Another $2k day already!?!?

-- Status Update --
2009 VPPs:	691,696
SNE Pace:	146,436 AHEAD
Currently Playing:	Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor (DS)

I had a brutal Friday, and at one point was stuck around $1k but fought back and ended up slightly better than break-even before considering rakeback (of which I earned around $250).

Saturday however, I learned how to occasionally fade 2 outs with one card to come. The result was a +$2100 profit session, $250 of which was rakeback. Saturday graph below:


Here's a fun hand from Friday which helped me get unstuck. MP2 villain is a 13/6 nit, BTN is a big donk, and the overcaller in the BB is ChicagoJoey. 88 is way too big a hand for him to get away from preflop when he's on tilt, obviously.

Poker Stars, $0.50/$1 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 7 Players
MP3: $106.70 (106.7 bb)
CO: $100 (100 bb)
BTN: $51.75 (51.8 bb)
Hero (SB): $105.20 (105.2 bb)
BB: $125.95 (126 bb)
MP1: $156.50 (156.5 bb)
MP2: $100 (100 bb)

Pre-Flop: Hero is SB with Ac Ah
MP1 folds, MP2 raises to $4, 2 folds, BTN raises to $12, Hero calls $11.50, BB calls $11, MP2 raises to $41, BTN raises to $51.75 and is all-in, Hero raises to $80.75, BB calls $68.75, MP2 raises to $100 and is all-in, Hero calls $19.25, BB calls $19.25

Flop: ($351.75) Ts 5s Tc (4 players, 2 are all-in)
Hero bets $5.20 and is all-in, BB calls $5.20

Turn: ($362.15) 9d (4 players, 3 are all-in)
River: ($362.15) 5h (4 players, 3 are all-in)

Results: $362.15 pot ($3 rake)
Hero showed Ac Ah (two pairs, Aces and Tens) and won $359.15 ($253.95 net)
BB mucked 8d 8s (two pairs, Tens and Eights) and lost (-$105.20 net)
MP2 mucked Kh Kd (two pairs, Kings and Tens) and lost (-$100 net)
BTN mucked Ad Qc (two pairs, Tens and Fives) and lost (-$51.75 net)

I could get used to a $700 hourly...

-- Status Update --
2009 VPPs:	681,962
SNE Pace:	142,182 AHEAD
Currently Playing:	Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor (DS)

Where to begin. Poker since my return from Vegas was really lame to start. From Saturday through Wednesday I put in a great deal of volume (~50k hands total) but ran abysmally, making me little more than an FPP pro for the duration. Technically I was up around $400 plus the ~$1k rakeback.

That all changed on Thursday however. First, I logged in and noticed that I was credited my 100k VPP bonus for playing the WSOP ME. Note that it is reflected in the Status Update, and thanks to it I am very well ahead of SNE pace. I've also exceeded the two thirds mark of the journey.

I put in a short session of around an hour and a half before going for dinner with my girlfriend and mother, and ended up winning around $400. At the end of said session I fired off a quick email to Stars support asking about the status of a cashout in USD that had gone a month without arriving. They confirmed it was sent, and was a postal problem (which doesn't surprise me, I've had other issues with Canada Post lately). If the cheque doesn't arrive soon I can always just have them cancel it and recredit my account. Pokerstars support was awesome as always.

My inquiry regarding the late cheque must have caused them to activate my boomswitch, as over my second hour and a half session of the day I rode a massive upswing. I only played three hours total on the day, but ended up with the graph below:


I believe this is my best single day ever, which is especially remarkable given that I played far less than my typical volume. It's even more impressive given that I took a pretty sick beat in the hand below (villain is a fish, obvious from the 3b size):

Poker Stars, $1/$2 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 9 Players
MP1: $361.85 (180.9 bb)
MP2: $216.55 (108.3 bb)
MP3: $223.60 (111.8 bb)
Hero (CO): $312.10 (156.1 bb)
BTN: $62 (31 bb)
SB: $200 (100 bb)
BB: $201 (100.5 bb)
UTG: $226.95 (113.5 bb)
UTG+1: $276.40 (138.2 bb)

Pre-Flop: Hero is CO with 5s 5h
UTG calls $2, 2 folds, MP2 raises to $8, MP3 calls $8, Hero calls $8, 3 folds, UTG raises to $14, MP2 calls $6, MP3 calls $6, Hero calls $6

Flop: ($59) 5c 2d As (4 players)
UTG bets $20, MP2 folds, MP3 folds, Hero calls $20

Turn: ($99) Ac (2 players)
UTG checks, Hero bets $59, UTG raises to $192.95 and is all-in, Hero calls $133.95

River: ($484.90) Kd (2 players, 1 is all-in)

Results: $484.90 pot ($3 rake)
UTG showed Ah Kh (a full house, Aces full of Kings) and won $481.90 ($254.95 net)
Hero mucked 5s 5h (a full house, Fives full of Aces) and lost (-$226.95 net)

The day could have reached legendary status without that beat...

Final Vegas Stuff

Arrived home a few hours ago.

Penn and Teller was pretty good, though a little on the short side especially compared to Mystere. The shark reef aquarium at Mandalay Bay was awesome, they had fish and stingrays from the Caribbean that I was familiar with. M&M world and Coke world were both neat.

The Pokerstars party was packed, and while we didn't stay long enough to witness the performance by Nelly, I was able to meet up with a bunch of SSFR 2+2 regulars. Jrock, Gutter, Ehafner, Swtwtr, and a few others were in attendance. Good guys.

I have 10% of Jrock's action, and he may still be alive in the ME. I know he started Day 3 very short (~30k) but I've been told he had around 100k at the dinner break. It looks like the money bubble will be bursting during Day 4, probably in the first half of the day. One time Jrock!

Back to the grind starting tomorrow.

Vegas Update 5 - Mystere, Eyewear, Dolphins and African Cats

We started the day by heading down to Fremont Street. I was expecting it to feel like "old Vegas" and it delivered. Unfortunately old school Vegas wasn't terribly interesting or entertaining. We definitely could have skipped the visit.

After visiting some dissapointing northern strip hotels and walking through another high end shopping complex, we eventually made it to the Mirage and took in the Dolphin Habitat/Siegfried and Roy's Secret Garden. The dolphins were great, and the lions, tigers, and leopard entertaining as well. Most definitely worth the $15.

As we had a bunch of time to kill before our Mystere show, some of it was spent purchasing a new pair of Gunnar sunglasses. They are yellow tinted, and look much more like regular glasses than sunglasses, so I'll be sporting the pseudo-intellectual douchebag look occasonally now.

Mystere was very well done. As it is the only Cirque to Soleil show I've seen, so I have no model for comparison. The music was top notch, and its style being similar to some of Yasunori Mitsuda's work along with the presence of dozens of harlequin like creatures created a bit of a Chrono Cross flashback. I would definitely go see another Cirque production.

Penn and Tellar tomorrow, should be good!