"Lord, What fools these mortals be!"

- A Midsummer Night's Dream, Act III, scene ii

Clearly Shakespeare had also played against the $3 SnG players on PokerStars!

Daily Summary -
Tournaments 23
1sts 0
2nds 0
3rds 0
Minor Cashes 2
Profit/Loss -$47.75

500 FPP Step 1 - 4th for $1.50

Total Profit/Loss +$72.55

Charity Tin £2

Ice Road Trucker...

I had three jobs booked in to do yesterday... I got all three jobs done, driving over 200 miles in the process... and then got the van stuck in the road trying to reverse back into my own driveway!!

Cancelled today's jobs and re-booked them for next Tuesday.

Thank God for global warming, that's what I say... where would we be without it, Eh? We'd all freeze in our beds, that's where we'd be without it!!

No poker played Wednesday.

Black Toosday...

Just two sessions today, a single first place finish in this morning's 11 game set ensured a small profit but that soon evaporated in a brutal evening session.

Some good news though, played the front nine at Witney today... 40 shots through holes 1 to 8 and confident of pretty good score [for me], only to hit the tee shot out of bounds, at the 9th, another into the trees, resulting in a very ugly 9 to finish and spoil an otherwise fairly good looking card.

Daily Summary -
Tournaments 26
1sts 1
2nds 0
3rds 0
Minor Cashes 1
Profit/Loss -$30.50

Total Profit/Loss +$118.80

Charity Tin £2

Gave A Bit Back Today...

Not much to say about it really, decent session early, so so session this afternoon and an 0 for 12 session tonight! :-(

On Saturday, I used 500 FPPs for a Step 1 SnG... won a $27 Step 2 ticket. Played the Step 2 earlier and lost that also (8th place).

Daily Summary -
Tournaments 32
1sts 0
2nds 1
3rds 1
Minor Cashes 3
Profit/Loss -$29.00

Total Profit/Loss +$149.30

Charity Tin £2

Nothing To See Here...

No poker today.

Breathe In The Through The Nose....

breathe out through the mouth.....

Ommmmmmmmmmmmmm......

Just 21 tournaments today in two sessions, 14 this morning with just one 7th place for a $30'something loss. But an altogether much better 7 game session this evening, albeit with a certain amount of 'tongue biting' required, a first and a second place 'greening up' the day's proceedings.

Daily Summary -
Tournaments 21
1sts 1
2nds 1
3rds 0
Minor Cashes 1
Profit/Loss +$25.75

Total Profit/Loss +$178.30

Charity Tin £1

All In The Garden Is Rosy...

My new found outlook on the trials and tribulations of online poker (aided by a mega-strength dose of Valium), has already begun to pay dividends. After the first two sessions of the day had resulted in two small losses, totaling -$13.50... a much calmer evening session, sans bad-beat rants, provided 4 cashes from 10 tournaments and a return of $73.75.

Daily Summary -
Tournaments 35
1sts 1
2nds 1
3rds 0
Minor Cashes 10
Profit/Loss +$60.25

Total Profit/Loss +$152.55

Charity Tin £1*

*Note: I feel I was tricked here and reluctantly agreed to put this £1 in... I was simply suffering in silence, shaking my head after running JJ into QQ, when shorthanded at a final table. When Teresa asked what was wrong I did allow a small expletive to enter my description. It wasn't a rant, it was explained in a calm , collected manner, but I did agree not to swear while playing.

January Charity Prop Bet [of sorts]...

So, here's the thing; I have come to the conclusion that if my heart and sanity are to last long enough for me to spend any winnings I might have by the time we get to Vegas, I need to stop getting so stressed by the bad beats... stop swearing at bad players making bad calls - they can't hear me!! And maybe stop making those bad decisions in the middle of a session that have probably been costing 2 or 3 buy-ins each session.

The terms and conditions (these will apply to live poker also)...

For the remainder of the month of January;
- I will not shout and swear during the course of a session.
- I will not moan about, or post any more bad beats.
- I will not moan about bad players making bad calls.
- I will not moan about the PokerStars RNG.
- I will not threaten to throw the laptop across the room.

Teresa will police the online sessions and the penalty will be £1.00 in a tin for each offence.

At the end of January any money collected will be handed over to Joy, at the Pigeons, to donate to one of their [UK] charities.

If their is less than £20, I will double it and if the tin is bare (ha ha, yes, some chance!!) I will donate £10 anyway... I guess that gives me 5 free lapses of concentration? :-)


There it is then, bring it on PokerStars... do your worst, I shall remain calm and collected at all times... playing my A-Game and making only correct decisions.

Deep breaths....

Ommmmmmmmmm....

And A New One's Just Begun...

unfortunately it's started much the same as the last one ended. :-(

This just about sums up the last week or so; Final table of $3.25 45-Man SnG, it folds to the Button who limps, SB folds, I push and get insta-called by button...


Then a few hands later, I've stolen some blinds and got back to reasonable stack, UTG folds, I push again, fold fold, same guy snap calls in the BB, with pocket 3s!


This same sort of thing has been occurring relentlessly for days... I fear that my sanity may break before my bankroll.

A PokerStars regular yesterday

Another year over...

So, I guess it's an appropriate time for a progress report on the quest to win some money to take to Vegas in June. The quest started on December 3rd, so not quite a full month, however I haven't had much [any] work so I have been able to put in a decent volume.

I've played 502 tournaments, all but one were 45-man SnGs (I somehow entered a $2.20 180-man SnG by mistake!)... 492 at $3.25 and 9 @ $6.50.

Out of 22557 hands I've had pocket Aces 97 times and lost with them 13 times.

At one stage I was +$200, but subsequently I've had very frustrating spell of winning a bit but then losing a bit more and I've finished the month with just a $92.30 profit... still a profit, very dissappointing none the less.

I have to find some way to turn this downward trend around!