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%