It's a long way down

There is actually quite a lot to tell in this post but I will try to keep it as short as possible so people will not be thrown off reading till the end. I think I am actually going to split this into two parts and start with the non-poker-life-happenings. As mentioned in the post before I went to Edinburgh and Stockholm for a few days. Edinburgh is a beautiful city and I even liked the haggis stuff. So many Germans in this city though that it really annoys me because normally I can just talk loudly to my gf in german and no one would understand which means we can slag off about people without hesitation or anything. This is one of the best things about living in a foreign country. On Saturday night we went to the theatre to see a play called “the man who had all the luck” and it was an alright play with some actors that had TV appearances in relatively big movies (Bad Boys, Titanic, East Enders(lol)). Anyway in the row before us there were 4 german girls sitting! I mean what the fuck! It was an english, non-musical, non-classic play for £ 25 per ticket and you still get germans to sit in front of you?! I mean you can go to a small theatre in Berlin watching a german, non-musical, non-classic piece of theatre play and try to find an Englishmen sitting in there. No chance imo. German bitches.
Only downside on the trip was the location of our room in the hotel. They had a night club right in the Hotel which was massively crowded with people and obv was playing loud dancy,trancy,disco jives. Puke. Our room had a little balcony and a window on the side of the building where the entrance was, so it was pretty damn loud. Fortunately we were amazingly tired and still fell asleep pretty quick.

A few days later I went to Stockholm with some people of the company. We stayed in a very nice hotel in the city centre and had really good times on the company’s expenses. First night was just arriving and then going out for a meal in a very nice Italian restaurant were we got to talk to the gay, Italian waiter in there who apparently studied fashion design or something like that and lived all over the places in the world. I think it were about 6 different places in the UK, SanFrancisco and LA in the states, Munich in Germany, somewhere in Italy and in Korea !?. And yes he obv spoke german as well.
Thursday we spent in the factory to get some sales and tech training on some new products but in the evening we went out to one of the coolest places I have ever been to. It was 3 levels under ground and was a massive food and leisure place. The room was massive and had 2 big bars, 3-massive Pool tables with a proper size. Not those small ball(s) things from the UK. About seven car type things where you could play racing video games with the picture projected to the wall. One ball game simulator were you could kick or throw footballs, baseballs, pucks and all sorts towards a goalie or whatever. Two golf simulators were you are obv hitting golf balls on the screen and play on a virtual course and a virtual shooting range were you could shoot on wild ducks on a massive screen. Further back in the room there was the bowling alley with 18 lanes! Which is what we used and I am normally a pretty good bowler but kind of sucked this time cause I couldn’t get used to the too small holes in my 12 or 13 ball. Finally after the bowling thing they had a dart area with 5 dart boards. On of the best things in there was that it just looked like a proper place were the business people meet. Everyone was well dressed, no shouting, screaming or running around of kids, no idiots in tracksuits, just a very pleasant atmosphere. Please compare that to an English bowling centre! Furthermore everything was sooo clean. The tables in the pubs, toilets, streets, just everything.
After the bowling fun we had a really good meal. It was really gourmet like and how you see them in the telly sometimes. Massive plates with almost nothing on. I had something traditional Swedish as a starter with prawns and some other things. For main course I had wild duck fillet. Actually the duck was so wild that I found one of those small bullets in the fillet from when they shot the duck. I guess there are people out there that would try to hurt themselves by biting on it and then claiming compensation but I thought the food was too good to wind people up. After all that we went to some of the historical parts of Stockholm and had a look at them while it was dark and freezing. I actually saw the house in which they decide who will be awarded the Nobel prize. We went to an English Pub and got pissed on company expenses till 2 am and left Stockholm at lunch time next day. I brought home some chocolate, liquorish and horseradish crème for the gf and that was basically the only money I spent in those days. Unfortunately I am at work at the moment so I haven’t got a picture here to put on but I’ll see to do that later. In other terms the recession seems to hit our company now and I am trying to make myself as needed as possible in the company (writing blog posts during working hours does probably not count towards that) to avoid being made redundant if all bad things come together. Fortunately with ThyssenKrupp we have a massive company that could hold us afloat for years but they need to be willing to do that, which is obviously the other side of the medal, although our division is still one of the most profitable within the massive corporation. To be honest I am not really afraid to lose my job anyway as I have a good degree with 3 fluent languages and no commitments in England I could easily always just go wherever there are jobs and could still be picky about where I want to live. At the moment I am thinking if I would lose my job now I would probably move to Vienna (Austria) because it’s a beautiful big city and probably the best place in Europe to play Poker as well.

Oh dear me, this post will be getting loooong.

On the trips to Edinburgh and Stockholm I did a little break from the diet as everything else would have been stupid and so I was enjoying the food and drinks. I am back on the diet now though and can tell you how sick I am of rice and couscous and how much I want a Pizza.

The working out in the gym goes well I think and I am doing a lot of cardio at the moment to get back in shape. The treadmills are definitely my favourite machines. But I am doing some arm/should/back muscle stuff as well. I am very satisfied with the gym so far because it is normally very quiet whenever I go and so I can use every machine as long as I want and when I want and that for only £160 a year. This reminds me on my first day when I went to the gym. It was Friday and I had to fill in all those application forms and all the machines got explained to me. Then I started to work out not knowing when the gym will close and I was completely alone in the gym as well. I guess Friday nights are not very popular for working out. Anyway at about 2 mins to eight the lady in the reception turned off the music and told me that they are closing and I was like “oh…okay, eh…can I still have a shower?”
She: “As long as the security guy isn’t downstairs yet you should be alright”
Me:”Okay”

Obviously there was no security downstairs and I had a shower. Coming out of the shower, putting on the clothes, leaving the changing rooms and entering… darkness. This security guy had me locked in the building. Everything was dark and every door was locked. So I started calling a few people that could call other people that might be able to help me. So I had a friend on the phone and he said that there should be a fire door. I thought that was a good idea and went looking for one and instantly found it. Walking towards this door I saw the big green button that said “push” full of joy I am pressing it and opening the door and suddenly a very annoying loud fire alarm goes off. I look at the door and read the big red sign above the green push button stating “Caution. This door is alarmed.” Well then. At least I was out of the building and found the security guard that came to check why the fire alarm was on and told him that I got locked in. He switched the alarm off and I went home. All good.

Let’s come to the Poker things. I suppose this part could be a lot shorter than the rest as it is very disappointing and therefore not much fun to write about. After I started off the month very good and almost hit the $600 mark at one point things turned around pretty harsh. I ran ice cold at the LHE table in all limits that I played loosing at a rate of -17 bb/100 over 4k hands. This is a ridiculous bad run at the limit tables were -5bb/100 would be considered to be running horrible already. I decided that it was time to make a cut as I wasn't ablt to sit at the tables anymore with a clear and good state of mind which obviously resulted in massive tilt (which never happened before to me at a LHE table) and therefore playing badly as well. Keeping playing and thinking “it should turn around soon” will not help to overcome a swing like this I guess. As I told myself that this swing could still go on for a while as 4k hands are next to nothing variance wise I decided to cash out almost my whole bankroll and get myself a new suit and a nice meal for me and the gf. I left about $15 on the account and started playing tournaments. Which I thought would refresh my mind. It suddenly did and I banked a win in a 27manner SNG a third place finish in a 90 manner SNG and satellited into the $22, 100k guaranteed on FT for $2 in my first 8 tourneys. Over the next few months I will play very low buy in tourneys on Sundays and HUSNG’s during the week and try to grind up a roll. I will take $ 200 as the benchmark for when I want to hit the cash tables again. Its all a bit of a shame as I felt really motivated for online Poker this year, having studied a lot of game theory and was very willing to put in some good volume over the months. I talked to Matt on Saturday and he mentioned that I could be a bit more aggressive with my BR and possibly try playing a bit underolled at the cash tables and take stabs at higher limits, as those few hundred dollars in the online account do not really matter to me. I actually agree with him there but this is more a psychological thing with me that I want to prove to myself that I can beat the limits and move up when I feel confident with my game and not with my BR. Although this could mean that I am not playing to my best at the cash tables atm because the money doesn’t mean enough to me. Meh. Maybe I grind the roll up to $220 and then have a $200 stab at a 5/10 LHE table leaving myself $20 behind in case I need to grind it back up to $200 again. I kind of like that idea. I definitely do not want to redeposit. I don’t know why but for some reason that would feel like a defeat to me.
In live Poker things I am getting battered in the Tuesday tourney week after week for 5 weeks running now. I can not remember the last time when I got my money in behind. I am getting 1 to 9 outered all over the shop at the moment but this should definitely turn around if I can keep up getting my money in as a favour so I’m not worried about that. The first DUPS tourney that I played this year was pretty much the other way around and I finished with a £17 cash.

It is really gay
no one could outplay
Mr ABC-Poker Chris May

I reduced the Poker earning aim to 1k which is far to big but wtf.

Its Aspers tonight and I am due a deep run in that tourney.
If you really read this post to this point you are right sicko Sir. Hope you enjoyed it a bit at least.
Shorter post next time. I promise. Probably millions of grammar and spelling mistakes but I cannot be arsed to re-read this beast of a post.

aims:
money to earn: $978
weight to lose: 16.8kg (2.65 stone)

Truthans