Be sure to join the "SCOOP 2012 Fan Club" Home game room! You can join with the club id: 634789, and invitation code: scoop2012

I'll be in and out of that club to chat and there will be other Team Online members joining the conversation too. Definitely check it out.

Overall, SCOOP will be a nice round of tournaments especially since it's before the WSOP that's coming up in June, so let's see if my tournament game has improved. Hopefully, you guys join me at the SCOOP events whether it's low, medium, and/or high! Even better if we both make the final table.

Here's the full plan:

Good luck SCOOPing everyone!

When Roy Bhasin began playing games with his family as a child, he never could have envisioned it would lead to where he is today. The Sydney, Australia, native recently became the newest member of Team PokerStars Online, an honor he considered a "pipe dream" when he first began playing full-time years ago.

Bhasin was among several poker players from the Oceania region seeking a spot on the coveted Team Online and, despite flying under the media radar for most of his poker career, he was selected to represent the Red Spade on the site and at tournaments around the globe.

We caught up with Bhasin to learn about how he got his start in poker, how his deal with PokerStars came about, and more.

Take us back to your childhood. What games did you play with your family growing up? Did that help heighten your interest in strategy games?

A game that I played a lot with my family -- which is still played extensively in my family -- is an Indian variation of rummy. Basically it's like other forms of rummy except we played with 21 cards and there are some other house rules added in. No family trip these days is complete without at least a few rounds of rummy.

Another game I used to play with the family from a young age was bingo -- when I was as young as four or five I would round the family up, hand out score sheets, collect money, and organize the game. So basically I loved gambling from a very early age.

Aside from that there were the regular games: Monopoly, Scrabble, and Pictionary. I also took a keen interest in video games from a very young age -- basically as soon as I could hold a controller -- and spent many hours in front of the TV or computer screen. Some of my favorites were Final Fantasy VII, Warcraft 3, Diablo, Runescape and most recently Starcraft 2. There were a plethora of other games scattered throughout my childhood. I was also a big fan of the Magic the Gathering card games which I think several other pro poker players were before finding poker.

I think all of the above games help heighten my interest in strategy games so that when it came to being introduced to poker it was a perfect fit.

How did you stumble upon poker?

I had been introduced to five-card draw as a child and knew the basic concepts behind poker but it wasn't until a fateful night at a friend's house that I found the current variations of the game. There were a few of us at a friend's place for a Halo night and when we broke to have some pizza for dinner we were flipping through the TV channels. I think it was the WPT that was on and my friend Glen who knew the rules explained them to the rest of us. I was instantly hooked and spent almost every waking hour over the next few months reading, watching and playing to improve my game.

You spend a lot of your time playing pot-limit Omaha ring games on PokerStars. Is that your favorite variation of poker or do you play it because it's your best game?

Both. It's probably my best game because it's my favorite and I have spent so much time playing and studying it. I love all forms of poker, especially some of the more lesser played variants like 2-7 Triple Draw or Badugi but I don't often play them outside of home games with friends or low stakes while in Vegas, again with friends.

Are there any players and/or friends who have helped you become the poker player you are today?

Definitely -- too many to name all of them. One of the first poker forums that I was a part of was the old Bet-The-Pot forum and I owe a lot of my poker upbringing and skills to the posters from there. I'm still good friends with many of them. Other than that there were my school friends who I played with every week, other friends I've met online and from live tournaments around the world. It's great being able to talk poker with friends who are at a similar level to you as you can help each other learn and improve and this is definitely what I have done with a lot of my friends.

How did the sponsorship with PokerStars come about?

Every now and then Stars has announced that it is looking to add more people to the Team Online roster. I applied the first time around but back then I wasn't as active within the community as I am now. I recognized that they were looking for people with blogs so I decided to start one, partly with the goal of getting on to the team but also for personal reasons. I started to love posting and blogging and eventually my blog garnered a decent sized following. Last year I was contact by Stars that they had me in their sights to sign as a new team online member and from there it took a few months for them to narrow down their decision and for all the details to be worked out but it's been an amazing ride.

Was being a sponsored poker pro something you envisioned when you first started playing full-time? How does it feel to be a part of such a prestigious team?

It was more of a pipe dream than anything I realistically hoped to achieve when I first started playing full time. As time went on though I started aligning my goals closer and closer with that of being a sponsored pro and then of being one with Stars, which has always been my favorite site, even before I was a pro.

It feels amazing to be a part of the team. I think Stars is the best poker company in the world and in an industry fraught with scandals and unfortunate scenarios it is refreshing to see and know there is a company with their ethics and conduct at as high a level as Stars is.

What were some of your poker goals going into 2012? Do you plan on making Supernova Elite for the third straight year?

My main goal was to achieve Supernova Elite and I still plan on doing it. I would like to try again to break into the highest stake games around -- $25/50 and higher -- but I have tried a couple of times in the past with mixed results. The variance at those stakes is quite insane and I am very happy grinding it out at the mid-stake levels. I just want to continue to play well, study my game and stay ahead of the curve.

Have any of those goals changed now that you'll be wearing the Red Spade?

I wouldn't say any of them have changed, no. Some goals have been added though -- ever since becoming a member of team online I have felt a strong desire to do my position proud and spread the word of poker and PLO throughout the Australia and New Zealand region as well as the rest of the world, online and off. Hopefully I can work with Stars, my blog, Twitter, forums and other avenues of communication to achieve this goal. Aside from being my job I think poker is a fascinating game and that it always will be -- almost everyone I know that has been introduced to it and played for a short while have fallen in love with it.

What do you enjoy doing in your free time away from poker?

I love traveling, cooking, eating and playing video games. My girlfriend also likes the former three so we often travel together or explore new restaurants, cuisines, and wineries in our down time. I love golf but have had a bad back for a few years now so haven't been able to play -- one of my goals is to get that sorted out and get back to golfing every week.

Playing day after day without knowing your results is like playing game after game in basketball without keeping score. By the end of the month, your victories and losses become blurry and you're not even sure what your overall record is. But if you're confident your strategy is better than your opponents, and you play them long enough, then theoretically you should have more points than them at the end of the month or season. So with that said, what is the point of focusing on the short term fluctuations in the score of each game? Those fluctuations are exciting to observers, as any basketball fan knows, but it's better if we as poker players are disconnected from these swings and remain even keel and thus rationally thinking over the entire duration to maintain the biggest edge over our opponent.

It's common knowledge in the poker community that being results oriented can cause adverse emotional reactions that are -EV to your game. Examples are playing too long because you are stuck, or not playing long enough because you are up. And when you fall into this trap you're generally playing your longest sessions with your B or C game, and your shortest sessions on your A game.

This is fantastic in theory, but I must admit I found that even though I was not checking my results I wasn't able to totally eliminate these feelings, and at times I found myself trying to guess my session results based on intuition. However, great progress was still evident, as I never found myself trying to get unstuck or quitting early to book a win. This was certainly a big step in the right direction for me. And the longer I participated in the experiment the easier it became. So I thought...

Around midway through the challenge, as those of you who follow me on Twitter know, I had a moment of weakness and checked results for one day in particular. I rationalized at the time that it wouldn't really hurt the overall experiment since I wasn't going to check results for the entire month, I was just curious the damage done from such a disastrous bout of short term variance. So after repeated moments of internal justification, I pulled up my Hold'em Manager chart for the day. And this is what I had to say about it at the time:

@Wizard0fAhhs 14 Mar
Confession: I just checked results for today to see the damage. Lost $22K. At least I didn't look at EV, no need. Also didn't check month.

@Wizard0fAhhs 14 Mar
Not sure why I checked. Was just very curious. But I honestly don't feel any different, it's about what I thought it would be. Going to bed!.

That second tweet tells half the story. I didn't feel any different at the time. I knew I had been rocked badly at the tables, so my frustration didn't waver much once I saw the total. But there was an unforeseen consequence to my action. That number, $22K, lingered in my mind the next day, and the next day... I know what a $22K+ loss feels like, I tend to have them several times a year and I also know just how long it usually takes me to overcome such a loss. So my mind started to track results, perhaps even on a subconscious level. I developed that "I need to get unstuck" mentality each day. And after a week I wondered if I was close. And even today, I'm wondering if I was able to overcome it. Everything was going relatively smoothly until that moment. I don't believe the loss itself was responsible for this. I believe that having a quantitative result symbolizing the event was responsible for my continued struggle the remainder of March. The lessoned learned was that even if it seemed relatively harmless at the time, its implications on my longer term mentality are much greater than I realized.

I wanted to get back to the feeling I had a week prior. So I wasn't going to make that mistake again, no matter how curious I became or how poorly I felt a session might be going. Experiments like these aren't performed in a vacuum, things aren't always going to go as planned, but I was able to learn from this mistake and improve for next time.

I consider myself a successful professional of the game, but only recently have I come to terms with the fact that this professionalism doesn't translate to every aspect of my game. I'm a mental game fish. But now that I have made it past the full spectrum of the Kübler-Ross model regarding my mental approach and lack of self control when it comes to both soft and hard tilt, I'm able to make several productive changes to help bring my mental game on par with my other skills in poker.

I've installed software on my machine (almost like training wheels to keep you from falling off track mentally). I've been reading Jared Tendler's "The Mental Game of Poker" to help build a stronger foundation and understand the root cause of my mental leaks in order to fix them. And I've taken the focus off my quantitative results as you know through this experiment. I was insane for not making improvements sooner! (insert Einstein's definition of insanity)

Conclusion:

Would I conduct this experiment again? Most certainly, I'm going to start again tomorrow. It helps me focus more on qualitative results, rating the quality of my play, rather than quantitative results where I tend to make emotional ties with money won and lost, as Jared remarks in his book. I don't necessarily promote no results checking for everyone (this could be quite dangerous for someone on a tight bankroll that may need to move down in stakes after a big downswing), but I believe it is an excellent solution if you are a solid player who is over-rolled for the games you are playing.

Prediction:

I'm about to check my monthly results in just a few minutes, but I would first like to make a prediction.

I believe I did well overall, even despite knowing of my $22K loss. Not as well as I could have done perhaps if I would have foregone checking results entirely for the duration, but overall I believe the experiment was a success and had a valuable impact to my mental approach. I feel as if I ran and played quite well leading up to that results checking moment, but thereafter I felt like I ran quite poorly and perhaps my play may have reflected this to a small degree.

Clearly checking the results that day had no bearing on how well I ran the remainder of the month, but perhaps it did make the sequence more frustrating and stressful, which isn't good for people in general, but even more detrimental to someone like myself with a compromised immune system. When stress increases and becomes chronic (for many with a chronic illness), cortisol continuously secretes from adrenal glands and circulates through the body as a response, and ultimately adrenal fatigue sets in, which is followed by impaired cognitive performance, leading to a degeneration in my ability to play at a high level. And thus one of the primarily reasons my spectrum of play, my A to F game, is probably greater than any other high stakes player on PokerStars. This further solidifies in my mind the importance for me to master the mental approach, which is not only important for my success in poker, but in my battle against Lyme Disease.

Alright, it's time to make a guess! I think I won around $30K or so in the first 2 weeks on a heater and A+ game combination, followed by that big $22K loss putting me down in the vicinity of $10K. After that I believe I made a slight $10K comeback but then proceeded to run poorly. I think my play fluctuated from that point between an A- to B game in the process putting my EV around breakeven. So, final answer, $10K profit plus about $5K in VIP bonuses putting me up around $15K up on the month.

Edit: I just reread this paragraph to see if I was in agreement. And to be honest, I'm really not sure! It's so difficult to remember, a month is a long time! I feel as if I played quite well overall this month, but since that $22K results checking mishap is still firmly implanted in my mind, it's difficult to say the final outcome. I suppose a $15K ballpark is as good a guess as any!

Drum roll..........................

Actual Results:

Wow! Approximately $53K profit after VIP bonuses are included. That's a lot better than I anticipated! I felt like I was playing well, but perhaps not my A game down the stretch. I really felt like I was getting punished in All-In $EV late in the month. I'm very surprised to see my EV close to my actual.

Note: I originally planned on not checking $EV at the end of the experiment as I didn't want it to have any bearing on next month's performance, but I changed my mind after thinking about it earlier today. For the purpose of the experiment I want to see the most accurate representation of my results, and I feel I'm mentally strong enough now to handle the outcome regardless of whether I ran hot or cold over the duration. Also, I feel there is merit to knowing how the actual $EV compared to my perceived $EV.

I do not feel I am quite mentally strong enough to check results at the end of each day yet. And I certainly never plan on checking results during or immediately after a session ever again. So I'm going to stick to the game plan of re-enacting the experiment all over again in April to optimize my success, because this graph may certainly be evidence of a successful experiment.

After seeing the breakdown by stakes,

I've concluded that my suspicions of running poorly down the back stretch were actually validated somewhat as you can see in the graph represented by big blinds (bb) rather than $ below.

This is one of the advantages (and at times painful disadvantages) of playing multiple stakes at the same time. It looks like I was fortunate enough to run decently well where it mattered most, the $25/50NL and $50/100NL. If I would have ran as poorly at the $50/100 as I did at the $5/10 and $10/20, I would have lost a pretty Canadian penny this month. Well, I'm sure glad I got that bb/100 run bad out of the way because next month is going to be a full on heater, I can feel it!

There were many candidates. There aren't many poker players in the world who wouldn't take a spot in the PokerStars Team Online stable. It took a while, but the people who choose Team Online members whittled the field down to ten players from he region.

"Roy shined through to win himself the position," said a Team Online manager.

Roy is Roy "GodlikeRoy" Bhasin, an online pro from Sydney.

"I feel incredibly humbled and honored to have been chosen to be a part of Team PokerStars Online," Bhasin said. "It has been a dream of mine for a while now, and to actually see it come true is an incredible feeling."

Bhasin grew up playing games with his family. Competition was in his genes. One night he was deep into a game of Halo with his friends when they took a break to eat some pizza. They flipped on the TV and saw a bunch of people playing poker. Halo quickly became a memory. Bhasin found online poker and hasn't stopped winning since.

Unlike most of his contemporaries who focus on no-limit hold'em, Bhasin is a PLO specialist. He finished runner-up in a 2010 $2,100 SCOOP PLO tourney and has done very well in live PLO events in Australia.

"I truly believe that the game is more fun, complex, interesting and challenging and that all poker players should learn to play it," he said.

Bhasin's screen name "GodlikeRoy" (a hold-over from video gaming days) belies his his laid back nature. He's competitive but also likes to relax with a glass of wine. He's a bit of a connoisseur and has a growing collection of bottles from all over the world.

"I am always eager to try new things and expand my horizons. Whether it be traveling to a new place, eating a new type of food, attempting a new activity or anything in-between," he said. "Much in the same vein, I am always trying to adapt and am open-minded about all forms and types of poker."

Everybody can keep up with Bhasin on his blog www.godlikeroy.com.

Finally, if you're reading from Australia, there will be a special promotional announcement coming up next month. Stay tuned!

Congratulations to Roy Bhasin for his seat at the Team Online table.

This morning, Team PokerStars Online released a min-documentary on Frost that highlights how he got started in the game, how he's lived since, and what he does in his spare time.

A little preview: After playing cards for small stakes versus his friends, Frost decided one summer to try to earn $10,000 on PokerStars to pay for his fall schooling. He ended up earning $30,000 with a month to spare.

"I was very impressed by the film. I think that the editing job was amazing and really represented how I live a poker lifestyle," Frost said. "I think that it was cool to get the perspective of some of my friends as well."

To make the above film, Frost ended up spending an entire day with a camera crew hovering over his shoulder. Along the way, his friends joined in for some nightlife.

"The movie was a ton of fun to make. It was a long day, but the whole time I enjoyed getting a taste of what it could be like to be famous, even if on such a micro level," Frost said. "The best part was probably going downtown at night and having the guys follow my entourage with cameras as we toured different bars and clubs. The attention that comes along with everything is pretty fun and I feel as if I played movie star for a day."

For more information on Frost, visit the Tyler Frost biography page.

After UKIPT in Galway, where I had an absolute blast Saturday night at the players party I went straight from that to the airport at seven in the morning. I managed to sleep on my flight to London, grind a long online session as soon as I came back home (very unsuccessfully) and was on a flight to Copenhagen the next day so I could play day 1B of the EPT.

Now this is a bit of a derail but I have to vent it somewhere, nothing really tilts me more than EasyJets policy for luggage.

Basically you are only allowed to bring one piece of luggage on the flight and I had both a suitcase and my backpack. However, if you can get your backpack to fit down in the suitcase so it's still only one "unit" you are still allowed to bring both on and as soon as you get into the flight you are allowed to unpack the backpack again!

What that means is that I have to waste five minutes packing away my backpack only to be allowed to take it out again two minutes later!!! The only time its packed away is literally the walk from the check-in and until I am getting to my seat. I get that they have to set a precedent and they don't want people to use up all the overhead space and start bringing two suitcases for example but just allow people one piece of luggage for the overhead and one piece they can keep underneath the seat. I have tried to argue how illogical this is a couple of times but obviously the employees are just following protocol and don't really have a say. Anyone else get really annoyed by stuff like this or am I just being weird?

So I arrive in Copenhagen and was crash at my friend Rasmus "Bigoots" Sibasts' place which is very convenient as its really close to the casino and a lot more fun than living in a hotel. I have played EPT Copenhagen two times before (busting late in day 2 both times) and have had some pretty tough tables so I was very pleased to sit down on Day 1 and only recognize one person at my table. There were a couple of competent people at the table but overall it was smooth sailing and I got up to 58k from the 30k starting stack in just a few levels. One of the bigger hands I won early that was kind of interesting goes like this:

MP who seems to be playing pretty loose-passive and has open limped several pots before opens to 300, everyone folds to me and I call 67dd out of the big blind.

The flop comes 267ss and I check, he checks behind really fast. Turn is another 7 and at this point I obviously have to lead so I bet 400, he snap raises me to 1100 and I make it 2800, he thinks for a bit and makes it 4500.

Now at this point my range for continuing is pretty much just boats with no history and I am pretty puzzled as to what he can have. I feel like putting in another raise here is kind of pointless as I have a really hard time seeing him call with anything but 66 (only one combo) or 67 so I just call. The river is an off-suit queen which is a total blank, but im kind of afraid that he can check behind as strong a hand as 7x here and I don't think that he ever pays off a river check/raise so I elected to lead out for 8200 which he snap calls and mucks to my hand.

I think the river decision is sort of interesting and Rasmus think it's a pretty easy check-raise on the river, which I agree with on a theoretical level but sometimes when you play live you just get a vibe that something else is gonna work out better, which was exactly how I felt for this hand. Anyways he claimed to have A7 but someone told me afterwards that he folded a seven so I really doubt thats true, very curious as to what he had.

I only played one really big for the rest of the day where I called a guy who was pretty shorts open with KK, the big blind squeezed, original raiser folded and I called. Flop came AK5hhh, he leads and I raise and he calls. Unfortunately the turn is a 4h and it goes check-check and I pay off a 1/4th riverbet on a blank and Lose to JxJh for a pretty big pot. I ended day 1 with 57k which is good for a bit above average. I also had my first ever interview with PokerStars.

The first thing I remember from day 2 is one of the guys who crashed at the apartment coming into my bedroom and asking me if I shouldn't be playing the tournament right now. Somehow I forgot to set my clock and play has already been going on for 20 minutes! I rush down to get a cab, run into the casino to find my table where I have only blinded down to 54k, and the first hand I get dealt I get aces!! It sounds like something taken out of a cheesy movie and I almost couldn't believe it myself and yet here we are!

It gets folded to me in the cutoff at 300/600-50 and those who have watched me plays knows that I am very keen on the minraise but I didn't have any 100 chips and besides I think it makes more sense to open a big bigger on the first hand anyways to seem tilted and try and induce action. So I throw in a 1k and 500 and the small blind calls but the young guy in the big blind (who is playing about 50k I think) squeezes and makes it 5k.

I am trying my hardest to look like this:

But inside I am all:

I think for a bit and make it 9500 and he shoves pretty fast and I somehow hold against J9o for a nice double on the first hand. As far as the rest of the day goes nothing too exciting happens unfortunately, I win a small all-in with JJ vs AQ then lose one blind vs blind vs Stazko with A7o to his Ajs. I dont think I win any significant post-flop pots though and at the end of the day I bag up 82k.

On day 3 I started out a really tough table and couldn't get anything going and I was down to about 60k when our table finally broke. At that point we were getting pretty close to the bubble and my table was playing pretty aggressive and it was one of those times where I was getting zero good re-steal spots which is always incredibly frustrating. I think over the course of the 90 minutes or so it took for me to get moved there I won one pot where I open-shoved like 16bbs from the co with fives, rest of the time was just me withering and dwindling down.

On the exact bubble I have about 13 big blinds left and although there are a couple of short stacks there is still a decent chance I am going to bubble until a pretty crazy hand happens at our table:

Button opens to 6500 (with about 150k to start) and the big blind who is the clear chip-leader at our table 3-bets to 16k (obviously a good spot to 3bet light, but on the other hand not a spot where you would expect the button to open too light either). Button straight up 4bet jams A5s and couldn't be called faster by the big blinds KK, and just like that we were in the money!

Now the next couple of hours is a bit of a haze but basically I am all the way down 8 big blinds before I shove 78s into AT and manage to river an eight. After hovering around for a bit I shove 12bbs from the cut-off (antes are pretty big this level) with JT and gets snapped by the small blinds JJ so I am left with just 7k at 1500-3000. I put it in next hand with T9, gets called by the small blind and thankfully the big blind isolates me with KJ, pretty much the best outcome I could hope for. I flop a nine to triple up, shove the next hand under the gun and get through and get a walk the next hand, right back in it!

The next hour or so is just me picking up some hands in good re-steal spots and slowly building on my stack until I cooler a short-stacked Juha Heppi with AK vs AJ.

After that everything is smooth sailing and the crucial hands comes up against Martin Stazko where he opens the cutoff, I 3bet the button with JJ and he jams 99 for around 33bbs effective. It's nice when all the coolers works out in your favour, and so I am 8/24 going into day 4.

I was actually planning on just making one blog post about the EPT but I feel like there is enough material for another one, and I want to cover some more hands a little more in-depth and just give my thoughts on stuff like chopping and the live tournaments in general.

1. Make as much money as possible
2. Reach 2 000 000 VPPs (2x Supernova Elite)
3. Go down to 15% body fat
4. Invest my money with double digits returns.

Going for 2M VPPs and spending some time on the gym has been consuming most of my time and the little I have left, I choose to spend with my girlfriend.

I've been writing some posts at www.acoimbra.pt in Portuguese, since it's easier for me to write in my native language, but that hasn't left much time for English writing here or my English blog. I will try to write more often and I apologize in advance for my English mistakes.

During the first two months of the year I played around 12000 hyper-turbo satellites on PokerStars. I like the format of these because it attracts a ton of casual players and the games are pretty fast.

I was down around $37,500 at some point and came back to up almost $2k at the end of February. The variance can be crazy, but since the games are so fast, I can play a ton of them, so it kind of evens things out.

The good thing about being Supernova Elite is that with all the cash bonus and milestones they give to the players, I always have a guaranteed salary no matter what!

Regarding my VPPs...

I started very slow this year, not playing a ton of hours or games, since I was a bit out of shape after Christmas holidays and the PCA Bahamas trip. Slowly I got my game together and found what works better schedule-wise.

I have 300k VPPs at the moment, but I think that I can get to 500k vpps by the end of march and be back to the correct pace.

My current plan is to play up to 16 tables at the same time, which is not as much as other players like Jorj95 that plays like 40 or 50 games at the same time, or nanonoko that plays like 24.

16 tables is what I feel comfortable with and I'm only really racing myself anyway
Regarding my schedule, I plan to play 30-40 hours per week, which involves everyday from Sunday to Thursday. Friday and Saturday are my "holidays". For me, it seems more profitable to play on Sundays than Fridays.

The gym has been going well, My technique has been improving quite a bit and I've been able to lift more weight too. It will be a bit tough to reach my goal, since I had like 22% of my goal on the beginning of the year.

I've been trying to eat as healthy as possible. My latest goal was to try to completely cut out caffeine and teaine. I learned about decaf green tea when I was talking with fellow Team Online member WizardofAhhs and since then, I changed from regular green tea to decaf green tea. The result? I've been sleeping a lot better and waking up with more energy in the morning. Awesome!

Last month I stopped working at home and I moved into a small office to work. It has been great and it feels a lot more natural to work. Working at home on Sunday when everyone else is either sleeping or having fun is not the best thing motivation-wise, trust me!

I will post some photos soon. Apart from that, I've been teaching my girlfriend how to play the hyper-turbo satellites. Regarding investments and monies...

I feel like investing is a big part of being a professional poker player, since I don't know how my future is going to be, or if I'm going to be able to work at the pace I work now in the future. So, last year I started doing some research on real estate and I started buying properties to rent. My goal is to get some cash-flow and not really worry about selling after buying, I just buy to keep.

This year my money plan is to distribute the money I make from Poker like this:

I also feel like charity is very important, since there are people that can't really fight for themselves in this world and the process of helping these people is very fulfilling for whoever takes it. As well as a great learning experience that can translate later in making a lot of money, since in my opinion, the best way to make a lot of money is helping a lot of people.

PokerStars as well does a great charity work, helping some projects on a regular basis and always helping the most needed during the big natural crisis.

Feel free to ask any questions here or on my personal blog and I will try to reply to all.
Also, if there is a subject you would like me to talk about in any future post, or you are curious about something regarding me, go ahead and ask.

While delighted to have won his first live event in about 50 attempts, a DKK 2,515,00 score that will drive him on to get another, it's a particular online title he now wants.

"Winning a big live tournament was my biggest goal, and while I'd obviously like to win another one (especially a bracelet event), I'd really like to win a PokerStars SCOOP title. I have been close a lot of times but always stumbled right before the finish line, hopefully I can win one this year."

Petersen's EPT victory at the weekend came after a marathon heads-up battle against Team PokerStars Pro Pierre Neuville.

"It feels amazing and is still sinking in," he said. "It feels good for so many reasons: I ran good enough to pull off a ridiculous comeback after being down to two big blinds; I had to battle heads-up for over six hours before finally closing the victory; I finally cemented that I can do well in the live arena, too; and best of all I got to do it all in my home city with a bunch of fellow Danes railing me.

"The final table obviously went very well for me overall. I was very fortunate to be on the right side of two big setups, A-A vs Aage Ravn's A-K and Q-Q vs Bjarke Hansen's J-J. I made a few mistakes at the final table, especially in the long heads-up match, but overall I think I played very well, never gave up and picked my spots well."

The ability to switch from online play to live tournaments is one that not too many have achieved, but Petersen says it came naturally to him. "Absolutely. Putting in so many tournaments online and seeing so many hands is a tremendous help when playing a big live tournament like an EPT, especially once the stacks gets a bit shorter.

"There are certainly some important differences between online and live poker, but at the end of the day you are still playing the same game, so hours put in online definitely pays off at the live felt as well."

Team PokerStars Blog can also claim some credit for Petersen's live form; we gave him a lift from the airport to Atlantis for the PCA, and clearly he took careful note of our expert opinions during that 30-minute ride.*

Congratulations on the win, Mickey, and SCOOP players beware.

* He clearly did not

In honour of the anniversary, PokerStars has graciously decided to host the World Blogger Championship of Online Poker. The series is a great chance for any of you bloggers out there to score some major cash and tournament prizes. If your blog has been active for more than a couple months and you have some regular posts....do check out the link! Not only will you potentially profit from this tournament series, but I am sure you will pick up some more followers to your blogs.

Whether your blog is about food or fashion, surely you can mash together 500 words to describe how you would spend $5,000, the prize for the best blogger of the series! There is even a $1,000 prize for the best live tweeter among other prizes for the leaders of the pack.
For me, spending $5k is something easily done, and if anyone struggles with ideas...I can surely make recommendations. To start:

• A hot tub
• Hermes handbag (trust me, they are beautiful)
• Four night stay for two at the Sparkling Hill resort in Vernon, BC (you could actually do this twice for $5k)
• Buy cases and cases of Earthquake (or a similar California Zinfandel)
• Rent a room in WizardofAhhs sweet house
• Diamonds - need I say more?

I think you get the idea...and now, years down the road, this blog will serve to give people ideas for what to get me for birthdays, celebrations, anniversaries, etc.

But in all seriousness, this will be a super fun series, paying tribute to all of you out there who have had the ambition to get your thoughts down on the world wide web. The schedule is set, 31 tournaments over 11 days, there is something for everyone! If you have questions, make a comment, check out my Facebook fan page or send me a tweet @talonchick.

I should probably also mention that for every Team Online member you bust, you will be credited with T$11 that can be used for future tournaments (but please...don't let that be your primary motivation)! If you are new to PokerStars, be sure to take advantage of the other promotions available to you at the same time.

See you on my territory.

To check out the rest of talonchick's posts, visit talonchick.com

In 2010, I earned just over 1 million VPP's and in 2011 I earned about half of that. Given that I earned much less rakeback last year, I'm pretty happy with how the numbers turned out in terms of profit. Factor in Team Online and I'm looking at a very similar income to 2010. Here's the breakdown of the money earned at the tables with an annual total at the bottom.

Away from the tables, 2011 was pretty good as well. I think that I've managed to transform my two main goals of eating well and working out into regular facets of my life, which I'm pleasantly surprised about. I'm almost certainly in the best shape of my life right now and look to continue that trend in 2012. It's easy to go to the gym if you actually enjoy it.

I think that I managed to make the most of my time off each month by spending a ton of hours with friends and family. It was exciting to sweat the Vancouver Canucks throughout the entire playoffs even though they came up just short in the end. The atmosphere around the city was buzzing so hopefully they'll have another deep run this year. I didn't do as much travelling last year as I did the previous year but it was nice to have a more laid back summer in Vancouver.

As soon as September rolled around things became extremely hectic for me to close out the year because I had to deal with a move. It was tough to find a place amongst a lot of returning students in September but my new roommate Mark and I finally landed a nice place in a great location and I couldn't be happier after living here for 4.5 months now. I finally feel like I've found a place that's perfect for my lifestyle for the next few years and really feel at home.

2011 was a pretty iffy year on the old girl front. I feel like I've kept you all in the dark for most of the year about my usually wide open love life but it's tough when it's so easy to access this blog. As it turns out, less girls than you might think actually appreciate turning up on the blog...especially without knowing it! Anyways, I guess the general theme for the year was to stray away from one night stands and general hookups and try to establish some kind of decent relationship. I tried this with a few girls but my heart wasn't really in it each time and things fizzled out after a couple of months. Oh well. Still single!
Thanks all for reading...hope you all had a good 2011 and an even better 2012!

Good luck at the tables.

I know that there is zero chance of herding fifteen online poker pros into a conference room by 10AM, I tell myself that this is true and that I need not rush, but nevertheless I am there for our PokerStars Team Online meeting at 9:51. I just can't help being early. This gives me nearly an hour to chat with the other "early" arrivers before we finally begin.

They are a formidable crowd. Shane Schleger was already an online MTT hero six years ago, when I was just starting to grind my way up. Today is January 6th, and he has already final tabled the Sunday Million this year. Mickey Peterson, on the other hand, arrived much later than I to the tournament scene but has already put up results that surpass both Shane's and mine.

In 2009, Kevin Thurman set a record by earning 3,055,385 VPPs. That same year, I was down to the wire getting the last few VPPs I needed to cross the 100,000 mark and make Supernova. It boggles my mind that people manage to earn 1,000,000 in a year to make Supernova Elite, let alone that Kevin accumulated thirty times as many VPPs as I did.

Bjorn Schneider, sitting to Kevin's immediate left, broke that record last month. The two of them just met this morning, though apparently they were on the same flight to the Bahamas. Bjorn was sitting immediately behind Kevin and listening to him tell his seatmate about "the guy who just broke my record".

The two players at the table who are more my speed are Adrienne Rowsome and Richard Veenman, both of whom are, like me, mere Supernovas who play about twenty hours a week. Unlike me, however, they both have jobs outside of poker. We later learn that they are the only two working stiffs out of the fifteen of us.

Perhaps the most intimidating character at the table, however, is Anders Berg. Anders has a PhD in Pure Mathematics and three WCOOP bracelets. He also finished second in an event in last year's WCOOP, narrowly missing a record-setting fourth bracelet. Anders is the oldest player in the room, but also one of the most fit. When he introduces himself, he rattles off numerous feats of athleticism alongside his academic qualifications. Though quiet and humble, he gives the distinct impression of having never done anything badly in his life.

Anders is hardly alone in this. The room is full of people who have excelled in other competitive venues besides poker. Andre Coimbra won the Magic: The Gathering world championships in 2009. Randy Lew was a nationally competitive video gamer before taking up poker. Several members of Team Online have a background in high-level chess, and no one is surprised when Anders Berg adds his name to this list.

Despite their geeky interests, these aren't your stereotypical pasty internet nerds. Shane Schleger, Richard Veenman, Tyler Frost, and Diego Brunelli quickly find a common interest in tennis and arrange a doubles match for the next morning. In what sounds an awful lot like a hustle to me, Richard claims to be a beginner but admits to practicing tennis two and a half hours every day. Jorge Limon races rally cars, which he later tells me entails off-roading with modified street cars and which sounds pretty damn dangerous. Adrienne Rowsome is a serious yoga practitioner and plays slo-pitch softball, though her league seems to emphasize drinking more than any other aspect of the game.

I am struck by what a great job Pokerstars has done of selecting individuals who are serious about online poker but also well-rounded and interesting people. I am looking forward to seeing as much of them as possible during the week we're about to spend together at the Atlantis resort (though I would have preferred not to have them sitting next to me in the main event, which is where both Bjoern and Jorge end up).

They are good players, to be sure, but they are not necessarily the best or the most famous on the site. This is the moment when the meaning of Team Online crystallizes for me: these folks are workhorses. They are driven, and they log serious volume online without putting the rest of their lives on hold.

Barry Greenstein and Daniel Negreanu fill an entirely different niche. They are superheroes, impossibly successful professionals to whom the average PokerStars player can look up but probably can't relate. This isn't to say that Greenstein and his fellow Team Pro members don't work hard. I'm sure they do. I just think that they also possess some innate talent that separates them qualitatively from the vast majority of poker players, no matter how dedicated.

Every Batman needs a Robin. With a few exceptions (cough, Randy Lew, cough), most Team Online players represent attainable goals. They make good money, to be sure, but for most it has more to do with hard work than superhuman talent. Players who saw the red spade on my avatar sometimes told me, in accusatory fashion, that they'd never heard of me. I'm realizing that was kind of the point. Your average Team Online member is an ordinary person who's had extraordinary outcomes by taking advantage of the game selection and VIP rewards available on PokerStars.

Spending a week with these extraordinary poker players is both intimidating and inspiring. On the one hand, their passion for poker is contagious. Each of them represents a unique twist on what's possible with hard work and dedication. Then again, the shear amount of hard work and dedication required by some of their more impressive feats (Kevin Thurman tells me he played 24 tables, 10+ hours a day, 7 days a week for an entire year to set his record) is enough to make you run screaming for the nearest lazy river.

Thankfully the Atlantis has a great one of those, and my teammates do find time to float and enjoy the beautiful weather in the Bahamas. More than a few are anxious about falling behind Supernova Elite pace so early in the year, and swapping intelligence about where to get the best wireless signal during VPP Happy Hour is a popular topic of conversation. You can take the player out of the game, but you can't take the game out of the player, and this bunch are players through and through. It was an honor to play alongside them, even if I didn't meet them in person until our time together was nearly up.

Veenman is very active on Twitter and chronicles his poker endeavors in his blog at Tzen1.com. We recently caught up with Richard to discuss why limit hold'em is his game of choice, how his life has changed since joining PokerStars, and more.

Like many top poker players, you began your competitive gaming career playing Magic: The Gathering. Tell us about how you made the transition from Magic to poker.

I haven't made the direct transition from Magic to poker like many other former Magic players did. When I used to play Magic I was very competitive in it but I was still young and the poker scene as we now know it wasn't there yet. I was 12 when I started playing Magic and did pretty well but I stopped playing in 2000 when I was 18. I did move into other games but my main focus was pursuing my career in IT. I did already play poker back then but they were fairly small home games. I tried it online back in 2001 but there wasn't a real drive to get better at it since there wasn't a lot of information about the game and also not many people were playing it back then.

There has never been very long stretches of time in which I wasn't trying to be competitive in a game. When World of Warcraft launched I started my own guild with a lot of good friends and played that on a competitive level for almost three years. When the poker boom began in the Netherlands around 2005 or 2006, it was a logical next step for me as I already knew the game so I was way ahead of most other people who only just knew the game from TV. The thing I took from Magic was probably the strategic element which both games have. The thing I took from World of Warcraft was the fact you get better the fastest by reading and sharing information through forums and other communities. At first I was still only playing live but as soon as I created an account on PokerStars I moved most of my play to online and that was basically the start of my poker career.

You spend most of your time playing fixed limit hold'em games on PokerStars. Is that your favorite variation of poker or do you play it solely because it's your best game?

It is my best game for sure and when it comes to cash games I prefer it over any other game. I do like to play some razz or deuce-to-seven triple draw as well but I play those games mainly for fun. I've thought about switching to other games many times before but I just really like the fast pace and multi streets action in FLHE. If you are grinding for 12 hours on 16 tables and you don't like the game you are playing I think it's really hard to stay motivated just for the money. I think that's why in the end I also always stayed with FLHE.

I do still like to play tournaments as well and no-limit tournaments are way more fun than fixed limit. There is no better feeling then winning a tournament so for sure I will keep playing tournaments, especially during the PokerStars SCOOP and WCOOP. Unfortunately, because was on holiday, I couldn't play any of the TCOOP tournaments.

Are there any players and/or friends that have helped you become the poker player you are today?

The thing I have with games is that I don't only want to play a game by myself. I always want to play it with my closest friends. That's what I did when I was playing Magic and World of Warcraft, but the same also counts for poker. I picked up poker together with my friends and at the beginning just talking about the game got me motivated and enthusiastic to learn more about it. Nowadays, most of those friends only play the game occasionally for fun but one of my best buddies is still playing. Being able to talk about poker with one of your best friends is really the easiest way to keep eager to learn and stay motivated to play. I still talk with him almost every day and in the year I made Supernova Elite he kept calling me when I was slacking to make sure I didn't fall behind pace too much. We've also been going to Vegas every year since 2004 and probably without him I would have never gotten this far in poker. We've been to the PCA together this year as well and we will go to the WSOP later this year.

You've been a member of Team PokerStars Online for a year now. How has that experience been for you? Any memorable or exciting experiences?

Being a member of Team PokerStars: Online has been an awesome experience. Being able to represent a company which is No. 1 in the market and is known by almost anybody just always gives me goose bumps when I talk about it with other people. I think it's still a dream of many poker players and I'm very happy that I've been given the chance to promote PokerStars via my blog and Twitter. It was a turbulent year for poker but in general I only had positive experiences as member of PokerStars Team Online.

At the PCA we had a Team Online get together and I finally got to meet all the other Team Online members which was really great. PokerStars had also organized a Team Online scavenger hunt, where people had to find 15 Team Online Members to earn a ticket for a six-max sat-and-go which could win you a $10,000 Tournament Ticket. When we got out of the meeting room where we had this get together there was this young kid who saw all the Team Online members standing in the same spot. He looked at us, looked at the card he was holding with all our pictures, looked at us again and you could see the twinkles in his eyes. Unfortunately we had to tell him that the scavenger hunt would start two days later. That was a really memorable experience and I've had many more at the PCA and during last year.

How did the working relationship with PokerStars come about?

I've always been an active blogger and in 2010 PokerStars was looking for people who could represent their online team. In 2010 I also made a run for Supernova Elite in a game which not a lot of people still play these days, fixed limit hold'em. I think putting those three things together was exactly the thing PokerStars was looking for. There were of course already many PokerStars Pros who represent the site but a lot of these people are live players who only play online occasionally. PokerStars, however, is an online poker site so it just makes a lot of sense to also attract Pros who are really an example of the core of what PokerStars is all about: grinding online. PokerStars liked me for what I did and I liked them for what they stand for so when I was asked if I would like to sign for PokerStars we got to an agreement pretty quick.

What were some of your poker goals going into 2012?

My main goal for this year is to make money. It's really as simple as that since in the end that is still the most important thing. My normal grind will still be fixed limit cash games and lately I've been cutting down the amount of tables I'm playing in order to play a little higher again. I would be happy if I could finish this year as a winner at the low or mid-stakes again but I'm also planning to have some fun along the ride. Playing the SCOOP and WCOOP and going to the WSOP again this year to play some tournaments are definitely the things in which I have the most fun in poker. I also want to try a little harder in qualifying for EPT's, something I haven't really done the last couple of years so I'm curious how well that will go.

You work part-time job as an IT-architect for a financial company. How do you manage to balance time between work and poker?

Basically it is the fact I have a job on the side that really creates balance. When I told my boss that I wanted to work part-time he wasn't really happy about it. My hope was that when I proved myself I could make enough money in poker, I would switch to poker full-time. However, since the moment I did both things part-time, I have loved it and I'm not really planning on changing it anytime soon. I think in the end any five-day job becomes a grind, it doesn't really matter how much you like it or how much money it makes you. I was lucky enough that I could keep a good position at work while working part-time, but since I've been doing it part-time I'm loving it more than ever before. I've never tried poker as a full-time job but I think if I would play poker for five days a week, in the end it becomes a boring grind as well and the bad swings in poker could also probably affect your mood a lot. It's the fact I have both jobs that keep me in balance.

To balance the time between these two I plan ahead a lot in a big excel sheet. I keep track on how well I actually meet my own planning and making it visible to yourself is really the most important thing to be able to keep balancing things. The obligations I have at my job should be as important as the obligations I have to myself when it comes to playing poker. Most of the time I pretty good in meeting my own planning, however there are times when you chose to do other things. That however is one of the best things about poker compared to a job, you have more freedom so there is no problem if you sometimes take that freedom and enjoy life.

What do you enjoy doing in your free time away from work and poker?

Since September I've been really into tennis. It's something I loved doing as a kid but since I was 16 I haven't been able to play because of two hernias. Strange enough, I think I've never been so fit in my life and I tried to play tennis again in September and for the first time I didn't had any pains in my lower back. The reason I'm this fit is because I picked up cycling a couple of years ago and that's something I still do as well. I've already planned some big cycle tours again with my friends for this year and although my country is really flat, I love doing it.

To relax I watch a lot of TV series. I also watch movies of course and I still like to go out on the weekend with my friends. I'm also a big fan of watching sports on television, especially big events like the Olympics, soccer championships and the Tour de France. Since we have all three of them this year, 2012 is going to be a great year!

A little bird told us that you like to dance. Is that true?

Yeah, I guess that's true. I was never really a dancer when I was young but I did always go to clubs and just bounced a little on the beat. I'm a big fan of dance music and in the Netherlands we have really huge outdoor dance festivals in the summer which I always go to. In Vegas I also like to go to the clubs and listen to R&B and hip-hop and I'm not sure how I managed to suddenly dance to the music. I really love music and when I hear a beat I want to move and when I've had a couple of drinks I'm not really shy to get onto the dance floor. I also learned how to "shuffle" and since that's probably something typical Dutch not a lot of people see that abroad, so I always get a lot of funny faces when I "shuffle" on the dance floor. I just love going out and have fun and music just always gets me going.

At first, Ryan the director contacted me via Skype and we talked for over two hours about the idea of the movie. We discussed what activities I would like to include in it, interesting venues, participating acquaintances and friends and many other issues. As it turned out, all my regular off-poker activities were placed in the shooting: visiting my close friend, playing basketball and bowling as well as go-cart racing. I really cannot wait to see especially the latter as filming crew has used many different cameras and angles to catch the best scenes of the race. I even had the camera on my helmet! There was a motivating challenge involved in the go-cart racing but I will not tell you now what the result was, you will have to wait until the video is released.

Ryan, Mike (camera) and Greg (sound) decided also to film my home town, Warsaw, the capital of Poland. I am so proud of my city that its name is a part of my PokerStars nickname (DaWarsaw). I was born here 33 years ago and since late 80s I have been watching how it changes. Twenty years ago, Warsaw was actually sad and bleak city so I was thrilled to hear about any new planned building and wanted to know everything about it. There are still many areas that could be developed or modernized in Warsaw but I am already very proud of all the changes I have witnessed.

During those four days, even though the shooting process was really exhausting and we spent about 30 hours making the video, I had a blast. The crew was great and I had a lot of fun with them. I truly hope that they liked Warsaw and will have only good memories and experiences to share about it. After all, it's the movie about Warsaw and DaWarsaw!

To me, a turbo tournament tests the relevant skills of a tournament player in the most efficient, and fun, manner possible. You are forced to take thin gambles more quickly, and being able to properly take those gambles is the essence of tournament poker, whether it's the $1 rebuy or the WSOP main event.

I love turbos because I have a short attention span and a high demand for action, which is partly why I play tournaments to begin with. It's a clear structure: The starting line is when you hit the register button, and the finish line is when one player is left with all the chips. I play tournaments because I need that structure--I need to be dragged towards the finish line.

Whether you love them or not, turbos have become a significant part of the MTT landscape, and the demand for the format is demonstrably high. So when TCOOP was announced, it felt like a "no-brainer" addition to the schedule, a way to more permanently celebrate what has become a very popular form of tournament poker.

Whether you are a full-time grinder or someone who plays a few tournaments a week, there is no better opportunity to take down a significant 5- or 6-figure score in a poker tournament than in this upcoming TCOOP series. As someone who used to work a day job and then come home and register for one or two poker tournaments, I can certainly appreciate this. Not everyone has the long hours (or days) to devote to championship events like WCOOP and SCOOP, and this series will give those people the chance to play for big money without disrupting their normal lives. In this way, I guess a turbo series emphasizes the egalitarian aspect of a poker tournament even better than the more epic, drawn out series later in the year--anyone with a buyin has a shot at a big win.

However...turbos are a different story and most of my poker play has been turbos. The beauty about big turbo tournaments is that you can start one right after lunch and finish it before dinner time!

To be honest, I haven't planned a schedule around the TCOOP tournaments, because I just came back from the Bahamas. But, guess what? I don't have to, because the tournaments won't take 8-12 hours to finish. I can just decide to play a tournament and since it will most likely not take more than 3 or 4 hours, I won't have to think too much ahead on my planning.

The strategy for turbo tournaments is a bit different than the strategy for regular tournaments. It might be because you get less time to play with each player and there is a bigger guessing game, since there is less information. However, I feel that what really impacts the play style is that most people feel like they need to put their chips in the pot quicker at turbos, even when it's still too early for that. Well, if everyone is playing looser, you need to open your stacking off range a bit, but the key words here are "a bit." This is my advice for the early levels, but whenever you get less than 20 or 30 big blinds, don't be shy with your chips, otherwise you won't survive long. I think that the key advice there is "Be aggressive to survive."

PokerStars innovated quite a bit with their Turbo Championship of Online Poker and it's a great opportunity to play in a series of big tournaments without the usual time commitment that comes with them, but with all the fun of tournament poker!

As always, PokerStars will have a ton of satellites for each main event and a huge range of buy-ins, so you can always expect to find something for you there!

See you at the tournaments!