Orly!

I'm back in the habit of not playing any poker during the week.This can be a bit of a problem when trying to come up with poker related stuff for my blog,especially as beyond dreaming of playing in the main event one day,I really don't have much interest in which young hotshot has taken down the latest tourney at the WSOP in Vegas.

I will be hitting the tables tonight though before heading into Glasgow for another internet date tomorrow evening.I've been texting two women this week and felt a bit guilty telling Woman 1 that I was visiting the Big Chap in Ledhills ( a place miles away with no mobile reception!) on Sat night.I was thinking about asking W1 out tonight, but she said she's visiting a friend for a couple of hours which is probably her way of avoiding having to tell me she's going out on a date!

Ahh well its' a ruthless game and if she is still free and it doesn't work out with Woman 2 on Sat night then maybe I'll take her out next weekend.

I've never been the most stylish of blokes and although I don't think I have any issues with confidence/self-esteem,I don't delude myself that I'm particularly special either.( special needs maybe!) My philosophy on life tends to be that nobody else is that special either and that as the Pink Floyd put it, we're "all just bricks in the wall". I'm not at all religious and John Grays "Straw Dogs" book which ( in simple terms) says us humans are not separate from animals and are simply driven by the same instincts and urges made a lot of sense to me.

Having said that if I don't want to be single forever I suppose I need to learn to play the game a bit better and try and sell myself a bit more pro-actively.All of this is just a roundabout way of saying I splashed out nearly £50 this week on a couple of new Bench shirts! I did have a look in the Diesel shop today though and nearly fainted when I saw they were selling t-shirts for £70 and jeans at £130.The much used internet forum "Orly Owl" pic below sprung to mind at those prices!



I'm probably just being an out of touch old slob!

Before I hit the publish button on this post I turned on the tv and there was a kids quiz show on.They played a bit of music and the kids had to guess it's name.I loved one kid asking if it was the "National Theme Song" and the presenter enquiring further and discovering the kid meant the national anthem! It would be great if they took a lead from that kid at next years Olympics and asked the crowds to "Please be upstanding for the National Theme song of the United Kingdom"....Made me smile anyway!

Back soon...

Straw Dogs

There's not been very much going on.Still off work,back still hurting and apart from the great news that my sisters baby scan went well today,there really isn't much to write about.I wrote the post below back at the end of September and as I've hee haw else to say today,here it is....


Ok,so as a result of thousands of hours of play and continued studying of the game I'm fortunate enough to have gained enough skill at the pokers to beat the low limit donkeys.I don't tilt very often and never, ever get angry and start berating the fish in the chatbox.

The first part re the hours and study are quite self explanatory but keeping calm emotionally at the table is something I want to look into further.Anthony Holden wrote that "Whether he likes it or not, a man's character is stripped bare at the poker table; if the other players read him better than he does, he has only himself to blame. Unless he is both able and prepared to see himself as others do, flaws and all, he will be a loser in cards, as in life." -- (from "Big Deal")

I recall as a teenager and a young man in my early twenties being really keen to find myself and gain a true sense of my own identity.Am I outgoing? Confident? Toe curlingly shy? Laid back? Quick tempered? Serious? Happy? Sad? We all come across as slightly different people depending on who we're dealing with at the time and it used to bother me that I could never seem to find the one true self within me.As I grew into my late twenties and thirties I came to realise that the answer is that human beings are complex and that it's ok to feel/be most of these conflicting emotions at the same time.We're all a bit of everything,it's all good and life is for living and not for paying attention to the detail all the time.

In "Straw Dogs" by John Gray ( one of my fav books) he wrote that "We labour under an error. We act in the belief that we are all of one piece, but we are able to cope with things only because we are a succession of fragments. We cannot shake off the sense that we are enduring selves, and yet we know we are not."

Yep,we're all just animals and as much as we like to think we're all unique and special the fact is that Pink Floyd had it right.We're all just bricks in the wall.



To take this nonsense post back to keeping calm at the table, a girl I went out with recently reckoned I was quite cold emotionally.I think maybe I just didn't fancy her that much, but it did get me thinking that maybe that is part of the reason I don't steam much at the tables.Perhaps I am a cold fish!

Cliffnotes: I'm an emotional robot who reckons human beings are nothing special and we're all just bricks in the wall...

Yet watching something like this clip from the amazing( especially as teenager on acid!) film "The Princess Bride" still brings a tear to my eye.



I wrote that I don't tilt often but I'm not immune.Perhaps it's just experience and because I try not to feel any great sense of entitlement when I sit down.Afterall I'm only entitled to play my best game.Having hands hold up and win is outwith my control.When it does get too much I find taking breaks and using techniques such as clenching my hands into a fist so hard my body shakes help to relieve the stress of repeated bad beats.

Thanks for reading.Back soon...