Vegas & The Aftermath - Diary

[Rod Paradise]

I'm talking about military national service. Youngsters who don't want to be there are in for a miserable time and are a drain on ever decreasing regular resources. They'll end up doing menial work around the stations as they can't be attached to regular units. Imagine the outcry if the Army sent them to war zones. No benefit to the armed forces.
 If it's to benefit the youngster, then put the resources used for NS into training youngsters, they'll be much more receptive to it. Military service isn't for everyone. Punishment for not doing NS, jail? You're just as likely to jail some hard working, well adjusted kid who has no affinity with the military as  the layabout, ne'er do well,petty criminal type.

Agreed, such a system is pointless (says the guy who had wanted notices out on him for not showing up for National Service in Bermuda). The German system is 1 year NS, but with a selection of different roles and with an emphasis on learning and growth.

[tikay]

Now that was always an event on the estate, when a chimney was on fire, belching black smoke, & occasionally flames, too, as all us kids stood & watched in awe. There was never any damage or real danger, of course, the fire was contained within the flue, but always a great excitement to us kids.

Wasn't the technique to starve the chimney of oxygen to put out the fire?  I vaguely remember my parents putting a newspaper over the fireplace opening tho I don't know why it didn't just burst into flames.

Don't know, we used to put a newspaper over the fireplace opening to help "draw" the fire when first starting it. And yeah, it often caught fire.

They chimney fires put themselves out, once the soot had burned off, the flue was made of clay & did not burn, so it was never dangerous, but it was jolly exciting to us kids.

That was one of my daily chores - light the fire every morning. No firelighters, just chopped wood (old railway sleepers, chopping those up was my job, too, & they were great as they were impregnated with oil & creosote), & newspapers, with the coal on top. We had good coal, mind, South Wales anthracite, because we got it from the Railway stocks as a free perk.  

When we moved over from Bermuda I was 10, 5 of us moved into an old WW2 pre-fab with my Gran. So from waking up putting on a pair of shorts and running down to the bay to catch fish for breakfast to waking up pulling on a coat & lighting the fire. Good coal as well, once a month Gran got a ton dropped off from the Coal Board in the street outside, I got the fun job of moving it into the bunker round the back, then doing the same for the other 3 miners' widows in the street.

Since the prefab's were low bungalows like this:

Click to see full-size image.

I got another fun job - shin up the drain pipe & someone would hand me up a long handled brush so I could sweep the chimney, again, if I was doing one I got sent to do the rest.

What an image that conjured up, can't think of too many better ways to start the day.

Did you catch different varieties of fish, so brekkie was a daily surprise, or was it always the same species?

Brings a whole new meaning to "Wonder what's for breakfast today?"

[tikay]

Tony,

Thanks for the welcome to the site.

As I am someone who has only been playing PL08 DYM's for a year now, I wondered if you could help me with a question.

Is it more important to play one game optimally to try and ensure you reach the magical 60% figure, or are you better off multi-tabling and making 57% but earning more rakeback/rewards/freerolls?
I know, as it is the game of choice for us both, that 60% is thought to be the magic figure.
Would this percentage alter with factoring rakeback and freerolls/rewards earnt due to high levels of games played.
For example, with the PL08 DYM's next-door, concentrate exclusively on single-tabling the £10 for 5 games a night, in preference to multi-tabling the £3 and £5 games that run more frequently for 30 games a night.

Cheers.

Hi Andrew,

Sorry for delayed reply, been a busy boy this week.

I suppose it depends upon circumstances. 

If my life depended upon a single SNG, then yes, just play it solo, and my records show that I do better when single tabling - I can see that from my first & last game of each session.

But we need volume to take care of variance, so generally, multi-tabling, whilst slightly less profitable on a game by game basis, is the answer, imo.

Multi-tabling also helps us towards Rewards payments, too.

The "magic 60%" is BEFORE any bonus in the form of rakeback, rewards or whatever it's called, so if we do achieve 60%, we are actually making a shade more once Rewards money is added in. I know you covered two thirds of annual your reg fees with Rewards payments & Promo freerolls.  60% equates to a 10% ROI AFTER allowing for the 10% Reg Fee.

I struggle to win 60% consistently on a weekly basis, I manage it around 80% of the time, then throw in a shocker & ruin the numbers. Think, long term, I'm around 58%. That's fine though, 58% or 59% makes reasonable money. (Relatively). In shock news, I actually achieved 64% last week over a 170 game sample which I was pretty pleased about, but this week I'm on 59.2% at the mo, so I don't think I can do it consistently. 

I'll pick up £22.50 in Rewards payments this week, too, due to the Happy Days promo, but generally I get about £10 per week. Does not sound much, £10 per week (it gets paid every Monday), but over the year, it soon adds up.

Not seen you on the site the last day or two, hope all is OK. 

[tikay]

stick with this

possibly the best letter i have ever read

Click to see full-size image.

That's the sort of joke that Dave Allen used to specialise in, he had that "deadpan delivery" which Jack Dee later utilised so well.

[tikay]

I don't know how much Gill is driven by personal bests etc Tikay, but this was shared between a couple of Blondes on Facebook....

Click to see full-size image.

Don't wish to comment really, but in my day, I used to be known as "Marathon Man".

[tikay]

The sex or the marathon?

Crikey George, what brings you to this diary? Quiet day at work? Good to see some of the Big Boys still pop in now & then.

Have to say, was chuffed to bits for you & Shelley after that Dublin bink. Wonderful news.

[tikay]

Anyone remember "junglecat" who used to post a lot on blonde, & he did a lot of Live Updates? Think his real name was Rod Something with a Z in it. Not posted on blonde for 5 years or more.

I was merrily clicking away in a PLO8 MTT the other night & he turned up on my Table.

He is Jen Mason's other half these days, they live down in Brighton.

So he said "hi" & we chatted, bla bla bla.

Next thing, another player says to Rod "did you come to a Tourney in Great Yarmouth in 2008?". I mean, what a question. And he did, as it happens, bla bla, you'd think any visit to Norfolk, Suffolk & all parts east would be insta forgettable.

Before long, the 3 of us were chatting away about the Tribeca days, we all played together on Tribeca.   

Tribeca was probably poo, but it seems to have gained status in our memories of the best poker software ever, think we all played on Blue Square? Blue Square are no more, swallowed up by Betfair I think. Jonathan Raab used to run it as I recall. Tribeca was sold to I-Poker I believe, Ugh.

Amazing the memory tugs you can get chatting to players on a poker table. 

[tikay]

Bloody hell, went looking for a photo of Rod & found this.

[tikay]

...and this beauty. This was EPT Deauville. Flushy looks so young there.

Jen won her seat in that Blue Square promo, "Ten of the Best" or whatever. She got busted on the bubble by Johnny "Texas" Hewston. 

[TightEnd]

Stirzaker

tribeca was crap but brilliant. much missed and more so as time goes on as is often the way

[RED-DOG]

...and this beauty. This was EPT Deauville I think. Flushy looks so young there.

I love the way that Jen's look highlights the fact that everyone else is unaware of the photographer.


It's little things like that that make average photographs great.

[tikay]

Stirzaker

tribeca was crap but brilliant. much missed and more so as time goes on as is often the way

Yes, we think that, don't we? It may just be the mind playing tricks I suppose.

That was - to some of us - the golden age of online poker, so much innocence, & no third party software nonsense. Happy poker days, happy poker times.

What fun we all had on Blue Square back then. Then I-poker came along......

[tikay]

...and this beauty. This was EPT Deauville I think. Flushy looks so young there.

I love the way that Jen's look highlights the fact that everyone else is unaware of the photographer.


It's little things like that that make average photographs great.

Ha, EXACTLY the same thought occurred to me.

Interestingly, Flushy & I were railing Jen, & Jen was all-in, on the bubble, for a relatively large lump of money - €10,000 I think. Typically, she was completely unphased by it all.

Here's another wonderful Jen photo, almost a caption competition in this one. You should recognize the geezer, too.

[nirvana]

Brings back memories for sure. I don't know Rod that well but he was a part of the amazingly named mmm Mob on Tribeca back in the day. Not many in the mob but I still have my mmm mob cap in the form of a baseball hat and we met up from time to time - mainly at P4C gigs (all fond memories but of course turned sour)

There was another collection of players on Tribeca back in the day, creeping senility means I can't remember the exact name - might have been 808 gang or something like. Great times when absolute noobs like me in 2003/4 ish could, relatively speaking, 'print'at 3-6, 5-10 and occasionally 10-20 limit.

Forgot what I meant to say - great writer, wrote well with great humour I thought back then

[tikay]

This chap looked a little younger at the time, too.

Now he's got a wife, kids & all sorts.

I communicate with him all the time on business stuff, top top bloke. Right awkward sod to deal with when it comes to money though. Love him to bits.