No, not the '70s film starring David Essex, but the book (and now film) by Neil Gaiman.
I got the book this evening, and, whilst my daughter was doing circuit training, I sat in the gym and read the first half of the book non-stop. The words leap off the page and form wonderful pictures in the mind's eye. I think it will be one of those books that I will be very sad to finish.
I managed to fit the Sunday night Bloggerment in this week. I had registered the previous week, but unregistered just before the start, as I was just too tired to see it through
I surprised myself by making it through to 5th place. Not in the cash, but considering the way my tourney play has been going recently, it was pretty good. I was card dead for most of the game, and I eventually reached the stage of having to push to stay ahead of the blinds.
I seemed very quiet, then I realised that Burnley Mik was on holiday.
I am spending most of my poker playing time in the cash games, where I am very slowly building my bank roll (need to resist donking it off again in the SNGs!) I'm trying to wait for the premium hands, and maximise what I can get from those hands. I do throw the occasional bluff in, which, as I establish a tight image, generally come off. I'm generally seeing less than 20% of the flops.
I'm hoping to be a bit less tired in the future, as, at work, we are recruiting, so some of the more tedious and repetitive work I do will get passed over to somebody new, and this should let me concentrate on the more interesting areas. As my wife is still ill (another MRI scan this weekend) I can't afford to be knackered all the time.
Played my first bloggerment for a month tonight. Spent an hour and a half completely card dead. I saw 10 flops out of 110 hands dealt. With the blinds eating away at my stack, I finally went for it with KTo, and found myself up against Mike's pair of 8s. A flop of 6 7 9 gave us both straight draws, and made my ten useless for making up a pair. A ten on the turn gave Mike his straight and put me out in 12th.
Welcome to biakkax, getting up at 5am in Japan to play poker with us!
The redoubtable Judge Kimball has rules on the summary judgement in SCO vs Novell, over the ownership of the copyright to Unix. Read all about it at Groklaw.
This means Novell's waiver of any violations by IBM in their contributions to Linux stands, which completely pulls the rug out from under SCO's case against IBM.
(with apologies to change100).
Played in Sundays bloggerment. Got myself pot committed with AQo. Ended up pushing all-in, busted out in second to last place, after running into AK sooooted.
****.
To long away from the tables. I need to get back into the groove.
Hello reader.
I'm still alive.
Sorry I disappeared off the face of the blogosphere, but life has been particularly stressful recently.
At the beginning of the month we were supposed to go live on a new computer system at work. We finally went live two and a half weeks late, with no printers, no access to half our previous data, and morale at an all time low. It wasn't my job to implement the system (thank god!) I just had to carry on operating around all the crap.
On top of that, my wife's health isn't improving. The spinal surgery hasn't made a great deal of difference, so she's really down about that.
For the last two weeks I have been getting in from work, making a meal for the family, doing the housework and crashing out. I have never slept so soundly (at least the stress isn't keeping me awake ;) ).
Anyway, enough of my whining. Tomorrow is Kenny's charity tournament. I've made my donation, but don't know if I'll manage to play. I'm now on holiday a week, and we may be taking off tomorrow for a few days to get away from it all. Kids have got all sorts of commitments later in the week, so if we don't get off now we don't get much time. Looks like the turnout won't be great :( Hopefully Kenny will get that later miracle and the buy-ins will appear. If I'm here I'll be playing. I've even got the software running under Linux!
Some time ago, The Cloud set out to be the number one on Google for Hairy Gymnast. You can read about this here at the hairy gymnast post. However, and sneaky journalist who goes by the name of Suffolk Punch, and I'm not linking his blog here so he doesn't get any hairy gymnast credit, is trying to steal the crown. He's even got Otis (of Pokerstars blog) recruiting people to his cause. We need to gather our resources and fight back. Go back to your blogs, and link Hairy Gymnast to http://thecloud71.blogspot.com/ .
Sorry its late again.
Simon extends his lead, Zagga leaps up to second, I score some points at last, but don't move up.
See you tomorrow.
| Simonjjj | 60 |
| Zagga | 49 |
| ResdentEvil | 47 |
| the_cloud71 | 42 |
| TanOrpheus | 33 |
| PokerMunk3y | 33 |
| Spid | 31 |
| stephenrhall | 30 |
| Rosie_m_t | 23 |
| Al Eleven | 22 |
| BurnleyMik | 22 |
| Quixote8 | 23 |
| cadmunkey | 25 |
| weegem | 18 |
| mikesaban | 16 |
| Bluescouse | 16 |
| Kronsdat | 15 |
| Katitude | 14 |
| Pokerdwarf | 14 |
| lzfsb3 | 14 |
| Luckbox21 | 12 |
| lightning36 | 11 |
| mauzj | 10 |
| Daleroxxu | 9 |
| Sir Fortune | 9 |
| Viktor1973 | 9 |
| Kennl | 8 |
| sookraboaby | 8 |
| LepRecon777 | 7 |
| SuffolkPunch | 7 |
| lousaban | 6 |
| S.t.b | 6 |
| HullJimi | 6 |
| countryk | 5 |
| a104l9 | 4 |
| Cogsgoigne | 4 |
| AlCantHang | 2 |
| Tupaclypse | 2 |
| Cell1919 | 1 |
| 4everleeds | 0 |
| mookie99 | 0 |
| Neil Ross | 0 |
| wadhead | 0 |
But not until next Saturday. Off to Fishguard for a week's holiday. Hoping to see some whales off the coats of Wales. No internet access, unless the neighbours are a bit lax with their wireless security. So, for the first time, I'll be missing the bloggerment tourney :(
I enjoyed this hand, but probably should have extracted more chips. How would you have played it?
This is the late stages of a STT, the other guy has been playing fairly tight throughout.
Seat 3: stephenrhall (6400 in chips)
Seat 6: Kingpin1988 (4480 in chips)
Seat 9: able222 (2620 in chips)
able222: posts small blind 50
stephenrhall: posts big blind 100
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to stephenrhall [Tc Ah]
Kingpin1988: raises 200 to 300
able222: folds
stephenrhall: raises 200 to 500
Kingpin1988: calls 200
*** FLOP *** [8h Ad Th]
stephenrhall: bets 300
Kingpin1988: calls 300
*** TURN *** [8h Ad Th] [As]
stephenrhall: checks
Kingpin1988: bets 300
stephenrhall: calls 300
*** RIVER *** [8h Ad Th As] [Kd]
stephenrhall: checks
Kingpin1988: bets 400
stephenrhall: raises 600 to 1000
Kingpin1988: calls 600
*** SHOW DOWN ***
stephenrhall: shows [Tc Ah] (a full house, Aces full of Tens)
Kingpin1988: mucks hand
stephenrhall collected 4250 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 4250 | Rake 0
Board [8h Ad Th As Kd]
Seat 3: stephenrhall (big blind) showed [Tc Ah] and won (4250) with a full house, Aces full of Tens
Seat 6: Kingpin1988 (button) mucked [Js Kc]
Seat 9: able222 (small blind) folded before Flop
It has been pissing down. I was supposed to be taking my daughter up to the local reservoir yesterday, where my brother in-law was going to take her sailing. I know you get wet out on the water, and that's fine, but I was going to be sat on the shore watching. As it happened, she slipped coming downstairs and bruised her back, removing any inclination she had for going sailing, and giving me a get out of jail free card. Typically, come lunch time, the sun came out, and I could have had a nice afternoon sitting in the sun reading. Oh well, a chance to get the washing outside to dry.
More rain again this morning, as I'm getting the electric scooter out of the garage for my wife to do the school run. At least it stopped for her to take the kids. She got soaked a few days last week, and sitting on a scooter, not moving (except by the power of electricity), one gets cold quite quickly.
Holiday in South West Wales next week, so hope the weather improves.
So, another Sunday, another Britbloggerment, and I was not at all happy with my performance. I could blame it on being tired - my wife is home, but can't walk more than 10 yards, the kids have activities galore (I'm going to cub camp overnight on Friday, I've packed my tent!), and I'm sick of ironing (and I'm not very good at it). However, I think it more likely that I just played badly.
Things started well, with this hand early on:
Dealt to stephenrhall [Jd Jh]Al Eleven had just said his wife was dragging him out, so, I felt there was a good chance he didn't have much, and my Jacks held up. He says he expects me to return the favour next time!
stephenrhall: raises 80 to 100
weegem: folds
Al Eleven: raises 180 to 280
Spid: folds
mikesaban: folds
Luckbox21: folds
lzfsb3: folds
stephenrhall: calls 180
*** FLOP *** [8h 6h 3h]
stephenrhall: bets 320
Al Eleven: raises 950 to 1270 and is all-in
stephenrhall: calls 940 and is all-in
*** TURN *** [8h 6h 3h] [5s]
*** RIVER *** [8h 6h 3h 5s] [Tc]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
stephenrhall: shows [Jd Jh] (a pair of Jacks)
Al Eleven: shows [Ts Qs] (a pair of Tens)
stephenrhall collected 3110 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
I played crap.
I busted out in 13th place.
Congratulations to ResdentEvil who won, and Acorn and Mike, who were second and third.
Kronsdat bubbled.
Al Eleven did the walk of shame.
More later.
Another Sunday, another Britbloggerment, and this one was tight! Nobody wanted to look after the monkey for a week (he's hard on the curtains), and nobody was taking risks. Eventually, after much stealing and folding all round, first out was The Edge! QQ beaten by KK. Pop over and say hi to the monkey. After that is was like a dam had burst, the relief not being first out loosened everyone's play, and more players soon left the table. Next out was Mike, followed by usual high flyer TanOrpheus. SuffolkPunch, who is off to Vegas shortly on behalf of The Sun and Pokerstars, was next to go in 11th place, as my JQh, with the help of a queen on the turn, beat his A6s. He's looking for small investors in his bankroll - got $10 to spare, pop over and take a look. Last to go before the final table was the better half of team Saban, Louise.
So, for the first time for a few weeks, I made the final table.
Next out was Weegem, as, short stacked, he called BMs raise to go all in with QK. BM showed AJ, and neither improved, putting Weegem out. A few hands later I was dealt AA, and raised 3BB. Kronsdat re-raised to go all in, and I called. He had ATo, which had been a very successful hand up to now, but got no help from the board. Out in 8th.
With the blinds increasing, and my stack falling towards the back of the pack, I was dealt JKo in the big blind. Spid raised 3BB, and I went over the top. He called and showed 88. The flop was blank, but a king on the turn put me in front. The following 8 on the river put me out in 7th place.
In 6th was PokerMunk3y, and out in 5th, after a fabulous run up to the break, was The Cloud. Nothing seemed to go for him after the break, but another final table for him. This weeks bubble boy was BurnleyMik! Whenever I'd glanced across to his table early on his stack seemed to be varying wildly, but once we got to the final table things settled down and his stack built steadily.
Onto the cash places, and ResdentEvil was 3rd. In second was Spid, after some solid play, and this weeks winner is....simonjjj!!!!. Taking stick throughout every tourney for his avatar, he kept his cool and took the title!
Turnout was down this week, only 14 instead of the usual 18 or 19, but it was still just as much fun.
This weeks league table! Only last week BurnleyMik was lamenting that he was behind all the regular players. This week he leaps up the table, passing Quixote8, Rosie, and weegem. Simonjjj takes the lead from the Cloud, and ResdentEvil moves up to 3rd.
Well played everyone, see you next week!
| Simonjjj | 44 |
| the_cloud71 | 42 |
| ResdentEvil | 38 |
| Zagga | 34 |
| TanOrpheus | 33 |
| PokerMunk3y | 31 |
| Spid | 31 |
| stephenrhall | 24 |
| Al Eleven | 22 |
| BurnleyMik | 22 |
| Quixote8 | 20 |
| Rosie_m_t | 18 |
| weegem | 18 |
| cadmunkey | 17 |
| Katitude | 14 |
| Pokerdwarf | 14 |
| lightning36 | 11 |
| mauzj | 10 |
| Daleroxxu | 9 |
| lzfsb3 | 9 |
| mikesaban | 9 |
| Sir Fortune | 9 |
| Kennl | 8 |
| sookraboaby | 8 |
| LepRecon777 | 7 |
| SuffolkPunch | 7 |
| lousaban | 6 |
| S.t.b | 6 |
| countryk | 5 |
| a104l9 | 4 |
| Bluescouse | 4 |
| Kronsdat | 2 |
| AlCantHang | 2 |
| 4everleeds | 0 |
| mookie99 | 0 |
| Neil Ross | 0 |
| wadhead | 0 |
I've been meaning to write about this all week, but never found the time, but now I have, so here goes (by the way, trying my pet monkey in a different position this post, what do you think?)
Wil Wheaton has been dropped from Team Pokerstars.
"So What?" you say. He's not a big, successful poker player, why would they want him?
Well, Wil is the reason I'm playing poker. He's the reason the first site I signed up with was Pokerstars. He's also the reason I'm blogging, but thats not the point of this post.
I would think that Wil has been responsible for a substantial number of people signing up with Pokerstars. Even before he was part of Team Pokerstars, he blogged about playing there. He wrote with enthusiasm, excitement, passion. Enough so that I felt I had to try this game, if only to understand what he was writing about. What is a flop anyway, what was this river he was going on about. Where did this gun that he was under come from? So, I downloaded the Pokerstars client, and started on the play money tables. Then, after he joined the team, he started the weekly WWdN tourneys. So, I put some cash in, and played my first tourney. I think I was the 3rd person to bust out. But I'd caught the bug. And I'm still playing today. Mostly on Pokerstars.
Now its the World Series of Poker, and the only person writing on the Pokerstars Blog is Otis. Not that Otis is a bad writer, he's right up there with the best bloggers. But last year Wil added another element to the reporting, gave a different slant.
Whilst Wil was famous outside poker, within it, he, to me, represented us, the ordinary players, not the megastars. He brought us into that world, with its seediness, its bright lights, its characters. Without him on Team Pokerstars, they've lost that connection with the small time player.
I hope Wil keeps playing, and I hope he blogs about it more. Maybe one day he'll join our little ol' Brit Bloggerment tourney, but with an 8 hour time difference, probably not. Anyway, I'll still be reading his blog, whether he writes about his family, his dog, Teen Titans, his favorite book, or Poker. It was the first blog I regularly read, and it's still one of the ones I enjoy the most.
Actually, maybe now he can enjoy his online poker more, as, not being part of Team Pokerstars, maybe he can change his username and become anonymous once more, away from the idiots that hated Wesley Crusher, and turn up at the rail just to rain down abuse, and the people that just hated him for getting to be part of Team Pokerstars.
Anyway, for the best reporting on this years WSOP, drop by the Tao of Poker, and read Pauly's take on things, and learn which pros he's taken a piss next to today!
I've just made my first music purchase using iTunes Plus - Apple's new DRM free music downloads, at double the bitrate. And it was the same price as the normal DRM encumbered, normal bitrate tracks. They're doing a special offer on a lot of albums, so I got Dark Side of the Moon for £6.99 (I typed the dollar sign first time, too much poker!).
Last night, playing a ring game, I found one of those players you never want to leave your table.
I'm dealt AA in the SB.. I've been burnt a lot slow playing aces, so I decide I'm going to be aggressive this time. This is helped by a raise of 5BB from middle position, and one caller. I reraise, and am called by UTG, plus the other two. Flop is 42T rainbow. I put in a pot sized raise, and am re-raised by UTG. The other two fold, and I'm left to think what UTG is holding. Hopefully he wouldn't still be in the game after the pre-flop raises with a middle pair, so I put him on something like AK or KK. I decide to push, and go all-in. He calls. A 3 and a 7 on fourth and fifth street, and he turns over Ts Qh!
He then buys himself another stack of chips. Two hands later I'm dealt QTd. I raise 3BB, and get two callers - my friend from the previous hand is one of them. Flop is 8d 7s Kd. My friend raises, and I've got the pot odds to call with my flush draw. A queen on the turn gives me a pair, but I suspect my friend is holding a king. He puts a weak raise in, and I call. River is 9d. Once again I put him all in, and he calls. He's got KTh, and I take the pot.
Again he rebuys. Three hands later I limp in MP with KQo. Flop is 8TJ rainbow. I test the water with a raise, and once again the only caller is my good friend. The turn is the card I most want to see, a 9. I've got the straight, and he re-raises. I go over the top, but finally he appears to have learn't a little sense, and unfortunately he folds.
I finish the session with 6 times my original buy-in, most of it from this one player. I'm not putting his name here because I don't want him stumbling across this and know I'm looking for him, and I don't want to share him with anyone else!
Here, rather later than usual, is the Bloggerment league table, with Cloud's consistent good showings placing him top of the tree:
| the_cloud71 | 37 |
| Zagga | 34 |
| Simonjj | 34 |
| TanOrpheus | 33 |
| ResdentEvil | 31 |
| PokerMunk3y | 27 |
| Spid | 22 |
| Al Eleven | 22 |
| stephenrhall | 21 |
| Quixote8 | 20 |
| Rosie_m_t | 18 |
| cadmunkey | 17 |
| weegem | 17 |
| BurnleyMik | 16 |
| Katitude | 14 |
| Pokerdwarf | 14 |
| lightning36 | 11 |
| mauzj | 10 |
| Daleroxxu | 9 |
| lzfsb3 | 9 |
| mikesaban | 9 |
| Sir Fortune | 9 |
| Kennl | 8 |
| sookraboaby | 8 |
| LepRecon777 | 7 |
| SuffolkPunch | 7 |
| lousaban | 6 |
| S.t.b | 6 |
| countryk | 5 |
| a104l9 | 4 |
| Bluescouse | 4 |
| AlCantHang | 2 |
| 4everleeds | 0 |
| mookie99 | 0 |
| Neil Ross | 0 |
| wadhead | 0 |
