Summer 2011

Well, I took a bit of a blogging sabbatical, I was actually doing a poker related one over at bfp. Obviously that was shortlived! Poker blogs are pretty much universally as dull as ditch water, so I decided to resurrect this work; which is at least as good as stagnant pond sludge. Am not a great one for recaps but some of the memorable things over last 6 months or so were going skiing for first time, James has promised to organise another trip once he has finished solving the stockmarket/sportsbetting etc.

Have also taken up golf, which is far more frustrating than poker but is a good tonic to hours spent toiling in front of complex game theory equations. Have taken lessons, but after my round today I evidently need some more. Have invested in my own clubs so have been hacking around the fields at home to practice my swing.

Played live a bit, cashed 4th in the Palm Beach £1k for £9300, pretty unfamiliar with mtt poker having become a bit out of touch with the nuances due to primarily playing cash games for last few years. Still I felt pretty comfortable until stacks got shallower, but still didn't fancy doing a deal 4 handed so soldiered on... to 4th! Of course that's not what live poker's about, I've excelled myself donking around in the Torquay casino 1/2 PLO game and managed to rollover the limes from a steadily ebbing G&T tide ( ty new v.efficient waitress) into a centrepeice tumbler to cement my solid TAG image. Wasn't in an ideal state to explain to a Duty Supervisor why a lady was writing me a cheque at the table and she called me "obtuse". Also played UKIPT Newcastle, was good to catch up with Flash and James, sadly Ged's intestines objected to him coming and getting on it with us. Hopefully he'll make it up to Edinburgh.

Am heading back up to Edinburgh at the end of July so will be up there for the Fringe festival/UKIPT if I feel like subjecting myself to more torment. Hopefully the blog will settle down to the more familiar territory of espousing the benefits of Hamilton's breakfasts/Opal Lounge et al.

Oh yeh, and well done to Keys and Rupert for their big scores in Aussie Millions and EPT San Remo respectively.

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Socks Away.

The official Christmas giveaway. I soon tired of tidying room, thought I'd banish the boredom with a brief bout of benevolence. How many socks (mostly odd I hope) in this pile? Closest guess wins a bottle of port, bottle of bollinger if you get it on the nose.

December

Decided to repeat the Poker Goal element of blog for December. However, I won't set the bar too high; I don't want cards to get in the way of drinking mulled wine and knocking back the port. 30k hands, no Skype, stop checking session results halfway through, 5 videos.

Am off to london next week as I have a seat in the Palm Beach Big Game, which is a £1k tournament in Mayfair that attracted 79 well-heeled punters last month. I've not been to the casino before, it's in a nice area, so I have high hopes of it being a good crowd, will no doubt dip my toe in the cash action after trying to bluff a donkamenteur off top pair. Kev is also coming down to play, so after a Porridge breakfast I'll probably accompany him around London for an early morning jog.

Poker Goals Revisited

Well the last month hasn't been a total disaster, hence me posting a graph. I even managed to bink a donkament, admittedly there were only 30 runners!

In short I failed to meet any of the goals I set, however, I definitely think the very act of setting them and holding myself accountable has helped improve my results. After a diligent few weeks of 2/4 and 3/6 I decided to mix in some 5/10 and even a spot of 20/40 limit and 2000NL, the conditions justified it, I was confident and playing to the best of my ability. Results have been good, I've played pretty well, although part of the reason for taking a break until Dec1st is I've been playing a bit sloppily the last few days. The volume of hands I played could have been better, but when I was playing 5/10 I was happy just to 2 table and concentrate on not spewing! Reviewing hands with coach never happened, presume he's playing world of warcraft or something as he's been unreachable.

Will spend the rest of the month watching the Ashes and trying to squeeze some more poker videos in (the poker maths ones have been a tough chore). It's pretty cold here and the pump that powers the underfloor heating has packed up so have been spending most of time in sitting room playing by firelight. My sister passed her Chartered Surveying exams so props to her!

Alan's back, back again!

I've spent 30 minutes on the phone to my pals at Halifax today, they were vigilant enough to block my card for a suspicious transaction to pokerstars.fr, not that suspicious in the context that I've use this card to finance casino withdrawals for playing 2/5. I'm glad they've got my back though...

On a brighter note, Alan Partridge is back! He's descended to new lows his "banter" is more cringe-worthy than ever, his clothes even more dated and his hair is well...you have to see it! Alan certainly hasn't become any more politically correct during his hiatus, he manages to crass remarks about the Jonestown massacre and paedophilia before segueing (first time ever used that word) into more inane nonsense. Sadly we don't actually get to see Anthea "The Body" Turner, although on a side note (segue number two) I do have her autograph as she stayed at my Aunt's B&B in the Spring of 1994.

I finished off "Enemy number one" I did enjoy it, although it was a little heavy on racing info for someone with more of a general gambling background. Veitch seemed to have been spurned into action after a local mobster tried to extort money from him and he decided to go to the police, resulting in years spent in hiding, looking over his shoulder whilst bashing the bookies. It was interesting that a great deal of effort went into him actually being able to get action on the races, as money associated with him was blacklisted by bookies, much more of an issue than I imagined it would be. Will move onto Ather's "Gambling: A Story of Triumph and Disaster" now.

More Apprentice Spoilers

So it seems Lord Sugar reads my blog and actually made a decent decision for once, Paloma had to go. Watching "You're Fired" on BBC2 the past few weeks has been fairly interesting, both Melissa and Paloma came across really rather well, I presume this is because they can conceal their true nature in a 30 minute programme, rather than the original editing of the Apprentice was not as sympathetic as it could have been etc. Perhaps, these high powered business people can not actually cope under pressure as well as they think , it's all very well spouting business jargon until you're blue in the face, however, if you can't behave to even the low standard required to dupe the dopey Alan, perhaps you don't deserve the role.

One of the good new additions has been Dara O'Brien hosting "You're fired". He does a really good job and seems to allow the contestants to project themselves in a good light as well as leading the panellists, all making for an excellent show. I actually picked up his book at Smiths (paying is so overrated) alas, I have yet to start it. I've only just finished Steven Levitt's "SuperFreakonomics", a rather accessible guide to avant-garde analysis on topics such as global warming, prostitution and suicide bombers.

Yet another Amazon package arrived today, I had to replace my second Logitech mouse in under a year after yet again the usb receiver snapped inside my laptop. James recommended I went for a much simpler affair, I'm now rocking an old School Microsoft button clicking enabler. I also ordered some more books (paid for and all) including Mike Atherton's "Gambling: A Story of Triumph & Disaster". I read his autobiography "Opening Up" whilst at school, and seem to remember it was pretty good, so have high hopes of this. Also, added another Derren Brown book to my collection as well as "Enemy Number One". I'm sure he'll be a distant second by the time James decides he'll spend a week or two knocking up a comprehensive sports betting model in between building computers and getting on it.