Harry, Dave and Bob too.

gazza127

Vegas?

Im not at all completely and utterly filled to the brim with jealously.

Nahuh.

Not. One. Bit.

hhyftrftdr

Mr Jackson, that is some very kind words right there. How many shandies influenced that post? Very nice stuff in all seriousness, and some excellent points.

Gazza, you have surely won enough in recent months to pay for a trip out there?! Just hop on a plane and Bob's your uncle (no pun intended).

Vegas veterans, where should I be playing my poker? As said before, only been once before, and it was a flying visit (just 2 nights) as I was en route to see City in San Francisco, and this was back in the summer of 2011. Stayed at Flamingo then, and only played a couple of tournaments within the hotel with moderate success.

Got 5 nights of fun and games this time, and will be looking to play MTT's up to and around the $100 mark. Would prefer ones with reasonable structures, but appreciate that this might be not be easy to achieve. Also will be dabbling at cash as well. I know to avoid the 'poker' hotels like the Venetian etc, any hotel have a good reputation for soft cash games?

Any tips and advice much appreciated.

hhyftrftdr

In Response to Re: Harry, Dave and Bob too.:

Have a great time in Barcelona hopefully u bink a ticket for the match. If down towards the casino drop into the bah haa (not sure of spelling )beach bar really good fun. Always get the casino or bar to order a taxi for you to pick yous up outside , always safer. Pat
Posted by day4eire76

Thanks for the heads up sir!

My Dad has been a season ticket holder for many many years so I should be ok for a ticket....in theory. If not, it will be an expensive trip to Barcelona to sit in a bar watching football

gazza127

How much is Vegas costing you?  I've always wanted to go and do Vegas + do Grand Canyon etc.

Work your magic and find me something cheap?  I've found one where I can get 9 nights (3 in vegas, 6 around national parks) for £1049 including flights car hire and all accomodation.  Sounds pretty good or am I being a bit of a naive nonse?

gazza127

In Response to Re: Harry, Dave and Bob too.:

How much is Vegas costing you?  I've always wanted to go and do Vegas + do Grand Canyon etc. Work your magic and find me something cheap?  I've found one where I can get 9 nights (3 in vegas, 6 around national parks) for £1049 including flights car hire and all accomodation.  Sounds pretty good or am I being a bit of a naive nonse?
Posted by gazza127

Sigh this is based on a 2 person room with double bed.  Dont really fancy sharing a double bed with a mate for 9 nights.

Eurgh.

Slipwater

In Response to Re: Harry, Dave and Bob too.:

In Response to Re: Harry, Dave and Bob too. : Sigh this is based on a 2 person room with double bed.  Dont really fancy sharing a double bed with a mate for 9 nights. Eurgh.
Posted by gazza127

Yeah, anything more than a week and people start to talk.

hhyftrftdr

National parks?! Have a word!

Flights are setting me back about £560 including bags and a flight to Dublin from Manchester (fly to Vegas from Dublin via Gatwick randomly). 5 nights at Stratosphere hotel is £95 in an upgraded room. So once I've put my abacus away, I think it comes to around the £650 mark, give or take. 

Gonna look at going to the Grand Canyon as well, though this will add numerous £££ onto the cost. Ces't la vie.

hhyftrftdr

Ole, whats the score, Ole Ole whats the score?

City steam train chugs along nicely. Shame Arsenal don't seem to be dropping points like I half expected/hoped. Still pretty confident we'll finish above them come May. Will that be enough to secure the title? Time will tell. Torn tomorrow, as much as I enjoy seeing United lose, if they get a result at Chelsea that would do us a favour. Shame they both can't lose really. Sort it out FA!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Pokers....got a 3rd in the Thursday night mini, but somewhat disappointed. Was sitting pretty nicely, but decided to take a stand against Solack (felt like he was always raising my BB from his SB). To say I had a junky hand would be generous, and I ended up donating a decent chunk of my stack to the biggest threat/best player at the table. Then within moments, I raised called it off with 66 in the SB for what was actually quite a big over shove from the other player. I knew it was a fold (esp vs this player), I still had plenty back. My finger thought otherwise, clicked call and was drawing to 2 outs vs 88 and missed. Left with a bowl and out next hand. A decent run, but to not close it out stung a little. Should probably add that most of that 3rd place profit was totally donked away at the cash tables last night. Sigh. No excuses or bad beats, just awful play from me across some MC tables and I fully deserved to be £100 in the hole. 

Satted into the Primo tonight so at least that has saved me a few quid. Will be in the hunt for the FT jackpot. Have we had a 2 time winner before? Some very familiar names have bagged a single payout, but it would be nice to gain the bragging rights of being the first double winner......GG MattBates/TommyD for when it's you.

Need to change out of my robot suit before 8pm so run well all and have a great weekend.

hhyftrftdr

Bruges was pretty nice, very quaint. Climbed that tower that features a few times in 'In Bruges'....366 bloody steps! Worse than St James' Park! Cracking views from the top, shame it was pretty foggy but imagine you can see for miles on a clear day, it towers over everything else in the city. Stella is also quite nice over there, didn't make me feel punchy or anything  

2 full days without even looking at a card made me itch for a game as soon as I got back. Not much running MTT wise late morning time so just played a £5.75 BH and FT'ed it for a few quid profit. Then went for a carvery, and am still suffering from it now. My double chin is coming along nicely, sigh

Changed hotel in Vegas. Stratoshpere, despite being super cheap, is just too far out. Plumped for Planet Hollywood instead; still very much on the bargainous side of things (£155 for 5 nights + breakfast), but way more central for my gambling needs.

Seen a couple of posts in regards to getting into poker. Tikay also did one on his thread which was a very interesting read. Debating to put mine in here, but fear it could run for line after line, all of which is pretty standard (boring) stuff, and could probably be surmised in one paragraph....something like this....

.....Used to gamble on football loads, close mate encouraged me to learn poker, eventually did, was a serial depositer/loser on Sky, went elsewhere to try my luck and improve my game, had some decent success, returned to Sky a much better player about 9 months ago and started to win some monies. And mostly stopped spewing off on 12fold acca's.....

Told you it was boring!

hhyftrftdr

Poor day at the tables. Satted into the main, yet still spent £66 total on the Main and Mini, with not a sniff of a cash to show for it. As much as I like the rebuy main, the buy ins can spiral if it all goes Pete Tong. Hand that wrecked me in the ME has gone in the clinic; I basically flopped pretty massive with 67h (I was PFR too). Guy donk ships 8k into the 2k pot, I have about 11.5k behind at the 2/400 level. Now when that flop falls (it was 3h 5h 6x btw), I know the chips are gonna start flying about. And had the chips gone in in a more 'conventional' way (bet, raise, all in, blah blah blah), then so be it. But to call off most of my stack to a 4x pot shove with a pair, straight and flush draws....couldn't click call quick enough at the time, but upon reflection perhaps it's a spot I can pass. I dunno, I wanted to get the chips in, got them in so maybe I shouldn't dwell too much on if it was the right move. To flop top pair with the gutshot, flush and gutshot straight flush draw.....

Pretty good day away from the tables, capped off with Sunderland doing the business tonight. As much as I'd loved to have given United a hiding in a cup final, the atmosphere away from the pitch would've been awful. The semi in 2011 vs them was not fun whatsoever. So the whole experience vs Sunderland will be much more pleasant, and a day I'm very much looking forward to. We have the chance to put the Wigan final ghosts to bed.

Some very exciting news also filtered through from Australia, City have purchased Melbourne Hearts FC. Seems like the club want a portfolio across the globe. Appears that Melbourne Hearts are a pretty new club, formed only a few years ago. The name Melbourne City FC has apparently already been trademarked, shame they play in red. Just have to do a Vincent Tan on them In all seriousness, this is a great move by our owners. Melbourne is the sporting capital of Oz, and the football market is growing Down Under. Along with the New York City FC initiative, we look to have a good global base. I look forward to friendlies in New York and Melbourne in coming seasons

hhyftrftdr

Did poker save me from gambling?

I used to gamble a lot. Way too much. I would trawl the South American football markets every evening in the hope of finding a clump of matches that I could use in an accumulator. I knew (know) nothing about football in that region, but my eyes would light up when I found 8 games in Brazil kicking off at the same time. I did have the odd nice victory, but I was spewing off money. My ex found a bank statement one time, I'd deposited £250 in one month on a certain betting site. Compared to what I earn/t, it's a pretty significant sum. Chucking tenners at random bets soon adds up if you're doing it every night and getting nothing in return. I would also lose money on roulette on the odd times I went to a casino as I didn't know how to play poker back then (some might argue I still don't!). 

A very close friend had been pestering me to learn the game. I had wanted to, but it's just something I never got round to doing. He's a good player, won a holiday to Vegas a few years ago in one of those live pub league things. We finally got together and I watched him play. Those early stages are all a bit of a blur. We were going 50/50 on MTT entries but obviously he was doing everything as I was a total noob. I gradually started to pick up the basics, and started to venture out on the virtual felt alone. Sky Poker was where I played. I was exactly the type of player they needed. Deposit some money, lose it. Rinse and repeat. Got the odd small cash here and there but I was very much the losing player. 

I was going to America in the summer of 2011. Final destination was San Francisco to see City in action, but I stopped off in New York and Las Vegas en route. A couple of weeks before I was due to leave, I luckboxed my way into the Primo one Sunday. I then luckboxed my way to 4th place and over £1000. This still remains my 3rd biggest cash on Sky. I was absolutely over the moon. Withdrew nearly all of it to use as spends in America, and left some change in the account to play about with. Later that week, I won one of the £400 GTD midnight MTT's for another £160 odd. I felt like I had made it. How naive I was.

On my return from America, I was straight back into my depositing and losing ways. I can only assume I was enjoying it to a degree as it didn't deter me from coming back for more. I didn't know anything about BRM or anything like that back then. I eventually branched away from Sky to try my 'luck' at other sites. Played on all the obvious candidates, but found my new home on BetVictor. It was quite a small site, on the Entraction network. I was still stuck in my old ways though, deposit lose etc etc, but my game was improving due to my experience increasing. BV would run a 1k deepstack every night for a 15e buy in. I played 12 of these (consecutive nights), and managed to cash in 10. No outright victories but a few top 3/4's, which meant I'd won enough to have a decent roll on BV. I managed to increase that roll instead of losing it, got it up to quite a sizeable amount for the stakes I was playing. I almost won a package to the now defunct European Masters Of Poker tour Bulgaria (EMOP), alas I fell at the HU hurdle, but still took home over 800e, and I'd won my way there for a fiver. Even withdraw a grand from my account to pay for a few things including a holiday, that felt good.

Then the news filtered through that BV were to change from Entraction to Microgaming. Entraction were struggling. I was unsure how I felt about this. I think the change happened late 2012. Immediately, I was uncomfortable on Microgaming. The MTT's offered much bigger prizes, but this comes with much bigger fields, and the software was difficult to get used to. All the players I'd played with on Entraction everyday were now nowhere to be seen. With hindsight, I wish I'd withdrawn my roll as soon as I realised it wasn't for me, but stubbornly I carried on in the hope I could get used to all this newness. My roll dwindled, and I really wasn't enjoying it. Was down to about my last £200. I didn't feel like grinding it back up, wanted a quick fix. I should've entered their weekly £200 MTT that guaranteed 75,000e. My old gambling habit took over though, I stuck £200 on a ridiculous football double that, surprise surprise, didn't come in. That would've netted me a grand. Instead, I was busto.

I took a short break from the game (this is around early 2013), then decided to come back to Sky. I felt like I had something to prove on here, felt like I was better than Sharkscope suggested. I had played very occasionally on Sky whilst grinding elsewhere. Won a seat to SPT Luton in Dec '12. But now I wanted to play exclusively on Sky and prove to myself that I can win money on this site. Stuck £30 on here, with the intention of hammering the 4nl tables and micro MTT's to grind up a workable BR. I was up to about £45 after a few days, but I really wanted to play the ME Turbo on the Tuesday. The buy in was 20% of my roll, so stuck another £11 in my account to play it (this is why I don't/can't do bankroll challenges!). Navigated my way to the final table, busted 3rd for a smidge over £400, and now could play more games and sats. It also coincided with me writing on this forum, felt good to get involved. 

Do I still gamble? Yes. But on a much smaller scale. I do season long bets. The odd Saturday I have off, I'll do a goals galore or something. Or if there is a midweek full fixture list, I'll have a dabble. But scouring the obscure markets night after night to find something to bet on? Nah, those days are behind me. Poker filled that void, and so I'll always be thankful for the game.

Speaking of gambling, I bet none of you make it to the end of this!

hhyftrftdr

That is a disgustingly long post. 

Eat your hearts out Lambert and Jac

VespaPX

I made it to the end - what were the odds?

Jac35

By my standards, it was little short.

Good read

I think your story is very similar to that of many poker players. Me, certainly.

We have always had an itch to gamble. We know we'll lose but we do it anyway.

Then poker comes along. Satisfies the itch and we find if we work quite hard, thenit's possible that we'll win more than we lose.

Slipwater

Good post, Malcolm. Thumbs up from me.

gazza127

Interesting read.

I've incidentally given up my betting due to my job.  Not by choice... im not allowed to bet!  Either way poker cures my craving of gambling.  Too bad I sometimes just spew on poker instead!

And good to know your BRM sucks too

hhyftrftdr

In Response to Re: Harry, Dave and Bob too.:

Interesting read. I've incidentally given up my betting due to my job.  Not by choice... im not allowed to bet!  Either way poker cures my craving of gambling.  Too bad I sometimes just spew on poker instead! And good to know your BRM sucks too
Posted by gazza127

Ha, I'm a total BR bit these days. Still try and sat into the £11 main events for Chirsts sake! Back then, BRM wasn't something I even knew existed. Ignorance is bliss

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Dohhh said something elsewhere about enjoying poker less now that it's all about the money (or words to that effect). Think thats where that essay came from, I used to enjoy the game much more depsite losing at it. The more serious it gets, the less enjoyment that comes with it. Strange really, you'd think winning money would equal more enjoyment. 

Having said that, I did enjoy the Rainman DS today, despite exiting set over set. Sort it out Sky!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks for the kind comments guys

hhyftrftdr

Just had a mooch around at some of the less prominent forum topics on the left there (Intro and FAQ, community suggestions, announcements etc etc).

Worth perusing if anyone needs a laugh.

Slipwater

In Response to Re: Harry, Dave and Bob too.:

Just had a mooch around at some of the less prominent forum topics on the left there (Intro and FAQ, community suggestions, announcements etc etc). Worth perusing if anyone needs a laugh.
Posted by hhyftrftdr

Thank you sir - I'm here to amuse

day4eire76

Great read pal.

I had somewhat stopped with the gambling apart from poker but have alot of friends in the bis and had a bit of a touch with the Barney Curley coup earlier in the week ; )
Just about makes up for bubbling a sat for a UKIP Dublin tonight elsewhere.
Might aswell make a brag aswell.
I won the £22 1k bh aswell tonight , needed it .

Pat

Jac35

In Response to Re: Harry, Dave and Bob too.:

Great read pal. I had somewhat stopped with the gambling apart from poker but have alot of friends in the bis and had a bit of a touch with the Barney Curley coup earlier in the week ; ) Just about makes up for bubbling a sat for a UKIP Dublin tonight elsewhere. Might aswell make a brag aswell. I won the £22 1k bh aswell tonight , needed it . Pat
Posted by day4eire76

Good work Pat

LARSON7

Well done Pat.

Hi HH,

Just read your posts re gambling.

Nice post.

Interesting a lot of poker players seem to be gamblers. Not all, seems most are, or have been.

Glad poker is your new out let for gambling!

You have done really well at the poker, and had some very nice scores.

More to follow soon no doubt, and nice hand with your straight last night.

Good luck at the tables

hhyftrftdr

Nice binkage Pat, and ul with that seat. Thanks for the kind words Henrik, but I know I'm ''spawny''

Playing the Main, mini and 9pm BH tonight. Sold some action (still some left for interested parties), so need to be on my A game and hopefully run well as it ain't just my cash on the line. 

Busted the Rainman deepy in 3rd was hoping I could brag about being as good as Orford but alas it wasn't to be. 

----------------------------------------------------------

Chelsea in the Cup, interesting tie and a great opportunity to eliminate one of our biggest threats. 

hhyftrftdr

Cracking result tonight. Thought the ref was awful (for both teams), but we just look the part at the moment. Disappointed to see Aguero hobble off, but have the upmost faith in Negredo, Dzeko and a fully fit Jovetic to do the business whilst Sergio recovers. Some tough fixtures coming up, starting with Chelsea on Monday, but I fancy our chances vs anyone at the moment. Viva Pellegrini! 

Poker? Who cares about that? Lost HU in a DTD game on Monday night. Nothing else much to report, other than potentially removing a large %age of my roll to cover things I wanna do later this year. 

---------------------------------------------------------

Been watching a few films recently. I own so many DVD's that I've yet to get round to watching, hoping that will fill the void as and when I scale back my poker. Watched the Mike Leigh film Another Year today, the foreign film Paradise Now last night, Zero Dark Thirty the other day. Loads more to rattle through, but it's all very enjoyable.

Surprised to see that Sky are only offering a £500 cash equivalent for the UKPC seat tomorrow night in the BH main. Seat is worth £1100, not sure why that is overlooked for those that can't make it yet might bust Charlotte Jackson. Will probably buy in and hope to draw the same table as her. Just go all in every hand, innit?

hhyftrftdr

Going to be operating on a much more modest bankroll going forward. Just withdrawn about 80% of it (Yes Brian, I withdrew £40, in before you get there!), to be put aside for later in the year should/when the travel plans start bearing fruit. Need some spends for Vegas too.

4 flushed out the main. I made a pretty large 3bet all in with AQ, which was very much villain specific. He tank calls with the same hand, not too bad. Oh wait, lets chuck some runner runner hearts on the board to send me busto. Sort it out Sky!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I still plan on being a bankroll nit, so shall be looking to sat into any mains I end up playing. Probs avoid the MC tables, unless I see Henrik sat down

I'd had it pretty good for a long time, feel it's time to earn my stripes again and get back into winning ways.

Slipwater

In Response to Re: Harry, Dave and Bob too.:

Going to be operating on a much more modest bankroll going forward. Just withdrawn about 80% of it (Yes Brian, I withdrew £40, in before you get there!), to be put aside for later in the year should/when the travel plans start bearing fruit. Need some spends for Vegas too. 4 flushed out the main. I made a pretty large 3bet all in with AQ, which was very much villain specific. He tank calls with the same hand, not too bad. Oh wait, lets chuck some runner runner hearts on the board to send me busto. Sort it out Sky!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I still plan on being a bankroll nit, so shall be looking to sat into any mains I end up playing. Probs avoid the MC tables, unless I see Henrik sat down I'd had it pretty good for a long time, feel it's time to earn my stripes again and get back into winning ways.
Posted by hhyftrftdr

As if I make cruel jokes like that!

hhyftrftdr

What did I say about earning my stripes again? Did zilch in the Orfordable deepstack. Called off in a spot when I could be ahead, and if I was behind then I had outs. You know, as you do. Turns out I was behind and missed said outs. Was crusing along quite nicely in the mega stack. Then ran KK into AA whilst 5 handed (not that that matters really, could be 23 handed and it still goes in), and never really recovered from that. 

Some modest success in the 9pm BH, snook a top 20 spot from over 400 runners, plus a couple of heads. Think that tourney is going to be a permanent fixture when I play on an evening; field is generally pretty soft, though I think some of the better MTT players have realised this now and also flick in the £11. Any given table could be full of value or a potential nightmare. Reminds me of the starting table in the £55 BBH last Sunday....had the company of Stayorgo, Jakally, NooGooood and Solack. Far from ideal! 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 

 

Gonna be serious for just a moment. Tikay put something very succinct in his thread. Some bad stuff has happened in York this last week. I'm sure you'll know what I'm going on about if you read/listen to the news. Don't let a game of cards get to you. Yes, a river 2 outer is annoying. So is a disconnection. But in the grand scheme of things? No biggie. Be grateful for what you have, health and I hope happiness. Enjoy your weekend with the people close to you. 

Jac35

Nice post

....

Worked out what you're going to do yet?

hhyftrftdr

Still somewhat unsure Mr Jackson. I think I know deep down what will happen, but I have plenty of time to think things through. Saw your cracking figures for January, very well done! Can't be long before little Jac35 is due.... 

----------------------------------------------------------

4th in the mini Roller last night. A nice cash, much needed on this reduced bankroll, but disappointing to not take it down. Kinda annoying to go out with a triple barrel blind on blind bluff that I couldn't quite get through on the river. Should I have check folded to leave myself with 8bb? Maybe. But I wanted to win, and I'd set the hand up to ship the river. Couldn't shift the guy off his 2nd pair, but to be fair I think I'd also make that same call. Thanks to various forum regs for the rail. And Brian.

Also had another deep run in the 9.30 3k BH. 14th (give or take). Two top 20 finishes in a row, but the bigger money is always up top. Hopefully close one out one day soon.

Think the enjoyment factor is slowly creeping back into my game. Yes, it's nice to win some cash here and there, but it's not the be all and end all for me, and, I'm sure, many others. Unfortunately, there shall be no DTD games or poker in general tonight......

------------------------------------------------------------------------

......because there is a rather important match later. I really don't know what to expect. Part of me thinks we could give Chelsea a good drubbing. Which would be lovely. But I also fear that they could give us a very tight 90 minutes. I fancy our chances, but the longer the game stays 0-0, the more this will suit them. Would be nice to shut Mourinho up....

Missed out on tickets for the Barca away leg. Frustrating and disappointing, but shall make the trip the best it can be regardless. I imagine there will be thousands who travel ticketless, so just need to find a few bars to take over and make the best of the situation. They got beat at home this weekend too....

Jac35

Should be a good match, think you'll win.

...

Not long now. It's Jac0 btw