I didn't really get close to finishing in the end. Had a big losing day to start off the week and decided to just slow down my pace as I believe I can still afford it. Just 5.7k left now though, so still excited to finish.
Pokerwise I ran another 20 buyins under ev so I think I may come close to cracking a 150 buyins under aiev streak by year's end if I continue this current trend for the next couple of days. It definitely feels really good to be just losing virtually every all in hand regardless of equity and yet still keep my head together and play the next hand just as well. Testing and improving mental strength isn't an opportunity you get by running good, so in many ways I can be thankful for it, especially when it's only over relatively small amounts of money in the longterm.
I'm spending a lot of time thinking about what I want out of next year and how much I want poker to be a part of it. It looks likely I'll end up making ~$81.5k before finishing in 2011. On the one hand that's not a bad salary and it's hard to complain financially, but on the other hand I feel I'm sacrificing a lot to get it, and at my current age I'm not sure it's worth it. My other issue which is quite large is that next year my winrate in aiev has been really solid for my last 200k hands or so, and my reward for sne skyrockets in the second year as well; so if I don't go for it I'm potentially turning down a lot of money. I guess I'll make that decision over Christmas.
Anyway, for the second last time (for real), the numbers:
VPP/Pace = 994,324 / 968,493
$Poker = $81,046
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Day 347/365
Second last blog update for the year? I sure hope so.
Finally bit the bullet and booked my flights out of Brisbane on Christmas Eve. This means I won't have internet after that point and must be finished before I go. Outside of things out of my control I can't see it being a problem though.
I'm not going to lie, poker is definitely really painful at the moment. I wake up just wanting to do absolutely anything other than play hands. Every downswing is causing me stress as at this point I've already basically checked out for the year and am just desperate to finish.
Vpp wise I have just under 30k to go. That's five 6k days, or six 5k days, or seven and a bit 4k days, or ten 3k days. Haha. It's all that is going through my mind right now. I just pray I'm done by this time next week.
VPP/Pace = 970,064 / 949,315
$Poker = $82,174
Finally bit the bullet and booked my flights out of Brisbane on Christmas Eve. This means I won't have internet after that point and must be finished before I go. Outside of things out of my control I can't see it being a problem though.
I'm not going to lie, poker is definitely really painful at the moment. I wake up just wanting to do absolutely anything other than play hands. Every downswing is causing me stress as at this point I've already basically checked out for the year and am just desperate to finish.
Vpp wise I have just under 30k to go. That's five 6k days, or six 5k days, or seven and a bit 4k days, or ten 3k days. Haha. It's all that is going through my mind right now. I just pray I'm done by this time next week.
VPP/Pace = 970,064 / 949,315
$Poker = $82,174
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Day 340/365
Omaha is a pretty sick game. See my week below:
I finally managed to crack 100 buyins under ev since the end of July as well, which is a pretty cool story I guess. On the plus side, removing the days when I was playing 8k+ hands/day for prizes, I've actually managed around 20ptbb/100 in aiev for the last 120k hands or so, since I last changed up my game in a big way. So at this point I definitely have the confidence that I'm at least a winning player.
VPP wise the process is simple. I need 14 4k days to hit SNE and be done. That's the next two weeks and I really hope I can be done with this by December 20. The intense grinding I did at the end of November has really taken a lot of the pressure off and I feel very confident now about hitting SNE by Christmas Eve.
I rarely do this lately, but some random thoughts:
One thing has really gotten me thinking lately as I play more and more plo. Back when I was playing lhe, people would ask me if poker was risky gambling, and I would always with absolute confidence be able to answer absolutely not. The only real risks as a lhe player were having games dry up or sites shut down and take your money, and the biggest downswing a winning player could realistically have was only about 1000BB or so. I don't feel that confidence in ploplo. I mean the lines for winnings and the lines for aiev just don't correlate at all, and even aiev represents such a tiny part of the luck in this game.
It also has me thinking a lot about the role of advice. As far as I know there are really two schools of thought on poker.
The first, which is thought by probably a majority of laymen, is that poker is for the most part a game of luck. If you just assume all thinking, solid preflop players are close to equal, and take 1000 of these players, you will get a set of results created purely at random chance. The top 5-10 players in terms of luck get to become the experts that can coach and create training sites and everyone tries to emulate and look up to. The bottom 100 or so players in terms of luck are the regfish that are making so many mistakes.
The second, which is thought by a majority of wannabe poker pros (particularly those that believe every poker myth), is that in the long run poker is a skill game. Using the same 1000 players as above, the players that work hardest and are the most intelligent will rise to the top quickly. The players with the best results are the best players and therefore those are the ones that should be deservedly followed.
The real issue is that both schools of thought create the same world that we see before us, so neither can be really proved wrong. In fact both have merit, and the truth certainly lies somewhere between the two. I guess in a round about way what I'm getting to is this: In my opinion so far, in terms of holdem, the second worldview is more important than the first. In terms of omaha, the first worldview is almost as important as the second. The idea that there are players claiming to be good at the game with less than 500k hands under their belt is pure and utter insanity. In what I have seen so far, I honestly don't think you can come close to the long run with less than 3m or so hands.
Anyway, just my 2 cents. Numbers below:
VPP/Pace = 944,703 / 930,137
$Poker = $79,123
I finally managed to crack 100 buyins under ev since the end of July as well, which is a pretty cool story I guess. On the plus side, removing the days when I was playing 8k+ hands/day for prizes, I've actually managed around 20ptbb/100 in aiev for the last 120k hands or so, since I last changed up my game in a big way. So at this point I definitely have the confidence that I'm at least a winning player.
VPP wise the process is simple. I need 14 4k days to hit SNE and be done. That's the next two weeks and I really hope I can be done with this by December 20. The intense grinding I did at the end of November has really taken a lot of the pressure off and I feel very confident now about hitting SNE by Christmas Eve.
I rarely do this lately, but some random thoughts:
One thing has really gotten me thinking lately as I play more and more plo. Back when I was playing lhe, people would ask me if poker was risky gambling, and I would always with absolute confidence be able to answer absolutely not. The only real risks as a lhe player were having games dry up or sites shut down and take your money, and the biggest downswing a winning player could realistically have was only about 1000BB or so. I don't feel that confidence in ploplo. I mean the lines for winnings and the lines for aiev just don't correlate at all, and even aiev represents such a tiny part of the luck in this game.
It also has me thinking a lot about the role of advice. As far as I know there are really two schools of thought on poker.
The first, which is thought by probably a majority of laymen, is that poker is for the most part a game of luck. If you just assume all thinking, solid preflop players are close to equal, and take 1000 of these players, you will get a set of results created purely at random chance. The top 5-10 players in terms of luck get to become the experts that can coach and create training sites and everyone tries to emulate and look up to. The bottom 100 or so players in terms of luck are the regfish that are making so many mistakes.
The second, which is thought by a majority of wannabe poker pros (particularly those that believe every poker myth), is that in the long run poker is a skill game. Using the same 1000 players as above, the players that work hardest and are the most intelligent will rise to the top quickly. The players with the best results are the best players and therefore those are the ones that should be deservedly followed.
The real issue is that both schools of thought create the same world that we see before us, so neither can be really proved wrong. In fact both have merit, and the truth certainly lies somewhere between the two. I guess in a round about way what I'm getting to is this: In my opinion so far, in terms of holdem, the second worldview is more important than the first. In terms of omaha, the first worldview is almost as important as the second. The idea that there are players claiming to be good at the game with less than 500k hands under their belt is pure and utter insanity. In what I have seen so far, I honestly don't think you can come close to the long run with less than 3m or so hands.
Anyway, just my 2 cents. Numbers below:
VPP/Pace = 944,703 / 930,137
$Poker = $79,123
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Day 333/365
My volume went through the roof this past week due to the stars rakeback rewards promo, and I easily got my most vpps any week for the year. In Australian time it's basically a promo where you get prizes based on how many points you can earn between 3pm and 3pm the next day, which is a great time period as it allows you to get a good sleep in and play to the end.
It's a 10 day promo, and I've gone for it on the 2nd day where I got 28th for $200, the 4th day I picked up 16th for $250, and the 6th I got 9th for $400. Not a bad showing so far, and I'll be going for it again on the 8th and the 9th so I'm aiming for another $350 total for $1200 overall.
My play at the tables has definitely suffered, but not by a big amount, and apart from one big -$3k session I've actually not lost too much over the week. I'm really just trying to push out vpps and get breakeven at the tables til the end of the year, that would be ideal at this point.
Also I finally got ahead of pace! Numbers below:
VPP/Pace = 918,809 / 910,959
$Poker = 84,324
It's a 10 day promo, and I've gone for it on the 2nd day where I got 28th for $200, the 4th day I picked up 16th for $250, and the 6th I got 9th for $400. Not a bad showing so far, and I'll be going for it again on the 8th and the 9th so I'm aiming for another $350 total for $1200 overall.
My play at the tables has definitely suffered, but not by a big amount, and apart from one big -$3k session I've actually not lost too much over the week. I'm really just trying to push out vpps and get breakeven at the tables til the end of the year, that would be ideal at this point.
Also I finally got ahead of pace! Numbers below:
VPP/Pace = 918,809 / 910,959
$Poker = 84,324
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Day 326/365
Dropping $4k last night and today downgraded the past week from epic to just awesome. I kind of knew it would happen too, as I couldn't sleep last night and played tired and probably made a bunch of -ev decisions. Would have been a great day to take off but I could not afford that luxury.
I finally genuinely feel like I'm a winning player at plo though now, and I feel like my recent results are somewhat of a vindication given my whining towards the end of last month about cooler spots.
VPP wise, my goal right now is simple. I want to finish SNE by Christmas Eve. I'll be taking the 4th of December off, so removing that day I need to average just a little over 3.8k/day to make my goal happen. I've managed 4k for 6 out of the last 7 days which gives me decent confidence I guess but anything could happen from here really.
A promotion starts tomorrow which rewards high grinding but rewards the 100plo level a lot more than the 200plo level, so I may have to drop down if it looks like I could make it to any of the higher prizes.
Anyway, the numbers. Fingers crossed I'll finally be back ahead of pace by my next update:
VPP/Pace = 881,147 / 891,781
$Poker = $82,648
I finally genuinely feel like I'm a winning player at plo though now, and I feel like my recent results are somewhat of a vindication given my whining towards the end of last month about cooler spots.
VPP wise, my goal right now is simple. I want to finish SNE by Christmas Eve. I'll be taking the 4th of December off, so removing that day I need to average just a little over 3.8k/day to make my goal happen. I've managed 4k for 6 out of the last 7 days which gives me decent confidence I guess but anything could happen from here really.
A promotion starts tomorrow which rewards high grinding but rewards the 100plo level a lot more than the 200plo level, so I may have to drop down if it looks like I could make it to any of the higher prizes.
Anyway, the numbers. Fingers crossed I'll finally be back ahead of pace by my next update:
VPP/Pace = 881,147 / 891,781
$Poker = $82,648
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Day 319/365
I finally worked out the solution to running way under aiev each week. The key is to just win enough in aiev to make up for it, see my past week below:
Seriously though, I am fairly happy with how I'm playing right now, but most of it just has to do with a lack of cooler spots and flopping better than I have for the past couple of months.
My motivation has waxed and waned and I have had a few distractions in the past week but I did manage to get ahead of pace a bit. It felt good to crack through the 20k behind pace mark, and the 850k vpp mark. The next couple of weeks are still super make or break and I really need to get through the 900k mark asap. I really think its still a coinflip as to whether I get done by Christmas Eve.
Anyway, the numbers:
VPP/Pace = 853,049 / 872,603
$Poker = $73,469
Seriously though, I am fairly happy with how I'm playing right now, but most of it just has to do with a lack of cooler spots and flopping better than I have for the past couple of months.
My motivation has waxed and waned and I have had a few distractions in the past week but I did manage to get ahead of pace a bit. It felt good to crack through the 20k behind pace mark, and the 850k vpp mark. The next couple of weeks are still super make or break and I really need to get through the 900k mark asap. I really think its still a coinflip as to whether I get done by Christmas Eve.
Anyway, the numbers:
VPP/Pace = 853,049 / 872,603
$Poker = $73,469
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Day 312/365
Had rather a weak week vpp wise, mostly due to today, in which I wasn't able to play a lot due to needing to get my apartment ready for an inspection (and ended up 600 under pace). However I did manage to crack the 25k vpp behind pace mark which adds a lot of motivation. Knowing that I could get back ahead of pace with just 13 4.7k vpp days definitely makes me feel that I'm finally getting back on top of things. Right now I really desperately want to be done by Christmas Eve, but I'm aware of how tough that might be to actually achieve.
Poker wise I feel like I played really well for the first few days of the week and got back in the black in aiev, but then feel like I have been on my B or C game for the last couple of days, but managing to run above aiev to make up for it. The large amount of hands/day has also meant I've had less emotional control which is something I'll need to work on in the coming days as there is still a decent way to go. Funnily enough I just checked and this might have been my best week of the year in actual $ won, at almost $7k. I think my post would have been much more positive if it had been made on Sunday when I was really killing it on every front.
VPP/Pace = 827,943 / 853,425
$Poker = $69,100
Poker wise I feel like I played really well for the first few days of the week and got back in the black in aiev, but then feel like I have been on my B or C game for the last couple of days, but managing to run above aiev to make up for it. The large amount of hands/day has also meant I've had less emotional control which is something I'll need to work on in the coming days as there is still a decent way to go. Funnily enough I just checked and this might have been my best week of the year in actual $ won, at almost $7k. I think my post would have been much more positive if it had been made on Sunday when I was really killing it on every front.
VPP/Pace = 827,943 / 853,425
$Poker = $69,100
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Day 305/365
First up, apologies for another super late blog post.
Dollar wise the past week I continued to run pretty bad, about another $3k under aiev and being on the wrong end of cooler spots constantly. However I came pretty close to making my goal, which was to at least breakeven on the month in aiev. In fact October would have been a $10k month if I hadn't run $8k under aiev, which is pretty awesome.
I also feel like despite a small frame of reference I've been running insanely badly in cooler spots etc. It is very possible given my very small amount of experience that I am just running normally in these spots and was running insanely good for the first two months, but I doubt it. I don't want to turn this in to any kind of whining, but just looking at hands I feel like I'm just running in to that 2-5% of peoples' ranges that outflops me a lot more than what would seem normal.
VPP wise I had a great week, and not only got past 800k for the year, but also got to within 30k of pace. It definitely feels good to be on the final straight.
VPP/Pace = 804,368 / 834,247
$Poker = $62,457
Dollar wise the past week I continued to run pretty bad, about another $3k under aiev and being on the wrong end of cooler spots constantly. However I came pretty close to making my goal, which was to at least breakeven on the month in aiev. In fact October would have been a $10k month if I hadn't run $8k under aiev, which is pretty awesome.
I also feel like despite a small frame of reference I've been running insanely badly in cooler spots etc. It is very possible given my very small amount of experience that I am just running normally in these spots and was running insanely good for the first two months, but I doubt it. I don't want to turn this in to any kind of whining, but just looking at hands I feel like I'm just running in to that 2-5% of peoples' ranges that outflops me a lot more than what would seem normal.
VPP wise I had a great week, and not only got past 800k for the year, but also got to within 30k of pace. It definitely feels good to be on the final straight.
VPP/Pace = 804,368 / 834,247
$Poker = $62,457
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Day 298/365
Well, this is certainly my latest blog post of the year so far, I'll make an effort to get them done a bit earlier over the next couple of months but I guess I just prioritise this below playing and other life stuff.
The past week I guess I ran bad, finishing about 30 buyins below aiev, and getting over 50 buyins below aiev over the past couple of weeks (about $7k under expectation for the month). However, I managed to turn my aiev line around and have a positive week in aiev, and despite running so bad only actually dropped about $1k on the month so there is a lot to be happy about. I think in my plo career thus far I've gone from playing bad and running good, to playing bad and running bad, to now playing good and running bad. I guess all that's left now is playing good and running good, so I'm definitely looking forward to it. =)
My vpp gap (between actual and pace) is now closing and is at a point now where I really feel motivated to get it all back due to it being a more manageable size. I think the next few weeks will really be crucial but I'm excited that regardless of results the home straight is approaching, and am already making plans for next year.
Anyway, numbers:
VPP/Pace = 777,135 / 815,069
$Poker = $63,407
The past week I guess I ran bad, finishing about 30 buyins below aiev, and getting over 50 buyins below aiev over the past couple of weeks (about $7k under expectation for the month). However, I managed to turn my aiev line around and have a positive week in aiev, and despite running so bad only actually dropped about $1k on the month so there is a lot to be happy about. I think in my plo career thus far I've gone from playing bad and running good, to playing bad and running bad, to now playing good and running bad. I guess all that's left now is playing good and running good, so I'm definitely looking forward to it. =)
My vpp gap (between actual and pace) is now closing and is at a point now where I really feel motivated to get it all back due to it being a more manageable size. I think the next few weeks will really be crucial but I'm excited that regardless of results the home straight is approaching, and am already making plans for next year.
Anyway, numbers:
VPP/Pace = 777,135 / 815,069
$Poker = $63,407
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Day 291/365
Had my first day off in ages on the weekend with a couple of pub crawls with a mate from Melbourne. Unfortunately I swung down pretty bad on Monday and Tuesday, probably not playing my best and a bit hungover.
I did still manage to run a little over pace, and win a little bit of money after rakeback though. I think 25k is probably beyond me as well for the months end, however I guess I will be ok if I can get within 30k.
VPP/Pace = 752,334 / 795,890
$Poker = $64,768
I did still manage to run a little over pace, and win a little bit of money after rakeback though. I think 25k is probably beyond me as well for the months end, however I guess I will be ok if I can get within 30k.
VPP/Pace = 752,334 / 795,890
$Poker = $64,768
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Day 284/365
Well the past week was fun. I've decided it's probably the first week worth showing the graph off, so here it is:
I had those headaches come back so wasn't able to get ahead of pace by as much as I would have liked, but still there was some small progress, picking up about 500 points/day. Given I'm busy much of this weekend I think I'll set my goal for month's end at 25k vpps behind pace, which is still achievable and still should put me in a pretty good place.
Pokerwise I feel like I've made real progress and am now a redline winner over a longish sample of 100BB plo. Most of my losses are still coming in shortstack play, and while I can't be sure its not just variance, I feel it's probably worth giving short play a miss for a while.
Anyway, numbers:
VPP/Pace = 732,471 / 776,712
$Poker = $63,749
I had those headaches come back so wasn't able to get ahead of pace by as much as I would have liked, but still there was some small progress, picking up about 500 points/day. Given I'm busy much of this weekend I think I'll set my goal for month's end at 25k vpps behind pace, which is still achievable and still should put me in a pretty good place.
Pokerwise I feel like I've made real progress and am now a redline winner over a longish sample of 100BB plo. Most of my losses are still coming in shortstack play, and while I can't be sure its not just variance, I feel it's probably worth giving short play a miss for a while.
Anyway, numbers:
VPP/Pace = 732,471 / 776,712
$Poker = $63,749
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Day 277/365
A week is a long time in poker. Countless times I have opened this blog this year, to put in my Tuesday entry, and have been absolutely blown away by looking at the prior post and thinking about how much things have changed since my last one. I guess it is one of the reasons I love this job; I can't sit still in life, the intense development, poker learning, bankroll swings and chaos make every day a new challenge and experience.
At the end of September I started to grow excited at the prospect of a new month. I had been a marginal winner in aiev for the past almost 100k hands, and felt like I was finally getting some confidence in my ploplo game. October 2 came (the first day of the month for me due to hem's timing issues), and I blasted out of the block with a $2k session. I ended up losing that all back later that day, but remained up a lot in aiev. The next day I shot 400plo and dropped another couple of k. Then on day 3 I basically broke even in aiev, but ran 12 bi under, and lost another $2400. I just felt like posting this as it's probably an extreme example of how plo can be. What's funny is that I'm actually making this post quite late on Wednesday, and today is my biggest of the year, by a decent margin (about +$5.2k so far), and now I'm pretty much back where I started and ready to start the October dream again tomorrow.
I'm not sure how much of this is rambly or interesting, but I do want to put a bit more effort in to my posts when I get a chance to as lately they have been mediocre at best.
In terms of the other important factor, vpp, I beasted out the early part of the week putting together a few 4k days, but then slacked off a bit later in the week with some 3k days. I ended up running 7k over pace and am now 47.5k behind. My goal right now still remains to get to 20k by the end of October, which requires just a little over 3.7k points/day. I have a mate coming up mid month for a day, but I still believe I can get there handily if I put the effort in. If I can get above that 20k mark at all, I will feel confident applying for jobs in November, so will also be doing some resume work this month.
Anyway, as always, the numbers:
$Poker = $58.568
VPP/Pace = 710,026 / 757,534
At the end of September I started to grow excited at the prospect of a new month. I had been a marginal winner in aiev for the past almost 100k hands, and felt like I was finally getting some confidence in my ploplo game. October 2 came (the first day of the month for me due to hem's timing issues), and I blasted out of the block with a $2k session. I ended up losing that all back later that day, but remained up a lot in aiev. The next day I shot 400plo and dropped another couple of k. Then on day 3 I basically broke even in aiev, but ran 12 bi under, and lost another $2400. I just felt like posting this as it's probably an extreme example of how plo can be. What's funny is that I'm actually making this post quite late on Wednesday, and today is my biggest of the year, by a decent margin (about +$5.2k so far), and now I'm pretty much back where I started and ready to start the October dream again tomorrow.
I'm not sure how much of this is rambly or interesting, but I do want to put a bit more effort in to my posts when I get a chance to as lately they have been mediocre at best.
In terms of the other important factor, vpp, I beasted out the early part of the week putting together a few 4k days, but then slacked off a bit later in the week with some 3k days. I ended up running 7k over pace and am now 47.5k behind. My goal right now still remains to get to 20k by the end of October, which requires just a little over 3.7k points/day. I have a mate coming up mid month for a day, but I still believe I can get there handily if I put the effort in. If I can get above that 20k mark at all, I will feel confident applying for jobs in November, so will also be doing some resume work this month.
Anyway, as always, the numbers:
$Poker = $58.568
VPP/Pace = 710,026 / 757,534
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Day 270/365
Ended up having ridiculously bad headaches for the first 3 days of last week and was unable to put in as much volume as I would have liked. I'm definitely realising I need to work a lot smarter, especially given October is absolutely my make or break month. I'm mixing in a lot more outdoor type things, and cutting down a lot on anything in front of a screen that isnt poker. My basic aim right now is to get to within 20k vpps of pace by the end of October. In order to do this I hope I can get as close to 50k by the end of this month as possible. I guess I can feel good that despite playing mostly 100plo and having 3 days in a row at or below pace I did run a couple of K above pace on the week overall.
On the plus side, this was my best week of the year in terms of $, at $6433. I've done a bit of bluefirepoker study as well as going through other people's hands and feel that my game has definitely moved ahead in leaps and bounds. Over my last 70k hands now I'm roughly breakeven in aiev which feels good.
Anyway, on with the numbers:
VPP/Pace = 683,698 / 738,356
$Poker = $62,252
On the plus side, this was my best week of the year in terms of $, at $6433. I've done a bit of bluefirepoker study as well as going through other people's hands and feel that my game has definitely moved ahead in leaps and bounds. Over my last 70k hands now I'm roughly breakeven in aiev which feels good.
Anyway, on with the numbers:
VPP/Pace = 683,698 / 738,356
$Poker = $62,252
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Day 263/365
I've run really badly over the past week and have had to move down to 100plo as a result. However, I'm finding it easier to put in hands at 100plo and am still doing well vs pace. I really hope my current runbad turns around soon, over the past two days alone I'm 25 buyins under ev and have probably had set under set or top two vs set about 50-100 times as well. I also had my biggest losing day of the year last Friday at about -$4.5k ($2.5k under aiev). Has not been much fun.
I will probably stay at 100plo for the rest of the month now, which means it will be harder to make serious inroads in to my pace numbers, but still possible. I ended up almost 8k over pace for the past week, and with 9 days to go if I can achieve 1k above pace per day I will end the month about 47k behind pace and in a really good position to get close to pace again by the end of October.
As always, the numbers:
VPP/Pace = 662,497 / 719,178
$Poker = $55,819
I will probably stay at 100plo for the rest of the month now, which means it will be harder to make serious inroads in to my pace numbers, but still possible. I ended up almost 8k over pace for the past week, and with 9 days to go if I can achieve 1k above pace per day I will end the month about 47k behind pace and in a really good position to get close to pace again by the end of October.
As always, the numbers:
VPP/Pace = 662,497 / 719,178
$Poker = $55,819
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Day 256/365
Internet fixed up late last week and I've managed to have a few days of solid internet which is enabling me to get above daily pace. I actually was 8k above pace for the past week. If I keep up this kind of effort I'll hopefully be back close to pace by the end of October.
I don't have much else to say right now, other than that the next month and a half I expect to be pretty monotonous and painful. Hopefully I'll run a bit better than I have lately and that will at least make it worthwhile.
Numbers:
VPP/Pace = 635,520 / 700,000
$Poker = $59,911
I don't have much else to say right now, other than that the next month and a half I expect to be pretty monotonous and painful. Hopefully I'll run a bit better than I have lately and that will at least make it worthwhile.
Numbers:
VPP/Pace = 635,520 / 700,000
$Poker = $59,911
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Day 249/365
Another week without stable internet has me getting more and more frustrated and is creating a lot of negative energy in my life. Amazingly enough even with all the choppiness I've managed to be slightly ahead of pace over the past week. However, not by anywhere near enough, especially at this time in the year. I think starting at noon today I am just going to call this company every two hours and hopefully they will get sick of me enough to actually fix the problem. It still has me in shock that it's been almost a month now since I paid for the service and I still have nothing. I am dealing with a company that has a 0/4 record now on actually following through on promises, and a 0/7 record on understanding my name or the basic alphabet when I spell it (my name is Peter and I have never had such problems on the phone with any other company ever; I usually get Teter or Peper as how it's heard, one guy even wrote it as Peper and then when spelling it back to me started with "Ok I have P for Peter".... can't even make this stuff up). I know this is a bit of a rant but it's honestly just how I'm feeling right now.
I feel like in poker development the last week has been great though. I think partially due to experience, and partially due to running average/bad, I am finally now at that level where I can start to see the spots I need help in. My 'unknown unknowns' are rapidly becoming 'known unknowns' and I expect to go through rapid development over the next couple of weeks in my game. As soon as I have internet I will be getting bluefirepoker, and I have started contributing more in the SSPLO section on 2+2.
Anyway, I better start grinding, so the numbers:
VPP/Pace = 608,371 / 680,822
$Poker = $60,030
I feel like in poker development the last week has been great though. I think partially due to experience, and partially due to running average/bad, I am finally now at that level where I can start to see the spots I need help in. My 'unknown unknowns' are rapidly becoming 'known unknowns' and I expect to go through rapid development over the next couple of weeks in my game. As soon as I have internet I will be getting bluefirepoker, and I have started contributing more in the SSPLO section on 2+2.
Anyway, I better start grinding, so the numbers:
VPP/Pace = 608,371 / 680,822
$Poker = $60,030
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Day 242/365
Some days are seriously just cursed. Today a series of annoying events (internet issues, waiting for connections, back problems interrupting sleep) left me with no time to play, and then when I finally get on to play at last the pokerstars server decides to shutdown for maintenance. And so I record my first 0 vpp day in Brisbane.
The rest of the week had distractions as well and I actually lost some ground on my vpp pace for the week. I've also still not resolved my internet issues and am still tethering which makes it impossible to grind for much of the day. I've now been told there are problems with the cabling within this building to my flat and have no idea how long this will take to fix.
It's all very frustrating as I feel if I just could get a decent connection right now I would be able to snap make massive headway; and living in a first world country that really shouldn't be as difficult to achieve as it has been so far.
On the other hand there is no point in focussing on what I can't do anything about, so at least I've had a mini-break from poker and will be able to get a good night's sleep and can come out swinging tomorrow. September is almost upon us as well, and given that August was pretty much a write-off with not playing for half of it, I'm pretty excited to be able to attack the 9th month of the year. I'm also excited to be about to crack 600k vpps, I feel like that's a pretty important number as from here on in it's really approaching the final straight. Finally, with WCOOP right around the corner and with pokerstars promos for high volume players being a complete joke so far this year, I have to think something big is coming soon.
Anyway, on to the numbers:
VPP/Pace = 587,561 / 661,644
$Poker = $60,059
The rest of the week had distractions as well and I actually lost some ground on my vpp pace for the week. I've also still not resolved my internet issues and am still tethering which makes it impossible to grind for much of the day. I've now been told there are problems with the cabling within this building to my flat and have no idea how long this will take to fix.
It's all very frustrating as I feel if I just could get a decent connection right now I would be able to snap make massive headway; and living in a first world country that really shouldn't be as difficult to achieve as it has been so far.
On the other hand there is no point in focussing on what I can't do anything about, so at least I've had a mini-break from poker and will be able to get a good night's sleep and can come out swinging tomorrow. September is almost upon us as well, and given that August was pretty much a write-off with not playing for half of it, I'm pretty excited to be able to attack the 9th month of the year. I'm also excited to be about to crack 600k vpps, I feel like that's a pretty important number as from here on in it's really approaching the final straight. Finally, with WCOOP right around the corner and with pokerstars promos for high volume players being a complete joke so far this year, I have to think something big is coming soon.
Anyway, on to the numbers:
VPP/Pace = 587,561 / 661,644
$Poker = $60,059
Monday, August 22, 2011
Day 235/365
The week got off to a rough start but finished pretty well. I feel like the first few days after not playing for ages I was really stressed with trying to catch up to pace and played quite poorly, being overaggressive out of position and committing too easily postflop. That along with some serious runbad left me at -$8k pretty quickly. After the first few days I was forced to drop down to 100plo again and since then I think I've fixed up those leaks again and am doing better.
VPP wise I was able to push ahead with good success, the lack of distractions up here has definitely improved my ability to put in hands. I am also eating better and exercising more which has helped my focus dramatically. Unfortunately my internet is still unstable as I'm tethering with my phone, but I feel like once that is resolved I will be able to really start getting back ahead of pace. I started the week at 78.9k behind pace and finished it 71.7k behind. Ideally I would love to be ~62k behind by the end of this month, and 30k behind by the end of September. If I can achieve that I will hopefully get back in to the VPP black in October for the first time since I believe March, which will leave me to pursue other things for the rest of the year.
Anyway, the numbers:
VPP/Pace = 568,073 / 639,726
$Poker = $59,327
VPP wise I was able to push ahead with good success, the lack of distractions up here has definitely improved my ability to put in hands. I am also eating better and exercising more which has helped my focus dramatically. Unfortunately my internet is still unstable as I'm tethering with my phone, but I feel like once that is resolved I will be able to really start getting back ahead of pace. I started the week at 78.9k behind pace and finished it 71.7k behind. Ideally I would love to be ~62k behind by the end of this month, and 30k behind by the end of September. If I can achieve that I will hopefully get back in to the VPP black in October for the first time since I believe March, which will leave me to pursue other things for the rest of the year.
Anyway, the numbers:
VPP/Pace = 568,073 / 639,726
$Poker = $59,327
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Day 228/365
So, my move to Brisbane was successful! The past two weeks I have barely been able to play poker unfortunately and am really far behind, however I am in a really good place now with no distractions and will hopefully have a massive second half of August and September.
Yesterday was my first full day playing again and I managed to hit a 4.4k day, if I can keep that kind of effort up I'll get back to pace in good time.
Just numbers for now, as I'm sure noone really wants to hear about my moving details:
VPP/Pace = 546,084 / 623,288
$Poker = $62,448
Yesterday was my first full day playing again and I managed to hit a 4.4k day, if I can keep that kind of effort up I'll get back to pace in good time.
Just numbers for now, as I'm sure noone really wants to hear about my moving details:
VPP/Pace = 546,084 / 623,288
$Poker = $62,448
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Day 221/365
Last 3 days I haven't played with internet problems and with all the hassles involved with the move, so I'll skip this week and do a double update next week.
VPP/Pace = 539,681 / 604,110
$Poker = $62,218
VPP/Pace = 539,681 / 604,110
$Poker = $62,218
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Day 214/365
I'm not sure when my last losing month was. I believe it was in 2007, but I can't be sure. However, from now on I will be able to say "My last losing month was July 2011". When I started this year I said that if I had a losing month I would snapquit SNE chasing. However I think its been made a bit easier by the fact that I had such a massive May and June.
I had an ok week anyway. I managed to make money at the tables, and wasn't too far behind pace, which I think I'm kind of building up to again. I feel like more and more distractions are gradually being resolved as well.
My real issue right now is getting in to a position where I can find full time work. Unfortunately I'm just too far behind pace to really consider it in the next month. I have a lot of stuff going on here for my final week in Melbourne, then will likely have stuff to sort out in my first week in Brisbane as well, so I will need to have an absolutely massive second half of August and September. I still feel confident that I can make everything work, but its going to take a lot of time and dedication and to be honest a massive downswing now could really derail it all (due to having to drop stakes again).
My July Graph:
And in BB:
One other thing I'm really hoping to be able to do when I get to Brisbane is to be able to get back on to many of the projects I've been forced to sit on the backburner for a while. Poker has definitely taken over lately and hopefully I can turn that around.
Anyway, the numbers:
Vpp/Pace = 528,204 / 584,931
$Poker = $61.264
I had an ok week anyway. I managed to make money at the tables, and wasn't too far behind pace, which I think I'm kind of building up to again. I feel like more and more distractions are gradually being resolved as well.
My real issue right now is getting in to a position where I can find full time work. Unfortunately I'm just too far behind pace to really consider it in the next month. I have a lot of stuff going on here for my final week in Melbourne, then will likely have stuff to sort out in my first week in Brisbane as well, so I will need to have an absolutely massive second half of August and September. I still feel confident that I can make everything work, but its going to take a lot of time and dedication and to be honest a massive downswing now could really derail it all (due to having to drop stakes again).
My July Graph:
And in BB:
One other thing I'm really hoping to be able to do when I get to Brisbane is to be able to get back on to many of the projects I've been forced to sit on the backburner for a while. Poker has definitely taken over lately and hopefully I can turn that around.
Anyway, the numbers:
Vpp/Pace = 528,204 / 584,931
$Poker = $61.264
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Day 207/365
So on the positive side I turned my losing streak around and managed to put together a winning week. I also sorted out my flat in Brisbane and have completed most of the stuff I need to do to move up there. I think my omaha game improved a lot also, with several tweaks and changes to things I was doing, and my aiev has turned around as well as my cash.
On the negative side however, doing all this other stuff and playing lower stakes has put me even further behind pace. I can't remember my last pace week and my pace gap is starting to get really worrying.
I just have to hope that when I actually get to Brisbane I get a solid internet connection, and can really just focus on playing a lot of good poker and getting healthier again for a couple of months. It would really suck to not make it to SNE given how hard I worked earlier in the year to put myself in the best possible position.
Anyway, the numbers:
VPP/Pace = 512,392 / 565,753
$Poker = $57,624
On the negative side however, doing all this other stuff and playing lower stakes has put me even further behind pace. I can't remember my last pace week and my pace gap is starting to get really worrying.
I just have to hope that when I actually get to Brisbane I get a solid internet connection, and can really just focus on playing a lot of good poker and getting healthier again for a couple of months. It would really suck to not make it to SNE given how hard I worked earlier in the year to put myself in the best possible position.
Anyway, the numbers:
VPP/Pace = 512,392 / 565,753
$Poker = $57,624
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Day 200/365
Another week of running terribly has caused me to move down and I'm struggling now to even make pace, never mind get ahead. My account has also run dangerously low at times due to my aggressive withdrawing last month. Also I have had distractions galore, with trying to organise things for my Brisbane move and doing a lot of social things as it may be the last time I see a lot of my friends in quite a while.
I guess I always knew a run like this was possible with plo and was really lucky to be able to play kind of blind to the realities of this game for June and the latter part of May. However, this is definitely giving me the opportunity to really retool my game and try to improve. I think right now I have several leaks in my game I am going to work on.
Things are kind of tough now I guess, but I am still really just one solid month away from getting back to pace so I still feel confident about my year in general. Hopefully I have a good week and am able to get things back on track.
Numbers below:
Vpp/Pace = 503,432 / 546,575
$Poker = $54,189
I guess I always knew a run like this was possible with plo and was really lucky to be able to play kind of blind to the realities of this game for June and the latter part of May. However, this is definitely giving me the opportunity to really retool my game and try to improve. I think right now I have several leaks in my game I am going to work on.
Things are kind of tough now I guess, but I am still really just one solid month away from getting back to pace so I still feel confident about my year in general. Hopefully I have a good week and am able to get things back on track.
Numbers below:
Vpp/Pace = 503,432 / 546,575
$Poker = $54,189
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Day 193/365
I know I don't talk much in this blog about stuff outside poker, but I'll just say that the past week was incredibly tough to get hands played in. I have had a lot to do with regards to my city move in early August, and I have already moved out of my apartment. I feel like I am in a good spot though to have a big week and start pushing towards getting back ahead of pace over the next couple of weeks so I'm pretty positive.
Needless to say I had a losing week and was massively behind pace though. I think a large part of this is the extra swings in PLO.
Anyway, numbers:
VPP/Pace = 485,601 / 527,397
$Poker = $55,358
Needless to say I had a losing week and was massively behind pace though. I think a large part of this is the extra swings in PLO.
Anyway, numbers:
VPP/Pace = 485,601 / 527,397
$Poker = $55,358
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Day 186/365
So I guess the inevitable finally happened and I had a big losing week. Mostly due to dropping ~$5k in the last couple of days I finished the week -$3k. This actually makes it my first semi-decent losing week of the year too. May have to drop down in stakes soon as I've been withdrawing fairly aggressively lately.
I'm really keen to get playing again as I've spent all day just hungover and not doing much, so I'm going to keep this short and sweet.
Numbers:
Vpp/Pace = 474,730 / 508,219
$Poker = $56,255
I'm really keen to get playing again as I've spent all day just hungover and not doing much, so I'm going to keep this short and sweet.
Numbers:
Vpp/Pace = 474,730 / 508,219
$Poker = $56,255
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Day 179/365
Another very disappointing vpp week. My sickness continued, had a fair bit on socially, and also had to start preparing for my move to Brisbane. One thing this involved was heading out to the suburbs to purchase a laptop, then bringing it back 3 days later because it was broken. I guess with the amount I have to do its hard to keep pace but I also feel like if I was feeling 100% I could make it all work and start getting back towards pace. I still feel confident I'll make SNE this year.
Anyway, not much to say and I'm keen to get playing today so I'll just post the numbers:
Vpp/Pace = 454,367 / 489,041
$Poker = $59,599
Anyway, not much to say and I'm keen to get playing today so I'll just post the numbers:
Vpp/Pace = 454,367 / 489,041
$Poker = $59,599
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Day 172/365
Vpp-wise I had such a frustrating week after getting to within 17k of pace last week. I managed to come down with a nasty cold and couldn't play for 3 and a half days while I was recovering. Luckily when I did play I ran superhot which is a term I can use to describe almost every week since switching to PLO.
I guess these things happen and you have to allow for them, which is why SNE chasing is always about making hay when the sun shines to prepare for such events. I also guess there is a good chance now I will be moving to Brisbane under pace as given all the other stuff I need to do in the next month its unlikely I will be able to catch up 28k vpps. I will give it my best shot tho.
Numbers:
Vpp/Pace = 441,895 / 469,863
$Poker = $55,101
I guess these things happen and you have to allow for them, which is why SNE chasing is always about making hay when the sun shines to prepare for such events. I also guess there is a good chance now I will be moving to Brisbane under pace as given all the other stuff I need to do in the next month its unlikely I will be able to catch up 28k vpps. I will give it my best shot tho.
Numbers:
Vpp/Pace = 441,895 / 469,863
$Poker = $55,101
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Day 165/365
It's funny, I dropped $3k at the tables over the past couple of days and was thinking about how in many ways it is a good thing because I need to stay humble and was due for the downswing. I also completely forgot about this blog and am just putting the numbers in now. Somehow I managed to have my biggest week of the year at $6469. Obviously if I hadn't played the past couple of days that number would be about $9k. Pretty ridiculous.
Not too much to say really. Picked up 1k vpps over pace the past week despite having two 1k vpp days. Got my Hwang Omaha books delivered finally and looking forward to going through them. Really hope I can run ok the next week, continue to improve, and pick up even more vpps and get closer to pace.
A couple of things are worrying me. One is how easy it is to run way under aiev in this game and that it hasn't really hit me yet. A $6k downswing at this point is still pretty scary and would have me moving down in stakes quickly making vpp grinding tougher.
Another more pressing thing is the current Australian climate. We unfortunately have certain factions of the current government that are trying to outlaw online poker in a similar way to America, and such an action would make things very messy. I can't imagine being in a worse situation than moving to Brisbane, getting a 6 month rental contract and a job, then finding out poker is outlawed and I have to leave. I'm strongly considering at this point just moving to Europe and grinding it out there knowing that my ability to play poker is safe. I'll think about it more over the next week and make a decision I guess.
Anyway, this is probably my most rambly post ever so I'll just end it now and post numbers:
Vpp/Pace = 433,220 / 450,685
$Poker = $50,040
Not too much to say really. Picked up 1k vpps over pace the past week despite having two 1k vpp days. Got my Hwang Omaha books delivered finally and looking forward to going through them. Really hope I can run ok the next week, continue to improve, and pick up even more vpps and get closer to pace.
A couple of things are worrying me. One is how easy it is to run way under aiev in this game and that it hasn't really hit me yet. A $6k downswing at this point is still pretty scary and would have me moving down in stakes quickly making vpp grinding tougher.
Another more pressing thing is the current Australian climate. We unfortunately have certain factions of the current government that are trying to outlaw online poker in a similar way to America, and such an action would make things very messy. I can't imagine being in a worse situation than moving to Brisbane, getting a 6 month rental contract and a job, then finding out poker is outlawed and I have to leave. I'm strongly considering at this point just moving to Europe and grinding it out there knowing that my ability to play poker is safe. I'll think about it more over the next week and make a decision I guess.
Anyway, this is probably my most rambly post ever so I'll just end it now and post numbers:
Vpp/Pace = 433,220 / 450,685
$Poker = $50,040
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Day 158/365
I continued to simply print money this week. I played significantly less hands than last week and yet almost achieved the same economic result. I ran a bit above aiev again tho, so am definitely very wary of keeping my head on straight and continuing to play my best poker, and think about staying steady in the inevitable downswing that is to come at some point. I do feel like with game selection I am at least a marginal winner in the games I'm playing tho.
In vpps, I ran just under pace for the week, but I had a lot of stuff going on, both things away from poker I needed to do, and social stuff, so I'm happy enough with the effort. If I can get within about 16k of pace in the next week I'll be on track I think, but I'm not going to set an exact goal.
One nice goal I achieved tonight was to get in to the black for the year in table money, somewhere I haven't been in a long time now. For a while I was trying to calculate my lossrate and work out how much I would be making based on it, but, at least for now, I don't have to think like that.
My only worry right now is coming from the mental and physical tax of playing omaha. It's very hard to stay focus and I feel the effects a lot more than holdem. I guess I will just see if I gradually adjust, or if I need to think about taking action.
Finally, the numbers:
Vpp/Pace = 413,034 / 431,507
$Poker = $43,571
In vpps, I ran just under pace for the week, but I had a lot of stuff going on, both things away from poker I needed to do, and social stuff, so I'm happy enough with the effort. If I can get within about 16k of pace in the next week I'll be on track I think, but I'm not going to set an exact goal.
One nice goal I achieved tonight was to get in to the black for the year in table money, somewhere I haven't been in a long time now. For a while I was trying to calculate my lossrate and work out how much I would be making based on it, but, at least for now, I don't have to think like that.
My only worry right now is coming from the mental and physical tax of playing omaha. It's very hard to stay focus and I feel the effects a lot more than holdem. I guess I will just see if I gradually adjust, or if I need to think about taking action.
Finally, the numbers:
Vpp/Pace = 413,034 / 431,507
$Poker = $43,571
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Day 151/365
So the past week I just ran ridiculously hot. I ended up making $5985. To put that in perspective, my top 5 weeks of the year so far have been $5985, $3897, $3795, $3210 and $2630. Definitely feels good. Managed to eat back in to pace a bit as well and am back down to ~18k vpps behind pace. It also means I ended up having a great month, and cracking $10k profit for the first time this year. I really need to up the ante in June tho and have a huge months in terms of hands and vpps as in July and onwards there will be too many distractions to make big vpp numbers.
I'm still not sure on my plo game. I feel I get better each day, but still am getting lost in a lot of spots. The majority of my winnings have just come from being over aiev. I'm definitely staying humble and realising that my results could just have easily gone the other way and a similar amount under aiev I wouldnt have anything to celebrate right now. Looking at the graph below which is filtering for just 100+BB PLO, I have actually been breakeven for the past 44k hands out of 46k.
I'm still waiting on my Hwang books, and will also be getting a bluefirepoker membership fairly soon. A great guy on 2+2 has also agreed to look over a section of hands for me, which is awesome.
My final May month profit ended up at $12002, which is pretty ridiculous.
I've decided to throw in my April results as well. I know it wasn't a grind month (the reason the hand # is so high is because a lot of the hands are nlhe), and I didn't play for a week, and learnt other games, but I feel like its nice to have it here for completeness. I ended up +$3953.
Anyway, everything non plo related has been pretty much stuck on the backburner totally as I feel like I really need to focus, put up good numbers, and get in to a good position for when I move to Brisbane in two months time. As always, numbers below.
Numbers:
VPP/Pace = 394,081 / 412,329
$Poker = $37,879
I'm still not sure on my plo game. I feel I get better each day, but still am getting lost in a lot of spots. The majority of my winnings have just come from being over aiev. I'm definitely staying humble and realising that my results could just have easily gone the other way and a similar amount under aiev I wouldnt have anything to celebrate right now. Looking at the graph below which is filtering for just 100+BB PLO, I have actually been breakeven for the past 44k hands out of 46k.
I'm still waiting on my Hwang books, and will also be getting a bluefirepoker membership fairly soon. A great guy on 2+2 has also agreed to look over a section of hands for me, which is awesome.
My final May month profit ended up at $12002, which is pretty ridiculous.
I've decided to throw in my April results as well. I know it wasn't a grind month (the reason the hand # is so high is because a lot of the hands are nlhe), and I didn't play for a week, and learnt other games, but I feel like its nice to have it here for completeness. I ended up +$3953.
Anyway, everything non plo related has been pretty much stuck on the backburner totally as I feel like I really need to focus, put up good numbers, and get in to a good position for when I move to Brisbane in two months time. As always, numbers below.
Numbers:
VPP/Pace = 394,081 / 412,329
$Poker = $37,879
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Day 144/365
Had a pretty mediocre/bad week with not much to report. Still have quite a way to go in learning omaha. I'm just gonna keep this short and sweet and hopefully do a really good blog post next week for the end of the month.
Numbers:
VPP/pace = 370,901 / 393,151
$Poker = $31,894
Numbers:
VPP/pace = 370,901 / 393,151
$Poker = $31,894
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Day 137/365
The past week was definitely one I needed to have. I grinded pretty hard and came close to breakeven at the tables. I picked up 5k vpps and am now 18k behind pace instead of 23k.
I think my blog posts are going to come on Wednesdays now rather than Tuesdays due to my new schedule. Last night I played til 4am.
I've adjusted my rakeback numbers. So far throughout the year I've kept my rakeback % at 63%, which was pretty close to correct when I was playing FRLHE. However, now that I'm playing PLO it's decently off. So what I've done is changed my rakeback % down to 58% which is more accurate right now. In actuality my rb now is probably about 59% and before it was probably 62% so overall it should even out. Long story short, what this means is this week was actually better than it appears, and the last two weeks were worse than they appear.
Not much else to report, numbers below:
VPP/Rate = 355,692 / 373,973
$Poker = $30,771
I think my blog posts are going to come on Wednesdays now rather than Tuesdays due to my new schedule. Last night I played til 4am.
I've adjusted my rakeback numbers. So far throughout the year I've kept my rakeback % at 63%, which was pretty close to correct when I was playing FRLHE. However, now that I'm playing PLO it's decently off. So what I've done is changed my rakeback % down to 58% which is more accurate right now. In actuality my rb now is probably about 59% and before it was probably 62% so overall it should even out. Long story short, what this means is this week was actually better than it appears, and the last two weeks were worse than they appear.
Not much else to report, numbers below:
VPP/Rate = 355,692 / 373,973
$Poker = $30,771
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Day 130/365
Well, Black Friday has changed a lot, but it seems that most of the changes are for the better for me, and things are working out well. Despite dropping about $1k yesterday, the past week has been my most profitable of the year, and was a week in which I was over pace.
One of the biggest differences is that I am now playing a lot of night sessions, usually finishing at 2am or later. This is because this is the new peak time for PLO games on stars. I am also starting to understand several things about this game and learning as I play, which is good. I will post a graph of my first 100k PLO hands as soon as I hit that number, currently I'm at about 70k I believe.
Regarding other stuff such as sportsbetting, I have decided to just stick everything on the backburner until I get back ahead of pace. Unfortunately this means I will almost certainly miss this years football season, but I feel that I got enough out of it in the few weeks I was tracking that once I have time to commit I will be able to do well in that area.
I have decided to just post my $Poker number at 63% rakeback from now on, and if I can be bothered I will work out the exact number at the end of the year.
VPP/Rate = 331,578 / 354,795
$Poker = $28,991
One of the biggest differences is that I am now playing a lot of night sessions, usually finishing at 2am or later. This is because this is the new peak time for PLO games on stars. I am also starting to understand several things about this game and learning as I play, which is good. I will post a graph of my first 100k PLO hands as soon as I hit that number, currently I'm at about 70k I believe.
Regarding other stuff such as sportsbetting, I have decided to just stick everything on the backburner until I get back ahead of pace. Unfortunately this means I will almost certainly miss this years football season, but I feel that I got enough out of it in the few weeks I was tracking that once I have time to commit I will be able to do well in that area.
I have decided to just post my $Poker number at 63% rakeback from now on, and if I can be bothered I will work out the exact number at the end of the year.
VPP/Rate = 331,578 / 354,795
$Poker = $28,991
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Day 123/365
The last week has been good, and I feel like PLO is forming up as a very viable option. I had a 4k vpp day a few days ago which definitely increased my confidence. I'm a marginal winner in aiev, which is great at this point. Unfortunately I've run about $2k under ev so far this month so it isn't quite reflected in my results yet.
I'm going to leave this update short and sweet, mostly because I'm quite focussed just on PLO right now and everything else is taking second preference. I still really want to get back close to pace before the end of the month, and ahead of pace again by the end of June, and everything else is just going to have to wait.
VPP/Pace = 312,044 / 335,616
$Poker = $25,094
I'm going to leave this update short and sweet, mostly because I'm quite focussed just on PLO right now and everything else is taking second preference. I still really want to get back close to pace before the end of the month, and ahead of pace again by the end of June, and everything else is just going to have to wait.
VPP/Pace = 312,044 / 335,616
$Poker = $25,094
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Day 116/365
So, as everyone knows a week and a half ago Black Friday happened. For me personally, the first thing it meant was I snap withdrew my roll due to rumors circulating that Stars would be forever closed down. This cost me 4 days of play and put me pretty solidly behind pace. The second and more important thing is that in the aftermath, FRLHE is dead and no longer a feasible option in pursuing SNE.
I have weighed up my options over the past couple of weeks while watching how the games change. Basically I have had to pick between PLO, SHLHE and SHNLHE. I picked PLO for a few reasons. First I'm finding it interesting, its a game I've never played before and I'm enjoying the challenge. I think it has the brightest future and the potential to be the next big thing, especially now that online poker will be primarily Eurocentric. Also, the vpp rates are great and it doesn't take much mental strain, at least so far.
Thus far I've been a marginal loser in aiev, but I think that will change over the coming weeks. Already I feel certain concepts are coming together.
I've also booked my flight to Brisbane on August 2nd. Working towards getting solidly ahead again by that date should inspire me.
Numbers below:
VPP/Pace = 293,042 / 316,438
$Poker = $23,931 (I'll work out the other number next tuesday)
I have weighed up my options over the past couple of weeks while watching how the games change. Basically I have had to pick between PLO, SHLHE and SHNLHE. I picked PLO for a few reasons. First I'm finding it interesting, its a game I've never played before and I'm enjoying the challenge. I think it has the brightest future and the potential to be the next big thing, especially now that online poker will be primarily Eurocentric. Also, the vpp rates are great and it doesn't take much mental strain, at least so far.
Thus far I've been a marginal loser in aiev, but I think that will change over the coming weeks. Already I feel certain concepts are coming together.
I've also booked my flight to Brisbane on August 2nd. Working towards getting solidly ahead again by that date should inspire me.
Numbers below:
VPP/Pace = 293,042 / 316,438
$Poker = $23,931 (I'll work out the other number next tuesday)
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Day 102/365
Over the last week I've spent a fair bit of time working on my nlhe game. The limit games, particularly during the weekdays, really don't have enough players now to put in long days, so having another option, particularly for evening sessions is definitely good. So far I've spent some learning tax tuning my game, but I feel fairly comfortable at least breaking even at 100nl now playing ~20 tables of 6max. The benefits if I can move up are there too, as if I can put in 10k hand days (not that hard at 6max nl), and can play mostly 2/4 or 1/2, I could potentially see double or even triple pace days.
I've also been building up my vpp rate again, and whilst falling under pace for the week, the past two days have both been above pace. I'm looking forward to putting things in to practise and having a big volume week ahead, I still feel like I can get back above pace by the end of April.
Not much else to report, so the numbers:
VPP/Pace = 269,312 / 278,082
$Poker = $9185 ($22,888)
I've also been building up my vpp rate again, and whilst falling under pace for the week, the past two days have both been above pace. I'm looking forward to putting things in to practise and having a big volume week ahead, I still feel like I can get back above pace by the end of April.
Not much else to report, so the numbers:
VPP/Pace = 269,312 / 278,082
$Poker = $9185 ($22,888)
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Day 95/365
This week I've had somewhat decent results at the tables, but have had several distractions and have fallen behind pace. I feel like since my last downswing I've really reevaluated a lot of the things I have been doing and have been making fairly large changes, particularly in terms of game selection and mental freshness. Unfortunately it's difficult to go through such reevaluation periods during an SNE pursuit year, and my vpp rate has definitely suffered. It's also put me in a difficult position with regards to finding work midyear, as now everything will need to be pushed back.
I'm definitely fresh though now, with a reasonably new month, a solid gameplan, and 3 games I feel confident grinding in. I think in many ways April may be the defining month of this year for me. If I can get back solidly ahead of pace (say +10k) before the end of the month and can make a decent amount of cash I think I will be really set for the rest of the year. I'm not going to think about breaking any records this month, just 30 days of solid poker and grinding.
Football tracking is going well, however it is unfortunately taking up a fair bit of my time. I am enjoying it though so far. Given that I don't really want to go in to the details of what I'm doing I probably won't post much on this topic any more, until I make a decision on whether or not to go ahead or not. So likely not for the next 3 weeks. After that, assuming I do go ahead, I'll just provide profit/loss etc. as I do with poker now.
Now for my March and quarterly results. Before the year started if you had asked me where I would be at this stage I would never have really expected to be here. I guess a large part of me thought I wouldn't still be going for SNE, and another part of me expected me to be crushing it. Instead I'm kind of in that limbo-ish 7/10 region. I look at it positively though, as I feel I've built a strong foundation; the idea of making 750k vpps in 9 months is so much easier than the idea of making 1mm in 12.
March Graphs etc.
Honestly a lot of this month wasn't great, but there is no point crying over spilled milk and the last week really made up a lot of the losses which was nice.
Final results including rb:
Final results no rakeback:
To further see why March was at times frustrating, I have put boxes around downswings that happened in a single day. It's funny that I don't think in my life I've had a month with more winning days than I did in March (probably somewhere around 25/31 or so), but the losing days were just so much bigger on average than my winning ones:
March in BB:
And, first quarter graphs:
First, all first quarter hands including rakeback:
No rakeback:
And, in BB:
And finally, the numbers as they currently stand:
VPP/Pace = 251,535 / 258,904
$Poker = $10,497 ($22,242)
I'm definitely fresh though now, with a reasonably new month, a solid gameplan, and 3 games I feel confident grinding in. I think in many ways April may be the defining month of this year for me. If I can get back solidly ahead of pace (say +10k) before the end of the month and can make a decent amount of cash I think I will be really set for the rest of the year. I'm not going to think about breaking any records this month, just 30 days of solid poker and grinding.
Football tracking is going well, however it is unfortunately taking up a fair bit of my time. I am enjoying it though so far. Given that I don't really want to go in to the details of what I'm doing I probably won't post much on this topic any more, until I make a decision on whether or not to go ahead or not. So likely not for the next 3 weeks. After that, assuming I do go ahead, I'll just provide profit/loss etc. as I do with poker now.
Now for my March and quarterly results. Before the year started if you had asked me where I would be at this stage I would never have really expected to be here. I guess a large part of me thought I wouldn't still be going for SNE, and another part of me expected me to be crushing it. Instead I'm kind of in that limbo-ish 7/10 region. I look at it positively though, as I feel I've built a strong foundation; the idea of making 750k vpps in 9 months is so much easier than the idea of making 1mm in 12.
March Graphs etc.
Honestly a lot of this month wasn't great, but there is no point crying over spilled milk and the last week really made up a lot of the losses which was nice.
Final results including rb:
Final results no rakeback:
To further see why March was at times frustrating, I have put boxes around downswings that happened in a single day. It's funny that I don't think in my life I've had a month with more winning days than I did in March (probably somewhere around 25/31 or so), but the losing days were just so much bigger on average than my winning ones:
March in BB:
And, first quarter graphs:
First, all first quarter hands including rakeback:
And finally, the numbers as they currently stand:
VPP/Pace = 251,535 / 258,904
$Poker = $10,497 ($22,242)
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Day 88/365
So the past week I slowed things down. A lot. My VPP rate practically disappeared at parts and I've dropped behind pace, but my winrate has picked up again and I put in my second most profitable week of the year. I feel like that $7k downswing throughout the middle of the month could be the best thing that's ever happened to me because it was the kick in the pants I needed to refocus and think things through.
Someone asked me in the SNE thread on 2+2 a question that has really had me thinking lately. The question was what % of the time would I say I'm playing my A game. I feel like to answer that question I first need to define each thought level.
Here is what goes through my mind in each game =
A game: What does my opponent have, and how is he likely to react to various plays I make.
B game: What do I have, and what balanced approach do I need for my range in this situation.
C game: How tight/loose should I be playing, and without a nut hand, can I get to showdown here.
D game: How much am I up/down, and how well/badly am I running.
E game: Total autopilot play. Play strong hands fast, fold weak hands. Thinking about specific hands and the luck or lack of luck in them.
For the year so far, if I'm being completely honest I would say I've played maybe 5% A, 40% B, 40% C, 10% D and 5% E. The thing is, as an SNE grinder, it is just completely unrealistic to think you can always play your A game. If someone has the brain power to be totally on, all the time, then I commend them, but for most mortals its a virtual impossibility.
I believe as an SNE grinder your aim is to be on your A game as much as possible, such as when you start sessions, especially in the morning, and never drop below your B game. The key to this, as far as I know so far is:
-Work out and keep your mind as fresh as possible.
-Recognise when you are dropping in to your C game and end such sessions.
Random other thoughts: When I started this blog I wasn't entirely sure of it's purpose. I felt like it would quickly turn in to something everyone would forget about and that I would use basically just for myself to track my progress. I think I know now the aim I have in mind for this blog. I want to be able to build something that future SNEs and serious grinders can use to learn the skills to make it (Note that this isn't quite as arrogant as it sounds, because even if I fail to make it I still think lessons can be taken from my failure).
Football season has started and I have begun tracking today! It will probably be at least a couple of weeks before anything decent is reported on this front, but I'm certainly happy that footy is back!
Finally, on to the numbers. There is still a day and a half left in March so I'll do a month and quarterly review next week. I've added a week by week profits here though as it just seems kind of interesting:
VPP/Pace = 239,198 / 239,726
$Poker = $9672 ($20,167)
Someone asked me in the SNE thread on 2+2 a question that has really had me thinking lately. The question was what % of the time would I say I'm playing my A game. I feel like to answer that question I first need to define each thought level.
Here is what goes through my mind in each game =
A game: What does my opponent have, and how is he likely to react to various plays I make.
B game: What do I have, and what balanced approach do I need for my range in this situation.
C game: How tight/loose should I be playing, and without a nut hand, can I get to showdown here.
D game: How much am I up/down, and how well/badly am I running.
E game: Total autopilot play. Play strong hands fast, fold weak hands. Thinking about specific hands and the luck or lack of luck in them.
For the year so far, if I'm being completely honest I would say I've played maybe 5% A, 40% B, 40% C, 10% D and 5% E. The thing is, as an SNE grinder, it is just completely unrealistic to think you can always play your A game. If someone has the brain power to be totally on, all the time, then I commend them, but for most mortals its a virtual impossibility.
I believe as an SNE grinder your aim is to be on your A game as much as possible, such as when you start sessions, especially in the morning, and never drop below your B game. The key to this, as far as I know so far is:
-Work out and keep your mind as fresh as possible.
-Recognise when you are dropping in to your C game and end such sessions.
Random other thoughts: When I started this blog I wasn't entirely sure of it's purpose. I felt like it would quickly turn in to something everyone would forget about and that I would use basically just for myself to track my progress. I think I know now the aim I have in mind for this blog. I want to be able to build something that future SNEs and serious grinders can use to learn the skills to make it (Note that this isn't quite as arrogant as it sounds, because even if I fail to make it I still think lessons can be taken from my failure).
Football season has started and I have begun tracking today! It will probably be at least a couple of weeks before anything decent is reported on this front, but I'm certainly happy that footy is back!
Finally, on to the numbers. There is still a day and a half left in March so I'll do a month and quarterly review next week. I've added a week by week profits here though as it just seems kind of interesting:
VPP/Pace = 239,198 / 239,726
$Poker = $9672 ($20,167)
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Day 81/365
A weak end to an otherwise good week has left March pretty much a joke. In total I've now dropped $7k since being up on the year two weeks ago. I know I've been very unlucky, but feel that I must be making mistakes at the tables as well.
I have one week left in March pretty much, and not only it is the last chance to salvage something, but its also a chance to get some momentum back going in to April. Given my poor run, for the next week I'm going to keep to the following rules, every time I break one I will record it and report back next week:
-No cashier refreshing midsession.
-Quitting games as soon as I feel tired or tilted.
Also, sportsbetting begins next week! I expected to begin this week but it seems lines are released earlier in round 1 so I'll wait for round 2 to start tracking.
VPP/Pace = 227,150 / 220,548
$Poker = $7691 ($16,956)
I have one week left in March pretty much, and not only it is the last chance to salvage something, but its also a chance to get some momentum back going in to April. Given my poor run, for the next week I'm going to keep to the following rules, every time I break one I will record it and report back next week:
-No cashier refreshing midsession.
-Quitting games as soon as I feel tired or tilted.
Also, sportsbetting begins next week! I expected to begin this week but it seems lines are released earlier in round 1 so I'll wait for round 2 to start tracking.
VPP/Pace = 227,150 / 220,548
$Poker = $7691 ($16,956)
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Day 74/365
The past week was not great. A lot of distractions (social stuff) kept me away from the tables a lot. I managed to have another $2k losing day chasing 200k, so I guess I should be happy just to finish the week in the black.
I feel like it still could be possible to have a semi-decent March as it's a long month and there are still over two weeks left, but it will be tough. I definitely need to refocus though at this point if it is to happen. I'm finding a lot of my self-discipline has gone and I'm tilting quite easily as soon as I take a few beats in a session.
Anyway, not much else to report, so the numbers:
VPP/Pace = 209,597 / 201,370
$Poker = $3523 ($16,119)
I feel like it still could be possible to have a semi-decent March as it's a long month and there are still over two weeks left, but it will be tough. I definitely need to refocus though at this point if it is to happen. I'm finding a lot of my self-discipline has gone and I'm tilting quite easily as soon as I take a few beats in a session.
Anyway, not much else to report, so the numbers:
VPP/Pace = 209,597 / 201,370
$Poker = $3523 ($16,119)
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Day 67/365
So I dropped about $3.8k today.
It's funny, yesterday I was off to a great start to the month and everything was looking up, and short of a disaster today I had pretty much got my blog post set out. Then disaster struck, and I can't say all the awesome things I was going to say, because I am now 8 days in to this month, and losing money. At this point I think I will be happy if I even end up with a $6k month, and sadly am already looking towards April to hopefully be the month where I finally don't run terribly.
I firmly believe that every failure is an opportunity for growth, however it will take a couple of days for me to think about just what I can take from this opportunity. This blogpost will thus be fairly short.
Numbers:
VPP/Pace = 190,405 / 182,192
$Poker = $2664 ($15,764)
It's funny, yesterday I was off to a great start to the month and everything was looking up, and short of a disaster today I had pretty much got my blog post set out. Then disaster struck, and I can't say all the awesome things I was going to say, because I am now 8 days in to this month, and losing money. At this point I think I will be happy if I even end up with a $6k month, and sadly am already looking towards April to hopefully be the month where I finally don't run terribly.
I firmly believe that every failure is an opportunity for growth, however it will take a couple of days for me to think about just what I can take from this opportunity. This blogpost will thus be fairly short.
Numbers:
VPP/Pace = 190,405 / 182,192
$Poker = $2664 ($15,764)
Monday, February 28, 2011
Day 60/365
Well February is over, and that makes me pretty happy. The problem with February is that its such a short month that I didn't ever really feel like I was gonna put up big numbers. March on the other hand has me excited, I can't wait. I'm going away for the day on Friday, so if I am able to put together a couple of winning pace days tomorrow and Thursday I will be able to go clear my head with 180k VPPs and a solid start. I really want to crush January's total.
I feel like my game has improved a lot in the past week and I've had several epiphanies, particularly with regard to game selection. I've started working on my shorthanded game a fair bit as well again and may start 9 tabling that a bit too. I think seat and game selection will be the decider in whether I end this year in the black or red pre-rakeback.
I honestly dont have much else to say, not much else of relevance to this blog has really happened.
February total profit graph below:
It's funny that I ended at $6842, but I made about $4k in the first 5 days or so, and made about $3k in the last 5 days or so, most of February was pretty bad haha.
Graph without rakeback:
And to add to February, just to show what I was discussing in my last blog post, here is my graph in big bets, to remove the fact that this month I just ran insanely bad at higher stakes:
Finally, the numbers:
VPP/Pace = 173,594 / 163,014
$Poker = $4032 ($16357)
I feel like my game has improved a lot in the past week and I've had several epiphanies, particularly with regard to game selection. I've started working on my shorthanded game a fair bit as well again and may start 9 tabling that a bit too. I think seat and game selection will be the decider in whether I end this year in the black or red pre-rakeback.
I honestly dont have much else to say, not much else of relevance to this blog has really happened.
February total profit graph below:
It's funny that I ended at $6842, but I made about $4k in the first 5 days or so, and made about $3k in the last 5 days or so, most of February was pretty bad haha.
Graph without rakeback:
And to add to February, just to show what I was discussing in my last blog post, here is my graph in big bets, to remove the fact that this month I just ran insanely bad at higher stakes:
Finally, the numbers:
VPP/Pace = 173,594 / 163,014
$Poker = $4032 ($16357)
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Day 53/365
I guess on review the past week while often frustrating was fairly solid in terms of winnings. No real big winning or losing sessions, but a solid amount of hands and a decent amount of rakeback got the job done. Weeks like this one are really the bricks that build the house of sne I think.
A couple of people have mentioned that my mental state is interesting to talk about. I think like most sne grinders I have a pretty decent perspective on life which means I don't really sweat winning or losing at poker; at least as much as most other people. For me I think it comes from two things: the first is spending a decent amount of time in the 3rd world travelling and working which makes it impossible to take for granted the gifts I have been given in life, and the second is having a really strong knowledge of who I am and where I'm going which is why the phrase 'It's a marathon, not a sprint' has special meaning to me. If I run bad and have bad downswings, the only thing I'm really thinking about is it means my goals will be reached a week or a month later than before, and that I have an opportunity to learn something and get stronger. The past few years have just been sooo amazing, and I know that from 2014 onwards they will be amazing again, if I can just sacrifice these few years and do the hard work needed.
Random winrate thoughts: In terms of my overall winrate, I obviously expected to do much better at the start of the year; although on the other hand I'm not sure I fully expected to have been able to put in as many hands as I did. However, I feel that when I analyse things closer I think I am actually doing very well and am set for a good year. Currently at the tables (not including rakeback) I'm down about $1.6k. However, when I filter my results for just 3 handed and heads up play I'm down over $1k in that scenario. When I filter my results and remove T/20 I'm actually up about $1.3k. When I go another step and filter out the early hands which included rungood at the start of the year and a massive downswing in which I feel I played pretty bad and made several adjustments immediately following it, I'm actually up ~$3.7k.
Looking at the data like this gives me a fair bit of confidence that the next few months should be better than my first two. I feel like if I avoid spots where I'm a dog (such as shorthanded and solid higher stakes tables) as much as possible, and play my A-game as much as possible, a decent winrate is still possible this year.
Not much to report on the business front. Things moving along at a snails pace I guess.
Finally, as always, the numbers:
VPP/rate: 154,680 / 143,836
$Poker: $4147 ($14,656)
A couple of people have mentioned that my mental state is interesting to talk about. I think like most sne grinders I have a pretty decent perspective on life which means I don't really sweat winning or losing at poker; at least as much as most other people. For me I think it comes from two things: the first is spending a decent amount of time in the 3rd world travelling and working which makes it impossible to take for granted the gifts I have been given in life, and the second is having a really strong knowledge of who I am and where I'm going which is why the phrase 'It's a marathon, not a sprint' has special meaning to me. If I run bad and have bad downswings, the only thing I'm really thinking about is it means my goals will be reached a week or a month later than before, and that I have an opportunity to learn something and get stronger. The past few years have just been sooo amazing, and I know that from 2014 onwards they will be amazing again, if I can just sacrifice these few years and do the hard work needed.
Random winrate thoughts: In terms of my overall winrate, I obviously expected to do much better at the start of the year; although on the other hand I'm not sure I fully expected to have been able to put in as many hands as I did. However, I feel that when I analyse things closer I think I am actually doing very well and am set for a good year. Currently at the tables (not including rakeback) I'm down about $1.6k. However, when I filter my results for just 3 handed and heads up play I'm down over $1k in that scenario. When I filter my results and remove T/20 I'm actually up about $1.3k. When I go another step and filter out the early hands which included rungood at the start of the year and a massive downswing in which I feel I played pretty bad and made several adjustments immediately following it, I'm actually up ~$3.7k.
Looking at the data like this gives me a fair bit of confidence that the next few months should be better than my first two. I feel like if I avoid spots where I'm a dog (such as shorthanded and solid higher stakes tables) as much as possible, and play my A-game as much as possible, a decent winrate is still possible this year.
Not much to report on the business front. Things moving along at a snails pace I guess.
Finally, as always, the numbers:
VPP/rate: 154,680 / 143,836
$Poker: $4147 ($14,656)
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Day 46/365
Well, first ever losing week, dropping close to 5k in a pretty sick downswing. Interestingly enough I'm still up in BBs for the month though; all my runbad has been at T/20, while I haven't run that far below ev in the lower stakes games. I've been dealing with an annoying headache/cold as well which hasn't made things easy.
VPPs/Pace: 136,018 / 124,658
$Poker: -$532 ($12,076)
VPPs/Pace: 136,018 / 124,658
$Poker: -$532 ($12,076)
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Day 39/365
The past week has been good, in money, points, and mental growth. One thing I've realised about myself and achieving SNE is that I am not a stable person and I need to allow for that and use it as a strength rather than try to change myself and form rigid schedules. By this I don't mean that I'm emotional or anything like that, but rather that sometimes I feel ultra-motivated and other times I just wanna do anything but play/work. I'm learning that it's ok to have slack days even without reason, as long as when I feel pumped up I make full use of my energy and do a lot of work. For reference, my past week's daily vpp counts are: 3.4k, 1.8k, 4k, 500 (I went out this day), 1.1k, 4.5k and 3.8k. Whilst there is a lot of variance, I still roughly average pace days across the sample, and that's all that matters in making it.
Brief other updates: My business finally has a working name that I'm happy with, after about 6 months or so thinking about it almost daily. I'll post the name on here as soon as I've purchased the domains required. I've also got some software for design/prototyping so now I feel like I have a good plan for the next phase of development. My sportsbetting plans are being pushed back as unexpectedly numbers aren't available for the pre-season competition which means I'll have to wait til round 1 of the regular season.
As always, numbers below:
VPP/Pace = 114,378 / 105,480
$Poker = $2806 ($13,451)
One interesting thing about the numbers this week is that I have made about $4k in the past week, making it already my best week so far this year. However, the past two days I think I've about broken even, whereas the last day of December I crushed; so from the 30-37th day I believe I had about a $5.5k week... which is nice.
Brief other updates: My business finally has a working name that I'm happy with, after about 6 months or so thinking about it almost daily. I'll post the name on here as soon as I've purchased the domains required. I've also got some software for design/prototyping so now I feel like I have a good plan for the next phase of development. My sportsbetting plans are being pushed back as unexpectedly numbers aren't available for the pre-season competition which means I'll have to wait til round 1 of the regular season.
As always, numbers below:
VPP/Pace = 114,378 / 105,480
$Poker = $2806 ($13,451)
One interesting thing about the numbers this week is that I have made about $4k in the past week, making it already my best week so far this year. However, the past two days I think I've about broken even, whereas the last day of December I crushed; so from the 30-37th day I believe I had about a $5.5k week... which is nice.
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Day 32/365
So the last week has just been unbelievably frustrating with regards to poker. Internet problems due to a dodgy firewall on a modem cut me out from playing for 3 days straight, destroying all my goals for January. It is hard to express the annoyance to push myself so hard and work my ass off to fly ahead of pace and get in great shape, then to just sit wasting time for 3 days playing with modem settings and talking to internet support people trying to get things fixed and watching pace gradually catch up. I'm sure there is a lesson to be learnt and hopefully I'll learn it in the coming days, but right now I've just got to use all my energy to refocus and start pushing out my pace gap again. I feel like I've lost my mojo too as today I had to push myself hard just to get a 2.9k day.
Anyway, in perspective January went ok. It was hard to really work out where I would be at this point prior to the year beginning because I couldnt even really be sure I could string together a week of pace days at the start of the year. I obviously didn't expect to be down in $$ after my first 138k hands but again, I couldnt really estimate anything. I think I've just gotta focus on getting better, fixing every leak, and working twice as hard in February and more importantly three times as hard in March. I still hold out faint hope for 200k vpps by the end of Feb, but realistically I won't complain with ~185-190k vpps with even a little profit.
I'm also going to make the next few blog posts more poker oriented, I will only post about non-gambling stuff when I have actually achieved something worth posting about.
Let's do some January graphs.
This is total profit including rakeback:
Not including rakeback (the green line in more depth):
And finally, my stats as they stand now:
VPPs: 95,248 / 86,301
$Poker: $1085 ($9656)
Anyway, in perspective January went ok. It was hard to really work out where I would be at this point prior to the year beginning because I couldnt even really be sure I could string together a week of pace days at the start of the year. I obviously didn't expect to be down in $$ after my first 138k hands but again, I couldnt really estimate anything. I think I've just gotta focus on getting better, fixing every leak, and working twice as hard in February and more importantly three times as hard in March. I still hold out faint hope for 200k vpps by the end of Feb, but realistically I won't complain with ~185-190k vpps with even a little profit.
I'm also going to make the next few blog posts more poker oriented, I will only post about non-gambling stuff when I have actually achieved something worth posting about.
Let's do some January graphs.
This is total profit including rakeback:
Not including rakeback (the green line in more depth):
And finally, my stats as they stand now:
VPPs: 95,248 / 86,301
$Poker: $1085 ($9656)
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Day 25/365
Kind of a slack week, at least the last few days. Feel like I lost my rhythm a bit and stopped playing morning sessions. Need to get back on track this week. In the last 4 days my biggest vpp count has been ~3.2k which is simply not good enough, although I do feel fairly well rested. Hopefully the next week I'll put in more time in poker and at least crack the 100k mark in vpps.
Failed pretty hard at all three extra goals last week. I did work a little on my business and have got a working name now which is nice; although I still think it needs slight modifications. Sportsbetting software will need to be operating before NAB cup which begins early February so I will be working on that in the coming weeks for sure. I wont be setting additional weekly goals any more though, I'll just resolve to work hard on everything at every point possible.
Next week's update will be my first big update. Should be several graphs etc. and be much more interesting than the first posts here.
Numbers below. Just wanted to make a final comment on the poker numbers. The first number is way off now, but will become gradually become more accurate until its perfect at years end. The second number is a lowballed estimate of my current profit assuming I make it to supernova elite. SNE rakeback ranges from 63%-70%, and that second number shows my profit at exactly 63% rakeback.
Early in the month I had high hopes, but at this point if I complete January with 100k vpps and $10k profit I will be satisfied.
VPP/rate = 82,077 / 67,123
$Poker = $1128 ($8247)
Oh and finally, Happy Australia Day tomorrow!
Failed pretty hard at all three extra goals last week. I did work a little on my business and have got a working name now which is nice; although I still think it needs slight modifications. Sportsbetting software will need to be operating before NAB cup which begins early February so I will be working on that in the coming weeks for sure. I wont be setting additional weekly goals any more though, I'll just resolve to work hard on everything at every point possible.
Next week's update will be my first big update. Should be several graphs etc. and be much more interesting than the first posts here.
Numbers below. Just wanted to make a final comment on the poker numbers. The first number is way off now, but will become gradually become more accurate until its perfect at years end. The second number is a lowballed estimate of my current profit assuming I make it to supernova elite. SNE rakeback ranges from 63%-70%, and that second number shows my profit at exactly 63% rakeback.
Early in the month I had high hopes, but at this point if I complete January with 100k vpps and $10k profit I will be satisfied.
VPP/rate = 82,077 / 67,123
$Poker = $1128 ($8247)
Oh and finally, Happy Australia Day tomorrow!
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Day 18/365
So the past week was interesting. Had the biggest downswing of my career so far, losing a bit over $4k in a couple of days. I feel like I'll owe it to rustiness and overexcitement at wanting to put in a lot of volume and feel like I've tuned my game better now. I think it was masked early because I was playing terribly the first few days but running well enough for it not to show up... once I started running worse it really showed.
I've decided to start setting myself tasks to get started with other stuff and practice fitting these other things in to my life. By next week I want to achieve the following:
1. Full func spec developed for my first business, and contact a couple of people to look over it and try to determine feasibility.
2. Fully test my sports betting data collection system and ensure its ready.
3. Start evaluating the Brisbane job market.
VPP pace and profit so far below (remember its the number in brackets that shows an accurate amount). I'm not disappointed with how I'm going. Obviously $ won at the tables is lower than I would have expected, its hard to predict a $4k downswing haha, but pace isn't too bad given my absence early in the year. I feel like I have just a tiny bit of breathing space. Biggest challenge so far is definitely physical, I'm trying different positions to sit in etc and hopefully things will get better. Setting up the xpadder probably helped a decent amount too.
VPP/pace = 60,027 / 47,945
$Poker = $446 ($6346)
I've decided to start setting myself tasks to get started with other stuff and practice fitting these other things in to my life. By next week I want to achieve the following:
1. Full func spec developed for my first business, and contact a couple of people to look over it and try to determine feasibility.
2. Fully test my sports betting data collection system and ensure its ready.
3. Start evaluating the Brisbane job market.
VPP pace and profit so far below (remember its the number in brackets that shows an accurate amount). I'm not disappointed with how I'm going. Obviously $ won at the tables is lower than I would have expected, its hard to predict a $4k downswing haha, but pace isn't too bad given my absence early in the year. I feel like I have just a tiny bit of breathing space. Biggest challenge so far is definitely physical, I'm trying different positions to sit in etc and hopefully things will get better. Setting up the xpadder probably helped a decent amount too.
VPP/pace = 60,027 / 47,945
$Poker = $446 ($6346)
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Day 11/365
In a much better mood this week and with a lot more hands completed so I'll try a bit more with this entry.
So far things have been going well and I've gotten above pace. The first 10 days of the month I had a lot of stuff going on away from the tables but things have settled down now and the last couple of days I've really been able to start crushing pace. I've also found I'm getting more and more conditioned for long sessions; I've been working out/exercising a lot, finding balance with my mates, and have ordered special poker glasses (gunnars) to assist as well. Today and yesterday I hit my pace day number in a single session and feel fine.
The balance has also given me time to think and plan longer term goals a bit more. A short list of things I want to pursue/achieve this year (economic only):
-Two business ideas. One of which requires low capital and I could work on even now, the other which requires a lot of capital and won't be pursued until I have significant bank. Also smaller business opportunities that can be taken.
-Sportsbetting; in particular a specific betting system I want to try and think could work. AFL only this year as my style is very market intensive and difficult to replicate in other sports.
-Move to Brisbane, and find solid 9-5 work with a multinational company and excel there.
Results to come. One note on poker profit numbers. They are going to show up far below their actual value throughout the year as I will only be putting in the cash amount. Currently I have made over $4k including all my unclaimed/unclaimable bonuses made, but I'm only showing the actual current cash money made in my account. So things are definitely far better than they appear. I'll include a guesstimation of my total winnings next to my poker profit in brackets, but this will be slightly low as I'll be guessing at a 63% rb rate whereas my true rb rate will be ~67% (I don't know exactly, it will depend on games played).
I still feel like its too early in the year to be posting interesting graphs etc. End of the month I will probably do a very visual post. For now, the numbers...
Vpp/rate: 33347/28767
Poker: $577 ($4133)
So far things have been going well and I've gotten above pace. The first 10 days of the month I had a lot of stuff going on away from the tables but things have settled down now and the last couple of days I've really been able to start crushing pace. I've also found I'm getting more and more conditioned for long sessions; I've been working out/exercising a lot, finding balance with my mates, and have ordered special poker glasses (gunnars) to assist as well. Today and yesterday I hit my pace day number in a single session and feel fine.
The balance has also given me time to think and plan longer term goals a bit more. A short list of things I want to pursue/achieve this year (economic only):
-Two business ideas. One of which requires low capital and I could work on even now, the other which requires a lot of capital and won't be pursued until I have significant bank. Also smaller business opportunities that can be taken.
-Sportsbetting; in particular a specific betting system I want to try and think could work. AFL only this year as my style is very market intensive and difficult to replicate in other sports.
-Move to Brisbane, and find solid 9-5 work with a multinational company and excel there.
Results to come. One note on poker profit numbers. They are going to show up far below their actual value throughout the year as I will only be putting in the cash amount. Currently I have made over $4k including all my unclaimed/unclaimable bonuses made, but I'm only showing the actual current cash money made in my account. So things are definitely far better than they appear. I'll include a guesstimation of my total winnings next to my poker profit in brackets, but this will be slightly low as I'll be guessing at a 63% rb rate whereas my true rb rate will be ~67% (I don't know exactly, it will depend on games played).
I still feel like its too early in the year to be posting interesting graphs etc. End of the month I will probably do a very visual post. For now, the numbers...
Vpp/rate: 33347/28767
Poker: $577 ($4133)
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Day 4/365
After a good start to the year my internet has been completely unusable today and I have fallen behind pace.
VPPS: 8510/9589
$ made in poker: +890
Nothing else to report really. A lot of other stuff has gone wrong since the year started but I'll leave that stuff off the blog. Hopefully I'll put more effort in to my next post.
VPPS: 8510/9589
$ made in poker: +890
Nothing else to report really. A lot of other stuff has gone wrong since the year started but I'll leave that stuff off the blog. Hopefully I'll put more effort in to my next post.
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