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Last week’s balance £339.06
This week’s games
10 £11 TDYMs
Current Balance = £331.36
Another quiet week on the tables, just enough action to get the £2.30 token. Should have more time for poker in the weeks ahead.
A while back I mentioned that one of my goals now that I am mobile was to visit the viewing area at Manchester Airport, that was something I accomplished last Tuesday.
It took a little bit of forward planning as the car park has a barrier system operated by tokens and push buttons that I am unable to operate. I emailed in advanced so that the guys in the gatehouse were expecting me. They couldn't have been more helpful. I received some wonderful, welcoming smiles when I arrived. I imagine they don’t see a tiller steered VW Transporter every day!
I really enjoyed my afternoon. It had been raining in the morning so each ‘plane that landed threw up a curtain of spray that was very spectacular.
Of course, what I really wanted to see was the A380. That was amazing… so big that it made all the other aircraft look like toys. Then as it took off you could see the wing span was simple huge. Amazing!
It was nice to see Concorde tucked away in its hanger too.
Most importantly, the M56 on a weekday was the busiest road I had driven on but I felt very at home in the middle lane passing all the trucks. Not so long ago every time I overtook, I feared I was going to veer to the left and hit a lorry!
I saw a Typhoon do a preliminary display before the start of a touring car meeting at Oulton Park a few years ago. It seemed to defy physics. Unfortunately, all the locals phoned the circuit to complain about the noise so the main display later in the day got cancelled. Buying a house near a race circuit and then complaining about the noise... I don't get that. I'd be happy to swap.
An airshow is on my to do list. Possibly Southport in September.
When I was a kid my Dad carried me up the steps into the prototype Concorde they have at Duxford. Couldn't believe how tiny it was inside. Also, the first time I went to Australia on a Jumbo back in 1992 a big burly Ozzie steward carried me up into the cockpit just as the pilot began his final approach into Heathrow. That wouldn't happen today with all the security fears. How times change!
Last week’s balance £331.36
This week’s games
51 £11 TDYMs + Super Sunday freeroll. Finished 90th
Current Balance = £332.66
More time for poker this week, enough for a fiver of rakeback. Some games I won, some I didn’t and I ended up breaking even.
I have been charting my driving firsts via this blog and this week was the first time I got lost!
People say to me “Why don’t you get a satnav?” but I have always enjoyed navigating. When mum was younger we used to holiday in the UK. I would study the map with it spread out on table beforehand then guide her all over the country from memory as I couldn’t get the map out when we were in the car.
Nowadays there is Google StreetView which I think is the best invention – ever! I get it to plot my route in advance and then “virtually drive” through each junction noting all the landmarks so that I know where I am when I get there in real life.
When I went ‘plane spotting the other week, this approach saved me from accidentally leaving the country as when I requested the route to “Manchester Airport Visitor’s Centre” it took me to Terminal 2! Had my mum programmed that into a satnav before I left, I would have been stuck as I couldn’t have reprogrammed it but at home on my toe controlled computer, I got the postcode for the viewing area and replotted a route to there.
This week I picked up a friend and took her out to lunch. I had visited her house once before about 12 years ago, I had no idea how we got there as she drove through the rabbit warren that is the residential district of Ellesmere Port so I went through the route on StreetView before I left on Wednesday.
I expected to come through a T-junction on a minor road and turn right then left at a roundabout after 200 yards but I never came to the expected intersection and kept going down a busy through route. Google had given me a straight road to the T junction from a retail park so I expected all the traffic to turn off at some point and things to become quiet. That never happened! I got to the other side of Ellesmere Port and realised I was lost.
I reckoned I needed to be somewhere to my right so I made a couple of right turns and… there I was heading back into Ellesmere Port on the same busy road. I thought about giving up and going home but decided to head to the retail park and try again.
I was certain I hadn’t missed the T-junction – I’d have crashed into someone’s front room if I had – so thinking back to the map, I reckoned I needed to turn right before I got to the centre of Ellesmere Port. I did that and mysteriously came to the roundabout that I needed to turn left at.
How did I do that? Coming back down that route to head to the restaurant, there was a junction on to a minor road just before we came to the through route. Looking on Google when I got home, that minor road runs parallel to the main road up to that point, there is only a high hedge between them. When I clicked the map I hadn’t zoomed in enough to see there were two roads and StreetView had brought up the wrong one.
So I made it to pick up my friend and go for our meal. In the mid-noughties, she was due to marry my best friend from my schooldays but tragically he died very suddenly 5 weeks before the big day. We have kept in touch and meet up to go out fairly regularly. This was the first time in the 14 years we’ve known one another that I have collected her rather than the other way round.
I have just seen the news about the SPT in Manchester. That’s certainly in range, I may pop along to say “Hi!”
Last week’s balance £332.66
This week’s games
Nearly 200 £11 TDYMs
1 £16.50 TDYM
2 £21 Speed HU
Current Balance = £319.26
I had little writing work to do this week and so I decided to see if I could grind my way to £50 of rakeback… I aimed to play 4 hours a day and played 4 tables instead of my usual 3.
But first I had my fear of the number 13 to deal with. When the cashback was added to my account on Monday I had £xxx.76p and 7 + 6 = 13. I know it's a stupid thing to worry about however, rather than have it on the back of my mind all week, I decide to play a £16.50 TDYM to spend 50p. I should’ve gone to a 50p TDYM as I got knocked out on a coin flip.
Aside from that, I ran good, got used to 4 tabling after the first day and made it all the way up to £445.26. I won more of my share of pots and felt things were going to turn bad, which they did over the weekend. By Sunday tea-time I had £360.26 and 1995 points.
My tea was almost ready and, as I was in two minds as to watch the concert from Manchester or grind some more on Sunday evening while listening to it, I decided to have a quick HU game just to get to 2000 points/£40 cashback. Only £21 hyper or speed games had someone waiting to play so I selected the speed and… lost. I chose a rematch trying to break even but lost again. So, bang went my plan to withdraw the £40 cashback as I feel I am only just breaking even on the £11 TDYMs and don't want any less of a cushion for downswings than I have now.
Really annoyed with myself for going back to chucking away money on high stakes HU SNGs especially as I had time for a couple of £11 TDYMs (won one, lost one) after watching the amazingly moving concert.
Next week is looking busy with writing so doesn’t look like there’ll be much time for poker.
It wouldn’t be my blog without mentioning cars or planes. I went to the Classic Car Show at Tatton Park on Saturday. So many Fords and Triumphs from the seventies it took me back to my childhood when my Dad had his garage… and as Tatton Park is under the flight path for Manchester airport I did plenty of ‘plane spotting too. I didn’t know whether to look at the cars next to me or up to the sky!
So you ended up minus £13 for the week. Do you think that had anything to do with the fact you were worrying about the number 13
There you go - the dreaded number 13 got me in the end!
Last week’s balance £319.26
This week’s games
51 £11 TDYMs
Current Balance = £298.96
So just enough time this week to earn a fiver of rakeback. One more win and I would’ve broken even – although as I earned £40 of rakeback the previous week, the figures don’t look so good! I did the right thing not withdrawing it.
A busy week writing including an article about marshalling. They have been running Taster Days at Oulton Park for motor racing fans that are interested in becoming marshals – they are given a tour of the circuit trackside during a race meeting with someone explaining how things are run. The problem is people usually attend a few meetings then drift away.
The thought is that those first few meetings are abit like attending a new school where there is a sea of unfamiliar faces and no one to guide newbies through all the procedures so a team of marshals have got together to be a point of contact for new marshals and to buddy up with them through their first few days on duty.
It is quite amazing. The marshals are all volunteers and yet here they are working pro-actively to ensure there is enough safety cover to enable amateur racing drivers to have fun. If marshals were paid, the entry fees for drivers would have to increase so much that many couldn’t afford them and so motorsport would die out.
I have less writing next week so will aim for £40 of cashback again. Also plan to have some driving adventures.
Last week’s balance £298.96
This week’s games
80 £11 TDYMs
15 £1.10 TDYMs
Current Balance = £107.56
That didn’t go well at all, did it?
Had to abandon my grind to £40 cashback on Wednesday with £104.xx in my account. Probably should have stopped earlier but was expecting my luck to turn as (bad?) poker players do…
It all went wrong. Whenever I raised, I was reraised. When I called/shoved it was against a stronger hand. When I sat tight and waited for a hand I ran out of chips. Was shoving UTG with a raggy King as the Blinds were about to leave me with something like 100 chips. Never seemed to get good cards when I needed them.
A higher proportion of games seemed to be going to Level 9 – fewer recs around perhaps. I yearned for the days when TDYMs were all about sitting back and waiting for everyone else to knock each other out. I dropped all the way down to £1.10 TDYMs wondering if I could beat them and grind my way to £40 a week like that.
When I switched to those, I realised I felt less anxious than when I had been on my bad run at £11 level – I guess the mental aspect of the game was affecting me more than I realised – but they too were far from being the shove fests I was hoping for and were lasting almost as long as the higher stake games. Four tabling I managed 15 games in an hour, finishing £3 up. Extrapolating that up (I used to be a mainframe capacity planner…), at that success rate playing 200 games (the equivalent of grinding enough to get £40 cashback at £11 TDYMs) would give me a profit of exactly £40!
That is probably not what Sky Poker want to hear… They may shut my blog down!
Just 15 games is a very small sample however and I may not maintain that hit rate. I had no time to play further after last Wednesday – a writing commitment I thought I had offloaded came back to me. Looks like I have lots of writing and website admin to do over the next fortnight too.
Meanwhile… I love the sun! Sitting in the sun I feel so at ease and contented. When I was a kid, sunbathing was healthy! Nowadays the World is full of people telling me I am going to die of skin cancer. I heeded their warnings for a while but I came to realise for me sitting in the sun is a reason to live and it was something I didn’t want to stop even if there was a risk it could shortened my life a little. I Googled the probability and the chance of that happening in any single year was the same as the likelihood of winning the half-time draw at one match at Chester FC and, even with two tickets, I have not won in 5 seasons!
I do use plenty of sun cream to avoid getting burnt – the blurb says that’s what causes the cancer although I know people who hate the sun and avoid it at all cost but they still ended up getting skin cancer. I guess much of it is genetic. I’d hate to deny myself and still end up with it.
Having given up the day job, I was looking forward to a Summer of sun. But… why does there always have to be a but? These past few days I have been badly affected by grass pollen. It was really bad at Oulton Park on Saturday and driving home with running eyes was not a good experience. Yesterday I “walked” (wheelchaired) into Chester and sat by the River. There is always a lovely happy atmosphere down there on hot days. My nose was fine but in the evening I sat in the garden with a wee dram and it all flared up again. Makes me nervous to go out, especially in the car, which is frustrating.
So, I have not been running too well but compared to all the terrible things that have been happening in the World, life is still good!
I haven't decided between seeing if I can make a profit at the £1.10s or going to the £5.50s. I think the latter will be just as tough as the £11s at this time of year so I may become a micro staker.
@weecheez1, ochaye... I hear you have midgies instead of pollen up there... or is it midgets??????
Last week’s balance £107.56
This week’s games
9 £1.10 TDYMs
SPT Freeroll – 277/784
1 SPT Frenzy – 14/14
Current Balance = £118.51
So £10.97 profit this week but £8+ was cashback earned in the previous week.
Not much time for poker… busiest time of the year for motor racing writing so what I do next with my battered and bruised BR is still up the air. I did do some £1.10 TDYMs while playing the SPT MTTs on Saturday night and there seemed a higher proportion of away players than at £11 level. May be people don’t mind losing £1.10 if something more exciting pops up. Mid-week they still often become stalemates and huge Blind lotteries.
Before he became a mechanic, my dad was a lorry driver. This was in the pre-war years and he fired my imagination when I was child with his tales of driving down the hills of Wales in very primitive HGVs with inadequate brakes, all told with his dry sense of humour.
Thus before pictures of racing cars filled my bedroom walls they were adorned with the Atkinson “Big A”s, Volvo F12s and Ford Transcontinentals. I read truck magazines long after Dad died until R&D Departments focussed on boring things such as low emissions and quiet engines (who wants a “quiet” engine????).
There are a couple of annual vintage vehicle shows in Cheshire. My mum used to accompany my dad and I to them but she let us know quite vocally that it was a form of torture for her! So, such oily extravaganzas have not been on the agenda for some decades.
But over recent years, with the prospect of a car I could drive myself becoming increasingly realistic, the Kelsall Steam Rally – with its adverts lining part of the route to Oulton Park every Summer – engraved itself on my bucket list.
…and I ticked it off on Saturday.
It was a lovely afternoon wheeling my chair around lines of long forgotten trucks that I adored in my childhood. They claimed to have the largest gathering of ERFs in the country but I have always been a Foden man myself as in the ‘80s they were the bespoke-built Rolls Royces of the trucking World – and there was a smaller field dedicated to them nearby the hordes of ERFs. Interestingly, ERF was founded after the Foden board had a falling out in the 1930s over whether to continue to build steam powered lorries or switch to diesel. ERF = Edwin Richard Foden - the diesel fan who set up his own firm.
Of course, as I love anything with an engine, it was a joy to look at the ERFs too. With their various cabs, axle configurations and bodywork even though there was a field of trucks from the same factory, each had their own personality.
Anorak heaven…
Away from the trucks, there were traction engines – my dad was passionate about steam engines and the smell of the smoke took me back many decades to being with him – shire horses (impressively big but not really my thing, they always look so bored and miserable) and farm tractors of various ages. Some of these were taking part in a tractor pulling demonstration which featured a wheelie-popping John Deere that had a huge Scania truck engine. Mind blowing!
Last month’s balance £118.51
Current Balance = £119.61
I am surprised it is a month since my last update. Been too busy to play much poker as there have been Formula Ford 1600 races to cover almost every weekend. The trainee journo’s from Autosport who I brought in the share my workload seem to be up to speed now. It took them a while though as they needed a fair bit of feedback and coaching but that has given me the opportunity to display my own editorial skills to the editor of Autosport as I have been directing them through him… I’d love it if that led to some paid work from the magazine although at the moment his thoughts are on finding roles for his people who are on work experience. At least he is aware of me – not much more I can do.
Been continuing to get more miles under my belt out on the road. Goal is to drive to the race meeting at Anglesey in a couple of weeks. Have driven as far as Conwy which is about halfway. I have been on the M6 too now as I had to attend a Formula Ford 1600 committee meeting in Manchester – in at the deep end over the 4 lane Thelwall Viaduct! I am finding if I try and keep calm and relaxed my muscles don’t ache as much when holding the tiller although, due to the nature of my disability, that is really tough to do.
…and so to the poker. After the recent losses at £10 TDYMs, I went down to £1 TDYMs where I made a marginal profit in the few games I played but wasn’t really enjoying them that much – they were often just as tight as the £10 ones. The joy of a growing BRM is an important part of the game for me.
Last night I had an hour to spend playing poker for the first time in ages. As the £1 TDYMs were taking a while to load I moved across to the 4p/2p Cash lobby. Two tabling, I finished 17p down which I felt wasn’t too bad having played so little cash. I ran well, hitting lots of draws, but lost a buy-in when holding the King of spades with 4 shovels on the board. Only the Ace of spades could have beaten me and, having gone all in, that’s what the opponent had. Probably shouldn’t have shoved to a raise on the river!
I did find it quite enjoyable, always helps when you have lots of winning hands, and plan to play more cash - time permitting.