Rinse and Repeat
Life would be so much simpler if I didn't have to make the same mistake twice in order to learn a lesson. Basically same as yesterday. I played 4 hands at $1/2 NL when I got home from work, won $200 and quit while I was up. I switched the poker off and played some games for a change. Then yet again can't sleep, buy into a $.50/1 game, don't adjust to the table and lose half the winnings in 30 minutes. Dont they say Insanity is repeating the same mistakes and expecting different results ? Something like that anyway. Lets pray this one sinks in quick.
Good and Bad
Good News : Made $300 in two hours at $1/2 NL Bad News : Lost $120 when I couldn't sleep... again. I am an idiot. It takes my top game to make money at $1/2 NL so from now on when I can't sleep I'll only play penny poker. Learning from my mistakes.... slowly.
Happy Chrimbo
Merry Christmas, I hope you and your family had the very best of times I had a great time with family and friends and then I played a bit of poker too. The poker has been interesting this last week, I treated myself to a buyin to the $500 entry $100,000 added tourney on Christmas night and lasted 3 hours, got all my money in with the best of it on a ragged flop only to be turned over by an Ace and crippled. I also had KK fall to 77 on Boxing Day whilst at Hook's place which cost me $200 at a $1/$2 table. I play bad when other people can see my cards. Last night I had a guy allin with two pair (AJ) on an AJK10 board when I held QQ and he rivered a full house - another $100. So good poker is still being played in this corner of the world but "variance" combined with negative expectation treats like that $500 buyin have contributed to what has been a $1,000 downswing over the christmas period, despite making 3 FT's in $20 180's and 3 more ITM's. Oh and I was talked into playing yosoyveneno heads up, in which I lost the first match of a three match series, I have no chance, heads up is my weakest spot and her strongest. Not that it's going to break the bank, but a bit of prudence wouldn't go amiss. This time of year always makes you think about what your big plans are, what you've accomplished etc and I had an interesting conversation on boxing day about challenges and goal setting. Its amazing how people can relate to a goal like "I want to go on Safari" but they can't fathom "I want to play better poker". Most people will never understand that statement, hell even some online poker players won't understand it. So as of now, I'm officially giving up on those who do not understand. I shall no longer have conversations about luck vs math. Understanding takes time, and I do not have the time to teach you how to understand my life and the fact that poker is part of it. If you do not like it, the door is over there. Goal for 2006 ? How about to be in the top 50 for tournament leader board points in any one month on Stars. I like that for a starter, it's better than just "make good decisions", but it should follow that making good decisions will help reach that goal. Another goal for me could be to make $60k in the year. I don't think it's reasonable to set a money amount as a goal like that, but for the sake of having a target, I'll put it out there as its the marker which would green light getting out of corporate hell and living as a poker player for a year. Well I think I'll leave it at that for now, if I don't see you before, Happy New Year and I hope 2006 brings you luck and joy.
Hi there, been a few days hasn't it ? Hope you've been running hot. Me, I'm doing ok, after playing good poker last week I let complacency sneak in on Monday night and played like a donkey, I felt like crap too and had a really bad cough set in (note to self : give up smoking) That kept me awake all night Monday and the last time I looked at the clock it was 4am, so I went off to the docs on Wednesday morning and got prescribed antibiotics to kill a chest infection. I'm on holiday for the next few days for christmas so at least for once being ill wont interfere with work much. I was back to playing pretty good yesterday, I won a seat in the EPT qualifier on Saturday, for a 30FPP investment, needed top 3 out of 334 for a seat and managed it. I had a bad moment against a loose crazy stack in a rebuy, allin with two pair on the flop he turned trips to bust me with a crap hand, i guess he though my reraise and then allin was a double bluff. Made one more final table in a 180 yesterday also, and took 5th after I pushed AQo on the button only to run into KK from the SB. Good game though. B-roll took a small dip and then today is back at it's equal highest level. Tonight I think my friends and I are all off to see Kong, will be good to see everyone together before christmas. Good times.
I found my Mojo
 12 December 2005 - 18 December 2005The most successful week of my poker life It all started with last weekends $700 win for second in a 180, then on Tuesday I hit 3rd out of 824 for a $3,293 payout and finally last night I had the icing on the cake, with a $1,080 1st place in another 180. I owe a massive luckbox Thank You to this little railbird who brought me awesome suckout skills to bust everyone at the final table. Yeah I got lucky, very lucky, better lucky than good though right ? 7 days, 2500% increase in bankroll. Now the challenge will be to hold onto it ! I believe I've got that covered, seeing as I have the good fortune of past mistakes to guide me through managing this. This is a pic of the final hand, allin preflop after the villain pushed for like the 7th time in a row, anyone who knows me will know I aint laying the down the Jack of Hearts. Ever. That card's got style. It's the best card in the deck, and there's no way I'm folding it this late in a tourney. Tonight I'll look at the hand history and see if there's any major questions in there. The only thing I know for certain is that it will be hard to top a week a like this. ******* Oh ya, the Ad Jh hand from the Satellite in the last post - well I had the Jh didn't I ? I couldn't lay him down, even though I probably should have. Villain flipped over 44. I flopped a Jack and turned another to seal the deal.
Friday Fun
It was another good night at the tables, I skipped the offer of beers after work to come home and play again, I seem to be running good at the moment so I'll ride this wave as much as I can. Things were pretty standard, except for one tricky hand, which we'll get to at the end. To begin I joined the $3 rebuy satellite to the 500k GTD and the 180 $20 game that was about to start at 7pm. I ran hot and cold, the rebuy had hot cards that helped get me to T11,190 with blinds at $75/150 when we hit the first break, in 24th place out of the 139 who stayed in. But the deck was ice cold during the 180's first 60 minutes, I was down to T1090 in that with blinds about to go up to 100/200. When we hit that first break at 8pm, I joined the SNG satellite on betfair for this evenings £10k GTD, at least I thought I did. 3 Hands in I realised it was actually a satellite for another satellite tomorrow. When I realised that I'd registered in the wrong sat I didn't put as much concentration into it and focussed on the MTT's instead, busting an early 7th. The cards started coming in the 180 and the $3 sat after that break, and I built a decent stack in each, making the final table of the 180, on the third hand I got JJ on the button, UTG+1 raised, I pushed and he called with A10 off. The flop was 10 high, and when an Ace spiked the turn I was out with $61.20 for my efforts. After finishing that I joined another 180, it didn't go as well though and my QQ allin was busted by AK, I thought they were gonna hold but another ace on the river washed me away in 100th place. Bubble time was getting close in the $3 rebuy now, 34 of us were left and 9 would get seats in the 500k. Everyone pretty much realised that the blinds were not hurting most of us, so the big stacks clammed up while waiting for the short stacks to bust. Soon we were down to 13 when I decided to call a shorter stacks allin with my pocket 6's, he turned over pocket 8's which held up and I'd lost 1/3 of my stack. By the time we got to 10 I was constantly switching places in chip count between last and second-to-last. It didn't look good, 2 of us were on around 50k and everyone else had at least 100k, they were just waiting for one of us to bust. So here it is, the tricky hand. There are 10 people left, you've invested over 3 hours and a total of $15 in the tourney, 10th will get $6 back, 1st-9th a seat in the 500k. You're in the big blind and get dealt Jh Ad. *********** # 312 ************** PokerStars Game #3351212803: Tournament #16572927, Hold'em No Limit - Level XVI (4000/8000) - 2005/12/16 - 18:17:24 (ET) Table '16572927 18' Seat #4 is the button Seat 2: rljay (55990 in chips) Seat 4: Snixen (80855 in chips) Seat 5: toto295 (127224 in chips) Seat 8: TanOrpheus (72742 in chips) Seat 9: ollynorth (109680 in chips) rljay: posts the ante 400 Snixen: posts the ante 400 toto295: posts the ante 400 TanOrpheus: posts the ante 400 ollynorth: posts the ante 400 toto295: posts small blind 4000 TanOrpheus: posts big blind 8000 *** HOLE CARDS *** Dealt to TanOrpheus [Jh Ad] ollynorth: folds rljay: raises 47590 to 55590 and is all-in Snixen: folds toto295: folds TanOrpheus: ?? I needed an eternity to decide what to do, I needed Harrington on Hold'em Vol 2 ! What would Dan do ? What would you do ? I'll post what I decided and the results tomorrow. ******* I played one more tourney after this, a 30FPP sat to sat for the EPT in Paris, but was knocked out 48/540, which was still pretty good, but not deep enough to win a seat.
Four more MTT's
Four MTT's last night, 3 of them simultaneously, which in hindsight is too many running at the same time. Here's the summary anyway - Stars - $20 180 - 18th $43.20 $3 rebuy sat - 90/408 (21 paid) $10 rebuy - 115/820 (81 paid) Betfair - £10 21/441 £35.28 Average finish - top 13% Seeing consistent deep finishes like that over the last, I dunno must be about 6-7 weeks now, has been more satisfying than the one big finish the other night. Whilst 2004 may have been the year where I learnt the most about this game, 2005 has really been the year where I felt I started to understand it, and got a lot of experience in the application of that info 'on the felt' so to speak. While I think of it a quick thank you to Iggy for linking me up and being the first person to quote me on the internet ! Thanks again dude. Back to the tourneys. The $20 180 was relatively straight forward, I think I only played about 6 hands before we were on the bubble, and they were AA,KK or AK. I then ended up as one of the short stacks and the bubble lasted for a fairly long time. I played it too tight to be honest, but it was still nice to have another ITM finish. In the $10 rebuy I didn't make huge gains or anything during the crazy rebuy hour and was well below average when the first freeze out hour started, but blinds were still very low in relation to what chips I did have, so I just bided my time until the good cards came and held up. Eventually I was short stacked near the bubble again, on the bottom rung and with blinds at 1k/2k 100 ante I pushed my last 12k from MP with Kd9d, got called by one of the big stacks who had 55. First card off was a 5 followed by K and A, i got no more help and busted out. Finally the Betfair tourney was just insane. With 1500 starting chips the general rule of thumb for MTT's is that half the field will drop in the first hour. Against a field of good players, or with a larger starting chip count it will be less. This tourney ? With 441 starters, at the break we had only 134 left ! 70% of the field gone - outta there - busted. The highest the blinds got to in that hour was 100/200. These tournaments might start getting some more of my attention again soon, with so many playing that badly they are a nice soft option. Tomorrow I've got an Empire $10k freeroll to try and win, so tonight I'll be back out there in the trenches getting some practice in. Gimme a shout if you wanna say hi, I'm tanorpheus on the yahoo thingy. 'Till next time, Good luck on the tables.
Coffee
Today's one of those days, I caught up on all that missed sleep and woke up feeling great. I drove into work happy, listening to the uk's number one breakfast show Chris Moyles on Radio1, and bought my usual cappuccino on the way into work. That's when it started. I swear this office must be cursed. Not 10 paces in the front door, I begin making my way up the stairs to the second floor, I see a colleage a few steps above "Good Morning" I say, smiling. "Hi Rich" she says. In that moment the unidentified force of evil in this building somehow breaks the laws of physics and manipulates the shape of the next step up, the step may in fact have disappeared from the universe for a full 5 seconds, since as I went to stand on it my foot completely missed it, causing me to stumble, coffee in hand. The coffee's ok I thought, its in a starbucks-like polystyrene cup with a plastic lid and one of those tiny holes in it so you can suck 1ml of coffee out per sip. I made a grab for the banister with my free hand - that disappeared too (clever ! the evil force had thought ahead!). My cat-like relexes (!) can cope with this however, and I recover to get a hand on the third step up just in time to prevent my face hitting it. As usual I feel myself warming up as I get embarrased, so to try and casually make up for looking like a retard I smile and say "That's a perfect start to a perfect day" The girl is laughing so much she can barely muster a response. I feel something wet on my leg, a blob of cappuccino froth and coffee has landed on my knee, and another on my thigh. I stare at the cup, amazed & confused at how much liquid has made it out of such a tiny hole. I need to get cleaned up so I walk into the restrooms and grab some paper towels, dry my leg, and figure it doesn't look too noticable. I can now hear two (possibly more? (4)) girls laughing in the corridor, instead of just one. Take a deep breath, carry on, it's gonna be an ok day, check yourself in the mirror - oh - wha_? - what the ? Looking back at me is me, with one new addition, I have a splat of cappuccino froth the size of a cricket ball across the right side of my forehead, in the approximate shape of Australia. I look like a right tool. No wonder she was pissing herself laughing. There's no coming back from this one, every time she sees me for the rest of our lives I will be "that tool with Australia on his head".... strike another future Mrs off the 'potentials' list. -- I'll leave you with this courtesy of Hooks, here's an insight into how ManU encourage team spirit... 
Rebuy Recap
 Playing last night so late has left me totally exhausted today, so I figured tonight I'll just play one $20 180 whilst going over the hand history of the rebuy tourney to see if there's anything interesting enough to write about here. This is my largest cash in a single tournament since I started playing poker, so I am ecstatic about that. Looking at my account balance on Stars now gives me a hard-on, which I'm not gonna apologise for, and my poker-ego is large and uncontrollable, but that will be short lived, I promise. Tourney update - I'm out in 21st after my 77 in the BB was beaten by the button's 99, very close to the money, but no cigar. I was going to write about the tourney and hand histories and everything tonight but I'm too tired to write anything good, so I'll do it when I'm refreshed and have more time to do a proper job. GL at the tables to you, I'm off to bed.
Last night (short version)
Quick post, I'm totally fucked today having finished a tourney at 4am and getting up at 8am for work. It was worth it though - PokerStars Tournament #16317517, No Limit Hold'em Rebuy Buy-In: $10.00/$1.00 824 players Total Prize Pool: $36590.00 Tournament started - 2005/12/13 - 16:45:00 (ET) Dear TanOrpheus, You finished the tournament in 3rd place. A $3,293.11 award has been credited to your Real Money account. You earned 333.24 tournament leader points in this tournament. I finished 11th in another 180 SNG too, for $43, hey every $ counts. Say it with me now ! "December is lucky!"
t'internet is empty
I've run out of blogger material to read workplace productivity has sky rocketed the blogosphere has gone silent over the last 4 days Fortunately they'll all be back shortly with plenty of stories from vegas to retell and we can get back into the daily routine. Come on people, I feed off your thoughts, its the only thing keeping me sane ! For anyone who was interested in the A3 off hand below, you can read my FTR post with others thoughts on it here
Manic Mondays
After a torrid time at work with intranet addresses "disappearing" (someone changed the wrong DNS in the wrong place at the wrong time) staff conflicts (so and so thinks so and so's been taking more than their holiday entitlement) and STP fx and tx servers 'freezing' (still havent solved that one) I bailed from work as soon as I could and came home to try and relax. So obviously i wasn't going to play poker because I was far to tired.... Ya, well I could manage 30 minutes couldn't I ? onto ladbrokes I went at a .25/.50 NL table, and an hour later having started with $50 left the table with $130. I was easily convinced by this that I was not too tired to play poker. $3 R&A satellite to 500k - 381 entered, I finished 110th $20 180 entrant SNG - I overplayed JJ after being bluffed off the previous hand, i was 5th with 28 left, and pushed my SB stack into the button raiser's KK - silly - i should have thought about the hand more and I could have got away from it if i just reraised to find out where i stood. $20 R&A with 819 entrants - I finished 56th for $92.25, everything was going fine until we passed the bubble, soon after that i went mad on one hand due to some unforeseen force of evil. I ran a terrible bluff on every street of a really scary board and donked off more than half my chips. It was always going to be a struggle from then on and when my AK couldn't hold up against the big blinds pockets 2's I was dumped out with only a "gg" to console me. Good fun and good poker. I really enjoyed playing tonight :)
The Main Event
The 500K GTD was no easy ride, and yes, as expected I busted around 1200th out of 3,300. I basically didnt hit any big hands, stole enough pots to stay ahead and in the game and then busted on the following hand - I'm interested to see if other people would play this or not... With T4050 and blinds at 200/400 in the BB you are dealt Ac3s, its folded around to the button, who has been stealing in LP just to stay alive, he moves allin for 2,400 more, its folded to you. Give it up or try and take him out ? There is a very loose range of hands he can be pushing here, given previous behaviour. Calling and losing will put me in push/fold territory but one more raise in blinds and antes and I'm there anyway. Calling and winning will give me a large enough stack at the table to operate and get some respect. These kind of plays have made the most difference to my tournament game lately, which is why I'm so interested in them. I called, fairly quickly, he turned over Kh4c and it was game on Flop Ad 6s 2d Turn Ks !! I can feel it slipping away... River Kc OUCH ! Yeah I know this looks like a bad beat hand history, but thats not what I want to focus on, its the preflop decision I'm interested in, not the end result - should you or shouldn't you call? Leave a comment and let me know what you think !
Heat 1
As warm up for tonights 500k on Stars i entered one of the $20 180 man SNG's again. This time I did something right and finished 2nd ! Gutted i didnt win, but $720 for four hours work is a nice return and I played half decent. In the final hand I was allin on a 9d 10d Jc flop with Ah Js I just had to avoid a diamond, but one came on the turn and I was beaten by the flush. The night before last I played on ladbrokes for a little while with LittleAcornMan, I tried a Hammer move on him but he had me well beat and fortunately reraised me on the turn to let me know he wasnt folding ! It was good fun to play with another blogger again on a table full of donks. He finished way up with some good play, I just stayed even for night but was wasted by then and passed out after an hour or so. Go check out his blog to see how well he did !
The warm up
It's funny how after taking a break of even just 2 or 3 days, you have to ease yourself back into the mindset of sitting at a table and concentrating on all the right things again. At least I do. Last week I was playing 4-5 hours without much of a break and not finding it a struggle to focus at all. Last night I was playing for just an hour & a half before I felt my mind starting to wander. I did not, however, begin to play badly after this 90 minutes. I just got up from the cash table I was at, sat out from the tourney I was in, had a smoke and then got back to it after reminding myself that this is fun and paying attention will make it more fun. So anyway my night was fairly straightforward, or straightflush-ard if you like, yup that's right, for the first time in 2 years I flopped a straight flush. I've had one or two before but not flopped, and never on a cash table. As I triple checked the cards to make sure I wasn't seeing things, the big question was how am i gonna get paid off. Fortunately the loose-aggressive guy sat on my right was going to help with that. > Dealing Hole Cards > Dealt to TanOrpheus (JC QC) > mickster called for $0.50 > TanOrpheus called for $0.50 > rudyitalia called for $0.50 > Cooperman10 folded > MrBaldi folded > Bjornlun called for $0.50 > danielmofo called for $0.50 > TheLoser folded > The_coean called for $0.25 > jinxsphinx checked > Dealing the Flop(8C 10C 9C) > The_coean checked > jinxsphinx folded > mickster bet for $2 > TanOrpheus called for $2 > rudyitalia folded > Bjornlun called for $2 > danielmofo folded > The_coean folded > Dealing the turn(5D) > mickster bet for $7 > TanOrpheus called for $7 > Bjornlun folded > Dealing the river(JH) > mickster checked > TanOrpheus bet for $12 > mickster called for $12 > mickster mucked > TanOrpheus wins $45.15 with a Straight Flush, Queen high, Clubs After a few more good hands at that table it became clear that everyone was tightening up to my preflop raises, and I was running 3 other tournament games, so I got up and left. I was playing a freeroll and a $20 tourney on ladbrokes also, busted early in the freeroll and 86/267 in the $20 game. While all that was going on I was yet again playing the $3 rebuy qualifier to the PokerStars 500K GTD on Sunday. I've been playing these a lot the last few weeks and they've usually been painful, this one was different though - this time I made it ! So while I may not be in Vegas, at least I am in the 500K GTD. Who knows, if the cards are kind it could be a very very good christmas ! I told you December was lucky.
Weekend
Stayed in on Friday and as you may have seen below played ok, got sucked out on, went on tilt, got too tired & drunk to tilt anymore and played well enough to make a final table. However staying up till 4am to see my QQ beaten by 88 was, in hindsight -EV. I was shattered on Saturday, so instead of playing I called Hooks & Twister to see what they were up to Hooks - Hello Me - Hi mate, what you guys up to today Hooks - My face hurts and I'm killing Space Orcs but you can come round as long as I don't have to do anything Me - Sound, see you in 10 When I got round there I discovered 2 friends who had found the worst hangover's in a decade, and had lost 1 mobile phone, 1 bottle of tequila, and about 3 hours of the night before. It was good entertainment and they did perk up a bit by the time it reached evening. Then, realising I'd qualified for a 9:30pm tourney on betfair, geek-panic began. Hook's wireless network had decided to flip out and let me connect my laptop but only at 1mpbs. Which is NOT fast enough to load up google let alone play poker. To make matters worse Twister forced us to watch Harry Potter and the Chambermaids, which delayed our fixing efforts by an hour. We ordered a chinese, spent half an hour fixing the network (reinstalled drivers, still kept dropping to 1, but generally maintained 11mpbs), and were ready to go. Wait. No smokes ! Damnit. I ran out to get some smokes, got back at 9:24pm. By which time TG & LEM had arrived, and logged into a SNG on my account ! No worries though, TG took that one down easy and profited me £9. The chinese arrived, the MTT started, we watched Catwoman on Sky Movies. Maybe it's something to do with Halle Berry in that cat-suit but I don't remember much of the MTT... All I know is we switched over to Match of the Day at 10.40 and I was still in the tourney (Soccer note to AlCantHang - Chelsea were lucky 'Boro should have won) I think I lasted until the second break, didn't push a gutshot that I should have taken my chances with, was shortstacked and then lost a race. After that we played PES on the xbox for a while and I clean-sweeped the room, although apparently it doesn't count because of hangovers and Hooks being too scared to play. When it was time for the runner's up game (a lacklustre 0-0 between LEM & Twister) I looked back at my laptop - TG was playing another game on my account ! This one was a £20+2 6-pack and we finished second after being chip leader heads up, having the game won and the other guy hitting runner-runner trip 5's to make him chip leader, we went card dead and that was that. Sunday was a family lunch day and I took a break from poker, it was nice to have a day off for a change. I should have changed my slow leaking car tyre that's now half flat, but was too lazy. Now I have to hope it lasts another week. Tonight I think I'm going round Jay's cause I haven't seen him in weeks and we need to catch up. He's got his Mac wireless sorted now anyway, so I'll probably be online while I'm there, but I'll not be sitting at the tables, the first couple of days this week are refresher time. P.S. Did I mention I wish I was going to Vegas !
Final Table
Ignore the post below, its not worth your time reading, very bad form by me, posting bad beats. I persisted with the poker and am now sat at the final table of a 180 sng :) everything is right with the world again ! I finished 7th - my QQ was beaten by 88 ! allin preflop the flop looked safe but the turn brought an 8 and it was all over. It's so unfair ! LOL
Badly Beaten
Poker Stars decided to f**k me up the ass tonight. By the time the blogger tourney started I was already on virtual tilt. You'll probably want to skip next bit.. **Bad Beat Bitching Begins** $20+2 180 Game 1 Blinds 50/100 I'm dealt Ac Qc in the BB, MP and Button limp SB completes and I check (perhaps the mistake but the idea was to conceal my hand if I hit the flop) Flop is 4h Qd 6s, perfect I think. SB checks, I check, MP limper checks, Laggy player on the button bets 500 (just what i wanted) SB folds and I raise to 1200, MP limper folds and the button pushes, I call and he shows Qs Js. Turn - Jc giving him 2 pair River- 2s Busted $20+2 180 Game 2 Blinds 25/50 I'm dealt KcQc in MP and raise 150 to make it 200 to go, only the BB calls. Flop comes 9c Td Qs. BB checks and I bet out 300, BB calls. Turn is the 6h BB checks again I go allin for 810 BB thinks for a while and then calls, for almost all his chips and shows Ac Ts (?!) River is the Ah, giving him 2 pair Busted Most embarrasing one - I was in FFS mode now Blinds 10/20 Just 8 hands in to the blogger tourney which i was really looking forward to I get KK in the SB. UTG+1 limps in, Button calls, I raise to 100, BB calls everyone else folds. Flop is 9d Js 9s I bet 150, BB raises 310 more (min raises are like a red rag to a bull for me) I go allin BB insta-calls with Ts 9h. I have no idea why torgeauxSA called the raise with 9 10. It might have been cause I got pushed off a hand I should have called and won 2 hands earlier, I'm sure netdonkey missed his flush draw but I still folded to his river beat... weak ! *** Bad Beat Bitching Ends *** Ok so the last one wasnt a bad beat, i was an idiot for pushing, but anyways I was first out of the blogger tourney ! Infamy gained on the first night that i got to talk to lots of bloggers in yahoo chat. Oh well. Me's a donkey sometimes. I'm jumping into one last $20+2 before i go to bed seeing as all the bloggers are up and it makes me feel cool to chat to them on IM
Ramblin'
This post might ramble on a bit, as it includes several hours worth of friday-morning-cant-wait-for-the-weekend thoughts. Lunch today is gonna be a pain in the ass. I've got to go and pay my tax bill. It's a huge kick in the junk, made even less palatable by the dumb politicians in this tiny island who can't seem to cut state spending and every year in the summer (when the bills are sent out) tell us we're facing something like a £3M deficit and then by December tell us we've got a £2M surplus after they counted up the change that fell down the back of the sofa. Still one has to pay, even in a "tax-haven" island like Jersey, so I'll swallow my medicine, and hope against hope that someone spends it wisely next year. Please, PLEASE no more cows -  toads  or "Internationally reknowned" steam clocks  £350,000 of taxpayers' money was spent on this clock. I would however support any states member who decides to use my tax money to drive forward any feasibility studies, marketing campaigns or education of fellow states members with regard to a change in the gambling law of the island, which would allow a casino to be built, generating huge tax revenue and actually doing something to help the dying tourism industry here! Ok, I'll get off my soapbox now. I read my stars today (yeh I read my stars, what of it?) and here they are - "I've probably been waxing philosophical lately on the theme of, 'there's no substitute for experience,' but if not, please let me have a go at it today. There is indeed no substitute at all. The kind of experience that will be the most profitable for you is any form that involves co-operation. For the foreseeable future, the most productive game of your life will involve anything that requires you to maintain and develop your individual identity within the context of a group dynamic. No matter how this has gone for you in the past, you're in for a true adventure as you embark on this process now, and without a doubt, it will soon be calling you." Nice ! That either means pushing myself out into blogger community is going to be a wonderful thing, or (less exciting version) the recent developments in my workplace - we bought another company, expanding just about all areas of our operations, including number of staff by at least 25% - are going to create some wonderful new opportunities. Or its something I haven't thought of yet. Or its all crap anyway, but at least it makes me smile. Lets hope its the blogger-poker-first british wsop winner thing anyway. Tonight I'm going to try and find some more bloggers to add to my yahoo IM list, and hopefully stay awake long enough to play in the WWdN tournament, which starts at midnight uk time, by which time I may be wasted, if I'm lucky. While I'm playing in that I'll be listening to Nerina Pallot, If you liked Sheryl Crow or Tori Amos its similar but fresher work, great lyrics and amazing musical talent. I'll also be listening to KT Tunstall and of course the very reliable Snow Patrol. If you're in the US and dunno what to listen to tonight, I suggest you hit Radio 1's website and go to the listen again section, Chris Moyles' and his breakfast show is the saviour of British radio in the 21st Century, and Scott Mills' take-away calls are always worth listening to. Plus you get to widen your horizons, and learn british humour ready for next time you bump into one of us at a blogger gathering ! --- goes to lunch --- --- queues for 25 minutes at tax office --- --- pays bill --- f**k that hurts my bankroll (my lifetime bankroll not my poker one) It's cold and windy out there too, we've got some freak southerly 70mph winds this week, meanwhile homegame regular Dan is in Australia with his girlfriend enjoying 26C sunshine on the beach. B***ard. Dan, if you're reading, hope you're having the holiday of a lifetime and try not to get eaten by any sharks, k. I finished reading "Shut Up and Deal" by Jessie May this week (he's the commentator on a lot of the poker channel shows over here with a way with words) it's a great book, it makes a refreshing change from all the strategy books I've read and it's full of stories that will make you laugh and keep turning the pages. His way of writing is just like the way he commentates, all flowing and lively yet somehow still coherent and once you start it you won't want it to stop. I highly recommend it if you like to read good poker stories, and you'll be nodding your head in sympathy at the "gotta get even, gotta get even, gotta get even" moments. That's all for now, time for you, and me to do some real work !
Lucky December
Here we are then, last month of the year, last chance to push up those poker earnings for 2005. December '04 was fantastic, I took a mates £20 that i owed him and in a week turned it into £800 and payed for his and my flights to America in May. When I get round to it I'll type up some stories from that road trip, for now you'll just have to trust me it was one of the most memorable holidays of my life. Tonight when I got home I downloaded yahoo messenger and started going about adding some bloggers that I read to it. If you feel like adding me and giving me a shout its 'tanorpheus' on there - that's also my name on most of the poker sites I pay on. There's a few new links up on the top left so check them out too. Poker tonight ? Yeah I played a little, i joined the $3 rebuy satellite to sundays 500k GTD, I made it to 70th or something like that but wasn't really able to focus and when i did bust it was my AK that ran into AA, so I wasn't playing too bad. Played in 2 x 180 SNG's and busted around 30th in both, AK couldn't beat QQ on the first one and QQ couldn't beat AK in the second ! Wrong side of the same coin flip both times doh ! Then I figured its a little while since I played on Betfair and when I last was there I was getting frustrated at the £5 SNG's, so with £30 in my account I just thought what the hell and joined a £20 SNG. (That's terrible b-roll management by the way and I wouldn't have done it if I hadn't just been paid and planned to reload anyway) Well, I got lucky and won it. I was down to 8 BB's with 6 left and everyone under blind pressure and pushed 77, the BB called with TT and I hit that 3rd lucky 7 on the river. There was the usual "this sites a joke" comment, players have such short memories, we've all been on the wrong side of those beats - better get used to it or poker's gonna kill ya! After my miracle suckout I was flanked by 2 short stacks, the one on my right pushed, I called with A2o, the one on my left pushed over the top so I called that too, I was up against K9o and QQ. The flop brought and ace and we were in the money. After the final short stack busted, cant remember how, we were heads up and dead even in chips. He was weak, allowing me to see any flop I wanted and check-folding to any bet. I accidentally clicked allin after he'd raised on one flop, when I meant to just switch windows - that turned the tide though, I had a 2-1 lead and pushed 7-10 on a 7 high flop which held up against his K-10. So GG me ! £100 win for 1st, or £78 profit :) Did I mention December was lucky ? I'll leave you with this Hangover Guide for all you bloggers who are going to need it in Vegas !
Missing Out(s)
Jeezers. Reading all the long-time US bloggers posts about hooking up in vegas is strange ! Everytime I read about "10 days","Storming the Castle","Strip Clubs" and "The Hammer" I feel a part of what you're all feeling. A small shot of adrenaline is released into my veins and then rapidly dissipates, invariably resulting in me hitting expedia or virgin atlantic's website and checking how much that trans-atlantic flight is again. Unless I win the $500K gtd this weekend there's no way I'll be in Vegas this side of 2006, so there's no way I'll be in Vegas this side of 2006. May next year is the closest I'll get a chance to go back to the city of sin, but back I shall go, eventually. Not that I'd be comfortable if I was going anyway ! I'm terrible in large group situations, tragically shy and introverted compared to some people I know. I'm sure a few SoCo's could soon bring me out of my shell though. Not that many people going would know who I was anyway ! Maybe next time they have a WPBT gathering I can go incognito, secretly armed with hand histories and web page psychology that would give me the edge to bust The Hammer veterans !! Well I'll go back to my desk now and daydreaming of the day I can join you and meet the folks who I already feel I know, even though it's only through reading your bits and bytes when I should have been earning a crust. Have a great WPBT Winter Classic all.
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