Frustration Rules

Having to work for a living is such a bind!

Right now I am itching to put in some serious table hours, but work keeps getting in the way. I am getting sick of late nights in the office.

There are more important things in life! Like poker, beer, football, and, er, family too of course!

As I type, some friends are en route to a night of bricks and mortar poker at The Cincinnati Club, whilst I'm swearing at an assortment of computer hardware. Willing it to process faster!

I cleared the Party bonus, showing a nice profit in the process. That was a warm, pleasing sensation, as it's been a while since I made any sort of appreciable profit.

It's also the sort of result that smoothes the 'Are you playing poker again!?!' conversations with Mrs Div.

Mrs Div has picked up a fair appreciation of poker through continual subjection to the multitude of TV programs which I view, as well as my occasional stomping around the house bad beat rants. (Rants now dramatically curtailed due to the arrival of Baby Div)

She was looking over my shoulder whilst I played the last few hands of the weekend, and caught an archetypal Party Poker moment...

My AKo raise UTG found only one caller. A particularly fishy character, as I immediately pointed out to her on the PokerAce HUD stats.

Raggedy flop. I bet, he called. Non threatening turn. I bet, he called. Non threatening river.

At this point I said to Mrs Div, 'He's probably got me beat with a pair or he might have missed some strange draw. If I bet he might fold, and he definitely won't raise. If I check he will bet and I'll need to call. So I need to bet.'

I bet. He called, and showed 76o for a pair of sixes hit on the flop.

Mrs Div (who has NEVER played a hand of online poker): 'What on earth is he doing calling a raise with that!?'

Me(smiling): 'That's where the money is'

And it is. Ten minutes earlier I'd taken four callers to a flop with KK, bet and been called all the way to showdown, and taken down a hefty pot. Thank you very much.

With AK, normally I'd have checked and folded to a bet on the turn (repeat after me 'must not overplay AK, must not overplay AK') but I wanted to push the pot over the rake threshold as I was *this* close to hitting the bonus and earning brownie points for an ahead of schedule logout time.

Mrs Div has been great about giving me some freedom to maintain my pre-baby lifestyle but she has her limits!

In the next week I've got two poker nights planned, plus as much online action as I can manage. Gotta find time for the family too!

Even if it means throwing away a couple of BB to a Party Poker fish.


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In other news, my Google page ranking has moved up to 5. No idea why, but it's gotta be worth throwing in a few more random phrases. So keep an eye open for spurious reasons for mentioning Jessica Simpson (Mrs Div loves Newlyweds - which is a bonus for me!), Lindsay Lohan, or any other hot search topics.

Actually, why mention all the hot girls names, that's just going to attract lots of horny guys! I should really be finding spurious reasons to mention the likes of Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Justin Timberlake and assorted boybands. Send the hotties to me oh great Google!

Some people find this site for the strangest reasons. Like searching for the lyrics to No Pope Of Rome. Not quite my target audience!

It's gratifying when people find it for more pokerish reasons. Someone stumbled by recently looking for lessons on how to play Razz. Which was nice!

I need to take more care of my blogroll, but as always time is a limiting factor. If anyone's missing and wants to be included, drop me a line. Equally, I need to take a run through and make sure all the blogs I list are still active. No point letting the space go to waste if they aren't.

Finally, if playing the zombies on Party Poker isn't freaky enough for you, check out this zombie adventure, courtesy of Derren Brown.