Mighty oaks from little acorns grow.( or the little acorn goes on tilt and becomes a broke little acorn)
Tuesday, January 06, 2009
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....
I could slap myself today after my donkery last night at the tables.I made a good start on Party,3-4 tabling and winning a couple of hundred dollars quite quickly at the $22's.I also enjoyed watching the PDC World darts and nearly jumped out my seat when Barney hit that nine dart finish.( darting perfection,see clip!) Hopefully it will be a Barney v Taylor final again and another classic like last year.
I could have gone to bed happy with my evenings profit, but volume is the key and I logged into Stars and fired up a few $16's.After a decent start to '09 on Stars,I was hoping I could build on that, however the poker gods had other ideas and before long all the lost races and flips left me pissing into the wind again.I managed to pull back a hundred or so and should have gone to bed at that point.
Instead I fired up some more and allowed all my frustrations to boil over.I was well up at Party.How dare this joke of a site ( Stars) keep pounding me into the dirt like this! Maybe it was greed too which pushed me over the edge a bit.I always go on about seeing my bankroll total figure as not being set in stone.The turbo swings mean even a winning player will always have peaks and troughs on an overall upwards looking graph.I think I'd mentally banked all my winnings over the last few days and was in no mood to run badly and see my overall profit figure reduced.
I had decided over Xmas that I am going to pay off my car loan with poker profits and that most of it will come from my Stars account.( 6.5k from Stars,1k from Party and another 1k from Ladbrokes/Ipoker is the rough plan, leaving me just over 4k online)
Several times last night I had my finger hovering over the submit button on the cashier page ready to remove every last cent from my account there.Instead I donked off about $150 at $16,$27 and $38's to leave me about $300 down on Stars for the night.Lowlights were raising with A3 from the button and insta-calling a shove from the bb and getting it in with KQ v several raises in a multi-way pot.Add a couple more horror plays like that and you get the picture.
As mentioned I was up a couple of hundred from Party and I've gone to bed before and slept soundly having lost a lot more than $100 over a session.I don't tilt often though, and I think knowing that made me even more angry at myself for letting my emotions slip.Nobody says its a fair game and that so-called justice will prevail.I know that and yet I played like a whiney self-pitying asshoooooole.( also enjoyed watching "Meet the Fockers" again after the darts!)
On the upside I didn't start four tabling the $1000 turbs and when I do play the $38's again, I'll hopefully manage to confound a few of the "huge donk" notes I'm sure the regulars will have on me! Yeah,it was all meta-game and range balancing tactics....
Apparently there's a programme on tv soon about who the tightest person in Britain is.I reckon we could all learnt from Gareth.There's a man who knows how to spoil the lady in his life.Good to see that she was suitably grateful.....
"Some of the other stars of the programme are Gareth Taylor, a farmer in his mid-50s from Yorkshire, who bought his wife, Wendy, her first ever Christmas present - from him at least - last year. It was a chainsaw. He said their fuel bills were getting so big that she could make herself useful by chopping down trees to put on the fire. Her response, 'I was so stunned I didn't know what to say. But I was a bit chuffed too. I've never ever got a present from him before.' "
With most of my friends being too distant,attached or flued up,I was left to bring in the new year with a couple of beers n smokes in the company of Nacho, an Irish guy,a Canadian and a German.It was great fun until just after midnight when I grew bored of their banter,knocked them all out, and took the $22 turbo down on Party...
I moved to Stars,took 3rd in a $16 and then took down a $27,18 man whilst supping my beer and chatting on the phone.
I remembered the US/Canadian blogger game,The Mookie,was on at 2am and decided a wee social game would be a decent way to round things off before bed.It's a $10 mtt and I bubbled the final table after shoving A9 from the button and running into rockets.Good chat and good times though!
Yesterday evening I was over at my parents for dinner before the s-man came over with his PS3 for an evening of "COD 5 Nazi zombies" and some more "Resistance 2:Fall of Man".I used to love Half-Life on the PS2 and didn't think much they could improve much on it, but Resistance 2 is simply phenomenal.One day I may even have to buy my own PS3...!
After the s-man left I played a $33 at Party and took it down before hitting the sack.I've had Pokertracker 3 for weeks now and have finally been able to get the HUD ( heads up display) working for my sngs.The stats part of PT still seems screwed up when it comes to reporting sng profits and I'm not sure how to fix it.It shows me as coming 3rd in that $33 I took down and even postion "0" for some games!! Very odd.Still,at least the HUD works and I also have a proper record of every hand played.
I'm not going to review 2008 other than to say the trip to Manchester for the UEFA Cup final,some fantastic weekends and the Full Tilt Million Dollar cash game jaunt in Sept were the highlights for me.
As "super" seems to be the in word with the forum kiddies ( super thin bet,super early,super feckin' everything)I'm off to have a super day.....
A much better month than last months $337 profit.I did actually think I'd made more but that's because I had my Stars total from the end of October stuck in my head!
Ok,best wishes to all.Back sometime in the new year....
ps Been on my fav footy forum and they're nominating the best threads of the year.I missed this one but it sounds good....
"There was a guy looking for some help in the techy section who had bought some kind of computer that used voice recognition to access it, but his dog had barked while he was setting the voice password and he couldn't unlock it" :-)))
Actual start time is 9pm gmt/4 pm est under the Private tab in the Full Tilt lobby.
The football was crap yesterday.Rangers lost 1-0 and the police sunk to new depths,this time confiscating a banner from the Rangers end which showed the same "Offended bus" I posted the other day.( reason given was that someone might be offended by it!) Still,at least nobody risked arrest by singing the Hokey Cokey.One Scotland,Many Cultures (unless you're a Rangers fan).
I picked Nacho up after the game,took him for a long walk and watched some poker training vids before having a baby.Ok,I didn't have a baby, but apparently my Mum would like me to have one. No casual relationships or FWB's for me eh! My sister and hubby are going through IVF stuff at the moment and hopefully that will work out and my Mum can get her wish for a kid in the family.I have always wanted kids of my own and who knows what the future holds.It's not on my list for the January sales though!
To the poker and I began last night with Dr Paulys PLO game on Stars as it's a nice break from the NL turbo grind.Even after glancing at the occasional starting hand chart I'm still a PLO donkey, although I actually enjoy having to give hands some thought instead of operating on almost auto-pilot.( even if these thoughts only extend to "It looks shiney,I call"!) The good Doc even questioned my move when I raised KKK4 and took a pot down at showdown.My logic was that it had folded to me in late postion,it was Xmas time and three Kings are always good at this time of year.... **
I bowed out the PLO game in 11th place,fired up a couple of $22's at Party and managed to take one of them down.As Sharkscope doesn't work on Party and I'm too lazy to keep a proper record, I'm going to email Party support and see if they can provide me with some stats for the sngs I've played there.There is certainly a lot less variance when 3/10 get paid instead of the 4/18 I'm used to at the two table games.
I moved over to Stars and two wins and a few wee cashes from 21 games saw me finish the night with a $35 overall profit.I was 4 tabling for most of the session and was glad to finish ahead after not playing particularly well for most if it.Tiredness,being in a crappy mood after the football and suffering from a frustrating start ( usual beats and lost flips) are my feeble excuses!At least I hit the sack around 3.30am ( 6am finishes really are not healthy!)and made around $80 overall.
My plan tonight is to play the Britblogger game on Full Tilt and also the Million Dollar Turbo Takedown Mtt on Stars.
I've had a good Xmas so far,enjoying time spent with family and friends, and of course playing a bit of poker too.
As ever,when it comes to poker,I struggle to find stuff to write about when it's going reasonably well.I'm sure a 10-20 cashless streak of sngs is just around the corner, but for now I'm plodding along nicely at the $22/$33's on Party and the $16's on Stars ( with some successful $38's too).
I've been playing my usual 3-4 tables at one time and now feel totally comfortable with three, and quite at home with four tables on the go.Badblood's post about age affecting his multi-tabling skills has got me thinking that perhaps the 12-24 tabling is best left to the video game kiddies.If I can slowly build up from 3-4 to 5-6 tables I'll be happy with that.
I typed most of the above earlier before my cable connection crashed and it reminded me that I need to buy some sort of dongle usb back up for my main connection.The beats are frustrating enough without it going down when playing.
Ok,the s-man has been given special leave by his Missus and is popping over for another sesh on the ps3 shortly.I can't be too late in bed as I'm up early for the Old Firm game ( Rangers v celtc) at Ibrox tomorrow.We're 4 points behind and can't really afford to lose.We have gone over a year without being beaten at home and I just hope the team can step up and do the business.
Thanks for reading.Back with monthly stats post in a few days...
Ahhh where to start.... I could begin by putting my left leg in,my left leg out,doing the Hokey Cokey and shaking it all about,however an MSP ( Member of Scottish Parliament) ,Michael Matherson,has warned that "It's important that police and football clubs are aware of the sinister background to this song and take appropriate action against those who use it to taunt Catholics".Only in Scotland.Feckin' idiot needs a reality check.The world really has gone PC mad.
As I'm in rant mode, what about feckin teenagers? Step A has decided ( in all her naive wisdom) that their neighbours are actually nice people,despite them blowing up the ex Mrs A's car last year,slashing Step A's trampoline and lying to the police to try and get me and the ex into trouble.Grrrrrr!
Still,at least my work kindly contributed £20 towards the cost of our £18.95 Xmas dinner last Friday night at a fine Italian place in Glasgow.I only stayed for the meal and drunk a 1/2 pint of lager and a cola.I arrived at my work today to be told I owed £12 for the teams drinks.Did my generous carefree nature mean I happily handed over the £12 with a cheery smile, or did I let the organiser know what a feckin' rip off it was? Take a guess...
To the poker ( at last eh) and congrats to Betfare on taking down the Brit Blogger game.I'll hopefully have some news in the new year about some spice being added to the last Bloggy game of each month.Watch this space...
I watched a BigJoe vid on Sngicons before I began playing yesterday, and he said something that stuck with me about people not realising just how ridiculous the beats can get when grinding turbo’s.I also watched a Cardrunners vid where the guy was playing 40 tables at one time.The point was that he had played millions of hands and had graphs with break even blocks of 100k hands.Makes me feel better about running so poorly on Stars over recent months!
Classical music has been helping too.I think I read on Rossi’s blog about how he tunes into Classic Fm to help sooth the beats and it definitely seems to help keep me calm.I also used some of the Xmas money my parents gave me to buy a memory foam mattress topper and I wish I’d bought one years ago as I’ve never slept as soundly as I do now.
Ok,I really do intend to take a blogging break for a week or two.Have a great Xmas!
Perked up a bit since my last post.Big thanks for the comments.Top geezers!Looking forward to another fine evening on the PS3with the s-man shortly.Got one last turbo to donk out of first.Merry Xmas readers!
Sunday night was another crock of crap at the tables.I found myself feeling more and more frustrated as the night went on and I put a lot of that down to feeling completely exhausted.( all my own fault) Three ( 18 player) bubble finishes didn’t help my mood and I didn’t really put much effort into this weeks Brit Blogger game either,crashing out early on after donk slow playing two pair.Congrats to Total Crud ( great name Matty) on taking it down and thanks to all who showed up to play too.
I only played a few games on Monday and although I did manage a 3rd and 4th place finish for a whopping $25 profit,it still felt like I was being scudded at every turn.
Tuesday didn’t begin well. The kettle had boiled for my morning tea and the weetabix were in the bowl before I discovered I had no milk.How annoying is that?!! I had a quick cup of green tea before heading off for another day of dealing with ten page customer complaint letters.
After work I grabbed a quick pub dinner and headed over to the s-mans for a fine evening of COD 5 shennanigans.I’m glad I did because I was in a really dark mood all day and needed some company and all out warfare to help me snap out of it.
I didn’t get home until 11.30 ish and despite planning a poker free evening,I couldn’t resist a wee $20 turbo on Pokerroom.I took it down and will try and get a few more games in tonight inbetween seeing a man about a dog.
Ok,thanks for reading.I’ll probably be taking a blogging break for a few weeks until after the new year or at least until this classic 80's tune leaves my head...
Actual start time is 9pm gmt ( 4pm est in lobby under "Private" tournaments)
I finished Friday night up $6 over 15 games on Stars.Last night the s-man was over for an evening of football and COD 5.The s-man isn't a big football fan, however I think even he enjoyed El Grande Classico live from the Nou Camp.Barca beat Real Madrid 2-0 in the worlds third biggest football derby game.( rated just below Burnley v Blackburn ,with Rangers v celtc being numero uno!)It was an excellent game and it was great to see Messi bounce back from being scythed down time after time to score a peach of a 2nd goal for Barca.
I did squeeze in a quick $22 during half-time and took it down.The s-man and I fired up COD 5 ( Call of Duty 5) on his PS3 afterwards and made more progress on the march to Berlin.
The s-man left around 1.30 ish and I wish I'd gone to bed instead of hitting the tables.I don't believe in doomswitches,cashout curses or any of that nonsense, but for the first time ever I have sent Stars a half joking email today to ask what the odds are of having KK busted by a smaller pair making a set four times in a row.( Aces made it number five when they lost to 77).Those were just some of the two outers I ran into.It probably hurt more because I stepped up a bit from my usual $16's ( about time eh!) and was playing $27's,$38's and even a couple of $60,18 player games.It was frustrating because I was aware I was just running horribly and wanted to play through it things swung back round my way a little.( it was 6.30am before I went to bed)I made 3rd in my last two $27's to reduce my Stars losses to about $200 for the night.
At higher sngs stakes $200 isn't a big deal I suppose and I've certainly moved on mentally from the days where a loss like that would devestate my game and confidence.I'm still about $40 up at Stars for the month and a lot more at Party and Ipoker so it's time once again to just take a big deep breath,sook it up and move on.
I'm a 36yr old bloke fae Glesga.Got a dog called Nacho and a job dealing with complaints all day.
I love my football team ( Rangers FC) and love smokin' weed and playin' poker.
Pokerstars:Zagga
Pokerroom:Zagga
Full Tilt:Acornman
Ladbrokes:Acornman
Party:Acornmn
