Lost my phone

I forgot to mention that I lost my iPhone on the way to the airport in Estonia. When I realised I lost it, I tried to ring it and it didn’t even ring. So no idea what happened there, my bill didn’t have any additional charges on or anything. Nevermind not the end of the world, just get a new one.

Well I would have done, if the cunts at O2 didn’t want to charge me a WHOPPING £550 for a new fucking iPhone when a) my last one was £330 (already through the fucking roof) and b) i’ve done off considerably over £1k in bills in the time i’ve been with them and will no doubt continue to fucking do so. I asked the man in the shop if there was any leeway since i’ve been with them for a while and he blagged some bollocks about treating every customer the same. I couldn’t even begin to explain to him how retarded that policy is before I ushered myself out of the shop the basically get scammed by Marks and Spencer changing my Kroon into Sterling because unfortunately my bank turned down my money. wotva.

So I ended up going with a 70 quid Nokia which seems to be doing the trick and i’m undecided if i’ll go for the upgrade when contract time is up. People always say that phone contracts are very barterable when they finish but i’ve also heard that the iPhone contracts have no leeway at all. The cunts. So I might hop over to Orange or something, purely out of spite you understand.

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Myself and George took 10% each in an Omaha horse while Tommo took the lions share. Unfortunately he’s done the lot off and now we’re in the uncomfortable position of thinking about reloading. He was playing 2/4 and 3/6 so things could certainly get messier. Other than that i’ve done off a few k staking people in these FTOPs including one person who got to 70k by 150/300 before punting the lot at 250/500.

It’s a good job i’m getting the absolute cake on Party otherwise i’d probably be broke again. I was a bit sceptical of playing NL200 but having settled down reasonably well it’s pretty obvious that the rivers are abundant with fish.

I also had a cheeky £300 on Joe Cada to beat Moon heads up which netted me £100. MBN.

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On the holidays front it looks like Bratislava could be put on the back burner (for me at least) just since i’m not putting enough volume in. But no worries, Aussie/Hong Kong in January, talk of Austria in March, Coventry (!!!!) in April, and then the dredded/beloved WSOP from June to November (well I have to dream). Better save up…

Rupert Elder : 11 Nov 2009 01:46 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Back home, what an awesome holiday

In the interests of continuity I ought to let you all know how Estonia finished. I played one more SNG and came 5th in a spot I may have been able to fold (chip leader effectively shoved button at 300/600 I have 3k and A6s). Whatever though.

I did manage to make a bit of a name for myself in the turbo €110 tourney where I binked a final table for around $700. The average stack at FT was around 6 BBs and I couldn’t win 3 flips.

Not to be one-upped, Tommo had the pleasure of beating Keys heads up to scoop himself a PCA package and a good few stacks of high society while i’m sure Keys himself won’t be hanging himself over the $108k or so he pocketed. In a fashion that wouldn’t be out of place in a Party Poker “VIP” event, the trophy had enscribed on the bottom “545 EEK” which to the well informed is around $55. Marvellous.

The ensuing piss up was a mixture of vodka and cokes and complimentary bottles of Dom Perignon from the very lovely people at Pokerstars. It was all getting a bit too much for me and decided to crash out of the “Hollywood” club at what people reckon must have been about 3-4am.

The flight home was largely uneventful other than doing off 31 points at chinese poker and Tommo offering to buy the whole plane gin and tonics, which Easyjet promptly took up. I also lost £20 on scratch cards, but Tommo covered the cost since I netted less winning than him.

I’m on the home straight of importing 2.5M hands or so as well as trying to transfer websites/flog off advertising space so I can get back to the grind of $1/2 (!) tomorrow.

It really was quite an amazing holiday to have two good friends 1 2 the tourney. Also a good excuse for badgering them to come out next year.

Rupert Elder : 03 Nov 2009 00:30 |  Comments (1) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Estonia in the house

Seem to be using up all my run good at once in Estonia. Have played 3 SNGs so far, $110, $110 and $220. Have finished in 3rd ($200), chopped 1st ($400) and chopped first ($865) respectively. All 3 obviously ran pretty well, the 1st and 3rd was even stack with the shortest stack on the bubble and the mugs decided to get it in in pretty bad spots and the 2nd one had a pretty commanding lead on the bubble before chopping it up with Tommo. Managed to bink Q4 vs AJ, AK vs Q8, AJ vs K8 on the 3rd 3 and 4 handed for all the gold before doing a chip chop with mongy so pretty pleased with that.

Putting myself through the trauma of playing the big one tomorrow though so hopefully will wake up in time without too much of a hangover in order to not doing anything stupid. I think my general hand reading and soul reading has been fine so far but could perhaps improve on my overall strategy as things all kicked off on a discussion of Keys limping the button with 85o and me leading J4cc on A2x with 2 clubs.

Food is very behind-the-iron-curtain so far, had wild boar today which was very nice in a quaint little restaurant in the old town (a UNESCO heritage site so wikitravel reliably informs me) and a not so great duck yesterday.

But the wodka [sic] and cokes have been flowing reasonably cheaply and quickly so it’s not all doom and gloom on the food and drink side and hopefully will be able to go the whole 1st level without resorting to perching on the bar hearing about Shaun Deebs [1] escapades of having a gun drawn on him in Warsaw while winning a 3 handed high rollers event.

Hope everyone in the UK is fine and not having to tolerate 6 degree with 40mph wind weather like us slumming it in a plush 5* hotel are.

[1] name drops ITT

Rupert Elder : 29 Oct 2009 00:32 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

100k hands before Christmas

From 8am Monday 19th October until midnight 25th December 2009 the goal is to play 100k hands. Tommo has to play 90k hands and if one of us fails we owe the other $200.

Should be decent motivation to grind since the last couple of days i’ve been a bit too lazy to put in the hands. Also need to put in more crosstrainer sessions as am becoming a bit too well rounded.

Occasional updates to follow.

Rupert Elder : 19 Oct 2009 23:59 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Your withdrawl request for $100 has been approved

Myself and Tommo have been doing a lot of tennis betting recently thanks to a tipster off the forums. Not only get a decent sweat but covers the exes to Oz and HK. Up 25 units so far betting $10 a unit, but I daren’t brag too much as we’ve only been able to get 5 bets on so far so the sample size isn’t substantial.

Poker has been fine, managed to close out a couple of tournaments. One for $3k and another for a $2.8k package to the sunny Baltic region of Estonia. Tommo managed to bink 50% in that one so he’s coming out along with Keys and Mongy. The hotel Stars is putting us up at looks pretty ballin’ so no doubt will degenerate into a massive pissup while the comp gets put on a back burner. Am up few k at cash as well this month although only played 15k hands. Quite disappointed to see my EV line is far below my green line which is going to leave me little to write about in my end of the month despair post.

Plans for Australia in mid-January and HK in February are heating up as I booked tickets for the Aussie Open semi-finals as well as Big Day Out which judging by the name should be a bit of a laugh. Is a bit of a reuniting with the much loved Lily Allen as well as Muse, Harris and a few other so called artists showing their faces. The Aussie millions are happening while we are there so have full intentions to do the absolute lot in the sides.

But so far poker seems to be sustaining the kind of lifestyle I was keen on having. I read a post on a forum from a guy struggling to get a job. He said he was in 3 figures for applications, 50 phone interviews deep, 15 1st rounds and just 1 2nd round. Jealous? Not a bit.

Rupert Elder : 15 Oct 2009 20:47 |  Tags: Video |  Comments (1) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Bring on October!

Absolutely sick to death of the Paradise SNGs. I ended up coming 4th in the leaderboard, I could easily have made 3rd but the prospect of playing any more soul destroying SNGs made me forego the €250. I lost around €700 from the actual SNGs but with the promotion and rakeback things should come to around +€500 for the week. I played 343 in total for an ROI of about -10%. What’s the rake? Oh -10%! That’s cos it’s 10 regs every SNG and we’re all breaking even!

Thankfully i’ve been playing a lot of cash on the side which has been going well, mostly playing NL50 but dabbling at NL100 as well. Off to London tomorrow for a few jars and sweating the WSOPE FT and maybe even having a spin up at the local cash games.

I’m excited to grind cash for October and future months, maybe treat myself to the odd holiday if things go well…

Rupert Elder : 30 Sep 2009 23:03 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

A lesson learnt? I doubt it!

I’m currently grinding out the Paradise Poker SNG leaderboard (see here for standings atm). It’s going well, and i’m happy it’s finishing on Wednesday cos i’m pretty sick of them. Anyway, after making a thin/bad call vs a reg and promptly getting berated I called him out to NL$100 HU. Obviously the one €22 regular I call out turns out to be an NL200 HU reg which conspires after I drop 3 buyins to him (he did run pretty hot tbf!). Obviously felt like complete mug calling out the only SNG reg to be good at HU poker. Sigh.

Rupert Elder : 28 Sep 2009 14:03 |  Comments (2) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

France, EPO, Home

Finally got the blog back after intense negotiation with the WGA staff. Much has happened since I last posted so i’ll bore you to death about the gist of it.

France ended on a high note with a big argument kicking off much to Tommo’s disappointment when he’d headed home for the weekend. Bankroll sizes were mentioned, futures of slumming it in investment banking, and a dastardly cock swinging contest from Mong “the schlong”. Nonetheless it didn’t prevent us from returning to The Jimmyz upon Tommo’s arrival back at the villa where we proceeded to get absolutely smashed and leave the club just before the now infamous infinity song came on.

After France I headed to the less delightful Coventry for a GUKPT summer series event. Pretty boring by and large, I went somewhat deep in the £220 to no avail and never got going in the main event much to my despair.

A week later I found myself in Nottingham for the inaugural English Poker Open event. Despite the name they had the cheek to charge us 5.3k of US dollars in order to play. Through a combination of buying a cheap seat and selling off 300% of my action I managed to get in. I considered my table draw tough although having talked to Kanu about it on break he seemed more than happy with it! I suppose that’s the joy of playing NL5k day in day out, every tournament table is a good one. Needless to say it was a combination of Euro/US pros, a couple of mugs and Neil Pearson. I didn’t let the pain of live tournaments grasp me for too long though as I was the 2nd player out when I failed to fold a set when the so called mug had backdoor’d a flush.

Rather than subject myself to a night on the lash in Nottingham/Coventry I decided to pop into my girlfriends house to say hello. Such is the nature of bad things coming along at once, we ended up deciding it would be best to take a break for a while and so that’s exactly what we are doing.

Just when I was starting to get over the horrors of my week, my computer last night decided to pack up and die. It’s always very exciting when this happens because it’s the perfect excuse to do off a load of money on a new one. So here’s what i’m getting in addition to what I previously had:

£184.34×1 – Intel Core i7 920 D0 Stepping (SLBEJ) 2.66Ghz (Nehalem) (Socket LGA1366) – Retail
£177.38×1 – Asus P6TD Deluxe Intel X58 (Socket 1366) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard
£86.95×1 – OCZ Reaper 6GB (3×2GB) DDR3 PC3-14400 (1800MHz) Tri-Channel (OCZ3RPR1800LV6GK)
£83.47×1 – Corsair TX 750W ATX SLI Compliant Power Supply (CMPSU-750TXUK)

I’ve been told the X58 motherboards are renowned for being incredibly unstable and faulty so I look forward to more pain and tears in future months. I wasn’t actually clear if my PSU or mobo had died so I decided rather than have the hassle of buying one and being incredibly irritated if it was the other part that went wrong i’d just get them both. Besides, it allows me to finally SLi up those 8800 GTS’ i’ve had collecting dust. Am sure the quad core will do wonders at loading up 9 tables on a Wednesday evening.

I should give a mention to Tommo aka maryhadalamb’s blog which has been reinstated after much nagging in France. Definitely check it out if you’re in need of more cynicism, scepticism, and sarcasm. Or if you want to keep up to date with the latest in female solo singer/songwriters.

Suppose I forgot to mention this too – was in The Times the other day: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/money/article6839947.ece “Economics graduate” was awfully generous off her but I suppose it paints a better image than “poker player” like I suggested. At a Nottingham casino I got asked what my occupation was as part of the registration process to which I quipped “unemployed”. “Not a student then?” “Nope.” There’s no saving face any more.

Rupert Elder : 21 Sep 2009 20:27 |  Comments (3) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

France 1

First post from France I spose. Fell ill today so seemed like a good spot to spout nonsense.

We ended up getting in at 6am on the 25th after waking up at 7am on the 24th. Bit of a grind but got here in one piece. The villa is absolutely ridiculous and i’ve been playing tons of poker – have won 2 tournies and done pretty well at cash etc. Somehow find myself down on the trip tho.

Went to Monte Carlo a couple of times which was absolutely insanely awesome, Nice which was nice although the beaches absolutely jam packed, the quaint St Paul which I don’t have much time for in the evenings, and Cannes where there were a stream of Ferraris and a Bugatti Veyron for good measure. Happy days.

Here’s a couple of photos of the pool and grindstation.

Rupert Elder : 05 Aug 2009 19:29 |  Comments (7) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

This week on TV

Confetti – Found this absolutely hilarious, always get a bit nervous when seeing Jimmy Carr in something but the role fit him very well. Dragged on a bit in the middle but all in all very funny.

Mitchell and Webb S03E06 – Pretty good episode, the sketch in the prison was absolutely hilarious and such a truism.

Dragons Den S07E01 – The Rupert geezer was obv hilariously mental and Peter Jones missed an epic spot with the outdoor heaters by being an absolute cunt about it. lol at asking for a million to develop some vodka, ya cos you could compete there… Looking forward to next weeks episode when JJ Hazan the poker player gets what looks to be an absolute slating from the dragons.

Penn and Teller Bullshit S07E04 – They go round looking at why the world is going to end in 2012. Pretty amusing, best part was when some obvious wackjob is talking about his past jobs and says “you name it, i’ll do it” to which Teller quips “ok then, paint my house”.

The Real Hustle S07E09 – Pretty shit episode imo. Stealing the car was quite good and lol at the fake notes market stall thing. Absolute bullshit, is so so rare that notes get turned away that i’d tell them to do one if they said that to me. Although not really much you can do once you’ve given them the 20 to be fair to the east ender who thought he’d never get done. Moron.

Conan O’Brien 14/07/09 – Michael Phelps and some woman. Glad they didn’t dilly dally around Phelps being caught with a bong and got a couple of good jokes in. Shame they didn’t bring up poker though.

10 Things I Hate About You S01E02 – I have no idea why I watch this heap of shit.

Entourage S06E01 – I’m so happy I spent most of the exam period catching up with this. This is a MUST SEE program imo and am so glad the new series is out. The first ep was shit though, but was obviously building up for later episodes. Am somewhat looking forward to watching the gay asian dude do a load of ridiculous tasks but hope it doesn’t drag out too much.

Rupert Elder : 18 Jul 2009 03:00 |  Comments (2) |  Close comments |  Report a problem