Tuesday, July 19, 2005

Summer Time and the Living is Easy ... (yeh right) !

Poker, did I mention I like poker?

Anyways my debut in the €270 in the fitz was shortlived, after an hour or so, last hand before the break my set of queens met a 'nordie' on a Flush draw, I pushed all-in on the flop to take him of the draw, but he decided to gamble, and his AK suited found another pal, and I was on my way home.

Enjoyed the experience, although the standard of play was nowhere near as daunting as I thought it would be. Indeed the first hand on my table a guy busted out on top pair (6) with an gut buster straight draw (wtf !) to the unraised big blind who had flopped a straight !!
He got a rapturous round of applause from everyone, but he must have felt a right muppet.
I had played at his table before and he raises everything, and does build quite a stack normally through getting weak players to fold their cards.

This information came in handy a couple of weeks ago when he was on my table at the only other cash tourney I have entered in the Fitz so far, the €20 rebuy, he was quite shortstacked raised into me on the big blind, I had AA, and had great satisfaction in re-raising him all-in.
I didn't take too kindly to that and said " I will decide if you are putting me all-in or not... he then folded. I don't like his smugness, and will be waiting for him again, as I have a reasonable read on him now, and think he will be a chip donator over time.
Finished on the bubble in that €20 tourney, which was good going, but ahould have just cruised into final table and not get involved in the pot that got my knocked out.... Lesson learned.

At a bit of a crossroads now in my poker development. I'm up around €3K this year, but have made this primarily from $10 and $15 STT's, the odd MTT. I have cashed out any large amounts, paying for a new PC and a holiday to Croatia, so only keep about $150 on-line, enough to furnish my present STT requirements.
I think I am a better player than this, but that means proving it, and moving up the scale a little and entering more tourneys to start making some real money.
With this, obviously the higher risk factor kicks in, and I bloody well hate losing money.

Anyways, I've decided to commence with an off-line bankroll as well as an on-line bankroll, because a new poker club has opened in the locality above a pub called the Anglers Rest. This will enable me to start from a bankroll off €100 or so and play the €10 STT's and take it from there. I'm confident that this is the right approach and soon enough I can have a profitable income from offline poker, which is far more sociable than on-line poker, which means playing in isolation in a room away from Sherwin and Scooby and cups of cocoa etc... you know yourself. Far better to designate 2 nights a week to offline profitable (hopefully) poker, than 5 or 6 nights grinding it out on-line.

In other news www.magazines365.com is about ready to open it's virtual doors for business. Been tough getting the publishing houses to come on board ..in fact it has been tough just getting them to take calls or reply to e-mails etc... however one by one, we have signed up some leading publishing houses such as National Magazines (UK), Brooklands Media Group (UK) Dennis Publishing (UK) , Ashville (Ireland) .... so it's looking promising. Have been disappointed with the Irish response, typical Irish 'wait and see, sit on fence' attitude, despite our business offer being a 'no-brainer/no win-no fee' concept to them.....more about Magazines365.com in my next blog update.

Friends Michael and Caroline got engaged by visiting Strawberry Fields (not beds !) in Liverpool a couple of weeks ago, so that was cool, went on the beer in Ennis with them to celebrate, and then up to the Connaught Final in Galway last weekend, where Mayo were shite. Shite is an understatement. Maughan has to go now, he has fell out with ahlf the squad. If he can't get the best 15 lads out on the field, what chance do we have ......none.

Hope to God, Johnno gets the job.

Heading over to Croatia in August to finalise appartment, as it is ready, just do snag list etc.... should have photos soon and will put up some here.

My mother and brother Neil both have birthdays this week, so when the lads come home from UK at the end of the month, we'll have a few beers. Nice to have brothers to have a few beers with ! I'm not buying any more cars of them though :)

Sherwin going to USA in September to her niece's christening. I'm not going, have to go out again to Croatia in Sept/Oct to but furniture etc.... and can't get time off work but she is in good hands as there is a gang of Carter family going over.

Was at U2 as well, great gig, although seemed to go flat for about 30 mins or so towards the end IMHO.

Busted the lawnmower, after only that day preaching to my stubborn buddy Aidan about how great it was, he was going buying a petrol one, and preceded to do so.

Anyways, hope to get into a more frequent routine updating the blog, so until next time...cheerio.