Day 1

Finally done with the first day. As with all new projects I got off to a bumpy start, even if it started well enough with getting out of bed at 10:00. The plan was to play squash with Arnesen from 11:00-12:00, but my car needed some small repairs so we had to walk. Took us about 20 minutes each way. Arnesen opened like a madman and only lost the first game with 11-8, but after those 8 minutes he was of course out of power. We played for a full hour anyways and it's always fun.

About a quarter to one I got back home but had to leave straight away. All across town to an engineshop by Østre Aker vei to get the parts I needed. Took the tram and the subway, but on my way back home there was some trouble with the trams, so I had to walk all the back home from Stortinget. I hates it.

So...fixed the car and finally sat down at the tables a little after 3 o'clock. Experienced some troubles with my new ongame skin and the extremely annoying Idleminer Ongame Handgrabber, so I didn't log many hands the first hour. Had a really good session in and was about $1050 up when I quit at 17:50.

Cooked a quick pastadinner and watched the latest Entourage episode. Feels sooooo good to have that show back. Californication, Friday Night Lights and some other favorites are also just around the corner, so no more crappy reruns. Played a football match at 7:20 for my employer Get. Was an important match to stay in the Oslo top division, so we used our best squad. So much more fun to play when all the players actually now how to pass and receive the ball. We won 5-3 and I got cramps in both my legs 40 seconds before the final whistle :P

When I got back home my gf had two friends over to watch Top Model on TV3, so after a shower and eating some chicken I started the final session of the day at 10:30. Played until 01:00 as planned and finished with 4091 hands for the day. Pretty pleased with that, considering how busy my day was. The hanggrabber has missed a few hands as well, because it is missing about $200 worth of profit.  It seems like 5-6 hours per day should be more than enough to reach my goal. All of this is playing eight tables of nl 400 at the ongame network.

I ended up playing 18.7/14.5 preflop. My postflop aggression was nice and balanced with 2.5-2.6-1.9. HEM says my net amount won was $1210 for a 7.4 winrate, but my bankroll sheet says $1396. I also made about $400 in loyalty bonuses, so a net income of about $1800 today. I'll go over a few hands tomorrow morning, but right now I'm gonna watch an NFL match I taped last night.

Later,

Tony

Project grind

I have played poker actively online for over three years now. The last year it has been pretty much full time, but even then I have never really logged alot of hands. I think my personal best is something like 40k hands in a month, but my average this last year is probably just below 30k.

Now....this is gonna change. I'm gonna see if I can get som more structure. Not only to ensure that I play more hands, but to free up more time and get more done every single day. This includes getting up in the morning, excersising, eating healty, poker, getting enough sleep and still have time for friends and social activities. It also means less time browsing 15 different websites everyday etc.

To kickstart this I'm gonna be pretty tough with myself the rest of the month. The goal is to play 100k+ hands before the 1st of october. This is a huge number for me and feels like a BIG personal challenge. I also bought a membership at the local gym, so I'm gonna find time for daily excersising.

I have had almost a month now where I haven't played at all. Lets call it a vacation. When I'm starting up again I expect to be rusty, so I'm not gonna challenge my bankroll. I will start off playing nl 400 at the ongame network. I am more than bankrolled for nl 400, but there is still money to be made so it feels like a good place to begin. Most people say they hate the ongame software, but I think they've improved it alot and with a decent computer the tables run smoothly. Also, the players here are somewhat better than at Pacific and other small sites, so hopefully I can bring the same game I'll be playing here up to higher limits at other sites later.

100k hands is alot, so I shopped around with different affiliates last night to find the best possible deal. Small differences makes a big difference when you expect to generate over $20k in rake. I've also been reading the forum at www.holdemmanager.net. Ongame support is almost ready, but I guess I have to use the idleminer solution the first few days of this project.

My daily schedule is not fixed yet, but it is in the making. I want 7.5 hours of sleep every day, 2 hours for excersising and a minimum of 6 hours for poker. I'll make adjustment but hopefully it will look something like this:

10:00 - Alarm goes off.  Eat, read mail etc

11:00-13:00 - Exercise, shower, eat some more

13:00-17:00 - This will be the most important playing session of the day.

17:00-02:30 - Socialise, relax, excersize etc. Also squeeze in at least 2 hours of poker. Usually I need some time to relax after getting off the tables so hopefully I won't be playing any hands after 01:00. When that's done I'll try to update this blog before I wind down in front of the tv.

I'll try this a couple of days and see how many hands I am able to log. If I'm way off the 5k hands per day mark I'm gonna have to make adjustments. There are also some days where I play football in the afternoon, so the schedule have to be flexible. Getting in those four hours of play before dinnertime is crucial.

Wish me luck!

-Tony