Sometimes poker comes easily. Your timing is perfect and the game flows over rigged streets that lead to magical  rivers which sees both remaining players pounding on the all-in button like mad men if given half a chance. You feel practically invincible since every decision you make leads a good result, and lingering memories of past suck-outs, foul moods with four-letter words and thoughts of having to get a day job--it all evaporates. It feels like I'm in one of those periods right now. The suck-outs seem to happen less often and that desperate need to win a large pot is reduced. The tight folds come easily and calling down bluffs is done casually with your left hand while you take another sip of tea and shoot a glance at the television. In short, life is good! After about an hour's worth of playtime on my new favorite site (Mermaid) this evening's harvest was topped off by a relatively large pot (1400€) at NL €2/4, where I got it all in on the flop with a pair + a flush draw vs. two pairs for the other guy. The turn shows a blank, the river gets me my flush--multo bello! In a couple of days I'm sure everything will be back to normal again, complete with pathetic whining about suck-outs and calling stations who don't know how to fold etc., but for now the gods of poker are smiling at me.

There will probably be less poker played tomorrow. Gotta get some work done fixing up my old and worn out car, and then I have some socializing to do.

Good night.

Alright people, here we go. I'm finally going to start blogging here at Iwannabet. My name is Erik, and I've been playing poker for about 5 years with very mixed results. Hopefully you won't have to read about bad beats etc. here--there are more than enough whining bloggers as it is. The idea behind this blog is to convey some insights about life as a poker player in general from someone who has been busted out, which I have...

Since I'm not a high profile player I guess I'll need to list some boring general info about myself as a poker player. Here it is. Like I mentioned, I've been at it for about 5 years, with the 2:nd and 3:rd years being my most profitable ones. I played at 1/2$ and 2/5$ levels and took occasional shots at 5/10$... put in 30-40 hours a week at Betfair with enough of a bankroll to last me. On average I made about twice the "normal" monthly income each month. In short, life was good. And now we've arrived at the reason why the guys running this site wanted me to start blogging. First let me say that money management is by far my worst skill, and that I pissed away practically my entire entire bankroll during a few late Friday/Saturday nights hehe. You'd think I learned something from this, but you'd be wrong! I still play when I'm a bit tipsy, unfortunately. These days I'm comfy enough working full-time at the parks department while at the same time grinding at every low limit game I can find. Which of those levels I play at depends on a variety of things, such as previous earnings and if I feel like I'm running hot or if I'm running cold. Mostly though it depends on if I feel like sitting down and playing for several hours. If you're tired or exhausted from work you should absolutely not play. It's the second dumbest thing for a poker player to do if you ask me. The only thing dumber is playing when you're not sober. Trust me! If I can't help myself maybe I can at least help someone else ;)

I found myself on the receiving end of some free money from Partypoker the other day and thought I'd put it to good use. Partypoker does that from time to time--I think it's because I used to play at semi-high limits. I have friends who've played there and none of them get free money. Weird! Anyway, I came home from work on Thursday and figured I'd make the most out of the $100 I had to play with. A clear sign that things are about to go downhill for me is when I keep getting great starting hands, which is what occurred when playing 10/25¢ six handed. I made my usual full buy-in ($25) and waited for the BB to post. The first hand was junk but I still collected 10¢ from the SB. Second hand, I'm in the small blind with TT. Everyone folds up to the guy on the button (let's call him Mr. Aggressive), whom I've played before and know likes to raise in position. He makes a standard bet, 4x the BB and I make my usual raise to 3x the pot when I have a hand and am being bet into by a player in late position. Both the button and BB fold, which is great since now I don't have to play TT out of position. Third hand, I'm dealt QQ on the button. Fantastic! UTG folds, UTG+1 limps, and then it's folded around to Mr. Aggressive who makes a potsized bet. I could just call here but I feel like irritating him--irritation often leads to tilting--so I raise. Keep in mind that this is the third hand I've played at the table and the second time I've made a raise against the same player. Here's where I ran into a snag. The initial limper called my raise. Odd... if he's got a good hand here I think he should re-raise, not only because I could be playing back at Mr. Aggressive with any two cards, but also to sweeten the pot if he's got a made hand. Mr. Aggressive folds. I should mention that the limper's stack is just about full. The flop comes 5c, 6c, 9s. It's fairly scary, but there's no Ace or King on there so I'm confident I'm still ahead. The limper checks and I know I can't check behind on a flop with this many draws. If I'm up against TT, JJ, 88 or a flush draw I think I can get him to re-raise me if I make a big bet here. I bet ¾ of the pot, get min-raised and I in turn push all-in. The limper shows AcKc for a killer flush draw with two overcards giving him plenty of outs. He ends up making his flush on the river and now, after three hands played, I'm down a full buy-in. Usually that means I'm in for a bad run. Even so, I fill up on chips without blinking because I never tilt when I'm playing poorly or when the cards don't come my way like in the previous hand. Six hands later I find myself in a similar situation as the last hand, this time I have AA on the button against an early pre-flop bet from UTG. Like last time I raise and get called. The nightmare flop comes Qh, 10h, 9x. I don't like to bet too much into a flop like this against an unknown opponent. I want to be able to let go of the hand if he shows strength, or check behind if I get called. The idea behind this is simply to keep the pot small, so I bet around 1/3 of the pot. My opponent takes an unusually long time to act, but when he finally does act it's by going all in! In other words, a massive overbet. To me this is a move that screams weakness so I make a snap call. Turns out he pushed with KxQx. A good call for me then, though unfortunately he hits a king on the river. There's not much you can do about that, and with a bit of luck on my side that hand is an easy win for me. I don't really care about losing that much, but the fact that I continued to play even though I knew I was bound to run bad after losing that first all-in with the queens bothers me, so I decide I'm done for the day. I ended up about $25 behind for the session. No big deal.

Saturday. I come home at around 3 am, plastered. No, wait, not just plastered. More like plastered, spackled, covered in wallpaper and with a nice painting hung on top. It's poker time! ;) I don't really know how long I played for but I sure as shit don't think it took me very long before going busto. Good thing I'm only playing for chickenfeed these days. Speaking of which, my bankroll is running low. I think I'm gonna top up my account on Betfair with this tax return I've got coming. It better get here soon too, because I feel like playing. Hopefully the chickenfeed will last till then...

I mostly play at NL$2/4 and NL$5/10 but have on occasion taken shots at NL$25/50 and sometimes even higher than that. Nowadays I'm trying to find my way back into the lower limits (NL$2/4), and at the same time I'm playing on fewer tables in order to avoid going on autopilot/tilt. You know that state of mind where your inner voice is yelling at you to go all in with an overpair or TPTK.

Today I got up at around 8 am, which counts as sleeping in when you are a father of a child in kindergarten. My wife Elin dropped the kid off so I could get some much needed sleep after an extended period of sleep deprivation. Once I'd had my breakfast it was time for two tables at Mermaid, a poker room which I hadn't played at before. I took an early hit and lost 800€ with JJ on a low board against an aggressive Fin, though I regained my confidence a few hands later with 88 on a 86x6T board. This was another hand against the aggressive Fin, who ended up catching a straight on the river with 79 offsuit and shipping his stack. Back in business! I got the feeling he'd been put on tilt, a feeling that was confirmed by a 1260€ pot in which I had AA. I re-raised the aces preflop to 72€ which got the initial bettor to fold, but the Fin, who had limped into the pot, definitely wanted to play. The flop came 246 with two flush cards and was scary to say the least... so I made a pot-sized bet and was hoping to take it down right there. The Fin thinks about it for a bit and then goes all-in! I gotta call him. Against a different opponent it would be a tough choice, but not against this guy. Turn card is a blank, so is the River and the Fin shows another 79 offsuit. WP, UI, GG!

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