A poker month to forget
Apr. 29th, 2005 10:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
peterbirksLooking at my figures, I see that I am winning the grand total of seven quid this month. In fact it's better than that, because I haven't written any of the bonus money to book, and, because I do my accounts in sterling and am allowing for the steady depreciation in the dollar, I have to win about fifty quid a month just to break even in sterling terms.
Who would have thought it, the Birks books containing an explanation that profits would have been higher if it had not been for the deterioration in the dollar. Finally my books now actually have the dollar at a "worse" rate than reality. Not bad, considering that the assessed rate when I started playing in 2000 was $1.40 to the £. If it was still at that rate I would be nearly three grand better off (in sterling) than I am at the moment. Serves me right for never converting any of the money back into sterling, I guess. But since I am more than three grand up with FinSpreads on my short dollar bets in the past 18 months, I can't complain.
So, when we allow for the dollar deterioration and the bonus amounts (in other words, if Birks plc published its accounts in dollars and at a fair value basis) I'm actually about $300 up on the month. I suppose it's a measure of my progress over the past year and a half that I actually find this figure disappointing.
Andy Ward has talked about taking $5K, playing in bigger online games, and trying to spin up the money, without worrying about losing it (because it's all winnings anyway). David Young asked me when I was going to start playing in bigger games. But the difference between Andy, David and me is that Andy wants to give up his job and David doesn't have any other job. I, meanwhile, seem to have a bloody good job. Yesterday I produced the whole issue of the newsletter from home, linked to the office by the marvels of modern science. I wouldn't want to make a habit of it (because there is always that nagging fear that the link will break at a vital moment) but we now know that it can be done. As jobs go, therefore, it doesn't come much better.
For that reason, I don't really need the extra stress of higher stakes games, where I would need to work much harder on my game, pay closer attention to other players, and generally tire myself out even more than I am normally. That's not to say that it doesn't tempt me occasionally (since, just as a house can never have too much space, so a bank account can never have too much money) but I really feel that the mental preparation needs to be right.
Who would have thought it, the Birks books containing an explanation that profits would have been higher if it had not been for the deterioration in the dollar. Finally my books now actually have the dollar at a "worse" rate than reality. Not bad, considering that the assessed rate when I started playing in 2000 was $1.40 to the £. If it was still at that rate I would be nearly three grand better off (in sterling) than I am at the moment. Serves me right for never converting any of the money back into sterling, I guess. But since I am more than three grand up with FinSpreads on my short dollar bets in the past 18 months, I can't complain.
So, when we allow for the dollar deterioration and the bonus amounts (in other words, if Birks plc published its accounts in dollars and at a fair value basis) I'm actually about $300 up on the month. I suppose it's a measure of my progress over the past year and a half that I actually find this figure disappointing.
Andy Ward has talked about taking $5K, playing in bigger online games, and trying to spin up the money, without worrying about losing it (because it's all winnings anyway). David Young asked me when I was going to start playing in bigger games. But the difference between Andy, David and me is that Andy wants to give up his job and David doesn't have any other job. I, meanwhile, seem to have a bloody good job. Yesterday I produced the whole issue of the newsletter from home, linked to the office by the marvels of modern science. I wouldn't want to make a habit of it (because there is always that nagging fear that the link will break at a vital moment) but we now know that it can be done. As jobs go, therefore, it doesn't come much better.
For that reason, I don't really need the extra stress of higher stakes games, where I would need to work much harder on my game, pay closer attention to other players, and generally tire myself out even more than I am normally. That's not to say that it doesn't tempt me occasionally (since, just as a house can never have too much space, so a bank account can never have too much money) but I really feel that the mental preparation needs to be right.
