Mellow Monday

Very little in the way of exciting tournament poker this week. I've been playing some cash games again, mainly due to a lack of ability to concentrate for more than an hour at a time. I've had some strange sleep patterns and dull headaches this week so that's probably something to do with it. I'm growing a beard for a while too, the itchyness of which is clearly disturbing when one is in dreamland. Cash game hands just aren't that exciting to talk about are they ? Whatever hand I hit yesterday there's 20,000 more in the next year or two which will cancel out whichever piece of luck hit me, good or bad. It's one long game and odds will play out over time. NL Tournaments are a different matter, one time shots at beating the competition using every weapon in your arsenal. Hopefully I'll be more in the mood to focus for a few hours at a time this week and get some more tourney time in.
Highlights from the cash game included flopping a straight flush on Thursday with As10s and getting paid off by both a weaker flush and a chap who made a full house on the river. Since then I've had a few beats and finished the week even. As the saying goes,
"If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;" - Rudyard Kipling
Though for poker it should probably be
"If you can meet with great runs of luck and bad beats
And treat those two impostors just the same;"
That's possibly one of the great truth's which takes the longest time to accept in poker. For every bad beat you bust out on, you will have done the same to other people. It happens, it’s part of the game, and whinging and moaning about it isn't going to change the way the cards fell, or help you in the future. Just get back on your feet, check that there isn't a better way to have played the hand, and move on to the next one.

In other non-pokery news, this weekend was the start of the 'proper' football season, and this year I have a fantasy football team entered on Premierleague.com. I made a flurry of changes at the last minute on Friday to my team sheet, because I'm an indecisive Libran, and it cost me some points yesterday because I didn't have Chelsea's Bridge in my team anymore. I've changed it back this morning so my team looks like this…

GK - Robinson (TOT)
DEF - Terry (CHE)
DEF - Ferdinand (MUN)
DEF - Bridge (CHE)
MID - Gerrard (LIV)
MID - Jenas (TOT)
MID - Lampard (CHE)
MID - Gonzalez (LIV)
STR - Berbatov (TOT)
STR - Van Persie (ARS)
STR - Ameobi (NEW)
Subs -
GK - Crossley (FUL)
DEF - Fortune (CHA)
DEF - Sommeil (SHU)
MID - Tonge (SHU)

My strategy is to make my subs the cheapest available players, as they will rarely play, and spend the rest of my allowed £50 million on the first 11. There are flaws in my strategy for sure, the biggest one being that all my eggs are in one basket, with the focus of my team being on Chelsea, Tottenham and Liverpool. If Ashley Cole goes to Chelsea as well then Bridge could be a dead-duck, but we'll just have to watch and see. I'm entered in two leagues, one with work and one with my mates, and the standings are as follows -

Work -
Entrants - 20
Top of the table - 71 points
Average (week) - 50.85 points
Average (overall) - 50.85 points
Relegation battlers (bottom) - 24 points
Me - 9th, Mid-table - 53 points

Mates -
Entrants - 10
Top of the table - 63 points
Average (week) - 45.90 points
Average (overall) - 45.90 points
Relegation battlers (bottom) - 34 points
Me - 3rd, Title-chasers - 53 points

Notables - Twister leads the charge with 63 points, largely thanks to Louis Saha and Darren Bent, but with Calamity James in goal I can't see it lasting for long. Hooks is helping prop-up the league one from bottom !

Unfortunately for you, I shall be sharing this largely boring statistical information week in, week out, so I'll make sure to drop it at the bottom of every post so you can ignore it at will. Any comments or advice from fantasy league veterans would be greatly appreciated of course.