The Great Swine Flu Panic!!!

Well i'm sitting here this morning looking after my son who has got the worst case of swine flu known to man!!
Actually he hasnt imo,but all the hype has led us to believe that he had,let me explain.......
All over the weekend he had complained of a headache,sore throat,tiredness etc (and his temperature is nearly 40 degrees so we do realise he is unwell) so yesterday morning my wife phones the docs & explains his symptoms. The receptionist (coz you cant get past her,she knows best!!) tells wifey....'DO NOT BRING HIM DOWN HERE' but to get on the NHS 'swine flu advisory' website as our boy has clearly been struck down with this terrible disease. We obv do this and his symptoms tick all the boxes. We then get an authorisation number on line so i hot foot it to the local chemist to pick up his Tamiflu.
Obviously they do exactly what it says on the tin and he spukes 30 minutes after taking them!!!
So onto this morning and he wakes up as if nothing has happened,his temperature has dropped to normal & his ailments have all but disappeared.
Now obv we dont want our kids to suffer & will do anything to make them better but this swine flu 'pandemic' is a load of bollox if you ask me.
Two years ago my son would have gone to the doctors,been prescribed Calpol and told he had a bit of flu......But now it's Swine Flu & everyone panics,when my wife went into his school with my daughter and told the secretary that our son was absent because he 'might' have Swine Flu,the other mums in the office actually backed away!!! It was as if she had mentioned contracting a new outbreak of the Black Death!!
I only wish i had shares in the company that manufactures Tamiflu,they must be laughing their fucking tits off!!
So thats that then,glgl on the tarbs,thanks for your previous comments and next post might contain a bit of poker......unless I catch Swine Flu,in which case i will be milking it for all its worth!!!!!!! later. Smoothplz.

Hello again!!!

Allrite chaps!!!
I'm back after god knows how long to write some drivel again!!
My last post mentioned about the wife getting her hours chopped & starting some thing else;well that went tits up,she got another job but we ended up about 7k a year out of pocket!!
Now thats not a fortune to some of you but we have allways spent as much as we earn (well ok,maybe a tad more!!).....not really wasting it (as such) but things like doing up our gaff cost a few quid tbh and expensive holidays can come back and bite you in the balls!! (oh,and doing our conkers on the credit cards etc dont help!!) now you could say its all our fault........and you're probably right,but please dont say it,because i'l just tell you to fuck off!!
Any way,to cut a long story short,we ended up seeking some proper advice,and now we are sort of sorted!!!(allthough this could take a bit of time to be 100% sorted!!!) ................allthough it was drastic & the last resort,we had no choice, (and as the house prices have dropped like shit out of a goose,meaning we have no equity that we have to give up,then we wont lose it.)
All this means that poker has obviously had to take a bit of a back seat,i have spent the last 8 months talking to money people,banks,official receivers and god knows who else so didnt have the heart or the right attitude to play,i allready spunked all my money on Stars & FT playing with a spinning head & home life,and any roll on Laddies had to be used on more pressing matters!!
BUT!!!............ now i feel like playing,blogging and getting into it again (slowly but surely! more on this next time!).

A quick mention for the Raise the River forum,its got a new look so get down there sharpish, click the link above and join the fun!!

Until later........later!!! Smoothplz.

44 ftw for sure??!!

Evening all!! Cant beleive its been nearly 2 weeks since i played poker or wrote any more drivel!! The run up to easter is always busy for us at work,luckily sales figures for the 1st 3 months are up on last year so that cant be bad! Shame about my wife (who manages a posh restaraunt) ....her hours have been slashed as has her money which is a bit of a kick in the balls.
And to think at the run up to xmas she was putting in 60/70 hours a week and working hard to make the place run properly,now for the last couple of months numbers have halved due to 'the crunch' so she finds herself getting the 'its business & not personal but.......' speech!
However,she is very hard working/ambitious & has approached a few places with an impressive CV with some positive results.......(cant say too much now but all will be revealed next post ;-) !)
Any how, on to tonight & i managed a massive 1 game on Laddies.....Yes..1 game!!!
A 2 table 20 manner with a $5 buy in.
Its been a little while since i played so i wanted a gentle start! I was 1 of only 2 UK players on my table,the rest were mental Skandies & clueless Eurofish!! (so i thought i might have a chance!)
And so it turned out,i reached the bubble as c/l & looked down at the mighty 44,

** Hand # 2539893990 starting - 2009-04-11 21:06:04**
Multi-Table Freezeout[2899070]:Table 1 [Sit & Go Hold 'em] (1000.002000.00 NL - MTT) Real Money
karlos197413 sitting in seat 4 with 7853.50
smoothplz sitting in seat 6 with 16289.50
luggage81 sitting in seat 7 with 4314.00
offpist18 sitting in seat 10 with 11543.00[Dealer]
karlos197413 ante'd - 75.00
smoothplz ante'd - 75.00
luggage81 ante'd - 75.00
offpist18 ante'd - 75.00
karlos197413 posted the small blind - 500.00
smoothplz posted the big blind - 1000.00
** Dealing cards to smoothplz: 4c, 4d
luggage81 went all-in - 4239.00
offpist18 folded
karlos197413 raised to 7478.00
smoothplz folded
karlos197413 shows: Ad, Qs
luggage81 shows: As, Jh
** Dealing the flop: 7c, 6c, 10d
** Dealing the turn: 4s
offpist18 > hehe
** Dealing the river: 4h
karlos197413 wins 9778.00 from the main pot

Quadfuckingtastic!!!
Dont you just love it when that happens!!! I knew i had 3rd tied up at least but couldnt risk a call & race with the action before me,obv as it happened i would have busted 2 of the donkeys but i thought a fold (in this situation) was the right play. What do you think??

I only made 3rd in the end as i shoved on a 7 high flop with 10 10 only to see matey had flopped a straight.........grrrrrrr!!! O well, c'est la vie!

Thanx for reading & glglglgl.

Out and about.

Another month so another show for me!!
This time an outdoor event in Newark.......surely the home of the man who invented anagrams??!!!!!
The friday setting the stand up was a nightmare,it was freezing cold & peeing down most of the day,then saturday it managed to be even more windy together with half an hour of sleet/hail/snow...it was fucking freezing & we sold next to fuck all!! Thank god yesterday (sunday) was nice & we managed to ship out some stuff to make the long trip worth while!

I normally recommend a few places on my travels so here's 2 just in case you visit Newark.

Cafe Bleu. (Restaraunt along the main drag ,close to the church) Lovely but a bit expensive French inspired gaff. Good food but we had the draught Stella & swore they had mixed the barrels with Tescos Blue Label lager...it was like water......always drink bottled bears in these places imo....they either dont know how to keep draught lager properly or the cheeky muvvas substitute the decent stuff for piss water & hope we dont notice!!
The Italian down the far end of town!!. So good i cant remember the damn name of it!!
But top hole grub,myself & my colleague asked for extra chilli/garlic on our meatballs....they were the best meatballs on spaghetti ive had in ages! The bottled Peroni was ice cold & went down a treat,then we finished of with a few 'lemoncellas' (i think thats how its spelt!!) Basically a strong after dinner drink that tasted lemony (f obv!!) & contributed to my serious headache the next day. (allthough the 2 bottles of red between us,8 Peronis, 4 pints of Guiness (before we got in there!) then what seemed like a gallon of voddy/red bull in the club after might have also helped!! And that was Newark for another year,i just hope next time its warmer & drier, thats the 2nd year we have done that show & its been piss poor weather both times!

As for my Poker exploits (this is supposed to be a poker blog after all!!) well,there arent any!!
Going away doesnt help & ive been working hard at home this past week so i havnt played any pokes at all for about 10 days! hopefully i can change that & crack on.
Right then,take it slow & glglgl to you all.

Learning to stop & Nike hats!

I have shut down Ladbrokes after a right dodgy evening!! I just couldnt win a race or get any cards to hold up. But progress is being slowly made!!
A little while ago i would have either carried on & prob lost even more at the same stakes,or gone up in buy in to recover my losses (& done even more of my BR!!).
But this evening was different,i knew i was going to end up badly stuck if i carried on so that was the time to quit....it helped that the poxy comp decided to fuck up half way through some games i was playing but enough was enough.
If it was any consolation i realised i had lost most of the time when i was actually getting it in in front,so another day i could have easily been well up,but theres always another day/night.
The good news was this afternoon when UTD were mullered by the Scousers,ha fucking ha i say,i hope the glorious Blues beat the other Manc idiots tomorrow so we can close the gap at the top....i still dont think its over,but we cant afford any slip ups!!

Had a funny experience the other morning. I got up at about 6.30 to walk our 2 dogs.
Being a kind geezer i got dressed in the bathroom so i didnt wake the Mrs or kids.
It was quite frosty so gloves & wooly hat were found & put on...( a week or so ago it was still quite dark at that time so i didnt even put a light on......i'm so thoughtfull!!!)
Any how,i walk for a while then return up my road,theres a lovely looking girl scraping her car & as i walk past her i say 'good morning' She looks up & gives me a huge smile & with a bit of a giggle says Hi.
Obv she is now weak at the knees after glancing at my rugged good looks & is probably fantasising about me using the dogs leads on her & walking her naked around house,ever so often stopping to pleasure her in a variety of ways........................................
It wasnt until i got home that i realised my Nike wooly hat was inside out & the white washing instruction label was sticking up in the middle of it which made me look a right tool!! No wonder she was giggling at me, i must have looked like one of the fucking Tweenies!!
O well,message to self....make sure i dress myself properly before leaving the house!!!! (oh,and stop having pervy thoughts about my neighbours!!!)

Right then,thats it,ta for reading & glglgl to you all.

Hoooooooooold!!! lol!

I dont normally post specific beats because we all get them & they bore the bollox of every one reading them!!
Its only 6 handed so its bubble time,i'm quite happy to call his mini raise with atc as i need some action before the blinds begin to bite; when i flop 2 pair v his AA i'm laughing like a schoolboy!!! lol!!

** Hand # 2461439284 starting - 2009-03-04 21:17:31** 6-Handed Hustle[2759208]:Table 1 [Sit & Go Hold 'em] (70.00140.00 NL - MTT) Real Money
Bacardy sitting in seat 1 with 3085.00[Dealer]
smoothplz sitting in seat 3 with 1895.00
esragib sitting in seat 6 with 7020.00
smoothplz posted the small blind - 35.00
esragib posted the big blind - 70.00
** Dealing cards to smoothplz: 9d, 6c
Bacardy folded
smoothplz called - 70.00
esragib bet - 140.00
smoothplz called - 140.00
** Dealing the flop: 5h, 9s, 6h
smoothplz bet - 70.00
esragib raised to 490.00
smoothplz went all-in - 1685.00
esragib called - 1755.00
esragib shows: Ac, Ah
** Dealing the turn: 10s
** Dealing the river: 5c
esragib wins 3790.00 from the main pot

All i needed was to dodge the A or 5.....but no,thanks Laddies!!!!!!
I wouldnt normally play 9 6 o/s before i get slated,but here i would!!
glglgl to you all.

What credit crunch??!

Well its been nearly a week since i left 'Birmingistan' & travelled back to the luxury of the sarf!!
The exhibition went realy well for the company i work for & myself & fellow bull shitters.....(oooops i mean sales men!) all exceeded our targets!! Now in this time of strife & problems this was a major victory,it shows that maybe the economic downturn hasnt ruined every business.
Yes i know the car,construction & financial people are in the brown stuff but peeps have still got some dough to spend on caravans & all the bits that go with them,the show also contained boats,big fucking boats some of them,and they reported good sales figures so its not all bad news.
I suppose if you have got money you might as well spend it,keeping in the bank earns you f all.

Another sign was seen when we went out,every restaraunt was heaving,even one spectaculary over priced,down trodden Italian we visited was uber busy mid week,and they ran out of Peroni which was a shitter i can tell you!!
Best night up there was def had in Solihull. We ate in a place called 'Must', (we go every year!) its a kind of Thai/Eastern place untill about midnight,then turns into a mini disco. We drank like fishes then danced like spazzers....oddly enough i skipped brekky the next morning,must have been the umpteeth raspberry sambuca!! Thoroughly recommended for a top night,book though,it is very popular.
Cant really write about poker as i havnt had time to much since being home,will crack on next week.....we did have 1 stt up in the hotel.....8 players,winner takes all with a tenner buy in....obv i came 2nd...fml!!!!!!!

And the Glorious Blues you ask????? We beat Villa,we beat Juventus........we are Back!!!!!!

glglglglglglgl & ta for reading my ramblings!!