Poker: Home Tournament -February 2009

Wow, where do I start ?   Another great game had by all.... a big crowd as well, with Jock and another long term no show, Jon both turning up ;-) so 15 players for the off.

I started off well, with my normal careful start I hit the flop and tripled up which gave me a nice stack to sit back and relax with.    Sean had his normal rebuy every hand kind of start and chips were flying everywhere in the early stages.  Lee also made a good start and got a heap of chips early on.  

Oddly enough both Lee and my stacks seemed to dwindle towards the break, with Steve W and Bill getting the chips.   The hand before the break saw me with A6 and under 1000 chips, so decided may as well stick them in.  I wasn't that worried by Bill's call, but Steve W also went for it.  Turned out Bill was the one to worry about, as his pocket K became quad K by the turn and Bill now has huge chip stack.

After the break, Mick was the first to go- busted by Darren but my luck changed for the better.   Can't remember all the hands now, but I think it was when I busted Jock that my Pocket 4's ended up quads !   The other table also had quad Q's so seemed the pattern of the night...

As the numbers dwindled, I hit another couple of hands and we even saw both Bill and Sean folding post-flop ! but the net effect was that my chips stack was around the 10'000 mark for a good while.  

With 9 players left, Lee was in the Small Blind of 500 leaving him 100 behind.   He astutely folded and found himself outlasting Alex, so maintained his 100% record of points finishes, now a run of 7 games !     His luck ran out on the final table, finding himself on the Big Blind but was impressive finish nevertheless

Having dispatched Lee from the final table, the Big Blind fell to Andy who had less chips than the Big Blind, and Darren promptly dispatched Andy as well !    Steve W was next in line but managed to survive the onslaught.    Peace did not last long, as with Simon all-in on the big blind I raised with A8   Bill called for his few extra chips so three showed their cards...Bill was ahead with A9 and Simon has A2 so looke3d rosy for Bill.  Unfortunately my 8 was the first card shown on the flop and no-one improved so I took out two more players and was very close to chip lead with Derek

With the blinds at 2000/1000, 4 players and Steve W short stacked it was never going to last long... sure enough Steve W got taken out by Darren leaving three for the money and about 10 minutes to play.   I hit a bad run and gave a load of chips to Darren, leaving me in 3rd place with around 10'000 chips.    I then got pocket 8's and raised, with Darren calling me with KJ.  a J spelt disaster for me and I'm out in 3rd.     Felt I played OK but was gutted not to finish better

The final two played for a couple more hands before Derek succumbed to the inevitable 2nd place, Darren taking a deserved victory

It was a great game with lots going on... I know I say that every month but its true !!   That's why we all will be back for more next month :-)

General : Cinema “Revolutionary Road”

We went to our local Vue Cinema to watch the movie “Revolutionary Road” last Saturday

The critics will doubtless describe it as a “thoughtful drama” but we both thought it depressing, sluggish and boring !

Our best hope is that the film wins an Oscar, then we win a couple of free cinema tickets to go see something decent !  (Saw a trailer for “The Boat That Rocked” which looks like a must see for me :-) )

In fairness, I would say it was well acted and had some story to follow, but you would get just as good acting, story and more satisfaction from watching Coronation Street   At least the soaps throw in some humour and you don't have to sit there for 2 hours…..

Poker: January is a miserable month !

The first week of January was good for me in the Poker world.  I was a few bucks up online and cashed in the Monthly live tournament… but them it all went horribly wrong :-)

I was playing almost exclusively $30 and $20 STT tournaments, but just couldn’t seem to cash in on any of them… actually tell a lie, I did come 3rd in one… but not enough to make a difference.   When my Pokerstars funds exhausted 14th Jan, I decided to go back to Ladbrokes for a while.   

It took me a few games to get back into the UI and how to find the right games, but am finding that there are very few players in the games I want to play…. all seems to be $5 turbo games or those double or nothing STT.  

I have ended up playing the odd cash game (which is not my favorite) or the MTT tournaments of various buy in levels (which are good, but take 2 or 3 hours normally).    Actually my MTT performance has been pretty OK, coming 11th of 55 players (top 10 paid!!), 10th of 113 (for a $7 profit after nearly 3 hours play) and 25th of 175 (only the top 20 paid out which was a little disappointing)

Despite losing $100 on Poker, I have managed to maintain my funds by getting lucky at Blackjack and Roulette (I have won around $110 !)  however not only is this not sustainable, but it isn’t the way I want to maintain my bankroll either !

The most annoying thing for me on Ladbrokes is the game selection (or lack of it) so will probably keep enough in to enter a few of the MTT but either go back to PokerStars or PartyPoker where the game selection is much better and can also get back to using  PokerTracker, which doesn’t work at Ladbrokes !!

General: New fitness regime

Now we have got our Home Gym sorted out, Christmas is over and I’m back to the normal regime… thought it was time to review how I’m getting on with it….

I haven’t recorded the heart rates like I did on my previous Gym Update last year, but my current workload looks like this…

Monday (Running)
Run at 6.5mph for 25 minutes, then 12mph for 5 mins, plus 5 minutes cool down.

Tuesday (Rowing)
25 minutes at around 27 spm (there is no resistance adjustment and I am convinced it is harder than the hardest setting on the Concept 2 rower in the David Lloyd gym !) plus 3 minutes cool down.   Cover 3.45 miles

Wednesday (Cycling)
Pedal at around 13mph at level 9 resistance for 10 minutes, then 10 minutes at 14mph at level 10 and finally 10 minutes at 15mph at level 11.  Then do 5 minutes cool down. Cover 7.3 miles

Thursday (Cross Trainer and Weights)
6 minutes at level 2 plus 3 minutes backward peddling (or whatever it is you do on a Cross Trainer!)  Then 9 mins at level 4 plus 3 minutes backwards.   21 minutes in total, covering 1.8 miles

Then do one cycle of weights

15 x 2 reps of Chest Fly (1 weight)
15 x 2 Chest Press (1)
15 x 2 Leg Extension (1)
15 x 2 Lat Pull Down (4)
15 x 2 Ab Crunch (4)

Friday (Swimming or Weights)
As my David Lloyd membership doesn’t run out until end February, I am currently going Swimming on a Friday.  Once membership runs out, I will be doing 2 x cycles of the Weights (described above)

The above is derived from my old gym workout schedule, so the running, rowing and cycling is pretty much what I was doing before anyway… but obviously with differences now on the Cross Trainer and weights.   I am hoping to get the rowing back up to 30 minutes and increase the weights a little bit as I get used to them, but otherwise am expecting the above to be my long term regime

Just got to cut down my fat and sugar intake now :-)

Poker: Investing in Poker Tracker 3

Having had some good hints from using the trial version of the software, I decided to invest the $90 to get the full version of Poker Tracker 3

The software basically keeps track of all the hands you play and allows you to :

• Review your performance and the performance of your foes by interrogating the database of hands played
• more importantly (in my view)… gives you a real time Heads Up Display (HUD) of all kinds of interesting statistics whilst playing

You still need to pay attention to your opponents and put them on hands as normal, but you can see statistics like how many times they enter a pot voluntarily, how many times they raise pre-flop, do they check/raise, and masses of other data.   Once used to the output and verified some of the meanings behind the stats, I have used this information to help decide how to play against my opponents

One of the most interesting things I have noticed is that I seem to enter a lot of pots and my “aggression factor” always seems to be amongst the highest on the table !!    Never really thought of myself as being an aggressive player :-)

If you play the sites that are supported by the software, then you get a 60 day free trial, which allows you to do pretty much everything the full version does…. so in my view, it’s worth a go if you are playing regularly online as you can see if you get on with it and it actually helps your game

Poker: Home Tournament - January 2009

Wow, what a start to the season!

Although it was only last night.... my memory is a bit vague, but due only to the fact that there was so much action on the tables and lots of frivolity, that I am just having trouble recalling the best bits !!

With Martin to my left and Darren to my right... I was always going to have and interesting game... my basic strategy was pretty standard in that I started out steady and let the others go all in if they wanted to (Martin was the first rebuy in the first hand on our table :-) )  I was going pretty steady and managed to win some chips somewhere along the way, then had a run of cards.. first getting QQ but Lee and Darren both called... Lee with KQ and Darren has QJ.  The flop brought a J then the turn saw another J !!  Luckily Darren has a fair bit less chips so I won pot 2 from Lee so wasn't dented too much.    I then took down a pot uncontested with AT  and the next hand got KK and managed to win some chips there as well !   Later on Martin re-raised my raise and we ended up all-in pre-flop.  My KQ wasn't looking good against his QQ but the ladies were not lucky tonight as a K took Martins stack very low

With all the action going on we seemed to get to the final table quite quickly.  I had managed to build a good chip stack of around 12'000 or so and was probably the chip lead... and had even draw the dealer button so could relax for a few hands.

Lee was always in trouble with the short stack (but was in the points again !) and was the first one out from the final table, taken out by Andy.  Andy then took out Bill when Bill decided his T high was good enough to call to catch a bluff (however Andy wasn't bluffing..)

We then seemed to have a phase were the short stacks were doubling up... I remember doubling up Derek somewhere along the line when my A7 was dominated by his A-9... I also gave Andy and Darren a load of chips (I think)

Eventually, with the blinds now at 2000/1000 something had to give....  I managed to take out Derek and get myself back in the running, then just as the time ended Alex took out Andy and gave himself a very healthy looking stack.  

With three hands to play and 4 players left, all with reasonable stacks, it was all to play for.    Simon took out Alex and had a reasonable lead, the 2nd last hand I got KK and was happy when Simon raised.  Darren folded to my all-in.   Unfortunately an A came and reduced me to 1000 chips with one hand to play and that was it as Simon had an unassailable lead and Darren was large amount ahead of me....

It was a great game with loads of action, so a really good start to the year.  I am not sure if the new rule of getting a point for each knockout was in peoples minds during the game, but certainly make the January results a bit closer than they would have been otherwise.... looks to be a cracking season in prospect

Looking forward to the next one already......

Poker: How was 2008 ?

My year started out with the best of intentions and had the motivation of trying to make this a breakthrough year (this was my main hope from my previous end of year reflections)

I did manage to stick to my basic bankroll formula and playing on one site (mainly, just a couple of temporary switches here and there) and also didn’t get distracted by trying to satellite into a big tourney….. however still managed to finish the year down $1155 !

Up to the end of march I was $40 up, but April was a definite downswing for me.  I was playing some games like Omaha and Horse (and also started 8 game) which was a bit of a drain on my resources, but really just had a few games at the $33 level which I didn’t cash in on to give a big dent to my funds.    July was a disastrous month for me, as it started with a big win at $22 level so I foolishly decided to try playing a couple of games at $100 level.   I did win the first game, but lost a couple on the trot to give me only a small profit for the month.  Although I did them drop back down to less giddy stakes, I didn’t cash in on the key games and ended up $100 own on the month, whereas I should easily have set myself up for a sizeable profit… oh well lesson learned :-)

October was the worse month, although in fairness I had decided to allocate some specific (extra) funds to risk in order to try and double up to fund a specific purchase I was keen to make.  Unfortunately my gamble didn’t pay off and so my figures are around $250 more than they would otherwise have been…. although still would have been another bad month!

Nov and Dec I am quite happy with my performance and do seem to have had more consistency for these two months.    For the two months combined I do make a small profit and of the 25 days where I played, 12 were profitable days

Overall, I feel I am playing OK but do need to be a bit more careful about sticking to my Bankroll strategy and my game selection.

In 2009 my aims are to firstly stick to the game level I can bankroll and focus on STT.  My MTT will be very restricted so will try to only play one a week.      I will doubtless play some cash games as well, but only low limit NL Holdem.      The games will primarily be Holdem, but do enjoy the HORSE and 8 Game, so will also continue with these but only for low stakes.     I will probably keep an eye open for the Ladbrokes Poker Cruise as am tempted to go for it again in 2009…..

Poker: Home Tournament - December 2008

It is the last game of the season ....  even though the top spot is already wrapped up, it is a big game for many people and everyone wants to win!

My table started off pretty tight and reasonably quiet with few huge lunges at the pot.   Of course it didn't last all that long with Sean on the table and chips were soon moving around a bit....    I had a flush draw and top pair on the flop with KQc but Derek was betting into it.   I reluctantly called as felt I had to improve to win.... unfortunately I missed my flush draw and Derek had hit trips on the flop, luckily I had only put in half my stack so still in with a chance !

Later on I was up against Bill and Derek, with a draw to a straight this time... luckily for me an A came on the turn to give me the nuts and started betting out, and was surprised when both called my all-in.   My straight held up and so I had tripled up and was now well over the starting stacks.

Sean and Bill seemed to keep running into each other, neither of them necessarily having a great hand... and even splitting the pot between them at least twice during the evening !

After the break things and with the blinds getting significant, the action got more frantic.   Derek hit trip 4's on the flop with A-4 and went all in.  Sean called with a 7 (hitting 2 pair)  so only a 7 could save him.... sure enough it came on the river... (luckily I had folded my K-4 pre-flop!)

We were soon on the final table, and Lee had maintained his impressive 100% record of points finishes so well done to Lee.... lets hope you don't keep it up next season ! :-)

On the final table, I was down to around 2500 chips and in the small blind.    With everyone folding and Bill on the Big Blind decided to lump it all in and (hopefully) at least get my money in ahead.... as it happens Bill made a rare fold so I had some breathing space to build up some chips.   Luckily I had a run of reasonable cards so did manage to accumulate chips.... unlike Darren who called Andy all-in and lost, then split a pot with Sean when they both had A-K (after Andy had lumped all-in with JJ)  then gave a load of chips to Bill when he needed an A or 3 on the river... and a 3 came !

With time running out and action all the way, people were down to the felt.... Lee was all-in twice on the BB but managed to double up both times so was clinging on....

By the last hand, Bill was way in front, I had around 9000 chips, Darren had around 6000 and Lee had around 2100.   Darren went all-in, I had A-3 and felt vulnerable so decided to go all-in... Bill dipped out as he could win by folding and Lee went all-in for his last 100.  Although I was ahead pre-flop, Lee won the lower pot and Darren beat me for the 2nd pot... leaving me in 4th place... !   oh well, that's Poker

So Bill takes his first win of the season, Darren takes another 2nd place and Lee finishes in the money for the 2nd time from 5 tries... well done to all

The end of season league table sees me 18 points ahead of Andy and Alex equal on 49 points, but Andy is given 2nd place on a count back of Wins... you can't get much closer that that !

Well done to all during 2008.... Merry Christmas to all and lets make 2009 another great year of Poker

General : Home Gym

We decided to set up a home gym in the garage, mainly as I am starting to work from home regularly now, but also as Lynn wants to do more keep fit as well.    Due to the coldness, we got the floor boarded and insulated, and put curtains over the garage door (keeping it all temporary so it can be converted back)

We got most of the stuff from Fitness Superstore in Frimley where after extensive research found the kit we had decided on was around the cheapest !   We also had sent off for a brochure, which came with a 10% discount voucher, which we could use on the whole order value.   The one exception was the the Multi Gym which we got from Connection Fitness as it was significantly cheaper….

In the end we decided on the following:-

Weider Pro 2000 Multi Gym
Oxford II CS rower
Life Fitness C1 Cycle
Andes 308 Elliptical Trainer
Bremshey Ambition T Treadmill

The weight machine came first and took about 4 hours to assemble !   The instructions were clear and having used the machine a few times already, it seems to be doing me good !

The remaining kit came a few days later and were less pieces to put together but still a surprising amount of assembly required !   The rower was the worse instructions as it was always a bit of a guess as to what screws/bolts/nuts to use at each stage… but in the end after another 4 or 5 hours of assembly everything is now setup and ready to go !   We did have a slight hitch with the console unit for the Bike… they sent the console for the treadmill instead !    I don’t think you can really judge how a good a company is unless you need to use it’s customer service when things go wrong, and did feel that the Fitness Superstore people reacted well and quickly, with the component swapped over a couple of days later, so all is well now and am happy by the service we received.

I am still going to David Lloyd on work days, as I have to give 3 months notice !! so will not get fully into the new regime until March, but will update on progress as I go

Poker : Home Tournament : November 2008

It's not quite "end of term" yet, but the game tonight had a end-of-term joviality to it for some reason (I only had 1 beer!) but was great to be in that atmosphere.

My poker night started well also as I got Pocket Q first hand, raised got 4 callers (no one respects me anymore!) and hit trips with a Q high rainbow flop. Even more lucky was that Sean decided to call my all-in with nothing, and apart from a brief scare of runner-runner flush was given a comfortable stack to play with.

Lucky for me as I didn't get many cards after that and started to get blinded down, but had plenty of time.

Our table was quite solid with not all that many rebuys, but on the other table Mick seemed to be grabbing more chips every hand !

As the blinds went up, I got involved in a hand where it looked like I was good on the flop (can't remember the exact details now), so managed to get all the chips in but Steve had me well dominated and I needed a ten to save me.....it came on the river and was suitably embarrassed as I gleefully raked in the large pot :-)

Luck always evens out and I later lost an even bigger hand to Derek. I had K9 on a KTx flop. Derek called my all in bet with AT but hit his A to take my stack

As the blinds were going up and we were approaching the last rebuy time, I got dealt K9h and decided to go for it. Unfortunately I got called by Sean and Steve (I think) who had KJ and KQ respectively. Needing a 9 or lots of Hearts, I got lucky again and a third Heart came on the river to give me around 2500 chips as we went to the break !

It had been an exciting night for me and my last hand was no exception.... my A6 on the blind looked a bit light to bet on the flop of 245 but the turn of 3 gave me the straight hit and so made a large pot sized bet. Derek called me and despite the flush coming on river pushed his remaining chips in. Feeling obliged to call, he showed his flush to leave me with 100 chips (with the BB at 200 !) Two hands later I was in the BB and Sean K3 took my KJ out when he rivered trips and I finished 9th.

One of my championship rivals Alex had also got knocked out just before me, so only Andy could mount a challenge for the title.

With 8 players left we were down to the final table. Mick got knocked out my Lee and then quickly went on to put Andy to an all-in decision. Deciding he was ahead Andy called... and was ahead! With Lee needing a ten to win the hand, sure enough it came on the turn and Andy was out in 7th place..... meaning I cannot be caught and have won the 2008 League :-)

Lee, Bill and Derek all had dominating chip stacks so it was inevitable that the others quickly got swallowed up, despite some valiant attempts to survive.

Bill made an all-in lunge at the top but unfortunately his bluff was called by Derek and it was down to the final two.

The heads up battle didn't last all that long. Derek had a huge chip lead but both players were playing it tight and it needed both to hit something to see the final showdown.... and we were not long in waiting. With the blinds at 1000/500 Lee raised on a flop of 92x all diamonds which Derek re-raised all-in. Lee called and shows Ad with a Q Derek had 9-2 (two pair) Lee thought it was his when he hit the nut flush on turn, but river came with a 9 to give Derek a hard fought victory

Phew what a night, the chips were flying around and everyone seemed to be involved...

The final battle of the year is only a month away, and should be a cracker so don't miss it !!

Gadgets: New camera !

Whilst my little Nikon Coolpix L3 (5.1 Megapixels) has been pretty OK for me since I bought it, I have always had a hankering to get a more "serious" digital stills camera. I have still got my JVC DVL365EK digital video camera but never really got into video very much.... and although I had a good "old fashioned" film stills camera (Canon EOS 500N SLR camera) finally decided to take the plunge and go for a Canon EOS 450D Digital SLR (12.2 Megapixels)

After much research and consideration... went for the "Canon EOS 450D Twin Lens Bundle" from Jessops

• Canon EOS 450D with Canon 18-55mm IS lens
• Tamron 70-300mm f4.5-5.6 lens
• Sandisk Ultra II 4GB SDHC memory card
• Camera bag

Taken quite a few shots with it, but still getting used to all the buttons and how to get the best out of the technology.... great fun to use and got some good shots already (well I think so!)..... couple of "artistic" shots below:

 

Just need to get the external flash and remote control now :-)

Poker: Home Tournament - October 2008

I am a bit late with my report this month.... nearly 4 weeks late! 

Actually I don't remember much about it now, so sorry to those who have enjoyed reading about our exploits so far.... but normal service will be resumed next month (next week in fact!)

Holiday : Costa Del Sol – September 2008

Went to our Timeshare apartment for a lovely relaxing week.  

Pretty much the same pattern as last years holiday, apart from the weather which was cooler (around 25 degrees) and we had cloudy mornings three days and a complete cloudy day on the Thursday.  As we had planned to go to Torremolinos market on Thursday it was good that it was cooler, although the market itself was a lot smaller than we had seen in previous years (maybe we are out of season this time!)

I always find this holiday a complete relax whenever we go, although will probably revert back to the normal June time of the year next time we go.

Holiday : UK leg of holiday

This year we couldn’t decide where to go for our main holiday, so decided to take a week in the Sun (next week, so check back for update!)  and also do some things around England for a week.

The weather hasn’t been fantastic, but had a great time at Aldeburgh over the weekend.    Had a couple of walks around town, but wanted to show off the car and see everyone again. 

On Monday we went to Norwich and stayed in a Premier Inn.  The hotel was clean, big enough and functional but was good location and good service.  We arrived around 11am and was able to check-in to the room and had rest of the day to explore Norwich City

After a long day hammering the shops, we had a nice meal and surprisingly good sleep to be refreshed and recuperated for our journey home.  

We took the long route home, which was very relaxing and pleasant, with a long lunch stop in Chelmsford.  Wasn’t my favorite place but had good choice of eating places.

We are now having a couple of relaxing days at home (although just spend loads of money in B&Q and MFI!) and am looking forward to our Sunny holiday next week

Poker: Home Tournament – September 2008

I only have vague memories of the event this month, partly down to the fact that I had a couple of beers, but mainly as I am writing this nearly a week later after a particularly hectic week

We managed to get back into the normal room this month, so was happy about that and also had both Colin and Martin join us for the first time this year… good to see some of the old faces back :-)

I seem to remember having some good luck early on, then letting it dribble away towards the end.   At one point I was worried about making the final table even but luckily for me, Sean and Alex were busy on the other table taking people out and with Karen's cautious play seeing her taken out and Andy’s over aggression getting him taken out in quick succession on my table, we had only 7 for the final table

Martin was pretty short stacked, so I thought I might squeeze into 6th place, but although Martin was first to fall I managed to win a couple of pots and got it up to average stack.   With Roger going out, then Lee and Bill both being taken out by a very aggressive Alex, I suddenly find myself falling into a cash paying position (albeit massive short stack)!

With time running out and being so low on chips, I pushed the panic button and did get quite lucky and crept into 2nd place just above Sean at one point….. unfortunately it didn’t last and got done by Sean.

With three hands to play, there was only 100 chips between the last two… so all to play for.     A very tense last few hands saw Sean win by a tiny margin, but was well fought to the end

The £10 special always sees a very different style of play and today was no different, with solid play throughout.  Back to manic shoving and rebuying next month :-)

Poker: Reading Casino Trip

Went to Reading Casino for the £50+5 No Limit Freezeout tournament yesterday.    The first problem was getting in as due to the Reading Festival, there were people everywhere and was temporary railings blocking access all along the road.  Of course the Casino was open and had a couple of people on the gate to let people in!

I was the first to buy-in and also went for the optional extra 1000 chips for an additional £5, so will be starting with 6000 chips in total.    Whilst waiting for the tourney to start, went on the Roulette.  Had a pleasant half hour with my funds going up and down (well, down then up actually) but in the end decided to cash in when I had got back to my starting level.   Then tried my luck at Blackjack, which went down then up again... so only played around 20 minutes and left the table £10 up !   Then had a final bet on Roulette to try and break even for the night, but lost £50 instead... of well, that's gambling for you :-)

At last it was time for the Poker to start.  There were a total of 20 runners in the end, although several were late comers,  so was never more than 9 players on each table at any one time.  My table was playing mainly tight, with a one chap looking like a novice and one other who was a bit of a chance taker.   I had "Granny" to my immediate left who seemed to call with two high cards and raise with any pair over 8, so seemed easy to read.

As the game progressed I was playing mainly tight but limping in cheap when I could.   My first real hand was poker jacks in early position, so played them fast.  I got one caller and was very happy to see another Jack it the table, but there was a flush draw possibility so bet out again and got called.    The turn paired the board so had the nuts and checked, hoping for some action but it got checked for the river.  The river brought a Q and completed the flush draw, but my bet didn't get any action, bit of a shame but was happy enough to take reasonable pot.

By the first break I was around 8000 chips, slightly over average.   The restart saw me build up my chips a little bit, but then I raised with KJ clubs and had Granny re-raise all-in.    I presumed I was behind but was only another 2500 to call, and sure enough she had AT     She hit T on the flop but a Q came on the turn to give me more outs, but none of them came and I was down to around 4500 chips.

I struggled after that and the next break came when we got down to the final table, and I was around 4000 chips with the average now around 11'000.    Luckily I drew seat 8 so had some time before the blinds came round.   With 10 players there was a reasonable amount of action so didn't get any opportunity to make a move.   

Another player went down when Granny got pocket 8's and went all-in.   Pocket 8's had been the pair of the night, having seen them showdown (and win!) at least 3 times before, and sure enough Granny took the pot and we're down to 9 players

With the blinds now 800/400 and approaching me fast, I look down at A-Q offsuit.  With the UTG player limping in and the next two players folding, I stick my chips into the middle and only get called by the UTG player... but he has got the dreaded pocket 8's !   Sure enough I don't improve (he actually made a straight on the river as well) and I am out in 9th.   (only the top 3 places paid out)

After a quick consolation go on Roulette, I end up having played in the Casino for over 4 hours at a total cost on the night of £50... which isn't bad in my view. 

On reflection, I think I played OK and didn't make any huge mistakes.   Had a couple of chances to get chips and would have played the final hand the same way with the cards face up.... so not a bad nights poker either.  

General: London trip

This weekend the weather forecast wasn’t great, and being bank holiday was bound to rain :-)  so decided to go to London for the day.

Although we didn’t want to buy anything specific, our plan was to start out in Camden Lock Market, then go to Trafalgar Square for the festival being held there there and also look in the National Gallery. mostly because we hadn’t been to either place before.

Got the train from to Waterloo and the tube up to Camden and got to Camden Lock Market about midday.   Had a good walk about and Lynn bought a dress…. I nearly bought some jeans but found they didn’t take credit card (and didn’t have any cash!) so missed out on the bargain…   Weather was warm and sunny so was very pleasant walking around and had a nice lunch there as well.

Feeling refreshed, we decided to walk back to Trafalgar Square, which took 45 mins or so, but allowed us to stroll through some parts of London we hadn’t seen before and was interesting to see what was going on.

On arriving at Trafalgar Square we wanted to see what was going on.  There were a lot of people and a large screen showing the Olympics, but apart from a few people prancing around in leotards there wasn’t much happening…. so went into the National Gallery.    Neither of us had been before, so was interesting to look around.  I was a little disappointed at first as all the pictures seemed to be religious, with a few mythological scenes thrown in, after all once you have seen one picture of Christ's crucifixion, you have seen them all!     We persevered and the second part of the gallery had more of what I was expecting to see, with Constable, Turner, Van Gogh and the other famous painters all being represented.  

We then went onto Hamleys to have a nose around like we normally do, but didn’t get tempted to make any purchases.

As time was marching on, we decided to march on as well, so walked back to Waterloo via the Hungerford Bridge Footway.  We were both glad of the rest by the time we got onto the train, and didn’t even need to walk far for our dinner as we stopped at Jagz in Ascot where we needed to change trains anyway.   All in all, a very nice trip out and even the weather stayed nice :-)

Gambling: Golden Tiger online casino

Last week I got a "gold" CD through the post from Golden Tiger online casino.  I am normally skeptical about these sorts of "offers" but this introduction offer seemed to be offering me £1500 for free.... surely too good to be true, but my curiosity got the better of me :-)

On further investigation, you actually get £1500 PLAY chips to spend on their casino games and have one hour to use these chips to try and increase your stake... keeping anything over the £1500 that you win (although it turned out the maximum win was £200)

I thought "why not, its a bit of fun" so had a go at the roulette.   I fired up the software on Monday and was pretty lucky,  ending up winning £200 so seemed like I was quid's in.

Of course on reading the full terms and conditions, you can't just withdraw the £200 bonus, you have to deposit at least £40 and then cycle through the bonus 30 times before you can withdraw it (actually more times than this if you play anything other than the slot machines!!)

Having won the £200 it seemed silly not to continue, despite the restrictions.... so tried to deposit £40.   Unfortunately it wouldn't allow me to register a debit or credit card... apparently I am some sort of risk !    After talking to Support online and emailing various people, they ended up telling me a couple of days later that I couldn't use a card, so would have to use an e-pay method, such as Neteller.   I wasn't particularly impressed but on Friday (yesterday) went ahead and setup a Neteller account and made the deposit there.   

The next twist in the tale was that when trying to deposit in the Casino using my Neteller account I still couldn't make the deposit, although soon realised this was because of Neteller's security processes so had to talk to Neteller's Support to get my account properly opened.

Phew, now at last I have got my deposit into the Casino, but wait a moment, where is my £200 bonus ???!!!  Another conversation with Support later, and it turns out it can take up to 2 hours for the bonus to be registered in your account, rather than the 30 minutes advertised....   After an impatient wait, finally my account gets updated with my £200 bonus and at last can start playing some games for real money to capitalise on my "free" funds!!

As it had taken about 2 hours of waiting and calling, I only spent a little bit of time playing roulette again (this time for real!)   After a bit of losing and a bit of winning, ended up logging off after about 20 minutes play, with exactly £240 - the same as I started with... on well, at least it is mainly their money and I'm having fun :-)

Today (Saturday) I had a quick 15 mins playing the 5 card poker and after a bit of losing and a bit of winning logged off with £241... a profit is a profit....

So has it all been worth it so far ?      I was wondering at one point whether I would ever get to see my bonus, but I normally judge the quality of an organisation by the service you get when things go wrong.... and in fairness both Golden Tiger and Neteller their Support and response times were prompt,  professional and were able to solve the issues being experienced - so I am happy and confident to use these organisations

As far as the gambling goes, I am realistic enough to expect that I will probably blow my £40 and leave it at that, but you never know...  I might double up and then be able to make a sizeable withdrawal... either way I am sure I will get many hours of entertainment from the games.   Lets see what happens.......

Poker: Home Poker Tournament - August 2008

Slightly surprised to turn up at the club and find our room full of furniture !   Seems like there is some refurb going on, so had to setup the tables in the main club room.   Ended up being OK as the club wasn't that busy.   Also had the effect that Andy didn't swear or stomp about at all, no matter what happened !!

There were two tables of six this time, with Lee joining us for the first time.    On my table were Bill, Steve, Andy, Darren and Simon.    The game started fairly typically with lots of calling and at least one person all-in for the first few hands.   Luckily for me, when I got involved early on with J-T suited I flopped a straight against Steve and Andy.  Despite my going all-in both called me and I pretty much tripled up which set me up for the early part of the game.   I was then able to sit back and pick my moments and build up my stack slowly.   

Meanwhile Andy was having a bit of a mare, going all-in with almost any two cards, or not hitting the flop when he did have a hand, so was in rebuy city!

Overall my luck went up and down.  I don't remember much of the detail now, but was calling with medium hands and raising with good hands so played solidly.   Bill amassed a reasonable stack, but then called them off against Darren on some wild chase of a runner-runner flush, leaving him down to the felt and rebuying a lot.   

At the break, I had a reasonable stack of around 3500 but Darren had chip leave of around 6000, but the other table had been rebuying more than us and all seemed to have around 5000 or more !

First hand after the break saw Bill chasing with A-T but Darren had hit the flop already and Bill was left with 300 chips.   Typical of his luck, I raised from the SB to put him all-in and his 6-3 was dominated by my Q-6  but we both ended up with a straight to split !   It didn't last much longer for Bill as he went out first on the table after a spirited defence

I had been playing pretty tight and was starting to get a little low.  There were at least 3 hands where I would have won the pot if I hadn't folded so was feeling a little under pressure.   I was a bit card dead so wasn't getting any good spots, but despite my fears other players getting knocked out on the other table suddenly saw us down to the last 8 and I'm in the points !

The final table sees me on the SB with around 3500, 2nd lowest to Andy who has 700.    Sean, Alex and Lee join us from the other table, but they all bring a bundle of chips with them.   Simon and Darren from my original table are holding their own and Steve in the BB has around 2000 odd

The first hand on the final table sees Steve all-in but gets busted by Alex, who is probably the chip lead by now.    Andy is delighted as it gives him another point, but he is all-in the next hand and manages to double up to give him a respite.   As it happens it just gives him more chips to give to Alex who busts him out the next hand!

With the blinds up to 500/1000 and still low on chips, I need to get busy so go all-in with pocket 3's.  Lee calls with K-5 on the BB and neither improve so I have got a reasonable stack of chips now.   Lee is a now the short stack so goes all-in and is called by Sean.  Lee's A-A against Sean's J-8 looks in good shape, even when a 8 comes on the flop, but a J on the river takes Lee out in a very respectable 6th place

With the blinds hurting, Simon is all-in with T-T but gets done by Darren's A-K and we are down to 4 players for the last blind level (1000/2000)     I start to get some luck at this crucial stage and manage to take Sean out.  This also leaves the remaining 3 on roughly the same chip stack.

Play gets a little cagey for a few hands, but with time running out the status quo was not going to last long.   Sure enough I get a bit fruity with my Q-J suited, but am behind to Alex's A-K   The flop is kind to me by giving me a Q but there is plenty of outs for Alex... luckily for me they don't come and I take Alex out and get a huge chip lead.

With just two hands to play I have the luxury of being able to fold and win... luckily for me I get rubbish cards so don't feel embarrassed by folding both hands face up and take the win for the night

It was a really good game (not just because I won!) and seemed to me that everyone was playing well tonight.   I just happened to catch cards at the right time, which gives me the tournament lead for the moment, but there is still plenty of games left for anything to happen.

Roll on next month !

General: Fitness, half year report

In my previous report I was doing OK, but having just had a BUPA health check decided to capture my current stats to see how I compare.   The BUPA health check results for my fitness were pretty good, so just got to improve my eating habits to cut down on fat, sugar and all the other stuff that tastes nice !!  (there is always something they pick up on!)

Monday (Running)
Run at 10 kph for 25 minutes, then 12kph for 5 mins, plus 5 minutes cool down. Total of 5.16 km covered (excluding the cool down)    Heart rate peak at 180 bpm

Tuesday (Rowing)
25 minutes at around 30 spm, then 5 mins at 35 spm, plus 3 minutes cool down.   All done at maximum resistance    Cover 5440 metres.   Heart rate peak at 161 bpm

Wednesday (Cycling)
Pedal at around 80 rpm at level 11 resistance for 10 minutes, then 10 minutes at 85 rpm at level 12, the 10 minutes at level 13 at 90 rpm, plus 5 minutes cooldown. Cover 13.88 km.   Heart rate peak at 163 bpm

Thursday (Swimming)
Swim 25 lengths in around 25 minutes. Do alternate breast stroke and crawl, with 1 minute rest after each set of 10 lengths.

Friday (Running again)
Same activities as Monday, but didn't measure this time round.

Interestingly the rowing is less distance, so must be putting in less effort !   Otherwise the results are around the same as in February, which kind of makes sense.

Just need to keep going at my current rates, but maybe try to pull a bit harder in the rowing.