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
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