Today my sister turns 24 years old. So Happy Birthday Sis. I hope you have a great day.
Oh, and Merry Christmas to the rest of you.
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From the monthly archives:
December 2008
Just for fun, I thought I’d do something I haven’t done in a long time.
With this tournament on PokerStars being exclusively for bloggers, it seems like a good idea to live blog my progress tonight. This tournament is one of the six qualifiers that have been going on since Monday, and 72 players win a seat into the final, which is played on Sunday. There are some fantastic prizes up for grabs again this year, including a seat in the PCA in January for the winner of the final.
So let’s get this show on the road.
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19:00 - Cards are in the air, we start the tournament with 2500 chips, and we have 538 players in tonights tournament.
19:01 - The first hand has just been played, and we’re already a player down.
19:03 - Just lost my first hand. Hit top pair with K – rag while in the big blind, and was out kicked after some small betting.
19:10 - fold, fold, foldy, fold.
19:15 - limped in with J10 suited. Hit two pair on the flop, and pulled down a nice pot.
19:16 - 16 minutes into the tournament and we’re already under 500 players.
19:20 - Not a lot going on. I’ve been pretty card dead so far. There’s still a long way to go though.
19:25 - limped in with 8c8s. The flop, was all low cards, and I had position on the only other player in the hand. He bet out a small amount so I called. The turn was the glorious 8d. He bet out again. I called. The river was a Q. He bet a larger amount, and I re-raised. After some thought he made the correct decision to fold. I picked up a very nice pot.
19:30 - The guy two seats to my right is a complete tool.
19:38 - More folding going on.
19:41 - Pocket 8’s on the button. I raised it up three times the big blind, and had to fold to a MASSIVE re-raise.
19:42 - Down to 400 players.
19:48 – Taken several hits and I’m under 2k in chips. Not ideal.
19:56 - Still card dead and slowly bleeding chips.
20:01 - I made it to the first break with 1315 chips. The average stack is 3991 and there are 337 players remaining.
20:03 - I’m closing in on the point where I’m in push or fold mode. There is still a little time to try to pick up some chips before that point, but when the tournament restarts the blinds will be 50/100 with an ante of 10.
20:06 - And we’re back.
20:10 - I was just dealt pocket Kings. I went all-in after a standard raise from a guy in early position. He called with pocket tens. Thankfully the Kings held up, and I’m back up to 2830 in chips.
20:13 - This hasn’t been the most exciting tournament so far. With the exception of the trip 8’s and the pocket Kings, I’ve been completely card dead. The vast majority of the tournament has involved me folding.
20:17 - We’re now down to 300 players.
20:25 - I kinda wish I’d picked up some beer before this started. The constant folding is getting a little dull, and a beer or two would be welcome about now.
20:29 - Just had my first table move. I don’t recognise anyone on this table either.
20:32 – I’ve very much in push or fold mode now. Pushed with K10 suited from the button and everyone folded.
20:33 - All-In with Kings. Everyone folds again.
20:36 - All-In with AJ offsuit. Everyone folds to me again.
20:39 - With the blinds at 100/200 with an ante of 25 my situation is very dire.
20:41 - We now have under 200 players remaining.
20:43 - To have a hope of making the final 72 I’m going to have to double up several times. I don’t like my chances. I’m going to need a few decent hands soon to make that happen, and those are few and far between for me in this tournament.
20:45 - All-In with pocket 9’s and called by A10. The 9’s held up and I’m up to 4890 in chips.
20:53 – There were a few playable hands there for a short while, but I’ve gone back to being card dead. With the blinds at their current level, being card dead is the worst thing that can happen.
20:54 – After a three way all-in, that I wasn’t involved in, resulted in two players busting out, I’ve been moved to a new table. 151 players remaining.
21:08 - I somehow managed it to the second break. I have 3320 chips and the average stack is 10426 chips. There are 128 players left, and when we go back after the break I’ll be in the big blind. I may have to go all in AGAIN very, very soon.
21:20 - I’m very short stacked now. I can’t see me lasting much longer unless I catch some cards.
21:30 – And I’m out. I was all in with KQ suited, and called by Kings. I didn’t get lucky and ended in 101st place. I’m actually surprised I lasted that long considering how short stacked I was for such a long time.
There’s another no-limit qualifier for Sundays Blogger Tournament Final on Saturday evening, and if I’m at home I’ll probably play in it. This tournament really wasn’t that fun though, but I suppose that does happen on occasion.
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With Christmas fast approaching, it’s inevitable that I’ll receive vouchers for Waterstones or Borders, or that I’ll have some spare cash to spend on books. At the moment there’s nothing I really want to read, but that won’t stop me buying lots of them.
So for the small group of you who actually still read this blog, are there any books you think I should pick up?
Leave a comment with the author and book title, or even just the author if there’s more than one of their books you think I should be reading.
All suggestions are greatly appreciated.
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Some of that last post made no sense. It will… sort of… but not until later.
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This years NaNoWriMo drew to a close about a week ago. I had my novel planned out, I had a decent idea for an ending, and I liked the characters I was writing. I unfortunately had one problem.
I’m a lazy bastard!
Seriously, there was a good three weeks when I could have written, but managed to spend the time kicking back and not writing. I spent a decent 2 and a half weeks procrastinating, and I really got to the point where I needed to step up and make an effort. Unfortunately I never did.
The situation arose whereby I had spent a few days avoiding sleep, and had written more words for NaNoWriMo than was healthy, but had hit a point where I was so wiped out no matter what I’d written, it made no sense. Around this point the madness took hold. Usually when this happens, it’s in the middle of a writing project and it allows for some random ideas. This time though, I honestly felt like no matter what idea I had it was stupid and should be shot down.
I’m a little sad that I never finished this years NaNoWriMo, but I liked the story so at some point I’m going to write it all. Until then though I do believe this is going to be an interesting few days, where things could be better than they are, but not as good as they should be.
On a side note there are a few things I’m really dying to talk about, but it’s a little too soon to make them public.
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I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker!
This PokerStars tournament is a No Limit Texas Hold’em event exclusive to Bloggers.
Registration code: 804361
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