Cain is Abel

Once again, a usual Vancouver morning at a cafe for breakfast/blogging.

Our plan for the day was to bike to the Capilano Suspension Bridge – but luckily we found out that it was a good 15 mile bike up a hill before we went to the rental store. Instead, we took the SeaBus to North Vancouver, and took a bus from there to Capilano. Public transportation in Vancouver is extremely reasonable as far as pricing goes. Interestingly enough, they dont even have a place to check your tickets on the SeaBus. Seems like it would be pretty easy to just walk through and get on without paying.

The Capilano Suspension Bridge was very fun. We took some good pictures, which I’ll be able to upload as soon as we’re home. I also bought a pretty sweet hoodie for myself as a souvenir, which is good because I don’t usually buy too many souvenirs.

We got on the bus going the wrong direction as we were leaving Capilano. We were planning to get back on the SeaBus, but it brought us up to Grousse Mountain. We just shrugged it off and figured we just need to sit on the bus until it turns back to the SeaBus. It wasnt until we had already turned around that we realized that Grousse Mountain would have been pretty sweet and we should have just rolled with it. Ah well – something to see next time.

We went to a British Pub called Chester Cheese’s for lunch. Sampled a few more local brews, and this big 500ml bottle of “Monty Python’s Holy Grail”, all of which were excellent. We shopped a bit before getting on the SeaBus to return to greater Vancouver.

This will need to be a 2-part blog, because the battery is running down on the laptop and I will need to turn it off soon. So until next time…

Started out this day the usual Vancouver way, by walking to a coffee shop and just chilling out with a delicious cup of coffee and a giant muffin. This is always a very nice time to get in a blog post. After reading over my first few blogs, I would definitely like to include some more pictures to spice them up a bit. They are pretty text-heavy and could use some sprucing up.

After the coffee shop, we headed to the Vancouver Art Gallery, or VAG. The VAG was very unique in the way it was set up. The lower level was completely dedicated to early photography from different regions. Mostly from about 1890-1920. The second floor was dedicated to trees, and their role in art. Tree-art is especially prominant in Canada, and this was probably my favorite floor in the VAG. The third floor was extremely unique. It was divided into 2 sections. Each section had dozens of televisions set up, all playing interviews from people from the same “utopian” city. The exhibit was designed to highlight the argument that utopia is different to each individual, even if they are all living in the same utopian city.

After the VAG, we returned to the area near the New Amsterdam Cafe, where they have an upstairs Vapor Lounge. In the Vapor Lounge, you just pay 5$ and sit around a table that has a Volcano Vaporizor on it. You pack the vaporizer, it inflates a huge bag, and you pass it around. Oddly enough, we were probably amongst the oldest people in the room. We chilled there for an hour or so, and then walked back to our hotel to relax before dinner.

Dinner was truly the highlight of this vacation day. We walked along the seawall to a restaurant called Cardero’s. We had been looking forward to some good west-coast fish since before our vacation even started. I ordered the West Coast Salmon, which was the house special. Mary had the Halibut, which had just come into season. Both meals were absolutely amazing – I really can not say which I liked more.

To compliment our great seafood, Cardero’s also had a variety of local brews on tap. I can’t remember the names, but we each had 1 light lager and 1 medium cream beer. All 4 beers were excellent, and went very well with the fish.

Cardero’s is definitely among my top 5 meals of all time. The service was quick and polite without being too in-your-face. The food was easily a 9+/10. The beer was a 9+/10. I would reommend this restaurant to anybody in the Vancouver area.

Only 2 full days of vacation left! We will be cramming in the Capilano Suspension Bridge, UBC trip, Conservatory, and looking through a few open houses in the next 2 days.

We don’t want to leave.

VPP COUNT: 219540

I put in 10 hours today, and pulled in nearly 8k VPPs! The first 4 hours threatened to continue my ugly downswing, but I stuck with it and ended the day with a nice profit.

Very satisfying.

I have 5 days before my vacation, and probably will fall a bit short of the 250k goal. If I average about 8h/day for the next 5 days, I’ll still be around 245-250, which I am fine with. I’ll have 4 more work days after the vacation is over, and as long as I am over 250k by the end of the month, I’ll still be ahead of pace.

VPP COUNT: 211593

Well, my motivation has been fairly low this past week, and have been running absolutely terribly.

On March 12th, I had a session that lasted exactly 1 hand.

I was loading up my tables, and after about 5 tables were up I got my first hand. Pocket aces in the big blind. There was a raise and re-raise preflop. Long story short, I lose a 400$ pot to QJs. Session over.

Yesterday, I finally toughed it out and put in 9 solid hours of play. Nearly 14k hands. Unfortunately, I had a huge downswing and felt like crap all day. On the other hand, I did clear over 6.5k VPPs and unlocked my 2000$ milestone bonus.

So I’m currently in the middle of a ~10-15 buyin downswing and pretty pissed at poker. I am not able to take a break either. I’m still about 12k points ahead of schedule, but with my Vancouver trip on the way, I’ve got to average about 6 hours per day for the next week. No time to grieve over a downswing.

1 week until I go to Vancouver!

And I will be not playing poker today

Weeeee

VPP COUNT: 204984

Well it has been quite some time since I’ve updated my blog. I’ve been fairly lazy about my poker play. I took March 1st off, but went back to work the 2nd-5th. I also took the 6th and 7th off. I definitely could have put in 4-6 hours each of these days, but just didn’t want to at the time.

Today was my first losing day of the month. I had some pretty major winning days earlier in the month, and was pretty much expecting a downswing some time soon. I’m still doing great for the month, and still have a solid lead on the pace for SNE. On-pace right now is about 185k, and I’m at 205, so I’m fairly comfortable.

I’d like a 25k cushion before my vacation.

It was warm outside for a few days in a row, and we were pretty hopeful that winter was finally over… nope. The weather got crappy some time around the 6th, which is also the first day I just didn’t feel like working. I think I’m seeing a pattern.

I do need to get better at posting regularly, but this is pretty normal for me. As long as I’m writing something once a week, I don’t think the blog will die out.

Until next time

Hours: 120.4
Hands: 148859
VPPS: 187795

February started out pretty slow, but ended strong. I have definitely honed my game even more, and learned a few more tricks that will up my hourly rate and help me reach SNE.

SHORTSTACKING
I put in about 92k hands at 6max this month. I ended up with a very nice hourly rate, and a good VPP rate. It also gives pretty much 0 satisfaction and does very little to further your game. Plus, everybody hates you. If something comes up and I cannot cut it at the full ring tables, I would fall back on this. Otherwise, you wont be seeing me shorting much any more.

24-TABLING
Just when I thought I wouldn’t play more than 18 tables, I upped my max again. I’m really happy with my ability to maintain my solid game while playing all of these tables. This upped my VPP rate, and I’ll probably be doing it for the rest of the year.

LEAP DAY
PokerStars did a double VPP promotion on Leap Day, and did not give much notice. I learned about it at about 7am on the day of. As soon as I learned, I decided to devote the entire day to earning as many VPPs as possible. After 13 hours of play, I put in over 20k hands, and earned over 18k VPPs before the 24h period was up. This was a tremendous boost to my quest, and gave me some much needed cushion. I’ll be going to Vancouver in less than 3 weeks, and would like to have at least a 20k point cushion – which I do!

CONCIERGE
I already purchased my Vancouver trip via concierge, and in the next week or so, I think I’ll be doing the same for my Maui Honeymoon in September. I’ve been working up some major FPPs lately. At the end of April, I should have the FPPs to cover the wedding as well

Not the best month, but still a very very good one.

Now in March, I have 3 weeks to make 4 weeks worth of profit. Bring it on.