Monday, February 25, 2008

SNE Quest - Feb 25: An odd week

VPP COUNT: 159447

I've been slacking on my blog posts, and have skipped a few pretty significant poker days.

I had an extremely large upswing on Thursday, making my second largest cash day ever.

Unfortunately, the following Friday and Saturday took away about 3/4ths of that.

I'm getting pretty sick of short-stacking. In the long run my hourly still is higher than when I play my normal game, but my normal game is more satisfying.

So today, I put in a session of 24-tabling full-ring NL. 200 and 400 buyin tables only. To make up for the lack of screen space, I switched to cascaded tables instead of tiled. This caused a surprising change in my play. The way the tables are laid out when cascaded, they are overlapping, and pop up when you need to make a decision. This way, I am not using the automatic "check-fold" boxes so habitually.

My stats went from a super-nitty 13/11 to a solid 16/13. I was very happy with my ability to play more tables, and possibly taking advantage of some more mediocre spots that I overlook when I play my normal 18-table tiled setting.

Unfortunately, I ran like hell. Just one of those days where you can't win nomatter how well you play. By the end of the day, my AA, KK, and JJ hands had lost for me overall. Not very easy to overcome an ugly run like that. Despite the bad streak, I continued to maintain my 16/13 style over 24 tables - resulting in about 25% more hands per hour.

Despite running like hell, I'm somewhat looking forward to playing tomorrow. Every time I mix my game up, it boosts my motivation for a while. 24-tabling is a nice mix up.

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

SNE Quest - FEB 20: On an upswing

VPP COUNT: 143041

I've put in quite a few hands these past few days. The results have been very nice. I played full ring again this weekend, and did alright. When I returned to 6max, I went on a massive heater. This strategy of only full-stacking the good tables is absolutely great. It will probably take a month or so before I know my true hourly, but I am almost certain it is higher than I can get playing full-ring games.

I used the concierge service for the first time ever, and purchased the tickets for our Vancouver trip. Concierge was very quick and easy. I will be using this service frequently throughout the year.

In other news, ING Direct does not accept international wire transfers, and a chunk of my money is currently lost in space. Tied up since 2/2. Yuck.

Monday, February 18, 2008

Creepy Waiter

I haven't done a non-SNE post in a while, and this is definitely a story that should be blogged about.

Mary and I had an Olive Garden gift card from who-knows-when, and we decided to go out to dinner and use it tonight. After someone gave us the finger for jacking his parking spot, we took our seat and started to decide on our order. Our waiter, Joe, came up to the table, offered us a sample of wine, etc. He had a bit of a speech impediment, but nothing too out of the ordinary.

After taking our drink orders, he started talking to us about how he was the writer for many of the Hannah Montana songs... yup. He walked away, and we all just assumed maybe he was an intern or something. Maybe he had something to do with the production of the songs, who knows. He was working at the Olive Garden, after all.

Joe returns to the table, and continues talking about how he wrote the Hannah Montana (Miley Cyrus?) songs, and that he doesn't get any royalties for whatever stupid reason. He also told us that when Billy Ray Cyrus came to town, he went up and talked to him about how its funny that his daughter is more famous than him... And that Miley Cyrus was there, and he gave her hell about not being able to hit a high F note. He was very obviously full of shit, but whatever. I don't give half a damn about Hannah Montana and if he wants to fantasize about writing her songs, who cares.

He asked me what I did for a living, and I told him that I play poker. Instantly, he started talking about how he used to be a Magician down in Atlantic City, and that he could count cards at blackjack. Oh, and he was friends with David Copperfield.

I'll try to recreate this next quote as best I can: "So yeah, when you have a 16, you have 40 to 1 odds to win. But when you have a 17, you're 60 to 1 odds to lose."

I laughed and responded "Dude, that doesn't make any sense at all."

He said "Yes it does!" and walked away.

After he returned, Mary asked him if he would do a magic trick for us. He said that his manager wouldn't let him do tricks any more...but he would do one for us anyway. He picked up a nickel, had me hold out my hand, and told me to catch the nickel when he dropped it. He then tossed the nickel to the floor, pretended to put a nickel in my hand, and stared at me.

"...it's right there"

He said, "Yeah, it works better with chips," and left.

Randomly during the course of the meal, he also let us know that he was 23 years old, had a heart-attack at 18, and lives every day like it's his last.

Maybe this actually did happen, and he recreated his past to be something more glamorous...

Or maybe he was entirely full of shit.

Who knows.

All I know is he had the pedo-smile.

You know the pedo-smile.



Anybody with this creepy fucking smile needs to be kept away from children and small animals.

At least he has Hannah Montana and David Copperfield to keep him company.

Yeesh.

Thursday, February 14, 2008

SNE Quest - FEB 13: A nice heater

VPP COUNT: 125880

Played a solid 6 hours, and had a very nice streak of luck. Currently, this is the best day of the month. Now, my hourly rate is even better than it was in January. However, I've still only logged 42 hours, for 25756 vpps this month.

At the pace I set for myself in January, I should be at about 150k total vpps by the end of Feb 14th. I'll be a bit more than 20k vpps short of this goal. The necessary pace for completing the challenge, though, is about 125k vpps. I will be just slightly above that pace. This basically means that I can't screw around for the rest of this month. I'd like to finish Feb off with 185k+ total vpps.

By the end of this month, I'll also be quickly approaching the special milestone bonuses that come at certain VPP marks during the year. The milestones are as follows:
* $2,000 at 200,000 VPP
* $3,000 at 300,000 VPP
* $4,000 at 400,000 VPP
* $5,000 at 500,000 VPP
* $6,000 at 600,000 VPP
* $8,000 at 800,000 VPP

These will be a MAJOR boost to my motivation. Thus far, I haven't even spent my FPPs, as I've been waiting to book my trips to Vancouver and Maui this year. I'm getting very close to the point that I can buy both of them entirely through the Pokerstars Concierge service. Quite a perk :)


Another little update that I had not noticed until today - PokerStars has altered the tournaments that they send their Supernova Elite players to. Their website now reads:
Option A: Any two packages from PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, WSOP Main Event, EPT Monte Carlo, APPT Sydney.
Option B: Any one of the above packages plus $10,000.

They have added the APPT Sydney(Asian Pacific Poker Tour), and also have added the option of replacing one of the events with 10k cash. I've always wanted to visit Australia, and this would be a great opportunity to do so.

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

SNE Quest - Day 41-42: Snow day

VPP COUNT: 122590

Most of the rest of Evansville was stuck in their house, as the road conditions have been terrible these past few days. We are actually trapped in our backyard, because the gates to the fence have frozen to the ground. During poker breaks, it is pretty fun to just stare out the window and watch cars fumble down the street.


I put in about 6 hours yesterday, and 2 the day before. I am still thoroughly enjoying the 6max game, and continue to get ridiculous plays out of the premium tables. Here are a couple funny hands...

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2095470 - OMG OVERPAIR
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2095473 - Gutshot with 1 card to come...NUTS!

Unfortunately, I am still running at about 13/12, which is very very weak-tight for 6max games. I'd love to be about 16/14, but with the # of hands I play, it is more difficult to find those more marginal situations to act on.

I also only have 36 hours logged in February, and I should be around 60-70. February has ALWAYS been a slow month for me, even before I started playing poker. Something about the cold weather I guess slows me down. I'm still doing alright, and am still on pace for SNE, but I definitely can't expect to achieve my goal if i repeat these last couple weeks.


In personal news, Sophy is sick for the first time. She has been in good spirits for the most part, but occasionally has a bad coughing fit which makes it hard to keep down food. Having a sick baby in the house makes just about everything a little more difficult.

Sunday, February 10, 2008

SNE Quest - Day 39-40: Back on track

VPP COUNT: 118971

I've been slacking a bit on the blog, but that does not mean that I've been slacking in poker.

I put in 14 hours in the past 2 days, and had some very solid results.

I've also been playing at the 400$ level and above for this entire time. It is pretty clear that I am ahead of the field, and can probably keep this win rate up long-term. I have 70k hands of 6max in since I started my short-stacking experiment, and my win rate is actually above what I thought it would be. This is largely due to the fact that I am full-stacking the premium tables and short-stacking the bad ones.

I have very high expectations for this style of play. It results in more VPPs/hour, more $/hr, and eventually even more opportunity for profit.

In other news, Leatherass (the guy who hit supernova elite last year, and made 1mil+ in the process) posted his stats for the last 1/2 year. He moved from full ring to 6max last year as well, and this is further encouragement for me to continue pursuing that style.

I went through my "Bartender's Guide" to make a new bitch-drink the other day. A "Georgia Spritzer". Rum, Peach Schnapps, Sprite, Lime. It was just ok. I have pretty much 0 tolerance to liquor, so the drink did its job quickly.

That's it for now!

Thursday, February 07, 2008

SNE Quest - Day 37: BURNOUT

VPP COUNT: 110985

Well I knew it wouldn't be too long before my motivation got stale and I started having trouble pushing myself to put in the necessary hours. Fortunately, I recognized the problem fairly early, and can start working on the solution.

First and foremost - I need to get back on a regular exercise schedule. The first 2 months of January, I ended nearly every session with a ~10min floor routine. This did a very good of "resetting my brain" and getting my mind off of whatever beats/frustration I may have experienced during my time at the tables. This made starting the next session much easier, as well as just being all-around better for me.

Second - I need to start waking up at a regular time every day. I've been fairly good about this, and I am rarely in bed past 9am. Having a ~8am wakeup every day will help a whole lot with...

Third - Putting in a session before 12pm daily will really improve the overall hours I spend playing. Starting the day out right really is half the battle.

Fourth - Eating actual breakfast. Coffee is not breakfast. Even cereal would be better than 2 cups of coffee and occasionally a granola bar.


Putting all of the pieces to this puzzle together, it is becoming increasingly clear why my drive has slowed. Waking up at 9, drinking 2 cups of coffee, and lazing around until 11-12 when I have a caffeine crash is pretty much the worst way to start a productive day.

Caffeine restricts the blood-flow to the brain, and in turn will worsen the poker thought-process.

Exercise, however, increases the blood flow to the brain. On top of this, morning exercise gives your mind "practice" with overall willpower, which is basically the #1 trait needed by poker players.


In theory, this all sounds good. In practice...we'll see how it works out.

I already did a floor-routine this evening, and almost instantly felt better. I was in a pretty major funk this morning.

In SNE news, I put in 1 hour today and it was nothing special. Now that I'm feeling better, I am feeling much better about putting in a few more hours tonight. There may be a Day 37 part 2 up later.

Wednesday, February 06, 2008

Wedding Plans

In personal news, Mary has been more seriously planning our wedding, and started wanting it to be more traditional. She called a planning service, and they told her that their traditional weddings generally range from 8k-20k, and that they charge 10% to help plan/coordinate everything. The 8k plan is the bare-bones plan.

I do consider it an extremely special occasion. I do think it is important for friends and family to be there. I do think it is an occasion that we will remember forever, and should be done the way we want it. But 8k+? I think I speak for most guys when I say "fuck that".

Do weddings with 1000$ cakes and multi-thousand-dollar-dresses produce more successful marriages? Are these things necessary to announce your love for another person? Why are most American marriages so incredibly similar? There is no way that the image of a white blushing bride and her tuxedo-ed groom walking out of a church can be the dream of every person in America. The traditional wedding is a freaking religious ceremony, and a big business.

As the one paying for the occasion, I set a limit to 5k$ for wedding expenses. I honestly thought that it was a pretty generous budget. How ridiculous is it to spend 8k+ on a wedding? Compared to most people in my town, I am pretty damn well off, and I still consider spending 8k+ on a wedding outrageous. I'm too lazy to check the source, but I'm fairly sure the #1 cause of divorce is financial problems. Unaffordable weddings, rings, etc. just seem like a formula for failure...which eventually would lead to another wedding (or 2). And so the American business of marriage and divorce keeps churning. Ok, rant over.

I'm still strongly pushing for a non-traditional wedding. Nice, but modest. Get married. Eat dinner. Get our friends and family wasted. Enjoy the night.

As an interesting side note, we are ordaining Dan Berry (friend, and my namesake) and he will be doing the ceremony. Apparently you can ordain anybody, including animals. I really like this idea :)

SNE Quest - Day 36: Winning usually doesn't feel this crappy

VPP COUNT: 109459

I put in 7 hours yesterday (the 5th) and ended up with a modest win. Unfortunately, the modest win was a very large win before I played my last 2 hour session.

I mostly shortstacked, as Sophy was in a pretty grumpy mood and it was starting to get frustrating. The full-stacked tables really made the day for me though. There are some SERIOUSLY bad players at 6max, nomatter what level. They can be fairly hard to find though. I buy in for the full amount at about 1/10 of the tables I open up. These tables always have some big-time fish on them, and have been very nice so far.

I think at some point, I'll need to change my weekends to Mon/Tues, instead of the standard Sat/Fri. Monday and Tuesday are Marys most busy days as far as school goes, and they generally aren't the best times of the week to find fishy tables. Saturday, however, is when the Supernova Freeroll is (value appx 50$), and also when many of the fish are out swimming.

I used to pretty much be done working by 8pm every night. Those days are over.

Tuesday, February 05, 2008

SNE Quest - Day 33-35: First long weekend

VPP COUNT: 104668

I only put in 2 hours worth of poker during these past few days. Feels pretty decent to have some real time off. The 2 hours I played were pretty solid. Earned a little bit and made a few vpps. I should have put in more time on Monday, but just wasn't feeling it. Sophy has been much more whiny lately, and it has just been putting the household on edge. Half of the time, we really don't know why she's crying. It can really wear down the one thing you need to play good poker.

Pretty behind pace this month, so I'll be stepping it up the next few days.

Friday, February 01, 2008

SNE Quest - Day 32: Decent start

VPP COUNT: 103554

I got in a bit less than 6 hours today. My last session was cut short when the stars client completely crashed while I was in the middle of playing AA and AK on 2 tables. Between the crash and my lack of cards in that last session, I decided to call it a night with a mediocre profit.

In other news, Sophy had a doctors appointment today. Apparently she is in the top 95 percentile in length, but 50th percentile in weight. Probably means she got my skinny Wallace genes. The doctor also talked about how most babies aren't nearly as active and engaging as Sophy is at her age. Looks like she turned out pretty good :)

My hours will be cut back this weekend due to the superbowl, and a couple birthdays. I'll be back with a vengeance on Monday.