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!

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

I wanted to blog about some random things but since my previous blogs already contained so much text I decided to do it in a separate blog. I’ll start with a couple of questions I’ve received:

Tell something more about yourself?
Well I think most stuff is written on my Biography Page and what I’ve planned for this year you can read in the 2010 Poker Goals & 2010 Cycling Goals pages.

Do you like to become a poker pro?
That’s a question I haven’t answered and it’s a tough one. I think the answer is no, but it’s not that simple. I’m already employed for over 10 years with my current company and can’t complain about my salary. If I would be younger I would play poker full-time and start a career later, if I wouldn’t have real career options I would probably also play full-time poker and see what happens. Since I have a good career going I don’t want to leave the job-market for a couple of years as I think it will be very hard to roll back into it on the same level. I think poker will be there in <5 years but I’m not sure about the long term. Also if regulations change in the Netherlands I wouldn’t be willing to move, which is to me a really important factor. If you don’t mind living somewhere else, there will always be a country where you could play poker, but I’m not 100% sure how things will work out in the Netherlands. Not that I worry about this a lot, but it’s something to consider.

There are a lot of others things to consider. There is no such thing as a disability insurance for poker players. Poker earnings are treated as gambling revenue in the Netherlands, not income. My right arm is currently worth a lot of money! Sure, what are the odds? But I do have a history with different kinds of physical problems, so my chances are a bit higher then average. Also I have a mortgage and not having a job makes it hard to switch/change that mortgage.

Also since I started playing part-time I really enjoy work so much more. I don’t drag myself to work 5 days a week, I really enjoy doing it for 3 days. I really like to play poker 2 days a week I probably could do it for 5 days, but it’s also good to have some interaction with people and poker is nothing else then sitting solo behind your screen for hours doing the same thing every second. I love it, don’t get me wrong but I think if you would do it 5 days a week it could drive you really crazy, especially if things don’t go your way for a longer period.

When I started working part-time last year I saw it as the first step to become a full-time pro. My idea was that if things would work out in 2009, I would go full-time pro in 2010. Already half way I decided this duo job is really perfect. I can play enough poker without getting fed up with it and I’m still on the job market so whenever I want to boost my career again I don’t have to explain a gap in my résumé.

This would all change if I suddenly become a nosebleed regular and could earn $1.000.000 in a year.

What’s your edge in limit?
Another though one. Just looking at the numbers 0.2BB/100. Most NL players will laugh their ass of right now but I don’t think it’s that bad. A real good winrate is 1BB/100 in FR Limit. There are maybe 4/5 people with a decent sample in my database that have more then 1BB/100. People I consider really good in FR Limit have a little over 0.5BB/100. Other people who play 20-24 tables like myself have about the same winrate and a lot of people loose a bit (but still profit due to rakeback/VIP program). 

What a lot of people forget is that if you break-even, you are already beating the game by a nice chunk. Especially since you pay a lot of rake in limit games. I didn’t calculate this, so shoot me if I’m totally wrong here but looking at PokerTracker I see that you roughly pay 0.7 – 1.0 BB/100 in rake alone. I would be happy to break-even and still make all the money the VIP program offers. To me poker is about money ($/hour) not about my winrate, although a higher winrate of course would get me more money.

If I just think about my skill, well I could beat any limit game but it just depends on the players of course. In general I can beat the $2/$4 and $3/$6 games without any trouble. The $5/$10 game can be really tough and the $10/$20 and $15/$30 can go both ways. Sometimes there are really crazy people sitting there and sometimes it’s full of tough regs and I shouldn’t even be sitting there. I haven’t tried $30/$60 or $50/100 but I do see those same crazy people there, but also a lot more tough regs. Currently I say I have to stick where I am and since I’m down in 2010 so far, I should get better in beating the current stakes I’m playing and not even think about moving up.

Current skill level of the games in 2010?
It depends on the month. January is a tough one as people get in fresh with lots of new aspirations. November & December are clearly the best months to play poker as most people are playing over their head in stakes and number of tables to get SNE or a milestone. So far the games in 2010 are tough, but I did expect that. There are some direct opponents who did improve in 2009, but I don’t notice a too big difference, I do hope I did evolve myself as well. I saw some new players in 2010 having a really good start, but I see that so often. A new player moves up, he wins the first 2/3 weeks and then his graph will become a trainwreck. Some player moved up in stakes and started playing 20 tables at the same time. They are good players and play a real good game for the first couple of weeks. After that it becomes really hard to play 20 tables and still hold on to the level they used to play. Also regulars will pick-up there style and are able to counter it since they are more experienced. This happens all year long, but I saw a lot of new players in 2010 and to some this has already happened. Others are there to stay and any new winning regular at my tables is one to many of course, but besides new good players there are also plenty of new bad players.

There is a lot of stuff about limit to learn on the internet but there is so much more about no-limit. I think a lot of bad limit players are not learning players. They just like to play limit. There are also more games now then in 2008/2009. Just look alone at the number of players on PokerStars, where last year at the start 200.000 people was a lot, at the end 300.000 seems huge and now we go up to 350.000 every Sunday. Poker is far from dead and Limit games seem to stick around. I was afraid limit games would dry up when looking at the number of games during the summer of 2009, but the current state of the number of games is better then ever.

Why SNE? Why not move up? Change to NL?
I need to work towards a goal to get the most out of myself. Last year my goal was to get 600.000 VPP and I made it while playing 16 hours of poker every week. Since I’m working 24 hours a week it all adds up to a normal full-time job. Since my girlfriend is away the first 5 months of this year on a backpack trip in New Zealand and Australia I had the idea to play a lot more during the first part of the year. Also last year I was lazy for a lot of periods because I had no intention to go above the 600.000 VPP (ending up at 650.000 isn’t that appealing) and I was on pace. I had the feeling I could do more and SNE is appealing looking at the rakeback % jump, it jumps from 50% at 600.000 to 69% for SNE.

So why do I not play less tables and move up? There are a lot of reasons for this. The most important is that I don’t see myself as a talented poker player. I don’t think I’m ever good enough to play nosebleeds. I think I’m good at poker not because I’m good at the game itself but because all the other factors you need to be a complete poker player. I have a good discipline, I can focus for long periods of time, I hardly tilt, I don’t get emotional over losing money, I don’t play above my bankroll, I never play drunk and I’m good in playing a lot of tables at the same time. All these skills have a factor of how they add up to your total profit. The higher stakes you play, the higher the factor “real pokerskill” becomes and the lower some of the other factors should be rated. They are still needed, don’t get me wrong!

Also there are not so many higher stake games running and they are filled with good people. I think it’s easier for me (looking at what I just stated above) to increase my $/hour multitabling $3/$6 till $15/$30 then to move up. $15/30 is already on the high side, but if I beat the game why not add it to the tables I’m already playing? I doubt I’ll move to $30/$60 any time soon.

I’ve considered many times to switch to no-limit but there are a couple of reasons for me to stick to limit. One is that I can earn good money in it and I like the game. I like to play flop/turn/river and push small edges. Where most no-limit people think that it doesn’t matter that much if you miss a river bet or make any other mistake which only cost you 1 bet, they don’t realise that you only win 1BB/100. So every mistake of 1 BB has a huge impact on your winrate. 1 bet doesn’t seem much in a NL game but it’s all that counts when playing limit. It would costs me several months to learn NL and move up to a level where I earn the same as I currently do and I don’t even think I like the game, so that just leaves me with playing limit.

The only thing I do consider for 2011 is playing 6Max. I think this would improve my overall limit game, I would like to play HU as well as you can get a much higher winrate in 6Max and HU games. 2010 I’m planning to go for SNE and even when I get 5*FPP for 2011 I don’t think I’m going to do it for 2 years in a row.

Why don’t you give an overall $ status at the end of your blog?
Yeah, another valid question. When considering to write this blog, one of many considerations was that I don’t need everybody to know exactly what I earn. On the other hand when I’m reading a blog myself I do like to read about $, because in the end that’s what this game is all about. If I’m SNE at the end of the year, everybody can check what that’s worth. You can check PTR to see how I’m doing although it’s not 100% accurate. When writing my first blog I was thinking to post my graphs in BB’s but I think most people rather see $ so I sticked with it. I might add overall $ in the future but for now I’ll leave it like this because I feel I’m already really open enough about my financial situation. Nothing bad with being curious though

I hope I did answer your questions, feel free to ask any other!

Some more random things now:

When I play poker I always listen to music. Without my headphones on I think I can play for 30minutes max. I also need the PokerStars bleeps, if I turn them off I miss all the action. It’s like a bleep tells my head to starts thinking, I click and the next bleep sets my brain in motion again. I listen to all kinds of music, it’s either a mix of Pop and R&B (Michael Jackson, Alicia Keys, Kayne West, Rihanna, Jamiroquai, Lilly Allen, Joss Stone, John Legend, Micheal Bublé, George Micheal and many others) or I listen to Trance Music. The dance scene in the Netherlands is huge and we have a lot of different styles. When I go out I prefer Techno and I hardly go to festivals or clubs where the DJ’s play Trance but for playing poker it’s my #1. I listen to Trance/Goa mixes of Paul Oakenfold and the In Search of Sunrise or Magik Mixes compilated by DJ Tiësto. That music can really put me into the zone. Since it’s one big flow I really get into some sort of trance and combined with being fit and playing good I sometimes don’t notice that hours tick away and when looking at the clock it’s suddenly 3/4 hours later. Now the really weird thing I noticed last week is that at work, I miss the music. When I’m answering e-mails or in a meeting I don’t, but when I need to concentrate because I have to finish a memo or project documentation I need music to concentrate. Without it, I really miss something. It’s almost that I can’t concentrate anymore without music. I don’t know what to think about it, but I hope it doesn’t affect me in doing anything else in the future.

I’ve also been planning my next Las Vegas Trip. We are planning to go early September for 8-12 days. I would love to go 12 days but some guys don’t even like to gamble or play poker. Maybe I stay around a little longer with 1/2 people but the intention is to party. In 2008 I booked two trips to Las Vegas, one to play poker and one to party and the party trip was out of proportions. My birthday is also in September and I guess it will be my biggest birthday bash ever We are with 5 or 6 other guys and are planning to hit the clubs as much as we can and I’ll combine it with some poker during the day, if I don’t feel too bad. I’m already looking forward to it, Las Vegas is really my town!

I also have a 2010 Cycling Goal Page and although most readers are interested in just Poker I will keep you guys a bit up to date with the progress. I signed up for the Amstel Gold Race and because all the other guys wanted to go for the 100Km I’ve also signed up for that distance. I wanted to go for 125Km or even 150Km but I don’t like to do it alone as I’m a really inexperienced cycler. I didn’t cycle outside yet but I think I can start doing then from next week on, depending on the weather of course. I did cycle in the gym on Sunday & Tuesday each for about 90 minutes. It’s really boring to do in the gym but at least I get some training. On Monday/Wednesday/Friday I also work-out in the gym and that’s going pretty good as well.

I’m still not drinking any alcohol and trying to eat less and already lost some pounds. Not drinking benefits in more ways as I feel a lot more fit after the weekend, which helps when playing poker. When going out I do miss it and I can’t wait for June I do have to sleep a little more, since last week was really crap. I was tired all week and that didn’t help my game at all. Being well rested is really important for both my poker and sport goals so I have to really force myself going to bed. Often it’s not even that I’m doing something useful, I just can’t drag my ass to bed since I’m used to staying up late (06:00-07:00 when playing poker). Definitely something I need to work on!

It’s Saturday and I had a good night out in Amsterdam yesterday so I’m thinking what to do tonight. I was planning not to play any poker, but I’m not sure now. Tuesday another blog with the results of this week sessions. Thanks for the positive comments and I hope you liked the read again!