I'll be drinking tea on PokerStars

Well, I tried to use an avatar with cards in it on PokerStars but, with hindsight for obvious reasons, PokerStars wouldn't allow it 'cos it confuses some users to have cards in people's avatars.

So, I figured I'd create one that was more in line with my screenname. Was going to do something 3d or take a serious image but my fiancee suggested I use a cartoon type image.

Found some inspiration at OffTheMark (http://www.offthemark.com/search-results/key/tea/) and created the image posted here.

If anyone ever asks me to draw for them based on this image, I'll pass em straight onto Mark Parisi.

Cash giveaway at Pacific Poker

wow. I went on serious tilt at Pacific today. had about $19 when I started. Was down about $5 then went on tilt (basically got bored) in a $.25/$.50 limit cash game, losing another $5 then donked my chips in a $5 + $0.50 tourney.

After that I had maybe $2 left and I've spent the last two hours trying to dispose of this meager sum in the smallest stake table I could find ($0.05/$0.10 limit).

I couldn't bring myself to play any two cards though so 2 hours later I'm still sitting with $2.30. ARGH! Had to stop.

I really dislike the Pacific interface. Grr!!! I only went there to see if there was enough money to transfer and in the end I stayed there all day. Ooops.

Cash game at Everest

Played limit cash at Everest last night at the micro stakes level. Found a reasonable table and doubled up in about 45 minutes. Think I'll try at higher stakes to see what the difference is.

Was thinking what the minimum stakes would have to be to even attempt to a noticeable difference to my bankroll and I think it would have to be $1/$2. That means a $400+ minimum bankroll perhaps? a reasonable investment. not ready for that yet...

new avatar for poker sites

I had a geeky day today - on top of doing system administration stuff for work I also spent a lot of time on XSI (a 3d software package) and listening to the "modcast" (modo podcast).

The modcast prompted me to sign up to Twitter which got me thinking about what to put in my profile and *that* got me thinking about an avatar that combined 3d with poker.

Well, the avatar I came up with doesn't contain any 3D but it does combine my hobbies in a loose sense.

I've uploaded it to PokerStars (where I will be iDrinkTea forever more - as of today) and to PartyPoker.

Talking of PartyPoker. I played a load of tournaments last night. Tried my hand at multi-tabling - just two tables - but I just wasn't concentrating. Played maybe 4 $1 tourneys (they take $0.20 rake out of $1 - rip off and they don't tell you explicitly) and didn't get into the money once (came 4th a few times).

In the end I decided to try my hand at a $3 tourney and came 2nd. So I pretty much recovered the losses at the other tables - but not quite.

Balance sits at $23.? at the moment.

oh yeah, and Netteller charged me £5 for taking £18 out of the account. Darn it! I won't be using them again :(

Party upgrade

Been a while. Hard to believe a whole month has gone by. Have played a little. Definitely not going to quit poker now as the prospect of earning money if I improve is a real good incentive to play and its enjoyable to boot.

Received a letter from PartyPoker today urging me to try their new site and offering me money so I figured I'd take a look. Have to say I do like the new layout. I'm up about $18 on the evening because I played 3 $1 tourneys, lost 2 (4th and 7th) and came 3rd in one (= -$1.40) but Party gave me $20, hence I'm up $18.60.

Of course, if my performance stays at -$1.40 per 3 games, I'll have lost all the money they gave me in just over 30 games. I'll do what I can to prevent that from happening!

Oh yeah, and I should mention:
- I played a couple of multi-table tournaments in September on er.. Full Tilt I think? A completely different ball game - very tough and they take AGES. I was surprised just how many people turn up for the $1 MTTs but then with fields of 700+ the prize can get pretty big.

- thought I'd developed a strategy for success in Pacific's 888 express ($.88 + $.08, 40 players) after I got onto the final table twice in a row. However, I was out early in the next two in quick succession. I think my best finish in all of them was 6th anyway.