Cycling – Tzen1 – PokerStars Team: Online

180 dagen

Cycling, Social Comments Off

Jul 082013

Op dit moment zit ik in mijn bureau stoel met de ramen wagenwijd open te genieten van een splitje terwijl er keihard een DVD van Moloko (11,000 Clicks) op staat. Van dit soort dagen geniet ik zo intens, het geeft het ultieme zomergevoel. Dat gevoel wordt alleen nog maar versterkt doordat de Tour de France bezig is, de TdF en zomer zijn twee dingen die ik altijd aan elkaar link en als deze twee gebeurtenissen samenvallen dan droom ik weer terug naar mijn kinderjaren waarin het altijd wel zomer leek.

Afgelopen weekend was waarschijnlijk een van de meest perfecte weekeinden van het jaar. Op zaterdag stapte ik om 12:30 op de fiets om samen met mijn fietsmaten een leuk tochtje te maken naar Vianen, zo’n 75km hier vandaan. Voor onze fietsvakantie (daarover later meer) naar Frankrijk hebben we team outfits laten maken en deze hadden we een week eerder binnen gekregen. We hebben het pakketje met daarin de outfits met zijn negenen ceremonieel geopend, gespannen als kleine kinderen voor hun 8ste verjaardag. Zaterdag waren we dan ook voor het eerst compleet als team, niemand wilde het eerste ritje in team outfits missen natuurlijk.

Nu stond er ook een flinke bergrit op het programma in de Tour de France en deze wilde ik zeker niet missen. Ik had mijn oordopjes braaf bij mij en vanaf een uur of 15:30 heb ik alleen nog maar naar Radio Tour de France zitten luisteren. De verwachting was dat we ruim voor de finish op plaats van bestemming aan zouden komen alleen dit ging niet helemaal volgens plan waardoor we nog even een tussenstop maakte bij een terrasje zodat ik naar binnen kon glippen om de slotkilometers te kijken waarbij ik zat te klappen en te juichen toen ik Mollema en Ten Dam zag finishen. In Vianen was voor ons een heerlijke maaltijd voorbereid en de meeste van ons dronken gezellig een biertje. Aangezien ik echter nog steeds alcohol vrij ben(daarover ook later meer), dronk ik mijn reguliere cola light en was ik nog fit genoeg voor een lekker tochtje terug. Samen met nog een maatje pakte ik nog even 75km naar huis voor een ritje van in totaal 155km, ik was niet eens echt moe toen ik thuis kwam. Op zondag stond wel al een dagje rust gepland zodat ik om 12:15 heerlijk op mijn eigen strand in Zandvoort op een bedje lag te bakken in de zon. Opnieuw Radio Tour de France aan afgewisseld met live streaming beelden via de app van de NOS, wederom genieten. Na de finish stond ik na 4,5 uur niet bewegen voor het eerst op,het was tijd voor een BBQ! Daar heb ik heerlijk genoten van mijn eigen BBQ kunsten in combinatie met zeer goed gezelschap en zo kon ik mij geen beter weekend wensen!

155km zonder moe te zijn? Geen biertje bij het eten? Laten we even 7 maanden terug gaan in de tijd om daarvoor een verklaring te zoeken. Ik schreef toen de volgende blog (Engels): http://www.tzen1.com/new-years-resolutions-for-2013/ en na mijn trip naar de Bahama’s (PCA) begon ik dan ook braaf aan mijn beloftes zoals ik deze in mijn blog had gedaan. Het meest uit het oog springende was waarschijnlijk het feit dat ik 6 maanden geen alcohol wilde drinken, dit vooral om meer tijd te hebben in het weekend om te sporten en om te pokeren. Afvallen was een mooie bijkomstigheid want ik zat na de PCA op 105,9kg en daar was ik dan ook niet heel blij mee. Ik kan je vertellen dat in 180 dagen heel wat gezellige verjaardagen vallen, naast verjaardagen was er nog 1 trouwerij, 1 lange vakantie met mijn vriendin, 1 weekend weg met de jongens naar Valkenburg, nog een weekend weg met een groep van 25+ mensen en heel wat gezellige diners, avondjes of andere gelegenheden waarbij ik normaal toch altijd wel een biertje drink. Maar a.s. vrijdag zijn de 180 dagen dan toch echt om en heb ik geen druppel alcohol gedronken! Het was lastig, maar toch ook weer niet. Het was soms wel vervelend en/of saai maar ik moet zeggen dat ik echt heel blij was dat ik er toch wat geld op had gezet. Ik “verdien” nu $350 maar daar gaat het niet echt om, toch denk ik dat die $350 net genoeg was om niet 1 kleine uitzondering te maken. Ik weet ook wel zeker dat het dan waarschijnlijk nooit bij 1 uitzondering gebleven was dus ik ben de mensen waarmee ik gewed heb eigenlijk best dankbaar.

De vraag is of ik bereikt heb wat ik wilde bereiken en het antwoord daarop is een beetje dubbel. Het doel was niet $350 verdienen, het doel was meer tijd over hebben voor pokeren en fietsen. Door niet te drinken heb ik zeker meer tijd gecreëerd voor andere dingen. Ik werd opeens vroeg wakker op zaterdag en/of zondag ochtend en doordeweeks was ik nooit heel erg moe omdat ik in die 6 maanden gewoon geen 1 keer brak ben geweest. De eerste twee maanden heb ik die extra tijd ook netjes verdeeld over poker en fietsen maar nadat de temperatuur buiten wat aangenamer werd om te fietsen en de conditie met sprongen vooruit ging werden de fietsritjes steeds langer. In het weekend waren de meeste ritjes altijd meer dan 100km en dan ben je toch zeker 6 uur bezig met fietsen aangezien er ruim van te voren gegeten moet worden, achteraf moet de fiets weer schoon gemaakt worden en het lichaam gesoigneerd. Er bleef dan ook steeds minder tijd over om te pokeren en dat is toch wel uitgelopen op een kleine mislukking. Vooraf had ik mijzelf voorgehouden dat de enige reden om minder te pokeren, sporten zou zijn en gelukkig ben ik die belofte aan mezelf nagekomen. Als ik weer 2 dagen p/w met een kater wakker was geworden dan had het als verloren tijd gevoeld maar nu was ik nuttig bezig en dat nuttig bezig zijn heeft toch behoorlijk zijn vruchten afgeworpen.

Ik wilde in 2u40m naar Scheveningen op en neer en dat lukt inmiddels makkelijk. Ik wilde de 150km Amstel Gold Race uitrijden en ook dat ging vrij makkelijk al kwam ik de Keutenberg niet fietsend op (I’ll be back next year!). Ik fiets nu met gemak ritjes van 140/150km en het belangrijkste is dat ik mij gewoon heel erg fit voel. Ik was er niet eens zo slecht aan toe in januari maar het was wel duidelijk dat het gewoon weer de verkeerde kant op ging. De laatste 6 maanden is het maar 1 kant op gegaan en dat is de juiste kant en daar ben ik dan ook zeer blij mee en ook wel een beetje trots op. Vrijdag vertrek ik naar Frankrijk om daar een aantal dagen te fietsen. Ik heb daar als doel om Alp d’Huez in 1,5 uur op te rijden, daar heb ik helaas wel een beetje een hard hoofd in maar ik ga zeker onder mijn huidige beste tijd van 1u48m duiken. Ik ga ook zeker de Galibier op fietsen en waarschijnlijk ook nog wel de Glandon, misschien nog de Croix de Fer, Les Deux Alpes en Col d’Ornon. Ik ben voor geen berg meer bang in ieder geval, zolang ze niet te stijl zijn (zoals de Keutenberg) kom ik er met deze conditie altijd wel op en ik ga dan ook heerlijk genieten van een week op de fiets! Ik zal weer rustig beginnen met het drinken van een biertje, te beginnen op zondag na de beklimming van Alp d’Huez. Dan is het ook toevallig quatorze juillet (Franse nationale feestdag) dus hopelijk kan ik mij nog wel een beetje inhouden. De Tour de France komt vervolgens langs op de donderdag, niet 1 maar 2 keer op Alp d’Huez en de volgende dag starten de renners zo ongeveer naast ons chalet voor de volgende etappe. Fietsen, tour kijken en een biertje drinken met 7 goeie gabbers, wat wil een mens nog meer?

Nou, ik had natuurlijk ook wel graag mijn andere doelen gehaald! Zo heb ik bij lange na niet mijn 500 uur pokeren gehaald, daar ben ik dan zeker ook niet trots op en dit heeft mij vooral veel geld gekost. Gelukkig heb ik daar een fit lichaam en veel leuke herrieneringen aan gezellige activiteiten voor terug gekregen dus laten we het ook niet erger maken dan het is. Het is vreemd genoeg ook niet gelukt om onder de 95kg te komen, 1 van mijn andere doelen. Na nog geen 3 maanden was ik al van de 105,9kg onder de 97kg gedoken maar gek genoeg ben ik toen heel lang tussen de 96-97 blijven zweven. Op vakantie, waar ik normaal (incl alcohol) nooit gewicht aankom omdat ik nooit zoveel eet op vakantie, kwam ik 3,5kg aan en zo moest ik weer aan de bak om überhaupt onder de 97kg te komen. Ik zweef nu nog steeds tussen die bandbreedte en begrijp er eigenlijk geen fuck van! Mensen zien gelukkig wel duidelijk dat ik een paar kilo kwijt ben maar het is toch wel licht frustrerend als je 6 maanden geen alcohol drinkt, elke week gemiddeld 130km fietst en verdomme niet eens onder de 95kg weet te komen. Dat zal we komen door iets teveel te eten, van sporten krijgen je immers honger, en natuurlijk de extra spiermassa die ik gekweekt heb…. Nu vind ik fit zijn belangrijk dan mijn gewicht, maar elke kilo minder scheelt minstens een halve minuut op Alp d’Huez dus voor het klimwerk had ik nog wel graag een paar kilo lichter gewogen 😉

De vraag is nu dan wel hoe nu verder? Daar heb ik wel genoeg ideeën over maar laat ik nu eerst maar eens goed gaan genieten van de vakantie met mijn gabbers, van de Tour de France, van mijn eigen fiets en van mijn eerste biertje na 180 dagen!

New Year’s resolutions for 2013

Cycling, Poker, Social 6 Responses »

Dec 172012

I’m one of those guys who like to make new year’s resolutions. Sometimes I stick to them (2007,2009 & 2010) but a lot of times I fail big time (2011 & 2012). You can read all about my 2013 new year’s resolutions in this blog.

I remember last year at the PCA I told everybody I would lose weight, I went from 105kg to 98k but today I’m back at 105kg. I remember making a bet with a friend about the amount of VPPs I would grind out this year, I didn’t even come close. I wanted to crush my personal record on Alp d’Huez but only beat it by 1 minute. Last week I already wrote about my 6 months no alcohol propbet which I think is a great start to achieve all the other goals I have for 2013. I noticed that a lot of people who responded on this didn’t read my blog at all but just responded on the title. I’m not doing it because I’m alcoholic or I think drinking has a negative impact on me as a person. i.e. I don’t get into fights and I don’t drink to try and forget normal life. Most people who do top-class sport don’t drink because it has a negative impact on your overall performance. Now I don’t want to compare myself with somebody who does top-class sport but I do want to push myself to the max for 6 months and by quitting alcohol I will improve my performance in all the goals I want to achieve.

To make sure I wouldn’t change my mind before the end of the year I was willing to put a max of $2k on quitting alcohol for 6 months. Most people on the forums said this was to easy, most of my friends laughed at me in my face and said I would never be able to pull it off. So far I only have 1 person who was willing to bet with me for $250, I’m really happy with this and not because I think it will be easy. After agreeing to the bet I started thinking about what I had already planned to do during these 6 months. At the end of January I’m going away with 36 people for a weekend of fun in a huge/farm house, normally this involves a lot of drinking. In April I’m going away for a weekend to the Amstel Gold Race with 11 guys, normally this involves a lot of drinking. In May I’m going to Greece with my girlfriend for 10/12 days, normally this involves at least some wine during dinner. I was planning to go to Las Vegas as well in June, I doubt this is still an option if I’m not drinking any alcohol. These are just holidays, I probably have somebody’s birthday every other week and let’s just hope nobody is getting married. Yes I can do all these things without drinking but it will be very hard. If I didn’t put any money on it I’m sure I would have allowed myself to drink on all these “special” occasions, which often leads to giving up on it somewhere down the line. I really hope I will be able to finish the bet, $250 might not be enough money to keep my away from drinking alcohol but my own will to accomplish the goals I have for 2013 should!

I’ve been thinking a lot of what I want to do within these 6 months and I think it’s a good idea to list some big goals and some smaller goals. In case for whatever reason I’m not able to make any of the big goals I should still be happy with making some of the smaller goals I’ll set for myself. I want to divide my goals into 3 categories: Poker, Lifestyle, Cycling. I want to finalise the list early next year since I’m going to start with this when I return from the Bahamas but this is what I’ve been thinking off so far.

Poker
I agree with most other people that setting a monetary goal is not a good idea. You can’t really predict how much money you are going to make since this heavily depends on the games that are running and how lucky you are in terms of variance. I’ve always put my goals in terms of VPPs which made sense because it said something about how much I grinded. This year however I’m going to do it slightly different, I’m putting my goals in # of hours. This is because I want to play less tables and putting a goal in terms of VPPs will often result in playing to many tables. Therefore I set a goal of playing 500 hours of poker in 6 months which means roughly 20hours a week. This is next to my part-time job of 24hours of course. This is going to be pretty hard since I will miss some week(s)ends due to holidays but I’ll just have to deal with that by grinding a bit more the other weeks. I will actually start counting the hours from January 1st and I have until Friday the 12th of July to make it is a little bit more than 6 months but since I’m away to the Bahamas as well this means only 4 days extra and I doubt I’ll be grinding on the 1st of January. It doesn’t matter if I’m playing cashgames or tourneys, live or online as long as I’m playing poker. I can’t really think about any other poker goals for 2013 but I think this will be a pretty good challenge already!

Lifestyle
The obvious one in this category is 6 months without alcohol starting the 13th of January until the 12th of July(so I can have a beer again in France on the 13th). The other one is of course losing some weight again, let’s start with < 100kg then < 95kg and my ultimate goals is 93kg. I’m 105kg at the moment, with Christmas still to come and a week in the Bahamas so there is probably about 10-15kg to lose. Losing weight is actually not the goal, losing fat is but I doubt I’ll gain a lot of muscle by only cycling. 93kg is doable but I would already be extremely happy with < 95kg, I need to drop weight to climb those mountains faster!

Cycling
I can think off a lot of cycling goals. I want some goals which I can achieve while training and some ultimate goals. The first goal is to get my segment record back on my own strava segment. When doing the sports bet back in September I lost it to Diede and my first goal is to get it back which means I have to cycle 13,4km in 24:30 (32,8km/h). It might not sound fast but it goes up and down a lot so it’s not that simple. My own PR is 26:12 so I do have to improve more than 1:30 minute. Another training goals is a ride I often do to Scheveningen. It’s 72,5km and I would like to ride it solo in 2hours and 40 minutes which means an average of 27,2km/h. I never really ride it solo but the last time I did it it took me 3hours and 7 minutes and with a friend of mine I did it in 02 hours 56 which means I have to gain a lot of speed. The big goal this year is to finish the 150km Amstel Gold Race in April and on the 13th of July after not drinking for 6 months it’s time for another try at Alp d’Huez and this time I do want to crush my personal record! Currently it’s 1 hours and 47 minutes and I want to do it in 1,5 hours, a huge difference but I feel I can do this. It’s probably the most challenging goal I will set myself this year. The last one is to ride up the Galibier for the 1st time, this is going to be the masterpiece of my trip to France!

So these are all the goals I have. I’ll keep track of my weight and poker hours in a spreadsheet and Strava.com will keep track of my cycling goals. If you have any ideas about other goals I could add just let me know. I can think about them for another month or so. I’m also still willing to take on some more “6 months no alcohol” bets.

If I don’t blog before the end of the year, merry x-mass and a happy new year!

Enough is enough!

Cycling, Poker, Social Comments Off

Mar 212011

Last blog I was complaining about missing goals for this year and nothing has changed really. I just need something to hold on to because if I just live my life it results in bad behavior. I don’t do drugs, my life ain’t a big mess and I still value my family & friends the way I should. That means that I might be making a big point out of something that some people would consider as minor problems and I’m not saying that isn’t the case but I’m still unhappy with the way things have been going lately.

It isn’t all poker related but everything relates with each other. Discipline has been one of my greatest assets the last years but that wasn’t always the case. If you live your life from day to day it’s hard to by disciplined. To be disciplined you need to look at a bigger picture and when you have long term goals, it’s easier to think in a bigger picture. The first time I used this was when I wanted to lose a lot of weight. I’ve mentioned this more then once in my blog so I won’t go into that but from that period onwards (2007) I’ve always managed to reach my goals, whether it was poker, cycling or my health. Lately I have been enjoying life way to much. It already started in the summer of last year when I stopped looking at what I was eating and gaining a bit of weight on a monthly basis. I always enjoy summer a bit more then any other period of the year and I don’t think it’s a bad thing. This year however it didn’t stop in September, I kept gaining weight every month and basically used the SNE chase as excuse to not pay any attention to it. My poker discipline was of course superb in that period as I managed to reach my poker goals so it wasn’t all that bad.

This year however I’ve already written twice in my blog I would do something with the extra weight I’ve gained but up till now I haven’t done a thing. I’ve been going to the gym, I’ve been cycling a lot more the last 1,5 week but that’s not going to cut it. In 2008 after I finished my weight loss goal I was 92kg(coming from 133kg), I made a promise to myself to never go above 100kg. Last December I already reached the 100kg threshold and was under the assumption I would fix that as soon as I got back from the PCA. I’ve been working out but didn’t cut my eating and drinking. If I continue like this I will probably gain 1/2kg each month and maybe a little more during the summer. For the coming 12 weeks I will enforce some discipline upon myself again. I’m going to eat less, eat more healthy and stop drinking alcohol except the weekends I planned to go away with friends and two other occasions. It would be better to not drink at all which I normally did so I’m already half assing it but this is a calculated risk. The 12 week period ends at the 6th of June, the day I leave for Las Vegas. Since I’m going to Las Vegas with my poker buddy (and not my party buddies) I doubt I will gain a lot of weight there and that means I should be fit when I return from Las Vegas to look good on the picture’s of my mother’s marriage at the 24th of June. Today I’m at my 3,5 year high of 103,6kg and hope to get it down below the 95kg. I will keep track of my weight in the same excel sheet as where I keep track of my VPPs for this year, which should help a little as I’ll be confronted with it on a daily base.

Now this might sound like something that has nothing to do with poker but it actually has. I drank a lot of alcohol on Saturday evening but felt okish on Sunday. I even went out for a ride on the bike but it still affected my play on Sunday evening. I couldn’t focus enough on my game and was looking for excuses to quit playing all the time. I extended my break for 45 minutes and already quit my grind at 02:40. I wasn’t really losing loads, I didn’t feel sick but my mental state just wasn’t good enough. That has everything to do with alcohol and the way I’ve been “managing” things lately. I’m not the best player around and being 80% just doesn’t work for me. My mental state should improve when I feel more fit and when I don’t drink. The fact that I’ve been writing about this for the last months just says a lot. It really ain’t that bad yet but I’m stepping in before it does. After the 6th of June I will allow myself to enjoy life a bit more again as it’s summer when I’m back from Las Vegas. It’s fine to enjoy life, I think everybody should but it’s also important to balance things out. Some people can do that within the week itself, some people balance things on a monthly base and others don’t really have to think about balancing things but for me it just doesn’t work that simple. It’s not like I won’t enjoy life at all the coming time, I’ve just been overdoing it during the last months and now I’ll have to pay the price. I’m actually not that happy with writing all this stuff down but I think it’s necessary to commit myself to it.

Next to complaining about the good life I’ve been planning what SCOOP tournaments I want to play. Since I’m not a tournament player I think the “High” tournaments are out of my league so I will only be playing the Medium and low tournaments. To bad there is only 1 Fixed Limit tournament which is 6-max as well, a Full-Ring Limit tournament might be the only “High” I would have played. Sure there is a good reason for this as the Full-Ring Limit Tournaments were never the most popular ones. For now I’ve made the following schedule:
– #2 Sunday 8th of May, NL Hold’em Low $22
– #2 Sunday 8th of May, NL Hold’em Med $215
– #9 Wednesday 11th of May, Mixed Hold’em [6-Max] Low $22
– #9 Wednesday 11th of May, Mixed Hold’em [6-Max] Med $215
– #19 Sunday 15th of May, NL Hold’em Low $22
– #19 Sunday 15th of May, NL Hold’em Med $215
– #20 Sunday 15th of May, NL Hold’em Low $22
– #20 Sunday 15th of May, NL Hold’em Med $215
– #27 Wednesday 18th of May, Razz Low $22
– #27 Wednesday 18th of May, Razz Med $215
– #29 Thursday 19th of May, 8-Game Low $33
– #29 Thursday 19th of May, 8-Game Med $320
– #31 Friday 20th of May, NL Hold’em [1 Rebuy, 1 Add-on] Low $22
– #31 Friday 20th of May, NL Hold’em [1 Rebuy, 1 Add-on] Med $215
– #32 Friday 20th of May, NL Hold’em FL Hold’em [6-Max] Low $55
– #32 Friday 20th of May, NL Hold’em FL Hold’em [6-Max] Med $530
– #36 Saturday 21st of May, HORSE Low $22
– #36 Saturday 21st of May, HORSE Med $215
– #38 Sunday 22nd of May, NL Hold’em Main Event Low $109
– #38 Sunday 22nd of May, NL Hold’em Main Event Med $1050

I’m not sure about the $1050 Main Event yet but I should be playing all the others. I really like Razz and think I’m not really bad at it. HORSE & 8-Game or more for the fun of it and of course the regular NL tournaments should be fine to play. Have a look yourself:

I’m looking forward to the coming period. It starts in two weeks with playing live tournaments in Venlo and it ends with the WSOP 2011 in Las Vegas. Next week I will go into the results of March which haven’t been that good but I still hope to finish in the green, tonight’s session should be a good place to start.

Oh boy…..

Cycling, Poker 7 Responses »

Aug 142010

If anyone is still checking this blog, you know it’s a very long time ago I’ve updated it. The last time was actually the 1st of June which was a couple of days before my trip to France & Italy. Since then I’ve been more then busy and as blogging isn’t the most important thing on my to-do list I just didn’t create the time to start typing. Sure I haven’t been doing stuff non-stop during the last 2,5 months, but I need some time to relax as well. Not sure if I’m going to blog more often from now on, but at least an update for now which will cover the last 2,5 months.

Early June I left for holiday with one of my best mates. The idea was too cycle up Alpe D’Huez first and then relax in San Remo (Italy), Monaco, Nice, Juan-les-Pins, Cannes & st Tropez. Driving thru France was fun and we enjoyed a stop at Nancy before leaving on Saturday to Alpe D’Huez. I had never been to the alp’s before and only knew them from TV. Seeing how high these mountains really were was impressive but even more so, seeing the first bit of the climb off Alpe D’Huez really shocked me! The first 1,5km (1mile) is more then 10% and that’s steep! Luckily we were still in the car that day so I could get a little bit of rest before the big day on Sunday. We had a very nice hotel half-way up the climb with beautiful view.

I woke up early on Sunday and was ready to go around 09:00 in the morning. I was feeling fit but was anxious to see if I would make it. My goal was going up without stepping down a single time and I didn’t really care about the time it would take me. My mate would go ahead by car and would stop at every hairpin to make photo’s and do some filming. Maybe you don’t care about all the cycling, but I’ll add some pictures as this was probably the coolest thing I’ve ever done!

The climb is 13,8km(8.5miles) long with an average gradient of 7,9%, consists of 21 hairpins finishing at a height of 1.860 meters (6.100ft). The first 5 hairpins (about 2,5km) are incredible hard. It’s over 10% and although I was still fresh since I just started, it hurts! There is a constant pressure on your legs and back and my only thought was reaching the next hairpin. In each hairpin you could stretch your back a bit, slow down the pace without falling of your bike and get ready for the next part. Every hairpin I needed those 10 seconds of rest and my buddy was asking how I was doing since I looked like cracking already. After passing the 5th hairpin things got a little less steep and I could handle the gradient very well. Besides a part about 2/3 of the climb I really had a nice rhythm going but I didn’t want to push myself to hard as I was afraid I might have to pay the price later on. 1 hour and 49 minutes later I reached the finish and I didn’t step down a single time. It was a very long ride and I couldn’t have handled more then 10%. This climb was probably perfect for me and my training paid off! I will definitely do it again, although possibly another climb. I’m already thinking about what I would like to plan for next year, an experience to never forget!

After that I enjoyed a relaxed vacation, we had good weather, enjoyed the sight seeing, enjoyed the beach and didn’t party much at all. I wouldn’t bore you with all the details, let’s get to some more poker related topics!

May wasn’t really a good month as you could read in my previous blog and I was planning to play some poker next to watching as many worldcup matches in June. On the first day of my return, The Netherlands played against Denmark. We won, we had a lot of fun and I was planning to start playing the weekend after. I played a bit on Friday, The Netherlands played another match on Saturday and on Sunday I went to the beach as the weather was perfect. I started playing on Sunday evening again which is my real poker night and after 3 PokerStars freezes and a PokerTracker that was lagging I quit. I re-installed PokerTracker, couldn’t play on Monday because of that and on Tuesday I did another small session. The Netherlands reached the next round and the weather was still beautiful giving me enough excuses to hardly play any poker at all. June was the saddest month in 1,5 year of poker, playing only a total of 10.718 hands (I have days where I play 16K hands normally), losing a total of $23 bucks and some VPPs/FPPs.

Sure I enjoyed myself, but I started a SNE chase at the beginning of the year and I this wasn’t really according to plan. It was July and The Netherlands were still in the worldcup. I didn’t only watch the matches of our national team, I didn’t miss a single match! Therefor July started slow and I lost about $2.000 the first week. That week The Netherlands beat Brazil in the Quarter finals and we were up against Uruguay in the semi’s! I watched every match in a old restaurant which is owned by some friends, watching the worldcup with the same group of 40/50 people was the most fun I ever had during a worldcup. After beating Uruguay we were up against Spain in the finals, which unfortunately we lost 🙁 It would have been so cool if we would have won the worldcup, Spain did deserve the victory however and I had a blast for about a month long, which is something I’ll never forget!

The worldcup ended at the 11th of July and it was time for some serious grinding. Now the Tour de France (Cycling) also already started and I really love to watch the mountain stages. I had a brilliant idea to combine the Tour the France and a big grind by taking a week off from work and grind every single evening/night and during the day watch the Tour the France. This wasn’t all relaxing and watching sport but it was the best combo ever! Putting in hours was easy as I knew I could enjoy watching the Tour the France the next day and I had a record day at the 19th of July playing 16.879 hands in just 11,5 hours. Only a week later I broke that record again by playing 16.944 hands in 12 hours. I played a total of 152.476 hands in a little over 110,17 hours with an average of 1.384 hands/hour. Unfortunately there were not much $5/$10 tables (which is normal for June/July) and I only gathered 83.344VPPs. After the bad start I did won some money back finishing at -$654 but including FPPs/Milestone Bonus ($7.867) the overall score was +$7.213. Not that bad, but with 538K VPPs in total I was behind pace!

So August started and I was ready for another good month of grinding. During the full week of grinding I really enjoyed playing, won money and had a nice confident boost. August however had other plans for me…
The first day I lost $1.415 in 15K hands, the next 3 days another $1k and on the 8th I lost $1.764,50 and the following day another $1.121. In total I was down about $6.000 in only 10 days and 62K hands. There were a lot more $5/$10 tables and besides the fact that these tables are a lot tougher and I’m probably not a winner at these stakes anyway (not anymore that is), I was really running afwul. If I didn’t think this was true I could better stop playing anyway, but I really had some soul crushing hands. Around 05:00 in the morning on Tuesday I quit my session, which is the 2nd time ever I quit because I just couldn’t handle the beats any longer. The last time was in February where I decided after that night I needed to move down in limits.

Since Tuesday I played two small sessions after work, trying to play less tables and focus on my game. I have some plans to mix things up and although it didn’t work out the first day (losing $181 in 2k hands), I had a extremely good session on Thursday winning $1.089 in a little over 3k hands. I checked how long ago it was until I had a $1K+ winning day and was shocked to found out it was the 3th of May! This used to happen a lot more and I’ve been up $1K+ plenty of times the last couple of months, I just could never finish the day on my high. I only played about 15/16 tables at the same time during these two sessions and although the sample is really small, I could really use this! I’m still down $5k for this month but I hope I can continue this upswing on Sunday and win back some money and get more confident about my game.

During the last months I really had the feeling I was not playing worse then last year, but my opponents really improved a lot. Since I’m working part-time next to trying to achieve SNE I really have no time to work on my game and study my opponents in detail. I’ve actually never done this really and if you would ask me this wasn’t really necessary last year to be a small winner at $5/$10 but it is now. I’m 100% familiar with the fact poker isn’t just playing and studying should be part of your game, but when deciding to go for SNE at the beginning of the year I knew I would have little time for this. It’s one of the sacrifices of going for SNE and I don’t like it at all at the moment! I’ll have little choice and will just have to try my best until the end of the year. I’m curently at 578K VPPs which is 36K behind pace. That might not sounds that bad but I’ve also got an upcoming trip to California and Las Vegas which will start at the 3rd of September! Something horrible need to happen to me if I’ll not be a SNE at the end of the year but there is still a lot of grinding ahead of me! Luckily the amount of $3/$5 and $5/$10 tables is going up again and normally during the WSOP broadcasts, WCOOP and final months were everybody is trying to reach SN/Milestones or SNE the amount of VPPs/Hour will go up again. Still I will probably have to work about 28 hours a week until the end of the year and that is excluding the 24 hours/week I have to work at my job!

During the first 5 months of the year my girlfriend was away but now she’s back I also have to give her enough attention of course! I already promised a trip to Miami/Bahamas (PCA) for coming January (I will play the PCA as SNE reward) so that leaves me no other choice then to work hard and have a little less fun. I’ve had a blast so far this summer and I’ve been drinking every weekend with hardly any exercise. I’ve cycled 3 times since my Alpe D’Huez trip and together with the bad results this doesn’t help my game at all of course. Las Vegas is in 3 weeks and when I’m back I’ll change my lifestyle back again to little/no drinking, more exercise and a little healthier food! You got to enjoy life so I’m not cutting down now it’s summer but it’s definitely affects my game! Also I have to cycle 150km in two weeks and I’m not sure how the heck I’m going to do that without any training!

For now this is it, I hope you can forgive the fact that I’m not blogging that active at the moment. Looking at my schedule I’ll probably not going to put in a lot more blogs till the end of the year. You can follow me on Twitter and possibly I’ll write a small blog about my Las Vegas trip, no promises! I’m planning to party a lot, playing a bit of cash games but poker isn’t the main goal this time.

Thanks for your patience and see you at the tables!

Quick Update

Cycling, Poker 2 Responses »

Jun 012010

I’ll make this a very quick update but I’m currently really having sort of a poker break. I’ve played a lot during the first two weeks of May and did okay. Till the 16th I was up for the month and was heading for an okay result. Since my girlfriend was coming back on the 20th I didn’t expect to play a lot during the rest of the month. Unfortunately I lost about $1.650 in my last 3 sessions and ended $1.140 down for the month. Not happy again, but with my girlfriend returning and my vacation starting coming Friday I felt it was better to leave it that way, then to play 1/2 sessions more f.e. tonight.

I’ve been relaxing since the 20th and I feel the urge to play poker again. That’s at least something I was trying to accomplish and I think a month break will do me good. I’m currently at 450.000 VPPs and planning to finish at 500.000 VPP’s on the 1st of July. That would leave me exactly on pace which is fine. I’m curious how much VPP’s I will crunch out in July/Augusts but that probably depends a lot on the weather as well. In September I will hit the cashgames and party’s in Las Vegas again and I will have to crunch out the remainder off the VPP’s during those last 3,5 months. I feel pretty okay about my current status and as mentioned before, I expected results to be different but I still don’t think I’m doing really bad. At the end of the year the total sum of money is what matters and if I would have aimed lower (VPP wise) I would probably lost about as much on the tables(bb/100 wise) but with a lower rakeback % at the end.

I’m currently really looking forward to my vacation. I’ll be leaving for Alpe D’Huez on Friday planning to cycle up the big mountain on Sunday morning. I’m anxious, excited, slightly worried and most of all very happy I’m finally doing it. It might be something a lot of people can do without much problems but 3 years ago I was in a completely different situation and to actually go to Alpe D’Huez is something that is worth a lot to me! I’ve haven’t trained a lot since I cycled the Amstel Gold Race about 5 weeks ago. I did good the first week but had some physical issues the 2nd week and didn’t feel really good the 3th and 4th week. So much for a good preparation!

Last weekend I did had a nice training planned with 4 colleagues. I still didn’t feel really well but didn’t want to miss it as it was both a good test and a really nice day out. I cycled about 80km in the hills of Limburg (same area as the Amstel Gold Race) and did better then expected. For those who are familair in the area: I cycled the daalhemmerweg, Camerig, Vaalserberg, Kruisberg(Botterweck), Eyserbosweg and Gulperberg. I was doing okay on the daalhemmerweg, Camerig & Vaalserberg which are all three not very steep, but long (for Dutchies) hills.

The Kruisberg(Botterweck) was doable but the Eyserbosweg was really pushing it. I made it, but those steep parts (16%) are really killing me. Then the final hill was the Gulperberg and after 80km cycling there was no way I could do a 19% part.

It was the first time I had to get off my bike ever but I was really happy with the result of the training. I wasn’t feeling really fit and doing the steepest part at the end might not have been the smartest idea, but that wasn’t my idea. As far as I know Alpe D’Huez doesn’t have really steep parts and it will be more about endurance.

I can’t compare the Camerig or Vaalserberg with the Alpe D’Huez but it will probably come closer to Alpe D’Huez then the last 3 hills shown. I’ll probably sent a twitter update as soon as I’m at the top and will be relaxing (with some alcohol) after! I’m back on the 14th, ready for the first match of The Netherlands in the World Championship Football. The further we get, the less poker I play so in case you don’t see me blogging it’s probably because there is a lot of football to watch 😉

The update is longer then expected and I’ll wrap up with a May Recap and a Year-To-Date Recap. Since I’m not playing poker at the moment I’m not really into it so not a lot of poker this time but I’m sure there will be plenty of poker to talk about during the rest of the year 🙂

— May Recap—
May VPPs: 58.729
May Ahead of Pace: -26.202
May $ @ Tables: -$1.140,00
May $ FPP’s/Milestone: $6.288,82
$May $: $5.148,82
May # hands: 97.602
May # Hours: 73,83
May $/Hour @ Tables: -$15,44
May $/Hour: $69,74
May Hands/Hour: 1.322
May VPPs/Hour: 795

— Current Status —
2010 VPPs: 449.992
Ahead of Pace: 36.293
Total $ @ Tables: -$20.044,50
Total $ FPP’s/Milestone: $34.799,55
Total $: $14.755,05
Total # hands: 613.463
Total # Hours: 484,28
Hands/Hour: 1.267
VPPs/Hour: 929
$/Hour @ Tables: -$41,39
$/Hour: $30,47

Page 1 of 2 1 2 Older Entries