Wednesday, July 20, 2011

1,750,000 Update

It's been exactly one month since I last blogged, and it's a neat coincidence that I happened to reach and pass 1,750,000 VPPs today. The action has been pretty great, and I've been grinding along most every day here. For the month, I've only completely taken off 2 days, which is quite an accomplishment for me because of the odd schedule I'm on. Whenever I need the extra sleep, I will give myself a couple hours in the morning (typically till 6 or 7am) and shorten my sessions, which I have done on more than a few occasions. As for the poker itself, it has been a frustrating grind for sure. High stakes have not been too friendly to me, or any stake, for that matter. It is quite alright though, since after FPPs and milestones, the grind is still a very profitable one even if I am down for the last two months. Everyday I start my grind with the hope that things will go crazy at high stakes to make up for the hundreds of games of runbad preceeding...but, I'm always prepared that it might be another bad one. It's always beneficial to have a positive attitude before and during your sessions even though it may not make a lick of difference; it might just keep you sane. I hope you all would adopt the same mindset if you don't have it already!

I feel like I am completely at home in Australia. I'm going to "work" everyday bright and early at 5am, finishing by 10am typically. After my sessions, I look to hit my mates up to hang out or do whatever. So far, we've driven out to a few unique and picturesque places around the Sydney area, including the Blue Mountains (the rural outskirts an hour west of the city), beautiful Watsons Bay/Vaucluse, and the truly unique cultural anomaly of Cabramatta (I saw perhaps three white people the entire afternoon we spent there). My vocabulary is surely changing as I'm adopting many more of the little words/expressions that makes Aussie English so interesting and funny. I still have my accent though :)

Here are some pictures here and there of the Aussie life-

A couple of these guys randomly showed up on my balcony... I thought they were somebody's escaped pets at first. They don't like bread crumbs, and I haven't seen them since.


Real Black Swans!

The Three Sisters rock formation in the Blue Mountains

Beautiful winter sky from Watsons Bay/Vaucluse

A more unique view of Sydney from Vaucluse. There's that bridge again..
Lighthouse on a hill in Vaucluse

One of the signs discouraging suicides, a regular occurrence off the cliffs unfortunately.
Due to a cyclone that destroyed banana crops in Australia, prices are bananas for bananas...
The next 250,000 VPPs will be pretty fun because of the bonus that awaits me when I get to the 2m VPP milestone. Typically, it takes me about 1 month to make 250k, so my next post might come exactly one month from now announcing my 2m VPPs! Of course, I hope I can get there before that. I really would like to be as much ahead of schedule of breaking the VPP record as possible because I plan to go traveling later this year. I was talking to a fellow grinder at a table today, and he said that he had about 1.67m VPPs and had earned 600k last month playing 5k HUs vs Isilildur! As I've said before, I really have no chance versus anyone multi-tabling the 2k/5k HUs in terms of VPPs, so if he decides to overtake me and continue onwards, I cannot keep up haha. That issue aside, my personal goal is still to hit 3m VPP, as that's a perfectly attainable # for me pace-wise, and it's a great incentive for me to grind daily now.

7 comments:

Alexander Knopf said...

some beautiful pictures there, makes me envy you for what you've been (and are) able to do.
hope the luck changes and you make a profit in the games for your next 250k vpp.

rocketry said...

that bird is a Rosella, im sure you have seen our magpies (the big black white game bird) in spring be careful they actually swoop you if you walk under a tree that has their nest lol.

You should plan some trips up in the gold coast area come summer if your still here and have the time such as the whitsunday islands, great barrier reef etc.

DIESEL said...

Congratulations on such an accomplishment! What tips would you give an aspiring multi-tabler?

Anonymous said...

Great life you have there sir. I enjoy your updates. The bananas for bananas was funny too :) Best of luck with everything! Jealous in the USA

Andrew Li said...

Thanks Alexander and anonymous :)

And rocketry, I definitely would love to see the whitsundays and stuff, perhaps I'll head that way if I can find some time next year.

Diesel, the best piece of advice I can give for multitabling is just keep your head level and never tilt/always play the same (your best). Definitely reduce the # of tables/stakes you play if you ever feel either of those 2 things are suffering.

CristianUrso said...

OMG I really Love Brazil, we can buy Bananas for $ 1.50 KG

Congratulations and I hope you beat the 3M VPP's this year...

Anonymous said...

Hi,

im wondering if ever you have an email address into which I can contact you... would like to ask you something regarding your site =)


Reese
(reese.mckenzie@pokerjunkie.com)