December 11th - School, school, school.

Bankroll: ~ $30.000
Monthly goal: $4.000
Monthly win: $0
Hands played: 0

I have not played a hand since my last update, but although I do not have any results to update with, I thought too much time has gone by since my last post.

School has been very hectic lately. Every week features a new essay and a lot of reading, so I have not found any time for poker yet this month. However, I do hope to have some time around Christmas to get in some hands, so I'll aim to make another $4.000 this month.

Last month ended with $4.650, which I will put to good use :)

26th of November - Doing good.

Bankroll: ~ $30.000
Monthly goal: $4.000
Monthly win: $4.650
Hands played: 2500

Well it has indeed been some time since my last update. Schoolwork has been heavy lately but I have had time for the odd poker session.

My hand count is pretty low for the month, however I have played a a thousand hands or so at $5/$10 with a good win rate, so I have been able to exceed my goal for the month.

The games have been really good at Party Poker, which is the reason why I took a stab at $5/$10. I didn't get disappointed, there were plenty of fish throwing their money away.

Reaching $5.000 would be great. The Christmas month is always tough on the bank account and I wouldn't mind a paycheck come January. I am in no dire need of money, but most of my money is bound in interest accounts, so a new paycheck would be welcomed.

Schoolwork might get heavy again soon, although I am pretty much up-to-date presently. A few papers are due in December and January, so next month might get dry when it comes to poker.

November 7th - Keeping focus

Bankroll: ~ $25.000
Monthly win: $750
Hands played: 1300

In between homework and friends I have been able to sneak in two poker sessions this week. The first one went good and left me up about a grand. The second didn't go so well and I lost some of it back.

If I can keep up the current win rate throughout the month, I'll be more than happy.

I have not found poker to be a good pass time after homework. After doing homework I usually end up watching some TV or seek out some friends. School will definitely take its toll on my poker playing. On the other hand I feel that poker has trained me to focus and that helps me a lot in school. I have been playing 4+ tables for a couple of hours each day for the past two years. Suddenly sitting through a 45 minute class, even when boring, isn't an issue. Around me people are yawning and complaining about not getting anything out of lectures, while I just sit there and suck it in with no effort.

October 30th - Homework finished

I finished both my essays on time. They turned out OK, although I would have preferred a day more to work on the grammar and structure.

Needless to say, me and the rest of my class were quite relieved on Friday. So the weekend featured some partying.

I did play a decent session yesterday. I finished up winning a small amount, leaving me up about $400 this month. No fortune, but I'll take it. I do feel a bit rusty, but I also feel like I am quickly getting back to speed. This hand however didn't turn out to great:

88 in the Small Blind: My opponent in this hand had just suffered two big losses. One was an all-in where he had KK and ran into Aces. Anyway, I thought there was a strong possibility of tilt and didn't want to get bluffed. I don't think folding the flop is the right play, but by the turn I definitely should have picked up on his confidence, instead of focusing on the tilt factor.

That hand proved the most costly and it happened just a couple of orbits into the session. I am glad that I was able to put it behind me and work with my table image. Often one such bad judgment call can creep in and distract throughout a session.

Now I just need to verify my new address with Party Poker and grind a couple of hours every week. I feel confident that I can get to where I was some months ago and cash out a decent pay-check every month.

October 23rd - Heavy homework ahead

I have just booked a decent session again. I ended up a bit over a buy-in on $3/$6, putting me slightly in the positive for the month.

I have two essays to write this week. One on The Wife of Bath by Geoffrey Chaucer and the other a summary of The Story of English by Robert McCrum et al. This means that I am going to take the next week off from poker.

Thanks for the comments. To answer one of them I think it would be a great idea to post bankroll tallies and ongoing results. I am not going to run any kind of script though. My online bankroll currently is at about $25.000. With that kind of money at stake I keep strict security measures on all my online activities. Poker is tax-free here in Denmark and I have no qualms of posting numbers and results, but it will have to be entered manually. I'll try to feature a bankroll stat, a monthly earn rate and perhaps a monthly goal from next month onwards.

I still need to change my address with the poker sites I play at, I kind of set that as my goal for this month and I hope to keep it.

October 19th - Two decent wins

I have had two decent wins recently. I have played two session at $3/$6 at Party. I won about a buy-in each session, so I am down just under $900 for the month. It feels good to be winning again. My confidence is growing and I am finding my old rhythm again. Still sucks being down for the month though, but I can see clearer skies ahead again.

My birthday is coming up, I am turning 30. That kind of sucks, but hopefully the birthday party will be fun. I am really getting old and I feel a bit old too. We went to a Danish amusement park called Tivoli on Wednesday. The rides were scary and exhilarating. They made me feel a bit younger, be it only for a day.

October 14th - First real session

I took a real session today. It went very badly, putting me down about $2.200 for the month. I didn't bring my best game and I am sure it got worse after the first two beats.

I choose $2/$4 to start of easy. I guess I should be happy about my choice considering how bad it went. The games were good and I got a decent run of cards, but my good hands didn't hold up and my draws didn't get there.

I think I still played a winning game at those stakes. Sometimes the cards just won't let you win. Of the mistakes I made I think the biggest was opening 6 tables. If I want to start of slow I should limit my multi-tabling.

A9s from Under the Gun: If I were to play this hand again, I would just call his min-bets hoping to hit my flush. I was fairly certain he had a top pair weak kicker or mid pair type hand when he lead the flop.

I'll try to put the session behind me and get cracking on some homework. It kind of sucks to start out playing again, after losing $2.200. $3/$6 will probably be the highest I will play this month, so getting back into the positive will require some work.

October 10th - Study and poker

I have not played much since my last update. A couple of short sessions is all I have found time for and they have left me down about $300.

I am slowly getting settled here in Copenhagen. School is going well and I am adapting to my new work schedule. The work burden is quite heavy and there is not much time left for poker.

Autumn break is coming up next week. I do need to hand in two essays after the break, but I plan to start working on them as soon as I can muster up some discipline. Hopefully this will leave me more time for friends and poker during the holiday.

I am studying English and I hope writing this blog will help me improve my grammar and spelling. If you come across any mistakes feel free to leave a comment.

October 3rd - Back online.

Finally back online. I have been studying in Copenhagen since the start of September. I have mostly been staying with friends, while trying to get a place of my own. On October 1st I got a room in the dorm called Grønjordskollegiet. It is close to school, cheap and has a good internet connection.

My parents mailed me my computer and I just now got it assembled. Everything seems to be working, although the chassis looks like it took a blow or two.

I have got tons of homework for tomorrow. Poker will have to wait until I can find some spare time.

2nd September -

I have been accepted into Copenhagen University to study English and am in the process of moving to Denmark and finding a place to stay there.

I have not played much poker this last month, but hope to get settled in Denmark as soon as possible so I can start making some money again. Yet this will most likely take most of September to accomplish.

July 24th - A short update.

Friends are home on vacation are off work, so I have been busy hanging out and having fun. I have had some time do play some poker now and then and it has been going really well. I am up about $7.000 so far this month.

An annual festival is coming up here in Faroe Islands and it usually features several days of partying, so I doubt I'll amass much more from poker these last days of July.

August might see me back at a more regular pace. Setting myself some good goals again and getting some discipline back.

July 9th - Lazy, but still kicking

I am still alive. I have just been lazy doing updates and playing poker these summer days. Some of my friends are on holiday from work, so we have upped the fun and games this month.

There is no vacation pay when it comes to poker. Being your own boss has its merits for sure, but it is hard to keep a good work schedule when I don't have to work and there is always a party to go to.

Despite my laziness I have been doing good this month. I've been playing on Party Poker and Full Tilt and the games have been juicy. I assume some of the regulars are out grinding in Las Vegas, with the World Series going, so my theory is that the pro vs. casual player at the tables is a bit off for the time being.

I am up about $3.500 so far this month. I would like to make that $5.000 so I guess that'll be my goal for now. But if the cards keep coming and the games stay juicy, the sky is the limit.

July 2nd - Doing good.

June is over and I made a killing online since I got back form Vegas. I ended up $5.750, so I've made the money the trip cost me back, with some leftovers.

I have been playing good most of these last days and running good as well. I hope to keep doing well in the months to come, so I can back into being a $5/$10 regular and pushing my way back into $10/$20.

I don't know what goal to set myself for July yet, but I'll think of something before too long.

June 28th - Back home.

I got back home to Faroe Islands a couple of days ago. I know I had big plans for giving a running update in Las Vegas, but I decided to drop then when I got acquainted with the wretched internet connections offered by hotels.

My trip set me back about $5.000 and I hoped to win some of that back playing live games in Vegas. Unfortunately I ended up just a few hundred dollars.
The trip was a blast and I enjoyed every day. I also learned a great deal about live poker, not the least of which that I don't play it nearly as well as I do the online variant.

I have still got a few days left of June and I plan to make up the rest of the $5.000 online. Hopefully using whatever I picked up playing 100 hours of live cash games and a newfound energy to build on my game online.

Thanks for all the comments.

June 7th - An update from Sin City

Monthly goal: To pay for my trip to Las Vegas
I am at -$500
Change: -$500

I finally got around to making an update here in Vegas. These last three days have been a blast and it is hard to settle down long enough for an update. I guess it would be much harder still to recount them without making the entry too long.

In short I dropped a couple of buy-ins at $2/$5 at the Rio. The cardroom is crowded and it seems to be very disorganized.
After two days and $1.000 down I decided to step back a bit and find a new venue and a new game. I picked $1/$2 at the MGM Grand and took a taxi to the strip. Eight hours later I left up $700 and very pleasantly surprised at the good service of the well run cardroom.

At this time of writing I am short about $500 from the origional roll I brought to Vegas, but that is counting food and all other stuff except hotel room and airfare.

Today I think I'll try to catch a movie at the Palms, or find a good show somewhere in Vegas before I start grinding again.

June 1st - Ready to leave.

Monthly goal: $5.000
I am at $2.235
Change: $393

I am leaving today and am starting to get excited about the trip. I have been playing some hands since my last update, but luck wasn't on my side.

AA in the Big Blind: Here is what I mean when I say luck wasn't on my side.
The chat in the hand history is about my opponent guessing at my hand before he folded, when there was still another person to act behind him a couple of hands earlier.

The bus for the airport is leaving in about 4 hours and I still have some ends to tie up. I was at a friends house yesterday playing Arkham Horror and I forgot my cell phone. So I am meeting him at work today to pick it up. That and some more packing and I am ready to go.

I think I have a seat in a poker game in Denmark later tonight, so looking forward to playing live cash games again. It certainly has been awhile.

I don't know when I'll be able to do my next update, but odds are it'll be in Las Vegas.

May 29th - A hasty update.

Monthly goal: $5.000
I am at $2.628
Change: $328

I have a dinner date at Burger King in 20 minutes, so I am just gonna make a short update.

I can warmly recommend this blog: Sherwood Poker for anyone planning on attending the WSOP for the first time. The author chronicles his going in the WSOP in his June and July entries of last year and it was a good read.

Poker is still threating me well as of late.
Although a $2.500 win fades in comparison to the $10.000 a month cashes I made in former days of $5/$10 glory, I'll gladly take what profit I can get on my way up the stakes ladder again.

Pokerhand.org is still not working so no example hands yet. Then again I am running late for my dinner date, so I wouldn't have time to dig up an example if I could.

May 28th - My confidence rebuilding.

Monthly goal: $5.000
I am at $2.300
Change: $767

I am glad that I am able to win back some money and some confidence, before I leave for Las Vegas. I am still playing small stakes, $400 and $200 NL. $1000 NL will have to wait until I am comfortable that my game is on track again and my bankroll is healthy.

Although I will be traveling to Las Vegas alone, I do know a few people that are gonna be attending the World Series as well. I frequent some of the online communities for poker players and with WSOP going on a couple of meets are scheduled.

I am sure I will get socially deprived if I have no one to talk to for more than 2 weeks in Vegas. Though in my experience, from the last time I was over there, Americans are a very friendly and open people and are easy to get to know. I wish I could say the same about Faroese.

Pokerhand.org is still not working. Rumors have it that it will be up and running again shortly, so I wont start searching for alternatives quite yet.

May 26th - Another video attempt.

Monthly goal: $5.000
I am at $1.533
Change: $755

I tried making a video of me playing at Party Poker. It didn't turn out too well, the compression makes it hard to see the cards, but I'll link to it anyway.



I am starting to win again and it feels good. Not much has change with my game, my hands have just held up lately and I am getting decent cards. If anything the games are a bit tougher than they have been.

$1.500 tax free is definitely enough to get by each month, so I am not too worried about my financial situation now that I am moving to Denmark. Lets just hope I don't blow all my savings in Vegas.

The Pokerhand website where I used to post my hands isn't working.

May 24th - The "Nut"

Monthly goal: $5.000
I am at $778
Change: $405

It feels good to post about winning sessions again, even though the winnings are hardly what I hoped for this month. I will take whatever I can get though. I don't really know what my "nut" will be when I move to Denmark, but I don't think it will be more than a grand or so because I'll be getting students aid while studying there.

For those of you who don't know the term, the "nut" is what you have to make each month to get by financially.

I have never been a big spender, nor have I become one after my good fortune at poker. I usually spend an average amount as long as my bank account blossoms, but as soon as I see it dwindle a bit I tighten my spending for fear of going broke before I get my next pay check. Because of that I usually end each month with a little money saved up.

It has been that same way with poker, I don't really get affected be loosing a big pot or two, but as soon as my bankroll starts to approach its halfway mark or so my grip around it tightens like a snare.
I guess some go through the last half of their bankroll just as fast as they go through the first half.

AQo in Middle Position: This was the only really big loss from me during my last session. I guess I could have played it differently, but seeing what I got called by preflop I think it is correct of me to make a continuation bet in a spot like this.

May 21st - Wee.

Monthly goal: $5.000
I am at $373
Change: $742

Before you get all exited, I am still running pretty bad. Most of the profit comes from cashing in on some rakeback. I have however played 2000 hands since my last update which is a good thing.

My winrate was about 1.5 PTBB/100 at $2/$4 over those hands, if you discount the rakeback so nothing grand.

I am slowly starting to get into shape again. Opening up a couple of tables doesn't feel like a drag anymore and I seem to be able to concentrate for more than 30 minutes. I want to get my game ready for Las Vegas and I don't have that much time to do it in.

I'll be in Las Vegas from the 4th to the 20th of June. I'll be there all by myself, so if you are a fellow poker player and want to meet feel free to leave a comment.

During my last session I had a very solid player on my left and I think he would outplay me if given the chance, so in two spots I made some very unconventional plays.
I know most of you will cringe when you see the hands.

AKo on the Button

T8s in the Small Blind

May 17th - Too few hands.

Monthly goal: $5.000
I am at -$369
Change: -$111

I am still playing way to little poker, I have played only a bit over 600 hands since my last entry. The game just ain't fun when your losing and it is tough to get back into the fray after such a bad streak.

I hope to catch a little streak of good cards soon so I can get going again.

May 12th - Blog while I'm ahead.

Monthly goal: $5.000
I am at -$258
Change: $341

I ground out another small win yesterday. The session was short and didn't feature any big pots but a win is still a win, so I happy to brag about it.

It is a shame to have a winning session and then putting off blogging about it, only to find that it has turned into a losing session after a couple more hands.

May 11th - Winning money from LAGs.

Monthly goal: $5.000
I am at -$599
Change: $317

I actually managed to grind out a small win yesterday. I had a LAG on my right at a couple of tables and I hit some flops hard enough to win some money.

I am playing on Eurobet these days. It takes some getting used to, the software lags far behind Full Tilt. They have some nice features though, like 5 max tables.

Q8s on the Button: I guess I missed $120 of value here by not putting in the rest on the river. My opponent can have any flush here, so since I have the 2nd nut flush I should put in the last raise.

May 10th - More bad days.

Monthly goal: $5.000
I am at -$916
Change: -$640

Another day and another bad session. I played a thousand hands and never won a pot that netted me more than $150.

I'll keep the stakes low and the sessions short for the time being.

May 9th - Bad luck revisited.

Monthly goal: $5.000
I am at -$276
Change: -$700

I had a dreadful session yesterday. I played a decent game and got some decent cards to work with and I even managed to get my money in with the best of it against some poor players. Unfortunately the flushes and gut-shots hit on the river in all the key pots and I ended the day down almost 2 buy-ins.

I am going to stick to $2/$4 for the time being and hope I can catch some wind in my sails again.

65s in the Big Blind: This is a 6 buy-in swing with me being a 70% favorite. Just this pot would have left me up $1.700 for the day.

AA in the Cut Off: Here is another big pot that would have left me up for the day.

May 7th - Still on hold.

Monthly goal: $5.000
I am at $424
Change: $424

It is already the 7th of May and all I have in my Poker Tracker this month is 500 hands at $2/$4. I haven't spent much time in front of my computer yet this month, which I guess is something of a good thing. When I do boot up I usually watch some series or play Magic Online.

Poker and blogging has been on hold for quite some time, but I hope to start up again with renewed vigor shortly.

44 in the Cut Off: Here is a hand from the lone session I had this month, I guess I would have been down for the session if I hadn't hit this set.

May 3rd - A new month, a new beginning.

Monthly goal: $5.000
I am at $0
Change: $0

I think I ended April down about $5.500.

I planned to write a bunch today, explaining how last month felt and what plans I have for this month. But I kind of lost grip of exactly what I was gonna say when I finally sat down to write.

For now though I think I still need to set myself a goal for May because I need some motivation if I want to get started again. I am gonna stick to $3/$6 for now, so my goal will naturally be smaller than last month's, I think $5.000 is a good number to aim at.

I hope to be able to post some good results before long.

April 30th - Another small win.

Monthly goal: $11.000
I am at -$5.062
Change: $795

I played some $2/$4 on Party Poker yesterday and it went well. I had to dig myself out of a $800 hole from some days ago, but I managed to do that and make a nice little profit.

It'll take a miracle to turn this month into anything but a big loss, but I'll try to get some hands in today and see if I can make some of my money back.

KTo in the Small Blind: This was a nice little pot at $2/$4.

April 26th - A break.

Monthly goal: $11.000
I am at -$5.857
Change: $1.612

I've been on a break from poker for a few days now, just relaxing and pursuing some hobbies. It wasn't anything planned, but one day away from the tables became two and so on.

Due to a longer story some friends and I have been dueling with some new Magic: The Gathering theme decks lately. It was great fun, so I dug out my old collection of cards to see if I could construct some of the older theme decks. It took me a couple of days, but I managed to build almost all of the decks from Tempest to Torment. I left magic for poker, around the time Judgment came out.

I played a short session again yesterday and it went well, I think I played well and the competition doesn't seem to have gotten any better while I was away. I hope to be able to get a number of good sessions in before the month is over and improve a bit upon my poor results.

April 20th - Another grim update.

Monthly goal: $11.000
I am at -$7.469
Change: -$2.606

Again an abysmal day and another horrid run of cards. My loss comes from two very different sessions I had, one late last night and the other this morning.

I am setting up Eurobet and have been playing there a bit. The games and the software seem fine. I took a session at $600 NL there yesterday and ended in a hectic 3 handed game with a maniac.
He overbet every hand he was involved in and he was involved in most hands. I flopped top pair or better 5 times against him and all the money went in on all the hands. Once he bluffed of a stack, twice he bluffed but sucked out, once I lost a coin flip and lastly he had me out kickered.

Today I decided to play a very solid game and tighten up a bit, just to avoid variance and hopefully grind myself a couple of winning sessions to get my spirits back up. Unfortunately I got hammered again by the deck and ended yet another session down.

A9s in the Big Blind: I am not saying I played flawless either, I made my share of mistakes. This is a good bet by Villain on the river, I should have just folded preflop, on the turn or on the river.

I am having trouble uploading pictures to this site so I'll host my new Eurobet banner in this post.

April 19th - $5/$10 on hold.

Monthly goal: $11.000
I am at -$4.863
Change: $1.013

I had more to say yesterday, but the entry started getting long so I'll spread all the stuff I want to write about over a couple of days.

After these last days losses my bankroll has for the first time in a long while dipped below $20.000, it is hard to imagine it was at $45.000 just a couple of weeks ago.
Last month I cashed out $10.000 and since then I have been running horridly.

That means unfortunately that I am not properly staked for $5/$10 anymore. Luckily I won some back today and my bankroll is at $19.900 at this time of writing, so hopefully I won't have to stay away from $5/$10 for long, but I think it is wise for me to stick with my strict bankroll rules and play the limits I am staked for. Especially now that I have been getting poor results.

Today I've been playing $3/$6 and I got some good results, the games were ok and I played a solid game. A win is always welcome.

A8o in the Cut Off: The idea was to disguise the strength of my hand and go for a check/raise on the turn. I guess I picked a poor spot to slowplay. I should have folded the river.

I have been trying to make some updates to the layout, I need to update the links section and replace the Eurobet banner, but the site has been giving me troubles lately.

April 18th - More poor results.

Monthly goal: $11.000
I am at -$5.876
Change: -$3.947

As my results show I am still running bad. I was at -$6.100 yesterday, so at my low point I have been at minus 16 buy ins.

I saw a guy yesterday sit down at a table, flop the nuts or close to it 4 times within 50 hands and win $10.000. People pushed their entire deep stacks into him, sometimes with nothing, over and over and without even knowing if he knew how to play the game or not I saw him get up from the tables a $10.000 winner.

As chance will have it I have never had such a run of cards. I have actually had close to the opposite a couple of times. That is I've flopped the nuts 4 times in 50 hands and lost a fortune.
I can probably count on one hand the times I have sat at a table with 3 buy ins at $5/$10, even though I see people sitting with that big stacks every day that I play. I hope my time will come someday.

What I can learn from this is that poker will most likely be a much more rewarding game for me in the future. I am positive that I have had a much worse than average run in my late poker career than should be expected.
So in turn if my next years play of poker will turn out to be an average run, I can expect it to be a much more fun, rewarding and fair game.

Whatever the case, I have no doubt that I am playing a winning game and the losses do not affect me as much as they used to. They have even started to give me a strong desire to fight back and play more, where I usually lost the drive after a bad session.

Here are my latest two big losers:

AA from Under the Gun
QTs in the Cut Off

April 15th - Back to work.

Monthly goal: $11.000
I am at -$1.929
Change: $1.786

I am really not playing very good poker at the moment, but the cards were good last session so I made back some of my losses. I am inconsistent and unfocused so I have to shape up if I want to end the month on positive.

AA in the Big Blind: Should I bet out here or not, I don't really know. I wonder how the hand would have played out if I hadn't, the villain who folded on the flop said he had QQ and would have turned a set.

The weekend isn't over yet so I might be able to make some more money, I better get back to work.

April 14th - Still a struggle.

Monthly goal: $11.000
I am at -$3.715
Change: -$1.266

My luck hasn't turned around yet unfortunately, I was almost at -$5.000 a day or two ago. Poker is very tough during such bad runs.

There isn't much else for me to do than to try to play my best game and hope that my luck will change. Until then my blogging will suffer as it inevitably does during bad spells.

April 10th - Plans of moving.

Monthly goal: $11.000
I am at -$2.449
Change: $158

I am getting kind of tired of my poor luck lately. Since my last update I've won about $3.000 and lost it all back to awful suck outs.

In order to play poker tax free, I plan to move to Denmark and start playing on European sites. Party Poker, Eurobet and Ladbrokes are all based in Europe so there shouldn't be any problems finding games.
I've put a banner linking to Eurobet on the right.

I currently live in Faroe Islands and I don't really know what to do with poker and taxes here. The authorities here have shown about as much professionalism as a lemonade stand and I don't want to keep playing poker if I don't know how my winnings will be taxed.

April 9th - Its never easy.

Monthly goal: $11.000
I am at -$2.607
Change: -$2.390

My good streak didn't last long.

I didn't play my best game yesterday, but I am sure I played a winning game nonetheless. The cards just didn't fall my way.

99 from Under the Gun: I only won two pots with any money in them yesterday.

April 8th - Regrouping.

Monthly goal: $11.000
I am at -$217
Change: $1.498

I hit a low sometime earlier this week at about -$3.800 for the month. I didn't feel like writing about it at the time, so I postponed blogging for a couple of days. At that time I had dropped around $14.000 in about 2 weeks play.

I have made some changes to my game lately, namely playing more tables, moving up stakes and getting more hands in each day. Because of the recent loss, I decided 2 days ago to take it a bit easy and play my normal game for a while.

Luck has certainly been the main factor in my loss, but I have to consider that stepping it up a level has influenced my game in a negative way as well. There probably isn't one obvious leak I can plug, my luck won't change if I play less tables or if I stick to $5/$10 or if I limit the hands I play each day. The "leak" is more likely a combination of all of the above, some tilt and a very poor run of cards.

So I slowed things down a bit and have been playing good poker since then. I've almost fought my way back to even for the month and I am looking forward to starting the fight to reach $11.000 again.

AA in the Small Blind: I'm still not immune to suck outs, even though I find a good $3/$6 game. The session didn't start out too well and I thought I was in for another couple of buy-ins down the drain.

97s in the Cut Off: But things turned around quickly when I made a suck out of my own.

April 3rd - WSOP plans.

Monthly goal: $11.000
I am at -$1.715
Change: -$1.715

Since I failed to reach my monthly goal in March, I think I will keep it at the same level for the April.

I've now dropped over $12.000 this last week or so. Even though I try to think about April as a new start, it is hard to ignore that fact. 12 buy ins is an awfully big amount to lose and if I wasn't building a bankroll for $10/$20 I would have probably been forced to move down to $3/$6 after this run.

Fortunately my bankroll is still at a comfortable amount for $5/$10, I just have to give my try outs for $10/$20 a rest for a while.

On a bright note, I've booked my flight and reserved my hotel room for WSOP 2007. I have even pre-registered for Event #12, $1.500 NL Hold'em short-handed.
I can't wait.

April 1st - No April's fool.

Monthly goal: $11.000
I made $3.203
Change: -$5.063

I didn't play much after the beat I posted about on March 28th. I finally got my act together and played a real session again yesterday, but unfortunately I again got beat by the deck and my winnings took another big hit.

March is over and I think the best thing to do is to write it up as a small win and focus on playing well in April. Once you have gone through the mistakes of a losing session the best thing to do is just forget about it and move on.

AA on the Button: A weird way to loose a buy in.

March 28th - Trying out a video update.

Monthly goal: $11.000
I am at $8.266
Change: -$5.802



AA in the Big Blind: Ick.

22 on the Button: Doh.

KK from Under the Gun: Ugh.

JTo in the Big Blind: I should probably log off.

K9o in the Small Blind: I didn't.

March 26th - Ill timed bluffs.

Monthly goal: $11.000
I am at $14.068
Change: $1.702

This weekend is turning out great. I always expect the first weekend to be the best one, with people getting paychecks and losing players returning.

I haven't been playing my best game this weekend, but the cards have been good and my hands have held up.

99 on the Button: I guess I picked a poor spot to bluff here, but judging the action in the hand I really didn't think anyone of them could have a strong hand here.
I was sure I'd see some timers ticking down with them wishing they had a hand better than TT or QJ, but instead I got a quick call from a slowplayed set.

24th March - Looks like a good weekend.

Monthly goal: $11.000
I am at $12.366
Change: $5.475

The weekend action looks to be pretty good and I am running hot. I try to get as many hands in as I can, but I find it hard to concentrate for more than a couple of hours at a time.

I have been giving some thought about taking a trip to Las Vegas come June. There are a couple of $1.500 NL Hold'em events that I would like to play in.
I don't think any of my friends are planning on going, it seems kind of lonely to go to Las Vegas all on your own. But I think the vacation would do me good, so I think I'll make the trip anyway.

T9o in the Small Blind: The pots get awfully big in $10/$20. If the board would have paired or a spade would have fallen, my results for today would have been quite different.

March 23rd - Hat trick.

Monthly goal: $11.000
I am at $6.891
Change: $2.319

Another session and another win, who knows I might be starting a trend. Well I can hope so at least.

I am still happy with my game and the amount of hands I manage to get in each day. I have basically spent a week in front of my computer, so I am starting to feel a little drained, but I hope I can keep up the pressure throughout the coming weekend.

AKo in the Small Blind: I got really lucky in this hand. I don't see me getting away from the hand if he bet something like $150 on the turn.
I don't know if my check on the turn is always the correct play, but in any case it saved me a buy-in here.

The smart move would probably be to take today off and save up some strength for the weekend. I do doubt though that I can stay away from the tables, it is hard not to play after three good days.

March 21st - Putting in some hard work.

Monthly goal: $11.000
I am at $4.572
Change: $2.132

I have played a couple of sessions since my last update, trying to get up to speed with my planned hand count for March. I know it must sound kind of arrogant to again complain about my luck, but I have seen an awful amount of slim suck-outs lately.

I fell that with my quality of play and the hours I have put in this month, I should have been above my goal by now. Not more than 6 days ago, I wrote that I didn't deserve to be at $7.000 and that I thought I had been lucky so far and I meant it. Since then however I have put in an extraordinary amount of hands, most featuring quality play and I have lost $2.300 since then.

J8s on the Button: I felt like posting a bad beat, after all that complaining. As far as I know everyone has a critical amount of beats that they can take. Most people start playing a losing game after just one of these, if they didn't already play a losing game to begin with.
I feel good recalling how many of these I have seen in the past week and still remember my game afterwards to a large extent as tilt free.

My trials in $10/$20 are still going fine. I am about break even according to Poker Tracker, but I believe that is due to luck and that I have played a winning game. So far I have only logged 1000 hands at the higher limit, but they have given me a lot of confidence.

A9s in Middle Position: I really hate myself for slow playing this hand. Had I just known he turned a set.
This felt kind of like flushing $1.300 down the toilet. The hand bugged me more than all the suck outs of the week.

March 19th - Home game Sit and Go.

Monthly goal: $11.000
I am at $2.440
Change: $1.259

Another day and another long session. Again I think I played a solid game that should be able to beat my current limits out of a healthy hourly rate, even though yesterdays game wasn't quite on par with my game on Friday and Saturday.

Yesterdays session again featured some bad beats and cold decks, but I played a decent game and the competition mostly didn't so I ended up a bit more than a buy in anyway.

AQs in the Small Blind: I thought he would call a push on the river if a hearth fell and I was pretty sure my Queen was live as well. I guess I would have gone bust if an Ace would have fallen, but I figured it was an affordable risk if he indeed had AJ.

---

My friends and I played a live Sit and Go this weekend, where we tried out a couple of new blind structures. The final hand of the evening was the hand featured above. I was the lucky one with T6s and Jogvan came in second with his lesser straight flush.

For those interested here is the tourney structure we ended up with:

Starting chips: 5000. (8 x 25 - 8 x 100 - 8 x 500)

Blind levels, 6 handed:

25/50 - 20 minutes.
50/100 - 20 minutes.
100/200 - 20 minutes.
150/300 - 15 minutes.
250/500 - 15 minutes.
350/700 - 15 minutes.
500/1000 - 10 minutes.
700/1400 - 10 minutes.
1000/2000 - The end.

The plan is to get plenty of play for everyone for at least one hour and still keep the complete game time down to 2 hours or so.
The system isn't perfect yet and I am unsure what to change if we play 10 handed but I think this is a good structure to work from.

If anyone has some good ideas, feel free to comment. Input is always much appreciated :)

March 18th - Sometimes the bar eats you.

Monthly goal: $11.000
I am at $1.181
Change: -$4.872

I played a long session yesterday and I am again very happy about my play. Sadly luck can make futile any feats of skill and yesterday luck was not on my side. It is sad to be knocked back almost to zero this late in the month, but I am pleasantly surprised at how little the loss affects me.

I really feel I dominate most of the competition out there, both on $5/$10 and $10/$20 and with the amount of hands I have played lately I am sure I could soar back to break my monthly goal with just a session or two where the cards are on my side.
If I can keep up my current level of play and get in five thousand hands or so each weekend, I am confident that I can double or triple my monthly earnings.

JTs in the Small Blind: Here is the first time that $10/$20 has cowed me. I am sure I would call this river if the hand was played at $5/$10, perhaps I even would have played it differently on the flop or turn.

March 17th - Good play but poor results.

Monthly goal: $11.000
I am at $6.053
Change: -$771

I got in almost three thousand hands of clear and focused play yesterday. I played well and didn't have much trouble balancing 6 tables. My first session was on Party and I ended up about $1.500.

After a walk I decided to get in another session. I was playing good and the games were OK, so I thought it would be a waste to end the day early. Unfortunately the deck hit me hard on Full Tilt and I lost back my profits and then some.

I managed to find a good $10/$20 table and I gave it a shot again. I managed to end it with a nice profit. I am glad that the amounts don't bother me that much, for the pots are really enormous. Here is a pot with over $5.200 in the middle. That is more than most people make in a month, before taxes.

AJo in the Big Blind: I thought about the possibility of 22 for a set here, but it really felt like he had two pair so I jammed it in.

Although I am very happy about my play yesterday I didn't play flawlessly. I can always find faults in my game to learn from. Here is a hand I misplayed.

33 on the Button: Once the turn brings the 3rd spade I knew I might very well be up against a flush. In the heat of the moment I thought about not allowing a 4th spade to come for free and also that I would know exactly where I stood with a bet.
Although my bet did accomplish the task of telling me that I am against a flush, the size of the bet left me in a very awkward spot. The correct play here would naturally be to check the turn.

March 15th - $10/$20.

Monthly goal: $11.000
I am at $6.824
Change: $2.309

Luck has surely been on my side this month, I know that I can't attribute my winnings to stellar play or hard work. I am not playing badly, sucking out and hitting draws but I am getting good cards and hitting a lot of flops.
Even unfocused I still think I beat the $5/$10 games, but I shouldn't be at $7.000 yet if skill was all that mattered.

I am getting to a point where I feel like taking a shot at $10/$20 might be a good idea. So while I secure a bankroll I would be comfortable with, I try to get a few hands in at the higher limits. If the games are good and I feel I am playing solid I try to get in some practice.

K8s in the Big Blind: The bigger stakes aren't as daunting as I expected. Internet poker has a way of making the money involved seem trivial.
I haven't played any big pots yet at $10/$20 though. Perhaps I will find the inevitable swings harder to take than I make out.

My biggest obstacle at the moment is playing enough hands so before I can dream about $10/$20 I need to get myself motivated to put in more hours at the tables each day.

March 14th - Bad habits and new phones.

Monthly goal: $11.000
I am at $4.515
Change: -$423

Bad habits die hard and I have got a lot of bad habits. It seems I have a new excuse each day to avoid getting in a thousand hands of poker.
I know I can make a fortune this month if I only get in a daily walk and a good session of poker, but days pass without a single hand played.

I have managed to play about eight hundred hands these last three days. The sessions have not featured much action and my play has been far from stellar.

Q4o in the Big Blind: Afterwards I hated my river call. I haven't played this opponent much, so I had a hard time letting the hand go after I made two pair on the turn.


I have finally bought a new cell phone. I lost my old one at a pub about two months ago. My new phone is a Nokia N80, amongst its many nifty features is a 3M camera. Above is a photo of me eating a Whopper and a salad at Burger King, Tróndur took the photo with my new phone.

March 10th - A turn for the better.

Monthly goal: $11.000
I am at $4.938
Change: $4.354

What a big score in two days play. Suddenly I feel pretty good about playing again, it is funny how much my mood has to do with the amount of money I win at poker.

Yesterdays session wasn't too grand. I didn't play my best, but I got good cards and ended up about $1.000.

Today I played better and it seemed to be a small winning session, but just before I called it quits I went on a rush and won a couple of big pots in short time.

AJs in the Cut Off: I often get faced with these kind of block bets. I sometimes stick in a raise, but I think calling down when hitting a mid pair is the right play.

I am trying to host a poker game tonight. As usual it is a bother trying to arrange it, I have spent all day on the phone and am still not sure if it'll become anything or not.
People want the luxury of not having to come if they don't want to and still having a game waiting for them if they decide to come. So getting 6 confirmed players for a SnG is a drag.

March 9th - A small update.

Monthly goal: $11.000
I am at $584
Change: -$541

I am still not focused or psyched when it comes to poker. Now that the weekend is here, I want to get a couple of thousand hands in, but unless my energy returns I am gonna stick to a bit lower stakes than normal.

March 6th - Unfocused.

Monthly goal: $11.000
I am at $1.125
Change: -$429

I am not happy about my play as of late. There are a lot of things on my mind as of late and I am not as focused as I want to be while playing. I want to shape up before the next weekend rolls in. Until then I am gonna take it easy.

I didn't have many interesting hands since the last time I posted, so I'll just post the biggest pot I played.

QJs in the Big Blind: I got a feeling that my opponent was happy about his hand, so I hoped for the best and pushed with the second nuts.
My river bet is twice the size of the pot.

March 5th - Deep stack play.

Monthly goal: $11.000
I am at $1.554
Change: -$547

I played a good session early yesterday. I got my monthly profits up above $4.000, but after that my luck turned. For the past two days I have had a very bad run of cards. The weekend action has been very good, with loads of bad players throwing their money away. It has been tough seeing all those opportunities wasted away, because I couldn't get any cards to cash in on the action.

I haven't played flawless poker, but I can't attribute much of my losses to bad play.

76s Under the Gun: I usually don't call preflop in spots like these. I have not got much practice with these kind of hands and deep stack play. I hope to train this portion of my game so I tried it out in this hand.
I don't know what to think yet of my play, but I know I regret folding the river.

My game is improving and I feel confident that I can build my bankroll up for higher limits. I need to put in more hands when the games are good, so I plan to hook both my monitors up to my PC again, so I can up my table count.

March 3rd - A good start.

Monthly goal: $11.000
I am at $2.101
Change: $2.101

I don't think it is a good idea to set myself an unrealistic goal for March, just because February fared well. If I want to get into a new level of earnings and start to make twenty- or fifty- or a hundred thousand dollars a month, I need to make fundamental changes to the way I play. Either by playing drastically more hands per month, or moving up to higher stakes.

I don't plan on making any such changes to my game in March, so I feel a goal of $11.000 will serve as good motivation for my current game.

I played a poor short session at $5/$10 two days ago and lost about a buy in, so I decided to take a break and get ready for the weekend. Yesterday I did much better and my game was at a decent level. I won back my losses and got a good start on the month.

I hope to sharpen up my focus more for the remaining hands I can get in before the weekend is over.

March 1st - February results.

Monthly goal: $10.000
I made $15.285
Change: $4.053

I played very well yesterday and got some good hands as well. It is always good to make several buy-ins in one day, but it feels even better to be able to end this month with such good results.

Here a my results for the month of February

I made $14.808 from cash games alone. Add to that close to $1.000 from rakeback and subtract a couple of buy-ins for tournaments that didn't go too well and I made a total of $15.285 in 28 days.

I am very happy about the results. I was hoping to get a thousand hands in a day, but even though I didn't make it, this month was a step in the right direction. I crossed the $10.000 goal in mid February, but I had to struggle to keep ahead of it in the late days of the month. Yesterday was a big score and I raced in front of the goal.

As you might notice, I made an effort to play as many hands as I could in the $5/$10 NL games. I wanted to prove to myself that I played a winning game at that level. Because I have had some dubious results in those stakes for a couple of months now.

This months results have spurred my desires to try my luck at $10/$20 NL. If I can repeat the number of hands played and close to the results I have had for this month in the months to come. I think I will save some of my future profits for building a bankroll and give $10/$20 a try.

February 27th - Suckouts.

Monthly goal: $10.000
I am at $11.232
Change: -$1.587

I made another big suckout in yesterdays session. The good thing about making a big suckout is naturally that you win a lot of money. But making a suckouts isn't all good, because to be able to dish out a bad beat you need to get your money in with the worst hand first.

I don't think I need to get worried, but I don't want to start a trend either. At least not the part about getting my money in with the worst of it.

Here is the hand in question:

AKs in Middle Position: Calling, raising and folding preflop are all options to consider, when faced with a reraise in a situation like this. It all comes down to your opponent and his reraising range.

So it is hard to say specifically if I made a bad move or not.
I felt a push was the right move against this opponent based on his play up to this point, but I have to admit I hadn't seen him play enough hands to be absolutely sure.

I did end the session down, despite the above example. It turned out that karma had plenty in store for me and the deck hit me much worse than it did my opponent in the hand from above.

AA in the Big Blind: This felt bad, and I could list a number of other bad beats from yesterdays session. I guess I shouldn't feel bad about luck going my way once in a while.

February 25th - Oscarsnight is saved.

Monthly goal: $10.000
I am at $12.819
Change: $1.717

I have had two good short sessions, one today and one yesterday. I definitely didn't get as many hands in as I wanted this weekend, but I think I played well when I did manage to open up a table or two.

I usually don't play any big pots on a table, before I've sat at it for an orbit. I want to get a feel for how the players are playing. Yesterday wasn't all perfect play though, here is my first hand at one table.

T9o in the Big Blind: I make every mistake I can in this hand. Luckily it woke me up and I started playing better afterwards. I wonder if it would have the same effect if I didn't suck out on the river.

In unrelated news... Rolf, a friend of mine has come to the rescue. He has a channel that shows the Oscars so in half an hour or so we are crashing his place for an evening of movies and awards.
Personally I hope Letters from Iwo Jima wins, although I haven't seen it yet. Other favorites are Pans Labyrinth and Children of Men, both deserve an Oscar for one of their many nominations.

February 24th - Oscars and poker drive.

Monthly goal: $10.000
I am at $11.102
Change: $572

Poker on Thursday didn't go to well. I didn't get many cards and failed to steal my way ahead on the tables. After it was all done I had dropped about a buy-in. Yesterdays session was the opposite and I managed to win back my loss and inch out a nice profit.

I feel I have lost some of my poker drive this month. I guess losing 5 buy-ins in one day will do that to you. I hope to get 3000 hands in this weekend, but it looks to be a challenge and I am afraid that the quality of play will suffer if I push it too much.

AQs in the Cut Off: What an ugly hand.
I don't know what is worse, my opponent trying his utmost not to win the maximum with the best hand. Or me insisting on playing for stacks with the worst of it.

I am a big movie fan and I watch The Oscars every year. This year I invited some friends over and we planned to make a night out of it (they air at 1 o'clock at night here in the Faroe Islands).

As it turns out, I don't have any channel that shows them. I was really looking forward to watching them, but I'll have to call around and cancel Sunday nights plans.

They do have a live webcast planned, if I don't figure something else out I guess I'll give that a chance.

February 22nd - Gaming night break.

Monthly goal: $10.000
I am at $10.530
Change: -$12

I took a break from poker on Tuesday. My friends and I went to Stephens for a night of gaming, so I decided to take a rest after the big loss.

Yesterday I went at it again, but I promptly got sucked out for a buy-in. I spent the rest of the day trying to get back to even and I nearly made it.

A9s in the Cut Off: This was a horrible call on the flop. I forgot it was a CAP game, and didn't know that the raise was basically all-in. So I have no implied odds to call for my draw.

February 20th - A big loss.

Monthly goal: $10.000
I am at $10.542
Change: -$5.059

Bummer. The deck hit me hard yesterday. I surely could have prevented some of the loss if I played better, but the way the cards were falling I was looking at a big loss nevertheless.

A5o on the Button: This is my last hand of the session and the one that made me decide to quit for the night.

I just need to put yesterday behind me and shape up for this coming weekend.

February 19th - Movies and Oscars.

Monthly goal: $10.000
I am at $15.601
Change: $271

I didn't play many hands yesterday. I felt like taking a break so I called some friends and we went to see "The Prestige". It is definitely worth watching, with a nice story and some good acting.
Between us I think we had some mixed emotions about the movie, but overall I don't think anyone disliked it.

The Oscars are fast approaching and my friends and I are planning on watching it. It airs at about 1 o'clock at night here in the Faroe Islands. (Can't remember if night time is AM or PM)
So in preparation we are trying to see as many nominated movies as we can before they start. "The Prestige" is nominated for Art Direction and Cinematography.

The few hands I played didn't feature a lot of action, I was faced with this one tough decision:

92s in the Big Blind: This is the first hand I played at the table. But just before I sat down I saw this very same villain involved in a big pot with some questionable holding, so I decided to make this call.

February 18th - Live SnG's.

Monthly goal: $10.000
I am at $15.330
Change: -$2.491

Yesterday had all the elements of a bad session. Bad beats, cold cards, bad play and some amount of tilt. I was able to pick up a buy-in just before I quit, so I am glad the loss wasn't bigger.

My friends and I played two live Sit and Go's yesterday as well. I played OK and won the first one. In the second a friend of mine Jóannes made a good bluff and I folded my way out of a pot that would have put me comfortably in the lead.

The blinds were at 300/600 and we were down to four players. I had about 8000 in chips, Jóannes had about 7000 and the remaining two players shared the last 6000.

Jóannes makes it 1200 from the Small Blind and I call in the Big Blind with K9o. The flop comes K85 and Jóannes leads out for 1200. I am in a conversation with another player, so I use the time to think about the hand, but I finally make it 2400. Jóannes calls and the turn brings a 3.

Jóannes thinks for a while and goes all in. I think he had about 3500 and I would have a bit under 1000 left if I called and lost. I think about it for a long time and finally table K9o and proclaim how good a fold I am making to his KT. He shows 86o and rakes in the pot that eventually secured him the win.

February 17th - 100.000 DKR.

Monthly goal: $10.000
I am at $17.821
Change: $3.649

Yesterdays session was as good as I hoped it would be. It is definitely worth saving up energy for the weekends. The games do get a bit wilder, so the variance is bigger than on weekdays. But wilder games are almost always more profitable for a good player.

$17.000 is about 100.000 DKR (Danish Krona). That is an insane amount of money to win at a game. Entire movies are often centered around something like $15.000 that someone stole, or someone owes. Suddenly it seems kind of funny to watch a movie about gangsters and heroes running around chasing $15.000, when I've made more than that this month.

TT in the Big Blind: This was kind of a tough call.
I was very sure by the turn that my opponent wasn't on a flush draw. I've seen people call with flush draws so often, that I know how much time they usually take to make up their mind to call. That in turn lead me to believe that he should be afraid of a diamond if he had something like AK.
When he made that big bet on the river, I thought through all this and decided he most likely would have raised the flop or the turn if he had a King. I called and expected to see something like 88.

I did make a couple of bad plays in yesterdays session as well. But I have decided to feature some winning hands for a change.

February 16th - Inevitability.

Monthly goal: $10.000
I am at $14.172
Change: -$1.165

Yesterday was my first loosing session for quite a while. I had made plans with some friends, so I didn't get many hands in. Just before they arrived to pick me up, this hand comes along:

A3s in the Cut Off: I make two ugly calls here. I guess my read was just way off. I remember thinking at the time that it felt like a bluff.

It is hard to get up and leave the tables after this kind of hand, you want a shot at winning your money back. That is a pretty stupid urge to have, these are the exact times you need to leave the table.

The weekend is starting. Being this lucky this month has got my spirits up and I am planning on putting in a lot of hours. I hope I can stay focused throughout.

February 15th - How to relax.

Monthly goal: $10.000
I am at $15.337
Change: $99

Yesterday featured some big pots and quite a lot of ups and downs. But in the end I was able to just squeeze in a small win. I am getting good training these days, playing lots of hands. But the amount of work I am putting in is wearing me a bit down as well.

When you work in front of a computer screen, playing a computer game afterwards just doesn't leave you relaxed. All the books I am reading at the moment are about poker, so I can't really find any relaxation there either.
I think I will go to the local theater and watch a movie today, if I can persuade someone to watch "Blood Diamond" with me.

A friend of mine Rolf asked me to feature hands where win big, instead of hands where I loose big, so I'll try to dig up some fancy play of mine of late.

AJo from Under the Gun: This is a hand I played two days ago. It is a bit tough to explain exactly how I make the call. A lot of factors play in, and I don't want to give too much away about my game. I fear explaining how I make the call, reveals a bit too much.

I'll be on the lookout for a better hand to post in the future, where I can explain my play in a bit more detail.

February 14th - Showing hands.

Monthly goal: $10.000
I am at $15.238
Change: $360

Yesterday I finally took some much needed rest. I have been playing an awful amount of hands lately, at least for my standard.

Stephen, a friend of mine, has recently come back from a trip to USA. He brought some new board games and we gathered yesterday to try out the new edition of the classic Arkham Horror.

The game was fun, but we had misread the new rules and ended up beating it much too easily. Hopefully it will be a harder challenge next time we give it a try.

I did manage to get a few hands of Hold 'em in before gaming started though and managed to secure myself another win. Here is a hand that bothered me a bit.

77 in the Cut Off: I should have been able to make that call on the river and I think I would have made it if I had another 30 seconds to think about it in.
I won't comment on my opponents play, but I think this is one of those times where showing your hand is correct. A lot of players go on crazy tilt, after being shown this kind of bluff. The mere fact that the hand still bothers me proves that and if I was having a bad run lately I am sure the hand would have put me on tilt.

February 13th - Good times keep on rolling.

Monthly goal: $10.000
I am at $14.878
Change: $2.909

I wish I could say that my game has been good enough to warrant the kind of success I've had this month, but it hasn't. There is nothing wrong with my game, I am playing well, but I shouldn't have won this much this fast.

I don't mind though, I'll gladly take the luck I get. I just have to remind myself that this won't hold up. The bad beats I have suffered this last week can be counted on one hand, out of more than 50 big pots where I often am only a mediocre favorite.

ATo in the Big Blind: I hate when I make these mistakes. The player in the Small Blind is tight and I haven't seen him get out of line. When he three bets the flop I know I am beat, but I convince myself that I am getting priced in to see another card.
I need to be able to fold there. He has got a draw, a Ten or a set. If my read says push I push, but if it says I am beat I need to be able to let the hand go.

February 12th - A crazy weekend.

Monthly goal: $10.000
I am at $11.969
Change: $2.624

Wow, I didn't think I would reach this months goal this fast. With these kind of results it is hard to keep my feet planted on the ground. I have to remind myself that most of my winnings come from variance.

88 on the Button: I have not been playing my best at all times. Here I blow off a grand with a pair of eights.

But most of the time I have been playing this weekend, I have been focused. My steam-control has been good and I've played very consistent poker. Most of all of course I have been damn lucky.

---

I started playing Vanguard: Saga of Heroes two weeks ago. This is my character Scrat, a goblin healer.

I was afraid that the game would take away too much time from poker. On the contrary poker has taken too much time away from gaming. My friends are out leveling me and I seldom find time to group with them.

This weekend has been crazy.

February 11th - Yet a big score.

Monthly goal: $10.000
I am at $9.345
Change: $2.653

Yesterdays session was a long one. I didn't follow my own advise and take it easy. Instead I quickly made some bad plays and got stuck a bit over a grand. Most of us have the flaw of trying to get back to even when stuck, I certainly do. But I did catch a good run of cards and luckily came out well ahead.

I played more than two thousand hands yesterday, including about 2 hours in a tournament. Unfortunately I didn't cash in the tourney, but I played well and got my money in with the best of it.

The sessions were rewarding in knowledge as well. I was surprised at how many new tricks I picked up.

There were a lot of interesting hands yesterday, but I can't feature them all.

AKo in the Small Blind: It is kind of neat playing against a named pro, well as long as your not an underdog at the table.
We were getting a bit deep stacked and Paul Wolfe was using his position well. Perhaps this hand would have been much easier to play, if I didn't pull the limp re-raise from the Small Blind.

February 9th - Still running good.

Monthly goal: $10.000
I am at $6.692
Change: $2.014

Lady luck is still with me and I am winning my fair share of pots. The weekend is upon me now, and I should be gearing up to put in more than a thousand hands a day of "A" game poker. But I don't feel 100 percent. I have been sleeping irregularly and because of a late winter here in the Faroe Islands I haven't been able to take an exercising walk for a long time.

The smart thing for me to do would be to take this Friday to get into shape for the rest of the weekend. But I want to take a shot at the FTOPs, Full Tilts poker series. The first of the tourneys starts in a couple of hours, so I might be able to squeeze in a brisk walk before I get to work.

JJ in Middle Position: This kind of felt sick when I saw the AA. I thought this was just the kind of opponent to make this kind of raise with AT or a similar hand, and I thought I would get a quick call if I didn't leave him time to think about it and just shove.
Surprisingly I turned out the sucker. I normally don't lose a full stack with JJ, but his call before the flop lured me in.

Needless to say $5/$10 is starting to feel very comfortable. I believe my stay there will be a very profitable one, if I can keep focus and Lady Luck on my side.

February 8th - A small break.

Monthly goal: $10.000
I am at $4.678
Change: $1.217

Another great day of poker and I am ahead of schedule with my monthly goal. I didn't play that many hands yesterday. I felt I deserved a break, after my big win two days ago. The few hands I play were good though and I cashed in another buy-in.

I think I am playing better now. I don't feel in any hurry to win a big pot, so I can safely duck the marginal situations that come up. That didn't stop me from blowing $150 on a bluff though:

T5o in the Big Blind: The small blind had been very annoying, raising each time it was folded to him. I should have picked a better spot to play back at him though.

Full Tilt Poker is going to host a number of big tourneys these coming days. Perhaps I will give one or two of the a try. I usually don't like playing poker for that many hours in a row, but I feel like giving some big tournaments a try.

February 7th - I can be lucky too.

Monthly goal: $10.000
I am at $3.461
Change: $5.093

Wow, what can I say. I had a crazy session yesterday. Never before have I won this much in one day. I didn't get crazy good cards, but whenever the money went in the middle my hand held up.

I usually complain to my friends about sitting at a table and watching some guy win 5 buy-ins. That never happens to me, I tell them. Well not until now.

I think I have lost my complaining rights for some time now. I still think I have been unlucky these last couple of months,but there is no questioning that I was very lucky yesterday.

QQ in the Big Blind: Even though I played quite a few large pots yesterday, the hands were not so interesting. This one is kind of a tough decision though.

February 6th - A bad day.

Monthly goal: $10.000
I am at -$1.632
Change: -$1.077

Yesterdays session was a bad one. I didn't get many good hands and I didn't connect with a lot of flops. Although I didn't play any big pots, I slowly bleed money away.

KQo in the Big Blind: For some reason it is hard to put a LAG short stack on a big hand, perhaps because they so seldom show one down. I don't know if I should have played this hand differently, but my read was in any case off.

99 in the small blind:This was my worst moment of yesterdays session. I clearly should have folded the turn, or even better I should have pushed on the flop.

The loss so far still isn't bothering me too much. I am confidant that I am beating the level and I want to keep fighting it out on $5/$10.
One more day like this though and I think it will be time to abandon this months goal and move down to $2/$4 and $3/$6 and aim at getting back to even. My bankroll is quickly approaching the $3/$6 mark.

On the bright side though, I still think it is more likely than not that I'll come out ahead. One good session or two and I could be right on schedule again with my monthly goal.

February 5th - A turn for the worse.

Monthly goal: $10.000
I am at -$555
Change: -$750

I am not off to the start I was hoping for this month. Yesterday I was looking forward to writing about my $1.400 win, but today's session left me more than $2.000 in the red.

The reason I usually post the hands where I make a mistake, is because I think it will help my play. But this month, I think posting the biggest pots I play instead will help me more.

AA in the Cut Off: The call wasn't easy on the flop, but I was pretty sure this player would have slowplayed a set, so I figured that a draw was very likely.
This pot is a decent months salary here in Faroe Islands.

T9s in the Small Blind: I was very sure he had a flushdraw on this flop and that he would bet it on the turn.

QQ from Under the Gun: This one kind of sucked.

I feel OK about the ups and downs. So far the big hands haven't bothered me that much, not yet. I am able to go about my daily life without constantly thinking about how much I could have won if the cards fell differently.

As much as I hope I'll get a break and be able to reap some much needed profit from my play. I more so hope that I will be able to not be bothered by the next big loss I will inevitably face this month.

February 3rd - A short break.

Monthly goal: $10.000
I am at $195
Change: -$474

Today was another tough session, wrought with large all-ins, aggressive play and gut wrenching suck-outs. The bad beats and the cold cards did get the better of me today and after two big losses I wasn't playing my best game.

TT on the Button: I make two bad bluffs at this pot, where I should have known better. This kind of hand is a pretty standard sight nowadays, with the current style of play.
I have seen these hands go down several times before and should have known that I was in a bad spot to bluff.

I am happy though that I am still up for the month, to be honest I expected to be down a bit more than a grand before I checked the results.

It is Saturday today and my friend Jan just called to see if I was up for a board game. I think I can use the break and if I feel up to it I'll try to get a couple of hundred hands more in when I get back.

February 3rd - Getting back into $5/$10.

Monthly goal: $10.000
I am at $669
Change: $669

Not reaching my monthly goal last month isn't gonna stop me from aiming higher this month. I think $10.000 is well within my capabilities, I just need to put in the time and effort required.

Reviewing last month I see now that I am still suffering from bad beat fright after the short bad run I had in November. Variance is a killer, not because of the strain it puts on my bankroll, but because of the strain it puts on my mind.

To easier explain how hard it is to take, I'll show a couple of hands from todays session. All these hands are form the 1000 hands I played today and keep in mind that I ended the day up $669:

Q3s in the BB
66 from Under the Gun
AA in the Small Blind
A8o in the Cut Off
JJ from Under the Gun

Every on of those hands feels like a punch in the stomach. In October last year, I was in fine shape and was able to take the punches that fall in the higher stakes tables. But since November, I have been out of training and I need to get back into shape.

I feel focused and ready, so this month I aim to play and to win at $5/$10.

February 1st - End of January results.

Monthly goal: $7.000
I reached $4.124

January is over and although I didn't reach my goal for the month, I am happy about what I did manage to make.

These last couple of months have been trying. Perhaps I am not as good at poker as I rate myself, perhaps I have been unlucky or maybe the competition is getting harder. Whatever the reason for my declining results I am happy that they are at last on their way up again.

Here are my Poker Tracker Hold 'em results:

Hold 'em results for the month of January

From rakeback I made about $700 and I also played a tournament or two to get the total result up to $4.124.

Thirteen thousand hands is less than I was hoping for, I'll try my best to reach twenty thousand hands in February. I will also try to play more hands at $3/$6 and $5/$10.

January 30th - Yesterday bad! Today good.

Monthly goal: $7.000
I'm at $4.124

End of January is closing in, but I am still edging a bit closer to this months goal. I am glad I at least made the halfway mark.

I played a focused, but relaxed session today and I made a bundle. I did however loose a bundle last night from a not so relaxed and focused session.

K2o in the Big Blind: This is a NL CAP game on Full Tilt. It means there is a CAP of $300, as the maximum any player can loose in any given round, after that you are considered all-in.
I pick a very bad time to tilt/bluff off $300 here.

This was from a heads-up match however, where things can get pretty aggressive. I had made this push against this very opponent a couple of hands earlier, where he called and I had two pair. So after a bit of tilt settling in, from loosing another pot, I figured this for a good opportunity for a steal.
Needless to say it wasn't, getting your money in drawing close to dead, is seldom a good play. If I had KJ or something however it could be a play worth considering.

January 29th - Saga of Heroes.

Monthly goal: $7.000
I'm at $3.617

Perhaps I should fall sick more often, it certainly proved a profitable illness. There is not much else to do when sick, than to sit in front of the computer and play some poker. And so I took a number of short session when I felt I could concentrate on the game. I didn't log many hands, but I played well and won my share of pots.

I am still not fully recovered from my cold, but I am getting better. I might be able to win some more before the month is over, but I have already made amends with not reaching my monthly goal so I won't exert myself in these last days of January.

---

My friends and I are going to try out the brand new Vanguard: Saga of Heroes.

As always i worry about the impact such a game will have on my poker playing. Yet the game really looks good and epic in proportions, so it might prove to be loads of fun.

January 27th - Sick.

Monthly goal: $7.000
I'm at $2.604

I have been quite sick these last two days. I have a cold and a sour throat and today I woke up with a fever.

So poker and blogging will be kept to a minimum for a day or two more.

January 25th - A good mix.

Monthly goal: $7.000
I'm at $2.116

Yesterday went quite well. I played a mix of Hold'em and Omaha in stakes from $200 to $1.000. I didn't log too many hands, but I got good cards in the hands I manage to play and they held up.

I can't find hands where I make obvious costly errors, but I remember thinking about this hand after it was done:

KK on the Button: I don't know if it correct to make a raise on this flop. Perhaps only doubling my opponents bet. He did call a sizable bet on the turn, so I wonder he I could have gotten more out of the hand.
For what it is worth, he folded fast to my river bet.

January 24th - Big swings.

Monthly goal: $7.000
I'm at $973

At one point today I was up $2.000. My final hour of play tonight didn't go too well and I lost a lot of money in a great hurry. It is hard to be unbiased when evaluating one's own play. I know that I could have made some better decisions today and I didn't manage to keep my focus through all of todays play. But when looking through today's session in Poker Tracker, I can only conclude that I was, more than anything else, very unlucky.

I didn't play too well in a session I had yesterday. Luckily I broke even on that session, but looking at this hand again I see it could have gone much worse.

J2o in the BB: I was looking for a hand to re-raise pre-flop with against this opponent. He had been a bit too eager with his steals, so I was looking for a decent hand to fight back with.
Unfortunately before I could pick up a decent hand, I get a bad beat in some other pot I play, so in tilt I pick J2o to re-raise with.

It doesn't look like I stand much of a chance to reach this months goal. I am somewhat happy about my rekindled interest in poker, but I don't like the results I am getting. I can do much more than just hope that my luck turns around, I just need to find out where and how I want to focus my efforts.

January 22nd - Party Poker.

Monthly goal: $7.000
I'm at $1.106

On the left is a picture of my friend Jan all dressed up for a night on the town. He played host this weekend, as he so often does.

The weekend went with partying and poker suffered. There is no doubt that the most profitable time to play is on the weekends. I wish people would party more in the middle of the week, so I could save the weekends for work.

But then again, I think that the reason poker is so good on the weekends, is closely connected with the fact that people party in the weekends.

On the right is a picture I snapped of two pretty ladies from Jan's party, Sára and Hildigarð.

I did find time for a short poker session this morning. It went well and I came out ahead. I didn't play any big pots, or have any interesting decisions. I just made my profits from following a profitable pre-flop strategy.

86o in the Big Blind: I don't know if I lost some profit in this hand. On the turn I was pretty sure the ace helped him, but I suddenly was afraid of QJ on the river, so I decided just to call.