Just read it on break. Agree 100%. Not even king amongst slugs, I know that feeling
Just briefly looked at the hand. Quite difficult to know what to do on river because he really isn't supposed to be barrelling this turn card very frequently at all. I'm unsure how often (if ever) AA/KK (with and without a heart) are supposed to bet flop and turn but if they do I think they should always be checking river...
Will be interested to see if that technique for posture works. Just watched a short vid on it and to me it looks like he,s just lying on the floor.
I,m curious to know was the diazepam prescribed for anxiety or to help with the tinnitus. I,m suprised its still being prescribed at all. I,d strongly advise to keep it as short term as possible
I,ve done allsorts of drug withdrawals in the past including heroin and for me diazepam was the worst by a long long way. For long term use it can take months or years to get over and some people are never the same again. Benzos imo are the most dangerous drug out there. Yes - for anxiety they are perfect until they ware off- then your anxiety goes through the roof - look at all these kids in America doing xanax. They,ve got big problems ahead. Be careful
Thanks again @MynaFrett - I was going to ask what job you do to be working that late at night but then realised you meant you were on a tournament break, right? I'm pretty slow at times. Unless you were on an actual work break, in which case I'm pretty fast at times. OTTH: yep, I think I need a few more days/weeks/months v villain to get a better idea of what he can/does barrel turns with. Pretty sure he knows I can get a bit stubborn w/pairs in (broadly) similar spots so he could potentially barrel flop/turn w/AA, KK, maybe even JJ, then check river in which case he might sigh-call a vb. Not sure, really.
Thanks to you, too, @mumsie - the thicket of text when you copy and paste a hand history looks (is) a lot less daunting once you've done it a few times and I'm getting a little quicker at it, so I suppose it's a case of just ploughing on. Or not posting hands. I'd love to be working in a garden right now. Hope whatever you're doing out there goes swimmingly.
Will be interested to see if that technique for posture works. Just watched a short vid on it and to me it looks like he,s just lying on the floor.
I,m curious to know was the diazepam prescribed for anxiety or to help with the tinnitus. I,m suprised its still being prescribed at all. I,d strongly advise to keep it as short term as possible
I,ve done allsorts of drug withdrawals in the past including heroin and for me diazepam was the worst by a long long way. For long term use it can take months or years to get over and some people are never the same again. Benzos imo are the most dangerous drug out there. Yes - for anxiety they are perfect until they ware off- then your anxiety goes through the roof - look at all these kids in America doing xanax. They,ve got big problems ahead. Be careful
Many thanks for you candid message @MP33 - I do know that GPs are reluctant to prescribe it and my GP certainly wouldn't let me have a long term prescription but does let me get 10-12 at a time (on repeat). I've had times of anxiety skyrocketing after taking them for a few days which is (somewhat?) weird considering its half-life. Usually I'll take them to get over chronic anxiety for a bit or as a one/two-off and during that period when feeling more settled make a plan of healthier ways of dealing with the underlying causes then execute said plan. It kind of works. The main thing for me at the moment is that many of my coping strategies - swimming in cold sea, doing lengths underwater in a pool, hitting a punchbag for hours, meditating, walking 10 miles, losing myself in work etc etc - are being thwarted by pneumonia-riddled lungs, tinnitus (find it really tough and unpleasant to meditate with it), a massive scaling back/gridlock in the kinds of industries I work in, Corona-tentacles and so on and so forth.
This five minute vid might serve as a decent introduction to the Alexander Technique. I've been trying to hold myself in the way he explains around 3 mins and it's really eased some of the tension in my neck/shoulders. Not sure if it will affect the tinnitus at all - I've only heard about it helping anecdotally - but even if it has zero effect, then at least I should have better posture. Which - like many of us I reckon - I could certainly do with.
Another hat tip to the Manics reference. Gold Against The Soul is a massively underrated album.
If you patch a few leaks (I say no more ) you should be able to smash NL10 / NL20 the way the games are at the mo.
Ha, yeah, I can be pretty leaky. I kind of know what needs plugging but I've kind of fallen in love with some of my leaks - a sort of poker Stockholm syndrome.
There's some absolute belters on Gold Against the Soul. I was really into the Manics around the time of the Holy Bible and leading up to Everything Must Go and saw them a few times (inc supporting The Stone Roses on their "comeback") but bar liking a lot of their singles since then I don't think I've listened to a whole album. Perhaps I should be doing ...?
Anyway, cheers for dropping by dude, appreciate it.
Bit late... on the Manics you might have it / have listened already, but if you haven't, really recommend you try the US mix of The Holy Bible. Think The Holy Bible with Gold Against The Soul production. Doesn't fit the mood of the album, but still founds **** amazing.
There are some really good albums post Everything Must Go. Journal for Plague Lovers, Send Away The Tigers, and Lifeblood (very different but very good). Don't really rate any of the last 4 but each have a few bangers. Just can't get on with them as albums.
Another hat tip to the Manics reference. Gold Against The Soul is a massively underrated album.
If you patch a few leaks (I say no more ) you should be able to smash NL10 / NL20 the way the games are at the mo.
Ha, yeah, I can be pretty leaky. I kind of know what needs plugging but I've kind of fallen in love with some of my leaks - a sort of poker Stockholm syndrome.
There's some absolute belters on Gold Against the Soul. I was really into the Manics around the time of the Holy Bible and leading up to Everything Must Go and saw them a few times (inc supporting The Stone Roses on their "comeback") but bar liking a lot of their singles since then I don't think I've listened to a whole album. Perhaps I should be doing ...?
Anyway, cheers for dropping by dude, appreciate it.
Bit late... on the Manics you might have it / have listened already, but if you haven't, really recommend you try the US mix of The Holy Bible. Think The Holy Bible with Gold Against The Soul production. Doesn't fit the mood of the album, but still founds **** amazing.
There are some really good albums post Everything Must Go. Journal for Plague Lovers, Send Away The Tigers, and Lifeblood (very different but very good). Don't really rate any of the last 4 but each have a few bangers. Just can't get on with them as albums.
Tinnitus sounds rank btw.
Bit late on you being a bit late to the Manics. I *think* I used to have that US version on CD - or I've certainly listened to it.
Well, this diary not working out quite how I anticipated. Bankroll has more or less stagnated. I've not been in the mood to play poker and not been in the mood to update with, "I've not been in the mood to play poker."
But today in the shower, and not for the first time, I had the words of George Costanza echoing around my head, namely "You ask me to have lunch, tell me you slept with Elaine, and you say you're not in the mood for details? Now you listen to me: I want details and I want them now. I don't have a job, I have no place to go. You're not in the mood? You get in the mood!"
So I've decided to get in the mood - both the mood to play poker more regularly (like George, I don't have a job and I have no place to go) and to update this diary regularly. And I'm going to start immediately. And by immediately, I mean after I've gone to the beach for a few hours.
Since "getting in the mood" I've lopped off 10% of my roll, had three migraines and continued to dodge getting laid. This might mean something, but probably doesn't.
Came up with a rad idea for a book yesterday while loafing around on the beach. Hopefully it doesn't join my other "rad" ideas for books which include:
- The Garden of Ian. Plot: A man decides that the best way to get rich quick is to save a rich person's life and scoop up the reward. So he puts a rich person in peril but accidentally kills them. To make up for it he decides to save someone else's life but kills them too. And so on. It's basically about an accidental serial killer. I actually fashioned this into a radio play and sent it off to the BBC. I didn't hear back. Status of book: abandoned.
- Getting out of psychological hot water: a non-exhaustive, small-scale, self-report study on the effects of hydrotherapy and Victorianing on mental and physical health. Written in the style of an academic paper. Includes graphs and illustrations (which I'm unable to do). Status: semi-abandoned.
- Pokercism. An illustration-free graphic novel about poker and philosophy. Status: abandoned (obvs).
- Untitled. A page-by-page critique of Geoff Dyer's 'Broadsword Calling Danny Boy' which in turn is a scene-by-scene analysis of Where Eagles Dare. Status: abandoned.
- Loads more book ideas that are lying in a state of abandonment or semi-abandonment in my google docs. I did actually write an actual novel sometime in my 20s called The Eskimo but it wasn't very good. It had it moments, I suppose. Well, it had *a* moment, I suppose. Okay, it had no moments.
A couple of years ago I huffed-off from my agent and self-published a book of poker columns (with annotations) called Notes from the Poker Trenches. My royalties last month were (genuinely) £0.28. That's going to look awesome on my tax return.
But this idea, like I say, is rad. It's a goer. It's a rad-goer. Let's hope that it doesn't get abandoned.
Got semi-deep in an £11 BH the night before last (brm ftw) but then lost AA v A8o aipf for around a third of my stack, then called a shortie's btn jam w/KTo and lost to 33 and then, the very hand after the bubble burst, called an utg jam w/QQ and lost to 55. How can you win a tournament when that happens? You can't, that's how. Hoping for better luck and fewer migraines over the weekend.
Hope you all have banging weekends. Well, hope most of you do.
How long (roughly) does it take you to write a book Steve?
And what is the process - do you "frame it out" first then fill in the blanks, or just, so to speak, make it up as you go along.
Jeffrey Archer - who knows a bit about writing books - had a very strict discipline about his writing, with 2 hours per day set aside & various 1st, 2nd & 3rd edits.
- The Garden of Ian. Plot: A man decides that the best way to get rich quick is to save a rich person's life and scoop up the reward. So he puts a rich person in peril but accidentally kills them. To make up for it he decides to save someone else's life but kills them too. And so on. It's basically about an accidental serial killer. I actually fashioned this into a radio play and sent it off to the BBC. I didn't hear back. Status of book: abandoned.
A friend of mine asked a local villain called Arty to kill his girlfriend( for £500) , gave him her photo...so he followed her to Sainsbury's ...the fire alarm went off an in the confusion, he strangled the wrong woman so found the right woman and strangled her as well
He ran off but was caught...the next day the headlines were Artichokes 2 for £500 in Sainsburys...( I'll get me coat)
Hi Steve. Hope you are as well as can be expected. It was good to share a table with you last night, sorry for the lack of verbal sparring , my reason ( excuse ) is I was playing umpteen, and different types, ( bh’s, freezouts, Plo8 bh’s) I did do rather well in the tournament we were in, and if I can find the “ It’s definitely rigged” hand It may show you why, easy game 😊.
Take care mate, and if the upcoming best seller is anywhere near as good as “ Notes from the poker trenches” it’ll be fab.
How long (roughly) does it take you to write a book Steve?
And what is the process - do you "frame it out" first then fill in the blanks, or just, so to speak, make it up as you go along.
Jeffrey Archer - who knows a bit about writing books - had a very strict discipline about his writing, with 2 hours per day set aside & various 1st, 2nd & 3rd edits.
You may have misunderstood me ever-so-slightly: I don't really write books. I mostly start to write books then abandon or semi-abandon them. Say what you want about the tenets of this dude, at least it's an ethos.
The first book I started and finished I did in two three-week bursts and I would effectively walk five-ten miles, think what I was going to write about, then come back and write a few thousand words or so. Think it was Hemingway who said something along the lines of, 'leave when you're on a high/on a roll" which is excellent advice, meaning that every time I came back to writing I was really into getting into it again.
Putting together Notes from the Poker Trenches - finding and editing the columns, adding annotations, adding an intro, self-publishing steps - took roughly a month.
The embryonic rad-goer will take, I imagine, somewhere between three and six months. Which is cool. In fact, it's cooler than cool: Thomas Wolfe's 'you've reached the pinnacle of success when you're no longer interested in money, compliments or publicity' has really started to chime with me over the last few years. Those things are fine, to a point, but trivialities, really. The process is the key - the other stuff is down to myriad factors, many out of my (or anyone's) control. Writing regularly and well and getting pleasure from that alone is almost entirely down to me - migraines notwithstanding.
There were loads of Jeffrey Archer's novels lying around my Nan's house when I was 15/16 and I used to read them when I went to stay with her. This coincided with my starting-going-to-raves period. It was a weird time: go out and party in a field/aircraft hanger until 8am, come back, sleep, read a Jeffrey Archer novel, go back to school. Life, eh?
- The Garden of Ian. Plot: A man decides that the best way to get rich quick is to save a rich person's life and scoop up the reward. So he puts a rich person in peril but accidentally kills them. To make up for it he decides to save someone else's life but kills them too. And so on. It's basically about an accidental serial killer. I actually fashioned this into a radio play and sent it off to the BBC. I didn't hear back. Status of book: abandoned.
I could see Rik Mayall straight acting this role.
I adored Rik Mayall and vowed to watch The Young Ones/Bottom every year on the anniversary of his death. Haven't done it once. But yeah, the guy was a delight and only 56 when he died. Life, eh?
A friend of mine asked a local villain called Arty to kill his girlfriend( for £500) , gave him her photo...so he followed her to Sainsbury's ...the fire alarm went off an in the confusion, he strangled the wrong woman so found the right woman and strangled her as well
He ran off but was caught...the next day the headlines were Artichokes 2 for £500 in Sainsburys...( I'll get me coat)
I was actually, genuinely reading this thinking, 'Wow, this is a little bleak for a sunny Friday afternoon ... " and then, of course, the old switcheroo. Fine work, I think.
Comments
Just read it on break. Agree 100%. Not even king amongst slugs, I know that feeling
Just briefly looked at the hand. Quite difficult to know what to do on river because he really isn't supposed to be barrelling this turn card very frequently at all. I'm unsure how often (if ever) AA/KK (with and without a heart) are supposed to bet flop and turn but if they do I think they should always be checking river...
I,m curious to know was the diazepam prescribed for anxiety or to help with the tinnitus. I,m suprised its still being prescribed at all. I,d strongly advise to keep it as short term as possible
I,ve done allsorts of drug withdrawals in the past including heroin and for me diazepam was the worst by a long long way. For long term use it can take months or years to get over and some people are never the same again. Benzos imo are the most dangerous drug out there. Yes - for anxiety they are perfect until they ware off- then your anxiety goes through the roof - look at all these kids in America doing xanax. They,ve got big problems ahead. Be careful
Another way is to screenshot the HH and use MSpaint to blot the names out , but thats still llaborious .
Oi, thought you were supposed to be working from 0730?
Thanks again @MynaFrett - I was going to ask what job you do to be working that late at night but then realised you meant you were on a tournament break, right? I'm pretty slow at times. Unless you were on an actual work break, in which case I'm pretty fast at times. OTTH: yep, I think I need a few more days/weeks/months v villain to get a better idea of what he can/does barrel turns with. Pretty sure he knows I can get a bit stubborn w/pairs in (broadly) similar spots so he could potentially barrel flop/turn w/AA, KK, maybe even JJ, then check river in which case he might sigh-call a vb. Not sure, really.
Thanks to you, too, @mumsie - the thicket of text when you copy and paste a hand history looks (is) a lot less daunting once you've done it a few times and I'm getting a little quicker at it, so I suppose it's a case of just ploughing on. Or not posting hands. I'd love to be working in a garden right now. Hope whatever you're doing out there goes swimmingly.
This five minute vid might serve as a decent introduction to the Alexander Technique. I've been trying to hold myself in the way he explains around 3 mins and it's really eased some of the tension in my neck/shoulders. Not sure if it will affect the tinnitus at all - I've only heard about it helping anecdotally - but even if it has zero effect, then at least I should have better posture. Which - like many of us I reckon - I could certainly do with.
Thanks again.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=9URqJlYrtfA
There are some really good albums post Everything Must Go. Journal for Plague Lovers, Send Away The Tigers, and Lifeblood (very different but very good). Don't really rate any of the last 4 but each have a few bangers. Just can't get on with them as albums.
Tinnitus sounds rank btw.
Tinnitus is rank btw.
Use of bangers is ace, btw.
But today in the shower, and not for the first time, I had the words of George Costanza echoing around my head, namely "You ask me to have lunch, tell me you slept with Elaine, and you say you're not in the mood for details? Now you listen to me: I want details and I want them now. I don't have a job, I have no place to go. You're not in the mood? You get in the mood!"
So I've decided to get in the mood - both the mood to play poker more regularly (like George, I don't have a job and I have no place to go) and to update this diary regularly. And I'm going to start immediately. And by immediately, I mean after I've gone to the beach for a few hours.
See you in a bit, peace out.
Opening roll: £150
Roll: £223
Came up with a rad idea for a book yesterday while loafing around on the beach. Hopefully it doesn't join my other "rad" ideas for books which include:
- The Garden of Ian. Plot: A man decides that the best way to get rich quick is to save a rich person's life and scoop up the reward. So he puts a rich person in peril but accidentally kills them. To make up for it he decides to save someone else's life but kills them too. And so on. It's basically about an accidental serial killer. I actually fashioned this into a radio play and sent it off to the BBC. I didn't hear back. Status of book: abandoned.
- Getting out of psychological hot water: a non-exhaustive, small-scale, self-report study on the effects of hydrotherapy and Victorianing on mental and physical health. Written in the style of an academic paper. Includes graphs and illustrations (which I'm unable to do). Status: semi-abandoned.
- Pokercism. An illustration-free graphic novel about poker and philosophy. Status: abandoned (obvs).
- Untitled. A page-by-page critique of Geoff Dyer's 'Broadsword Calling Danny Boy' which in turn is a scene-by-scene analysis of Where Eagles Dare. Status: abandoned.
- Loads more book ideas that are lying in a state of abandonment or semi-abandonment in my google docs. I did actually write an actual novel sometime in my 20s called The Eskimo but it wasn't very good. It had it moments, I suppose. Well, it had *a* moment, I suppose. Okay, it had no moments.
A couple of years ago I huffed-off from my agent and self-published a book of poker columns (with annotations) called Notes from the Poker Trenches. My royalties last month were (genuinely) £0.28. That's going to look awesome on my tax return.
But this idea, like I say, is rad. It's a goer. It's a rad-goer. Let's hope that it doesn't get abandoned.
Got semi-deep in an £11 BH the night before last (brm ftw) but then lost AA v A8o aipf for around a third of my stack, then called a shortie's btn jam w/KTo and lost to 33 and then, the very hand after the bubble burst, called an utg jam w/QQ and lost to 55. How can you win a tournament when that happens? You can't, that's how. Hoping for better luck and fewer migraines over the weekend.
Hope you all have banging weekends. Well, hope most of you do.
How long (roughly) does it take you to write a book Steve?
And what is the process - do you "frame it out" first then fill in the blanks, or just, so to speak, make it up as you go along.
Jeffrey Archer - who knows a bit about writing books - had a very strict discipline about his writing, with 2 hours per day set aside & various 1st, 2nd & 3rd edits.
He ran off but was caught...the next day the headlines were Artichokes 2 for £500 in Sainsburys...( I'll get me coat)
Hope you are as well as can be expected.
It was good to share a table with you last night, sorry for the lack of verbal sparring , my reason ( excuse ) is I was playing umpteen, and different types, ( bh’s, freezouts, Plo8 bh’s)
I did do rather well in the tournament we were in, and if I can find the “ It’s definitely rigged” hand It may show you why, easy game 😊.
Take care mate, and if the upcoming best seller is anywhere near as good as “ Notes from the poker trenches” it’ll be fab.
The first book I started and finished I did in two three-week bursts and I would effectively walk five-ten miles, think what I was going to write about, then come back and write a few thousand words or so. Think it was Hemingway who said something along the lines of, 'leave when you're on a high/on a roll" which is excellent advice, meaning that every time I came back to writing I was really into getting into it again.
Putting together Notes from the Poker Trenches - finding and editing the columns, adding annotations, adding an intro, self-publishing steps - took roughly a month.
The embryonic rad-goer will take, I imagine, somewhere between three and six months. Which is cool. In fact, it's cooler than cool: Thomas Wolfe's 'you've reached the pinnacle of success when you're no longer interested in money, compliments or publicity' has really started to chime with me over the last few years. Those things are fine, to a point, but trivialities, really. The process is the key - the other stuff is down to myriad factors, many out of my (or anyone's) control. Writing regularly and well and getting pleasure from that alone is almost entirely down to me - migraines notwithstanding.
There were loads of Jeffrey Archer's novels lying around my Nan's house when I was 15/16 and I used to read them when I went to stay with her. This coincided with my starting-going-to-raves period. It was a weird time: go out and party in a field/aircraft hanger until 8am, come back, sleep, read a Jeffrey Archer novel, go back to school. Life, eh?