Hello again, quick footy tip for tomorrow!

Don't suppose there is anyone left who still reads this...but just in case..

St Neots to win at Biilericay Town tomorrow in the FA Trophy at 5/1 (Hills)

Detailed write up on Punters Lounge if you are interested, suffice to say that the odds are about 50% higher than they should be.

Struggled badly recently, hence the lack of posts. I've been playing quite a bit live at the Luton G-Casino, but since the decent start it's been a nightmare! Last week summed it up when I had a go at an omaha one, called a big raise with 78910, flop 887, perfect. Bet out, pushed, obv call, and person wiht aces hit his remaining one on the turn (someone else passed the other) Nice one outer which crippled me instead of getting a 20k stack, cheers.

Will keep trying and probably post another update when I start to run well again :D

Cat photos and Luton casino.

As promised, here are some photos of my little princess. I still can't believe how cute she is :D

As you can see she is already very cultured, an Independent reader at the age of two months!

What's that, I here you say? More photos? Okay...

I especially love the way she will pounce on me for hours before falling asleep on the spot :D I actually feel a little guilty in that I'm going to have to leave her for an entire day when I got to see Arsenal in Marseille next month! I'll leave plenty of food, hope she will forgive me. We are so poor at the moment it may well be the last match I go to for a while.

Last Saturday I went to the G-Casino at Luton for the first time, to play in a £30 freezout. I started at 8pm..and finished at about 3.30am Sunday morning when exiting in 5th from an original 45. £65 profit not too bad for a first attempt I guess, even if getting in at nearly half past four in the morning was a bit tiring! Rest assured I'll be going back there again soon.

I played pretty well overall, a bit nitty in places maybe. I was crippled 7 handed when my AQ got rivered with A10, seems every time I play live I get donked! Still, I intend to play live a lot more to (hopefully!) even out the variance.

Thanks for reading, and if there are any additional letters where they shouldn't be in this post, it will be due to the fact that my kitten has been walking over the keyboard and pouncing on my arm whilst I type :D :D

My new kitten.

She is absolutely adorable :D Picked her up a week ago from a rescue centre in Bordon, Hampshire (it doubles as a pet hotel). Didn't realise it was so far away (almost an hour) and she mewed all the way back!

She's settled in fine, was using the litter tray the following day and is the liveliest thing you could imagine! Tears around the place at top speed, pounces on everything, and climbs without any problem (apart from on the way down lol)

I took her back in a pet carrier with an Arsenal towel, maybe that was the reason for the fuss! It doesn't seem to have scarred here fortunately.

A few days ago I put her into her bed with the blanket, before going back to mine. 30 seconds later she was scratching my bed. So I switched the light off first before putting her back, to see if she'd get the hint. Very soon after she leapt onto my bed in the dark, and started purring in my ear. I'm afraid I gave in to this blatant display of emotional blackmail, gave her a stroke, and she cuddled up next to me and fell asleep!

When I registered her at the vets, I was asked what she is being fed. "Tesco kitten food and Whiskas kitten biscuits" (It was all they had!) I replied. "That's okay, isn't it?" "Um, well it's okay, but we recommend you use Royal Canin to help her grow properly" Anyway, I get my free kitten pack, which has some free samples of the said food. I put some of it on her plate...and she won't touch it. That settles that then!

She's getting her first injection tomorrow, fortunately the vet is just down the road, as she clearly does not enjoy the car journey!

I will try and get some photos up for the next post, if I can sort out how to upload them from my new camera phone (you can guess why I finally bought it!)

I can't imagine life without her :D :D :D

August review...and cat update!

Sports Betting: £169.73. Poker: £41.48. Total profit: £211.21

Plans for tomorrow evening have just had to be put on hold...had decided to visit the g-casino in Luton for the £30 freezout following last weeks misfortune (see previous post).

However, I have just been phoned by a rescue centre letting me know there is a 7 week old black and white female kitten available! So, off I go to Holywater early tomorrow morning to have a look and see if I fall in love with it. I think there is a pretty good chance I will tbh :D Was quite a bit younger than I was expecting but there you go. Having to do a bit of tidying up as a result!

I gave Arsenal's transfer window signing a mark of 7.5/10. Mertesacker in particular looks a huge improvement, but leaving it so late has really annoyed me, and the fact that it took our biggest defeat in over a century to force Wenger into action is really poor. Hoping for the best, but time will tell.

Wish me luck with the gambling and the moggy :D

Wenger - fuck off now.

And that applies to the rest of the spineless clueless twats on the board also.

That will be all.

Rounds off a perfect weekend where Chalfont fail to turn up for the second half and get beaten 4-1 after an even first half..oh, and then I drive 80 miles to Nottingham to be donked in the £30 freezout when my QQ gets rivered by A10 for the lead with 16 left from 120, I would have had well over 300k with blinds 4/8, next hand I'm out when my 9s fail to hold up against AQ and AJ. First prize was over £1200.

Total bullshit.

What has happened to my beloved club?

We are fast becoming a laughing stock :(

The manager seems to have lost the plot, other clubs manage to buy the players they need before the season starts, are we unique? Unless he is a complete idiot he must have known Fab and Nasri were going, why were the replacements not already bought? I hear that Kronke insisted on the sale of Nasri rather than risk him walk out for nothing in a year - now whether you think this is sensible or not do we really want the owner dictating transfer policy to the manager? Where does that end?

I would normally have gone to Udinese, but I can't really justify spending £500+ on an overnight trip (here's a clue to why you still have tickets available, guys, in the middle of a big spending squeeze for millions of people, almost doubling the cost of going by making it a two day trip rather than one really is stupid!) when I am so disillusioned with them and their actions :(

And as if that wasn't bad enough, ripped off by Barca getting one of the best players in the world at less than half his value, because of our useless chairman not being decisive, ripped off by yet another crooked ref who thinks a slap constitutes violent conduct but grabbing someone around the neck doesnt, ripped off by a crooked fa who only seem to exist to look at our conduct and ignore every other club, and ripped off by a crooked uefa who make up their rules as they go along. Fuck off the entire lot of you, bunch of scum.

That will be all.

PS, please, please please, can someone break Bartonscum's leg permanently, and get this vile, talentless thug out of our game once and for all. Please. And on that subject, the bbc hit a new low by getting him to host 606. To think that my licence fee goes towards paying him and that tosser Savage, can things get any worse?

2010/11 season preview.

The wait is over...

Premier League. No really stand out bets in the outrights tbh. I think United are about right as are Chelsea. City and Liverpool are far too short, and as for Spurs, lol. Hang on a minute, that has to mean one team must be underpriced. So despite many misgivings, I advise a token 1 point bet on Arsenal at 10-1 with Corals or Hills. Fingers crossed that Ramsey and Wilshere run the midfield following the inevitable departure of Fab.

Other bets: Robin Van Persie to be top scorer. If he stays fit, he wins, if he misses a few games, he probably wins, if he misses several games, he goes close. 3 points to win at 9/1 generally.

Arsenal to finish top 4, 5 points win at 4/5 with VC, I see this more of a 1/3 shot, as it's effectively a match bet to finish ahead of Liverpool.

Championship. 2 points ew on Middlesborough at 18-1 (Hills). Completely friendless in the betting, finished like a train last season and under Mowbray they have to be there or thereabouts. I also advise a 1 point saver on West Ham at 5/1 with Hills as they won't be far away. I can't have Leicester at all and they are ludicrously short, everyone expects all of their new players to gell straight away, I can't see it happening.

League 1. 2 points ew on Sheffield United at 10-1 (Hills). Slightly unfortunate to go down, they retain a decent number of the side from last year, and Danny Wilson is experienced enough to know what is required to get back at the first attempt.

League 2. 5 points ew on Plymouth Argyle at 28/1 (Hills). I make this as one of the best bets I've ever seen. They only went down due to the points deduction and have kept a decent number of the side, as well as some talented youngsters and have made a few notable signings. The other big plus is Peter Reid, who undoubtedly could have got a job at a much higher ranked club, the fact he chose to stay despite the finnacial chaos speaks volumes. A narrow 1-0 defeat to a first choice QPR side was a very encouraging display in pre season, and to be perfectly honest, the odds are ludicrous. Pile in now!

And just for good measure we will try a 1 point win acca on all 4 at 66,670-1 (Hills). Just £15 could make you a millionaire in 9 months. That has to be worth a go, doesn't it? :D

I have also been told by a shrewd source that Cambridge United will have a good season in the Blue Square Premier. 33/1 if you want an ew tickle. (Nothing to do with me if it goes pear shaped, if it does well, I told you so :P)

Opinions welcome. (Still waiting for the Evo Stik South Division One Central to be priced up :D) Hopefully that will happen soon...if not we will have to make do with the match odds.

July update and details for footy season preview.

Sports Betting: £42.20. Poker: -£186.27. Total: -£144.07

Made a stupid mistake on the wsop main event field size when not taking an arb, but just laying one half of it on betfair. Which needless to say cost me badly.

Almost all the poker loss was down to playing the forum game at DTD Nottingham, very nice place, would like to go back there again, may get an account there and try to qualify for a big event. Speaking of which, I am taking a real break from online poker (besides the pca fpp qualifiers) My balance on stars is zero, and it's going to stay like that for a while I think until I get some enthusiasm back.

I got through to round 6 (12,000 fpp) of the PCA, another 4 more wins, and the Bahamas here I come. Well, you can dream can't you :D I note all of the remaining rounds are on 28th August, and like the previous ones approximately 1 in 3 advances each time. I really like that structure, what I am not so keen about is the fact that all bar the final one (321,000 fpps) are turbos with only 1000 starting stack, leaving very little room for play. (Probably a good thing I hear you say ;) )Am I hoping for too much to ask for the poker gods to be with me on just one single day this month?

I've also had another go at qualifying for round 6 again to see if I can build an fpp stack.

Going to do the (eagerly awaited) pre season footy preview on Wednesday, anyone who has followed it the last couple of years should be nicely in profit with almost every selection coming in the top 3, yes, except Arsenal :(

Boycott Murdoch NOW.

Just when you thought he could sink no lower, he proves everyone wrong. As if bribing corrupt police officers, hacking into the phones of murder victims, lying to parliamentry enquiries, getting his papers to fabricate stories etc is not enough, he now tries to make capital out of the horrendous events in Norway to try and link it to Al-Qaeda without caring one jot about what a grieving nation is going through.

Murdoch goes too far

I am calling on everyone to contact your mp, stop buying his newspapers, cancel your sky sports subscription, anything to help get the message that he is not welcome in this country. Please.

This man is SCUM, and he must be stopped in the name of decency.

Thank you.

Struggling to get anything going....

I am sure you know the feeling, no matter what you do, it goes pear shaped. Tried a few small football trades on betfair, no good. I even find arbs with betdaq, and before I can lay them off the goal goes in at the wrong time.

Poker is even worse, the run on stars was so horrific after losing something like 7 80/20 all ins in a row I withdrew the rest and tried to get somewhere from the remaining fpps, needless to say the same thing happened. So with the princely sum of $0.07 and 14 fpps, there was only one course of action. Yep, have a go at qualifying for the PCA :D

All I could do was start at Round 1 (5 fpp rebuy) with not enough for the add on! Got through that, and also scraped through Round 2. Round 3 (500 fpps) is at 5.00 Sunday afternoon and Round 4 an hour later should it be needed. From memory I got to round 6 last year after starting from the same level, so quite a bit of luck is needed to go all the way (8-10 in total?), but boy I am seriously overdue some...

Still no news from FT, I think the main hearing is in a weeks time, but do I really want to keep playing there after they have been run so badly? I haven't had a single email explaining what is happening since they went down, now that is shocking, and I used to praise their excellent customer service. :(

Any recommendations for a new site? I'm thinking Ladbrokes...any advice appreciated.

Looking forward to the start of the football season, well for Chalfont at least. Home draws in FA Cup and Trophy should give a good chance of progression I hope. Arsenal look as if they are trying to hold on to Nasri and Fab, but the market on betfair would still suggest Fab at least is going :(

Speaking of which, I read that the mayor of his home spanish town, one Estanislau Fors i Garcia (yep, you may well say "who") has thrown in his two pence worth by saying that he was being kidnapped. Right, you stupid fucking retarded moron, there are your two minutes of fame, now piss off back to obscurity where you belong. Your club is a bunch of crooked cheats who continually tap up players and bribe officials epecially at Uefa, and constantly get away with it. A scummy, shitty little outfit who want to get every player on the cheap by unsettling them. About time Arsenal got some balls and put out a statement telling them to shove their crooked behaviour up their arses. Bunch of wankers.

No luck on the internet dating yet, but only been going a week, time will tell if the ideal person is out there somewhere...

Thanks for reading and best of luck.

**Sunday edit, a bit of luck for once! Through to round 5 (4,000 fpps) in two weeks. Run well please**

The End for Full Tilt?

Sports Betting: £133.49. Poker: £122.00. Total: £255.49

Will be gutted if it's true, not just because of the $60 odd I have left there (withdrawn just about everything I had, fortunately, not so long ago I had 2-3K!) but it was where I had such a decent run on the low stake plos. I guess the writing was on the wall when they did not let the americans withdraw unlike stars, I am guessing they simply did not have the money to do so! Hence they were in breach of their licence, which was why the Alderney Gambling Control Commission (AGCC) were (sadly) correct to pull the plug prior to the main hearing at the end of July. There are rumours of them trying to get another licence in another juristriction, but seriously, how many people would risk depositing to a company who (at best) has been appallingly run and who have consistently given excuses for their lack of action. At worst, they have acted in a manner which could be described as fraudulent, allowing non americans to continue to deposit whilst not segregating the funds in seperate accounts (unlike stars).

By reading the thread on two plus two, there is someone with a friend who has just over $400k, yep, you did read that correctly, and plenty more with 5 and 6 figure sums. Worrying times indeed! Apparently, he was told that he could withdraw a maximum of $2.5k a week, which when you have several hundred thousand is clearly going to take ages, even though he was removing the most he could since Black Friday. I am also sure that the staff were watching VERY closely for chip dumping as it would be obvious that people may try to attempt it to get money off the site.

You would think that with so many customers and such a solid cash flow they would be able to organize something...but clearly the lack of trust is the big stumbling point unless there is a big cash injection sufficient to pay everyone their balance. And that would take very deep pockets..unless I win the Euromillions tonight it won't be me I'm afraid...

It will be interesting how this will effect the Main Event Field size, surely nobody will turn up representing a site which could be bust and holding hundreds of millions of players money - they would get all manner of stick, wouldn't they?

Looking forward to the start of the new season as far as Chalfont are concerned. As for Arsenal, well, who knows, unhappy times sadly :( Just got my Travel Club Renewal thanking me for going to the away matches, I was considering going to the CL qualifier depending on where it is, now I just don't know :( Europa League anyone?

Thanks for reading and good luck.

What the hell is going on at Hearts?!?!

I read the following, and thought it was a wind up...but no, it's the official club statement! Are the directors on some hallucinogenic drug?

Official Statement

Truly staggering stuff! :0

Not much to report on the poker, had a shot at the first ever saturday Omaha, came 37th of 1550, was only in it due to the free ticket if you failed to cash! Bit annoying to play for 5 hours, and only get a minor cash when first was $12k. If I've said it once, I've said it many times, the payout structures are ridiculous and the main reason why I hardly play any tourneys there.

Good luck and thanks for reading.

Just recieved a refund from Pokerstars regarding collusion.

Hello,

PokerStars has become aware of accounts who have violated our Terms of Service, to the potential detriment of other players. You played against these accounts and as a result you may have been adversely affected.

In a case such as this it is our policy to confiscate the balances of the offenders and for PokerStars to add funds where appropriate. This compensation pool is then distributed to players potentially affected in as fair a way as possible.

To confirm your credit, please log onto your PokerStars account, go to the 'Cashier' screen and click the 'History' button. Your share will be shown as "ADMIN CREDIT", followed by the amount of the credit.

The integrity of the games at PokerStars is of paramount importance and appropriate action will always be taken when players operate outside the Terms of Service. PokerStars works hard to police the games in order to proactively prevent such instances. However, in cases where it is discovered that rules breaches have occurred, the aim is to ensure that any players affected are compensated appropriately.

We regret that we will be unable to answer questions as to how your specific credit amount was calculated. Likewise, we are not at liberty to identify the specific games or players in question. Suffice to say that the offenders have been barred from the site and you will not encounter them again.

Thank you for your continued play at PokerStars. Please let us know if we can help you with any further issues or questions.

Regards,

Dan H.

PokerStars Game Security

Having run horrifically for well over 1000 games for two months I had been wondering if there was any more to it than that...hmmm! Maybe just a coincedence, but it's been going MUCH better since about 20th May (hastily touches a wooden object!). I wonder...

In case you are wondering, my credit was the princely sum of $1.84. Which I'm not exactly going to get rich on...but it is very nice to know that the site take the integrity of the games so seriously. When players are talking in a foreign language a moderator will appear within 20 seconds or so to stop them.

Other sites could learn a great deal from the top quality customer service displayed by them to all customers, large or small. I even remember a few months ago when I emailed them a couple of times about some query (I can't even remember exactly what it was about!) when I hadn't played for a year or two. Made no difference, I got the same prompt, courteous service that you would expect. I've done so several times since on a variety of matters since I started playing the fifty50s seriously, and they have always been excellent. On a couple of them I even got asked to complete a customer service survey which I got some FPPs for!

Long may it continue!

May Review.

Sports Betting: +£1,345.55. Poker: +£0.78. Total: +£1,346.33

The vast majority of the winning was laying off the ew accumulator on Arsenal to be top 3, and thank goodness I did :| Sadly Paddy's ew terms for the Prem next season are a third the odds 1,2, let's hope they or some other firm offers some better ones.

In poker I finally started to ran much better towards the end of the month, with the effect that even this sort of hand started to go my way:

PokerStars Game #62777009994: Tournament #399838556, $6.60+$0.40 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level IX (100/200) - 2011/05/31 13:42:52 WET [2011/05/31 8:42:52 ET]
Table '399838556 1' 10-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: volh2 (2765 in chips)
Seat 2: willboro (1103 in chips)
Seat 3: Mr.Doomguy (1600 in chips)
Seat 5: Chiplider321 (1300 in chips)
Seat 6: SmartButcher (2365 in chips)
Seat 8: CHUMAKE (2508 in chips)
Seat 9: stervochkast (2080 in chips)
Seat 10: Modjadji (1279 in chips)
volh2: posts the ante 25
willboro: posts the ante 25
Mr.Doomguy: posts the ante 25
Chiplider321: posts the ante 25
SmartButcher: posts the ante 25
CHUMAKE: posts the ante 25
stervochkast: posts the ante 25
Modjadji: posts the ante 25
Mr.Doomguy: posts small blind 100
Chiplider321: posts big blind 200
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Modjadji [3s 5c]
SmartButcher: folds
CHUMAKE: folds
stervochkast: folds
Modjadji: raises 1054 to 1254 and is all-in
volh2: folds
willboro: calls 1078 and is all-in
Mr.Doomguy: folds
Chiplider321: calls 1054
*** FLOP *** [Jc 9s 5d]
*** TURN *** [Jc 9s 5d] [2s]
*** RIVER *** [Jc 9s 5d 2s] [9h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Chiplider321: shows [Qs Ad] (a pair of Nines)
Modjadji: shows [3s 5c] (two pair, Nines and Fives)
Modjadji collected 352 from side pot
willboro: shows [As Kd] (a pair of Nines)
Modjadji collected 3534 from main pot
willboro finished the tournament in 8th place

And not before time! In the end despite being down well over $100 about 10 days ago, I ended up with the tiniest of profits, in actual fact I was about +$50 on the stars d2ns, but lost on FT when running horribly in the few PLO mtts I played.

As promised a couple of share tips. Warning - these are speculative, and you should only risk money you can afford to lose! With that previso, here goes:

Herenica (closing price 2.88p) I might be a week too late as it was 2.4p recently, but hey ho. Excellent long term potential mining stock which are currently undergoing a major operation in Chile. Latest news here

Desire Petroleum (closing price 12.75p) This is the sort of company where you want to buy them, forget about them, and check in a years time, where the company could have gone under or be worth a shedload. They are exploring for oil around the Falklands, have hit several blanks when drilling so far, and really need more capital to continue. Latest news is here

Both of these can be bought on the AIM (alternative investment market)

Good luck!

What next for Arsenal?

Any other supporter concerned for next season? I am. They usually end the season playing well and giving hope for the next one, but quite the opposite has happened this time :( With two months left everything was going fine, but it collapsed in alarming fashion to the extent that they suffered the humiliation of finishing behind Man City. Fortunately I managed to lay off my ew accumulator with Paddies by laying them for a top 3 place to secure a decent profit. However another two accas I had which had them in the top 2 missed out, with the result that I lost out on over 3 grand, to add to the 7.5 which happened last season :( :( :( 2nd last season and this season, and I'm five figures better off, pretty depressing stuff for a supporter, isn't it?

A work colleague asked me if I was only doing them because I support them. I can see where he is coming from, but I honestly do bets when I see value, and I simply couldn't make them a 7/1 chance at the start. I'm guessing I was proved right as they traded at 7/4, but then again you coud argue that their final position made their pre season odds about right?! A case that can be made either way I think. Also, I had one of my biggest wins of the season when they played Barca at home, and pretty sure I would have had another had it not been for the scandalous sending off at the Nou Camp.

I may change my approach for next season, at the very least I will do an ew acca or two which doesnt include the premiership. It's pretty gutting to pick teams to finish in the top 3 of the other leagues for two years running (most of them at double figure prices!) only to be let down by the club I support :(

I might have to give poker a complete break at the end of this month, I can't stop running horrifically on stars in the 50fiftys and there seems no end in sight.

Brighter news, Chalfont were confirmed as being promoted to the Southern League Division One Central, loads of local derbys including Uxbridge, which is literally a couple of miles up the road and much quicker to get to than a home game :D

There will be a share tip or two in my next post :0

Hope you are faring better than me.

This can't continue, surely?

Well, I started playing the $10 fifty50s...and ran even worse, I was over $100 in the first 3 or so days after only playing 66! So I dropped back down to the $5s, got half of it back before...you've got it, things got even worse still. I am honestly at my wits end to know how to get through this, I must be near $1k down at EV since my downswing over a month ago. It surely can't keep going I tell myself..but it does. Sigh. I am also down 1 mouse which reacted badly to being thrown against the wall!

The worst thing is you can frequently put them on a hand..like this:

PokerStars Game #61892911056: Tournament #392999962, $5.00+$0.24 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level V (40/80) - 2011/05/09 22:48:19 WET [2011/05/09 17:48:19 ET]
Table '392999962 1' 10-max Seat #3 is the button
Seat 1: ExpatJeru (1780 in chips)
Seat 2: Andy_Lin1989 (1665 in chips)
Seat 3: riquelme1969 (1530 in chips)
Seat 4: Modjadji (720 in chips)
Seat 5: artgrab1 (3840 in chips)
Seat 6: Drialnayr (1280 in chips)
Seat 7: bafoncio (1350 in chips)
Seat 9: damir220 (1500 in chips)
Seat 10: pbrasil88 (1335 in chips)
ExpatJeru: posts the ante 5
Andy_Lin1989: posts the ante 5
riquelme1969: posts the ante 5
Modjadji: posts the ante 5
artgrab1: posts the ante 5
Drialnayr: posts the ante 5
bafoncio: posts the ante 5
damir220: posts the ante 5
pbrasil88: posts the ante 5
Modjadji: posts small blind 40
artgrab1: posts big blind 80
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Modjadji [9h Kh]
Drialnayr: folds
bafoncio: folds
damir220: folds
pbrasil88: folds
ExpatJeru: folds
Andy_Lin1989: folds
riquelme1969: folds
Modjadji: calls 40
artgrab1: checks
*** FLOP *** [2s 2c 7s]
Modjadji: bets 140
artgrab1: calls 140
*** TURN *** [2s 2c 7s] [7c]
Modjadji: checks
artgrab1: checks
*** RIVER *** [2s 2c 7s 7c] [5d]
Modjadji: checks
artgrab1: bets 240
Modjadji: calls 240
*** SHOW DOWN ***
artgrab1: shows [6s Js] (two pair, Sevens and Deuces)
Modjadji: shows [9h Kh] (two pair, Sevens and Deuces - King kicker)
Modjadji collected 965 from pot

I snap called this and it wasn't even close. So why can't I beat them over the last 1500 games or so when they call an all in for almost their entire stack with Q7 on the bubble? :( I decided to buy Jared Tendler's "The Mental Game of Poker" after seeing very impressive reviews - will it help me? Time will tell...

Slightly better news on the betting, Wycombe's win on Saturday gave them third and I remembered that one of my ew accas was done with Paddy Power, who pay top 3 in the Premiership! So realizing that Arsenal may well blow third place, I laid them off (I've done most of it and will do the rest before Man City v Spurs tomorrow) to guarantee myself a grand either way. I am working on next year's one now. Okay I tell a lie, I've already pretty much made my mind up on it, but you'll have to wait for next season's preview to see what it is :D

Chalfont won the cup to make it a double for the first time in their 85 year history, super stuff, really chuffed. Roll on next season, although I was planning on going to the Southern League AGM where we should be inaugurated I have found out that it will be in Torquay..so maybe not!

Thanks for reading and good luck...please could someone remove the doomswitch before the next post?

April Review.

Sports: -£76.82. Poker: -£52.15. Total: -£128.97

What a nightmare. As mentioned in the previous post I have had a horrendous month on the fifty50s. Despite playing nearly 1000, I am somehow down even including bonuses! Over what period is it possible to run badly, is this normal? Sod it, I'm going to try the $10 ones anyway!

Sport has been no better, lost out on Nasri to win player of the year, I guess I could have laid off bits although the betfair liquidity was never really good :( It will be worse next month as I will include the ante post bets, which just like last year it looks to have cost me a packet by Arsenal not being in the top two :( Next season I will have to do one without them.

Speaking of which, I saw them against Man United today, they looked much better, maybe this was the future without Fabregas? Great to see Ramsay get the winner in his first home game back after the injury. And Arshavin running back and making important tackles, did I dream it?!?! Makes it all the more annoying as they should not just be top, but have already won the league :( :(

On the bright side, Chalfont ended with what could well be a record Premier Division total of 103 points, and we have a chance to get the double with a cup final win on Tuesday. I wore the shirt with pride today, and outside the Emirates someone asked about it and offered his congratulations, his mate is a Berkhamsted fan who have gone up from Divison One this year with even more points than we got! Best wishes to them also.

This was more enjoying than Arsenal winning the league tbh, grass roots football at it's best. I literally shuddered at the Real Madrid v Barca semi final last week. One of the worst games of football ever, both sides a disgrace to the game setting out to cheat from the start. Yes of course all sides have players that do it, (Eboue may know to whom I refer) but I have never seen a game where both teams had a single plan to dive, feign injury, and con the ref from the word go. Players carried off on stretchers only to run back on shortly after, running into others backs before going down clutching their face in agony, what a joke!

I would have liked to see bookings aplenty until 3 players were sent of from both sides to see if they got the message. I did laugh at Mourinho and his conspiracy theories, and even the fact that RM put the video on their website, showing the referees mistakes. Well all I can say is Arsenal could have produced one just about every week for the last two months.

Chelsea v Spurs again proved my point that there are corrupt officials in the premiership, it's starting to turn the game into a lottery. This is why I enjoy the non league game more!

Thanks for reading and good luck,

What an awful month.

I've literally ran as bad as it is to run in those fifty50s, at the time of writing I am down by just under $20 including bonuses after playing 692 of them! Thank goodness I don't have one of those tracking things that gives you your expected EV, I am pretty certain I am at least $500 down :(

Had two goes at the $2 2 seat gtd wsop qualifier on ft (used to be $1 5 seats gtd before the Americans got the boot, but I am sure I saw one in it, not sure how!), ended 364th and 281st out of 7970. The 2nd one saw me typically run KK into a suited ace rag in a 50k pot, well it was never going to hold up, was it?

Hope you are faring better than me. I will post the following picture to cheer myself after Arsenal fecked it up (The t-shirt is being ordered tommorrow :D)

Oh, and please, please, please, do not miss your chance to vote for a fairer electoral system on May 5th. Even if you dislike Clegg, it would be silly to let the lies, smears, falsehoods and complete bullshit from the No campaign to succeed. Prove them wrong in their assumption that you are too thick to understand about how to put 1,2,3 on your ballot paper instead of a cross.

CHAMPIONS!

Well done to the Spartan South Midland Premier champs - look out all those in the Southern League, the Saints are coming to get you :D

March and Football Update.

Sports Betting: -£94.41. Poker: £250.75. Total: £156.34

The sports loss was annoying, especially as it would have been a decent profit had it not been for Arsenal being cheated at the Nou Camp. Speaking of which, I am even less bothered about the national side than I was previously. Sure it's nice to see the likes of Wiltshere doing well, but going back a week I was disgusted to see the game against Wales kicking off at 3.00pm. In case you were unaware, it is a Premier League rule that no game in the top flight can be shown live on TV (well legally anyway!) to ensure that lower league sides do not have their attendances affected. So why could that game not start at 5.00 pm? Why should loads of smaller clubs have to rearrange their games to avoid clashing? Would the TV audience be less if it was put on a couple of hours later? Hardly. Oh, and in their infinite wisdom, the highlights were not available on terrestrial as normal. Did none of the players think "Hang on a minute, it's our national sport and the only way you can view any of the game, never mind live coverage, is on Sky - what the hell is going on at the FA??

So I really couldn't give a stuff about the result, I couldn't even tell you who scored tbh. I doubt I'm the only one. The only thing I hope for at international week is for no Arsenal player to be injured (well other than Van Persie, it almost seems to be a given that he will be :( )

Chalfont have a 13 point lead with 7 games to go, surely we can't blow it from here? Hope not, but you never know! We have conceeded a huge 1 goal in the last 8 games, although our goals have dried up since our top midfielder was injured (he should be back for the next one hopefully), so have the ones going in at the other end! A maximum of 3 more wins will do the job, and tbh, having watched them for over 20 years, it will be more enjoyable watching them win the league than Arsenal, although naturally I'd like both!

I ended up playing 1000 of the $5 + $0.24 fifty/50 sngs, ended up with an ROI of just under 7%, or 7.9% if you include bonuses, not a disaster by any stretch, but less than what I was looking for as it was hovering around 10 for most of the month before a nightmare week saw me literally dozens of buy ins below ev. I'm going to give them another month at that level before deciding on moving up to the $10s. I will also play a few more tournaments on FT for a bit of variety, I've got enough Iron man medals and points for 3 $26 tickets as well as the cash still in there.

Thanks for reading and best of luck.

Silver Star obtained on Stars.

Well, as mentioned previously I decided to invest part of the staking money won on the 50/50s in an attempt to see if I could do likewise by myself! After a horrific few days which saw me almost return to my starting point by losing almost every all in be it flip, 70/30, 40/60, or just about everything else, I was on the verge of quitting and going back to FT! Then came an amazing two days where I literally couldn't miss, my 2% roi went back to 10%, and I was a lot happier. Highlight was pushing the monster that is 32o utg on the bubble and running into 99, flop 2, river 3, ty, gg.

I've played 550 of the $5 +$0.24 games, and, including bonuses am a bit over $300 up after paying $142 in rake. I even deposited another $300 to get a 25% deposit bonus on the basis that if I was going to play a load anyway I might as well get credit for it! As also mentioned it works out around 27% rakeback even if it only lasts for a month, I will try and get the full $75 (it will be quite a bit easier now I have Silver status as you get a 1.5 multiplier) Whilst starting off just playing one or two, I can now manage 6 at once without any difficulty. More than that, I would have to get another monitor to prevent overlap! Can worry about this in future.

Speaking of rakeback, one of the reasons I was reluctant to play much was the lack of it, but having thought about it, I'm actually better off than with FT. The low stakes plo8 turbo games I was playing there were $6 + $0.50, ie 8.3% rake or 6.1% after rakeback. Bizarrely the next level up was actually $11 + $1, i.e 9.1% rake or 6.6% after rakeback! However on stars the games are $5 + $0.24, ie 4.8% even with zero bonuses! And the next level up is identical, $10 + $0.48. So I will stick here for a bit and see how it goes. Although I probably have enough of a roll already to try the $10 games, I will stay with the $5s until I have played 1000, which should give me a decent number to make a judgement on.

Oh btw, that deposit gave me a $5 ticket for a home games tryout, which has to be used in the next couple of weeks, so anyone who is interested, let me know, be a shame to waste it!

I'm betting much less on football now, it's really getting tougher to beat the prices, and official decisions are making more and more games into a lottery, unless of course you are in the know. It seems to be easier and more rewarding to grind on a poker site! And what with the state of the economy and no-one sure if we are about to go back into recession, it makes sense to get another source of income (I work for the english branch of a Japanese company), we are not sure how badly we will be affected yet, time will tell. Speaking of which, my heart goes out to all the relatives and friends of the victims there. Puts moaning about betting and football into perspective, doesn't it?

Chalfont are still 10 points clear with 10 matches left, although our scoring ratio has plummeted, so have the number we are shipping! One in the last 6 games, if Mr Wenger wants to put in a bid for a couple of our defenders I'm sure we could sort something out...

I've worked out that the overpayments I have made to date are already saving me about £15 per month in interest on my mortgage, or it's the equivalent of getting 6% in a bank, or about 8% before tax! In other words it's worthwhile :D

Thanks for reading and best of luck.

The worst bet in the history of bookmaking.

Truly one for the terminally brain dead and stupid. Doubtless they will have got plenty of custom :D

Worst Bet Ever

(End of the World bet)

Just what you need, to tie up your cash for nearly 2 years on a 1/999 chance with some mickey mouse outfit who nobody has ever heard of. Or back a 55/1 chance which it is physically impossible to collect on.

What could possibly go wrong?!?!

I am still seething about that crook of a ref cheating Arsenal at the Nou Camp with the sending off. I'd backed 1-1 pre match, laid Barca at 1.09 in running for a load, and asked a friend to green up if it got to 70 mins at level. Odd how whenever Barca are in trouble they get an official to give a dreadful decision to help them out (Chelsea springs instantly to mind). Ignore the stats about them having most of the possession (like that was never going to happen) or that Arsenal never had a shot, the facts were that for the first 55 minutes they comfortably restricted them to a couple of chances, the only goal conceeded was as a result of an unforced error, and within a few minutes of restart they applied some pressure and got an equalizer straight away.

What is truly unreal is that a load of people claim the sending off made no difference because RVP never had a shot in the first half. I see, so the fact that the odds on Barca qualify went from about evens to 2/5 as a direct result is just a coincedence, is it?!? And I supposed having Bendtner on the end of that sitter 3 minutes from the end didn't change anything either, wtf??? Actually it isn't unreal, because most pundits and people on the forum are clueless imbeciles when it comes to football and betting.

Speaking of which, yet more outages on Betfair, and what do they offer as a result? A few commission free markets. Yippee. What an absolute joke these bunch of twats are, hopefully their share price continues to crash and people who were stupid enough to buy their vastly overpriced shares will lose a packet as this seems like the only language they understand. Their customers do not matter one jot it seems.

And speaking of Arsenal, I'm naturally disappointed about the recent defeats, but tbh, this was the point I made on the forum:

"Bar two match winning performances by the respective keepers and an abysmal ref decision, we'd have one trophy, be odds on for another, and in the last 8 of the CL. Such small margins between success and failure"

I stand by that. And that isn't even including the latest scandalous reffing decisions that cheated us out of two points in the sunderland game. The facts are that if we and man united had correct decisions all season, we'd be at least 6 points clear and everything would look rosy. Oh, and on the subject of bent refs, did anyone spot Scholes commit another two awful tackles at the end of the game and get away with just a booking? Has this ever happened before? Only on several dozen occasions.

I'm trying the $5 50/50s on stars, but running uberbad as per just about always on this site(about 2% roi at last count!) it really defies belief how bad so many players are at this level, but I still struggle to beat them. Sigh. I tried despositing $300 to take advantage of a 25% deposit bonus for a month (it works out at about 27% rakeback equivalent) but unless things pick up, I reckon it'll be coming back out and I'll go back to FT.

A bit of good news, Chalfont won 1-0 against their rivals Tring Athletic to go 10 points clear of them with a game in hand. 24 points from their last 12 games will guarantee them the title! News of their 1-0 win at Dunstable was the only thing to cheer me up in Spain a week ago.

Thanks for reading and best of luck.

February Review and looking forward to Barca.

Sports Betting: Profit of £249.74. Poker: Profit of £268.09. Total: Profit of £517.83. Most of the poker profit is from staking, but we'll include it anyway :D

Biggest disappointment of the month (in fact for a long time) was missing out on some shares when I put in an order for £500 worth of JJB shares at 3.65p, when they were hovering just below 4p. Needless to say I didn't get matched, and two days later I check the price, £50m new share issue, and the price is at 32p. 4k profit down the drain because for the first time ever I didn't just buy at the current price. Gutted doesn't even begin to describe it :(

Whilst I think Barcelona are comically short to beat Arsenal at the current show of 1.32 (you would have to be utterly stupid to back it) the loss of Walcott, and especially Van Persie when he was playing so well does temper my enthusiasm. Fabregas will probably play even if not entirely fit, we have a chance, but it will need a great performance to make it.

To give you an indication as to just how rubbish that price is, Barcelona were 2.1 to beat Real Madrid earlier this season. With VP, Walcott, and Cesc all fit and playing I'd be having the biggest bet ever as they would certainly be a better side than RM. Even if you say (with hindsight) that the 2.1 was too high, is anyone serious suggesting that RM are 3 times as good as Arsenal? Mmm, let me think about that.. I've still got to put in a decent lay as the price should be around 1.7.

Was feeling pretty miserable at half time tonight, with Chalfont and Chelsea both losing 1-0. What a difference 45 minutes makes as both end up 2-1 winners! Chalfont are now 7 ponts clear with a game in hand with 15 matches remaining, and Arsenal now have things in their hands for the first time. I've got tickets for both Liverpool and United home games, let's hope there is a lot resting on them in a couple of months!

Am giving stars a try for this month, as well as the profit above I took the remainder of the staking money winnings as a small roll to start giving the 50/50s a try. Time will tell if I am wasting my efforts, may well be going by previous attempts on that site!

I'll give you all a wave a Camp Nou. (It was a choice between that or Dunstable...it was a tough decision, but Spain just won through ;)

Thanks for reading and best of luck.

Get on Arsenal NOW.

Over 3/1 on them at HOME to Barca? lmao, one of the silliest prices you will ever see. Has the person who made the visitors odds on not spotted their away record in the CL? They've failed to beat the might of Shaktar Donetsk, FC Copenhagen, yet they are just going to turn up and walk over one of the top 6 sides in Europe on their own ground? No way Jose. Don't complain, take advantage of these idiots who couldn't price up a cheese sandwich.

Corruption in sport.

To start with, to fend off the inevitable accusations of bias I'll happily admit we should have been professional enough to hold on, and that Diaby was an idiot for responsing how he did. That's got it out of the way.

Well, understandably Jack Wilshere has stopped short of saying it, so I will. Phil Dowd, you are a crook. It's not the first time you've been a disgrace in an Arsenal game (Check the stats if you don't believe me). Apparently pushing someone consistutes "violent conduct", however, throwing your arm around their neck before pulling them to the ground does not. Yeah okay. Put you along MBE (Manchester's Best Employee) Howard Webb and it's prety tough to beat.

What truly baffles me is that hardly anyone even seems to countenance the idea that officials in this country could be corrupt. I've shown various clips on fixed games in other countries, refs in Germany, Italy, Russia and Greece have been found guilty in recent years, to name but a few...but yet it's supposedly inconcievable that it could happen in good old honest England, despite an abundance of evidence to the contrary. Not 50/50 decisions, or controversial decisions which are still unclear after several replays, but ones which are blindingly obviously wrong, and ones where a 10 year old could get it right.

Where there are huge amounts of money involved, corruption is inevitable. Only a couple of days ago three Pakistani cricketers got 5 year bans, but as any regular follower will tell you (I'm not one) they've been doing it for years. And that happened in a high profile game, in this country.

So who do we look to in clearing the game up? Sepp Blatter, head of Fifa....oh shit, one of the biggest thieving crooks ever, who regularly takes bungs when it comes to important decisions like World Cup Bids or gives them out when seeking re-election. Asking him to sort the matter out would have been like getting Harold Shipman to investigate problems in care for the elderly.

We're knackered.

January review and March staking thoughts.

Sports Betting: -£38.70. Poker: £216.89. Total: £178.19

Slow start to the year, quite pleased with the poker, the 2nd in the $5 plo rebuy being the highlight. Which brings me on to the main point of the post.

I am thinking of giving the FT daily $10 plo rebuys a serious shot. Having withdrawn so much for the deposit on the house / mortgage I don't really have the roll to sustain a bad run, especially when each one costs $30 - $50 (if I bust early on I will rebuy, say in the first 3 levels normally) if you include the double stack to start and the add on. So could easily be $200+ for a week even if I'm out at the footy and don't play every day. I'm therefore thinking of asking maybe 10 people to put up $100 each so I could give them a decent go for at least 1 month and then review it from there. Obviously any profit after stake would be shared equally. Here are my full stats - I am not including SNGs but if anyone is interested I am slightly up on those also:

I think it's fair to say they are decent enough, and over the full course I'd be reasonably confident of coming out ahead, but time will tell. 99% of the above is plo, with a very few low stakes nlh.

All profits would just be based on these games, I suppose I could include the odd $5 freezout if I am in at the time, I usually only play one mtt at once. There would only be a tiny amount of rakeback but this would be added also! Any freerolls qualified for from previous play would not count. I may possibly try the odd sat for the main $35k plo event on Saturdays, but normally wouldn't bother as there is generally only one seat. And I could easily unregister and take the tourney dollars if I made it, thinking about it this would probably be best anyway.

I'd be interested if anyone thinks this is viable / sensible, if you have any questions / ideas to change it please let me know.

Thanks for reading and all the best.

Another decent result.

Like I mentioned, made no progress in the hilo stts this month, so wondering if the last two months were just a fluke? Very marginal profit in them, really only playing them at present for the iron man thingy and to clear the end of year bonus, but thinking of going back to the plo mtts once this is done...this one saw me finish 2nd and we almost had an even chop where I got $277, it swung back and forth. I was certainly not at my best in this tournament, made a few poor calls, guess I'm getting out of practice, which is another reason for getting back to them :D

Going to be a losing month on the sports betting baring a miracle sunday, but will be backing murray to win the tennis at an amazing price of 2.44, hopefully that will go well.

Hope you are faring well and good luck.

First win of 2011.

I've been concentrating on the plo8 stts again this month, and can't really get going, running very badly and getting donked continually. Not far behind, but seem to cut down when this happens :) Anyway, barely played any plo tourneys recently, but thought I'd give one more a try this morning and was glad I did. Just a small one but they all count...

Football is not going great either, I am sure that it is harder to win then it used to be as prices seem to be getting more accurate on the exchanges. Still have my pre season bets and also one on Nasri at 40/1 to be player of the year from a couple of months back, let's hope we get some money back from these. I am going to both legs of the Barca game, we should give them a footballing lesson. Bendtner > Messi imho. :D

Chalfont won another tight away game yesterday, 1-0 at Hadley in very heavy conditions. Ten points clear at the halfway stage is an excellent situation to be in, no question! The first half also saw yours truly falling flat on his back when trying to retrieve the ball from a sodden patch of grass, no doubt this will please Rosie after I mentioned yesterday that I'd be going to my local Lib Dem January dinner! The neck is still a bit sore today but no lasting damage, hopefully :)

Righto, I am going to have to say this for an hours time:

"Come on you Stratford Hotspurs"

If you are betting on the game, I advise you to go for under 2.5 goals at 1.93 or so.
Thanks for reading and good luck :D

Not another fixed footy match....

Well, either that or the players are amazingly crap...judge for yourself...

Dodgy Greek game

Still gutted about Arsenal tonight, but nice to see a small team which only cost £400m or so being so delighted after fluking the point they came for...

2010 review.

Reasonable December to end the year: Sports Betting: £157.61. Poker: £336.41. Total profit: £494.02.

Yearly total: Sports Betting: £2,375.03. Poker: £1,152.67. Total: £3,527.70

Positives:

Very few tbh! I suppose two decent months to end with not far short of half the total profit saved it from being a total disaster. November and December saw me trying the $6 turbo hilo stts seriously, with 300 / 318 played in each and 18.5% / 23.6% roi (not including rakeback) is pretty good I guess. Oh, and having my own place (albeit with a big mortgage!) is what I really wanted. Going to try to manage on my own without getting a lodger for the time being, may have to change this if it gets tough.

Negatives:

Where do you want to start?!? Worst total ever, Arsenal not coming 2nd last year costing me £7.5k on the each way acca. Awful first half of the year where I was actually up by less than £100 at the end of June! Trying to keep going on Betdaq and the lack of markets feels like banging my head against a wall.

I'm going to give a few new ideas a try, time will tell if they work out. My target for 2011 is to make at least £6k in total, it's getting tougher to make a profit from gambling full stop, but that should be achievable imo. I've made so many mistakes this year, cutting them out should do the job.

Happy New Year to you, and may all your dreams come true in 2011.