February Review - Back to Back

Due to the Canada/USA gold medal game tomorrow in addition to dinner with family, I plan to play no more hands in February. I'm happy with the way the month went as a whole. I definitely slipped a little in terms of focus, and also slacked off more than I should have. Despite being really content with my decision not to pursue SNE this year, I still like I feel like I should have put in another 10-20 hours or so of grinding this month. Perhaps an awesome alarm clock to help me finally conquer my greatest nemesis (too much sleep) will help me put in better March volume.

After a reasonably strong start the month (though not nearly as crazy good as my first few days in January), I knew having back to back $20k profit months was a possibility and it became a goal. Unfortunately, I started to run very poorly for a good chunk of the latter half of the month. However, thanks to a strong finish to my session on Saturday the 27th, I'm happy to say I reached my goal. I think it's kind of silly (and probably -EV!) how much it mattered to me whether my final profit number was 19,xxx or 20,xxx.

I should also mention that Pokerstars held a promotion leading up to the dealing of their 40 billionth hand. Every millionth hand from around 39 and a half billion through forty billion had bonus money awarded. They've run such a promo at least once before, though last time I failed to be dealt into a single milestone hand. This time, however, I was dealt into two! You can find the hand histories in previous blog entries from this month. The bonus money was a very nice unexpected surprise.



The Bottom Line:
$13855.80 table winnings
+$4839.44 FPP value (60,493 VPPs * 5 FPP/VPP * 1.6c/FPP)
+$200 stellar bonuses (80k and 90k VPP bonuses)
+$200 100k VPP milestone bonus ($1000 bonus - $800 FPP value to purchase)
+$696.80 bonus award from milestone hand #39,867,000,000
+$333.60 bonus award from milestone hand #39,613,000,000
--------------------------------------------------------------------
$20,125.64 USD profit.

Hopefully I can improve my focus level and commitment to the grind significantly in March. I should hit the first decently sized milestone bonus of the year at 200k VPPs next month, which will be a nice $2.6k extra cash (you may notice that the milestone money from 200 to 800k VPPs is rather front loaded this year compared to last). Now all I need is for Team Canada to get it done tomorrow. Iggy Iggy Iggy!

Almost Really Good

I've been slacking when it comes to poker lately taking both Sunday and Monday off. I did put in four hours or so of grinding on Tuesday which went really well. In addition, Canada coasted to a qualification round win over Germany in Men's Hockey today, so we will get to see Canada/Russia a little earlier than everyone hoped, but it will happen nonetheless. Looking forward to it tomorrow.

The blog title refers to my finishing of Star Ocean: The Last Hope. It did a lot of things really well, and though perhaps its weakest point was the plot, up until the end of the game even that aspect was fairly well executed. Unfortunately, it started to get both unreasonable and cliched right in the final five hours or so, which was really dissapointing. Still, the game as a whole was definitely a positive experience and there is a little more bonus content I can explore while I wait for FFXIII's release in early March.

Session Savers

Despite running like absolute cancer for just about all of Thursday, the start of Friday and then at least half of Saturday, I somehow managed to have a fairly profitable weekend* of poker.

This was partially because on both Friday and Saturday I had hands which I felt turned my sessions around. Perhaps more accurately they were hands that if I had lost I probably would have been pushed past my limit and shut down immediately in disgust.

The Friday edition of my Session Saver is a pretty routine stacking of a 100 VPIP maniac megadonk at 600NL. Too bad he wasn't full stacked, but still a very nice pot.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $6.00 BB (9 handed)
Hero (SB) ($600)
BB ($532.45)
UTG ($591)
UTG+1 ($111)
MP1 ($368.70)
MP2 ($186.45)
MP3 ($120)
CO ($645.30)
Button ($109.75)

Preflop: Hero is SB with A, A
2 folds, MP1 calls $6, MP2 calls $6, 3 folds, Hero bets $36, 1 fold, MP1 calls $30, 1 fold

Flop: ($84) 4, 3, 7 (2 players)
Hero bets $54, MP1 calls $54

Turn: ($192) J (2 players)
Hero checks, MP1 bets $42, Hero raises to $510 (All-In), MP1 calls $236.70 (All-In)

River: ($749.40) 6 (2 players, 2 all-in)

Total pot: $749.40 | Rake: $3

Results:
Hero had A, A (one pair, Aces).
MP1 had 10, A (high card, Ace).
Outcome: Hero won $746.40


Saturday's session saver was a tad more interesting. I expected villain (a fish running something like 45/8) to have KJ most often, occassionally K5/J5, AA, KK, QTss, Asxs. After the running spades hit the board I was getting ready to punch a baby, but praise jesus he didn't hold the As.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $1.00 BB (9 handed)
UTG ($82.15)
UTG+1 ($104.45)
MP1 ($17)
MP2 ($15.50)
MP3 ($109.50)
CO ($104.05)
Button ($186.85)
Hero (SB) ($161.10)
BB ($104.75)

Preflop: Hero is SB with 5, 5
6 folds, Button calls $1, Hero calls $0.50, BB checks

Flop: ($3) J, K, 5 (3 players)
Hero bets $2.50, BB raises to $8, Button raises to $13.50, Hero raises to $33.50, 1 fold, Button raises to $53.50, Hero raises to $160.10 (All-In), Button calls $106.60

Turn: ($331.20) 6 (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: ($331.20) 3 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: $331.20 | Rake: $3

Results:
Button mucked A, A (one pair, Aces).
Hero had 5, 5 (three of a kind, fives).
Outcome: Hero won $328.20


*I find the games better and thus play more volume on Thursdays compared to Sundays. Because of this I tend to refer to Thursday through Saturday as my "weekend".

I Run Good At This Promo

I recall in 2009 I was a little disappointed about not being dealt into a single milestone hand, despite putting in huge volume as I was in the heart of my SNE grind. After being dealt into my first milestone hand 5 days ago (the HH is pretty awesome, it's included in a previous blog post), I was dealt into my second today. I run really good at this promotion obviously!

Here is the HH from milestone hand #39,867,000,000. I ended up receiving $696.80 bonus money for the hand, though had I faded the river and won, it would have been doubled to $1393.60! Oh well, I definitely can't complain. Note that the people folding are completely retarded, especially those with less than 100bbs behind. Even with my ~102.5bb effective stack, this is still a snap shove with 74o given the bonus money effectively already in the pot.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $1.00 BB (9 handed)
CO ($32.70)
Button ($64.70)
SB ($20)
BB ($14)
Hero (UTG) ($143.45)
UTG+1 ($66.25)
MP1 ($36.05)
MP2 ($27.30)
MP3 ($102.50)

Preflop: Hero is UTG with 7, 4
Hero calls $1, 1 fold, MP1 calls $1, MP2 calls $1, MP3 calls $1, 1 fold, Button bets $64.70 (All-In), 1 fold, BB calls $13 (All-In), Hero raises to $129, MP1 calls $35.05 (All-In), 2 folds

Flop: ($181.95) Q, K, 7 (4 players, 3 all-in)

Turn: ($181.95) Q (4 players, 3 all-in)

River: ($181.95) 8 (4 players, 3 all-in)

Total pot: $181.95 | Rake: $3

Results:
Button had 6, J (one pair, Queens).
BB had 2, A (one pair, Queens).
Hero had 7, 4 (two pair, Queens and sevens).
MP1 had 4, 8 (two pair, Queens and eights).
Outcome: Hero won $57.30, MP1 won $121.65

If you're really paying attention, you may have noticed my bonus amount was far more for participating in this hand than for even winning the previous one and receiving the double bonus multiplier. This is because in the first milestone hand I unfortunately had only been at the table for an orbit or so. This time I had been around for the full 40 hands necessary to receive the maximum possible. Hurray for free money.

That Went Well

After a mediocre Friday during which I fought through a lot of variance to salvage a respectable profit, my luck on Saturday turned drastically. The Flames won, and did so playing well for a complete 60 minutes. Even better, I (somewhat marginally) broke my record for best day ever, taking ~$2.3k off the tables and earning $320 in FPPs. Saturday graph below:


I don't have much in the way of interesting hands to post. It seemed like a lot of regulars were spazzing out on Saturday - I had two get AQ in preflop against me (both times holding AK) for 100bbs.

Aside from poker I've put around 10 hours into the 4th installment of the Star Ocean series lately, the "director's cut" version of which was recently released for the PS3 (the original game being for the XBox360). It's been a very enjoyable experience thus far, and the game does a lot of things well. I can't help but feel that it's plot, aside from obviously pulling from established Star Ocean canon, is a cross between Xenogears and the "Roswell that Ends Well" episode of Futurama. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing. I suppose I'll go play some now.

Milestone hand and I haz a pair!?!?! CALL!

Thursday was almost certainly the worst I've run in 2010 so far. My favorite beats were getting it in on the turn twice against underpairs (drawing to a bare 2 outs) and losing both - both times the completely retarded villains were 100bb deep.

Thankfully however, Pokerstars has a new February promotion to celebrate dealing their 40 billionth hand. They've done a similar promotion before, paying out bonus money to the players dealt into each millionth hand leading up to 40 billion. Lucky for me, I was dealt into hand #39,613,000,000. For winning the hand, you receive double the bonus money, the base amount calculated by $40x the number of VPPs you have earned at that table in the previous 40 hands. Unfortunately for me, I had only been at the table for something like 10-14 hands before the hand was dealt, and thus my bonus amount was rather small. On the positive, I won the hand making a pretty sick call. In addition to the pot, I was awarded $333.60 (had I not won the hand it would have been $188.60). Here's the HH. Main villain is a bad FPP pro reg whom obviously is very much aware of the promo. Despite there being a large banner announcement to the table and the action pausing for a solid 2 minutes before the hand, I'm sure a few of the awful SSers at the table weren't aware of the milestone (or they surely would have shoved pre with ATC, not doing so is completely awful by them).

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $1.00 BB (9 handed)
MP3 ($17)
CO ($20)
Button ($35)
SB ($106)
Hero (BB) ($100)
UTG ($21.15)
UTG+1 ($101.50)
MP1 ($30.85)
MP2 ($60.95)

Preflop: Hero is BB with 6, 2
3 folds, MP2 checks, 2 folds, Button calls $1, SB bets $6, Hero calls $5, MP2 calls $5, 1 fold

Flop: ($18) 8, 6, 9 (3 players)
SB bets $13.90, Hero calls $13.90, 1 fold

Turn: ($45.80) 10 (2 players)
SB bets $6, Hero calls $6

River: ($57.80) K (2 players)
SB bets $80.10 (All-In), Hero calls $74.10 (All-In)

Total pot: $206 | Rake: $3

Results:
SB had 5, Q (high card, King).
Hero had 6, 2 (one pair, sixes).
Outcome: Hero won $204.50

The moral of the story? Pairs are very hard to make in the game of No-Limit Texas Hold'em.