Hello all.

Normally I write a new blog entry when it has been some time since my last one. This is because I dont want to write without having something meaningfull to talke about. Anyway, I'm looking for people who play poker more or less fulltime, like me, who would be interrested in sharing msn address. Some time back I realized that I have noone around me to talke/argue/discuss/debate poker with. In my real life I have alot of buddies playing poker, but none of them is doing it seriously. I'm even the only one to have read a pokerbook.

This "problem" have made me somewhat frustrated lately. I feel like I'm totally on my own with every situation that occur around the table. I miss talking to someone who either already have alot "success" playing fulltime, or someone just like me who works really hard every day at 1/2 and trying to get to 2/4.

If this is of any interrest to you, then leave your msn address here, and I will add you as soon I get back.

After having a very good session last sunday, I had a rough day monday. Immediatly got stuck 800 bucks 1h30m into the session. After a few breaks I made 500 back, but still leaved me 300 stuck for the day. Tuesday was a weird day. Not because of the poker, but because I was tired all day long. I had slept well the night before, so really didnt know why. Ended up with me having swingy sessions, before I took the night off when break even, thus, still 300 stuck for the week. Today, wednesday, I'm leaving for a short 1day trip to denmark. Leaving with two good friends and we are gona party all night long on this boat full of students :D Sure its gona be a great time. Thus I decided to only play till I got even for the week, so I could leave for this trip in a good mood. Played like two hours only this morning and after busting most of the money from one dude who sat with two three buyins+ on several tables I ended my session.

Probably wont be playing much poker tomorrow due to my health being pretty poor after a rough time of drunkaness tonight, so guess I see you at the tables on friday, and hopefully someone have added their msn address here. Would be really nice to have someone to discuss hands, sessionreviews and in the end getting a new friend(s)

Good luck at the tables, Thomas.

Hello all.

Since my last blog-entry I changed back to cash games. Reason for that is multiple. When you play tournaments its like being in a prison, you dont get the freedom poker is supposed to serve when you decide doing it for a living. Two weeks ago I was living like a zombie, playing in the night - sleeping on the day. I simply cant live like that and nor do I understand how MTT pro's survive playing 10-15hours a day for many weeks in row. I simply dont see the passion in that. Also my results began to get worse. While I played and played I was hungering more and more for a good result. I needed a good result for my confidence and also so I could pay for my life-expences. However, the last week I played I only manged two three final tables in the medium 20 and 30 rebuys at FullTilt and without any wins or second nor thirds it wasnt enlarging my bankroll.

It all ended up with me playing desperatly for a result last friday and ending up with zero cashings. Frustrated I thought of doing some HU cash. Watched through a few CR HU videos before I started. Played two dudes and ended up being down 500 bucks after 180 hands. Demoralized I didnt play any more poker for the rest of the weekend. Saturday I went out with friends, which always is a nice change of pace.

When I woke up on monday I was feeling ok and kind of ready to try get back on track with the poker, after all I needed money, so it wasnt really a matter of not playing. I decided to watch some cashvideoes of 1/2 on my external monitor while I played two tables of 1/2 on the other one. My roll was now down to 2700 so I wasnt really following BankRoll mng like I did when playing 100NL. It started out really well. With only two tables I quikly got up to 3300 before I ended the day. Then I withdrew 300 bucks. I did this because I now have a new goal. I will always withdraw between 150-300 bucks everyday, no matter how bad my day has been, pokerwise. With only withdrawing 150 bucks everyday for a month I will have atleast 4500 for my life-expences, which is a minimum imo.

So, how have I done this week? From Monday till now, Sunday, I'm up approximatly 2500$. For me this result is both huge and great. Really needed this positive effect. It makes me believe that I'm doing something right and not just being another fish in the ocean. How did I accomplish this? Earlier in the week I was two tabling, and the positive effect of that is when you tilt, it doesnt hurt my roll to hardt, but in the end I get bored with only two, so lately I have been back to my normal four tabling.

I have also been doing disciplined table selecting, and with that I mean DISCIPLINED. While I four table I make sure all my tables have as few regulars as possible and vice versa fishwise, thus making sure my table has an avg VP$ above 30% all the time. So on my main monitor I have my four tables running and on my external one I have the lobby open so I always make sure I'm playing on the loosest/fishiest tables. This really have to be said cause I used to think like this myself. Dont play poker with the attitude that you want to be the best at the table, thus you dont fear anyone and sit anywhere at any cost. This is not a competition about being the best in poker. We are playing to make money and easy money dont come from players who are rocksolid/tight/regulars. To only get money form a solid player when I have AA and he got KK is really not the way or pace profitablewise I want to do it. I want to get as much money as fast I can from the fish because they simply are on the wrong side of the equity balance. I'm actually amazed to realize that their is so much more fish in the ocean at 200NL compared to 100NL. 100NL is unfortunatly a field of 90% rockyplayers, making sure they only join the fun when they have the goods. Certainly not the pace I want to be making money in, simply to slow.

Yesterday, Saturday, I had a sick day and it was a bad day moneywise. After 1700 hands I was down 1100-1200 bucks and most of it due to bad beats. I guess these hands tells it all:

FullTiltPoker Game #3910905186: Table Coralie (6 max) - $1/$2 - No Limit Hold'em - 8:04:21 ET - 2007/10/20
Seat 1: herc66 ($203.75)
Seat 2: Marc RFC ($201)
Seat 3: MrBiigStack ($587.30)
Seat 4: Zackezack11 ($129)
Seat 5: cmpjo ($211.75)
Seat 6: Zolee21 ($195.20)
cmpjo posts the small blind of $1
Zolee21 posts the big blind of $2
The button is in seat #4
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to MrBiigStack [Qh Qc]
herc66 folds
Marc RFC folds
herc66 stands up
MrBiigStack raises to $7
Zackezack11 folds
cmpjo folds
Zolee21 calls $5
*** FLOP *** [2d 2s 5s]
Zolee21 checks
MrBiigStack bets $12
Zolee21 calls $12
*** TURN *** [2d 2s 5s] [Qs]
Zolee21 checks
MrBiigStack bets $33
Zolee21 raises to $106
MrBiigStack raises to $568.30, and is all in
Zolee21 calls $70.20, and is all in
MrBiigStack shows [Qh Qc]
Zolee21 shows [5d 5h]
Uncalled bet of $392.10 returned to MrBiigStack
*** RIVER *** [2d 2s 5s Qs] [5c]
MrBiigStack shows a full house, Queens full of Fives
Zolee21 shows four of a kind, Fives
Zolee21 wins the pot ($388.40) with four of a kind, Fives
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $391.40 | Rake $3
Board: [2d 2s 5s Qs 5c]
Seat 1: herc66 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 2: Marc RFC didn't bet (folded)
Seat 3: MrBiigStack showed [Qh Qc] and lost with a full house, Queens full of Fives
Seat 4: Zackezack11 (button) didn't bet (folded)
Seat 5: cmpjo (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 6: Zolee21 (big blind) showed [5d 5h] and won ($388.40) with four of a kind, Fives

---------------------------------------

standard

FullTiltPoker Game #3910676419: Table Bonanza (6 max) - $1/$2 - No Limit Hold'em - 7:00:23 ET - 2007/10/20
Seat 1: misskorn ($196.70)
Seat 2: sarfu ($217)
Seat 3: bookers44 ($854.35)
Seat 4: CallDaPlumRR ($264)
Seat 5: MrBiigStack ($200)
Seat 6: JJ_RAISE ($201)
JJ_RAISE posts the small blind of $1
misskorn posts the big blind of $2
5 seconds left to act
sarfu posts a dead small blind of $1
The button is in seat #5
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to MrBiigStack [Kc Kh]
sarfu folds
bookers44 raises to $8
CallDaPlumRR folds
MrBiigStack raises to $28
JJ_RAISE folds
misskorn folds
bookers44 has 15 seconds left to act
bookers44 raises to $88
MrBiigStack raises to $200, and is all in
bookers44 calls $112
MrBiigStack shows [Kc Kh]
bookers44 shows [As Ad]
*** FLOP *** [3h 4s 9d]
*** TURN *** [3h 4s 9d] [6d]
*** RIVER *** [3h 4s 9d 6d] [Qd]
MrBiigStack shows a pair of Kings
bookers44 shows a pair of Aces
bookers44 wins the pot ($401) with a pair of Aces
MrBiigStack is sitting out
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $404 | Rake $3
Board: [3h 4s 9d 6d Qd]
Seat 1: misskorn (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 2: sarfu folded before the Flop
Seat 3: bookers44 showed [As Ad] and won ($401) with a pair of Aces
Seat 4: CallDaPlumRR didn't bet (folded)
Seat 5: MrBiigStack (button) showed [Kc Kh] and lost with a pair of Kings
Seat 6: JJ_RAISE (small blind) folded before the Flop

----------------------

just sick

FullTiltPoker Game #3912007491: Table Sphinx (6 max) - $1/$2 - No Limit Hold'em - 11:43:41 ET - 2007/10/20
Seat 1: MrBiigStack ($200.25)
Seat 2: Vater_of_Poker ($304.35)
Seat 3: RedDragon85 ($200)
Seat 4: Finmacul ($200)
Seat 5: Voronin ($75.40)
Seat 6: rwd99 ($83.10)
Voronin posts the small blind of $1
rwd99 posts the big blind of $2
The button is in seat #4
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to MrBiigStack [Ks Kh]
MrBiigStack raises to $7
Vater_of_Poker has 15 seconds left to act
Vater_of_Poker calls $7
RedDragon85 folds
Finmacul calls $7
Voronin folds
rwd99 folds
*** FLOP *** [3c 5s 9d]
MrBiigStack bets $19
Vater_of_Poker raises to $38
Finmacul folds
MrBiigStack has 15 seconds left to act
MrBiigStack has requested TIME
MrBiigStack calls $19
*** TURN *** [3c 5s 9d] [5c]
MrBiigStack checks
Vater_of_Poker bets $74
MrBiigStack has 15 seconds left to act
MrBiigStack has requested TIME
MrBiigStack raises to $148
Vater_of_Poker has 15 seconds left to act
Vater_of_Poker calls $74
*** RIVER *** [3c 5s 9d 5c] [Qh]
MrBiigStack bets $7.25, and is all in
Vater_of_Poker calls $7.25
*** SHOW DOWN ***
MrBiigStack shows [Ks Kh] two pair, Kings and Fives
Vater_of_Poker shows [Qd Qc] a full house, Queens full of Fives
Vater_of_Poker wins the pot ($407.50) with a full house, Queens full of Fives
MrBiigStack is sitting out
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $410.50 | Rake $3
Board: [3c 5s 9d 5c Qh]
Seat 1: MrBiigStack showed [Ks Kh] and lost with two pair, Kings and Fives
Seat 2: Vater_of_Poker showed [Qd Qc] and won ($407.50) with a full house, Queens full of Fives
Seat 3: RedDragon85 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 4: Finmacul (button) folded on the Flop
Seat 5: Voronin (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 6: rwd99 (big blind) folded before the Flop

----------

Also I lost 500-600 bucks to one dude who become my nemessis. I guess my lesson is this, whenever you face an opponent who seem to outrun you, even how good you equity is VS him, just leave the table and get over it. In this case I ended up getting really frustrated over him, thus playing bad poker. I was trying to push certain situations and did not at all play optimal poker. I simply played BAD. Another 300 bucks in total I lost due to different situations when my bluffs/CB flop/turn didnt work properly, however that is standard.

Today, Sunday, it was a complete breath of fresh air playing poker. When I woke up I told myself that today will be a "to be, or not to be" day in poker. This is due to my roll being down at 2500 bucks, which only is approximatly 12 buyins at 1/2. After making coffey and using 45 minutes on sessionreview of yesterdays horrible beat-day I felt ready to attack the tables and get back on track. After crushing all my tables and noticing that the pokergods was so generous to let me win everytime I was ahead I ended up 1300 bucks. Compared to yesterday I'm now a very happy man and back at looking to the bright side of life again :)

Till next time, cya

Thomas

My cashgame project of late have been running rather poor lately. The latest week I havent put the hands needed, so my last 100NL hands was last Friday. Only another session going more or less break even. I dont exactly see what I'm doing wrong, but I'm sure I will figure it out sooner or later and get back to some winning sessions. However, after a few weeks bad results I decided to take some time off last weekend (Saturday and Sunday), just to get somethingelse on my mind. Really felt I needed that after 50k hands latest 40 days. Thus I went out last weekend with my friends and we had a great time.

On Monday I was thinking about getting back to the tables, but I wasnt really that motivated, thou even I need money for my lifeexpenses (even had to borrow some money of my family last week). When the evening approached I decided to play some MTT's on Fulltilt for a change. I really felt I needed to do something different and not just sit down at a cashtable and doing the same stuff over and over again.

I started out with a 20 bucker 45 man sng while I had some other low buyin MTTs running (under 100 bucks MTT). I ran good in the 45 sng and managed to win it, which gave me some sort of confidence boost, which I also lacked lately. Also I made it to the money in most of my other MTTs, however nothing big. All in all I was pretty satisifed with the day.

Tuesday I woke up and felt refreshed, but I didnt play any cashgame on the mid-day as I really wanted to try some more MTT. On the evening after I had been out in the town helping some friends of me with some stuff in their new store, I registered for a few rebuy MTTs. Now I ran even better and my game was looking pretty hot. I manged to almost get into FT of the 20 rebuy, and finaltabled the 4500 GTD 5 rebuy. Played it ok, but went out in 4th. Now I was really feeling good when I actually could see some + on my roll.

Wednesday I was really fired up for another day of MTT (Its been a few months since I played this much of MTTs in row). Signed up for a few, 20 rebuy, 30 rebuy, 5 rebuy, 50 freeze etc. In the 20 rebuy I had a healthy stack after break, but nothing huge and I never really got it running there. I was kinda struggling getting my stack into the 1/3 of the rankings. Ended up with me going out two three hours into it, without cashing.

In the 30 rebuy it went alot better. I was one of the chipleaders after break with a decent stack of 16k. Till the next break I had the same stack, but right after that break I had my first big down which cut me down to 8k when my pair didnt hold VS AK. I ended up being shortstacked and alot of the time I was the smallest, with the blinds reaching 500/1000. However I feel I played nicely as shortstacked. I didnt push every hand even it was folded to me in the CO or the button. I still managed to keep the spirit up. After pushing in a few spots and maintaining my stack at 10k I pushed in UTG2 with JJ. Got called by MP with AJ, my jacks held up and I doubled up to 20k+ Now I wasnt one of the shortest anymore and we were reaching the bubble (18 last).

After we had reached the 18 last players it went pretty quick to the FT. I came into the FT as one of the smallest, but for some weirdo reason the player to my right kept giving me the blinds. He hardly ever pushed, which was fantastic for my poor healthy stack. While I found a few good spots to push at without being called, the other knocked emself out. I managed to double up with AK and reached 100k stack. In the end we ended up threeway and I also went out on that third place (unfortunatly dont remember the hand I went out on :| ). But I'm very happy for my shortstack play and nice with a close to 2k cashing again.

While I was playing the 30 rebuy, I always had a decent stack in the 5 rebuy. It was a shorthanded MTT, which might be my strongest game at the moment. I didnt get many hands, but was being pretty aggro, while in the early stages people acted pretty tight. In the middle part I was running between 20k-30k stack, up and down, till I came to an aggro table where I had to calm down abit. However I managed to get myself up to 100k+ stack when we were 25 left. Some dude on the table was acting abit strange in the chat towards me, like he thought I was running around with air all the time, which I alot of the time also did ;), However a few hands later after I noticed the chat an interesting hand came up. It was folded to this dude in SB which 3X raised my BB. I was sitting on 66. We were pretty deep both of us as I was top3 and he around top5, so I decided to just call. Also I had pos on him. Flop came Q33. He CB 2/3 the pot immediatly. I thought for a moment and then called him. I was 90% sure I had the best hand, but wanted to see the turn and then reraise his turn bet, if it was a good one. Turn 3. Great turn - He immediatly bet half the pot. I was thinking for a little while and then I threebet him. He went into the tank for a few sec before he shoved additionally 60 70k. Even thou this call was for most of my chips, I was almost instacalling him due to his aggro behavour against me and the sweet odds I gained.

It ended up with him showing total air, K4, and with a blank river I was the new chipleader with almost 300k chips. Second had 150k :) Now we were down to 20 players and I was feeling strong. I did however bluff and play my stack to hard so I ended up being shortstacked when 10 left. However I just had to calm myself down and get back into my shortstack A game play. After winning a few flips with my 77 and AQ I think it was, I came into the FT as second chippie.

From there on I had good controll on my opponents and it was good to actually final table this MTT back to back. When we got HU my opponent had a 3:1 lead on me. However the blinds were pretty small compared to our stacks, so even thou he was very aggro and pushing alot I just took my time till I limped in with AQ, he went all in, me calling and doubling up against his QT. Abit later my A held up against his flushdraw whivh made me 3:1 chippie. Really thought I was gona take this MTT home as I was so confident, however after MY top pair hit vs his top pair, but better kicked, we changed sides again and it ended up me losing it. In total I'm satisfied with the first part of my HU play, but the last part stinked.

In the latest three days I have cashed for almost 4k, and after withdrawing the buyins its a doubling of my roll :))) But due to lifeexpences I have withdrawn a fair amount, so my roll is now 4400$

Good luck at the tables

Thomas

Hello everyone and welcome to my blog.

I'm Thomas from Norway, oslo, 23 years old. I have played poker as a hobby for approximatly 4 years. This summer I just ended my IT graduation.

Exactly one week ago I quit my job and decided to try play poker full time, atleast till Februar 08. It might sound madness to most people, but the truth is that my life situation allows it. I have my own company, which my father provided me and my other two brothers, so the financial situation is looking bright for the future. However I really feel I want to accomplish a few goals withinn poker while I'm young and still can handle all the long hours - I want to be a winning cashgame player and I want it to feed my lifeline. Thus I have no other income for the moment being.

After a few books and alot of reading at the cardrunners site I have understood the importance of bankroll management, atleast if you want to be serious. Some people say you need 15, 20 buyins and others sugesting 100. However I believe there is no set answer to it aslong as you play after your own comfort level. To me I have figured that somewhere between 30-40 buyins is suiting me perfectly.

Due to this I withdrew most of my money online and left myself with 3000$. This leaves me with 30 buyins for 100NL tables and since I havent played much cashgame before, this level is where I wanted to start, and then try to rise. That 30 buyin rule is maybe fitted to one tabling only, but in my case I cant only play one table of 100NL. That simply gets too boring and I will hardly rake. Thus I'm four tabling.

Now, one week and 18000 hands later, I'm left broke even. Well if you consider my small win and the cashback made so far, I'm 600 bucks+. The result in itself is very dissapointing to me, however I'm a learner at this level. Not long ago I read an article saying that a pokerplayer first struggle to not lose money, then to get break even, making money and then rising in levels. I have only played for week, so there is plenty of time left :)

During this week my roll have swinged between 2300 (all time low) and 3600 (all time high). When I was down that was due to poor play. When I take a few beats/coolers in row I sometimes tend to tilt and then I make alot of bad decisions. To prevent this tilting I have tried to set a 3 buying MAX StopLoss. In some way this have worked very well as when I get back to a new session I often start winning. However, on Tuesday I had an 7-8 hour long session. I began the session with a few beats and a few hours later I found myself down 700$ due to bad decision making. I was pretty upset, but decided to keep on playing as I didnt want to end a day with such a weak result. Somehow as I played along my tilt got under controll and I played decent poker. When I wrapped the session up later on, I had recovered 300$ and that felt really good, as I had proven to myself I could get the tilt under controll in the same session. Then on Wednesday I recovered another 200 bucks and today I recovered it all + 200$ more. So all in all I feel comfortable with the situation, even noticing I havent made much money at all. Just to experience the emotional feelings due to downswings so far have been very positive in my point of view. Hopefully I take this with me on the road :)

That is my week so far, now over to some other important aspects, atleast if you ask me about poker. That is the lifestyle I want to have while I'm onto this project. I dont want to ruin my dayrythm and end up as a night owl. I want to meet my family and friends during mid-day and evenings as that is very important to me. So, to prevent ending up in a black hole at my room in my appartment, I'm trying to follow a set schedule everyday:

8-10 AM - Waking up and breakfast.

10 AM - 4/6 PM - Playing. Usually not playing more than 3 hours in row before taking 15/30 minutes break.

Then when I'm done playing I go to the gym where I both lift weights and bycycle two three times a week with an instructor. After that I normally go to the store and buy todays dinner before I relax and chill out with my homeys and family. Thats pretty much the schedule I try to follow. When the weekends come I normally go out Saturdays, but due to my training acitvities nowdays I dont want to ruin my shape with to much alcohol, so I will try to prevent the toxic alittle :)

To wrap up my first blog entry I want to finish it off with a few goals I have set.

1: When/if I hit 8000$ I will move on to 1/2 (40 buyins).

2: I shall never play a session while being tired/exhausted. I must be fully in shape and ready for the task.

3: Try to tilt less and think about making good decesions. Taking responsibility for my decisions.

4: Satellite into Main Event next year.

Thats it for now, bed time and a new pokerday tomorrow.

Good night, Thomas.