Monday 26 January 2009

Pain pain and more pain

Been a while since I posted, but not played much poker (until this morning) and have been busy getting out and about here.

Did make it out in to town for Saturday night to watch the football, but as we are 7 hours ahead here, by the time we made it to the Man Utd Spurs game we were already pretty hammered - our mood helped by the fact that we managed to beat a couple of Aussies at pool. Karon is a lot quieter than Patong, so there were not that many bars showing the live game, which we only realised after I'd walked past an Irish pub, seen that Spurs had taken an early lead, and shouted at the top of my voice 'Yiiiiiiid Aaaaaaarmy!!!' straight at Brennan (glory seeking Man Utd fan from Co Durham). This did not go down well with the largely silent audience sitting outside, probably due to the fact that they were also all glory supporting the 2nd worst red scum - even though most of them have probably been to more live Man Utd games than Brennan.

After we walked past, and didn't see any pubs close with the football playing, we decided to head back to the Irish bar, tails semi between legs and immersed ourselves in the crowd. Cue lots of evil looks, mutterings under breath about how they hate loud English tourists, etc etc etc. I was starting to feel a little guilty, when Man Utd scored twice in 2 minutes and the whole pub erupted. Hypocritical bastards!!! 2nd half was then mostly spent sinking Singha's praying for a miracle equaliser, which obviously never materialised. We didn't deserve anything, but if we were as lucky as Everton we'd have scored 2 in last minute.. not that I'm bitter....

Anyway, the 4 of us then proceeded to get wasted (in Briggs language) and meandered through some less than idyllic late night bars. They're not the kind you can take your parents too, if you know what I mean.... After about 4 more rounds, a very notable effort from me and Katrina on the Kareoke, Briggs pole dancing and Brennan chatting up a 50 year old bar 'girl' along with her 15 year old midget granddaughter, I decided to let Katrina walk me home at about 3:30 a.m. Wise move, as Brennan and Briggs stopped out until 7:30 in the morning - crazy fools. We all suffered on Sunday, meaning no poker and indeed very little movement all round.

Yesterday was a another painful day. We haven't actually made it to many places in Phuket so far, due to poker and the fact our apartment is so swanky, so we decided yesterday to hire some motorbikes and head out exploring. The idea was to get up early and head to a waterfall about 20 minutes away for a light dip, then check out the National Park in the north. What actually happened was a 4 hour epic ride across the highways and lowways of the island - not great for your legs / arse or back. I felt even worse for Katrina as she was on the back of my bike and stuck in an even more uncomfortable pose. After nearly making it to the mainland (that's a LONG way if you've never been), we realised the error of our ways - we thought the Phuket territory lines on the map we main roads!! No wonder we couldn't find anything!!

We settled for a 90 minute stop in Bai Thon beach on the west coast, with snorkelling and sand castle building, before heading home for the evening. Brennan managed to flat his tyre which needed fixing, but the worst part of the day was definitely the drive over Karon Hill at dusk time. Somehow we managed to find the world's largest congregation of flies / mosquitos and flying worms, which also naturally happened to be fascinated by our beaming lights at the front of our bikes. We were all subsequently attacked on dangerous bends by these flying monsters, and no word of a lie I must have swallowed 5 of them! They also lodged themselves in our cycle helmets and clothes, so when we did get back to the flat and unclothe, loads dropped out on the floor for us to examine. I thought I was going to be sick. Luckily I held it in and, despite Katrina laughing at me and reminding me of how disgusting they were (she was safely hiding behind me on the bike, using me as a shield), we managed to have a decent night.

Last part of pain is poker. I ran badly this morning (happens to all of us I know) and lost $500. I think I lost one buy in through a steal move (AQ in big pre pot, flop JT2, called by queens) but I lost two buy ins with sets to over sets, one with AK all in vs AA pre flop and another with AA on a K42 board - him catching a T on turn. Not good for my bankroll or my confidence - down to a meagre $680 profit for the month now - down from $1.5k last week. Not good. Lucking I should be collecting a tonne of rakeback and I'm still clearing a chunky bonus, but really REALLY want to start winning at the tables again. Hopefully my luck will turn back in my favour again soon.

This has been a really long post so will sign off for now - good luck to all that are playing.

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