Tyre Degradation in Melbourne

Readers you will be shocked to learn that a couple of years back I once lost a 5-figure sum in 36 hours on a Formula One spread bet. Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button had a dynamite car, which was robust and with the most powerful engine on the F1 grid (The RA806). The Honda behaved as if crafted by nature in the windtunnel (believe me I know) and was set to dominate Ferrari, BMW and McLaren.

However, the car had so much excessive downforce when it made its debut in Melbourne, that the tyres were ground to rubber slush in the Australian sun. After Button and Barrichello suffered the infuriation of driving a rocket car without traction (which is an impossible task), the quotes plummeted and I took my loss as Tokyo issued the P45s.

Last night felt worse than Melbourne. I played like an utter drunk donkey, losing £500. I ran a succession of elaborate bluffs against Maltese Mike, Fluke and Honest Dave. I was called down numerous times with middle pair or worse. The new player Devon must have thought I was a total fish. Incidently, wasn’t Devon the guy who owned Knight Industries in the Hasselhoff classic?

I hate playing like this - if you play tight it’s pretty easy to be ABC even when you are drunk, but if you play loose there is such a fine line between playing inspired and being a total donkey.

When you are playing like a maniac at least you get paid off with the big hands, but even that didn’t help - Knight Industries flopped a set on me and then pushed and I called with Aces in a £400 pot. Sigh.

It’s not the money - I just hate myself when I play this badly.