August Review - Mediocrity + Vacation

For the bulk of August I felt like I ran fairly poorly, though my winrate suggests it can't have been too bad, though certainly still below average. I'm happy that midstakes chipped in a bit, though 72% of my volume was at ZOOM which says a lot about where FR poker is heading on Stars.

During the last week of the month I basically bailed out to have fun and game like crazy, forsaking poker in favor of Guild Wars 2. I wasn't planning on a stay at home vacation week, but it turned out that way. As a result, I'm marginally behind pace for the 300k milestone by the end of the year, and I'll hit the 200k mark (and the $2.6k that comes along with it), sometime in the next few days. In all, I put in less than 100 hours this month, a regression back to 2011 effort levels. To be fair to myself however, this is only the second period of time off I've taken this year, so perhaps I deserve it. I'm definitely getting a ton more hands per hour due to the ZOOM influence.



The bottom line:
$7917.39 table winnings
+$1319.30 FPP value (23,559 VPPs * 3.5 FPPs/VPP * 1.6c/FPP)
+$100 deposit bonus
-------------------------------------------------------------
$9336.69 USD total profit.

The strength of the Canadian Dollar has been screwing me again lately, hoping it recedes some shortly so I can withdraw and not feel cheated. In September I'd love to put together a large month given I'll have a milestone chipping in. Working 30 hours a week rather than 25 is a must as well.

Didn't We Learn Anything From '04-'05?

Poker last weekend wasn't terrible, which is more than I can say about any stretch so far this month. I still can't have a session where I catch my AIEV line, and it doesn't help when you have hands that put you 400+bbs below expectation like this one:

PokerStars Zoom No-Limit Hold'em, $1.00 BB (9 handed)
Button ($180.81)
SB ($28.88)
BB ($33.69)
UTG ($274.85)
Hero (UTG+1) ($736.89)
MP1 ($79.63)
MP2 ($249.23)
MP3 ($101.50)
CO ($187.82)

Preflop: Hero is UTG+1 with A♠, A♦
1 fold, Hero bets $3, 1 fold, MP2 raises to $8, 1 fold, CO calls $8, 3 folds, Hero raises to $26.55, MP2 raises to $45.10, 1 fold, Hero raises to $736.89 (All-In), MP2 calls $204.13 (All-In)

Flop: ($507.96) 9♥, 5♠, 7♥ (2 players, 2 all-in)

Turn: ($507.96) 8♥ (2 players, 2 all-in)

River: ($507.96) 2♥ (2 players, 2 all-in)

Total pot: $507.96 | Rake: $2.80

Results:
Hero had A♠, A♦ (one pair, Aces).
MP2 had K♥, K♣ (flush, King high).
Outcome: MP2 won $505.16

I've also been one outed six times (that I've noted, could be more) so far this month. A few of the "standard" set over set no good variety, a couple getting an overpair + FD in on a mono board against a weaker overpair that has one of its outs tainted, and finally once in a rare spot where a shorty with ~15bbs puts it in with AA preflop, I hold QQ and get 30bbs in pre against a fish with AQo, and said fish open shoves the 120bbs effective remaining on 763r, binking his one outer for the ~270bb side pot.

It seems that just about everyone is resigned to the inevitability of an NHL lockout that will kill some, if not all, of the upcoming season. In '04-'05, the league legitimately needed a significant change in its fundamental economic model, and after sacrificing a season the owners got very close to everything they wanted, and justifiably so. Now, eight years later several owners are once again crying poor. One such owner is doing so after dishing out two ninety-million dollar monster contracts this off season. Yes, the new CBA needs some tweaks to close loopholes created after the last lockout. However, the players don't need to have their share of league revenues reduced because some owners haven't taken Econ 101. Said owners seem to think they should be able to spend to the cap to try to win a championship regardless of their market situation, yet have no risk of losing money doing so. Thankfully the Flames brass do not fall into the above category.

Persona 4 Arena has been loads of fun, and after playing a bunch online I'm actually decent at it. Not legitimately good, but for someone who almost never plays fighting games I'm really happy with my skill level relative to my competition.

Guild Wars 2 comes out next week, which should keep me plenty busy as God knows MMOs can eat up time. It looks like it could be a gem, and I'm excited to give it a go as I haven't played the beta at all.

Missed the Memo

Poker has been terrible this week, but that isn't what I want to blog about.

Tuesday evening while doing some light internet surfing I stumbled upon a tweet from one of the staff writers at www.rpgamer.com mentioning a game called "Persona 4 Arena". From the context, it seemed that said individual had been playing it. This took me by extreme surprise as I had not heard of the game, and I am a HUGE fan of the Persona series - so much so in fact that like many others I consider Persona 3 to be the greatest video game of the past decade.

A quick trip to Wikipedia and I found that this game existed, had been released in Japan a week ago, and had been released in North America that day. I truly have no idea how I managed to be completely oblivious to its existence, but I picked it up at my local Best Buy the next day.



I'm not a big fan of fighting games in general - I enjoy a little Street Fighter 2 Turbo against friends now and then, but mastery of entries of the genre (see: Nanonoko) has never been an interest of mine. Regardless, the game has been exceptional, and better, it contains a story mode with ~20 or so hours of gameplay, the vast majority of which is in a graphic novel style (I guess you might not consider that "gameplay", but I digress). Without spoiling much, the plot brings together some of the cast of Persona 3 with the entire cast of Persona 4, adds a new character, and sets up the story of what I can only assume will be Persona 5.

Best surprise video game ever.

The 'ol 83o

Poker this weekend has gone pretty well. The games seem to have improved, and for a few hours both yesterday and today were legitimately good. Fingers crossed. There are a couple notable HHs below.

First, a funny hand from Friday where villain tries really hard to represent AK with the old 83o for 130bbs+. Even if he has AK I'm happily freerolling, but I was quite shocked when I saw his holding.

PokerStars Zoom No-Limit Hold'em, $1.00 BB (9 handed)
Button ($54.80)
SB ($138.35)
BB ($47.71)
UTG ($100.46)
UTG+1 ($203.43)
MP1 ($124.26)
MP2 ($101.50)
MP3 ($110.49)
Hero (CO) ($232.46)

Preflop: Hero is CO with A♥, K♣
5 folds, Hero bets $3, 1 fold, SB raises to $9, 1 fold, Hero calls $6

Flop: ($19) J♥, Q♥, 4♥ (2 players)
SB bets $10, Hero calls $10

Turn: ($39) 10♠ (2 players)
SB bets $20, Hero raises to $55, SB raises to $119.35 (All-In), Hero calls $64.35

River: ($277.70) A♠ (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: $277.70 | Rake: $2.80

Results:
SB had 8♠, 3♣ (high card, Ace).
Hero had A♥, K♣ (straight, Ace high).
Outcome: Hero won $274.90


A less fun hand from Friday which ended up being the difference between a good session and a great session. Regfish picks probably the worst hand possible to try to gin flop vs myself and the overcalling whale, and is rewarded.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $4.00 BB (9 handed)
UTG ($584.89)
UTG+1 ($1604.17)
MP1 ($396)
MP2 ($450.38)
Hero (MP3) ($575.36)
CO ($400)
Button ($239.36)
SB ($195.10)
BB ($252.20)

Preflop: Hero is MP3 with A♥, A♣
2 folds, MP1 bets $10, 1 fold, Hero raises to $40, 1 fold, Button calls $40, 2 folds, MP1 calls $30

Flop: ($126) J♣, 10♥, A♦ (3 players)
MP1 checks, Hero bets $84, Button raises to $199.36 (All-In), MP1 raises to $356 (All-In), Hero calls $272

Turn: ($1037.36) 9♣ (3 players, 2 all-in)

River: ($1037.36) 2♣ (3 players, 2 all-in)

Total pot: $1037.36 | Rake: $2.80

Results:
Button had 9♦, A♠ (two pair, Aces and nines).
MP1 had K♣, Q♦ (straight, Ace high).
Hero had A♥, A♣ (three of a kind, Aces).
Outcome: MP1 won $1034.56


I've put twenty hours or so into Growlanser: Wayfarer of Time for the PSP, a remake of an old game which never saw the light of day outside of Japan. It has been quite enjoyable thus far, though in some ways it really isn't a very good game. Let me elaborate: the visuals are completely meh outside of the character portraits, the soundtrack is utterly unispired, and the combat system is clunky and has severe problems with movement, which leads to extreme spikes in difficulty. All that stuff aside, the story is great and has a ton of branches in the plot depending on the choices one makes - including ~40 or so different endings, and it turns out that is pretty much all the game needs to be enjoyable, and in the end it is fun that matters and I'm having fun.