Wow, what a deep post! On a lighter note; Christmas is coming up and I’m really looking forward to it. It’s about time we all started enjoying the good things more and celebrated the success of friends and family. I can’t wait to spend more time with the friends I like and family I love.

I’m sure Facebook and Twitter are largely to blame for the decay at some sites. While poker forums are mostly a free-for-all, the social networking sites allow users to specify who they wish to interact with. That gives the users more control over their Internet leisure time, allowing them to delete and block the less-desirable people who choose to interact with them.

I’m also sure there are enough established forums around now to make “breaking into” the market a much tougher proposition for any poker site.

So what’s the answer, how do you stop decay and continue to grow? I’ve given this some thought and tried to recall some events from my own internet/forum use in the past. I remember my early internet use in ‘92 - ‘93 and the creation, moderation and “meets” from IRC channels. IRC peaked in the mid 90’s and died. Forums/discussion boards lasted a little longer but they too now appear to be dying. Facebook appeared and, although it continues to develop and be hugely popular, it appears Twitter is now the interactive tool of choice. We have almost gone back to square one. Twitter is a very simple tool to interaction openly and privately with people that follow each other. IRC worked in a similar way.

The answer? There is no answer. It saddens me to say but I really think, as the Internet continues to advance, that forums will become an increasingly smaller part of the WWW. Poker forums will disappear and we’ll all use a select number of sites to interact with fellow players.

Like the rest of the UK I tuned into Question Time last week to hear what Nick Griffin would have to say. Griffin is an interesting character. With a law degree to his name I was expecting him to articulate himself rather better than he did on QT. That said, the majority of the show appeared to be based around a lot of shouty student types asking questions which didn’t get an answer because David Dimbleby told us there wasn’t enough time. What Dimbleby meant was; “We’re not going to answer your question because I’ve got lots of questions of my own to ask Griffin. Sorry.”

The think the BBC missed a trick here. The panel on QT was perfect for an hour long debate BETWEEN THE PANEL MEMBERS. Instead they wasted time asking the audience to chip in with comments and questions which rarely got the attention they deserved.

I also think the BNP have missed a trick by having a clearly racist leader and, no doubt, many racist candidates. Griffin’s previous antics will never go away and to this day he doesn’t really help himself with his ridiculous comments. Had the BNP presented itself as a legitimate political party and not a mouthpiece for the racists it could’ve really given the lazy, corrupt politicians of the UK a nasty bloody nose. Instead, their views will have resulted in a peak in their popularity at the last Euro elections. Griffin’s 15 minutes of fame will be gone soon enough and we can all go back to being disgusted by the way the government we elect runs our country.

I’ve been searching for an image of Griffin in specs because he reminds me of someone I used to know. Ah well.

Could Doyle be reading my middle aged rants? I logged on quickly to check what the great man had to say. Sadly it wasn’t Brunson at all but the post did contain links direct to his online poker site. Not a hint of affiliate code in sight!

Obviously I had to decline the post but it got me thinking - Just who is being employed as poker site SEO experts these days? I’ve spent time in the company of some pretty clever SEO guys and picked up some great ideas over the years. Link building is, of course, a big part of SEO but are people on Doyle’s payroll so lazy that they make pathetic attempts at blog spam now? Don’t they realise that if Google sees the same silly post in hundreds of blogs it might just trigger a ban? C’mon Doyle! sort your staffing out and hire some real SEO experts and not some spotty faced geek that’s read a few optimisation forums.

Back “in those days” the site had a few applications and the ones it did have were generally entertaining or interesting to use. Now the place is infested with “What type of crayon are you?” and “What is your favourite colour” application bollocks!

I’m shocked at how many of the people I am friends with on Facebook use these things on a regular basis. Firstly, they will never tell you anything negative! and secondly what are you gaining from knowing that you’re actually a purple crayon!?

If only Facebook would return to a more simple format where users could share information, images and videos. It would be such a pleasure to use again without having to know “What horror film” an old school girlfriend now is.

The match was great. Warrington took the lead after a minute and were never behind which makes for comfortable viewing. It was pretty emotional during ‘Abide with me’ and extremely emotional at the final whistle. Rugby league players aren’t superstars like footballers. With the exception of a handful of the top players, they live in normal suburbon houses and take home a normal salary every month. The ones I’ve met have always been very approachable, down to earth, nice fellas. It was fantastic to see them celebrating with the fans at the end of the game. I just can’t imagine Rooney and Berbatov having a laugh and a, sensible, drink with United fans after the game. That’s why I love rugby league so much. That and the fact it’s played by real men not overpaid, diving, leg shaving, pussies!

All writers make mistakes. Sometimes they are caused by the lack of a proof reader. Sometimes it’s because the content has been rushed.

One of my favourite writers is Kevin Stevens. Kev serves up a witty blog and generally some enjoyable poker content on the UK Poker Life site. Even if he does make the occasional typo it’s still easy enough to read and worth the effort. Sadly, other writers on that web site are really struggling. I say “sadly” because it’s a site with lots of potential with regulars that have their heart in the right place. Here is part of an opening paragraph, from Richard Wootton, which I gave up reading earlier:

“It is clear that the UEIGA may be relaxed very soon, and this can clearly be seen by the increased activity of the advertising of PartyPoker, which used to be the main player in online gaming.”

Richard, what is the UEIGA? The Unlawful Enforcement Internet Gaming Act? and why so many commas?

The new UKPL site looks great but don’t pretend you can write about poker because you can talk about it. It can make a good site look like a blog and that would be a real shame for UKPL.

Below is the result from 90 mins play:

$100 would’ve been lovely wouldn’t it? That’s what I thought when I was up to $96 before spunking some back. Still, not a bad return for credit crunch style poker. How far can you make $4 go?

The world is full of arseholes and it seems most of them like to play poker. Some of them even have computers and Internet access. So it’s with huge thanks to the Gods of poker that I post the screenshot below:

This particular arsehole reloaded twice before giving up. I guess there was an important 2+2 thread he had to catch up on?

I’m up to almost 5000 points now, which is $25 for free ($20 instant + $5 bonus), after two days play. 7500 is the target for entry into two $2500 freerolls. The long term aim is 150,000 points which means cash back (rake back really) of 45% for tournament fees! Coupled with the bonus cash for reaching that level ($150) this is one to really put the effort into.

Check the VIP levels in this online poker player points article. Reaching Sun level gets you $20,000 worth of freerolls! even the lower levels are pretty good in terms of benefits and cash back.

It’s been a while since I got stuck into a good online poker bonus whoring session and I’m looking forward to the challenge.

The Betfair/Small Acorns challenge has been put on hold. Since the passing of my nephew I’ve rather lost interest in horse racing and laying. Yes, it’s good money but it’s also time consuming and, as my good wife will testify, televisions consuming! I’ll come back to it again in the near future I’m sure.

The loss came from a back in-running. A poor decision as I could’ve easily picked 4 or 5 lays in the same race at the same time. It’s hard to complain, though. That’s a nice haul for the day and certainly an amount most of us would live on as a tax free income.

It still surprises me just how many “old school” backers are still out there. I can only imagine the turnover and profits the majority of bookmakers are making from those mugs. I make no apology for using the term “mugs” either. Betfair state that a very small percentage of their punters are long term winners, I reckon the rest are backing the favourites at Lingfield.