A Damp Squib in The Searing Heat

The weekend began for me with  Saturday morning's MiniTwitter Poker Tour on Carbon Poker. This is a weekly event which has a buy in of $5.50 and offers a $109 tournament token for Sunday's 50K to the winner. As there were only ten runners, the value of this is excellent. I actually won it two weeks ago but didn't take great advantage of the first prize and busted pretty early from the 50K. 

This week there were eight Americans and two of us from the UK and the prospect of another win looked a possibility as there was no Steve Brogan to get past. As the tournament starts at such a late hour, I had already consumed two barrels of German beer which is traditional and my head was feeling suitably fired up. It all started very badly for the Europeans as my fellow Brit Jeff hit the rail before I had time to drink my first tournament beer. Oh well, it's down to me now I thought. I passed a few early hands and then looked down at pocket Aces. Mmmm let's see what I can do with these. I was in middle position and fired in a standard raise and was called by 'Shitman' on the Big Blind. Now a raise is a show of strength from me as I don't bluff early position and certainly not this early in a tournament. the flop came down 99x and I kept firing until all the chips were in the middle. Shitman turned over Jack 9 off suit and that was it for me. A bad call which sent me into a blind alcohol fuelled rage. I joined a fellow Tweeter Street3 who had fallen asleep and missed the event and played a very enjoyable heads up with him after we had wiped the floor with 4 other players. He ended up sucking out on me but hell I don't mind as I did similar to him a few weeks ago. Nice one Street3 !!

Saturday afternoon was FA Cup final day and it started very well for Everton and the neutral spectator, and everyone else who despises Chavski and their rancid collection of brutish fuckers. Louis Saha fired in a cracker which was the fastest goal in FA Cup Final history. A fantastic start to a game that was to turn into a big damp squib. By the time that Lumpturd fired in the winner I was reaching for the sick bag. Someone tweeted 'Plate faced twat' which really summed it up for me and I smiled. I switched over to Scottish Cup Final as soon as the final whistle went and am glad to say that I haven't yet seen one image of their celebrations. I am still not convinced that the new Wembley is the great arena it should have been and Setanta's coverage is certainly never going to compete with Sky. Big damp squib is my overriding summary of a cup final that will live in the memory as long as Susan Boyle's singing. 

Well done to Diversity for winning 'Britain's Got Talent' and well done to the Scottish weather for giving us the opportunity of a Sunday afternoon barbecue. Time for some serious eating and drinking........

Why am I not at World Series of Poker?

'Shuffle  up and deal' those famous words that herald the greatest event in the poker world. The World Series of Poker 2009 is underway in The Rio and I so wish that I was there. The Main Event starts on Friday July 3rd and I guess I do have time to qualify, but it's been a hard year for me at the tables and I no longer have the bankroll to give it a shot in one of the bigger satellites. We spent a lot of time at The Rio on our last Vegas trip and I did well at the cash tables there - I just want the opportunity to be back there in July. I do believe I will play in it one day and I think most poker players have to believe such things are possible. Chris Moneymaker did it so why not me... or you. For now I will just have to content myself with the Twitter Poker Tour.

The TPT took place last night with 40 runners. I didn't have a great run and ended up going out 24th. It starts at 2am UK time so is not really suited to most Europeans who work. There is however, a European TPT that starts at 7pm UK and a lot less runners, usually 9 or 10. I finished second last night after a marathon heads up with Steve Brogan. The turning point came when I paired my ace on the flop and shoved not realising he had the nut flush which improved to a Royal Flush on the river. Nice one Steve !! I never really recovered after that and Steve took down his second TPTE in a row. Well done to him.

There is not a lot happening in the world of Arsenal at the moment but if any of you tune in to Arseblog's Arsecast, you will have heard me as the first caller with my 'disappointment of the season'. It has to be that horrible night at The Emirates when Sp*rs came back to draw 4-4. I honestly can't remember another point in the season where I felt so angry and cheated and just plain shit. A truly horrible experience. It was great to hear my opinion on Arsecast (fame at last) and for those of you who listen, it puts me in the company of Eboue, Arsene Wenger Hawkins, The Man in the Bar, Amoury Bishcoff PI, George and David O'Leary. 

A nice hot sunny Friday here in Glasgow as I imagine it is in most places today. Off to enjoy some of it and dream of boarding that Virgin Atlantic to Vegas at the end of June mmmm.....

The night beauty beat the beast

Despite all the bumming up of Manchester United in the run up to last nights final by the media, I never for a minute thought that they would win it back to back. To beat Barcelona they would have to play their strongest team and every player would have to be on TOP form. Neither happened and from ten minutes in there was never going to be any doubt that the Catalans would emerge as victors.

From Vidic letting Eto'o skin him to Van Der Saar being beaten at his near post, the poor form just seemed to surge through the whole team including their £30,000,000 substitute (can't remember his name but you know the guy with the greasy hair and lazy demenour who used to play for a shitty North London team). Rooney was totally lost on the left, Carrick's passing was poor and crucially they didn't get the usual slice of luck and refereeing decisions that they seem to enjoy week in week out in the Prem. I am not for a minute suggesting that they are not worthy champions, but they do grind out a lot of results and against a team of Barcelona's calibre, they just didn't have the required quality. It seemed to be a surprise to many how they capitulated, but I expected them to lose though perhaps not as comprehensively as they did.

Barca were missing players like Marquez, Abidal and Alvez. However, the players who did play were excellent. Messi is the greatest player in the world and he proved it. Iniesta ran the midfield and Pique was commanding at the back. Even Eto'o surprised me with his work rate and willingness to get back and help. 

I am happy Barcelona won and hope to  see some more sanity from the media regarding Manchester United and Ronaldo. They are very good but last night they were up against GREAT. Nice to see Thierry get a well deserved winner's medal. Barca will not defend it either because next year is the turn of Arsenal !!! I hope :) 

I Need a Drink

The last few days have seen me playing no poker, drinking heavily and generally being out of the football loop. On top of all that, I had a round trip drive of nearly 700 miles to attend a wedding.

What a comfort it was to arrive at our hotel in Northampton to see a bottle of mineral water waiting to quench my thirst. On closer inspection I discovered it cost £3.95 to open the lid, and it was warm. On top of that, it cost £5 per day for the privilege of parking at the hotel. As the hotel was next to the M1, where the hell else was one meant to park... the hard shoulder??? All in all it was a stark demonstration of rip off Britain at its worst. 

On Sunday afternoon we wandered into a bar in Northampton to catch the Premiership finale. I was hoping to see Phil 'turdface' Brown and his team go down but sadly they stayed up due to Newcastle having as much spunk as a castrated bull :( 

I Sky +'d the Arsenal v Stoke game and eventually watched it on Monday evening. A good end to our season even though it meant very little.

Tonight we have the prospect of seeing Man U losing to Barcelona or the unthinkable prospect of Diver and co lifting the cup. I really don't think I could stomach the latter, especially after what that Evra has been saying about Cesc. I really, really hope that Lionel Messi is on top form and takes the total piss out of him. Go Barca !!!!!!!!!!!

Manchester United Please Beat Hull

It's not often that I want any positive result for the Mancs, but come Sunday afternoon I will be jumping around the room if their young team can send scumbag Phil Browns' Hull City to the Championship.

Make no mistake, Phil Brown is an unsavoury runt of a man who deserves no success in anything he does. The outcome of the spitting incident is not surprising as he dug the hole for himself the moment he made a complete arse of himself at the live post match interview. His body language during that interview said it all, LIAR LIAR !!!!!

So for one day only most if not all Gooners will be saying COME ON THE MANCS !!!

Video Blog Test

Just trying this video thing out as I wait for Twitter Poker Tour

Twitter Poker Tour

Thursday evenings are all about The Twitter Poker Tour. I searched Google for a TPT image to accompany this post and Tara Palmer Tompkinson was as close as I got. There was an image of some Italian woman wearing very little with her ass in the air from her My Space page, so Tara it is.

I played in TPT Europe at 7pm and finished 3rd after leading for a while. Steve Brogan was wiping the floor with us all by the end of play and he notched up a deserved win. There were only nine runners and it would be nice to get some more Europeans involved. I think there were 5 Europeans tonight and we finished 2nd and 3rd, so not too bad.

As I have been running pretty bad lately, I am selective when I play now and avoiding the intense 8-12 hour marathons I used to have. I closed my Full Tilt after the tourney and headed upstairs for a few games of FIFA 2009 (awesome game) which has permanent residence in my Playstation. 

I am watching some Irish Open highlights with some great commentary from Neil Channing. Neil has a very deep understanding of the game and I love listening to his insights and hand analysis. 

Later on (2am) comes the Twitter Poker Tour Season 3  Event #6  on PokerStars. There will be a much bigger field for this and it really is a great tourney to play in. I have yet to win either a TPT or TPTE but have however won a mini TPT on Carbon. I won a $109 seat for their $50k Sunday but failed to cash after having a reasonable stack for a short while. Someday............

Welcome to my Blog

Welcome to my world of Arses and Aces although the aces have been hard to come by for a while now.

I decided to start this blog as a means of sharing my thoughts mainly on two of my passions, Arsenal Football Club and poker with a bit of music too, so a mixed bag really. My musical taste is much more varied than it was in my youth when I would only listen to heavy rock/metal. I still listen to that stuff, but it is mixed with lots of other stuff too. 

I have been a fan of many Arsenal blogs and podcasts over the years and decided to put my own thoughts on a blog. My favourite Arsenal blog has and always will be Arseblog which has an accompanying podcast called Arsecast. Check it out here

As well as watching every Arsenal game and ocasionally going to games, I play a lot of online poker. I used to play much more than I do now but I feel I used to run way better than I do now. Poker paid for a good portion of our last trip to the oasis in the desert they call Las Vegas. Now my poker income would barely pay for a few nights at Butlins!!!! Seriously, things have not been good at the tables for quite some time. I actually donked out of a WSOP freeroll earlier this evening after shipping with two pairs on the turn when the guy was sitting with a set. Will I ever learn ??????

I hope to update on a regular basis and you can also follow me on Twitter @GlasgowGooner. Please feel free to comment and I hope to be able to publish stuff that is of interest.

 Right, that's the introduction over and I look forward to updating very soon.

Cheers !!!