I guess it's time for another update. 2009 has been quite interesting thus far. For starters, after playing a couple hundred thousand hands at 5/10 nl 6m I decided that I had had enough of that game for a couple reasons. One is the rediculous variance at the level. Winning losing literally 5-10k a day(and going on +/- 40k downswings) isn't that fun. Most importantly tho, was that my winrate was like .7ptbb/100 or so. If I were beating that game steadily, it would be at like 2 or 3. So basically, I wasn't beating the game for as much as I wanted/to make the variance worth it. This was around March. I decided to play 3/6 from there on out as the competition should be theoretically worse than 5/10.
And I was right.

I went on a massive heater during April and May which accounts for the bulk of my winnings for the year. I had back-to-back 60k months at 3/6! I've been staying at 3/6 for the most part with occasional 5/10 or even 25/50 shots if the games really good. I'm really comfortable here and hope to continue on my successes.
Maybe a month or two ago I hit a downswing where I was 30k below in EV and I was getting pretty frustrated so I decided to learn a new game; Omaha.
It's a pretty interesting game with from what I understand 4x the variance as holdem. People can go for 100k+ hands plus and not know whether they are a winner or a loser in the game. When I started out I think I played a bit too loose and carried over some NL concepts (like polarized 3betting range) that do not bode well in the game of Omaha. All I need to do is tighten up and profit! That being said, thus far I'm down 14k or so in omaha this year but thats not that bad considering Ive ran very unlucky as you can see in the graph. Also, another benefit of learning/playing PLO is that it gains 1vpp/hand on average. That is in comparison to .7vpp/hand for 3/6 NL 6m.

That's important because I am going to go for SuperNova ELITE in 2010. It starts on Jan 1 and I need to gain 1 million VPPs during the year. In doing so, I will gain about 110k in straight up cash bonuses, which includes a free PCA seat and WSOP main event seat! I can break even the entire year and still profit 110k on the year. Also, there is a 5x multiplier on all VPPS gained (as opposed to the 3.5x one I have now) which will really help me save up for whatever I am going to buy. I have 2.4 million VPPS which is worth around ~40k, but Im saving up to atleast 3mil to either get a car or another vehicle.
Obtaining SNE (supernova elite) will I think require about 3 hours a day by playing 6-7 days a week but I think I can do it. I may do some prop bets with other buddies for motivation if needed.

This year starting in the fall I have taken a (just one) year off of school to pursue poker professionally and I think it has really helped. It's really unique to be in the situation I'm in and I'm just grateful my parents reached an agreement that works for the both of us. Their support with me and poker has been phenomenal. It's a shame because I hear of other poker players my age who couldn't get their parents and themselves on the same page and then hastily dropped out of school and have no relationship with their parents whatsoever. Hearing about that just makes me thankful for my family and their support.
As this is my first year not attending a school since I was maybe 4 years old in preschool, it's pretty different. I guess that's the best way I could describe it.
Getting on the 6 bus to go into campus and being surrounded by students carrying books heading into the library and going to a football game and doing all the IU chants just feels a lil strange, as I'm not officially one of "them" right now. Seeing my roommates write papers and pull-all night cram sessions for tests almost makes me feel bad that I have the liberty to grind poker while they have to torment through school work. No worries tho, I'll be going through that as well in 9 months.
Another thing thats kinda weird is not having a set schedule. For the first time in my life I choose what and when I want to do something 7 days a week. It's not as free or liberating as it sounds. Instead of having to attend a meeting or meeting up with a friend after class to go to the gym, everything is up to you. You want to go to the gym? Great. If you don't want to? No one's going to say anything. So I really have to keep myself in line and motivated. Thankfully, I feel that I've been able to do that and will continue to do so.
To help me stay motivated, I promised my roommates that if I don't work out 6 hrs a week I owe 'em all $500 each. This definitely keeps me moving!

I'm sure I'm missing some stuff but my hands are getting tired, I played 275 SNGS today! (needed some variety from cash games)

Heres my NL graph from this year



and my PLO graph (I run bad)


At the end of my blog in '08 I said that I'd hopefully be a 1/2 millionaire by 2010 but I don't think thats going to happen. I'll prob end up with back to back 200k years but I've spent alot of money in between. I'm not even sure how much I've made in total or even have right now but as I know everyone wants to know (thats always the first question) I'd speculate I still have retained around 250-300k of it.

Cheers