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.