My Nutz Are Nicer

So in my last post I declared my day "Less than Awesome", but I listened to my own advice (It's not how you start it's how you finish) and plowed through my final two scheduled MTTs....ended up winning a $2k Bracelet Race and FT'ing a $109 on PS. Excellent finish indeed.

Now for the update on goals:

* Top 200 FTP Monthly tournament leaderboard. (FINALLY GOT RAKEBACK WOOOOOOOOO this goal will be back next month)
* Top 200 PokerStars Monthly Leaderboard. (fell a bit. Now at 247th with 3,946.69 points. Certainly not out of the hunt.)
* 90+ percentile at PocketFives. (As I mentioned in last post, this was updated to 95+ percentile...creeping up @92.02 with 1394.46 points. Need about 200 more to get to 95th.
* Final Table a Sunday Major before the WSOP Main Event. (not even close, but have only tried one full Sunday schedule. Few more tries left.)
* Have FUN!! (every day)
* Improve/Learn (still happening every day)

Crapped out in every Sunday major....

Had a few winning events that I invested in (through CMU) but only 1 for 4x buy-in or more. Lost big overall on investments as well.

Still in one tourney for an event (98/387 in an event that pays 135) and the bracelet race starting in 15 min. Hope I score big in one of those two to turn the day around and end up positive on the day.

NOTE TO ADMINS: This is a massive pet peeve of mine. I am writing a blog POST right now. A blog is the entirety of this collection of posts. It friggin irks me every time I have to click on "write a blog". That actually means, start a new blog. Updating this current one should read "write a post".

ACK, slipping in the PS Monthly MTT leaderboard, 238. Working on it.

Also adding two new goals to be accomplished by end of May (ack, only 7 days).

*Get into top 5% in Pocket Fives. That would be ~1,600 points. I currently am percentile 91.52 with 1,1317.75 points. (but they have about a 24-48 lag time for posting results, so may have a little more).

*Become a member of Poker Players International

So I my 'previous life' I found that publicly posting my goals (whether it was in campaigns or sales) and progress towards said goals was helpful. A little public accountability never hurt anyone (well....except maybe a few Republican administrations) So let's give that a shot.

These are my current goals (and progress):

• Top 200 FTP Monthlytournament leaderboard. (abandoned due to not getting rakeback)

• Top 200 PokerStars Monthly Leaderboard. (At the moment I'm 219 SO CLOSE, but with two Sundays left, need to produce bigger/better results just to stay put much less gain those last few spots)

• 90+ percentile at PocketFives. (Done!!! I'm in the 91.33 percentile, and these are based on a rolling 12 month period, so should only increase here on out.

• Final Table a Sunday Major before the WSOP Main Event. (not even close, but now that I have backing, I am actually able to play the Sunday Majors.)

• Have FUN!! (girl you know it's true)

• Improve/Learn (still happening every day)

I'll refer back to this page often and post a whole new set on June 1st.

As a sidenote, there is now a sticky (post-it note) on the screen of my laptop that says "NOT YOUR JOB!!". This is to remind me that just because a short stack is shoving light and I have a big stack and a face card/ace does NOT mean it's my job to call and try to get a KO. In fact....IT'S NOT MY JOB"

So, I used to blog for a living* and for the next two months I will be playing poker for a living as a 'trial run'. I'm not seeing if I can make 'enough money to live off', I know I can, but grinding out 2/4 limit and $16 SnG's is just not mentally stimulating enough to hold my attention. I want to see if I have what it takes to run with the best tournament players in the world.

When I started this about four weeks ago, I had a <$1k bankroll, it's now up to about $5k (and I've withdrawn about 6k total) so the situation (at least for now) is a positive one.

About one to two weeks ago I decided to post some events on Chip Me Up to see if I could get into some bigger tournaments. After 10-15 no cash events I finally hit some big events and had a few tournies where backers started getting paid (top event is 2209% ROI). I now have a running total of +48% ROI after ~30 events, not too bad.

Around this time I was 'discovered' by Thomas Bihlson who has been backing a lot of my events. Hopefully, it will turn into a long-term partnership where the benefit is not his money (that can always be procured with a little bit of effort) but a mentoring/teacher/the old guy in Karate Kid relationship where I can learn.

Also have become friends with "Tomasson", a promising young Finnish player who I have exchanged hand histories with and many a PM's.

*it was part of my "online outreach" job I used to do for campaigns. As the 'online face' for many campaigns I was also the first to be attacked by supporters of my opponents. Google 'Nate de la Piedra', it'll be quite entertaining.