Hey everybody!
If I were as persistent in playing and studying one variant of poker as I were in opening blogs, I'd be a millionaire. That being said it's because of the new year that I'm starting a blog again. The only difference will be that this blog will not be poker only. I will write down real life issues, first world problems and all other stuff to keep me motivated in my non-poker related challenges. I myself fall victim to the new year's resolutions, as it is a perfect time to look back at the past year and look forward to the next. I will start on Monday January 2 with my real life / poker challenges.
The last couple of years
I haven't been able to make a lot of my life. At 25, I have 0 savings, been out of a job for well over two years and had an unsuccessful attempt at starting my own business (hence the 0 savings). In the mean time I put some money in poker, in hindsight perhaps money I could have invested elsewhere. Luckily I found a job in October and am slowly saving up some money to buy shiny stuff and save for moving out. Yes, I still live at home.
In high school I was an ok student. I could have easily get way better grades, but I was more interested in playing basketball and just hanging out with my friends. Not that my grades were bad, far from it, but I did not put any extra effort in my studies. Something that came and bit me in the ass when going to college. Once there I learned what planning was and how to make sure I respected deadlines for all my assignments.
In the year where I started college I stopped playing basketball (I was on a team that played in a national competition). Looking back I really regret that decision. I got out of shape, I became way overweight and just started to 'slip away'.
With the prospect of my graduation in 2009 (I got a degree in 2007, took a year off to help as a volunteer in the local youth club, worked as a temp for four months and started another course) I decided to finally follow one of my dreams and start up my own Ltd. company. It was to focus on organizing music events. My choice for an 'international' limited company instead of a local Belgian one was purely financial. It cost like 10% of the local businesses and was the same according to the law.
Later that year I found out that I wasn't ready for all the paperwork and the additional costs I did not foresee (despite carefully looking up all the possible taxes etc.). Long story short, bills came in, the money from the business wasn't anywhere close to paying them all, I had no pay whatsoever. I then decided to disband the organisation before the debts became too high.
2009 can be summarised: failed business, little money there was had to be used to pay bills, no money left.
The next year I wasn't able to find a job. Mostly because I wasn't chosen for the job (people with other profiles, people with more experience...), but if I'm honest, part of me just didn't care that much. Slowly, very slowly I was paying off whatever outstanding bills that were still open.
I found something new to do in my spare time and founded my own lacrosse team. In October, after just three months of practice we joined the Belgian Cup. We managed to come in fourth (out of a total of five).
This year started out great. Our team came on Belgian television with our sick uniforms, we joined the league (consisting of six teams). However, in the second game I tore my ACL and wasn't able to walk properly for three months, let alone do anything physical of work. I was home for well over six months and was VERY lucky my parents paid the medical bills that well exceeded €2.5k over the course of those six months.
In October I was able to start at a family owned business. From there on I paid off my debt to my parents as soon as I could, so now I'm here, at the dawn of 2012, totally debt free with a job to save some more. I had a brief stint as a moderator here (thank you for giving me that chance Ingrid and Wendy, and of course all the other mods for being awesome!!)
The band I sing in is also finding its groove so hopefully I will be able to update that as well.
Looking back at what I typed I see I haven't written anything about poker yet. Truth be told, I don't have much to tell about my poker career. I haven't been a winner in anything but the $1.5 Turbo STT's on Pokerstars, and I have tried a lot of different varieties of poker. No limit, fixed limit, mtt's, omaha...
I lost my database but for the STT's I have about 700 games under the belt with a modest ROI of around 3.5%.
What's the purpose of this blog
Simple. I want to (legally) play poker on Pokerstars. The Pokerstrategy Points I get aren't high, so I won't be shooting for Black member just yet! In this blog I will keep track of my runs, my bad runs, my wtf hands, my misclicks, my profits...
I will also start with trying to get back in shape for my lacrosse team. I have switched from goalie to defender and I will need a lot of strength and stamina to compete. My knee still isn't 100% so I will focus on losing weight, exercise, gaining strength and hopefully being able to secure a spot on the team!
This will be a mixed real life / poker blog. I have no idea if this is the right place to actually start it, but I have a feeling it is. I don't expect that many subscribers / reply-ers / readers from the start but I hope to keep this blog interesting enough for those who will read it. I will update with challenges later this week, but I felt like writing this all down today.
That's it for now, if you made it this far without skipping any parts, I salute you, this turned out to be a bigger wall of text than I anticipated! I will leave you with a lacrosse highlight video from college lacrosse, so you all know what I'm talking about!
Make a schedule where my pokertime is solely my pokertime
Successfully move to the $7 Turbo STT's -meaning beating them for a minimum of 1,250 games-
Quit drinking cola and other sugarbombs
Earn a starting spot on the lacrosse team
(Belgian too, I come from Luik) Add you to flist, gonna give u my skype o discuss about this limit, i actually cashout my BR ... Exam but gonna restart after at 1.5 STT TUrbo (new year, new start ;)) 
Nothing much I can do there, only like 80/20 for me, but I'm grinding on! You won't get me down Pokerstars! Well, you will, if you bust me