On the up

Feeling better after the pain and man flu that I picked up last week. Worked Saturday to try and make up for having Tues/Weds off. One hour of peace on a Saturday easily beats 3 hours of interrupted work during the normal week. Got much more done than expected. Have next week booked off as holiday so I'm really looking forward to that. No major plans apart from some proper grinding hours and will probably do the christmas presents online.

As I was feeling better yesterday I played 12-table cash at $.25/$.50, I had a rush which put me up $80 within about 30 minutes and then got one bad beat followed by one questionable play into a squirrel which brought me back to even. I think I finished the day about $7 up after around 1300 hands. It felt good to be doing that again.

One request… can people stop putting porn on their blogs ! I will be forced to remove you from the links if you carry on cos I can't risk accidentally opening up your obscene blog while I'm at work through google reader !

Battle of Pain & Hunger

Seriously in crappy shape at the moment. I've an infection in a rear molar tooth which has stopped me eating almost everything. Yesterday I managed soup & yoghurt. The right side of my face is swollen from antibiotics (even though google suggests antibiotics are generally useless for teeth infections)

Finally today I will have the pain and fear from the dentist to address the situation after which all will calm save for the pain and fear of the dentists bill and the revelation that I need a "3 year plan" to acheive dental perfection.

Quite keen to play poker but there's no way I could concentrate

test blogging

from my new phone on the move !

New Mobile

My phone is crap, people can't hear me properly on it and it's about 3 years old.

So I'm thinking of getting one of these...

Has anyone got any experience with Samsung i8910 HD ? It looks like a pretty cool phone to me

Mookie Day replaces Hump Day

I very likely won't be awake when this kicks off but for those of you who will be I think you should go play with some like-minded bloggers. After all it is Take Your Kids to The Mookie Day !!

I might register and just fold my way into the money :)

Tell a friend and pass it on !

Clock ticking

Time is running out on my island. Every recent change reduces the quality of life here and in a couple of years I can see it being no better than most of the UK.

This morning I started looking into a Canadian visa, it looks like despite being over 30 now I still qualify on the points scale, so I might as well go to the trouble of submitting an application. Nothing to lose after all !

If anyone's got any advice about this sort of thing I'd love to hear it !

Danger Danger !

Look out ! I can access Poker Pwnage and their videos from my desk at work.

Workplace productivity is about to hit an all time low if I'm not careful.

That's if I signup, I've never signed up to one of these before because to be honest I would rather be playing and learning than watching some other guy play. But since I can't play at work this might be the next best thing.

Now I just need to get over the fact that "Pwnage" makes me think "m0r0n"

....

Ok. Over it. Getting annoyed at words, dough. I mean doh. Doh !

Still working at it

Played again last night ! Who'd have thought ? No overkill or anything, just a $4 180 in which I was knocked out around 40th place. I didn't get many cards and was too distracted or tired to find spots where I would normally be winning chips without cards to back it up. I still enjoyed it though. Went to be soon after getting knocked out so I'm feeling pretty energised today so far.

Work shouldn't be too full-on today either as the boss is away so the plan is a quick trip to the gym after work and then back home for some shake-n-bake :)

Still catching up on everyones feeds. There's actually been less to catch up on than I thought there would be.

post two

Played quite a lot last night, but had trouble staying in the moment. There were lots of slow players and i found myself constantly looking to the next hand instead of the now. Still finished about even for the night and 'stars play-dough is looking as healthy as it has in a long time.

Going to the gym tonight but will probably still have a game when I get back. Planning to take either next week or the one after off as holiday to get christmas shopping done online and play some longer lasting tourneys.

Don't hold your breath, but with the onset of winter the blog might be back.

P.S. Dd I'm amazed to see anyone still checking here for updates, thanks for saying hi !

Poking fun

This blog is really stuttering isn't it ? I play a bit, do ok then get go back to real life. Did poker become so unimportant ? The irony of course is that this attitude of it not being so important is what makes me play better when I do sit down. How to find a balance between motivation to play and the emotionless reaction to results ?

Another consequence of this attitude is blog being quiet. I don’t need to shout about winning at poker or excuse losing at it anymore. Whatever is, is.

Mindfulness is the aware, balanced acceptance of the present experience.
It isn’t more complicated that that.
It is opening to or recieving the present moment, pleasant or unpleasant, just as it is,
without either clinging to it or rejecting it.
Sylvia Boorstein

I'm still going to the gym at least twice a week, sometimes more. I'm still playing poker at least twice a week. I'm playing the occassional live poker game.

So far today I haven't smoked or been emotional.

I am practicing accepting the present moment as it is.

I am not sure why I'm posting this as it is enough to write it, it does not need to be shared.

Ah well :)

Playing again

Finished 2nd in a $4 180, then 40th in another. Like riding a bike. Felt good to play.

I was back to poker because my car has finally died and so has my gaming rig, it only lasts about 20mins before the graphics card overheats and the whole thing shuts down. Maybe the side effect of these seemingly negative events will be a positive poker push !

Admiration

Nice work Mr Ivey, you make doing your day job look so easy.

Stars must be rigged

If you don't play for 5 months at stars and then enter a $4 180 apparently you can crack Aces with Eights and then win HU with Aces vs Tens.

Did I enter a parallel universe ?

...enjoying the moment... they don't come often enough

:)

5 months, 2 weeks, 3 days

That's how long it had been since I played an online MTT at PokerStars. Time flies when you're not pushing all-in. So yesterday afternoon whilst watching the 5th day of the Ashes 1st test and England trying to hold on whilst being battered by the Aussie bowlers, I signed up for an $11 MTT with 2,309 runner-runners. After updating PT3 and reminding myself what everything meant on my HUD setup I quickly fell back into the groove.

Nearly 5 hours, 2 suckouts and one poorly played hand later I finished 41st for exactly $41. A nice welcome back to the game of masochists. I know it's only teasing me, but as a man of freedom next week there is now a good chance I'll be putting a bit of effort into turning and burning :o)

2 months work

It's two months since I started going to the gym every tuesday and thursday night. The attached image shows the improvement made so far. I have no idea if this is a fast or slow rate of progression, just that I feel happier, healthier and more confident.

My only regret is not doing it sooner :o)