Catching Up

I played some tournament poker on Friday for the first time in forever. I was pretty happy with my game in general and made the final table of the Full Tilt $20r, busting 7th after going card dead and shoving shit blind on blind. I was at the same table as Mash, a Polish guy that I knew from PXF. I ended up getting on Skype with him and a bunch of people from PXF, some of which I remember, some of which I don’t. I had a really good time – they are a fun bunch of guys and it kind of made me miss the PXF community a bit. I am hoping to play some more tournaments on Good Friday, so I hope to speak to them again soon.

We had quite a long discussion about a couple of guys they knew that persistently whined about running bad, despite turning in some fairly sick results in recent months.

Cliff notes for those complaining:
- You probably aren’t running that bad.
- Even if you are, everyone else also experiences periods of running bad, they just complain about it less than you.
- Nobody likes hearing about it all the time as it is really fucking boring, if I wanted to spend time with people that complain a lot I would seek the company of a woman, who are at least easier on the eye. I do consider occasional venting acceptable, however.
- To quote Todd Terry, one of my favourite 2+2ers: “A good example of how running well can warp your perspective is James Akenhead. I was catching up on the WSOPE broadcasts (which were some of the best televised tournament poker in the last five years) yesterday and saw James say, "I never suck out." How about the first hand of the final table of the $2K event at the Bellagio in June 2008 where you 3bet from the BT with 95o and then called my cold 4bet shove with KK from the blinds and won the hand?”

After a staggering fightback I am almost at even playing HU cash this month and have managed my target 10,000 hands for the month. I have a lesson with Aero on Wednesday, which seemed to do the trick last week.

West Ham have made a pretty good fist of ensuring they will get relegated. The last game of the season is the day after my wedding, so I’m going to have to miss it, but on the evidence of the Wolves and Stoke fixtures, we will be down by then anyway so it won’t matter. I’m too pissed off to go into what I think about Zola, the players, the Chairman etc. here right now, all that I will say is that some people that are earning big salaries need to take a long hard look at themselves and think about applying themselves properly for the remainder of the season.

Far be it from me to poke fun at a serious issue, but doesn’t the correspondent that wrote this article have to be working under a pseudonym?

Match Fixing

Following on from last week’s surprisingly upbeat entry, I promptly stacked of 6 BI at $100nl the following night to a pretty bad player that had a nasty habit of continually making the nuts and sucking out on the odd occasion that he got it in behind. I went through some of the hands with my coach – I thought a lot of the hands were “standard”, but I (unsurprisingly) made a good few mistakes too. I have clawed back some of the losses but might struggle to make 10k hands this month.

Elsewhere on the poker scene, its another week, another high profile MA/collusion scandal. The behaviour (and lying after being caught) from these people makes me puke, as does Full Tilt’s apparent inability/unwillingness to do anything about it.

West Ham lost 2-0 to Arsenal, despite playing against ten men for 45 minutes. We missed a penalty at 1-0 and hit the post, but didn’t do enough to win it. I passed up on a ticket as the result was an inevitability. I was pissed off with a couple of our players for diving (I’m looking at you Robert Kovac and Valon Behrami), although Aaron Ramsey must be happy that him breaking his leg wasn’t a complete waste since his manager’s comments afterwards appear to have allowed his players to claim free-kicks at will.

The weekend’s big game saw Manchester United beat Liverpool 2-1. The penalty was somewhat controversial as to me it looked outside the box, but I thought he was lucky to stay on the pitch for the challenge. Still, I had a few quid on the Mancs to win, so I shan’t complain, and it erased some of my losses from Cheltenham during the week.

Oh, and match fixing is alive and well in Italy.

With both Burnley and Hull losing on Saturday, West Ham somehow retain their position. We have a massive game against an improved Wolves side tomorrow, where nothing but a win will do. I can only see us getting a point at best, but Parker will be back. I was reasonably encouraged by Daprela’s performance at left back on Saturday, Herita Ilunga should take note.

I went to see Crazy Heart at the cinema yesterday. I quite enjoyed it, I really like Jeff Bridges, but I came away thinking that it was basically The Wrestler but about music. It is worth a watch though.

Good luck at the tables.

Priorities

Despite having played very few hands of late, I have managed to reduce almost all of the substantial losses I have had this month. This has proved a much needed boost to both morale and my bankroll. I have some coaching lined up for tomorrow night, so hopefully this will prove useful.

Some people are genuinely dedicated to poker. This came from the HU forum on 2+2 and is a cut and paste of some table chat:

retrovirus777: brb

retrovirus777: wife may be in labor no bs hang on

me: what?

me: really?

retrovirus777: &&%% man i got to take her to the hospital u gonna be on for awhile?

me: wow who cares just go

retrovirus777: ill be playin on my laptop

me: lol at the hospital?

retrovirus777: alright

retrovirus777: gg

retrovirus777: yea

retrovirus777: ill be waitin

me: gg, good luck at the hospital

retrovirus777: she could be in labor awhile lol

retrovirus777: thx c ya

This was almost as amusing as Urubu flipping for his entire roll on more than one occasion.

West Ham lost heavily at Chelsea on Saturday, despite a fine goal from Scott Parker. We were in the game for 65 minutes but I guess their quality/mega-gazillions told in the end. We travel to The Emirates on Saturday (Arsenal were pretty terrible on Saturday against Hull but may have Fabregas and Gallas back so I expect another thumping. As each game passes the points target to stay up seems to drop with Hull and Burnley failing to pick up points.

David Beckham pinged his Achilles at the weekend and looks set to miss the World Cup. It doesn’t really bother me, I wouldn’t have taken him anyway, but if it means I have to watch Foetus Walcott this Summer then I’ll be disappointed.

Good luck at the tables.

Thin Ice

Once again, I have continued to give some money back to the IPoker HU community this month, although I played quite a few hands yesterday and finished up, despite running into a lot of sets (or so it felt). I really need to try and get over the sense of entitlement to pots that Tommy Angelo talks about – it weighs on my mind and can’t be good for my game or for me generally.

I am looking to switch IPoker skin at the moment. There is a long thread on 2+2 at the moment about some allegedly shady goings on at Chili, and with my friend able to sort something out at William Hills (where I will feel that my money is way more secure), it seems silly not to change providing I can secure a decent rakeback deal.

Elsewhere on the poker scene, the high stakes games have been running and it appears that Isildur can’t kick his PLO addiction and is (again) heading for busto. Much more interestingly, some people thought they were entitled to the whole EPT Berlin prize pool, and they took hand grenades with them to make sure. Beats flipping it off with AK against a pair heads-up, I guess.
West Ham produced a real stinker of a performance at home to Bolton. I could go on all day about how bad we were, but I wouldn’t want to bore you. Supposed club captain, who fancies an extension to his £65k a week contract, needs to take a long hard look of himself after bottling marking Kevin Davies, passed him over to the inexperienced James Tomkins, who proceeded to get it handed to him. Davies, as always against us, was excellent, as was the Korean in midfield.

We conceded the first goal when Diamanti bottled out on a challenge and we went downhill from there – nobody looked up for the game on our side, which is incredible given the importance of the match to both sides. We hit the bar in injury time but deserved nothing from the game and a 2-1 defeat flattered us. The only plus point for the day was sitting near comedian, fat bloke and West Ham fan Phil Jupitus on the tube – and that is hardly a plus point.

Chelsea and Arsenal away are next for us, I can only hope Chelsea persist with Hilario in goal, and clone him and play him in all the outfield positions too. Both Hull and Burnley were handily beaten this weekend – I still think we’ll stay up, as I have said before, because everyone else is terrible. I can’t see the manager being here beyond the end of the season and it sounds like the owners are going to hack the squad up to reduce the wage bill – and if that is what is required, so be it. Perhaps football might return to some sort of sanity soon enough.

Good luck at the tables.

Cock

Last month was pretty terrible on the HU front, I finished down over $1k. In 800 hands yesterday I managed to stack off $330, despite playing alright overall. I’m on a bit of a downer about my game right now and am probably a little tilty, which I need to snap out of.

Her indoors is possibly out on Thursday so might play some donkaments to break up the routine. My horse is in a fair bit of make-up right now, he has gone close a few times without managing to get over the line for a big score. Hopefully he’ll run better, not for me (actually, fuck it, for me) but because he tends to take being in make up quite badly (and when you are staked you are in make up all the time unless you have just delivered a score) and he’s a good guy that deserves a break.

The Mancs won the Carling Cup this weekend. I’m not sure how Vidic managed to avoid a red card for an identical challenge to the one that the Chelsea right back went off for on Saturday. Despite hating all of the lame hype about Bridge and Terry, the second half was an absolute belter and his thrown the title race wide open. However, this was all topped buy Craig Bellamy’s post match interview, when he might as well have just called John Terry a cock. I was a big fan of Bellamy when he played for us – clearly the bloke has an attitude but he always gave 100% when he was on the pitch, not to mention being a very good player.

I backed Arsenal to win the league a couple of weeks back at 8/1, and that price is now into 3/1, which I am tempted to close out. Their win was marred by a horrible injury to Aaron Ramsey. I have seen the challenge and, whilst I think he went in hard, I think it was on the borderline of reckless, however the comments of Wenger were (unsurprisingly) over the top, which is remarkable given that the assault by Gallas against Bolton a couple of weeks before was something he was happy to gloss over. And let us not forget that it was Wenger that fielded a team including the two angels that were Keown and Vieira, plus numerous others in that side that knew how to put themselves about (including elbows Bergkamp).

West Ham play Bolton on Saturday. This is a big game for us – a win would give us a significant lift and probably leave us needing only two more wins and a couple of draws to guarantee safety, unless the bottom group of sides collectively pull their socks up over the remainder of the season, which looks unlikely. HMRC have understandably dragged Portsmouth back to the courts this week, but as time ticks by it appears more likely that they will survive the season.

In other news, a horrible dragon threatens Fantasyland.

Good luck at the tables.

Atrocity Exhibition

Poker still kind of sucks of late, I’m down nearly $1k for the month now (AIEV is less than half of that, not that it really matters). I’m not that unhappy with my play, I think I have probably improved in certain respects but probably need to be a little more aggressive at certain times against certain opponents, particularly on the turn. Still, nearly 14,000 hands played and enough rake back to cover a good part of my losses.

Hand of the week can be seen here, where my bluff turns out to be a value raise but I get stacked anyway when he tarps me with the OESD following the employment of the out of position flotation device in a four bet pot. I don’t love my play here but I thought the dynamic dictated it was a reasonable play.

I felt I played some of my best tournament poker for months on Monday. I went reasonably deep in one of the FTP $26 tourneys and then went absolutely ape shit when some cunt made the worst call of all time deep in the $162 on Party. He raises A3s UTG, I shove TT with 15bb from the big blind, he calls so quickly I was sure I was beat and he rivers a straight. I was fucking seething at the time, as you can imagine.

West Ham took a standard 3-0 beating at Man Utd on Tuesday, which was to be expected. If you want to read people masturbating over the Manc performance, it won’t be here, I suggest looking at the website of any of this country’s tabloid newspapers. We play Bolton at home next, who aren’t in good form, in another must win game.

Portsmouth appear to be aiming for administration, which looks like it will prevent HMRC getting their money and also allow them to fulfil their fixtures. Should this be the case, three wins and the odd point here or there looks like it will be enough to stay up, so fingers crossed.

Wedding preparations continue in earnest. We’re starting to get various things ticked off and invites went out the other day. It is still a royal pain in the arse, plus there are all sorts of additional costs (they aren’t so much additional, more that I didn’t think of them). Wedding rings, for example (the fact that I didn’t really think of them shows how little thought I give to almost everything).

The sale process of my employer is now underway. I still don’t know what my future is, although I’d still anticipate that I am likely to get the tin tack. The stag plan is coming together, we have a crew of about 25 people for the fact finding trip to Holland. Some of the lads have booked a business class flight on the way out as they reckon they can drink enough booze in the lounge before to make it cost effective.

Good luck at the tables.

Scrub That

I’m back on the canvas.



I dropped about 12 BI on Saturday, luckily these were at $50NL (in order to find some action I switched down to the $50nl tables instead of the GBP 50nl, which was a saving in itself). I constantly ran into people in God mode, which was a bit out of order as I normally insist on running like this myself. Hold’em Manager have finally got their currency fix sorted, so I am able to track my spewing more accurately.

Her indoors is away tonight so to stem my HU losses I will probably donate to the tournament community instead. I expect this to be an expensive and unrewarding experience if my recent tournament history is anything to go by.

West Ham beat a terrible Hull side 3-0 on Saturday. We were 1-0 up inside the first three minutes and, one great save from Green just before half time aside, the result never looked in doubt. With all the other relegation strugglers losing the league table looks a whole lot prettier at the moment. All this could change if Portsmouth go bust, but even without them things look a lot rosier than they did six weeks ago. With a trip to Old Trafford (and then shorter journeys to The Cameldome and Stamford Bridge) making up three of our next four games I don’t anticipate much from these but we look a lot more organised and more of a threat in attack.

I have been looking at our remaining games and we have home games remaining against Bolton, Sunderland, Wigan, Wolves and Stoke. I’d like to think we can win three of the five and pick up three to six points elsewhere, which should comfortably keep us up. I wish I’d never put this in print, but I can’t help myself. Besides, if we can’t pick up sufficient points there, we deserve to go down.

One of the bad things about the new owners is that I don’t seem to be able to open the newspaper without reading a quote from either Sullivan or Gold. I find it all rather tiresome and whilst they are clearly using the press to push their case for certain things (e.g. not letting Portsmouth go bust, moving to Stratford), I just wish they would shut the fuck up for five minutes.

I saw quite a bit of the televised football on Sunday. Bolton and Wigan were both shocking. Burnley looked a tidy football side but seem to like pressing the self-destruct button when the ball gets within 30 yards of their own goal. I’m not sure who I think will the eventual additional two to go down with Portsmouth. I suspect that it will be Hull and maybe Wolves, although Wolves do have plenty of fight about them and typically sides like Burnley that defend badly rarely stay up. I hope it’ll be Sunderland, mainly because I hate Steve Bruce, but I don’t think they are quite shit enough, unfortunately.

Having digested all of these games, I can conclude that the “best league in the world” is, in fact, shit. Blackburn and Stoke are going to stay up with ease this year, and they’re both fucking dreadful. I reacted with laughter at the suggestion about a play-off for the final Big Cup place. I think it is a retarded suggestion for reasons too numerous to mention, but it is par for the course from the big-wigs at the Premier League.

Good luck at the tables.