Gibraltar
In Gib now and the weather is pretty nice and that’s about it.
VC put me up in a really nice appartment which I obviously really appreciate and its nice to meet the people I deal with on a day to day basis.
Anyways that’s that I guess.
Archive for May, 2010
Summer
Been a while since I’ve updated – I really want to keep the blog ticking along nicely, good for the SEO I think .
Finished my exams a week ago and the last one didn’t go so well. I had been up all night and was sat at the top floor which had some sort of sun magnifying dome right above my seat. It was just beaming down on me so strongly and to those who haven’t had the pleasure of staying up all night I’ll tell you a bright sun is the most disgusting thing ever. Throughout the exams I guess I’ve been hedging my bets with the questions and it backfired in my last exam when the only question I could answer I just didn’t understand: “stratified reproduction curtails reproductive agency”. Pretty gay.
Since then I’ve been to London – donked off money which completley sucked. I ran fairly bad and actually felt I played pretty well. The sickest pot was a KcTs2c board where I got it in with KJ which is defo pretty light for 200bb + stacks at a 8 handed table but, I gave some chat which made myself look ridiculously weak (not deliberatley) so got myself in a spot where I could shove or fold. Anyways the guy, who I thought was fairly solid – tank called with 88 and obv the turn was an 8. Pot was just shy of £1k . So that kinda sucked.
I’m probably going to roll on down to London in the summer and give grinding the 2/5 game a shot for a month or something just to prove to myself I can beat it + I love the city it makes Edinburgh feel pretty small and mundane.
Next week I’m heading over to Gibraltar which should be decent. VC are putting me up in a really nice looking apartment which I’m obviously really grateful for. It should be good to get some nice weather, although the last week has been pretty awesome here.
After Gib I’m going to hang out in London for a bit and meet some people to discuss future affiliate related business ventures. Hopefully, I can make something really big happen this summer !
I’m also going to ‘hire’ my 1st employee this weekend. Sounds a bit more formal than it is but, I’m going to pay a friend a weekly wage to do some stuff. He’s easily capable of this stuff just the potential hazard with mates is they try and freeroll off you a bit but, its just going to be a rolling thing so if that happens it won’t be a big deal. He will be liasing with new rooms, paying sub-affiliates and PMing on 2+2 mainly. Maybe doing other things like content for newsletters but, we’ll see how it goes. I’ll still be in contact with all the players as usual so he’s just really going to allow me to cast a wider net and hopefully, can help get iPokerVIP established on some other networks.
Anyway I guess that’s everything
Exam / Election Update
Had an exam today which went fairly well considering my knowledge isn’t particuarly great – should go into Uni more ! Couldn’t have really asked for better questions so hopefully I did okay. Revision and doing the exam isn’t too annoying its more the constant thought that I’ve got to do them in the back of my head. 1 down !
The election has been pretty interesting. I felt really bad for the Lib Dem candidate in my constituency who really worked 10* harder than any other. Anywhere in Scotland is going to be tough to crack for anyone on Labour’s right I guess. It turned out the Lib Dem candidate lost by under 1k votes and you’ve got to think if he can’t upset Labour now there won’t be many other opportunities. The Labour MP was caught up in the expenses scandal and generally just seemed to be coasting on the fact he was a Labour MP. It was enough anyways.
I actually didn’t vote. Firstly, because I couldn’t make up my mind. I disagree with traditional Labour values, don’t think Gordon Brown is a good face for the UK however, I do believe is probably a fairly moral guy and despite what economist’s claim he is best qualified for the financial situation. Conservative or independent’s are completley wasted up here, SNP just seem to be further left than Labour and play on Scottish people’s patriotism and Lib Dems want to introduce a mansion tax which is unfair, wind down trident and a vote for them just encourages a hung parliament which means even less will get done than usual !
Aside from the decision itself being impossible I don’t really believe in politics. Government itself is incredibly inefficient. Civil servants retain their jobs regardless of the government and are the fuel that the political car needs to move. They’re notoriously bureaucratic and obviously have their own vested interests.
Secondly and most importantly in my opinion, is the amount of money in politics. Who do the government care more about appeasing: The voter or the company who pumped millions into their campaign who were actually responsible for the success ?
This is probably why manifesto’s are ridiculously vague. The intention isn’t to give the people what they want (or not in full anyway). Its to consolidate wealth and maintain power. There is no other way to explain the lack of change throughout the West. Anything that happens in reality seems to be politician’s playing with numbers or superficial. With the big decisions not being put to a referendum and quietly sprung into action. I guess people would tell me this is the concept of efficient democracy. Instead of having a vote on individual issues the MP’s will take your decision for you. An MP that’s part of a mainstream party will rarely vote in the commons based on their own opinion. They will vote where the whip tells them to and in return they’re part of the party, more likely to get a seat and enjoy a kushty salary + benefits. This is exactly what the majority of backbenchers are doing. What is the point in having an MP ?
Labour MP’s were filmed recently offerring to ‘fix’ things for people i.e. Laws, white paper’s passing etc for a daily fee. Usually £5k a day. I doubt they were thinking of their constituency then.
I could go on for a while with various examples but, I’ve got to confess it kinda frustrates me how people become so socially invested in politics. Labour, Conservative or Hung Parliament things will be extremely similar regardless. Big Brother, Iraq and ridiculous taxes. People tell me the Lib Dems were against Iraq – it just seems to me it was the only viable move for them at the time. They know they will never be in the posistion to act on it and even if they were its not like Obama is doing much regarding his pledge concerning the war. The conservative’s couldn’t slate it too much because they would have done the same and it was because of money. Not necessarilly oil but, a certain opportunity to consolidate wealth.
I’m not knowledgeable enough to have a decent discussion with someone who is heavily involved in politics about this stuff but, based on these facts and so many more its hard to see how voting is doing that much.
Maybe I should have exercised my right to vote regardless and feel kinda bad telling people I didn’t vote because in many ways its a rare opportunity even to influence the face on the country a little.
Exams
Sorry for a lack of post lateley. I’ve got my 1st exam on Friday but, haven’t been revising as much as I should have been – hopefully get cracking soon (using this post for procrastination).
The ads are up, along with the thread and its good to see things going fairly smoothly. I’m going to put Winner Poker & maybe a few other more competitive offers up tommorow and change the text on the home page a little (my bounce rate is alarmingly high) and hopefully that should kick things up a bit.
iPokerVIP was based on 2 premises;
1. Under the table deals are harder to come by – the market is moving.
2. iPokerVIP showcases the best legal deals.
I’d say I’ve got 2 bang on but, for all the time people have speant scrutinising my site 90% of the under the table affiliates could have been cleared out. Its pretty ridiculous and demonstrates that the iPoker network probably don’t care much for the rules themselves – just that people aren’t seen breaking them and the status quo remains intact, at least superficially.
The irony is that there are people in Birmingham who work for playtech whose job it is to catch these affiliates. If 90% of players can find these deals how can’t these spies who work on it everyday ?
I think the main problem is that iPoker doesn’t have a clear vision of what kind of network it wants to be. Its like one week they want uber-aggro deals so they can compete for Euro players on Stars and Tilt and the next week they’re banishing these deals wanting a fishy network and claiming that’s the way forward.
Tough spot. For a company worth over $1bn you’d think they might at least come close to getting it right.
