Hi Rich, yes it is I (lol).

Thoroughly enjoyed the read of your diary/blog, and was "should I, shouldn't I?" about starting my own... But I've concluded that a) I don't play enough poker at the higher (more interesting) levels and b) Not enough ppl on here know me to make it interesting for a wider audience, and c) I'd be embarrassed by the tedium of my current life, whilst yearning for a return to my past.

You continue to be inspirational for anyone who wonders whether they can 'make the change' and/or 'just do it', taking on what appears to be the substantial challenges of both a new business start-up and emigrating at the same time as welcoming a 3rd child to the family. It's an over-used word, but in your case it's appropriate - awesome!

FWIW, if Max is having trouble with his r's, I think I might swerve the name Rory. There's something I like about Vince, though... It was my dad's name. More importantly, what room are you planning for his birth?

Have a fantastic 2016, Eso - here's hoping everything works out!

To the manager : we - that's me and my partner Denise plus a friend Ivor frost decided to attend and play this tournament at Ivor's suggestion although owing to poor prior experiences previously against my thoughts , but I gave in and attended and for the record I would like to record the following complaints / moans / criticisms
1. Insufficient parking @ 1540 we could not get parked in the free casino car park as I'm a tight bastard I refused to park in the pay car park across the way ,so I slightly blocked the entrance to the factory ,then got called out to move it later - fair enough it's busy congratulations
2. With a £12 k guarantee you are obviously expecting 120 runners as you never like adding to a prize pool ?
So why when I went to register at 1550. / 350 pm was it full - 80 runners and I was number 18? On the alternate list and had to wait a level and a half 45 min before I could be seated !
YOU SHOULD HAVE HAD MORE DEALERS AT THE START !
3. The new poker room has crap wifi ! I was unable to use it at the recent gukpt festival - ok it was busy
Today with 100? People in the room I was still unable to access it ,plus no signal on my o2 3/4 g
4. Our dealer was not very experienced 3 times from table 10 he called for the floor for a ruling each occasion he shouted floor and was ignored 3 times on each occasion - ok you're busy again !
5 . I was planning on eating in the break with my partner Denise a guy on the table ordered food - a burger and fries . Nothing to tricky ? Surely ?
He was told it was an hour wait
So we didn't bother ordering any food
At the break I Half expected to see the restaurant busy but it was empty!!
So what's with the hour wait ?
6. The valets - are the slowest least efficient useless workers I have ever met
I gave up and went to the tea machine to serve my self but there were no china t cups / mugs 4 drawers of emptiness
So I had my hot chocolate in a Pepsi paper cup I found
Then of course there was no side table to place it on ! - why would I expect there to be
7. The toilets near the poker room there's 2 cubicles if you need a dump / crap - really is this even legal for 180/200 people and let's guess what ?
Yes one of thems out of order
I could go on and on about how bad our experience was today. But I must sound like a right old moaner
So I've decided  never to darken your door again and handed my membership in on the way out
You may wish to take note of the above but i won't hold my breath !
Try visiting your nearby genting to see a nicely run poker room ,you may even bump into me there ..  Tony


Sent from my iPad

Hey Tony, I'm not the manager of Luton G, but I was there today too, and I understand your complaints, but sometimes a cardroom can be the victim of its own success - like today.
1. About 30 parking spots were lost due to the extension. Rather than park over the road, there's a couple of streets you can park in (single yellow line) within 2 mins walking distance. It's not the poker room manager's fault that the Grosvenor Casino group couldn't give a shit about the convenience of their customers.
2. I was surprised they got 160+ runners, as there was Day 1 of a 2-dayer happening over at Genting today aswell. Shortage of dealers; hard to defend that one if there wasn't a minimum of 10 to start.
3. Never had a prob with the wifi there - inc today
4. Inexperienced dealers in a 10+ table comp? - comes with the territory, really.
5. Eating a meal during a 160+ runner comp? Asking for trouble, isn't it? Don't you usually get eliminated just after it arrives? Or if not, get grease/oil/food all over the chips? Everyone knows that you'll only be playing premiums while you eat...
6. Valets trying to serve 160+ demanding poker players? I wouldn't do that job for treble their pay.
7. If I need a dump, I always get there early enough to have one before they get disgusting - you now, with piss all over the seat & floor coz lots of guys can't be bothered to lift up the seat for a slash and can't be bothered to piss accurately. There is a second toilet with 6 or 7 traps at the front of the casino. I worry more about the number of 'customers' who use the facilities and then walk straight out the door - and back to the poker tables.... IMO the bogs at Genting are far worse, as they never seem to clean them during the evening.

Anyway, it seems like your decision has been made Tony, which is a real shame. Jim has already done a lot to turn things around at the G, and a number of your complaints are about things outside of his control. Notwithstanding the parking issue, the G will be a really good venue for poker players. I just make allowances when they run these bigger comps.

But look on the bright side; at least you can tell Ivor "I bloody told you that place is crap, so next time I get to choose where we play."

Dumped my BP shares for a small profit.  Have gone into Smiths Group (SMIN) at 958.

Anyone have a good source of accurate and up to date basic info on companies?  For example if you look at "Dividend Cover", bottom of the right hand column, for BP it says 2.83 which is bollocks. 

http://investing.thisismoney.co.uk/quote/BP.

Don't know if this is the DM just not updating or AJBell. 

I'm not an expert, but I'm aware that %'s & ratios are often expressed based on the latest published accounts...
However, there will often be quotes/references made to 'projected/forward' results etc, which of course are entirely subjective. It's worth trawling through various free websites where you will chance upon links to research done by the likes of Edison.
Apologies if any/all of this is "grannies/eggs"

Excellent report as always,though i think it could be improved with pictures.Perhaps one of your sister to start with.   

Couldn't agree more.

+1 for pic of ur sister Ransom.
+1 for investigating writing opportunities (If travel is feasible, tourney updating for GukPT, APAT etc may be an entry point; if not, a link to this blog should suffice for all the poker publications - both on&off line)

Great stuff Ransom. Best dairy on Blonde, bar none.

This ^^^

Great write-up Ransom. You do realise that you have a gift?

Meanwhile, I really hope that 2016 brings you joy in many forms.

ATB, 4K

Whilst they were very clever in showing that the droid could only take one stair at a time - kind of like me with a gammy leg - I just couldn't get my head around the fact that it's body rotated completely independently from its head.

Meanwhile, Han Solo at 70 had all his parts in well-oiled order. Just glad we didn't see any of them.

What's happening to martinez

Nothing imminently, but every cloob moves on at some point.

Lol. Nice pronunciation observation Chompy.

As an Evertonian, I truly hope your sauces are off. Would defo be a retro-step in every sense of the word. Furthermore, if the Americans proceed with their £200m buy following due diligence, I'd have thought that Moyes would be the last candidate on their list.

Genuine, honest, articulate, intelligent & generous man who took all the jibes in good humour.

So sad that he was victim of such an ugly, indiscriminate disease.

May he rest in peace now, and his family be proud of a man who achieved so much in his lifetime.

The UFO has had a few cameo appearances in the series, but this time had a "feature role". Hope it doesn't get too silly in the final episode - and that they ditch the narration....

Ok, Fargo season 2 episode 9...WTF did I just watch??

Plotline explosion, LOL. Fantastic shoot-em-up, but it seems like an episode conceived & executed - and then they re-wrote & filmed the first 8 episodes. All went a bit Tarantino.

Postscript:

I folded the TT reluctantly. He snap shows AKo & gives a speech about how he was kakking it after I called the flop, and then said he was gonna bomb the river, blah blah blah. He finished the day with a monster chip-lead.

Day 2: I was slightly ambivalent when I saw that I was drawn on the same table as him; but after he lost a few pots, I was glad to be there. Can't remember the hand details, but he folded to my c/r and said "I'm gonna be patient before I take all your chips and send you home". I replied "That's very nice of you, thank you so much. But let's face it, if you don't win this comp after starting Day 2 with such a big chip-lead, it'll be a disaster for you." He was quiet for a while.

I had the pleasure of eliminating him at the FT. OK, it's a shameless brag, but I suspect there's one or two on here who will be pleased.

Till next time, thanks for your feedback.

Lol. Chompy made a brief appearance at my table after his broke to the last two. I'll leave it to him to describe his exit hand.

Hi Omm - yes you clearly know the villain. One of the most unpleasant, confrontational players that I've met in Luton. Not sure how he's managed to escape a ban, since he's equally nasty to the female players. Your read of his play is spot on. I didn't want to put too much about that on my OP, as it could be taken as a spoiler.

In case anyone else wants to comment first, I'll hold off from the outcome. However, it's nice to have validation for my initial refusal to fold. I guess I just needed to stick with my plan, which was to jam the flop on a safe board... even though I'd thought small pair or air.

Sorry - limper should read "Vietnamese Lady"

OK, I'm new to Blonde (obv) so please be gentle with me. I'm a rec player, but take it seriously and have been playing for 10+ years now. I can only play about one (max 2) games per week due to work/family commitments, and I rarely sit at the cash tables. I know I'm waaaayyyy behind the skill level of a lot of the ppl who post on here, so please don't shred me. Like I said, please be gentle.

Type of Game:
£75 + £10 NLH MTT @ Genting Luton   

Number of Runners: Second Flight of 3 x Day 1's
Number of Runners remaining: 18 of 48 (+ 33 RE's!)
Payout information if relevant: £15,000 GTE + 10 x £165 seats. £12k in the pot after 2nd flight.

Blind levels/Clock length: Clock is 40m throughout, and we are in the final level of the day (Level 10), so the blinds are 800/1600/200a.
- going to be 1k/2k/200a in L11

Your stack size: c.210k

Stack Sizes of relevant opposition: chunks - prob 460k

In the hand concerned your position at the table and that of relevant opposition: I'm OTB, villain is BB

What is your image? I've got a pretty tight image, but shown a bluff for balance. He may not have been at the table to see it.

What is the image of the opponents concerned? Is there any history? Any reads? He's a young aggro player, not shy to play any two IP or OOP with his stack. Tendency to be verbally aggressive even after winning a big pot, keen to demonstrate that "he knew all along" or that he knows your hand even when no showdown.

What is the situation? Describe as fully as you can? Playing 8-handed in the last level, the play has been fairly cautious by most players. I've only been involved in 2 hands up to this point with the villain. First, I defended my BB with KTdd to his min raise from utg+2, then c/f the flop. Second, I raise in ep with AJcc, he plus 1 other call behind; I c-bet a AT6r flop, both call: Turn is bringing NFD, I bet half pot & both fold. He says "You got too greedy with your AK".

OK, so hand in question:
Vietnamese last limps from shortstack (30k-ish) MP, I have  OTB & raise to 5500. SB folds, villain takes a 25k chip and fiddles with a few of the others before flicking in a bet of 32k. The lady folds. After pausing to reflect on the size of this bet, I say "Why so big? Don't want to see a flop with a small pair?". He says that the sizing was an error, but I don't believe it was. I decide to peel. Flop  & I'm insta-regretting opening my big gob; I don't often do speech play, and now there's a note to self. He leads for 55k into a 67k pot. Since I've already been chatty, I say "That's a rather large bet for a set" but he's gone statue-like. I cut out the 55k from my stack, and decide to call one more to evaluate after the Turn, which is  . He leads for 75k, and I have 130k behind (ish).

What questions do you want answered? Should I be getting the rest of my stack in here, or should I fold & go through to Day 2 with a 65BB stack and find a better spot? I know I got myself into a tricky spot with my chat about small pair. However, after the turn there's just so many hands that are beating me, including JJ & QQ that he may have played this way - although I'd kind of ruled out QQ+ due to the size of his 3b pf.

If I'm not mistaken, I believe there was some research indicating that the vast majority of the electorate establish their political allegiances through their parents/upbringing/peer-group - and largely remain unchanged. I'm thinking c.80% of the population.

Thus, it's the 20% (doesn't have to be the same 20% of course) that are open to change that decide the outcome of the 5-yearly elections.

I think Cameron was trying to get the vote for 16-17 year-olds in order to improve the chances of a Yes vote for staying in the EU. He didn't get it through. The case for inclusions & exclusions for young and old are interesting. I worry about the inclusion of teenagers; someone else has already made the point about them being idealistic rather than realistic, and a little short of real-life-experience. As far as the 70+ brigade goes, I think it's unfair to make broad statements about them all voting for self-interest only. Tbf, even if they did, I can't see there being too much wrong with that, since it's also likely that those living off the state (for example) will be doing the same.

Inheritance Tax is a tax on property that has already been bought with income that has already been taxed. I struggle to find the justification for it. These are the people who have mostly worked all their lives, paid their taxes and their bills, and after 25+ years have finally got to the point where they own their house. Then, when they expire, their families must liquidate the assets in order to pay the tax bill - if they haven't already had to sell up in order to pay for care. Given the rise in property prices, and the relative freeze on the allowance, more & more "working class" families are being caught by this tax. Meanwhile, the less fortunate in society have none of these worries: the state pays for the lot. So where's the incentive to work hard, pay your own way, and save for your financial security in retirement?

Shit, I came on Blonde to do a HH....