Car problems

 

God I hate my car. It’s always breaking down, but I can’t afford a new one at the moment so I just end up shovelling bad money in getting it repaired.

On Tuesday evening, driving home from work, I noticed my car was making a very strange noise, and then just as I was pulling into my car park in front of my flat, I heard an almighty bang, followed by a sound of metal dragging on the ground. 

Oh fuck, the exhaust pipe.

I parked the car and jumped out to check out the damage. It was broken roughly in the middle, but nearer the front and it was dragging on the ground. Fuck, fuck fuck, I hate this car and above all I hate having to deal with getting it repaired – asking people to pick you up from the garage, to ferry you around, to explain to my boss that I’m gonna be late, that I need to leave early etc. The whole thing just pisses me off. And all that for a piece of shit car in the first place.

So it was 5:30pm, and I had a broken down car which could start but which couldn’t/shouldn’t be driven. All the garages would be closing soon and I had to get to work next day. Bollocks !!

I locked the car up and went up to my flat and fired up Google maps on my PC. Walking time to/from work was 40 minutes. Ouch, it’s doable for just 3 mornings until the weekend and I’ll be able to ask for a lift at least some of the way in the evenings. I then called around a few garages and managed to find one open on Saturdays. The mechanic said they were open, but their suppliers of parts wasn’t so if they didn’t have the part, they wouldn’t be able to fix it Saturday.

“But if I bring my car in, you will be able to at least keep it locked up over the weekend and fix it Monday or Tuesday?”

“Yeah, sure, no problem, bring it in”

So that was my plan. To make do without the car til the weekend and then on Saturday to call my breakdown recovery service (covered by my car insurance) and instruct them to tow it to this garage.

So Saturday morning, I call up my insurance company and explain. They said no problem, the recovery truck thing will be there within 45 minutes (this is the maximum wait time as defined by my insurance policy). 

Over an hour later, I was still waiting and it was getting close to lunchtime.  This wasn’t so much a problem about me getting hungry, but for those that know France and the French, well lunchtime is sacred over here and the whole country grinds to a halt between midday and 2pm, and it kinda goes into slow motion for the 30 minutes leading up to it and the 30 mintes after it. So not wanting to turn up at the garage at peak eating time, I called my insurance company to find out where the hell the recovery truck was and to tell them to get a move on because it was soon gonna be lunchtime. The girl at the other end of the line contacted them directly for me and came back to me to say ok, they are on their way.

2 minutes later, my mobile phone rings:

“Hi this is the breakdown guy, I am told you want your car taking to a garage. Which garage is it ?”

So I tell him the name and address of the garage. (one of these quick repair places, similar to kwik fit etc in the UK)

“Well for starters, that’s not a proper garage. Make sure the car is ready when I get there to save time.”

“Everything is ready. I am just waiting for……..YOU”

What a dick ! Seriously. The guy is clearly pissed off that he’s being told to hurry up by my insurance company. “not a proper garage!”  WTF  does it have to do with him anyway where I’m taking it ?!  His job is to take me and my car to where I request to get it fixed.  Not a garage ?! Well wtf is it ? A hotel? A restaurant ? A zoo ? It’s a place to get my fucking car fixed, NOW HURRY UP.

So 5 minutes later, he turns up and parks his truck and I immediately drive my car up behind it so he could drive it on to the back of the truck. He does all this and then makes sure it is all secured, which takes about 10 minutes.  Bear in mind he still hasn’t said hello or even acknowledged my presence yet.  He then signals to me to jump in the passenger seat next to him for the drive to the “garage”  Hmmm, this is gonna be fun.

So I jump in and off we go and within 2 minutes, he was already laying in to me about the insurance company hurrying him up.  FUCK ME this guy is tilting me. My insurance company is probably his biggest client.  The contract I have with my insurance company is that they have to get a recovery vehicule to me WITHIN 45 minutes. I pay them a lot of money for this service. Some years go by where I don’t need it, but when I DO actually need it, I think I am well within my rights to make sure I am getting what I am paying for. And FFS, if this guy’s company can’t handle the 45 minute condition, then that’s HIS FUCKING PROBLEM, not mine.

But I tell you what, if I was running a business and I had a customer who made up probably >50% of my revenue (my insurance company is HUUUGE), then you know what, I would make sure I met all their requirements and treat them with a bit of respect and decent customer service. 

So I basically told this guy that the contract I had with my insurers was for a 45 minute wait, and not an hour and a half and if he didn’t like it, then that’s not my problem.  Cue frosty silence for the rest of the drive to garage.

When we got there, he took care of taking the car down of the truck while I went to the garage reception area to organize getting the car checked out. I was in the middle of discussing this with the guy from the garage when the recovery driver guy hands me his paperwork and just as he was about to leave he turns to the garage mechanic and said (so i could hear him) ” The whole length of the exhaust pipe is damaged. You’ll need to change the whole thing IMO”  and then he drives off !!

FUCK YOU !! Your job was to pick my vehicule up withing 45 minutes and take it where I want. THAT’S IT !! NO MORE NO LESS.  You were incapable of doing that, so STFU with sticking your nose in to what needs doing on my car.

Obviously this guy was just trying to get the garage to screw me over for what needed doing on my car, but no way did  the whole thing need changing.

Anyway, the garage gave me a quote. – It was “just” the catalyzer part of the exhaust that needed changing for which they quoted me 400 euros   Ouch, no choice really and they knew it so I said ok through gritted teeth.  They said it will be ready in an hour and a half, so I gave them my mobile phone number and asked them to call me once it was fixed as I was going to grab something to eat while waiting. “No problem sir, we’ll call once it’s fixed”

So off I went to have a bite to eat and do some shopping at the shopping centre next door.  An hour and a half went by. No call. There was  air conditioning in the shopping centre so I’d rather wait there than in the hot garage. Another 30 minutes went by, still no call.  Worried there might be a problem, I decided to go back to the garage.

“Oh yes, we finished your car 30 minutes ago”

FUCK ME, HOW ABOUT CALLING ME THEN FFS !  I’m paying you 400 euros for 30 minutes work. Any chance of a bit of customer service. So I pay and go and pick up my car, which still has all the plastic sheets inside, is still on the “ramps” (so it is up to me to drive it off them) and the ignition key was in the “ON” position and so the battery was being worn down (on purpose ? Is this some “coy” plan to wear down customer’s batteries ?!! WTF)

Seriously, I hate cars, and I hate the whole repair thing.  BASTARDS !

Fantastic weekend!

Just got back from Paris where England beat France last night 14-9 in the semi finals of the rugby world cup. It was a fantastic weekend and match. I think even my gf enjoyed it !I just played a short session, and finished up over a buy-in which takes my bankroll to over the $500 mark, its highest ever. I feel totally comfortable at $25NL now and am pleased with the transition from $10NL. I have played over 3000 hands at $25NL with a 8 ptBB/100 winrate. Yes I know this is a small sample, but I feel I am still a winning player at this level.

A few hands:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1587002

A raise from the blinds usually represents real strength and with villain’s raise on the flop on an otherwise dry board, I just didn’t see what I was beating. I’m not a big fan of playing QK, but I will play it in position like here but quickly let it go to any major resistance. QK is the sort of hand where you either win a small pot or lose a big one. A real trap hand.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1587024

Pretty standard. Min-raise from a shortstack UTG, and I’m holding KK. I decided immediately that whatever happens I’m going to felt this on the flop.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1587035

Several reasons for my raise on this flop. 1) Villain had raised before the flop and so was obviously going to make a continuation bet, heads up on pretty much any kind of flop, so didn’t necessarily have a strong hand. 2) I had a flush draw and 2 overcards so had plenty of pot equity. 3) The board was paired on the flop and so little chance that the villain had connected with it. 4)By raising, I took the initiative in the hand. Notice how the villain checked the turn and I was able to get a free card on the river. At this point I was pretty sure villain had 2 overcards – in fact I should have bet this river, but I doubt a worse hand would have called. If the ten hadn’t come on the river, I would have bet out again on this river.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1587075

I love hands like this ! It has been a while since my set gets paid off.

Session stats:

Number of hands: 95

Net profit/loss: +$33.35

Winrate: +70.21 ptBB / 100

Bankroll: $532

Too much work :(

Too much work atm and not enough poker

Just a quick update so you don’t think I’m not posting because I’m losing. It’s not that at all – I’m just not getting any spare time to playor study my game atm. Since my last post, I have played a couple of sessions and my bankroll is slightly up at $480.  No time to post hands, but basically I haven’t been getting a lot of hands/action and so am pretty pleased to be slightly up.

I won’t be playing poker this weekend either because I’m going to Paris with my gf to watch France vs England in the rugby world cup semi-finals !!   I bought a load of tickets over a year ago for the group stages which gave me the right/option to purchase 2 tickets for either of the 2 semi-finals. I had no idea then it would be France / England, so obviously I’m delighted !!

Bankroll: $480

2-tabling practice

Following some advice from a fellow poker blogger ( http://pokerlife.wordpress.com/ ), I decided I really need to start multi-tabling $10NL, if I want to build my bankroll and move up to $25NL any time soon. I feel, that I am pretty confident I am a winning player at these stakes, so it is time to grind out the hands and move up asap.  The other reason I haven’t multi-tabled much up until now is that I only have crappy 15″ CRT screen and tiling the tables is pretty bad on the eyes, and cascading them gets me all confused having to flip between them but at least the table fills the screen. So as a compromise, what I did was 2-table in tile-mode preflop and when I got a hand I wanted to play on one of the tables, I flipped it into full-screen mode to be able to concentrate better and then flip back to tile mode at the end of the hand.

This worked pretty well and I’ll do this from now on til I move up to $25NL  I still feel I’m missing out on some reads and the table dynamics by multi-tabling, but I can live with giving up possible marginal situations if it means my hourly rate goes up. Any comments ?

Anyway, I played 188 hands in about 2h30, with no major wins or losses, just a grind really. Here are a few key hands:

 http://www.pokerhand.org/?1352137

Pair of Aces and then a set on the flop. As you can see, I didn’t slow play this with 2 callers to my reraise preflop, I was hoping one of them hit that flop and didn’t want anyone drawing to their flush. I was quite happy to take this down on the flop

 http://www.pokerhand.org/?1352199

Similar situation here with QQ. I would have probably called a reraise all-in on the flop here, but luckily that wasn’t necessary.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1352218

QQ again, different villain. This was quite a tricky player, and I’d reraised him off a couple of hands before this one (with premium hands) and he was getting a bit pissed  off I think, so he was definitely out to trap me if he could. His check min-raise just screamed strength to me and I’m sure he flopped a set here and I wasn’t prepared to get stacked off with my single overpair, so I folded and decided to wait for a better spot.  Thoughts ? Too weak ?

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1352258

This hand is just spew, and I hate my line here, especially the turn raise. This is a leak I think – overplaying marginal hands from the blinds which I would otherwise have folded preflop.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1352272

Same story spew. Talk about getting my money in when behind. I should have either raised flop or check folded turn…. Terrible play, although UTG’s play wasn’t much better limping with AKo

Session stats (pokerstars):

Number of hands: 188

Net profit/loss:  +$2.25

Winrate: 5.98 ptBB / 100

Bankroll (stars): $328.60

Bankroll (“other site”): $236

Back !

It’s been a while since my last post. I haven’t lost interest – I’ve been on holiday with my  better half! We went camping in the Landes area of France and met up with my sister and nephew who were also on holiday in the area and I haven’t seen for ages. I really needed this holiday and break from work. Apart from one small row with my gf, we had a really good time together.

I got back on Saturday and have played quite a bit of poker since then (I really missed the game while away!)

I signed up at a new poker site. – Up until now, I have been playing at Pokerstars (my username is a secret btw ) Pokerstars is a fantastic site in terms of their choice of games, quality of their software and customer service. However on the downside, they have no rakeback and the games are pretty tight / tough to beat. In a way, this is a good thing, because it makes you a better player playing good players, but hey I’m trying to build a bankroll! So anyway I signed up at another site and credited my account with $220. I won’t be disclosing the name of the site on this blog – You’ll all have to find your own fish, but I will refer to it as the “Other site” when I give my stats. Anyway, I played a few hands there already and am up at least 1 buy-in. The play is very loose and sometimes very aggressive too. I think the winrate is going to be pretty high but so will the variance due to the increased chances of getting sucked out on. But I’m properly bankrolled for $10NL so that’s not a problem….

I have still kept my account at Stars and will continue to play there. – It will be good training to adapt to different styles of play. Since getting back from holiday, I’ve played quite a few sessions and saw my bankroll go up and back down again. I reviewed my sessions, and the main reasons were basically:

1)Getting no decent cards
2)Couple of bad beats
3)Set over set
4)A very bad call by me vs a maniac who actually had a good hand for once

I basically stacked off ~$13 with TPTK on a monotone flop. He flopped the nut flush (me TPTK) and he slowplayed it. I bet out $2 on the river for value and he reraised all-in. I thought he was making a move, so I called……   :(  I think this is a big leak for me. Stacking off with TPTK, particularly vs donkeys as I just think they’re bluffing. What I need to remember is that even donkeys can get good hands and 1 pair isn’t worth risking your stack over…

Bankroll stars: $316
Bankroll “Other site”: ~$230

Live game

Live game!

I haven’t played any online poker since my last post. – I had a really crappy day at work on Thursday and then spent a nice evening with my gf, and poker would have been a bad idea. I don’t really want to go into the details about the work probs, but it basically involved a row with my boss and me telling them that if they keep heaping work and pressure on me, then it’s just not going be a good idea….

Anyway the evening with my gf was great. She cooked dinner while I planned everything we need for our up and coming camping holiday.

Anyway, last night (Friday) after work, I was invited to a friend’s flat for a live home game. There were 6 of us and I had played vs 1 of them before in a home tourney. He had finished 1st and me second, but I was confident I was a slightly better player and so I was really motivated for last night’s game.

Out of the other 4, there were 3 guys, 2 of whom had played quite a bit and the other one who had played before but not very much. Finally  one of the 2 guys who had played quite a bit brought his gf, and she had played a few times on the web apparently.

Although it wasn’t at my home, I offered to organise it if the host so wished. He was fine with that, so I provided the chips (Nexgens) and worked out the chip distribution and blind structure using the excellent http://www.homepokertourney.com/ web site for help.

Anyway, we played 2 games, the first one for no money (damn) and the second one for 2 Euros each – First prize – 8 Euros, second prize 4 Euros.  As you can see, these aren’t big money games, and I think that’s great! There’s just enough to make you want to win first prize, but if you lose, it’s the cost of a drink ! That suits me fine for a home game amongst friends. We all had a good evening, ate some pizza, drank some beers, played  5 hours of poker, and I got some valuable live experience

The first game, I started off very tight, and then got dealt pocket 7′s. I raised it up from mp and got 2 callers. Flop came 2 cards lower than 7, plus J I think.  I bet out and got 2 callers. Hmmm, I think I knew I was beat here. One of the callers was my good player friend, and there’s no way I can push 2 players of this (now pretty big) flop. The turn came a Q I think and I checked and folded to the bet. The hand didn’t get to showdown, but my judging by my friend’s face, he had a monster!

Anyway, that left me only about 600 chips (started with 1000) That’s the problem with STT’s – There’s very little room for manouver to really play poker. I used to play hundreds of these SNG’s online for a 10% ROI – And the strategy was to play very tight early and then losen up at end, and not bothering with hands like Suited connectors, small pairs (for set value) cos you’re just not deep enough to make them profitable.

So with the BB at 50 or so, I decided I was going to wait for a monster and grudgingly go all in and hope for a caller. Well that’s exactly what happened! I got dealt QQ and did the Hollywood act moaning about my short-stack and just said “all-in”  That’s when the female at the table started saying “DON’T CALL, he plays really tight” I felt like telling her to STFU, but realised that would be a tell, and decided to keep my mouth shut. Anyway I got 2 callers! My friend with KJo (I think) and another with TT!  Amazingly my ladies held up and I tripled up and eliminated the guy with TT

I now had chips and was feeling pretty confident. Chip leader on one hand started berating me for playing too tight on one hand when I open checked on a flop. He bet out for 300, and I check-raised all-in. He blushed a little bit before folding. He then STFU a bit after that.

A key hand heads up was when I went all-in with Q9s and the villain (berator) called with 58o !!! WTF ?!! I was trying not to laugh when the pot was pushed to me.

Anyway, I won the fun game, and the berator was clearly not too happy especially as he was with his gf and trying to make out he was Gus Hansen !

To cut a long story short for the real money game, I won that one too The table captain berator crashed out in 6th position having lost most of his stack in the first hand donk betting into an obvious Full-house

I was heads-up at the end with my good friend and I think we were both pleased that we were both going to win whatever happened! Final few hands, the blinds were 300/600 and it was basically all-in or fold.

I was in BB with AQs, he raised from the SB and I went all-in obv. He called, already knowing he was beat I think and showed 2 live cards. My hand held up and I won the game.

Overall, it was a good evening, but made me realise how hard it is to follow betting patterns, observe players in a live game, and to make mental notes. This is something I really need to work on! If anyone has any tips on this, I’d be grateful

Beach plus cash grind

Last night after work, I went straight to the beach ( I had my beach stuff all ready in the car). I needed some fresh air and I am way too pale for someone who lives year round in the south of France!

The weather was great even at 6:30pm, and there were even some decent waves which had attracted a large group of surfers. There was also a group of 3 idiots who decided to play football right in the middle of everyone to everyone’s dismay. The beach I was at is huge, but of course these pricks had to play next to everyone. Even when the ball doesn’t actually hit you or get close, you can’t relax and sunbathe with your eyes closed or whatever because you’re forever looking out for the ball every time they pass the ball.

Anyway this hour on the beach was still good. It’s amazing how just a bit of sun and fresh air can make you feel and look better. I then drove a bit further down the coast to a resort town and bought myself a “sandwich americain” which is basically a delicious steak and chips in French bread. Not particularly healthy if you eat that every day, but hey, it’s not like I’m overweight or anything!

I ate the sandwich while walking around the town and observing everyone. It’s quite a tacky town in the Summer months with lots of touristy shops targeting the masses. I walked to the casino, but didn’t go in as I was dressed in shorts, T-shirt etc and I didn’t want to give the security the satisfaction of turning someone away. I actually wanted to see if they had any announcements or adverts stating when they will be offering Texas Holdem poker.

The end of last year, the French authorities ran a trial in 3 pilot casinos – Aix-en-Provence, Deauville and another one I can’t remember close to the Swiss border. The trial was a huge success for everyone concerned and in May of this year, the French government authorized Texas Holdem in all French casinos that wanted to offer it. The minimum cash tables will be 1/2 Euros NL, so I am not yet bankrolled for it, but since I have been playing and beating the mico-limits, I figure I have the ability to beat this game. There is no way I would play live if not bankrolled, but I am keen to go down to the casino and check out the level of play as soon as they start….

Anyway, there were no announcements, so I finished my food and returned home.

I opened up a couple of .05/.10 NL full ring cash tables with the aim of grinding my bankroll up to $300 from $288. The $300 mark seems to be a sticking point for me – Every time I have got my bankroll to or just over this amount, I seem to go on a bit of a losing streak down to $250 or so. It has happened two or three times and this time I really want to stay disciplined and get my bankroll way over the $300 mark.  The plus side of this, is that this experience has taught me discipline and patience. Not once did I re-credit my account to get it back up to $300 (which I could easily afford) – I got it back up by grinding away.

So anyway, last night I achieved my aim and got my bank-roll up to $301.50  I realize this isn’t huge amounts, but I consider this to be my poker training and it is the amount relative to the blinds which is relevant. I checked out my stats at the .05/.10 level – Approx 0.5 ptBB/100 over 14,000 hands. Certainly not crushing, but being a winning player (just) over a reasonable sample is certainly promising.
Why am I playing full-ring and not 6 max I hear you ask ?!  Simple answer – Live poker in the casinos is nearly always full-ring, and thats what I’m preparing myself for

I would love to hear from other players grinding it out and learning the ropes at micro-limits cash games

Good luck at the tables…

Taking the plunge

Well, here we go. I never thought I’d move over to the dark side and start a blog! I have always scorned blogging, and in particular bloggers, hating the “Me, me, me, me, I did this, I did that” vanity thing.

So why have I decided to start a blog? Well it’s certainly not for vanity reasons. I don’t care if anyone reads it or not. I see it more as a therapeutic personal diary.

Life is pretty much passing me by and by writing a dailing blog, I have to actually justify what I’m doing with my time and my life. Currently I feel at a bit of a crossroads in my life. No let me correct that – I have often felt at a crossroads and have often taken a turning, reached another crossroads, taken another turning, reached another taken another turning and ended up back where I started.

I get bored quickly. I have dreams and ambitions. I have ability, above average intelligence, but am often too lazy to put things into action. I do not feel in control of my life. Life, and others control me. I would like that to stop. I want to achieve something with my life. Writing this, getting it down on paper the screen is helping me already.

I’ll write more later…..