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Thursday, September 14, 2006
Football and Poker...
God my blog is going the same way as Dublin Bus... nothing for ages and then 2 in quick succession!
The last post was purely about my trip to Thailand, so I thought Id give a quick poker update.
First though, I thought I might comment on how Ireland have been getting on lately, soccer wise... Now I'm a diehard fan of the Irish Team, I havent missed a home game for as far as I can remember, and Ive travelled abroad many times to watch them play. You wouldn't believe how hard it was to watch the Germany game in Thailand. We were on Phi Phi, a tiny island with only 700 people living on it, and 1 Irish bar! At two in the morning, all of the Irish tourists on the island packed in while the owner searched through hundreds of channels trying to find the game. The fact that it was on RTE meant we had to look through all the foreign channels to see if we could find it. So at 2 in the morning about 50 of us, all wearing the Irish jerseys, watched expectantly while he went from channel to channel.... Finally Steve Stauntons face flashed up on screen and a roar went up from the bar! We had found it on some small German channel, 'UltraSport' or something... Either way, we got to watch it!
We lost that game, but Im happy at least that I got to watch it. The Irish team have really gone downhill over the last few years, I think the turning point was not being able to beat Switzerland in the run up to the world cup.This led to fuck ups against Israel which led to us placing 4th in a group we could have won. At the time we were 14th in the FIFA rankings while Switzerland were in the mid 40's. How the tables have turned.... We have basically switched places now in terms of rankings. The reason Im talking about soccer all of a sudden, is that the new rankigs were out a few days ago, and I had to scroll down quite a bit to find Ireland.... 43rd... can you believe it? Irelands lowest ranking since the 90's.
I dont know what annoys me more, Ireland dropping down the rankings faster than anything ....., or England... in 4th.
Ive a Team Event coming up in October, with Ehsan and Tom. Theres only 3 players to a team, and with a €150 buy-in it should be a decent tourney. I'll try and get one or two live games in before then, probably the €50 DC in the Fitz, usually a good game. Team Events have easily been my best tournaments, things just seem to go right for me in them! Hopefully I can get a good result from this.
As I said, I haven't really played online since May/June, the odd game every few weeks has kept up my hatred for it. Still though, when I arrived home I was dying to play poker, but I was still wrecked from the holiday and wasn't up for heading into the casino. So I logged onto PPP... why oh why!
I stuck in €50 and jumped into a few games. After about 10 minutes I realised it wasn't really working... I mean, I wanted to play poker, not a computer game! And thats all it is to me now. Its as much 'poker', as Fifa Pro Ev. is a game of football. Its just a computer game. Its not actually poker. I needed to actually have a real game of poker, feel the cards in my hands, have the buzz that goes with it... none of which I get from playing online. It was too late to hit the casino so I logged off and watched TV. I have absolutely no interest in playing online anymore, and look at it in the same light as the playstation or XBox. I just cant bring myself to take it seriously, which is why I dont think ill ever make it as an online poker player. Anytime I sit down, i cant just sit at one table and play a serious game. Ill have the TV on, ill be watching poker vids on U-tube, reading boards etc... so Im basically just pissing money away on it. Luckily not a lot, I play micro-limits online! No offence to all the lads who are cleaning up online. Its clearly working out for you guys!
I might still play the odd game out of boredom, but having only played about 10 hours overall since May, I think Ive successfully overcome any attraction I had to it. I used to play out of sheer boredom, with every weeknight being basically empty. But Im now playing soccer Monday, Thursday and Saturday, and going to the gym every other day, so my freetime is limited now. I think I meant start having a regular live game, like the Tuesday night €50 Double Chance in the Fitz.
Its annoying knowing that so many others are making thousands online, but a mix of very bad luck (causing TILT), and a short concentration span, mean I dont think i'll ever make much online! I dont mind losing small amounts now and then, but Im glad Ive no real interest in it anymore. Otherwise I might be logging on every night pissing away all my money! Im down a few hundred euro online for the year, but luckily some nice live wins more than cover it. I didnt realise that online poker was actually causing me the most stress... more than work/ family issues... how ridiculous is that??
Anyway, I'm probably going to hit the Fitz DC next Tuesday, and I look forward to this Team Event next month. I havent met up with all the poker lads in a while, should be good! Until then,
gl
The last post was purely about my trip to Thailand, so I thought Id give a quick poker update.
First though, I thought I might comment on how Ireland have been getting on lately, soccer wise... Now I'm a diehard fan of the Irish Team, I havent missed a home game for as far as I can remember, and Ive travelled abroad many times to watch them play. You wouldn't believe how hard it was to watch the Germany game in Thailand. We were on Phi Phi, a tiny island with only 700 people living on it, and 1 Irish bar! At two in the morning, all of the Irish tourists on the island packed in while the owner searched through hundreds of channels trying to find the game. The fact that it was on RTE meant we had to look through all the foreign channels to see if we could find it. So at 2 in the morning about 50 of us, all wearing the Irish jerseys, watched expectantly while he went from channel to channel.... Finally Steve Stauntons face flashed up on screen and a roar went up from the bar! We had found it on some small German channel, 'UltraSport' or something... Either way, we got to watch it!
We lost that game, but Im happy at least that I got to watch it. The Irish team have really gone downhill over the last few years, I think the turning point was not being able to beat Switzerland in the run up to the world cup.This led to fuck ups against Israel which led to us placing 4th in a group we could have won. At the time we were 14th in the FIFA rankings while Switzerland were in the mid 40's. How the tables have turned.... We have basically switched places now in terms of rankings. The reason Im talking about soccer all of a sudden, is that the new rankigs were out a few days ago, and I had to scroll down quite a bit to find Ireland.... 43rd... can you believe it? Irelands lowest ranking since the 90's.
I dont know what annoys me more, Ireland dropping down the rankings faster than anything ....., or England... in 4th.
Ive a Team Event coming up in October, with Ehsan and Tom. Theres only 3 players to a team, and with a €150 buy-in it should be a decent tourney. I'll try and get one or two live games in before then, probably the €50 DC in the Fitz, usually a good game. Team Events have easily been my best tournaments, things just seem to go right for me in them! Hopefully I can get a good result from this.
As I said, I haven't really played online since May/June, the odd game every few weeks has kept up my hatred for it. Still though, when I arrived home I was dying to play poker, but I was still wrecked from the holiday and wasn't up for heading into the casino. So I logged onto PPP... why oh why!
I stuck in €50 and jumped into a few games. After about 10 minutes I realised it wasn't really working... I mean, I wanted to play poker, not a computer game! And thats all it is to me now. Its as much 'poker', as Fifa Pro Ev. is a game of football. Its just a computer game. Its not actually poker. I needed to actually have a real game of poker, feel the cards in my hands, have the buzz that goes with it... none of which I get from playing online. It was too late to hit the casino so I logged off and watched TV. I have absolutely no interest in playing online anymore, and look at it in the same light as the playstation or XBox. I just cant bring myself to take it seriously, which is why I dont think ill ever make it as an online poker player. Anytime I sit down, i cant just sit at one table and play a serious game. Ill have the TV on, ill be watching poker vids on U-tube, reading boards etc... so Im basically just pissing money away on it. Luckily not a lot, I play micro-limits online! No offence to all the lads who are cleaning up online. Its clearly working out for you guys!
I might still play the odd game out of boredom, but having only played about 10 hours overall since May, I think Ive successfully overcome any attraction I had to it. I used to play out of sheer boredom, with every weeknight being basically empty. But Im now playing soccer Monday, Thursday and Saturday, and going to the gym every other day, so my freetime is limited now. I think I meant start having a regular live game, like the Tuesday night €50 Double Chance in the Fitz.
Its annoying knowing that so many others are making thousands online, but a mix of very bad luck (causing TILT), and a short concentration span, mean I dont think i'll ever make much online! I dont mind losing small amounts now and then, but Im glad Ive no real interest in it anymore. Otherwise I might be logging on every night pissing away all my money! Im down a few hundred euro online for the year, but luckily some nice live wins more than cover it. I didnt realise that online poker was actually causing me the most stress... more than work/ family issues... how ridiculous is that??
Anyway, I'm probably going to hit the Fitz DC next Tuesday, and I look forward to this Team Event next month. I havent met up with all the poker lads in a while, should be good! Until then,
gl
