The Degnovic Blog

(This is a cross post from my blog degnovic.blogspot.com).

Well, that didn't go as I hoped.

I started out the Oktoberfest at PKR by playing all the events the first couple of days, and actually did very well, but often came close but no cigar. It sucks, but as I proclaimed before the start of the series, the fields is bigger and therefore the variance is too.

I finally feel like this will be a good time to start at cash games. If I continue playing the Oktoberfest, all I'm going to do is chase or catch up to make it a good series and I don't feel like doing that. Instead I'll make October come to a close, and start off November in style with the switch to cash game.

To round off October it was obviously a great month and by far my best month ever. I earned a nice profit and cracked PKR's top-200 MTT. Before this month I was just a recreational loosing player (still recreational, of course), but this month - of course driven by the good results - I took it more seriously than ever. I want to take that with me into November.

I'm going to (re-)start my cash game career at PokerStars. I feel like I've accomplished a lot of what I can accomplish at PKR, but there's still more to accomplish, so I will probably still be playing there from time to time, and maybe one day again with a greater volume.

As I've written earlier on this blog I love playing tournament series and whenever another one comes up, I'll probably plan on playing. Next month 888 Poker has it's biggest ever tournament series, but this one I won't be playing, as they do not have a Danish license.

This first month with cash games (which will be at NL10, as I first of all want to prove to myself, that I can beat), I won't be making any goals or predictions, as I just moved away from home (which I'll write a blog post about, and how it effects your poker, in the near future) and I'm going to cover the WPT Copenhagen in the middle of the month, so I don't know yet how much volume I'll be able to put in. I'll be ready with both goals and predictions for December once we got to that.

And by the way: huge congrats to Greg Merson who today shipped the WSOP Main Event. A great player, and seems like an allround good guy, who I suspect will be a great ambassador for the game.

(This is a cross post from my new blog I just started. You can find it at www.degnovic.blogspot.com).

In my latest blog posts and some tweets from yesterday I implicated that was on my road to my first real downswing as a tournaments player. I never made it to that point.

That's because I regged for the $30 Primetime Terminator at PKR in the evening and ended up shipping it about 5 hours later for $944. That's not just clearly my biggest score ever, it's the second time this month I top my biggest score ever. Now I feel bad for even mentioning a bad beat.

The win was also the the biggest yet on PKR for me in regard to the field size - 203. It's my 6th win so far on PKR at sends me into an (for me) all time high rankings place at 380.

I won't be able to play a lot the next couple of days, but I'm planning on having a big Sunday grind.

See you soon.

(This is a cross post from my new blog I just started. You can find it at www.degnovic.blogspot.com).

I don’t know if starting my blog got me some run good, but the same night as I posted it, I shipped the Rolling in the Deep tournament at PKR for a nice bankroll boost. So I guess I’m off to a pretty good start.

I’m ready to grind some tournaments again today and I’m pretty motivated. I’ve just picked up some strategy articles that I really thinks it makes me improve. If any of you got any I should try out, please let me know.

When grinding tournaments lately I’ve been starting to keep track of my results in an Excel document. I guess there are a lot of ways to do this, but I’m getting pretty comfortable with this format, which also shows my schedule today:


Feel free to use it for yourself if you like

I will be planning on posting some interesting hands from my sessions on my blog as I think it’ll of course help my game by having to explain my actions, but also for others to question them. Keep in mind, that I haven’t been a tournament player for long, so there’s a lot I can still learn. Therefore feel free to chime in.

I'm out for now, will be posting again soon.

Degnovic

But that’s not what we should be focusing on now. Instead let’s focus on ze pokerz. The game has brought me to Paris these days, where I have been covering the WPT, which just finished yesterday. I’m going home in a few days and I’ve had a blast in general. I’ve experienced some parts of Paris that I definitely do not like, but I’ve also been to places that I’ve absolutely adored. All in all, I like Paris, but I guess you can say, that the city is polarized from my point of view. I still want to go again, however. 

As I’m writing this, I’m sitting inside the Aviation Club de France and I’ve just played my first ever live tournament outside of my home country.  I didn’t make it to the end game. All in all it was a fun experience, but only because it was my live tournament debut. The tournament I played in was just a small €50 NLHE Freezeout with quite a turbo structure. After just 40 minutes we were on level 3 with blinds of 100/200 with the starting stack being just 3.000. Within 10 minutes of the level, I was dealt AQ offsuit and called a middle positions raiser with my last 10 big blinds. He turned over KQ offsuit, and the dealer turned ATA rainbow for the flop. Just when I was on my way to a nice double up, the dealer revealed a jack on the turn and I didn’t catch any lucky river card. The beat didn’t actually bother me at all, which I real, which kind of surprises me, and I’m pretty happy that it ended with a bad beat.

I haven’t been playing much online lately due to school, but I’ve played few hours of somewhat successful cash-game at the Boss Network. I won’t be playing much this month either, but next month I’m leaning towards really giving Boss a shot with a cash-game bankroll. The network could very well be my new place for that.

I’ve also played a bit on PokerStars.fr while being here and I also think that I will be trying to build a decent bankroll there, so that I can play some of their tournaments. They got a nice tourney schedule, which, of course, is somewhat similar to PokerStars’ but the fields seems softer and smaller.

Even though I haven’t been playing much poker lately, I have been thinking a lot of poker! I am really improving in studying the game, and, somehow, I have a newfound joy of being a student of the game.

I am also trying to improve. Therefore, as always mentioned in my blogs, anyone who wants to discuss poker is welcome. You can catch me here, on my Skype (nicklasdegn), at AIM (degnovic) or at MSN (degnovic@hotmail.com). Of course I’m riding the social network wave too, so I also got Twitter, which you are welcome to follow (@nicklasdegn).

As mentioned I will definitely try to update my blog more often – as I really like writing. Also, if anyone likes my blog, any feedback would be very welcome and appreciated. I want to know what, if anything, is interesting to read. And what’s not.

I think that was about it, so until next time: Good luck at the tables!

Degnovic

I told about how I would take a minor break from playing poker, and instead actually studying the game. That has worked out very great so far! I’ve gone through some DC-series and I finally started reading Tommy Angelo’s ‘Elements of Poker’ – a book that many top pros have said a lot of things about. So far it’s as great as I hoped it would be, so props to Mr. Angelo from me.

One day I thought about something, that I find very odd of me not thinking about before. When I would start playing cash games again in May, it would be at NL10 or NL25. But I never thought about NL2. I started takings the smallest stakes into my consideration and my conclusion came; why not start from the very bottom?

So that’s what I will do. And actually I already made a quick start, because I had some money on FTP, just to get a feel of how the players played. So far I’ve been doing very good, so for the next few days I’ll be taking some days off from poker again, and then start off 1st of April. I’ exited and hopeful!

At the same time, I will continue to study the game with the same pace that I’m doing now – which I’m very satisfied with.

Before I go, I want to add, that I’m very pleased with all the feedback I’ve been getting on this blog. That helps me a lot, and motivates me to continue so thank you very much.

I will be returning with another blog post in a couple of weeks, where I’ll go through how the first weeks of cash gaming have been.

As always: If you want to discuss poker with me, or if you have any questions or sort like, just add me on Skype (nicklasdegn), Messenger (degnovic (at) hotmail (dot) com) or AIM (degnovic). 

Take care champs, I wish you all good luck at the tables!

Degnovic

"Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first."
- Mark Twain

I just woke up a couple of hours ago. That means I just had some breakfast along with very nice cup of coffee. Feeling all like Dale Cooper thinking those words.

I just sat down and thought it would be nice to write a blog while chilling and watching the good weather outside. So that's what I did and also that's what I'm doing at this very momemt, while listening to The Kooks and James Blake. Both UK artists. Check them out, they know how to make music in my opinion.

But that's not what this blog is all about. Of course it's about the poker. And that is also a subject I've given a lot of thougts lately. Not that this should sound dramatic or something - I'm not thinking about quitting.

As I mentioned in my latest blog, I will officially bee starting my poker carreer as a cash game player from the start of the next month. I'm excited and a little bit unpatient, but I got a busy month ahead of still, so I thinkt it's the best to start off next month.

First I thought of starting at Microgaming or iPoker, but now I'm more to Full Tilt Poker. The downside will be the fact that you have to pay tax, but it might be the best. I like the software, the game selection and the games. I feel comfortable at the site, so I will starting off there. If i don't reconsider again of course.

Today I'm not doing outside of going to work later. So I also just watched the 4th episode of 'n0whereman' and 'tubasteve's From the Ground Up series. I hope to finish it one of these days and then continue with the DC video guide that appears in the forums.

Before i finish this blog off, I'll suggest to 'DogIsHeads'' two-part blog about the Ashton 'theASHMAN103' Griffin bet. It's great though being very long. He writes very well and he is telling some of a story. 

On the educational side however, I've been reading Tony 'Bond18' Dunst's 'Things it Took Me a While to Learn' series and so far it seems great. Hope to finish that series off this month.

Also I just want to suggest you checking out the music artist Oh Land. She is danish and will actually be attending David Letterman's show at the start of next man. I suggest the 'Sun of a Gun'.

I want to wish you all the tables and good luck! I'll be back with another blog post before you'll realize it.

Degnovic

"Put in some random wise quote"
        - Some Random Wise Person

Seriously, though, I'm a big fan of quotes and would like to start of my blogs with a meaningful one - this time I just just couldn't find one, so you got to keep yourselve satisfied with one above.

And with those words we got started with my second blog (if you didn't read my first one, follow this link: Link to my first blog entry)

I've done quite some thinking about my poker lately - in a positive way I think. I started giving it all a lot of thoughts because I wasn't playing as much as I thought I would.

Last year a had a lot of things going on in my life and lately I've tried to 'clean up' in those things, so that i now only got my school, my work (which involves poker, read about that in my first blog), my poker and, occasionally, my soccer. On top of that comes smaller passions for films and music, but that's something you can easily connect with the mentioned above.

I take both my school and my work very seriously, and lately all my time have been focused on those. That means I haven't playing poker almost at all - and it's here the thinking part comes to mind.

I really take my poker seriously as you might already know, and it's by far my biggest passion - a status that before were held by soccer. Now I play that occasionally, for fun, which is absolutely great, because I also find poker fun, and never did that before with soccer after some time!

After a lot of thinking, I decided to save up some money for a decent bankroll (with decent BRM) and then start playing cash games for real by the time of May, where I got some more time, because of school holidays.

Until then, I'll keep focusing on my school and work, but also poker - just in another way.

If there is some interesting tournaments, I'll maybe play them, and if they seem to expensive, just some sattelites. Maybe I'll also play in the new (legal) local poker club - will definitely have a better look at it with one of my good friends. But I will now use a lot of time on educating myself. I've got quite a poker library and have only read about a couple of books. For quite some time I've been reading "Harrington on Hold'Em: Volume I" and would like to finish that. Also I'm looking forward to reading "Elements of Poker" by Tommy Angelo. I've heard so much about it, and it should contatin alot you don't get anywhere else. After reading it, I think I'll post a recommendation/review on my blog.

I also have subscription to DC where I've watched the "Baby Steps" series and I'm underway with "From the Ground Up". I've downloaded the video guide for beginners and would like to go through that. That will be my first big poker goal.

Basically I'll try to organize my very own "Poker Education", so, when we reach May or thereabout, I'll be somewhat of a more "complete" poker player, where I can play without missing some of the education I feel now, and spotting the minor leaks and then more specificly choose some DC videos to watch.

I think that could be a great way for me to become the best poker player possible. Also I like to organize my life and that is what I will do with my poker life - organize it all. I don't know exactly how at this point, so of course I would love help from all you guys - or if you maybe also would like to organize your poker life better. Maybe we can make a study group focusing on that. Maybe that needs a thread on the forum? Just leave a comment or PM for contact information.

And still you are all very welcome to giving me feedback on my blog - as I've mentioned in my first post I would like to make this the best blog possible. Just write me your thoughts, critics, or idea (maybe what I should write about) and I'll give it all my thoughts!'

This became a long post already, so I'll stop here, even though I still got a lot to write about - will be saving some for next time. Sorry, though, if this post seems hard to manage. Then I'll try to make that part better.

I would thank you all for reading my post and also those who read my first one. If my English disturbs you, my apoligies, I'm Danish and I try to learn :-)

Good luck at the tables for all of you, and all the best in 2011!

Brag: My copy "Elements of Poker" is signed by Mr. Angelo himself.

Beat: My computer broke down this week - don't know if the guarantees still holds up. We'll see.

Variance: Haven't had the time for playing poker.

Hey guys.

My name is Nicklas. I’m 18 years old and from Denmark.

This will be my first blog on this site, so I’ll try to get all the basics in here, so you can learn the most about me as a poker player. I’ve been blogging for a couple of years in Danish, but now I wanted to take it a step further and blog internationally. I thought DeucesCracked would be the perfect place.

I’ve been around in the poker world for a couple of years, just following online, but now playing. I turned 18 this September and then started playing online. I consider myself a cash game player, and I first started playing with a role this month. I thought it would be great to kick my poker career off, while I also kicked off the New Year.

I’m playing FTP and will start off small – NL10. I’ve been watching some DC videos and will be watching a lot more. I’m starting with the video guide for beginners I found on the forum. I really want to learn and I’m a very ambitious kid. Especially when it comes to poker, which has become my new passion.

Before poker, I used a lot of time playing soccer. Lately I haven’t had time for that, due to work and school. That also means that I haven’t been playing much with my role yet. I’m in a very stressful time right now, but I will have a more peaceful everyday soon, which I’m looking forward too. The worst school periods have passed and I have been working on planning my life lately and organizing my room, so I have more time and room. I’m looking forward to not stressing and begin playing poker.

I also love to write, which goes perfectly with my passion for poker. I’m a writer for news media regarding poker and basically love to write and especially about poker. My blogs will not only concern my poker life, but also I will comment on the who’s-who’s of poker and main topics, that are being discussed in the poker world.

Also I want to learn and as I said I’m ambitious. I want to become the best, obviously. Therefore I would love to share thoughts with other poker minds. Lately I became member of a European study group, but there’s always room for more. If you would like to discuss poker, you can just send me a PM, and we’ll see.

Right now I’m thinking of recording one of my sessions. I have Camtasia and think it would be a great way to learn if I record a session, hand it in to others and then they can get me feedback on my game. If I decide to do it, I’ll put it up on the members videos section on DC. You can also PM if you want me to talk about something specific in the recording, like my betsizing, reads, thoughts on poker, a comment on ‘Isildur1’s revealing etc. etc. ;-)

I actually think that’s about it for the first blog. I hope I described the main things that a first blog post should describe, even though it may be the most boring facts and sentences. I would really like to make an entertaining, good, and thoughtful blog, that people want to read, so if you got suggestions on what I should write about or how I should write it – again feel free to contact me.

Also, if you would like to follow my blog, just subscribe to the RSS feed.

Untill then, good luck at the tables!

Degnovic