagga (1610 in chips)
Seat 7: LOSTFAN815 (3220 in chips)
Seat 8: Sydsneys-dad (22170 in chips)
zagga: posts the ante 50
LOSTFAN815: posts the ante 50
Sydsneys-dad: posts the ante 50
LOSTFAN815: posts small blind 300
Sydsneys-dad: posts big blind 600
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to zagga [Qh 6d]
zagga: raises 960 to 1560 and is all-in
LOSTFAN815: calls 1260
Sydsneys-dad: calls 960
*** FLOP *** [Tc Kh Th]
LOSTFAN815: checks
Sydsneys-dad: checks
*** TURN *** [Tc Kh Th] [Ah]
LOSTFAN815: checks
Sydsneys-dad: bets 600
LOSTFAN815: raises 1010 to 1610 and is all-in
Sydsneys-dad: calls 1010
*** RIVER *** [Tc Kh Th Ah] [Jh]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
LOSTFAN815: shows [9h Ac] (a flush, Ace high)
Sydsneys-dad: shows [Js Qs] (a straight, Ten to Ace)
LOSTFAN815 collected 3220 from side pot
zagga: shows [Qh 6d] (a Royal Flush)
zagga collected 4830 from main pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 8050 Main pot 4830. Side pot 3220. | Rake 0
Board [Tc Kh Th Ah Jh]
Seat 3: zagga (button) showed [Qh 6d] and won (4830) with a Royal Flush
Seat 7: LOSTFAN815 (small blind) showed [9h Ac] and won (3220) with a flush, Ace high
Seat 8: Sydsneys-dad (big blind) showed [Js Qs] and lost with a straight, Ten to Ace

Today I'm walking Nacho,watching a Rangers pre-season friendly and hitting the tables.Something I have learned recently is that I much prefer to cascade the tables when playing over four.I seem to be able to handle six without losing the place and now all I need to do is run a little better and make some decent profit again!

Ok,don't forget to register for tonights Euroblogger and tomorrows Britbloggerment.The numbers have been low recently and it would be nice to see some new people playing! I'm dead money on Stars just now...so come and get it!

Edit: Normal service resumed..

Time to play a game....

Sadly I was right about Rangers playing too many games in a short period of time and we didn't win the league this season.Thanks to the SFA/SPL we have 41 hours from the end of last nights game to prepare for tomorrows Scottish Cup final.I've always believed the league table doesn't lie at the end of the season, but I still think we are a better team than our rivals and that the reasons I posted about previously ( poor refs and fixture congestion)are why we came 2nd in the end.

Our rivals chief executive quote that extending the season to make it fairer for Rangers would some how have compromised "sporting intergrity" was complete bollocks.Why not just say "We wanted Rangers to play as many games as possible to help give our shitty team a chance".Wanker.Anyways, Nuff Said.

I was also sorry to see Chelsea fail to win the European Cup on Wednesday night after being pipped by Manchester Utd on penalties.I thought Man Utd had the best of the first half and Chelsea outplayed them after that.

To the poker and I played in the Bodog blogger game on Tuesday night although I felt a bit of a fraud in the end.It started at 2am ,was deepstacked ( which I hadn't checked) and although the prize money was ok,it was really about accumulating points through finishing positions.As this was a one-off for me due to being off work the points didn't really matter and after 1/2hour I was looking for a way out without donating my chips too easily and spoiling the spirit of the game.I ended up shoving over the top of a raise with AQ and going out to Aces.

On Wednesday night after the football I watched "The Apprentice" and decided to play the $11,$20k gtd Mtt on Stars with 2500 other donkeys.I was playing my usual $16 turbos alongside the mtt as I'm far too much of an action junkie to just play one slow play mtt! I ended up busting in 127th place for a whopping $32 payout.I have the roll but not the skills or balls to play some mtt's with bigger buy-ins and smaller fields.

I've played 55 turbo games on Stars and won $230 since my last post.I've been four tabling more often and even trying six tabling at the $3.40's to get used to the pace of it.Last night I ran terribly at the $16's and only stepping up and coming 2nd in both $27's I played before bed helped make it a decent nights work.I have 122 leaderboard points from three $27's and may try and play some more of them before the 4am Sunday deadline for the end of the leaderboard.My decent streaks recently have always seemed to overlap from one set of twenty to the next and it would be nice to make the Battle of the Planets leaderboard for once.

At least I've reached another goal though and have now broken through the $7k profit barrier according to Sharkscope.Next goal is $8k!



The s-man is coming over this evening and the plan is to rent Saw 4 on dvd and enjoy some spriggage with it.( sprigs of herb!)

"Spriggage" is our latest code word for the good herb.Reminds me of the furtive conversations I used to have as a teen when having "sore feet" meant you were not able to speak freely.No wonder my Mum took me to the chiropodist so often...

The Beautiful Game...

I'm off work for the rest of this week and will probably take a blogging break for a wee while too after this post.

Thanks to all 13 who showed up to play in Sundays Britbloggerment game on Stars and congrats to Mair for winning it.I came 3rd after getting the money in from the big blind with 53 on a 5 3 4 rainbow board.Mair must have be worshipping at Dd's church of Dyson as the 2 fell on the turn to make her A4 a gutshot straight!No complaints.All goot fun.

No more poker on Sunday and last night I watched Rangers beat St Mirren 3-0 to take the title race to the last day.We are still four goals behind our rivals on goal difference thanks partly to recent refereeing blunders which have gifted them goals, and thanks also to inexplicably ruled out goals for teams playing them.I don't see us scoring at least 6 against Aberdeen on Thursday night, but even if we don't win the league,it's still been a great adventure this season and we have a Scottish Cup final on Saturday to look forward to.

Nice to see a more balanced article in The Times re Rangers supporters in Manchester.

I had to laugh at ignorant critics who have slated Rangers style of play this season.Last season we won nothing and finished miles behind our rivals.Our manager has rebuilt an entire squad on a tiny budget and if people think we can go out and play Brazil 1970 style football against a team like Zenit who beat the mighty Bayern Munich 4-0 in the semi-final, and who spent more on one player than our entire transfer budget, then they are sadly deluded.

Our rivals made the Uefa cup final five years ago with a far more expensively assembled team which relied heavily on tall strong players,playing a long ball game and making the most of set-pieces.It was a shrewd plan and it almost worked for them.When you can't compete on monetary terms, ( thanks to the small television revenues Scottish clubs get)you have to look for a different edge.Rangers edge this season has been team spirit and hard work.Perhaps in the summer we can buy a flair player or two and play a little more like this...



Even if your not a football fan, fast forward the clip to the three minute mark and enjoy the greatest goal ever scored!

Back to the poker and last night at Stars was horrible.I won a wee $3.40 single table warm up game and then flounced out of six $16 turbos in a row without cashing.Twice I lost to set over set and even when I won a race on the flop,I was being scudded by the turn and river cards.Ac6c against my AJ was particularly amusing as I was so busy looking for the villains 6 kicker hitting on the flop ,it took me a second to realise he didn't need it as he'd flopped a flush.Shoving K4 into Aces late on in my last game at Stars wasn't a pleasant way to finish!

I moved to Party and fired up some $22 and $33 single table turbs.Sharkscope doesn't seem to work properly at Party which is frustrating as I like to track my own results and check out the competition.I donked out of two $22's and two $33's before taking down a $33 ( $150 1st prize)which left me $7 up overall there.

Ok,thanks for reading...