i just have to say something

i'm sitting on my couch having some cottage cheese and a banana (yum!) watching the news and an update has just come on regarding british teacher gillian gibbons who you may have heard has been sentenced to spend 15 days in a sudanese jail for...calling a teddy muhammed. yes, calling a teddy bear muhammed carries a 15 day jail term in sudan, which seems to be on the lighter side of punishment as she was luckily not convicted of inciting racial hatred!

now i'm not trying to single out islam here, as i was equally appaled when recently a young woman gave birth but due to complications she needed blood. the family refused and the young woman died. the family were jehovah's witnesses. again a tragic event that could have been avoided.

i just think its amazing that in the 21st century, a time when the human race is meant to be tolerable, generous, kind spirited and intelligent that these events can still happen. i really am appalled that a 54 year old mother has to spend any time in jail for naming a frickin teddy bear inappropriately! it is utterly ridiculous!

geez, i'm working myself into a fury here. if anyone reading this agrees or disagrees please comment, i would love to hear your vews. I know this post isn't poker related and seymour cards will return to normal programming after this post (having fun playing sng's at the mo) but somethings just need an opinion to be voiced, and criminal teddy naming is one of them!

thanks all, i'm gonna try and cool off a bit now!

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merry christmas seymour

given my current success i've decided to reward myself by buying a new laptop! yes, i feel that the c. $6 profit i've made over the last week is reason enough to fork out over $2k on a new lappie for my troubles.

i've decided to go down the route of buying an ultra portable rather than some behemoth 4kg 17 inch screen mofo that needs some kind of concrete foundation in your living room to support it properly. if I wanted a non-portable machine i would buy a desktop and be done with it!

i've decided on the dell xps m1330 which has got killer reviews everywhere i have looked and have equipped it with some serious power and connectivity meaning poker sessions in starbucks could become a reality! see picture below to spark your jealousy meter.

should arrive in the next week or so just in time for xmas. i've been meaning to buy a new laptop for ages and have been umming and arring and given that santa will probably only bring me a lump of coal i need something to stick in my stocking! plus it will mean i can delete all the gambling software that is littering my work laptop and scratch off another reason for them to give me disciplinary review!

will post more once i've put it through the full seymour test process

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guest edited by wombol

friends, romans and countrymen! it is wombol here, honored to be guest editor for a day on seymour cards. as you can see i've made a few changes, seymour likes them but feels i'm just trying to show off! i can assure you i am not.

so why am i here. well firstly i'd like to put payed to any rumours that i am a gonna! a certain fellow blogger believed i was, lol, and i'm sorry to say i'm still here alive and kicking! lots left to do in life and nothing is going to stop me! i recently got engaged and have been spending a lot of time travelling and enjoying life, i've just got back from the maldives and am off to oz in a few short weeks, this really is the life.

the second reason is just to say thanks and comment on what a wonderful community has sprung up around poker. there is such a broad array of voices and characters, each with great personalities and a common interest in poker and a passion for sharing what they know. its still great to read about whats going on, the successes and failures, the highs and lows and also the random! and there is a lot of random!

so please bloggers, keep it up, i may not play anymore but i still keep up to date on how all of you guys are going. maybe i'll get back in the game one day, and then you will all be in trouble, but until then i just want to say thank you and good luck to all.

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my goal monitor

the goals i have set myself is as follows;

nl25 9 handed ring games
single or double tabling only to ensure ability to learn from my and others play

0 of 10,000 hands

$0.00 profit/loss

sng 9 handed $5 + 50c

0 of 25

1st = 0
2nd = 0
3rd = 0

$0.00 profit/loss

max $10 + $1 mtt with 100+ runners

0 of 10

final tables = 0
cashes = 0

I will update and repost as i move through the challenge

wish me luck!

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time for some goals

as you may have read previously i wanted to set myself a series of goals that i feel will help develop my game and give me a solid poker foundation to work from.

now the numbers i set myself may not seem huge compared to what most players churn out over the course of as little as a day, but my plan is to do this through single table action only. at this stage in my poker career there is no point in booting 6 to 12 tables and cranking out cash game hands or sng's as i just won't be able to pick up anything from the play. if i've got 3 tables blinking on my turn then i'm not going to be able to evaluate the play, the player and my position accurately and because i don't have the experience to call on, my decisions will probably be more panic based then educated!

therefore in the subsequent post i outline my goals and a simple reflection of my current standing, which is obviously at 0 as the challenge has just begun! i will continually update this post with my progress vs my goals and hopefully i will succeed in becoming a better player. from there who knows where i will go but at least i will have some experience under my belt to use and build on.

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swimming at the bottom

so just played my first ever mtt on stars with some fellow bloggers. can't say i set the felt alight as i only lasted a mere 38 minutes before my a/q suited was slapped straight out the tournament by pocket 5's to finish 19 of 22!

so what did i learn. well for one, stop being so idiotically aggressive. i was raising with trash and calling large raises with even worse. don't know why, maybe just caught in the headlights! other then that my tournament life wasn't really long enough and i spent what little there was using the chat box, lol!

overall was good fun though, the other bloggers were really cool so will defo be back for some more punishment next week.

on another note i want to start setting myself some targets. i need to have a bit of a think about these though as they will form my foundation to bigger and better things, or at least an attempt at bigger and better things. but more on that shortly. right now i need a beer after my tournament success!

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festive cash games

so to the cash games! played two so far and have followed the advice given in my bible, the virgin guide to poker! yes richard branson has his fingers in pies i had never even thought of, including poker literature! anyway, its pretty simplistic advice around starting hands and position and it all makes sense so didn't really stray to far from that. probably means my game is incredibly easy to read but helps make sure i mostly enter pots ahead even if i don't finish them there!

seen a few interesting plays here and there by other players but looks mostly like straight forward poker down here at the bottom of the tank. have been looking through my hand history to see if there is anything interesting to share and on the most part there isn't. seeing aces hold up against one callers A/K is pretty boring and not worth your time, however one hand that i has got me thinking is this one. any feedback on the play here would be really helpful, was i being a total fish calling what i thought was a continuation bet and then playing my draw aggressively on his check? its a tiny pot but one of those hands that is quite interesting

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.25 BB (8 handed)

MP2 ($39.30)
CO ($29.05)
Button ($23.10)
SB ($24.45)
BB ($9.95)
UTG ($4.65)
UTG+1 ($24.65)
Hero ($22.40)

Preflop: Hero is MP1 with 6d, 8d. CO posts a blind of $0.35.
2 folds, Hero calls $0.25, 3 folds, SB completes, BB raises to $0.5, Hero calls $0.25, SB calls $0.25.

Flop: ($1.85) 7s, 5d, Ks (3 players)
SB checks, BB bets $1, Hero calls $1, SB folds.

Turn: ($3.85) Ac (2 players)
BB checks, MPA bets $1.25, BB folds.

Final Pot: $3.85

in other news i've been hitting the tables with some serious christmas songs spinning. yes, such classics as 'do they know its christmas time' and 'christmas in new york' have been keeping me company at the felt! i thoroughly recommend it to everyone as its been keeping me in a good mood throughout my sessions. amatay, if you are reading this 'christmas hits, 60 festive favourites' is the answer to all your problems!

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fish related goals

well i'm just a few short hours away from my first ever cash game session, nerves are tingling a little. don't really no what to expect but am ready to be the sponge and absorb everything that happens. you can follow my session by session progress on the unique and patented 'session monitor' to the right. i'm guessing this will show negatives for a while!

my plan in pretty simple, i'm going to use the rest of the year as a testing ground. read lots and play single table so i can fully concentrate and pick up as much info as i can. i have deposited a modest $200 into my pokerstars account and through playing NL25 i want to boost that up to $300 by 2008!

'well thats pretty lame' i hear you cry, and you would be right, i'm not going to be going out and buying a new car etc with winning targets like that. however i am the worlds biggest fish so just finishing the year in profit would be nice. so for now i'm looking to build a foundation from where i can conquer the world, or at least swim a little easier with the other fish.

i'm also quite interested to see how my first 1000 hands pans out. will it be a total disaster or will there be a few surprises?! only time will tell but will update you all when i reach that milestone.

so at t minus 2 hours before the big game i'll bid you adieu

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we are all fish

some of you may disagree but even though i am a total poker newbie and probably the fishiest fish of all i still believe no one ever really escapes being a fish.

the reason i say this is everyone has their nemesis, no matter who you are there is always at least one player that has you cracked. whether this is uncontrollable luck on their part, they know your game inside out or they are just a better player, you will always be a fish to them in some respect!

so whether you are phil ivey, jamie gold or doyle brunson, someone out there has your number and you are probably a little swimmer to them! granted, two of the players mentioned above can probably count those better players or luck boxes on one finger whereas i am a fish to every poker player in the galaxy!

so in a lengthy and roundabout way what i want to pose is, why am i here?

well, my goal is to address exactly what i have rambled on about above. i am at ground zero, i have no poker experience whats so ever, unless you count being dealt cards in a random department store poker promotion and constantly pushing chips into the middle before asking the dealer if i had won! yes i am that bad.

well i have spent the last few weeks addressing the basics, i have read a few poker books, nothing to strenuous, no slansky or harrington just yet but enough to get me sat at a table without with an understanding of whats going on.

so with that in mind i'm ready to pay for my education, ready to begin my journey from being the worlds biggest fish to hopefully a much smaller and more accomplished one. this is the beginning and i want to share it with you. it may be interesting, exciting, boring, dull or a little zany, that is for you to decide but what i can promise is that it will be honest. so if you are willing to take this journey with me, then please come back, it starts here. i have just installed pokerstars (no reason why this site) and am ready for my first live cash session tomorrow. i'll update you on my goals tomorrow and from there who knows where we will end up!

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poker manifesto!

from this point on i will no longer be a fish, i will be a shark.

i will be a student of the game and study its intricacies and variables.

i will pay for my education willingly and learn from other students and those studying besides me.

i will not bemoan every bad beat and suck out and i will not gloat over those i administer. i will not shy away from reverse implied odds, negative equity or other concepts i may never fully understand but rather accept the greatness of the perfect game and continue to learn.

for i am a poker player and my success is only limited by my failure to learn.

shuffle up and deal my friends as your money needs a new home!

seymour cards, 2007

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