Originally posted by TheBrood
Diplomas are overrated, if you can play profitable poker, you can do what ever you want in life. Don't let them tell you otherwise.
Poor advice IMO.......get your diploma.
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Thursday, October 8
Good news. Well, not good, just better than before. I got my money, the account was approved, and I even got a(nother) virtual prepaid card, and a real one being shipped to me for free. The bad news is that Everest rejected my bonus code as it's for new accounts only, and mine's like a year old. Even though I never deposited, my account is still tracked, so I can't make a new one. I've written to the support and they say they're forwarding this matter to the manager and will reply with a definitive answer within 48 hours (that mail was 18 hours ago). They'd better hurry before I pick another room.
On the other hand, I'm pissed off. I had to put up with the German version of InterPoker client, which is okay as I'm learning German. The pissed-off-about-able (shut up, I know it's not a word) part is the username. They even have a button that checks for availability, all nice and fancy, but just when you think you finished the registration they ask you for your nickname. Which for some reason can't be the same as your username, and they find that information so redundant they don't bother to mention it anywhere.
Now I have to play as BerzergerR for the rest of my days on InterPoker. I don't mind one letter, but I would prefer a nickname with less than 4 r's in it like I intended it to be. Now I can't ever use it as it's automatically blocked by the fact that I chose it as my username. Seriously, the least they could do was to let me know. InterPoker's next in line for bonuswhoring, and if I deposit there and find out I'm not tracked, like the Stars incident, I'm going to be so pissed off I'll test a few buildings on fire safety after I barricade all emergency exits. No, I don't need therapy.
Posted this in my downswing rant thread, but this deserves a recitation. After a jolly 2 hour session of 2-tabling on Pacific I lost my $120. First one was a delightful little setup where my jacks full run into the only possible better hand. Quad fives, yay! -$62 and on to the next one where my flopped trips get rivered by a straight, goodbye dear stack. Playing with 2.5BI isn't exactly professional BRM, but I don't see the point in playing NL5, and it's not like those $120 were the last of my savings. I run like a crippled turtle on Stars too, but at least I'm making profit there, so I'll spare you my bitching for now. I need a cigarette...
About the diploma, I have a problem with the conformist life stereotype that everyone always tried to impose on me. Go to school, graduate, work 8 hours a day for the next 40 years, dealing with colleagues you may or may not like and taking crap from the boss regardless of how you feel about it. After that when it's weekend, you may have fun for a day or two, assuming you don't have to come in on Saturdays or work on some deadline on Sunday.
They even have a saying here, "you work to live and you live to work". If that's everyone's idea of how the rest of my days should look like, I'm rather glad flipping everyone off and do what I like for a living, spending the majority of my time actually enjoying my life rather than doing something I dislike but have to do in order to survive.
Enough of this depressed monologue, I'm tired of waiting and complaining. The next time I post here, I will have already begun clearing my huge bonus on a new site, be it Everest or InterPoker. Until then...
Sunday, October 25
After a two week break I finally decided what I want to do with my life. I permanently quit school and am now grinding up the money to pay the bills. This hasn't been easy on my parents. My mother keeps nagging about the damn diploma, while my stepfather is being unreasonable as ever. For instance, some time ago I asked him if I could borrow his external hard drive where he keeps his movies to copy "I am Legend" to my PC because I wanted to watch it, evidently. His answer was "I don't lend my hard drive." When I asked why, his literal reply was "because." He never gave me any actual reason whatsoever. When I stated that I want to play poker for a living, he said "not in this house." Apparently he can't handle the fact that I don't have to work in dripping sweat eight hours a day to make a living and needs to project his image of normal life on me. As a result, I'm moving out of the house when I turn 21, little over a year.
InterPoker. Made a deposit, but so far it appears I'm not tracked. I have no idea why not, but if the support won't reply in 48 hours there'll be hell to spend. I already started clearing the 1,000 EUR FDB, but I do want my rakeback. I don't like the software much though. The fact that there's no sound signal when you're about to time out is sickeningly aggravating, and the window doesn't even pop up if you click it and then click away, even if you do time out. The only good thing is that it's got a mini-table format which makes it easy to see all the numbers no matter how small you resize the window. I just hate timing out on some table every two minutes and not even know about it until I by some chance click it. Therefore every window must be directly visible with minimal overlapping, which is easily manageable with the mini-tables. Mostly I hate the fact that Elephant HUD doesn't work. The play is relatively soft, few regs, but more on that later.
Everest. At the last moment they finally decide to tell me I got my $1k bonus. Very funny, counting in the fact that I already deposited all my money to InterPoker. Luckily the latter allows me to clear the FDB stepwise, so I can withdraw without forfeiting it. So I deposited $1k to Everest, a few days late but better late than never. I already made well over the required amount of rake on IP, so if I'm eligible for rakeback in the first place I'll receive it. If not, I'll just treat it like another untracked site (Stars), clear the bonus when I have the time and never even look at it again unless I get retracked somehow. Bottom line: I have until November 12 to clear my full bonus on Everest. That means grinding. I tried 6-tabling NLSH lately, but I think I'll switch back to FR because of the number of tables I can play at the same time. I feel more familiar with grinding FR, and there's slightly less variance.
Speaking of variance, it's been kicking all over my balls lately. First a warm -3BI welcome gift at IP, and yesterday Everest presented me with -4BI as a reward for my mostly correct play. Major pots just don't go my way. Stations and retards keep hitting against me, I'm seriously surprising myself by staying on the positive end. Technically I've made profit at both IP and Everest, but for the time I put into it, I'd be better off working a low-paying job. So I made this little schedule for myself. At least 21 hours of grinding every week. I can displace some hours to take a day (or several) off, but I can't just sit around and do whatever I want anymore. The money's not going to win itself.
Now, I've made the switch to SH. I can honestly admit that variance is bigger, but not because of the nature of the game. Well, technically it is because people play more hands, but that's not the main reason I've had such swings on the SH tables. For me it was because people made stupid calls for large portions of their stacks and got lucky. Overall, I noticed far worse players on SH tables, a lot more maniacs. I haven't mastered FR to perfection yet, but I can see how SH can be more profitable. I'll take the time to learn the new format, watch videos and read articles, hoping to make a permanent switch soon...
Wow.. That's a big thing !
I admire you for being that strong and that you trust in your abilities that much that you are giving up the degree.. (Ofc most of us is doing the Uni for parents.. but maybe at some point of life the degree will be handy:) )
Im sure considered it for long time so I believe it's correct decesion and that it will pay off!
Wish you good luck with everything!
Btw.. after u buy some sick car, dont let your stepdad drive it ♦
It is OK if you decided with a cool head, but please think about it if you do not give up uni because you are lazy and poker is just a good "reason" .. Personally I think playing 21 hours / week can be done very easily with the uni .. I would recommend you to stay there .. At least in my country being a student has many pros except for the diploma .. Wish you all the best may your decision be any :-)
Berzerger You have plenty of time to play poker and enhance your skills. Your parents only want what is best for you, finish the degree and then make a big run at pro poker. I'm sure your parents would be far more supposrtive of your shot at poker if you told them you are going to finish your degree/diploma whatever then concentrate on poker for 1 -2 years whilst living at home.
Maybe speaking to your mother about that idea would pay dividends because the minute you move out of home your life becomes a grind. Bills, food, rent and god forbid a pregnant girlfriend down the track.... before you know it you're 40 going bald and working in a factory making toothpicks.
If you fall on your sword one day (blow your BR) you have something to fall back on. A degree/diploma may really not mean much to some but it at least shows to a potential employer that you see things through and have an intelligence that some people may not, paper means a lot in a corporate world.
Just my opinion but I wish you well in the future, I really do hope you make it as a pro player but just for your information a number of great pro poker players have degree's/diploma's/masters etc because they were smart enough to realise that if plan A failed then plan B would not mean working for minimum wage.
Originally posted by ImAnAcehole9
Berzerger You have plenty of time to play poker and enhance your skills. Your parents only want what is best for you, finish the degree and then make a big run at pro poker. I'm sure your parents would be far more supposrtive of your shot at poker if you told them you are going to finish your degree/diploma whatever then concentrate on poker for 1 -2 years whilst living at home.Maybe speaking to your mother about that idea would pay dividends because the minute you move out of home your life becomes a grind. Bills, food, rent and god forbid a pregnant girlfriend down the track.... before you know it you're 40 going bald and working in a factory making toothpicks.
If you fall on your sword one day (blow your BR) you have something to fall back on. A degree/diploma may really not mean much to some but it at least shows to a potential employer that you see things through and have an intelligence that some people may not, paper means a lot in a corporate world.
Just my opinion but I wish you well in the future, I really do hope you make it as a pro player but just for your information a number of great pro poker players have degree's/diploma's/masters etc because they were smart enough to realise that if plan A failed then plan B would not mean working for minimum wage.
no its the degree which makes them a pro player. comp sci/ maths grads etc obvs much better prepared for poker mindset.
Wednesday, October 28
After a week playing on Everest I'm up $500, $200 of which are from today alone. So far, I'm loving SH. It's awesome. I know I won't always be on a heater, but I've had my share of downswings, so I'll be able to handle the next one when it comes. But for now, the money's rolling in, and I feel great.
Right now, I'm concerned with the bonus. I have 15 days left to clear it and I'm only at 16%. I need to rake up 850 Everest Points every day for the next two weeks, no exceptions, no slacking off. Playing 9 SH tables, that's 100 EP per table every day. Since I can do whatever the hell I want every day (one of the advantages of being a poker pro, along with sleeping late), there's plenty of time. All I need to do is go grind-happy for a while.
Now, I appreciate everyone's concerns about me quitting school, I really do. But the truth is, I don't want to spend four more years on full-time education. Contrary to popular belief, I won't have the time to play poker if I want to pass the exams. And even when I do, even if I graduate and walk out with a master degree, then what? Get a job and play poker parallel with work? Why, to earn money I'm already earning right now? Or to have a back-up plan in case poker fails? In that case I can just go back to school at any point in time anyway. With poker, however, I have an income, and all the time I put into making myself a better player and climbing the stakes will pay off in 4 years, much more so than a diploma. Those are the main factors that steered me towards my, as most people tend to call it, radical decision.
Right now I'm preparing for a switch to NL100. I think I'll do it when I hit the $2k mark on Everest. I feel I'm ready for the limit, and I've postponed the transition long enough on Cake. However, I've seen how swingy SH can get at times, and I just started playing it a few weeks ago. I can, of course, re-deposit, but I don't want to withdraw too much money from InterPoker, and 15 BI isn't exactly professional BRM. I might lean towards trying it out sooner than I reach the $2k mark, that would prove especially handy for bonus clearing, but I'm not sure yet.
Now, I recently received an email from InterPoker that says I'm entitled to receive 30% RB (in months where I generate over 100 EUR rake), but nothing about whether or not my account is tracked to PokerStrategy. I don't think all players receive RB, so this should be good news. Still, it's weird that I haven't received any strategy points yet. I've always looked rather shifty at InterPoker, especially how they bend the rules of poker in their software. I mean, when you join the table, you have the possibility of posting the blind between SB and BU, what's that all about? Still, as long as I make profit and receive bonus/RB, I'll be happy.
Some time ago I promised myself I'd make it to diamond status this month. Looks like it's going to be a goal for November, since I'll be grinding for the bonus anyway. And if, by some fortunate coincidence, I get the strategy points I earned while playing on InterPoker, it will make that task so much easier. There's nothing to gain by hitting diamond status, but it'll make me feel better for having accomplished a goal, and the prestige of being treated as a valuable member. That, and all the money I pick up on the way of course...
Friday, November 13
Looking back at the past two weeks I can say I overestimated myself. Before anyone gives me a speech about how I should reconsider my career choice, it wasn't in the skill department. Even if that was the case, my arrogance would never allow me to admit it. What I do care to admit happens to be the reason I dropped out of school in the first place. I'm unacceptably lazy. Not putting enough volume in the game. It might have something to do with the fact that I started to see poker as work, now more than ever.
In the past, I always devalued everything I deemed redundant or even partially useless, and only cared to put effort in things that interested me. For the most part that included entertainment, because of my life philosophy. I always believed that the quality of life is measured by the amount of happiness a person experiences in his lifetime. A scientist at heart, I don't believe in god. But even if he does exist, there is no heaven or hell because of the fundamental flaws of such concept, therefore I believe my existence is permanently over when I die. This alone is reason enough for me to have as much fun in the remaining years of my life as possible. Now that poker is actually my job, I experience much less joy from playing. The thrill mainly comes from winning, and long sessions become more of a rarity in my schedule.
Only played at Everest since I last posted here. And my, do I have a thing or two to say. 17BI downswing on NL50 SH, to begin with. I had $1500 in my account, start playing normally, three days later I end up at $650. As far as my poker adventures go, pound for pound this must be the worst downswing of my career. I knew I had a bonus to clear, and I knew it was a lump sum, but I just couldn't go back to the tables. I felt bad after losing so much money, and I was too demotivated to start playing again. Dropped to gold member status in the meantime.
When I finally decided to open the Everest client again, I did the same thing I usually do after a downswing. I went up a limit. Last time I switched from NL20 to NL50 on Cake, and it went surprisingly well, and so far I'm recovering my roll at a decent rate as a newly established NL100 SH player. Of course, there was no way of knowing, but if I did I'd probably go for the $300 FDB instead of the $1000 one as I only managed to clear 1/3 of the required amount.
I'll play another week or so at Everest until I manage to get my $1500 back, at this rate it shouldn't take long. Then I'll convert my Summit points to cash and move my roll elsewhere, possibly back to InterPoker where I still have a bonus to clear. I realize I could as well start playing there right now, the players aren't really better than on Everest, but I'd miss stats as Elephant HUD won't show up on IP, and stats are really helpful in SH games.
A slice of personal life. Parents are kicking me out sooner than expected. Odds are I'll be moving out in 2-3 months already. My parents are in debts right now, so I gave them 600 EUR to help with the bills because I wanted to help out a little. They've been asking me for money ever since I quit school, and they seemed satisfied with the money, but I learned that's just temporary. Apparently, they want me to pay 400 EUR every month just for living here. If that's the case, I'll stay until they kick me out and go live with a friend in an apartment, splitting the rent. Actually cheaper.
Moreover, I'm getting tired of my parents' lack of understanding. They still see poker as some kind of gambling, and won't believe for a minute it's an actual job. It might be just my arrogance talking, but they're too stupid to understand elementary math behind poker when I try to explain, yet they want proof. I mean, what am I supposed to do, withdraw all my money for a day, put it in my bank account and deal with the transaction fees just to prove that I have that money? And to think they actually want me to find a "real" job to build character. I'm sick of explaining myself to people who don't respond to logic, if I move out it's probably for the best.
For those who care to read, I'd like to explain the nature of my persona a bit more detailed. I have a psychiatric condition that closely resembles dissociative identity disorder. I have three distinct hand writings, different voice pitches and behavior patterns. It's like chronic mood swings, but extreme enough to make me seem like a totally different person. If I were to pick a name for this, I'd call it associative identity disorder. The condition isn't medically serious enough to be diagnosed as DID because I don't have recurring blackouts or chronic memory loss, and there appears to be no direct threat to my health. Most people who know me for a week or longer either find me entertaining or annoying, but usually agree I'm a total wacko. I don't mind being an eccentric character though, gives me my share of fun.
Oh, and today's my 20th birthday.
Funny you went that that downswing, I went through an exact similar one too a week ago! Except, I moved down instead.
Try not to push away your parents too much. When you go broke (always a chance especially with you moving up when you run bad?!) you don't want your parents to say 'I told you so' but instead welcome you.
And just chill out ffs, take a break from poker for a few days. Enjoy your freedom- otherwise what's the fucking point?
Oh and happy birthday. See, you've completely forgotten your bday. Sort out your priorities lad.
I don't envy your position Berzerger. Trying to make a living out of poker can be really hard psychologicaly, but I think is better that hard times come at the beginning since then you'll be more aware of the hazards of the profession.
Just don't give up, improve yourself and if financial state dictates it, find a job for at least some time. If you show to your parents, but most of all to yourself, that you are able to take care of yourself everything will be much easier.
The important thing in my opinion is that you put dedication in what you want to achieve.
Thursday, December 24
Short recap of the past month. My bonus on InterPoker expired, so I withdrew around $1000 for personal expenses that may or may not include trips to Amsterdam. The rest I put in my Neteller account. I thought I'd clear my bonus on Stars before moving to a new room, but since I only have about $200 bonus left and two months to clear it, I decided to put my time (and money) in BetFred. Just for this occasion I've downloaded HEM trial to see how much more awesome it is than Elephant.
Now, in the past three weeks I've been playing on Stars, so I pretty much haven't generated any strategy points. I'm literally a couple of days away from dropping to silver. Which is a minor pain as I want to watch gold+ videos. Well, a few days of grinding should give me that push I need.
Speaking of grinding, I'm not planning on doing anything else until Dec 31 23:59. Believe it or not, I found motivation again, and it's not just cash. I want to finally, finally become diamond, and in no less than a week. Not just because I always wanted to hit that shiny pointy mark, but also to enter that shared flat contest. A year of nothing but poker and partying in Gibraltar sounds like a dream coming true to me, so I'll do my best to get the necessary status in time or at least honestly say I tried.
Wish me luck, I'll sure as hell need it.
i dont read too many blogs in here, i just accidentally klicked on yours and read some posts. i must say ... i like it 
u seem to be a crazy guy - the world needs more crazy guys!
Originally posted by Berzerger
I have three distinct hand writings, different voice pitches and behavior patterns. It's like chronic mood swings, but extreme enough to make me seem like a totally different person. If I were to pick a name for this, I'd call it associative identity disorder.
u probably dont know, but im planning on becoming world leader (basically i have same plans as pinky&brain) and sitting in TwiceTTower observing ppl working for me while playing poker rest of the time im partying, playing golf and cruisin around in my cars
i rly want to hire u for the job of a special undercover agent who investigates the internal developments of hostile companies. expect a job offer in ~ 8-10 years sir!
Originally posted by Berzerger
I want to finally, finally become diamond, and in no less than a week. Not just because I always wanted to hit that shiny pointy mark, but also to enter that shared flat contest. A year of nothing but poker and partying in Gibraltar sounds like a dream coming true to me, so I'll do my best to get the necessary status in time or at least honestly say I tried.
i'll cheer for u sir! go for diamend, post in the gibraltar thread - i will vote for u!
Saturday, December 26
I have been grinding NL100SH on BetFred Poker for the past two days, playing 6-9 tables at a time. HEM is wonderful, I'll probably purchase it when my trial expires. I'm not very experienced with it yet and there's plenty of options I'd like to adjust, but for now I'm just glad I have a working HUD.
Grinding went very well, in just two days I amassed almost 600 EUR, 60 of which was bonus. This is pretty much my biggest single poker achievement so far, and I hope this wasn't just a crazy upswing. I'll continue playing in an hour or so, after I've had some food. Long sessions are mentally exhausting and provoke a lot of hunger. For fish and chips, coincidentally.
By far the most memorable hand of the session just has to be this one:
Grabbed by Holdem Manager
NL Holdem $1(BB) Replayer
SB ($262)
Hero ($222)
CO ($104)
BTN ($175)
Dealt to Hero J♦ 8♦
fold, BTN calls $1, SB raises to $5, Hero calls $4, BTN calls $4
FLOP ($15) 5♦ 7♦ 9♥
SB bets $11, Hero raises to $33, BTN raises to $170 (AI), SB folds, Hero calls $137
TURN ($366) 5♦ 7♦ 9♥ K♣
RIVER ($366) 5♦ 7♦ 9♥ K♣ A♦
BTN shows 7♥ 7♠
(Pre 52%, Flop 60.2%, Turn 70.5%)
Hero shows J♦ 8♦
(Pre 48%, Flop 39.8%, Turn 29.5%)
Hero wins $364
EDIT: all $ values should be displayed as euro (I only play euro talbes), but I don't know how to tell that to HEM yet...
Now, for the first time in this blog, I proudly present to you... my NL100 graph on BetFred. Please don't pelt me with rotten tomatoes for negative EV spikes.
Originally posted by TwiceT
i'll cheer for u sir! go for diamend, post in the gibraltar thread - i will vote for u!
Thank you very much, I hope I can make it to your coronation when you become supreme Emperor of Eath 
Monday, December 28
Stress, and lots of it. I'm very excited right now, in just three days I made it almost halfway to Diamond status. Less than four days before the deadline, I'm doing my best to get there but I'm worried that some points might not come through in time due to some unfortunate delay. That would seriously ruin my plans to try and enter the poker flat contest. To be honest, I can't really remember ever wanting anything so badly in my life...
Here's a (slightly edited for overview purposes) screenshot of my strategy points. Since only the last 28 days count for the promotion, I'm going to lose the points I earned on InterPoker before December 4, meaning I'm not really halfway yet.
Today I played the $1k new depositors freeroll, 189 participants. Some guy at my table pushed every hand from the beginning, and amassed a 14k chipstack in the first 20 hands. He tightened up later into the tourney though, but it still felt good to end up just one place higher than him. I had little over 11 big blinds and pushed ATs from CO, got called by AQ and busted. I finished 6th, taking down a less than impressive amount of $60, but hey, money's money.
But that's not all for today. Amidst all grinding there was yet another reason to celebrate. Namely nothing less than my sixth royal flush!
Grabbed by Holdem Manager
NL Holdem $1(BB) Replayer
SB ($110)
Hero ($101)
UTG ($206)
UTG+1 ($52.85)
CO ($24.45)
BTN ($20.85)
Dealt to Hero J♥ A♥
fold, UTG+1 calls $1, fold, fold, SB calls $0.50, Hero raises to $6, UTG+1 calls $5, fold
FLOP ($13) T♥ K♥ 7♦
Hero bets $8, UTG+1 calls $8
TURN ($29) T♥ K♥ 7♦ 3♦
Hero checks, UTG+1 checks
RIVER ($29) T♥ K♥ 7♦ 3♦ Q♥
Hero bets $87.50 (AI), UTG+1 folds
Hero shows J♥ A♥
Hero wins $27.55
Villain was a station who called my all-in with K4 on Kxx board earlier. He didn't call, but I didn't mind. He donated his stack to me later on.
Finally I would like to brag about my achievement. During my so far four day lasting quest to climb mount Diamond I've had my ups and downs, revelations and disappointments, but in the end I crossed the 1k euro net profit mark. When I first made a deposit, I only had 1500 euro and hopeful aspirations. Now my account balance is resting at 2,534.32 euro. Yet one step closer from educated fish that lives off poker to actual poker pro.
I really love to read through your blog!
Post more please
I wish you all the best in achieving your goals, becoming diamond and getting to Gibraltar. Seems to me like they would never regret taking you there 
Good Luck!
Tuesday, December 29
I just had the most insane set of sessions. First things first, I'm down 500 euro. That's still 5BI profit, but I was up 10 and now I lost half of my profit, so the glass is half empty. It started with a pitfall where I ran pretty much 9BI under EV, anticlimaxing at 700 euro loss. Felt like a punch in the face. I knew no limit hold'em is a game where fortunes change hands in a matter of minutes, but today I actually experienced it. I thank the poker gods for BRM, and after I finish typing, I'm going to build them a small hedonistic shrine.
I managed to limit my losses to only 3BI, but after a zealous attempt to exploit some HU player I managed to double my losses. HU is a very versatile and potentially profitable variant, but after being rivered three times for over 300 euro I suddenly don't see myself playing it anywhere in the near future. Not even mentioning my previous history of HU suckouts, it's all just ridiculous.
I felt bad and soaked for a while, smoked a cig, watched an episode of Supernatural and was about to cry myself to sleep when I thought about my $1600 catastrophe on Cake, and how I recovered from it. So once again it was time to stop being a whiny little bitch and put the lotion in the basket. A short SH session brought my BetFred roll past 2,000 euro again. I'm still 500 euro down from my last peak, again not mentioning the bonus dollars released and lost in the process. That won't stop me from getting it all back and then some.
At the bright side, if my calculations are anywhere near correct, I should be nearing my destination. Just one more session and I will have earned sufficient points to ensure Diamond status before the end of the year. So now I will burden myself with another degree of difficulty. Before this decennium is over I will get my roll past the symbolic mark of 2,700 euro (500 I lost + 100 bonus wasted + 100 for moral compensation). If I succeed, I will temporarily put poker on hold for what's left of the year and go celebrate. If I fail, at least I'll get Diamond and some experience. But I'll find a humiliating way to punish myself for your entertainment.
As far as NL100 goes, I honestly expected more resistance. Most players have a basic notion of what should and shouldn't be done, but back when I was playing NL10 I used to look up to people who play NL100, that famous limit where a person can make a living, where one hand can get you more money than eight hours of work. It seemed like something way out of reach. Now that I'm actually playing it, I fail to understand how people can mindlessly gamble with such substantial amounts of money.
Another thing is, they love bluffing. I actually adapted more passive plays in my game because of how hard some opponents try to get me off my hand. And how often they call me down. My game reminds ABC poker more than anything nowadays, less fancy plays and more straightforward controlled aggression. I really thought I'd need to adjust to my opponents every single hand. And I do, but apparently it's not a prerequisite for profit on NL100SH.
In the end, poker is like a box of chocolates. You taste the sweetness for five minutes and spend half an hour taking the crap.
Sunday, January 10
It's half past five as I'm typing this, it's turning into a habit for me to update my own blog late at night when I get bored. As everyone probably already knows, I did make it to diamond in time, a status that I'm very much enjoying right now. But unfortunately I didn't get picked for Gibraltar, something I was really looking forward to. Russian and German communities had a giant amount of participants compared to other communities, so it's not like I had much chance to begin with. But it was worth a shot.
I'm still grinding NL100SH at Betfred. I never really got to that goal of 2,700 euro, right now I'm glad I have profit. My roll is 2,150 and it's been through some mentally draining swings lately, which I deem punishment enough for missing my target. But I'll raise that cash eventually, in the meantime I'm accepting reasonable suggestions for how to punish myself. In two weeks my Betfred status will finally be updated. I'll be able to participate in VIP freerolls, exchange status points to cash and earn more Betfred points per hand as I play. My plan is to gather 50,000 bps in four weeks from registration (2 weeks ago) and instantly receive diamond status (highest one available). I have 32,000 bps right now, so things are running smoothly according to the plan.
So that pretty much rounds up my poker experiences for the past two weeks. Back to RL. I'm moving to Antwerp next week, being kicked out of the house has never been more fun. The plan is to move in with my pot buddy, split the rent and play poker in his apartment for a while. It'll be tight, but we've known each other for a few years now, we'll get along. Also, I met a nice girl last week, won't go into details.