Funny place to be on Crimbo day

Got up at 6am on Christmas morning to walk up a mountain in Wales with the mother in law and the father in law (aka anti-social). It is something they have been doing the last few christmas' and as i wasnt working felt obligated to give it a try. Mrs R had to stay at home due to her being 5 months pregnant so it was just the three of us and a dog that made the trip.
We arrived at about 8am and were the first people there...(obviously), i cant spell or prenounce the name of the mountain, which to be honest is more of a big hill with a ruin on the top compared to the proper mountains that we have been up this year.

We reached the top an hour or so later and had some breakfast and i took the opportunity to record a small video that is in the typical format of the videos i have posted on here over the years which hopefully are amusing.



We were back in Liverpool by 11am'ish and myself and anti-social hit the pub at dinner time for a couple of hours before crowding round a dinner table (23 strong!) at one of Mrs R's aunties houses (Liverpool families are massive). It was a good day and by the end i had a head-ache from all the John Smiths that i drank, and that head-ache carried on today at work.

Played a bit of poker on Christmas Eve and finished $60 up (a bit at a time adds up!!) though i could have been down after i got lucky in a $200 pot where i re-shoved on the flop with KK against an aggro fish on a board of J8Q rainbow and he had J8, luckily the river was a Q giving me a bigger two pair.

I am in work agian tommorrow and have to be there at 7am (DOH!) and afterwards myself and Mrs R are going to a house party at my mates, but then I have a week off work so should get plenty of poker in and hopefully finish the month in profit for the first time for a while.

hope you all had a good christmas

Merry Christmas

Had a superb all-day drinking session in Liverpool on Saturday, which was an outing from work. We started at 1.00pm and got home at 3.00am which is not bad going by anyones standards.

On the poker front i have continued to play just one table and it has been going well. Although i have not been bothered about my own stats (see a previous post), since i am only playing one table i thought i might as well be able to see all the other players stats and get as much info on em as i can. Now that Pokertracker3 is stable i have set the Hud on that to give me loads of usefull stats that i now have the time to study and make the appropriate plays. My computer is data-mining Full Tilt all the time i am away so my database is growing by the day. I also pay close attention to how many tables each fish is playing and have been making some pretty good notes on each player.

I have only played about 15 hours this last week but i have earnt an average off about £11 per hour so it aint too bad (same as what i get in my hand for each hour at work anyhows). The strong dollar agianst the pound really helps us poker players at the moment.

On crimbo day i am supposed to be getting up at 6am to go walking with the in-laws up a mountain in Wales and then be back in time for a pub session with the father-in-law (aka anti-social). Last year we only had about half an hour in the pub as we were told for months that christmas dinner was at a certain time only for it to change to an hour earlier (near enough the moment we set foot in the pub!!) . We were made to look the villians and what made it worse they were all adament that the time hadnt changed at all and it was always at the earlier time........CHRISTMAS TILT!!

Off to work in a minute and will be hitting the gym before i start, just bulking up with a pasta/tuna dish before i go whilst writing this!

Merry Christmas to anyone reading

One table wonder

In order to further my poker game i have dropped my tables from playing 3 at once to just 1 table at once.
I still cant forget my superb experience playing live at the Vic and how i felt so in control of the table and the information i could pick up by just watching everyone and I want to replicate that when i play online.
Just finished a couple of sessions and won a couple of buy-ins and i felt my game was so much better than when I am multi-tabling. Stats wise i am a lot nearer to what the cardrunners pro's play like on thier videos (not that i am arsed about stats) , probably about 24/20/4 (6-max) when i checked at the end.

I suppose there are pro's and cons of doing both, and rakeback being probably the biggest negative aspect of only playing one table. However in the past I (and I bet a few others) have become more interested in playing loads of tables and getting an hourly rakeback$ figure that they have stopped concentrating on actually playing POKER. Anyway will see how i fare, I think I would rather win more buy-ins by opening up my game a bit on one table than trying to get a few dollars more in rakeback every hour.

Away from the tables my training is going ok, i have really upped the tempo at the moment and am trying to get the diet right for building muscle whilst staying fit. Heavy intense weight sessions with a couple of runs and circuits thrown in seems to be doing me well.

Changed the "blogs i read column" on the right so it now shows recently updated blogs at the top, and i have also had my blog linked up on the RaisetheRiver homepage, i think i will have to get more involved with that (posting in the forums etc) and have a go in the leagues etc they run, which should be a good laugh.

anyway time for bed, another 12 hour shift in a few hours...........

going steady

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker!

The WBCOOP is an online Poker tournament open to all Bloggers.

Registration code: 638252

Played ok this week and am slightly in profit, would have been more if i hadnt had one slip up this week when i tried to play an extra table and had a go at the level above. Apart from that i have played well and really tried to implement the things i mentioned in my last post and get into the best frame of mind i can.

If i do that every week and be patient i will easily be making the shortfall in wages i have taken by reducing my hours at work so i am really focused/positive and motivated at the moment.

Went on the piss round Liverpool with my mate Peachy from Buxton which was a good laugh, we used to be in the Army together many years ago and have stayed mates ever since. Liverpool was suprisingly quite for a Friday night though, possibly everyone waiting until nearer Christmas.

Cardrunners are doing a good promotion now that they are in partnership with Full Tilt, they give you free monthly subscription ($29) if you acheive so many FTP (Full Tilt Points), and whats also good is that they dont actually take them off you, you just have to earn them and it is done automatically.

Off to work now for a late shift, hitting the gym first and i will be hitting the tables this evening after work as i am off tommorrow.

December........

Not much to report. Finished November a couple of $hundred down and it was the first month i got my proper (reduced hours) pay slip from work which was £400 less now that i am only working 29hrs per week instead of 39hrs.

Played well the last couple of days and have decided to try something and see what difference it makes. When i played at the Vic last week i felt i played superbly and only had my wits/reads/experience to count on. Online i use Pokertracker/Hud and get so bogged down with stats and how i should play etc etc, i feel that this is part of what has stunted my progress/results of late. So i have decided not to use pokertracker/hud or any other stat programs for a while and just play from feel and see how i get on. The last three days have all been winners so maybe i am onto something, will see how it goes.

I have been tampering with MTTs again and have done ok, got a couple of final tables but only in small $26 sng 45-seaters so nowt to get exited about. Will hopefully play some bigger (buy-in/players) MTT's this month and see how i get on. Got loads of days off, i think i am only working something like 10 days this month the rest will be spent at the tables trying to grind some wages out.

Got the in-laws/my parents coming to our house tonight for a buffet and will probably be out on the ale on Friday in Liverpool, plus a few crimbo doo's (piss ups) from work planned for later in the month so hopefully it will be a good one.