699 hands: $119Monthly Goal $4.000 sofar: $2.153

I suffered a big suckout yesterday. The biggest one since I got back from vacation. I felt that my ability to handle tilt had worsened slightly, but I still managed to keep my cool.

I had all my money in the middle on the turn against two opponents, I had a flush, one opponent had a set and the other a pocket pair of Kings with the nut flush draw. The last card gave the player with the Kings his nut flush and he took the pot worth more than $1.600.

Immediatly I thought how I would feature this hand on my blog, writing about how I would have almost made my Monthly Goal if there was any justice in poker. But then I remembered that I am not writing this blog to let of steam from bad beats, but to improve as a player. So I dug through the hands of that session and wouldn't you know it I found a suckout I myself made, which I had forgotten in all the selfpity the previous hand created.

66 in the Small Blind: On the turn when he bets pot, I remember thinking that he wouldn't bet that much with the straight so I might as well just get it all-in. Well sometimes my thinking just doesn't make sense.

If I would have let my mind linger on the suckout I suffered, I would not have learnt anything from the bad play I myself made in the same session.

I am gonna play some poker today, but I need to be at my grandmothers birthday aswell, so my playing time is limited. September only has 30 days, so I basically need to make $1.850 today. Unless I get very lucky I am not gonna make my monthly goal.

Too lazyMonthly Goal $4.000 sofar: $2.034

I have played a couple of short sessions, but mostly I have just been lazy these past two days. I got my record keeping software up-to-date and see that I am over the halfway mark of my monthly goal.

I still have $2.000 to go. If I want to make it I must shape up these few days I have left and get some hours in.

I got a complementary poker-chipset in the mail today, from Full Tilt Poker. I play alot on some sites and they threat their good customers well.

Home again. 170 hands: $72Monthly Goal $4.000 sofar: $1.814

I am back home in Faroe Islands...

I took a short session while still in Denmark yesterday. Not much happened but I managed to pull in a small win.
Not many days are left in September, so if I want to make my goal I need to get some work done. I am a bit jetlagged from traveling, so I don't think I will risk playing too high stakes today. But tomorrow I plan on starting the day with a walk and then getting down to some serious poker playing.

I have gotten some offers on ads on my blog. Ads don't pay that much unless you are insanely popular, which unfortunatly I am not. I could probably get somewhere around $50 - 100 a year from ads. Since I wouldn't notice that kind of money, I'd rather keep the site "clean".

But I would like to increase the number of visitors, so I plan on doing some studying on how to improve as a blogger.

My last days in Copenhagen

I am still in Denmark.
Days go by quickly here, without enough time for pokerplaying nor blogging. The nice people at the airline company allowed me to change my return flight to the 27th of September. So by the 28th my life should be back to normal.

I played in a live cash game again yesterday. The game was wild with alot of action. The good players there play a very high variance game, wich is the complete opposite of my style. Still I manage to keep my own swings down and ended the day up a small 200 DKR, about $35 .
I do feel though that if I want to maximize my profits in such a game, I need to change up my play a bit. Hopefully I can find some cash game back home which I can play in, so I can train my live game play.

Today I am gonna watch a movie with my brother, before I leave for Faroe Islands. But perhaps I can squeeze a couple of hundred hands of NL Hold 'Em in before the day is done.

A long session netted me -$8Monthly Goal $4.000 sofar: $1.742

I managed to play some poker yesterday. I played alot of hands but finished the day about even.
A break even session is never too disapointing though, after rakeback I should be ahead for the day.

Unfortunatly I don't have pokertracker set up on my laptop, so I can't go through the hands of yesterdays session to see if I might dig up some mistakes or fancy plays.

A friend asked me about the overbet I made in the hand posted in my last entry. I don't know if I have given the whole story about how I came about making it a regular fixture of my game. I sometimes try to copy what great pokerplayers do, to see if I can pull of the same plays. Most players have a move or two unique to themselves that they practice to perfection. Often these moves are hard to copy, because so much depends on reads and the specific situation that it can't be easily made into a formula.
One such player is Phralad Friedman, he is one of the biggest internet winners known by the nicks Mahatma and Spirit Rock. I have watched his game on various sites and also read through some of the hands others have played against him on poker forums. I noticed that he sometimes pushed for a large amount into a relative small pot. The play didn't seem to make alot of sense to me, since you stand to loose alot or win just a little. But it was this exact move that gave alot of the regular forum posters such a headache, they never knew when to call or fold. So since the best online player made such a play there had to be something to it, and I started to use it myself at times I felt it could be profitable.
At first I lost money making the move because I didn't time it correctly, players always called when I pushed on a draw and always folded when I had the nuts. But slowly I turned the tides and now the result is quite the opposite, the mostly fold to my draws and call when I have the nuts. It is all about timing and knowing your opponents.

I am starting to miss my stationary computer. My return ticket is set for 1. of October, but the airline company told me before I left that it might be possible to move it a couple of days. I am gonna give them a call tomorrow, to see if I can book a flight home on the 27. of September.

New goal and a good day at the tablesMonthly Goal $4.000 sofar: $1.750

I have been thinking about moving to Denmark for some time now. If I were to move, my "nut" would be about $2.000.

Nut: The amount of money needed to get by per month.

Since I have only about 10 days of pokerplaying this month and just a laptop with no software to aid me, I think I should set my monthly goal at an attainable level. Twice my possible future "nut" seems like a reasonable number, so $4.000 it is.

Today I had a great two sessions at Full Tilt. I ended the day up about $1.600. So already before setting myself the new goal I am almost halfway there. Nevertheless poker is a game of variance and it could easily have gone the other way.

QQ in the Big Blind: My first big pot since August. I really felt good getting those chips showed in my direction. I also think it is nice seeing my overbet push still gets paid off when I want it too.
I am glad to be playing online poker again.

Back ... somewhat

My friends and I had a great time on vacation. We were on Malta for 2 weeks.

I am not home as of yet, I am in Denmark staying with my brother. I will stay here for a week or two before I head back home.

I do have a laptop and an internet connection here in Denmark, so I am starting slowly to play again.

Unfortunatly I forgot to bring the recharger for my camera with me on vacation, but mine wasn't the only camera there, so hopefully I can get some pictures up in a couple of days.

I took a session on Full Tilt yesterday, just to see if things have changed since I last was online. Things seemed to be quite normal and I ended with a nice profit of about $150.
Today I got invited to a live game. The stakes were not too high, but that didn't guarantee a smooth ride. At one point I was down about 2500 DKR ($415), but after a action packed ending with straddles and heavy raising I ended the session up about 600 DKR ($100). Large swings indeed for a game that has a blind level of about a tenth of what I am used to.

There were a couple of very interesting hands, but the details are fuzzy.
The last hand of the evening was my big score. The pot got huge before the flop was even dealt, because of raises and straddles. Luck was smiling my way and I flopped a set. All my money went in on the turn and I ended up running it twice against a double belly buster straight draw.
My hand held up on both dealings and I raked in the biggest pot of my live game experience, over 4000 DKR ($666)

All in all it was great fun and we played for about 12 hours.

And I honestly believe that I would have had the same great impression of the game, if I would have ended the day down. I hope to be able to join in again next week.