Vegas & The Aftermath - Diary

[tikay]

Hats off to Sky Poker, just started playing there and was having trouble with the client so I just used the browser based lobby. Was regged in ~£300 worth of heads up SNGs and all of the lobbies failed to load - went to the live chat support and they immediately confirm that it was indeed an error on their end and had the refunds credited within 5 minutes. To get that out of ipoker you'd be going back and forth for days over who is to blame and even then you're only a flip to actually get a refund.

Morning Dan, & aologies for the slow reply, my Yoof Corry has been causing me all sorts of grief, which has slowed down the process.

I'm pleased you got sorted quickly, & fairly, if there was a problem their end, that is exactly the correct & standard response.

I think the staff in "Live Chat" (or "Customer Care", call it what you will), & I'm talking ALL poker sites now, not just next door, are terribly maligned by the poker public. Dealing with irate players who can't connect on a SNG or whatever is not much fun, they tend not to be calm & reasonable callers, it's more often than not all tilty & shouty "SORT IT OUT" sorta stuff. Dispute resolution & interpersonal skills should be a must-learn at all schools, but I suspect they barely touch the subject, judging by what I see. Was there ever a collective worse than poker players at solving minor disputes? I doubt it.

It would help if many of them did not try to milk it when there is a disco, & no, there should not be discos, of course, but everyone claims "I was chip leader & would DEFFO have won, there were only 200 players left in". In every case, &, I would think, on every site, the entire prize pool gets paid out (plus, usually, some compo), but it is impossible to please everyone, they all think they would have won.

Customer Care & Call Centre staff don't get paid fortunes, & have the job from hell, so it's nice to see them being larged up for once, thank you.

Do you play Tourneys on there? If so, drop me a PM with your screen-name, and I will sort a small "thank you" for you.

You mention i-poker, perhaps unfairly, I'm sure they have the same problems as we do, with folks getting all shouty at them. They had an outage on Sunday, I think, but the storms of protest & outrage soon seem to pass, & everyone forgets about it within minutes. 

[tikay]

I am going to sack Kimber, my basketball Corry, unless he gives us a Jeremy Lin update sharpish.

Anyone know how the prodigy got on last night, was he slam-dunking ftw?

[tikay]

This is a White tailed eagle, & they seem to be prolific in Norway - how great would it be to see these things in real life?

Bit annoying really. I discovred only a few days ago that Iceland is a very good "whale-watching" destination, which came as a shock to me, & I was about to click the button & book a 2 or 3 day trip to go look for myself. (£400, all trips & hotel included). Now I have to decide between Eagles in Norway, or Whales in Iceland. WAL.

http://www.randburg.com/is/whales-around-iceland/index.asp

http://www.randburg.com/is/tourism/whale.html

You get them in Scotland as well Tikay - when you're up the West Coast again go to some of the islands and you've a fair chance of seeing them. They're known as 'Flying Barn Doors' so you won't mistake them if you do.

There was a plan to reintroduce them in East Anglia (a traditional home for the fish eagle) - but too much NIMBYism & scare stories blocked it

Really? Wow, which Islands, Rod?

I visited Skye at Christmas, & took the ferry to Raasay, but "only" spotted cormorants, gulls  & herons. Next trip up there is to the Applecross Peninsula, which looks incredible, & there are no ferries from there, but the ferry from Uig (Isle of Skye) goes across to the Hebrides - would that be the best bet? My next trip up will be between now & May, unsure of dates yet. Everywhere was deserted up there at Xmas, so there will be tourists galore when I return, but if I go in March/April/May, it should not be too bad, & I'm honestly not fussed about bad weather. It's like heaven on earth up there, but the places seem deserted. Very odd.

There's some on Skye, but apparently the Isle of Mull is the best place to see them. And it's a lovely place to go to as well.

Thanks Rod.

I had a bit of a look round, & it seems these Eagles were re-introduced to (Isle of) Rum 100 years or so ago, then found their way across to Mull, & Skye.

Mull looks really special, not just Eagles, but lots of marine life, too.see.....

The island is home to over 250 different bird species including the White-tailed Eagle, which was reintroduced in the nearby Island of Rùm and migrated to Mull, where it now has a stronghold. Basking sharks, Minke whales, porpoises and dolphins are among the sea life that can be seen on boat tours from Mull.

Thanks for the nod.

Am now almost certain to do both Iceland, & the Scottish Western Isles this year.

[david3103]

Rob Yong will be Posting some time today, I think, as to the changes to the how DTD Tourneys are run.

Expect a hot thread, & some very surprising news. Don't miss it.

Curveballs ftw.

 

[tikay]

Rob Yong will be Posting some time today, I think, as to the changes to the how DTD Tourneys are run.

Expect a hot thread, & some very surprising news. Don't miss it.

Curveballs ftw.

 

Another curveball......

[smashedagain]

Rob Yong will be Posting some time today, I think, as to the changes to the how DTD Tourneys are run.

Expect a hot thread, & some very surprising news. Don't miss it.

Curveballs ftw.

 

Another curveball......

Build it up and they will come?

[tikay]

Off to bed now, for some rest.

Tonight, I have the "all-new" Sky Poker Show, which is a stamina sapping 5 hours long. Valentines Night, in a studio with Orford for 5 hours straight, marv.

It is the first time we have done the new 5 hour Show without a Guest, so it will be hard work, the tallking thing is fine, but you do need to be really mentally on your toes, & 5 hours is a stretch without a Guest.

To add to the fun, the new format is getting a bit of stick from a handful of regular viewers. It's quite hard to explain to them, without giving offence, that the idea is to appeal to NEW viewers, different viewers, to encourage them across, just as much as the existing Client Base, not much point preaching to the converted, so to speak.

So the thread gently rumbles on, & I politely field the questions, all cooey. I've escaped fairly lightly really, (so far), the worst thing said was "tedious". Good read, lads, but I've been called far worse. One of the complainants sent me a FB message this morning, it read "ooh u on wiv tonite".

[RED-DOG]

Off to bed now, for some rest.

Tonight, I have the "all-new" Sky Poker Show, which is a stamina sapping 5 hours long. Valentines Night, in a studio with Orford for 5 hours straight, marv.

It is the first time we have done the new 5 hour Show without a Guest, so it will be hard work, the tallking thing is fine, but you do need to be really mentally on your toes, & 5 hours is a stretch without a Guest.

To add to the fun, the new format is getting a bit of stick from a handful of regular viewers. It's quite hard to explain to them, without giving offence, that the idea is to appeal to NEW viewers, different viewers, to encourage them across, just as much as the existing Client Base, not much point preaching to the converted, so to speak.

So the thread gently rumbles on, & I politely field the questions, all cooey. I've escaped fairly lightly really, (so far), the worst thing said was "tedious". Good read, lads, but I've been called far worse. One of the complainants sent me a FB message this morning, it read "ooh u on wiv tonite".

Well break a leg & all that.

I'll give it a watch. What time does it start?

Can you handle constructive criticism?

Do you still take abuse emails? If so, where do I send em?

PS- Don't you ever post links to anything?

[tikay]

Off to bed now, for some rest.

Tonight, I have the "all-new" Sky Poker Show, which is a stamina sapping 5 hours long. Valentines Night, in a studio with Orford for 5 hours straight, marv.

It is the first time we have done the new 5 hour Show without a Guest, so it will be hard work, the tallking thing is fine, but you do need to be really mentally on your toes, & 5 hours is a stretch without a Guest.

To add to the fun, the new format is getting a bit of stick from a handful of regular viewers. It's quite hard to explain to them, without giving offence, that the idea is to appeal to NEW viewers, different viewers, to encourage them across, just as much as the existing Client Base, not much point preaching to the converted, so to speak.

So the thread gently rumbles on, & I politely field the questions, all cooey. I've escaped fairly lightly really, (so far), the worst thing said was "tedious". Good read, lads, but I've been called far worse. One of the complainants sent me a FB message this morning, it read "ooh u on wiv tonite".

Well break a leg & all that.

I'll give it a watch. What time does it start?

Can you handle constructive criticism?

Do you still take abuse emails? If so, where do I send em?

PS- Don't you ever post links to anything?

7pm until Midnight. Hour One is mostly Promo stuff, "this starts at 8pm, special offers this week include" etc.

8pm until 9pm is the "Question Hour", send questions on ANY subject to "skyopen@bskyb.com" or Post on the Show Thread, here..... http://bit.ly/zHKlQP (Nope, NEVER Post links, not me, no sirree).

The name of that hour of questions"?

You got it.

"Ask the Expert". 

I actually take the questions "blind", & on any subject, it's rather fun, but it don't 'arf get the adrenelin racing.  Am dying for a question on how good French or Italian poker players are.

[JaffaCake]

I am going to sack Kimber, my basketball Corry, unless he gives us a Jeremy Lin update sharpish.

Anyone know how the prodigy got on last night, was he slam-dunking ftw?

Never been sacked in my life! The New York Knickerbockers play tonight, at Toronto. If you're missing Jeremy, I've perused all three (so far) of the songs penned in his honour, and while they're all probably more aimed at your yoof corro, the action in this one is pretty good. The way he plays is so old school, in the days where everyoen is bigger, stronger, faster, more athletic, he hardly ever dunks the ball or uses physical attributes, just old fashioned point guard play. Will be watching him tonight....

[Marky147]

Guess I'm gonna have to watch some basketball tonight then even though I have no clue about it beyond whoever scores most wins. Last game I watched was the Lakers during the 2008 playoffs in the Bellagio sportsbook and that was only because the waitress was on a tip hunt serving up every 10 minutes

[GreekStein]

Happy bday to the original greeky

[Bad Beat]

 I have always loved The Beatles:

 http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1978942,00.html

[JaffaCake]

So our friend Jeremy Lin was in action tonight, playing away for the New York Knicks at Toronto. The Knicks had one of their stars back - must be weird for them, since they've been out a week, the whole team has changed, won every game and this new guy Lin who earns 1/20th of their salary is the main man - and they started really badly.

They were 17 points behind early on and still 12 down going into the final quarter. I thought the Jeremy Lin story was drawing to a close, the oppo had obviously done some research on him, guarded him much tighter and hammered him with some really rough fouls. Then the final five minutes...

The Knicks upped their defensive intensity and Lin started to get the offence going and they edged closer point by point. With under a minute left the scores were tied. One of the big men missed his shot but grabbed the rebound and chucked it out to Lin. With under 24 seconds left now, he could hold for the final shot. The clock ticked down, inside 10 seconds, inside five, would he take the shot, look to set someone else up (the returning star man) or completely fk it up, remember he's never been in this position before.

With under two seconds left he dribbled forward then stepped back behind the three-point line and with 0.5 seconds left shot over the defender and swished the perfect shot to win the game for the Knicks. He ended up with 27 points and 11 assists I think, again massive numbers.

He's moved from sleeping on his brother's couch to an apartment on the 20th floor of Trump Towers....almost perfectly from outhouse to penthouse

[JaffaCake]

if tl;dr...Lin scores 12 in the final quarter, the same as the entire Toronto team, culminating in this: