Abuse

I was looking at my visitor statistics today after a question I was asked and noticed that the number of hits on Sunday was 3 times as high as the highest ever day.

Intrigued, I decided to find out why, looking for the source of the additional hits on the assumption that my blog was being promoted somewhere that was having a profound effect.

I also had a look to see if there was a reason in the content of what I posted and when I looked I noticed the picture of a mouse caught in the trap and thought that I had unearthed a bit of a morbid trend among the people who had visited.

After a bit of digging though I looking at the IP addresses and what the source was I discovered that it was coming from Canada from Yahoo.

It turns out that some my blog must have been reported for abuse because of the picture.

I did have a second thought when I originally selected the picture from the Internet but decided that there was no blood and posted the photo anyway. After all the blog is poker related and is aimed at adults so I thought it would be OK.

I've had no contact regarding the photo but just in case I start to get animal rights activists banging down my door and so that I don't get a knock from anyone wanting to take me somewhere like Guantanamo Bay I've decided to change the photo.

On a serious note though, if I have offended anyone then I apologies, and if I've offended anyone by taking the photo down, then I apologise to you too, but I'm sure you can find some worse pictures on the net somewhere! - No doubt Amatay could give you some help in that direction!

Anyway, off to footy now and a couple of drinks later.

Oh, and any resemblance in the picture to anyone living or not that might or might not have been taken to Guantanamo Bay or anywhere similar is purely coincidental!

Dream Team V

I finally managed to get 8 players for the dream team league and the first event was Monday night with a $1000 added freeroll and $5 rebuys.

It took quite a bit of messing about.

I actually had 13 people interested at one point or another but a couple never got back to me with their details, one dropped out because he thought the 'Bellagio' package was for Vegas instead of 'Dusk till Dawn' but fair enough, he told me and we had a couple of late entries including Daz, my mentor at Badbeat and Alex Conroy, son of Badbeat MD John 'Punkfloyd' Conroy.

With the other recruits that Andy Massey, a good local player I know, I think we should have a pretty strong team.

After way, way too much thinking about what team name I should use (including a lot thought about getting something to do with sport science into the team name since both Andy and I studied sport science in Liverpool) I finally decided to just call the team 'One Time' after the call most people shout out every time they are all in at an important stage of a tournament - Much to the chagrin of my wife, Julie who was adamant that her suggestion 'Riversports' was a much better name (sorry Julie but it isn't!)

I managed to get a nice early double up when my set was easily best against someone who had rebought first hand and obviously wanted to get some chips early.

Only 6 players from our team entered the first tournament and only 2 of us got into the points with me finishing 52nd for 150 team points and Tom finishing just outside the money in 23rd for 600 points.

One of the teams managed to have a fantastic start with 3 players on the final table including a 1 - 2 giving them a huge lead at this early stage. I'm not sure whether there are any rules about team play in this event, something that is not normally allowed but might be in this format.

Other than that I have not played much in the last week what with one thing and another.

Managed a couple of hours last night but it was one of those nights when runner runner was definitely the way to play your hands, especially on the bubble. A loss of $170 is not bad considering a couple of those hands going my way would have seen me make a huge profit on the night.

There is a festival on in Leos this week but the poker bankroll is not healthy enough at the moment to stand me playing in any of the events.

I will have to start playing some satellites a bit more.

Trouble is they are normally on at about 8 in the evening and I don't normally start till after 11.

Pity really because my record in satellites is very good and I've got a pretty good record in the bigger tournaments too.

Since I'm going to be playing earlier on a Monday that would be ideal to play in some of these satellites but because Grandslam Poker is on ipoker, I can't play Blue square at the same time so I will have to look at some of the other sites.

Might look into something like betfair to see if there are any WSOPE satellites running on a Monday.

Anyway, I've just made that one of my goals from now on, on a Monday night.

On the mouse front, the traps are still in place but there has been no sign of any of mickey's siblings so fingers crossed and that is the end of our visitors.

On a totally different tack, I've just sold a few things on E-bay and have to say that the whole E-bay operation is incredibly slick with one click invoicing and even one click postage being sorted by links to Royal Mail, Parcel2go and Paypal websites, meaning you don't even have to type in the address of the buyer, with it all being downloaded automatically.

Absolutely excellent and very well done to all partners.

Glad to see the best team managed to get through tonight, even though they didn't play as well as last week. Managed to put a few pounds on Barca to win the Champions League before the match tonight since I was sure Barca had the advantage. People often underestimate the value of a 0-0 draw at home in the first leg of these 2 legged ties because it gives the team playing away in the second leg the advantage that almost any draw puts them through.

Barca left it late though.

As for the display by Drogba throughout the tie falling over like he's been shot countless times only to be back running the second the ball comes near him. This guy is either the biggest actor going or he has an incredibly low pain threshold - and I'm talking about the level of 5 year old girl!

As for his antics after the final whistle. These matches are watched by millions of kids who copy the antics of their heros and what he and Ballack did to the referee should be taken up by Uefa and result in a severe ban, more than the normal 3 matches that are given for this sort of thing.

As for the conspiracy theories, how can that possibly be the case when Abidal was rightly sent off for a marginal decision?

What Uefa also need to do is look at situations like Darren Fletcher's who will miss the final because the referee made a mistake and that mistake could easily be rectified.

Not that I'm complaining as I don't want United to win but it's not right on the lad.

Humans 1 Mice 0

After a few sneaky lunches at my expense and 2 new state of the art traps, the old traditional trap finally caught our new friend. Hopefully that is the only one we have but I won't be putting the traps away just yet.

It's half time in the Liverpool match and at 2-0 I can't see Newcastle mustering a shot on target let alone scoring a goal. Unfortunately Middlesborough played yesterday as though they had no chance although, to be fair I did miss the first half when they supposedly played with a bit more heart. I have a bit of a soft spot for Newcastle but they do have a false illusion of themselves as being a big club and the way they change managers at the drop of a hat is their own fault. I know Sam Allardyce doesn't play the prettiest style of football, but if he were still in charge Newcastle would have been regular challengers for a European spot every year and once he had secured that sort of security the football will have come later.

It was good to see Arshavin telling the referee that it wasn't a penalty yesterday.

Just a shame the referee thought he knew better just like the Robbie Fowler incident all those years ago.

Why the referee is too scared to change his decision I don't know.

Got the kids a 10ft trampoline from Asda yesterday and they are bouncing away now enjoying the peak of our summer since it is unlikely to last for more than a week or so.

Going to Stoke tonight for a £1500 added tournament, hopefully I can do something there.

Mickey Mouse

Well, we've got ourselves a new pet. I say pet but no-one bought our new friend and no-one even wants him. He comes out at night and has perfected the are of taking food from mouse traps without setting them off. So I had to go to B&Q to get a couple of new traps, one that is a tunnel and traps the mouse when it goes through and the other trap allows the mouse to enter the box but then closes up behind it trapping him in there.

I had a job interview yesterday for a company in Whiston which is 15 minutes away. They have a big finance team there and I got on really well with the interviewer. Unfortunately they have decided to change the role that they are recruiting for but the good news is they have a 9 month role that the other interviewer is recruiting for and he was apparently very impressed with me so I am really hopeful that one works out because there will be opportunities once I am in there and I would be pretty confident of securing something permanent if I can get in there.

Poker wise, tonight was just th night from hell. After playing on my own account the other night when badbeat was down and winning two out of 4 stts for a $470 profit tonight I lost $250 when if it could go wrong it did. Losing runner runner almost every time and in one Multi table tournament losing to the table donkey in 6 out of 6 hands every single time being well ahead all in pre flop against hands like K6, 57, J2 etc etc etc. But hey, that's poker and I always say that I want to go up against hands like that and if I lose chips then that's variance.

I've seen the discussion on Steve Holden's blog and on Blonde regarding folding KK v Ax pre flop and I've commented that you just have to take those chances because it's not very often you can be that far ahead when you're playing poker! Also, if you are folding hands like that you will also get run over a lot more too.

On the football front Manchester United travel to Middlesborough looking for a win that will pretty much guarantee them the title.

They do it though, without Ferdinand, and in between two tough games against Arsenal.

All the indications are that Ferguson will play a much weakened team against Middlesborough who will be fighting for their premiership lives.

I've won some money on Man Utd over the last couple of games including a nice £80 just after Tottenham scored their second goal.

However, I won't be backing them tomorrow and I think that 6-1 onMiddlesborough winning at home, especially since they've had a couple of good results against them in past seasons, is well worth a look.

I can't make the bet though because I really want them to lose anyway and betting on them losing just doubles the pain if they don't.

Anyway, come on borough!

Spiders, flush cards, goals, goals, goals

Picture the scene…

It's 2.30 am

You're sat a home in front of your computer with everyone upstairs tucked up in bed.

All is quiet but you're down to the last three in a 100+ runner tournament.

You are dominating the table, your hands are holding up and everything is going great.

You own the table.

It's just a matter of time before you finish them all off and collect the 1st prize.

You've got superfast reliable internet connection.

What can go wrong?

Well that's exactly where Phil (an ex colleague of mine who I have been advising out on the poker front) was last night.

That is until a spider decided to crawl across his keyboard!

Now he's stood up on his chair, yellow pages in hand, unable to do anything as the clock is ticking down.

Harrington, Sklansky, Hellmuth et al. never mentioned anything about how to deal with this situation!

I'm happy to report that Phil managed to scare the 25mm beast away and ended up coming second.

It just goes to show that the hazards of the modern day poker player should never be underestimated!

Liverpool 4 Arsenal 4

As for the game tonight, there can't be many arguments that Liverpool are not providing some entertaining games of late.

Scoring 4 goals every time they play helps.

Tonight was just fantastic viewing for me and, no doubt for the neutral.

I just hope this season goes down to the wire as it could be really exciting!


GUKPT side event

Played the £200 freezeout last night.

After seeing someone exit first hand with set over set I nearly went the same way myself.

I received JJ in mid position early on with the blinds at 25/50.

Earlyish local player raises to 400 and I call, as do two others.

Flop comes As Js 4s and raiser cont bets 500 which I flat call, other fold.

Turn is a nasty 6s and he bets 600 I call hoping for the board to fill up.

River is T diamonds and he bets 1000 into about 3000ish.

Don't think he has Ks but think there is a fair chance he has either 2 pair type hand or a smallish spade so call to see ThTs but I've still got 3600 out of a starting stack of 6000.

Not many other hands played and final hand is seen from the bug blinds with 9c3c and the flop is T high, all clubs. I check raise all in against a pot sized bet and he calls with KdKc. The turn brings the fourth club sealing the higher flush for him and an early exit from me.

I played this on the back of a good result at Leos a week or so ago where I finished third for £500. Hoping to continue the run but it was not to be.

I have now received confirmation that I have been confirmed as a trader with bad beat which means my daily limit will be increased to $750 per day and I will now get rakeback. I'm also entering the Dream Team V on Grandslam as per my last post. So far I have 5 players interested, so only 1 more minimum, 3 more maximum for a team.

Anyone interested, let me know.

That's it for now...

Dream Team V

I am looking to enter a team into Dream Team V which is being hostedby Grandsam Poker (Mostly $44 buy in).

It has a guaranteed prize pool of $40,000 and runs every Monday from May 4th leading up to the live Grand Final on October 24th and 25th at the Star City Casino in Birmingham.

If anyone is interested please comment or e-mail me.

The event is being run in conjunction with BadBeat Poker, full details are below.

In Dream Team V you and your team will be playing for a $27,000 "Bellagio" Package which will include 6 entries to The "Bellagio" £500k Guaranteed £2,000 NL Hold'em Tournament and approximately $5,000 in expenses/cash (depending on the exchange rate).

The individual winner of the Dream Team Live Final will also receive a $4,500 "Bellagio" Package unless the winner is in the winning team, in which case the $4,500 will be added to first place prize money.

The top 10 individual players from the 22 weekly online tournaments will play a Sit 'n' Go for a $4,500 "Bellagio" Package.

Players to reach the final table in each weekly tournament will be awarded with 1 point per position - 10 points for first, 9 points for second and so on...

The top 10 players to receive the most final table points throughout the 22 on-line weekly tournaments, and who attend the Live Final, will play in the Turbo Sit 'n' Go which will take place at Midnight during the Dream Team Private Party in the Vegas Lounge on Saturday 24th October (on completion of Day 1).

Should the remainder of the Prize Pool reach $25,000 then the team package will increase to 7 packages, should it reach $30,000 then it will increase to 8 packages, all remaining cash from the 22 weekly tournaments (estimated $25,000) will be awarded to the final table (or more depending on the number of entries) at the Live Final.

$40,000 Guaranteed Prize Pool

BadBeat's generous Guarantee includes 8 Bellagio Packages (6 for the team) and at least $4,000 cash for the Live Final!

The "Bellagio" Festival This is a £2,000 + £150 No Limit Hold'em Tournament that takes place at Nottingham's Dusk Till Dawn Poker Club from the 16th to 20th December 2009 and has a mammoth structure with 50,000 starting chips and a 90 minute clock!

What is Dream Team?

Teams of 8 players (minimum of 6) will play 22 online multi table tournaments on GrandslamPoker.com where 50% of the prize pool will be held back for a live final and the other 50% will be paid out on the nightly tournament, players will be awarded points based on their finishing position and the total accumulated points at the end of the 22 weeks will determine the team's starting chip stack for the live final

- each player will start with a minimum of $5,000 chips at the live final, then the points collected by the team will be divided by 6 and added to this starting chip stack, meaning each team will start with different amounts.

Only 6 players from each team will be able to take part in the Live Final.

Further information can be found here

http://www.badbeat.com/Ease/servlet/DynamicPageBuild?siteID=1867&categoryID=1937

April 15th, 1989.... We will remember them.

You'll Never Walk Alone