2,000 tourneys. Unfortunately, not quite the results I had hoped for, but not totally disasterous. I finished in 3rd place in 12 of my last 22 tournaments, which was a just a little bit disheartening.

Current Bankroll: $852.68
FPP Balance / cash value: 13864.62 / $221.83
Total tourneys played: 2,000
Average buyin: $9.33
Total amount invested: $18,657.50
Total poker profit earned: $92.60
Total additional cash bonuses earned: $100.00
ROI (including cash bonuses and points) : 0.50% (2.22%)

Primary 2011 Goal:
Supernova Status (100,000 VIP Points at Pokerstars) overall, PlatinumStar status (7,500 VIP Points) each month.

Method:
I'm going to pad my bankroll by adding $500 after the first of the year to open the year with $1,352. This represents roughly 80 (actually 79.5) buyins at an artificial level of $17 per tourney, exactly 1/3rd of the way between $13 and $25. Initially, the plan is to play 350 tourneys per month at the $25 level and 700 tourneys a month at $13. If I at least tread water or lose less than 50 BI, I will earn 7700 VIP Points in the month of January. Provided that I don't go on an initial 50 BI downswing, I should be able to stay the "$17s" indefinitely. If I do have a 50 BI downswing, I'll probably have to drop all the way back down to $6.50s (after shooting myself in the face).

Hopefully, if I can start actually WINNING at the higher levels, I'll eventually find a home at $25s and start chipping away at Supernova faster by making sure I can earn 8500 VIP points per month at this level.

Secondary 2011 Goal:
2% ROI overall at a mix between $13 and $25. I do not know if this is possible, but I certainly believe it is. I still have a negative ROI at $13s, although some of it has to be bad luck. I've had just one 130 game heater, albeit at a +33% clip, but it was followed by the worst 250-tourney cooler of my life. Over the past 500 games, I've been grinding at basically a barely positive level. The last 200 tourneys represent another downstretch of -$130. In other words, I've had several significant bad stretches, and only 1 significantly good stretch. I know this is results-oriented, as the players up at $13s may just be better than I am, but I have a very strong feeling that most of them aren't. Certainly the ones at $6.50s are a lot worse, but there are lots of fish up at $13, and with my experience and skill at the game, honestly I'm very surprised I'm not at least breaking even. Hopefully this straightens itself out over time. 1100 games at a limit isn't exactly a significant chunk yet, anyway.

Tertiary 2011 Goal:
If overly successful, move up to $39 by the end of the year.

Financial implications of the goal:
Supernova Status means that I will earn $1000 in Stellar Rewards in stages along the way, plus a $200 cash bonus once I actually hit Supernova Status.

For the roughly 100,000 VIP points I will earn, I should earn roughly 245,000 FPPs, which is the cash equivalent of about $3900. I'm not sure if I will save for the cash reward or if I will play several $215 tourneys along the way. I'm pretty sure I'll take the shots at the $215s. I have a proven, winning expectation at MTT and if I luckbox my way into a five figure amount, things will REALLY start to change.

2% ROI, over 12,000 tourneys at an average buy-in of $17, would earn me $4,080 in winnings over the course of the year.

Adding this all together, my financial goal is to make $9,180 from poker in 2011.

Happy Holidays! See you in 2011.

Well, I'm nearly done with poker for the year.

I'm currently at 1,973 tourneys with a BR of $940.88, and I'm planning to stop when I hit 2,000 total tourneys. I just made GoldStar for January this morning, and there's no way to make PlatinumStar. I can't make any more cash rewards in 2010, either. 2,000 seems like a nice, round number. The only instances in which I would stop sooner:

* I have a massive, acute upswing and get above $1,100 prior to 27 tourneys from now. At that value, I would be positive in online poker for 2010 (with bonuses), no small feat considering I donked off roughly $600-$700 in cash games. It would also make me positive at every SNG limit. It would be a hell of an Xmas present to myself.

* I have a massive, acute downswing and get around $800 prior to 27 tourneys from now. At that value, if I were to continue to play, another loss might threaten my overall positive number. That's something I'm not willing to do before this break.

Neither is all that likely, but anything is possible, I suppose. It's likely that I will just about break even, if the past 1,973 tourneys are any indication of anything...

So, tonight or tomorrow will probably be my last batch of poker in 2010. I do need a break, as it appears as though I have mild tendinitis in my right wrist, and 8 days off will do me some good psychologically (as well as physically).

After I finish the final splash of tourneys in the next 24 hours, I'll post about my revised goals for 2011.

Current Bankroll: $940.88
FPP Balance / cash value: 13567.62 / $217.08
Total tourneys played: 1973
Average buyin: $9.28
Total amount invested: $18,306.50
Total poker profit earned: $190.80
Total additional cash bonuses earned: $100.00
ROI (including cash bonuses and points) : 1.01% (2.77%)

12 more tourneys snuck in...I just couldn't leave it on that acute of a spike downward. I had a hunch if I played a few more I'd end on a slightly more positive note.

Current Bankroll: $906.08
FPP Balance / cash value: 12643.62 / $202.30
Total tourneys played: 1889
Average buyin: $9.11
Total amount invested: $17,214.50
Total poker profit earned: $156.00
Total additional cash bonuses earned: $100.00
ROI (including cash bonuses and points) : 1.01% (2.66%)

Well, a day like this was coming...a disasterous -$150 day where nothing went right. Luckily, almost all the stuff that happened was pure luck, and not bad playmaking. There was only one play that was questionable, and I think most people would play it the same way - a blinds battle with TT that I neglected to re-reraise (or call a re-raise) from the small blind, instead just pushing and ran into AA. It's borderline in any case.

My wrist is still hurting, so it's good that I'm taking tomorrow off. Still, it would have been nice to have a respite on an upswing...well, at least the total number is still positive...

Current Bankroll: $867.68
FPP Balance / cash value: 12511.62 / $200.18
Total tourneys played: 1877
Average buyin: $9.09
Total amount invested: $17,058.50
Total poker profit earned: $117.60
Total additional cash bonuses earned: $100.00
ROI (including cash bonuses and points) : 0.69% (2.45%)

A fine day at the tables, all things considered - a +$57 result. I didn't have the kind of 1st/2nd distribution I'd like (3/6), but I'll certainly take cashing in half of the 18 tournaments played. I'm going to cut it short early today for two reasons. For one thing, I'm a little mentally bushed from working my ass off this week at my job, and for another, I'm starting to notice a little mild fatigue in my wrist which I can only hope is not the beginnings of carpal/tunnel syndrome. It's a good thing that I can play out the string this year without exerting too much effort.

Notes about the current upswing:

* In my last 686 tourneys, I'm now at a ROI of 7.63% (not including bonuses) with an average buyin over $10. It's obviously a relatively small sample size, but it's very encouraging. It will be interesting to see where this recent ROI is at when I play 314 more tourneys (probably by year's end).

* I have abandoned playing continuously. I never mentioned it on the blog, but as soon as I started firing at the RED HOLE, I needed to start playing in sets again to make sure I managed my bankroll appropriately. I find that I just play better in sets, overall. I'm going to stick with that for now.

* I'm only currently down at one limit, -$83 at $13s. Essentially, it's a negative two thirds of a percent ROI over 900+ tourneys there - pretty much break even. Again, encouraging.

I should be able to play a full cache tomorrow.

One final note: Including rewards, I'm within $100 of overall breakeven for online poker this year (remember, I donked off about $600 in cash... so breakeven for me is actually $1300.)

Current Bankroll: $1,016.48
FPP Balance / cash value: 12181.62 / $194.91
Total tourneys played: 1847
Average buyin: $9.02
Total amount invested: $16,668.50
Total poker profit earned: $266.40
Total additional cash bonuses earned: $100.00
ROI (including cash bonuses and points) : 1.60% (3.37%)

I enjoyed a rare day off yesterday - simply because my job is so damned busy that I'm staying late almost every night.

The union I work for has a system of health insurance qualification which involves deadlines for filing contracts. Inconveniently, those deadlines always fall at the end of the year, which is always busy because of holiday parties, holiday shopping, and time off from the office. This year, my office thankfully gave me a couple of extra days off, because the holidays fall on weekends. It's really nice, because I'll get to do a lot more snowboarding. However, it also means crunch time is even more crunched as well, which means staying until 7pm every night and getting in at 8am.

It was nice to have a day off from poker, though. It gave me time to enjoy the fact that I've come back from a pretty disasterous downswing with my poker game and bankroll intact. I'm actually now in a similar financial position to the one I was in about 5 weeks ago. The two important differences are the $100 in rakeback points I've additionally accured...and the improvement I've noticed in my play over the last 1000 games.

Things are generally good.

One thing that I do lament, outside of the poker universe, is that I missed my martial arts test this past weekend. I was prepared for it, but unfortunately could not afford the cost of the test with all the holiday expenses. I'll have another opportunity to test in March, and I'm sure at that time I'll have enough money to do so. I will undoubtedly be encouraged to double-test, as I actually currently know almost enough material for two tests anyway (I'll actually probably be ready for three in March). Provided that I pass, I will advance from Assistant Instructor to High Rank Assistant Instructor, and I will be three or four ranks away from earning my 2nd degree black belt. At 2nd Degree, I will be automatically promoted to a full instructor.

One has to be careful as a black belt in a martial art discipline, because it is really quite easy to become complacent, and to rest on the laurels of your previous challenges. The belt system, an all-important litmus test for progress, becomes less significant, in a figurative and literal sense. Before black belt, you are gaining an entirely new belt every three months. After black belt, you may change belts every 3 to 5 years, and only alter them by adding small stripes to delineate progress. As a result, self-motivation becomes important, as the routine becomes, well....it becomes much more of a GRIND.

Sound familiar?

A good friend quipped to me two days ago that the eventual enemy in all this, one I had gained enough experience, confidence and knowledge, would be the GRIND itself. I think he's absolutely right. Today, I was unsure I even wanted to play poker when I woke up. When you invest 4 hours every day into something, there are times where you simply do not feel like playing anymore. How do we get past this....especially while losing?

Again, the key is self-motivation. In martial arts, you always find spots for improvement, if you look hard enough. It doesn't matter if you are 1st degree, 3rd degree, 5th degree. There is always room for improvement. I've seen 4th degree black belts capable of anything you can imagine humbled in a split second by the Grandmaster for a slightly incorrect stance.

Indeed, I did play poker today. However, since I was grinding so hard in front of a computer screen at work all day, I decided to play less than my daily cache - just 18 tourneys. It actually doesn't matter a whole lot for the remainder of the year - I will maintain my goldstar status simply by playing about 135 more tournaments this month, and I have no way of pushing through the Platinum, nor can I earn any more stellar rewards this year. Thus, I'll probably be picking less spots to play, and making sure that I'm fresh when I do.

Oh, and it was another up day....although nothing to write home about. Still, a slight win is a slight win...

Current Bankroll: $958.88
FPP Balance / cash value: 11983.62 / $191.74
Total tourneys played: 1829
Average buyin: $8.99
Total amount invested: $16,434.50
Total poker profit earned: $208.80
Total additional cash bonuses earned: $100.00
ROI (including cash bonuses and points) : 1.27% (3.05%)

Another hidden 6...found a pocket of time to lock in two more wins. This is officially a heater - I've won 11 of my last 25 tourneys with 2 additional second places. Gents, these are the brief, beautiful spikes in time that you go through the thousands of tournaments of boredom and frustration for. You hope for a week of bliss to cancel out the last month of misery. It almost gets to the point where you don't want to play because your spreadsheet looks so damned pretty and you just don't want to fuck it up.

You also get superstitious about your routine. Only going to the bathroom after certain sets. Whether you eat while you play. What you eat while you play. What you drink while you play. And so on...

Since bottoming out, my recent upswing is actually much larger than just this blippy spike...and worth reflecting on. At an average buy-in of $8.65 (remarkably similar to my overall average), my ROI over my last 785 tourneys currently stands at 6.56%. It could be that it's just anomalous...but I think it's more likely that we're also seeing some improvement as I keep playing. Certainly, I feel like I'm learning a lot...and getting more comfortable.

I have a non-poker rant for tomorrow.

Current Bankroll: $955.28
FPP Balance / cash value: 11785.62 / $188.57
Total tourneys played: 1811
Average buyin: $8.95
Total amount invested: $16,200.50
Total poker profit earned: $205.20
Total additional cash bonuses earned: $100.00
ROI (including cash bonuses and points) : 1.27% (3.05%)

Only two sets today...but they were two good sets. I could play more, but I have a lot of other things to take care of. It's always psychologically nice to go out on a high note for a short run.

Current Bankroll: $939.68
FPP Balance / cash value: 11719.62 / $187.51
Total tourneys played: 1805
Average buyin: $8.93
Total amount invested: $16,122.50
Total poker profit earned: $189.60
Total additional cash bonuses earned: $100.00
ROI (including cash bonuses and points) : 1.18% (2.96%)

A typical grindy day...plenty of ups and plenty of downs, but thankfully, a positive overall expectation again. I am now up over $400 since bottoming out on my last downswing.

I finally got SNG wiz software, as well as upgrading my Pokertracker. I have all that I need for now. It didn't cost me all that much, either, which is splendid because I'm totally broke due to the holiday season. It's pretty funny how you can maintain a live bankroll but still be utterly broke in the real world...

The Wiz software is already coming in handy. I'm identifying a lot of leaks and shoring them up as we speak. I'm using the software about 1-2 hours a day in addition to playing. There's still a lot more work to do, but I'm very happy that I'm identifying definite spots for improvement. I think the most devastating thing would be to not be able to identify those spots, and not understand why I wasn't just crushing $13s at 15% already.

EDIT: Snuck in 18 more tourneys at EXACTLY break-even. 5 1sts, no 2nds. Apparently 5 1sts and no seconds in 18 tourneys yields exactly break-even. Weird.

Current Bankroll: $858.08
FPP Balance / cash value: 11587.62 / $185.40
Total tourneys played: 1793
Average buyin: $8.90
Total amount invested: $15,956.50
Total poker profit earned: $108.00
Total additional cash bonuses earned: $100.00
ROI (including cash bonuses and points) : 0.68% (2.47%)

Up $15 today....but I did finally hit that Stellar Reward bonus of $50, which increased my bankroll to its highest day-end level since mid November.

Current Bankroll: $849.68
Total FPP accrued / cash value: 10927.62 / $174.84
Total tourneys played: 1733
Average buyin: $8.76
Total amount invested: $15,176.50
Total profit earned: $99.60
ROI: 0.66%

6 years ago, when I started playing online seriously, the poker world was totally different. Tracking software to use with poker clients online was just getting released. The internet was still relatively new, and not everyone even had an email address or cellphone. US law didn't discourage people from gambling online, so there were more people casually involved and less people more seriously involved in internet poker.

Boy, have times changed.

One of the most surprisingly things I've learned upon my return to the virtual tables is just how many people are doing this seriously these days. When I played the largest Multi-table tournaments on Pokerstars six years ago, the field was typically no larger than 4000-5000 entrants, and that was considered a huge field. My second largest MTT cash was placing 11th out of 4000 participants in the then-Sunday 1/2 million. These days, the same tournament now carries 2x the guaranteed amount...and more than 2x the participants well; last week's tourney was almost 9000 players. I played a Goldstar freeroll 4 years ago, and was able to take $1,000 1st place prize out of 975 entrants - with a $5,000 guaranteed prize pool. The Goldstar Freeroll is now $100,000 guaranteed and sports 8,000+ participants (side note: unfortunately, because it falls on the last saturday of every month, it actually falls on Christmas Day this month, so I will be unable to play it - but I am looking forward to Lottery Daydreaming about $15k first prize in the future...).

More players means more regular players, or "regs". I've now played quite a bit at the lowest pro limits, and I'm really starting to see a lot of the same players over and over again, no doubt trying to eke out a modest profit by taking advantage of the dead money from the fish at the tables, but also trying to make the same rakeback bonuses I am to either make themselves a modest living or add to their bankroll. I'm sure as I move up, the regs will be more and more and more prevalent. At 5% ROI, playing 12,000 of these $13s a year, one could conceivably make about $13,000 in profit from both poker and bonuses. Not a bad way to supplement your income.

The other surprising thing is just how much software you really need to be competitive. A Heads-Up Display, which allows you to see how loose/tight and passive/aggressive different players are based on your history with them, is most essential. It operates on top of the client, superimposing the info while you play. The software I use for this also contains a searchable database to keep track of all the data, including more specific information, such as how often players 3bet, how often they fold to a 3bet, how often they steal the blinds, how often they defend against a steal...and so on. SNG Wiz, a program to determine the expected value of plays of certain situations and ranges, has also become indespensible. You'd be surprised how often it makes sense to push K5o 3-handed when the blinds get high.

All told, it's probably going to cost me about $500-$1000 and a ton of hours of reconfiguring just to eventually set up my box exactly the way that I want to. Hilariously, I would be way better off with a PC than a Mac, as much of the software only runs on PC. For now, I may have to get a cheap one. I will probably eventually buy a laptop with a relatively large screen, so that I can play virtually anywhere.

Today was a pretty good one at the tables. I had one positive outlier set, 3 1sts and 2 2nds over a 6 tourney spread, which set the tone for the whole session. It was the best set I've had up at $13s in a long time. All told, I was up $78 on the day.

Current Bankroll: $785.28
Total FPP accrued / cash value: 10532.62 / $168.52
Total tourneys played: 1697
Average buyin: $8.67
Total amount invested: $14708.50
Total profit earned: $85.20
ROI: 0.58%

I did it! Break even. I'm stopping for the day in order to celebrate, despite the fact I technically should play 12 more. Screw it. I'm enjoying this.

Current Bankroll: $708.48
Total FPP accrued / cash value: 10070.62 / $161.13
Current Status (Multiplier): Goldstar (2.0)
Total tourneys played: 1655
Average buyin: $8.56
Total amount invested: $14162.50
Total profit earned: $8.40
ROI: .06%

Another rare midday post. Basically just the stats, while I'm in front of my own computer. Had a nice run this am...on the brink once again...


Current Bankroll: $673.98
Total FPP accrued / cash value: 9938.62 / $159.01
Current Status (Multiplier): Goldstar (2.0)
Total tourneys played: 1643
Average buyin: $8.53
Total amount invested: $14006.50
Total profit earned: -$26.10
ROI: -0.19%

On Tuesday afternoon, I had YET ANOTHER disappointing set at $13s and wound up down about $60. I was left floating exactly $25 above my mendoza line of $520. As you can probably imagine, it's getting to the point where I am beyond frustrated at this level, and occasionally, in order to shake anything loose, you have to go outside the boundaries of rational, orthodox thinking and engage in what we will lovingly refer to as a SLUMPBUSTER.

For those not privy to MLB clubhouse protocol, a SLUMPBUSTER is a term baseball players often throw around. If you're in the midst of a particularly bad run, say batting .160 for the month of June, teammates will often encourage you to engage in this activity. Essentially, it literally implies going out to the nearest bar, picking up the worst looking girl at said bar, and taking her home for some after hours activity.

To be clear, I did not literally engage in this particular activity. However, I did do something similarly irrational. I took my remaining above-mendoza money and fired up a single $25 tourney.

And hilariously, I won it.

I think I'm going to avoid $25s for a while, simply because the ability to boast a 264% ROI at a level isn't something you're able to enjoy very often.

Later on that evening, I ran the rest of the day's cache up to $7 below overall break even. The last two days, because of an insane work schedule, I've been unable to play very much, and naturally, I have NOT been able to break through, slipping back instead at the $13s to down $68. This is becoming almost comical. I'm down nearly 35 buyins at $13s and up everywhere else across the board. What exactly is this shit?

I'll post stats later. One of these days I'll be in green numbers again...

The grind is still the grind - still floating around $600 in bankroll, with the overall holding at about -$90 through 1550ish tourneys. I don't have all my data in front of me, so it's an estimate.

I've been able to play about 120 more tourneys at the $13 level, mixed in with about 30 lower level tournaments when I dipped below the self-imposed mendoza line. My ROI at the $6.50s has considerably improved - up to 6.85% over about 500 games, while my ROI has been about the same at the $13s, about -5%. One of these days I'll hit an upswing up there. For now, I'm still at about -0.5% ROI overall.

I also just crossed the 9,000 FPP threshold. I'm also on the verge of a cash bonus from Stars called a "Stellar Reward" - where they actually pay you money if you hit a yearly benchmark for VIP points. In this case, it will be 10,000 VIP points for $50. I'm probably between 5 and 10 days away from earning this. It will probably be my final Stellar Reward for this year. However, once they reset in January, I'll be able to hit a bunch of $10 bonuses, as well as a $50 bonus, within the first two months, which might really help to supplement my meager bankroll.

As for the FPPs... once I get to 13,500, I can elect to buy into a $215 tourney at the max value, something I'm actually toying with. I have a lot of documented success in MTT, even in a couple of bigger tourneys, but my mind has been so geared towards STT that I'm really out of recent practice and wary of switching it up. I'll have to think about it some more. However, if I were just to place in a tourney like this and unlock more bankroll, it could mean jumping up a lot earlier. Obviously, there is the lure of the Lottery Mindset as well.

The Lottery Mindset is one of the only things about MTT that I truly miss. Having had some success at a couple of big tournaments, it's not unrealistic to sit back and dream of what it would be like to take down $150,000k or so in one of the Sunday Millions. After all, I have placed 1st in a $300, as well as 11th in the Sunday Million before. In STT, you really don't have the opportunity to dream about a big cash - it's just grind, grind, grind, grind, grind. However, I really don't miss playing a single tournament for say, 11 hours, to bubble out in 85th place out of 500 entrants in deep stacks, nor do I miss spending all sunday to eke out a $4.00 profit with zero rakeback. Can you say "argh"?

I figured out today that if I were to just break even at $13s for 2011 playing 36 tourneys a day, I would still earn $800 in Stellar Rewards, and roughly $2,100 in FPPs by earning about 70k in VIP points. I would earn about $3,000 in total value. If I can just break even by mixing in 35% $25s, I can hit the PlatinumStar level monthly, and Supernova by year's end, multiplying my rewards considerably. This will require approximately a $1700 starting bankroll, but it would also mean that I would earn roughly $2,000 in Stellar Rewards and $3,040 in FPPs, a considerable jump up from $3,000 in rewards to $5,000...

1st place in tourney #1500. Good omen? Hopefully.

I've still been able to tread water at the $13s - to the utter delight of my rakeback rewards. It's been somewhat of a confidence booster for me as well, but not as much as I had hoped - I'm still waiting for that big upswing I know I'm due for. My bankroll has just been yo-yoing between $550 and $680. I nearly touched an OVERALL GREEN number this afternoon... at the end of my third set I was -$8 overall...but I couldn't quite push through and I slipped back a bit towards the end of the day.

Here are some interesting factoids about my experience thus far at $13s:

In my first 361 tourneys, I had a ROI of 8.39%, and was up over 30 buyins over that span.

In my last 257 tourneys, I have a ROI of -21%, and am down 54 buyins over that span.

My worst part of this was over the first 220 buyins of this current downswing, where I had a ROI of -30% and was down 61 buyins over that span.

I have won just 29 out of 257 6-man tourneys over this downswing, at little over 11% of them. My straight expected value against randoms should be $16.6%.

Did I mention that the swings are brutal?

♠♣♥♦ ♠♣♥♦ ♠♣♥♦ ♠♣♥♦ ♠♣♥♦ ♠♣♥♦

To go back to a point a made a few days ago: As you get to higher rakeback levels, the money you make on rake is actually more than your expected ROI, even if you are one of the best players at a certain level.

Let me clarify this a bit with some data.

If I were to play $25s instead of $13s, I'd be paying enough in rake to qualify for level 4 status, PlatinumStar (currently I'm at level 3, GoldStar). Although ROI includes the rake you pay, for the purposes of this exercise, let's treat it differently. PlatinumStar players earn about 23% of the rake they pay back from the site in the form of FPPs.

At $25s, you can expect to make 8% if you are one of the top players. If I played 400 tourneys, and I earned 8% on it, I would have invested $10,000 in poker, and earned an $800 profit on my investment. The rake for $25s is $2, and the amount of money in play is $23. Clear so far?

If we consider the rake "neutral", we actually have $9,200 in live money, which turned out to be $10,000 after our $800 in profit. We therefore made 8.7% on "live money". On our $800 rake, we earned 23% in rakeback, which paid us $184 on an $800 investment (which we have already gotten back out of the site as well). We actually made a higher percentage on our rake than we did on our live money! Therefore, it should always been our objective to get as much money into rake as possible, which seems totally counter-intuitive to every notion most of us have ever had about poker.

Tomorrow is a well-deserved off day. I decided to stop exactly at 1500 tourneys today in order to use my snowboarding trip as a time for some reflection. I'm so close to break-even I can smell it...

Beginning 12/3 bankroll: $614
End 12/4 bankroll $618
Net: +$4
2 day FPP earned / cash value: 792 / $12.67
Total FPP accrued / cash value: 8552.62 / $136.84
Current Status (Multiplier): Goldstar (2.0)
Total tourneys played: 1500
Average buyin: $8.25
Total amount invested: $12369.50
Total profit earned: -$71.80
ROI: -0.59%

Well, I was able to fire two missiles at the RED WALL today, and good news... I get to keep firing tomorrow.

I had a nice upswing this morning at $6.50s, which brought me up to $604. As I mentioned a couple of days ago, as soon as I hit $598 I was planning on firing up a set of 6 $13s, to see if I could work down my negative number. My first missile against the RED WALL fizzled - had an x,x,x,x,x,1 distribution, which is -3BI, roughly. Still, I had 4 BI left above the $520 floor that I set, so I decided just to fire up a smaller round of 4 to see if I could get anything going. I luckily took 2 1st places in those 4, so I'm sitting pretty at $614 after 40 tourneys today. Slowly but surely, it appears as though I may be inching along towards a break-even player again.

Non-poker stuff-

Sunday will be my first snowboarding foray of the season. I'm heading up to Wisconsin with my partner-in-crime Rachel for some fun at Devil's Head Resort, the best overall place within striking distance of Chicago. Of course, compared to anywhere with actual terrain, it's a far cry from being ideal. It's about 8 times smaller than anything in Colorado, and about 5-6 times smaller than anything out east. However, as far as a day trip from Chicago goes, it's our best option. The sundays-only pass was only $169, so if we go the 10ish times we are planning on, it works out that we spend something like $10-$20 per lift ticket per day. It's only 3 hours away. Leave at 9am, get in 8 hours of boarding, back by midnight.

I'm no expert at boarding yet, but I'm good enough now to get down anything at Devil's Head without falling (I'm sure I'll eat these words on my first time out this season). Last year, I started experimenting with the terrain park, and I'm hoping to pick up where I left off there. I'm not doing rails yet, but I was able to use some of the boxes and ramps, albeit with mixed results. I'm also planning on reconfiguring my board in order to achieve my other season goal: learning how to ride switch-stance. My right foot is typically forward (referred to as "goofy"), so switch stance for me is "regular", left-food-forward. It's hard for me to do currently, as my board is currently set up asymmetrically, but if I reconfigure my board to be symmetrical I think it will be much easier.

My band Roxy Swain also met last night. Essentially, it's a retro rock/power pop band with a female vocalist. We've decided to make some changes going forward, because we feel our songs aren't as strong as they could be quite yet. We're going to play one last show to promote our debut album, and then we're planning on embarking on a phase of writing and arranging that will hopefully yield some brand new material by April. I'm also switching from predominantly playing rhythm guitar to predominantly playing keyboards. We've consciously decided to make a concerted effort towards further defining our style and sound, and I'm suddenly very optimistic about the band's future. It's the best band I've probably ever been in, and certainly the most talented. We really have potential to reach I wide audience, in my opinion.

Back to poker...I'm really pleased that I've weathered a pretty bad storm with my bankroll still kicking. Today I learned that many players experience not only 2000 game break-even periods, but 3000 game break-even periods. Still got my work cut out for me, I'm afraid. The nice thing is that the rakeback cash value now currently outweighs what I've lost at these tournaments.

Beginning 11/30 bankroll: $534
End 12/2 bankroll $614
Net: +$80
3 day FPP earned / cash value: 533.5 / $8.53
Total FPP accrued / cash value: 7760.62 / $124.17
Current Status (Multiplier): Goldstar (2.0)
Total tourneys played: 1428
Average buyin: $8.01
Total amount invested: $11433.50
Total profit earned: -$75.40
ROI: -0.66%