March Recap – Sidebet & More

Just like Jan/Feb I’ll do a recap of the month. This time finally with some good results which means dropping down in stakes worked out. I would love to get back to playing $10/$20 and $15/$30 but I’m 100% sure this is not going to happen anytime soon. I’ll start out with my month graph and the “basic” results followed by plenty of other things. 

— March Recap—
March VPPs: 80.022
March Ahead of Pace: -4.909
March $ @ Tables: $2.890,00
March $ FPP’s/Milestone: $7.281,23
March $: $10.171,23
March # hands: 116.668
March # Hours: 91,62
March $/Hour @ Tables: $31,54
March $/Hour: $111,02
March Hands/Hour: 1.273
March VPPs/Hour: 873 

These numbers make me happy! I did not only stop losing money, I actually won money at the tables. Also as the graph shows my game improved during the month which gives me something to look forward to in April. Including my FPP’s and 300K Milestone Bonus I’ve earned more then $10.000, not bad for a months worth. Also an hourly rate of $111 is something I would love to keep the coming months. There are 3 things which I’m not so happy with. 1) My VPPs/Hour is down from 1.084 in January to 873 in March. This is of course due to dropping in limits but the difference is huge! I play a little more Hands/Hour but still it’s more then 200 VPPs/Hour less. This somehow hurts my motivation a lot. I used to think: “I play one more hour and got another 1.000 VPPs”, now I’ve complete lost that feeling but I should just shut up and play. 2) The # of hours I’ve put in is also a bit disappointing, it’s still 6 hours more then in February but it’s not enough. February also had 3 days less then March! This has of course something to do with the fact that I lost a bit of motivation but the number should be at least above 100. 3) The amount of VPPs in March. Now this has everything to do with 1 and 2 but I didn’t even make enough VPPs to stay “on pace” in March. Sure I was plenty ahead in Jan/Feb but my whole plan was to get ahead enough during the first five months of the year so I could take it easy during summer. 

Well, that’s not likely to happen anymore! I wanted to finish at at least 500.000 VPPs at the 1st of June but that means I have to get 190.000 VPPs during the next two months. It’s doable but I doubt I’ll do it. I’ve given myself an absolute minimum of 80.000 VPP a month for April/May and to push myself a bit I’ve agreed to a sidebet with fellow Pokernews NL forum member Rock City King. He wanted a sidebet to grind at least 50.000 VPP this month, I want to grind at least 80.000. If any of us doesn’t make it, he pays the other $500. The idea is that we both make it and it’s for both not something which is unlikely to happen but losing a bet is just not an option. Those $500 at stake still count as money but those can be missed, I’m just not going to lose a bet! Now 80.000 sounds easy since my low for this year was 80.000. For the 1st week of April I’m playing a live tournament tomorrow evening, Friday evening I go to Awakenings and Saturday during the day I will be at the Pokernews PALOOZA and during the weekend of 16-18 April I will be cycling the Amstel Gold Race with lot’s of beer. I had my doubts about the coming month, the sidebet should cover those doubts so I’m confident that I’ll get another 80.000 VPPs. 

Last blog I said that I was winning again and I didn’t change my game at all. Well, I think this is not true. I noticed myself playing last week and I did notice a difference. I’m playing the exact same basics and I doubt I play any different preflop. My postflop play is changed a bit. I seem to be more relaxed and consider lines I normally didn’t take. This doesn’t mean I’m now calling down in stead of folding, it could even mean I’m raising where I normally strongly considered a fold. I have a better “feel” for these plays were normally when I tried this I would run into a set or two pair all the time. At least, that’s how it felt. I hope I can continue to play like this because I would love to grind back all the money I’ve lost in Jan/Feb! I’m still down $17.527,- but that’s a lot better then $22.000. It’s okay if that takes all year but my goal for this year was to at least play break-even and I would really like to achieve that goal. 

Now to complicate things my new boss, I changed department 1-1-2010, has really great plans for me. He wants to put me in a position as solution architect working for all group services domains. This could be a big step up in my career as I’m currently working in the HR domain only and this will give me the ability to spread out my wings and to become an expert in many other domains like Finance, Risk & Procurement. This will give me a great opportunity to extend my knowledge and to meet a lot of people to whom I could prove myself to. Since these people are often higher up in the organisation this could really be beneficial to my career. There is no extra money involved directly in taking this job but when I do things right it will definitely lead to a better position, thus more money in the future. So what am I complaining? Well, I doubt I can take this opportunity when working part-time. Switching back to full-time would mean I’m not only keeping the same income, my income would even drop since I earn more with playing poker then at my current job. I can’t finish my current SNE plans or really need to work my ass (60+ hours a week) off till the end of the year and it’s also a really different approach to life compared with what I’m doing now. I’m currently working 24 hours a week, I work hard but I’m not that challenged at work. I get my challenge out of my poker career and cycling goals. I’m really happy with how things are going and also I’ve never been so happy at work. If I get my “real” career going again my work will become a big challenge (which I like). I will have to leave my comfort zone since I will be doing work I’ve never done for people I’ve never met. 

Back to less serious things. As you’ve all read before I’m watching a lot of TV-Series but I’ve found another good one. I have plenty of others to watch but I was hooked after 2 episodes. I doubt I can explain things better then the Trailer but before you watch it you should look at the list of movies the creator/writer of Flash Forward has worked on http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0333060/:

• Blade (1998) (written by)
• Batman Begins (2005) (screenplay) (story)
• The Dark Knight (2008) (story)

And movies to come:

• Untitled Batman Project (2011) (pre-production) (screenplay)
• Superman: Man of Steel (2011) (announced) (screenplay) (story)
• X-Men Origins: Magneto (2012) (announced) (screenplay)

I watched all episodes which are out (13 so far) in 3 days and ‘V’ resumed yesterday as well so I have a tight schedule (Caprica/Lost/Spartacus/V/Flash Forward) 🙂 

I’ve been a bit sick over the weekend and I didn’t go to the gym or cycling for a couple of days. I did go to the gym again today and hopefully I can work a bit on the bike on Sunday/Tuesday because I only have 2,5 weeks to go until I have to ride the Amstel Gold Race. Looking forward to it and I think I can already handle it but a little training can do no harm! 

I’ll wrap up with my year to date results:
 

— Current Status —
2010 VPPs: 310.046
Ahead of Pace: 66.210
Total $ @ Tables: -$17.527,00
Total $ FPP’s/Milestone: $23.962,57
Total $: $6.435,57
Total # hands: 389.074
Total # Hours: 306,97
Hands/Hour: 1.267
VPPs/Hour: 1.010
$/Hour @ Tables: -$57,10
$/Hour: $20,96