Was your writing in Dublin for print media or Online content?
You da man, Teacakes, thank you. The writing was for NordicBet and got translated into various Scandinavian languages and some Slavic ones. But the pieces weren't published in English so I had to tread lightly with my idiomatic flourishes.
The whole British dude writing about the Norwegian dudes playing their poker championships in Ireland borderline spun me out but I could, at a push, put that down to the round-the-clock drinking sessions.
Offered my bankroll out in a pub carpark last weekend and smashed it to bits. Think I managed to get it down from £380-ish to £120-ish over a handful of sessions. That showed it.
Since then, it's been a bit of a grind and have got it back to the heady heights of the £390's. It seems that @Duesenberg and I are establishing something of a monopoly on breakeven rakeback diary pros. Go us.
This week hasn't been my favourite comeback, though. No, my favourite comeback ... is that of Mr Sidney Poitier.
It isn't really, it is of my time covering the Norwegian Poker Championships in Ireland a few years ago. Time doesn't allow for a comprehensive dive into this, but I'd taken roughly £500 to play cash games in the eve - barely covering my two days' writing fee - which I torched on my first evening. Remember getting it in pre for 400 bigs w/AA at €1/2 and this dude - and he was a dude - said, "I know I'm going to hit and I'll make a 'meep' sound when I hit."
Flop was something like T77.
No meep.
Turn Q.
"Meep."
And, ofc, he turns over QQ.
So, yeah, there was that. Good old meeps.
I found out I was going to be sharing a room - and a bed - with my editor. He was and has remained the finest editor I've ever had (not 'had' in a romantic, period novel sense) but I wasn't especially keen to be sharing a bed with him. So on the day before I was leaving I started playing poker at 11am - with the view that I wouldn't be sleeping in the room that night - with an extra €200 or so that I'd lopped on to my initial €500 budget. I spun that €200 down to €35 over a couple of hours playing like a weak, passive fish. Surprising, right?
Anyway, got that €35 in on a 965 flop w/96 v two opponents and after the TJ turn/river and lots of raising and reraising and shots being ordered and bonhomie I figured I was toast. Not so, somehow. So I scooped that one, played for a few more hours, got up to €400 and took a break to write a piece. I was out there to be writing, after all.
That evening they had the most amount of cash games ever in Europe in one place and it was phenomenal. It was St Patrick's night so lots of drunk Norwegians, drunk Irish and drunk me's with my recently spun up €400. I played until midday the following day and cashed out for roughly €1400. Apart from taking an hour or so's break, I'd played 25 hours straight and had been drinking the whole time.
After a couple of hours of sleep I woke up feeling horrendous. Thankfully I had a good few hours until my ferry-train-another-train, so I went to a bar, ordered a brandy and a beer, downed them, went to another bar and did the same. Good old bars. I had one more article to write and sat on a €1/2 table to write it and played some more hands and drank some more beers and won some more money and left sometime around 11pm for my ferry/train from Dublin to Bournemouth.
There was a hen do in my train carriage, which of course meant that I had to drink more beers and I have this memory burnt into me of getting some breakfast at a Cafe Rouge outside Euston station and sitting there with an untouched breakfast in front of me and massively touched pints and brandy in front of me and hearing a young girl saying to her mother on another table, "What's the matter with that man?"
Good question, I thought, and one I've been asking myself ever since.
Thankfully, I don't drink anywhere near as much now as I did then. For one, it really gets in the way of my tennis. Actually beat my tennis nemesis (my temesis?) the day before yesterday and had another lesson with the former Ugandan No.3 yesterday and my forehand is getting there.
So that's something. And this week's spin up has been something. Hope all of your weekends are something, too, thanks for reading.
FFS... It's like trying to share a blogging space with Oscar Wilde. Raconteurial tw@t .
Haha, I literally - okay, figuratively - p1ssed my pants at this.
Played heads and volleys yesterday evening for the first time in years - it felt amazing larruping one or two into the top right hand corner. It'd been a while.
Came home and lost five buy-ins. That didn't feel amazing.
Tried to fix my bike today, got frustrated with it, and ended up booting it around the garden. Now *that* did feel amazing - even more amazing than the larruping - would highly recommend.
Looking forward to grinding, @Allan23 's stream and dodging going out over the next few hours.
Heads and volleys and messing about with bikes definitely right up there with things I loved to do as a kid. Losing five buy-ins definitely right up there with things I hate to do as an adult.
Wishing you better luck on tonight's grind. See you at the stream.
Heads and volleys and messing about with bikes definitely right up there with things I loved to do as a kid. Losing five buy-ins definitely right up there with things I hate to do as an adult.
Wishing you better luck on tonight's grind. See you at the stream.
Thanks Myna - I can do nothing but agree. I'm thinking of becoming a bike mechanic/sprayer as a side-side income as there's a workshop next to mine I can use and, well, it beats sitting in a chair all day.
But I can't mess about and kick bikes around in there. That's sort of one of the rules.
Fun Saturday evening session with @Allan23 's stream. Hopped into the £1K gtd rebuy thing, pretty much flipped my way to the FT but was short and lost 77 v 99 called a 3bb jam w/Q8s and lost and lost another hand which I can't remember and finished 6th. Hmm, looks a bit spewy written out like that.
Talking of spewy, any thoughts on the below hand? Didn't have any notes on villain but he seemed like a boozy sports bettor whose accumulator had come in and was giving poker a whirl ... ?
Surely it’s headers and volleys? It was round our way any road up
Bet you don’t even call a bean mix, a bean mix
We're split in our head(er)s and volleys group between heads and volleys and headers and volleys. I flit.
As for a bean mix - I had to look this up and still don't know what it is. But I reckon if I knew what a bean mix was I'd definitely call a bean mix a bean mix.
According to the leaderboard, I've pinged the £1K in this week's eliminator freerolls. I'm delighted.
Delighted, and hungover. Was six heads behind the leader yesterday but managed to pick up seven yesterday playing on a phone in the pub while drinking pints of gin and tonic. Phone ran out of battery when I jammed w/TT and 20 players remaining. Only found out this morning that I lost that one and that a couple of hands later folded AK pre w/4 bigs. PM for coaching rates.
Comments
The whole British dude writing about the Norwegian dudes playing their poker championships in Ireland borderline spun me out but I could, at a push, put that down to the round-the-clock drinking sessions.
Came home and lost five buy-ins. That didn't feel amazing.
Tried to fix my bike today, got frustrated with it, and ended up booting it around the garden. Now *that* did feel amazing - even more amazing than the larruping - would highly recommend.
Looking forward to grinding, @Allan23 's stream and dodging going out over the next few hours.
Wishing you better luck on tonight's grind. See you at the stream.
But I can't mess about and kick bikes around in there. That's sort of one of the rules.
Talking of spewy, any thoughts on the below hand? Didn't have any notes on villain but he seemed like a boozy sports bettor whose accumulator had come in and was giving poker a whirl ... ?
Nice run in the rebuy.
Last night's Elim Fr;
SR23 0 2 £60
Steve is making a play to be the Sky Poker Freeroll King.
It gets worse.
Elim L'board
I enjoy this blog but this sentence bugged me from the minute I read it.
It seems that Duesenberg and I are establishing something of a monopoly on breakeven rakeback diary pros.
Technically impossible, surely?
I suppose bots are only as good as they are programmed.
Nevertheless, keep up the good work.
Glad you're enjoying the diary though dude, thanks for popping in.
This.
It was round our way any road up
Bet you don’t even call a bean mix, a bean mix
As for a bean mix - I had to look this up and still don't know what it is. But I reckon if I knew what a bean mix was I'd definitely call a bean mix a bean mix.
Does it involve mdma?
Delighted, and hungover. Was six heads behind the leader yesterday but managed to pick up seven yesterday playing on a phone in the pub while drinking pints of gin and tonic. Phone ran out of battery when I jammed w/TT and 20 players remaining. Only found out this morning that I lost that one and that a couple of hands later folded AK pre w/4 bigs. PM for coaching rates.