Day 61 – Day 65: Gamblefest

Day 61: All in…

The current self-imposed ban on Blackjack fueled my desire go get better at poker (and it wasn’t the only thing in the last few days) so I hit the tables again and started playing four at once for 25 cent/10 cent blinds. With $15 to start with on each table I was quickly dispatched from one, held steady on two of them and managed to build up a head of steam on the fourth.

I obviously pissed someone off because he kept calling everything I did and so I cleared him out and left $20 up for the night.

Day 62: All out…

My see-saw poker career continued with Day 61’s $20 quickly turning into some American or Russian’s $20. I clearly haven’t learnt anything.

Day 63: V good

Early on Saturday morning I set off to the V Festival in Stafford where I spent the weekend with some the UK’s best online poker players. Naturally I asked for tips wherever I could and the resounding response was “stop playing blackjack”. Oh dear.

Still, as most of them make a living from cards I suppose I should heed the advice.

I cleverly avoided taking a deck of cards with me in case I became embroiled in a game where I’d be clearly out of my depth and so instead I put my faith in my latest hobby…football match accumulators.

I bet on four Premiership games and once again I missed out by won victory as Birmingham failed to beat Portsmouth.

On the music front The Streets were brilliant and I passed on Oasis in favour of MGMT (pictured).

Day 64: Will you still need me, will you still feed me…

Sebastian Vettel to win the European Grand Prix. 5/1. £5 on. No dice. Retired after 23 laps.

Luckily though, our cricketing heroes whipped the Aussies in the final test to lift (a replica of) the Ashes and I won £21 from the bet I accidentally placed whilst trying to gamble on the fourth test…which we lost. Resultio.

I celebrated with a curry.

Then to cap a winning day I wondered if the wise words of my new found poker friends would help me…to win just over £17.

Just have to hang on to that now and maybe its the start of the turnaround.

Day 65: Annualism

Today I learned I may be an annualist from an article (which you may have just clicked on) on the BBC website. Always good to learn a new word. I left them a comment in case anyone sees it, finds the site and challenges me to do something wacky.  My girlfriend has bet me a fiver they don’t publish it.

Tonight I was struggling for further inspiration (it can be a burden for us annualists) and so I had £2 e/w on a Virtual Horse Race on Will Hill.

Never again.

Difficult to know what happened there, both in the lunacy of my decision to play it and the confusion of the race itself. My “horse” came somewhere near the back (apparently) and is now being virtually shot…in Second Life…by someone from the Sims.

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Day 60: Man, you should have done better

Yes they bloody should…

Birmingham v Portsmouth – I had Birmingham at evens. They won.
Hull v Tottenham – I had Tottenham at evens too. They won as well.
Liverpool v Stoke – I had Liverpool at 1/4 and they won
Burnley v Man United…Man U were 3/10 and they were losers. Unbelievable.

One of these is going to pop in one day. Footie accas are the new blackjack!!

However, I did go to a play casino tonight (for a work team bonding session) and playing at least 100 hands…but it was only for play money and they were playing monkey English rules where you couldn’t double unless you had 9, 10 or 11 and you couldn’t split 4s, 5s or 10s (the latter I’d never do, of course).

Even in play games it bugs me when dealers advise against basic strategy.

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Day 54 – 59: when it rains it pours

Day 54: Eye for nothing

Lady P’s horse was second favourite at the off but sadly second last at the post. My £4 e/w no use to no one.

Day 55: Losing the plot

Mel’s bet looked the easiest shoe-in to date with my pick from a wide field. All I had to do was hit one winner. I flew to Poland and forgot to back anything other than two useless tickets in the EuroMillions.

£10 down on Mel. £3 down on Camelot.

Day 56: First day of the season

The premiership kicked off today and so did my six match accumulator.

Chelsea v Hull, I had Chelsea at 1/5
Everton v Arsenal I had the Arse at Arsenal 11/8
Stoke v Burnley I had Stoke at 20/21
Blackburn v Man City I had City at 5/4

So far so good, roll on Sunday’s matches.

I had a lotto ticket for tonight too. Lotto? Notto, more like.

Day 57: Two tone pony

I awoke in the mountains of Poland with a mild hangover after attending my first Polish wedding. The main thing everyone was talking about the next morning was who fell asleep first and who drank the most Vodka. At two bottles per guest it was anyone’s guess. I certainly hadn’t bet on it.

On with the football and all I needed was Man United to beat Birmingham and Tottenham to lose against Liverpool. Seemingly an easy way to turn my £5 into £150.

Bloody Spurs!!!

My brother (the Tottenham fan) was there. He loved it.

Tiger Woods to win the USPGA golf was my banker for the day.

He lost!

Day 58: the wanderer returns

I got back home to blighty and I’d certainly missed the blackjack.

I tried my luck again at the three way tables.

10 hands later I was down £30 and figured the deck was cold.

Day 59: mixed forecasts

28 degrees outside, freezing deck inside. Another all to brief stint on Stan James – who now clearly wants all the money I’ve won from him back, sees me drop nearly £50 at the drop of a hat.

Time for a self-imposed break from that particular loser. No BJ for real money for 1 week!!

Playing for fun is fine though.

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Day 53: Pulled off at half time

45 minutes played in the Netherlands vs England friendly.

England are losing 2-0.

Stan James will give me 8/1 on the draw.

I take it and put a fiver of my hard earned quid on it. I don’t know any Dutchmen anyway so no one will give me any shit if I’m wrong.

UPDATE: 11.27pm

Jermain Defoe came off the bench to score twice in the second half. £45 to Andy 🙂

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Day 52: Three way action

Today I tried something for the first time.

A delightful threesome.

I had the little beauties spread all over the table whilst I spanked fivers down on top of them.

It started slowly, but soon built to a delicious crescendo and the princely some of £95 in the bank.

In summary: multi-hand, blackjack, Stan James. Winner.

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Day 47 – 51: from Willhill to downhill

So I’ve hit the half-century and although there aren’t as many cricketing Englishmen around who can claim that at the moment I too am not overly proud of the achievement as I write this today £385 down to John Q Bookmaker.

Thinking back to the larger wins on WillHill’s blackjack tables seems a million days ago as I’ve not managed to replicate the success since.

Speaking of which…

Day 47: Another black blackjack day

Black as in “dark”, not as in “in the black” too. A nasty £80 dump out, split over several sites with little to make it memorable other than the sad loss of the money.

Day 48: Poke’n all over the world

Made friends with a Russian, lost to an American, a dutchman, the Russian I’d recently made friends with. He wailed when I left the table – at least in txt spk – but I was £9 down and it was getting late.

Day 49: Live action at last

I went to Bournemouth on Saturday and my mate Chris and I had a £5 on the Newcastle/West Brom game with me backing the former. Luckily they were better in the second half and they came back from 1-0 down to draw the game and void the bet.

Buoyed by the news we headed to the casino for the first time since a trip to Sydney at Easter. It was also my first time in Bournemouth’s Gala venue since I joined on a previous weekend away in 2000. They still had me down as a member though, complete with a picture of a much skinnier me on their system.

We sat down at the table and I handed over £60 which I quickly took up to around £90 (playing between £3 and £10 a hand) before losing the lot back to the house within the hour. The other fellas made the most of their free craps and roulette bets (which I didn’t get as I was already a member) and walked out smiling.

A few hours later, when we could take no more cheesy choons we decided to head back and this time, with funds severely depleated, I just about managed to rustle up £40.

At 5am when they shut we were still there and I’d managed to win back everything I’d bet that day and keep a tenner for myself. Although a modest profit, a relief to get back to winning form and in a decent casino too.

Day 50: Not out…and almost on a roll

Arriving home I played several more hands on Stan James and won a quick £30 before losing £20 of it on the PokerStars tables. Annoying.

Day 51: Shot in the dark

Viking Spirit £3 e/w in the 7.20 at Windsor. Not sure which way it went, but it didn’t win.

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Day 46: The Times gives me the Nod

Sir Nod in the 4.10 at Pontefract was another NAP from the guy in the times.

I only ever read the times when I go to the dentist. The dentist was less painful than my £25 at 11/2 which Sir Nod banished with his “nowhere near nothing” performance.

I also had £5 e/w on Eye for the girls in the 5pm at Brighton but they withdrew him due to the ground.

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Day 45: Tenpin Tony

A GOTD first today as I staked my own tenpin bowling skills against those of three friends.

At the Charrington Bowl in Tolworth, South-west London its 2-4-1 night on a Tuesday so four people bowling two games is a very reasonable £17, or £4.25 each.

On the drive there I bet the others none of them could beat me over either game and if I was right they’d pay for my games and if not I’d pay for all of there’s.

I think that effectively meant I was betting £4.25 on myself at 1/3 but perhaps someone could confirm.

I have to admit I do own my own bowling ball so I like to think I’m a bit good at it…but I’m not and I haven’t been for ages so in the first game it was a struggle to get to 100.

Luckily I wasn’t alone in my struggle and despite a late charge from Nikki, I just about won.

Second game started well with a strike off the bat, but it was downhill from there and I only just scraped a win…by one pin!!

However, free night out for me and therefore £4.25 hits the win fund.

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Day 44: Keep calm and carry on

After the pain and sorrow of last night I took it slow today. I had to top up my accounts after pillaging them last night but I don’t keep much in them (£50 is usually the max) so it wasn’t too painful.

I settled for a simple 50p four horse accumulator at Ripon as I couldn’t find anywhere to put on Jon’s snooker tip…which is a shame as it won.

Perhaps someone can explain why this 50p could have become over £230 because I’m not sure, but it seemed a reasonable risk to reward ratio.

The four horses were all favourites when I picked them and I had Makbullet at 11/4, Simple Rhythm at 10/3, Crime Writer at 9/2 and Mister Laurel at 4/1.

Makbullet won but Simple Rhythm could only manage third and the other two couldn’t even manage that so my 50p was lost.

Tommo asked me if I’d called WillHill after last night and it hadn’t even crossed my mind so I thought for the sake of £100 I’d give it a go. Here’s how the conversation went.

Andy: Hello, I was playing last night for between £2 and £10 per hand. I accidentally clicked the £100 chip and bet it and it lost. Is there any chance I could have it back?

WH: Let me just check with my colleague.

Andy: Ok

WH: I checked with my colleague and we can’t give you it back as we would have paid out on it had it won.

Andy: So there really is no hope of getting it back?

WH: No

Andy: Ok, thanks anyway.

I think its important to be nice.

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Day 43: mixed bag…of sh*te

So there was no Rainbow at the end of the light yesterday. Apparently the ground did for him and he finished second behind Midday which I backed back on day 21. It lost then.

Otherwise though Ryan Moore did end Goodwood as top jockey so I doubled up on my £15 for that and on an evening of back and forth on the blackjack I ended £5 up.

Update: Just before midnight

FAAAAAACKKKKKKKKKK!! – I’ve just left the Willhill BJ table after riding it from £20 down to a magnificent £135 up…when I hit the £100 chip by mistake and instinctively clicked the “deal” button before I knew what was happening.  If it had won, I’d be whooping around, headbutting the walls but it lost and I lost most of my hard work for the weekend in the tilt that followed.

This is the most cross I have ever been after losing

 

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