The Season is Nearly Upon Us.

With all due respect to our friends north of the border, today and next week see the proper football seasons kick off (sorry, Acorn).
All over the country this morning, fans woke up with excitement, faith, promise and great optimism for the season ahead. They will have probably met in the pub before their first home or away game, discussing with their mates their hopes and fears for the season ahead, and how they would do with their new signings or without the players that left. By 5pm this afternoon, a feeling of elation or dread will have covered them, some feeling it is all over already, and others believing they will win the league.
One of the great things about football, is that it will have all changed by this time next week, and again by the week after. The roller coaster ride that is the life of the football fan begins today or next week and ends in May (maybe earlier, I know) after 10 months of trials and tribulations, sending off's that were or weren't justified, goals allowed that shouldn't have been and disallowed ones that should, as well as players coming and going after falling out with their teamates and/or managers.

Then there is the gossip. The only thing Sunday tabloid papers are good for reading is the back few pages. Who'll go where for how much and who'll never play for their club again after being dropped to the bench. Who's banging someone else's wife (or wives) in a posh hotel and the impact this will have the next time they both go in for a 50/50 ball on the pitch. Most of it is utter rubbish, but I am hooked.

And I can do the crosswords without using every available 'Oxford' book on my shelves.

For the record, I will be watching Altrincham FC, my local non league team, and going through all the emotions that every football fan will go through over the next 10 months. And loving EVERY minute of it.

So, however your team went on today, I have something that is guaranteed to make you feel better.

Click here, turn the volume up and just let this ride over you. I promise you it will feel better. This isn't the best version of the song, but the best I can find online, so I hope you enjoy it.

Had an interesting evening on the tables last night, went back to Inter for a spell and finished 40$ up. Headed for a 5£ SNG which I won, so about 75$ profit and maybe the corner has been turned here.
CD Poker saw me increase my increasing bankroll by another 50$ so pretty happy with the way things are going at CD, long may it continue.

Just remembered that I never told my funny story from last weekend, so please come back tomorrow for that!

Doggy Suicide Attempt

Played in the 5$ rebuy again at CD last night, after promising myself an early night. Played twice in this $3,500 guaranteed tourny, finishing 2nd and 60th, and it's fair to say the standard is pretty poor. Ace with any kicker is an all in hand, or call an all in hand, which is much worse. So many players outkicked and leave the tourny, quite happy to put their tourny lives at stake with the most bizzare of hands. I mention in my last blog going out when someone called my KK all in with 56os, which is just amazing, even by fish standards.
Anyway, I digress, managed to get to 13th place to win 40$, but had a little story on the way. Well, I thought so anyway.

Getting close to the bubble, I have about 6500 chips and the 2k big blind is my next hand. I'm dealt 6 2 os and cannot call the all in before me and fold. Then I get moved table to the hand right before the blinds. As these two hands pass and take another 3k, I am moved yet again, to the hand immediately before the small blind. All hands cannot be defended and my last hand see's me put my last 450 chips in on Q4os.
I've already clicked on the 'live support button' to make a complaint, as I've never seen this happen before and thiought it was really unfair. Being moved 3 times in 6 hands, and always the hand right before the blinds? Anway, the flop is QQx and I quadruple up as 3 other players are in the hand. The next hand is A8 and my all in gets a called by 77 and I hit an 8 to double up. Next hand I get AK and my all in is called by A10 and neither of us improve and I take the pot. Then, as if this wasn't enough, my KK stands up against against QQ and i am sat with 45k in chips!
I quickly cut off my 'live support chat' and carried on with the game, eventually going out in 13th when my str8 hits a full house.

Played 37 hands at Inter to see if my hex has been lifted. Another 40$ gone from my account and I'm beginning to wonder what has going on at Inter for me. Of these 37 hands, there was KK, QQ twice, JJ, AK twice, AQ and a few other hands that were playable in position and not one stood up. If I can't win with any of these hands (and I don't expect to win with all of them btw), just what can I win with? Gonna let this hang for a while and ponder some more, but feel like a switch has been flicked from the 'win' position, to the 'lose' position, ridiculous as it sounds :-(

Anyway, on totally unrelated matters, I saw 2 funny things today.

One can been watched by clicking HERE.

And to save you clicking anywhere, I have copied the following from BBC news website:

Blind victim of hit-and-run buggy
A blind woman has been left housebound after a hit-and-run incident involving two electric mobility buggies. The 50-year-old was walking with a white stick, in New Milton, Hants, when her stick was hit by one of the buggies as the second sped past her.
Neither driver stopped to aid the woman who was struck outside the Rydal pub. The woman suffered a broken wrist which will confine her to her home for two weeks and her guide dog has gone into temporary care until she recovers.
A police spokesperson said: "The woman heard the sound of what she recognised as two electric mobility buggies heading towards her from the market area.
"The second collided with her stick. The stick went rigid and then sprung back, hitting her hard on the left wrist causing it to break."

Is this the first case of Road Rage in a pensioner? They use the word 'sped' past the lady, so not sure what the old age equivalent of 'boy racers' is? And can you speed in a mobility buggy? So many questions, so little time.

Toodle Pip, or should that be Ciao?

Daddy Weekend

Had one of the longest and most tiring weekends of my life. Still managed to squeeze in a couple of hours poker mind, but boy was I knackered when I hit the sack last night!

Cathy was away for the weekend with some friends to see a concert, and left very early Saturday and didn’t get back till late Sunday, so I was left on my own, with a lengthy list of instructions, do’s and don’ts and basically everything I should and shouldn’t do when looking after a child.
Foolishly on my part, I tried to point out to Cathy that I have been around for the last 28 months and had got to know my daughter quite well in that time, but that did not help. I needed a list or I would forget. Don’t tell her, but that list was in the bin before the car left the drive.
With an uncanny knack of perfect timing, Mia woke at 7am both days. 8.30am – 9am is the norm. I did not adapt my sleeping patterns to allow for this, and went to bed in the small hours both nights, so wasn’t impressed by her timing.
Saturday was great, sun shone, bits of rain but nothing too bad, had a friends BBQ in the afternoon so Mia had 3 other kids to run around for a few hours whilst Daddy sat in a deck chair drinking his 2 bottles of beer over a 3 hour period, watching Mia and talking football as the new season approaches.

Sunday saw the sun beaming brightly and we played in the back garden after breakfast and then headed to Dunham Park in the afternoon. I’ve spoken about this place in previous posts, and we are so lucky to have it almost on our doorstep. It isn’t a cheap day out, £4 to park your car and entrance fees, and £6 each to get in the gardens section – but fortunately Mias Granddad buys us a National Trust membership for Christmas so it’s all free to us. It is huge, has no dogs crapping on the grass, no teenagers throwing empty beer bottles and virtually no rubbish. The only problem is Deer shit, which looks uncannily like raisins, Mia’s favourite ‘sweetie’, so I had to watch her very carefully or we could have a lengthy spell in hospital!

Mia was free to run as much as her little legs would allow, and boy did she take advantage. If you don’t have kids, this probably doesn’t sound like a big deal, but Mia is 28 months old and ran, almost without pause, for nearly 3 hours, with me lagging behind. 3 hours – how is that possible for such a little thing?
I used to play football 3 times a week so was reasonably fit, and although I’ve been out for 10 months injured and have only just started back – and I couldn’t keep up with her!
We got back home about 5pm and I wanted to crash out on the sofa, but no. We had to go back out in the garden and play 1, 2, 3 GO!!! (That’s her little race up and back the length of the garden.) A short rain shower gave me relief and then it was tea, bath and bed before I cooked myself a nice sweet and sour before hitting the tables.

Got stung a bit last night at CD, sat down and in my first 15 hands my first 3 pocket pairs flopped a set, and one turned to a full house on the river – the odds of that huh? Unfortunately they all lost to higher flopped sets, left me 80$ down and that set the tone for the evening. Entered the 5$ tourney that was so successful for me earlier in the week, but after building a nice stack, my QQ, KK and 10 10 were all beaten by lower pocket pairs, then, just to remind me exactly who is in charge of this game we play, my KK all in was called by Mr Muppet of The Highest Order with 5 6 off suit and you can guess the amount of 5’s and 6’s he hit on the table to knock me out in 60th, just 10 short of the money. Not a happy bunny. Hit the tables for an hour and managed to claw some of the night’s losses back but still ended about 60$ down.

Just when I thought it couldn’t get any worse, got to work to be surrounded by blokes!! All the hotties have left bar one, leaving me sat next to ‘Mr I’m The Best Sales Person in the World’ who spent the afternoon telling me how great he is.

Fantastic, and unless they have legalised euthanasia for idiots like him, I’m leaving!!