A year of poker starting with $0

Major update.

2005-10-01T12:37:00.000+02:00

After being sick i had a birthday to go to for a few days, but now i am back to play again.
Also some things happened in mean time.

Matthew Hilger, the writer of the book ' Internet Texas Hold'em, winning strategies from a pro ' offered me a free copy of his book and ofcourse i accepted the offer and promissed to publish a review of this book.
I received the book 2 days ago and will start reading/study it this weekend.

An irc buddy ( hya Roth ) started to play some serious poker 2 days ago and i was able to refer him to a site ( absolute poker ) where i received a nice referrer bonus of $100.
Roth managed to win a tournament on empire on the same day as he started to be serious about poker. So congrats on a nice win and i hope many will follow.

This is it for now and i hope i will see you all at the poker tables soon.
Before i forget, if anyone has a spare copy of Dan Harrington's Tournament book volume 2 , i will be happy to receive it.

Being sick doesnt help.

2005-09-18T00:27:00.000+02:00

Sorry, atm no updates as i am sick.
Eating loads of fruits and vegetables trying to recover as soon as possible.

Growing bankroll.

2005-09-11T12:12:00.000+02:00

Although i don't play much these days i still manage to win a few $.

Yesterday i played the $5k freeroll at Bet365 and i must admit that i was playing one of my worst tournaments ever but still managed to finish 136th out of 6177 entrants giving me $7.50 .
This morning i played 3 small sng's also at Bet365 and i managed to win 2 of them, meaning i can add $26.30 to my bankroll.

On a different note, i really enjoy playing with the Xbox which my son got for his 8th birthday ;-) .

Omaha hi/lo tournament.

2005-09-07T10:03:00.000+02:00

Last night i went to bed early but could not sleep at all, i fired up my pc and saw this omaha hi/lo pot limit tournament at absolute poker and signed up.
With 75 entrees only 9 places paid, unfortunally by the time when i reached the final i was tired and half sleeping and due to poor at that time i went out in the 9th place and went to bed, still i can add some $ to the bankroll.

Adding $6 to the bankroll.

2005-09-06T17:58:00.000+02:00

After some days of silence i am back again and today i enjoyed playing a limit omaha tournament at absolute poker and finished 3rd out of 1000 players, making myself $6,- .

I played a $10k freeroll at Expekt yesterday and although i played a very good tournament i finished 394th out of 10k players, % wise not too bad but with only 130 places paid i ended up with nothing.
Good thing is that they will have a 10k freeroll tomorrow again at 18.30 cet (believe it is 12.30 est) so i will have another try.

I will do a poker book review in 2-3 weeks so if you have a book to be reviewed let me know.

Time for some dinner now, hope to see you all at the tables soon.

Having a good time and earning $1.50

2005-08-31T23:47:00.000+02:00

Finally some small freeroll succes. Through Parbet on the prima network i played a $1k freeroll and although the huge field of 11.000 players i managed to finish in 182nd place earning $1.50. Although it is just a small amount and i wasnt playing the best of poker i had a great time playing.

I have been asked which sites i play on the prima network and i must admit that i have an account at about 10 sites. Lately i play mainly through Parbet as they have 2 decent $1500 freerolls a week besides the regular prima freerolls with compared to other freerolls only a few players (about 700-800 active players).

I noticed that Absolute poker has this very nice $5000 freeroll with max 2000 players today but unfortunally for me its at 3 am my time and i will be sleeping then.
Good luck to those who will play it.

Charity decision.

2005-08-30T18:16:00.000+02:00

Barry Greenstein got back to me with an excellent idea where little money can make a big difference. At http://www.children-inc.org/ you can become a sponsor for a child or donate for special projects.
And as children are innocent and the future this is a good place to start with.

So help some children have a decent education and a normal life by clicking the ads and search through the google search at this blog.

Concentration and tiredness.

2005-08-30T18:02:00.000+02:00

Unfortunally i haven't played all the tournaments which i wanted but it is no loss as due to some sleeping problems last few days i can not focus at all.

Ofcourse i played some small tournaments but after an hour i am just too tired to concentrate and also lose intrest to play. I will try to play the $3.5k one at NordicBet seriously in about an hour but i fear that tiredness will preveal.

Also some good news, my son will have his 8th birthday on thursday which he is really looking forward too and keeps asking what his present will be.
I wonder who of us will play most on his new xbox or playstation (still need to decide and buy).

Ads revenue.

2005-08-26T16:53:00.000+02:00

So far i have earned more $ with the ads then the freerolls ;-) and i was wondering in how to spend this money.
Things which came into my mind are charity, giving it back to the frequent readers and my own pocket.
And so it will be divided in equal parts.

I will send Barry Greenstein a mail which charities could use the few dollars from this site as i respect him very much for donating all his tournament winnings to charity ( he is donating millions ).

I will organise a freeroll every 3 months in which i will participate myself and the lvl increase will be slow :) (Christmas is a good time to start the 1st one), all i need is to find a way to register regular readers of this site.

Think that the money which goes into my own pocket will be used for gifts for my son and future wife.

Btw i made a massive 13ct in a pacific freeroll because it got cancelled.

Upcoming week schedule.

2005-08-24T14:52:00.000+02:00

I made a shortlist for myself to see which tournaments i will play, besides bankroll management i think at least as import is time management .

Nordic Bet, aug 30th and sept 1st $3500 freeroll, Bet365 aug 27th $5000 freeroll, Expect aug 24th $2000 freeroll and Parbet aug 25th/30th $1500 freeroll.
Besides those i will start to play the different freerolls at ultimate bet a bit more serious.
The oness i play more loose/less serious are the satelite freerolls at Pacific which i will play on occasion as i really think that its more luck then skill to qualify through those and i will also play the $1k freerolls at the Prima network regulary.

I also have been asked when i think i have made enough money to start playing regular tournaments.
I am the type of player that plays a tournament to win and not just to finish into the money although if i find myself on the bubble playing not so good or tired/distracted etc. i might choose otherwise.
But in general i am confident that i will make some $ within now and 1/2 weeks this does not mean i can not fall back because also in normal buyin MTT's it is no exception not making the money several times in a row.
I believe that when my BR is $30-$50 i can survive in low buyin MTT's and move up.

Time for some coffee and a massage.

Tournament report.

2005-08-23T18:26:00.000+02:00

$1500,- freeroll at Parbet poker, 989 entrants and 80 places paid. And again crazy blind levels. Starting chips 800 with 6 min lvl increase. (i really need more time).

20 min AQs stole blinds, was suprised nobody went all in
lost some with QJ on a openended straight draw.
Flopped 2 pair at bb with A8s after 25 min 1700 chips with 75/150 blinds.

Frustrating to see that the worst player at the table is so lucky with all kinda weird all ins from 32o to A6o winning almost every hand and when he looses its against a short stack.
30+ min 100/200 blinds 2000 stack getting AA on sb someone goes all in with AQ and i double up .
5 min later again AA no callers on my raise
40 min into play 4500 stack with 150/300 blinds and i am one of the short stacks
KJs late position trying to steal blinds as nobody called or raised but have to laydown after allin of bb ,3600 chips left
After 55 min the blinds of 600/300 are hurting and i need to do something .
I decided to make a stand with ATs at BB which didnt work (the lucky one won with J7o ).
With 1100 chips left with 78s on button and 5 previous callers i limped in too and almost flopped perfect, open ended str8 and flush draw and as i didnt hit i went out in 120th place.
Played an overall decent but short tournament, now off to play Pacifics poker $30k satelite freeroll (again too little chips and too fast lvl increase).

Quick update, out of the qualifier in 10 min, had AKo flop AKx , other one had KK.

Steam control.

2005-08-22T11:11:00.000+02:00

I really could use some tips to control my temper as i cant some times.

While playing a decent tournament i get QQ in the big blind there is one raise in front of me with 2 callers. I reraise and get 2 callers then i flop Q92 rainbow the original raiser raises and the other one folds, at this moment i put him on 3 hands AA, KK or AQ and as i flopped a set i am not scared and i go all in. I managed to get beaten by K9 (runner runner straight).

What is it with people that they go crazy with even an underpair, don't they know anything about poker ? Is it television which creates these crazy moves. I only know i cant stand those beats.
I also got my KK beaten by T7 in a different tournament yesterday but i blaim that on myself as i didnt raise enough, sitting at shotgun i raised 2 times the big blind.

Crazy blinds.

2005-08-21T17:20:00.000+02:00

I was too tired yesterday for the $3000,- freeroll at Interpoker as expected.
Today i played a super satelite at Pacific for their 100k tournament, about 1980 entrants with the crazy lvl increase every 5 min with only 800 chips to start with and only 1st place counts.
After the 1 hr break blinds were 750/1500 while my stack was 10222 chips and i was ranked about 50th out of 100 remaining players, more luck and gambling then poker i think.

I managed to steal some blinds and build up to 14000 chips when i get AKs with blinds of 1500/3000 sitting in middle position. The agressive chipleader at the table bets twice the blinds and i decide to call and see if i flop something (everyone else folds). Flop K3T he bets 3000 and i go all in, he calls and shows pocket tens. Out in 56th place.

Think i will try another super satelite at Pacific for the 200k main event tomorrow and the 1k freeroll at Prima today.

But first i am gonna eat a nice well deserved dinner.

Not what i expected.

2005-08-20T22:35:00.000+02:00

Today there was a nice $5000 freeroll at Bet365 (prima network), a nice tournament with 6051 entrants and 300 prices.
I was playing a solid 1st hour managing to climb to the 175th place in chips with 1247 people remaing.
Then i get these 65 suited i raise being in late position and button calls then the big blind goes all in (the big blind was low stacked). I call and so does the button. Flop 765, i check, button raises and as i figure him on 2 overcards i go all in. Oops !! he has 89 a nice straight and as i dont improve on turn or river i am out.

In the end quite dissapointing as it should have been not that hard to get into the money which was the goal today.

If i am not too tired (which is one of biggest leaks), then i will play the $3000 freeroll at interpoker later today ( 2am for me). I will update tomorrow if i played and how i did.

A good year ahead.

2005-08-20T18:00:00.000+02:00

Hello all to this blog/journal of my poker quest.

Today is a good day to start with this blog and a year of serious (online) poker.

In this year i will try to earn as much money possible starting with $0 as bankroll ( my aim is to build the bankroll to a nice $50.000,-) realising that it is hard to start with nothing at all.
I am a 33 year old dutch guy who played live, low stakes ring table poker from 1990 till about 2001. In march 2005 i was introduced to online poker and fell in love again, this time mainly tournament play which was completly new to me and it seems i am doing above average in them.

Although my son and future wife have priority in my life i still think i can play enough hrs to make a substantial amount of money in a year time playing tournaments and low stakes poker.
My favourite games are omaha hi/lo, triple draw 2-7, pot and fixed limit holdem and i also like to play some razz now and then.

I will start to play freerolls on different sites but mainly on the Prima network. I will use the freerolls at Ultimate Bet and Absolute poker to try out different tactics and styles.
As soon i win some money with the freerolls i will start playing low buyin tournaments and sit n go's. I will not play ring tables before i have a bankroll of at least $600,-.