AvonGirl calling...: October 2006

Saturday, October 21, 2006

Withdrawal Symptoms

Dear me. I've let this slip already. So, a quick round up of my poker week:

It's been a bad week on Sporting Odds...

Sunday - 49/54 in Champions League
Tuesday - 44/47 in Champions League
Wednesday - 40/53 in the Punter's Lounge $1 League
Thursday - 26/44 in Champions League.

But not too bad everywhere else, despite, with one exception, not getting 'in the money'...

Sunday - 18/382 in Virgin V-points freeroll (top 10 win V points)
Sunday - 95/271 in Mansion PokerGod
Wednesday - 164/2601 in Dream $7000 freeroll (130 places paid)
Thursday - 19/322 in Dream Dirty Dozen qualifier (50 places qualify) :-)

Now, I like Sporting Odds. It's where I play the most, it's where I've won the most, and it's from where I recently withdrew some profit. And there we have it - poker lore says you will hit a losing streak when you make a withdrawal from a site. Clever poker bods and those who are not superstitious (actually, I'm not superstitious so I suppose that includes me) have another word for it - "variance".

So I will hope my downcurve is short-lived and look forward to the ride back up.

However bad my week it's not as bad as the one for the poker sites who are having to reorganise following the new gambling/finance legislation in the USA. I hope their downcurve is short-lived too.

I'll try to call back sooner next time.

Sunday, October 15, 2006

What is an i-pod anyway?

I got an email from Virgin poker site yesterday advertising their 'Bootylicious' tournament. This is a new monthly tournament where the top 10 can win added prizes. It quotes a choice of: Apple Ipod, a choice of Virgin Experience days for 2 (go-karting, paintballing, spa day etc), dinner for 2 at London's Kensington Roof Gardens, a case of specially selected Virgin Wines or a Virgin Books package.

At $10 entry I wasn't interested as my usual level of buy-in is $3, but I posted it up on the Punter's Lounge forum in case anyone else fancied it. With only 30 mins to go, GotaFancy? (poker mod par excellence) flagged up that there were only 23 registered, so I decided to give it a go after all, as I'd had about $13 sat unused in my Virgin account since we had a league series on the site several months ago. I often play the V-points freeroll on a Sunday, but with such a small amount left in I never played any buy-in games. Saving it for a rainy day I suppose, or a Saturday in October.

So the tournament started with only 38 in, paying top 5 places the $380 prize pool and the booty for top 10. I'm sure Virgin expected more in!

Well I played my usual tight game, (which generally leaves me short-stacked around the bubble), but by the time we got down to around 20 I was already clinging on for dear life. Then I got dealt QQ which held up all-in, followed immediately by QQ again :-) which successfully took the blinds, and I'm sitting pretty in 7th.

Well I played my usual tight game (which generally leaves me short-stacked around the bubble)(hehe!), and I'm floating between 9th and 11th with 11 left in. Enough chips to withstand a few rounds of blinds so it's basically a fold strategy and hope someone else goes before me. I rememember folding 88 and AKs before I was dealt JJ on the small blind. I decided to call (since all-in was not putting anyone off calling me) and the flop comes K2A. Had to check and hope for the best, and thank goodness Danarama checked back, and continued to check the turn (7) and river (8), because I would probably have folded to a call and hoped my 500 chips would outlast someone for another circuit. So my JJ beat his Q3 and I'm back to 9th and folding again.

A10s - fold; K9o - fold; A8o on the big blind and everyone folds round to the small blind, and I wait for the raise which will steal my blind.....and instead it's a fold. A hugh sigh of relief and cheers MCFC81 (and you're not kidding anyone with that name - he's a different age on every site!)

Meanwhile I'm watching the other table, and their short-stack keeps surviving too.

Another set of good hands folded - AKs, Q10o, A8o, at which point the short-stack hits her blind, calls the small raise to put her all-in, and goes out. Very unlucky Donna.

15 minutes of creeping death finally over! Woohoo - final table and I've won my choice of booty. I'm sitting in 9th and the money starts at 5th. What strategy now?

It tends to be something like: "don't play the hand if you don't have to", ie. fold if it's not my blind, unless it's a pair. So I throw away A5, A7, Q5, J8, and then go all-in on my small blind with A7 and win a 3-way pot against 97, KJ and 22810Q on the board. Back to folding, and before long we're down to 7 (guess who's 7th!)

I get 38 on my big blind which I fold to a raise and decide not to call against 2 with my J9 small blind which leaves me with 960 chips. With blinds at 1200/600 I throw these all-in before I hit my next blind, when I get A10s, and manage to find 2 more Aces on the board. Someone goes all-in, and out, next hand so I'm 6th/6.

Big blind time, and I'm looking at my ladies again (QQ). Small blind tries a steal, and I'm all-in, hitting a Q on the river for good measure, and leaving my caller as short-stack. More folding, then short-stack comes up against his blind and loses.

I'm in the money! (and short-stack!)

I survive several more rounds, helped by KK, then get Ah2h which I only played knowing I could not get through the blinds another time. The other short-stack also goes all-in with his A4o and the small blind calls to cover us both with AJo.
Flop 5d, 7d, 9h, turn 7h, river 3h. Nice little flush, thank you very much. 4th/4.

I get K5s on my next small blind and decide, for the first time, to push when I could actually have waited. I'm called by Q8 and although I pair my 5, he pairs both his Q and 8 and this time only one card is my suit.

Out in 4th for $45.60 and an i-pod (probably). My biggest win in a buy-in tournament. And with fellow Punter's Loungers in 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 8th, a good night for the forum, and a good spot by me in telling them about it!

And the moral of the story? Don't call if you don't have to!

Friday, October 13, 2006

Pleasure (part two): poker

It's appropriate to tell you about my poker career tonight, since the tournament I "played" in this evening, (will explain the "" shortly), was the reason I set up this blog.

I blame my other (and sometimes better) half for getting me into this game. He's been playing a couple of years, happily keeping out of my way on his PC upstairs. These were the days when we only had the one PC and every 3 weeks, when my Avon order had to be submitted, I would have to kick him off it. I don't remember it being a particular problem, but it probably started to be so around the time he bought me my own PC and installed it downstairs!

So then it began that he lived upstairs and I lived downstairs, and I googled and played yahoo games on mine, and he, apparently, played more and more poker on his.

Then last year he played the Maxim King of Poker competition, which consisted of 2 freeroll games every day from November til March (or thereabouts) and points earned every game towards final placings on a leaderboard. Poker now began to impact on our limited social life, requiring early starts so we could be back home for the afternoon game, and I think probably no going out in the evening at all. So I slyly watch him play a little (he does not like being watched; and never ever speak, on pain of death) and I remember the basics of the game from the days when you played with actual cards and not pictures on a PC, and I start to want to have a little go myself. However my PC will not have any of it. Go and get a wireless connection, it says. And eventually we do.

So now, at last, I can download the Victor Chandler site and play the free MKOP tournaments. What a great way to learn how to play (except for the fact it was for points rather than money) and after playing for only the last month of the tournament I ended up 231st/1200 in the table, with as far as I could see, the highest average points per game in the whole table.

At this point I joined Punters Lounge and began to really learn how to play properly; I downloaded several more sites; I started working my schedule round game times; I learned how to play poker, cook tea, read the forum and watch TV at the same time; and all of a sudden I seem to be playing every night.

So after starting only in February this year, I won my first MTT in August and smashed my PB in September by coming 2nd in a Sporting Odds freeroll for $487.50.

So what about tonight's tournament? The Punter's Lounge Bloggers freeroll on Betfair, for members of the forum who have blogs linking to the site and various affiliates. Well I was going along nicely, sitting in 5th, when I was moved to sit at the same table as the other half (who was not doing as well) and made to sit out the remainder of the tournament as this site will not allow us to play at the same table as we have the same IP address (whatever that is). I fizzled out in 13th without being allowed to play another hand. Annoyed does not really do my feelings justice, even though the other half upped his game and finished in the money in 4th.

Just hope the next one is played on a different site.

That's it for now - will call you later (a little poker joke there!)

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Pleasure (part one): lounging in the Lounge

Pleasure after business then.

OK, sometimes before business.

Alright alright, sometimes in the middle of business. In the case of Punter's Lounge poker forum.

I've been wondering what I did before, in the time I spend on the forum. Watch more TV I suppose, so that's no bad thing then. Perhaps housework? No, didn't do that before either. I do remember I used to play some of the games on yahoo. Stupid and pointless, yes, so that's good too then.

Chronologically, poker came before the forum; but the poker that came before is like poker; and the poker that came after is like poker; so it's only right and proper that I talk about the forum first.

Most people lurk a little first before joining. (I did.) I then fretted over what my first post would be because I wanted to impress these knowledgeable people. It was weeks before I dared to start a thread. Now you can't shut me up on there. And after only 6 months, I am one of the knowledgeable people. HAHA. (But I am a wimp.) (And I'm not particularly knowledgeable - except in spelling and punctuation - but my poker has definitely improved.)

So don't be afraid of diving straight in. If you have even the slightest interest in poker you must visit. Whatever your level of knowledge, you will learn more. Say hello and you'll be welcomed as one of the family. Contribute and you can take part in the leagues and live meet-ups. Enjoy the friendly banter at the tables. Wear the t-shirt. Get slated for calling someone's AA all-in with 86 and hitting two pair. (oops, no, not that one). Enjoy the friendly banter after the game.

Just don't ask for a password to a freeroll.

Fancy a look? Just click on the Punters Lounge Betting Forum link (hmm, seems to be some disagreement over whether to use an apostrophe - punters, punter's or even punters'?) and go find the Poker Forum. Go on, you know you want to.

And while you're there, have a look at the rest of the site.

But only if you've no housework to do.

Shall I call back later then?

Sunday, October 08, 2006

Business before Pleasure

What's in a name? Well you've probably noticed the link I have to the Avon website so it's safe to assume that's the connection, and not that I hail from the Bristol area. Yorkshire born and bred in actual fact.

So I'm an Avon 'lady'. Well, actually a Sales Leader, which means I have recruited and trained a team of Avon Representatives, to give us our proper name, since there are now more than a few Avon 'gentlemen'. There's money in it, you see.

I've worked with Avon for about 4 years now. In my previous life I worked for the same insurance company for over 20years. Well it would have been the same company if it hadn't merged twice with other companies and changed its name even more times. My company was the Scottish one. I'll leave you to guess. I was very happy there for nearly 20years and even fought for my job (and kept it) the first time round. I was a team manager, so it was worth keeping. By the second merger I was ready to jump (literally off the top of a tall building) and they were happy to push me. So I ran off as quick as I could with my nice wad of dosh and have kept running away from a 'proper' job ever since (although a couple of temporary ones caught up with me when I was off my guard).

I've bought Avon all my life so when I left work I thought becoming a Representative would be a good way to make sure I got out a bit, while I decided what I wanted to do for the next 20years. I didn't realise it would take over my life! And the house. I discovered I was actually quite good at it, and I've increased my sales every year since, so I am now one of the top 250 representatives in the UK (out of around 160,000).

I became a Sales Leader about 3years ago. I'm not so good at that, but I have a lovely team who all work very hard and we all earn a bit of money from it.

Now I only set up this blog last night, and today I find I have had 38 visits. Is this the power of the Avon name? Hmmm, could be. Perhaps it's 38 of my poker mates from the Punter's Lounge forum (more about that later) checking in? Maybe. But probably, it's just one or two of them (you know who you are!) coming back 38 times to look at the lady with the hosepipe in the Avon link.

Whoever, thankyou for browsing, enjoy the link, and I'll call back shortly.