Top 10 Tips for Blogging and Bloggers

When I started to blog I had no idea that I would get so many hits.

As the number of readers grew it was pretty clear that I needed to learn a little to keep it fresh and interesting.

Having had over 150,000 page views now there are a few tips that I can share with you guys that may help you to increase your blog views:

So, here are my Top 10 Tips:

1. Try to blog as often as possible.

It is very easy for a blog to die. I see so many blogs that start enthusiastically and have about 5 posts in the first 2 weeks then 1 or 2 posts the next month and then that's it. It is difficult to keep coming up with new material but if you want your blog to grow and become successful then keep writing and keep your readers coming back. If you blog once a month try to blog once a week. If you blog once a week try to blog 3 times a week. Carry on till you can get out 1 post a day.

2. Comment on other blogs.

If you comment on other blogs and interact with other bloggers then you will get noticed and people will discover you through the link back to your blogger profile. Don't spam posts with links to your website as they will get deleted and people don't like that. I get lots of companies spamming my posts and I delete all of them. There is a means for companies to get their links on my site and they know this but try to cheat.

You should also encourage commenting on your blog and try to reply to comments that people post whether they are negative or positive.

3. Give them vision.

We all like things to look at. Add images to your posts. Make them funny, make them quirky, make them relevant and this will make your site more attractive. Take a moment to make sure that the picture fits correctly within the text and is not too big or small. Use the alignment function to mix it up and have images on the left, in the centre and on the right as you see fit.

4. Create a blogroll.

Create a blogroll of the other blog in your niche that you read and like. This will give your readers more links to interesting material. The blogs owners who you list may also link you back in their roll so you may get additional readers.

5. Use tags.

Using tags will help you readers navigate to specific areas or types of your blog posts. I get a lot of readers who just want to see my monthly report on the number so I see the 'Monthly Review' tag clicked a lot. Even if you have archives or categories, tags offer more search aids to your viewers. You may also get more google traffic coming your way if you use tags.

6. Embrace social media.

I definitely need to work on this aspect more for supernova125. I rarely use twitter but hopefully will do more in the future. Add your link to your twitter profile and tweet your more interesting posts. Create a page for your blog in facebook and also add your link to your own personal profile page. Others that you can use include linkedin, myspace and bebo.

7. Use internal links.

When you have a number of interesting posts you sometimes cover an aspect in a new post without going into the detail which you have previously done. In this case it is good to link back to an older post to give the reader more detail. I am pretty bad at this but am trying to improve. For example I may talk about how my blog began and if I include a link to that then the viewer can start from post 1 and read on.

8. Share Popularity.

If you have 100 posts there will be a top 5 read. Share this section of popularity with your audience. I have incorporated my most popular posts for them to browse through on the sidebar. For some reason a post I wrote on the most sexiest female poker players has been by far my most read post ever on this blog with more than 10,000 hits.

9. Slice it nicely.

Poor formatting can really make reading a blog hard work. Cluttered, unattractive blogs don't encourage people to return just like if you visit a dirty bar or restaurant you will not return as you have had a bad experience. I see lots of terrible formatting and bad use of colours, fonts etc. Look at your blog objectively and ask yourself 'does it look professional?', 'does it look readable?' or is it just a mess. Make sure your pictures, graphs and sidebars all fit properly. Space you posts nicely.


10. Do it because you love it.

Write because you are passionate about your topic. I love playing poker everyday and I like to talk about it and write about it. Don't think that you will make money from your blog because only the top blogs will. While I have made 6 or 7 small adversing deals the total amount is less than $200 which is negligible. What I like about blogging is getting more readers and interacting with them. I have made quite a few contacts through the blog and hopefully will make more. When readers keep coming back I get satisfaction from that and hope that I can produce new, fresh, interesting material for the future.

Happy Blogging..!!


Want to see some of the most baller pc/poker set-ups? These are pretty awesome..!!

100 Stacks in a Month??

I will see if I can make 100 stacks this month.

I'm pretty sure that I have never done this before. I am just under 62 at the moment but have a lot on rest of the month so it will be tough.




Current position:

Sitemeter.com Review

Anyone who has a Blog or website is probably interested in how many people are actually reading it, if any....

For well over year now I have been using sitemeter.com to keep an eye on my visitors at supernova125.blogspot.com. For anyone who is interested in how many hits I get you can click my sitemeter page button which is located at the bottom left of the Blog:

Although I only subscribe to the free version of sitemeter there is also a premium one available. I'm not sure what extra you can for your cash but I will go through some of the free pages which are excellent.

The main summary page is the one I look at first. It details some of the daily stats and looks like this:

I then like to take a look at who is on the site 'right now' when I am on and this page looks like this:

You can drill down further into the details of your visitors:

One of my favourite pages is the monthly visitors/ pageviews bar chart:

All in all I am very happy with the service and stats I get from these guys considering that I don't pay anything for it. I can highly recommend them to anyone who wants to know a little bit more about their readers.

There are many more pages available but I won't go through all of those. You will have to explore yourself. Laters....

Top 10 Countries / Travel Destinations for 2013

The Lonely Planet 'Best in Travel 2013' guide has just been released on their website and it is interesting reading. They list what they think will be the best places to go to in 2013.

Here is the list:

1. Sri Lanka 

The country of my ancestors. My folks were born here and it is now really on the map after the positive developments over the last few years.

Almost 4yrs after the end of the 30 year civil the country has really opened up. New developments in infrastructure and hotel complex's are really starting to attract tourists.

The climate is awesome at around 28C all year round with some amazing beaches.

Prices are very reasonable to get to SL and also while you are in the country.

Being a Buddhist nation the culture and atmosphere is very friendly and welcoming.

There are numerous excursions to be had like safari, jungle treks, mountain climbing, shopping, temple visits with a good night life with many bars and casinos to visit.

Sri Lanka is one of the planet's best value destinations.

2. Montenegro 

If you are into biking and hiking then Montenegro is an emerging travel destination.

There are lots of nice beaches to see along the Riviera.

Like Sri Lanka they have also had lots of new infrastructure and developments in recent times.

Places of note include the Bay of Kotor.

3. South Korea 

While you have the bright lights and the big city in South Korea the country is developing as a real outdoor recreation destination.

There is a lot of golfing, hiking and fishing to be done.

It is forecast to really burst into the world scene in the coming years as it hosts a series of various sporting events.

4. Ecuador 

5. Slovakia 

6. Solomon Islands

7. Iceland 

8. Turkey 

9. Dominican Republic 

10. Madagascar 

Sitting Here Laughing

If you don't laugh you will simply cry :)

My bad run stretch is now getting close to the 4 month mark.

I am very chilled at the tables though and taking the beats well as they keep coming.

I am very pleased with my cool, calm and collected play over the last 2 days.

I get a wry smile on my face now every time I get AA as I start thinking: will I lose with it AI pre flop or will I just get stacked post when someone jams their Top Pair and hits 2 pair or trips on the river, lol.

Today's visual just sums up the run:

That extra $200 would be nice in my hand and the number of times over the 4 months that this kind of visual has been the end of day shot would add up to a tasty few grand but that's poker eh. At least I won :)

It is very easy for poker players to forget the real value of money with the swings we go through at various levels. I watched an interesting BBC TV series recently called 'Welcome to India' which was about life today in the 2nd most populated nation. One of the case studies was a dude who made tea cups from mud. One of his quotes was something like 'if I work 14 hours I can break-even, if I work 18 hours then I can make a nice profit. He was referring to like $5 or more for that shift.

I will fight hard to get back to winning ways and will try to never forget the real value of money in world terms.

The good news is that I am now completely back to NL50, playing mainly ZOOM for the moment. With a $1,600 bonus due in a couple of days I am now comfortably rolled at around $4k which means I will not have to drop down to NL25 any time soon, hopefully....

I need around 47k VPPs to get to 200k and around 62k VPPs to get to 200k + an extra $1,600 bonus before 1st Jan. If I can manage to not cash-out too much then I should build my roll and make the jump to NL100 and then getting these VPPs should be easy.

Lets Grind..!!

Downrightnow.com Review

Just a quick post about a pretty good site that monitors and details the status of the biggest sites on the net.

Its called downrightnow.com and it was very useful when I couldn't log into hotmail and wasn't sure if the problem was browser or site based.

The main page is coloured Green, Yellow or Red and looks like this:

The drill down detail screen looks like this:

2012 Pokerstars Leading VPP Counts / Supernova Elite (SNE)

I'm not sure why but I have been thinking about Supernova Elite lately and maybe making another attempt at it in 2013.

My last attempt was in 2011 and lasted all of 5 weeks, lol, before I pretty much quit and ended the year with 300,000 VPPs. I think my main problem was I didn't really plan well in terms of what games I would play and what contingencies I would have if those games didn't work out.

I wanted to make it playing FR NL200+ and then for some weird, unknown reason on 1st Jan 2011 I switched to playing CAP which I had never played before. This was the worst thing I could have done for my confidence as every different format of poker requires different skill sets and experience. The VPP rate was obviously the temptation but there was no need to do it as I could have made it 24 tabling NL200 for around 6 hours a day. I got crushed and dropped down to rebuild and pretty much coasted out the year at small / micro stakes. The issue was that I was not used to the variance with what I undertook.

If am to go for SNE in 2013 I need to spend Q4 (Oct - Dec) preparing at the levels that I will need to play. I also want to throw in some Sit & Go (SNG) into the mix as an alternative to cash game grinding.

When I see visuals like the one posted by jorj95 (George Lind III) in the Supernova Elite Pursuit (SNE) thread it does inspire you and make you think what can be achieved if you really go for it:

He does play at a sick high level but you can get SNE at small and mid stakes poker.

So, I what is my plan? Well, I want to put a reduction on cashouts that I make and use winnings and bonuses to build up my roll and gradually move up in stakes so by December I should be playing NL100 / NL200. I need to also play and learn 6-max ranges as these games seem to be more popular the 9 player full ring tables.

Pokerstars Caleb also posted the Top 50 VPP totals link for 2012. This is an opt-in list so some names are missing to protect people that want anonymity.

He also posted the list for people who have opted-in and were either SNE already or attempting to be in 2012:

41 players have earned over 1,000,000 VPPs in 2012.

150 players are on pace.

2,530,393 jorj95
1,558,751 shabalinvlad
1,540,260 1Bunn
1,427,543 ffguitarguy
1,371,675 Berndsen12
1,218,106 AironVega
1,166,064 MouldyOnions
1,117,894 B3RTstare
1,091,186 king10clubs
1,046,274 ocropTi
1,028,217 tonkaaaa
1,007,445 L0ve2playU
1,005,834 acoimbra
982,317 Tpirahna
978,839 $indabank111
962,386 Odd_Oddsen
949,145 spacegravy
948,019 Buzzer1404
919,852 willyBeer22
918,934 River Prayer
903,768 SantaZzz
884,315 pistons87
868,303 Xereles
853,709 Duckslayer2k
827,544 anguila
826,262 mysterio6044
815,749 slavistas
813,709 MOCA CHOCA89
809,906 poker_in_pb
800,750 ToDaFelt
786,735 ment52
783,972 ivanildo
780,832 badblood1
780,106 Mayo the Don
774,139 Raventhon
753,623 nanonoko
734,339 Bruut99
734,069 knifefish8
730,365 sly caveat
727,983 Quadchrazs

---PACE--- 727,914

723,133 ShandeC
712,722 wpr101
710,094 Jackal69
695,437 jamesgav19
694,803 showtime
676,696 Sooo Tilted
668,251 horvyjoe
668,163 AWice
666,864 live@pompeii
650,728 natisfinest
650,561 YaDaDaMeeN21
647,094 innerpsy
646,375 Sbyla
615,214 JazzyFek3000
599,132 _salaz4r_
588,379 dombomain33
574,347 THEDUTCH4141
560,743 Thrash370
557,447 oscarleon
552,100 fricirics
534,251 azntracker
534,128 MissOracle
521,861 TenerifeBel
520,376 dealer666
518,019 eppy12588
516,602 GodlikeRoy
502,136 2w392y41ur
497,200 slayerv1fan
481,287 Pokerger1337
479,346 k345
479,321 Brokerface
468,479 slimfast
454,118 Octavian_C
442,465 PedroKL
429,827 donjuanmt
428,596 neomorf

I am only going for 200k VPPs this year so I better get working on my plan for 2013. ZOOM poker is also going to be a potential as the hands play out so fast. If I could get to NL200 6-max on ZOOM then SNE in 2013 becomes a real possibility. Watch this space.....

R

Got a blog? Want more readers/hits? Find out how by reading these blogging tips.

Want to see some of the most baller pc/poker set-ups? These are pretty awesome..!!

Samsung Galaxy S2 Review

Its now been about 6 weeks since I got the Samsung Galaxy S2 phone on the 3 network.

I actually bought it from ebay for £315. It was the 2nd one that I bought in a few weeks as the first one I bought (also from ebay) got stolen by some royal mail staff and the seller lost out as he sent it only by 'recorded' and not 'special' delivery and he was only covered to get £35 insurance from royal mail.

I got a full refund and bought another one. Ebay is generally good but you have to pick your sellers carefully especially if you are buying an expensive item. I tend not to buy electronic items from there as you won't get a guarantee but with a saving of over £100 vs the shops I took a chance.

My last phone was also a smartphone and also a Samsung but a very basic one so I never made use of its abilities.

The S2 so far is very impressive. The scrolling is just super fast and super smooth and the screen graphics are excellent with its super AMOLED technology.

The size of the phone is just perfect, giving you a big 4.3 inch screen but only being 8.5mm thick it slides into your pocket wit ease. It only weighs 116grams. I briefly had a play with the Samsung Note in one store and it was huge and not something you could carry without a man bag :) so I gave that one a miss.

The camera is 8-megapixels with HD video recording too. Having taken a few pics / clips I can confirm that the quality is pretty awesome.

The battery is not lasting me too long at the moment but that is probably due to the fact that I have downloaded and played wit far too many Apps in the short time that I have had it.

The call quality is extremely clear and the in call options are very good.

I am finding navigating through the menu system so easy and user friendly. You basically have only 3 main buttons (home, back and options) and everything else is on the touch screen. You also have a volume control on the left side and the power key on the right side.

I also managed to bag a new contract with 3 starting next week which gives me unlimited internet, 300 minutes and 5000 texts for £13 per month, bargain..!!

So my conclusion is that it is a pretty awesome phone. I wish I had owned an iPhone so I could compare it but as I have not I am not sure how it good it is vs that.

Here is some geeky stuff:

Product Information 

Not only is the Samsung Galaxy S II-I9100 packed with features, it is also sure to add to your style with its sleek and stylish design. With Android (Gingerbread) as its operating system, this Samsung smartphone gives you access to several applications. This Samsung Android phone comes with a stunning 4.27-inch Super AMOLED Plus screen that lets you enjoy vivid and bright colors. Thanks to its 8.1 MP camera with 1080p HD video recording, this Samsung smartphone lets you capture all your cherished moments. To let you make the most of your Samsung Galaxy S II-I9100, there are four hubs - Social, Readers, Game and Music. So, get ready to change the way you communicate, with this Samsung Android phone. 

Product Identifiers 

Brand Samsung 

Family Line Samsung Galaxy S II 

Model GT-I9100 

Key Features 

Capacity 16GB 

Colour Noble black 

Network Technology EDGE, HSPA 

Band HSPA+ 850/900/1900/2100 

Camera 8 Megapixel 

Memory 

Supported Flash Memory Cards Micro SDHC 

Battery 

Battery Capacity 1650 mAh 

Display 

Display Technology Super AMOLED Plus 

Diagonal Screen Size 4.27 in. 

Other Features 

Touch Screen: Yes 

Bluetooth: Yes 

Digital Camera Yes 

GPS Yes 

Email Access Yes 

Internet Browser Yes 

Speakerphone Yes 

Dimensions 

Height 125.3 mm 

Depth 8.49 mm 

Width 66.1 mm 

Weight 116 gr

R

Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus

100,000 Page Views

I can still briefly remember writing a pretty lame first post just over 2 years ago while thinking 'why the hell am I doing this? no-one is ever going to read this.'

In the first few weeks after supernova125 was born I would get around 2 to 3 readers a day.

I wondered how they arrived in my little corner of the worldwide-web as nobody even knew my blog existed. I then realised there was a 'click next blog' button on blogger sites to get to a random blog. I guess that was where my initial traffic came from.

I then spammed PTR with my blog link and got a lot of abuse for doing so :) but I also got a few readers which was quite cool.

The best part of blogging is the interaction with other bloggers and poker players. It can also be quite therapeutic ranting about a beat or huge suckout or just posting some pics of semi naked women. Its is also very useful for recalling my past results when I forget them.

Hopefully if I continue to blog long enough I will one day reach 1,000,000 page views.

2012 FA Cup Final Preview: Liverpool vs Chelsea

My Liverpool boys will today bid for their second trophy in 2012.

A lacklustre premiership bid sees them languishing in a lowly 8th position. The only target left is to finish above local rivals Everton in 7th with only 2 games remaining.

In recent times the number 1 priority of English clubs has been to finish in the top 4 and to secure a Champions League place as this generates significantly more money than winning domestic cups.

However, having already won the League Cup adding another piece of silverware would make this a successful campaign if we beat Chelsea at Wembley Stadium. The winners also receive £1.8m and the losers get £900k.

This will be Liverpool's 14th FA Cup final having won the trophy 7 times already. It will be Chelsea's 11th final.

One of the biggest games on route for us was when we were drawn against Manchester United in the fourth round. It was an exciting game gripped also by the recent race row between Suarez and Evra. We took the lead through Agger but United equalised from Park Ji-Sung. It was great to give Man U a taste of their own medicine by getting a winner in the 88th minute when Kuyt scored. They normally do that to other teams..!!

Dalglish's reign has been in question after 13 defeats in the league this season. We all need this victory to show some kind of progress for Liverpool.

Good Luck The Reds...!!

Dead for 78 Minutes

On the right is a picture of a man who has been through a miracle.

Having seen his recent interview I had to write a quick piece about a truly amazing story.

On March 17th Bolton Wanderers Midfielder Fabrice Muamba collapsed off the ball with no one around him in a FA Cup Football match versus Tottenham.

He had just suffered a heart attack on the pitch and fallen to the ground.

Just before he fell he says that he had double vision and then shortly afterwards there was blackness and then absolutely nothing. Fabrice was dead.

Paramedics rushed to his aid and worked to save his life, pumping his chest for around 6 minutes with a defibrillator. He was then rushed to hospital.

It was 78 minutes before his heart started working again and he was left briefly in a coma. After 40 days in hospital he is back home and making a good recovery. He now has a zapper in his chest to start his heart up should it stop again.

The moment he collapsed

All the best Fabrice...!!

Life is short... Live It....

The Top 10 Best Poker Blogs in the World

I have just read a post written by a blogger who listed his Top 100 poker blogs.

Some of the comments he received were kind of like wtf?, how did you come up with this list?

I am not going to link him in this post as some of the entries were a bit lol but it is an interesting and very subjective question.

I won't try to make the top 10 list at this time as I am probably not even aware of many of the good ones out there.

So, I want to throw this one out to you guys who read this blog and say please could you vote for a few of your favourites by listing them in the comments section. This may help me to create a list in the future.

Thx

Rosh

3.57bb/100 - NL50 in 2012

I Failed the Citizenship Test and they're Deporting me back to Sri Lanka

My parents originate from a small island in the Indian Ocean called Sri Lanka.

They came over here in the 60s/ 70s by boat as many people back then could not afford plane tickets. You sometimes here the jokes about the banana boat and that is a mickey take about that situation.

Channel four is currently showing an interesting 2-part documentary about what it is to be British. The first part was a few days ago and centred around the 'Citizenship Test' that people trying to get into the UK have to take as part of the process to get in.

Fortunately for me, I was born in the UK and my birth right gave me British Passport and now an EU one. I took the test just for laughs and failed miserably. I don't think my folks had to take a test back in the day. Obviously you would revise if you were taking this for real but some must actually fail it.

Anyone can take the test but if you are from the UK then its a bit more interesting. It takes around 5 minutes so have a go:

Channel 4 - Citizenship Test

Here is my result:

GL

Daniel Negreanu Real Talk VBLog + WBCOOP 2012 Update

A little chat from DN with some words for the Full Tilt guys.

Forward to 6:00 for the FT stuff:




In other tournament news WBCOOP has started for me with a big smack in the face followed by a big knee in the balls.

Tournament #1 was going ok, I was up to around 14k chips from the original 10k when I isolated a limper in the CO with KQs, SB calls and so does the limper. I flop the nut straight and cbet. The SB check raises me the minimum and I just smooth call. The turn is a blank and he leads out quite big and I shove. He makes quad Jacks on the river and I am left crippled. I was out with A7 shortly afterwards

Tournament #2 was a 6-max PLO event which was going extremely well as I was bossing the table and the other players didn't seem to know what they were doing (rewind a year and that was me). I had almost doubled my stack when another played arrived who was aggro and knew how to play. We got into a 3-way pot with a short stack and got it in on the turn with both of us having the nut straight but he had a re-draw to the flush which duly arrived on the river to knock me out. GG.

So my quest for a main event ticket continues with 8 events remaining. I have to cash in 1 to be awarded a ME tkt.

If there was ever a reminder as to why I hate tournaments and love cash games then today was it.

Back to the cash grind..!!

Professional Poker Player

Occupy Pokerstars Mass Sit Out Protest Due to Rake Changes / VPP Calculation Method

During my time at Pokerstars I have seen various changes. Many of these have been welcomed and some have been opposed.

The recent announcement regarding the VPP calculation and rake changes is one of the worst decisions that Pokerstars has taken. This decision will have a direct impact on how much I play in 2012.

The rake changes due to take effect from Jan 1st 2012 have now been cancelled but in essence would have made some games more expensive to play at and some slightly cheaper to play at. The VPP calculation changes however are still due.

The rake changes are quite complex in the sense of how they affect different games and I believe that some of the 6max, CAP and short handed games would have been negatively hit while some of the full ring games at micro level would have received a small benefit. As this part has now been cancelled we don't need to discuss this too much compared with the real issue which is the VPP calculation and distribution.

This main issue revolves around how the bonus given by Pokerstars (VPPs) are calculated and distributed. They are changing from the 'Dealt' method to the 'Weighted Contributed' method. The change can be illustrated by this example:


Five players participate in a hand of $1/$2 No Limit Hold'em.
Pre-flop:

• Player 1 raises to $6
• Player 2 folds
• Player 3 folds
• Players 4 (the $1 small blind) calls
• Players 5 (the $2 big blind) calls

Post-flop:

• Player 4 makes a bet of $9
• Player 5 moves all in for $21
• Player 1 folds
• Player 4 calls
• The remaining cards are dealt, and the $60 pot is awarded to Player 4

The pot is $60 in total. Players 4 & 5 contributed $27 each, and player 1 contributed $6. The total rake on this pot is $3, which is worth 16.5 VPPs.
Under the old method, all five players would receive an equal share of the points, i.e. 16.5 / 5 = 3.3 VPPs.
Under the new method, the VPPs will be awarded as follows:

• Player 1 contributed $6 (10% of the pot) and so receives 1.65 VPPs.
• Player 2 contributed $0 (0% of the pot) and so receives 0 VPPs.
• Player 3 contributed $0 (0% of the pot) and so receives 0 VPPs.
• Player 4 contributed $27 (45% of the pot) and so receives 7.43 VPPs.
• Player 5 contributed $27 (45% of the pot) and so receives 7.43 VPPs.

Now while this may seem fairer there are more hidden issues they have not been addressed or mentioned by Pokerstars.

The bulk of money made by stars is from the cash ring game grinders who play hours on end everyday generating rake for the poker company. These guys will see a marked reduction in VPPs unless they play a really loose style which is rumoured to be around 25% VPIP+. The vast majority including myself will play a style which is a lot tighter and therefore under the new method will lose over the course of the year between 10-40% of our bonus. The tighter you play the more you stand to lose. These VPPs will then be given to the recreational players who splash money around on an evening after work or at the weekends.

Now this is a real insult to the loyal players who provide wages for the people who work at pokerstars through the rake they collect.

A secondary issue is that the recreational players have lower VIP status levels and therefore will recieve less FPPs which will be money collected directly by Stars. This should be pumped back into the poker community to compensate for the losses that grinders will incur but so far is not going to be.

Due to this announcement there has been uproar in the poker community and there is a strike planned on Jan 1st where players will sit out at 24 tables for two hours and tell other players at the tables to sit out too.

You can find more details here:

Mass Sit Out Protest Summary

Mass Sit Out Protest Thread

Please support our strike action if you are a player by sitting out during the planned 2 hours

Thanks

Rosh

Year End Grind

I hope I will not be grinding on new years eve.

Trying to grind out a milestone in December each year can be disastrous especially if you are going for SNE. You may find yourself in a spot where you need to 24 table 12-16 hours a day for over a month.

Here are 2 examples of players who totally lost the plot trying to mad grind SNE at years end. Player 1 was a slightly winning to break even reg who completely lost his way for the last 2 months in 2010 and has  never recovered. He is now a consistent losing player who valleys almost everyday:

Player 2 was actually a decent winning reg before 2 SNE attempts during 2009 (he failed with like 980k VPPs) and 2010 (he made SNE) also destroyed his game.

Both of these guys 24 table and mass grinding like this can be extremely detrimental to your game. The biggest issue I think is getting into a losing mentality and simply accepting the fact that this is fine due to the fact that you 24 table and still make money.

For me personally I could never do this. I would have to be a slight winner or at least break even if I was hitting SNE. That real satisfaction in poker for me is to be winner and out think players. Doing that and getting less VPPs is far better for your mental frame of mind even though you may make less money.

I will now contradict myself because I have a bit of a grind to hit 300k VPPs starting on the 15th. The difference between me and the 2 guys above is that my game play will take priority and if I start losing huge then I will give up the milestone chase and concentrate on getting back to winning ways. More to come....

Racist Rant - My Tram Experience

This now infamous clip has been around for a couple of weeks in the the UK. For you guys outside of the UK you probably have not seen it.

It's basically a woman ranting racist abuse in South London on a tram full of various people from different backgrounds.

I'm interested to know your thoughts on the clip. One of the responses from another racist guy to this video was to question why multiculturalism is not prevalent in other countries like Japan, China, Zimbabwe, Libya etc. While I am opposed to the views of the woman in the clip and her supporters I think the question is quite interesting. It might simply be to do with economic reasons, language barriers or is there a lot more to it? Maybe all countries will become multicultural over time or maybe not.