Back to work - Andrew Grimason

I've decided to give up the drink for the month, so no excuses for lazing about. So it's right back into the deep end with a WPT! The first WPT in Ireland, so let's hope they get the numbers. It's a tricky one to predict how many they'll get, as there have been a lot of satellites online and I guess it will get travelling pros that aren't going to the PCA. As for the standard, I think it's going to be a lot higher than the Irish Open but still be some value I'm sure. PKR are the sponsors and the standard there in general is pretty low, so let's hope they bring lots of fishy qualifiers!

After that I'm going to ease off the online tourneys for a while. I think I've generally run badly in them but I kind of got caught up with them. I've always been a better cash game player/ PLO player, so I think it's time to get back to my strengths. I got my Hold'em Manager set up for the first time in ages yesterday; I know I'm a moron for playing without it. So then I'm going to put in some decent hours playing 1-2 PLO.

The rest of my "working" time, I'm going to put into my new hobby/addiction/obsession/fascination, which is football betting. I've always kind of arsed around when it comes to betting, punt a few things here and there for the craic or if I got a tip. However, the last month or so I've decided to really have a proper structured approach to it. I've set up a ratings system using Opta statistics and a lot of help from friends in the know and it's coming together nicely. I've been following the Premiership markets closely and they really move about, so that means there's definitely value out there, now I just have to get good at snaffling that value!

Enough of that serious shite anyway, in my last blog I talked about the 'Creeps Christmas Dinner'. It was a cracking night, which involved a really top notch dinner in Louie's Bistro on Mount Joy Square followed by a serious lock in one of the lad's pubs!

My brother had just flown in from New York and wanted a few beers, so I said to him we'll be in McNeill's for about 12. He turned up and the door was shut, so he knocked and asked for the poker lads. The bar man was like, you've got the wrong place just as four taxi's pulled up with 15 of us! We all marched into the back and despite the 'serious amount of girls here' as my brother pointed out it was some craic.

Johnny was the bookmaker on the NFL and of course cleaned house. Tom Kitt was the entertainment on flying form on the guitar. Endless comedy songs but I couldn't repeat most of it, as there was generally someone at the butt of the jokes! I think we were one of the first to leave at the early hours of 8am, with my brother asking to stop in Abrakebabra while we sat in rush hour traffic. Already awaiting next year's antics!