Sh*t in your tea

I enjoyed watching the opening game of the World Cup.It was just a shame the Uruguay v France game that followed later was so poor.Of course today is the big game... and hopefully Messi and Tevez will be on form for the Argies v the Super Eagles!Apparently there's also a wee game on later too..

Since I cashed out and left my Party roll on life support I have felt more motivated to play and I managed to get 25 $11 turbos under my belt last night.I was 5-6 tabling and even at the $11 level my roll went from a starting point of $195 to as low as $94 before I managed to overcome some of the sick beats and finish on $237 for the night.My plan is to stick to the $11's until my I have 20 buy-ins for the $22's and if I run badly at the $22's I'll move back down to the $11's if my balance drops below $220.

My initial horrible run of luck last night actually made me smile because I was also replying to an "Is poker Rigged?" thread on a forum, obviously arguing that there is no way that it is.Players were writing about being able to call the next card when they are running badly.Even shoving KJ on the bubble and saying QQ out loud ( Nacho just raised an eyebrow) as the big blind time banked before calling with QQ isn't going to change my mind.People posting 3-4 bad beats in a row to prove it's rigged genuinely made me laugh as they obviously don't play enough poker or have enough experience to know just how sick a game poker can be.( breakeven 1000 game stretches being standard in Sngs etc)

The poll results on the thread so far are as follows: Votes/%

Yes, it's a reaming of the highest order. 70 46.36%
No, it's all fair and square. 32 21.19%
I dunno, maybe,maybe not. 37 24.50%
It's only rigged if you lose, kinda...... 12 7.95%

Taking into account that 90-95% of players lose online and nobody in the world actually admits they're a bad player, I'm not surprised at the result.I even joked about winning $40 from 25 games last night and how it would have been more if my doomswitch hadn't been activated ( with a wink smilie thing the size of an elephant at the end of my post) and that attracted more "doomswitch" stories from the fish.Still,if all these players keep losing and keep blaming the poker sites they probably won't be looking at their own games and will keep donating so it's not all bad!

I'm probably about 2-3 years behind the rest of the planet, ( what's new eh?!) but as I played I watched series 1 of The Fonejacker on cable tv and it was the funniest thing I've seen on the box for a long time.Prank phonecalls to real people.Here are two of my fav clips...






Not much else going on at the moment.I've been back at work on alternate half days for 3 weeks now and although my back hasn't hurt too badly,my side ( where the car hit the post) is sore and it feels like there's a small brick planted in there whenever I try to sleep on it.Hopefully getting out and about more will do it more good overall and it's just going to take a long time to heal properly.

Oh and I'm also less than two weeks from becoming an Uncle for the first time! I've been buying nappies for the arrival of the poop machine and our family now know for sure that it will be born by June 21st at the latest! I've always wanted kids of my own ( not given up entirely on that hope) and having a wee one in the family will be great.

I have still been keeping in touch with Step A ( an ex's 15 yr old I helped bring up for nearly 8 years)and I'm taking her for a Mc'ds on Monday evening.She said she has been knocked back for a hairdressing course at college and I've suggested she chases up the modern apprentice application form she filled out when I took her to one of the local hair salons recently.

Righty,today was defintely a tl;dr ( too long,didn't read) post! Thanks for reading my witterings.I'm taking a blogging break for a couple of weeks.Back in July....

Bashing Donks

Despite my last post about taking chances, I have stepped down and played some $11 sngs on Party.I may end up cashing out on Stars and moving some $ to Party to allow me to play the $22's again without fear of busting.I've had to make a few adjustments as the play at the $11 level is truly awful.For example when continuation betting with a hand like AK on a flop like Q 8 3 ,I'll bet 2/3 to 3/4 of the pot to try and take it down to try and avoid donks calling all the way to the river with hands like 44.Bets are more of a blunt instrument at the $11's and you have to bash the donks over the head with those bets to get them to do what you want.

Away from the poker I'm glad the World Cup is finally underway.I'm proud to be Scottish + British and as I have half Scottish/half English cousins and plenty of English friends I'll obviously be cheering on...the USA and hoping Rangers Mo Edu has a good World Cup.Oh and I'll also be rooting for Honduras and France as I drew them in Amatay's rigged sweep on Raise the River!

Joking aside,what really pissed me off today was passing a "celtic" pub on the way to work ( a dirty republican slophouse) and noticing they have the flags of all the World Cup's competing nations hanging outside, except the flag of Englands St George.They've even been pathetic enough to cut the Union flag from the corners of the Aussie and New Zealand flags.Football rivalry is great, but that kind of petty behaviour truly makes me wonder about the mentality of some people.

Ok,thanks for reading.Back soon...

Knowing Me,Knowing You

I didn't play a hand on Monday night and last night managed to play six $22's without cashing.I didn't run well but probably didn't play that well either.One of my main leaks is that I'm terrible at folding big hands preflop even when I know I'm beaten and last night was no exception.I raised QQ from early position at the start of the game,faced a reraise from a random ( not a known player to me) and a flat call from a tight regular which just screamed Aces.I shoved over the top and didn't hit my 2 outer v KK and the inevitable AA.Doh!

As I was playing I came across an interesting thread on 2+2 about Party sng regulars changing their screen-names.I didn't even know it was possible, although it makes perfect sense as a number of $22/$33 regulars seem to have simply vanished from the scene.I do my poker homework (usually watching training vids) and spent an hour the other night simply checking Sharkscope stats and adding notes next to players already in games.All that work is is probably a waste of time if they're constantly changing.I do feel a bit exposed too knowing that other regulars probably know my game and I'm treating them as unknown randoms.I may only play a couple of hundred games per month but I have over 4k hands on some players so I assume some of them know me.

One advantage of playing on Party is that I can select where to sit in any particular game.Usually when a game fills the first few regulars to register always sit as far from each other as possible,preferring to have random fish on their immediate left or right.It's frustrating to know that those random fish could easily be top regulars who have simply changed names since I last played them.

I still think the Party $22's are quite soft, but now that I know the option is available I'm wondering if I should change my own screen name.Information is knowledge in poker and although I like to think I deviate enough from the ranges other regulars would expect me to be playing often enough to stop my play from being too predictable, flying completely under the radar could be a huge advantage.( well maybe not huge but any additional edge is always welcome).I'm not sure if there's an option on the screen or I'd need to email Party with an decent excuse to get my name changed.Of course my poker ego wouldn't like having to start over re Sharkscope stats but their coverage is so poor ( 80% and they've now missed at least six first place finishes) that I shouldn't let that affect my decision.

Not got much else today.Looking forward to watching Scotland play Holland tonight in a must win game for us if we're to have any chance of making a play off for the World Cup.

I was also sorry to read that Rosie is quitting her girliepoker blog, although I had a laugh at Joppa's comment ( tongue in cheek I'm sure) about Rosie being "full of herself".It's funny how we build up an idea of what someone is like in real life from reading their blog and how far off reality those impressions can be.Even reading Rosie's own words about crushing anyone who wished to verbally spar with her made me smile because whilst she's certainly nobody's fool, she's also a million miles away from being "full of herself" or aggressive in any way.Given our history I'll leave it at that, but I look forward to reading more from Rosie over at her Food Blog.( and one day I may even attempt to cook up one of those tv dinners!)

Back soon...

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....

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... :-)))