Part I | Part II | Part III | Part IV

The Big Bump

After I returned from my trip to Aiya Napa I again started getting into the poker groove again. I decided to try an experiment, My plan was to deposit $600 into a poker room and grow it from there. In 2 months I had managed to grow it from $600 to $7500 when I hit what was to be the worst stretch of cards I had encountered in my No-Limit Hold’em career.

I played 50,000 hands (almost 2 months) of break-even poker. And this stretch of luck was truly crazy and was enough to put a normal person in a mental hospital. I just kept getting unlucky in big pots. I played well and got my money in as good as I could but I could not win, this is how poker goes sometimes and if you are a professional poker player you have to be prepared for it.

I had a good companion during this whole stretch of cards, and that companion was experience. I knew that several good players were experiencing these kind of crazy stretches of variance and I knew I was playing good since I was discussing hands with friends and coaches.

I also knew that I would get through this and I would start to win again, and it wasn’t long until I got my bankroll to almost $10,000 total from that initial $600. I then decided to switch poker rooms to a euro based room. I put in €1,000 and got my bankroll to €9,600 including rakeback.

This brought my total roll to over $20,000 and my experiment was a success. I had turned that $600 to over $20,000 and was very happy about it. Poker was chugging along nicely again, I’d gotten myself through the storm of break even madness.

Buying a New Apartment

In late July I started thinking about moving out, I felt the need to get my own apartment. I’ve always been the kind of person who needs a certain amount of solitude. I started searching for places to rent in my hometown without success and one day I remember an apartment building that was in construction.

I walked by it a few times a week when I was visiting my grandma in Tornio, Finland. Just a walk away from my Swedish apartment. I talked to my dad about it and he agreed that it was a good idea to buy an apartment. He looked it up and it turned out there were only a few spots left. I was lucky with the timing because immediately after I reserved my apartment someone was asking to reserve the same one, and the whole house filled up quickly. Seems like a popular spot!

There is a different system in Finland when it comes to apartments. In Finland you can buy an apartment and when you’ve paid it, there are no more fees (except maintenance which is $80 per month). In Sweden you make a smaller deposit but you still have to pay fees that can be up to $600 a month even after you’ve “bought” it. I much prefer the Finnish way of handling things when it comes to apartments, they are much better investment objects.

September 2007 – Starting a Website and Blog

After I bought my apartment and settled down, ideas started popping into my head about what kind of website I wanted to build. I started from scratch and built Texas Holdem Poker 101 which is a free website that I update weekly.

After a few weeks I joined the Blog Mastermind which is a subscription site by Yaro Starak. If you are interested in starting a profitable blog then I highly recommend it. In short it has weekly lessons to keep you on track and one of the friendliest forums I’ve ever come across.

Congratulations, you are now up-to-date on my life. Check back from time to time as I will keep updating this page a few times a year to keep you guys posted on what is happening in my life.

Thanks for reading!