Grind baby, grind.

Still going strong. 1600 games, $3430 profit at the tables at the one-month mark. Here's what my typical workday looks like:



And fun on my new custom bass...!

Back in the game!

Three weeks back into it, post Black Friday - purely $16 18-man turbos on PokerStars ($10.85/$21.70s under the new structures, which I don't like as much and hope will be reverted on Wednesday when Stars promises to address player feedback!) Things are looking good and I hope to maintain ~$2/game in the long run. Let's see... $2400 profit at the games, and about $300 in bonuses and VIP rewards, divided by an average of 4 hours a day over 22 days, comes out to about $30 per hour.

I started back up with 8 tables to ease myself into it and am currently playing about 12-14 tables, which I hope to increase to 18; if I can play the same game at that level, my hourly should get up to $40 - a figure that I would be very much satisfied with. I'm feeling very good about poker; have been reviewing training videos and thinking about the game more mathematically and logically than ever, and the results are showing. I plan to stick to these games almost exclusively to grind a regular, relatively low-stress and low-variance income - mixing in Sunday major tournaments at Bodog and Carbon simply for the massive overlay juice and spending my FPPs on Sunday Million/Kickoff/Warmup/Storm tickets.

The plan is to move to an apartment downtown by the end of the summer (which will run me $899 in rent per month). However, being close to school and shows will save me a ton of gas money, and more importantly - time. Since I can't help but nerd out and analyze everything, I'm projecting, at a conservative estimate, $100 on gas per month and 10 hours of commute time, which when put towards the poker tables, should be $300-$400. So it looks like how much I really pay to live there is the same as living in some random suburbia, and I get to reap the benefits of living somewhere where it is convenient to, y'know, actually live life beyond counting my bankroll - for free!

And also; might be megainlove:

$25000 score at bodog's sunday major! Wicked sick, brah!

Six grueling hours. Relentless aggression, patience, educated bluffs, lucky coinflips, big moves and big laydowns. A field of 515 players and a bloody mess of a battlefield. Now finally, our hero stares across the table at his archnemesis, the two of them the only ones still standing.

His significant chip lead earlier at the final table, which allowed him to be an indiscriminate hyper-aggressive bully, had been worn down; for our villian was no pushover. With 2.5M chips in play and 20k/40k blinds +4k antes, every hand was a battle of wills that swung the pendulum of fate.

Grimacing with a fat cuban in his mouth, our hero looks down at his hand. Pocket kings! This was the motherload. The final battle for the difference between a $25k first finish and a $15k second finish had gone on too long, and he knew that this had to be it. Finishing off his fourth ale, he barks, "Hey, drink wench, fetch me another," and considers his options...

Getting all the chips in the middle and ending the tournament was the goal. Make a huge raise and build up the pot? No, no... our villain was not a coward but he certainly wasn't stupid either, we mustn't scare him off a mediocre holding. Shall just call and try to trap him? That would be suspicious too. Our hero never makes the timid and passive move of simply completing the small blind and this would certainly give away the strength of his hand.

He elects to make a small raise to 86000, slightly over the min raise and less than his average raises, giving our villain an irresistible 2:1 pot odds to call. Call he does, and hero closes his eyes and prays he doesn't see an ace on the flop, which would throw a wrench in his otherwise perfect plan. He slowly opens his eyes and looks at the board - J64 rainbow.

He smiles to himself, knowing he is now a huge favorite. He pushes forward a standard continuation bet for 100000 chips, around 60% of the pot and hopes villain caught a part of that flop or has some kind of draw or overcards for him to want to stay in the hand. Much to hero's delight, villain re-raises 300000! Hero immediately click-raises back at villain, hoping to entice him further into his trap.

Villain announces, "Enough of this tomfoolery! All in!" and pushes the rest of his chips into the middle. Hero smiles coyly, his plan having come to fruition. He calls and turns over his KK and villain dejectedly shows J7s for top pair. Two cards to come - barring another jack, a seven, or two running spades, hero was likely to win as a solid 75% favorite.

The turn and river both brought blanks, and it was finally all over. The day is saved, the maws of hell closed forevermore and the choir of angels overhead ringing throughout the land.

Epic poker hand inc.

hnnnnggg dat bass

Master of Puppets - Extending Les Claypool's slap version


Orion - Solo without distortion

So. Absolute poker likes to comp me free tournaments. I just placed first (well, final 3, chip lead, cut a deal for the majority of the prize pool). Final settlement was over 15k. Not bad for a tournament I got in for free!!! I was dealt so many ace-kings that I considered changing my name to Mr. AK. Anyway, some highlights of the tournament below:

Best. Story. Ever. Part 2.

Once upon a time there was a princess. She lived in a...
castle. In the castle there was a dragon, but no one knew because...
he flew away one day and captured the princess. The dragon wanted...
some pussy. But the princess was like "NUUUUU." So the dragon...
went and got a donkey. And he said "Donkey or me..."
The princess summoned a giant praying mantis and it...
obliterated the donkey. The dragon realized he couldn't beat a giant praying mantis so he...
flew off into the sunset. The princess sprouted wings and followed him. But she flew too high and...
her wings snapped. She fell into...
Mr Brad's lap. But Mr. Brad was still asleep. So she jacked Mr. Brad's nuts and...
went to spain, where she met Jaeyoung the nutless panda. She was like, "Yo nigga. Wanna buy some nuts?"
He said "I'm a panda, I don't have money."
So the princess decided to steal more nuts until she had enough to...
summon the Nut Demon. Jaeyoung went up to the Nut Demon and said "HAI KAN I BORRO SOME NUTS?"
The Nut Demon does not give out nuts.
The End.