My 2011 Poker Goal: Supernova Elite...

[thrash1294]

CONGRATS KEEP IT UP

[Spidey44]

Gogogogogo! Looking forward to following this!

[Talking Poker]

A little bit. Using the game controller instead of a mouse helps a lot, but I've still had a sore right wrist from time to time. It's been pretty good these last couple of days, so maybe I'm getting used to it (and also consciously trying to be very gentle pressing the buttons with my right thumb - that is the majority of the clicking).

I actually had to ice it one day earlier this week and was worried, but like I said, it's been better since. I also try to do some basic finger exercises that are supposed to help now and then.

[Talking Poker]

So, Week 1 is done, and I reached my minimum goal of 21k weekly VPPs. I'm actually at 22k now after a late night session that technically starts Week 2. I'm hoping to get my average to closer to 25k VPPs per week when I either move up in stakes or move to 6 max games, but playing full ring $200 NL tables, 24 at a time, I'm getting just over .4 VPP per hand and around 1250ish hands per hour. I played over 52k hands this week and am working on increasing my hands per hour...

Getting the Steller Rewards was fun this week, even though they were low amounts, as I was just flying through them. I got 9 of them, I think, plus used 300k FPPs to buy a $4k bonus and my 2010 SN $1k bonus.

Regarding the $ actually won/lost at the tables (before all the bonuses), my goal for the year is to be profitable. Obv I'd like to be very profitable, but honestly, if I profit $1 at the tables, I will consider that a success. If what I have read is true, many (most?) SNE cash grinders lose maybe $25k at the tables over the year. That may sound like a lot, but over millions of hands, it's really not that much, and remember, they are also raking in over 6 figures of bonus money along the way, so it's still a decent year in the end.

I'm only 1 week into the year, but I'm happy with my results at the tables so far. I'm up a little bit and am running nearly $1000 below EV as well. Those numbers can change quickly in these swingy games, but that is over my 52k+ hand sample, and I'm constantly studying and trying to improve my game, so hopefully I'll only be getting better as the year continues.

Anyway, there is your Week 1 update. I haven't quit yet!

[Spidey44]

How goes the grind???

[Talking Poker]

I was just on my way here to post my end of January update:

93,700 VPPs
Running $5500 below EV
228k hands played
184 hours at the tables (not counting study time, etc)
145 movies (some of these were watched during my December SN push)

I am 8800 VPP ahead of SNE pace, but 3700 VPP behind my Pi-thousand VPP per day (22k VPP/week) goal pace. At that pace, I can have 31 3200-VPP days of vacation this year and still finish on 12/16, which should pretty good to me.

I will reach Supernova status on Wednesday.

Regarding the $$, I am down about $3300 at the tables, but my EV (the much more important number in cash games, especially short stacking) is +$2200. That is a pretty massive amount of runbad over a 228k sample, and I hope my win rate climbs back up to where it should be. SNE bonuses are very back heavy (explained above somewhere), but using a rough .10 per VPP calculation (1 million = over $100k), I earned about $9400 in bonuses this month.

I've found that having movies on while I am playing REALLY helps me pass the time and keep my sanity, and knowing I am going to be watching so many this year, I thought it would be cool to keep a list, hence the IMDB ratings - no reviews, just a simple 1-10 rating. I also have a bunch of tv series to watch (already went through Spartacus and Firefly), but am pounding out the movies first.

Of the 228k hands played, 4100 were $100 NL 6 max (today), 8 (exactly one HUDless, TNless orbit) were $200 CAP NL (yesterday), and ALL the rest were $200 NL FR. My plan was to move to 6 max, as I like the game better and there are more fish (tons more CAP tables running) and it's more VPP/hand, but I definitely can't keep up trying to 24 table it yet, so I will have to ease into it if I do try to make the transition. I was playing 18 fine today, but 20 felt like a bit much. When I went back to 24 FR tables, I felt like I had TONS of time and it was way less mentally taxing.

In case you hadn't heard, the 20-50 bb tables I have been playing will be replaced by 20 bb CAP tables on 2/10. There is a lot of uncertainty about how popular they will be, and if enough aren't running for me to 24 table, I will have to move back to the 40-100 bb tables and play 100 bb poker. While that's not the end of the world, I've gotten quite comfortable with my short stacking game and am reluctant to move back to fullstacking, but I will if I need to.

All in all, I'm happy with my first month in the books.

[2Tone]

Impressive. Once EV catches up to what it should be, you should be looking a very nice profit.

Not to derail the thread, but can I get a few recommendations of some more obscure four or five star movies I might have missed?

[Talking Poker]

Check this link occasionally (I update it daily):


You can sort by genre if you are in the mood for a certain type of movie.

10s and 9s are must sees.
8s are very good and I definitely recommend them.
7s are good and worth watching.
6s are ok, but certainly skippable.
5s and lower you can live without, unless you want to watch one of the worst of the worst for comedic value.

You can click the titles to see the average IMDB ratings, reviews, trailers, etc.

[Wes]

Do you use netflix instant for most of these movies?

Also, does Spartacus get better after the first two episodes? Watched the first two and thought it was a cheap 300 ripoff.

[lightfungus]

Mid feb update please!

[Wes]

go to parttimepoker.com for updates.

[Geica]

Thanks for sharing this information with us !!!

[Talking Poker]

I dunno - I liked it from the beginning. It definitely felt like a cross between 300 and Gladiator to me, but I liked both of those movies. But yeah, I would say it gets better as the story goes on.

And I download most stuff.

I post in a SNE Pursuit there there every few days, but it's usually just a VPP count with a brief thought or two.

I'm at 134k VPPs now, which is good, but I've been getting hammered at the tables recently. Stars got rid of the 20-50 bb tables, so I moved to CAP, and honestly, I'm just not sure how profitable these tables are going to be in the long run, as they are pretty reg filled. In theory, I like the idea of the tables, but not if everyone is just flipping with each other all day and feeding the rake.

I'm going to give it another week probably (to lest the dust settle and see what happens, as there are still some 20-50 bb tables lingering), but may end up going back to good old 100 bb poker, which will probably be another learning curve for me. The games are just so much harder now than they used to be, full of online pros and very few recreational players.

[Talking Poker]

Early March update...

I took some scheduled days off recently, but I'm happy with my pace. Currently sitting at 185k VPPs. I actually ran about neutral EV (quite the rollercoaster), but lost a good chunk of change overall, mostly due to attempting to switch to 6 max games and failing hard. Things have pretty much leveled off, I think, and I'm running around breakeven for my last 50 or 100k hands or something. Still down over $5k in EV for the year, which sucks, but hopefully that comes back to me soon.

I've taken 4 out of 31 days vacation (which allow me to fall below my 22k VPP weekly goal), and am right on the pace I want, factoring that in. I'm over 12k VPPs ahead of true SNE pace, even with my vacation days.

I continue to watch a ton of movies and Watched all three seasons of Breaking Bad (very good) and the new Spartacus - Gods of the Arena. The latter was a whopping 6 episodes, so it only took one day. I'm going to pound out a bunch more movies for the next week or two, and then watch the entire Dexter series (5 seasons, I think) later this month.

I also subscribed to MLB.tv and think I may watch every single Phillies game (or close to it) this year while grinding. That should be cool.

[Talking Poker]

I hit 200k VPPs today... ahead of SNE pace and pretty much right on the pace I want to be on.

[Talking Poker]

I hit 250k VPPs over the weekend, about a week ahead of pace.

[Kurn]

[Wes]

So you are going for SNE, and I have not played a whole lot this year. Any interest in some sort of prop bet in regards to who can play more hands this month? I play on cereus and merge so you will not get a lot of more hands per hour than I will. Although I am planning on grinding to every Twins + Phillies game so that is an auto 6 hours every day.

[Windbreaker]

I've been playing some HT's again recently...and it seems like this might be the best way to go about it. I see quite a few SNEs there.

I know the variance is high in them, but if you can 24 table cash games well....I think it could take a considerably less amount of time in HT's.

From my numbers, it looks like you can one table 8.8 HT's in one hour.

1 million VPPs/365 = 2739.73 VPPs/day .... *7/5 (so you only 'work' 5 days a week) = 3835.62 VPPs/day required.

At the $74 dollar level, you rake $1.45. $1.45 rake * 5.5 VPPs/$1 rake = 7.975 VPPs earned.

3835.62/7.975 = 481 tourneys/day at $74 level.

If you play 8 at a time: 481 tourneys / (8 tables*8.8 tourneys/table-hour) = 6.84 hours a day.

If you play higher stakes, this will cut that time dramatically.

Is my math correct on this? Wished I considered trying this in December. I'm flirting with the idea of still going for it this year.

I'm wondering...don't you get tired/fatigued playing 24 tables? How do you deal with that? How many days a week do you play? What is a typical day like - (eg. in regards to hours played/breaks/study/etc?).

All in all....pretty sick what you're doing...good luck at the tables

[JDMcNugent7]

plz do this so i can bet on TP

[Windbreaker]

Looks like DOJ has indicted Stars, Tilt, and the AP/UB network. Stars has already blocked US players. This is going to get interesting. TP might have gotten screwed in the SNE pursuit. Wonder what/if Stars will do anything for the guys that were on pace.

[GTDawg]

[Talking Poker]

I guess my answers to this don't really matter any more.

Sick beat: I was one day away from about $7k in bonuses (300k VPPs + a $4k 250k FPP bonus). Ouch.

Regarding your math, it looks right at a glance. I had played a decent amount of HTs last year, and I could pretty easily do 8 at a time, so I think you could definitely do more. My HT coach was doing 16-20, no problem. They are pretty crazy variance though and the swings can be huge... but if you have the roll and like them, I think they are a great way to go. Just ask jorj95.

As for me, I had kind of gotten out of my schedule this past week, especially as I was transitioning from CAP to 100 bb poker (FML on my timing - see $7k comment above), but I was playing 6-8 hours 5 days per week and then 2-4 per day on weekends, mixing in complete off days or 1 hour days here and there to keep my sanity. My that is what my schedule usually looked like as far as actual table time. Study and coaching time was on top of that, along with everything else.

I miss my job already.

[ChipFish]

This sucks for you a lot man.
I was rooting for you to make elite.

[Talking Poker]

Yeah... thanks.

I would have made it too - I was ahead of pace, feeling good, and even switching from CAP to 100 bb poker and feeling pretty decent about my game.

Hopefully online poker gets legalized in the US (soon) and I'll be able to attempt something similar on one of the new licensed sites.