Texas Calculatem and Poker Office Blog

It's been a quiet few days so I've installed Ladbrokes Poker on my new machine. The new interface looks a bit crap and has a bug where my balance is, but it's still pretty much the same. At time of writing I'm marginally profitable, but have yet to add my profits to my bank roll accounts as I don't have Excel installed. Oh well.

Miasdad has been playing around with Poker Office and is doing well with it. However, I'm going to try a different tact and try reading the other players for a bit just to see what happens. This has worked OK. Though I've required a few player reads from Mr Juice.

In terms of 2nd Life, I was wondering around Amsterdam earlier when Aleriah Lutetia asked me if I wanted to watch her web cam. For a fee of $39 she'd do a complete show with toys. I wasn't too interested, but this made me think of this chick who I briefly emailed a couple of months ago. Miasdad wanted to email her but I don't think he's had the time yet. How sad.

Merry Christmas guys. The gas fire in my artificial fireplace is still on. So I guess Santa won't be popping down and giving me my gifts.

Anyway, here's what I have for all my loyal readers...

- Street Fighter: The Later Years - Part 3

- Chacha.com

Chacha.com is a new search engine. Rather than just ask a computer program, you can ask a human guide. I think they're even real humans! This opens up opportunies for lots of fun and games. What would they do if I asked how to assasinate Mr Bush? Or even the more humble search for city strip joints?

Anyway, to keep it clean, I started off with a question about Bund strategies...

Status: Looking for a guide ...
Status: Connected to guide: SimaB
SimaB: Welcome to ChaCha!
You: Hello
SimaB: Hi! What can I find for you?
You: Are you the latest incarnation of CERN's AI algorithms?
SimaB: I'm sorry?
You: Are you a robot or a human?
SimaB: I am not sure what you are talking about.
SimaB: I am a human.
You: Wow. it's very good of you to stay up and chat. Santa will be down the chimney soon.
SimaB: What can I find for you?
You: I'm looking for trading strategies on Bund Futures.
SimaB: Bund or Bond?
You: Bund. German Government Bond Futures.
SimaB: Ok..let me see what I can find for you.
You: The problem is, most of the stuff on the interweb is based on obscure chart patterns known as "technical analysis". I'm having trouble filtering them all out.
SimaB: Give me a few minutes to find the best results for you!
You: thanks!
SimaB: Still searching..
You: OK. Take your time. I've been searching for ages and can't get any decent results.
SimaB: Check if those are helpful..though I imagine you have seen them already.
You: thanks. Not exactly what I was looking for. but I guess that's my fault for not being more specific.
You: Anyway, I'm off to bed now.
You: Good night.
You: Merry CHristmas!
SimaB: Sorry I could not help you more.

The last trading day, as expected, had a couple of fat fingers. Traders, desperate to get flat and get pissed, were paying up all over the shop. Alas, the moves were quite scary and threw my fair value calculations out of line, so I didn't clean up as well as I should. However, I'm currently "all in" on a long Bund spread, and look forward to cashing out when the markets resume trading next Wednesday. Either that, or I'm going to be fucked. SMT.

The forecasted terror attacks did not hit The Square Mile. So it looks like those at Heathrow, or London's busy shopping districts such as Oxford Street, will need to be more cautious. I'm just going to stick to my plan of avoiding them both.

After work we went for some Christmas drinks. Most of the guys were Asians, who despite not being Christians, were most appalled by the banning of Christmas in the UK. As kids, they'd all enjoyed the Christmas build-up, presents, carol songs etc... They were also all planning on having nice Christmas roasts with their families, and agreed that anyone who'd take offence at this traditional English holiday deserves to be expelled from the country.

So that presents us with the question... Who honestly thinks that banning Christmas, so as not to offend minorities, is a good thing?

It certainly isn't the minorities. Racist right wing groups, if they had any power, might try such a ploy to increase racial tensions. But as stated, they don't really have any power. The only other group I can think of, are middle class beauraucrats, drunk on the power of running their local constituencies. And who believe that their generous pensions are a just reward for the important decisions that they make in order to make the country a better place. It's good to know that my 7 figure tax bill is being spent wisely. Good times!

Happy Winter!


The Edge.

Only 3 days left, and Bishopsgate is full of chunder from the spate of Christmas parties. Nasty! Being a hardcore drinker, I had a 3 bottles of beer after work and was ready to go to bed. SMT.

This morning I got into the office a bit earlier to clean up on the precdictable fat fingers caused by hungover traders. Nothing was happening so I went to make a nice cup of tea and started chatting with one of the clients. He was very concerned about reports which state that British Intelligence told their US colleagues that a terrorist attack on London would be inevitable over the Christmas holiday. They only have today left if they want to hit the financial district. So if it's not today they'll probably go for a shopping destination such as Oxford Street. I'll be hiding in my flat and keeping away from the crowds!

Alternatively, if you want to make a quick bit of cash this weekend, here are some betting tips from one of my least favourite bookmakers:

Premiership Preview

After beating United last weekend, can Curbishley give all Hammers fans what they really want for Christmas, an away win? With nearly 60 football markets available in-running, why not have a bet that's a bit different at Sporting Index? We've taken a look at some of the weekend prices (see previews below) - new clients can take advantage of our best offer yet:

£200 Football Bet for New Clients**

Open a Sporting Index account*, place only five sports bets and claim a £200 per goal bet on any live Premiership, Championship or Champions League match. Each qualifying bet must be able to win or lose you £20.**

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For full details of these offers, and to apply for your Sporting Index account, click here.

Weekend Premiership Preview

Fulham v West Ham (Saturday 12.45 Sky Sports 2)

Last years meeting was a fiery affair and referee Chris Foy will have to keep a lid on things at the Cottage with Sporting Index predicting 4 bookings in the game. West Ham, still in search of their first away win of the season, travel to Craven Cottage to face a Fulham side who have won their last two home games. With the influential Boa Morte and Diop missing through injury, the Irons will have to keep an eye on McBride. The American has scored in the last two home victories for the Cottagers, including the crucial goal against Middlesbrough on Monday night. New Hammers boss Curbishley will look to continue his side's recent good record against their West London rivals. They haven't lost against Fulham in the Premiership since 2002 and were victorious in both encounters between the sides last season, winning by the odd goal in three on both occasions. Veteran Fulham defender Ian Pearce will be looking to keep a clean sheet against his former side, who still haven't managed a goal away from Upton Park in the league since August. Last weeks victory over league leaders Man Utd may have boosted the Hammers confidence; nevertheless Sporting Index reckon this will end in a stalemate.

Wigan v Chelsea (Saturday 17.15 Prem Plus)

With just one goal in each of the two league meetings between the sides, it is perhaps a little surprising that Sporting Index predict there will be 2 goals at the JJB on Saturday evening. The champions win at Everton last week was there second in a row away from the Bridge, with the outstanding Drogba reaching double figures for the season. The Blues have problems in defence though with influential captain John Terry, who grabbed the winner the last time the two sides met, missing through a back injury. Wigan's magnificent performance at the JJB against the champions last season will give them some heart, but with two defeats in a row at home firmly at the back of their mind and leading scorer Camera missing up front they face a tough task. The Senegalese front man has six so far this season and so the attacking burden will fall to Heskey who hasn't scored in two months. Bookings were at a premium last year in this fixture so it's a bit of a surprise Sporting Index predict that referee Mike Dean will caution 4 players.

Hopefully that's given you something to think about. For all the latest prices and to apply for your personal Sporting Index account, click here.

Sporting Index is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority. Please note that all prices were correct at the time of writing but are subject to change.

The information contained herein is for your general information and use. In particular, it does not constitute any form of advice or recommendation by Sporting Index Ltd and is not intended to be relied upon by users in making (or refraining to make) any specific decisions.

Christmas is nearly upon us. So I think I'll summarise a few of this years failures and achievements...

In terms of Poker, I think I've won/lost under $100, over the course of the year. Not sure if I should be advertising the fact that I'm a breakeven poker player, but who cares.

Texas Calculatem and Poker office have each given me about $50 for last month's efforts. Not too great, but enough to pay for last week's dim sum. Early on this year I was making a couple of hundred dollars a month from this blog. But now it's all ground to a halt. Probably because I rant and rave about random stuff instead of telling readers about how I'm making a killing at the tables using our favourite poker software. SMT.

My other websites have also been in decline since the summer months. I had a brilliant first 6 months in 2006, but became demotivated with the summer heat. Not sure how to turn things around, but my next project will attempt to use this Java IRC Bot.

While this is the season of giving, I feel that I've just been scammed, though not as badly as Mark. Some cheeky git has stolen my Yahoo account. While it doesn't really have anything important in it, I'm not too chuffed either. Very annoying. I doubt I'll get it back as I don't know what details I signed up with.

I don't think I've played any Poker this month. I'm still uninspired. So I guess I'll have to blog about other random stuff...

This morning I decided to take a punt on this Second Life malarky and upgraded to a premium account. That's set me back $22.50 for a 3 month subscription. Unfortunately, the whole point in owning a premium account is the ability to own land, but there's no "First Land" available for new users. How annoying. Anyway, based on the assumption that this land will eventually become available, I've started designing a flat to flog, but have realised that my design skills are less than good. The picture to the left is what I've done so far. The fee structure for Second Life is based on how much land a user owns. I therefore plan on making a simple pre-fab block, and then stacking this all the way to the stars...

Last week we had our work office Party. We went to Shanghai Blues for some tasty food. Yes, it was Chinese, and no we didn't have turkey. Seeing as everyone will probably be maxed out on turkey over the Christmas period, we decided to get something different. The first few courses were damn tasty. We had assorted dim sums, Alaskan Snow Crab, Scallops etc... However, these one bite courses were served 30 minutes apart, and it wasn't until midnight till we got the main course. SMT SMT. Also, one of our colleagues got soaked TWICE by their clumsy staff. Anyway, this place would probably be worth a second go with a smaller group and at an earlier time.

Yesterday, I went for dim sum with Juice, El and Tortoise. We were initially going to meet he Rotster, but unfortunately she was ill. SMT SMT...

To those who don't already know, Juice has just got a new job as a trainee solititor, where he'll be helping people with debt issues. The poor lad has been out of work for a long time and I hope he enjoys his knew role. My only concern, though, is that his activities could have a negative impact on my stock portfolio. About a year ago, I bought shares in a couple of debt managements firms. They've more than doubled in value, and make their profits from the unethical practise of preying on weak and vulnerable people with debt problems. However, Juice will be competing directly with these firms, by providing debt advice for free. Oh dear.

Speaking of jobs, I was reading a debate on the jobless culture in the UK. I'm not too sure how I feel about the whole thing, as I'm hoping to join the jobless by 30 and certainly don't want to be forced into litter picking, the army, MacDonalds or menial admin work. One particularly intellectual comment is:

"As the obscene bonuses paid to City ' workers' show, avarice is everywhere. The something for nothing mentality is not restricted to the poor.

Let's not forget that fact.

Michael Winston "

I whole heartedly agree! Those greedy folks are wasting over 12 hours a day in the office, when they could be doing something more constructive such as litter picking. Why should they get 7 figures a year when they could take minimum wage instead, and give a pay rise to the cleaners?

I'm still trying to work out this Second Life stuff and headed off to Wiki to read up on it (Second Life on Wikipedia). This article seems to give a good idea of some of the things that people can do in the game. The bits that I found most interesting are:

- A house husband is making $1,900 a week selling animations of smooching couples.
- The author of the article bought some land that was invaded by developers. Surely he could have let them develop it... and then charged rent?

Last night I managed to find an online Poker game in Second Life. But I didn't have enough cash in my game to sit down. SMT SMT.

I also started to learn a little about the scripting engine. Geeky users can write their own scripts within the game. Unfortunately this is supposed to be a very common skill, due to the sort of people that the game attracts.

Street Fighter video thing. Part 2. I'll write more later.

I've managed to get Second Life up and running in the office. Good times. However, I'm still not sure what it's all about.

So far I've wondered around a load of clubs that are full of work unfriendly softore images. They're probably just virtual representations of Mark's call centre. But I find it a bit embarrasing to have naked avatars running around my screen.

I also sat on a beach, and rode down a water slide (see picture above).

Next I made friends with a racoon who liked donkeys (http://www.safehaven4donkeys.org/ is one of her favourite sites) and couldn't stop tying her shoe laces.

All very surreal. Rottie has given the game a go as well. Maybe she'll manage to work out what this is all about. I still don't understand how Anshe Chung made a million from the Second Life real estate market.