Slice of action

Congrats to Mark over at Pokerpains on taking down this weeks Brit Blogger game.After playing it for so long on Stars I'm still trying to work out who is behind most of the screennames on Full Tilt.I'm not sure it's any disadvantage to co-host Mr Cloud and I, as our cunningly disguised pseudonyms of Cloud71 and Acornman allow us both complete anonymity too…..

I’m really enjoying the new turbo bloggerment format.I think people realise suckouts are the norm in speed games and the fact that anyone can go from bigstack to shorty and back again within a few hands spices it up nicely.I sucked out with some Ace raggy hand before being sucked out on and bubbling.All goot!

I moved to Party afterwards and took 2nd in a $22 before firing up Stars for some $16’s.I went 0/5 without cashing before finally taking down the last game I played.I’m going to campaign to get the phrase “thank your lucky stars” removed from universal use as there’s nothing bloody lucky about feckin’ Pokerstars for me!!

There wasn’t much poker on the agenda last night.I watched the football plus another poker training video and only played two $16’s later.I probably doubled my profit over the last three months on Stars by managing two second place finishes.Even then I wasn’t happy! In the first one my HU opponent was multi-tabling and with a bit more patience I could have seen him off.Instead I made a daft call with q9 soooted v his QK preflop shove and didn’t improve.I gave myself a sharpen up pep talk when the second game got down to HU and bombed out in typical Stars ( just seems that way,I don’t really think Stars plays any differently to any other site) style when my Tens made a set on the flop and lost to a runner runner straight.

Ok,time for a quick shower before my pizza arrives....

Friday Grump

Babysitting for Step A the other night was a pleasure as always.She was on good form ( for a moody teen!)and I'm pleased that even although I split from her Mum last year,the wee one is happy to sit and watch crap tv and chat away to me.They now have a kitten in their house along with a hamster and Nacho.( when he's not at my place) I said it reminded me of the old woman who swallowed a fly song and the wee one looked at me as if I had two heads! "She swallowed the spider to catch the fly,I don't know why she swallowed the fly,perhaps she'll die..." Ahh never mind!

I watched the highlights of Scotland's 0-0 draw with Northern Ireland.My gran was from Portadown and I've always had a soft spot for Norn Iron.It was great to see the away support take over Glasgow city centre during the day and I hope their trip wasn't marred by the embarrassing actions of Strathclyde police who confiscated a Northern Ireland flag, believing it to be illegal for sectarian reasons! The flag was returned and an apology rightly issued.One Scotland,many cultures eh!

The Scottish national team followers are often referred to as the "Tartan Army" for obvious reasons.I don't mind that monicker at all, but ( and maybe I'm turning into an old grump!)it really does my nut in to read those fans constantly referred to in the media as "foot soldiers".Real foot soldiers fight and risk life and limb for their countries as opposed to getting drunk abroad and lifting their kilts to moon at by-passers.

A few other things making me grumpy these days are the daily newspaper headlines that state "Fears grow" or "Fears sparked by..".Not a day goes by without a paper telling us to be fearful for one reason or another.Calling arsonists "firebugs" also annoys me! Dunno why,it just does.

The newspaper stories which do make me smile are the ones where Mum has opened a supermarket pizza for example and found metal slicer/human hair/elephant.It's not so much the story which tickles me but the accompanying photograph of the family invloved all looking as glum and downcast as possible.We spent our lives being told to "say cheese" and smile for the camera and I'd love to be a fly on the wall as the papers photographer snaps the pizza family.Even the kids are made to pose as if their world has just fallen down around them.I may just start a "glum photo" scrapbook or blog..!

To the poker ( at last eh!) and I played a couple of $11,18 player turbs on Full Tilt and watched my 66 fall to A5 ( and noted that Full Tilt deck also contains 14 Aces just like Stars!) and came fourth in the other when my 88 fell to 33.( 3 on river obviously)

I fired up two Party $22's before bed and when my AK lost to K9 in the one of them,I was beginning to get that "Why does it always rain on me?" feeling.I did take 2nd in the other and hit the sack straight afterwards.

I've got Nacho until Sunday and plan on visiting the S-man this evening.Poker,watching the Gers and catching up on my sleep are my plans for the rest of the weekend...

Donkaments

I didn't play much poker on Thursday night.4th place ( paid $27) in a $16 turbo was my only game.In truth I was feeling a bit stir crazy and not really on top form, despite having Nacho around for company.Sometimes I think the hardest part of dealing with a breakup is not in the immediate aftermath, but comes at that point a while later where normal life just doesn't seem normal anymore.( if that makes any sense!)

I did keep myself very busy doing up my flat before I moved in and I have settled into a routine here, which is good, although I can't really seem to begin to get my head around thinking about another relationship yet.Perhaps much of the passion had left my relationship with the ex but we were very comfortable in each others company and usually ( until the last few months) had a good laugh at life.Being a lazy bassa I just don't have the motivation to think about getting to that stage with anyone new.I suppose more primitive urges ( and not just the one for a proper cooked meal!) will kick in and I'll eventually feel like making the effort to meet someone new.It just seems a very daunting thought just now.


To the poker and after Mark at Planet Gongs recommendation ,I emailed sngicons to ask if they have any gift certificate options as I think their site will be the best option for my Mum's birthday.Not heard back yet.I've resent the email and I'll give them a couple of days or so but if I don't hear I'll be sticking to either a cardrunners or pxf subsription for her.I'm really enjoying cardrunners ( training site) but it seems daft to have two subscriptions, when I can let my Mum view some of my downloaded videos with me on my laptop when I visit.

Last night I played the wee Raisetheriver game ( and it was a wee game,we had 4 entrants!) and came 3rd after running A10 into AQ.Good fun though and well done to Mair for winning it.

I decided I need to stop being such a wimp about running into bad beats/better hands in turbo sngs and have a little more faith in myself and my game.According to startracker database I make the money in 18 player turbo's 25% of the time so I fired up four turbo's ( 18 player,$16 on Stars),tiled 'em and told myself to aim to make the money in at least one.I multi-tabled better than I have done previously and managed a 1st,2nd and two crashouts.I didn't find it too hard to keep up with the action and just played until all four games were done ,rather than keep opening new games.

Next I fired up Bet365 and took a shot at a very loose $200nl table,only to run into two nasty coolers.This prompted a semi-tilty bluff with nothing which cost me more $$ and I decided to take a break and chill out.( lost $120 in total)

I played in Kats Friday night donkament on Full Tilt next and enjoyed donking it up before eventually going out when I pushed an open ended straight draw into top pair,top kicker.When I made my initial bet and was reraised, I didn't really think the villain was bluffing but it was a donkament and after 3am, so I gambled on hitting my hand.

Ladbrokes was next up and another $200nl 6 max table was my destination.This one had an average pot of $100.At one point I was up $165 but I left for bed at 4am happy to take a $100 profit.

I hop around so many poker sites I never really earn many player points at any of them.I don't have any rakeback deals and don't bonus chase at all.I may be missing out but I balance this up by always being free to choose whichever site has the juciest table for selection.I did get an invite though to a Party Poker $5k VIP freeroll and will be playing that to start with at 6pm tonight.

I'm just back after picking Nacho up ( I have him until Mon)and taking him for a long run about at the local pitches in the pissing rain.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend and don't forget to register for the Bloggerment.....