Shameless money-grabber, part 2

I have a proper post written, but I can't enter it here at work.

While we wait with bated breath for that, have you seen this netbux thing that people are pimping all over the net?

Well, I'm shamelessly attracted to 'free money' and always fascinated to see how much mileage these various web schemes actually have. So have a look at netbux ('Get paid to search the internet!') through my very own link:

http://netbux.org/?r=61169

Caveat: Jeez my browser here sucks, I'll have to turn it into a proper link when I get home.

Self-justification: I need every penny going, since I still don't have my 'Party' cashout, after thirteen days and counting.

Meanwhile, I have just realised that I will be out of the country for the General Election. I am not too concerned, since my vote is unfortunately registered at my mother's address (a safe Tory seat) rather than at my own address, which is a key Liberal Democrat target. I would be voting Lib Dem if I was here. And with even more conviction after the latest example of New Labour's congenital mendacity. I'm talking about the leaked-at-last Attorney General's legal advice on the legality of going to war in Iraq without the second UN resolution.

What a fucking sad world we allow ourselves to live in.

Give the man his money

Woohoo, I got a comment! Eat my shorts!

I still don’t have my Party cash-out, in the seventh working day since it was requested. They (the skin I play on) assure me it should arrive ‘this week’. I am not impressed. I might have to go through the hoops of cashing out via Quickpay outlets in future. Not having debit or credit cards is a pain; I advise any young, naïve readers to avoid the mistake I made of getting deeper and deeper into debt, year after year.

Last night I played snooker after work, with poker an afterthought when I got home somewhat drunk. The snooker went okay; I am adding more and more shots to my game, potting more and more balls, but just not quite putting enough shots together in a row to make real breaks. It will come.

Poker when I got in, well I decided I wasn’t in the mood to really concentrate. So I played $10+1 sit and goes, NLHE, much easier to do on autopilot, impossible to lose any real money. I played three, one after the other.

First one: third. Easy peasy to get into the money, was shortest when we got there and busted quickly in a coin-toss of some sort.

Second one: Fourth. Grrr. I was the only one not prepared to let each hand fold round to the big blind time after time, and went out when an opponent took an absolute age to call my button raise, with her middling Ace. I guess there is some folding equity on the bubble when people are idiots, as she was clearly not happy to call.

Third one: Fourth again. Drat, drat and double drat. Pretty much the same story as above, this time I went out with 8T versus A7. The flop was 689 and the damn river made his straight. It’s a fine line between going out penniless and being big stack and in the money.

I enjoyed the games. It is mad starting with only 800 chips, and soon becomes a lottery if a few don’t distribute their stacks and leave early on. However, people make all kinds of terrible decisions, and display a complete lack of awareness of pot odds and such. I ought to play higher than $10+1, but they are just a bit of light relief really.

A23 brigade

It is most odd, and surprisingly irritating, to hear my colleague speak in an entirely different accent on the phone to her mother than she does at all other times. And I do mean a COMPLETELY different accent.

Perhaps it irritated me especially today because the lengthy conversation resulted in my having to answer call after call that was meant for her. Work, eh? Actually, I am toying with the idea of setting myself a date to quit and then just doing it. Maybe in about six months. I am considering this because it is probably the only way to make myself actually work towards building up a bankroll with which I can have a go at it. Setting myself targets of hours played has been moderately successful - I didn’t make the last target but it was a great motivator, and am going to make the twenty hour target I set for this Friday.

Since losing on Thursday I have played with greater focus, and done well. I think I’ve won about $15 an hour, including winning a $10 NLHE sit and go that I played just for a laugh on Saturday morning. I found that rather easy and might play a few more.

Last night I had a very nice session of PLO8, despite beginning by playing a hand in a manner that caused one opponent to mock me by implying he was going to tag me as a fish in his notes. Still, I don’t think I was as far out of line as he reckoned. I remain convinced that you can make more money with unconventional hands in PLO8 than the A23 brigade realise, and my $/bb figure in Poker Tracker Omaha looks very healthy thankyouverymuch.

Actually, I need to do some work in PTO. Frankly, my database is of limited use for opponent-tracking at the moment, since I don’t have a single opponent with even a tenth as many hands recorded as me, making comparisons difficult. However, it occurs to me, after reading a discussion of high-only starting hands on 2+2, that I might benefit from examining the stats regarding the various hands I have played. I believe that I make money from high-only starting hands, but I can see some logical reasons why it might be quite difficult to do so, and want to check out just how they have performed for me.

Moving on, the weekend overall was quite pleasant considering my complete lack of funds. I played snooker on Saturday afternoon - my friend paid - and felt very relaxed and played very well. ‘Doctor Who’ was pretty good in the evening.

Lots of thoughts about girls and such, too. On Friday I got a rare phone call from my ex, which was a really pleasant surprise. And on Sunday I went on a family outing to a place by the sea where me and The Girl I Am No Longer Seeing spent a pleasant Sunday afternoon not so long ago. I found that a little melancholy, I must admit, and dwelt somewhat on my decision to finish with her.

The choice never changes; the pleasure of a beautiful body next to you in bed, the ego-boost of having ‘possession’ of a pretty creature, the good times spent together, versus total freedom and self-indulgence. With the added factor that my complete unwillingness to enter into ‘living together’ probably dooms any relationship to a painful end at some point anyway.