Cain is Abel

VPP COUNT: 1000007

WINNINGS: Great!

HOURS: 1685

HANDS:1932845

I’m still somewhat in a state of disbelief now that this is over. It really is incredibly satisfying to work so hard on something for an entire year, and to finish the way I planned.

I did plan on doing a little recorded video for my final point, but when I got to that last hour of play, I just decided to finish it all off.  My final day was actually shaping up to be one of the better days of the year – until that last hour.  The graph of my play will show very conclusively that if your mind is on something other than poker, you’re not going to play very well.  So I booked a small loss for the day, and finished off the year.

This goal really put me to the test.  I think that accomplishing any endurance trial like this is much more of an inward battle than outward. By this, I mean that the biggest part of the struggle was with my own personal willpower, as opposed to learning and playing poker.  I think one could learn the poker theory/knowledge needed to reach SNE in less than a month. It really is not difficult to beat the lowest level needed to accumulate the vpps. However – to teach someone to be able to play >2mil hands in a year while maintaining their sanity would take much longer.

My poker future is still a bit vague. December has definitely re-infused my motivation, as the results and new style have been very positive. I will be doing some serious work on my tournament game over the coming months.  After my results with Doug (WCGRider), I think it will be pretty easy for me to find a top-notch coach.

Another major lesson I learned this year was how easy it is to let your game get stale, especially during long exhausting periods of play.  I experienced a breakeven stretch for an amazing 800k hands this year. It was initially triggered by a huge downswing at 400 and 600 buyin levels. After this downswing, I decided to cool down, tighten up, and just grind vpps for a while. This was the absolute worst decision I could have made, as the regulars were getting much more aggressive and taking advantage. Because of this, it took me a long LONG time to recover from that initial downswing. I now know I’ll need to be much more assertive about maintaining and improving my strategy, and not settling for just sitting back and grinding out points.

I am incredibly glad I kept a blog through this challenge. It really helped to keep me focused throughout the year.  During downswings and breakeven stretches it was very nice to be able to come back and read that I’d gone through it before and come out fine. It will be nice to be able to go back and read it in the future to reflect on this year.

I am feeling more positive about going for SNE again next year.  With 1 year already under my belt, I should be able to do it even better next time, and the rewards are even better.  I’ll still be putting in the minimum 50k vpps/month to maintain my SNE status until June. If I’m in good shape by the end of February, I’ll probably follow through in 09.

Every single year I’ve played poker, I’ve made more money than the previous. This year went far beyond my expectations, and it was due to having a clear goal and the will to pull it off. Most years I feel like I could have done more or worked harder, but not this one. 2008 was a success on every level.

VPP COUNT: 998036

I was about to start the last session of the year, and something strange happened…

There are close to 240k players on pokerstars right now, because of their world record promotion. Apparently the Stars servers cant handle that many players, and tables are extremely laggy and unplayable. Hopefully it will pass in the next hour or two.

It is so close I can taste it!!

VPP COUNT: 985291

I’ve been putting in the hours the past few days, and it has been paying off.  I even got confident enough with my game to move back up to the 400$ tables last night. The results were pretty good! Despite having a sick string of coolers that lost me about 2k in 10 minutes, I ended a bit above even at the 400 tables. The important part, though, is that I know I’m ahead of that level as long as I avoid the bad seats.

With less than 15k points to go, I decided to take the 23rd-25th off. I may put in a session at some point if there is time, but I wont force it. It will only take about 24h worth of work to finish this thing off, and I’ll have 6 days to do it after Christmas.  This will actually end up being pretty close, but I’m still very safe.

I’ve got a pretty good idea for getting my final point – expect a little video some before New Years.

Merry Christmas

VPP COUNT: 956505

My head is above water in a couple different ways.

1) As of last night, I am ahead of the linear SNE pace for the first time in months! This brings the average number of points I need to earn per day down to about 2.8k, which is chump change.

I’ll be continuing the hellgrind, which has consisted of a minimum of 6 hours a day for the past week. I need to do this for 1 more week, and I’ll be close enough to finished that I can spend the 24th and 25th with family.

2) I am finally above the incredibly massive soul-crushing breakeven stretch I was experiencing. In $, the stretch lasted somewhere in the ballpark of 800k hands. This sounds incredibly terrible, seeing as most players wouldn’t play close to 800k hands of poker in their lifetime. I may post a graph at some point, but I’m not too enthused about that. In BB, the graph is not nearly as harsh, which just means I ran really bad at higher stakes.

The year is coming to an end and I’ve barely had time to reflect. I’m glad I kept this blog.

VPP COUNT: 908435

I have averaged about 4.2k points per day for the last 2 days, which is a good enough pace to finish by Christmas.

Unfortunately, I stopped running well in DoNs, and have been only making a little at FRNL.

I’ll be trying to put in some late night sessions, as there are supposed to be more vpps/hr, and more fish. Tonights’ session was a terrible nightmare of 2 outers and under-boats, and I ended the day even.

I think I’ll be able to keep up this pace fairly comfortably…but would really like to run better for the last month of the year.

VPP COUNT: 900005

The results in November were MUCH better than October. Oddly enough, I put in more hours in November, but earned slightly less points. This is mostly due to experimenting with different games.

Assuming I complete the last 100K VPPs while breaking even at the tables, I will reach my earnings goal for the year. I could even lose some in December and reach my goal. Despite how frustrating poker can be sometimes, completing this quest has really REALLY boosted my bankroll.

So now there is just 1 more month to go. In the last 2 months I have earned about 108k and 104k VPPs. In December I just need 99995. This thing is in the bag.

I am still undecided as far as next years’ plans. It is not TOO incredibly difficult to maintain SNE pace, especially if there aren’t any holidays or trips to worry about. I am still very interested in building a nice MTT resume, and the DoNs that I’ve been crushing are also a nice option. I am very glad to have as many choices as I do, since this past year has pretty much been decided upon, leaving me very restricted.

Hopefully, I’ll have a huge energy rush during the first few weeks of December, and finish this thing off before Christmas. I also may just get myself to 999999 vpps, and host a new years party or something where I get that final point… We’ll see

VPP COUNT: 877061

Well, i’ve been exploring my other options in DoNs and ShortStacking for the past few days. It has been interesting, and fairly difficult to transition to multitabling in each of these styles.

DoNs might actually end up being the most profitable of the 3 for me, but I only make about 400-500 VPPs/hr depending on how many are running.
FRNL is probably my second best option as far as table winnings, and brings me about 600-650 VPPs/hr.
Shortstacking is my last resort, with the lowest expected return, but about 900-950 VPPs/hr.

It really has been discouraging seeing the diminishing returns as the year has gone on. It makes me not want to do SNE next year, because to get the amount of VPPs/hr needed, you need to play either very high stakes, or mass table. All of the mass tabling options are being exhausted by other players, because of how easy it is to make a high $/hr income with a simple strategy. So all of these games will be extremely overrun by competent players, and it will only be worse in 2009.

My game will need to evolve again in 2009 if I want to advance. While SNE is an amazing 110k over the year (and about 135k if I were to repeat in 09) it really hinders my ability to experiment, play less tables, and increase my win rate.

Next year, that is what i’ll be focusing on. If it doesnt work out so well, I can always take another shot at SNE, because I know I could do it again. I’ll know by February if it is worth it to me.

I expect to be over 900k points by the end of November. I’d love to finish before christmas.

VPP COUNT: 834371

I moved down to 100NL for a short period of time, just because of how awful the table selection always was at 200NL. Though I ran a bit better at 100NL, it just did not give as many vpps/hand as I need to be able to finish this thing. Back to 200NL it is for me.

I was extremely happy with my play today, and hope I can keep it up. My spirits are still fairly high even though I run so bad.

I’ve also discovered these “Double or Nothing” tournaments, which are barely even poker. They’re a pretty good way for me to boost the number of VPPs I bring in, and can be done much more casually than FRNL. Essentially, they’re just elaborate coin flips (with an edge of course), but they bring in some OK vpps.

This will also be a nice backup option if FRNL just gets too unbearably tight. The 52$ buyin DoNs arent high enough, but the 104$ ones could turn into a pretty significant VPP rate. Not sure if it’s a good idea yet, but it is nice to have a backup plan….besides shortstacking that is.

I’ll be getting in a whole bunch of hours today, and hopefully tomorrow as well, because I’ll be gone most of Saturday.

Closer and closer every day…

VPP COUNT: 812784

I’m feeling fairly overwhelmed this week, but still steadily getting in those sessions.

Between Thanksgiving, Christmas, and a few other days that have already been taken off, i’ve got probably 50 working days ahead of me. Not much time to relax.

Less than 2 months to go and its over!!

I am really wanting to devote more time to MTTs and other games after this all is over. I think MTTs are much softer, and will stay much softer than FRNL. I’ll probably need to mix FRNL games into my schedule, but more MTTs will be good to mix things up.

VPP COUNT: 800025

Just a short update while I get started on a session.

I’ve gone back to playing only 200NL tables, as the table selection and swings at the higher stakes have been terrible for me.

Also, I’m beginning to work on my videos for Cardrunners.com, where I’ll be contributing in the near future! I’ll be doing a series on multitabling. I’m very excited! This was the “big news” I mentioned in an earlier post.

Haven’t had time to do the Galapagos TR yet, my plate is pretty full. It is on the way though!

Back to the grind!