Coos Keech!

The poker continues to charm.I considered not posting again until this downswing ends.At this rate however,my next post would include details of my retirement party...

I'm now down to having made little or no profit at all for the month of July so far and last nights late session didn't help.Once again I requested all the hand histories to review.These were just from the last two nights games and along with the really bad beats ,they are typical of how I'm running just now.These were all in situations late in the game and apart from the last AA hand,I was first into the pot with all of them.It did strike me that I was shoving Ace rag type hands quite often, but on looking through the game histories it becomes clear that this is because these Ace rag type hands were often the only playable hands dealt to me and the rising blinds forced the action.

A3 lost to 88 ( late in game,no complaints)
A5 lost to K8 ( rivered 8)
A10 lost to A5 ( rivered 5)
QQ lost to AQ ( rivered Ace)
A5 lost to AA.( shove with 4 left runs into monster)
44 v KQ ( Q on turn.I don't win flips!)
JK lost to A8 ( was never going to hit)
A8 lost to 66 ( hand after one above and one which busted me)
A3 lost to A2 ( 2 on flop.Happy I didn't have to wait to be rivered!)
AJ lost to K8 ( this time its the King on the turn)
AQ lost to A4 ( 4 on river)
A5 lost to AA ( Once again with 4 left I shove and run into AA)
AA lost to J10 ( J 10 4 flop )

Away from the tables it seems google has had a hissy fit over adverts on poker blogs and has downgraded many blogs ( including this one) as a result.I never set out to monetise this space.I was emailed asking if I'd accept ads for small payments and was happy to accept that money as kind of a small added bonus.Until I read up ( via links on Mookies blog) on the subject I naively assumed companies advertised here hoping that people would click on their links and sign people up for whatever product was being promoted.I may be wrong, but it seems it's all about simply having links on sites search engines like to increase the rankings of their own sites.

I quite liked being at number one for google searches on "Coos Keech" and certainly the google downgrading has cost me that position and no doubt lost me other readers too.( no more pervs after "Laddys front bum"!).I did spend quite a bit of time updating my "Funny football" chants post which seemed to attract a lot of hits, but in general even if less people stop by,I'd rather they were here for the poker content.

I think I can see googles point in all this, however it does seem a shame that blogs people put a lot of work into writing content for are lumped in with obvious spam /affiliate type blogs with no poker writing at all.In the end though much as I appreciate my advertisers, I wont lose any sleep if my blog becomes ad free again.

Not much else going on.My new manager showed off his intelligence with the tale of how he had been spreading grass seed on his lawn and afterwards he spotted a large bird on a neighbours roof, looking eager to devour the seed.My boss waited it out,even requesting his dinner be brought outside as he didn't want his grass spoiled by the aforementioned birdy.He remained in stand-off mode with the bird until a couple of hours later when his son pointed out the bird was plastic and was there to stop other birds landing on the neighbours tv aerial....

Someone else in my team told the tale of a not so bright neighbour who used to catch two trains to take him on his annual holiday.He would arrive at Argyle Street station in Glasgow and sprint along ( about 5 minutes away) to Glasgow Central to catch his connecting train.It took him five years before he realised it was the same train....

Thanks for reading and good luck to the Raisetheriver team at their live game this weekend...

Behind the 8 ball..

I watched Rangers beat Kilmarnock 2-1 yesterday before settling down for some pokery fun later on.I have a decent sng record at 'Stars $16 ,18 player turbos, although I only ever usually play one at a time, which may be profitable, but at $2 per game is never going to build much of a roll.

Last night I decided on two tabling the sng's and tried starting two at once and also beginning a new game after I'd either reached the 3rd level ,( 15 mins ) or when I'd built a decent stack at the first game.

I racked up 35 games in total and the first thing I learned was nothing new and that is that variance is still a biatch! I took some terrible beats as game after game I got my money in the middle as favourite and game after game the turn or river delivered the seemingly odds on miracle card to knock me or or cripple my stack.That nasty poker nightmare of bad beats and losing every 50/50 race meant I had soon reduced my $570 Stars roll to a recent low of $243.

I must have gone 0/15 at least or maybe even 0/20 as far as in the money finishes and in truth my game was beginning to go downhill too as I began making poor decisions to go with the beats.I was close to giving up on the idea that I could ever two table these sng's as profitably as I play one table, when I finally picked up my first win.

I realised I'd been very unlucky but had also been pushing a little too hard to try and make things happen.I've played with some fine multi-tablers at Stars sngs and they often simply seem to be shoving with any pair or high Ace at anytime and I think I tried to hard to copy that rather than sticking to what works for me.

The bottom line is that I won a few ,came 2nd and 3rd a few times and finished only $15 down from my 35 games.Considering the mental angst I had been suffering after my 15-20 straight crash outs, I felt quite pleased with my resilience.I only subscribe to Sharkscopes 150 searches per day option, so I was also happy to have turned things around even without the use of my favourite sng tracker.Here's the updated graph of last nights shennanigans...





I do need to play more standard speed sngs/mtt's though, as the weakest part of my game is the stage in the where the blinds are not really worth stealing, but they are just big enough to hurt if I've not built a big stack.In the last couple of blogger tourneys I've found myself checking the lobby to see when the blinds go up only to discover there's another ten minutes remaining.The joys of being a turbo junkie I suppose!

Oh, I bubbled in Fridays Raise the river premier league game when I ran my 1010 into JJ.That result leaves me 2nd in the league after four games and I'm looking forward to playing in the Raisetheriver WSOP which starts tomorrow.I plan to play the Holdem events, although I may have to miss the Headsup game on Wednesday as the Rangers game is on.Follow the link on the right,sign up and play!

Before that though don't forget to register for tonights Britbloggerment game on Stars.See previous post for details and remember that although there are leagues running for the individuals and countries, these are only for a bit of fun and anyone is welcome to join the Bloggerment.( you don't have to have played before or commit to playing every week!).You will be made welcome!

King of Coos Keech!

Result!!! I was going to start with the Coos keech nonsense but I've just had a chat with the ex Mrs A and she has agreed that when I move back home I can still give Step A a lift to school in the morning.My flat is only 10 minutes away and I'm delighted I'll get to see the wee one every day.As a bonus the ex has said she will clean my flat every Friday for me.We're getting on quite well just now and hopefully we can keep that going.


Righty,back to the nonsense....

Mr Cloud and Mr Punch can keep their "hairy gymnast"! I'm the King of Coos Keech!Undisputed Numero Uno google search for it! I'm almost overcome with joy...

My car stereo has packed in!!( with my newly burned Amy Winehouse cd stuck in it) I had to amuse Step A this morning on the way to school by slowing down at every bus-stop full of kids and threatening to wind down my window and shout "say good morning to little Step A everyone" or "the mighty midget is on her way to school,give her a wave!".This induced much gnashing of teeth from Step A!Why this would embarass a 13yr old I've no idea...

I wasn't really in a poker mood last night and ended up watching tv and then Ram Vaswani kicking ass at a high stakes Full tilt table.

I did play two $16 turbos ( 18 player as usual) on Stars and only have myself to blame for two fairly early exits although I felt both my decisions were marginal.

On the first hand I had A8 on the button and limped after four others had done the same.The flop was As 7c 9c and was checked round to me.I would have expected anyone with a better Ace to have raised preflop.A weaker Ace would have bet out on that flop with flush draw out there, therefore I bet out 3/4 of the pot and was surprised to get a caller.The turn brought a 10d and although that completed a possible straight draw ,I had the 8 and when it was checked to me I pushed with my pair and draw,only for the villain to show his J8...

The hand that sent me packing from the next game was J10 in the big blind.Everyone folded to the small blind who completed and we saw a K Q 7 flop.I checked and called the villains 100 bet on the flop and turn before pushing all in on a total bluff after another 100 river bet from him.I had hoped to push him off if he had the Queen or a weak king but he felt his K7 was good and called.Baaaaaa!

Ok,don't forget to register for the Bloggerment game on Sunday.It looks like I'm finally going to win it....because I'm the only entrant so far! It's only $5.50 and any blogger/reader is welcome to play in it.Hope to see you there...

The meaning of Coos Keech

I didn't see much of the ex last night which I think is probably for the best.It's been 2 months since her "it's not working" speech.At first I blamed myself for being a net/laptop/poker addicted idiot who had blown a good relationship, yet the more thought I give it ,the more I realise I hadn't been happy either for a long time.Being a lazy git, I'd settled into a kind of comfort zone that wasn't easy to give up,especially as giving it up would mean not seeing Step A and Nacho as often as I'd like.

I do regret not working harder to keep the spark going longer, and the quote from Cool Hand Luke "What we have here is a failure to communicate",seems very apt.( and I think we're both to blame for that).I'd never been in a seven year relationship before and I think a big part of me just accepted that perhaps the way were were was just how "everyone" is after such a lengthy time together.

Maybe it just came down to a lack of passion as we very rarely ever argued about anything and as I mentioned before there was very little difference in our interactions during the first couple of weeks after our split compared to our pre-split state.

There is no doubt that I probably do spend too much time online one way or another.I need to ensure that I remember there's far more to life when I move back home and I need to push myself to step out of my comfort zone more often too.

After a day/week of dealing with complaining maniacs I'm not always in a very sociable mood.I've never been a big drinker either ( last alcoholic drink was on holiday back in June)and although I loved dance music and the occasional clubbing excursion, I've never really been a pub person.Having said that, the ex and I managed to spend nearly a month abroad every year over the last 5-6 years and had plenty of nights out.

To the poker and I played a little ABC full ring $50nl last night as I watched some crappy driving programme and one on Abby Titmus which was equally pish.( broke even at the poker)

I decided to play a few wee Headsup $5.25 games and ( no boring bad beat stories here!) was rivered three games running to go crashing out.I stuck to my game plan and managed to finally win a wee 4 player headsup shootout which was a minor relief.

Ok,thanks for reading and for anyone reading yesterdays post and unsure of exactly what coos keech is I thought I'd include this highly technical video clip to explain...

Coos keech

Ahh well ,the world of work continues to charm.Quote of the week so far goes to the guy who was complaining to a phone monkey about being cut off twice on previous calls, and was told "here comes number three" before the line went dead.

It's sounds like an old variation on the "Did you get a note of my name Sir?" routine.When the reply was in the negative, the customer would be politely told "well f*ck off then" before having the phone slammed down on them.

Reminds me of my legendary ex colleague, "The Don", who called a business customer and kept insisting he wanted to speak to Mr J Snoils depsite the customer being adamant ( he was a dandy highwayman) that no Mr Snoils worked there.When the customer asked for Mr Snoils first name and The Don replied "John" ,the customer from Johnston Oils finally realised what was going on...

I'm just off the phone to a woman who claims she spent so much time hanging around the local phone box trying to get through to us that the police questioned her as a possible prostitute! I didn't ask what she was wearing and if she earned enough to cover any compensation she no doubt wishes to claim from us...


I did only played a little poker last night due to feeling very very tired indeed.I did manage to lose half a buy-in at £100nl ( Interpoker) when I called a raise with AQ sooooted and lost to KK on a Queen high board.This was after a couple of failed 50 player,mad tilt turbos at Pokerroom.

I did get a wee boost from Burnley Miks new league table for the bloggerment which sees me sitting at the top of the pile despite never actually winning
one!

Righty here's a quick one from the paper before I go...


Helping hand :Our story of the BBC subtitling the film Sweet Sixteen because it features working-class Greenock accents, reminds Barbara Steel of the chap cupping his hand to scoop water from a Highland burn.

A passing gamekeeper told him: "Mon, ye dinnae want tae be drinking that - it's fu' o' coos' keech."

But the chap replied: "Look, dear boy, I am English and would appreciate it if you would speak to me in English."

So the gamekeeper told him: "Use both hands - you'll get more that way."