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.

Ubuntu saves the day

I have just spent the entire weekend fixing my brother-in-law's laptop. I don't know what he did to it, but he managed to get Windows XP in a state where it was impossible to run any programs, access the control panel or set up a network connection (actually, I have an idea what he has done, judging by some the the videos I found, but that's another story). Not a problem I hear you say (well, I don't hear you, because no ones reading this), just reach for the restore disk, and start again.

However, he had lots of work related data on the laptop, not backed up, that he didn't want to lose. So, here's this laptop, can't burn anything to CD, can't copy anything across a network, and disk probably full of virii.

That's my cue to reach for an Ubuntu live CD. 15 minutes later I have Ubuntu running on the laptop, with a wireless network connection, the offending Windows drive mounted and shared using NFS, and the data flowing across the network onto my Ubuntu machine. Moving 20Gb of data across a wireless network with NFS wouldn't be my first choice of how to do a backup, but beggars can't be choosers.

Having backed up the data, I wiped the hard-disk and re-installed XP (sorry, but he insisted), but I also set aside some space for Ubuntu, so the next time he screws it up (and there will be a next time), I just boot into Linux and get on with it.


Technorati Tags: ubuntu, linux live CD

The Dapper Drake

Lured by the promise of Xgl I have uprgraded my Ubuntu distribution to Dapper, which is still in testing. I got Xgl to work, and it looks great. Unfortunately my computer started crashing regularly, usually when I access the internet. At first I blamed Xgl, and went back to vanilla X, but the crashes still happened - a full system freeze, only sorted by a hard reboot.

I have now pinned the problem down to my wireless network card (which worked perfectly with Breezy). If I unplug it, no crash. Unfortunately a PC without an internet connection isn't a lot of use to me.

The network card is a Linksys USB card, installed via Ndiswrapper. It looks like I'll have to download the latest version ndiswrapper, and compile it from source. However, downloading may be difficult if my network card keeps crashing the PC!

The Joys of Parenthood

We're having an absolute nightmare with my daughter. I came in on Wednesday night and found her climbing the walls. She appeared to be scared of a packet of sweets, she jumped at the slightest touch, was convinced we were cross with her, and were going to smack her (she's never been smacked in her life). We were ready to head off to the hospital, but she went off with her twin brother and he seemed to calm her down.

We've now got an appointment with the consultant paediatrician. I really hope he can diagnose the problem. The GP says there is a form of epilepsy which can cause hysteria, and she certainly was hysterical.

We've been told to keep to the normal routine, but after another bad night last night, she's too tired for school this morning. Hopefully she'll be fit to go at lunchtime.

World Series of Poker

Well, as the 2006 WSOP is coming round, I thought I'd give a satellite a go. I started well, doubled up on my third hand, and got over-confident - 10 hands later a busted out, went all in with QQ, a queen came along on the river but unfortunately it gave the other guy a straight!

Epilepsy

It is looking more and more likely that my daughter has epilepsy. After appearing under the weather, we decided to give her the day off school. Having returned from taking our son into school, my wife found her slumped in the passenger seat, apparently unconscious. She roused quickly, with no memory of anything unusual happening, but was slightly confused.

My wife took her to the GP, and was fortunate enough to see a Neurologist on secondment. He was fairly confident that she had suffered a Grand Mal.

We have an upcoming appointment with a consultant paediatrician, along with an EEG, so at the moment we have to just wait for them.

It is all incredibly worrying and frustrating, whilst she isn't suffering greatly, it is wearing her down at the moment, she lacks energy and concentration, which for a normally bright and lively child, is getting her down.

Perfomancing for Firefox

I decided I might get round to blogging more if it was simpler to do. So, I set about looking for a blogging client. I started because of this post by Wil.



In it he talks about using a WYSIWYG editor like ecto, or something as yet undiscovered for Linux. So, thinks I, just because Wil hasn't discovered it, doesn't mean its not out there. What is Google for, after all? The debate about Moveable Type or Typepad is not something I'm getting into - I'll stick with Blogger now I've started.


Well, I discovered the blogging client for me - its called Performancing and it seems to met the requirements - it works in both Windows and Linux, enables me to blog whenever I've got Firefox open, works with Blogger (and Typepad, Wordpress, Moveable Type...), and supports TrackBack, so, this post is written using it. With a bit of luck this post is readable, and has sent a trackback to Wil's blog. So, here goes nothing ....click!

Meanwhile, back at Pokerstars...

I gave Coral Poker a try - its got pretty pictures, and a lower cost of entry than Pokerstars. Well, I burnt through my initial buy-in, and now I'm back at Pokerstars. No one talks to each other at Coral. The chat box is completely empty. At Pokerstars when things are going bad you can have a laugh with the people you're playing against.

I've started playing Sit'N'Go, rather than cash games. It just seems to suit my style of play more, though for some reason I cannot get into the money in the Turbo games, so, I'll stick to the normal games, and see if I can keep regularly hitting places 4-7. At that, I make a little each game. My best place is second, I just can't seem to get it right heads-up.

Taking a risk

I was playing poker against a guy with the user name of CalQl8tedrisk. I went all in after the flop, needing an ace for a straight, and a high pair if I missed the straight. He called, I caught the ace on the river, and then he said I was damned lucky. With a name like his, you think that sort of bet would be right up his river.

Sony Warranty

As I was growing up, I always wanted to buy Sony equipment. It looked cool, that smooth casing with SONY written across the middle, it oozed quality, I always felt that buying Sony meant you were buying the best. Of course, I had to settle for Amstrad, Saisho, Matsui - my budget would never stretch to Sony. I still linger longingly in the electrical stores as I pass the latest Sony widescreen TV, but I am still buying the cheap stuff.

Over at Nickerblog, Shane Nickerson is someone who could afford to buy Sony, but is now having serious difficulty in getting them to cough up for replacing a damaged screen on a camera under warranty. Apparently it is physical damage, which isn't covered by the warranty. I had a similar problem with a Siemens mobile phone in the past, picked it up one day, screen was cracked. It hadn't been dropped, sat on or abused in any way, but I had no luck in getting it fixed. These companies just don't seem to get that a screen can break because of a fault that was there all the time, a small crack, imperfections in construction etc. I hope Shane gets somewhere with this one.

Land of Hope and Glory

What a weekend of sport - I can't remember so much success in the space of two days - England beat Australia at rugby union, Great Britain beat New Zealand at rugby league, England beat Argentina at Football, and Pakistan have thrown away a strong position in the first cricket test. Finally, Nigel Mansell wins the inaugaral Masters Grand Prix in South Africa!

Change of Style

I've been finding the low stakes Hold'em cash games really frustrating. Because of the low values involved, people don't seem to play sensibly. They're seeing the flop with 29o, raising and calling with nothing. It's incredibly difficult to read what they've got. So now I'm only playing the best hands, KK, AA, AK I'll raise preflop, and hit them hard after the flop. 77, 88, 99 etc I'll limp in, likewise with suited connectors. Anything else I fold. Its already paying dividends. I trippled my starting moneylast night, and doubled it today. I've just got to resist the temptation to play more hands when I've built up some money.

Eights

I just had a dream poker hand.

Nothing special to start of with - 78 suited. I limp in from seat 5, along with 4 others.

The flop comes 8 8 8. Oh my God, I've got 4 of a kind. What do I do now? If I raise, everyone else will fold. Then the incredible happens, UTG raises. Only half the pot, but its a start. I assume he's got a full house. I smooth call, SB and BB both call. Guy to my left folds.

The turn is a queen, SB make a pot sized raise. Great! I assume thats another full house. I go over the top, BB folds, SB calls.

River is 2s, SB bets again, nearly half his stack. Enough messing around, I put him all-in. He calls! I show my 4 eights, he mucks.

The last time I had 4 of a kind, all I got was the blinds. Not that I did anything clever this time, I was just helped by someone else raising for me. The luck didn't hold though, I got cocky and ran a set into a full house, losing just under half my stack. Oh well, that will teach me some restraint (I hope).

A refreshing holiday

Aren't kids exhausting? We've just come back from a week in sunny Grange-Over-Sands, staying in a beautiful bungalow, looking out of the lounge window at a fabulous view, and I'm knackered.

On holiday the kids seem to live at a fever pitch. Everything is at full volume, everything has to be done NOW!. The weather wasn't too great so they spent most of the time inside. Not to be recommended. Two 6 year olds in a confined space for a week is not good.

We did manage to get out on Friday. Visited Grasmere with some friends. two families, both with kids under two years old. However, it started pouring down when we were there, so were forced to take refuge in a coffee shop. A very nice coffee shop I must say (Sara's Cafe/Bistro, number 32 on this map), but again, a confined space, now with 4 children.

One latte later, we departed, and set off down the side of Lake Windermere to the National Park Visitors Centre at Brockhole. It has an adventure playground, so it is an ideal place to let my two let off some steam.

Saturday morning started out wet, but by 10 it had brightened up, so I dragged the children out for a walk. We went up Hampsfell setting out from grid reference SD411785. You can see all of the route on this map. We walked up from the road to the viewpoint on the top, along to Fell End, and back down into Grange. I'll try and stick some photos on later. The view of the Lyth Valley and the Morecambe Bay is great.

OpenOffice.org 2.0 released.

The new version of OpenOffice.org has been released today. If you're one of those people with a dodgy copy of Microsoft Office 2000, then get rid of it, and download this. Its available for Windows, Linux and OSX. Its open source, and its free. It can import most MS Office files, save in MS Office formats, and uses the latest open file format, Open Document. Open Document has been specified by the State of Massachussetts as one of their approved file formats for public documents, and this will be roled out by early 2007. Critically, Microsofts own, semi-open document format, based on XML, like Open Document, has not been approved. This is a huge boost for the adoption of open standards. Have you ever been in the situation where you need to open a document created by an old version of Word, or, even worse, and old version of Microsoft Works. These formats aren't published, so can't be replicated. Open Document is also supported by the following:

Abiword 2.4
KOffice
Star Office

It is also expected that it will be supported by the Lotus and Corel office suites in the near future.

Thanks to the decision in Massachussetts, Microsoft is now under pressure to provide Open Document support. If it does not, it could find its user base slipping away. On the other hand, if they free users from the tie to MS Office, then they also free many of them from the ties to Windows. What a decision for them to make.

Slugs and Snails and Puppy Dogs Tails

It was parents evening at school this week.

Having twins always makes for an interesting evening. Two children in the same class, same teacher; comparisons are inevitable. Never before though, have we had such a difference between them.

Our daughter is top of the class, ahead of her age in all areas, writing beautiful poetry (well pretty good for a 6 year old anyway). Our son, the teachers feel, is just as bright as his sister. However, he doesn't concentrate, works far too slowly, and plays with other children when he should be working.

We arranged with the teacher that any work he doesn't finish gets sent home with him, so if he's slow at school it eats into his evening. He didn't like that idea. We also told him that if he got into trouble at school again this week he wouldn't go to his grandparents as arranged. The very next day he was in trouble! So, no trip to grandparents for him, and no night out for us!

Busted

Thats the inaugural WilWheaton.Net tournament over, and I..., well I didn't do so well, though, for someone who's only been playing a month, and in their first tournament, I suppose 77th out of 96 isn't too bad.

I tried not to play too many bad hands - I saw the flop 60% of the time, and tried to push things occasionally, which was the thing that saw my demise; that, and my innability to spot the potential for a flush!

Things started well though -on the first hand I was dealt Js 9s; 5 of us limped in, 100 in the pot, and the flop was 8s Ks 4c. The others all checked, but with 4 spades I decided to push things along a bit and made a pot-sized bet. Three of them folded, one called. On the turn 5s showed up, and I had to decide how much to bet. In the small stakes games I had been playing, any big raise seemed to prompt everyone to fold, and I wanted to get off to a good start in the tournament. Unless the other guy was holding the Ace of spade, I had this hand won. He hadn't raised me on the flop, so I guessed he either had a pair of jacks, or maybe two pairs. I made another pot sized raise (300) in the hope of getting him to at least call, then I could try and raise him again, but he folded. Still, winning the first hand was a good confidence booster for me. Things got even better on the next hand - I was dealt As Jc, there were two raises of 80, I called, and there were two aces on the flop! I bet 300, but every body folded on me.

So I'd won the first two hands, obviously I was going to win the tournament :)

Things didn't carry on is this way unfortunately :(

The next few hands I folded on small pots, then along came something worth playing. I had 4d Ah, everyone folds pre flop bar one guy; he raises 80 and I call. The flop is Ts Ad 6s, I check to see what the other guy is up to, he raises 520, and I call. 9s comes along on the turn, he goes all in, and I realise I'm staring down the barrel of a flush. I fold, and lose 600 on the hand!

That leaves me with the short stack on the table. I play it tight, waiting for the good cards to come along. A few hands later a I get a flush on the turn, and everyone folds on me, but I pick up a couple of hundred.

Over the next few hands my chips dribbled away, blinds were up to 25/50, I made a few small preflop raises, and then folded as the flop gave me nothing. Then I thought my luck had changed, I picked up Jd Ac, there was a raise of 50, I called. Flop was Jh 6h Ah. Great, 2 pair, aces and jacks. Theres a bet of 50 across the table, I raise to 100, 1 fold, 2 calls. Turn was 9h, there was a bet of 200, I call. River is Kd, small bet of 50, I go all in. You spotted what I missed? There were three hearts on the table after the turn weren't there? I run straight into an Ace high flush, game over!

You can reads Wil's (far more eloquent) words about the tournament here.

First Poker Tournament

I've just signed up for my first online poker tournament. Wil has set up a tournament for readers of his blog:

What: WWdN Where's My Burrito? Invitational
Where: PokerStars.
When: Friday, October 14th. 4:00 PM EST
Password: monkey
Tournament number: 13722477
Buy-in: $10+1

I was the fourth name on the list - there are advantages to being 5 hours ahead of the US.


Its 9pm BST, should have got dinner out of the way and kids in bed by then, just got to get permission from my wife!

I expect to be either busted out fairly early on, or find myself folding everything and never seeing the flop :)

The only reason I got into poker in the first place was reading WWdN, so I really should take part in his tournament. I've been experiencing wildly fluctuating fortunes in play money games, with luck varying from having 4 aces, to going all in with kings full of aces, and running into aces full of kings! However, I have started to generally increase my pot of play money, and am learnning which hands I shouldn't play.

Sales Success

I've just won my first major contract. Quite by accident really. I don't do sales, I do operations and strategy, but, as the Sales Manager was away when the enquiry came in, I dealt with it, so, that's a 12 month contract worth about £2000 a week, £104,000 a year. Shame I don't get commission isn't it?