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.

Back to Ubuntu

After the long wait for Ubuntu 6.06 (Dapper) the release of 6.10 (Edgy) seems to have come round in no time, bringing raptures to the faithful. Eager to prove my worthiness, I rushed to the Ubuntu website within minutes of the release being announced (multiple times) on Planet Ubuntu.

A short one hour download later (isn't broadband great? I remember downloading Corel Linux over dial-up, it took a full day, good job we had a dedicated phone line at work ;-) ) I was clutching the blessed CD, and rushed to my desktop machine, ready to destroy the foul works of the evil one, and replace it with the Holy Ubuntu (actually I'm dual booting with Windows 2000, couldn't bring myself to delete it entirely, Party Poker doesn't seem to work with Wine).

A very quick installation later (you installed Windows XP lately? What a drag!) I was looking at the new, improved Ubuntu Gnome login screen. Slight change of colours, otherwise, business as usual. Log on, and the usual orange and brown colour scheme, tweaked slightly from the last release, is there.

First order of business, the internet. I access the web via a wireless access point, using a Linksys USB adapter. This had worked easily with Ubuntu Breezy, but with Dapper they completely fumbled the ball on wireless, and to be honest, after a frustrating effort trying to get wireless working on Dapper, I gave up. Initially I thought I was going to have the same problems. Edgy decided to install Prism54 drivers for my wireless adapter. Technically it is correct, it is a Prism chipset, but there appears to be so much messing to make them work, and quite a low chance of success, that I wasn't prepared to persist with them. So, blacklist the modules relating to the Prism drivers, and get cracking with Ndiswrapper. After a bit of fiddling, the familiar wlan0 appears, but no joy in connecting to my wireless access point. Then I remembered that I had become a bit more paranoid, and was using WPA encryption on the wireless network.

Wireless security is a huge weakness of Ubuntu (and I suppose, most Linux distributions). With Windows XP, it just works. Everything you need for WPA is there when you install your network card. Not so with Ubuntu. You have, to my knowledge, 3 choices. All three depend upon WPA Supplicant. Option 1 is to fire up a terminal, and configure WPA Supplicant by hand, editing the appropriate configuration files etc. Sorry guys, this isn't for me. Whilst I am quite happy to use the command line, and frequently it is the most efficient way to do something, I want a nice GUI interface for my wireless settings. This leaves two options - the Gnome Network Manager or WiFi-Radar. Both of these are in the repositories, but neither of them are installed by default. Why not! Come on, with the huge uptake in wireless, there needs to be a decision taken at Ubuntu to have a standard wireless security tool and make it industrial strength, so it Just WorksTM

I tried the Network Manager first. Grabbed it from the repositories, and a little network icon appears on the bar at the top right. Right clicking on this gives me options for setting up the network, including WPA key. After entering all the required information, I am asked to create a password for my keyring, where the WPA key will be stored. Here's the main problem with Network Manager. It is part of Gnome. You have no network connection until you are logged into Gnome and have entered your keyring password. You screw your X Windows setup, you haven't got an internet connection to find help, or to download fixes.

Having decided I wasn't happy with this, I moved along to Wifi-Radar. Once again, installed it from the repositories; no icon on the toolbar this time, but the program was amongst the entries on the menu. Starting it up, I am presented with a number of options. Looks pretty straightforward - network name (ssid) mode (auto, managed, adhoc etc, I chose auto), channel (auto again), key (you'd think this was your WPA key wouldn't you? Well, its not. I assume this is for WEP), security (open or restricted, I chose restricted). Then you come to a line which says "No WPA." Clicking on this changes it to "WPA Options" and you are presented with one option - Driver. I entered ndiswrapper in here, but some googling told me this was wrong, I needed to enter "wext" in here, which apparently is "Generic Wireless Extensions." There are also options for DHCP and Connection commands. I left these alone.

Saving my settings, I was delighted to see my wireless network appearing in the main window. Click on connect however, and I get nowhere. By running Wifi-Radar from a terminal, I see that it is looking for a WPA supplicant configuration file. More googling. I come up with the following configuration file (/etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf - use your favourite editor, I use Vi, but YMMV. You'll need to run the editor with sudu).

ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant

#group of users allowed to control the interface
ctrl_interface_group=admin

#network options
network={
ssid="your network name here"
scan_ssid=1
key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
psk="super secret password here"
}


Back to Wifi-Radar, click on connect, and after a short delay, I'm connected!

Now the main advantage of Wifi-Radar over Network Manager is, in theory that is starts at boot time as a daemon, so you don't have to enter passwords once X Windows starts, and you have a network connection independent of X Windows. I've yet to see this. After I've logged on, when I go into the Wifi-Radar gui, the connection hasn't been made; click on connect, and its there. It may be down to the Linksys adapter I am using. It is version 1, and often didn't connect first time under Windows 2000 either.

I'm going to persist with Wifi-Radar, but this issue of wireless networking, and in particular, wireless security, must be addressed if Ubuntu is going to tempt more people into defecting from Microsoft. The average user is not going to bother with all the messing about I've just described, when Windows Just Works!

Party Over?

Over at the Tao of Poker Pauly is lamenting the withdrawal of Party Poker from the US. As he says the fishing was great there.

But, being a privileged European, still welcome at Party (and thanks to them giving me some free money to play with, now playing there), the fishing has got even better. The standard of play in the US must be better than in the rest of the world, because there now are even more fish at every table. The withdrawal of our American brethren has just concentrated the Eurofish in one place for us. I can log on for half an hour, and, playing at the 0.10/0.25 NLHE tables (I know, I'm pathetic, but I am working up the limits!) I can be $20 up without very little effort. Of course, you are still vulnerable to the bad beats, idiots calling your set down to the river with King high and then they river a straight, but, overall, I'm winning.

I'm going to transfer my Mansion bankroll over to Pokerstars - I like the atmosphere and interface on 'stars, though the players are better than Mansion. I'm going to continue to dabble with PKR. Its got a fabulous looking, animated interface, with highly customizable avatars, and I think its great the way the view swings from player to player as they act, with appropriate gestures, selectable emotes and tricks with chips. I know its nothing to do with the actual playing of poker, but it looks great. Population is extremely low at the moment, but I'm sure as word gets around it will increase, and its the sort of site that will pull in the fish. You do need a decent PC to run it though; all that animation takes a lot of resources.

Adventures in Omaha

I tried playing Omaha on PKR last night (more on PKR later). Boy do I suck at Omaha. Due to the low population on PKR, I was playing heads-up, so of course I never got a break from the blinds. Within half an hour I had donked off nearly all of my massive $2.50 buy-in. I did manage to stem the bleeding, and fought my way back up to $1, to achieve a level of respectability. It is such a different game to Hold-em - A pair is just not good enough. I was regularly getting beaten with boats, flushes and straights.

Haloscan Comments and Trackback

I've got Haloscan comments working now, thanks to this blog posting.

I have also been able to apply the same principle to get Trackback working, by adding the following lines after the code given for the comments (replace XXX with your Haloscan username):



<script src='http://www.haloscan.com/load/XXX' type='text/javascript'> </script>
<a expr:href='"javascript:HaloScanTB(" + "\"" + data:post.id + "\"" + ");"' target='_self'>
<script type='text/javascript'>postCountTB('<data:post.id/>');</script>
</a>

Bankroll Building

16th August since last post. Really doesn't seem that long.

Anyway, been playing Poker on Mansion recently. I invested a massive $20 to start with, and, after dipping down to $10, I'm up to nearly $100. There seems to be plenty of fish around - all I have to do is wait for the premium hand, raise it up and some idiot calls. As an example, Holding a pair of Kings, I raised pre-flop, and got 4 callers, get a King on the flop, so I put in a pot sized raise, and get 2 callers. Board pairs on the turn, so now I've got a full house. Another pot sized raise, 1 caller. I go all in on the river, and once again he calls. Showdown - he's got the pair on the board plus an ace kicker! I take his entire stack, he rebuys and comes back for more.

Blogger Beta

I've just updated to the new Blogger beta. At first glance it seems to make customizing the blog much easier, with sections able to be dragged around to re-order them. However, I am having trouble with the comments section (not that I get many) as my Haloscan code has been wiped out by the new template, and at the moment HTML editing is not available, so I can't recreate it.

EDIT: Got the Blogger comments working, there is now a separate setting in the Posts section of the layout, as well as the global setting.

That little voice...

You ever play a hand, and that little voice in the back of your head is saying to you - "He's got the Ace, fold" but you ignore it, and call him down to the river, and he's got the ace? Well thats what I did today, and it cost me.

Climbing the Slippery Slope

After a modicum of success playing short handed on Pokerstars, I have decided to move up, to the dizzy heights of 0.05/0.10 NL Hold'em! I'm back to playing full tables again, and have , in the last 3 days, managed to turn $20 into $50, and had some really enjoyable games at the same time. My recent record in SNGs now sits at 1st, 17, 1st, 16th. To be honest, my heart wasn't really in the last one, but it got me the one FPP I needed to get my bonus.

I've been giving Pokertracker a try this week, and it's been quite useful. It has shown that my BB wins per hundred hands is still the same at the higher level as it was at the lower ones, so I don't appear to be out of my depth yet.

Turbo Charged

Maybe I do like Turbo after all. Played 3, won 2 (busted out 17 out of 18 in the other, making a stupid call). I seemed to find the right tight-aggressive balance, gained some fold credit, stole some blinds and went all in with the right cards (and of course got the luck at the right time).

Here's the last hand - 3 of us left, blinds 400/800, I'm on the button with 15000, SB has 10000, short stack sitting out and put all in by posting big blind. I'm dealt Ac 8h, and go all in, SB calls, and shows Ad 7h. Then a flop that puts me in the lead, but puts SB on a straight draw, 5c 4c 8s. Turn increases my lead, 8d. Prayed that there was no 6 on the river; no, its Kh, so a set for me, and I take the game.

I think the fewer players there are, the weaker my game is, so I'm pleased to have won these two. Maybe I should play some short handed tables to improve in that area.

Vive la France??

Just got back from a family holiday in France, and I have slightly revised my opinion of the French. It seems they are not all totally arrogant. Most of them that I have met have been polite, helpful, and tolerant of my meagre French (perhaps because their English is equally meagre!). Most notably, we got on very well with the family camping on the next pitch, each of us getting by with a mixture of English and French, and I think all of us improving their understanding of the others' language as we went along. This Entente Cordiale culminated in a game of Boules on the final night, which the French obviously take very seriously.

What really astonished me was the price of wine. I could buy a perfectly reasonable Corbierre for just over €1. I've brought 20 bottles of various wines back with me, at a total cost of around £20!.

Office 2007 Beta

I’m writing this post using Word 2007, part of Microsoft’s flagship office suite. This is the second Beta release, and it’s my first look at the software.

The first thing I have to say is that Microsoft are taking a big gamble. They have totally overhauled the user interface. Gone are the familiar menus at the top of the screen – File, Edit etc. These are replaced by 8 tabs:

• Home, which brings up a selection of buttons relating to basic text editing, such as fonts, emphasis, alignment, styles and search/replace.
  
• Insert, where you will find the shapes that used to be on the drawing toolbar, tables, objects, page breaks etc. Here you will also find headers and footers, Word Art, and the equation editor.
  
• Page Layout, which is fairly self explanatory, and contains all the options which used to be in the Page Setup dialog box, and the paragraph formatting.
  
• References – Here are table of contents, footnotes, citations, captions and indexes.
  
• Mailings covers mailing labels, envelope printing and mail merge.
  
• The Review tab is all about tracking changes, adding comments and proofing.
  
• View has the controls for different page views, options for showing rulers, the zoom level and window arrangement.
  
• The last tab is Add-Ins, which is where, remarkably enough, you control any add-ins.
  

Notice that nowhere have I mentioned opening files. It took me 2 minutes to find the open file dialogue. It is cunningly hidden in a dropdown menu that is opened by clicking on the Office logo at the top left!

Looking at this completely new interface, the first thing that occurred to me was that Microsoft have removed a major barrier to switching to OpenOffice.org. People are afraid of change. Replace Office 2003 with OpenOffice.org and you will get complaints about not being able to find things. You’ll get far more complaints with Office 2007. OpenOffice.org bears far more resemblance to past versions of Microsoft Office than this does.

Don’t get me wrong; I’m not saying there is anything wrong with the new interface, just that it is so radically different that your average user will take some considerable time to get used to it. In an SME, you may find the IT support staff find it simpler to give everyone OpenOffice.org than deal with the fall-out from this upgrade.

So, what else has changed? Well for a start, the default font is now Calibri, a nice, clean looking sans-serif font, replacing the horribly old fashioned Times New Roman. Also, it wouldn’t be an office upgrade without a new file format. The default now bears the extension .docx, and is Microsoft’s OpenXML format. You can still use the Office 2003 file structure though.

A new option is to create a PDF (OOo got there first), but this is no great shakes as there were plenty of free tools to do this already, it just makes it slightly more convenient. Also, creating blog posts, such as this. Word will link to a variety of blog sites, enabling easy uploading of posts. I’ll find out shortly how well that works!

What really prompted me to download this Beta was the news that Microsoft are working on Open Document compatibility. Prompted by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts plan to move document storage across to Open Document format, Microsoft has been forced to embrace the competing standard. There is a plugin available to download from Sourceforge, which is fully open source. At the moment it only seems to support importing, rather than exporting. The option is there now, but not selectable.

So far I’ve only looked briefly at Word. I don’t use Powerpoint much, but I will be looking more closely at Excel and Access in the future.

Poker Sites Compared.

I've now played on three different sites, Pokerstars, Titan Poker and Party Poker. The difference between the three is very pronounced.

The first one I joined was Pokerstars. Until this weeks update, the interface was very basic, but, I like that - No annoying avatars, no distractions. Even after the update, the interface is still very clean, you just get some skins to customize the table and the cards. You can now resize the window. Theres a quite a lot of chat between players, most of it good natured, and I find the standard of play is pretty good. Buy-ins for SNGs and tournaments start at $1, and in the cash games start at £0.01/0.02, so you can get going fairly cheaply.

Over at Party Poker, you've got chairs and avatars (though you can switch the avatars off). The window isn't resizable. The lowest buy-in is a huge $6, and cash games start at $0.10/$0.25, so it can get expensive. There's very little chat that I've seen. The best thing about Party is the standard of play seems significantly lower than 'Stars.

The last site I joined was Titan, and that was simply because I had a code for $50. I've played a bit loosely here, as I'm playing for free, so to speak. More chairs and avatars. There is a single button to click to go all in, which can be dangerous, but this can be switched off. The standard of player here seems to vary much more widely. The thing I really don't like about this site is it seems underpopulated - I have sometimes waited half an hour for a 20 player SNG to fill up. On 'Stars or Party, this would take no more than 5 minutes. Buy-ins and limits start low like Pokerstars.

So, where do I prefer to play? Probably Pokerstars - it seems more friendly than either of the others, there is more choice of games than Party Poker, and a better population than Titan. I'll just have to keep improving my game.

A dog's best friend

They say a dog is man's best friend, but here is somebody who gives back just as much.

Pokerstars Re-sizes

At last, the promised upgrade to Pokerstars client software is here, with re-sizable windows! No longer is the table stuck filling just half of that lovely 19" TFT, or, if you are multi-tabling, you can now tile your windows, so you can see all of both tables at once.
Also, you can now download new themes, from a nice basic "Hyper-Simple" theme with different coloured card backgrounds for each suit, to the "Renaissance theme", having your card table stood on a tesselated floor, with engraved name plates for each player.

When I really should have folded...

For a change of scenery, I've opened an account on Party Poker. Iggy should get some commission. Played two single table SNGs, placed second both times. I did get particularly lucky on one hand, and I really upset the guy on the other end of the bad beat, but, when your name is Call Me Please, what do you expect?

I was dealt JKd in late position, blinds were 40/80, Seat 4 is in big blind, UTG folds, seat 7 calls, seat 8 folds, 9 raises to 85, 10 folds, then I raise to 130. Seats 2 & 3 calls, 7 folds, 9 calls.

Flop is Ad 4s 9h. I test the water with a raise of 150, and get two callers. Turn is Qd. It's checked to me. Pause. I need 10d for a royal flush, any diamond for a flush, any 10 for a straight. Do I go on? I raise 200. One folds, then a raise of over 600. I put him on a pair of aces. All I've got is ace high with king kicker. I should fold. What the hell, I've never had a royal flush, so go for it. The river is..... Ts. No royal flush, but an ace high straight isn't too bad at this point. I'm sure I've got the best hand. I go all in. The other guy can't believe I've called his last raise with just a draw, and so probably puts me on a pair. He calls. And shows Q9c, for two pair, I show my straight, and he starts to rant. I double up, he's left with a stack of 40, and goes out two hands later. Not a happy guy.

So, after two SNGs, two second places, and I'm 40% up on my initial deposit. It can't possibly last. And why second? Why didn't I go on to win? Because I'm impatient. I can't be doing with all the fencing involved in heads-up play. In the first match, I ended up all in with a pair of jacks and a flop of 2 3 K, and lost to a pair of kings, second match I really ran out of patience, went all in with A6 and ran into pocket aces. Maybe when I've got more time, I'll hold out for the win.

Bursting the Bubble

I was the bubble boy in a 5 table SNG yesterday. I'd played solid throughout, was 4th in chips on the final table, and was dealt AKs. I went all in, the other guy turned over AQo, and the flop was 2h Ah Qd. Shit! but still a chance of the flush or a King. Everything crossed. Turn is 3c, oh well, there goes the flush; river is Jh, So my pair of aces goes down to Aces and Queens. Out in 8th place. I should have been more patient, and waited for someone else to bust out first, so at least I would get my money back, but couldn't resist Big Slick!

?*&£$ Ace King again!

Played a freeroll Limit Hold'em tournament on Pokerstars. Twice I had KQo, twice I flopped a set of kings, twice I lost to AK.

Croatia see yellow, not red

Looks like English referee Graham Poll will be heading home early. He's obviously a cricket fan, who feels Australia need extra handicaps. It seems his rules are that its two yellow cards for a sending off for Australia, but it takes three yellows for sending off if you're playing against them!

Actually I'm quite pleased to see Australia get through to the next round. I thought they played really well against Brazil, and were definitely the better team in the first half. Brazil, on the other hand, have been disapointing throughout. Whilst they beat Japan by a margin yesterday, they once again played poorly, and really don't deserve to win the World Cup on present form. Mind you, neither do England. Both teams need to buck their ideas up for ther knockout stage.

Ubuntu Dapper Wireless Network

I have recently upgraded my home PC from Ubuntu Breezy to Dapper. To make sure everything went smoothly, I did a completely clean install - reformatted the hard disk and started from scratch. Since then I have had a nightmare with my wireless network card. Its a Linksys 54g usb card. It worked perfectly under Breezy using Ndiswrapper. Dapper is a different story.

First of all, the networking utility told me I had a wireless card on eth1, but nothing was working. Looked in the device manager, and checked the loaded modules, and found it was trying to use a prism54 driver. Quick check on the forums (on a different computer obviously) and found I needed to remove this, and then use ndiswrapper. Ok, rmmodded the appropriate drivers, set up ndiswrapper and ........ nothing. Unplugged usb cable, plugged in again, card detected. Used Network Manager to set up WPA, and working. Until next time I rebooted. Went through whole rigmarole again, working connection again. Used the blacklist file to stop the wrong drivers working. Everything ok until next reboot, no network again, and this time, I cannot get it to install. The network utility says wlan0 is there and active, but network manager says there is no network!

If I don't find a solution soon, I will just go back to Breezy.

World Blogger Championship, Part the Second

Well, its now the morning after, and i can reflect on last nights tournament. Overall, I'm fairly pleased with my performance. I finished ahead of 95% of the field, and the players behind me included Joanne Lutynec, Wil Wheaton and the Blogfather.

I did feel sorry for Wil. The bounty on him was a fleece, a shirt and a hat, and everyone (including me) wanted to get their hands on it. This resulted in players really going after him, and it looked like he had to play it very tight as a consequence. He went out placed 342.

I was trying to play fairly tight myself. I've had a habit recently of making some bad calls, and playing hands I should have folded straight away. Overall I saw the flop on 19% of hands, and I won 97% of the showdowns I faced. In the early stages I must have earned some fold credit, because I went though a series of hands where ePublishverytime I raised, everybody folded on me. Stealing the blinds is all very well, but this got a bit frustrating, so I limped in on a few hands for a change, and had some success that way.

I think there were two hands that lead to my downfall. The first I think I played correctly, the second, not so good.

I had over 26000 in chips, and was UTG+1, blinds 1600. I was dealt 9s 9h. UTG raises 9346 and is all in. I call. Everyone else folds. UTG has 2s 2d. Looking good. Flop comes 47Q rainbow. Still in the driving seat. Here comes the turn. 2c! Damn! River is a 3, and I'm down nearly 10000.

On the second occasion I had worked my way back up to 22000, blinds still 1600.and was dealt QTd in late position. It checks round, and I test the water with a raise of 1600. BB (who has 48000) raises 8000, and like a fool I call. Flop is 4c 2d 2h, and BB raises 11200. Too rich for me , and I fold, having again lost nearly 10000.

Back down to 12000, and it was all downhill from then on. Blinds went up, I didn't get any decent hands, and the blinds and antes eroded my stack. Down to 8000, I went all in with a pair of 2s. Got one caller, who showed AQ. There was a queen on the flop, and nothing for me. Out in 112th place.


So, after three and a half hours play, I'm finished, with nothing to show for it. Actually, thats not really true. I had three and a half hours of fun poker, where I was generally happy with the way I played, and finished in the top 5% . If I could have resisted that call with QT, maybe I could have won and Ipod, but who knows, the next hand I could have gone all in with AA, and been busted by trips. I just need to try and carry on in the same vein, and hopefully success will follow.

World Blogger Championship

Its after midnight, and I just finished in 112th place, all in with pocket 2's, caller had AQ, and the flop came 3 8 Q, no sign of a 2, so I was out.

I don't suppose 112th out of over 2000 is too bad, but its frustrating to get within 60 places of the prizes.

Money, its a gas

Grab that cash with both hands and make a stash.

I've switched away from SNG's and am playing cash games, in an effort to gradually rebuild my bankroll. My tournament game has gone to to the dogs recently. I just can't seem to get started. Not good with the Pokerstars Bloggers Championship this Saturday. At least its not costing me anything to enter that.

With the cash games I can just dip in and out, if its not going for me on a particular table, I take my money and move on. If I'm having a bad day with a SNG, well, thats my entry money gone.

Turbo or Not Turbo, that is the question

I usually play in 9 or 18 player turbo sit'n'go, because I don't often have time for a long game. However, in those games a bad break or a bad call early on can leave you with no time to recover. You soon find the blinds wiping out your stack. Tonight I played a standard 45 player SNG. I really enjoyed it - I had time to suss out the other players, had a couple of bad breaks, but recovered to finish 6th, so, I was in pocket on the game - not by a lot, but at the moment I'm grateful for whatever I get!

Diminishing Returns

My Pokerstars bankroll is shrinking. Over the last week I've only managed to make the money in about 20% of the games I've played. And finishing third or fourth isn't good enough at that level of success.

I've been trying to analyse where I'm going wrong, and I think it simply comes to chasing hands too much. I generally have a great record at showdowns, but every so often I let someone suck me in with a series of fairly small raises, which add up to a significant part of my stack, and that straight or flush never materialises. I convince myself that the hand is worth playing cos hey, I've got a pair already. Yeh, a pair of 8's. Not much good when the other guy has pocket kings!

I need to curb this tendency, or my bankroll is going to continue to diminish.

Back

Got back from France this afternoon. It was too short a trip for the driving involved. On the trip there I got two hours sleep over a 36 hour period. Slightly better on the way back, but not much better. I had barely recovered from the trip there when it was time to return home. We're probably going again for a fortnight at the end of July, so that will be more bearable.

I did buy 8 bottles of wine while I was there, paying no more than €3 a bottle!

Bon Voyage

Off to France this evening. Well, actually, we are sailing at 4am tomorrow morning, but we've got a 6 hour drive to Dover first, then a two hour ferry crossing, then a 5 hour drive across France. I must be mad! Just me and the kids, visiting friends who have just moved there.

The children have had extra-curricular french lessons at school, so I'll get the chance to see if it was money well spent. We've got a shopping list that I'm going to try to get the kids to buy in the local shops. Well, its 20 years since I last studied French, and they did it only last week - they've got to be better at it than me, right?

Infrequent Play II

My previous comment about my success declining with lack of play has been proved true. Having played several SNG's in a row, I finished on a run of 3 third places and a second, making it a profitable night. I need to try and find time to keep playing, as success seems to breed success.

Pokerstars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker

I have registered to play in the

PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker!

This Online Poker Tournament is a No Limit Texas Holdem

event exclusive to Bloggers.

Registration code: 7330476

Well, I've registered, lets hope I get in. Posting has been a little infrequent here whilst my daughter has been ill. It'll be great to play in a big tournament like this.

Joys of Parenthood II

Back in March I wrote about the problems we were having with my daughter - irrational behaviour not sleeping etc.

Since then we never seem to be away from the hospital, with several appointments with the consultant paediatrician. We've had two EEGs and an MRI scan, and are none the wiser. On a positive note, the irrational behaviour has greatly reduced. We still have problems with getting her to sleep, but the situation is much better.

I'm taking the kids to France this week with a 10 hour drive, so I hope the improvement continues!

Infrequent Play

I've been playing Hold'em less frequently than usual. And my performance as suffered as a result. When I was playing every night, I was certain to get to the last 3 of sit'n'go's at least once a night, and usually two or three times. At the moment I've been playing once a week, and I keep making stupid calls. I think I'm too keen to be involved in the action. When I'm playing all the time I find it much easier to fold. I need to get back to playing more, and start rebuilding my bankroll.

Lady Luck is smiling...

and that is very dangerous. If I'm not careful I'll convince myself I'm a good poker player. I've won three sit'n'go tournaments in a row. Tonight I got called lucky when, holding QTs, the flop came QTx, I went all in, and someone called me with AQ. No aces for him, so I take the pot.

First Victory

I just won my first poker tournament - it was a $1.75 sit'n'go on Pokerstars. Not exactly the WSOP, but I've never done better than second before, and usually end up 4th or 5th. I just can't seem to work through to the last two. I was helped by some very nice cards though - a run of JJ, QQ, QQ busted three oponents one after another, to get me to the last four. At that point I had more chips than the other three put together.

Once we got down to heads-up, it got quite cagey, lots of pre-flop folding, with the chips generally around 20,000 to me, 6000 to him. The decisive hand finally came - I had QhTc, not fantastic cards, but quite playable at this point. He went all in, and I thought, what the hell, if he's got a middle pair I've got a good chance, I can afford to lose, and its 11:30pm and I could do with wrapping this up.

I call; the cards are shown - he didn't have a middle pair, just Ac 5h. but, if neither of us improved. he'd win the pot.

The flop comes 9s Jc 8s. I do a double take, and my opponent says gg. I'd flopped a straight, and there was no way he could come back from that.