Don't Cry For Me.....

Stars continues to kick me in the junk on a nightly basis.I've only played 100 sngs there this month and just can't seem to get going at all.( down $120 )

It seems every single time I sit down at Stars I'm destined to get screwed over.I don't like complaining after one bad night or a few bad sessions as that's just the way turbos roll, but this is just relentless.If you play a couple of games per evening, imagine running like this over the next 50 nights...

Aq losing to QJ started Monday night off.Of course I folded 108 on the very next hand and watched nearly the whole table ( maybe just felt that way!) going all in on an A 8 8 flop.Next up was AK losing to A9 ( 9 on river ) and late on in my next game I had 44 beaten by AQ rivering an Ace.I made it as far as the bubble in my last game that night and duly crashed out on yet another suckout.

In my first game last night I had my QQ busted by 88,the two outer arriving on the river as usual.Ok,don't lose the plot,stay calm,shove this AJd and laugh at the fish calling with his Kh7h on the Jack high flop.Stop laughing when said fish hits a runner runner heart flush.

Next up a fish limped on my big blind late on in a game and I shoved K10 over the top of his limp.Insta-called by his 106 and of course the 6 duly falls on the turn.( just to make a change from being rivered)

Somehow I managed to take 2nd in one game before the crap kicked in again.On a positive note perhaps I should be grateful I'm only down $120 so far on Stars despite my the variance fun.

Thankfully I have the support of my family to see me through this nasty spell."Thought you'd just love to know that over the last month my ROI is 18% and yours is 7%!!!! ", wrote my Mum in an email today!

Letting crap variance get to me and affect my game is not on the agenda.I may brush off bad beats quite well most of the time, but this doesn't mean I'm not competitive and don't care.I just know that caring too much in the short-term can affect my long term bottom line and that cannot be allowed to happen.

I'm looking forward to the arrival of a couple of new poker books this week.I've ordered Gus Hansens "Every Hand Revealed" and Phil Shaws sng book.Shaw is Jackal69 on Cardrunners and I've enjoyed learning from a ton of his videos.Hopefully the book will be as good.

Ok,tonight I'm about to get the dinner on and watch the friendly between Scotland and Maradona's Argentina.I've only seen footage of Pele playing and would rate Maradona as the greatest player ever to grace a football pitch.( except possibly Carlton Palmer).His "hand of god" goal against England made him a national hero in Scotland and I'm sure he'll get a good reception tonight.

Personally, I preferred his other goal from the same game...

So near ,yet so far...

My cousin came over last night to watch Scotland fall at the final qualifying hurdle as we went down 2-1 to an injury time Italian winner.We were a bit lucky at times as Fergusons equaliser looked offside and the Italians also had a good goal ruled offside but the freekick the referee gave which led to their winner was a joke by any standard.The only bright spot is that our fine recent performances mean we should ( in theory) get an easier draw for World Cup qualification.Roll on!

What else has been going on? Well the ex Mrs A called last night at 3.30am to say she has smashed up the living room and felt like she was cracking up in sheer frustration and anger at the her neighbour "getting away" with torching her car the other week.I was seriously worried about her doing something silly and spent ages trying to persuade her that she has Step A and the scum next door are not worth landing in jail for.Any good revenge ideas welcome though!

At least the ex was warm.I met my neighbour ( from across the landing)and she was telling me she ( and her man) were away camping this weekend.You can't beat camping in Scotland in November when the temp averages 1-3c during the night.Mad? As a box of frogs I reckon!

On the poker front I've played a load of $16 turbos and although my last four have been cashless,my roi is now 17% ( after 541 games) and I'm now bordering on making $3 per game profit instead of $2.The world of the high stakes sng player eh!
I think I won one and came 2nd twice in between a load of no-shows.I also managed to persuade Juice to play a $16 and he played a fine game to take it down.

In my last turbo I picked up 52 in the big blind and suffered a bit of a cooler when I lost to a flopped flush on a 5c 2c 8c flop.( money in on that flop)

I headed for the cash tables and decided to have another go at $200nl at 365.I fired up two tables and both were quite aggressive and a bit fishy.Some of the play seemed more suited to my early $25nl days but I just couldn't catch a break as I missed every flop and had every contination bet reraised.I even folded 33 to a raise and reraise ( in case orginal raiser raised again) and watched two villains create a $400 pot with high pairs on a ragged 3 5 9 flop.

My losses were now mounting ( about a buy-in in total) and time was marching on past 4.30am when I picked up KK at one particularly wild table.I'd love to say I used my superior skill and hand reading abilities to gradually claw my way out of trouble but in reality I got very lucky with those Kings.I could get used to winning hands which would cover my monthly car payment though!

Next weeks plans include hopefully getting a game of badminton organised with s-man and winning more money at the pokey tables.I've decided to update my stats at the end of every month rather than every two weeks, as this will hopefully help me keep my focus on making the right decisions instead of getting hung up on short-term results.

Ok,I'm off to walk Nacho and drop him off before coming back to play in the final RTR forum game and of course the Bloggerment at 9pm....

Scotland the Brave!

We'll be coming,We'll be coming
We'll be coming down the road!
When you hear the noise of the Tartan Army boys,We'll be coming down the road!

In the toughest qualifying group of all for the European Championships next summer, Scotland sit top, ahead of World Cup winners Italy,runners up France and quarter finalists,Ukraine!

We beat France AGAIN tonight!! 1-0 in Paris (James McFadden 68mins)! I can hardly believe it! We came to France only five short years ago and were soundly thrashed 5-0.There was never a danger of a repeat.

It's still a tough task to qualify as Scotland always seem to find a way to blow it, but this will probably go down as one of our best ever results! In fact it is THE best result ever!!

Not bad for a country with a population of five million!!


European Championship Qualifying : Group B Table
12 September 2007 21:53
P W D L F A GD PTS
1 Scotland 9 7 0 2 17 7 10 21
2 Italy 9 6 2 1 15 7 8 20
3 France 9 6 1 2 15 3 12 19
4 Ukraine 8 4 1 3 10 9 1 13
5 Lithuania 9 3 1 5 7 11 -4 10
6 Georgia 9 2 1 6 14 15 -1 7
7 Faroe Islands 9 0 0 9 3 29 -26 0


Here's tae us,
Whae's like us?
Damn few,And they're a' deid!

Final Countdown

Just a quick post today as I'm up to my eyes in it trying to organise my move back home.

I thoroughly enjoyed watching Scotlands win yesterday and although I still think it's a tough task to qualify for Euro 2008,we've still got a chance.It's the big one v France on Wednesday in Paris.I can't see us taking anything from it, as they'll be out for revenge after we beat them last time out at Hampden, but you never know in football.

On the poker front I lost yet another race to go out the RTR league game before the final table.That run continued into the $16 turbos where I couldn't win a race either,no hand held up and when I did have a monster there was a bigger monster out there!

I stuck to my game and eventually managed a 4th place ( top 4 pay at 18 player turbos) and a win which helped a little.

At the cash tables I blew the last remaining cash at Interpoker ( £15) after pushing all in with AK preflop ( something I rarely do at a cash table) ,getting called by A3 and losing when the 3 hit.With calls like that I may need to reload there sometime as the play was very soft indeed.

I played some $300nl 6 max on my 365 account and lost $80 which I wasn't too bothered about as $80 wasn't even the size of the average pot at my table! ( $106 ave). I'm still trying to adjust my mindset because at $50 nl an $80 loss would be almost two buy-ins and would be a bad night, whereas it only takes a few raises/missed flops etc to do in $80 at the higher level.

Righty that's all for today.Don't be forgetful like this chap! Register for the Bloggerment right now!

Lost to a 2 outer...No No No!

Last nights poker began with a wee $6 turbo Juice and I played and both bombed out of.I then went 0/3 playing my usual $16 games after more cooler type luck.Ran AK into KK in the first game ( preflop) and then picked up KK as my first hand in the next game.I didn't get too excited and actually feared Aces when I shoved after a small raise and reraise.The original raiser folded and the other villain called with 1010.A ten on the turn sealed my fate and I sat back and took a deep breath.

I was card dead in the last one until I limped shortstacked with J10 and shoved after a Q 10 6 flop,got called by A10 and I didn't improve.

After a short break I moved to a Laddies $50nl 6 max table,bought in for $50 and left with $140 about 3/4 hr later.I wrote my new country song at that table "How can I go to bed when there's a fish at my table?".( Released soon!)

I ended up switching off around 1.15am, but I had to drag myself away, as the table had been going well for me.I was seeing only about 9% of flops due to the loose aggressive/tilty way the table was playing.My biggest winners were not premium hands but came from calling min raises preflop ( I love villains who min raise preflop at cash games)with hands like 78c and 910s.

TAG style at these tables seems to have the added bonus of slowing down the villains sometimes.Even if they have a premium pair on a fairly non scary flop ,they have to wonder why the seemingly rock like player is calling their continuation bet.It may slow them down but it doesn't seem to stop them calling when I do hit my monster well hidden draws.

Ok,tonight is the return of the raisetheriver league game and I'm looking forward to playing in it.

No Gers game this weekend as Scotland have a couple of vital qualifiers to play.It's Lithuania tomorrow at Hampden ( must win game) and the small matter of France in Paris on Wed night.

I've been listening to Amy Winehouse all week and she might be a screwed up girl but her album is superb and one of the best I've heard in a while.

Ok, don't forget to register for Sundays Bloggerment....

C'mon Scotland!

I had a nasty night last night at the tables.It began well at a $15 turbo ( 18 player as usual ) when I doubled up with AA v QQ on the first hand.

I was feeling good at the final table until my KK was beaten by 88 and I went out when my 66 fell to A4.Before I did crash out though I was using Sharkscope to full effect and folded when I had bet out with AQ and been reraised by a Shark ( as rated by Sharkscope) and I also called an all in raise with AJ after a mega tilting fish ( thanks Sharkscope!) raised all in under the gun with A9.( My AJ held up).

I moved to Laddys and felt I played quite well in the late night Crapshoot but didn’t make the money after my pocket nines were beaten by AQ just at a crucial stage.I hit a cash table after that but couldn’t get going at all and after calling a few raises with pocket pairs ( and missing) I was getting even more frustrated.I folded top pair decent kicker to a large reraise and decided to leave ( $30 down overall) as it just didn’t seem to be my night.

Party has been good to me recently so with that in mind I opened a full ring $50 nl table and managed to lose a buy-in over the course of two hands.I lost $20 on the first hand when some donkey muppet called all the way to the river to hit his flush draw.Thankfully he checked and I checked behind as it was obvious he was chasing it and had hit.

I was dealt JJ in the very next hand and instantly typed “hehe” in the chat box to make the table think I was still steaming from the last hand.I like doing that when I suffer a beat and get dealt a monster on the next hand but unfortunately I was steaming a little and JJ may be a top 10 hand but it isn’t a monster to go to war with at a table I’d just joined and where I had no reads at all.

The flop came low rags and I bet the the pot,the villain called and I bet the pot again when a King fell on the turn hoping to represent AK ( or a the high pair I’d been representing on the flop).I was out of position and the silly tilty mistake I made was to go all in for my last $18 when a blank fell on the river.I was called by the villains QQ and immediately switched off my laptop and went to bed.

I’m not too bothered as nights like that are all part of the game and have to be sooked up and put in perspective when taken against my overall bankroll.

Mrs A is working tonight so I’ll be looking after Step A and watching Scotland take on World Cup winners ,Italy,in their own back yard tonight.We got a great result at the weekend when we beat Georgia 2-1 and are currently top of a qualifying group that includes the other World Cup finalists France and quarter finalists Ukraine.There seems to be an air of optimism surrounding the team just now which probably means we’re in for a 4 or 5 goal beating tonight!

Still there are no easy games in international football,unless yer playing England of course... :-)))