Some of you probably remember my old blog here on Run It Once, where I documented my rise from the microstakes to high stakes. It started with me struggling to beat 10nl, trying to find some direction, and slowly building a process that actually worked. Once I got some momentum going, things moved pretty fast, and eventually I made it all the way to some of the highest stakes that run regularly.

Since then, a lot has happened. I moved from 10nl to 25/50, started a coaching company, got a family, moved to Andorra, moved back to the Netherlands, and somewhere along the way poker changed from “the thing I’m trying to make it in” into something much bigger. It became my job, my business, and still, somehow, the game I love playing.

Closing the Old Door
I recently asked the mods to deactivate the old blog. Not because I’m ashamed of it or because I don’t value it anymore. Quite the opposite. That blog captured a very important part of my life, and I’m still proud of it. It was written by a version of me who was trying to figure things out, trying to move up, trying to become good enough, and trying to find a way towards the life I wanted. In a way, that made the blog what it was. I was documenting the rise through the stakes and all the swings that come along with it.

But I don’t feel fully aligned with it anymore. In the beginning it was purely a poker journal. Just me playing, studying, posting graphs, setting goals, failing goals, trying again, and slowly building some sort of process. Later on coaching became a serious part of my life as well, and the line became a bit blurry. I still felt like I had to post as “the poker player with a journal”, while in reality a big part of my work had shifted towards coaching, building Nachos Poker, helping other players, and trying to create the kind of path I wish I had when I was still stuck at the micros. So instead of forcing the old blog into something it was never meant to be, it felt cleaner to just start fresh.

Still Grinding
More than 7 years has passed since I started my first blog and a lot has changed. I’ve got two young daughters, a third child on the way, and I’m not really in a phase of life where I want to pretend that grinding 60 or 80 hours a week is still the dream. We lived in Andorra for the whole of 2025, which was a great experience in many ways, but at the start of this year we moved back to the Netherlands because my wife was homesick. The Netherlands is obviously not the greatest poker jurisdiction in the world, but it is home, and there are still enough games available to make it work.

I still play competitively, mostly 500nl up to 25/50 when it’s running. Most of my volume happens in the afternoons now, around family life and coaching. I don’t think I’ll ever stop playing poker, partly because I still love the game, but also because I don’t want to become the kind of coach who slowly drifts away from the reality of the games. If I’m going to help serious players, I want to stay in the arena myself. At the same time, I’m also trying to be realistic. I don’t want poker to take over every part of my life anymore. Right now the balance is working ~40 hours per week, split 50/50 between playing and coaching/building.

Building the Path
The goal of this blog is going to be a bit different from the first one. I’ll still post graphs, updates, random hands, and probably the occasional life ramble, because that has always been part of how I write. But the main goal here is to provide value. I want to share hands I’ve played, strategy thoughts, population reads, study advice, GTO versus exploitative adjustments, things I’ve learned from coaching, and whatever else might help serious players improve.

I also want to be open about the fact that this blog is connected to coaching. I run Nachos Poker, a Coaching for Profits program, and a private coaching program called the Mentorship Program. Obviously, if people like the way I think about poker and find these posts useful, I hope some of them might eventually want to work with me. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that, as long as the value comes first and the intention is clear.

So feel free to ask questions, post hands, challenge ideas, or just follow along. The first blog was mostly about trying to see the light myself. This one will be more about trying to guiding others on their path towards success :)