here are 3 people i just love. not just their work, but them as people. i'll say a little about them, and put some links up.

1. Ricky Gervais.

he needs little introduction, he's gotten pretty well known by now, but he is just great.

if you haven't come across him (living in a cave or something) then here are some of his best works

1)the office - the original uk version. the best comedy series ever in my opinion. subtle, realistic, hilarious, poignant, an incredible array of realistic characters, beautifully crafted etc etc

2)extras - not as structured, but then a different kind of show. still very high quality and hilarious

3)ricky gervais podcast - just unbelievably good entertainment. if you haven't seen/heard it then i suggest you do immediately. they have an animated version now of the 1st series (there are 5 series i think)

4)animals - really good standup, other standups pretty good too

2.David Mitchell

he's half of the comedy duo mitchell and webb, and made his name in the brilliant sitcom 'peepshow'. i have spent hours just watching youtube videos of him on comedy gameshows where he always outshines the other comedians

1)peepshow - excellent concept, executed brilliantly, 6 series of great comedy. you can watch them all for free on youtube. impossible to single out any clips, so i'll just put a random one that came up near the top on youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLOCzN5a19o



2)that mitchell and webb look - under rated sketch show, alot more subtle than most although it is hit and miss at times

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xN1WN0YMWZU

3)david mitchells soapbox - weekly podcast where he moans about something or other

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yakx7...eature=related

4)random appearences in gameshows. great

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wt2u4...eature=related

Charlie Brooker

he's basically an angry satirical critic, who has a unique way of expressing himself. his main oevre is reviewing TV, current affairs and computer affairs. however he has also written and co written some TV shows

1)nathan barley - genius 1 series sitcom about idiotic media types. i think it is very under rated, and people just mostly miss the point when watching it. again you can watch it for free on youtube. the show features various rising stars of comedy. such as both primary members of the mighty boosh, and richard Ayoade of IT crowd fame.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhAr_UeroCk

2)various books compiling his articles written for the guardian newspaper. the newest is dawn of the dumb, hilarious series of articles i am currently reading

3)screenwipe, newswipe, gameswipe - his TV show reviewing TV, news or games.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OYri...eature=related

4)Dead set - a drama about zombies attacking the big brother house.

this month has been insane, even made me put a question out to MSNL, i'll repost it here too anyway
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/56...estion-859228/

the worst thing about poker to me is variance. yes i know its why we can make money at poker but not at chess etc, i understand the theoreticals and i understand it is definitely necessary.

my question is: what % of your hourly would you give up for zero variance

so for example; a pixie gives you a magic hand chart that guarantees half your winrate but absolutely zero variance. you can't exploit it by then playing 56 tables or something, the chart would know, its magic!. you just plod along as usual but have zero variance. if your hourly was $200, its now always $100, instead of +/- $5k/hour.

would you accept.

if not, what % would you accept at.


i'm thinking that both good and bad variance causes me to play alot less hours than i would like. bad leaves me tilted and i usually think it sensible to stop playing. good variance leaves a strong temptation to quit my session and go to the pub or something. i'm sure this rings true for most other regs.

i think there is a theoretical breakeven point just in pure $$EV, but also you might go below that for a more stable stressfree lifestyle.


anyway, heres my lol graph. i'm thankful i'm up for the month, but sad that i didn't just go on holiday after 3 days

this is my month so far. yes thats right, i won 35 buyins or so in 3 days, then proceeded to lose all of it!

only saved in the last hour or so when a reg tilted on me pretty hard, some pretty amusing hands i have to admit

i would have def smashed something if hand 6 had occurred near the start of the session


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HAND #1
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Party, $3/$6 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 2 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

Hero (BTN): $603
BB: $597

Pre-Flop: A 2 dealt to Hero (BTN)
Hero raises to $18, BB raises to $60, Hero calls $42

Flop: ($120) T 7 A (2 Players)
BB checks, Hero checks

Turn: ($120) 4 (2 Players)
BB checks, Hero bets $90, BB calls $90

River: ($300) 2 (2 Players)
BB checks, Hero bets $233, BB calls $233

Results: $766 Pot ($1 Rake)
Hero showed A 2 and WON $765 (+$385 NET)
BB mucked 7 8 and LOST (-$377 NET)




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HAND #2
------------------

Party, $3/$6 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 2 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

Hero (BB): $1,036.25
BTN: $600

Pre-Flop: Q Q dealt to Hero (BB)
BTN raises to $18, Hero raises to $60, BTN calls $42

Flop: ($120) 7 J 2 (2 Players)
Hero bets $60, BTN raises to $145, Hero raises to $976.25 and is All-In, BTN calls $395 and is All-In

Turn: ($1,200) 4 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

River: ($1,200) 9 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Results: $1,200 Pot
Hero showed Q Q and WON $1,635.25 (+$1,041.25 NET)
BTN showed 5 7 and LOST (-$597 NET)




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HAND #3
------------------

Party, $3/$6 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 2 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

BB: $1,068
Hero (BTN): $1,544

Pre-Flop: 9 Q dealt to Hero (BTN)
Hero raises to $18, BB raises to $60, Hero calls $42

Flop: ($120) Q 7 3 (2 Players)
BB bets $90, Hero calls $90

Turn: ($300) 9 (2 Players)
BB checks, Hero bets $255, BB calls $255

River: ($810) 6 (2 Players)
BB bets $663 and is All-In, Hero calls $663

Results: $2,136 Pot ($1 Rake)
BB showed 8 8 and LOST (-$1,062 NET)
Hero showed 9 Q and WON $2,135 (+$1,070 NET)




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HAND #4
------------------

Party, $3/$6 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 2 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

Hero (BB): $1,185.33
BTN: $1,048.92

Pre-Flop: J J dealt to Hero (BB)
BTN raises to $18, Hero calls $12

Flop: ($36) 6 7 9 (2 Players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $26.25, Hero calls $26.25

Turn: ($88.50) A (2 Players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $65.62, Hero calls $65.62

River: ($219.74) J (2 Players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $164.05, Hero raises to $1,075.46 and is All-In, BTN calls $775 and is All-In

Results: $2,097.84 Pot
Hero showed J J and WON $2,233.25 (+$1,190.33 NET)
BTN showed 6 6 and LOST (-$1,045.92 NET)




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HAND #5
------------------

Party, $3/$6 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 2 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

Hero (BB): $2,259.25
BTN: $600

Pre-Flop: 9 J dealt to Hero (BB)
BTN raises to $18, Hero raises to $60, BTN calls $42

Flop: ($120) 8 2 K (2 Players)
Hero bets $60, BTN calls $60

Turn: ($240) Q (2 Players)
Hero bets $125, BTN calls $125

River: ($490) 5 (2 Players)
Hero bets $2,014.25 and is All-In, BTN calls $355 and is All-In

Results: $1,200 Pot
Hero showed 9 J...

just reading this great article about sleep

http://www.supermemo.com/articles/polyphasic.htm

i am reading this because i wanted to research polyphasic sleep patterns to see if they are viable for poker players. found out some stuff from this article (from a great website)

http://www.highexistence.com/alternate-sleep-cycles/


basically i constantly have nagging worries about my sleep patterns, which are highly erratic, but it turns out that my sleep patterns are fairly natural, and probably decent

i highly recomend any poker player to read this article. because of it i am going to quit caffeine (i'm an obsessive tea drinker) but also not worry about my sleep pattern and just sleep when i'm tired. i realise this will mean i'll be sleeping at extremely weird times, but it doesn't really matter when all i have to do is grind anyway.


poker this month has been insane. after 3 days i was up 35 buyins in about 5k hands, now i'm up 20 buyins in 10k hands, sick swongs. so many crazy hands and funny hands, but can't be bothered to find any since there are so many no 1 sticks in my head.

no, i'm not married, apparantly its the nickname of the poker hand KQ

so now that i've sucked you in with the promise of a tale of domestic bliss , enjoy all the big KQ hands i played today


included at the bottom is a bonus hand played against the player in 3 and 4.

by the way: all 3 of these guys are regs. the guy in hand 3-5 is up about $120k in 40k hands on ptr, guy in hand 1 has played over 1.5million hands on stars! and the guy in hand 2 is up well over $100k in a couple hundred thousand hands of MSNL HU

[ ] games are dead

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HAND #1
------------------

Poker Stars, $3/$6 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 2 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

BB: $600
Hero (BTN): $757.50

Pre-Flop: K Q dealt to Hero (BTN)
Hero raises to $18, BB raises to $60, Hero calls $42

Flop: ($120) J 4 J (2 Players)
BB bets $71, Hero calls $71

Turn: ($262) 6 (2 Players)
BB bets $171, Hero raises to $626.50 and is All-In, BB calls $298 and is All-In

River: ($1,200) 5 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Results: $1,200 Pot
BB showed 8 9 and LOST (-$594 NET)
Hero showed K Q and WON $1,357 (+$760 NET)




------------------
HAND #2
------------------

Party, $3/$6 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 2 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

Hero (BB): $777
BTN: $3,143.12

Pre-Flop: Q K dealt to Hero (BB)
BTN raises to $18, Hero raises to $60, BTN calls $42

Flop: ($120) 5 6 Q (2 Players)
Hero bets $60, BTN raises to $150, Hero raises to $717 and is All-In, BTN calls $567

Turn: ($1,554) 5 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

River: ($1,554) 4 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Results: $1,554 Pot ($1 Rake)
Hero mucked Q K and LOST (-$771 NET)
BTN showed 7 8 and WON $1,553 (+$779 NET)




------------------
HAND #3
------------------

Party, $5/$10 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 2 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

BTN: $1,128
Hero (BB): $2,410.50

Pre-Flop: K Q dealt to Hero (BB)
BTN raises to $30, Hero raises to $100, BTN raises to $1,123 and is All-In, Hero calls $1,028

Flop: ($2,256) 4 8 2 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Turn: ($2,256) 7 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

River: ($2,256) 3 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Results: $2,256 Pot ($1 Rake)
BTN mucked T J and LOST (-$1,123 NET)
Hero showed K Q and WON $2,255 (+$1,137 NET)




------------------
HAND #4
------------------

Party, $5/$10 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 2 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

Hero (BB): $2,176
BTN: $1,077

Pre-Flop: Q K dealt to Hero (BB)
BTN raises to $30, Hero raises to $100, BTN raises to $1,072 and is All-In, Hero calls $977

Flop: ($2,154) 2 K J (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Turn: ($2,154) 3 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

River: ($2,154) 6 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Results: $2,154 Pot ($1 Rake)
Hero showed Q K and WON $2,153 (+$1,086 NET)
BTN mucked T 7 and LOST (-$1,072 NET)




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HAND #5
------------------

Party, $5/$10 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 2 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

BTN: $1,987.25
Hero (BB): $1,265.75

Pre-Flop: A T dealt to Hero (BB)
BTN raises to $30, Hero raises to $100, BTN raises to $205, Hero calls $110

Flop: ($420) Q J 9 (2 Players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $133, Hero calls $133

Turn: ($686) 8 (2 Players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $200, Hero raises to $922.75 and is All-In, BTN calls $722.75

River: ($2,531.50) 2 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Results: $2,531.50 Pot ($1 Rake)
BTN showed K...

overall was a great world cup. good fun to watch, and i spent some time researching football and feel i know alot more now than i did before

http://www.zonalmarking.net/

this is a great site, and has really got me into the tactical side of football. they have recomended a few books that i will begin reading soon.

betwise, in the end with the WC pool i lost between $400 and breakeven depending on the results of our 'blackest player to score' sidebet. i think i have a good chance of winning that one.

i won both my big bets, uruguay to get out of their group for 240GBP and uruguay to get to the semis for 3600GBP.

i did hedge with ghana for $600 that game though, so only won about 3200GBP overall. i'd say everything included i won about $5k betting this WC.

i won a couple hundred betting $25/game, but then broke even hedging, and lost a little with some nice bets on outsiders winning.

was good fun, and nice to win some money doing some non poker gambling

congratulations to spain, they derserve to be world champions, although i am gutted holland didn't win. my dad is dutch, so they are always my 2nd team, and i would have won another $3.5k if they won the world cup


i'll probably come up with a WC 11 in the next few days and post it here

so i won my bet that uruguay would qualify for the last 16 so thats 240 pounds up. ($360)

my uruguay semifinal bet looks amazing now. if uruguay beat south korea and then USA/Ghana then i win about $5k!

also doing great in the WC pools. i worked out that my approx EV before the tournament started was about $-300 and now it is $+400 thanks to argentina and holland doing well, and italy and spain not doing well.

unreal game between italy and slovakia. the world cup is getting really good now after a terrible start.

here is my record now on party bets. what a run i am on

so far i am up $1502.63 with $1185 as my total stake

total profit = $317.65 on party
= $360 in other bets

so grand total of $677.65

so less than 1 buyin at my regular stakes but not bad ROI. if i wasn't such a nit with degen activities i could have been up a fortune.....

so now i have made 29 bets. several of them -EV including betting based on what my gf, who knows nothing about football, happened to think the exact score would be (she was wrong)

in total i have won $956.05 whilst my total stake has been $785. so i am up $171.

i would be comfortably stuck though if i hadn't seen an opportunity with a bad line offered by the bookies and stuck $100 on japan to beat cameroon, and luckboxed the result.

the other bets i made, including the world cup pool, have been going very well indeed. argentina and holland, my 2 big teams have both won their opening 2 games, whilst every other big team has failed to do this (brazil yet to play their 2nd match)

also, uruguay are almost certainly into the last 16, so i should at least win that bet.

here is my betting history on party bets so far. i think i should be more degen and bet either more money, or make higher variance bets

got off to a great start with my accidental double S.Korea bet paying off and then won with my accidental argentina to win bet (lost overall tho because i took the draw too)

my england bet should have come through if not for the calamitous goal keeping. green would be my 3rd choice. david james at least makes mistakes with style and is an overall giant legend, whilst joe hart has seemed almost flawless this season although he has little experience at top level

results so far:

7 bets

3 won, 4 lost

=$-1.25

so far down $50 out of a maximum $50, but not too disheartened

taking mexico looked pretty good at 8/5 since they were crushing south africa, and although uruguay didn't pose much threat, they matched france til they went down to 10 men, so 5/2 on them winning was too good odds to refuse, although i actually thought a draw was a more likely result.

however my 400 quid worth of uruguay bets look very good. mexico and south africa weren't impressive. neither seem able to defend, whilst mexico look great in posession, they just suck at putting the ball in the back of the net

i have to admit with my $25 bets i'm taking more of a gambooling approach and won't be maximising my EV, so i bet on england rather than US (obviously). the lines meant US was a clear bet, but no way i'm betting on them vs england.

the other 2 bets from today are S.korea to beat greece at 7/4 which is probably not too great value, but i love those plucky koreans. and finally i'm taking the draw in nigeria vs argentina as the other 2 bets were just lol terrible.


btw i accidently bet double on south korea and also took the argentina winning line as well in some epic misclicks. i couldn't work out how to cancel bets so just let them lie. i've made way worse than $50 misclicks before so no big deal