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-- Status Update --
2009 VPPs:	134,998
Pace:	19918 AHEAD
Currently Playing:	Persona 4 (PS2)

PokerStars is rapidly approaching its 25th billion hand, so to celebrate (among other things) they tossed out a deposit bonus. Yay for a free $150!

I played a short early afternoon session today. The games weren't quite as bad as I was expecting, and many regs were spewing uncontrollably. Here's a fun hand:
Poker Stars, $0.50/$1 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 8 Players
Hand History Converter by Stoxpoker

SB: $100 (100 bb)
Hero (BB): $100 (100 bb)
UTG+1: $72.80 (72.8 bb)
MP1: $78.65 (78.7 bb)
MP2: $81 (81 bb)
MP3: $99.90 (99.9 bb)
CO: $100 (100 bb)
BTN: $99.50 (99.5 bb)

Pre-Flop: Hero is BB with Ah Kh
5 folds, BTN raises to $3, SB raises to $11, Hero raises to $29.50, BTN folds, SB raises to $100 and is all-in, Hero calls $70.50 and is all-in

Flop: ($203) 8d Tc 7d (2 players, 2 are all-in)
Turn: ($203) 8h (2 players, 2 are all-in)
River: ($203) 2c (2 players, 2 are all-in)

Results: $203 pot ($3 rake)
SB showed Jc As (a pair of Eights) and lost (-$100 net)
Hero showed Ah Kh (a pair of Eights) and won $200 ($100 net)

Since I don't think anyone in the history of 100NL has cold 4-bet folded, wtf is he thinking here?

So It's 3AM...

-- Status Update --
2009 VPPs:	128,089
Pace:	21226 AHEAD
Currently Playing:	Persona 4 (PS2)

My sleeping hours have certainly changed drastically since becoming a full time pro. I was never a morning person though, as my ex-coworkers at Evoco can certainly attest to.

February so far has been awful poker wise, as I started the month with a 55k hand breakeven stretch (not including the ~$30/h I average in rakeback). Thankfully I had a nice upswing on Sunday (and early morning Monday). Here's the graph:


Hopefully the rest of the month is more like Sunday. Coming up this week, I'll likely be purchasing a nice leather couch (perhaps also a matching loveseat), while trying to keep building a nice cushion over SNE pace. I'm just under 8 days ahead currently.

January Review - Professional

January was perhaps the most interesting month of my life to date. I purchased (and moved into) a great townhouse, ended a 3.25 year long relationship, and left an enjoyable and comfortable job applying my skills (and degree) as a Software Engineer to play poker professionally. Oh, and did I mention that after the breakup my best friend moved into the basement of my townhouse? Yeah, that too.

From a poker perspective, the month felt eerily like August (the month in which I set my previous record for hands played, which has now been shattered). I ran poorly during the bulk of the month, but upswings at the end managed to improve the month to "mediocre" from "bad".

Here's my graph for the month:

You can see how most of the profit comes at the end. Below is a quick recap of went went right and what didn't this month.

What went wrong:
- Ran terribly at 200NL and poor at 100NL.
- Tightened up a little, and started stealing less for whatever reason, perhaps due to fatigue during long sessions.
- Due to factors above, poor winrate.

What went right:
- Exceeded my VPP goal for the month, and got 10.5% of the way to Supernova Elite (earning 105,067 VPPs total).
- Despite poor luck, still made a good amount of money (see below) and really proved to myself that both playing professionally and reaching SNE are realistic.

The bottom line:
$7145.55 winnings
+$5883.75 rakeback
-------------------
$13,029.30 USD total (that's about $15,850 CDN if you're curious)

Time to keep up the grind!