Tzen1 – PokerStars Team: Online

Everyone who has watched the TV-Series “Game of Thrones” knows this phrase. If you haven’t watched Game of Thrones yet I would recommend it over any other Series which is out there at the moment. Maybe I already mentioned it before but it’s just fantastic. I’m already looking forward to reading the book-series “A Song of Ice & Fire” which I will be taking with me on holiday in January.

It’s winter in 7 days but I haven’t seen this much sun in autumn in my life. Winter is normally a time to stay inside the house, watch a movie or play video games and well, that’s exactly what I’ve been doing lately. This is mainly because of the stress I’m having at work. I think I can handle stress very well, even last year when I worked my ass of trying to achieve Supernova Elite I never was that stressed. The last few weeks I’ve felt more stress then ever. When I come home I just need to blow off some steam. There is no better way to do that then play mind-less video games. It relaxes the mind and it takes you away from your normal daily routine. I’ve finally finished the StarCraft II campaign, played a lot of custom games and tried to get as many achievements as possible.

I’ve also played a lot of Tennis lately. I tried it out a couple of weeks ago after not having played any tennis for over 14 years. It wasn’t a wise thing to play tennis for a long time after I had surgery for a hernia and being diagnosed with a second hernia after surgery which is still sort of out there. I had surgery when I was 17 and I’m now 12 years later and fitter then ever. I’ve visited the gym a lot over the past years, I’ve lost weight and slowly but steady I’ve build up enough strength in my back to do the things I used to love. I just wanted to try out tennis to see how it would go. The first time I still had a little bit of pain in the lower back, the last two times I played were completely pain free. I move better then ever, I’m getting better each time I play and my friends are enjoying themselves to. Cycling isn’t really a sport for the winter, but tennis can be played indoor & outdoor. I just bought a new tennis racket and I’m hoping to play tennis twice a week for the coming months. I’m never going to be very good at it since I’m just to slow but a competitive sport is just so much better then the gym, I’ll just have to be careful to not overdo it and will have to listen to my body very well.

My weight challenge is going pretty okay. This wasn’t my best week but overall I’ve lost 5kg in 8 weeks. I’m planning to keep it up until Christmas at least, then enjoying the last days of the year before starting the new year with another two healthy weeks. Then I should be able to enjoy my holiday and when I’m back in February it’s just another 2,5 months till I’m cycling the Amstel Gold Race. I have no problems keeping this up and doing it together with my girlfriend helps as well. We are really trying to get into a healthy lifestyle together, if we would have kept up with the lifestyle we had together, we would go out for diner about twice a week and the rest of the week we would be enjoying ice-cream on the couch about every evening. Let’s see how it goes for the coming weeks, hopefully the end result is not only less weight but also a healthier lifestyle for the future.

Besides this weight bet I really wanted to do a small poker challenge again. From Friday the 25th till Tuesday the 30th of November I’m going to grind for 5 days non-stop. This means that I’m either sleeping or playing poker. I’m not sure if I’m going to start Friday morning, evening or maybe I wait till Saturday morning but I’ll work out the details before I’ll start. The only thing I’m allowed to do besides poker is Tennis and of course eat something every now and then. I should be at least playing 12 hours a day, roughly 1100 hands/hr but I’m aiming for a little more. It should be way over 50.000 hands in total, all playing $2/$4 LHE 6-Max. As said, I’ll work out the details in a blog I’ll post later as it depends a little on my schedule but I’m going to do this for sure. It’s not something which is ground-breaking so I won’t be prop-betting it or anything, I’m doing this purely for myself but will of course report how things are going on Twitter as well.

Last week the Master Classic of Poker was held in Amsterdam. The biggest tourney series of the year in the Netherlands and one of the oldest tournaments in Europe. It’s been going for 20 years now and I think I’ve visited the MCOP since 2005 or 2006. I didn’t really feel like playing the tourneys myself and regretted that right away when I walked in on Monday. The €800 KO just started and an old poker-buddy of mine eventually won it. I played a little bit of 5/5 No-Limit but didn’t really liked the live grind. I normally love playing live poker but playing No-Limit is just to boring. I either want to play Limit (more action) or NL tournaments but a No-Limit cashgame isn’t really my cup of tea. On Wednesday the €5.250 Main Event was held and a lot of well known poker-dutchies attended again this year. Friday I returned to the casino to do some live-railing as some familiar people were still in the tournament. With 294 people attending, the first 36 would be in the money and a poker-friend and a good buddy of mine both made it into the money. The first busted a few seconds later as 36th but my buddy almost made it to the final table. Unfortunately he busted in 13th, winning €19.000 which in the end is good money but a final table would have been really epic. Eventually the Main Event was finally won again by a Dutchie, the unknown David Boyaciyan won €382.200.

On Saturday I did play the €300 Turbo Freezout which was really a Turbo so after flopping an A with AQ there was no way I could fold and ended up against AK. Joep van den Bijgaart managed to win the €750 Freezout, winning €61.230 which makes this an incredible year for Joep after getting 7th in the EPT Berlin earlier this year and at 900.000+ VPPs he probably will also manage to become a Supernova Elite this year. The MCOP was also covered on television by RTL and I think it’s a really nice coverage. The casino itself got a lot of attention but I don’t really see that as a problem as it makes sense they need some promotion out of this as well. If I would have been at home I would have watched the live broadcast at internet for sure, you can see/listen to some of the live-coverage in the episode as well. You can watch the whole episode at RTLXL.

It was fun to see a lot of the people again which I normally only meet in Las Vegas. I made some profit on the cashgames on Saturday, did a lot of railing and know for sure that next year I’ll be back to play some more tournaments myself. I might go the Belgium in December for some live poker and hope that the Dom Classics in Utrecht will be back in January (not during my holiday) since I’m looking forward to play some live tournaments again. Meeting all these people also fueled my plans to go to Las Vegas next year again. Due to the European Championship Soccer in June I’ll probably not stay around for long but I’m hoping to visit Vegas during the end of May, beginning of June. Hopefully a LHE event is held at the start of the WSOP but else I’ll be playing some of the NL events or play the Venetian Deepstack which are also always really good tourneys. The planning will start as soon as the WSOP schedule is released but I’m pretty sure I’ll be going, if not during the WSOP I’ll go with the party crew in October anyway!

Life is good, there are plenty of plans in the making and I’m healthier then ever. I wish I could say that for everybody as last week I attended the funeral of my old manager, who taught me a lot of tricks of the trade at work. Also on the 6th of November it was 5 years ago my own father passed away. He always stressed that you should enjoy life every day as it can be over before you know and that’s exactly what I’m always doing, I just hope you all are doing the same thing!

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This blog is about somebody who plays poker and not just about poker itself but a little bit more poker content every now and then shouldn’t hurt.

I haven’t been earning any big bucks lately. My hourly in August was great but the amount of hours played was pretty horrendous. In September I mainly focused on playing the WCOOP in which I really wanted to do well. To make sure I was playing my A-Game I didn’t play anything on the side. I wanted to do good so badly, that I preferred to feel bored for the duration of the tournament in stead of missing out on marginal EV spots. Unfortunately it didn’t work out as I had planned. It’s only 8 tournaments so you can always blame it to variance, I think all poker players who don’t win anything do that right? I only cashed one event, a $215 No-Limit WCOOP were I busted as 1078 where 1080 got paid. No I didn’t fold myself “In the Money” and busted with a short stack, I was crushing the tournament for the first 2 hours or like some others would say: “Running good”. I’m the most disappointed about my results in the Fixed Limit Tournaments. I know that the variance in Fixed Limit is even greater then in No-Limit but I’m so far ahead in those tournaments and in both I didn’t even make the money. No, this just wasn’t my WCOOP.

I also had a ticket for the WCOOP Main Event. A $5.200 No-Limit tournament where the winner would get over $1.000.000 paid out, you would expect anybody would bring his A-game. In stead of being patient because the tournament started so deep, I tried so hard not to get outplayed by some of the best pro’s out there who were sitting at my table, that I was leveling myself constantly. Obvious these guys knew perfect how deep the stacks were in this tournament and had no intention to make crazy bluffs, the only thing I could think of was that they were trying to outplay me in each hand and that I should call with T high cause this was the obvious spot where they would hold 65o. Exaggerating it a bit of course but I didn’t bring my A-Game for sure. I was happy with my play in general but also ready for a new chapter.

October – December is the best time to just grind it out on the cashgames and that’s the only thing that’s on my mind right now. Since I can’t play the Full-Ring LHE games any longer (since Black-Friday) during the late night hours I already thought about switching to 6-max for a long time. There is a lot more action in 6-max, the high stakes are almost always 6-max or shorter and short-handed play will improve my Full-Ring game for sure as well. I could grind 6-max also during day-times so basically it’s perfect. Why didn’t I try it before? Simply because I never really liked it. I’m pretty old-school trained, in those days Full-Ring was the only game thinkable. Trying to get all the money in with A-high was unthinkable and I’ve always had a hard time letting go. It sounds pretty shocking for a guy who has earned plenty of money with poker and we live in 2011 but that’s the way it is and because of that Full-Ring has always been my main-game.

I’ve considered switching to a different game but I think switching to 6-max is by far the best idea. During the WCOOP I also like the 6-max LHE a lot more then previous years, I just enjoyed it a lot more and could see myself playing more of this. So since the end of September I’ve jumped into the $2/$4 6-max LHE games and I’m enjoying it a lot. Till this morning I was close to break-even and hoped to make a nice score during the day. I’ve just played a short but terrible session so I’m now down -1.36BB/100 over 16k hands. For sure the sample is really small so I’m not that worried but I should know better as the way I played this last session was a common mistake from the past. In stead of playing poker and thinking about situations I was just clicking, I could see myself making mistake after mistake but I already had clicked before my brain came back with the correct action. It has happened to me a lot during Full-Ring sessions as well but I’ve noticed it’s something that can happen more easily in 6-max games, mainly because you need weaker holdings to go to showdown in 6-max.

October will be a full month of 6-max $2/$4 grinding. If I do really good I can move up, if I do really really bad I’ll switch back to Full-Ring. At the end of the month I’ll review my results and will think about what games to play in November. It’s all about cashgames these coming months and I really feel like a grinder again. In November there is also the Master Classics of Poker in Amsterdam so I will play a bit of Live-Poker as well. I’m not planning on playing a lot of the tournaments but I’m hoping to play some live Fixed Limit cashgames again, since playing live is still something I love to do. I used to go to the Casino a lot but that’s years ago, last Friday I dropped by with some friends and really laughed my ass of witnessing how bad live play still is. It’s easy to say when you are hitting just about anything but for sure there is still a lot of money to be made in poker.

To get back on the previous blog in which I made a lot of promises: I’ve held on to all those promises for 2 weeks now. Still 28 more to go (it’s 7 months in total, not 6 as I mentioned earlier) but I have the feeling I really have this under control. I started at 104,4kg and I’m now at 101.2kg and my goals is roughly 92kg. That should be no problem in 28 weeks but the goal is not only to lose weight but also to be in perfect shape next year. I made the mental switch again and I’m focused on my goal and I can’t wait for the weeks to pass by. The quicker time passed by the fitter I will be and the more weight I have dropped. You could think that I miss enjoying tasty food but actually I’ve been enjoying most meals more then ever. The fact that a Sushi-Restaurant finally opened up in my town helps, since I’ve already been there 3 times but if you cut on food, the food you actually eat becomes more enjoyable as well. I’m happy I’m in the flow again and combined with my grind it should make up for a pretty good end of the year!

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Today I’ve finally put a lot of effort in my blog again. To proper maintain your blog you need to spent a couple of hours a week and I’ve just had to much fun lately 😉

I’ve changed my frontpage from showing full posts to excerpts, I’m not sure if I like it but it seems to be the standard for most blogs. I’ve also updated the (blog)link section, removing dead links or blogs that didn’t get updated lately. Also I’ve made a selection of featured blogs and moved all others to the “More Blogs” page. I like these changes but I could change the look & feel as much as I want, I do have to provide content as well!

The blog title already gives it away, I’ve had a lot of fun lately. I can’t remember the last “bad” day, besides the day my grandpa died. I’m always pretty happy and positive and feel blessed with my life. In August I visited Stockholm with my girlfriend, it was my first time there and I really liked the city. The sun was out all weekend and everybody was enjoying the good life outside in the parks and shopping area’s. It’s a bit expensive even compared to places like Amsterdam but I always feel I have a lot in common with the Scandinavian lifestyle and people. I didn’t get the pictures my girlfriend made yet, so just to give you an impression of Stockholm I ripped a picture from Google.

A typical thing about Stockholm was the fact that despite the high prices for alcohol (due to taxes), really everybody was drinking either beer or wine. It was probably due to the good weather so everybody just tried to enjoy the good life, but I really expected people drinking less alcohol due to the high prices. Our hotel was almost in the center and everything was in walking distance. We didn’t take a cab, metro or bus once and just enjoyed walking around. The thing you notice immediately when you are walking around in Stockholm is that all men have the same kinda hairstyle. I tried to blend in but failed pretty hard:

At least I tried!

I had some great festivals again this year, not the festivals I normally visit which are Loveland and Mysteryland but this year I went to ROCKIT, Welcome to the Future and Lief. Especially ROCKIT was great, mainly due to the always rocking Ben Sims! For next year I’ll just go wherever he goes since I just love his sets which is packed with a lot of classics. The last weekend of August I had another trip booked to Valkenburg to cycle in the hilly area around there. The weather didn’t look very promising but it was almost dry the whole day. Unfortunately the roads were pretty wet and wet roads mean flat tires. It was a 125km ride which I did together with a buddy of mine. He just got back from a 2 week holiday and we both hardly trained, not the best mix but we did really look forward to it. I only had 1 flat tire but after 4 flat tires of my buddy after 105km we gave up. We did 7 hours on the bike (or changing tires) and we didn’t had any spare tires left so we got some people to pick us up. Still 105km was a pretty heavy ride and I felt pretty good about my overall fitness. We rode some new hills with pretty steep parts and barely made it to the top but for next year we want to push ourselves even a little further. We already signed up for the 150km Amstel Gold Race next year which basically either goes up or down:

The goal is to stay on the bike for the full 150km and since this route includes the Keutenberg this could be a pretty tough mission. The Keutenberg is the hardest/steepest hill in the Netherlands, it got 200 meters of 16%+ gradient and in total 500 meters of 9%+ gradient. The steepest part is 22%, for sure that’s something I won’t be able to handle if I had to ride it today. To finish this ride is a goal on itself but to achieve this goal I have to drop some weight again. Because of all the fun fun, fun I had the last couple of months, I’m now at 103kg. The “I never get above 100kg ever again” quote I told everybody a couple of years ago didn’t hold. I’m still pretty happy with the fact it took 3 years but I’m now above the 100kg mark since May and expect to be below the 100kg mark again in November. Starting the 19th of September I will stop drinking any alcohol for a period of 6 months, which means I can have a beer again after I’ve finished the 150km Amstel Gold Race. There are 2 planned exceptions which are a weekend away in October with my buddies and New Year’s Eve. If somebody throws a big party (Marriage or winning a couple of million) I might make another exception but I doubt this will happen the coming 6 months. I’m happy when I’m back at 95kg or less, I’ve stayed at 92/93kg for a very long time so I hope to get back there. To get there I will also have to work out a lot more then I’m currently doing and have to cut down with eating. The coming 6 months will be less fun, fun, fun for sure but I’ve done it before and I will do it again. The goal is not only the cycle, it’s about feeling good and being healthy. I have a lot more cycling plans for next year as well, so to make these plans happen this is just something I have to do. I’m actually looking forward to the 6 month period, hopefully I get into the zone and it will be over before I know it.

No alcohol should mean a little less partying which means more time to do other things. Working out is one of those things but poker is certainly one of those things as well. Last months I did pretty good at the tables but the amount of hands I’ve played is just pathetic compared to last year’s volume. The is partly because of the fact there are less tables to play on, but mainly because of the amount of hours I’ve put in.

This is my graph since I’m back from Las Vegas (end of June). My winrate is pretty decent, but 35.000 hands is nothing. Last year I had many days in which I played 10.000 hands or even 15/16.000 in just one day. Yesterday I did put in a session of 6.700 hands so it looks like I can get back to grind some decent volume again. Recent changes on PokerStars increased the amount of hands/hr by reducing the time between hands and increasing the speed of all-in situations which is great. Yesterday I was playing 20 tables and it felt like playing 24 in the past. I do however think that I shouldn’t get any higher then 16 tables since I’ve changed my style of play. I’m now playing 3/4% more hands which is a big increase from 15/16%. To play more hands I need to be more creative which takes more focus as well. Playing 16 tables now probably comes pretty close to playing 24 tables last year so I should just stick with that. Since June I’m up against most regulars, there isn’t any regular who really beats me by a lot so I’m really happy with my current play. Even one of my buddies who sat at the same tables yesterday said that I didn’t play as standard as I used to do and he had a lot more trouble to put me on a range of hands. I probably couldn’t have made this step without Black Friday and also playing live at the WSOP really helped and it feels like I made another (big) step in poker, even after playing it already for so many years.

I’ll continue with playing my cashgames but I also played my first WCOOP tournament yesterday. I got loads of premiums dealt but I either got no action or lost with them and I finally busted with AK vs A6. A pretty disappointing start but for me the No-Limit tournaments are more of a gamble. I really look forward to the LHE tournaments and will also play the Main Event! $5.200 for one tournament is a little crazy if No Limit isn’t even your best game but I treat this tournament as a freeroll since I earned the ticket by getting Supernova Elite last year. My schedule will probably look like this:

– #3 Sunday 4th of September 20:00 $215 NL Hold’em
– #15 Thursday 8th of September 20:00 $215 Razz
– #19 Saturday 10th of September 16:00 $109 NL Hold’em
– #20 Saturday 10th of September 20:00 $215 FL Hold’em
– #21 Sunday 11th of September 16:00 $215 NL Hold’em
– #22 Sunday 11th of September 20:00 $530 NL Hold’em
– #26 Tuesday 13th of September 17:00 $320 Mixed Hold’em [6-Max]
– #37 Friday 16th of September 23:00 $109 8-Game
– #56 Friday 23th of September 20:00 $1,050 FL Hold’em [6-Max]
– #60 Sunday 25th of September 16:00 $215 NL Hold’em
– #62 Sunday 25th of September 20:00 $5,200 NL Hold’em Main Event

Still a pretty long lists but these tournaments are just to good to skip. The value is huge and to chance to get a big score is higher then normal. Also the cashgames during series like the SCOOP and WCOOP are better then normal so every poker player should try to get as much EV out of these series as possible.

Wish me luck & good luck to you all!