Tuesday 13th June 2006
I'm not in a good mood at all today after what happened last night but it's all my own fault and I have no grounds for complaint at all.
There's a few very basic rules that I always adopt when playing poker and for reasons that I will probably never fathom, I went and broke them all on Tuesday night.
Whereas a footballer needs a minimum level of physical fitness to perform to the required standard, a poker player needs a minimum level of mental fitness to play correctly and I just didn't have it when I sat down to play on Tuesday night.
I was determined to play after missing out on Monday but after a gruelling day at work, a massive dinner and a very large bottle of wine, I should have known that I was not in the right frame of mind to even contemplate a game, especially on
I chased hands that I would normally have folded, I bluffed on hands that should have been folded pre-flop and I generally played in such a cavalier fashion that it was inevitable that I was going to get burned.
After two hours of play, I was down by $23 but then the 'luck-wave' arrived and it took no more than a ten-minute spell to get myself back to break-even. I should have got out there and then but the wine was talking by this stage and I carried on playing aggressively and actually got myself back into profit.
It seemed like I had done the right thing by carrying on when I hit a queen high straight and as it was highly unlikely that this hand could be beaten, I just went for it and was followed by two other players. The pot was up to $43 by now and I went to raise. Imagine my surprise when the hand ended and the guy on my left took the pot with a jack high straight...
Now it's a good job that I didn't get on the phone to
The
But I won't be claiming these bonuses just yet. The priority now is to get the account back on an even keel again and up to $120 as soon as possible and I will start on that later today.
As for the football, yesterday was another good day with the Swiss holding the French to a draw. We have Switzerland backed at 3/1 to win Group G as part of the second favourites series.
I also clawed back some of the losses on the 'dead-cert' series by placing £30 on Brazil to beat Croatia at 2/5 with
I simply cannot see anything other than a Tunisia win in their game against Saudi Arabia so I have staked £10 on them at 5/6 with Paddy Power. There was a small problem with placing this bet but I'm glad that it happened.
I opened the Paddy Power account last week with £10 as I nominated them as one of the bookies for my Group C arbitrage. The £10 free bet dropped into my account and when I went to place the bet today, I couldn't work out which option to select to use the money I had just deposited into the account as I wanted to save the free bet for the next series.
I called Paddy Power customer services and was told that it makes no difference whether you use the free bet or cash and I disputed this as you do not get the stake back with a free bet. Wrong again! You do with Paddy Power and that makes them probably the only company who have this policy. Now that is worth remembering.
This morning I received a tip from a friend who is involved in horse racing and decided to take him up on it. It was for Granny Peel in the 1410 at Beverley and I used my Bet 365 account as they had the best odds and the small amount in there was all clear profit. I backed the horse each way and it won so the Bet365 account is now standing at £16.95.
As promised yesterday, here is the summary of where we stand with all the accounts we have opened since the programme began and below is a summary of all the outstanding bets.
| FIRM | DEPOSIT | UNSETTLED BETS | WON/LOST | IN ACCOUNT | FREE BETS |
| 888 | 214.00 | 214.00 | 58.82 | ||
| LadbrokesPoker | 55.93 | 42.23 | |||
| Total Bet | 105.00 | 55.00 | -50.00 | 10.00 | |
| Paddy Power | 20.00 | 20.00 | 10.00 | ||
| Bet365 | 50.00 | 25.00 | 25.00 | 16.95 | 25.00 |
| Victor Chandler | 60.00 | -60.00 | 60.00 | ||
| Betfred | 75.00 | 250.00 | 42.00 | ||
| Stan James | 55.00 | -55.00 | 25.00 | ||
| Skybet | 10.00 | 10.00 | 20.00 | ||
| Coral | 10.00 | 10.00 | 10.00 | ||
| UK Betting | 10.00 | 10.00 | 10.00 | ||
| TOTAL | 664.93 | 130.00 | 324.00 | 170.00 | 160.00 |
Looking at the table above, I am currently £40.93 down as I have laid out £664.93 and have a total of £624.00 in winnings, unsettled bets and money in the accounts. But there is also £160 of free bets which I should be able to cash in for at least £80. We are just on track, despite my stupidity at
'Dead-Cert' series
£10 - Tunisia to beat Saudi Arabia @ 5/6 with Paddy Power
Group C Arbitrage
£25 - Holland to win Group C @ 7/5 with Total Bet
£10 - Ivory Coast to win Group C @ 8/1 with Paddy Power
£25 - Argentina to win Group C @ 6/5 with Bet 365
Second Favourites series
£10 - Poland to win Group A @ 10/3 with Skybet
£10 - Sweden to win Group B @ 2/1 with Coral
£10 - Mexico to win Group D @ 5/4 with UK Betting
£10 - Czech Republic to win Group E @ 7/4 with Total Bet
£10 - Switzerland to win Group G @ 3/1 with Total Bet
£10 - Ukraine to win Group H @ 9/5 with Total Bet
Let's hope that Tunisia do the business this afternoon.
Until tomorrow.
Steve
Feel free to email me if you have any questions about anything I've covered on this page...
Feel free to email me if you have any questions about anything I've covered on this page...
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