To Coachella and back again!!
Well the first festival of the year went down a storm!!! Had 3 days in LA to prepare for the upcoming madness that was to be
Coachella. Besides the heat it was an extremely enjoyable experience, lots of random art installations, food stalls selling everything you could want to eat (although the
philly cheese steak stall always smelled like the
portaloos prior to cleaning) and lots of happy, slightly sun burnt festival goers driving for the nearest piece of shade going to hide from the sun and become a
flys best friend. Oh the
flys, sitting down for a rest nursing a killer hangover with a swarm of
flys trying to eat you for their dinner wasn't the best thing at the festival, but the music certainly was!!After arriving in Indio, home to the Coachella music and arts festival, I stepped off the lovely air conditioned coach and into what can only be described as an inferno. Seriously, 7pm and it was well over 30 degrees. At that point I wasn't looking forward to the middle of the next day. Once in the campsite after waiting in the will call queue for an hour the tent went up quick and easy, no wind or rain here to hinder the tents progress. Beer or alcohol of some discription was the next highest priority so off to the beer tent we go, only to find out you need to get id checked, luckily being over 21 has its advantages in America. I mean a queue for a wristband so you can queue some more to buy overpriced beer, someone was having a laugh. Well i did when i saw Stan Collymore in there sat in an England shirt(not worn one of those for a few years eh Stan!!)So Friday morning, opening day of Coachella and with visions of Stan the man fresh in my mind it was off to another will call queue to pick up the day tickets. This was mistake number 1, mistake number 2 was actually standing in the ridiculously long queue for an hour in the blazing sun with no water. In that hour we progressed no further than 10 ft, sack that, beer tent!Using a pair of tickets that some random bloke had given my mate, we decided to leave the comfort of the campsite bar and head to the camping festival entrance and were greeted by yet another queue, although this one was moving at a slightly quicker pace. Getting past the airport style security screening and just a furlong before the finishing post i handed my ticket to a guy with a scanner, he asked if i had got a refund on the ticket, oh no now i know why the dodgy guy had willingly given 2 tickets away. I told the guy i hadn't an with all the problems they were having he just waved me in, i liked that man, for once there was no jobsworth shenanigans! woohoo i'm in. Only one problem my mate hadn't managed to find such a forgiving ticket scanner and was sent out to have another shot at will call. Well find a beer tent and wait was all i could do.With a nice cold beer and a cracking view of the main stage i sat down to await the imminent arrival of sheffields finest the Arctic Monkeys, who came storming out blowing the Coachella crowd away, out of the whole weekend they were the only band i braved the heat and sun for!! Thats how good they were.Found my mate straight after their set and went off in search of more food and beer. Watched Jesue and the Mary Chain who i'd never really got into but was very impressed with their set and will buy their albums to give them a good listen. It was then Arcade Fire's turn to try and impress but for me i wasn't budging on my view of them being completely middle of the road. Some say they are the savior of rock, even music but all i heard was a load of pretencious crap that i couldn't wait to end! They finished and i was a happy man again!Next up I changed position and ran to the massive sahara tent to catch Faithless, a group i've wanted to see for years and years, they came out to Insomniac which is always a crowd pleaser and quite fitting seeing as hadn't slept for 2 days. Gogol Borello finished the night in style with some crazy "i lost my leg" and "start wearing purple" action, mental gypsy punk! just what the doctor ordered. That was Friday, I was tired. went to crash out and woke 10 hours later absolutley boiling like i was a lobster in a pan of boiling water, ah the screaming, welcome to the desert!
Coachella kicks off in 2 weeks!!! an i'll be there....
Well in 2 weeks time the Coachella valley music and arts festival kicks into effect. So 1 week on Monday me and my best mate are going to jump on a plane, fly to Los Angeles have a bit of a giggle there and then head out into the desert!!
What awaits us in that far and distant land I have yet to discover, one thing I do know is Rage Against The Machine are headlining Coachella and that was good enough reason for me to fly 5000 miles.
I'll also be spending a few more days in LA after Coachella for "Disney" recuperation and more fun like visiting the La Brea Tar Pits, which by the way are free on the first Tuesday of every month!!! bonus seeing as we'll be going on the 1st of May.
I'm also wanting to go to the Back to the Future set at Universal Studios seeing as its my all time favorite film (well trilogy).
Hopefully whilst at Coachella I'll get some access to a computer so i can write bits on my blog and upload some of the pics that I'll be taking.
Adios for now
nic
Confirmation Station
Well the e-mail confirmation came today stating that the Glastonbury tickets are confirmed as long as there is money in the bank!!!! Which there is so now its all system go for June.
I can't wait till i'm coming down the hill through pilton and see the Super Fence glinting in the sun like a giant silver snake.
I'm just hoping now that the line up is up to the usually high standard that we have come to expect of Glastonbury.
Just Jack would be a great addition and if the rumours are true i could get to see my hero of heroes Noel Gallagher doing his thing solo style....... but i'll have to wait till the 1st of June for that confirmation.
If he is there it'd be a great birthday present for him to play the acoustic tent on saturday 23rd of June, my birthday.
Anyway good news that the registration has beaten touts finally so no ones is going to get ripped off this year, if you got a ticket well done and if not theres always the BBC's excellent coverage live and direct from the festival site.
Glastonbury tickets are Go!!!!!
Well its Sunday April 1st and at 0900 hours this morning tickets to the biggest, brightest and best festival on planet Earth went onsale. I arrose from my pit slightly groggy 10 minutes before the biggest festival ticket grabbing competition of the year kicked off and after quite a heavy night in the pub (which only came to an abrupt end at 0400 am when i realised that i needed sleep before commencing battle). I proceeded to get the PC on and the internet connection firing on all cylinders.
At this point I was half excited about the prospect of another birthday at Glastonbury (nothing beats your birthday falling right in the middle of the festival) and half nervous about not getting any tickets and having mates tell me all the good times that were had(pictures and tales). So with the floodgates opening and nearly 400,000 people wanting what only 135,000 could have, i steaded myself and began attempting to get on
www.seetickets.com/g2007 .
Me and a friend had agreed that because I only wanted 1 ticket if he got through first he'd get mine and vice versa. What I soon learned was that there was no hope of getting onto see tickets site, so I started looking for a direct link to the secure purchase page. After paitently waitinfor the Glastonbury forum to load up (which took a while due to the traffic) i found what I was looking for in a thread aptly titled
"ticket buying chatroom". Lo and behold sat as a fresh entry at the very bottom of the page was the very link I was looking for. WINNER!!!Now all I had to do was get the secure page to open and it was all going to turn out rosy! Exuding the patience of a saint I persisted in trying to get this page to load, then as I was fearing the worst.... up pops the next form and we're off and running.
In what I can only express as a relatively smooth and stress free purchase i stared in disbelief at the notice saying i'd bought 3 adult tickets and 1 car pass!
All good, so i went back online and got another 4 for some friends who were having problems getting through managed to get the last ticket at 1050 am.
1055 am and all tickets where now sold out and for another year Glastonbury was on!!!!
so tired at the moment!!
well not done quite as well as i wanted in the blogger poker tour through a number of things!!
1 being the fact that i slept right through 3 of the events, which ain't gonna win me no points and the others i just made some silly mistakes which dragged me down and out!
anyways i'm gonna refuel and recharge my poker batteries ahnd come out fighting next season till then poker buddies have fun!
Damned Internet!!
The old saying goes "theres no such thing as a free lunch" well now there is a new adage to this old saying "there ain't no such thing as decent free broadband"!!!!
after 4 months with Talk Talk broadband i've finally had enough and am more than willing to pay up the rest of my extreme 18 month contract with them, just to get a new dependable broadband provider that can deliver a connection that may hold up to at least 2 hours of poker instead of the paltry 10 -15 mins topside i'm getting at the minute!!
As i write this i'm actually sat at work so no poker can be played here!!
Anyway gotta go do some work will update this when connection is fixed!!!
Hopefully before saturdays B.P.T event 6.
peace out
Nic
Internet down and out!!!
Well i've just literally this second got my internet connection back on and wow am i pissed off about it!!
4 weeks its been down because of an upgrade to the junctions in the local area!!
The good news is that now my broadband is even faster, although it has been booting me a lot over the past few hours!!
i missed the BPT event 2 and dropped down the rankings which isn't good at all.
I will post my round up of event 1 here later, but for now i'm gonna start reading the thousands of e-mails that have gone unanswered!!
adios
nic
Blogger Poker Tour Season 2
Tomorrow marks the return of the Blogger Poker Tour!!!
Now in its second season the BPT has made some welcomed alterations to the format, firstly they have appointed Shane as the BPT commisioner and brought in a points system which will give a league like rounding. That means its a marathon not a sprint, endurance and constantly good play are going to be key elements this year for a shot at the Aussie Millions!!!
I also like the way the points will be awarded, ie if there are 100 runners the first person will recieve 1 point and the winner will get 100. There will also be a hosts bonus which is another superb addition for anyone hosting an event to get a few points on the board.
This season the prizes are immense:
1st place is a $10,000 seat at the Aussie Millions with $2,500 travel/spending money plus a poker.com V.I.P package!!!
2nd is a 8 ft deluxe BPT poker table!
3rd is a 6 ft BPT poker table!
4th - 10th is a poker.com black i pod nano!
11th - 15th is a poker.com chipset!
16th - 20th is a poker.com grand final ticket!
Now all these prizes are up for grabs in what is sure to be one hell of a tough season in the BPT.
Only one person can win the seat and one can win a bloggers position at the event so to all the people involved in the BPT season 2,
Roll on tomorrow,
Good Luck and Good Poker
Till tomorrow
Nic
Well i'm back been away for a while but still playing poker as much as i can when i'm not at work!!
Started a new job 2 months ago and its pretty hard going with a 48 hr week so weekends are now poker days!!
Glad to see the BPT is back in a fortnight can't wait for that, so til then
adios
nic
England 1 Ecuador 0 Quarters here we come !!!!!
Well England once again proved the doubters wrong and won the first knock out match to progress into the quarter finals of the World cup!!!
So far so good heres to Portugal going out next at the hands of the mighty England!!!!
Its my birthday tomorrow
yay i love mid summer its hot, sunny and my birthday!!!!
23rd June always usually Glastonbury Festival but as they're having a year off this time i'm gonna have to find something else to do!!
So I'm super looking forward to BPT #8, as its my birthday the day before some look may shine down upon me!!!( well thats what i'm hoping for anyways).
So tomorrow i'm gonna go for some beers with my mates then crash out in a drunken stouper somewhere, anywhere i fall.
Good fun and laughs with the world cup and poker nothing better, roll on Saturday for the Bloggers Poker Tour Event #8.
Till next time friends
Nic
England through to knock out stages of world cup(how goods that)
England managed a 2-2 draw with sweden last night but still managed to win the group!!!!!
Micheal Owen got injured which is not good news but Rooneys nearly fully fit!
Roll on Ecuador.
Metallica Rocked Donington!!!!!
Wow what a week that was!!!! Mater of Puppets start to finish plus a load of classics, as usual Metallica delivered the goods. From the first notes of The ecstacy of gold right through to seek and destroy, 2 and a half hours of hard hitting, well excecuted metal!!
Loads of over fun things happened like axl rose of guns and roses being early!!!!! beggars belief but he was.
Although he did strop off a few times to make up the time lost like.
England winning(always fun at a festival), psycho skate/bmx stars pulling some sick tricks + 5 days of cider = one hell of a wicked festival.
I'm back now after my short rest and ready for some full on poker action!!
oh i've missed it!
AAArrrgggggghhhhh!!
Well just a quick one not having the best week so far not been able to catch a hand for about 5 days!!!
All Bad beats, always with people holding rags.
Gonna have a few days off as i'm off to Donington and gonna miss BPT#7 so i'm pissed bout that.
Roll on next week so i can chill out and have a holiday!!
Adios till then!!
p.s if anything fun happens before then i'll be back
Donington Festival in 2 weeks
Its the start of the best heavy metal festival in the UK in 2 weeks "Download Festival" as its now called but will always be referred to as "Donington Monsters of Rock Festival", but due to the ever increasing commercialisation of festival has undergone a name change(but the spirit lives on)!!!
Great line up this year with Tool headling Fri 9th June, Metallica headlining Saturday 10th June and Guns N Roses topping the bill on the Sunday!!
Check out the official website
www.downloadfestival.co.uk
What do I have to do???
Well sometimes I do wonder whether or not luck is on my side or just simply deserts me when I need some the most!!
After playing an extremely well disiplined game in a tournament on poker.com today i was chipleader with 56000 chips and 2-1 chip leader but then disaster strikes.
In just 3 hands i was busted out!!
It started with someone re-raising me all in when i was holding A-T s so i called the re-raise and the player in question flipped over Q-2 off so I was chuffed as i was majorly in the lead.
Then disaster strikes a 2 on the river, bad beat city is the way that hit!!
So i was pondering who in there right mind would risk 15000 chips with Q-2 off?
As i have found out recently there are a lot of players who will risk a large percentage or even all of there stack with what can only be described as rag hands!!
The other 2 hands i lost where simply the result of poor play on my behalf and I fully admit I was being foolish.
Busted after being in such a dominating position is a bit of a blow, but I would call that re-raise time and time again, knowing that its a 2-1 favorite.
So for now I'm going to reevaluate what mistakes I made and get it sorted so it doesn't happen again!!
Adios
Nic
BPT 5
Today is the BPT event 5 and I am hoping thati can manage to get a place in the grand final!!
heres to a good game that i hope to place highly in.....
you never quite know whats going to happen do you.
Good luck to all involved.
Nic
All In To Win!!!!!!
I'm just a little bit miffed that after working my way through the pack of a freeroll i get to 9000 chips which after nearly busting out earlier was quite an achievement. Then i get A-K suited, so raise the big blind to 1000 so as to beat the chaff away. I then get re-raised to 1600 and decide to throw it all in, he calls and i get shown Q-Q to my A-K suited.
J-10-7 on the flop,
6 on the turn,
10 on the river.
Busted out by playing what appears to be a strong hand, but manages to fall flat on its backside.
I don't know, win some and lose some thats the way poker pans out.
Joe Bartholdi wins WPT World Championship
Well 7 days of hard fought play finally produced a winner in the 4th WPT World Championships. In the form of Joe Bartholdi, it was a close run heads up with David Mathews coming in a close second. Mathews got to the World Championships as a $25 online qualifier so well done to him.
So thats the winner crowned for 2006 next years event should be another classic match up, already looking forward to it!
WPT World Championship
The final day of the World Poker Tour, World Campionship is upon us and the field has been ground down from 605 to just 6. These final table players are,
James Van Alstyne with $8,070,000 in chips,
Joseph Bartholdi with $7,135,000 in chips,
Claus Nielsen with $5,875,000 in chips,
Davidson Matthew with $5,765,000 in chips,
Roland De Wolfe with $1,860,000 in chips and
Men Nguyen with $1,490,000 in chips.
This should be a very interesting final table and seeing as its the final day one of these 6 players will become the 2006 WPT world Champion.
When the results are in i'll post the winners name, but my money is on Claus Nielsen who is in a strong position at the moment, lets see if i'm right.
Roll On The Freerolls
Another day another freeroll.
Freerolls are quite simply one of the best tools around for me as an online player to improve my tournament play.
I find that they allow me to play agaibst some outstanding and some quite shockingly bad players.
Whether people play for fun or for financial gain I still find it quite difficult to comprehend how some players play a rag hand.
Recently I have witnessed a lot of players going all in pre flop with low value hands or unsuited rags, why is this?
Surely these players can't hope to scare everyone off a hand, especially if someone is holding suited connectors or a high ranking pair. of course sometimes these bad players hit a lucky flop or manage to bad beat someone but 9 times out of 10 they are outranked and drawing dead.
This is something I am going to keep my eye on and see if this playing style is just people being blasse or whether they think this is a winning strategy.
But for me a winning strategy is one where the odds dictate that you stand a better than average chance of taking the pot and all in should be used to maximise your winnings not just to scare everyone off a pot when you are sat in early position.
Any views would be greatly appreciated.
cheers
nic
Accrington Stanley Crowned Champions!!!!
We are the
champions!!. Congratulations to my home town football team on winning the Nationwide conference in a truly enigmatic fashion.
Now Accrington Stanley can take their rightful place as a football league club next season after 44 years of non league action.
Well done to the club for achieving what has been the goal for a long time and all the fans who have travelled up and down the country supporting Stanley come rain or shine.
Heres to a succesive season and back to back promotions for next season.
BPT #3 Pool Party
Well the 3rd BPT freeroll has just finished!
I came in a close 16th, which was quite gutting as i'd been sat in the top 10 for over an hour.
Although it didn't start quite as i had expected, when, after 8 hands i was down to 210 points from 2000.
I thought "damn thats it", out before the game has even begun. But when Pocket Kings cameas hole cards i pushed my 210 all-in hoping a few people might be tempted and luckily for me 4 people called, so i now had 840.
The hands then started to show me some favour and i was up to 2600 after a few more hands, luck or skill? I was thrilled to be back in contention and started to tighten up the play for a while.
After the 3 min break i was sitting with 8000 points and a serious chance of placing in the cash, but when A-J suited came and i hit the flop i did that dreaded all-in manoeuver which with a K already on the board wasn't probably the best idea i should of stuck a feeler bet out, maybe next time. The turn and river where fruitless and i went out in 16th place which i'm ok with seeing as 71 started and there where some really good players at the table throughout.
There is always next time, where i'll be more thoughtful of going all-in without a feeler bet.
well for now friends
see ya
nic
Greed gets the better of us all in the end!!!!
Why, oh Why does
Greed have to become such a compulsion at times.
I am always saying to myself "why did i do that", sitting in 36th place in a freeroll earlier with just over $3000 in the bank, i just couldn't resist playing a hand.
Q-J offsuit.
Needless to say i hit the flop and decided it would be a clever idea to raise the pot a bit.
Someone decided to stay with me and ended up hitting an ace high straight whilst i had a set of Q's.
Greed got the better of me and i am going to have to learn to hold back the urges to get
Greedy, fight the little
Greed demon and chill my boots.
R.I.P Proof
D12 founder Deshaunh Holton aka Proof/Big Proof/Derty Harry, was involved in a shooting last night and has died due to injuries sustained. A bullet in the head is what police have stated as the cause of death. Proof was an influential rapper and will be sorely missed.
R.I.P Proof
WPT magazine
Just thought i'd say how good i've found the World Poker Tour magazine. Full of useful hints and tips. It also has relevant news and interviews. I subscribed because you get the first 3 issues for free.
no obligation.
pretty cool eh!
well if you fancy it go to www.wptmag.com and subscribe, this is uk only, i'm sorry but i don't know of the US equivalent.
laters.
nic
Freerolls @ Poker.com
One of the main things about playing poker is the addrenaline buzz you get when you hit a winning hand and manage to get a really good payout from the pot.
The excitement is multiplied when you're involved in tounaments whether they be live or online and some of the most rewarding are freerolls.
At Poker.com they run 8 freerolls everyday and the top 15 places get paid from $5 for 15th to 4th then $10 for 3rd, $15 for 2nd and $20 for first, all in all not a bad return if you manage to beat off the majority or all of the 1000 other players.
I managed to place 9th a few weeks ago and after being chip leader for the majority of the tournament then started to play too loose near the end and blew it.
The good thing is that you learn from mistakes and come back stronger, hopefully i'll get that first win under my belt soon.
till next time....
ciao
nic
Bloggers Poker Tour
Well it was biggestron's turn to hold the BPT last night and after last weeks dismal performance, going out first, i thought that i might do a little bit better. So to get a few good hands early on was quite a boost to the confidence. Then the same old story occured playing a A-Q unsuited and keeping myself in the pot, i got all-in'd and took the bait and was then reeled in for making one of the biggest fish moves in a while.
The fiels is strong so in future i'm going to have to take a long hard look at my style of play and tighten up in a few areas. Hopefully by doing this i might be a contender rather than a rank outsider.
Till next time...
Adios Amigos
Bad Beat
Who'd believe it, holding pocket aces pre flop. someone re-raises me with an all-in, i decide to call. He shows 2-2. All looks sweet until a 2 comes on the river. I drowned to a gutting bad beat. But a day will come when it floats, i hope.
