Social – 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!

So it begins! My 180 day countdown.

Poker, Social 2 Responses »

Jan 212013

After coming back from the PCA it was time to change a lot of things in my day to day life. A couple of weeks ago I already wrote about my 180 days no alcohol propbet, but it’s much more then that! It’s not about the alcohol, it’s more about playing more poker and getting back into shape. So yes one of the goals is to not drink any alcohol, but my main goal is to play 500 hours of poker in those 180 days, lose a lot of weight and get fit so I’m able to cycle up Alp d’Huez in a new personal record.

180 Days:
Start: 14-01-13
End: 12-07-13
Days left: 173

Poker
Goal: 500h
Pace: 19,4h
Played: 42,81h
Remaining: 457,19h

My goal is pretty simple, play 500 hours of poker, live or online in 180 days. I’m cheating a bit since I started counting the hours from the 1st of January but I’ve only played 11 hours before the 14th of January so that’s not a huge advantage. I’m ahead of schedule but next week I’m away the whole weekend and I have more weekends away planned already so being ahead of pace doesn’t say much. This challenge comes down to roughly 20 hours a week or 2,8 hours a day. Doable for sure but it’s not about doing it for 1 week, I have to do it for 180 days. I didn’t set any VPP or monetary goals and so far this has paid off. Last week I’ve played LHE cashgames, MTTs, Sats and Hyper Turbo SNG’s. I’ve 1 tabled and 16 tabled and enjoyed playing pretty much all the time.

I’ve played LHE cashgames most of the time and things haven’t worked out that well. I’m playing $2/$4 6-max and any full-ring table up to $5/$10. The sample is still small but I would have hoped to do a bit better since I’m playing less tables.

For sure I’m running hot on the $2/$4 Full-Ring tables since that winrate isn’t sustainable but I’m hoping as well that I’m running bad at all other stakes. My overall BB/100 is 1.44 which would be very good so I’m just holding on to that. Yesterday was a really good day at the cashgames, winning $950 so let the hotrun continue 🙂 I did have to host 5 TCOOP final tables yesterday as well so I had to mix playing and hosting which wasn’t optimal for my focus and multitable skills. I also played all the NL TCOOP events and all the deadline satellites but I bricked all of them. In the two Hyperturbo sats I bubbled twice, stone cold with a mandatory all-in from the SB (AT < 77, QQ < KK) where both I would have made it if I would have won the hand. I was really card dead in all MTTs/Sats I played, the opposite of what was happening at my cashgames. Means I’m down for the year in MTTs/SNGs/Sats but I’ve only been playing for one week.

My PC died on me Friday when I was playing some MTTs and that didn’t happen for over a year. I did a Windows Update (patches) just before my session so that was probably the reason. My laptop battery was dead as well and you can only play 4 tables max on your mobile so it was pretty frustrating, especially if 2 of those tourneys are hyper MTTs. After 15 minutes or so I got my laptop to work again but busted every tournament in the 30 minutes after, except the $5 freezout! So I was 1 tabling on my laptop and busted in 41st place, 2.5 hours after busting all the other tournaments, FML! While 1 tabling I was fixing my PC which seemed to work out. On Saturday I had the brilliant idea to test my PC by playing $3 Hyper-Turbo Sats. Playing 8-12 tables, putting some pressure on my PC seemed like a great idea. After the 1st 100 I was down and well, nobody likes to finish down so I kept on playing. I was definitely to loose at the 1st blind level and had to adjust to the bubble play, paying more attention to the stack sizes but in the end I did manage to end with some profit. I did have to play 432 Hypers but it was fun and I might try another session in the coming days/weeks.

Lifestyle
Alcohol: 0
Start: 104,7kg
Goal: 95kg
Pace: 104,3kg
Current: 102,6kg
Remaining: 7,6kg

The day I got back from the PCA I was actually 105.9kg. This was without any sleep which normally is roughly 1kg difference. The next morning I was 104,7kg so that’s the weight I will start this challenge with. I’m currently already 102,6kg which is 2.1kg less in just one week. That’s pretty standard for the first week and I shouldn’t expect to keep this up, 0,7kg a week would be fine and doable until I reach the 95kg. 93kg is my ultimate goal but I didn’t want to push it too much so I’ll leave my goal at 95kg. Of course I didn’t drink any alcohol so far this week. I did have a b-day party of one of my best friends who turned 30 but since this is still the first week it was pretty easy to stay away from alcohol. My friends were pretty happy with it as well since I could drive them 😉 Next week going away for the whole weekend will be a bit more difficult but I still just started so doubt it will get super difficult. In total I’ve bet for $350 which should keep me away from making any exceptions in these 180 days. I’m eating pretty healthy and I’m surprised that I’m not hungry at all so far. I’m eating way less than before but I guess my body has plenty of fat in reserve 😉 So far so good but it’s about the long stretch, not just the results of one week.

Cycling
Morning exercise: Avg 3* week
1st at my own strava segment: Not yet
Scheveningen in 2h 40m: Not yet
Finish AGR 150km: Not yet
Alp d’Huez in 1,5h: Not yet
Finish Galibier: Not yet

I was planning to start last Tuesday with spinning in the gym but the weather was really bad so I didn’t get out of the house. I made up some more lame excuses on Thursday and during the weekend so I’ve not started cycling yet. Tomorrow I hope to start but the weather is again pretty bad, guess I have to do it anyway. I hope the cold weather / snow goes away asap since I would prefer to cycle outside at least during the weekend, we’ll see. I did start doing morning exercises and I still hate them but I did do them every day I planned to do them. The idea is to do them each day I don’t have to work, which means I’ll do them Sat-Tue. It’s a combination of stretches, ab exercises and push-ups. I prefer to wake up and jump behind my computer to check Facebook, Twitter and forums but nowadays I start with getting my heart rate up to 150+. I already see some improvement and I hope that these exercises will keep me fit during these 180 days, old people have to stretch 😉

Other stuff

I also wanted to mention some other stuff which hasn’t got anything to do with my 180 day countdown. First of all Andre Coimbra’s short film has been released, check it out below!

He also started his $100 -> $100k MTT challenge in which he will donate any money won to charity. You can follow the challenge on his blog and check out the video below for some extra info:

As you can see his girlfriend is featuring in his videos and she also plays poker. Andre learned her to play hyper sats and in December she won $20k and made it to Supernova! She keeps a blog as well and I think it’s a great read.

I added two other blogs to my blogroll as well. Both AWice and MouldyOnions are trying to set a new yearly VPP record. Actually they want to go way beyond that and reach 8M VPPs within 1 year. I think this is pretty nuts and currently they are racing to be the first SNE of 2013 (Check out PokerStarsblog to see what’s it all about) after AWice won the race to being the first SN of 2013. MouldyOnions is currently ahead with 629.455 VPPs and AWice is having a huge downswing and currently 2nd at 464.928 VPPs. Seems like Mouldy will be reaching SNE within 1 month which would be pretty insane, especially since up till now he has profit playing hypers as well! Check out their blogs.

Last thing I wanted to add is that since last week you can also subscribe to my blog. In case you want to receive an e-mail as soon as I publish a new blog you can leave your e-mail address at the top right of my website and I will promise to only e-mail you once after I finished another blog post.

I guess that’s it for this week. I should be blogging once every two weeks and I hope I’m still on pace by then! Cya

Highlights of the PCA2013!

Social 3 Responses »

Jan 182013

I’m back home and a couple of hours ago it just started to snow! I would love to have spent a couple of more days at the Bahamas, this was probably the best poker trip I had so far. It wasn’t one thing in particular, it was the combination of all things that made it perfect. Being back home isn’t that bad either, it’s time to start getting into shape and play poker but first I want to show you my highlights of this year’s PCA!

After a pretty easy flight via Atlanta we arrived at the Bahamas around 20:00. We had a limo arranged by the PokerStars VIP Club picking us up and when we arrived in the hotel Lobby some of my fellow Team Online colleagues were already waiting for me 😉 We quickly changed clothes in our room and my first Heineken already waited for me. It had been a year since I saw most of them but it was great to see everybody again. The next day we had a Team Online meeting where I got to meet the new guys, Rohit “GodlikeRoy” Bhasin, Caio “Pessagno” Pessagno, Isaac “Ike Haxton” Haxton & Tatiana ‘Mysters_Y’ Barausova. We all talked about what we had done last year and what our plans were for this year and that alone was already really inspiring. Talking poker just makes me feel like I want to play and because all my friends hardly play poker anymore I normally get pulled out of the “poker zone” pretty quick. Scott “UnMarketing” Stratten did a presentation about social media and since I’m a social media addict this was a pretty welcome meeting topic. Later that evening it was time for some drinks with the team and after Kevin’s (WizardOfAhhs) girlfriend shouted: “Shots, Shots, Shots” things went downhill pretty fast 🙂 I could go on and on about what happened everyday but I’ll try to stick with the highlights from now:

Pool
After breakfast each day started either with tennis or the pool. Two years ago the weather at the Bahamas wasn’t that great. I brought my girlfriend that year and wanted to play a lot of poker so didn’t had a lot of time to hang out with her. Luckily my best buddy brought his girlfriend as well since when the sun isn’t shining you would get bored pretty quick during the day all by yourself. Last year the weather was great but this year it was awesome! 27C, sun and not a lot of wind. I love hanging out at the pool and it makes the whole PCA experience just so much better. My appetite for playing poker during the day also completely disappears when the sun is out, not sure if that’s a good thing but I didn’t really mind!

Tennis
I really wanted to play as much Tennis as possible this year. I brought my own racket and knew Frosty would also bring his. The first day we had the Team Online meeting so the second day we agreed to play at 10:00 during our Team Online drinks the night before. We made a small bet on who would win, knowing that Frosty was wasted that evening so probably had a small hangover at least. Unfortunately he didn’t show up, which meant losing the bet (we stated that pertty clear) but he didn’t really agree on that 😉 We both still wanted to play tennis so we challenged the Belgium PokerStars Team Pro’s, the De Meulder twins. I didn’t do any sports for 5 weeks and no tennis for 5/6 months and was really stiff. The match was pretty bad overall and we lost it but at least I was enjoying my time in the sun 🙂 The next day we played our first singles and Frosty beat me pretty badass, 6-0 6-2. Happy he didn’t show up the day before when we had that bet 🙂 We continued to play every day and also did a Team Online doubles like last year. Vgreen was still on the team last year and he played like Rafael Nadal, this year he was replaced by GodLikeRoy. He hadn’t played any tennis for several years but was not as bad as we expected. Roy teamed with Shane “Shaniac” Schleger and Frosty and I teamed up as well. We won the first match with 6-1 and also won the re-match with 6-4, in which we all played way better. Playing tennis each day out in the sun is just such a good way to start you day. I really got a lot better, fitter and quicker during only one week. I really miss it now I’m back home 🙁

PA for a day
I won the MicroMillions III challenge vs Grzegorz “DaWarsaw” Mikielewicz so DaWarsaw would be my PA for a day. I think he was really afraid that I would make him do a lot of silly stuff but that wasn’t my plan at all. I didn’t say that obvious since the look on his face each time somebody mentioned the bet was way too much fun. We picked out Wednesday and he would be my PA from 10:00 till 22:00. The day before we did a short interview with Pokerstars.TV, check it out below:

So Wednesday after breakfast I handed out a great gift to DaWarsaw. He could wear my Dutch National Soccer Team shirt with my name on the back the whole day, so everybody would recognize that he was my bitch 😉

I think the shirt looked perfect on him. The next thing on the agenda was to go to the pool and chill a bit. DaWarsaw got me some towels, drinks whenever needed and played his role as PA perfect. The most fun part of the day was the part were Frosty and I played a game of tennis. I had never played a match with a ballboy but this was a truly amazing. The speed of the match is so much faster and the annoyance of running out of balls just doesn’t happen. DaWarsaw would cheer whenever I would win a game (not very often), made sure I had enough water and was running around all the time, probably more than I did. I was so happy I didn’t have to play his golf caddy for a day, winning such a small bet (I only beat him by $5) never felt this great 🙂

Obviously he carried my tennis gear back to my room, got me another drink and since we didn’t meet for dinner he was lucky I didn’t pull any stunts during the rest of the day. The bet really happened in good spirit and I hope we both come back next year to the PCA and have another fun bet!

Basketbal
DaWarsaw & I played a basketball match vs Frosty and RJ. We are both slow and tall guys, they are short and fast guys so it was an interesting match-up. We agreed to do a best out of 3, first to 7 points. I think during the total match they had run three times as much as we did and after winning the first game DaWarsaw could hardly run anymore, probably the heat got to him. We lost the second game and since these guys were outrunning us big time I didn’t really believe in it anymore. DaWarsaw and I talked some strategy for the 3th game but we still were 6-4 behind. Somehow we managed to turn it around and DaWarsaw finished it off with a beautiful swish from the deep corner. Such a sweet victory and we had a small bet for some beers which was very welcomed after the match!

Talonchick wins & Luske wins twice!
I didn’t play any poker at all but most others did. For me it just doesn’t make sense due to the Dutch tax laws but for most people this isn’t an issue. Adrienne “talonchick” Rowsome loves her mixed games and participated in the Triple Stud Event. Marcel Luske also made it to the final table but Adrienne was victorious making this a back-to-back win for her! Last year there was no trophy so this year she was extra happy, I think also because half of Team Online was rooting for her heads-up 🙂 Check here for more info.

Marcel Luske likes his Mixed games as well and after busting the Triple Stud final table without reaching the money he tried his luck in the H.O.R.S.E. event the next day. After busting Adrienne he managed to win heads-up vs our new Japanese Team Online member Naoya “nkeyno” Kihara! Marcel probably felt really good after all these mixed games because only a couple of days later he won the 8-game event as well! It’s really great to see him doing so well. Yes he can talk for hours and sure sometimes what he says hardly makes sense (Johan Cruijff of Poker is a good way to describe it) but after all these years he still has so much love for the game and he is one of the friendliest guys in poker. More info about his wins here and here.

Dinner at Nobu, twice!
Most of you know I love sushi and luckily at the Bahamas they have a great Sushi restaurant 🙂 They have other great dishes as well but I didn’t even check that part the menu. The first time Nobu we went with the Team Online group including +1’s and it was great fun to have the whole group together for dinner. Last year we did that at the last day of the PCA and I lost the credit card roulette so I was really happy I dodged it this year! Ordering the yellowtail jalapeno sashimi is a must and I couldn’t wait to order the lobster Roll, whoaha! You just can’t order anything that comes close where I’m from. The 2nd time Nobu we had a PokerStars country dinner with the Belgium and Dutch Team Pro’s. Charlotte wanted to try out the crispy rice roll (middle one) and it was officially crowned as the best sushi by the both of us, so we ordered it three times 😉

We didn’t only have group dinners at Nobu. Every night we went out for dinner with a big group, a great way to start the evening!

Party
I only stayed for 7 days this year so there wasn’t a lot of time to party. I arrived on Saturday but went to bed early and the club is only open Thu/Fri/Sat. Since I was flying home on Saturday I didn’t want to drink on Friday which meant Thursday would be the only night out in the club. The PokerStars party was on Sunday so I missed it and from what I’ve heard it was one of the best ones ever! Ah well, most of the evenings we just hung out in the hotel lobby or Plato’s which is fun as well since it is way easier to talk there. We knew we had to get our dancing shoes ready because Cammie would fly out from Miami again to meet us all. She is a good friend of Caleb who works at the PokerStars VIPClub club and we got to meet her last year and had great fun on the dance floor. On Thursday after dinner (see pic above) we went to the casino bar where they also have a small dance floor, check the results below:

When we go out my name changes to Crazylegs, at least Frosty always calls me that. I just can’t help myself, when there is music I got to move! We had a fun bunch to hang out with a mix of PokerStars employees (Carly, Shirley, Dylan & Caleb) and poker players and their +1’s (Charlotte, Marta, Frosty, DaWarsaw, RJ).

There should be a photo with more of us on it but I have no clue who took that one? So after the warm-up, we moved on to the club! I think more people were waiting for the club to open because it was pretty busy for a Thursday. I wasn’t really wasted but I can’t say I remember much 🙂 I probably had a lot of fun, because that’s what I remember. It was also the last day drinking alcohol for me (my 180 day bet started right after PCA) so it felt kind of weird. I ordered a lot of Heineken, some Tequila and probably no water and just danced as long as I could 🙂

All of the above made this year’s trip just perfect! I’m pretty certain I’ll be there next year again and hopefully a little longer so I don’t miss the PokerStars Party. It was really good to see everybody again and also to meet a lot of great new people. Thx everybody!

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!

Time for change! (Yes again)

Poker, Social Comments Off

Jun 182012

I haven’t blogged in a long time but I don’t really feel like catching up on all things I’ve done since my last blog. One thing is for sure and that is the fact that I’ve enjoyed myself during this period, life is great but it really is time to look a bit further down the road again and that is mainly what I’m going to write about today.

I’m an ambitious lazy guy. I have many dreams and many goals I still want to achieve in my life but day to day I’m a pretty lazy guy. If I can get someone else to do something for me I’m happy to sit on my couch and do nothing. This makes achieving things in life pretty hard but so far things have always come very easy. The fact that things always came pretty easy makes me even lazier, it also makes me a bit arrogant and less ambitious. If I would only look at the short term I would say my life is really good and that shows by the fact that I enjoy my life almost every day. I’m a happy guy, I do a lot of fun things and hardly ever do something I don’t want to do. Some people would wonder what the hell the problem is then and a big part of me fully agrees with them. You should enjoy life when you still can and I’m really somebody who embraces that fully. However between long and short term there is also something in the middle and that’s what I want to try to keep in mind a little more often.

The last 2/3 months I haven’t played a lot of poker, I’ve done what’s necessary but that’s about it. My main focus, especially just before my trip to Vegas, was to finish an assignment at work which required me to put more hours in then the regular 24hrs/week. I cycled a bit but never more than once a week, I didn’t play any tennis or visited the gym. From the 15th of May I did play a lot of Diablo III and loved every second of it! I was either playing SCOOP or playing Diablo during that first week, I really felt like 16 again! I also had some great weekends with my friends like the weekend cycling the Amstel Gold Race in April. The vacation with my buddies to Vegas in June was really the greatest two weeks of the last 3 months, what a blast again! I might write some more about it later in this blog or another, Vegas still feels like a second home to me! When I got back from Vegas I also didn’t miss a single European championship football match, including the talk shows after the matches. The problem is that I want to keep doing all these things and for almost all these things I would also like to put some more effort in them. Looking at the last 3 months this especially counts for poker and exercising. I can shift priorities whatever I like but that doesn’t give me 28 hours in a day and that’s basically what I would need.

So it might be good to focus on some of these things but I’ve tried to complete that puzzle and I just can’t seem to solve it. Two years ago I didn’t really have to choose between work and poker but nowadays it’s becoming harder and harder to find the right balance. Just playing poker isn’t enough anymore to keep winning money, I also need to invest time in learning and studying the game. Limit hasn’t become any softer so if I want to keep beating it I need to work for it, I’ve thought about switching games but that would require even more study time for at least a couple of months and I just don’t have that time. However quitting poker is really something I don’t want to do. So why not quit work a lot of people would say? Well that isn’t that simple either. Besides that fact that I really like that stable income which makes me play poker comfortably, I also really like my job and think in the long term it holds more value. Two years ago I had a busy job but I was really experienced in that line of work so it gave me little stress and it was pretty easy to do in the 24 hours I worked. However since then I’ve moved up and I’m really a junior in my current role. This means I have to work harder and limiting it to only 24 hours a week is really hard which bites with my poker ambitions. So what to do? I’ve pondered about this for months and still don’t know it 🙁

For the midterm it would also be good to get some more exercise and try to look at what I eat and drink. This has been a topic many times before in my blog but despite writing about it and putting in some effort for 2-5 weeks it never really changed anything the last year. I promised myself never to get above the 100kg again and I can’t remember the last time I was below the 100kg, it’s probably almost a year ago by now. I really feel good and healthy and being 103kg isn’t really an issue but I don’t want to wait till I’m 115kg and my health is going downhill which will make it even harder to lose that weight again.

Well combine the above and you understand why “Time for change!” is the topic of this blog. Luckily I didn’t even start-up Diablo III after my holiday so that gives me some more hours to spent on other things. The Netherlands (worth a complete blog as well) didn’t qualify for the next round so that will save me a lot of time as well. I could also be a bit less lazy and hopefully these things combined give me those extra hours I’m looking for! The next thing is prioritizing the things I do want to do and exercise is going to be my top priority for the moment. I think it’s the hardest thing to keep doing if it’s not your top priority as it’s pretty easy to not go to the gym for one day while it’s unlikely to skip work for a whole day. Next on the list is poker for the same reason as exercise, it’s easier to skip a poker session then a day at work. Third on the list will be everything else and no that doesn’t mean that if I have to choose between my girlfriend, family or friends and poker that I chose poker above them, this is only about prioritizing time. I really hope I can find a good balance between all these things, I know it’s going to be hard and I really have to work for it but I do think it’s possible. Work is going to be a huge factor in this and I just hope I won’t get flooded. I already know that I’m going to get a pretty tough assignment till the 1st of October (and I doubt that will ever stop) and it’s really hard to say no at my job since there is no manager that really wants to hear no at the level I’m working at in the company but they will just have to accept that in some cases. I got a contract for 24hours, I’m willing to work a bit more when needed, I’m always flexible but I do have other obligations as well. It’s way easier to skip a gym or a poker session then to say no at work and I think when this isn’t working out I really have to make a choice between poker and work. Basically this is my last effort in finding a balance between the two of them and when it doesn’t work out I will force myself in making a decision.

I already started with my new exercise routine. I’ve been 4 times to the gym the last 7 days and 3 times in the last 3 days. Tomorrow I give myself a break in the gym but might go cycling for an hour or so. I teamed up with a buddy of mine who is always really serious for longer periods of time and he just had a small break and started last week again as well so hopefully that’s going to be really stimulating. So far the sessions went really well and I hope exercising more will also give me more energy at work and poker. Tomorrow I will start playing poker again (didn’t play since my return last week from Vegas) and I should put in at least 6 hours and next week I should be back to my normal routine(20hours a week). This week I’m also starting my new assignment at work so it’s going to be very interesting how everything is going to work out! Oh yeah, the Tour de France also almost starts, don’t forget the Olympics and let’s not even think about what will happen if the sun comes out and it’s really going to be summer over here……..

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