But How Much Did You Lose?

Football will always be my favourite sport, but I like big sporting occasions in general and having read the hype about the Stanley Cup final last week, I discovered I actually have ESPN America and recorded the game on Wed night to watch later.Unlike football over here I thought it would be easy to avoid the score, until I switched on the BBC News the next morning and saw coverage of the riots which followed the big game! I still watched it on Friday night, however making a 60 minute match into a 3 hour programme to accommodate adverts and classic moment clips every few minutes drove me nuts.Just play some uninterrupted hockey ffs!

I went to the Alea Casino yesterday for the £22 turbo tourney and sadly didn't cash.I came around 15th from 81 starters and having played a few live games recently I think I'm starting to pick up on a few basic tells.The guy wincing at the flop and then going all in obviously had a monster ( the old weak means strong tell) and a couple of players always seemed to use more chips of a lower value when betting with a weak hand.

I was annoyed at my exit because I'd just paid the big blind ( 3k/6k) and was moved into the bb again at my new table,leaving me with a tiny stack.After another card dead orbit,I shoved K4 when it folded to me on the button,both blinds folded and the dealer was pushing me the chips when our side of the table realised someone had already shoved all in.My K4 didn't improve v his A8 and that was that.

Away from the poker, my neighbour downstairs has a new boyfriend and the good news is that I genuinely don't care.As I posted before I think it was just a bit of a crush and the reality just didn't live up to the fantasy I had in my head of how it would be if we got together.Not long after I'd asked her out she sent me a text and came up to mine late on a Sat night after she'd had a few drinks and we ended up in my bedroom.Sure the bedroom part was fun, but she came across as a bit of a chav/ned type when she was drunk and I can look back now and just feel glad to have got it out of my system and to have moved on.

I've got a date lined up for next Saturday night and another girl asking to swap numbers now too so I'll see how that goes.Although I still feel a bit of a player chatting to two girls ,online dating is very much a numbers game and the chances are that neither date will come to anything anyway.Like money,chemistry and sparks don't just grow on trees!

I had mentioned I may be playing some live poker to Saturday date girl and got the response,"Are you going to your poker game tomorrow? Do you play quite a lot? Don't you lose quite a lot of money?!". In the world of dating, being passionate about hobbies and interests is meant to be good, but when it comes to poker it's hard to explain that I'm not some gambling degen and that yeah I do actually make a profit from my play.

So next weeks plan is to catch up with Step A ( and offer and her friends a run into town for the Framing Hanley gig on Wed night),go and see my wee nephew and folks again on Thus and to be out on hot dates on Sat and maybe Fri night.

Thanks for reading.Back soon...

3-1 to The Champions!

After playing well and creating some great chances in the draw against Valencia in the Champions League I was a bit worried about the team tiring in today's first Old Firm game of the season.Two Pies and another mate came over to watch it and after going 1-0 down just before halftime,we all just about hit the ceiling when the Gers came storming back to score three in the second half.Both teams had won their first eight league games this season and nine wins in a row is a new SPL record.My only worry is that we have a small squad and a few more injuries combined with the extra European games will still make retaining our league title a tough job.

To the poker and I played just a few sng's on Friday night,got screwed and ended up going and doing something less boring instead.( wee "Why don't you?" reference for older UK readers!)

That's been the general pattern over the last few months where a lack of table hours has greatly reduced my appetite to keep playing after a bad start to a session.Playing so much Call of Duty has also meant I've brought some of the "rage quit" mentality to my poker game which hasn't helped.If I have a crap start to an online video game either through poor play or a laggy connection it's easy to just quit that game and begin another.Applying that thought process to poker just doesn't work as it's totally standard to lose more sit and go's than I'll ever win.Having the confidence in my game and the heart to keep grinding are the keys to success.

The other key for me appears to be top quality herbs! I saw a man about a particularly pungent aromatic dog yesterday and after a few failed Call of Duty games ( I see you and I'm going to shoot...ahh bollocks I'm dead again)I felt the urge to hit the felt and I ended up tuning right into the games ,playing 27 and winning $50.I was still a bit frustrated by beats ( and too many second place finishes) but it was easy enough to brush them off and keep playing my best game.I also usually play four tables tiled on my screen however last night I played six,stacking them in two piles of three and had no bother keeping up with play.If anyone knows if it's possible to automatically use the timebank on Party without additional software let me know though as that would have been useful at times.

I enjoyed the smoke and the poker, but I do feel damn tired today ( despite the high of the Rangers result) and I'll be sticking to my no smoking before work days rule so I'm not sure I'll be increasing my poker volume by too much.( though I'm still on alternate full days and have 35 days of leave to take before the end of March!)

My date on Friday night didn't happen ( family illness on her side) and has been re-arranged for this Friday.Hopefully we'll click when we meet, but I'm quite relaxed about it and if nothing comes of it then so be it.

Ok,thanks for reading.Back soon...