Down the Stretch

I'm up to 873K VPPs. I pushed back my return date to the US to Sept. 6th to give me a little breathing room and still have enough time to make my cousin's wedding in South Dakota on the 10th. I still need to average about 6100 VPPs a day to make it. It's been incredibly challenging, I'm completely burnt out and sick of poker. I've been totally unmotivated this month and often just going through the motions at the table to get hands in. My win rate is probably spot on for the level I'm playing at. All in all, it's just been a frustrating month because I hate playing when I'm not on top of my game. Only three weeks to go thankfully. And for anyone thinking of doing something similar, don't do it. Don't even think about doing it. ~750 VPPs in 3.5 months playing limit borders on insanity.

On the banking front, I found a convenient way to get money back to the US cheaply. I was able to open an account with Canadian Forex. I'm now able to make a bill payment from my TD Canada trust account to CF and have it wired to my US account in about 4 days. The fee is somewhere around 1% which beats any of the banks.

Good luck to everyone at the tables. I'm really looking forward to playing no poker for three months, I never thought I'd say it.

July in the Books

It ended up being another great month despite running pretty poorly over the last week or so. I've run so well since I've been in Canada, I almost forgot what it's like to run bad. I'm on about a 40K hand breakeven stretch right now. No complaints though, I continue to run exceptionally well at 50-100.

I'm shooting for September 3rd as our return date to the US. I've fallen further behind the pace I set for myself and need to average about 6700 VPPs a day to make SNE by the 3rd. I've been waking up later than usual the past few weeks and by about 7 PM, the games have been completely dead sometimes with nothing running above 3-6. So I'm planning on adjusting my schedule to wake up by 7 AM to make sure I get my hands in.

HSBC ended up closing all of my accounts. This after telling them exactly what the accounts would be used for at account opening and the approximate amount of money that would come through the account and be wired to the US. I also paid them about $3700 in fees. I really hate banks, they're no better than the criminals who rob them with a mask a gun. The banks just hide behind the mask of a corporation and find creative ways to steal people's money and homes.

So I went to TD Canada Trust and opened two more accounts explaining exactly what I'd be doing. The rep opening the accounts asked a bunch of questions, talked to her manager for several minutes, and said it wouldn't be a problem. Time will tell.

Good luck to everyone in August.

July Update

I've cooled off quite a bit this month and have run pretty poorly over the last week or so. I've been really fortunate that most of it has been confined to lower limits. The games still are spotty, some days great and others really slow. I've been lacking motivation lately and slacking if it could be called that. I'm up to 693K VPPs but have fallen behind the pace I set and now need to average about 6400 per day the rest of the time I'm here. It's going to be tough, I'm really tired of playing but I'll have to find the motivation somewhere.

In other news, I received a call from an HSBC rep yesterday. It was more like an interrogation with her firing off a barrage of questions about where my money was coming from, what I was doing in Canada, what my job was, etc. etc. It felt a lot like a time early in my life when I was caught with a fake ID in a casino and interrogated by two state police officers. Every other question was a previous question rephrased with words being put into my mouth. The call ended with her saying she'd get back to me. She called again later that night and only asked two questions, "Whose name is the account in that you're wiring to to the US?" and "Why are you wiring through us and paying fees instead of withdrawing directly through MoneyBookers to your US account?" I answered both truthfully and I haven't heard back since. I was expecting a call today saying they closed my account. If I make it past Monday without a call, I'm assuming I'm good otherwise I'll have to start using a different account.

Good luck to everyone in the rest of July.

June in the Record Books

It was an amazing month both in terms of money won and hands played. I shattered both of my previous records. I played a total of 325 hours or about ten hours a day. There were a lot of times where I didn't feel like playing and was way off my game but I mostly played lower limits during those times. The high limit games have really died down the last week or so. The first half of the month, there were several going every day and the last 7 or 10 days, it's been very slow. I'm hoping this is due to the main event. We'll see in a couple weeks.

I'm up to about 605K VPPs and need to average about 6250 a day for the rest of my time here to make SNE. I've been shooting for 7K a day since family will be visiting us up here and I won't be able to play as much during those days. Also it's possible I get sick or something unexpected comes up so it'd be nice to have a cushion going down the homestretch. I'm planning on leaving at the beginning of September and am really looking forward to taking a few months off and relaxing. I do intend on doing a lot of studying and work with HEM. I haven't been able to do that at all with all the hands I'm playing but I've been making a list of things I want to look it.

Good luck at the tables to everyone in July.

Fast Start to June

It's been a great month so far. I'm on pace for about a 130K month with bonuses which would be my best ever. Still a ways to go so hopefully I haven't jinxed myself. I have played a ton of hands, about 51K to this point. To put that in perspective, that's more than two hands per every minute of the month. I've run extremely well at 30-60 at 50-100 and have run at least a big bet above expectation for my last 50K hands at 50-100 so I feel very fortunate there.

The games continue to be sporadic, sometimes it's like pre-black Friday and other days there are very few games running. One minute I can be playing 6 tables of 5-10 and 10-20 and the next playing 5 tables of 30-60 and 50-100.

On the VPP front, I'm up to 505K and need to average about 6400 a day to make SNE by September 1st. It's going to be tough.