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After a break from poker during the majority of February, I have returned reinvigorated. Itâs surprising how much easier I am finding playing when it is something that I want to do, instead of something I feel obliged to do because I have some spare time or whatever. I think Iâm at around 3,000 hands for the month (sick grider, eh?) and around $600 profit (weeeeeeeeeeee!). Iâve run pretty damned well (having held up in two 150bb pots with AA and KK vs. QQ both times), but I think my general level of play has been decent too. Iâve said it before, Iâll say it again â playing fish is really absurdly profitable.
For those that donât play heads-up fre online games, you tend to get hit and run. A lot. This used to bother me, however Iâve tried to let it go â it is nothing more than an occupational hazard. I am now a bit more ruthless with who I am playing â against various fish I tend to play a max of three tables (with a different player on each), however if my fourth table gets filled with a full stack fish and one of the others only have 25bb left Iâll ditch the shorter stack and move on to the guy that is deeper. Getting action against regs is virtually impossible right now, which is amazing given that Iâm not that good.
I have been watching the UB stuff developing of late. The whole thing is totally amazing and it is good to see things prompting more discussion on it again. Given the lies that have been told and the fact that the company is still in operation, I think it is important that this is not forgotten.
West Ham turned in their best display of the season to beat Liverpool 3-1 yesterday. I thought we dominated large stretches of the free online game, created the better chances and ran out deserving winners. Demba Ba and Thomas Hitzelsperger were both excellent and Upsonâs return alongside Tomkins at the back was timely, both played very well. Given how other results have gone for us of late this was a timely win and makes staying up look like something of a possibility. Keeping the back four fit will be key.
The cherry on the cake on Sunday was seeing Arsenalâs failboat crash onto the rocks against Birmingham. It looked like a pretty decent free online game of football and I never tire of enjoying seeing Arsenal lose.
While public interest in poker has been steadily on the rise since circa 2004, main stream media has been slow to recognize the fans' hunger for up-to-the-date information. Simply put, dramatic knockouts and current chip counts of even the most notable tournaments have yet to make their way into HLN's 20 minute rotation. Instead, poker enthusiast must rely on a handful of talented people who travel all around the country, working tirelessly to quench their thirst for poker related news.
I supposed it looks like an easy job as you scroll through Twitter or Facebook updates on your cellphone while you sit at the drive through window. It may even seam glamorous as you read blog posts and watch poker player interviews on your computer from the comfort of your home or office. But guess what, it's not. The people who make up the niche enterprise of poker media work grueling hours, with limited resources, far away from the comfort of their homes and families in order to satisfy the hunger of pokerbuffs all over the word, as well as change the stigmas that have plagued the poker industry since its infancy. ♠ ♥ Wait! There’s more… please keep reading ♦ ♣
Nero fiddled while Rome burned. Fine Gael politicians get the bumps while Ireland dangles over the precipice of bankruptcy.
Enda Kenny can celebrate. Just like Tom Hooper and the makers of ‘The King’s Speech’ will be celebrating tonight. But much like King George VI, Enda Kenny has come to power in the middle of a crisis. He has inherited a steaming turd. He has the support of the people now but that won’t last long, especially when, unlike George, he lets the Germans get the better of him.
so february sucked poker wise. i had a very interrupted start to the month with computer problems and life a few life adjustments. i quickly followed these by crashing my car. nothing series mind u, i locked up in the wet and rear-ended somebody at about 20 km/h. so i spent a bit of time getting panel-beating quotes and was finally managed to get it fixed for $900, which wasnt bad since a few places were trying to tell me a new bonnet, 2 new headlights, a grill and labour = $1500-2000.
So in between all my expensive assets breaking/crashing, i got virtually no volume in during feb. these problems, while being related to my lack of pokers, are by no means the reason for it. i can’t remember many times in my life when ive felt less motivated than i have for feb. i think a mix of boredom, burnout, complacency, and a lack of goals can be attributed to my poor volume this month. i have just been feeling so over poker lately, so i decided to just call it quits for the month a week ago. in this time ive spent 0 time on pokerstars, i haven’t even opened the lobby in about a week, (probably a record for me) i also stopped reading poker blogs, going on forums, messengers etc in an effort to rid myself of everything poker related for a bit. its been so nice, and sometimes i lose sight of how lucky i am to just be able to take so much time off whenever i want simply because i dont feel like it.
some of u may have read a rather hasty blog entry i made and deleted about joining sngprotege a few weeks back. i actually ended up declining this position for a number of reasons and i couldn’t be happier with my decision. all i want to focus on this year is getting online games in when i can, improving my mtt/live fre online game and then spending as much time as i can away from the computer. i’ve decided i do not want to coach sngs, i want to focus on just trying to be happy and living as balanced a lifestyle as i can. i’m realising more and more that if i want to make a living from this online game i cannot keep on the way i was going nor do i want to. thats not to say i was putting in that much volume before, but after grinding 5-8 hrs a day the last thing i want to do is talk about poker non-stop. so with that in mind im ready to get back on the horse now for march. im aiming to come out of the blocks flying in march and from now on i want to treat poker as a job, working monday-friday with mtts on monday, (us sunday) and sngs the rest of the week. aside from grinding im limiting my poker related activity to 1 private forum and thats it. (67suited ftw) i will not be signing in to messengers daily anymore, nor will i troll 2+2 daily. so for march im gonna set the goal of 4000sngs, 100 mtts and im also going to be playing a few live events from the joe hachem deep stack series at crown (playing the $340 6 max and $550 main) which im really looking forward to.
Neither myself or the English fish Amatay knew very much about Vietnam other than the famous Vietnam war in which the communist North Vietnam defeated the USA backed South. But what better way to find out about a country than to go there and experience it? Just a 1 hour flight from Bangkok, Thailand and we landed in Ho Chi Minh City (better known as Saigon).
Vietnam is still a communist state to this date, in that there is only one political party – The Communist Party. However, other than the lack of democracy, their citizens seem to have all the freedoms of any western country. I didn’t see anything that would make me think that the Vietnamese people are under oppression. There’s no real government presence visible, and you only have to walk around Ho Chi Minh City to realise that their economy is capitalist. Private businesses and international brand shops are everywhere (but thankfully there’s not a single McDonalds to be found!).
As we set out to explore the city on our first day we walked out of our hotel, to the end of the street, and I remarked about how good it feels to walk down the street without being hassled by the prostitutes, lady boys, beggars, slimy suit salesmen and tuk tuk drivers of Bangkok. Then as we turned the corner some geezer runs up beside us and says “Where are you going?”. I’ve been to enough cities around the world to know a dodgy geezer when I see one so I obviously ignored him. “What do you need?” he said. “GTFO” I said. “Where you go? I can take you? What you need? I can get you” he shouted. “GET THE FUCK OUT!” I shouted back at him. He seemed to get the message.
Crossing the road for the first time was a scary experience. The roads are about 8 lanes deep with people riding scooters and none of them stop at pedestrian crossings. You just have to walk out slowly and they somehow drive around and avoid you.
The roads are just perfect for a free online game of Frogger!
After we crossed the road safely there were 3 guys standing on the other side next to parked scooters. They asked us where we were going, we ignored them, they asked us if we needed a ride, we said no thanks. Then they offered us some prostitutes. This was about 3:30pm in the afternoon. As we walked around we found these scumbags on every street corner. Between 1-4 of them, on, every, fucking, corner. Harassing the hell out of anyone that’s white, first with an offer of transport on the back of their death-mobile scooter and then an offer of “a lady”. Occasionally two “NO”s to those questions would result in an offer of drugs. This nonsense is very annoying but after a while you just get used to it like it’s normality. Assholes shout at and harass you as you walk down the street and you just ignore them. Standard.
Eating out in Vietnam is LOL cheap, as we found out on our first night. It’s even cheaper than in Thailand, incredible! However, one of the common tourist scams that I read about Vietnam is that some restaurants, for the tourists, will pull out a western menu, with prices to match. As we looked around for somewhere to eat dinner we found one such establishment. They had main courses listed for between 200,000 and 400,000 Dong. That’s like $1-2. As we looked at the menu next to the door this old guy in a suit, presumably the manager, practically pushed his employee on the door out of the way so that he could present us with the Special Western Set Menu. A choice of 2 different set meals, priced at $20. GTFO. I insta shipped the menu back to him and told him “I don’t feel like paying the white man tax tonight son.”.
We did easily find a place with great food and super low prices and had 3 tasty courses and a cocktail for about a fiver. The only bad thing was that they served us our next course when we had barely started the previous one. Soup, appetizer and main course were all on the table within five minutes of each other. It was so weird.
We sat a table on the low balcony area next to the street. That seemed like a good idea until we had every street hawker in the area come up to us trying to sell the biggest load of old crap, and then this ghostly looking woman holding a baby that stood there no shorter than 5 minutes, right beside me, crying and moaning and droaning “im so hungry, my baby, im so hungry, my baby” as I sat there right in-front of her trying to omnomnom my fat ass through 3 courses of food before it got cold. I ended up seeing that same cow 3 times during my short stay in Vietnam, a professional beggar, pure scum!
On our second day in Saigon, we did a lot more exploring. We checked out Ben Thanh Market, where a lot of the locals shop for food and items.
With the temperature and humidity absolutely destroying us we quickly looked for an alternative to walking. We had seen these vehicles called Cyclos, that are basically bicycles with a seat on the front for a passenger, and decided that it would be fun to have some guys pedal us around the city for a while. I had read previously that the going rate for Cyclos was 50,000 Dong per hour ($2.50), and that they were everywhere, just sitting there all day with no customers. So, feeling generous, we decided we were going to pay double that – it’s only fair for what seems like hard work, and approached a couple of Cyclos. I asked them how much and the fat guy said something I couldn’t understand then tried to get me onto the Cyclo. “No, how much do you want to cycle us around?” I asked. “How much do you want to pay?” he replied. I told him we’d pay them 100,000 per hour and within a few seconds his fat ass was cycling me around Saigon.
The Cyclo guys dropped us off at the War Remnants Museum, which contains exhibits from the Vietnam War. This place was previously named The Museum of American War Crimes but the name was changed in the 90′s after Vietnam became a more liberal country and started trading relations with the USA. On display were many planes, tanks, guns and bombs as well as an exhibit on Agent Orange with some disturbing images showing it’s effects.
The Cyclos were waiting for us when we got out and they recommended that we go to Reunification Palace (formally Independence Palace, before the commys took over). This was where South Vietnam’s leader stayed during the Vietnam War and the war officially ended when Tank 843 of the North Vietnam Army smashed through it’s gates. Unfortunately this place was pretty boring. It’s basically just a bunch of rooms with a big table and some chairs, that you aren’t even allowed to enter. There is a replica of Tank 843 outside, but that’s about as awesome as it gets.
After coming out of the palace we asked our Cyclo drivers where they recommended next. They said something I couldn’t understand, and kept repeating it. I asked them to show me where it was on the map and after pretended not to understand me a few times until they eventually showed me. It was some place miles away, and at the 2 miles per hour this fat slob cycles at he was obviously looking to run us up with a big fare. It had been 90 minutes since we hired these guys and we just wanted them to take us somewhere close by and end the fare. They cycled a few blocks and dropped us off at the Museum and then when I said that we were ending the ride here and wanted to pay, the fat guy got all offended. I said that we just wanted to do stuff on our own from here on and he got clingier than a Thai girl, he just didn’t want our relationship to end so damn fast, he had his mind set on the long term.
Being nice (we’re already paying these guys double what the going rate is) we pay them 200,000 Dong for 2 full hours, even though we only used them for 1 and 3/4 hours. I ship my driver 2 x 100K notes and the fish Amatay hands him 2 x 500K notes. Just as the guy is about to grab it out of his hand (with a HUGE smile on his face) I grab it first and tell him those are 500Ks not 100Ks. The fat glutton Cyclo guy’s smile drops.
Then the greedy fat bastard gets all angry and says is “no, it’s 300,000 Dong each”. Oh really son? He gets really aggressive with me and in amongst all the Vietnamese or incomprehensible English he says that it’s 200,000 for the ride and 100,000 for his tip “You like, you tip. You like, you tip”. We stood there for 5 minutes having this argument when the fucker burned my hand with his cigarette, almost certainly on purpose, the greedy guts obese busto ass clown that he is. After that we just walked away from them, and into the museum, which was absolutely horrendous.
We decided to get out of the city centre on our third day so took a boat ride up the Saigon River to see the Cu Chi Tunnels. It took about 2 and a half hours but the weather was hot and the scenery was awesome.
Once we got to the tunnels they sat us down to watch a half hour propoganda documentary that looked like it was made 30 years ago, celebrating the Viet Cong and the civilians that contributed to winning the war, often referring to them as “American Hero Killers”. They featured one little girl who “Helped KILL 13 AMERICAN SOLDIERS. She was awarded the medal award of AMERICAN HERO KILLER, for her efforts in KILLING 13 AMERICAN SOLDIERS.” It went on like that……
After the video we were shown some of the common traps that the Viet Cong would leave around the jungle for their enemy. Then we were offered the chance to purchase some bullets at a vastly inflated price so we could feel what it was like to fire guns in the Vietnam jungle. Of course I got out the cash and grabbed an AK47, pow pow pow. After some target practise we went down the actual tunnels, which have been widened by 20%, and the 1 foot squared entrances made into big stairways, to allow us fat western tourists to experience them. The Cu Chi tunnels are only a small part of a huge tunnel network that runs under Vietnam and was extremely important to the Viet Cong in winning the war. Inside the tunnels it’s extremely cramped, hot and and humid, with little air. You have to squat and shuffle your feet to get through them. It’s extremely uncomfortable for just a couple of minutes so I cant begin to imagine what it must have been like for the VC soldiers who used them for long periods of time.
Our fourth day was a bit of a write-off. We woke up super late, decided that we were going to visit Saigon Zoo and Botanical Gardens, one of the oldest zoos in the world. But we found the Hard Rock Cafe on the way there and omnomnomed some amazing burgers.
Unfortunately, after our visit to Hard Rock, we ended up arriving at the zoo just as they were closing. Fail. We spent the rest of the day at the pool/bowling/video online game arcade at the top of Diamond Plaza, then I grinded some poker on PokerStars from my hotel room, running just unbelievably terrible as I have been doing all year, and lost 40% of the small amount of money left in my account. Sigh.
On our last day we did make it to the zoo. The entry fee was 8000 Dong, that’s like 40 cents, L-O-L. Three hours of entertainment for some pennies, gotta love Vietnam.
On our last night we ate at the same place we did on the first night. AGAIN they shipped us all courses at once, wtf! haha.
Right, time for a post about Ho Chi Minh, mmmm where do i start? Errrr, first up its worth mentioning that i was basically multai in Vietnam I thought the prices for stuff in Thailand were very inexpensive but fk me, the cost of living in this city was just LOL, it was seriously cheap! One solitary English pound is equivalent to almost 34,000 Vietnamese Dong which meant i was a billionaire for five days babay, weeee!
We stayed at a decent 4* hotel called the Catina for 30 nugs a night which was pretty expensive for this part of the world. Once we arrived we quickly dumped our gear off and went out to explore some of the city. The first thing that immediately struck us was the difficulty we were faced with in just crossing the road. There are almost no traffic lights in Ho Chi Minh and the roads are absolutely jam packed full of scootays. Here’s a comedy vid of me playing Human Frogger, remember that free online game?
After having abit of a mince around the place it quickly got dark and we went for munch at some gaff near our hotel. We both ordered three course meals obviously at a stupidly redic cheap prices although we had endure this fkin annoying beggar girl that resembled a ghost. Honestly she looked really spooky and stood in front us for a good couple of minutes one arm out stretched with the other carrying a baby whilst repeatably uttering the words ohhhh my baby i’m very hungry or something to that affect. It was proper disturbing and she looked/sounded really ghoulish. Oh, the other thing about this place is that while your onomnomnoming on your first course they bring out the other fooking dishes before you have even finished! That was often the case for a few places we ate in actually and sometimes they don’t even bring the grub out in the right order and you end up with all three courses lined up in front of you.
On our first full day we ended up jumping on these Cyclo things which resemble big fk off wheel chairs that the local Vietnamese blokes peddle you around in. First off, a couple of these Cyclo fish took us to some horrible cafe where we got some grub. I had the worst sarnie ever that included a small black hair, nice. However, i did get some geezer to clean my trainers with a toothbrush for about 60p, which is actually alot of money for such a small job. After the dirt munch we got another couple of Cyclo blokes to take us around the town for 100k an hr which is about 3 quid and again is waaaay overpriced but whatever its three quid! We visited the war museum which was pretty good and quite interesting and then went to some Palace place which was utter bollocks and then to Ho Chi Minh Museum which was also complete shit. The problem with these Cyclo cunts is that they are all very happy, nice and polite to start with but when it comes to paying the motherfkers they try to hustle you. Me and Dale ended up with a pretty ugly confrontation which ended up with us just telling the bastards to GTFO when they demanded more money.
In the evening i cant quite remember what we got upto tbh. I think we had a wander and went shopping because Dale had been wearing the same pair of fkin shorts for at least a week (the donk only had one pair) and it was very hot in Vietnam. Here’s a quick vid of the fish paying one million for a fake Lacoste shirt, lolz.
Our 2nd full day in Ho Chi Minh was definitely the best of our Vietnam trip imo. We took a 2.5hr boat trip up the Saigon river and through the jungle to the Cu Chi tunnels, an underground network used during the Vietnam war. I found it very interesting and our guide showed us many of the traps that were used to kill the yanks during the war. We were also shown and given a chance to crawl through one of the tunnels and i had the opportunity to fire 10 live bullets with an AK fortay zieben. In the evening me and Roxx went bowling at the Diamond Plaza. Roxx was the worst bowling fish i’ve ever seen and it was a clean sweep for the Amatay, weee easy game online!
Day three and we decided to visit Saigon Zoo. However, the pair of us lazy bums didn’t wake up till really late this day and after munching a delish burger in the Hard Rock Cafe we arrived at the zoo to find it had a fooking shut, sighhh FAIL. Instead i think we just pissed about climbing over these tanks in some random nearby museum type place and then played pool at the Diamond Plaza. It was a pretty uneventful day.
Last day in Ho Chi Minh and we decided to go for another delish fat bastard Hard Rock Cafe burger meal and then visit the Saigon Zoo this time before it shut. However, the pair of us plums got a weeee bit lost and I ended up wondering around Ho Chi Minh looking for the fooking Hard Rock on my jack jones after Roxxu had to head back to the hotel after forgetting his memory card. I managed to bink a free ride on the back of some blokes scootay who was working outside a hotel. He just seemed to drop all his duties and fetch his bike then took me about 2 mins down the road to my destination. I asked him if he wanted any wonga and was prepared to probably match his whole salary for that day for his kindness but he wasn’t interested. Thats another thing that struck me about Vietnam, how pleasant 90% ish the locals were its just the dirty pimps (more on these at the end of the post) and those Cyclo cunts that make up the other 10%. Once that donko Dale finally joined me in the Hard Rock having got lost himself we quickly nommed down our munch and went to the zoo. It cost us 27p to enter (lolz) and had all the usual animals like Elephants, Tigers, Hippo’s etc. The best thing about the zoo was the Croc House which housed about 35 of the prehistoric beasts and was pretty cool.
On our last night we ate at the same place as the first day with the ghost beggar and then had a wander around the town. In the evening there are a ton of pimps hanging about on the street corners. I think its illgeal for girls to whore themselves out in Vietman but if a pimp does it then its fine, weird. These motherlickers were every fooking where hounding us. You want girl? You want two girl? You want young girl? etc etc. If you flat out refused then they would ask you if you wanted Marijuana and all sorts of other stuff. Basically, if you wanted anything then they could probably sort it for ya, some of them were quite funny actually. It wasn’t just blokes pimping the girls out btw but also bitches pimping other bitches, mistresses i guess.
There’s more stuff i could write about Vietnam tbh but i’ll leave you fish with a bunch more snaps. I really enjoyed my stay in Ho Chi Minh, it was a fun and interesting experience. Next stop Hong Kong!
Check out Daleroxxu’s Tour Of Cards Blog, plenty more comedy tales, pics and vids of Ho Chi Minh there.
Two days ago i won two tournaments. A 10k gtd and a 5k gtd and some other final tables for a $5.2k up night. Yesterday had me final table bubble three biggies and i am down $700ish for the night. Not too bothered about that though as i am getting deep into the tournies i just need more of that lucky tp propel me forward to getting to the last three and ultimately winning.
Really enjoying the virtual game at the moemnt. I need to be careful to do my uni work too now thought cos that could get easily ignored.
I have 10 applications running, the live feed for the LAPC at Commerce Free Online Casino running, Tweetdeck, 3 blog engines, and who knows how many tabs open in Google Chrome.
All this just to make a dollar outta fifteen cents! Crazy…
Things in life for me are never all good or never all bad. There seems to always be this yin yang situation with me.
I have suffered the worst bad beat of my life so far. My wife woke up a few days after Christmas and decided she had no feelings for me anymore and has asked to seperate. She moved out this week taking my little 2 year old boy with her. I still get to see him but not as much as before and his future is now not so rosey. I’m not going to pour my heart out on a poker blog but there is some relevance.
The rest of my life is on fire. I am winning at poker, both online and live. Nothing large but its consistant. I have turned my $100 into $400 in just under 2 months of 10nl and small amount of 25nl. My job, i love it. My world is great. Yin Yang. Extreme volatility with an underlying flat trend.
Going forward this will mean more poker. Granted I will be out drinking and getting involved in as many women as possible but it also means I will not be doing ‘relationship stuff’ like watching stupid sitcoms and walking around shopping centres. I will be able to put in more hours at the virtual felt. Yin …. fkin… Yang !
I watched the General Election leader’s debate last night and drew the following worrying conclusions.
1. The person who will be Taioseach is a Palinesque public relations fiasco waiting to happen and his party is all slogans and no substance. 2. The person who clearly had the most to gain and lose was a toned-down, insipid reflection of himself. 3. The person who impressed me most is the leader of a party I abhor and served for 14 years in the governments that helped to bring about Ireland’s economic collapse. 4. The public are incapable of judging a debate.
Enda Kenny was the tight passive amateur – he tried to convey a strong image by staying silent, not playing too many hands, sticking to script and simplifying the free online game by raising only his premium holdings but, in actuality, he had no idea how to play and limped weakly into hands only to get himself lost in the minefield of post-flop play.
Eamon Gilmore was the tight aggressive semi-pro – he understands the virtual game pretty well and at lower stakes, he maintains a strong image, sees his opponents weaknesses and times his aggression well. However, he found himself in a big boy’s game online and, under pressure, he tightened up, allowing himself to be exploited by the laggy maniac while at the same time not exploiting the weak player on his right.
Micheal Martin was the fearless, tenacious loose aggressive pro who adopted the tactic of short-stack attack. He knows he has played poorly of late but he has experience on his side and a much greater grasp of the fundamentals. Responding to a recent downswing and feeling like he has nothing to lose, he came out all guns blazing, raising and re-raising his opponents into a state of paralysis, exposing their fundamental impotence when asked tough questions and put under real pressure.
The average Joe is results-oriented and thus, misinterprets and misapprehends what they are watching. They think the amateur knows what he is doing because they mistake his silence for composure, his suit for substance, his chiplead for skill. And much like Chris Moneymaker, Enda Kenny is going to donk his way to victory. The amateur is going to win this one but not because he is good but because he is lucky and those around him either don’t have enough chips or are very bad.
And like Chris Moneymaker, it won’t be long before he gives back his winnings and is exposed for the donkey that he really is.
I thought the prices for stuff in Thailand were very inexpensive but fk me, the cost of living in this city was just LOL, it was seriously cheap! One solitary English pound is equivalent to almost 34,000 Vietnamese Dong which meant i was a billionaire for five days babay, weeee!
