Bring on the 4 Card Bingo...

VeryJosie asked about "The Rangers" in a comment on my last post and I thought it would be easier to provide a wiki link to info on the club and repost a youtube clip from January's Old Firm game to show just how noisy and passionate our fans are.Quite scary to think it's over 30 years since I attended my first game and I've had my season ticket for about 15 years.( ever since I stopped working Saturdays)



International jet setting blogger Yorkie Pud asked if there was any particular reason I've logged very little poker volume this year and I reckon that being hooked on the Call of Duty ( Modern Warfare 2) game has been the main reason! Being off work for so long and generally having no life has meant I've now logged over 36 days worth of online playing time since it was released last Dec.On Sunday I even looked up Stars MTT schedule and planned on registering in 5-6 games from 7pm.I ended up teaming up with the s-man and playing MW2 instead.( KD now 1.34!)

I've always been a bit that way I suppose.With music I find myself getting into a singer/band and listening to their stuff non-stop for a few months,reading up on them etc and then the obsession fades and I move on to something else.It does take a lot for me to change though as I'm a definite creature of routine and habit and trying new stuff doesn't come easily.I thought The Inbetweeners was probably a crap sketch show until I watched the first two series a couple of weeks back and now I wouldn't miss it.Being a huge South Park fan meant I've never watched a whole episode of The Simpsons and it was only the s-man that got me into the excellent Family Guy after much persuasion.( not that there's any rule that says you can only like one cartoon!)

I've played thousands of sng's over the last few years ( aprox 300-400 per month until this year)and used to shake my head when reading other blog posts about folks bad beats over 4-5 games.Playing 25-50 games per night helps even out the extreme variance in poker, but these days I find if I crash out of four games in a row to lost flips and suckouts then I just can't be bothered with that shitty feeling and I'd rather go and do something else.As I mentioned before I also find the first 4 levels of sit and go games to be boring fold fests and at the moment I'm fortunate enough to not need the money enough to just grit my teeth and play if I'm not enjoying it or making much money.

I have been playing some PLO cash games on Stars although only at 10c-25c blinds.I actually like the fact that I've not read much strategy and don't know the bones of the game as I have to really think hard to estimate ranges and to have some sort of idea of where I am in a hand.Being up a few buy-ins helps and my roll now stands at $865 on Stars and a measly $134 on Party.

Life isn't too bad at the moment.I had a great time taking my wee nephew out for a walk in his pram ( instant clunge magnet obv!) last Thursday,I'm off to the Scotland v Spain game tonight with The Big Chap and I finally caught up with Step A again and we're going for a Mcd's tomorrow night.I'm also still on alternate full days and have 35 days of annual leave to take before the end of March.

I haven't met the girl I was texting yet for our cinema date.In truth ( yeah call me superficial if you like) she sent a photo through and between that and the tone of a few of her texts I didn't make texting her back a priority! Once I'm back working fulltime I'll try and get my arse in gear and do some more dating.

Ok,thanks for reading.Back soon...

Tango Sucka!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

He Dives to the Left...

I did make it to the Old Firm game yesterday and despite hurting like hell today it was worth it to see the Scottish Champions pick up a point and retain our 7 point lead at the top of the league.( especially as we were missing several key players)

Here's a taste of the Worlds biggest football derby game ( not my vid) showing our equaliser and our keeper Alan "Big Shagger" Mcgregor's amazing save which kept us in it.Probably not safe for work.



I did seem to pick up a touch of conjunctivitis again ( both eyes this time) so apart from watching a couple of Ken Burton COD Vids I hit the tables instead of COD.I had played around 30 sngs on Saturday,ran like crap and began to wonder if I'd ever win money again at poker!

Last night at the virtual felt was a lot better.I made a few hundred dollars and have also nearly earned enough points to clear another bonus.After I took this screenshot I played three more sngs and of course got screwed in them all.



I also played The Bloggerment last night but having just played a few $22 turbos I wasn't really in the mood for a $5 standard speed game and ended up donking out just after Kronsdat took the monkey home for coming last.I've just checked just now and congrats to Hammerheid on taking it down.

After the bloggy I watched Taylor lift the World Darts Championship for the 15th time and then hit the $22's again for a while before bed.

Back soon...

Edit: Ahhh who says the games are getting tougher? ( and yeah I was only completing the sb for pot odds and to try and hit two pair/straight etc.)

Head Bangin'

I hit the tables on Friday night and would have been better off banging my head against a brick wall.On Saturday Two Pies came round to watch the Gers win 2-1.Our plans to head to the Alea were scuppered due to the casino running a Nut's pub poker league game instead of their usual £22 turbo tourney.I fired up some online tables and Two Pies watched as I crashed out of game after game without cashing.I did manage to finish with a couple of wins to stem the tide a little but it was still a brutal wee session.The s-man arrived about 7-ish and a marathon Motorstorm session followed.

Yesterday I watched the football and stayed off the laptop until late last night when I took 2nd in a couple of $22's to leave me about 19 buy-ins down for October.If the poker gods are reading this I'd like to apologise for my winning month last month and point out that it was all due to luck/running good.Now please let me win a hand...!

My Amazon order arrived at the weekend and I've made a start on Colin Moshman's sng strategy guide and the Mike Matusow story, "Check Raising the Devil".I like the Moshman book so far with its examples of how he would play different hands according to position,player type,blind levels and I've been looking forward to getting my hands on the Matusow story for a while after reading good reviews.Vicky Coren's book has also arrived and it's next on my reading list.

I'll try and squeeze some poker in this week.The s-man is coming over tonight,I'll be at Ibrox for Rangers Champions League game tomorrow evening,Nacho get's his booster jag on Wednesday and I may be visiting my folks on Friday before going out.

Anyways thanks for stopping by and if you "follow" this blog via blogspot and wonder why I don't follow yours it's probably because I use bloglines to read most of my favourites.No doubt I'm behind the times and some blogtwitterbook has now overtaken bloglines but I like it!

Back soon...

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2-1 to the Scottish Champions today at Ibrox v celtc.Wheeeeee!

Superhero Friends...

The football wasn't that great last night and thankfully Rosie texted to remind me The Apprentice was on.I don't watch much tv at all but I love watching those twats makes fools of themselves on a weekly basis and last night was no exception.

Before the footy I finished the book "We need to talk about Kevin"( by Lionel Shriver) and after a slowish start I'd highly recommend it.Not many books have actually made me physically shiver the way the last couple of chapters of this book did!

I'm now reading a book called "All my friends are superheroes" ( Not as catchy as my version, "All my friends are balding plump blokes") ** after it caught my eye in Waterstones yesterday.So far it's a wee gem of a book!


On the poker front I'd read a little about Stars new sng planet leaderboard promo and although I was too lazy to read the detail,Mair was kind enough to write an overview on her blog.It seems I only need to play 20 games to have a shot.I played five last night ( my usual $16,18 player turbos) and managed a 2nd,3rd and three non cashes.I was on 91 points after 10 games before last night and I don't think my first set of 20 will be winning me any prizes! ( now 167 pts with 6 games to play)

I did feel I was back to playing somewhere near my best and the new promo has definitely helped focus me.I did run into some nasty suckouts too.One in particular was quite amusing because this total donk had just flopped a flush versus a solid regulars premium hand.I'm always happy to see a fish knock a regular out and was quietly pleased the 120-1 chance of flopping a flush had hit.On the very next hand I wasn't so pleased as the fish insta-called my 5bb preflop raise with 910 and busted my Aces on a perfect 678 flop!

I'm probably going to cashout some poker profit this month to pay for a few things I've mentioned before.I won't be touching my Stars roll though and my next poker goals are to break through the $6k profit barrier on Sharkscope and to get on the Planet Earth leaderboard at some point.Just checked and I'm really pleased to have made it back onto the 2-3 table average profit leaderboard for $6-$15 games,even if it is only in 17th position!










Tonight I'm looking after Nacho and will be spending a nerve wracking 90 minutes watching Rangers playing Sporting Lisbon in the Uefa cup quarter final.As with my poker I prefer not to be too optimistic before the start and then be pleasantly surprised if it does go well.I do think we've probably come as far as we're going to in this competition, but the beauty of sport is that anything can happen on any given day.Come on Rangers! Just do it!

** Any resemblance to anyone called Al Eleven or S-man,living or dead, is of course purely coincidental...

There's only one Nacho Novo!

The Nacho man did the business again for Rangers yesterday,scoring the equaliser against the Greeks with less than ten minutes to go to send us through to a tough last 16 game with Werder Bremen.It wasn't pretty to watch but it was effective.Roll on the next round!

After the game I ventured out to the local pub to join their pool club and spent an enjoyable couple of hours playing my cousin.The jukebox was playing 80's stuff and I did find it quite funny that my younger cousin thought Fergal Sharkey was a snooker player rather than a singer and had never heard of OMD or Heart.Mind you I checked with Juice later last night and he thought Mr Sharkey was a historian!! The ignorance of todays yoooth!


I've been stuffed with the cold all week and didn't really feel like playing poker when I got back from the pub.....so I fired up a couple of Stars $16 turbs and promptly got suckered again.It was especially frustrating as I'd built a decent stack on both tables before being scudded.I did manage to win one on Wed night which helps, but I feel like I've gone from making decent money in these games to treading treacle.

My main poker goal is to make as much money as possible and my next attainable goal is to break the $4k profit barrier at turbo sngs.According to sharkscope I'm at around $3.5k and it's getting very frustrating trying to get over that $4k hurdle.

Overall I reckon I handle the huge variance in the turbo games quite well but I think that mentally I'm still a long way from where I want to be.I'm also worried about my multi-tabling abilities and wonder if I'll ever be able to 4-8 table the $16's and still make decent money.

I mentioned I've not been enjoying the turbos recently.Why do I play them? $$$$$! I've got my Rangers season ticket to pay for in May ,my car insurance in June and I'd quite like to use poker profit to get a holiday and pay next years council tax bill.

I did hit a Bet 365 $50 nl 6 max table after last nights turbo beats and although it was only a short 20 min session and I only won $20,it really felt good to be playing some post flop poker for a change.

Ok,Don't forget to register for Sundays Britbloggerment.Open to all bloggers,readers and friends of bloggers and readers!

Lyon tamers?

The trunk monkey email was going round the work today and I couldn't resist pinching a clip from you-tube.I want one of 'em for Xmas!


Usually I start writing my blog posts and the rubbish you read here just kinda falls onto the page.Not so this week!

It's hard to say I'm going to keep relationship stuff totally private, when I'm feeling happier than I have for years, and in many ways I want to shout about it from the rooftops! Heck this morning some old woman was doddling along in the outside lane and I was already running a bit late for work.All I could think was "any particular reason you haven't moved over?" instead of "MOOOOOOOOOOOOVE outta my way NOW biatch!".

However this is real life, not a soap opera, and although I'm really pleased people use some of their valuable time to read this blog,I'm not going to be live blogging on Rosie and I for many obvious reasons.

Back to the poker...I've not played too many games this week due to being busy and too tired to play well.A couple of 2nd places in $6 and an standard speed $11 sng and too many races lost in my usual $16's have been the story so far.

I did have dinner at my Mum and Dads last night and watched my Mum play a sng to try and work out why she still isn't beating the fish.We watched one of the sngicons videos and although it was excellent,it was a standard speed game and my Mum only plays turbos, which are a different kettle of fish.She is going to try more standard speed games and hopefully that will bring about the improvement required.

Tonight I'll be at Ibrox where Rangers need just a point against the French champions,Lyon,to progress to the Champions league knock-out stage.We beat them 3-0 over in France, but they have improved since then and it's going to be a night of high tension and nerves.The atmosphere at these type of game is superb though and I'll probably be hoarse until the weekend afterwards.

Tomorrow night I'm looking after Step A until midnight and on Friday I have my works Xmas lunch followed by a game of badminton with the s-man.

No real plans for the weekend.I just wish I could back and relive last weekend all over again....