Better late than never

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

Walk of Shame

Out first, and here's the hand:

PokerStars Game #10252997105: Tournament #51377170, $5.00+$0.50 Hold'em No Limit - Level I (10/20) - 2007/06/03 - 16:10:40 (ET)
Table '51377170 2' 9-max Seat #4 is the button
Seat 2: weegem (1520 in chips)
Seat 4: mikesaban (1150 in chips)
Seat 5: simonjjj (1380 in chips)
Seat 6: Spid (1600 in chips)
Seat 7: Quixote8 (2320 in chips)
Seat 8: BurnleyMik (1390 in chips)
Seat 9: stephenrhall (1140 in chips)
simonjjj: posts small blind 10
Spid: posts big blind 20
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to stephenrhall [As 8s]
Quixote8: folds
BurnleyMik: folds
stephenrhall: calls 20
weegem: folds
mikesaban: calls 20
simonjjj: folds
Spid: checks
*** FLOP *** [8d Td Qc]
Spid: checks
stephenrhall: bets 80
mikesaban: raises 120 to 200
Spid: folds
stephenrhall: calls 120
*** TURN *** [8d Td Qc] [Ac]
stephenrhall: bets 920 and is all-in
mikesaban: calls 920
*** RIVER *** [8d Td Qc Ac] [6c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
stephenrhall: shows [As 8s] (two pair, Aces and Eights)
mikesaban: shows [Tc 8c] (a flush, Ace high)
mikesaban collected 2310 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 2310 | Rake 0
Board [8d Td Qc Ac 6c]
Seat 2: weegem folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: mikesaban (button) showed [Tc 8c] and won (2310) with a flush, Ace high
Seat 5: simonjjj (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 6: Spid (big blind) folded on the Flop
Seat 7: Quixote8 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: BurnleyMik folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: stephenrhall showed [As 8s] and lost with two pair, Aces and Eights

Got a monkey on your back?

Found a link on the Hendon Mob site to Vicky Coren's weekly poker articles in the Guardian. Here's a story for everyone on a bad run.

Last.fm goes corporate

Last.fm has been bought by CBS. For those of you that haven't tried it, it is a great way of finding new music. It will look at what you listen to, and play you similar music, or, you can search for music similar to specific artists. Given recent massive increases in charges by record companies in America, it will be interesting to see if they continue to allow Americans to access it now they are part of big business.

Dale who?

It's that time again. Another Britbloggerment over, another bad day for me; but a much improved result for BurnleyMik, as he not only made the final table, he made the money. A solid third place for BM. Unfortunately for him, he came up against a first timer in the Bloggerment, but a rather experienced player, the mighty Daleroxxu, winner of the 2006 Pokerstars World Blogger championship (by the way, what happened to the 2007 tournament, it was supposed to be an annual event?), who crushed all before him. Second was Weegem, giving us a Scottish 1-2.

Early on in the game Rosie and Katitude were running hot and playing good aggressive poker, and bullets were flying. 4 players went out in the first 11 minutes. Doing the walk of shame was ResdentEvil, going out in the same hand as xldane. Next a big shock as reigning champion TanOrpheus busted out in 15th place, followed by another player who has been flying high recently, Zagga. I followed shortly afterwards.

Having been leaking chips, I made a donkey-like push with AT sooooted, and was hit by Quixote8s bullets. Spid, Surflexus and Cloud followed me to the rail, and we moved onto the final table in record time.

Moving swiftly on, mainly because I missed what happened next, simonjjj was tonight's bubble boy, and BurnleyMik makes the money. He was to go no further however, as his great run was crushed by daleroxxu. Weegem took a fine second place, after hanging for quite a while with the short stack.

Heres the full result, and updated league table.

17 players
Total Prize Pool: $85.00
Tournament started - 2007/05/27 - 16:00:00 (ET)
Tournament finished - 2007/05/27 - 17:51:50 (ET)
1: Daleroxxu (Dalkeith), $42.50 (50%)
2: weegem (Falkirk), $25.50 (30%)
3: BurnleyMik (Burnley), $17.00 (20%)
4: simonjjj (watford),
5: Rosie_m_t (Bristol),
6: Katitude (Toronto),
7: PokerMunk3y (Bradford),
8: Quixote8 (London),
9: Al Eleven (Miami),
10: the_cloud71 (Hertfordshire),
11: surflexus (Kennesaw),
12: Spid (Timperley),
13: stephenrhall (Blackburn),
14: zagga (East Kilbride),
15: TanOrpheus (Jersey),
16: xldane (Aalborg),
17: ResdentEvil (glasgow)

the_cloud71	34
ResdentEvil	31
Zagga	29
PokerMunk3y	27
TanOrpheus	27
Simonjj	25
Al Eleven	22
stephenrhall	21
Quixote8	20
Rosie_m_t	18
cadmunkey	17
weegem	17
BurnleyMik	14
Katitude	14
Pokerdwarf	14
Spid	14
lightning36	11
Daleroxxu	9
lzfsb3	9
mauzj	9
Sir Fortune	9
Kennl	8
sookraboaby	8
LepRecon777	7
SuffolkPunch	7
lousaban	6
S.t.b	6
countryk	5
a104l9	4
AlCantHang	2
mikesaban	2
4everleeds	0
mookie99	0
Neil Ross	0
wadhead	0

Now the work really starts

My wife is out of hospital.

Hurray! I hear you all shout.

Unfortunately she discharged herself.

After nearly 5 weeks in hospital, dealing with a complete lack of information before her operation, and dealing with an attitude amongst the nursing staff after her operation that she should be better by now despite still being in a great deal of pain, she reached the end of her tether (did you understand that sentence? Reading it back I'm not sure I do, but tough).

The operation was successful in that it has halted the progression of her condition, the end result of which could have been paralysis. So thats good. The secondary aim was to remove the pain. That part has only been partially successful. Coupled with the inevitable muscle wastage of 5 weeks in bed, her mobility is severely restricted. But we can work round that. We may be restricted in the assistance we get from the State, as they don't approve of people discharging themselves. If she had waited, we might have got referrals to the appropriate agencies, but now we are working it out for ourselves.

We've applied for a disabled parking permit. That will go a long way towards making life easier - if you can park outside where you need to be then life is a lot less restricted. Anyone know how long these things take to come through? At the moment she can't walk any distance without discomfort, and that's with the aid of crutches. We don't know if there is going to be much improvement in this area.

Social Services should be coming to visit us at some point, but because of the self-discharge, they aren't rushing. We need things like ramps in the doorways (we've been given one of those little electric scooters that are so dangerous in the hands of the untrained!), and perhaps extra hand rails on the stairs, though climbing stairs is far in the future at the moment. We've also been given one of those snazzy electric beds that help you sit up, so that is in the lounge at the moment.

What her being home does mean is that the kids will be able to come home. I haven't seen them in over a week and it's far too quiet without them. They are staying with their grandparents until next Tuesday evening. I'm on holiday from Wednesday so I can spend the rest of the week doing nice things with them. The park, the bikes and the bird sanctuary beckon. It will probably rain.

Today in my car

I am listening to "Ta Dah!" by Scissor Sisters.

Short and to the point

Dudley's got a blog.

Orpheus out of the Underworld

Updated Bloggerment league table - my slide continues, and TanOrpheus continues to storm upwards, as he beats newcomer kennl. Cloud picks up some points to keep his place at the top.

BurnleyMik made it to the final table thanks to me generously busting out in 10th place, and BMs inability to fold AK. He says it was an accident. A king on the turn and he takes the hand. I'm down to 185. I did make a bit of a comeback, thanks to LepRecon777 generously doubling me up twice. The first time I went all-in with AJo. Lep called with 8 5d. No improvement for either of us and I take the pot. A few hands later and I'm just ahead of Lep in chips. He goes all-in preflop and I call with AQo. He flips over A9o. A queen on the flop and I double up again. I double again courtesy of BM with a full house, but my comeback hits a brick wall as, drunk on my success, I run pocket sixes into kennl's KJ on a flop of JJT. Out in 10th again, and no final table again. BurnleyMik obviously couldn't take the rarified atmosphere of the final table, and soon followed me out in 9th place.

I actually got called a maniac this week. What's wrong with all-in with A4 anyway? I split the pot, so no harm done ;-)

	the_cloud71		34
	ResdentEvil		31
	Zagga		29
	PokerMunk3y		25
	TanOrpheus		27
	stephenrhall		21
	Al Eleven		21
	Simonjj		19
	cadmunkey		17
	Pokerdwarf		14
	Spid		14
	Rosie_m_t		13
	lightning36		11
	Quixote8		18
	Katitude		10
	lzfsb3		9
	Sir Fortune		9
	weegem		9
	mauzj		9
	sookraboaby		8
	Kennl		8
	LepRecon777		7
	SuffolkPunch		7
	BurnleyMik		7
	S.t.b		6
	lousaban		6
	countryk		5
	a104l9		4
	mikesaban		2
	AlCantHang		2
	wadhead		0
	Neil Ross		0
	mookie99		0
	4everleeds		0

For your delight and delectation...

here's a new blog for you to read. It's The Bigger Deal, written by a number of people, including Lee Jones, former poker room manager at Pokerstars, and writer of "Winning at Low Limit Hold'em". Thanks to Otis for pointing this out.

Interesting to see the blogs they link to - just two of them. Guiness and Poker, and the Tao of Poker.

Update

After three hours of surgeons poking around in her back, and a disc that refused to cooperate with said surgeons, my wife has returned to the ward after a discectomy. Apparently the operation was difficult but successful. I believe that successful means, in this case, that she still has use of her legs. Whether or not there has been an improvement in her condition we won't know until tommorrow. At 10pm this evening she said she didn't feel any better, but, after a general anaesthetic and a thorough mauling from the surgeons, I don't think I'd feel too clever either.

Action!

My wife goes under the knife this afternoon. She is having a discectomy, which basically means they are cutting away part of one of the discs in her spine to relieve pressure on her spinal cord. Apparently she'll be about 3mm shorter after the operation.

The Royal Preston Hospital isn't the most attractive of places. The ward is on the lower ground floor right at the back of the hospital. One of the first things I saw was an ant crawling across the bed, and you can barely see out of the windows they are so dirty. And it's another mixed ward.

On the plus side, the nurses are lovely and the doctors communicative. We have had the procedure explained in full, along with what the expected benefits will be, and the possible complications. In summary, the risk of doing nothing far outweighs the risk of operating. If all goes well, tomorrow, for the first time in nearly 4 weeks, she should be walking about.

We're supposed to be going on holiday at the end of June - we've rented a holiday cottage in South Wales, near Fishguard. The doctor wouldn't commit himself on the likelihood of us being able to go. My in-laws have kindly volunteered to go instead if she''s not fit!

Change of Scenery

After 1 day short of 4 weeks, it looks like my wife will be moving out of Blackburn Hospital, and into Preston Hospital. She is scheduled for surgery tomorrow, but no one has told her what the operation is. They have transferred someone out of Preston to Blackburn to make room for her, but the paramedics that brought the patient from Preston are too busy to take my wife back!

On the day that the results of a survey on patient satisfaction was published, indicating that 90% are happy with their stay in hospital, we find ourselves definitely in the 10%. I don't know about you, but in an area as critical as this, 90% satisfaction doesn't seem to great. Also as part of the survey, 22% said patients were not treated with dignity and respect. Once again we are in that negative group. One of the worst aspects of her stay in hospital has been the lack of staff talking directly to her about what is going on, when they did bother to talk to her they often talked down to her, and there was very little thought given to her dignity or the dignity of other patients on the ward.

Last night, a 98 year old lady had to wait over half an hour for a nurse to respond to her buzzer, wanting to be taken to the toilet, despite being regularly in the same room doing non-urgent tasks, and despite my wife pointing out that the old lady was buzzing. My wife has sometimes had to wait two hours in severe pain, for the nurses to bring her prescribed morphine. Some of this is down to the ward being understaffed, but some of it is just down to the attititudes of some of the staff.

I must point out that some of the nursing staff have been fabulous, and have done everything possible to make my wife's extended stay as comfortable as possible, but this has been far from universal.

Another NHS topic in the news recently is mixed wards. My wife is on a mixed ward. In a brand new hospital you wouldn't think this would be the case.

Oh well, nearly visiting time. Better check which hospital I'm visiting before I set off!

Somebody will be very pissed off.....

Here's the last hand of a SNG I just played, after duelling heads up for the last 20 minutes:

Seat 5: SGTMOTO (6055 in chips)
Seat 8: stephenrhall (7445 in chips)
SGTMOTO: posts the ante 50
stephenrhall: posts the ante 50
stephenrhall: posts small blind 300
SGTMOTO: posts big blind 600
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to stephenrhall [7d 2c]
stephenrhall: raises 6795 to 7395 and is all-in
SGTMOTO: calls 5405 and is all-in
*** FLOP *** [9h Ks 5h]
*** TURN *** [9h Ks 5h] [7c]
*** RIVER *** [9h Ks 5h 7c] [4s]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
SGTMOTO: shows [6s 6h] (a pair of Sixes)
stephenrhall: shows [7d 2c] (a pair of Sevens)
stephenrhall collected 12110 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 12110 | Rake 0
Board [9h Ks 5h 7c 4s]
Seat 5: SGTMOTO (big blind) showed [6s 6h] and lost with a pair of Sixes
Seat 8: stephenrhall (button) (small blind) showed [7d 2c] and won (12110) with a pair of Sevens

Britbloggerment 8 - Storm clouds gathering

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

The league table now looks like this:

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

MTT Cash

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

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

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

Dear stephenrhall,

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

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


Congratulations!
Thank you for participating.

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

Tagged

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

I tag

Neil the Geekster
Amatay
Mike Saban

Three weeks and counting

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

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

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

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

Blog Roll

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

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

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

BritBloggerment 7 - The Results

And the winner is -


ME!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cash Crash

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

Dell to Install Ubuntu

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

Full Bloggerment League Table - By popular request

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

Way to go MPAA

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

Inconceivable!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Here's the top of the table:

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

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

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

BurnleyMik's MTT Challenge

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

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

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

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

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

A 7 off suit.

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

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

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

Confined

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

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

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

Patientline Ripoff Part 2

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

BritBloggerment5 - Lets go round again

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

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

The leaderboard now looks like this:

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

Patientline Ripoff

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

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

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

Hairy Gymnast

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

Balance

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

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

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

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

BritBloggerment 4 - the view from my seat

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Chip Count:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bubble Time.

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

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

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

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

Britbloggerment 4 results

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

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

Total Prize Pool: $95.00

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

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

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

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

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

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

More later when I have time.

All is Quiet

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

Quest for results goes mad

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

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

Are you Stoopid?

Pimpage

Don't forget the 4th Britbloggerment on Sunday!

(thanks to Cloud for the pic!)

Luck is Transient

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

5th Again

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

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

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


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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The luck was with me...

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

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

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

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

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

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

-------

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