Lunch

To lunch yesterday with Mr Ward, newly returned from Vegas and still as thin as a rake, to collect what dollars he has remaining. He reckoned that he bokked himself when he went to a US bank and took out a leaflet on opening an account. From quazillion dollars up, the bankroll depleted to a fraction of a quazillion -- a fairly small fraction.

But he got the result when giving me the dollars. I took it at $1.85 to the pound, and over the net few days it sank back to about $1.82. Then it started moving up again. And, of course, yesterday morning the UK announced an unexpected increase in interest rates, smacking the rate up to $1.89.

Andy was pondering about the future direction of the dollar, and it really feels to me that it could be in some trouble, what with the mid-term elections likely to produce further political uncertainty until November 2008. Could this be the $2 to the pound by Christmas? Not impossible, not impossible.

We had lunch at a fish restaurant called Back To Basics, in Foley Street. I haven't eatne there before, but it always seems busy. Along with my normal record of taking vegetarians to steak houses and the like, Ward chose chicken for his main course (although he did have the gravad lax to start). I had some kind of mushroomy thing to start - bloody delicious, while the monkfish kebabs were also high-class.

Top of the tree, though, was the bread. I have no idea whether they bake this themselves or get it in specially. but it was brilliant. One of my major moans has always been how restaurants (24 at Tower 42 is a prime criminal) produce excellent meals and slap some 24p a pack Tesco's value bread on the side, or at least something which tastes how I imagine Tesco's value-white-bread would taste. It's a great pleasure to have a meal where the bread lives up to the quality of the meal, if only because it comes as a surprise (which, of course, it shouldn't).


Oh well, ironing and hoovering beckon. My, isn't life fun.

++++++++++

A bit later.

A couple of days ago I was playing on one of the Monster Bad Beat tables on Party when the Bad Beat Jackpot was won at another $2-$4 table. A message flashed up and then disappeared within second, but I think that it said something about this fact qualified me for a seat in a $100K Monster Freeroll.

Needless to say, I cannot find how to enter this tournament, when it is, whether it's a matter of choice for me whan I play, or anything. In other words, fairly typical Party. Just when it looks like I might get some EV out of the deal, they take it away from me.

Just to show that you aren't a useless bunch of parasites reading this shit and not giving anything back in return, does ANYONE know how I go about playing in this freeroll?

I e-mailed Party but, needless to say, I have not received a reply. Any help would be much appreciated. There's nothing on the 2+2 forum about this, so I guess that the answer is as simple as shit, but I just can't see it.

PJ

Further Party Fun

OK guys, you are going to enjoy this. Iggy, if you are reading this, now you can see why 2+2ers do their heads in when playing at this site, and only put up with it because of the numbers of fish:

The story so far:

1) I was playing at a table when the bad beat jackpot was won.
2) This was at the same level as the bad beat.
3) This means I qualify for the weekly $100K freeroll.
4) But, when I try to register, it tells me that I'm not eligible.

So, I e-mail Party, telling them the above, and asking what I did wrong.

Here's the reply:

Dear Peter,

Thank you for contacting us.

We understand that you referring to the instance where the Jackpot was hit on the 2nd of Aug 2006 at 13-02-12 hrs EST. You were playing at the table 1275890 at that time.

The hand you were in at that time was hand# 4860680330. The hand begun before the jackpot was hit and the hand ended after the jackpot was hit. The table characters, with regards to stakes and game type are also the same. However, the table where the Jackpot was hit (# 1282113) was a 10 player (max) table while the table you were at, was a 6 player (max) table.

You have not won an entry for the same reason. We wish you all the best!

Regards,

Srinivas
PartyPoker Customer Care



Ahh, you might think, fair enough. Except, look at my Pokertracker hand history:



***** Hand History for Game 4860680330 *****
$2/$4 Texas Hold'em - Wednesday, August 02, 13:01:35 ET 2006
Table Monster #1275890 (Real Money)
Seat 2 is the button
Total number of players : 10
Seat 3: A14B24H ( $62.50 )
Seat 6: noezway ( $149 )
Seat 9: bertfv ( $65.67 )
Seat 5: Birks ( $200 )
Seat 2: ThePeruvian ( $94.50 )
Seat 1: Player8606 ( $159 )
Seat 7: MRRIVER33901 ( $51 )
Seat 4: enferpe ( $120.50 )
Seat 10: Dratj ( $96.50 )
Seat 8: poker_arn ( $94 )
A14B24H posts small blind [$1].
enferpe posts big blind [$2].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to Birks [ 8c Ac ]
Birks raises [$4].
noezway folds.
poker_arn folds.
bertfv calls [$4].
Dratj folds.
Player8606 folds.
ThePeruvian folds.
A14B24H folds.
enferpe folds.
** Dealing Flop ** [ Js, 7c, 8d ]
Birks bets [$2].
bertfv raises [$4].
Birks calls [$2].
** Dealing Turn ** [ Qc ]
Birks checks.
bertfv bets [$4].
Birks calls [$4].
** Dealing River ** [ As ]
Birks checks.
The PartyPoker.com Monster Bad Beat Jackpot was just hit on Bad Beat table 1282113 for
$160,635.96!
bertfv checks.
Birks shows [ 8c, Ac ] two pairs, aces and eights.
bertfv doesn't show [ Jd, Kc ] a pair of jacks.
The time at which hand ended:Aug 02 2006 13:02 ET
Birks wins $25.50 from the main pot with two pairs, aces and eights.


Quality from Party, or what?