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.