Scary dog?

All this talk about dangerous dogs is making me sad.

While I agree, of course, that certain breeds of dogs are genuinely more aggressive than others, the majority of dogs behave how they are taught by their owners - whatever the breed.

I wholeheartedly agree with this editorial in the Guardian - here is a quote:

"This easy assumption of equivalence between wealth and responsibility is not just insulting: in no area more than dogs is it so flagrantly wrong. Canines simply don't buy the values of the market economy: they don't want an owner with a good job – they would rather have a tramp or a teenager. I always notice how well-adjusted and biddable are the dogs of people who spend a lot of time with them – in contrast to nutty labradors who only see their owners on a Saturday and have the recall of a squirrel."

We have a dog called Audrey, she's a 9 month old mongrel and her dad happens to be an American staff. She is sweet and friendly and wants to play with every other dog she meets *pant pant love you lick lick* - that is her ethos.

Now I used to be TERRIFIED of dogs. Wouldn't even go in a room with them. In fact, when we went to pick up Audrey from the lovely couple in West Hampstead, whose two dogs bred by mistake, my boyfriend had to go in and get her. I stayed in the car, hoping the dogs wouldn't escape and KILL ME.

But I've got to know dogs, and you can tell when they're dangerous, and people that keep these animals need to take responsibility.

Make dog licenses compulsory, and in cities like London make areas of a park where dog owners can go and let their dogs play without fear that a hysterical mother will say that her child is at risk because a completely normal dog is running around playing.

There's a lady upstairs where we live, that acts so mental and hysterical every time she has to walk past our dog that Audrey thinks she is the most exciting being in the world. Who can blame her, wanting to know what this creature is that shrieks so high pitched and waves and flails limbs around.

I'm a converted dog lover, and I totally respect that not everyone feels the same, but we need to make sure there is more understanding, not fear.

Cycling through the city at 8am

It makes such a difference what time you cycle through the City of London in the morning.

When I leave at 730, it’s no problem at all. I can sail past the buses, there are hardly any other cyclists around, and pedestrians are at a minimum.

But if I leave at 745, hitting the City around 8, it’s a whole different story. The worst part is the additional cyclists. This morning I encountered two of the very slow kind – these are the cyclists that just started again this week because the sun came out. It is too narrow in the City to cycle really slowly, it’s just selfish.

Then there was a lady (I’m all for female cyclists, more of us please!) who stopped in the middle of a two lane road, just because she didn’t want to cycle past a bendy bus (a stationary bendy bus). I nearly crashed into the back of her, and the man behind me into the back of me. We nearly had a four bike pileup on Bishopsgate. All because she can’t cycle past parked vehicles.

I’d like to add, that it’s fine if you want to stop because yes, accidents do happen. But stop on the left hand side of the road, not in the middle.

On the whole though, it was a lovely ride. And it’s so nice that it’s light now in the mornings.

PS I'd like to say I will still be writing about poker, I just want to write about other things too

What I don't know

I just wanted to outline how little I actually know about poker.

I roughly know the order of winning hands, roughly I say, sometimes I just have to guess and go on my gut feeling. And I don't know the names of anything after the flop - though from PKR I have this voice in my head going "Here coooomes the river!", but I don't know what the river is. At the beginning, I thought it was just a joke anyway but now I've found out that it's when the dealer turns over one of the cards after the flop. Don't know which one yet.

But it's the etiquette of the game that intrigues me most.

If I played in real life, would people still sit around smoking cigars? Probably not in a casino or anything, but at someone's house?

And do they say "I'll see your hundred and raise you four hundred"? Apparently that's not allowed, so I'm not sure exactly where that phrase came from.

Maybe once I understand these things, I can go to a real game.

Big game, big mistake

So my first big game started pretty well. I had $500 in the pot and after a three of a kind hand with Aces I got up to $1,190.

A few hands later, where nothing happened, I got a jack and ten, don't know what called but ended up splitting pot with an Ace high run, moved to another table giving me $1,485.

That's when it all started to go wrong, and I eventually got out I can't remember exactly how (good selective memory at work here). Anyway, then by mistake I pressed a button that said I would like to rebuy in and I found myself with $2,000 (that I paid 2 cents for) and under a lot of pressure because I'd never even managed to get this much before. But before long I went all in with a pocket pair of tens, and lost out at the last minute to a pair of kings.

I felt like a bit of a fool after all that so I thought I should at least play one more Ten Cent Giveaway and try and come second, to win back the 4 cents I lost when I did that stupid rebuy.

I managed that, it was a long and protracted process. There was a very angry Russian man just to my right, with long black hair, that slammed his fist on the table at every given opportunity. I wasn't sure if it was because my bare legs under the table were just out of reach, or if he was really taking the free game to win a maximum of 6 cents very seriously.

In the end, a French man won and I came second, and I think that'll be it for tonight. I'm all pokered out.

Oh and I'd like to add that I am very sad that I'm not watching Lady GaGa sing Poker Face live in London tonight. Completely irrelevant, but her song title has the word poker in it.

Starting out

Poker always made me think of old men sitting around a table, smoking and shouting things like "I'll see your fifty and raise you 400!!". So when my boyfriend asked me if I wanted to start playing I was slightly intrigued by the idea and said a tentative yes.

I'm ultra competitive by nature. Even when I was younger, playing tennis with my family I HAD to win. My brother was the same and you can imagine the arguments that caused.

So I thought, what the hell, I'll put my competitive spirit to good use and have a game of online poker.

I'm playing at www.pkr.com and entering the 10 cent free giveaways, so far I've won one game, and have a grand total of 6 cents. woooo!!! And the ultimate aim is to win $1,000.

It seems a long way off, and even the first few games I've played have caused great rage in my head.

But follow my progress here. First up tonight is a $5 Rebuy Freeroll. I play under the name SnowyA.