Every One's a Winner...

It looks like I'll be able to quit work and making a living from gambling after the women in my team at work came up with a foolproof way to make money on last Saturdays Grand National.It's the only horse race all year I bet on and instead of the usual sweep stake the clever ladies in my team decided to collect money from everyone and place a bet on every single horse in the race.After I stopped laughing I tried to explain why that wouldn't be a good idea and eventually organised a traditional sweep stake with me drawing a couple three-legged donkeys as usual.

At the weekend I hit the poker tables and six tabled the $16's for most of Friday and Saturday nights.Set of six then roll another.Rinse and repeat! I don't have a sub to Sharkscope anymore but I would guess I played at least 60 games and the cashier shows I finished down nearly $200.I felt like I was running horrendously and checking my exit hands on Pokertracker confirmed that was the case.A post on sng variance from NoahSD's blog that Yorkie Pud linked to helped put it in perspective a bit and it really is just a case of grinding on through it.I've been back on the non herb smoking wagon during the week again so I'm not sure if I'll hit the tables again until next weekend.

On the hot neighbour front I haven't actually grown a set and asked her out yet but we were chatting in the sunshine on Sunday and I did ask if she fancied a barbecue next weekend if the sun is still out.( we have a communal garden at the back of our block of flats) The plan is for me to buy the disposable barby and she will buy in the food.It's hardly a candle lit dinner but it's a start! It may be a slow start because the rain started on Monday and it doesn't look like easing off anytime soon.

Back soon....

Back in the Day

Finally picked up my new Samsung 17" laptop last Friday after work and spent most of the evening getting it set up.To test the Pokertracker Hud I fired up a couple of micro heads up games but the players were so bad the Hud barely had time to kick in before the games were over.Despite hardly playing a hand of poker over the previous week I really haven't had much desire to start grinding sng's again.I did two wee sets of four games last night though and after six cashless games I was quite relieved to win the last two for a small profit.My roll is currently just under the $1k mark, and as I'm still playing far more Modern Warfare 2 than poker, I can't see it increasing by much anytime soon.

I've not been jogging again, but after 6 months off sitting on my backside on the sick, I have at least been either taking the dog for long walks or heading for an hour of stoating around the town on my lunch hour.I'm so unfit that even walking the dog round the local pitches for an hour resulted in a tight hamstring!

I have stuck to the no weed before work rule which I'm quite pleased about, although my current batch of herbs weren't cured properly before I got them and tend to give me more of a headache than a high.Perhaps I'll use all the annual leave I've accrued for a trip to the Dam after all.

At work I'm still on alternate full days and waiting to find out if they'll allow me to to a 4 day week for 6 months without having to change my contract.After such a long break, working 9-5 certainly seems like a long day!

My favourite tv show at the moment is the "Home Movie Show Uncut" on the BBC.Now I have to be honest and say when I saw on at 1am it wasn't showing quite the kind of amateur home movies I was expecting, but what it does show is footage of peoples home made films from as early as the 1930's.( many in colour) They showed a great clip the other night from the 30's where a wee old woman was complaining about all the cars on the road and saying that life just wasn't the same as it used to be 30 years ago.( Dudley was born in 1905 and says the same)

I've also been watching a few Floattheturn training vids and some Modern Warfare 2 vids on youtube.The MW2 vids make me feel old sometimes as the kids making them refer to life "back in the day" and then go on to talk about things that happened in March/April this year. Back in the day is about 1989 for me!

Ok,thanks for reading.Back soon...

No Hot Dates Here....

I've calmed down considerably since my last post.Rangers won at the weekend and our rivals could only draw which always helps my mood.I think I've also realised that my ability to grind through beats playing turbos is directly related to how tired I feel.

The S-man was over on Saturday night and this time we completed the excellent "Resistance 2:Fall of Man".I had played a few more turbos on Stars before the s-man arrived and ran like crap, with only a couple of cashes late on saving me from having another nasty night there.

On Sunday my cousin was over and later I watched Phil Taylor take his 14th World Darts Championship after his 7-1 drubbing of poor old Barney.He averaged 109 in the final and the result never looked in doubt.

At 9pm I fought my way through a tough Brit Blogger field ( never easy getting past the Hairy Gymnast!) and lost a quick heads up battle to Betfare who took it down again.Congrats Sir!

Jeez this post is boring.I've had a look through Pokertracker 3 for interesting hands, but they're all boring too!

Still, at least I have online dating to keep me amused, although for some reason they rejected my first application..



Thanks to the s-man for emailing me that one!

Ok,thanks for reading.As mentioned I'm off work until next Monday.Back sometime next week probably....

Time to change

After extensive high level negotiations ( a couple of blog comments back and forth) Burnley Mik and I have decided to move the Bloggerment start time to 8pm.This may just be a temporary measure as the DTD game it clashes with only has a couple more weeks to run.

Last nights poker wasn't exactly a roaring success.I watched some football and then an excellent cardrunners video before starting with a $16 turbo.I had my AK beaten by A4 before pushing with 33 and running into 1010.Of course I hit a 3 on the flop,smiled a big happy smile and then watched a ten hit on the river.

The good news is that I did some searching around the net and downloaded a "vista friendly" gametime +.Gametime is the add on for Pokertracker which shows realtime stats on opponents at the table and is a vital tool for any cash game player.It now works ( at least on Bet365) and even updates as I'm playing.The lack of Pokertracker was one of the main reasons I upgraded to a new laptop and I'm delighted it now seems to be working properly.

The only problem is that I've no idea where I downloaded the vista friendly GT+ from and right now there's probably some Russian hacker playing $1000nl blindfold with my bankroll!

Sadly PT didn't help me win last nights cash session.I made one marginal call (52% fav when money went in!) for my stack with 89c on a Kh 7c 10c board.I had the straight flush draw and open-ended straight draw, but the villains K2 held up.I managed to win back some of that loss by playing more a more solid game and by using my tight image to make a couple more preflop reraise steals.

I've decided that I need to adapt my mindset and begin to think a bit more long term.Being happy about one sng win and then feeling cheesed off at a suckout in the next one is not the way to approach poker.I need to trust my game,be aware I will still make mistakes and start putting some decent poker hours in at the tables.

Before I go here a few of the latest self-help book titles designed for people in my hometown of Glasgow...


One for the Christians in Possil: God Loves You and Will Protect You, But Carry a Big Stick with a Nail In It Anyway

The Joy of Six-Packs.

Lowering Your Sexual Self-Esteem.

Confidence, Self-Esteem and Assertiveness: They Are Completely Beyond You.

Family Relationships: Dream On.

Minimising Your Potential.

Sexual Relationships and Why You Will Never Have One.

Women's Issues: Who Cares?

Depression: How to Achieve It.

So f*ckin' easy!!

Oh that was so f*ckin' easy! 3-0 to the Rangers today v celtc, with the Nacho man scoring two ( see photos above) and Ferguson banging in the other.It should have been four ( which would have taken us top of the league on goal difference) but one was wrongly ruled to be offside.

We were easily the best side today and thoroughly deserved the win.I was also amused by the celtc supporters banner celebrating a 7-1 win over us in 1957, because at halftime the Gers support unveiled one about three times the size informing them of our 8-1 win over them in 1943!! They may try and claim it was during WW2 and doesn't count, but they count the goal scored by their player that day in their official records so it'll do for me!!

I paid £50 to get another 256ram added to my laptop and it does seemed to have sped things up a little,though I still can't get Pokertracker to work when I'm actually playing.I may try deleting it and starting again.

Last night after ex Mrs A had cleaned the flat and I'd dropped her off,I began by playing in the Raisetheriver tag team game.I missed the first level and ended 5th overall but the chatbox buzzing and I really enjoyed myself.

I watched another cardrunners vid afterwards and hit up a couple of $200nl cash tables,finishing about even after an hours play.I even joined a juicy $2-$4 nl 8 max table at 365 but never found the right spots to make much profit.

I was very tempted by Kats donakement at 2am, but as it's a rebuy for the first hour and I had to be up early today, I gave it a miss.

I'm just back after taking Nacho for a long run ( he ran,I strolled!)and tonight I'm going to enjoy the rerun of the Old Firm game.

Big thanks to BM for the pxf info.Looks like my sis and I are going to split the cost and buy it for my Mums birthday!

Ok,I'm off to try and get my voice back after the game today....

Power cut

No poker on Wednesday night and last nights play began with a couple of nasty exits from 'Stars $16 games.The good beat yesterday was that at about 1pm a power cut at work meant we all went home! ( though typically they are trying to shaft us over our flexi-time for leaving early).

I went to Comet first and had a look at new laptops.Even after more screen freezing at Ladbrokes last night, I'm still a bit reluctant to splash out for a new one in case it's my cable connection.I did try and run Pokertracker though and it gave me the "programme not responding" message as usual.At least a new Lappy should sort that out.

After my sng exits I fired up a Laddies $50nl 6 max table and after winning a big pot with a marginal call,I ended up playing 3 handed for a while until one villain left and I cleaned out the shortstack.The marginal call saw me face an all in after the turn card with a flush draw,open ended straight draw and 2 overcards.I suspected my overcards may not be live ( villain had flopped 2 pair) and I was probably lucky to river my flush and take the pot.

Picking up my lad ( Nacho) after work again today and will be taking him for a run ( well he runs,I stroll!) before dinner and the final Raisetheriver league game.I'm not sure how the points are allocated but I'm fairly sure it's going to take Ricky Rosa exiting early and a win for me to wrestle back 1st position and the league title.Highly unlikely but not impossible.

Ok,that's all for now.Don't forget to register for Sundays Bloggerment at Stars.4pm est/9pm bst. Pass:donkament

Bucket of trouble

I had a decent night last night at the tables with the only real blip being a daft call on my very last orbit.Does anyone else suffer from last orbit/hand syndrome?!

I'll get that out of the way first.I was at a Laddies $100nl 6 max table and had raised to $4 preflop with A10 on the button and the shorter stacked Big blind pushed for $46.Now the average pot was quite high, but I'd been at another table and had no idea if this was a regular move from the bb,he was tilting or he had a hand.I folded.

On the next orbit I'm dealt 1010 and raise $4 again ,only for him to go all in once more.I decided I was well ahead of any lower pair and prepared to gamble if he had overs.He did.QQ.The board didn't help me.Doh!

I did managed to rack up a decent night at 'Stars and my roll there has now bounced back from a low of $48 yesterday.Flopping a flush with 67h v AA helped and 1010 eventually hitting a straight and getting paid by a real donk was also nice.I've had a few problems with using Pokertracker and GT+ at Laddies recently ( doesn't seem to pick up all players at the table) but it works a treat at Stars and I've been using it ( along with my own instincts) to move tables if there don't appear to be any apparent donators.

I do seem to spend an awful lot of time on game selection and regularly find myself hopping from one site to another to get the juciest table available.It's not a good strategy for bonus clearing or earning player points but my main focus has always been on the game itself.The fact that Pokertracker shows an I play for an average pot of $17.26 at Laddies ( over 24k hands) bears that out I think.

Ok,not much else going on today.I'm still off on annual leave and Mrs A and Step A are still away in Millport.No more to say on that situation really.I'll see what happens when she gets back.I have pretty much decided that if we are through, then I'm going back to my flat rather than renting somewhere else.

Oh and in other breaking news the window cleaner arrived today while Nacho was out in the back garden.Nacho's not an aggressive dog and welcomed him by wagging his tail and then promptly peeing in the mans nice fresh bucket of hot soapy water.

Ok,thanks for reading...

Bacon saved ....then fried

Mrs A and I watched a couple of movies ( Little Miss Sunshine and Enemy at the gates) before she went to bed and I hit the tables around 1.30am.I started with some 6 max at a very fishy table but I just couldn't catch a hand to break the donator.Some other guy was tapping the aquarium bigtime and I broke my usual chat silence to try and keep the fish present using Juices "No guts,no glory " mantra.The funniest part of it all was that he was so fishy that whenever anyone else dropped a couple of dollars below the $50 buy-in they instantly rebought ,not wanting to miss out when they got it in the middle with Mr Fish.

Mr Fish was finally broken and left and shortly afterwards I did too.I lost $20 at another 6 max table, before hitting a $100 nl table which just seemed too juicy to be true with an average pot of $50.This happened http://www.pokerhand.org/?853654 and I was all ready to go to bed and call todays post "bacon saved".

Greed is good ( according to Geko and Mr Edge) and as I was feeling good sitting $50 up at the table I wasn't for moving.Unfortunately the cards and my own donkery cost me that $50 profit and another $50 leaving me $80 down for the session ( and week) at Laddys.

$44 was lost overplaying AQ on an 8 8 5 board ( 2 clubs).I thought I had a tight image until my 5bb raise was called by 5 players meaning it was a $29 pot.I led out for $15 when it was checked to me and got 1 caller.I couldn't put the villain on the 8 so I fired another $24 bullet on the turn after a harmless looking 2s,only to fold to ( villain 28% vpip which was tight for this table) a reraise to $48.If he semi-bluffed me off with a flush draw then fair play to him, but by then I realised I couldn't even beat AK let alone any pair and although I'd seen Ace and King high win several big pots I just didn't feel I was ahead and could continue in the hand.

Looking back at Pokertracker I also lost a daft hand ( $36 pot) when I bet the river with a straight ( I had J9) because I was sure the villian hadn't made the flush that was out there.I was right but he had made the higher straight with his KQ and was happy to call me down.The old adage about not betting because I was only going to be called by a better hand came to mind.

It just felt like one of those nights when not much hit and I was zigging and zagging at all the wrong moments .I'm tempted to blame the poker bloggers curse after yesterdays post about how I should be feeling I can beat the table whenever I sit down.Not by playing like that I wont!

Ok,that's enough of my fishy play for one post.Mrs A is working tonight so it's dinner for Step A and me then I'm off to donk it up.....