Zip Sliding Away...

What an amazing day I had last Sunday.Stepping off the edge of the basket and zip sliding across the Clyde was a real buzz and from there Two Pies and I headed to Ibrox for the Old Firm game.Due to the points deduction Rangers suffered after going into administration, a win for our rivals would have meant them winning the league at our place.The thought of watching their fans and classless popcorn teeth manager celebrating their tainted title win in front of us filled me with dread and would have been hard to take.

Thankfully Rangers played them off the park and the 3-2 final score line ( they scored two late goals) flattered them.The atmosphere was unbelievable and it's taken me until today to properly get my voice back after singing and generally going mental for the full 90 minutes.We are the people!



I did hit the tables on Sunday evening and managed a couple of small cashes and the seemingly usual lost key coin flip that could have been another final table appearance had I won it.I'm down a couple of hundred dollars this month and will need a good weekend at the felt to make my monthly stats half decent.I'm not too bothered though if I do have another losing month as I'm still learning Mtt's and I'm well aware I'm taking shots by playing $44,$51 games etc on my current bankroll.

I mentioned being unhappy at Party poker charging me an admin fee for keeping $600 there and not playing for 3 months.At least the cashout was quick and hit my bank account this week.Despite trusting Stars I'm still not sure if I'll deposit on there now or keep it my bank account for use at Stars if my roll there dips below the $2k mark.

Away from the poker I had a laugh at work today when one of the women in my team was telling me of a funny incident in the smoking room a few years back.She looks after her granddaughter Charlotte at weekends and loudly announced that after a tough week she was looking forward to a bit of Charlie at the weekend to cheer her up.Apparently jaws dropped all round and until it was explained to her my colleague had no idea why!

Back soon..

Basket Case

First up thankyou to Rosie for kindly sponsoring me here
for Sport Relief and for the twitter mention too.If any other readers would like to add to the pot there's still time and it's maybe worth pointing out that Sport Relief money is used to help people who need it all over the world and not just in the UK.Some of the stories on last nights TV Sport Relief show were truly heart breaking.It's hard to feel sorry for myself about any poker bad luck when there are families of 8-10 people living in shacks no bigger than a garden shed and drinking water from the same river they use as a toilet.

Reading over the info I was sent about the zip slide tomorrow I was slightly worried to discover I'll be going up the mobile crane in a basket and not in a sealed lift! The other part that was supposed to be reassuring was where it said that if anyone gets stuck half way across they lower the rope from one side.That's fine if it's being done on dry land but not if I'm half way across one of Scotlands biggest rivers!

Quite a few family,friends and work colleagues are coming to watch,support me and according to one of them "to sabotage the rope".With friends like that....

After the zip slide Two Pies and I will be heading a few minutes up the road to Ibrox to join the rest of our fellow Rangers supporters in wearing our red and black scarfs with pride and letting our rivals know that they can "Stick your tainted title up your arse"!

No concrete news yet on Rangers being taken over although apparently bids have been submitted by several interested parties including a Chicago consortium called "Club 9".

It's not been a bad week considering I was back at work after enjoying being off last week.I took Step A for a Mc'ds on Wednesday night and paid her to clean my flat afterwards.I did try and keep the "with age comes responsibility" and "the world doesn't owe you a living" lectures to a minimum.These were prompted by her deciding an interview for a job based just outside Glasgow was no good because it would take her over an hour to get there each morning.

On the poker front I've fallen out with Party Poker and come close to a few big( for me!)cashes on Pokerstars since my last post.Party had emailed me previously with a marketing spiel that implied they were crediting my account with £25 as I hadn't played there for a few months.When I logged on to their site I found it required hands to be played to clear the bonus.That didn't tempt me.Last week I got an email from them telling me I was being charged an admin fee ( about $6) because I wasn't using the account.Well after paying a further $3 cashout fee ( and probably being ripped off with the exchange rate too)I've cashed out my $597 balance and won't ever return.Robbing b*stards!

I was working until 6pm last night and by the time I got home,had dinner and walked Nacho I was too late to register for all my favourite usual 16-18 tourneys on Stars.I did play a few though including late registering for a $16,$27k Gtd turbo MTT ( 2100 players) and a $15,180 player turbo.

Those were the two I ended up going deep in.The $15 ended when someone called my AK shove with 33 and I failed to hit but the $16.50 exit was a really sore one.We were five handed on the final table bubble with $267 for 10th,over $400 for 9th and a top prize of nearly $6k.On my right was a player called DirtyBrasil.He is a top pro and "back in the day" I used to love watching his training vids on Cardrunners.I'm pretty sure this is a standard call.He was running at 27 vpip/22pfr and as expected with his stack size and skills he was running over the table and raising with a wide range at this point.

Although I had just paid the blinds I had slipped into 10th place and although the pay jump would have been nice if I'd folded into at least 9th and the final table,I was playing to win and if my tens had held I would have been in with a decent shout.If you think it was a daft call please let me know in the comments because I've played less than 600 Mtt's in my entire life and I'm sure I'm still making plenty of mistakes.



Watching a TPE vid on the studying/working side of the game showed me I really need to work harder on that side of my game if I'm to improve.Just watching pro training vids isn't enough and I need to review more hands,download pokerstove again and mess about with chosen hands v opponents ranges to gain more knowledge.

Thanks for reading and if I don't end up at the bottom of the Clyde tomorrow I'll be back soon....

Going Up? Think Again!

I'm pretty sure I heard myself agree to go on a zip slide across the River Clyde in Glasgow from the top of a 150 feet high crane on March 25th after the next Old Firm game.It's been a dreadful season so far on and off the park for Rangers and this charity thing may turn into a jump instead of a slide if we don't beat the mutants from across the city at Ibrox that day!It's for Sports Relief and hopefully some of you kind readers will sponsor me nearer the time!

Nacho has been reading Josies blog recently and only her kind words about him in her comments section kept him from hitting the "unfollow" button after he clocked the "Dogs are Vermin" post from the other day.

He did agree though that not all dogs are as smart as him and some are extremely daft indeed....



Poker content? Well I did play a bit last night but a combination of not smoking during the week and some particularly strong weed meant I was completely monged as I played and instead of it keeping me focussed and tuned in I was resting my head on the back of the couch and half opening my eyes every time the Pokerstars software beeped at me to let me know it was my turn.

I played just a few Mtt's without much joy and had an awful run at the $7 and $30 6 max hypers.I was watching "The Big Game" as I played and inspired by the high stakes cash I sat down at a $50nl 6 max cash table and a full ring $50 nl game too.I used to be a cash game player ( on Ladbrokes and Interpoker) until I caught the sng bug a few years ago.Sadly I forgot the rule about not going broke with an overpair and lost a buy-in with KK to a flopped set of sixes on the 6 max table.

I followed up that piece of brilliance by making a tilty call from the big blind with 56s on the full ring table and check calling an early position preflop raiser on the flop and turn before making a half assed attempt to represent a straight on the river and being called down by two pair.

Mtt mistakes,cash game tilt and a ton of run bad have been the story of my poker month so far in Feb and I suppose I should be glad I'm slightly up and not deep in the hole.Hopefully I can find my best game and some run good tonight as I'll probably play a load of turbo Mtt's.

I've still not played any live poker since last August but I have been practicing my poker face at work to help make myself unreadable when bluffing.We have glass lifts and it's very annoying when I'm running late in the morning, get in,hit the 5th floor button and as the door is closing some asswipe still fumbling with their pass at the turnstyle somehow manages to teleport themselves across to the front of the lift just in time to press the open door button.When it happens several times in a row just as the lift is about to get going it's enough to make me .....smile politely through gritted teeth at my new lift companions!

Well that still happens but if they're not quite quick enough I now incorporate my poker skills and bluff going to press the open door button,making actual contact just above the button.It's very simple and just requires me to make like I'm holding a ball in my hands,giving a small shrug as I raise both eyebrows while hollywooding a surprised look as the door shuts firmly in their face.See ya,wouldn't like to be ya!

Back soon...