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Author Topic: There and Back Again: A Punter's Tale by Matthew Harris  (Read 146558 times)
Rexas
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« Reply #360 on: September 30, 2013, 01:13:07 PM »

Hello diary, it's been a while...

Updates on me before we get to the Italy stuff. Losing money, not playing particularly badly but there are a few hands I'd rather take back and start over with. Sets continue to be very bad hands for me, and my all in EV is running quite some way below average. Probably the most fun example being getting most of it in with K4 on a 442 board, getting the rest in on a J turn, only to find my opponent has QJ (no draw) and rivers another J. Seems like every time I'm ready to play 1/2 I lose a few big ones just before the seat becomes available, and my pretty strict stop loss means I can't then sit down. Looking forward to the upcoming heater.

Uni life is about to begin again. Had a bit of a sweat on whether I was actually going to make it back in, but thankfully we managed to pull through. I guess I'm a little apprehensive about my future there, but as it seems to be getting harder and harder to make money in poker and everyone seems to be broke/close to it right now, sticking around uni seems like a good shout.

Also passed my phase one tenpin bowling instructor's course over the last few weeks, which is pretty cool. Hopefully the Loughborough team can do a little better this year than last year and win both the big ones, instead of just one! #MVP

ITALY

I've always been a bit of a history nut. I took it for A-Level, nearly took it for a degree, and have generally always been fascinated by it. One of the things that got me going on this subject, especially that of the Roman Empire, is a series of books by Caroline Lawrence entitled "The Roman Mysteries". They're basically kids books, but their depiction of life in Roman times really captured me from an early age, and I can trace my love affair with this sort of thing back to these books. If you've got a child in their early teens, I'd definitely recommend them.

Anyway, the second and third books in the series were based around the eruption of the volcano Vesuvius in 79AD. The characters travel through Herculaneum, Pompeii, Stabia and the surrounding region beginning just before the eruption, during it, and in its aftermath. My holiday began in Sorrento, and from there we travelled to several of the major historical sites mentioned in these books. Having researched and understood the history behind the place, this trip provided one of the most harrowing experiences of my life. If it's okay with everyone, I'd like to share some of the more important historical points with the people of blonde. With accompanying pictures, of course.

My journey started in Pompeii. Pompeii was a town which was overlooked by Vesuvius, then believed to be a mountain rather than a volcano. The Forum, or town centre, was the central hub of any Roman town, and in this case contained various courts where magistrates would sit and preside over the affairs of the town, shops, storage rooms, banks, and places of worship. Here, we have one end of the town. We can see an altar with a stone head clearly visible in the middle. This is the head of Jupiter, contained within his temple. The black thing that you can sort of see behind it is Vesuvius, to the left is a warehouse, and to the right are a bunch of shop type things.

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This is the other end of the forum, containing the more shops, and at the far end the seat of the magistrates and town officials.

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The site of Pompeii is absolutely enormous. There are several theatres, a Roman gym, an Amphitheatre, and the layout of the houses of the citizens are still clearly visible. There is simply too much to put into this blog, so I'm going to try and keep the pictures to a minimum.

Our next stop was Herculaneum, a seaside town which was again destroyed by the volcano. This site is significantly smaller then Pompeii, partly due to the fact that much of it still lies buried, because the modern town of Ercolano has been built over the top. However, the forum itself has been unearthed,

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as well as many houses

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several baths

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and these rather fantastic things that are basically Roman McDonalds. It was custom for lunch to be eaten in a fast food restaurant such as these, making lunchtime a very social occasion. The doorways that you can see lead through to the eating area, and the pots would have contained fish, meat and whatever else was being served that day.

 Click to see full-size image.


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Now we get on to the scary stuff. Here is an overlook of Herculaneum, showing the modern Ercolano and Vesuvius itself in the background. I am standing on what used to be the sea, but is now a 60 foot high wall of solid rock which came from the volcano and buried the everything you can see.

 Click to see full-size image.


This is a picture of a statue, which used to look out of the sea and mark the border of the town. Now, all it can see the wall which we were standing on.

 Click to see full-size image.


As we go down to the lowest level, we see something truly frightening.

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Those arches used to contain the boats and fishing equipment of the townsfolk. Look closely. Now, they contain the bodies of 55 people who sought refuge at the edge of their world. This was the last place they could run to, and there they died. The grass used to be the sea. What makes it all the more harrowing is that we have spent the last few hours wandering through the houses of these very people, admiring their state of preservation and learning about their way of life. I have stood in their homes. The feeling of coming to understand this, while looking at the wall behind us and the volcano in the background will stay with me for some time.

 Click to see full-size image.


When Pompeii was excavated, they found that the ash had hardened around the bodies of the people who had been caught outside in the eruption. Obviously now they had decayed and were skeletal remains, but one of the archaeologists had the idea to pour plaster into the gap left behind, and when they chipped away the rock, they were left with a plaster cast of the people in the exact position in which they died. There is a particularly poignant cast, of which I couldn't get a decent picture, of someone now known as the "Mule driver". He was found crouching behind the body of his horse to shield himself from the blast, and we were told by the audio guide that his hands where raised to guard his face. If you look at the picture (from google images), I think it looks a lot more like his hands are clasped in prayer. Food for thought.

 Click to see full-size image.


We couldn't have visited all these places without taking a trip up the volcano itself, so that is exactly what we did. It was a hell of a trek, the climb was very steep and at altitude, making it pretty tough going. However, we made it to the top, snapped a few pictures a made it back down again. Vesuvius is now little more than a crater, albeit one that is overdue for another eruption. We can see where the mountaintop used to be, and look out over the region to see where it lies now, scattered. We spent a good hour trying to get a decent view of the area and work out where Pompeii and Herculaneum where, but unfortunately we got completely pwned by God, who sent copious amounts of clouds in a gesture not dissimilar to shoving his middle finger up my arse.

 Click to see full-size image.


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Now, in an attempt to lighten the tone before I wave goodbye to a very long blog entry, here is some penis shaped pasta, and the promised appearance of Fred wise, as a prize for those who made it to the end of this post. Ciao!

 Click to see full-size image.


 Click to see full-size image.
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« Reply #361 on: September 30, 2013, 01:20:04 PM »

tl;dr

:p
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Rexas
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« Reply #362 on: September 30, 2013, 01:21:19 PM »

tl;dr

:p

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« Reply #363 on: September 30, 2013, 01:22:57 PM »

Pompei looks deece. Been to a fair few historical sites around Europe but never even thought to visit Pompei.

Thought's on horrible histories books?
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« Reply #364 on: September 30, 2013, 01:24:37 PM »

Pompei looks deece. Been to a fair few historical sites around Europe but never even thought to visit Pompei.

Thought's on horrible histories books?

I loved the horrible histories, although in general I wasn't much of a history fan, in school anyway
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« Reply #365 on: September 30, 2013, 01:33:06 PM »

Pompei looks deece. Been to a fair few historical sites around Europe but never even thought to visit Pompei.

Thought's on horrible histories books?

A fantastic series, beautifully written. There was actually an animated TV series that was on like 10/11 years ago, maybe more than that, that I was very in to for a time. History isn't as stereotypically boring as it used to be, especially when compared to things like poetry (see rant on Tikay's blog) thanks largely to the huge amounts of TV programmes and books etc that have done a very good job of making it more fun and more accessible to everyone. I haven't seen a horrible histories book for years... Do people still read them?

Congrats on the weekend, btw!
« Last Edit: September 30, 2013, 01:45:30 PM by Rexas » Logged

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« Reply #366 on: September 30, 2013, 01:54:14 PM »

Wiiiiiiiii, I didn't want to bring the tone down but yeah also loved horrible histories (books >>>>> the show) and tyty.
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« Reply #367 on: September 30, 2013, 02:21:14 PM »

Nice reading Matt, enjoyed your post
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« Reply #368 on: September 30, 2013, 02:30:40 PM »

im not a history expert, but im reckon that rexas is the first person to ever describe those places as 'roman mcdonalds' haha. nice blog, doesnt seem right, there was a distinct lack of material on how unlucky a poker player you were and how your wayyy to good for bowl comps   
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« Reply #369 on: September 30, 2013, 06:26:26 PM »

Ever study latin?  It was full of all sorts of fun history ranging from Vesuvius going nuts to Nero going mad, the language stuff was rather hard though.  Nevertheless, it seems like something you'd probably enjoy having read this post.
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« Reply #370 on: September 30, 2013, 06:37:40 PM »

Been to Pompeii and agree with what you said above really is an amazing place to go and see Herculaneum is on another level as the ruins were found much later and excavated much better the detail is amazing.

What was your take on all the Nobs in Pompeii? - Sure Fred would have loved them!
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« Reply #371 on: October 01, 2013, 10:17:58 AM »

Nice reading Matt, enjoyed your post

Ty sir Smiley
im not a history expert, but im reckon that rexas is the first person to ever describe those places as 'roman mcdonalds' haha. nice blog, doesnt seem right, there was a distinct lack of material on how unlucky a poker player you were and how your wayyy to good for bowl comps   

Izzit tho

Ever study latin?  It was full of all sorts of fun history ranging from Vesuvius going nuts to Nero going mad, the language stuff was rather hard though.  Nevertheless, it seems like something you'd probably enjoy having read this post.

Yes, i did study Latin, for 3 years. Cornelia et flavia sont puella romani or something like that. I also studied ancient greek for 4 years, and took a GCSE in it #grammarschoolboy.

Been to Pompeii and agree with what you said above really is an amazing place to go and see Herculaneum is on another level as the ruins were found much later and excavated much better the detail is amazing.

What was your take on all the Nobs in Pompeii? - Sure Fred would have loved them!

Yeah, comfortably the best preserved "ruins" I've ever seen. Some of the houses still had roofs on them. ROOFS! And lol Smiley
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« Reply #372 on: October 01, 2013, 11:01:07 AM »

Online Poker

I have decided, on the back of busting my stars account for the third time, that I'm going to have a serious shot at building a bankroll online. I'm actually going to work with some sort of bankroll management, and firmly seperate an online roll from a live roll. As such, I've decided to take all the money of all the sites I have some on, and deposit $350 and begin playing 10nl zoom. I'm going to play three tables at a time (this seems like the best level for me, bearing in mind I play very very little online), and aim to play AT LEAST 1k hands per day, which takes me roughly an hour. At this point I will stop, take a break, come back, review, and wait for at least half an hour before I allow myself to sit back down and play. I've also decided to post every big hand I play on the group chat of the "team" I'm a part of, so I can get some advice and some independent reviews on how I've played. Sometimes hands where I feel like I've not made a mistake will be pounced upon by these sickos, so yeah, seems worth doing, until they get annoyed with the constant posts. Also, they get to see how bad my account actually runs Wink

Played the first real session of this new regime today, and over 1024 hands I won $14.35. Played two hands particularly badly in that time, in my opinion. Will see what the team say. If I can find some time in the day to take a nap, I will probably show up at Alea tonight. Mincashed it last week, and I have a few HH's from that to share with my viewers. They do have a happy ending.

ALEA

First up, we have folding like the sickest mofo in the room that we are to just past the bubble. Unfortunately, we are now playing on a five handed table, with approximately 6 bbs, and the two runaway chip leaders directly on my left. Disaster. Anyway, I pick up QJos on my button and promptly announce IMALLIN, to gasps from my imaginary rail. Small blind folds, Big blind begins to tank. "Do you want a call?" he asks. My live HUD tells me this almost certainly means he has a suited connector, something like 56. I reply, in all honesty, "I've got to double at some point, might as well be now". He smiles, and calls. Sick read bra, he has   . We casually flop the nut straight on   . The crowd cheers, we calmly announce "not a bad start for me", whilst fistpumping like Amir Khan on speed under the table. Not even a sweat. Easy money. Back in the game.   BOLLOCKS!

Very next hand we ship   three clubs into the only stack where we have fold equity, considering the blinds are going up A LOT next hand. We get instantly isolated by the guy on our left, and both blinds fold AJ face up. The btn rolls over A10, we bink a three, he turns the case A. Wpsir.

We take our min cash, and sit down on a recently opened cash table, making it 8 handed. We are utg +1. Utg limps, and we look down at   . We let out an audible gasp, and struggle to contain our excitement as we flick in an £8 raise. Fold, Fold, Call, call, call, call, call. Marvellous. SET PLS. Flop comes   and we win all the money, obvs. Anyway, in the real world, flop comes    three clubs . Disaster. Check, check, utg leads for £15. We show our cards to the dealer, who clearly gives a shit, and begin loudly discussing how badly I run. Anyway, a minute or two later the hand get to showdown, and UTG casually rolls over AA for top set. My reaction is something along the lines of UYGIJUGIOUGFYDFYRDLUGVUKGJV nice hand buddy. I think this is the only time I've ever got away from AA vs KK, and it cost me all of £8. Good times Cheesy

UNI

My course restarts today, in a few hours. This semester we are studying 19th century American writing, satire and British drama. I guess I'm a little apprehensive, the summer break is a long one and I'd got very used to not being on a timetable and enjoying life as a budding championship reg. Things have changed so much for me in the last year, mostly for the better, and I hope they keep moving in this direction. I guess today I'm mostly looking forward to the future, and the Indian restaurant I'm going to later.  
« Last Edit: October 01, 2013, 11:03:26 AM by Rexas » Logged

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« Reply #373 on: October 01, 2013, 02:26:46 PM »

Loved the post on Pompeii! I might have to add it to my list. It looks incredible, and it seems like it would be surreal to visit.

Also, good luck with your uni course! Are you an English major by any chance?
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adiman999
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« Reply #374 on: October 01, 2013, 02:52:13 PM »

I love a bit of Indian :p
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