600k VPPs

I hit the 600k VPP milestone today, thus putting me 60% complete towards Supernova Elite.  I'm looking forward to hitting SNE probably in June and it will be really nice to get the increased multiplier.

I had a pretty fun weekend, as my Dad, brother, and I headed down to Minneapolis to shoot in the Minnesota State 5-Stand Championships.  I did decent, especially considering I hadn't shot since the U.S. Open last summer.  I hit 122/150 in the Sporting event and 180/200 in the Main 5-stand event.  Not sure exactly what place that put me, but some people had done amazingly well during the first day of the main event... one person had only missed 3 out of the first 100 targets.

I got a chance to hang out with my good friend Billy, who lives in Minneapolis, on Saturday night.  We went out and grabbed some really tasty wings and then played some poker on the online felt after that.  He does programming stuff for his job and was intrigued by my Gunnar glasses and thought they might help him during his job during the day so he ordered a pair.  It was good to hang out with him, as we hadn't seen each other in a while.

Does anyone know how to build a PT3 HUD well?  If you do give me an email... I am looking to get one built and will be willing to compensate you for your time if the job you do is satisfactory.

Sioux Hockey

I'm very disappointed that the Sioux hockey team lost yesterday in the first game of the Frozen Four.  They were the favorite to win the National Championship but couldn't score against Michigan's goalie despite 5 power plays and ended up losing 2-0.  If they had won this game, they would have been in the Championship on Saturday night in Minneapolis vs. Minnesota-Duluth... then my Dad, brother, and I were planning on trying to round up some tickets but since they lost obviously that plan is no more...

First sporting clays shoot of the year!

This weekend my Dad, brother, and I are headed down to Minneapolis for the Minnesota State 5-Stand tournament.  It is the first shoot of the year, plus we didn't get a chance to practice at all so I'm sure I'll be very rusty but it should still be fun.

We're leaving in a few hours and we'll be back on Sunday night.  I'm bringing my laptop and a 27'' monitor so I can get some hands in at night after we're done shooting.

Financial goals for 2011

I've been thinking a lot the past week or so what I'd like to get accomplished by the end of this year to feel like I'm back to being 110% super solid financially.  I plan on continuing my VPP tear and finishing the year with enough of them to make the following goals achievable.

Financial goals to be completed by the end of 2011:

• Have approximately $5k in my checking account at all times.
• Build a "safety net" fund of $25k to cover living expenses for 6-12 months in case of a ridiculous downswing, poker legislation that causes a huge blackout period, etc.  Put this money aside in a low-risk, savings account or money market account.
• Maintain a bankroll of 200 buy-ins for the stakes I'm playing at the time.
• Pay off my house in North Dakota.

I plan on doing these in the order they are listed.  It will feel really great if I'm able to complete all of these things by the year's end.  It would be so nice to get my house 100% paid off because then I am absolutely debt free.  I don't owe anything for my car... paid cash for that.  Also don't have any credit card bills or anything else like that so once I'm able to pay off my mortgage I won't owe anyone anything.

After I figure out my taxes next week and cut the huge check to the IRS, I plan on beginning to work on all of these things.

Back in ND for now...

My lease on my apartment in downtown Chicago ran out a few weeks ago and ended up moving back home to my house in ND due to burning through all of the money I had set aside for my emergency living expenses fund (6-12 months of living expenses set aside in case of a terrible stretch of poker results) that every professional poker player should have.  So I'm back here for the time being, focusing on grinding like crazy to get my financial situation back to a reasonable level.

It's disappointing that I let myself get to this point, but I made the correct but tough decision to minimize my expenses as much as possible for now to rebuild.  My bankroll is still very healthy but my offline funds are not what they used to be... I had a lot of fixed expenses in Chicago and I had my worst year as a poker pro in 2010.

My lofty goal to reach 3 million VPPs is looking basically impossible at this point, as I'm around 200,000 VPPs behind pace.  However, I am ahead of pace for 2 million VPPs so I am going to shoot for a milestone of anywhere from 2.25 to 2.75 million VPPs depending on how it goes.  Any one of those three milestones will still guarantee that I have a very solid year in 2011.

Liz and I are still dating and she took the train to ND with me and did an amazing job of helping me move into my house.  I couldn't have done it without her.  We have an adventure planned in Minneapolis the weekend after Easter so I'm looking forward to that.

Current VPP count is 574,739 and I am 9th overall on PokerStars in VPPs for the year so far according to this list.

Hope everyone is doing well and I intend to try and update my blog more frequently from here on out.  I have been very busy lately but since it only takes a few minutes I would rather churn out a few short blogs rather than wait weeks between posts.

Here's a pic of Liz when we were on the train.  One of my friends, Blair, left a sock monkey at my place and he said Liz could have it.  She couldn't have been happier that the sock monkey is now hers!

Halfway to SNE!

Today I cracked the 500,000 VPP milestone on Stars, so I'm officially halfway towards Supernova Elite.  That is not my goal, however.  I was shooting for 3 million VPPs but the more time goes on the more I fall behind.  I'm hoping that I'll gradually start catching up but so far I'm on pace for around 2.25 to 2.5 million VPPs for the year.

HU

I have been sitting HU when my table count is low and yesterday I got some action at $3/6 NL vs a massive retard.  I absolultely destroyed him, although he was up on me for probably the first 30 minutes of the match.  Every time I busted him or won a big pot off of him, he would reload and then start jamming 100bbs with any two cards for like 3 or 4 minutes straight.  He actually won a few of those as I called him with KTs and lost to 69s and also lost with AJ AIPF after he just shipped with 64o.

It was actually really fun to play him, as well as profitable, so I think I'm going to start sitting HU more frequently to try and find more idiots like this.

VPP update:  I currently have 453,505 VPPs and am nearly halfway to SNE!