If Carlsberg did dull poker blogs, they'd do this one

[antthecat]

i will contribute with this post that has no meaning

[duke3016]

[monkeyman]

The main improvement i"ve been looking to make in my poker this year involves improving my discipline i.e. not having a table on the go whilst I"m cooking tea, not starting a session after a set time each night. So maybe someone could tell me why the feck I"ve just fired-up a table after returning from a few hours consuming the finest produce of Adnams Brewery? How sound will my judgement be if I can barely remember which day of the week it is?  

[monkeyman]

Strangely enough, despite my less-than-fully-focussed-state and engaging in a Facebook conversation with a friend, I still returned a profit. Maybe its time for Harrington to update his advice?

[duke3016]

feck Harrington -- when your book coming out

[monkeyman]

feck Harrington -- when your book coming out

I"ve got a couple of friends who run their own small publishing businesses, so..........when I"ve started my bid for world domination by winning the forthcoming national at Walsall, been approached by Full Tilt with a hefty sponsorship deal then maybe, just maybe.....................

[monkeyman]

I"ve mentioned on here previously that the main changes I had made to my playing habits at the start of the year were that I was concentrating on cash play and setting myself a profit target I was looking to achieve each calendar month. Disregarding my winnings from the online national, I went beyond my target figure little more than half way through the month. Whats more, I seem to be enjoying my poker more than ever and seem to be more accepting of bad beats. I normally play two tables simultaneously, one each from any two of Betfair, Ladbrokes and Blue Square.
  Although I"m still playing at very low limits, I decided it was time to set up an account with rakeback. There aren"t many sites I haven"t played on at some point, but I"ve opened an account with Ultimatebet. The standard of hold"em played on this site is considerably higher than my usual destinations and whilst I don"t mind testing myself, the main consideration when playing cash games is the bottom line. Therefore, my holdem is still restricted to the first three sites mentioned. However, I have started playing 7 card stud on Ultimate as this seems to ring up the loyalty points much quicker than holdem. I think playing a bit of stud has actually been a very healthy thing for my hold"em game, as it has made me think a lot more about thinking about how the betting might develop in the latter stages of each hand.
  Yesterday, I had one of those days that, if I could guarantee it could happen every day, would see me wave goodbye to the call centre for ever. Second hand on a Ladbrokes table and I flopped a straight flush. I didn"t make much out of that one, but whenever I committed with a big hand it held up and when I tried to trap someone, they got well and truly trapped. I didn"t actually play for very long, but made a profit equivalent to 4 x buy in. Bring on the league, bring on Walsall, I"m flying at the moment.  

[monkeyman]

I think I need therapy. Having already purchased a bright yellow t-shirt emblazoned with my Blue Square username, I"ve gone back to the same website and found that for £10.90 I could buy a baseball cap with my name lovingly crafted onto the forehead. Sometimes, I think I need someone to save me from myself.

[antthecat]

are u wearing the t-shirt at walsall as ill be sporting my black t-shirt with Ant The Cat in big white letters on my back.

[mal666]

I think I need therapy. Having already purchased a bright yellow t-shirt emblazoned with my Blue Square username, I"ve gone back to the same website and found that for £10.90 I could buy a baseball cap with my name loving crafted onto the forehead. Sometimes, I think I need someone to save me from myself.

Can you change the thread title back!

[monkeyman]

are u wearing the t-shirt at walsall as ill be sporting my black t-shirt with Ant The Cat in big white letters on my back.

Oh dear. We really aren"t doing a lot for the image of Norfolk are we?

[duke3016]

10,000 viewers can"t be wrong -- great stuff.......

[antthecat]

we are trend setters not trend followers lol

[monkeyman]

Wow, 10000 hits. When I started this thing, never for one moment did I expect it to be running this long or be observed this many times. I suppose I should have some grand statement ready to post upon reaching this milestone, but I"m lazy so I haven"t bothered. What I will do is review my poker playing progress and take a look ahead to the next few months. Essentially, I"ll cobble together a few odds and sodds that I"ve already recorded and hope that nobody has been paying attention sufficiently to detect how often I repeat myself.
  This blog was started with one intention; to win a seat at the main event at The Vic last year. It didn"t happen that time, but, to my surprise, I won "Best online contribution" in the 2008 APAT end of year awards. The twenty-one people who voted for me were not ALL relatives. I have stated before that I believe this blog has a finite shelf life, it will be rambling on for a while yet. I have tried to kill this thing off before, but will probably allow it to pass away quietly at some stage towards the end of season three.
 Even though my results at nationals have got progressively worse, I believe I have become a significantly better player since APAT's inception. During season 1 I was completely out of my depth online. Season 2 was a different story and I managed to finish 10th in the national rankings. I made a number of online final tables and went out on the penultimate table in considerably more. The biggest improvement in my game has happened because of the week at The Vic. As soon as the event was announced, I decided I was going to play in as many events as possible and set about practising the non-hold"em variants. Although the week in London was ultimately unsuccessful, the main thing that came out of it was a focus in what I needed to do to improve my game. I make a point of leaving time to watch coaching videos each week and also feel that my recent conversion to concentrating almost exclusively on cash play has also produced a large step forward in my standard of play. I"m also fortunate to have several members of my family who play to a decent standard, so whilst our homegames are always jovial affairs, there is some good stuff played. Whilst I feel slightly guilty about singling any of them out, brother-in-law Steve Stringer (eastern region champion and who cashed twice from three appearances in APAT nationals) has been instrumental in pointing me towards the coaching material I now use and has provided a sounding board for specific situations.
 What about the future? I will not be appearing as often in the live nationals as much this year as last. I will be in Walsall and have not yet made my mind up about Dusk Til Dawn. I probably will go, but  regard the Horse and Omaha tournaments as priorities above the main event. Due to journey time, cost and the fact that I attended both last year, I will definitely not be going to either Cardiff or Edinburgh. I would love to go to Ireland, but unfotunately flights from Norwich airport to Dublin cease on 27/03/09, so I can"t see myself making the journey. I will however, be playing in as many online events, both the nationals and league, as possible.
   On November 11th this year, I hit my 40th birthday and I mentioned on this blog a while ago that I was thinking about a trip to Vegas to celebrate. I wouldn"t say that is completely out of the question, but I am now leaning more towards spending a few days in Amsterdam partly because of the cost, partly because I"ve done Vegas twice already but also because if I went to the strip again, it would probably start with a flight from Norwich to Schipol, so why not stop there? What I"m currently looking at is seeing if I can manage a trip to coincide with the Amsterdam Masters Classic which is normally held around the right time. I"ve not yet played in a live professional tournament, so apart from a couple of shots at GUKPT seats, I may try and play in Holland, even if it is in a side event.
  Returning to my theme of self-improvement, I feel a good barometer of my current standard is provided by my 15th place finish in the recent online national, which I believe was the toughest field yet assembled for any APAT event. At Walsall, for the first time I will arrive expecting, not hoping, to do well. If things don"t work out, then at least if you"re on my table you will know you"ve been in a game.
 Feel free to say hello in Walsall.          

[Swinebag]

top post and well done on 10K hits. I"m hoping to go to vegas at the end of october for a week to celebrate my 38.85th birthday..

As already mentioned elsewhere, negotiations are in the preliminary stage  with management but I hope to have more success than that eejit Garry Cook did in persauding Kaka to come to City.