(Imported from my Pocketfive's Blog)

Well, as said in the title: Hi there!!

I'm starting a blog to try to track my development as a poker player. First thing I'm going to do is introduce myself. I'm Charlie and I've been playing poker for fun for a year or so.I deposited some money in UB back in February and started playing cash but I was a king size fish and lost it before you can say "Chumbawamba". Also made a deposit in Victory Poker because I read something about it in The Maven forums but, after a good month where i finished almost $500 up, and due to personal issues I quit playing there. After that I took some time off the tables, joined some poker training sites and a skype poker group. Then this August I decided to give a second chance to my poker skills but, instead of cash, I'd try MTT where i found myself more comfortable. I deposited $100 again and this time things has been the other way.

Now I feel that I have a small edge in tournament poker. I dont know if I feel this because Cereus fields are really weak or because tourneys entrants are not ~ 4k players on average but 400, so is less difficult to get good results. But after one month playing there I can't be more happy, $1300 gross winnings and $800 net. You can say this is not much but for a begginer like me is enough.

I've read in lot of books that I should set some (achievable) goals to measure my poker evolution and this goals shouldn't be money dependat/results oriented. I understand the reasons behind this statement but deep in my soul I can't avoid this completely. I'm a very competitive person and the most accurate method I have to measure my succes is to compare it with the results of other succesful players. So, although I know is not as good as this should be here goes my goals:

- Stay calm when bad beats comes: Sometimes when I'm playing I'm bad beaten/coolered and then I become a spewy monkey in "fuck up" mode where I make no sense moves to release my frustration. Bad beats are part of the game and as this I have to take them so I'm gonna try to do this every time I'm coolered: Deep breath + Move on.

- Stay Focused in the game: A lot of times when I'm playing I'm browsing the internet or chatting in skype or something like that. From now on I'm gonna try to put 100% of my attention on the tables so I can study opponents and take notes.

- (After a year) Become Top 3 ranked "Madrileñan" Player: As stated before I know I shouldn't do this but I like the challenges and I'm going for it. I made some calcs and I think I need between 100-150 PLB points/mont to achieve this goal. This mont I made ~ 140 so it doesn't seems out of reach.

Ok, this has been my first lines here. I hope to have a lot more to say soon. Till then good luck at the tables.

Bye