Random Update?

I have recently had to change my blog to the new platform for blogger. I found I had quite a few hits, somewhere around 4.5k. I found this kind of shocking, though I know quite a lot are probably me I still wouldn't really have guesstimated a number over 500 or so. It got me thinking about whether it's worth still updating this now and then, even though my SNE chase is over. It doesn't really take long, so why not?

I've never really read any blogs, or interacted with the poker world at all outside of 2+2/Crown, but I do feel like I should definitely give a link back to the people that linked to mine (I can only see the top 10):

http://www.tzen1.com/

http://goldganesh.blogspot.com.au/

http://derustzelve.blogspot.com.au/

Thanks guys and gl at the tables!


Poker has taken a backseat this year, been enjoying myself a bit more and also focussing on other income sources (I should be launching something in the next 3 months, so I'll link if I do). However, I have still been hitting my 50k/month each month so far this year, which will allow me to retain SNE. I'm going travelling for a couple of weeks around Asia soon so am taking June of, and likely December as well. My game has been far more dynamic and experimental this year due to the luxury of not needing to grind as hard. Graphs for the last 2 months below:

April:

 May:

Anyway I'll try to provide at least a couple more updates before year's end. I still might be going for SNE again next year in which case I'll update a fair bit again in 2013 (maybe each month or something).

Recap of 2011

Oh hi!

So I've been meaning to do this final update since the Stars meeting. Since then I have just been busy with other stuff and putting this off. While this blog was done first and foremost for myself to stay motivated, I really hope that at least someone finds this blog useful in evaluating whether to push for SNE or other high volume programs.

Before I begin, I feel I should start with my hands from this year. After drinking for a couple of weeks straight and coming back on epic tilt, the year got off to the start you might expect haha. At that point I switched my playstyle entirely to maximise my vpp/rate, and seem to be doing ok (probably only about 90k hands since switching, so too early to say). My hand rate is massively slowed due to not needing 1m vpps this year (going for 500k vpps), and my aiev isn't bouncing around like last year, which are both nice things. There is probably about $13-14k in rb here, but I don't have an exact rb line:

2011 RECAP

Now, without further ado, on with the epic recap (scroll to bottom to see year graphs)!

First, by month.

January

Looking back, I'm still not sure exactly what to think about January. Did I play terribly but run amazing? Or did the fact that I was so fresh and thus my mind was working so much quicker than in later months make up for a lot of my errors. Probably there is a little truth to both. Either way, it wasn't a bad way to start the year.


February

This was probably one of my slacker months, and to be fair I probably wasn't playing very well for a lot of it. On the other hand the second month was pretty crucial in terms of keeping momentum going as I figured there was a decent chance I would have been over it by then.


March

I think this was one of the months I ran pretty disgustingly bad in LHE, but it happens and I managed to push through it. I think this was also the month where things started to fall apart and I was playing less and less, eventually falling behind pace.


April

This was my second month in a row just running ridiculously badly at LHE and playing less and less because of it. It's funny though looking back, even though I'm likely a whole lot of BB's under expectation, its less than a year ago and now I wouldn't bat an eye to run this much (in $) under aiev or lose this much in a day. In fact I lost more last night than I did in this whole month and didn't even think about it. Yet back then it tilted me enough to reduce my playing amount.

I actually made the switch to PLO for the latter part of this month and ran pretty good to make up for it given I was certainly a losing player back then.

May

This was my first month fully at PLO after making the switch, and looking back at how badly I was playing back then I must have been running pretty good. I tend to think I've always run really well when I've needed to in poker, such as starting a new game, and this was no exception.

June

I moved home in this month in preparation for moving city, and barely played for a lot of it. When I did play though I ran perma-godlike, which was great as it took away any stress I may otherwise have had and allowed things to all go smoothly. This was the month where I really started to get way behind pace.

July

My only losing month (post-rb) for the year and I really had it coming. Switching to a totally new game halfway through the year and expecting to masstable and win meant that this month was inevitable; it just came a little later than expected due to my initial rungood. I also continued to fall behind pace due to wanting to spend my last weeks in Melbourne with friends and family as much as possible.

August

I finally moved city in August, and was met in Brisbane with constant internet issues. I also spent a lot of the month trying to work on my game, furnishing my new place, and getting worried about how far I was falling behind pace. All these issues meant I probably didn't play my A-game much, so I can't really be too disappointed with my very mediocre result.


September

While my results weren't great in September, I definitely think that this month was my turning point in plo. I dropped down stakes, grinded hard, worked on my game, and it is reflected in running pretty much breakeven in aiev for my latter 70k hands or so. Unfortunately, as often seems to be the way in poker, the second I started applying myself and playing better, I started running worse and worse.

October

This month really shows what it is to be a rb plo player. It's just so easy to run 50 bi under aiev in a short sample, and while I may be biased I think I ran considerably more than 50 bi under true expectation here. On the other hand this month also gave me a lot of confidence in my plo game as despite running terribly in cooler spots, playing a decent amount of hands, and running way under aiev, I managed to put in an aiev profit.


November

This was my crazy and SNE-defining month. Knowing I had a holiday booked in December that I wanted to be done by, and Stars giving a high play promo meant I had a bunch of absolutely insane days. I definitely wasn't playing anywhere near my A-game but picked up a bit of $$ hitting the promo leaderboard a few times to make up for my table losses. Finishing the month back ahead of pace finally meant I finally knew for sure I was going to make it.


December

My final month involved running badly but not caring too much. It wasn't a tough month in terms of volume and led in well to my holiday. Definitely felt good to be done.



Looking at the different games I played:

LHE




The game I started of the year playing, I definitely feel I ran ridiculously bad for a lot of this, particularly at higher stakes, but at the end of the day it doesn't even matter any more.

O8




I barely even played enough hands to be worth posting this in the end, but I did plan to play it at the start of the year so meh.

NLHE

There is definitely a fair bit of tilt in this. I remember thinking about how badly I was running. It's pretty lol now looking back.

PLO SS

There is no question one of the best decisions I made this year was to stop playing this stupid game haha. I just never worked hard enough to get good and just used it to reduce variance while keeping vpps ticking over really.

PLO FS


In $

In BB

I ended up roughly breakeven in aiev, which I guess I'm happy with given I took on a new game masstabling, learnt as I went, and had a few periods playing well under my A-game for various reasons. As a repeat SNE, breaking even in PLO can earn me a decent amount.

and finally, my totals for the year.


2011 Overall Graphs 


I don't think the totals are perfect, and there is also all the bonus $ and leaderboard money, which I believe was about an extra ~$2k or so. I also managed to have a positive tournament year in the very few I did play, for probably another +$500. Long story short I think I made a little bit more than these graphs suggest.

Winnings + RB

Winnings + AIEV

Winnings (Losings lol)