Yesterday we were biting our nails in anticipation of his meeting with Daniel Negreanu; Negreanu has been itching to take him on after Blom put away Tony G, Daniel Cates, and Eugene Katchalov in the PokerStars SuperStar Showdown. The only heads-up match in this series Blom has not won so far was the first. This was held on December 19th, 2010 against Isaac “philivey2694″ Haxton, where Blom came out -$41,701. He won $44,280 from Tony G on the 2^nd January 2011, $51,196 from Daniel “w00ki3z” Cates on the 30^th January and on the 13^th February 2011; Blom took $111,750 from Eugene Katchalov. He must be improving at his game because he just dismantled Negreanu for a total of $150,000 in four hours and 1,439 Hands.

The way this heads-up match is structured is in online poker and across four tables of $50/$100 or higher no-limit hold’em and/or pot-limit Omaha; depending what the players prefer, so it is a multi-tabling match. Each player starts out with a bankroll of $150 000 and they play over 2 500 hands. At the end of the 2 500 hands, the winner is the player with the most money in their bankroll. In this particular match; Blom and Negreanu were scheduled to play two matches over 2 consecutive Sundays, the first being yesterday the 20^th March and the next the following week. The only way one player can win over the other before the total hand count is up, is if they manage to take their entire bankroll – in this instance $150 000. This is exactly what happened yesterday and now we are wondering if Negreanu will come back for more next Sunday, although he has tweeted that he will?

Daniel Negreanu is not really an online poker player, he is a live tournament kind of guy, but he was given time to practice and felt he had a handle on the game. He expressed excitement before the match as the competition intrigued him and was not concerned in the least as he said he quickly adjusted to the speed of the game. Blom and Negreanu chose to play four heads-up NLHE (no limit hold ‘em) tables. So far Blom’s profit from this competition for just four days work on a Sunday over three months has been $315,525. Not bad for a 20 year old kid from Sweden, but this boy’s a really big spender at the online poker tables.

But of course you have thought about the pros and cons extensively and you desperately looking for a way to get your poker life started. Most importantly you should start building a solid bank roll. Therefore become a professional poker is not something you can do overnight. You first need to save. The best advice would be not to quit your day job in order to make sure that the bills are still getting paid. Also it might help you to give your best, because you will be playing with hard deserved money.

Money management is the key to a successful career. You have to learn to know your limits, no matter what. Consider how much money you would be prepared to lose. Also think about how much money  you would like to earn  and set a reasonable time limit.

Poker bad beats are probably more regular occurrences online than they are in any land poker tournament, they cannot be helped as there are many unskilled players who win with mere luck on their sides. This is probably the reason why online casinos provide Bad Beat Bonuses. However a bad beat can still leave the poker player feeling as though they have just been put through the wringer! Some experts call this “Bad Beat Syndrome”, while others just call it f^@*%#g tough luck!

Exploring your reactions to a bad beat is a very useful exercise, as most of the time after a really tough bad beat, the player feels some rather strong emotions. Emotions are not supposed to be part of playing poker, but as we are human beings, emotion is understandable. It is how you deal with these emotions which counts and they range from complete disbelief to utter disgusts as a rule. A bad beat can stay with a player for a good long while and it is for this reason that it is not considered going tilt. It can slow down the brain and put it into a fog, it even tells in the glaze over the eyes. Bad beats have caused many sleepless nights as the player tosses and turns; re-hashing the circumstances.

Exploring bad beat syndrome, or the one that got away, is pretty boring for the listener who really wants to tell the poker player to “get over it already!”  It is all part of poker psychology where it is natural not only for poker players, but for all human beings to be mired in egocentricity. This comes as a tendency to believe that the world really should be fair, it isn’t! The natural cognitive reaction is common and it brings out the “why me?” in all of us. You know what, the bad beat is all part and parcel of playing poker, so as a player of this game, you really do need to just “get over it” and move on.

“That’s Poker” is not nearly enough justification for many players in terms of the bad beat, unfortunately the emotions are still in control and the mind remains focused on why? If the statistics say you should have won and you didn’t, searching for answers is what your brain is trying to do. There is also a large element of fear involved and fear always shakes confidence. But just like the old adage goes, if you fall off the horse, you have to get right back on and ride, so too does combating the poker bad beat. This has to be combated by training the brain through exposure and restructured thoughts.

What the poker player is looking for is others who will commiserate, but what they need to do is to look to themselves for reassurance that they still have the confidence and ability to win. Professionals are so good at what they do, because they don’t let a bad beat bother them and take it as part of poker playing life. Consolation and re-ignition are not the way to get over the exposure to a bad beat. Acceptance of something you may not be able to change is vital to conquer this issue.

Poker cards have no memory and no mind, they are just a pack of cards; the dealer is just a dealer. Neither of these entities is responsible for the cards you receive when you play poker. It is your responsibility to take action to either fold if you have a crap hand or play if you have a starter. Poker skill and strategy teaches you this. But luck counts when those cards are being dealt – it has to, nothing else has any control over them.

The luckiest player in a game of poker or any other game of cards for that matter; is the player who takes the most out of a stroke of good fortune. That takes skill!!

Poker players get lucky and they get unlucky and if they have a lucky streak, the sensible and knowledgeable poker players know this will bottom out at some point over the long-term. A lucky player may seem invincible to a novice player, but what that novice player doesn’t realize is that he too may have got lucky many times already but has not known what to do with it, or has been unable to recognize this.

Accomplishment is really what luck is all about; there is always skill behind luck unless you are playing a slot machine. But even this takes a certain amount of skill, a slots player knows that to win the PJP, he has to get lucky, but knowledge tells him he also has to place the maximum bet for the maximum win.

Attributing other poker players’ skill to luck is a natural reaction in players who don’t know any better. It is very lucky for example to get pocket Aces, but if you don’t know how to play them for maximum value, you don’t have the skill to make the most out of a game.

A good poker player is able to play both good luck and bad luck situations’ to their advantage and it is this that gets them the dubious title of being a “lucky” player.

Learn to recognize when luck is handing you something on a platter and learn how to exploit this to your best advantage. If you are desperately in need of chips in a tournament and your opponents all fold to you in the cut-off. This is luck, and it is also when a good player raises; no matter what cards he is holding. A bad player folds and blames bad luck, a good player, thanks his lucky stars he had the insight to raise!