Littleacornman's poker n life blog

Ten Years of Blogging

noreply@blogger.com (Littleacornman) — Sat, 09 May 2015 15:05:00 +0000

I guess the post title is technically true although I'm not sure posting a few times a year really counts as proper blogging. Social media seems to have replaced blogging for the most part anyway and I notice my blogger spell checker doesn't even recognise the word "blogging" any more and suggests "bogging" which might well be more appropriate for this blog!

I had a wee look back over some old posts last night and realised how little I care about all the actual poker content I've posted over the years.It's the stuff about family,friends ( online and irl as the kiddies say) and relationships that catch my eye and make me smile or wince. It's a bit like the lesson I've learned about taking personal photo's and vids ( not that kind!). It's the people in them who count and pics of amazing skylines or views from hotel balconies are pretty dull on their own. I noticed that most watching old cine film my Dad recorded when I was a kid of old houses we lived in.Plenty of boring bricks and mortar footage and only the occasional priceless glimpse of my long passed grandparents.

Anyway life is still going pretty well for me. Nearly nine months with the new Mrs Acorn and things couldn't be better.Christmas and New year were amazing and after a wonderful week in Lanzarote back in Feb we're off for some 4 Star luxury in Tenerife next month. I do feel a bit guilty as I mentioned "keeping a diary" before Xmas and she bought me a beautiful 2015 paper one as a present which I've not touched.Not yet explained I meant an online one and as close as we are I'm not sure I want to expose 10 years of thoughts,feelings and pish about poker to anyone other than my current small link spamming readership.

It has taken me a bit of time to adjust to being in a relationship again and to learn to read properly between the lines during some of our conversations.Ask how she is and "good" means "good"."Absolutely fine" on the other hand means I'm in the bad books!

We're not living together yet but that's going to happen for sure very soon and we get on so well I don't have too many worries about how things will go.( although I guess it's always a bit of a gamble)

I don't do much politics in this blog but seeing as it was election day on Thursday I will say I'm disappointed both by the Tories winning an overall majority and by the SNP winning nearly every seat in Scotland. I do wonder what planet some people are on though when I saw hashtags like "ThankYouEd" on twitter.Yeah thankyou for not being self aware enough to let your brother stand instead of you and thanks for being shit enough to let those smug pricks Cameron and Osbourne in for another 5 years. I did still vote Labour but it was mainly a pro-union anti SNP vote than out of being inspired by their leader or policies. I won a few quid betting on Cameron to win the Tory leadership contest a few years back and looking at the Labour party their best hope by far is Chuka Umunna although if they were daft enough to choose Ed over David perhaps it's not worth betting on.

On the football front if someone had told me Rangers would be playing Queen of the South in a play-off game in the First Division and that we'd be best to keep it tight in the first leg because we're so pish I'd probably have laughed in their face. Here we are though and I just hope we can get through the play-offs,get back to the top league and with the right coaching and investment our great club can regain our rightful place at the top of Scottish football.( always good to win a two drunks chasing a balloon contest!)

Ok,thanks for reading.Time to walk Nacho and get ready for the big game..

Good Place

noreply@blogger.com (Littleacornman) — Thu, 27 Nov 2014 22:42:00 +0000

Life ( touch wood!) is pretty damn great at the moment and I can't remember the last time I felt so genuinely happy with my lot.Things are still going brilliantly with my new girlfriend despite her recent gift of a lovely top that says "I don't need the internet my missus knows everything"! We've even planned for her to move in to my place sometime early next year and as someone who has always considered myself to be fiercely independent it's a strange feeling to be really looking forward to that happening.This compromising lark isn't always the easiest right enough but I'm sure I'll get the hang of it.Who wants to watch the Spanish football on a Sat night when there are minor celebs poncing around on some dance floor anyway eh?! She's actually pretty good about the football to be fair and doesn't mind a bit of COD either so I've won a bit of a watch there.

Anyway enough gushing on like a love sick puppy! Work is going well too.I did a bit of covering social media for the works business customers back in July and must have made a good impression as me and another guy are now the ones who respond to business customer tweets and Facebook posts.It's quite high profile and for the most part I'm loving it.Sure there's an awful lot of complaints and aggressive wankers to deal with and I've usually got a few IM conversations going and tweeting at the same time but the days are flying in and even though I'm back working with a manager who made my life hell a couple of years back I've wised up a bit since then and so far I'm "playing the game" with her much better this time around and we're getting on well.I would still love to have an "honest tweets" day where I could tell some of our biggest troll like customers to dry their fuckin' eyes but unless I win the lottery and it's my last day I guess that's never going to happen..

Not been playing much poker.I've lost my Goldstar status on Pokerstars and I doubt I'll even have played enough games to make Silverstar this month but I can't say I'm really that bothered.I get to play when I'm not seeing the missus and when she is here and crashes out early ( and thankfully sleeps through anything) I fire up a few smokes and hit the tables.

Ok thanks for reading.Back soon...

The Online Dating One Outer

noreply@blogger.com (Littleacornman) — Mon, 15 Sep 2014 14:21:00 +0000

Being of a slightly pessimistic nature part of me was holding off writing this as the old adage about if something can go wrong it usually does seems to apply to me quite regularly! But hey stuff it things are going well and I feel like writing about it!

I mentioned a girl in my last post who cancelled a date on me and I said I may get back in touch with her.Well after quite a few months of texting and missed chances we did finally arrange a date last month.Even then it still nearly went wrong.She said she would be in a pub in town and I said I'd text her when I got parked up and the plan was that she would reply and let me know which pub.I did text and twenty five minutes and no reply later I was just about to head home when she text me the pub name and said she hoped it would be ok as her pal was there.Now she had come straight from work and I could kinda understand her being with a pal but I genuinely thought it would a case of meet up,exchange a few pleasantries and most likely never see each other again.

I entered the pub and having looked around and not seeing two girls sitting together I very nearly headed for the exit before my girls pal spoke up and said my date was at the toilet and would be back in a minute.Turns out I knew a couple of folk she knew so we chatted for a couple of minutes before my date turned up.She had looked pretty hot in her online pics but when I saw her for real I was completely blown away.We just clicked right from that moment and talked and kissed as if we'd known each other for years.( her pal left pretty quickly!) Didn't take long to forgive her for keeping me waiting ( her phone was left on silent by mistake) and we've been on a few amazing dates since then.She says we are both "smitten" and that's exactly how it feels.Not felt like this for a very long time so hopefully this is for real!

I did read a quote I liked last week ( author unknown although it did appear on a Banksy fan twitter account) that says "A comfort zone is a beautiful place but nothing ever grows there" and although the whole new relationship thing is taking me slightly out of my comfort zone everything feels pretty natural so far.

The other good news is that my 2 week holiday from work starts today.Good time to catch up with friends/family,enjoy some late nights playing poker and of course to see my girl.
Not much to report on the poker front.Still playing too many tables most of the time and probably not paying enough attention either.Too busy watching Orange is the New Black ,Justified and listening to podcasts.

It's amazing what you can discover from podcasts though.I found the Joe Rogan Experience because he interviewed top poker pro Isaac Haxton and after really enjoying that one I downloaded the ones with Louis Theroux ,Jim Jefferies and Doug Stanhope mainly because Rogan has US comedians I've never heard of on his show.I went for one with a guy called Scroobius Pip because the bio said he was British.Described as a UK spoken word poet and hip hop artist he certainly came across as a fascinating interesting guy.Here's the link to the pod.

It was only a couple of weeks after listening to it that I decided to check his music/poetry out properly on youtube and fuck me his stuff is good! I'm quite set in my ways when it comes to new music etc this guys passion and lyrical ability is just brilliant.My favourite line ( discussed in the podcast) so far is "You see a mousetrap,I see free cheese and a fucking challenge".I'll link a couple of tracks from youtube at the foot of this post.

I suppose I'd better mention the independence referendum too before I finish.I'm firmly in the No camp as I don't believe in money trees and SNP fantasy bollocks.I do believe ( despite Cameron and co being a a bunch of knobs) that Scotland is better off in the Union and hope my fellow Scots feel the same way when it comes to the vote this Thursday.The sooner it's over the better though as some of the stuff being spouted on both side at the moment is truly embarrassing.If you don't agree with someone voting the opposite way you're now an idiot retard or even a racist! Thankfully my friends are a reasonably sensible bunch if we disagree on the vote it's not going affect our friendship.That's the way it should be!

Ok thanks for reading and enjoy the Scroobius Pip vids....

Failure to Comminicate

noreply@blogger.com (Littleacornman) — Sun, 27 Jul 2014 14:40:00 +0000

Thanks to BC n Kaz,Dudley and Juice for the comments left on my last post which once again I've just caught up with after logging into Blogger for the first time in ages.

Part of growing up is the struggle to find out who you really are and who your true self really is.It probably took me until my 30's to realise that I'm not this or that and like everyone else I'm just a whole bunch of contradictions rolled into one imperfect human and to be comfortable with that.

I feel a bit that way about loneliness. I've spent most of my adult life living on my own and I suppose in today's society that can only be a lose/lose situation.I either get to be happy and at ease spending time by myself which means I must be a weirdo/loner or I'm supposed be some kind of sad case who sits at home craving more human contact.

They say if you keep doing always you've always done you'll keep getting what you always got and I think I'm still trying to work out if that's a good or bad thing.In some ways I think I fear boredom far more than being alone.That's why I like to have a smoke and fire up a load of poker tables because I have no time to dwell on anything when I'm frantically clicking buttons all night in a semi-comatose state.With that said it's not just an escape.I loved catching up with friends and family during my two weeks off in June but I also absolutely loved having the World Cup on tv,rolling a few spliffs up and drinking some fine green tea while playing poker.

I still smoke about an oz of weed per month ( only on Fri/Sat/Sun) and have found cutting Sundays out my smoking schedule harder than I thought it would be and again I think that's simply down to boredom.If only there wasn't that horrible Monday hazy brained stoneover to deal with!

Anyway enough of that shit for now.This is supposed to be a poker blog.

I finally got a new laptop a month or so back so can now play a load of tables and run Pokertracker without any trouble.I had over a million hands on my old laptop and I finally sussed out how to show my expected Big Blinds Earned v my actual Big Blinds earned and although that in no way ever tells the full poker story it was almost a relief to see a very large gap between the two figures.If Aston Martin dealers took Sklansky dollars I'd have a few parked outside!

Running badly does not excuse the fact it's taken me until very recently to learn that simply put I'm not a good enough player to play 12-14 tables at a time continuously and still win money. I've made one small change to what I do and so far it's paying off and I wish I'd realised ages ago.Now instead of always having as many as 14-16 tables always on the go I may start a session by still firing up that many tables but now I play them in sets and only start loading more tables when I'm down to 3-4 tables.It's 45/180 ( $8 and $15) turbo's I'm still playing and not continually adding new tables means I can really focus when those 16 starting tables becomes 3-4 final tables.Bubble time and Final tables are where the money is made and being able to actually pick up reads and follow the game flow instead of just relying on the HUD has helped me hugely.

I was down to just a few tables last weekend when I had my best Mtt result in a while,coming 4th in a $16,$10K Gtd turbo for just over $2k.I'm actually still haunted a bit by the final hand of that tourney.When 4 handed the table had all agreed to discuss a deal and it folded to me in the small blind holding K5.Instead of folding and waiting for a host to come and give us the numbers for a chop I decided the Big Blind would never be calling me lightly ( he'd suggested the deal in the first place) in that spot and shoved my chips in the middle.I had him covered but he snap called with A10,I lost the hand and was out a few hands later.( any deal having been called off by one player because my stack was crippled)Still a nice wee cash though!

I also made the final table of the $9.90 tourney last night where only that final table pays out and came 7th after my Aces were busted by 53 rivering a straight.I had min-raised with under 10BB which must have looked as strong as hell but the big stack flat called from the small blind and then called my shove ( just under a pot size bet) on the flop when he hit his five.Should I just have shoved preflop especially as the pay jumps are very steep? Maybe.

Not much else going on outside poker.I was chatting to one girl and had a date lined up when she texted to say she wasn't well and couldn't make it.She did text again over a week later to ask about meeting again and I blanked it ( we'd been chatting for a few months and I just had a feeling she was wasting my time) but maybe I'll get back in touch and see if she's still interested.I think maybe there's still a nagging feeling with me that I need to sort my own head out first before letting someone else into it!

Still missing Breaking Bad and was jealous as hell of my mate the Big Chap who sent me a text last night to say he's just starting it on Netflix. Almost makes me want to start all over again with it too.No spoilers but safe to say it's one series that just gets better and better with each season.Loved this clip from the first episode.All so innocent back then...

I don't think anything will ever get close to Walt,Jess and co but I'm loving Orange is the New Black on Netflix too at the moment.Very well written,some amazing characters ( love Crazy Eyes and the stunning Alex Vause) and I love the way it teases the viewer into thinking it's a comedy one minute and a drama the next.Plenty of hot Lesbo action too for those that like their diversity to be visually driven!

Still plodding along at work and for the most part still dealing with complaints.I have also been the voice of twitter for the companies business customers recently and I've quite enjoyed doing that for a change as for the most part I'm just filtering enquiries and complaints to the right teams and not having to actually deal with them.We do get some nutters tweeting at us and sometimes it's hard to reply with how "sorry to hear that" when I'd much rather tell them to "fuck off and get a grip,there's more to life than you crying over some defective product or service".I'd probably run out of 140 characters quite quickly with the honest approach though!

Also still having fun playing with my wee nephew every week although I'm probably not in my sisters good books again.After teaching him he was allowed to be messy and if anyone asked why he replied "because I'm three", he has now turned 4.He usually remembers to say please and thank you but has now been fully trained to respond with "NOW!" while banging the table if he forgets and is asked "what's the magic word".Uncle Acorn is going to hell....

March-ing On

noreply@blogger.com (Littleacornman) — Wed, 05 Mar 2014 20:17:00 +0000

Just logged on to blogger for the first time in a while and saw Dudleys comments waiting to be published along with some fine spammy ones and thought it's about time I updated this wee space of mine.

Not very much to report on the poker front.Still spending most Fri/Sat nights enjoying a puff and 12-14 tabling sngs and mtt's.My laptop has taken to overheating when I play 12+ tables and use Pokertracker at the same time so I'll probably have to bite the bullet and fork out for a new one soon as I can't be doing with 5 mins out the game at a time while the damn thing reboots.I've been using PT and the HUD a lot less as a result and it certainly shakes things up a bit not having basic stats on my opponents to refer to when auto-piloting a load of tables.In some ways I think it's helped my play as it can be too easy to make assumptions based on basic stuff like preflop raise percentages and overall VPIP when even a loose player might tighten up at certain stages of the game and most 12/10 nits know when to open up and raise a lot more these days too.Good to be thinking about game factors when trying to quickly assign ranges and stuff rather than just going by stats.

Away from the poker life has been pretty dull in all honesty.Spending far too much time online browsing twitter and football forums and not enough time doing anything worthwhile.Nearly finished season 3 of The Walking Dead though and I'm certainly loving it so far.Slots in a alongside The Shield in my top three box sets watched so far with Breaking Bad still way out in front at number one....bitches!

Reckoned it was time to force myself back into the online dating thing again.Decided not to go for the honest approach and write an ad stating I'm just a "balding bloke in his 40's who plays Call of Duty all week and likes to smoke weed and play poker all weekend.Works,comes home, flakes on couch and due to most friends being married or living miles away has very little social life whatsoever.Top Flappy Bird score of 28".Aye what a catch!

Of course I do still have the number of a girl I was engaged to years back who wanted to meet up again last year but while we had fun when we did get back together for a one nighter she's probably not the girl for me and I don't want to mess with her head just for the sake of getting my end away!

Ok thanks for reading.Back soon...

U Mad? He Mad

noreply@blogger.com (Littleacornman) — Sat, 21 Dec 2013 13:26:00 +0000

Seeing as Dudley and I seem to to be the only fish left updating poker blogs and he's just posted I thought I'd write a wee update here too.

Pokerwise not much has changed since my last post.Still spewing off stacks on the rare occasions I get deep in Mtt's and still enjoying 12 tabling the 45/180 turbo's too.Played 1015 sngs last month and 198 Mtt's and have now earned just over 41k in Vpp's for the year which considering I only play at weekends means...I need to get out more!

I did have a much needed decent night at the felt last night,coming second in a couple of $8 ,180 turbos and 7th in the $13.50 KO $8k Gtd on Stars for $460.

I don't get much time to chat when playing 12-14 tables in one stack but if you're reading this then thanks to BerekDoyd ( I think that was the name!) who happened to mention he liked my blog in the chatbox.I was rolling a number at the time and lost track of the table before I got a chance to say anything so please don't think I was being ignorant!

The only other chat that made me smile recently was when I sucked out v an Aussie player who didn't take it well and spent at least the next ten minutes spamming the chat with "Pommy Faggot" over and over.I very rarely say anything but I did manage a "u mad?" followed by a "he mad" just to wind the guy up even more.I do still love the anti-social, no bullshit nature of online poker where you can have a table of people from literally all over the world and nobody says a word to each other.Maybe that says more about me!

I ended up going back to the real cigs recently but I've just ordered a Tornado V3 E-cig Starter kit and hopefully it'll be a bit better than the VIP e-cig I was using before.I still enjoy smoking some fine green herb at weekends although come the new year I'm going to cut out the Sunday puffing and keep it for Fri/Sat only as it's almost half way through Tuesday before I feel properly awake most weeks at the moment!

Right I'm off to go and see Step A and to pick up a Xmas tree!

Nothing Stops This Train

noreply@blogger.com (Littleacornman) — Thu, 07 Nov 2013 21:16:00 +0000

Seeing as I've now been playing real money poker online for over nine years and as this is the longest blogging break I've taken, I thought I'd throw up a wee post.No bullet points to work from or anything.Just gonna let it all hang out a bit!

Still playing poker at the weekends and it's been back to my usual Mtt bad beats,coolers and plain old bad plays so nothing decent to report on that front. I'm still haunted by a hand I played with about 14 players left in large field $5 tourney a couple of months back when I called with 22 from the big blind v a small blind shove.I remember thinking I'm very likely ahead and winning the hand would give me a huge stack but it was a stupid call and it's not been the only one I've made recently! In sng's a daft call/move can be forgotten about because it's easy to move on to the next game but playing like a donk when I finally do get lucky enough to make it through a large mtt field is just burning money.Realising I'm pretty much an Mtt donk has meant I'm trying to cut back on them and stick to 12 tabling 45/180 turbo sngs. These games don't have thrill of a the possible big pay day but pwning bubbles is always fun and despite the games being tougher it's still possible to do that at low stakes without meeting much resistance.

Sitting here scratching my face as I write this because I'm doing the Movember thing and as I'd look really silly with just a 'tash I'm going for the full Heisenberg season 5 look.Finally finished Breaking Bad a few weeks ago and ( no spoilers) it has easily replaced "The Shield" as my all time favourite dvd boxset. So many memorable scenes and quotes!

Anyway bitches that's all for now.

Fish on a Heater

noreply@blogger.com (Littleacornman) — Sat, 17 Aug 2013 13:50:00 +0000

Good weekend at the felt last week.After nearly 8 years of real money online play it finally felt like I was on a heater! If I wasn't such a logical guy I'd assume the guy Stars employs to think up new and creative ways to screw me over on the virtual felt must have been on holiday! I only played the $1 Rebuy because @DannyN13 had mentioned the tourney in one of his TPE training vids.$2k for 1 rebuy and 1 add on isn't a bad return! I did get lucky too though and won 20/22 hands at showdown by the time I made the final table.It'll probably be another 8 years before that happens again.

I was 28/29 at one point after losing a big flip with AQ v JJ and with 14 left got it in with AQ v A10.The flop came A 10 6 and after a blank on the turn I thought it was goodnight Vienna until a beautiful Queen hit on the river.99 held v A3 after that and I was at the final table from 16000 starters sitting 7th from 9.

It was $690 for 9th and just over $1k for 8th and with one guy having a tiny stack I was put in a few tough ICM spots where I held back from making moves in order to move up the pay ladder.After he crashed out and I was 7/7 I shoved J10s and was called by KJ and that was that.I do think overall I could have been a bit more aggro at the final table but I was also trying not to do anything rash and I don't think I missed too many spots.I'd also got lucky to get there ( shoved 52 blind on blind into A4 and rivered a straight with about 50 players left)and just felt happy with a decent nights work.

I was hoping the heater would continue last night but unfortunately it was back to the usual beats and coolers.Mtt's are very much like sifting through shite for gold.Disgusting,horrible and nasty most of the time with the very occasional moment of pure joy when hitting a decent score.

Right off to to watch the Rangers game...

July Update

noreply@blogger.com (Littleacornman) — Sun, 07 Jul 2013 14:49:00 +0000

Well my two weeks off work flew in and it feels like I was never away.It's weird because the night before I was due back at work I was absolutely fine and not giving it a second thought and then I spent the rest of the week after I started back in a deep pit of despair!I have applied for another job doing something a bit different from dealing with complaints and staying on the same grade I'm on.I was part of a downgrading at the start of the year but have ended up doing the same job as those on a higher salary due to the best corporate excuse of the 21st Century,"Business needs".

On the poker front I've now played over 700k hands since Sept 2010 and although I've had a few deep Mtt runs and the occasional final table recently I think I need to give up on those games for now and focus on building a roll playing 45 and 180 player turbo's.( $7's and $15's) I can pretty much play up to 16 of the 45/180 turbo's on auto-pilot whereas when I do the same with Mtt's I'm missing a ton of important game flow stuff and have to rely mainly on my HUD.Mtt's are just so much more fun to play but who needs fun when there's money to be made!

Right,the Wimbledon final is on just now and it's far too nice a day to be writing blog posts.Come on Andy!

Bring Me Sunshine

noreply@blogger.com (Littleacornman) — Thu, 06 Jun 2013 20:36:00 +0000

I thought I'd throw up a wee post to celebrate that happy day tomorrow when I punch the air as I leave work knowing it'll be two weeks before I have to go back to my office monkey routine.Not going anywhere but just looking forward to the break and hoping the sun stays out for the duration.Things have actually been going reasonably well at work.I get on well with the new boss I've had since January and she gave me an excellent annual appraisal ( not that I care but it makes for an easier life).

Not much else going on really. I've been off cigarettes now for 3 weeks and using the electronic ones instead and so far I'm feeling far better for it. I've now discovered I can just hold the vapour in my mouth without having to inhale and I I'm still enjoying my herb at the weekends ( and probably for most of the next two weeks) but 4 non smoking days out of seven is a step in the right direction and if I can bring myself to shell out a small fortune for a top quality vapouriser for my weed then maybe I'll quit smoking entirely. I've vaped weed before and it was ok but I must admit I do enjoy rolling and smoking when I hit the virtual felt at weekends.

On the poker front I've now played over 200,000 hands this year and earned 13,500 Vpp's. After an awful run at the start of the year things seemed to have turned round a bit too. I'm now mixing in a ton of 45/180 player turbos ( $7's and $15's) when I'm not playing Mtt's and although it's taken me a while ( I specialised in 18 player turbos back in the day) I think I'm starting to adapt my push/call ranges to the games as they are today.With more regs and less fish it's certainly not quite as easy as it was to run over the table around the bubble but there's still a huge edge to be had at that crucial stage of the game and with variance being such a bitch for everyone there's more chance of there being some fish left to stomp all over in the larger field multi-table sng's like the 45's and 180's.

I've also continued to play in the twitter @RFCfanspoker play money game I mentioned in my last blog post.Before these games I hadn't played with play money since I started back in 2004 and although I've won a couple they certainly take a bit of adjusting to as there's no cash at stake and nobody seems to have a fold button!See my previous post if you're not a tim and fancy a free fun game on Stars.

For anyone interested I'm still spouting crap on twitter: @heavysprinkles.

Ok,thanks for reading.Back soon...

Cold Fact

noreply@blogger.com (Littleacornman) — Sat, 11 May 2013 14:16:00 +0000

The monthly VIP points statement from Stars shows I played 514 Sngs in April and 252 Mtt's.Not bad for a weekend warrior! I mentioned before my poker goal of achieving the $100k in cashes badge on Pocket Fives and I'm over half way there now at $58,419 in total tourney cashes.Of course as they say in the business world about turnover and profit, in poker it's cashes for show and profits for dough too and that can't be forgotten.

I also played in the @RFCfanspoker play money game again last Sunday and took it down this time.The funny thing about that was that I was also playing 7-8 real money tourneys at the same time but found myself mainly focussing on the free game.So much for only playing for the money.Looking forward to including it again as part of my Sunday grind and hopefully The Big Chap will get himself on Stars in time to play too.Info below from the guy who runs the game if fellow bluenoses are interested in playing...

No money needed as games will be free.

~~Next FREE tournament is Sunday night at 8pm~~

You can invite friends and family to join but they must be Bears... NO TIMS ALLOWED!!

- If you don't already have it, download the free PokerStars software from www.pokerstars.com
- Open the main poker lobby, then click on the Home Games tab
- Click the 'Join a Poker Club' button
- Enter my Club ID number: 739960
- Enter my Invitation Code: wearethepeople1872

That's it! Once I've approved your membership request, we'll be ready to start playing Home Games online together.

On the real money front I cashed out enough the other day to pay a few bills including the annual council tax,car tax,car insurance and my Rangers season ticket.It means I only have about $2k left on Stars now and won't be playing many $27's and $33 tourneys.That's the downside but it's also nice to feel like all the hours I put in playing poker actually have a real life benefit too.

Last nights grind at the virtual felt actually started quite well as big hands held up and I won a few flips.In the end though I only managed a few small Mtt cashes including coming 22nd from 2647 runners in a wee $5,$10k Gtd Turbo for $40.What cash out curse? Ahh that one! Later on a second place in a $8 180 Turbo Sng for $264 and a couple of other 45 player turbo final tables covered most of the evenings buy-ins.

Away from the poker I'm looking forward to going to see Pink Floyd tribute band "Pond Floyd" at the Glasgow Classic Grand next week.Managed to persuade the S-man to drive and I've already warned him he'd better buy some damn effective air fresheners! I can't believe it's nearly 20 years since I went to Paris in '94 with an ex to see the real Floyd.The tribute band have tweeted that Dark Side of the Moon is going to be in the spotlight for their gig and I'm one lunatic looking forward to being on the grass next weekend.

On the subject of weed and good music Two Pies and I watched the "Searching for Sugarman" documentary last weekend and I'd highly recommend it.It's about an American musician who makes a couple of superb albums in the 70's ( sounds a bit like Dylan only with a better voice).The albums don't sell and he's not heard of again....except in South Africa where a bootleg copy of his first release becomes a huge hit.The less you actually know about this amazing story before seeing it the better so just buy the dvd and don't google it.

Ok,thanks for reading.Back soon...

ReBlog

noreply@blogger.com (Littleacornman) — Thu, 02 May 2013 21:38:00 +0000

If only blogging was like twitter and I could simply pick somebody else's clever witty blog post and repost it instead of having to come up with my own not so witty or clever bollocks to write about.

To my surprise I'm actually quite liking the twitter thing ( @Heavysprinkles) so far.One day I may even get the hang of all the lingo and all the hashtag trending stuff.I can also make the confident prediction that many of the twittering teenage girls of today will be able to set a world record for the "largest group cringe in history" if they all get together in 10 years and read their "Oh Justin I'm so proud of you" tweets from 2013! I'm just glad twitter wasn't around when my walls and ceiling were covered in Madonna posters 25 yrs ago. "I'd just stay in and play with my titties all day" #IfIwasMadonna

The @RFCfanspoker play money game last Sunday was good fun too although I did feel a bit tongue tied when someone mentioned they'd read my blog ( link is on my twitter page).At least I've cured another case of insomnia.My only gripe was that I came 3rd and when the top 3 result was tweeted later someone else was credited with 3rd place! I've not seen it mentioned as breaking news yet but perhaps the words media are waiting for the outcome of the judicial review I've demanded on the basis of good old "sporting integrity"! Not that I'm being over competitive or taking a play money game too seriously...

Not much to shout about over the last few weeks at the real money poker.I did make gold star on Stars for the second month running and will hopefully earn enough vpp's to take another shot at the big $55 again soon.It's probably just variance but I'm also doing far better at the 45 player turbo's ( $7 and $15) than I am at the 180's, but I suppose it only takes a couple of 180 wins to make up for an awful lot of nasty exits.

I did have one moment of Deja vu at the tables last weekend when I happened to notice someone saying hello in the chat as I was playing a load of tables.Yes it was just like old Bloggerment times as Mair38 and I stole each others blinds on a regular basis! The Bloggerment numbers dropped near the end of its run but we did get 40 runners at one point and I wonder if it would be worth bringing it back as a one off game to see if we could get a few old faces back round the virtual table.I suppose with social media moving on and hardly anyone blogging about poker these days it may need to be renamed the Twitterment Tourney!

Not much else going on.Had a bit of a shit week at work and looking forward to the long weekend and being part of the biggest football crowd in the UK on Saturday to watch us play Berwick and get presented with the 3rd Division League Trophy.For me it's more of a first step on the long road back to our rightful place at the top of Scottish football than being about a big celebration but Two Pies ( cousin) and I are certainly going to enjoy the day.

Thanks for reading.Back soon..

Twittering Teeth

noreply@blogger.com (Littleacornman) — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 11:40:00 +0000

For anyone wondering if I've always been a tight bastard who uses too many brackets ( who me?) in his writing I submit the note below. Noticed it on my Mum and Dad's digital photo frame and thought it might make my readers smile.

Oh and I'll probably regret this and delete the account later but after a few smokes yesterday I signed up for twitter under zaggapoker@heavysprinkles.I can't even find the hashtag key on my keyboard so I don't see me lasting long on there.Signing up for a "social media" account when I'm an anti-social git with nothing to say is another reason I probably won't be tweeting for long but I'm on now and will give it a go.The "heavy sprinkles" name comes from a story on my favourite football forum about a ned ordering fish and chips and when asked if he'd like salt n vinegar he gave the legendary reply, "Aye,heavy sprinkles man".

Got an unexpected day off work today after Nacho ran away this morning when I let him out the front.( he's back now) No long lie in or late Sunday night playing poker and a days leave wasted = one dog who can consider himself very lucky to still have his bollocks intact!

Back soon...

4th in Stars $33 Saturday Speedway for $4k

noreply@blogger.com (Littleacornman) — Sun, 14 Apr 2013 04:22:00 +0000

Three hands into this tourney I lost half my stack with Kings just as I was bubbling a $3 Rebuy Sat for a $162 tourney ticket.(came 15th for $69,top 14 got a ticket)

Got lucky about 30 hands after that Kings hand ( I'm a patient nit if nothing else) when my AQs made a straight V KK. Next up a laggy big stack opened on my bb from the button and I shoved 2.5k in with A4s and held v his K5. A5d won v JQ for a big pot.Kings again and they hold! It's a goddamn mother fuckin' miracle.Behold am I actually experiencing the "H" word? Heeeeeeturrrrr! 93o/s bb special when I flop two pair v limped Aces and AJ. Money goes in on the flop and for the first time in my life I was happy not to see a fine pair....on the board.1010 beating AJ took me to 350k in chips.AK beating 55 doubled that plus a few steals meant I was hanging around 8-12th place.

It was already $456 for 12th so I took a slug of Cola out of a bottle in the fridge around 2am to stop my brain completely fuzzing over and hung on for the final table.Once there I raised the first hand after the break but probably took it too easy after that.I was pretty card dead though, and didn't have a big enough stack to raise/fold or make many moves.

With the blinds rising fast I nursed my stack along, managed to steal a few more pots and watched the rest of the table destroy each other until we got 4 handed.Pretty standard as the shortstack to shove my last 400k in with KQ and run into AJ. Hit my King on the flop,had a quick glance to see it was a 779k pot and to begin to dream of pushing on from 2nd or 3rd place.... just before the Stars 14 Ace deck duly delivered that pocket rocket right up ma poker rectum.Roond Ye!

Ding Dong.....Ship the $4111.96 though!

2nd in Stars $3 Rebuy MTT for $2935

noreply@blogger.com (Littleacornman) — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 22:37:00 +0000

I had a half written post about the pain of crashing out the Stars $11 Rebuy $40k Gtd in 11th place after getting KK in v AQ,the flop coming K 8 8 and the villain hitting runner runner Aces to make a better full house, but now I have a wee score to write about instead I don't need tell that bad beat story...

Last Friday night I gave up on Mtt's and 14 tabled 45/180 player turbo sng's instead.On Saturday evening I gave up giving up Mtt's and registered for my usual 25-30 games.I'm glad I did!

The $3 Rebuy ( $20k Gtd)lasted over 9 hours,finishing around 5am and as I didn't have the lobby open and I have Stars set to close tables when I crash out I don't even have a screenshot to show my 2nd place.

I scored some fine herb earlier that day so most of the game itself is a bit of a blur.I do recall checking my stats at the final table and I'd won 13/15 hands that went to showdown and 50 pots without any showdown.One thing I didn't do was load up more tables when my other tourneys finished which meant I was able to focus as fully as is possible after about 15 fat smelly blue cheese smokes!

As usual the decent money payouts didn't start until the final table and to be honest I had a fairly easy ride of it when I did get there due to one player with a huge stack running over the table and when he didn't raise I did.He knocked out the 3rd and 4th place in one hand and had a big lead when we got heads up.I doubled up once before losing with Aces.The extra $1k for first would have been nice but after my recent run I'm happy with 2nd and a $3k score.

I also played enough poker on Stars last month to hit "goldstar" which isn't too bad for a weekend warrior.( as the pro sharks like to call us part-time fish!)

Ok,thanks for reading.Back soon...

More Final Table Frolics

noreply@blogger.com (Littleacornman) — Sun, 17 Mar 2013 16:24:00 +0000

After donking out of the Micro Millions PLO Mtt yesterday afternoon I pre-rolled eight fat smokes and registered for 32 Mtt's.I learned last week that if I hit the "Ctrl" and "R" keys at the same time Stars shows which tourneys I'm in and how many.Very handy! Anyway I started at 6.30pm and finished up around 3.30 in the morning and despite getting up at 12 today I still feel pretty exhausted.I suppose that's not really a surprise after 9 hours of constant decision making with only a 5 min break every hour.The good news for my bankroll is that I made another final table,this time coming 4th for $719 in a $5 turbo ,$10 Gtd tourney with 2500 runners.

The bad news is that I probably should have taken down that tourney as I had the chiplead going into the final table.My excuse? Well a girl I'm good friends with from work who's off on long term sick at the moment decided( after a bottle of wine apparently!) that last night would be a good time to catch up and even letting her know ( seemed like a subtle hint to me) that I was playing quite a few tables including a final one didn't stop the texts coming.Next time I'm switching my phone off and explaining later!

It's all a bit of a blur looking back but I do remember getting lucky when I shoved 7h4h blind v blind when 5 handed.The villain woke up with 1010 and I made a flush to survive.With the blinds being so high there was no room to raise/fold and although I did resteal a couple of times with nothing I was card dead too and for ICM reasons I had to balance shoving all in preflop without a hand to stay in the game with hoping others would bust and I'd move up the pay ladder.

If I'd been thinking straight it would probably have made sense to try and do a deal as it was a real crapshoot towards the end with myself and the other shorter stack on 6 and 10 big blinds and even the two bigger stacks only holding 14 and 16 bb stacks.The other shorter stack shoved utg and holding KQs on the button I decided I had to call as I had 6bb,the blinds were about to hit me shortly and if I could win the other shorter stacks chips I'd just about lock up 3rd place and have a decent chance of winning the whole thing.He had 22 and flopped a set so that was that.I did twelve table the 45/180 player turbo's for a couple of hours afterwards and although I took a $7 45 one down I should probably have hit the sack earlier.These multi-table sng's do seem to rack up the frequent player points though and as I've hit the magic 3.5k mark I think I'll use them tonight to get a free ticket to the bigger $55.

I've mentioned on here that I'm not into ( well apart from having a good old fashioned online diary of course) social media, however one of my friends pointed me in the direction of a Steven Gerrard twitter Q n A session and some of the questions put to the Liverpool captain were just brilliant.#AskStevieG ...

"Ryan Giggs wife divorced him and took half of everything he owned.How does it feel knowing she has six more Premier League title medals than you do"?

Someone saying they were Ji Sung Park asked Stevie G if he "would like a photocopy of one my winners medals"?

"How does it feel to know that ( insert random member of the public's name) has the same amount of Premier league winners medals you do"?

"If you could have a forehead,whose would you pick"?

"Who would win in a foot race,Jamie Carragher or the erosion of the UK coastline"?

"Stevie,do you remember when you were better than Frank Lampard"?

"Steve,which defeat was harder to take? It's ok you can email me as I know you only have 140 characters on here"

"On a scale of Jonjo Shelvey to Jordan Henderson,how bad is Stewart Downing"?

"At least at Liverpool you can now concentrate on the Champions League,The Premier League,errr your family".

Thanks for reading.Back soon...

There's a Special Place in Hell....

noreply@blogger.com (Littleacornman) — Sat, 16 Mar 2013 16:01:00 +0000

...for Motherfuckers like you.

No real reason for the above.Step A tweeted a pic of a t-shirt with that message on it and I liked it!

On the subject of things I like, what could be better than a website where you can ask someone to paint whatever you like ( the more surreal the better) using just MS Paint.Some excellent work on there and well worth a look.

Things have gone a bit better at the virtual felt since my last post.I took 4th in a $16,$3k Gtd for $458 last weekend and last night after a slow start to the evening I came 5th for $517 in a $9.90 turbo Mtt where only the final table got paid.Frustrating exit hands in both of those games but I checked my stats at that final table last night and I'd won 11/13 hands that went to showdown so I can't really complain.( for a change eh!)

I've stuck to buying into Mtt's at $16 or below for the most part although I do like to give myself the chance to win big in at least one of the games on my schedule and regularly blow $30-$40 on the $11,$40k Gtd rebuy tourney.As per my last post I've also been firing up more 45 and 180 player turbo's and I've had a few wins a the 45's to boost my roll.I'm trying to stick to mainly the $7-$8 buy-in level as I try and grind my roll up again but I usually slip a few $15's into my sets of twelve games too.

Away from the poker I've not been up to much.Just the usual mix of work,football,video games and visiting friends and family.Life at work has certainly been a lot less stressful working with a different manager since the turn of the year.Now I'm not into self-help books or mumbo jumbo bullshit but I did read Oliver James book on Office Politics recently and it's definitely helped me adapt my thinking and helped me improve life at work too.I recognised myself instantly as the "non machiavellian" type he describes and have realised that trying to always stay "true to myself" and be brutally honest in every situation is probably not the best approach to work or life.

A few of the other attributes of a non Machiavellian are :Wears convictions on sleeve,accepts others motives at face value,makes gross assumptions about what others are thinking,assumes reciprocity,believes others ought to act in certain ways,tells it like it is,withdraws into inflexible positions on points of principle and seeks a stable environment.Yup that's me!

Ok,with Nacho staying with Step A this weekend and only my dinner break to interrupt me time to roll one up and hit the felt.Going to start by one tabling the $3.30 6 max PLO Micro Millions event 21 on Stars in a moment.Bring on the 4 card bingo! I just hope I don't end up with any top PLO sharks at my table....

Facing Failure

noreply@blogger.com (Littleacornman) — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 23:04:00 +0000

My run bad at the virtual felt has now reduced me to actually being happy when the villain sucks out on the flop as it saves me the added grief of waiting until the river card to get shafted by the poker gods.Other players now regularly lol in the chat box ( and I don't blame them) as the one outers just keep on coming.At least it helps me narrow my opponents ranges with stunning accuracy as all I need to do after the river card has been dealt is work out what the nut hand would is and assign it to my opponent.Things are truly mind warping at the moment.For example, despite my last post and all sensible logic telling me otherwise, I do sometimes think back to the two near fatal car crashes I've walked away from since the turn of century and think that perhaps I used up my all my run good surviving them.Better to run good at car crashes than poker! Either that or that somebody out there has to be more unlucky at the felt than anyone else and I should just accept that for now that person is me!

Even when I suckout it never lasts.My favourite from last weekend was when I was down to 87k in chips in a low stakes rebuy tourney.The blinds were 8000/16000 with a 1600 ante and when it folded to me in mid position I shoved all in with Kh 5h.The button woke up with Ad Ac and out I go.But no,hold the bus, here comes the flop and Mr Fuckin Whiney Run Bad has flopped a flush on a 6h 9h 7h board! Hey I might even hit an 8h for a sexy straight flush.Poor Mr Aces doesn't even have a re-draw to the nut flush.9d on the turn and.....the Ace of Spades on the river.Nice full house Sir.Glad the best hand preflop got there in the end.Whaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

Of course just blaming bad luck is not the whole story.I mentioned in my Jan 4th post misclicking at a crucial stage of an Mtt when deep and I did it again last weekend.I had eleven tables going and was trying to register for a twelfth.When I clicked on the "register" button an active table popped up and I called an all in and a shove in a $4,$8 Gtd with 23 o/s.It was the only game I was deep in at the time and it just had to be that one that popped up at that exact second.Yes I should have been more careful, but first of all it just had to be that table and not one of the other ten and secondly I just had to have a three high hand too.Maybe I should just accept that somebody out there just has to be more stupid than anyone else....

On checking Pokertracker for that K5s hand I also noticed I've clocked up just short of 1/2 million hands since I bought this laptop back in Sept 2010 and I think I'm long enough in the poker tooth to not just blame bad luck when things go as badly as they have been recently.I included some 45 player turbo's in my sessions and my previous sng experience meant I felt the decisions flowed far more easily and I was very rarely having to second guess myself over hands.I suppose after only few thousand Mtt's I'm still a relative newbie to them and only playing more and studying more vids/hands on forums etc will help make me better at them.I'm still far too nitty during the mid stages and don't 3 bet and resteal often enough.I do take advantage of my nitty image to steal a ton of blinds but I'm definitely not picking up as many chips as I should be.If I was then maybe I'd be able to absorb the bad beats better and still have a stack to play with in some of these games.

I've also cut loose on bankroll management over recent months and as a result I've ended up depositing ( nothing I can't afford!) in the probably mistaken belief that if I keep plugging away I'll be able to turn a deep run into a big score as it just isn't possible to run this way for much longer.When playing sng's it's possible to go on long barren runs too but it's also far easier to bag a few wins to wipe out those losses and return to profit.The Mtt long run is obviously far longer! My shots at $55's and $44's are long gone now, although I will still take the occasional shot at games like the $33 Saturday Speedway.I've now cut out the $27's too and will focus on rebuilding by playing Mtt's under $10 and far more 45/180 player turbo's.Looks like the only cheque I'll be getting from poker anytime soon is a reality one.

Positives? Well despite that misclick when registering I'm very comfortable playing 12 tables these days ( on a 17" laptop with no additional software other than Pokertracker 3) and can play up to about 8 tables while also rolling my next 3 skinner! I've also found that I really like rebuy tourneys as there seems to be a lot more room to play poker when the rebuy period ends.

Not much going on away from the felt.The old friend from school "L" I ended up shagging after her leaving do last August has been back in touch to say she'll be home next month and maybe we'll meet up again.She did text me when she was home for Xmas but I didn't give her much encouragement as the nasty gum infection I had didn't exactly put me in the mood!

I park my car just across the road from my work and people from the Government building next door use the car park for their smoke breaks.A girl started chatting to me a couple of months back as I was about to get in my car and we've chatted a couple of times since then.She's a hot blonde and we got talking again today.Mostly her telling me tales of woe about everything from car troubles,noisy neighbours to a stalker ex who is due up in court in March.To be honest I'm bloody hopeless when it comes to reading signals etc but she when she mentioned she thought she was going to end up being a spinster I did manage to mutter something about her being far too good looking for that to happen and that maybe we could go for a drink sometime.She asked my name and I think we arranged to talk further next time we happen to bump into each other.Of course being hopeless at these things I've no idea if that was a polite brush off or if future drinks are on the cards.Watch this parking space I suppose...

Ok,thanks for reading.Back soon...

No Entitlement

noreply@blogger.com (Littleacornman) — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 23:51:00 +0000

It's not a very catchy post title but all I can do to keep my sanity at the virtual felt just now is to keep telling myself I'm not entitled to win any hand and only entitled to enter the hand in the first place.I use Pokertracker 3 and I'm almost tempted to buy Holdem Manager 2 just to see if I'm setting some kind of record for running below EV using the red line graph thing they have.I'll leave it in but I should probably delete that last sentence because poker is a brutal game with no room for a "Oh poor me and my run bad" kind of attitude.I've been playing poker online for over 8 years now and while the games are getting tougher and the bad beats seem never ending at the moment, I do still take heart from the fact that there are still plenty of terrible players around the low stakes hammering at their keyboards with their big donkey hooves.

Perhaps I should take a break from Mtt's and focus more on the 18 player turbo's where I only usually have to win a few key hands before getting the chance to run over the other players around the bubble.The thing is that despite my poor recent run I'm still ( for the most part!) enjoying registering for 20-25 tourneys on a Fri/Sat night and I love the buzz of trying to build a stack on 9-10 tables at a time.I even discovered re-buy tourneys last weekend and the big prize pools for a small buy-in ( or two!) make me wish I'd taken a closer look at them before now.

Yup,8 years on and I still love the game.I usually watch a couple of training vids per week and I'm a regular listener of several poker podcasts.Mentioning that gives me a good excuse to flesh out another boring post with a few thoughts on some of my favourite ones.

2+2 Pokercast: Still my favourite poker podcast.Plenty of top guests from the poker world and the hosts Mike and Adam always seem to ask the right questions and strike the right note in their interviews.Plus they're big fans of bacon which has to be a good reason to tune in!

Tournament Poker Edge: Listening to their free podcast inspired me to join their training site and I'm glad I did.The pod is usually based around a few of the TPE pro's discussing hand histories and I love that strategy content and the fact the guys are so passionate about the game.

Thinking Poker: A decent mix of strategy and interviews.I tend to prefer the hand history chat and two hosts bounce off each other well in those segments.The only small issue I have is that the hand history chat sometimes get so indepth on the the turn,flop and river I tend to forget what hand the hero held in the first place! I was pleased to see one of the presenters Andrew Brokos is now doing training vids for TPE.His first vids on hand reading are excellent.

The Mental Game of Poker: Author of the book by the same name Jared Tendler interviews some of the top names in poker and as you would expect deals with the main psychological aspects of the game.The interviews are actually more like being a fly on the wall at a counselling session at times and I like his laid back style.

Pokernews: I'm not so interested in the ones they do on location from the latest big donkament tourney but I do like Kirsty Arnett's strategy interviews and the fact she has such a hot American accent definitely helps too!

OneOuter.com: No new podcasts since the end of last August but I've enjoyed listening to a fellow Scot interviewing some of the top poker players in the world and a few characters from the world of gambling too.I'm not even at all bitter that the host's QJ beat my AJ at a tourney table on Stars many months ago! Well worth downloading stuff from his archive.

Duece Plays with Bart Hanson: This is a paid subscription podcast these days but there are still plenty of the free earlier ones available on I-tunes.It's almost all hand history chat and although the host is usually discussing live cash game hands his enthusiasm and knowledge of the game make this podcast easy to listen to and he has a happy knack of explaining things very clearly.Even as a player who has never played a live cash game hand in my life I usually feel like I've learned something after listening to one of his podcasts.

Not much happening away from the poker.I did see on twitter ( no I've not signed up to it or facebook!)that Rosie is now the proud owner of the 2nd cutest dog in the world.( Nacho made me add "2nd"!) I hope Rosie knows what she's getting into as they say you can tell what size a dog is going to be by the size of it's paws as a pup and by the looks of the pics posted, Shiva is going to be Bristols dog answer to Godzilla!

Right before I go I'll share a quick one from the Rangers match at Ibrox last weekend that made smile.We signed a Brazilian central defender Emilson Cribari last August and so far, despite having played at the top level with Lazio, he's not exactly hit top form with us.One of the boys that sits behind me mentioned Cribari had been quoted in the papers as saying he was thinking about leaving and that top clubs in Italy were interested in him.Quick as a flash another boy fired back "Aye,fuckin nightclubs".Maybe you had to be there...!

Ok thanks for reading and yeah Dudley I'll try and get round to updating my links before my next post!

Poker Time

noreply@blogger.com (Littleacornman) — Sat, 19 Jan 2013 17:55:00 +0000

Nacho's staying with Step A this weekend so I'm starting my Saturday night at the felt early.( no need for a 15 min walk at 7.30!) Smoked three doobs already and registered for 28 tourneys on Stars with buy-ins between $2.20 and $33.Time to grab something to eat and roll a few more for the rollercoaster ride ahead.Just need to win a few of those Aces v A8 coin flips for a change...

No Change Please

noreply@blogger.com (Littleacornman) — Sun, 13 Jan 2013 15:43:00 +0000

Things are looking up on the health front after the anti-biotics the dentist gave me for the nasty gum infection I had did the job.The Doc reckoned my dodgy stomach was due to a virus that lingered but it's fine now too and I'm fairly sure it was the nasty stuff from my gums that was the cause.At least I lost 1/2 stone though.Feels good to be healthy again!

Life at the virtual felt last weekend was sickening again.I came 15th in a $7.50 Mtt after having my Kings busted by QQ and finished 16th in the $11,$18k Gtd after getting Aces in v QQ and KK only for a Queen to come on the river.

Friday night was brutal too and after running KK into Aces three times last night it just seemed to be never ending.I did finally manage to find a wee bit of run good in the $33 Saturday Speedway,managing a 26th place finish for $238.I lost a flip with AK V 88 to exit that one.It did hurt a bit but I really don't mind losing genuine near coin flips like that.It's all the 99 v 98 and the villain rivers a straight type shit that I just can't seem to escape at the moment.Ahh well time to man up and keep at it!

I did run better in the local newspaper competition stakes when I entered a comp to win 10 free driving lessons.I won the comp and passed them on to Step A who was very pleased with the prize.( though it cost me £50 to pay for her new provisional licence!)
She had her photo taken for the paper and it made me smile when I sent her a text on Wed to say she was on page 10 and got the reply "Oh dear god".

Picking up my new HTC One X mobile this week.While no doubt some people would be excited about upgrading ( I have the HTC Desire just now) I'm only doing it because my rental would go up if I stayed on the same deal.The phone I have does everything I want it to do and I really can't be arsed transferring my Vids to youtube and all my contacts over to the new one.( it's a different sized Sim apparently).I also have 200 photo's I'll need to somehow save somewhere.

Maybe it's just me but when I see " Come look at our shiney new website layout/upgraded product" etc I just wonder why the hell people can't just leave things as they are.At least Shreddies went back to the original ones after trying out "exciting new Shreddies" ( or some such pish) a wee while back.

At least I'm not the only old grumpy git around now as the S-man hit the big 40 last week too.I always feel better hanging around with him as he looks at least 20 years older than me too.Hopefully we'll finally get round to going to see "Skyfall" in the next week or two.Looking forward to going to see "The Life of Pi" with my Mum on Tues night as we both loved the book.I'm currently reading "The Hundred Year Old man who climbed out the Window and Disappeared" and it's a great read too, although I think it would be too surreal to make a movie out of it.

I've also discovered ( probably years after everyone else) Freepass Tv and Project Free Tv and have already watched the first couple of episodes of "The Walking Dead".I have the boxset of season 4 of "Breaking Bad" to start soon and now I've found these sites it looks like I won't have to wait unti June for season 5 to be released in the UK.Better call Saul!

At work things are getting a bit better under my new boss.There's been a regrading done and I'm hopeful I'll get a bit more flexibility with my hours.( I'm on a flexi contract but have to work to a schedule 4 days from 5 for "business needs").I've written on here about going to a 4 day week at work and I've already mentioned to my boss that when the latest flex/hours thing gets sorted I'd like to look at doing a nine day fortnight from now on.Working 9 days out of 10 and having a long weekend every two weeks would make work a lot more bearable and the extra 20 or so days off every year would be far easier on my pocket to absorb than cutting my hours by 20% to four days per week.

Quick couple of youtube links before I go.The first one is to one of my favourite films "Life in a Day".It's a snapshot of life around the world on July 24 2010.Some of it's rubbish and some of it's truly amazing.Well worth watching if you've not seen it though.

The other is Rangers fans singing "Derrys Walls" to the tune of Amazing Grace back when Dudley was in his late 50's in 1972( a fine year!).I don't know any German but I think even the commentator was impressed by the atmosphere it created.Hair raising stuff!

Ok,thanks for reading.Back soon...

Happy New Year!

noreply@blogger.com (Littleacornman) — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 19:39:00 +0000

Happy New Year to any readers I still have left after taking a wee break from posting.I've had three main reasons for not posting.Bad runs,bad runs and sore gums!

At the felt I feel like I've never run as badly in all my time playing poker and frankly bad beat stories are boring to write about and boring to read.Of course MTT variance is known to be pretty soul crushing and if I'm only playing aprox 45-50 Mtt's per week the long run is going to be very long indeed.I did take 3rd in a $7.50 tourney for $483 and 4th in a 6 max $2.20 $2.20 game for a similar amount but overall it's been awful.

My own stupidity doesn't help either at times.The other night I had a very decent stack of chips with 43 players left in the $27,$20k Gtd Knock-out tourney on Stars.From my hazy memory I recall thinking "I need a cookie" just before I made my fatal error. It folded round to me and as the small blind only had aprox 10bb I shoved my 40bb stack with 8c4d hoping to pick up the blinds on a steal.The big blind duly folded and the pot didn't come my way.With horror I realised that someone in early position had already raised and I'd come over the top of him with my shove.He called with AQ and his hand held to leave me in 43rd place for $80.I was the sickest player on Stars at that moment.( that's bad sick,not good sick for younger readers!)

Away from the poker I've not been in the best of health over the last wee while.Lets just say my bad runs were not just at the felt! My stomach was so bad I even had to turn down the chance to meet up with an ex girlfriend for some NSA.When she started texting me the week after to arrange a meet she decided it would be better to leave the sexual part out of it.She was taking a break from a guy she was seeing and her head was messed up blah blah.Of course being a gent I agreed to meet and after a nice meal we ......booked into the budget hotel nearby!

As well as a dodgy stomach I've also had a sore mouth and swollen badly bleeding gums for over a month.I finally got to the dentist yesterday and now have antibiotics for a nasty gum infection.It was quite a relief really as I was starting to get quite paranoid about it being something far worse.With that daft worry and things getting very stressful at work before Xmas maybe it's no wonder my stomach was gubbed!

L ( old friend I ended up sleeping with after her leaving night back in August) sent me texts to say she would be back in Glasgow for Xmas.She did text me "Merry Xmas" and "Happy New Year" when she was back.Although I should probably have made the effort to see her ( more NSA!) I just didn't feel up to it.Maybe later this year!

I did manage to catch up with the Miami Trout ( Al Eleven in the old Bloggerment games) and his Mrs at another friends house with the S-man in attendance too.A fine evening was had by all and I hope they're back in the UK sooner rather than later.( not easy with twin 2 yr olds in tow)

On the football front after a slightly stuttering start Rangers are nearly 20 points clear at the top of the 3rd division.Along with Two Pies I was at the game v Queens Park at Hampden last week.Despite being demoted to the 3rd division we still have the highest average ( just under 50k)home attendance in Scotland for our games.The only show in town!

I don't even miss the big games against our hated rivals.After what went on with them and the Scottish media when we were in turmoil I don't care if we never play them again.In fact if Two Pies and I had been more organised we would have ( if there were any tickets!) gone down to Burnley for their big game v Bastard Rovers in December to get our fix of proper tribal hatred!

The Rangers v Celtic rivalry may be one of the fiercest in sport but it's not the oldest.That honour goes to Rangers and Queens Park.( see match programme pic below)

Just time for a quick one about my old ( thank fuck I've got rid of her now) manager sending out an email to the whole office describing her new team as "hardcore moaners".When the "Face like a bulldog chewing a nettle would like to recall this message" email came through a minute later it was too late as most of the office were gathered round in wee groups laughing at her first email.

Right,better go and grab some dinner,walk Nacho and hit the felt for tonights run bad fun! I'm down to under $500 and it'll be small Mtt's and 180's until I rebuild my roll again.

Thanks for reading...

Small Binkaments

noreply@blogger.com (Littleacornman) — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 20:53:00 +0000

Friday evening at the virtual felt didn't begin well.Despite all I know about variance it still felt as if I was about to appear on some Pokerstars version of "Candid Camera" and the bad beats and general way the cards were falling were all just part of the show.It doesn't help that I don't play Mon-Thus and it always takes me a bit of time to shake off the mental rust and start playing my best poker.At least I sorted out my anti-virus software for last weekend as the previous week those issues caused my laptop to freeze during the final table of a $15,180 Turbo! Very frustrating!

I read a 2+2 thread the other week where good players were discussing how tiny the edge is in Turbo Mtt's and I resolved to cut back on some of the higher buy-in shots I've been taking in those games as I may as well be burning money by playing them.Hyper Turbo's are even more of a luckfest but I like to run them alongside my usual games as they're very easy to play and usually don't last too long.

Well the weekend turned out to be a pretty decent one at the tables as I took 3rd in a $5 Hyper turbo for $820 and after a few close shaves in bigger buy-in games I took down a $2.20 6 max tourney for $644.

The 6 max game was just one of many I played on Sunday evening and the only downside was not finishing until after 3am and then having to get up for work in the morning.I had the chip lead with about 20 left and the three handed final table bubble allowed me to add even more chips to my stack.It was only a $2.20 game and with the slow blinds structure ( 15 mins) and the poor quality of the opposition I continued to build my chip lead and pretty much cruised to the win after that.Screenshot of the lobby below along with one showing my stats for the game.

Back soon...

Final Tables and Goals

noreply@blogger.com (Littleacornman) — Sat, 27 Oct 2012 16:08:00 +0000

Last night was a funny old night at the virtual felt.I was exhausted after a long week at work and felt quite rusty too after not playing since last weekend.Still being fairly new to Mtt's,I'm forever trying to find a balance between playing tight,aggressive poker and finding more spots to gamble and give myself the chance to build a big stack.As usual plenty of my premium hands were getting busted and at one point I even noticed my play was getting a bit tilty after I crashed out the $16,$4k Gtd when I couldn't lay down my JJ on a Queen high board when it was obvious I was beaten.

I had a word with myself,got back to playing solid poker and managed to build decent stacks on some of my tables.Despite this I was down to 3-4 tables by around midnight and fired up a couple of $15,180 player turbo's to keep me busy.I ended up making the final table of the $11,$3k Gtd and one of the 180 player turbo's at the same time and only just missed out on two more with a 12th in a $5 Hyper turbo and a 25th from 1500 players in the $11,$10k Gtd.My JJ was no match for A5 in the $3k ( took 6th) and after completely dominating the 180 turbo final table I could only come 2nd when my K9 was beaten by Q9 rivering a straight.It was still a decent nights profit though.

I did save the funky wee hand below from the Boom replayer.The villain was raising around 33% of hands preflop but was weak post flop and I felt I could take the pot away from him at some point in the hand.Not often I check raise the flop,lead the turn and shove the river as the line didn't make much sense but the fishy villain probably put me on the flush or Ace when he folded on the river.He was raising so often preflop an Ace was only a small part of his range which is one reason I kept firing.Having almost no showdown value was another!

I'm not really a "goals" type of guy ( unless they're being scored by Rangers!) but Pocket Fives has me down for $36k in winnings on Stars and I've decided to make it my goal to reach $100k and earn a wee $100k badge next to my name.I've also reached the heady heights of being ranked 343 in the UK and 3175th in the world for Mtt's.I'd love to climb higher but that's not very likely unless I greatly improve both my game and volume.( and working full time the latter is not going to happen).Nice to have something to aim for in terms of winnings though. I was sad to read Josie posting that she wont be blogging anymore as she's just not feeling it and doesn't want to waste her time and energy on it.There seem to be very few regular poker bloggers left and in truth I'm not sure I'm "feeling it" much either these days.I used to post at least a few times a week and now it can feel like a chore much of the time to just get a couple done per month.It does feel a bit like my blog has jumped the whole of Sea World and not just the shark but I'm a creature of habit and probably won't quit boring you all with exciting tales of 12th place Hyper Turbos finishes just yet.

Thanks for reading.Back soon..

The Dogs Bollocks

noreply@blogger.com (Littleacornman) — Sat, 20 Oct 2012 12:25:00 +0000

I had a couple of close but no cigar moments at the virtual felt last weekend.I came 17th from 1900 players in a $27,$20k Gtd for $170 and 119th from 2500 starters in the big $55,$80k Gtd for $180.As I've written before I really shouldn't be playing $55's on my bankroll but they're fun and good value,especially on Sundays with the higher guarantees.

I wrote the bit above other week but apart from some small cashes I'm running cold at the moment and there's not much to do other than to keep working on my game,stay confident and wait to hit a decent score again.I'm still loving Mtt's despite the fact the longer run is much longer than in sng's or cash games.Short term variance can be a bitch and I do wish I had a far bigger role to be able to play more $44's,$55's etc.Just gotta grind it up!

Away from the poker I took Nacho to visit the hot chick vet the other evening.It was all going swimmingly well.He was as good as gold being given his annual vaccine jags and loved the biscuits afterwards.Before the check up was over though,she starting checking his nuts and just as I was thinking "Well that's why I pay a vet", I heard a voice say " You really should check his testicles every two weeks.If you notice any difference from week to week,blah,blah"...What?!,Sorry?!WTF!WTFF!

Just ever so slightly stunned and feeling like I'd stepped into a Monty Python sketch I asked "Can you just confirm you just said I should be feeling my dogs bollocks on a fortnightly basis?"

She confirmed.Feeling.

*Picture posed by a model as Nacho refused to take part in this blog post!

Yeah,we're not talking just checking they're in place, but getting to know them well enough to know if they feel different from the last check.Every two weeks.By the end of six months I'll almost certainly be able to say I felt more dog genitials over that period than human lady ones and that's not a good place to be!

Should they stay or should they go now? If they go there wont be "feeling" and if they stay he climbs the ceiling!

So it's rubber gloves and the kind of fortnightly squeeze I never imagined when I joined an online dating site,( FFS,squeeze sounds worse than feeling) or I pay £140 and Nacho loses his balls.

On a serious note and leaving out "The Clash" songs, he has no road sense and wouldn't run away for hours on end ( twice this summer) seeking out bitches on heat if he did get the chop.I also wouldn't need to worry about him developing tumours and stuff in that area.

Then again he's doing just fine with them firmly attached to his body at the moment ,any op is a risk however small, and I don't think I could look him in the eye when he got home either.Got it sussed though.More regular visits to the hot chick vet where I'll happily shell out my hard earned to let an expert do the my boy's nuts check.

Always nice to finish with a nuts check on the river...

Well,nearly finished.It's a long time since I've seen any poker blogger post a winning hammer hand...