February 2010 I was standing at the bus stop on the strand having lost all my money in the Empire, I was broke; I didn't have enough money in my pocket to get myself a drink from the 24 hour Spar shop.  
A beggar walked past and asked me if I could spare some change. I couldn't even reply! spare some change? how was I to tell this man that I didn't have enough change to get myself water from the shop. I got onto the bus  and realized that my bus pass had expired, I flashed it at the driver and held my breathe, luckily for me it was a busy night and he didn’t realize.  On the long journey home to crystal palace I started thinking about my life, I started day dreaming and nearly missed my stop.  I arrived home made myself some breakfast ate and went straight to sleep.  I slept for two days, I was depressed I felt down.  
"When a man is at his lowest his brain is not rational, I started thinking of all sorts of negative things, all sorts of things that I would never have thought if I hadn’t have gone to the Empire 2 days prior"

That's when I remembered DTD I felt a good vibe when I was in Nottingham and London had nothing more from me I was 53 years old and I had nothing, my record business had gone down and left me poking around for scraps.  I wasn’t ready to give up.  I sold some of my old stuff and got some money together.

It was a Thursday, early 2010 I caught the train to Nottingham and called my friend I had a suitcase and £200 in my pocket, my friend met me at the station and we caught the bus to his house. I told him I was moving to Notts and needed somewhere to stay until I could find a place. He said I could stay at his for a couple of weeks. When I told him I was moving to Nottingham to play poker he thought I was crazy.

We got to his house at around 6 I dropped my stuff off and asked how I could get to DTD he called one of his mates who dropped me off.  I remember walking through the doors of DTD that day knowing this was my last Shot, this was it! It was make or break! I’d never left London in my life, my family thought I was crazy, if I failed I would be ridiculed by friends and family, I couldn’t afford to lose this was it…

Next post will be how I became Rastafish

Transcribed by Steven S

Reads like an 'I have a place to live and ingredients for breakfast' brag post

Wishing you well dude, onwards and onwards.

Bagh of tatties more like. Mon the Murray!

For those that don't read everything -

why are Dunfermline & Dundee mentioned separately?

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I assume it's because in the event of The Rangers not being voted into the SPL on July 4th as Team 12 there would be an empty slot in the SPL.

Dunfermline (the team relegated from the SPL last season) and Dundee (the team who last season finished second in the first division) are the two natural candidates to fill that spot.

I think which one it would be is a 'we'll cross that bridge when we come to it' question but at the moment both may have a particular interest in the SPL voting not to allow The Rangers entry into the SPL.

Great day of golf to watch, but paying for it now. Could really do with a nap.

I can't get my head round why oldco Rangers have a vote alongside the existing 11 clubs on whether to let newco Rangers straight into the SPL. It's all a bit yucky.

Hopefully Aberdeen vote the right way thanks to fan pressure and enough other clubs follow suit.

Line judge pursuing a police complaint against Nalbandian

Begs the question how many more players on the tour are just pretending to be professional tennis players and their real agenda is they want to kick line judges.

wow, hats of to McShane.

I want the players to knock lumps out of each other till one is left standing. With an aim to making matchplay as similar to boxing as possible, my idea for a format is this...


8 week long matches. First to 3 wins.

Twist is you can only score as black. (blitz game or games to decide who starts as black)

Draws count for nothing. You play again with the same colour pieces.

The white player can start the next game as black in these 3 scenarios.

-If White wins colours are switched.
-If Black wins (they score a point!) and colours are switched.
-After 3 consecutive draws colours are switched.

Matches could last as little as 5 games, could go the distance. Maximum number of games is 48. (8 weeks of 6 games/week)

If no winner by then, whoever has the lead wins. Otherwise, the one with the most white wins is the winner.
If both players have the same amount of points and white wins the match is a tie. (if applicable, title retained by whoever holds it)



I would expect matches of this format to often go into the final week one side knowing they will lose unless they get that knockout black win.
 
Eight weeks might seem like a long time, but I think it gives a chance for narratives to develop. Seems that the only people who understand what the grandmasters are doing is other grandmasters, the rest of us will need a bit of drama to stay interested. 

Great thread.

What's going on with the world championship cycle? I know it's been a bit of a farce for decades now. There's a big Vishy Anand vs Magnus Carlsen shaped hole in the universe wot needs to be filled.

If chess wants to make a mark of the public's consciousness I think the way forward is more high profile player vs player matches rather than tournaments. If a single game of chess is like a round of boxing, you want to see the two heavyweights go at it for 12 rounds and see who is left standing. Feels like a question has been answered at the end of it.

The super tournaments never seem to answer anything, they just create more questions.

I was in the pharmacy buying nail scissors and while standing in the queue I saw they were selling something called a nit comb for £2.99

FML I thought, how much are the normal combs?

McDonald's coffee card is 16.7% rakeback. More if you're happy to look through the bins for the stickers.

Never mind Rangers. I'm sure all the existing players will stay when they have the option of making lots more money elsewhere. You don't do walking away after all.

Luck be a lady tonight, luck be a lady tonight.

Luck - be - a lady

Tonighhhhhhhhht

Having flashbacks to watching tennis in the 1990s. There's a guy called Tim in the quarter finals who conventional wisdom says has pretty much no chance to get much further but I want him to with pretty much my entire eternal soul.

I love this game. Nasty feeling that in an hour or so I may hate it, what with Tebow having had his quarter already.