The Best Laid Plans of Mice & Men
January 12, 2008
“The best-laid plans of mice and men go oft awry”, a commonly used quote from the poem “To a Mouse” written by Robert Burns. Frequently used because of its prophetic accuracy and I’m using it as the title for this the first blog entry of 2008, for exactly that reason.
I set some targets at the beginning of the year, things I was to strive for in my (online) poker life. Nothing unrealistic, quite attainable with some application and discipline. To be in profit by $5k at the end of the year. Indeed I had achieved almost 25% of my target by the end of January and then as often happens, real life reared its ugly head and like so many men and mice before me, my plans went awry….
I won’t go into the details of the what, when, why’s of what happened as it has all been written about in the blog over the last 12 months. Needless to say I am a bit hesitant to make any long term plans or resolutions this year. My life is quite different today to what it was when I first set that target in January of last year, so I think my target for this year is.. to take each day as it comes.
Now I am a member of BackRowPoker and will play in their league games. A few players from the old forum seem to be finding their way over to BackRowPoker notably it seems to be the best players in that old league that are making the move. Interesting times ahead.
Poker stuff.. Well what with the holiday season and then the arrival of Anne Marie (GotMeWrong) at my door, I have hardly been near a PC let alone an online poker table in the last 3 weeks.
The one time I decided to play a SNG during the holiday period, my TV/Internet/Telephone provider decided to have a major server crash and subsequently threw me into the cold stark reality of the 1950’s.
I was left pondering whether to get out the jigsaw puzzles, read the book I got for Christmas or slip into my Santa outfit and chase Anne Marie around the tree.. (any regular reader will know Xmas means squat to me, I never buy a tree, so it would have in truth been a smash and grab somewhere between the couch and the beer fridge, her usual hangouts).. Luckily for her the TV part of the system came back online just before I was about to check her stocking for any missed presents.
Before I go on too much further I have to mention the double header achievement of my bud PinkDog in the OFC Christmas tournaments. Two MTT’s on a Friday and Saturday night and the dog hit the final table in both competitions.
Amazing stuff and I am pretty sure a first for the OFC to have the same player hit the finals on subsequent nights. I know he was very fired up for this tournament and totally focused on his game and his game plan. And that dedication and application paid off.
On the Friday dog found himself 3-way on the final table against two players from some forum called woos I think it was and he also found himself up against some rather blatant and unfair tactics. The two woos players were chip dumping between themselves and doing it openly and even admitting to doing so in the chat box of the table!
Well dog didn’t really have much of a chance there, but over the two nights he won 2 free roll tournaments for backrowpoker and a nice wedge for himself. Fabulous stuff dog!
I have now managed to play a couple of regular league tourneys in the new league and I must say it is very refreshing to be playing against 30-50 players rather than the same dozen over and over as it was in the old league. Pretty good strike rate so far 2 games 2 wins, in fact it looks like everyone that came over from the old league are doing quite well in the backrow games. <p>
It is also refreshing to have people running the league that are not subject to taking themselves overly seriously or getting themselves caught up in petty crossing the t’s and dotting the i’s.
Hopefully I’ll have something more substantial to fill up the blog next week as I am starting to get back into the poker groove once again.
Till then good luck on the felt..
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4 Responses to “The Best Laid Plans of Mice & Men”
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Welcome back Paulie. Gosh, it seems like forever since we talked. I agree with you regarding Backrow poker. Right now, it’s fun and challenging.
I was on with AM last night. Se was worried about ya cause you wouldn’t answer. Apparently, everything is ok cause you posted.
My game has a liitle “hitch” in it and I may need some help figuring it out.
I had a bad poker night last night. I played a $20 table. I had PP A’s raised big, got called, flop was favorable so I went all in. Got called by a guy with a 3 8 clubs! Of course, he hit the flush….I expected the play to be better there. I was going off in Skype. Dog had to reign me in…lol. Yes, Dog had to slow me down.
Anyway, went to a $6 SNG and won so I then promptly left.
One of these days we need to get together.
It is good hearing from ya!
Correction….I just looked at the hand history.
Stage #1050866802 Tourney ID 1857904 Holdem Single Tournament No Limit $100 - 2008-01-11 22:17:39.003 (ET) [ 2008-01-11 22:17:39 ]
Table: 19058246 (Real Money) Seat #4 is the dealer
Seat 5 - SVCMGR ($1045 in chips)
Seat 6 - THERAKER007 ($1830 in chips)
Seat 2 - FLOWERHORN10 ($4045 in chips)
Seat 4 - BLZBUB ($2080 in chips)
SVCMGR - Posts small blind $50
THERAKER007 - Posts big blind $100
*** POCKET CARDS ***
Dealt to SVCMGR [As 10c]
FLOWERHORN10 - Calls $100
BLZBUB - Folds
SVCMGR - Raises $250 to $300
THERAKER007 - Folds
FLOWERHORN10 - Calls $200
*** FLOP *** [10s 9c 7c]
SVCMGR - All-In $745
FLOWERHORN10 - Calls $745
*** TURN *** [10s 9c 7c] [5h]
*** RIVER *** [10s 9c 7c 5h] [4h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
FLOWERHORN10 - Shows [6c 8c] (Straight, six to ten)
SVCMGR - Shows [As 10c] (One pair, tens)
FLOWERHORN10 Collects $2190 from main pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total Pot($2190)
Board [10s 9c 7c 5h 4h]
Seat 2: FLOWERHORN10 won Total ($2190) HI:($2190) with Straight, six to ten [6c 8c - B:10s,B:9c,P:8c,B:7c,P:6c]
Seat 4: BLZBUB (dealer) Folded on the POCKET CARDS
Seat 5: SVCMGR (small blind) HI:lost with One pair, tens [As 10c - B:10s,P:10c,P:As,B:9c,B:7c]
Seat 6: THERAKER007 (big blind) Folded on the POCKET CARDS
Big stack called and hit, I guess…..Not as bad as it seemed last night….
of course beer had nothing to do with it…hahaha
Welcome back Paulie. Best way to do it mate is to take it one day at a time as you say. Its good to see you’ve got the poker bug back again. You’ve been missed at the tables!
In response to that hand Dave, I think you only really had one option, considering the chipleader only called initially and that was to move all in. I think this is the only thing that might have pushed them out of the hand. As it was he only had 200 chips to call the raise - peanuts when your sitting with 4K. But if he had to weigh up the possibility of losing over a quarter of his chips I think he would have folded. But I have to admit, flopping the straight like that was very lucky. Obviously he had the golden horshoe!!!
Great to have ya back and bloggin again Bro.
Last year you had some rough times and had to battle yaself back to health and I’m super glad ya got on the right meds and now have a grip on ya sugar levels again. It was really touch and go there for a few months around mid year 07.
As far as you chasing AM around the house in a santa suit, well all I can say is I have a totally different vision in my head, lol, and AM says to book your flight NOW!! LMAO
The OFC was a great weekend for me on the felt. I was as focused as I have ever been and had 1 goal in mind and that was to make damn sure BackRow finished ahead of PCS in the standings.
Oh yeah, I was still a member of PCS on that faithful Sunday and when my loyalty was questioned by one of the so-called Admins, the owner of PCS even made a post that any member could play for any forum they choose but by the time the smoke cleared and I was out in 5th, I tried to enter PCS only to find that I had been BANNED. No reason given, no email, no nothing. I wish ya would have bitch slapped that idiot Admin Asshole when ya had the chance, in the bar at the PCS meet.
Anyway, a lot of our old friends are making a move to BackRow and I was glad to represent them in the OFC. Chipsweeper and UdderForce are putting up lots of their own cash and the games are getting 35 to 60 or so players everyday. It’s a nice change from the olden days at PCS.
Well, if ya know me at all, you’ll know I’ve been typing this for a couple hours and need a break. So enough for now folks and as always …
See Ya on the Felt