February 18th - Starting is hard

It hasn't been going all that well lately. I just cashed out money enough to last me for a month, but as I do so I have lost money at the tables.

I remember all to well how it feels like. Playing poker in the evenings, sitting in front of the computer for hours on end trying to grind one or two buy-ins in for the day, and before I call it quits I get it all-in with a set against a flush draw and just a few hands later my Aces run into a set. And so I shut down the computer with the loss of the day heavy on my mind as I try to get some sleep before school starts tomorrow.

A couple of days like that and poker starts to feel like a tough job. My plan is to try to shake the last couple of days off and keep going, but it won't take much of a loss for me to move down to $200 NL to catch my breath.

I am pretty sure that I can keep myself afloat playing a rather casual amount of hands at $200 NL, but staying afloat isn't exactly my dream in poker. In that case I could just get a regular job. Perhaps the hours would be longer, but the level of stress would certainly be lower.

February 12th - A bad session

Yesterdays session didn't turn out too great. After 2.000 hands I was down about $450. I picked some bad spots to get my money in and didn't get that many great hands.

My biggest losing hand was this one:

AKo on the Button

I remember thinking for a long time on the turn whether to call or not. At least my instincts are still working, I just have to thrust them. I do believe that in future hands this will be an easy fold. My opponent wasn't the kind of guy to play AK or AQ like that and it was a very poor spot for him to make a bluff.

I haven't got all my stats updated yet, so no bankroll stats and monthly graphs yet. I plan on getting them up and running before the end of the month.

February 11th - A much needed update.

It has been almost a year since my last update. Much has happened in my life, yet a lot of things have stayed the same as well.

I have been dating a girl, Jane, for half a year now; I have just started my 4th semester in college; and by and large life is good. I live in a crappy little dorm room in Copenhagen, Denmark, but it is very affordable, quite close to school and even closer to the train track making traveling in the city easy and enjoyable.

"It is a hard way to make an easy living"

That saying has made a lot of sense throughout my poker career. A year ago after a prolonged losing period, poker seemed almost too hard a job.

I never quit though - I played a little, lost some money, won more than I lost, but cashed out even more. My bankroll has slowly dwindled while it has been my main source of income during school. In December after all the Christmas shopping was done, my bankroll hit an all-time low since I started playing poker professionally. All the money I had online combined was less than $10.000.

So in the start of this new year, I made up my mind to start playing a bit more regularly. With that decision comes this new blog entry. I don't know if I will start writing again, but I do know I will start playing more. I have built the bankroll up again, so that I can tackle $2/$4 NL with confidence again and so far it does not seem like I have lost my touch during my hiatus.