Britbloggerment 8 - Storm clouds gathering

Congratulations to ResdentEvil, who defeated Cloud heads up. Once again Cloud has come so close, and fallen at the last fence. PokerMunk3y took the last cash place, with pokerdwarf this weeks bubble boy. Doing the walk of shame was Quixote8. Going down in a blaze of glory just after that was BurnleyMik, whose hammer failed to break Tan's queens.

The league table now looks like this:

	the_cloud71		31
	ResdentEvil		31
	PokerMunk3y		25
	Zagga		25
	stephenrhall		21
	Al Eleven		21
	Simonjj		19
	TanOrpheus		18
	Pokerdwarf		14
	Spid		14
	Rosie_m_t		13
	cadmunkey		11
	lightning36		11
	Quixote8		11
	lzfsb3		9
	Sir Fortune		9
	weegem		9
	mauzj		9
	sookraboaby		8
	Katitude		8
	LepRecon777		7
	SuffolkPunch		7
	BurnleyMik		6
	S.t.b		6
	lousaban		6
	a104l9		4
	mikesaban		2
	AlCantHang		2
	wadhead		0
	Neil Ross		0
	countryk		0
	mookie99		0
	4everleeds		0

MTT Cash

Today I made it through a field of 9539 players to make it into the money.

It was a Pokerstars $1000 added freeroll. Here is the congratulations email:

PokerStars Tournament #50093293, No Limit Hold'em
Freeroll
9539 players
$1000.00 added to the prize pool by PokerStars.com
Total Prize Pool: $1000.00
Tournament started - 2007/05/13 - 09:10:00 (ET)

Dear stephenrhall,

You finished the tournament in 983rd place.
A $0.20 award has been credited to your Real Money account.

You earned 12.40 tournament leader points in this tournament.
For information about our tournament leader board, see our web site at
http://www.pokerstars.com/tlb_tournament_rankings.html


Congratulations!
Thank you for participating.

Yes, thats right - I won 20 cents. I've decided not to withdraw these winnings, but to use them to contribute towards building my bankroll.

Tagged

I've been tagged by Rosie, so here are 7 things you didn't know about me :

1. I have a really "interesting" reaction to Pennicillin - starting from the groin and radiating outwards, , my skin turns red and peels off, itching horrendously, like the worst sunburn you can imagine.

2. I am the father of twins, a boy and a girl aged 8.

3. From the age of 5 to 18, I lived on the edge of the English Lake District, and never appreciated how lucky I was until I moved away.

4. Our family pet is a French Lop rabbit, who is house trained, has the free run of the garden, and terrorizes any cat foolish enough to come into his garden.

5. The first album I ever spent my own money on was "Kings of The Wild Frontier" by Adam and the Ants.

6. I won darts competion at my college at Durham University for the right to play Eric Bristow. I didn't get a throw at a double, but I would have beaten him if he'd missed his finish,honest!

7. I have worked for the same employer since I left university 16 years ago. In fact, I worked for them for 5 years before I left university, working there during school and university holidays paid for all my pints of Theakstons!


So who can I tag? This is a bit like pyramid selling - those who get in at the start have it easy. Oh well, lets see if these people are reading this:

I tag

Neil the Geekster
Amatay
Mike Saban

Three weeks and counting

As of yesterday, my wife has been in hospital for 3 weeks. As of today, it is 2 weeks that she has been waiting for a transfer to Preston. Yesterday was the first time she has seen a consultant since the day she was admitted. He apparently spent most of the time berating the nursing staff for the way they were doing things. If he had been round more often he would have been able to give them proper instructions earlier!

The Patientline system, as well as being a complete rip-off, has proved to be extremely unreliable, with the units crashing regularly. They run an embedded version of Windows XP (say no more!). Also, the network regularly goes down for hours or even an entire weekend, preventing internet access. We have got around the problem of the outrageously priced priced phone calls, as the nurses are allowing patients to use mobile phones. I don't think this is official policy, but given recent revelations that phones don't actually interfere with equipment, and the very bad publicity Patientline has had (including contract clauses stating that hospitals must ban mobile phones), the nurses are applying a common sense, compassionate approach.

My daughter has been of school all week. The doctor says she has a virus, but also says the stress of her mother being in hospital could also be an issue. The children are spending the weekends with me, but go to their grandparents during the week, so they can do the school run with minimum inconvenience to them. I'm looking forward to getting them back home tonight; I spend week nights rattling around the house on my own, eating junk food. I've also got friends coming to stay, with their two younger children. We went to university together, and have known each other for 19 years. With a bit of luck I can give the kids a fun weekend, taking their minds off their mother being in hospital, and they can chill out a bit. Visitors are also an excuse to open a bottle of wine or three.

Might be around tonight to play in the 9 o'clock MTT on Pokerstars. Depends how much tidying up I need to do after I get the kids to bed. Got to make the house reasonably safe for a 3 year old and a crawling baby!

Blog Roll

I've just got round to updating my blog roll. It gets out of date because, with Google Reader, I just click on Subcribe to add a blog to my regular reading list, but I haven't found a way to display the list of subscribed blogs on my blog. I realised it was out of date when I was looking back for a post I'd read recently, and the post wasn't on any of the blogs on my roll!

They're not all poker blogs - of the non-poker blogs I've added today, gamers amongst you may enjoy Penny Arcade, and there's some great non-poker related writing from Otis, of Pokerstars blog fame.

The post I was looking for was a from a poker blog, it was this one. It talks about reversing the conventional wisdom of playing extra tight in the big MTTs, instead looking to make gains early, and makes the valid point that its better to bust out early than on the bubble, as you have wasted less time!

BritBloggerment 7 - The Results

And the winner is -


ME!

Actually that isn't strictly true. I won the second chance tournament. And as only 4 of us entered, that isn't the great achievement it might sound. Though I did finish ahead of some mighty players - Cloud, ResdentEvil. Oh, and BurnleyMik played too ;) Whilst I wouldn't want to make a habit of playing HORSE (I really suck at Omaha!) this was great fun - thanks for playing guys.

In the main event, results took a rather different turn, previous high flyers Spid, ResdentEvil, and Al Eleven leaving the game early. BurnleyMik and I both failed to make the final table. We had a new player this week - mauzj, AKA The Edge, who NEVER SHUTS UP! he makes BurnleyMik look shy and retiring. Our resident celebrity SuffolkPunch also joined us. He's trying to steal the Hairy Gymnast crown, but Cloud still reigns supreme!

The eventual winner was TanOrpheus, who was heads up against Zagga. Third was Simonjjj, and this weeks unfortunate bubble girl, after a great comeback,was Rosie. Doing the walk of shame was Bullmeister, who hasn't got a blog, so can't post the monkey!

As far as it went for me, well, the dealer obviously had it in for me, and I had very few cards worth playing. This was made worse by having a very agressive TanOrpheus on my right, who was making a lot of preflop raises, so any marginal cards I received were priced out of the game, and opportunities for stealing were virtually nil. I'm sure that mauzj will be able to tell us all exactly how many times Tan raised preflop - what was the name of that software again? It wasn't mentioned much so I can't quite remember. My personal statistics - played 133 hands, saw 11 flops (8% - a little too tight methinks), won 2 out of 5 at showdown (ouch) and won 12 without showdown. I probably should have called more of Tan's raises - my passivity putting me in a position where I had to push.

I eventually went out in tenth place; with my stack dwindling away, I pushed with JJ. Mauzj called with AK0, and the Ace on the river sent me home.

Updated league table below - no change at the top, with Cloud, me, ResdentEvil and Al Eleven all finishing outside the points, but a big move up the table from Zagga, who is really running well at the moment.

	the_cloud71		23
	stephenrhall		22
	ResdentEvil		22
	Zagga		22
	Al Eleven		21
	Simonjj		19
	PokerMunk3y		18
	TanOrpheus		18
	Spid		14
	Rosie_m_t		13
	cadmunkey		11
	lightning36		11
	Quixote8		11
	lzfsb3		9
	Sir Fortune		9
	Pokerdwarf		8
	sookraboaby		8
	Katitude		7
	LepRecon777		7
	BurnleyMik		6
	S.t.b		6
	SuffolkPunch		7
	weegem		5
	lousaban		4
	a104l9		4
	mauzj		4
	mikesaban		2
	AlCantHang		2
	wadhead		0
	Neil Ross		0
	countryk		0
	mookie99		0
	4everleeds		0

Cash Crash

Played the cash tables last night, and after doubling my money early on, things went horribly wrong as three times I was dealt AA, and three times failed to win, beaten once by JJ, once folded to a big raise on a scary flop of QQJ, and worst of all, lost to 83 off suit. He called my preflop raise with 83o! He was then on a straight draw after the flop, and called my raise once more. He rivered the straight and I take a big hit.

Dell to Install Ubuntu

The BBC is reporting that Dell will be selling computers with Ubuntu Linux. This is great news, and should hopefully encourage hardware manufacturers to provide drivers for Linux. I use Ubuntu myself at home, and it does everything I want it to do, with greater speed and reliability than Windows. I wonder what Microsoft will make of this? or SCO?

Full Bloggerment League Table - By popular request

the_cloud71	23
stephenrhall	22
ResdentEvil	22
Al Eleven	21
PokerMunk3y	16
Spid	14
Zagga	14
cadmunkey	12
Simonjj	12
lightning36	11
Quixote8	11
lzfsb3	9
Sir Fortune	9
TanOrpheus	9
Pokerdwarf	8
sookraboaby	8
Katitude	7
LepRecon777	7
Rosie_m_t	7
BurnleyMik	6
S.t.b	6
SuffolkPunch	4
lousaban	4
a104l9	4
mikesaban	2
AlCantHang	2
wadhead	0
Neil Ross	0
countryk	0
mookie99	0
4everleeds	0
weegem	0

Way to go MPAA

The MPAA has issued a takedown notice to several sites hosting the encryption key to HD-DVD disks. Unfortunately for them, the idiots have published the key themselves as part of a URL in the letter. Take a look at the second link.

Inconceivable!

What a strange, mixed up world we live in. In one week everything we have come to accept as normal, as just the way things are, is turned on its head.

BurnleyMik and Zagga made the final table of Britbloggerment6. In fact, Zagga did more than make the final table. He cashed. He finished second. My faith is shattered.

Neither of them won of course. That honour went to Spid. His previous lowly finishes of 9th, 12th and 10th fade into the distance. His previous best of 4th wiped away. Victory to the Spid!

Back down the field, Kat responded to BurnleyMik's jibe about early exits, by outlasting nearly everyone and finishing 3rd, and regular high finisher The Cloud was tonight's bubble boy. Unlucky mate.

And me? I finished 6th. Back to the final table after last weeks aberration, but still no cash.

Doing the walk of shame this week was Rosie, who was quick to post the monkey on her blog.

New this week was another Lancashire lad, Bullmeister, from Nelson. We just need to find some players from Accrington and Colne and we've got the M65 corridor covered. Bullmeister made a promising start, before going out in 13th place.

High flyer Al Eleven wasn't here this week, and so surrenders his place at the top of the leaderboard to The Cloud! Consistent high finishes get their reward on the lofty heights of my league table. Bet he'd prefer the cash though!

Here's the top of the table:

1. The_Cloud71
2= Stephenrhall (still not cashed)
ResdentEvil (Final table every time he enters)
4. Al Eleven (down 3 after not playing)
5. PokerMunk3y (no move here)

A new feature tonight was the second chance tournament at half past 10. Not many takers for this,just 7 of us, but it was a fun game, and I came second! Firt was that model of consistency ResdentEvil, 3rd was Rosie and Zagga (Acorn) finished 4th after sitting out long periods of time whilst he was concentrating on the main event. If we have a second chance next week, how about a different game, maybe HORSE?

Same time, same place next week everyone, and thanks for a fun evening once again.

BurnleyMik's MTT Challenge

BurnleyMik issued a challenge, to join him in an MTT on Pokerstars last night. Four of us joined him in the $8 MTT at 9 o'clock. Cadmunkey, The Cloud, Pokermunk3y and myself.

Over 1000 entries, with $1800 for first place. Play commenced with all of us in high spirits. Tight play prevailed amongst us whilst we let the donkeys do what donkeys do. Players fell away rapidly, whilst we all sat tight, comparing notes on the incredible cards people were playing.

I was occasionally dealt some premium hands, but in the early stages of a tourney like this there is no way I was going to slow-play, because I was bound to be beaten by a runner runner flush! Given decent cards I raised preflop, and stole the blinds.

Eventually though, I was dealt cards that I couldn't ignore. 7 2 off suit. With such mighty cards, I limped in, and was rewarded by a flop of 788. This was such a clear invitation I went all-in and got one caller. The mighty hammer prevailed and I doubled up.

That was really the last of the good news for me. With a lack of cards, and idiots doubling up with crap all around me, I limped along until, with the blinds becoming increasingly painful, and now over half the players out, I pushed with KK. I got one caller who showed......

A 7 off suit.

Of course, this being Pokerstars he hit the ace on the river, and I was out.

The rest of the guys continued to play solidly, and all made it into the money. With all of them having an M of 3 or less, they had to push, and the luck wasn't with them. Congratulations to The Cloud for the highest finish in 62nd place. Next was PokerMunk3y in 71st, BurnleyMik 85th, and Cadmunkey 112th. I was back down in 318th :(

Don't forget Britbloggerment 6, 9pm on Pokerstars. Password donkament. Be there or be something with four equal length sides at 90 degrees to each other.

Confined

My wife is still in hospital. She's had an MRI scan of our back, and they have suddenly reversed all previous advice. At the beginning of the week she was given a pair of crutches and told she needed to get moving. Bed baths were given resentfully, as if she was mallingering. Yesterday when they got the results of the scan they took the crutches away and told her she mustn't get out of bed in case she paralyses herself!

From what I can gather, she has a slipped disk which is compressing the spinal cord. However, that may be wrong, as getting information out of doctors is a nightmare, not helped by the fact that my wife is stoned most of the time due to taking morphine for the pain. There's never a doctor around for me to speak to when I visit, they don't give my wife enough information, and she's too ill to press them on it.

On a positive note, she doesn't appear to have MS. Now we just have to wait for a bed to appear at Preston Hospital. She is being transferred there to be looked at by a neurology specialist.
Hopefully we will know more when she gets there, but nothing tends to happen over the weekend, so I think it will be Monday at the earliest when she transfers.

Patientline Ripoff Part 2

I had to phone into the hospital to speak to my wife using the Patientline system. I was horrified to find that there is a full minute of recorded messages before they even put the call through to the bed, to maximise the amount of money they gouge you for.

BritBloggerment5 - Lets go round again

Congratulations to Quixote8, who took victory tonight. The rest of the money places taken by pokerdwarf and simonjj, both first timers - well done gentlemen.

An incredibly tight start to the game, with everyone hanging on in for an hour, but once BurnleyMik showed us all the way, we quickly started falling by the wayside. The man at the top of the leaderboard, Al Eleven, was next, followed by another high fligher, the_cloud71. Yours truly was next, failing to make the final table for the first time.

The leaderboard now looks like this:

1st Al Eleven (still there despite the early exit)
2nd ResdentEvil (up one place as those around him fail to score)
3rd Stephenrhall (no points tonight but I'll be back!)
4th The_cloud71 (down one place, no points tonight)
5th Pokermunk3y (no move tonight)
6th Cadmunkey (moves clear of Lightning36)

Patientline Ripoff

My wife is currently "enjoying" and extended stay in the shiny new Royal Blackburn Hospital, and, I must say, the building is nice, the wards are clean, and the staff are pleasant and professional. The one fly in the ointment is Patientline. As I am sure most people are aware, Patientline provide TV, internet and telephones at each bed, for a fee. The TV and internet package isn't too outrageously priced, but the telephone costs are absolutely horrendous, and their recent increase in call charges has been well publicised.

Anyway, as my wife is probably going to be in for a while, we subscribed to the TV and internet pack. She can browse the web, use Gmail, and watch CBeebies if she so desires. However, when she tried to access Microsoft's web based instant messenger client (as opposed to the downloaded program you have to install) she got a message saying that access to this page was blocked as it "contained material some people find offensive". OK, an over-enthusiastic web filter, so we move on to Google Talk. Same message. Meebo, which offers clients for multiple IM systems. Same message. Every site we tried which would provide any form of "instant" communication with the outside world was blocked as if it contained hardcore porn.

The only people that would find those websites offensive is the people at Patientline, because they provide a way of patients communicating with the outside world without paying their ridiculous phone charges. They haven't had the nerve to block web-based email, but I bet they thought about it!

Hairy Gymnast

Cloud is currently the number 2 site on Google for searches for Hairy Gymnast. He wants to be number one, so here is a link to his post about Hairy Gymnast.

Balance

Do any of you find that there is a balance to be found in the level at which you buy into tournaments - to low and you get busted out by donkeys calling with anything sooooted, and too high the quality of players is too good? I've just moved up a level in SNG buy-in, and cruised through it to take 1st place, where at the lower levels the bad beats were horrific. Of course I may be making too much of one result. It just seemed that I could read the other players better, because they knew what they were doing!

EDIT: is there also an optimum level of alhohol? Maybe this is a question for Al Can't Hang ;) A bottle of merlot went down very nicely in the course of this evening's play

Go straight to jail, do not pass go, do not collect £200

I played a few cheap sit'n'goes on Pokerstars yesterday, and performed pretty well in all of them, but didn't win any. Thoughout the session I was haunted my runner-runner straights. I would have something fairly strong, you know, a pair of aces or a pair of kings? Completely non-threatening flops, my all-in called by some idiot with J-7, then 9-T on turn and river to go with the 8 on the flop. What are these guys on?

BritBloggerment 4 - the view from my seat

Here it is, a little late, but I've been busy.

19 people signed up, which was a relief, because two hours before the start there was only 6 of us. As we took our seats, immediately there was something wrong. Not only was BurnleyMik not two seats to my left, he wasn't even on the same table! However, sitting immediately to my left was Al Eleven, multiple winner, and a man with a bounty on his head from BurnleyMik and Acorn.

Early on we had a flop of 2 7 7, but nobody had the hammer that time. Play was tight, with few showdowns. Al Eleven took the early chiplead on our table, but nothing significant. Over on another table Katitude took the wooden spoon, busting out first, and we were down to two full tables. This brought Rosie to our table, who was in an unusually good mood, with far fewer threats of violence than normal. She brought with her far too many chips, having taken most of Kat's before she busted out. Also joining us was The Cloud, who hadn't shown up.

The dealer wasn't being particularly kind to me, so I folded a lot, and set out to steal when I could, raising with such hot cards as KJo. There ws a moment of excitement as Spid went all in on a flop of 2 3 K, and was called by Rosie. The excitement was short lived as they both turned over QK and split the pot.

Next to depart on our table was countryk. Short stacked, he put all his 520 in pre-flop and had one caller in ResdentEvil. Countryk's 99 looked distinctly second best against ResdentEvil's KK, and a flop of 4T2 didn't do much to help. However, a 9 on the turn changed things, but a King on the river gave ResdentEvil the chips.

Acorn followed shortly after. He went down in two stages. Firstly, he raised pre-flop, and was called by Rosie. A flop of 3 Q 9 rainbow and Rosie checks. unfortunately for Acorn its a check-raise. Acorn raises 400, and Rosie using her big stack to her advantage, goes over the top with a raise that would put Acorn all-in if he calls. He folds, and Rosie mucks. Acorn calls her a big stack bully, and Rosie claims to have had tptk. Acorn had a pair of sevens. The next hand Acorn is the BB, and Rosie is the only limper. Flop is 569 rainbow, and they both check. A ten on the turn and Rosie raises 500. Acorn puts his last 695 chips in and Rosie calls. Acorn turns over 4 T, for a pair, and Rosie shows that she was slow-playing a flopped straight with 7 8. Acorn is drawing dead, and a 4 on the river for two pair is useless.

It was about this point that BurnleyMik was knocked out, and he came over to see if his bounty on Al Eleven was tempting anyone.

Cadmunkey was next to feel the Rotweiller's teeth, as his 66 was crushed beneath Rosie's cowboys, and Rosie had twice as many chips as anyone else on the table.

Cloud was eventually blinded out, finishing in a credible 10th place, and we were down to the final table.

Chip Count:

Seat 1: PokerMunk3y (5760 in chips)
Seat 2: mikesaban (1440 in chips)
Seat 3: Spid (1188 in chips)
Seat 4: lousaban (2620 in chips)
Seat 5: ResdentEvil (2450 in chips)
Seat 6: Rosie_m_t (5902 in chips)
Seat 7: SirFortune (4370 in chips
Seat 8: stephenrhall (2675 in chips)
Seat 9: Al Eleven (2095 in chips)

The arrival of PokerMunk3y and SirFortune with their big stacks wasn't good news, and Rosie still hand the chip lead. We were also joined by married couple lousaban and mikesaban. Mike appeared to be getting pushed around horribly by his good lady.

Things were fairly quiet for a while, with no one taking any risks. Eventually Spid pushed all-in preflop, and was called by ResdentEvil. A 4 for Spid, against A T. With his usual keen observation, BurnleyMik stated "u are going to win this spid...." A ten on the flop begged to differ, and Spid was out.

Al Eleven momentarily took himself out of my reach, taking down a big pot against lousaban, but KK on the next hand gave me the opportunity to overtake him again. Shortly afterwards Mike goes out, his pair of tens beaten by ResdentEvil's AK, with the help of an ace on the flop.

On hand 138, Al Eleven finally gets to drop the hammer. Unfortunately for me I'm on the receiving end, as Al's raise of 1400 was too rich for me and I folded.

Lousaban looked to be struggling, but she doubled up courtesy of Pokermunk3y, but he soon gets most of the chips back, courtesy of Al Eleven, who having raised 1000, folded to Pokermunk3y's reraise.

Next hand I'm dealt KK. Having been bitten too many times recently slow playing kings, I go all-in. Just the one caller. Al Eleven. If I lose I'm down to 400 chips. I win and I'm $15 bounty better off. Thoughts of the $15 evaporated as Al showed Aces. A flop of Kc Qs 6c brings it right back again. 8c on the turn gives Al a lot more outs, as he's now on a flush draw. 4h on the river and the champion has gone. 6 left.

Rosie then claims another victim, as Lousaban bites the dust. I then donk off a load of chips by hanging on to AJo too long. The biter is then bit, as Rosie goes out, with AT up against SirFortunes KK.

Bubble Time.

I somehow managed to become the short stack. Taking the initiative, I push with anything half decent, and everyone folds. Al Eleven decides to encourage a few callers, by placing a $10 bounty on my head. Al says that he's rubbing my icon for luck for next week. As it's a picture of a sheep, the obvious conversation takes place, with discussion including wellingtons and cliff-tops. I continue to push, and people continue to fold. However, it can't last. Eventually my K4h is called by SirFortune. A king on the flop would be nice, if he didn't happen to have AK! No fours and not enough hearts and I'm the bubble boy. My highest finish yet, but still no cash. Consistency is all very well, but you don't win anything for it unless your're consistently top 3 in this tourney.

After that it all wrapped up very quickly. ResdentEvil finished 3rd, and SirFortune won the heads-up battle against PokerMunk3y to take the title.

According to my figures, Al Eleven, despite his earlier than normal exit, is still the top player in this tournament. My consistency puts me second, but if it was on cash winnings, I'd be down the bottom.

Thanks to everyone who made it a great night. See you all next week.

Britbloggerment 4 results

Another Sunday night game over, and a new champion, as SirFortune takes first place. I bubbled out, but made a profit as Acorn and BurnleyMik put a bounty on the head of AlEleven.

PokerStars Tournament #47354387, No Limit Hold'em
Buy-In: $5.00/$0.50
19 players

Total Prize Pool: $95.00

Tournament started - 2007/04/15 - 16:00:00 (ET)

Tournament finished - 2007/04/15 - 18:04:15 (ET)
1: SirFortune (Aberdare), $47.50 (50%)
2: PokerMunk3y (Bradford), $28.50 (30%)
3: ResdentEvil (glasgow), $19.00 (20%)

4: stephenrhall (Blackburn)
5: Rosie_m_t (Bristol)
6: lousaban (worksop)
7: Al Eleven (Miami)
8: mikesaban (Worksop)
9: Spid (Timperley)
10: the_cloud71 (Hertfordshire)
11: cadmunkey (Huddersfield)
12: BurnleyMik (Burnley)
13: LepRecon777 (cork)
14: zagga (East Kilbride)
15: Quixote8 (London)
16: countryk (Norcross)
17: wadhead (chesterfield)
18: TanOrpheus (Jersey)
19: Katitude (Toronto)

I've put together a rough league table for the 4 events so far, based upon giving points to everyone who makes it to the final table, 9 for 1st, 8 for second etc.

1: Al Eleven
2: stephenrhall
3: the_cloud71 / ResdentEvil
5: Pokermunk3y
6: Lightning36 / cadmunkey

Of course a table based upon prize money would look totally different, as only the first 3 places have paid.

More later when I have time.

All is Quiet

I don't know if its because lots of people have gone on holiday over the Easter period, but the blogs I regularly read seem very quiet at the moment. There seems to be far fewer posts than I would normally expect.

Quest for results goes mad

A school in Darlington has barred a girl from the netball team and the school prom because her parents have decided she shouldn't attend extra study lessons. She has got decent GCSE results, and her parents feel there is no need for the extra pressure.

It seems to me the parents have a pretty good grasp of a work-life balance, and the school is sulking because potentially they don't get quite as good results for the league tables. I would probably do exactly the same in the parents' place.

Are you Stoopid?

Pimpage

Don't forget the 4th Britbloggerment on Sunday!

(thanks to Cloud for the pic!)

Luck is Transient

Played a single table SNG on 'stars last night - only a 3$ turbo, but they're fun. Second hand in and FDHS100 goes all-in preflop. At this stage this is either a stone cold bluff, or he's got Kings or Aces. My money is on Kings, or rather it isn't and a I fold. He gets a caller across the table in the shape of KenT46. The cards are turned over - I was right about the kings. Ken shows AQc. A ragged rainbow flop, followed by a 10, then Ken spikes an Ace on the river.

A few hands later and Ken is at it again. Ace5274 goes all in on a flop of Q J 6, and Ken calls. Ace5274 shows a pair of Kings. Ken has called with K 10 off suit. An ace on the river and Ken catches his straight! Now he has over 3500 in chips.

I concentrate on steadily building my stack, winning a few hands without showdowns, and working my way up to 2500. Then once again, we have all-in. The short stack pushes with K9. Not the greatest hand, but when your M is less than 4 you've got to try to make things happen. Of course Ken calls him - with Q 9 soooted. Once again the river is good to him and he catches his queen.

It can't last, and it doesn't. Ken calls small raises all the way down to the river, on a board of As Kc 3s 6d Td, and shows Qs 8s. Chasing a flush draw which never happens, and he loses to a pair of Kings. If he'd re-raised the raise on the flop, the other guy probably would have folded, but his passivity cost him a lot of chips. On the next hand however, Lady Luck has now returned from the bar with her drink and is once again on his shoulder. At least this time he had decent starting cards, as his AK makes a straight on the river, taking out the other guy's flopped top pair.

I hadn't won a hand for a while, and my chips were dribbling away. Blinds are up to 100/200, with antes of 25,and we're on the bubble. Dealt Qh Kh, I push. Ken, who is once again the big stack, calls of course, and turns over a pair of 8s. A flop of T K 6 rainbow puts me in front, and for once Ken gets no help on the river, and I double up at his expense. On the next hand it's checked all the way to the river, and Ken wins the pot with 8 2c, thanks to an 8 on the river!

The blinds are getting painful now, and I need to keep taking chips. I bluff my way to a big pot with a flop of three clubs, raising big without a club in my hand. Fortunately everyone folded.

Ken gets a taste of his own medicine when with two pair he puts the short stack all-in, and they catch a flush on the river. He then goes out on the very next hand, as, going all-in preflop with AQ off, he is called by a guy with T 7 off suit! A ten on the flop follwed by another on the turn and Ken goes out on the bubble to a dreadful call - what goes around comes around!

5th Again

The third running of the Britbloggament took place on Pokerstars last night. Only 13 people this week, but it was Easter Sunday. One new face this week was Suffolk Punch, recently returned from reporting on the EPT final in Monte Carlo on the Pokerstars blog. He was seated on my left, and very unreasonably wouldn't fold when he was supposed to. To his left was BurnleyMik, so once again I was on the button for his big blind. I think he's getting a bit of a complex about me stealing his blinds. I started fairly badly, but I did get the chance to drop the hammer. In the SB, it was folded to me, I raised, and Suffolk Punch folded. The very next hand there it was again, 7d 2h. This time I was on the button. I raised 3xBB, but Suffolk Punch hadn't read the script, and called. A flop of Ks Js 7c gave me bottom pair. He checked, I raised again and once again Suffolk Punch called. The Ace of hearts on the turn gave me pause for thought. He'd already called two raises, and I wasn't prepared to push the luck of the hammer too far. He checked, and I checked behind him. Ten of spades on the river and he bet 160. I called, and he showed a straight. I'm now the short stack.

I lost more ground when I raised pre-flop with JJ, with calls from Sookraboaby and BurnleyMik. The flop is 3d Ks As, and Sookreaboaby is all-in. I fold, Mik calls, and Sookraboaby's A Q beats Miks A 10, as both flop a pair of aces.

Shortly afterwards, Acorn busted out, as his pair of 8s went down to Al Elevens flush.


Down to 695, and next hand I get a monster in the SB - 3h 4h! It's folded round and I call the BB (Suffolk Punch). He checks, and the flop is 5h Jh 10d. I bet 150 and Suffolk Punch calls. Ac on the turn and Suffolk Punch bets 200. With not many chips left I go all in, he folds and I'm back in the game.

Next hand it's BurnleyMiks BB, so I steal it ;)

Mik is now the short stack, down to 870, blinds now 25/50. On my next BB I have AKs, Mik raises 100, and I reraise up to 400. Mik calls. flop is Kh Jd 7d. I raise 500, and Mik folds. Its just after this that, in the SB and not paying attention, I click autofold, not noticing that TanOrpheus, who hasn't turned up, is to my left in the BB. Everyone folds and he wins the hand!

Miks BB again. I've got A7d. I raise 100. Mik says "no way I can fold" and goes all in. I call, and Mik shows 2h 7h. He's hoping the hammer will save him, but he's made a fatal mistake - it soooted. 3 fours on the flop, followed by a king and a seven, and Mik's out.


TanOrpheus, despite not being there, is playing well and makes it to the first break!

On to the final table, and Quixote8 is the first to fall, his K J falling to Al Eleven's pocket rockets. In the War of The Roses, I tried to bust PokerMunk3y, calling his all-in with my QK, He showed A10. No improvement and my stack takes a big hit.

With a pair of 5s loooking up at me, I push, Lightning36 calls and PokerMunk3y raises him and goes all in. Lightning36 calls. A 5 on the flop gives me a set, PokerMunk3y has pocket aces, whilst Lightning36 just has A10.

Both Cadmunkey and Sookraboaby out next, AK and AJ respectively falling to Al Eleven's A10, with a 10 on the flop.

Cloud has been down to just over 600 in chips, but some aggressive raising sees him claw his way back up to 1400. Meanwhile, SuffolkPunch pushes with AJ and gets a caller in Lightning36, with A10. Flop is A4Q, but Lightning36 spikes a 10 on the river, and SuffolkPunch is out. Down to five, and I'm now the short stack.

Seat 3: lightning36 (7058 in chips)
Seat 5: PokerMunk3y (2317 in chips)
Seat 6: the_cloud71 (1915 in chips)
Seat 7: Me (1530 in chips)
Seat 8: Al Eleven (6680 in chips)

Holding 77, I go all-in following PokerMunk3y's mini-raise. He calls with A9 off suit, and flops a 9. Nothing for me, and I'm out in 5th place for 2nd time in 3 weeks.

Lightning36 is the bubble boy, and Pokermunk3y takes the third place money. Unlucky Cloud fell in second place again, with Al Eleven, having entered two tournaments, wins them both.

Back again next Sunday, 9pm BST, 4pm ET on Pokerstars, password donkament. I'm there, are you? Al Eleven has already registered to defend his title, and Acorn and BurnleyMik are determined to improve!

The luck was with me...

Just played a turbo SNG on 'Stars. First 4 places were paid, and there were 5 of us left. Blinds are up to 400/800, antes 50, and I have only 912 chips left.

I'm in the small blind, BB has over 10000 chips I'm dealt Qd 8d. Its folded round to me, and I push. BB calls, and shows 6d 5s. Well, at least I was ahead at this stage. Flop is Tc Kh 9c. Still ahead. Turn is 7d, giving him a gutshot straw, so he now had 10 outs. The river is a Queen, and I double up.

Two handslater and I'm on the button with Ad 10s, and once again I push all-in. BB calls, rest fold. BB turns over A7c. Once again I'm just ahead. I start to swear as a 7 appears on the flop, a king on the turn and then the miracle 10 on the river, and I'm up to 4398.

Next time round I'm posting the BB, and everyone folds to me. another 500 chips to me. Another player eliminated and the bubble bursts. Blinds move up to 600/1200. No time to relax. 2 2 and I push, everyone folds, and I steal the blinds. On the next hand the short stack is busted, so three left. Third place is decided on the next hand, with AJ up against A2. No help for anyone, and another one busted. Amazingly I've made it to heads-up, but I am up against it - 5698 chips on my stack, 21302 on his. A 10 suited sees me all in again. He calls with K7 suited. A 10 on the flop and I double up once more, but still behind.

A few hands of raising and folding on both sides, when along comes K 10. He raises one BB and I push. He calls with A 6 suited. Once again the flop helps me and suddenly I have the lead. 22642 against 4538. He starts to raise every hand, and with no decent cards, I am content to fold and wait. After a few hands I see K 4 suited, and decide to re-raise. He calls. A ragged multi-coloured flop and I decide to see if he's serious. I push and he folds.

Two hands later it's all over. Holding A J I raise from the SB, he re-raises and I raise right back at him. He's pot committed and goes all in. Amazingly he only had 2 4 off. Nothing for him, and a Jack on the river gives me the chips.

-------

I probably didn't play the best cards of my life, but I won the coin flips, and applying the pressure at the end got me there. Turbo's certainly concentrate the mind on the effect of the blinds - you can't afford to be passive or you're gone.

Goodbye Tony G

I pulled my bankroll off Tony G Poker this week. I went there in the first place because of a great sign-up bonus of $75 though Pokerworks.

There is nothing wrong with the site - the client works fine, there's a good selection of games at various buy-ins. There is just one problem - There's nobody there!

It was OK until they pulled out of the States. I could always get onto a nearly full table at the level I wanted. Now, at the times I play, it is deserted. I think there were about 10 players on the whole site the last time I looked. I don't know what the population is like at other times - maybe there's plenty of Australian and Asian players - but there doesn't seem to be much of a European population, and of course there are now no Americans at all.

EMI and iTunes go DRM Free

EMI have announced that they will make music downloads available without DRM restrictions. This will be done via Apple's iTunes. This is a major change of direction for a record company, and it also marks a change for Apple which, for the first time, will be selling music at different prices. The DRM free tracks will be selling for 99p, rather than the 79p the DRM encumbered music sells at. It will also be at a higher quality, 256kbps raither than the usual 128. There is also an option to upgrade previously purchased music

BritBloggerment 2 - Rosies Return!

Last night saw the second running of the British Bloggers Tournament. With another decent field of 19, we were honoured by the illustrious company of our fellow bloggers from across the pond, AlCantHang and Katitude, who both played last week, and new for this week, Mookie99. Unfortunately Kat was still out on extended celebrations of her birthday, and only made it back a few minutes after her stack was blinded away. She did finish ahead of both AlCantHang and Mookie99 though!

Rosie was back to exact her revenge on me following last week, but fortunately for me we were on different tables, Rosie sharing the table with the big names from North America.

We started 6 handed, and with me getting no cards worth playing, the blinds seemed to be coming round far too fast. I didn't see a flop until the 11th hand, and that only because I was in the big blind and nobody raised pre-flop. It wasn't until the 19th hand that I actually reached a showdown, when I limped in with QJo. Flop was Kh Th 8s and everyone checked. Jc on the turn and I made a small raise. Lzfsb3 called. Was he on a flush draw? Kings? Qh on the river and wary of the flush, I check. Lzfsb3 checks behind me and shows a measily pair of 8s, and I take the pot with 2 pairs.

After some departures one table closed, and BurnleyMik came to join us. The play continued to be tight, with only Quixote8 making any headway at this stage. Over on the other table TanOrpheus was crushing all opposition. With Miks arrival, talk started to move to football, which I quickly headed off, with a Leeds fan on the table, and Preston's defeat on Friday night, I didn't want to get into that discussion!

A few hands later I found myself looking at down at Ad Js. Blinds are 25/50. It's folded round to me and I raise 2BB. Another fold and BurnleyMik in the BB calls. Flop is 3 4 6 rainbow. I bet 200 and after a pause, Mik calls.Turn is another 3. Mik checks and I check behind him. An 8 on the river and Mik raises 900, which would put me all in. Something didn't feel right. After a long pause, I listened to my instincts and decided he was bluffing. I called, and Mik showed KQ, and I double up.

On the next hand Neil Ross goes all in with his 660 chips. BurnleyMik calls, but then SirFortune goes over the top with his 1565. Mik throws in the towel, and says he had 33. SirFortune shows Ac Qh, and Neil has 8 9c. The flop is then 6 8 3 rainbow. Whilst Mik regrets his fold, a 2 and a 10 help nobody, and Neil takes the pot with a pair of 8s.

Quixote8 was to take a big hit later, as going all in with AA, he was called by Cloud with A9s. Quixote8 flopped a set, but two spades spelt danger, and 2s on the river gave Cloud a flush and make Quixote8 the short stack. Quixote8 went a bit quiet after that, but Rosie popped up to say that she was just helping him with the death threats!

Shortly afterwards, Cloud and I split a pot with AQ, and then I busted Neil with AK. His A 10 didn't improve and my King won me the pot.

The other table closed, and unfortunately TanOrpheus, sitting on a monster stack moved into the seat to my left, and proceeded to wield that stack, bullying me off a few pots.

Things started to go down hill for me when BurnleyMik announced to the table he was going all in pre-flop. Dealt a pair of sixes, I called him, and Mik turned over a pair of nines. Nothing for me, and my stack is halved.

Short stacked, I called Acorn's raise and went all-in with QK. A queen on the turn was no use, as Acorn had AA, and I went out in 8th place, 3 worse than last week.

Apart from calling Mik with 66, I was happy with the way I played. I wasn't as happy with the cards I was dealt. I only saw 20 flops out of 153 (13%) and only went to 6 showdowns, losing 2 of them - the one that busted me, and 66 against Miks 99.

TanOrpheus's big stack held up, and he won the tournament, with the rest of the money being taken by Cloud and Resdent Evil.

Visitor Stats

I use Statcounter to track hits on this blog, and, thanks to a comment on Wil Wheatons blog, and links from British poker bloggers web site following last Sundays British blogger tournament, I'm getting more than I've ever had before. Therefore, there is actually some volume of data for Statcounter to report on:

Operating System

			Perc.	Operating System
			49.00%	Windows XP
			34.00%	Linux
			9.00%	Windows 2000
			3.00%	Windows 2003
			1.00%	Mac OS X

34% of visitors to this blog use Linux. I'd like to say that its a sign of Linux taking off, but it's really because of a post I made about wireless networking on Ubuntu. Given that wireless networking is one of the biggest problems in setting up a Linux system, it's been quite popular.

Browser

		Perc.	Browser Name	Version
		39.00%	Firefox	2.0.0
		37.00%	MSIE	6.0
		8.00%	Opera	9.10
		7.00%	Firefox	1.5.0
		5.00%	MSIE	7.0
		2.00%	Mozilla	5.0
		1.00%	Firefox	2.0
		1.00%	Safari	1.2

Similarly, the reason for Firefox topping the browser stats will simply be because of the high proportion of Linux users coming here.

I haven't got any weird search keywords bringing people here. The most common is "ubuntu wpa-key".

The Man Behind Bodog

The BBC has an article about Chris Ayre, the founder of Bodog. The article is of course on the back of the on-line gambling ban in the States. Ayre argues that the Bodog brand is what differentiates him from the other on-line sites. I would have thought that it would be his brand diversity that will be the key to Bodog's success, music, publishing, TV, his more limited exposure to the American poker market (unlike Party!) that will continue to make Bodog a success. The brand does nothing for me, but perhaps a married 30 something with 2 kids isn't his target audience. To me, Bodog is loud and brash, with an ugly poker client.

In the Nuts

Just when everything seemed to be going well, my flopped set of Kings turns into a boat on the river, but it gives my opponent quads!

PokerStars Game #9097380666:  Hold'em No Limit ($0.01/$0.02) - 2007/03/26 - 10:52:30 (ET)
Table 'Montefiore' 9-max Seat #7 is the button
Seat 1: Me($1.73 in chips)
Seat 2: givusabreak ($5.08 in chips)
Seat 3: Nobdi ($4.28 in chips)
Seat 5: MILFmeister ($1.37 in chips)
Seat 6: estellairina ($3.51 in chips)
Seat 7: DWolf3 ($5.39 in chips)
Seat 8: VinoDivino ($2.68 in chips)
Seat 9: DISH DOC ($1.61 in chips)
VinoDivino: posts small blind $0.01
DISH DOC: posts big blind $0.02
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Me[Kc Ks]
Me: raises $0.10 to $0.12
givusabreak: folds
Nobdi: folds
MILFmeister: calls $0.12
estellairina: folds
DWolf3: folds
VinoDivino: folds
DISH DOC: folds
*** FLOP *** [Th 8c Kh]
DISH DOC is sitting out
Me: bets $0.10
MILFmeister: raises $0.10 to $0.20
Me: raises $0.30 to $0.50
MILFmeister: raises $0.75 to $1.25 and is all-in
Me: calls $0.75
*** TURN *** [Th 8c Kh] [Qc]
*** RIVER *** [Th 8c Kh Qc] [8h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Me: shows [Kc Ks] (a full house, Kings full of Eights)
MILFmeister: shows [8s 8d] (four of a kind, Eights)
MILFmeister collected $2.67 from pot

BritBloggerment

Had a great time last night playing in the inaugural British bloggers tournament on Pokerstars. Ironically I found out about it from an American blog (Thanks Al).

There was a decent turn-out of 22 people, mostly British, but with a couple of celebrities from over the pond, in the shape of Al Can't Hang, and Katitude.

I started out playing fairly tight - not that I had a great deal of choice , the cards were crap - but finally on hand 47 I picked up 10s Ks. Not great I know, but after the rubbish I'd had up until then they looked good to me. BB was 50, I mini-raised, and was re-raised by Rosie up to 350. I called. Flop came 7s 2h 4s I bet 150, Rosie re-raised to 550. I really should have folded at this point, but, I'd had nothing up to now, I had a King high flush draw, and I convinced myself that Rosie was making a continuation bet having missed the flop! Do I feel lucky punk? I did, so I went all in, and Rosie showed 10c Ac - she had missed the flop, I had 12 outs for either a flush or a pair of Kings, she only needed an Ace. The turn was 2s, and she was drawing dead. Thats me up to 2645, and Rosie down to 650.

3 hands later in the small blind I'm dealt Qc Kc. It's folded round to me and I miniraise. Rosie is the BB, and she goes all in. I've easily got it covered, and I call. Rosie shows a pair of nines, so she's ahead. Flop is J T K, putting me in front, a 2 and a 7 don't help her, and so Rosie is out.

Much later, I'm dealt Jc Kd. BB is 200. I raise 600 preflop, everyone folds except a10419, who re-raises 2000. I have a rush of blood to the head and call, going all-in. What a donkey. He shows a pair of Jacks, so only a King is going to help me. Flop is 5 K 9 rainbow! an ace and a 3 follow, I undeservedly double up, and take some flack from the rail (thanks Rosie).

I eventually went out in 5th place, my 10 J going down to LepRecon777's K 8. Sadly only the first three places were paid. Congratulations to Al Eleven, who came back from being short stacked to beat Cadmunkey.

Thanks to Acorn and BurnleyMik for setting this up. Ihad a good time, got to drop the hammer, and narrowly avoiding a price being put on my head - Apparently being a Preston fan is acceptable to BurnleyMik, but if I had been a Blackburn Rovers fan it would have been a different matter! The banter was great, and people generally stuck around after they went out to cheer the survivors on. Hopefully this will be a regular event, and I can make it again next week. You can find another write-up of the tournament here at The Cloud's blog.

It;'s All Over Now

Well, third interview out of the way, and I've just found out I didn't get the job. Got all the usual lines - it was a tough decision, you were very close, sure another opportunity will come up for you - but bottom line is, they didn't think I was as good as the other guy.

3rd Interview!!

I have now been invited for a 3rd interview. I am assured that this will be the last. One way or another, it will all be over next week.

Ubuntu Unleashed!

I have managed to convert my wife to using Linux, specifically, Ubuntu.

She didn't actually have a great deal of choice. We have a laptop which has developed a faulty disk controller. Sometimes it recognises the HD, most of the time it doesn't. Tried different HDs, same problem.

So, do we bin the laptop, or find a way of making it work without a hard disk?

The answer to my need was found at Pendrivelinux.com.

I now have a fully functioning installation of XUbuntu (the lightweight version of Ubuntu) working on the aptop. I've even got the integrated Broadcom wireless network card working without the need for Ndiswrapper. It includes OpenOffice, Firefox and Thunderbird, plus the Linux version of Solitaire -everything she could possibly need.

2nd Interview

Well, I either did really well or not quite well enough at the interview, because now I've got a second interview. This time it's only 20 minutes from home, rather than the 3 hour drive each way I had this week.

Interview Imminent

Interview is in two days. I've got a 3 hour drive to get there! I was expecting to be interviewed just down the road, so that was a bit of a shock.

Of Bad Beats and Hammers

I don't like to rant about people's donkey play, but when a guy calls my all in raise on the turn with ace high and a flush draw, and hits his flush on the river, I'm seriously pissed off. Fortunately I had him covered, and limped through another circuit before I was dealt the hammer. With only two big blinds left, I had to go all in. I got three callers, flopped a 7 and won with a pair. Back in the game again, I finished up 6th, with the guy who had won all my chips earlier going out before me.

What a Beautiful Day

I woke up this morning with the sun streaming through the curtains. This was a Good Thing, because I had a list of jobs to do in the garden.

The pampas grass at the bottom of our garden has started to be plucked by the birds, a sign that some of them are thinking about nesting. We used to have a huge beech hedge alongside our garden, but the neighbours ripped it out. The sparrows and tits used to nest in there, so we've put up some nesting boxes - two designed for tits, one for blackbirds.

As I ventured out into the garden there was a faint fog drifting across. Through the fog, the sun was a white disc, that you could mistake for the moon, giving the day a slightly eerie feel. On the lawn lay straw and grass in strange patterns, the remains of the kids doing an Art Attack style giant picture. Any sign of what it had been destroyed by our rabbit, who had been playing in it since it was finished.

Nesting boxes securely fastened to the shed, I moved onto the bird table. Might as well make use of the fence the neighbours have partially erected to replace the hedge. I placed a scattering of dried mealworms on it, in an effort to attract robins, blackbirds and other worm eaters to the garden. We have huge quantities of sparrows all year round, plus starlings and an occasional wren, with blue and great tits in the summer, but we're trying to increase the variety.

The fog thickened, mixing with the smoke from a fire further down the street. I hung woven nestboxes in the hedge at the end of the garden, maybe the wrens will like them. The rabbit followed me around like a dog, under my feet, wanting to be involved in whatever I was doing.

Next job was to clean out the rabbits hut, litter trays to wash, food box to refill from the big sack. This was not an easy task, as the rabbit attempted to jump into the bag of pellets as I scooped them out. Old hay, straw, sawdust and droppings go into the compost bin.

From the house comes the sound of my daughter practising the cornet - three weeks and she has passed the standard of the girl next door, who has been playing for a year. The music teacher has revised her estimate of when she will be ready to join the band, from a year down to three months! She soaks up music in the same way she soaks up facts she reads in books.

To the sound of "Twinkle Twinkle" I sweep the patio - more straw for the compost bin. Then the drain to unblock. Every time we put the washing machine on the patio floods. An easier job than I thought it would be - scoop out some mud and grit and problem solved.

So, after that, nothing to do but sit and watch the view; and watch all the birds ignore my new bird table!

The Job

My application has gone off, and I've had a an email acknowledgment, saying I will be contacted within 5 days. Closing date isn't for another two weeks though, so I assume no interview until late February.

Life with Tony G

I'm playing all my poker on TonyG at the moment (mainly because they gave a fabulous first deposit bonus). The traffic is fairly low, certainly at European playing times, so you tend to see the same people at the table. Generally its fairly friendly, though of course you get the odd idiot.

The main downside of the low traffic is the difficulty in getting a full table at the SNGs; however, today I managed to get into a $2 SNG. I know, I know, last of the big spenders, but, it was the only game in town. Actually I really enjoyed it, and I won, which always helps. When it came to the final two, I had 2500, my opponent had 11000. He tried to use his big stack to push me around, but I made the goods cards pay, and he made some loose calls. After about 20 hands the situation was completely reversed, and it was all over in my favour, and I'm $8 richer!

I spend most of my time in the micro limit cash games, where my fortunes vary, but unfortunately the trend is slowly downwards, though I am on a (at the moment) short term up-turn. Hopefully the traffic will increase, and I can play a few more SNGs.

Bible Quiz

I've just taken a quiz about the bible. Amazingly I scored 85%!

You know the Bible 85%!

Wow! You are awesome! You are a true Biblical scholar, not just a hearer but a personal reader! The books, the characters, the events, the verses - you know it all! You are fantastic!

Ultimate Bible Quiz
Create MySpace Quizzes

More Google Raving

I've been using Google Reader for nearly a week, and I love it. The latest thing I've discovered is the ability to "share" posts I'm interested in, and, more to the point, I can include them in this blog.

So, at the top left, is snippets of articles I've decided to share with you. At the moment there's just one, but given the number of blogs I read, I'm sure that will soon grow. You can set the number of posts you want to show - I'm leaving it at the default of 5 for now.

Google Reader

I've been using Newsgator for my blog reading for some time now. It does the job I want, but I've just been reading someone raving about Google Reader

It really takes blog aggregation to a whole new level. A beautiful clean user interface, combined with a fabulous little button to put on your toolbar, that allows you to step through the blogs you've subscribed to, actually visiting the sites with new posts. So, you get the full experience of the blog as the blogger intended, if the blog has a hit counter, then the blogger gets a more accurate picture of how many readers they have, and you can few the blogs with unread posts without having to visit them all to check. Everybody wins!

Seizing the Moment

It turns out the General Manager's vacancy does exist. Don't know what it pays, but I'm sure it will be more than I'm on now. I've told my line manager about it, and he's been really supportive. I've also spoke to one of our new bosses, and he's also encouraging me to apply. Just got to get my CV sorted out. When you've worked at the same place for 20 years its not something you often think about.

Dropping The Hammer

Magnus Petersson dropped the hammer in style, during the final table of the EPT event in Copenhagen. He went all in with 27o. To his horror he was called, with A9. A flop of 2-5-Q gave him a pair (just!) and a king and a jack following failed to help his opponent, doubling Petersson up and crippling his opponent.

Petersson went on to win the event.

A World of Opportunities?

Work has suddenly become very interesting. Not sure yet if it is in a good way or a bad way.

The company I work for has just been bought out by a PLC. We have gone from being a successful independent company to a small part of a large national company. The major shareholders have left, and the new owners are moving in.

We don't know how the management of our site will be organised. Apparently every other site is run by a General Manager. I've got my eye on that position. I think I'm the best person for the job. However, in the mean time, I have heard that there is a vacancy for a General Manager at another site, close enough to home that I won't have to relocate. It seems to me that, though I'd rather be General Manager where I am, this probably won't be decided for a while, and I have to grasp the opportunity at the other site. Even if I don't get the job, it raises my profile, and notifies our new lords and masters of my ambition.

Having worked here for 20 years, working my way up the greasy pole, it would be quite a wrench to leave; though, in some ways, it is probably easier to take on a position like that where you are not known, where you haven't been promoted over the heads of your colleagues. It has happened to me throughout my career. I am now over many people I used to work alongside, or who I even reported to. Most of them don't have a problem with it; a few always will.

Petition Against Software Patents

British citizens, sign up here on a petition to the Prime Minister to stop software patents.

Donkey

I've just blown 25$ buy-in over a period of 10 minutes. I played terribly. As an example, I knew the guy had caught a straight on the river, but I still called his big raise with my two pair! What was I doing? I just seemed to be in self-destruct mode.

Rebuys

I don't like rebuy tournaments.

Unfortunately this afternoon I wasn't paying attention and signed up for a $5 rebuy tournament on TonyG.

I hate the looseness of play that rebuys encourage, and the fact that you make a good call, bust someone out, and they buy straight back in again. As this was a guaranteed £150 prize pool with 12 entries, the rebuys did nothing for the final money, just dragged out the whole tournament.

Then comes the break, and the add-ons. You've really got to go for the add-on, because everybody else left in does. So you maintain the status quo.

However, despite my dislike of rebuys, I came second in this tournament, without having to rebuy myself. $34 prize, so a decent profit for an hours play. I might have won it, but I was running out of time towards the end, so I went all in with a marginal hand and lost most of my stack. I then doubled up 3 times, but finally busted out.

Which Superhero Are You?

Your results:
You are Spider-Man

Spider-Man 75% Superman 55% The Flash 55% Green Lantern 55% Robin 50% Hulk 50% Iron Man 50% Supergirl 43% Batman 40% Catwoman 40% Wonder Woman 23%

You are intelligent, witty, a bit geeky and have great power and responsibility.

Click here to take the Superhero Personality Test

You can't alway get what you want

Both the WPBT and Pokerworks have announced that they intend to run Blogger tournaments on Sunday evenings. Well, Sunday evening if you are in the States. Monday morning if you are in Europe. I'd love to play, but when you've got work on Monday, starting a poker tournament at 2:30am is a non-starter. I could just about deal with a 7:30 EST (12:30am GMT) start. I probably wouldn't be playing for long anyway!

My play continues to vary in quality. I am still making some stupid calls. I also seem to be going through a long period of being totally card dead. It's guaranteed at the moment that If I'm holding AQ suited I get a flop of K rag rainbow. But I shouldn't really blame the cards - I'm not making the most of what I get. Need to keep my concentration up.

Thud

Got "Thud", the latest Terry Pratchett paperback for Christmas. Finished it by the 30th. Actually read most of it by the end of Boxing Day. Its another book featuring the City Watch, which are far and away my favorite Discworld books.

Mr Vimes is now a family man, and without fail, must be home by 6pm to read to his son. In amongst this he has to deal with the aniversary of the Battle of Koom Valley, which is stirring up all the dwarfs and trolls in the city.

I won't spoil the story for anyone (if anyone is reading this!) but would just say - buy this book now. Its another fabulous Discworld story.

Round and Round

My poker play seems to be horribly cyclical - I play a particular format, I have some repeated success at it, and then I start to lose!

Trying to look at it dispassionately, I think I have put my finger on the problem - Confidence. As I gain confidence, my play seems to loosen up - the tight-aggressive play that brought me success in the first place goes out of the window - I see more flops. call more raises, get involved more. Of course receiving some fracking awful cards like I did last night never helps, and people calling my KK all-in (flop 752 rainbow), they show 8 10 off suit, and turn and rive bring 6 9! But enough of blaming the cards - When I'm playing well I can make something of crap cards, when I'm playing too loose, the best cards are useless, as I devalue them by playing too many marginal hands.

Sit 'N' Go Format

After mixed results at the single table SNGs, I have been playing two table six handed SNGs on CD Poker (part of the same network as Titan, amongst others), and have been rather pleased with the results - played 6, won 4, placed second in 1. Real shame about the second place, because there is a jackpot paid out for winning 4 in a row! The short handed games seem to suit me in tournaments, whilst in ring games I seem to do better with a full table. Because there are 12 entries, the prize money is worthwhile.

I have modified my SNG playing style, making use of tips in postings by Joanne and Gary. What I was particularly pleased with in these games was my heads up play. In the past, I've alternated between limping and all-in. In these games if I entered a hand it was with a raise, if I had nothing worth playing I folded my small blind. As Gary says in his post, eventually the opponents get frustrated and throw everything at you, and you snap them off. Of course if I'm running short of time then I'll push with any half decent hand and hope to get lucky - whilst winning is good, the money for second place makes it worth my while anyway.

More Ubuntu Success

I've installed the 64 bit version of Edgy on my laptop, and have got wireless networking going using the BCM43xx drivers, along with wifi-radar. The network is connecting during boot-up.

Books for Geeks

Wil has blogged about an article he has written entitled "Five Books Every Geek Should Read".

His 5 books are:

I Robot - Isaac Asimov
Neuromancer - William Gibson
Ringworld - Larry Niven
The Hacker Crackdown - Bruce Sterling
The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams

I haven't read Neuromancer or The Hacker Crackdown, but the other three would certainly be in my top 5 books for Geeks. My other two must have books would be:

Day of the Triffids - John Wyndham (1951)

narrated in the first person, the book opens with Bill Masen waking up in hospital, his eyes covered after an operation, to find that a strange meteor shower has blinded the majority of the Earth's population. He emerges from the hospital to find society has disintegrated overnight, as people struggle to survive without site. This has left them prey to a recently discovered plant, the Triffid, which can walk and has a deadly sting. It had been cultivated for its oil, and by many people as a curiosity, with its sting regularly docked.

Apart from its references to the Soviet Union, suspected of genetically creating the triffids, this book still seems fresh, and could easily be taking place today.

This was one of the first science fiction books I read; it came in a compilation of sci-fi books, which also included I Robot and The Demolished Man.

Also by John Wyndham - The Midwich Cuckoos - all the women are impregnated with strange blond haired, golden eyed children, possessed of mental powers; The Chrysalids - a post apocalyptic world, where mutations are common, and are not tolerated. Those found with mutations are driven out, and the women are sterilized. A group of children find they have mental powers, and eventually, these abilities are discovered, and the children flee.

Dune - Frank Herbert (1965)

Set far in the future, on the desert world of Arrakis, the only place in the known universe where the spice melange can be found. Prized for its life prolonging properties, and also for giving starship navigators the gift of prescience, allowing them to safely guide their vast ships through the folds of space.

As part of an interplanetary feud, Duke Leto and his family are forced to move from their native home to Arrakis. Responsible for gathering the valuable spice, they must combat huge desert storms, giant sandworms, and the plots of their sworn enemies, House Harkonnen. The story follows Paul, son of the Duke, as his father is killed, and he is forced to seek refuge amongst the native Fremen. Brought into the vast story are politics, religion and planetary ecology, as Paul leads the Fremen against the Harkonnens, and eventually, the Emperor, ruler of the galaxy's feudal society.

Herbert wrote several sequels, but none of them match the huge scope of the original book.

Others

Other books on the shortlist - 2001 A Space Odyssey by Arthur C Clarke (once I'd read the book I could make sense of the film!), The Book of The New Sun by Gene Wolfe, and the Elric books by Michael Moorcock.