Two Or More Outs and I'm An Underdog

-- Status Update --
2009 VPPs:	524,099
SNE Pace:	69,259 AHEAD
Currently Playing:	Cross Edge (PS3)

I'm feeling really good about my game and have had really encouraging results this month so far. This is all despite the fact that if a fish has two outs against me with two cards to come it's a coin flip at best for me, and if he has three or more outs he's a solid favorite. Regulars flatting 40bb four bets preflop with 63s and flopping trips is great too. One day I'll learn how to run good, perhaps right before a major live tournament or something.

Here's a graph of Friday the 12th through Monday the 15th:


My VPP count so far this month is pathetically low. While illness is a partial cause, I think I'm finally starting to hit some real burnout. It's not that I'm hating poker or anything - it just feels like I can get away with playing less due to my current position ahead of pace and with the 100k VPPs coming from playing the WSOP ME. It's just sort of who I am, if you give me an opportunity to slack off or procrastinate, I'll do it. Supernova Elite will be happening this year though, you can count on that.

Why Is There Hamburger Helper In My Milk!?

-- Status Update --
2009 VPPs:	510,694
SNE Pace:	66,814 AHEAD
Currently Playing:	Cross Edge (PS3)

I've been under the weather recently, and thus have been slacking off quite a bit. I took one day completely off, and have had several sub 3k VPP days this week. I'm feeling better now fortunately.

My Wednesday session was one of the worst I've had in quite some time. I was one outed twice. The first time I held AsKd on a Ad5d2d4c board, against villain's 9s9c that he decided he wasn't folding. He of course hit the one nine in the deck that would make him the best hand on the river. The second was getting KcKx in on the turn of a 3b pot against a pretty aggro reg - the board was Tc8c6d5c. Villain of course decides to call it off with red queens even though he beats nothing, and spikes his 1 out. Some other fun hands included getting J8 in on a J82 rainbow flop vs AQ for 100bb - of course the retard goes runner runner. On Thursday I had much better results, which is good for my sanity.

Here's June 7th through 11th:


I received some emails from PokerStars today informing me that as a Supernova VIP playing the WSOP ME, I'll get some gift cards for food/spa at the Palms, as well as my choice of one Vegas activity for myself and a guest. Options for the activity include a helicopter ride over Vegas at night, the Mystere and Zumanity varieties of Cirque du Soleil, Blue Man Group, Penn and Teller, Cris Angel, and some other entires I can't recall at the moment. I'll be letting the girlfriend pick. There will also be some 6max tourneys running for Supernovas where the winner gets entry to a freeroll with a 1mil prize pool of cash + tourney packages, while the first to busto wins $100. So at worst, it's a free $100 for sitting down and playing. Should be good times.

I should also mention that "The Hangover" is a very funny movie, and may end up in the same class as "Old School" and "Wedding Crashers". Go see it if you haven't, unless you have the sense of humor of an old person.

If you are confused by the title of this blog entry, you don't watch enough South Park.

Milestone #4 - The Half Way Point

-- Status Update --
2009 VPPs:	501,311
SNE Pace:	71,131 AHEAD
Currently Playing:	Cross Edge (PS3)

I've finally reached the half way point in my Supernova Elite Chase. Upon some quick reflection it has gone reasonably smoothly so far, though the incredibly ugly variance throughout January and especially February was a little disheartening. THe latter half of May wasn't exactly a walk in the park either.

Clearing the 500,000 VPP mark also means another milestone bonus, this time in the amount of $4200 free money ($5k - $800 FPP cost). Two more milestones to go this year.

The days of poker since my last post have been interesting. Wednesday was awesome for a weekday (>$1k winnings + rakeback). Thursday contained a 10BI downswing worthy of much baby-punching, though I believe I ended the day at -$250 or so. Friday was very mediocre for one of the two weekend money days - mostly because the games sucked ass (!?!?). I have since learned that the game quality was so poor this weekend due to PokerStars having a temporary problem with their E-Cheque provider thus preventing many American fish from depositing money which they could then donk off to me. Fortunately, I still managed to put together a pretty solid Saturday.

Here's a graph of June 3rd through 6th:


Perhaps you also noticed that my "currently playing" entry changed to Cross Edge this entry. The game is an RPG crossover between many successful (in Japan, anyway) franchises. It has been reviewed somewhat poorly, most complaints stemming from the game being very complex and having a very steep learning curve. I'm thoroughly enjoying it so far, despite only being familiar with a small portion of the cast (Etna and Prinny of Disgaea fame, specifically). The gameplay mechanics are most definitely complex and in some cases a little convoluted, but it makes for a decent challenge. The localization and musical score has been top notch so far. I only wish I'd played some of the Atelier, Ar Tonelico, and Darkstalkers games (ok, technically I've played one Atelier titles, but Cross Edge doesn't draw from any of its characters).

Why Buy A Mattress Anywhere Else

-- Status Update --
2009 VPPs:	486,598
SNE Pace:	67,378 AHEAD
Currently Playing:	Chrono Trigger DS (NDS)

Last week I purchased a new pillow top mattress, which set me back around $1.5k (on sale from a regular $2.3k). Service and delivery from Sleep Country was stellar, and it is certainly more comfortable than my old mattress + foam combo, the former of which was made in 1974 - 10 years before I was born. That said, I'm not certain I'm sleeping any better necessarily, though it isn't like I sleep poorly. I really like sleep, which is probably why I get so much of it.

Moving on to poker, it appears that the doomswitch which plagued me for the final two weeks or so of May has been turned off for the first two days of June. I also feel like I'm playing better, pushing some smaller edges I had been ignoring by "auto piloting" too much preflop. As a result, my VPIP/PFR/ATS have increased a tad, as has my flop cbet% (which is probably still one of the lowest amongst winnings regulars, since a bunch of them don't understand ABCD theorem/game theory). Here's a quick graph of June 1st + 2nd:


I'll be out and about running a bunch of errands tomorrow, hopefully including setting up a US funds account. This should allow me to withdraw money from Stars in US dollars and keep it way until the Canadian dollar eventually falls back into the $0.80 range I know and love. Unless Obama has a ton of magic up his sleeve it might be a year or more for that to happen however.