Vegas & The Aftermath - Diary

[Karabiner]

The Peaches Geldof thing is terribly sad, she had so much to live for, & was so young. The Geldofs have seen a fair bit of tragedy, one way & another.

I hope it's not indelicate to raise the matter at this moment, but I was intrigued by the "given names" of the young Geldof's.

Peaches was officially.....

Peaches Honeyblossom

Her sisters are.....

Little Pixie

Heavenly Hiraani Tiger Lily Hutchence

Fifi Trixibelle

Her daughters are.....

Astala Dylan Willow

Phaedra Bloom Forever

Dylan? Really? That's such a common name nowadays.

Although my fav thing about Dylan is all the english people who don't realise it's pronounced Dullan.

That reminds me of the time a few years ago when I went up to Glasgow with a good friend for the first round of the Scottish greyhound Derby, before which we were going to drop in and visit his elderly dad who's name was Willie.

He made me rehearse pronouncing it "Wullie" before we got there.

[tikay]

Meanwhile, on a lighter note.......

bobby1 asked me last week (on Fred).....

Have you ever attended the Grand National Tony?

I replied.....

No, never. Can't be doing with crowds these days.

Been to Chelters scores of times for the GC, Epsom for the Derby, Longchamp on Arc Day, a Cup Final, a F1 GP, Wimbledon, most stuff really, but the Grand National has never, even in my degen betting days, floated any boats for me.

To which he asked.....

What are your best memories of those Trips?

I did not want to derail that thread more than I already had, so I said I'd reply here. Eventually.....

Anyway, my memories of attending those Events?

Cheltenham Gold Cup, & the Festival generally.

Wonderful memories.

I  would be on the course at first light to see the horses working.

Racehorses working first thing in the morning is just wonderful. I best remember Monkhouse & Sea Pigeon winning their Champion Hurdles, & the amazing reception they got afterwards, in the winning enclosure.

One year, on Gold Cup day, racing began as normal, & then, just prior to the Gold Cup, it snowed, & the race was postponed until a month or two later. Midnight Court (Johnny Francombe, a wonderful jockey imo), won it.

Some years later, Francombe got involved with an infamous bookmaker, John Banks, & after a something of a cause celebre, both Banks & Francombe received lengthy bans for "stopping" the horse. The horse name? "Stopped". Can't make that stuff up.

 

[tikay]

Epsom Derby.

No fun at all, could barely see the racing, the traffic was horrendous. Never again.

 

[tikay]

The Arc, Longchamp

The Arc that year, about 1980 I think, was won by a filly called Three Troikas, and that was a remarkable story, as Three Troikas was....

Ridden by Freddy Head

Trained by Criquette Head 

Owned by Ghislasine Head (the mother of Freddy & Criquette).

Purchased by Alec Head (the father).

What a tremendous thing. She abso hosed up, too, a very fine filly indeed, one of the best I ever saw.

I also remember being embarrassed to let it be known I was a Brit, as most of the Brits behaved shamefully due to an excess of alcohol.

[tikay]

The FA Cup Final, @ Wembley

I saw Spurs v Chelsea, 1967, might have been the first "all London" Cup Final, not sure.

Loathed every moment, so far from the action, & behind the wrong goal. Swore never to go again, & never have.

Some years later, 74-75 (thank you, Wiki), I had a weird experience when West Ham played Fulham.

I was working for three East End dodgy sorts at the time, & one of them was a West Ham supporter.

I had a reputation as their "go to" kid, or maybe gopher, I refused to accept defeat when faced with any task, & never said no, or made excuses, so he asked me to get him 4 (FOUR) tickets for the Cup Final. All together. In the Royal Box. Err, no problem.

I knew a man who knew a man.....

Days later, I stood outside a Jewish Tailors factory in North London, might have been Haringey, as I'd got word that the West Ham Team were due to be measured for their Cup Final suits. 

Sure enough, they all arrived in a posh coach, & filed into the factory. I sort of just attached myself to the group, & walked in with them.....

Got talking to one of them, can't remember who, told him what I wanted, bingo, one player said he could sort it.

Meet me in the car park of the (forgotten name) pub on the Southend Arterial @ 2pm on Thursday, it'll cost you a grand". 

So I get the money from the Boss chap, & drive to the pub car park, with the readies (all in fivers!) in my pocket. I was driving a gold Hillman Avenger at the time, my first ever new car, GUC 945J. I can remember the car reg from 40 years ago, but can't remember the footballers name, or the name of the pub. Weird.

He arrives, spots me, & gets in my car.

I'm crapping myself. A grand was a LOT of money back then, I'd never seen so much, never mind had it in my pocket.

He shows me the tickets.

I show him the money.

I'm scared to give him the money first, in case he legs it.

Can I have the tickets first please?

No, I want the money first.

And so it went on.

He then shows me the tickets properly, but without letting go of them.

1, 2, 3, 4, there you go, OK?

And I go 5, 10, 15, 20............960, 965, 970......

Eventually, I give him the wad, & he gives me the tickets. Not Royal Box, but plum next to it.

Phew.

Jeez, I loved those initiative test things.

[tikay]

F1 GP @ Silverstone


Think it was late eighties, but I recall it was won by Senna.

The traffic, to get in & out, it was horrendous.

The noise of the F1 cars was awesome.

I went with a posh bloke in his brand new Audi Quattro, & nearly puked when I tried to eat smoked salmon sarnies. When he said "salmon", I assumed he meant John West tinned salmon, which I loved. But smoked salmon, ugh.

Never had the desire to go again, TV covers it so much better. 

Been to the "Moto GP" (as GP Motorbike Racing now called) many times since though, & would go again. Now that IS exciting to watch.

[tikay]

Burleigh Horse Trials

Best sporting day out ever, highly recommended.

Those riders on the Cross Country are SO brave.

[tikay]

There's some interesting reading to be done about Foxconn working conditions if you care to. Interesting stuff.

Quite a lot about how they've had to change to react to worker suicides and other such tragedies.

This followed on from Doobs Post, which noted.....


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foxconn

Foxconn's largest factory worldwide is in Longhua, Shenzhen, where hundreds of thousands of workers (varying counts include 230,000,[19] 300,000,[21] and 450,000[22]) are employed at the Longhua Science & Technology Park, a walled campus[8] sometimes referred to as "Foxconn City"[23] or "iPod City".[24] Covering about 1.16 square miles (3 square km),[25] it includes 15 factories,[23] worker dormitories, a swimming pool,[26] a fire brigade,[8] its own television network (Foxconn TV),[8] and a city centre with a grocery store, bank, restaurants, bookstore, and hospital...   a quarter of the employees live in the dormitories, and many of them work up to 12 hours a day for 6 days each week

For some reason, when Mully mentioned worker suicides, it made me think of a book I'm currently reading by Bill Bryson, called "Home".

It relates life back in the day, 1700 to 1850, that sort of period.

Children as young as 6 had to work in factories, & the regular working day for adults was 6am to 9pm, 6 days per week.

When they got home, there was no lighting, no electricity, no heating, no tv, no radio, no internet, no Pokerstars, no nothing. They just sat there, in the pitch dark. It's tough to even imagine.

Times change so much. The conditions in that Korean factory are not, I'm sure, very nice. They'd not swap with conditions 2 centuries ago in a hurry, though.

[tikay]

I've been a bit awol until recently, doing so many different things, & I want to jot them down, for my own benefit. 3 or 4 things I want to record, so off we go.

[tikay]

First up, I did one of those little Bankroll Challenge things Next Door.

The challenge was to turn £200 into £1,200, by playing PLO8 DYM's, average buy-in £5.50, at which, eventually, I succeeded, so I drew a line on April 1st, with the Bankroll standing at £1,296, for a profit of £1,096.

On the face of it, step aside Plenners, Scotty, Moorman & Co. 

Except that.......it took me 6 months! And no less than 3,500 SNG's.

Not quite so impressive, then.

Made about £0.31 per SNG on average (31 PENCE!).

Of that £1,096, around £300 came from "Reward Points" (rakeback, if you prefer) & various leaderboard bonuses. Say £0.25 per SNG "earned" then.  Not exactly setting the internet poker world on fire......

Every night I was not working, or doing other stuff, I played for 3 or 4 hours; originally, I played 10 or 15 per night, but as I started to master multi-tabling, & went up to 6 & 8 Tables, I'd often do 40 or 50 games per session.

Not exactly time & cost efficient, then.

But I DID enjoy it, immensely, I'd rush home from work & could not wait to begin my session.

Quite surprised myself by learning to 8 Table, too. Quite pleased, actually, that I could learn to profitably (just...) 8 Table at my age.

But I'm obsessive, & it's all or nothing. Trying to juggle the Challenge, Fred, and real life was a bit much really, so I'm having a little break now, before my next Challenge.

And trying to do my "Fred" stuff, whilst 8-Tabling, was a nightmare, & I messed up a treat. Never try placing bets whilst 8 Tabling, it's a recipe for disaster, as I tried clicking Fred, Oddschecker, & any number of Sports Betting sites, ugh. 

Learning PLO8 ranges (opening, pushing & calling) was worthwhile, too. I've done OK in Vegas the last few years @ PLO8, with 2 WSOP cashes from 3 attempts, & plenty of smaller cashes, & I absolutely adore the game, but I'm pretty sure, despite those rather disappointing returns, I'm a far better PLO8 player now, than previously.

At the start of every month, I modified my ranges, & my aggression factor, just trying to find the best blend. I got a bit over-aggro eventually, & never limped or called at all, just POT POT POT. Went a bit too aggro, really.

Tremendous fun, I needed the break when I had done, but I'd not have missed it for the world.  Did my self-esteem & confidence no harm, either, even though the returns were pitifully low.

Next case.

[tikay]

Next, the UKPC, part of which ran parallel with the little Challenge thing.

Yikes, now that WAS a challenge.

It all began back in October 2012......

ZZZZZZZ


zzzzzzz



......

[simonnatur]

Talking of working practices, Rubbish's recent post on TFT mentioned Job and Knock, which sent me to google as I'd not heard the term before. This in turn led me here:

http://www.rhiw.com/y_mor/blue_funnel_02/j.o.s/learning.htm
http://www.rhiw.com/y_mor/seamen_bars/hong_kong_02/girlie_bars.htm

"Half Day; In port things worked in a different way, time off was our priorities, and most Mates would give a “Half Day” in port every week, this was as implied, we would knock off at midday, and have all afternoon and the night ashore, these were very popular, especially in good ports such as Hong Kong, Bangkok or Singapore, or even some of the Japanese ports, where a trip to the local second hand markets was a must. Most Blue Funnel ships were very good with the overtime, and their half days, and I never had a bad trip with them."

[tikay]

Talking of working practices, Rubbish's recent post on TFT mentioned Job and Knock, which sent me to google as I'd not heard the term before. This in turn led me here:

http://www.rhiw.com/y_mor/blue_funnel_02/j.o.s/learning.htm
http://www.rhiw.com/y_mor/seamen_bars/hong_kong_02/girlie_bars.htm

"Half Day; In port things worked in a different way, time off was our priorities, and most Mates would give a “Half Day” in port every week, this was as implied, we would knock off at midday, and have all afternoon and the night ashore, these were very popular, especially in good ports such as Hong Kong, Bangkok or Singapore, or even some of the Japanese ports, where a trip to the local second hand markets was a must. Most Blue Funnel ships were very good with the overtime, and their half days, and I never had a bad trip with them."

Ha!

In the building industry, at the time I was involved, there was a lot of casual labour, & "job & knock" aka "job & pop", or "job & finish", was common.

It was particularly the case on a Saturday or Sunday.

It was a battle of will & negotiation between the lads & me, & invariably, they got the better of me, obv. I'd sometimes return at Midday, job not finished, men all gone. On Monday, "where were you lads?".

"Ahh, sorry Mr K, there was a problem".

Yes yes, of course.

It was rife in the Print industry, too, also I believe the Dockers used to do job & knock. I would imagine Refuse Collectors did, too.

It's quite hard to strike a fair balance between a fair days work & a fair days pay. Neither side ever seemed to agree, obviously.

 

[Redsgirl]

Epsom Derby.

No fun at all, could barely see the racing, the traffic was horrendous. Never again.

 

Aw, Tikay, How can you not enjoy such a spectacle as Epsom! All of is England is there in one glorious riot, all for the most part enjoying themselves  
You can wander round the market and look at the all the gaudy goods on the stalls and outfits on the people, watch the toffs arriving in all their finery on the double decker buses, take the kids on the funfair, then there are the party coaches that line the fields with people out dancing and drinking and cooking delicious smelling food. I'd love an invite to one of the Caribbean ones, the always look/sound the best .
Plus, Gypsies can still stay on the field right next to the racecourse, where else in the world could you look through your caravan window and see the dear old Queen arriving?
Last time I was there we heard Katherine Jenkins sing the national anthem, and then the kids had a little win when Camelot came in, which they thought was the most exciting thing they'd ever seen.
Truly, whats not to like?
Admitidly it did take us two hours to drive off of the field at the end of the day, but even then a little fat hairy topless man did a kind of Greek dance along side our slow moving car, occasional pressing his sweaty belly against Mrs Reds passenger window. Really Teeks, you don't know what your missing!

[Karabiner]

First up, I did one of those little Bankroll Challenge things Next Door.

The challenge was to turn £200 into £1,200, by playing PLO8 DYM's, average buy-in £5.50, at which, eventually, I succeeded, so I drew a line on April 1st, with the Bankroll standing at £1,296, for a profit of £1,096.

On the face of it, step aside Plenners, Scotty, Moorman & Co. 

Except that.......it took me 6 months! And no less than 3,500 SNG's.

Not quite so impressive, then.

Made about £0.31 per SNG on average (31 PENCE!).

Of that £1,096, around £300 came from "Reward Points" (rakeback, if you prefer) & various leaderboard bonuses. Say £0.25 per SNG "earned" then.  Not exactly setting the internet poker world on fire......

Every night I was not working, or doing other stuff, I played for 3 or 4 hours; originally, I played 10 or 15 per night, but as I started to master multi-tabling, & went up to 6 & 8 Tables, I'd often do 40 or 50 games per session.

Not exactly time & cost efficient, then.

But I DID enjoy it, immensely, I'd rush home from work & could not wait to begin my session.

Quite surprised myself by learning to 8 Table, too. Quite pleased, actually, that I could learn to profitably (just...) 8 Table at my age.

But I'm obsessive, & it's all or nothing. Trying to juggle the Challenge, Fred, and real life was a bit much really, so I'm having a little break now, before my next Challenge.

And trying to do my "Fred" stuff, whilst 8-Tabling, was a nightmare, & I messed up a treat. Never try placing bets whilst 8 Tabling, it's a recipe for disaster, as I tried clicking Fred, Oddschecker, & any number of Sports Betting sites, ugh. 

Learning PLO8 ranges (opening, pushing & calling) was worthwhile, too. I've done OK in Vegas the last few years @ PLO8, with 2 WSOP cashes from 3 attempts, & plenty of smaller cashes, & I absolutely adore the game, but I'm pretty sure, despite those rather disappointing returns, I'm a far better PLO8 player now, than previously.

At the start of every month, I modified my ranges, & my aggression factor, just trying to find the best blend. I got a bit over-aggro eventually, & never limped or called at all, just POT POT POT. Went a bit too aggro, really.

Tremendous fun, I needed the break when I had done, but I'd not have missed it for the world.  Did my self-esteem & confidence no harm, either, even though the returns were pitifully low.

Next case.

Just out of curiosity how much rake did you pay whilst completing your "bankroll challenge"?

Regarding playing too aggro playing PLO, I used to know a guy called Chris Truby who once won a WSOP bracelet during the 1990's(I'm not sure what the game was but he beat devilfish HU), and he only ever bet the full pot when playing PLO.