Today is another nice day for me. Earned about 4K VPPs in 5 hours of play and made another decent profit similar to yesterday. According to PTR, today is my career peak. Btw, PTR is not 100% accurate and can only be treated as a reference. If you have no idea what PTR is, click here  then you will know.

         As it's Friday today, the games are pretty wild just like any other Friday. I have alerted myself before starting my session. I have to spend extra energies on the new players or the casual players who only play during the weekends. Things worked out pretty well especially on the $5/$10 tables. I was taking every bit of advantages over the non-regs base on their stats. I was expecting the game would last at least until somewhere around 11PM, however, many people took a hit and decided to make the day short... Oh, well, that made my day shorter, too, I guess. lol. 

         I will be on a short trip tomorrow and will be back on Stars Sunday afternoon. I will see you guys soon and good luck~!

         

         I took a day off yesterday as I expected; too many personal stuff I had to take care of and I was busy all day from the time I woke up until 3 in the morning the next day. 

         Anyways, I put in 8 hours today and I was planning to play until midnight; however there weren't too many regs hanging around after 10:30PM so I ended my session around 11:30PM. A pretty decent session overall. I played a total of 9200+ hands and earned 6200+ VPPs, a nice profit of $1500+. For the last 3 days, my VPP hourly rate has been getting close to 800 as I am now covering all $5/$10 tables. I am kinda used to it now just like how I play on the $3/$6, not worrying too much about the winning/losing; all it matters are the right strategy and good mentality over the long run. 

         I have more confidence about my games; for the last 16 days which I played, only 2 of them ended up on the negative side. I wish that I could continue with this momentum and play my best game possible at all time :)

         One last thing, my ear problem worries me again. Now both of my ears have problems... :(  I started to use the new drug (only cost me $10) yesterday I've been wondering if 10 bucks drug could do a better job than the $80 one...Anyways, I wish I can get well soon so that I don't have to hear my ear's noice while playing all the time.

         

         Today I put in only half day because I had to help mom on the stuff she's been working on. Also, I got called by friend saying his computer is not working right, probably got some sort of viruses. Anyways, the 4 hour session went alright; starting out getting myself stuck for $500+ in like 30 minutes, then slowly made my way back. Making a comeback always makes people feeling great, it's the opposite feeling when you are up a lot then end up losing. However, as the ultimate SNE grinder, we shall care less; our objective really is 1. Always play our best game at all time. 2. Play as much as we can. 

         It's kinda of interesting that people were trying to make a lot of moves on me today. Not sure what exactly their intentions were, however, when you see your opponents 3/4 betting preflop and betting into everyone on the flop and turn, it's unlikely he would lay anything down on a fairly dry board. Hence, the semi-bluffing/pure-bluffing loses its value and turns into donations. Always try to be SELECTIVELY aggressive, this is the key to win espeically when each big bet starts to mean something to you.

         I also called the doctor today and he's asking me to take a different drug, which hopefully would be more efficient to fix my ear problem. I will goto the drug store to pick it up and hopefully this time it will work, lol. The drug I got last time cost me ~$80.00 and this time it's supposed to be more...

         See you all tomorrow and good luck at the tables~!

         

         Alright, first session of the month: I played a little over 9 hours STRAIGHT(no nap in between) for about 11K hands, earned over 7K VPPs and some profits on the table. This is the first day I didn't take my nap break in between. I think I can be more efficient if I don't take the break; it's easier for me to accumulate VPPs however, the winrate will be lowered for sure. 

         Today's session is also pretty interesting: I lost 120BBs on 5/10 and won 250 BBs on 3/6; normally, it's very hard to happen to have such big swings in different limits. 

         I will call my doctor again tomrrow; my ear problem hasn't got fixed; it's not getting any worse, though. I wonder what the doctor would say to me this time...It's so expensive to see a doctor in U.S.; 3 minutes of my doctor's time costs $185 if I don't have insurance; wondering what his hourly rate would be...

         Anyways, play harder to me and good luck to everyone at the tables~!

         

         Here is the summary for the 2nd month of the year:

         Fisrt of all, my performance was good on the poker tables; I didn't start out great however, after spenting some time studying my games, I showed a good set of up-swings(won 11/12 sessions) which proved that my adjustments were correct. This is what I always keep in mind: there is always something I can learn/improve from my current strategies even one day I am the best player in the world. Obviously, I am far far away from being the best, and hence, I am certain that I have sooooo many leaks in my game. 

         Secondly, I didn't put in enough volume as I expected. I've been having some issues: relatives visiting, sleeping problem and my ear problem. Also, the last 2 days of the month I decided to do something besides poker. 

         Plan for the next month: 1. Adjust daily schedule so that it will fit better for playing poker espeically during the peak hours. 2. Putting in more hands; I might sacrifice my winrate in exchange of volume. Therefore, I am expecting that the result for March will not be as nice as the first 2 months. Of course I am not looking for excuses for a possible losing month; every session I put in I will make sure that I play my best game. 

         That's it for now, I am looking forward for a 150K+ VPP month for March.

         

         I pretty much broke even for the last 3 days. I had to spent half day with family and relatives; also, I am having a little problem sleeping at night. Somehow I just couldn't fall into sleep as before, especially after a long day of playing. I guess I need to workout a little bit so that my body will get tired and I will be able to sleep normally. 

         My sessions went well except tonight which I took 130BB downswing. Got rivered pretty badly on $5/$10, at one moment, 3 of my $5/$10 tables got rivered at the same time and each pot was pretty big. My strategies for table selection and money management kicked in once I realized the games were out of control. However, nothing worked out right no matter what I did (this is the time where you want to take the rest of the day off). 

         My ear problem still remains as a week ago. I guess I am gonna have to see the doctor again next Monday. I will play half day tomorrow to catch up the pace a little bit. Hopefully this is not the end of my good run, lol.

         

         Spent a little time studying my game a bit and I've decided to cover all $5/$10 tables from now on. For the last 5 days, I have won over 300 Big Bets from $5/$10 which gives me enough confidence to cover all of them. I can see people's weaknesses more clearer and I fixed a few holes in my games as well. The result is obvious which you can see from the chart below. 

         Today I tried to cover all $5/$10 and that puts my VPP/hour to ~800. If I just put in 10 hours a day, I should get close to 8K VPPs and I will not be worried about the pace at all. I will continue to cover all $5/$10 games possible for at least 1 month; if everything works out right, I will defintely start to kick in some $10/$20 which will potentially make my VPP/hour close to 1000. 

         So far this year, the more I play, the more I feel that there is absolutely no luck involved in this game. I have been beating all limts I played this year, from $2/$4 to $5/10 for a total of ~1000 Big Bets after 300K hands played. My winrate at each limit is: 0.35bb/100 at $5/$10, 0.73bb/100 at $3/$6 and 1.18bb/100 at $2/$4. For a sample size like 300K hands and winning at every limit 20 tabling has once again proven that the luck factor will NOT affect the outcome in the long run, which is why playing poker is clearly a game of skill.

         Anyways, my time was well-spent and you can see that, too... Good luck at the tables. 

         

         Another 7K VPPs today and I start feeling good about $5/$10 games. I have been beatin the $5/$10 game 4 days in a row and I wish this will continue. However, it seems like that I start losing a bit on $3/$6 which I don't know why. I guess that I will ajdust a little bit later. I hope that I don't have to play in a different style between these two levels; otherwise, it's gonna be hard to handle. 

         My ear problem still remains after using the drugs my doctor suggested. I really hope that it will disappear as soon as possible so that it will not distract me much while I am playing. 

         It's almost 2 months into the year and I wish all you SNE chasers out there are doing fine and hopefully on pace as well. If you are having any kind of trouble, feel free to let me know and I will try my very best to help you out. 

         

         For the last 3 days I couldn't concentrate on poker because of my ear problem; I had to adjust the volume on my computer so that I could hear my music comfortably. During my sessions, every 10 minutes I would start thinking about my ear problem and it made me want to just end the session...

         Finally I went to doctor this afternoon. It only took him 2 minutes to figure out what went wrong. The cause of my ear problem is from my nose; I don't want to go into details but overall, it's a small problem and should take about 1 week to have the problem fixed. Thank god my worry is gone now. :)

         I will put my concentration back to poker now. Needless to say, I will catch up whatever was left behind and make sure Tzen will not worry about my pace too much(lol...). Thanks to HZ, a good friend of mine who used to play cards with me at Garden City; he stopped by my place this Wednesday and gave me some of his opinions on a few situations. Everything he said was reasonable and worth a try. 

         I am happy about the results I got for the last 3 days and I hope everyone will have enough patient to bare with me, I will be completed dedicated on catching up the pace. 

          

         It was nice to celebrate with family and relatives for the Chinese new year; however, I guess that everyone can see I wasn't able to put in enough time on the poker tables. I am not worried about it, though. There are some small adjustments I will be making later in order to meet my daily goal. For example, I will be cutting down some sleep hours and also, will be going to bed earlier than before. Anyways, I hope that you guys will not be worrying too much about my pace...

         Today I put in 11K+ hands for 7K+ VPPs. Although I took a loss today, PTR has been kinda off for the last week as you will see from my results for the last 3 days. My sessions went alright, except that I was kinda jealous about my brother... His table was hit for the milestone hand and he got $1800+ for being there...well, I am happy for him and I am sure that it will be a nice bankroll boost. 

         Recently my left ear is having some hearing problem. I don't know what it is yet as I will see a doctor tomorrow. Basically, it has the same behavior as water stucks in your ear, which makes you feel that you cannot hear things perfectly. Hopefully nothing goes wrong and this problem will be solved quickly...

         As usual, my last 3 days results are shown below:

         

         It's been great with family and my relatives who came oversea visiting us. I wish I could've spent more time with them; however, I had to keep my head down grinding on Stars. Anyways, I put in over 8K hands and earned ~6K VPPs, wow, nice VPP/hour rate~! I was pretty much covering all $5/$10 today I think I did okay even though I lost 40BBs there. I am also glad that I ended up on the positive side as I took a pretty big downswing during my first session. 

         The 40Billion promotion will last longer than I thought(probably will be hit around next Thursday or so). I can see more and more new faces on the tables and some old faces which I haven't played with for a long time. Once again, thank to Stars for the effect to maintain itself as #1 online room.

         Tomorrow I will play all the way until 7PM or so, then go to my parents' place for the Chinese New Year hotpot dinner. Hopefully I can put in 8K hands as what I did today. I will most likely not take my regular nap tomorrow. 

         Today I was thinking about whether I should move up to $10/$20 while I was playing. There's been some discussions from SNE pursuit thread on 2p2 recently talking about how $5/$10 is unbeatable for mega-tablers. I agree with what they said; however, I think the major problem is the blind structure for $5/$10. Currently the structure is $2 as small blind and $5 as big blind. I think that if they make it $2.50 for small blind, then we should not have any problem beating it (never underestimate the power of that extra 50 cents over the long run).

         Anyways, nice comeback for me for today's sessions. I will see you guys at the tables tomorrow~!!! Hopefully some of you will hit the millionth hand~! 

            

         Today I put in ~8K hands and earned close to 5K VPPs. Both sessions went well as not many beats given by my opponents. 

         It seems that the VPP/hand rate increased a little bit; this is beacuse the new Feburary promotions from Stars...that's right, the 40 Billion hand Promo~! The count-down will probably start around dinner time tomorrow, which is 7PM, Pacific Time. As I will be having a dinner with my aunt and family tomorrow night, I will have to start it on Friday I guess. 

         So I am short 2K VPPs today and will be short another 3K tomorrow, I will put in 8K or so hands on Saturday before I go to my parents' place for the Chinese new year dinner thing. 

         Anyways, Stars' been doing some real good jobs on motivating and awarding their players; I am really glad to see that coming again and again. Good job, Stars~!

         

         FINALLY, I put in over 7K VPPs today as I promised. I played a total of 11K+ hands and for 10 hours, although took a loss of $600 something. The first session I started at 11AM; by 3PM, I was even. Then guess what? In 1 hour I lost over $1400. That could set my new record for a single hour loss in my poker history. I took a break with my friend for a milk tea, then came back for a nap. around 7PM, I started my 2nd session of the day; before I knew it, I was down around $500 in no time...I didn't give up, keep grinding; finally, things turned around and I ended up winning $700 something by midnight. 

         I was happy at the end. In the past, I would usually take the rest of the day off then play again tomorrow; nowadays, I play 2 sessions so that I would hopefully forget about whatever happens in the 1st session and start out on a fresh page. 

         Oh, one interesting thing happended today; one of my coworker from my last company was playing with me on the same table~! It's pretty amazing that we used to work for the same boss, lol. I guess that it's a small world after all...(Although, I don't recommend that chatting with multiple people while 20+ tabling and wondering around what happened in the past a few years at work at the same time...lol)
         
         Anyways, here is the graph of the today. I will have a good sleep and come back grinding tomorrow~!!! Good luck on the tables, fellas~!

             

         I planned to take half day off for my personal reason. I started to play at 6PM today and my tables collapsed right at 11PM. So, I total played 5K+ hands for 3K+ VPPs. my session was pretty swingy especially at the beginning and the good part was that I managed to come all the way back and end up positive. 

         I have made some rules for myself: 10+ hours a day with no exceptions. Start my first daily session at 11AM and second daily sesion at 6:00PM, no exceptions. If I cannot put up 10 hours a day, I will need to make it up regardless what kind of tables left until 2AM. These rules will not be applied to the planned day-offs. In the past, I have played from 8:00AM until noon a few times and I was 20+ tabling from $5/$10 all the way down to $1/$2 and I felt fine. 

         My brother has also made some rules for himself as well as he's going for SNE this year, too. We will do our best to make sure we follow the rules. Anyways, below is the result of today's session:

         

         Today I played ~9K hands and earned 5.5K VPPs. I have to blame on the Superbowl game; people were talking about it even on my tables and I am sure that a lot of players had to take today off in order to watch the game. My sessions went pretty well and I think the adjustment I recently made to my game starts paying off. 

         I was kinda forced to quit around 4PM and 11PM today and ended up short on getting the VPPs. I didn't like it at all. I know that this kind of events will happen many times during a year; I need to keep telling myself work harder, harder and harder~!

         As usual, I am happy to post today's session result:

         

         So, I kinda played both Friday and Saturday. Due to the $1M FreeRoll for Supernova+ tournament on Saturday, I let myself playing my regular cash game along with the tournament. The result was not bad, I ended up 696th place for a field of 4800+ players. $300 from Stars, Sweeet~!!!

         Although, my regulars sessions sufferred a bit espeically on Friday. Games were pretty wild these two days; I guess it's because people are pretty excited about the Superbowl weekends and jumped into a poker table looking for some fun~

         Sorry for the delay on posting the blog, my apology...

         

         As requested by kingskeleton, I will do a monthly summary as well for the entire year of 2010. Hopefully you guys will enjoy it. 

         For the first month of the year, I started out good and then sufferred some pretty big downswings. I didn't put in as much time as I expected due to some personal reasons. 

         I will try to catch up the pace for the next 3 months. As you know, 2M vpps are not easy to get in one year. This is a pretty tough challenge and I will get it done. More dedications, consistency starting Feburary.

         Again, I'd like to thank everyone here watching my challenge progress, and hopefully, you guys will enjoy this site as much as I do~!

         

         Arrrh,the last 3 days have been kinda messy. I total put in 10K hands today and yesterday ended up pretty much breaking even. All personal issues, nothing I can complain about. 

         Anyways, time to put in the hard work until the end of April! As I was reading the 2010 SNE Pursuit thread today, I found the post by Assani Fisher and jimmyvjv13 were pretty good when they were arguing about some people worrying too much about All-In EV in NL cash game. Let me just quote their entire post at the end of this blog so that you guys can see them; very inspirational, imo.

         That been said, it's time to execute the plan; I will put in ~7K VPP everyday (10.5 hours of play) except Saturday. I will try to play a little bit on Saturdays as well maybe starting in March. 

         I hope that you guys will keep following this website/blog, I will make sure that everything is up to date :) Good luck at the tables. Oh, my results for the last 2 days.

         

Quoted from 2010 SNE pursuit thread:


Originally Posted by jimmyvjv13  

This is the most toxic type of thinking in poker. Thinking about what you "should" have is both disastrous for your game and downright stupid. I lost AK to A7 AIPF at the final table of the nightly 100k this weekend for the chiplead. SHOULD I have won $23,000 that night? No, that's what first place got paid and I didn't get first.

Poker doesn't owe you anything. You play the game and you get the cards you're dealt. It's as simple as that. Every hand is a statistically independent event. Yes in the long run luck should even out but the cards have no memory and the fact that you have lost 100 straight all ins doesn't mean you're any more or less of a favorite in your next all in. 

For those of you b*tching and moaning about EV just stop looknig at it. It is a number that will simply piss you off. You don't need all in EV to have an accurate representation of whether or not you're playing well. Any person that plays enough to get SNE knows whether they're playing well regardless. And as far as looking at it to "see how much i should be up" is just going to piss you off. Who cares about how much you SHOULD be up? Just because you are $X under EV over 100k hands that you will be up $X over the next 100k, or even a million hands. You may never get it back. The fact of the matter is EV is completely unnecessary and looking at it not only pointless but also detremental to your game. 

Live in the moment
Focus on the hand you're playing
Don't Tilt
Make Supernova Elite
Profit

EZ game? No. Profitable if you can fake it most of the way? Yes

103k 


Originally Posted by Assani Fisher 


I haven't written a blog on here in quite a while. Over the past year, I've been going through one of the worst downswings of my poker career, and truthfully its just not as fun to blog when you don't have pleasant things to write about. Its been a combination of many things that contributed to my downswing: I lost a ton of money in backing, I took some shots at higher stakes($25/50, $50/100) games that weren't successful, I displayed poor bankroll management in sports betting(betting up to $5000 per game when I clearly shouldn't be), and quite frankly I've run like complete **** this entire past year.

But I'm not writing this blog to complain, and I'm sure as hell not writing it to gather sympathy. Rather, I want to share with everyone how I deal with running badly because I think it may be my biggest strength as a poker player, and its something I routinely see people do horribly wrong. In addition writing this out will only serve as more motivation for me as I try to right the ship.

I've played professionally for six years now, and over that time I've had quite a few close poker friends. And at one time or another, each of them has run worse than they ever thought imaginable and come to me for advice. I always try to give my best advice, but I feel as if it constantly rings hollow when someone who is not running poorly tries to counsel someone who is. The person who is running poorly begins to buy into the absurd notion that the one giving the advice has never experienced such a downswing and, therefore, probably can't truly relate. Therefore, I'd like to take this opportunity to demonstrate that to be false. I am indeed going through one of those times right now, yet I'm going to practice what I preach. 

Let me start off with a quick confession: If you've ever come to me whining or complaining about running bad, I probably tried to cheer you up or make you feel better. However, what I was really thinking the entire time you complained to me was how big of a ****ing idiot you are. I probably knew you were in a bad mood and wouldn't take kindly to hearing my true thoughts, so I kept them to myself. But now that I'm the one going through it, I really don't care about holding back. Variance is the lifeblood of poker. Its what keeps the fish coming back. Its what enables us to do what we do for a living. To curse variance the second it turns against you is shortsighted and ignorant. To allow it to affect your game or your work ethic is just beyond stupid. If you're running badly right now, you probably don't want to hear this; You'd probably rather continue to buy into the myth that you're simply unluckier than everyone else because that provides a bit of temporary satisfaction to the masses of idiots who misunderstand the fundamental concepts of variance in poker. However, I think that if you honestly read and consider what I have to say then you'll admit I speak the truth.

I just got back from a vacation home to Maryland to see family and then to New York for a wedding. Plane tickets, rental car, a new suit for the wedding, wedding gifts, hotel stay, nights out with friends, and a bunch of other stuff ended up costing me over $4000. And when I got back and examined my finances, I realized that I was now getting dangerously close to no longer being able to live the lifestyle I've grown accustomed to(some lower stakes players may find it silly that I "need" to spend as much as I do, but imo if you're willing to work for it then you deserve to enjoy the benefits). So I started back grinding by 18-tabling plo8/nlo8 and trying to put in close a minimum of 5000 hands per day. The results sucked. I ran worse and worse despite my increased efforts. And now I find myself right on the brink of having to either make money immediately or cut back on some of my spending habits. I'm choosing to do the former. I'm confident that I can make that choice because I've done it before- My first blogs on this site detailed how I turned $3000 into $80,000 in just over 4 months, and I did it without ever playing over my bankroll(the lone exception being the very beginning when I played live $1/2 NL with only $3000. However, live $1/2 is so ridiculously soft and I played such a safe style that even with only 15 buy-ins I still felt completely comfortable). The method is actually ridiculous simple, but sticking to it seems to be difficult for most. Here it is:



1. Find a poker game that you can beat consistently(this is obviously the tough part, and this blog is aimed mainly at those who have already accomplished this)

2. Make sure you're bankrolled properly for the game

3. Shut up about running badly because honestly nobody cares. Man the **** up, and just get over it. If you're following step #2 then no downswing should ever truly matter.

4. Work your ass off

5. Profit



Thats it! Thats really all there is to it. I will note that many people seem to let negative variance affect their play, and if this is the case then you have to take a step back and double-check that you're still doing step #1. Otherwise, theres nothing else standing between you and your desired financial goals.

The truth of the matter is that people seem to want to find a way to avoid step #4. They see the stories about tournament winners and wonder why that can't be them. Or they focus on the superstars of the poker world who seem to be able to make ridiculous sums of money just by playing a few hands of ultra high stakes games, and they bemoan the fact that they weren't lucky enough to have been born with such natural ability. Or they do anything else to avoid the simple fact that if you are willing to work hard enough for it, then you will be successful enough to laugh if the face of variance. Yes, it is true that, just like in every other field, certain poker players seem to be very successful without putting in a ton of work. But those people make up less than 1% of the player pool. They're no different than the people born into money, the great athletes who seemed to have won the genetic lottery, or the worker who networked his way into a job he never deserved. And focusing on them is just a waste of our time. Not only that, but it causes us to lose sight of all of the blessings we do have as pro poker players. I can decide today that I "feel" like having a lot of money again, and if I put in the proper work then a few months down the road I'll have that money. 99.99% of the general population simply cannot do that. They work predetermined hours for a predetermined salary, and they don't have the option to simply work harder and make more money. Thats not something we should take for granted.

I own all of the DVDs of the TV show Entourage, and over the past few weeks my roommates and I have been watching it the entire way through. My favorite character on the show is by far Ari Gold. At first, it was simply his humor that drew me to him. However, I've also begun to greatly respect the way he goes about his job. He encounters negative variance that is not his fault all the time(for those who haven't watched the show, Ari is an agent and his main client often completely ignores his advice which has caused tremendous problems, as Ari is almost always correct). Yet each and every time, Ari finds himself in a tough spot due to something entirely not his fault he responds by simply working harder. No complaining, no excuses. Just a determination to be the very best. And as a result, hes the absolute best agent in Hollywood. Call me silly for getting inspiration from a fictional character, but I think its a pretty good example.

People are full of excuses for why they can't work hard. Some people will claim that money isn't the only thing so they don't see the reason to work so hard if it doesn't make them happy. Fair enough, I really can't argue with that. However, if thats your excuse, then don't let me ever hear you complain about variance again. If you want to enjoy your easy little life and not work that hard, then you forfeit your right to blame variance for any of your financial shortcomings. Stop blaming variance and realize that the reason you aren't as successful as you wish is due to your own personal decisions. Other people will point out that I'm single and don't know what its like to have to take care of a family while also playing poker for a living. Thats true, as I don't know what its like. However, I do know that you can communicate your financial goals with your family and that it doesn't take a ton of time to let them know that you care and love them each day. I mean, are you really trying to tell me that you just absolutely have to spend all the time you watching TV with your family? Is that really the quality bonding time that you just can't give up? I think that the truth is that people use that as yet another crutch to fall back on in order to explain their poor work ethic. Or yet another excuse I'll hear is that people can't play too many hands before falling off of their "A" game. To me, thats basically like saying "I'm not very mentally tough, and I'm just going to make excuses instead of working to improve on that." There are people in this world who would kill to have a job as easy as playing online poker. Or I've also seen people say that because they are in the middle of a downswing they need to take some time off. Yeah, I'm sure that not working is the solution to your problems.What you really need to do is toughen up and continue to put in the hours.

So there you have it. I'm going to work my ass off these next few months. I'm going to sacrifice doing many of the things I'd enjoy doing in favor of playing more and more poker. And I'm most definitely not going to complain about variance. When I get to where I financially want to be, maybe I'll take things easy again or maybe I'll create new and bigger goals to strive for. I'm not really sure yet. But I do know that I'm not happy where I'm at right now, and instead of making excuses I'm going to man up and work my way into a better position. Next time you find yourself in a downswing, realize that you need to make a decision: Do you want to make excuses and get sympathy from everyone or do you want to do what it takes to be as successful as you want? The choice really is yours, and you need to realize that doing the former is detrimental towards the latter. 

You can also find Assani Fisher's blog space here.

         Finally started to play at noon today and finished with ~10K hands and 6K+ VPPs. I total played a little over 9 hours. This should be my regular working day look like. I should normally start my game around 11AM and finish around 11PM with 2-hour or so break in between. 

         Tomorrow I am gonna have to take a day off for personal reason. After that, I will put my full energy into poker and I'd like to see myself playing over 10 hours a day with maybe half day on Saturday. I will probably take this coming Saturday off though. It's been a while to being alone...

         Did okay for today's session except that I shold've quited a little bit earlier to avoid a $800 down swing at the very end...Anyways, good luck everyone and see you at the tables~!!

         

         Finally it came to the last day of January. I put in over 7K hands and earned 4K+ VPPs for a total of 105K+ VPPs for the month. The sessions went alright, only some small swings in between and not too many regs and I guess that people are taking it easy at the end of the month. 

         I have skipped 4 days without playing and a bunch of half days' off due to some personal reasons. So far, for the next 3 month starting Feburary 3rd, I do not see any reason I would take a day off or even half day off. I will focus on the volume and also will pay attention to my opponents. I have seen the number of active regs at my tables is decreasing, which is a good thing; also, people tend to play a little bit later than the beginning of the month. 

         As Stars has been doing pretty decent on their promotion part, more and more new faces I see everyday; this makes me very happy as I like to challenge from new players as they don't know much about me and will fight pretty hard against me. 

         As I promised earlier, I will make sure that I will be on pace sometime in April the latest. I will put in massive volume for the coming 3 months and stop by and see how I am getting closer to my first 1M VPP mark~!

         

         Alright, another day of short session. Busy with other stuff all day and finally got some time in the evening. The good part is, I am Supernova again~! Also, even with 4 hours of play, I got most my loss from yesterday back. 

         Only a few more days left for January and I will try to put in as much time as I can. Anyways, good luck to everyone who's on the chase~!

         

         Only played half day today as well. So far, today is the worst day this year. Losing 200 Big Bets is not fun at all :( I have nothing much to say here, just purely running bad, many big hands like, TT, QQ, AKo, KK ended up losing or barely above negative. Days like today will happen and there is no way anyone could avoid them. I guess that just call it quit for the day. 

         I will get some good sleep tonight and put in a long session tomorrow. Talk to you guys soon~!

         

         Only had half day to play today due to some family activity in the morning. Started around 7PM and finished with ~5K hands and ~3K VPPs. My luck at the tables was not good at all, good thing I managed to take a small loss at the end; could've been better though... :)

         4 more working days for me before the end of January; basically, the whole month went well despite some unexpected distractions from family members. Can't complain though; I don't live all by myself anyways. The higher the pace difference I see in January the more motivated I will be in the future months. I will see you guys around and good luck~!!!

         

         WBCOOP (World Blogger Championship Of Online Poker) just started today~! Last night I register all 7 events and I played one today. I guess that I did well and I got busted out 13th place for $33 SCOOP ticket. That took almost 6 hours to get there as there were 1740 players participated it. my regular cash game  got distracted obviously and I couldn't take my regular nap for the first time of the year. I would say, it was fun to play, however, it's not worth my time and concentration from EV perspective. 

         For the upcoming events of WBCOOP, I will only play 2 of them and one of them is on Saturday which I don't have to  play it. Besides that, the main event I will play for sure as it shows a little bit more value than the others. 

         I didn't do well for the cash game; 7K+ hands and almost 5K VPPs were what I got out of it. as I have passed the 90K VPP mark, there will be no more Stellar rewards for me... :( anyways, Not so bad sessions at the end and not so bad day as I had some extra fun... :)

          

         After one day rest and party with my family, I was all ready to play this morning. Loged on to Stars, Dang~! I found myself couldn't join any tables...Man, this situation happened only once in December 2008 when they were holding the Guinness world record attempt and the biggest Sunday Million at the same time. Back then, Stars only had about 200K player at its peak time. Nowadays, it's easily over 300K on a regular day. I guess that it is good for Stars and good for the players :)

         Anyways, I played over 7K hands with 4400 VPPs which was alright. Not much swing at all the whole day and finished with a tiny bit of profit. One more week left for January, that's 8.3% of the year. Time flies, guys :)

         By the way, all the tables will stay there until midnight again, I guess that I will be able to consistently put in more works from now on.

         

         Finished 9K hands and earned ~6K VPPs. I took yesterday off again due to some family distractions and watched Avatar again (Yay~!). I also had a real good sleep for 14 hours~! I guess I was energized and mind-refreshed, both of my sessions today ended up winning. 

         Today I feel like people start to stay later than before. There were 5+ $5/$10 and 10+ $3/$6 tables after 11PM which is kinda good..I like this trend :) Anyways, I will take my regular day off tomorrow and get back to poker table on Sunday.

         I will see you guys soon~!

         

         Today I played 8.5K hands and earned 5K+ VPPs. The first session I played was a little disappointed. I was running pretty for the most part of the session then all of sudden my luck made a turn and I ended up even for the first session. The evening session was okay except getting rivered more often than usual. WTSD% on $5/$10 was only 27.9% and W$SD% was 45.2. Simliar to $3/$6, WTSD% 29.8 and W$SD% was 45.1. Normally, all the numbers I just mentioned should be 8-10% higher. I felt alright even though I lost some bets there; I guess that if I played bad or just okay, I would've lost a lot more.

         Sorry that I can't keep my pace up so far. There were some distractions and unexpected things happened. I am expecting more distactions coming in for the rest of January. No worry though, at least 90% of SNEs are behind pace until later in the year. You won't see me slacking off for the next 3 months or so.

         Here is the result which shows how a good day gone wrong... :)

         

         Another half day poker with two relatively short sessions. I felt a little sick when I woke up today; probably got cold from last night staying up late... I will definitely get enough sleep tonight. Overall the first session was a little crapy; was down like $500+ then slowly got some back. After a good nap and dinner, I rejoined the table around 8PM. I was beating them badly pretty much on every table and finally ended up with nice win today. Kinda missed this feeling for a while, lol. 

         I will probably get some distractions from family members tomorrow again; I will try to put in as many hours as possible whenever I am not busy with "other" stuff. I think the slow-down in terms of VPP earning will motivate me for the later weeks and months. 

         I hope that my good run will continue :) Good luck and see you guys at the tables~! :)

         

         Played pretty much half day today with 6K+ hands and ~4K VPPs. Finally ended my losing streak with alittle winning. Although, it was a pretty swingy and many ups and downs in the chart. 

         I got up lately and finished my today's session earlier than usual was because I went to my local billiard club, California Billiard Club, at Mountain View. There were holding a 9-ball pool tournament to memorize their previous owner, Chet Itow, who passed away not long ago from cancer. I used to play pool a lot and had so many friends who I used to hang out with. This is the chance to see them again and I am very happy to talk to most of them. 

         Max Eberle, a good friend of my brother, who also used to hang out with me ended up winning the tournament for $3K. I was so glad to see him again; me and my brother ended up staying up until 5:00AM today to watch him taking his vitory home.  

         Anyways, I had a pretty decent weekend and I am energized for poker for the next week~! And of course, I am happily posting my today's session graph as well as a picture of me and Max~!! :-)))

         

         

         Another losing day for me..It sucks but that's poker. Sometimes you just have to suffer the downswings especially in Limit. Played 7K+ hands and ~5K VPPs, really need to figure out what to do regarding the early breaking-up for the tables. I will most likely just add some $2/$4 as before so that I can keep 20+ games going. 

         Had many beats today and 3 hands I'd like to mention here:
         1. $3/$6 Full-Ring I had 44 at Late Position, flop comes J 4 3 rainbow ended up lost to J9o (turn J river 3).

         2. $3/$6 FR again I had 44 at LP, flop Qs2s5c and I was last to act so I bet. turned a 4s river 5s, my full-house lost to straight flush (As3s).

         3. $5/$10 FR I had 99 at Small Blind. Flop Q93 and turn was an Ace, river another Ace. my 9s full of Ace lost to AQ. 

         Those beats are nothing new to me and I am not pissed off at all. I will just need to get some good rest and maybe go over my hand history, too for study purpose. After all, January so far is still a good month for me espeically comparing with 2009 :)

         

         As tables were breaking up quickly at 10:00PM today, I ended up only played 7K+ hands and earned 5K VPPs. Second downswing day of the year, especially during the evening session. my W$SD only at 41.7% on $5/$10 and 49.5% on $3/$6. I don't think that there were much I could've done to make a difference. Just need to cool myself off and relax a little bit. 

         I really don't like how tables breaks up nowadays. Last year, table will normally reduce around 11:30PM and this year, it has been pretty consistant around 10:00PM. God I hate to get up early, lol. I guess I have to now since it's hard for me to play 8 hours a day. 

         Anyways, even the result is pretty crappy, I will still post it here to remind myself: In the short term, bad things can happen and always look at the sunny side of it. 

         

         Spent the whole day yesterday with family. It was fun and we had a great dinner together. Both mom and dad were very happy. Sometimes you got to stick with your family members or at least get together once a while. It's good for them and it will be good for you as well. Time well spent, I will make it up the pace in the future. No biggies~

         Today I played for 8 hours and 9K+ hands. I did well in my first session and then after a nap and dinner, I found myself getting beatup many tables especially on $5/$10. Oh well, my minds had to swtich from "try to win more" to "try to lose less", lol. Towards the end, I got some back which concluded a break-even day.

         Again, I am not that much worried about the pace yet. I am confident that I will slowly catch up especially starting from Feburary.

         

         Some distractions today and I ended up playing 7K+ hands with ~5K VPPs. The session went alright and I am kinda use to the playing environment after 10 days of play this year. 

         There will be some more distraction coming tomorrow and I proabaly will have to take half day off. I am kinda of pace right now; although it will be easy for me to catch up especially after Feburary. 

         I appreciate everyone's support for this site and I will do my best to keep it up~!

         

         I took yesterday off working on the website with my brother; He's been really helpful and I really appreciate his effort~! 

         As I didn't rest well yesterday, I ended up with 8K+ hands and 5K+ VPPs at the end of today's session. Overall my game ran okay. There were more new faces on the limit Hold'Em table and I couldn't play against them well at the beginning. $5/$10 game gets a little bit tougher...or, maybe I just didn't run good? :) Anyways, I am still happy about the result. 

         The 2M VPP Challenge Tab is up in the air~! I hope you guys will enjoy it and I will constantly update my daily results there as well.

         

         Got up late today because the movie Avatar I watched last night... The movie is awosome and I highly recommend to watch it in a IMAX theater. Anyways, back to poker. I played about 8K hands today and earned 5K+ VPPs. Games got pretty complicated like any other Friday; Regs, pros, fished all mixed together and I had to pay more attention on almost every table. Pretty exhausted even only after 7 hours' play. 

         Somehow I couldn't manage to win on $5/$10 tables. I guess that's because people on those tables are more aggressive and knowledgable. I will take tomorrow off and do a little bit session review. 

         As usual, here is the result of today:

         

         Today only played about 6K+ hands and earned ~4500 VPPs. The reason that I didn't play long was that I decided to watch Avatar in IMAX theater. So far Avatar is ranked #2 Best Selling all-time (#1 of course is Tatanic). 

         Today's session is kinda interesting; not much up and down swings and just hanging around breaking-even line. Some new players on both $3/$6 and $5/$10 limit and that would take me sometime to expliot their tendencies. 

         Another thing that I noticed is, I can the significant drops for the number of pros in the evening session. I guess that some of them have gotten them burnt out a little; although the game becomes a little bit softer, I wish they will continue their pursuit and grind it all the way to the finish line.
 
         

         Today I played about 10K hands and ~6K VPPs. I was planning to play more, however, tables started to break up shortly after 10PM. I might have to adjust my schedule alittle bit; get up 1 hour earlier and go to bed one hour earlier so that I can play enough hands to match the pace. 

         There was not much swing today, I was pretty much having +/- 30BBs the whole day. The game is not as soft as I expected but it's still manageable. I hope it will not get worse as more pros coming back after the new year. 

         

         Another day of 10K hands and 6K VPPs. Currently I am having 23727.0 VPPs and again, due to some small distractions today, I am short like 500 VPPs today. 

         Today I took my first loss of the year. I ended up losing on both sessions and I guess that there were not much I could've done to make it better. Sometimes poker is like anything in life; it has it's ups and downs. People just need to deal with it and hopefully get the best out of it...

         3 more days to go for the week and I will take Saturday off as usual. Here is the result of today's play:

         

         Played 10K+ hands and earned 6K+ VPPs. Overall, I am satisfied with the results; however, I need to remind myself not to slack off. I guess that I am kinda like the way I split one day into 2 sessions: I can concentrate to the game more and make less mistakes especially towards the end. 

         So far the games are okay; more new pros and the same time more recreational players. I need to deal with them properly so that I can maintain my win rate. The new year is treating me well right off the start; hopefully I will continue my good run and vpp earn rate per day. 

         As usual, here is my result of the day and I will see u at the tables~!

         

         Played about 12K hands for almost 10 hours. This year I've decided to take a 1 or 2 hour break in between my long session. So far it's working out pretty good; I can concentrate the entire time while I am playing and I am sure that this will definitely help my win rate as well. 

         Currently I have 11,724.40 VPPs as the end of today and I am slightly off pace by 1K vpps. I will make sure I catch that up by the end of the week. 

         There are some new pros sitting at my tables and I will start to pay attention to them. Some of them are pretty good which they are at least as good as me; I guess I need to be a little bit careful when I deal with them. 

         Anyways, here is the result for the 2 short-session of today:

         

         Allllright, here we are, the year of 2010. I played 7K hands today and there's something I have to say here:

         First of all, PokerStars is awosome~~~!!! I love the new year $150 reload bonus and Stellar Rewards; To me, these are like new year gifts, lol. I cleared the reload bonus, which requires 3K VPPs and I cleared the first five $10 Stellar rewards. I am sure that I would see many new faces playing on my tables. 

         Secondly, the new VPP System doesn't hurt my limit Full-Ring game much. I am still able to maintain a 700+ VPP/hour rate, which is much higher than I expected... 

         Lastly, I would like to thank the player panel on twoplustwo forum. Without them, the VIP program will not be as awosome as it is today. 

         P.S. I took a 2 hours nap in between my session; I got headache after playing 2 hours and then started to feel dizzy today. Maybe because of the new year celebration, people started quiting tables around 10PM, which is 2 hours earlier than usual. I hope that it will get back to normal after a week from now. 

         Anyways, here is the result from today's play:

         

         Hello all, today I am gonna write up my yearly report for 2009.
         
         First of all, my original goal for 2009 was 2M vpps. I gave that thought up at the middle of Janurary. The reason for that was I realized that I would probably end up the similar profit for the year with my poor poker strategy comparing if I just get 1M vpps and play some good poker. 

         With that thoughts, I spent 40 days studying my game, 30 days participating tournaments, 20 days for vacations and 20 days for moving into my new apartment and some sick days. What this means is, I took a total of 4 month off for the year of 2009 and earned 900K vpps in 8 months or so.(100K VPPs earned from participating WSOP ME).

         So with my improved strategies, I was able to break even for the entire year even though I lost some money with my old strategies in January and sufferred a long losing streak in September (losing 9 sessions in a row). 

         I am happy that I made my decision early and was able to improve my game significantly. I think I will continue to spend like half day or so every once a while to adjust my playing strategies. 

         I also got a membership at 24Fitness to keep myself staying healthy. I only got sick once for the entire year and I didn't gain any weight after sitting in front my computer for one whole year. 

         After another year of mess-tabling on PokerStars, a few things that I'd like to mention here:

         1. PokerStars is not a rigged site. 
         2. Winning or losing on poker will NOT be determined by luck if you play long enough, obv. 
         3. Staying healthy will be good for you regardless what you do.
         4. The support coming from family and friends is stronger than you can imagine. 

         Thank you for reading and following my blog and insights and happy profitting from poker in the year of 2010~!

         Today is the day for me achieving SNE for the 2nd year~! I played 14 hours today with 16K hands and rushed all the way to the final destination for the year. My session was horrible and it was one of the worst day for the entire year; everyone was kinda beating me left and right...However, I stayed positive the whole way and was waiting to reach 1M VPPs. 

         It's been a long year for poker and next year will be even tougher for me as I have much higher goal. I'd really appreciate the support I've been getting from family and friends; without them, I couldn't have made it this far. 

         I will write up a yearly report before the year ends and probably a new tab for the website for my 2M VPP challenge. Will get back to you guys soon~!

         

         Some minor distractions earlier of the day and I started to play from 2PM today and ended up with 11K+ hands and 7K+ VPPs. I was running well at the first 3 hours or so and then sufferred some beats. Overall was okay and I was satified. 

         Only 27K left and I am gonna work harder to get it done within 3 days. I might try some 2/4 6MAX after midnight. On Xmas day I need to squeeze some time out for family reunion dinner, etc... 

         Stars has annouced the VIP program changes for 2010 as well as Team Online Pros. I guess that it was unfortuante I didn't get elected; however, I will do whatever I can to make it happen hopefully next year. Stars will continue to recruit Online Pros alone the year, which is kinda nice...

         The new VPP earning method for FR will definitely affect my games next year. According to 2+2 and FPPPRO.COM, fortunately 3/6 and 5/10 FRLHE will not have significant nagetive impact in terms of VPP earn rate. I think that I will still go for 2M for next year and hopefully everything will go well...

         Anyways, result of the day. Not too good, not too bad...

         

         I guess my mind was pretty exhausted and I somehow managed to take yesterday off. Had nice dinner with family and then went back home for 10 hours sleep. I think that was a good recovery both mentally and physically. 

         I got up and started to play at 11:00AM today. I played all the way until midnight and finished with 15K+ hands and ~9K VPPs. Overall the session went well except at the end I couldn't concentrate to the games and the tables kept breaking up... 

         Anyways, 35K to go and hopefully my good run will continue~! Below is my result of today:

         

         Finished with only 9K hands about 6K VPPs. Some distraction earlier today and started my session a little bit late. My day didn't go well almost the whole way until the last 2 hours; many of my open-raised hands got 3betted. Oh, well, nothing much I could've done as there were so many regulars fighting for the last 2 weeks before the year ends. 

         Still have a little over 40K vpps need to be earned and somehow I just couldn't see the light at the end of the tunnel. I guess that I will just have to keep grinding for another 3 or 4 days then I should feel better. 

         Anyways, good luck and I will see you guys at the tables~!

         

         Any 10K+ hands done with 6500+ VPPs earned. I was up a pretty decent amount along the way and then fell back down. I am still happy about the results and less than 50K VPPs left to make. 

         I feel like that I am easily getting exhausted these days; I guess that it's mainly because long day of play for many days continously. I am sure that once I get enough rest after getting SNE, I should be alright mentally and physically. 

         Anyways, here is my result of the day. See you at the tables~~!

         

         Back to the grind today after 1.5 days of distraction from family members.. No big deal, though and I think that I still can finish it up by Christmas. 

         I played 12.6K+ hands for 11 hours, earned 8K+ vpps today. I feel a little bit exhausted today at the end so that I quited one hour earlier than usual. The games are better today mainly because that not so many regs were playing on the same tables simutaneously...Anyways, I am pretty happy about the result and 7 more days to go~!!!

         

         Started at 2PM and played 11K+ hands with ~7K vpps. Everything went pretty smooth until the last 2 hours. Some new distraction is coming in I might have to take half day off tomorrow. Anyways, 70K more VPPs to go, which is about 8 days or so. 

         The last a few days many regulars are playing at the same tables and the games have gotten significantly tougher then usual. Oh well, a good practice with the pros~. 

         

         Okay...finished 11.5K hands with 10 hours play and only got 7K VPPs. There were some distraction earlier of the day and started at 2PM. Maybe I was too tired from yesterday's play and I am guessing the 8-day drill is not that meaningful...

         Anyways, I will still play as much as I can and post my daily result in terms of big bets at the end of each session. Hope you guys enjoy it~!

          

         Allllright, as I have planned, today is the first day of the 8-day drill. I started playing at 11:00AM and finished at 00:30AM, 13.5 hours total with 16640 hands played, earned 10057 VPPs. 

         I am pretty happy with the result, too~! Hopefully the upcoming 7 days will come through nicely...
          

         Today I decide to take today and tomorrow off. The reason for that is, I want to give myself a challenge to earn 10K VPPs per day for 8 days straight starting this coming Sunday. This will be a good dry-run for my next year 2M VPP challenge. The VIP program potential changes for 2010 will reduce the amount of VPP per hour I can gain as comparing to 2007-2009. I need to play 10% or so more hands in order to get the same amount of VPPs for 2010 if I decide not to adjust my game limits. 

         This 8-day challenge will be good for me as I can figure out whether I can constantly do a 10K VPP day next year. I will come up a well-tailored time management plan for the entire day after these 8 days. 

         Oh, by the way, a new insight has just come out, check it out~!

          Just finished playing today with 10K+ hands and I have 906K VPPs now. the Mid/Low Limit Full-Ring games are getting interesting I guess for every Decemeber. There are more Regs than ever and also some wild fishes are jumping in the games as well... We have 15+ $5/$10 and ~20 $3/$6 going at the peak hours during the day and that gives me a good opportunity for game selection and money management, which's pretty good. 

          I tried 700 hands of 6MAX on 4 $1/$2 this morning which was fun, I made 7BBs/100 hands. I don't think that I will swtich my game from FR to 6MAX any time soon; but by playing a little bit here and there will certainly help my FR game as well, especially for blind stealing/defending. I also found that the $1/$2 6MAX games were kinda soft. I guess I might have to move up to experience more so that I can improve my game faster. 

          Two more weeks and it will be all over again. I don't have any pressure or stress as I am still 6 days ahead of last year and I know that I don't have to play as harder as last year, neither. Comparing to last year the same time, I am happy that I am doing WAYYYYY better as I was getting barbequed the entire last Decemeber. 

          I will see you guys at the tables; I am sure you will see a lot of me for the next 12 days or so...

          Working hard on the VPPs today but ended up quiting the games earlier than I expected with 11K hands played. I ran extremely bad today especially right before I decided to quit. I was pretty much losing every hand which I was involved and my opponents all of sudden got some kind of magic to beat me up...

          Sometimes things just ain't going your way espeically in poker or any kind of gambling related activities. As a professional gambler, I must figure out a way to deal with it, instead of showing bad emotions or tempers to friends, family members or even to opponents at the tables. Those useless reactions will only bring you more trouble than any of money you lost. 

          I am gonna take a hike tomorrow morning and then start my session early afternoon. I've been doing this for a while and I think it's quite helpful actually. 

          Good luck at the tables and I will see you guys around~

          Another 12K+ session today and didn't run well especially on the 5/10 FRLHE table. WTSD% was only 33% and W@SD% was only 48%. With this amazingly low percetage, I managed only losing $600. There were two hands I played well but ended up getting sucked out:

          Hand#1: player from Hijack open-raises with AJ and I 3bet from SB with AK. flop comes AK rag and I bet he raises, I just smooth-call. turn comes a Jack and I bet again. He raises and I 3bet it and he calls. river comes another Jack; I bet and get raised and he takes down the pot with Jack full of Aces.
 
          Hand#2: I open-raises from Hijack with KK and player from button 3bets it with JJ. I turn around cap it and flop comes AK rag. I bet and he RAISES. I just smooth-call. turn comes a Queen and I bet again and he calls. river comes a Ten which completes his runner-runner straight. 

          I think I played the hands well but it just didn't turn out the way I wanted. Anyways, that ends the November of 2009 and I earned 140K+ VPPs which I am happy about. As comparing to last year, I am still 50K VPPs ahead and I am pretty sure I will get it done before Xmas. 


          Good luck and I will see you at the tables~!

          Just finished today's session with 12K+ hands. my game didn't go well as I've been consisntly beaten by some amazing opponents and boards. That reminds me one famous NBA saying.. PokerStars, where amazing happens...

          Got the Stoxpoker membership week ago as recommended by a fellow online pro. I have been watching the vids since then. I did learn a lot for the post flop strategies, espeically from Nick Grudzien's vids. I am always trying to improve my game whenever I have the oppurtinity and hopefully in a good way. I would recommend everyone who wants to have decent profit playing online poker to have Stoxpoker membership as least for some month; watch their vids and take some notes, it's definitely +EV.

          I will hopefully get my new insight in by the end of this weekend and I wish everyone who read them enjoys it. Good luck at the tables~!

          Finally reached 800K mark today. I have been working really hard lately and my luck at the tables was close to fair. As I reached 800K, I couldn't stop thinking what happened last December. I had to play 400K hands in one month to reach SNE and that caused me a lot of money; I didn't have time to fix my problem, I was running horribly and I couldn't sleep long enough to recover my energy from long sessions. 

          I am pretty sure that whatever happened back in last December will not repeat. I have about 10 floating days comparing to last year and I having been studying my game thoroughly through out the whole year. 

          Hopefully I will get it done before Xmas time~

          Good luck and see you at the tables~!

          It's been like 2 weeks after I came back from China. The China trip was awsome imo, I met with some of my best friends there and enjoyed pretty much every meal I had; it was delicious. 

          Grinding on Stars was interesting again to me. I did alright before November started. It seems that there are more $5/$10 games than $3/$6 these days. I don't like it because I have to spend extra attention/energy playing which gives me quite bit of "headache". I finally reached 700K by the end of October and I have no worries on getting SNE again as I am ahead of last year by 50K VPPs or so.

          The first two days of November was rough to me. I had the same bad feeling like in September. my KK ended up losing money on November 1st after playing almost 13K hands and I'd like to mention 3 hands I encountered yesterday (all happened on $5/$10):

Hand #1: Guy open-raises 77 from MP and I 3bet it from button with QQ. The final board is: 887Q7. 

Hand #2: Guy open-raises from button with K4o and I 3bet from SB with AA. The final board is 67KKK. 

Hand #3: I open raise with KK from EP and MP calls with 53o. Flop came AQJ rainbow, I bet and he raises. the final board is AQJ24.

          There were many more like that happened in one day which drove me crazy. I am not complaining on anything nor thinking about PokerStars turned the doomswitch on me(I never believe that kind of crap), it's just that the variance of poker keeps my poker career challenging. 

          On other news, the website is being updated and re-constructed and meanwhile, please bare with me for not being able to leave any comments, etc. 

          My swing this month went up and down like crazy. I mean, I didn't do anything special to my every day play and my opponents didn't get much better all of sudden. I guess I can only blame the variance, wait, losing 9 sessions, or 72K hands straight?!, something else might have gone wrong and I am not even aware of? I'd better find out ASAP. Oh well, thanks for my early study which makes me a winner even after the September nightmare. 

          On other news, I am kinda behind schedule for getting Elite this year. I currently only have 680K VPPs and I am going on a vacation to China for 3 weeks. I need to be mentally prepared for 160K VPPs per month for Nov and Dec.

          On other news, PokerStars is looking for their Online Pros~! With my commitment and dedication for the last 16 months, I am confident that I have a very good shot at it. One Time!!!

          I will see you guys in a month and good luck at the tables!

          Just go back from Vegas. Overall, being a part of the WSOP ME this year is pretty fun, as well as meeting up some of the regulars from PokerStars, like chali2na99 and Juggernaut.

          For the ME, I ended up getting busted on Day 3. Day 1 was a smooth day for me; I didn't win anything until the second table I got on after the dinner break. I got dealt JJ back to back right after the dinner break and the cool part was, a few players didn't get back to the table in time so we were playing short-handed game. By the end of day 1, my chip went up to 60K which I was pretty happy about it. 

          I had my up and downs on Day 2. The whole day I ended up playing on one table and players were pretty tough. My chip went down pretty quickly as I was card-dead and wasn't getting much chance getting into a pot. I decided to take a break in the middle of a level and after I came back, I doubled up my chips through the first hand I got dealt. I had 76s and went all-in on the turn when the board was K776 and the other guy had 79s. However, things didn't go as well as I expected. I lost 50K chips with my QQ versus the other guy's KK; he played his KK well as he smooth-called my 3bet preflop and then check-n-raised me on the 633 flop. I ended up laying down my QQ on the river after he pushed all-in. I had barely 10K left at the end of day 2. 

          Day 3 was no fun at all. People going all-in almost every other hand which left me no chance entering a pot. David Banyenmine was at Seat 5 and he was pretty active at the table and I never had a chance to have a pot open to me for the first 20 hands. I finally ended up pushing all-in with my last 6 BBs after seeing one of my hole cards, a nine of spade. Small blind called my all-in with K8o and I was drawing dead on the turn. Chali2na99 and Juggernaut were pretty cool. We met up and had a few drinks, and then we ended up playing $3/$6 at the Palms for like an hour or two. It's pretty amazing that you play face to face against players who you play against online nearly everyday. 

          One last thing I like to mention for the trip was the awesomeness of PokerStars's treatments. The free 10-day 1 bedroom Suite at the Palms Place, the free 6 handed NL tourney, $200 gift cards and the crazy PokerStars party made my trip the best ever. Thank you, PokerStars! 

          My game has been going great as I have stopped the downswing and actually gotten some profit. The one-month study has paid off and I know that my time was a well-spent. 

          It is great that PokerStars has decided to extend SNE status until the end of September and I love their promotions for participating this year's WSOP main event. For me as a SNE, I can see that it is a great discount that ever offered for playing the ME and I am sure that I will be there with many other SNEs. 

          I will be actively attending tournaments online and offline so that I can be more confident at the ME. My current plan for tournaments so far would be: some daily tourneys from local casino, some larger tournaments at Reno in May, some WSOP Sattys on PokerStars and finally, a couple of preliminary WSOP events, for example, the $1000 buy-in NL at the end of May. I hope that I will be all ready by July. 

          So far my games are going the way I wanted. I can see a pretty consistent downward curve from HM and I even have the feeling like I was playing in last December. I took like 3 days off for studying my game, but it seems that nothing has improved whatsoever. 

          Therefore, I am gonna take 2 weeks off studying my game, the losing curve has to turn the other way around and I cannot tolerate it anymore. The 2M VPP goal has to be changed; as an old Chinese saying, "sharpening the axe will not slow down the speed cutting trees". I am gonna re-think everything from preflop, postflop and blind defending and stealing. HM has some great features and it even has a few articles teaching people how to plug their leaks. I will definitely take a look at that and see what I can do about it. 

          Anyways, you probably won't see me at the tables for at least two weeks and I am sure that when I come back, I will be different~!

          It's 3 o'clock in the morning and finally, I am a Super-duper-nova-elito, HAHA~! I got my last 3 VPPs from a $1/$2 FR table, just to wait for my brother to come over to celebrate. Couldn't believe that how tight and numb the players are at $1/$2: after my brother got here, I was literally raising and betting with any two cards I got on every street in order to get a $1 rake, and that took me almost 1 round to accomplish. Maybe that's something for me to think about. 

          For the last 30 days, I have suffered a decent amount of loss almost every session, which is unbelievable. I know that it's something to do with the luck, however, I also know it's my playing strategy. I've been doing much less blind defending and stealing to ease the game, trying to play as straight forward as possible so that I don't have to think much. I paid for what I have done and that's the main reason how I got barbequed. 

          I am gonnna have to skip a few days from now; I need some good rest and relaxation, as well as some serious study of my game. If I still want to play for 2M VPPs next year, I have to get the recovery and study part done as fast as I can. 

          That's it for now and will get back to the grind soon.

         Just got back from a 3day vacation at Reno. I am at 800K VPPs right now and exactly one month left before the end of the year. I have never earned 200K per month EVER but I am confident that I will get there. 

          Getting 200K in 30 days, that's 6700 VPPs per day, I have to put it a lot of work each day and might have to surfer some losses. Even taking a loss of 20K, I am still going to be benefit from next year's 5X multiplier, which yields about 24K if I can get it at the end of June, when the SNE status expires. I am hoping that I will be able to maintain SNE the whole year so that I won't lose any value of it.