i paid star city's rent yesterday

thats right, the little casino trip didn't go to plan. i went without any idea of what i was going to play and just donked around the slots, some random spinning wheel thing (not roulette!) and some other bingo game. well as you might have guessed i didn't win at any of the games, and i mean not once, nothing, zip, nadda. i didn't even manage to win a free spin on the slots. all the money just went in and that was it.

on a brighter note my fiancee cained the slots and managed to win back everything i lost. literally every machine she sat at dropped its first, second or third jackpot. just amazing really, she's pick a machine and it would win, i'd pick a machine and she'd sit at the one next to it and win, she'd pick a machine and i'd muscle her off it so she'd sit at the one next to it that i should have sat at and win! drove me crazy!

we do have a little tradition though where the winner on the day buys ice cream so i did end up with a free vanilla cone!

god i can't wait to get back to the tables though!

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toyota racing development and golf

i know what any winnings will go toward now! am currently in oz and saw a tv ad for toyota racing development or trd on the box. now i've worked in the motors industry before for another japanese firm and have never heard of trd. i did a little diggin and turns out its an oz exclusive arm of toyota producing high performance models based on learnings from their formula 1 and other racing teams.

now as a bit of a motors fan, and not that 6 litre v8 shise from the states but of tight, tuned high performance engines, i just had to check this car out. and you know what i think i've fallen in love with it! i'm thinking of moving to oz in the next 12 months and after a house this will be my 2nd purchase for sure.

sexy thing isn't it!

on the golfing front. well i'm not quite as good as i thought! shot a +46 first round, then +37 so was about $150 down. but played today and hit a respectable +27 vs my 36 handicap. my buddy played well below par as well hitting a +19 on his 14 handicap so i recouped most of my loses and am about break even. don't know if i'll get to play anymore while i'm here as am catching up with a few friends, hitting the beach and will also wander into the the casino here in sydney called star city. probably won't play any poker but might try my luck at some other table games. will let you know how that fairs!

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2008 new years resolutions

so here we are in 2008, and just like everyone else i'm going to be putting down a series of resolutions, goals or whatever you would like to call them to map my progress against where i would like to be at the end of the year.

2008 is going to be a big year for me and will hopefully form the foundation of some big things in 2009, i will post more on this in a post entitled 'taking a shot' later this month. therefore there will a number of study related goals as well as the obligatory 'increase the old bankroll'! i hope i can stick to what i outline below and i will be posting quarterly reviews/recaps on my progress as i really want the resolutions to be more then just a forgotten post.

so here goes;

1) play 4000+ plus cash hands per month

2) play at least one mtt or mt-sng with 100+ players a month

3) read at least one poker theory book a month, slanksy, malmuth et al. these will be no limit holdem books as thats my poker of choice. master one variant before trying another is what i say!

4) analyse my play and discuss with others. i want to know where i went wrong in every big pot i lost that went to showdown. feel free to get in touch if you would like to discuss anything.

5) be an active reader and contributor on the 2+2 forum. i'm setting myself a minimum of 1000 posts to achieve this

6) use tutoring tools and videos at sites such as cardrunners or stoxpoker to improve my play and decision making in difficult spots

7) have a bankroll of between $4000 - $8000 by the end of 2008. i don't care if this comes through winning poker, rakeback, bonuses or very welcome donations!

so there they are, 7 resolution/goals for 2008. i hope i can achieve them all, i will certainly be giving it a shot, and we will see where we stand in 366 days time (leap year!)

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