Viva Espania!

Reports that Yahoo Answers are written by Sir Waffles are still unconfirmed....

Back from my break a bit later than I hoped after spilling tea on my keyboard and having to shell out £90 for a new one.Using the slider buttons on Stars I was still able to play poker and put in decent Mtt sessions most evenings while watching the action from Euro 2012.Although I made a few final tables, overall I lost money and it just seemed that every time I played a vital hand I would get royally screwed over by the deck.Losing coin flips is one thing but continually get by big hands busted by Ace rag and other 3 outers gets very frustrating.Hands like one of last nights crackers where I get it in with AK V AQ for the world,the flop comes KKJ,turn is a blank and of course the 10 falls on the river just seem to keep on coming.

I mean sure I'm still learning Mtt's and of course I'm making mistakes but my luck has been so awful I still believe I can make money without having to revert back to the push/fold world of sng/hyper sngs.

When footballers talk of playing "one game at a time" I want to kill them but somehow when the great Roger Federer said it after coming back from two sets down at Wimbledon it forced me to refocus my efforts to do the same at the felt and to try not to dwell on past bad beats when playing.

I also realised I may be overthinking things sometimes.Amatay posted a hand where he folded JJ after an UTG raise and a rereaise.Other Mtt pro's agreed it was a fold as an early position raise followed by a reraise generally means Jacks are toast.I was wondering how loose the UTG raiser was.If he was raising a lot preflop had the re-raiser had picked up on that and was therefore 3-betting light etc then maybe Jacks are still good.If the two players were known regs than maybe my thought process had some merit but in general I'm just talking myself into a bad call there and that's even if the HUD stats showed UTG was raising a lot and the re-raiser liked a 4-bet.

Yesterday after going to my wee nephews 2nd birthday party I went to Alea casino to play the £22 Turbo game.With 10k stacks and 15 min blinds it's a real crapshoot but I fancied a live game for a change.Not much to report.Lost a few thousand chips with AK when I missed the flop and eventually shoved QQ into AA with just under 6k left and blinds at 300/600.

Came home,ordered a Domino's pizza and registered for a load of Mtt's as I watched Andy Murray win in four sets at Wimbledon.With my roll on life support again I gave the $55's a miss although I couldn't resist the late night $44 Turo and $33 Sat Speedway tourneys.I wish I had because I crashed out of both quite quickly!

I did make a deep run in a couple of $27 KO $20k Gtd games but once again lost sickening hands at vital times.One hand at a time....One hand at a time!

I was still in an $8,$8k Gtd standard speed game with 1100 runners and managed to attract some chat box abuse for calling a cut off shove with QK and beating Mr Unhappy's QJ.Mr U had been stealing 65% of big blinds and I just felt I was well ahead of his shoving range."You've played like a nit the whole game and then you call with QK" he whined.I was down to a couple of tables by that point and although I rarely chat I replied "Sorry for adjusting my play,it shouldn't be allowed".He then hoped I had aids, I thanked him, wished him "much love" and off he went.

I had been card dead and nitty but my own Big Blind steal % was nearly 70% so I was making the most of my image to try and chip up where possible.Eventually I made the final table as one of the shorter stacks and got lucky after a few orbits when someone shoved their QQ into my Aces to double me up.After my live game exit in the same manner I did feel a bit sorry for the villain there and the thought that "maybe Queens are cursed today" crossed my mind.

Of course cards have no memory,it's one hand at a time and all that so I had no hesitation in 3-betting QQ after an open from an aggressive player when were down to six players.He had AQs ,hit his Ace on the flop and I took 4th place, $696 and a sharp exit for my efforts instead of taking the chiplead and a real chance to take it down.Ahh well that's the way the cookie crumbles.

Next weeks plan is to help Step A fill in her passport renewal ( I'm paying for it for her 18th),visit my folks on Thursday as usual and I'm heading down the M77 for a dinner date at Frankie and Bennys on Wed evening.I've only swapped a couple of messages and texts with the woman ( she looks like a hotter version of Tanya from Eastenders)so as ever I'll just see how goes and won't be too fussed if there's no spark at all.

It's paella for dinner tonight as I got Spain ( and Poland) in the Raise the River Euro 2012 sweep.I'll be hoping they play better than they did in their semi v Portugal and have enough about them to see off the pasta munchers in tonights final.I did think England would make the semi's at least but forgot how good they are at messing up penalty shootouts.Still, I have heard that Roy Hodgson watched Spain complete over 800 passes the other night and has a special plan for England to do the same.He's asked Rooney to apply for Mastermind...

Monthly stats

After taking Nacho a long walk yesterday I was back in time for the start of the Spain v Germany game and for the s-mans visit.The game was decent enough without ever dazzling and I felt that Spain were worthy 1-0 winners.It was an excellent tournament overall and I'm going to miss the wall to wall coverage of the last few weeks.

I forgot to mention yesterday that the only part of the Glastonbury festival I saw on tv was Jay-Z's headline performance on Saturday night.It was controversial because hip-hop and rappers don't generally play festivals and Noel Gallagher ( of Oasis)had said Jay-Z was simply wrong for the gig.Jay-Z took the piss by starting with Wonderwall which was quite amusing and overall I think he silenced the doubters with a pretty stunning show.I just wish Amy Winehouse would sort herself out and keep making great music.

The s-man ( aka sookraboaby) was happy for me to fire up the Bloggerment and after Saturdays low turnout for the Euroblogger,it was good to get 13 registered for last nights game.Congrats to Mair for doing the Blogger double and taking it down.I managed to scrape into second place mainly due to Drizz and Kat having to be elsewhere after a long-ish bubble battle.

After the game and much later on after the s-man had departed I hit the $16's and soon found myself on the end of yet another biatch slapping by the poker gods.I should have gone to bed after seven cashless games in a row but my stubborn streak wouldn't let me and I managed to win the last game I played to leave me about even.

Ok,Here are this months updated stats.I will edit these totals later after tonights play.That's if Andy Murrays brilliant comeback at Wimbledon doesn't go on too much longer!

Pokerstars $6782 ( + $478),Party $994 ( - $103),Bet 365 $534 ( -$53),Ladbrokes $336 ( +$87) ,Full Tilt $109 ( + $17).Total $8755 ( + $423 for month June). Edit: 0/5 at the $16's.Good riddance June!

Finally my sister sent me a few of these and I thought they may appeal to my reader....

Rock and a hard place

I had just finished my post here yesterday when the police knocked on my door.I was handed a fixed penalty for a "breach of the peace" because my ex's lying neighbour said I threatened them the other day by saying "someone will be round to your door in 2 minutes" which is just a blatant lie.In Scottish law the only evidence required is for the woman next door to the ex to lie and for her husband to back it up.I now have the choice of trying to get a day off work to,hiring a lawyer and fighting it ( I have my own witness who will back my version of events)or accepting a £40 fine and no criminal record for something I didn't do.As much hassle as I'm sure it will be,I think I'm almost certain I'm going to court with it because if I let this lie stand this time there's nothing to stop them making something up again.I may also be making my own counter allegations.

On the poker front I warmed up last night by doing something a little different and playing a $4k gtd mtt on Bodog.I only had money on to play in the US Bodonkey game but they have recently upgraded the software and it's now far slicker and easier to use.I had an average $15k stack with 28 left ( top 18 pay) when I was foolish enough to get it in preflop with QQ V 99.The flop came Q 8 2 and just as I was mentally planning how I would wield my 32k stack,a Jack came on the turn and a Ten on the river to give the villain a straight.Hmmmm nice!

Things didn't get much better at Stars.I played 25 games including bubbling a $36 turbo and lost $227 overall which takes me back below the $7k mark at Stars.I also bubbled the final table of an $11,180 player turbo.Grrrrreat!

Despite it being a crap night at the tables I'm not too annoyed by it.Apart from a few loose plays I felt I played quite well and that's all anyone can do to try and maximise profit at this game.

I did manage to carefully pick my way through the Euroblogger field ( of five!) to come 3rd for a stoating $10 payout.Congrats to Mair who took it down.

I do now have just over 13k in frequent player points at Stars and my intention has always been to reach 13.5k and use 'em for a free entry into the Sunday Million.I'm 375 short of retaining Silver status this month ( which you need to purchase ticket for fpp's) and I'm seriously tempted to use 5k in fpp's to enter the $1m gtd turbo takedown tonight at 7.30pm instead.The only sticking point is that the Germany v Spain Euro final starts at 7.45pm and I want to focus on that too.Hmmmm.

Ok,it's been a crap week all round! Next week can only get better...