UPAY4DINNER BLOG!

Found myself time travelling (just my brain thankfully) back to 1997 on Sunday last. You know when a song pops into your head and you can't get rid of it until you play it out.

Anyways, the song in question is "Local boy in the Photograph" by Stereophonics. A very decent Welsh bad that have gone on to do very well for themselves. My eldest brother is a HUGE fan. He has probably seen them 100 times. In Ireland and all over the UK. He has remained a fan since he found that song on a CD of upcoming artists in some random music magazine back in that time.

On Sunday, I listened to the whole album from start to finsh about 4-5 times in a row. If you find your ears having 50 minutes to spare over the next while I suggest you take a listen

Wow!
Congrats on the anniversary!

Coincidentally, it's Becki's anniversary too -- you two are so clever to have had them on the same day!

Save expenses on parties.

Only the 6th? No matter, one year at a time and it will all be a blur -- mostly 'cuz you eyesight gives out after 50 or so...

Peace,
VS

Haha, thanks Mr Vorpal!

So February has been 2 different stories so far.

In good news, volume is super and I have managed 93 games! I still also have sessions to come tomorrow night, Friday night and Saturday night so I will easily break the volume target of 120 games.

In less good news, I have been at the wrong side of Mother Variance. From memory, I've had one FT appearance so far. Tons of near misses, especially today and losing some incredible pots in incredible situations. It's been disgusting - but hopefully it will be short term and just a little bump in the road.

The bigger picture looks good or at least it does for the minute anyways. No spoilers, will post an end of the week review etc on Sunday with all the figures, Just wanted to pop in and say hi really

Run good!

Had a confidence boosting victory today..... in a $1.50 9 man SNG ♦

Regged one while on lunch with a work colleague who plays them from time to time. Think I blew his mind with some of my play. After like 15 minutes I hadn't played a hand and was down to 10BB and I start shoving and he's like WTF you doing man! Knocked him out when I rivered trips with QTo vs his AKo. He hit an Ace on the flop and was counting the chips when the T on the turn, followed by the T on the river wrecked his moment. All in good fun!

God I like changing my mind!

I had a little light bulb moment first thing this morning and yes before you all ask it DID hurt!

I am really enjoying the 180s at the minute and despite February getting off to the worst possible starts I am knuckling down and getting on with it and playing pretty good poker. I noticed this morning in my review of last nights play that I was back making a few silly mistakes again.

Anyways, back to the brainwave. PokerStars Ultimate challenge bonus offered me $42.50 for 850 VPPs. I think I'm close to the 500 mark with the bonus expiring on Saturday night next at like 11pm.

Playing 180s I am NOT going to make it. But I will come very close. Which has annoyed me enough to consider taking a 4-5 day break from the 180s and grind the $3.50 45 mans instead. I will earn 0.50 VPPs extra per game, I will be able to play double the amount of games per session than I would at the 180s and clear the bonus! I think I need 222 games to complete the bonus. I should be done by next Wednesday/Thursday.

Win win?

I have a €50 saved up to pad the bankroll with if this doesn't go well!

Thoughts?

Tough call really. I think it depends on what odds you give yourself in the $3.50's...

If you think you will finish on the positive side of a 12-buy in down-swing, then go for it. The change of format (i.e. 180's to 45's) and a bit of a volume challenge can be refreshing sometimes.

Let us know what you decide.

I'm not new to them but I have a relatively small sample from pre Christmas. I will grind some tonight and see how I feel afterwards. Gonna load up tables slowly and see how we go!

So I've completed 31/223 games required for the $42.50 bonus.

I had a brief look at the structure before hand to see the main differences between the 180s and 45s but I didn't study anything forensically enough IMO. Started opening tables and at my most I had 12 but I ended sticking with 9 towards the end. The first bunch were a complete disaster and after 2 hours I had successfully chewed through $100 but I had 4 FTs running so the comeback was on.

I had a win, 3rd, 5th and 6th and with 3 tables left I required a 4th to breakeven. I stonecold bubbled my 2nd last game and was 1/5 in the last when we reached the break. Lost the first two hands after and was 3/5 but regained 1st place when I turned the nut straight and got paid off OTR by the CL. After that there was no looking back and we picked up QQ on the BB 3 handed, the SB shoved with 44, we called and held and had a 20:1 CL on the other guy. Life was sweet and we ended +$31.

Gonna review in the morning to see how left field my pushes were. I don't expect them to be too far away but let's see.

Just do it!

Played Session 2 of the 45 man Challenge and I've now played 65 games total. I'm finding it difficult to play more than 9 tables of these so progression is slower than expected. I am still 158 games away from collecting enough VPP for my $42.50 bonus and I'll probably continue grinding these until I've cleared that. Made some adjustments following my review this morning and it seems that I've plugged some leaks. Players are very weak at the $3.50 level and I've definitely found some weaknesses in the good regs that are out there.

Also noticed a certain Alficor1 on some of my tables tonight!

Proper update in the morning!

Week Review:

This week we changed the goal posts a little so there is a little more information to squeeze in that normal. We started off grinding the 180s and finished grinding the 45 mans - the reason being we are chasing the $42.50 on offer from the Ultimate Bonus!

The 180s didn't go so well. We played 104 games and our highest finishing position was 7th so we ended just shy of $180 or 80 Buy-ins. I am guessing 100 BI downswings are not all that uncommon so all is good. Standard variance and all. We will recover no doubt.

180s stats:

I will be back to them but probably not until next Sunday.

180s Weekly graph:

Definitely not the prettiest of sights right there! However, we do have a reason to be cheerful!

180s lifetime:

Aaaaaaaaaaaanways let's move onto the 45 mans!

So we started these after a little brainfart on Friday night and since then we've played 65 games! I had hoped to play 12 tables at a time but it's proving to be difficult at the best of times so I think it's better to settle for 10!

The sole goal here is to play 223 games to give me the required VPP to get the Ultimate Bonus. So far we are doing well although the sample is just lol. Put's a little back into the coffers though after the 180 disaster.

So we have 158 more 45s to play and I'm hoping this will be done by the time my bonus expires in the late hours of Saturday night. It helps that I am off work next Saturday as well! That is the one goal I have for the week.

Short update:

Another 20 games closer the finish line. I was really in the zone tonight, only made one mistake that was probably very very close but I probably could have avoided taking the risk.

Had 1 1st and 2 2nds for a nice profitable session.

85/223 played and currently $125 in the green.

Day off tomorrow.

Congratulations on the profitable session ♠_drink:

And well done on your play. When you're 'mistakes' are "very very close" you know you got be doing something right ♠_thumbsup:

Enjoy your day off

Thanks iSoOwnYou

First body blow of 2015 - got 4 weeks notice to move out this evening and there's currently a huge shortage of rental properties within a 15 mile radius

#fuming

Wow - sorry to hear that bud. Hoping some good options come your way soon.

Originally posted by UPAY4DINNER
got 4 weeks notice to move out this evening and there's currently a huge shortage of rental properties within a 15 mile radius

Oh Gary, that totally sucks!

Is there an appeal process?

I'm surprised that such short notice is even allowed.

Peace,
VS

Originally posted by Ramble
Wow - sorry to hear that bud. Hoping some good options come your way soon.

Originally posted by VorpalF2F

Originally posted by UPAY4DINNER
got 4 weeks notice to move out this evening and there's currently a huge shortage of rental properties within a 15 mile radius

Oh Gary, that totally sucks!

Is there an appeal process?

I'm surprised that such short notice is even allowed.

Peace,
VS

Totally sucks but it's time to move on and start looking. There is a house that's literally just came up within the last week that wasn't on the interweb. Going to take a look at it today and probably snap up if half decent.

Our landlord had emigrated and moved back last month and is getting married this year so he knew long ago he wanted his house back. So giving is 4 weeks and "another 1 or 2 if necessary" is lame. The rental market in this country is fucked atm because there has been 0 houses built in the last 7 years or so!

Originally posted by UPAY4DINNER
Our landlord had emigrated and moved back last month and is getting married this year so he knew long ago he wanted his house back. So giving is 4 weeks and "another 1 or 2 if necessary" is lame. The rental market in this country is fucked atm because there has been 0 houses built in the last 7 years or so!

There is a rule here that if a landlord want to convert the house back to personal use he has to give 6 month's notice. If it turns out he was just "pretending" so he could get a new tenant, he has to pay the evicted tenant's relocation cost, and any difference in rent for a period of time.

But if it is time to move on it's best to get it all behind you.

All the best!
VS

Good luck with the relocation hope your upgrade is spiffing!