Senin, 20 Desember 2010

New Blog: Catfish

December has been generally quiet, but I've still found time to gamble and enjoy myself.

It's funny, I always put off writing blogs because I think I don't have enough to write about. I then do a quick brainstorm, some bullet points and one liners, and all of a sudden I've got about 10 different things to talk about. I'll try not to ramble through it all, but fair to say I find it all interesting!

By the end of this week two of PokerIdol's three big holiday promotions would of launched. The first is we're hosting 3 Satellites to the GSOP Bucharest, with a combined 8 Packages added. The tournaments are $5.5, $11 and $22 so represent unbelievable value. The last event in Malta had 333 runners and first prize was €72,550, with few if any pros attending due to the qualification needed, making this tournament series one of the best in Europe IMO.

Next we're launching a Freeroll series hosted by our new spokesperson, Dr.Poker. Who is this you might ask, well let me show you.


I'm very proud of this video. Firstly because I wrote/touched up a lot of the script, but secondly it's the culmination of tons of hard work from the PokerIdol team. We really do have some truly unique things to offer on one of the worlds top networks.

The Dr.Poker Freerolls Series will be 4 Freerolls events, each with $2,500 added. The top 10 points finishers from these, as well as the top 10 Experience Point earns from 20 Dec to 20 Jan will each enter an exclusive Freeroll with 2 GSOP Bucharest packages up for grabs. That's right, you'll have a 1/10 chance of going to Bucharest, for free!

For all information on these as well as a preview for our Team promo coming up in January (which I'm super excited about) go to www.pokeridol.com/Promotions.aspx

This month started quite slow for me as I was ill with the dreaded man flu. I've not had this for a couple of years now after becoming very careful about my hygiene. I always have hand sanitiser in my band now and wash my hands all day, it's definitely made a difference as I used to get colds, sorry, man flu 2/3 times a year.

I actually got to play a little poker this month. Went to check out the pad of one of my old poker mates, one of the guys I used to play against in our regular live game and before the the poker project pub league. We hadn't played together or with any of the old gang for well over a year, but within a short period of time we had the poker chips out playing heads up.

Then last Friday he called me and said he wanted to play that night. So between us we rounded up some players and got the game going. It's been a while since I've played live cash having played tournaments a lot recently. I continued with the loose aggressive game but it wasn't nearly as effective, always having a couple of players calling my open raises. I enjoyed myself though and finished a little down. I think if we play again I'll tighten up a little from early position and see how that works out.

The poker world passes me by with little interest these days, largely as I don't have too much time to speculate about it, but one subject came up that has me a little annoyed. HSP has been bought out by stars and FTP will not allow their players on there. What a shame as HSP was the best poker show on TV at one point, giving a rare glimpse into real high limit vegas games, but now it will be just another marketing horse. Off the top of my head there now no made for TV shows that feature both players? (unless you count the WSOP of course) Things are getting a little silly.

Now for a little tech review. This next subject might not interest many, but for a serial road traveller with a bad sense of direction (aka lazy) like myself Sat Nav is really important. Ah man, I think back to the days where I'd use google for directions, literally write down the road names and the direction I'd have to turn (left onto the M25 is a thin direction) and proceed to stress out the entire way.

Then one month the Tom Tom came into my life. Sure, it didn't do the geeky things I wanted it to do (pre route planning on your laptop ala itunes and playlists) but it was amazing at getting be places. Sadly Tom was stepped on and his screen broke. Luckily around this time I purchased my first smartphone, the BB 9000 and heard my carrier Orange gave free Sat Nav. I downloaded the app and was surprised at how good it was, but it did have flaws. The first problem was it was very basic. No changing the voice to Ozzy Osbourne (not really necessary) and no re-routs/non highways option (VERY necessary). The last one was a real drag, the amount of times I was someone I didn't know and knew the motorway would be packed but had no option as it was the only route OM would take me.

The second problem was it was extremely unreliable. It usually took 5 minutes to load the map, not great when in a rush, and sometimes would not find the service, even with great signal in a city centre. This sucked for obvious reasons, I spent a good hour driving round Nottingham trying to get it working.

With the thought of travelling to Reigate close to rush hour and desperately not wanting to use the M25, I looked for another app for my BB. (note in this roughly 1.5 year period I tried getting my Tom Tom fixed on several occasions, but they have the worst customer service ever). I finally found Telenav, which had a 30 day free trial. Whilst still a pretty basic program, it fixed both of the previous problems. It had the option to miss highways and it was QUICK, and very reliable. The only problem is the price...£100 for a year?! That's ridiculous. I've now found someone independent who will fix my Tom Tom. I did this for my iPod when Apple wouldn't fix it and the results were great.

I guess the point of this tech review was...not much! I forgot about the £100 a year pricetag on the Telenav when writing it. I even clipped some pictures comparing the two interfaces, but what's the point when I've revealed they're both shit! If you're pissed that you wasted time reading that, it took me much longer to write it.

I'm not much of a geek when it comes to films, I like them simple to combat my crazy life which I think I've discussed before. Big bangs and big budgets are my sort of thing. However one trailer really caught my eye, the film 'Catfish':



The first thing I'll say is if you feel compelled to watch this movie, don't read up on it first. I will say that the trailer is a little misleading and it's not a horror or anything, but that's it. This is an exercise in pure talent, what great art can be made on a shoe string budget. Hollywood could learn lots from film makers like these. It also really shows how the internet has affected our lives. Will make a lot of people think!

This film also inspired me to start up my film projects again. I had the huge one in the works, but that would be impossible for me to do right now. However, I might soon be able to do the smaller idea I had, which could become a great little hour long documentary. Heck, even if its sucks, it will be fun to do an a nice little momento.

The snow, eurgh. I hate it. It's pretty and sometimes fun, but overall its disruptive. I've had a couple of meetings cancelled and I've largely stayed indoors, not wanting to dig my car out (it's still buried) and try ice skatin on the roads. The worst part is Anna is scheduled to come for Christmas, which I'm really looking forward too, but it's not going to happen if the roads are bad and the trains are cancelled. Come on snow, melt!

NYE won't be a crazy affair again this year, like last I'm too focused on how big 2011 is shaping up to be for me. Some friends, Anna and some drinks is all I need.

I'm going to end with a song again that I've been enjoying this month, in fact I think I'm going to do that after each blog. This month I've been listening to lots of tapes if you can believe it. As underground as I thought my music taste was, I found out only this month that there are artists who release stuff solely on tape! I think it's actually amazing and brings a whole new life to the sound. The only problem being it makes it harder and harder for me to find the video to post on here. I did get the new Brian Eno album on Warp though and enjoyed some of it, so will leave you with that. As always thanks for reading and have a cracking Christmas and new year!

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