Momentum

Maybe I'm wired a bit differently. Well, OBVIOUSLY I'm wired differently in many arenas, when compared to others... But I don't seem to have quick recovery over vacationing. I seem to go through the motions because I know what I need to get done, but it seems recently that I've been working under a cloud. I wake up and find my way to my computer, and somehow start rolling games out. But to be honest, I'm not working efficiently. Months have gone by and I keep saying that I need to stick to a schedule. Sure, I've found minor success doing what I'm doing, but now I want to tweak it and take it to the next level. If I don't, I surely won't be around long.

My outlook seems clear: Work hard in MTSNGs to build a bankroll, while maintaining focus on the long term desire to be a MTT grinder. 45man SNGs seem tricky lately, as my records show little improvement. I seem to do better in 18man SNGs altogether, however I do not like the lack of breaks at 55 past the hour. Maybe I'll toy with moving around my 18man sets w/in my day. I figure I should be mainly focusing on my money maker: $12/180s. However, I realize the need for mixing things up a bit, especially being the way I'm wired. Maybe I can start my days with a $12/180 set. This will take some time to load up a big set, so in a way I'll be easing into my day. Maybe my 2nd set can be my 18man set and then I can see myself finishing out the day with one last set of $12/180s. This last set would also allow me to play a few of the evening MTTs, to close out my day.

Are you ready to see how Kyle Million did last month? Barely playing over 1k SNGs is a bit of a let down. If these numbers could remain similar while running 3k games, I'd be able to see the true potential of my future. I'd like to blame the lack of volume on yet another few weeks being eaten out of my month for traveling. Sure, I thought I'd be able to grind some while at tcarnage's place, but there was very little time that could be set aside for good grinding. Here's the tale of the tape:



MTTs went well for the month as well. I got deep in a few micros after getting back home. Nothing exciting or highly profitable, but I feel those deep runs are needed to encourage you to keep going. Oh ya, I did FT the FTP $30 1r1a on Oct 16th. I came into the FT w/ the chip lead, and I can't even remember what happened that had me going out 4th, but here's the screen shot of that:



Last weekend, I was feeling the urge to play some big games, so I used a Step 4 ticket to register into the Sunday Warm Up and used 13.5k FPPs and got into the Sunday Million as well. I ran deep in the Warm Up to the point where I wasn't putting too much care into the Million. Sure, one day I'll be able to juggle multiple high stakes MTTs, but honestly I'm not even close. I remember making a bad play and telling birddog about it, while we both laughed at the irony of the situation. I was doing too good in the Warm Up to give much care to anything else. Here's a screen shot of just how close it was:



Being as high as 8th in chips, with 211 to go, man was I feeling it!! It felt so good I want more of it! Retardedly, yesterday I went without sleeping the prior night, and after grinding out a few sets of 12/180s, I decided I'd try another Warm Up run. Yeah, I know... A bit silly to do w/out being 100% but I played well but went out 833 of 4747, with 675 paying. I knew I didn't have the stamina to play the entire day, so I registered in the early day $109 as well. With a strong field, with less satty players, I found myself out 368 of 1818, with 216 paying. Sure, I fell short of the goal, but I look at it as fuel to the fire.

Every time I get a stack or seem to be going deepish in a bigger tournament, I start envisioning my name being mentioned in the Pocket 5's Tournament Review. I know I'll get there, and now that I'm on track to strictly be playing $12/180s, I feel I'll get there sooner than later. I see other MTSNG grinders playing $12/180s along with their 18 and 45man sets. Even though I can manage, I feel I can make more per hour IF I don't overload my sets. Really, sets only start off slow, but as you get to 12/16/20 games, eventually you should be close to running optimal, without needing to load too many games to fill out the set. We'll try it for a month or so and see where we get. It might get to the point where I'll need to get more volume in for other reasons such as VPPs, but I know I can get in 100 games of $12/180s per day by starting a set and just letting it continuously load. As long as I have a break every hour, I can go for a long time. I'll probably run my first for 3 hours of registering, while allowing around 1 hour for the set to wind down.

At 100 games per day, we're talking $1200 in total expenses, so even if I get down to 20% ROI (lifetime I'm 35% over 937 games for $3958) I'll be looking at making over $200 per day. Over 20 scheduled days, we're talking $4k per month profit and I feel that's all on the low end. A couple things could happen, either I'll get so much data gathered from all the players in the 12/180s that I can adjust my play accordingly, OR the regulars will pick up on my game and I'll get called more in the late stages. The latter will only mean I'll then need to readjust to their adjustments. My concern is this has become a problem for me in 45man play. I have to be honest and say I just don't think I have what it takes to play those long term. And I definitely lose out the more games I put in my sets. Believe it or not, 18s seem more manageable, at least lately. It's funny, because I used to feel the opposite about 18s but I run with the data.

I had a talk w/ JackBileDuct about my playing fulltime. He felt I should be killing it by now and making $5k+ per month already. He was expecting me to say that I play X amount of games per day and run at $XX per hour. Because I'm trying out different things, different games and different buyins, I don't think I'm able to get firm data due to the smaller sample sizes. But after a few months now, I'm still afloat and I'm making progress each month. The more data that comes in, the more comfortable I feel with what I need to do to continue to succeed. After this month, if I can log another 1k games in the $12/180s, and maintain over a 20% ROI, I'll be one happy camper. I'm actually going to try to get 1k games in before this next Sunday. I've also turned from playing through the nights, to playing more a regular shift during the day. The higher MTSNGs just don't load enough at nights. Back in the $3-6 days there was plenty of action, but it's just one of the adjustments I'm willing to make. One last thing about adjustments, I just Sharkscoped some things and found my prior day off, Friday, was actually my most profitable (ROI) day of the week. Overall, it's also by biggest volume day, so the numbers aren't just hyped by a few wins. I'm now taking Mondays and Saturdays off. I'm -12% lifetime in SNGs on Saturdays so now I have a new day off. TBH, it'll be hard to NOT play any games on Mondays so I won't be too worried if I find myself working on those days too.

I almost forgot about a FT I made in the nightly $27.50 turbo on Stars. I took 4th for $1680. Here's the screen shot of that:



Have fun at the tables! I know I sure am.

Kyle Million

Pics from my Vegas Trip

My best run in came with Gavin Smith. My first weekend in Vegas, I was given 3 nights accomedations along with a free $500 entry into the poker/blackjack tournament. I ran into him prior to starting day one. The poker structure sucked, as expected, giving 5,000 chips with 100/200 blinds that never went up, within a 45 minute playing window. I was 2nd in chips until the last hand. I folded JTo, which ended up boating, while the 3rd placed player doubled up w/ AJo for Ace high.



I ran into Bryan "The Icon" Micon, at a Venetian $120 2nd chance nightly tournament. At the same table was Anthony Rapp, pictured below, famous for his roles in Dazed and Confused and Roadtrip.



Here's a picture of me hanging with the drummers from the Blue Man Group, along with an inset picture of me and one of the main guys.



And here's a picture of the rental car. Nothing too crazy, but much nicer than the economy rentals.



Here's me driving the strip at night. I'm keeping identities private for obvious reasons. I like this picture in the sense that I look all grown up. LOL



I don't have any pictures of Konrad and I hanging out during our trip. I do however have some videos that I captures from my iPod Nano. Video recording is a new feature, however I did not realize how sensitive the sound was, so I apologize in advance. WARNING, some of the videos have horribly loud sound!!

I'm home, but leaving soon

I got home and got some much needed sleep. I might have played a terrible set before arriving at my pillow. I might have even donked off $485 ($85 was the working profit) at a $2/4 NLHE full ring game. I'll give the excuse of thinking he was bluffing a draw versus my pair of aces with kicker troubles. One day I'll believe people until I have a reason to feel otherwise. But that's all good when you're Kyle Million. The next day I woke up and played some MTTs, hoping to score before I got into my true 18 and 45 man MTSNG grinding. I even played the $50 + 5, 1 rebuy, 1 add-on, MTT and got to an early point where I gambled with an OESD that I flopped, but hesitated by making move on the turn. The river didn't help, so I was left with 30... THIRTY chips, and then proceeded to TAKE IT DOWN!!! Yup, I found myself heads up, with roughly a 5 to 3 lead. $4600ish for 2nd, $7200ish for 1st. I decided to talk about a chop, and secured $6200 while leaving $157.50 for the winner. And I took that down too.



Positive energy FOR THE WIN! I gotta say, that trip helped me remember to stay positive. By trying to stay in that mood, you can't help but be more decisive with your actions and you end up not second guessing yourself. I've read you should go with your first instinct in poker. But I've also heard to think it out and replay the hand and bring in any other tells possible. Well, what happens when you have your initial reaction before replaying the hand in your head? Obviously it's possible to come up with a different answer. Then what?

So yesterday I accomplished a goal: I achieved Platinum Star. w00t! I know it's really not that big of a deal, but it meant something to me. I went on a 2 week vacation... I moved up in stakes, and still didn't hurt myself (yet!) The last 2 hour window I needed 223 VPPs, which equates to 46 games at the $12/45 and/or $16/18 level. However, I included any 18 or 45man up to $38 last night. I ran 32 games at once, for the most expensive set I've ever done. Half the games were $27s and $38s, so I was obviously stretching the bankroll out a bit to hit this silly goal. I've been a very busy man, and yet I still happened to hit that 7,500 VPPs. Now that I'm playing higher stakes, what happens if I can do 25,000 VPPs for the last 3 months of the year? Get this... I'd be Supernova! I've already got the goal to be Supernova in 2010, before the WSOP, but still this is mildly attainable. If I can crank out 3,000 games a month (which should be possible since Vers does like 6k? insano!) then it's looking possible.

Well, we'll see. I still have one more vacation lined up. I'm heading off to Las Vegas for a bit. I've booked the next 2 weekends with Golden Nugget. They've comped me for 3 nights and entry into their $80,000 Wheelin' & Dealin' Blackjack and Poker Tournament, running October 2 - 4, 2009. It's a $500 entry, with both tournaments offering a seperate prize pool with $20k to the winner of each. Should be hilarious to see the horrible structure. Then the next weekend I've booked another 3 free nights and their giving me a $500 VISA card! Sick huh? I'll also be staying at tcarnage's while not at the hotel. I'll be able to grind online while there, and hang out with another cool poker player so I can imagine some fun times along with the occasional cash game and pit run. The Venetian runs daily tournaments at Noon and 7pm, so I'm sure you can find me there many nights.

Once this trip is over, I'll be happy to get back home. Even now, it feels so good lounging around in my robe, procrastinating the day's chores. I need food soon, and I've also got a mission to return a busted travel bag. Good thing I kept the receipt! I'm looking for a better quality bag, for sure. I also feel I need some new shirts. Dressier shirts though. I might even get a sports coat cuz I wanna feel like money when I'm in Vegas! I tried getting a Hugo Boss jacket that Bond18 recommended, but Dillard's doesn't carry them. They had this rad looking Ralph Lauren jacket though, so I might pick that up. I'm way to lazy to go to anything outside of Tucson Mall right now, but a few weeks have passed... Maybe now they'll have more Hugo in their store.

Well, I guess I gotta get a shower going. I'll check in, with another blog entry, when I'm in Las Vegas. I was going to get spy camera so I could take video of me returning the busted bag. But again, I'm lazy by nature and the task of buying said spy camera never was accomplished.

Have fun at the tables.

Kyle Million

Hi Suckout City

Greetings from Florida!! Well, I've got just a few more days in the panhandle state. Last night Kwamie took me up to "Club 52", the local poker room, which sits above the Melbourne (dog) Race Track. The room itself is pretty huge, with a bar smack dab in the middle. There were a ton of tables NOT being used, but there were about 10 tables running at near full capacity. They spread 1/2-2/4 Limit, along with 1/2-5/10 NLHE. I didn't hear of any other game types being played, but here's the kicker: $100 max buy-in for ALL tables. Imagine playing 5/10, and starting with 10 big blinds. I didn't even want to entertain my inner degen.

Instead, Kwamie wanted to take this opportunity to sit at the same table as your's truly and watch me in action. On the ride over he said, "When you make it big, and on TV (obv WPT Final Table, or WSOP) I can look back at this memory and say that I played at the same table as Kyle Million!" I'm nobody special, that's for sure, but I do have ambition and drive. I'd love nothing more than to use poker as a means to establishing my dream business: A restaurant/club/weekend wedding ceremony establishment. We live in America people (most of my readers, anyways) and dreams come true. This is the land of the free (somewhat), and the home of the brave (most def!) We truly can do anything we put our minds too. John Ritter once said, "Where there's a will, there's a way!" I believe that. I truly believe we think/act/speak things into fruition. That's why I try to stay positive. If we dwell on the negative things in life, more negative things will surface. Garbage in, garbage out.

I've never seen so many people wrapped around the idea of a Badbeat Jackpot. Everyone limps into hands (we're talking NO LIMIT here folks) with an array of junk starting hands. All they talk about is that damn Jackpot. One guy comes to the table, thinks he's being dealt in the hand and when realizing he was skipped, he starts berating the dealer and making a stink by saying, "You're glad we didn't hit the Jackpot, otherwise I woulda been making a fuss." Excuse me sir, but it's not our fault you were busy chumming it up with others as you moved from the limit game to our table. See, he was all excited about winning 3 pots in a row at 2/4 Limit, and apparently breaking up the table. So while he was gloating to people at another table along the way, he didn't really hear accurately what the dealer was saying. The prior Badbeat Jackpot was hit some 8 months ago, and yet they care sooo much about not missing action. Obviously, this can only be good for those seriously there to grind and make a true profit... However, those types are far a few between from the action I saw while there. Again, I'm no pro (not yet, anyways) but sheesh these guys are were easy pickens.

If you scroll through the Youtube playlist above, you will see some more videos of my stay in Florida. Last Saturday, we went on a chartered deep sea fishing trip. There's a video of Kwamie messing with a baby octopus that someone on our boat caught. There's also a video of a Mahi (dolphin) fish being hooked into the boat and flopping around. Personally, I caught a sea bass while Kwamie reeled in a trigger fish and a mangrove snapper. It was an awesome trip even though we returned to port while it was sprinkling a little. The weather held up great though, however the overcast probably cost us better fishing. It wasn't a trip about the fish though... It was about two brothers hanging out and enjoying each others' company. Kwamie's shoulder was acting up and he was in pain for a good portion of the trip, but he held up great and we had a blast. Here's a picture of the coolest deck hand in the world, stringing up the day's catch (along w/ a few red snappers, you can see a baby shark that someone caught, lying on the table. Also, my sea bass is hiding on the table at the far right.):



A bonus picture of Kwamie holding the octopus:



I've eaten so much Publix fried chicken, it's unreal. I'm not sure I've gained much weight though, as I'm not drinking anymore and only eating twice a day at best. I know my metabolism would do worlds of good if I could manage to eat 4 to 5 times a day, but I digress. I'll get there eventually, along with getting back to working out at LA Fitness. So last night, after poker, we had a great Win-Win gameplan. If I won, I'd get some Publix fried chicken in celebration. If I lost, I'd get some Publix fried chicken to cheer me up. w00t!! Well, I'm happy to report I scraped a $75 profit while working less than three hours at Club 52. We left around 8:30pm, while eye-balling our clocks to make sure we made it to Publix before their closing time of 9pm.

We pull up right as they are about to close the doors, I run in, and rush over to the deli station. They had one box of chicken that was set up to sell individually. My suspensions were that the workers were eye-ballin' the chicken to take home. The reason I say this is they are proud of the fact that they throw away their chicken at the end of the night. Keeps their image of "fresh fried chicken" in tact. However, as I'm trying to buy this chicken, the lady behind the counter acts like it's impossible to buy it from her (it wasn't packaged and ready to go like it normally is.) She says they have pieced out chicken that I'd have to buy at separate piece pricing... FINE WITH ME!!! Then out of nowhere she had to go ask her manager if she could sell it that way. Um, I thought you just explained how I could purchase said chicken, why the big fuss? Eventually, Dana, this sweet old lady who came from a back room (I'm pretty sure it led to Heaven, cuz she was a Godsend) packaged up my chicken, 6 piece (they sell 8 pieces, pretty standard) along w/ 2 chicken strip tenders, without any delay. Bam, what do you know... An 8 piece!! Anyways, the drama I'm willing to go through for Publix chicken. I'd climb mountains for this stuff, and you should know by my large stature that that's pretty impossible w/out the right motivation. Last time I came to Florida, July of 2006, I thought it was SO important that I got a picture taken:



Uh... Yeah, that's the kind of dork I am. But honestly, you all should know this by now. And to think, you still come back for more! So it must not be that bad, LOL. As much fun as I've had on my trip to the east coast, I'm ready to come home. I miss my normal, day to day, grind. I miss normalcy and all that comes with my basic life. It takes trips like this to put life in perspective and reiterate what is important in life. I can't grind 18 & 45 man SNGs while I'm here. I've tried 2 sessions and failed miserably at both. I did make a final 3 table run in the $15k KO on FTP. The buy-in ($70 + $5) is over my normal entry, but I was doing pretty good in cash games and knowing I was only going to play a few tournies, it worked out great. I've picked up a new desire for cash games. Having Evan in the house, along with just being in someone else's environment, I found it easier to get into full ring cash games and just relax. I pulled up my results for time I've been here:



I've probably lost about that much just in SNGs on Stars, so I'm barely up for the trip. Somehow my bankroll has increased a few hundred dollars from the time I left Arizona, so good job me! I miscalculated how many games I'll need to reach Platinum this month. I'm going to need a bit over 500 games at my current level. I'm thinking if the first day goes well (hoping to get 150 games in, when I get back to AZ) I'll be able to play the last day of the month at the $27/45 level. By cranking out another day of 120-150 games, I should be there... Along with getting my deposit bonus cleared, this month is shaping up to be a decent month, considering the trip and the fact that I'm still early in my "true" development.

I almost forgot... Sunday we went to Beef O'Bradys for the AZ Cardinals/Jax Jaguars game due to the blackout (if they don't sell enough tickets they black out the local broadcasting.) We figured Direct TV wouldn't fail us, as Beefs has the Sunday Ticket, however they also blacked out the game to everyone in Florida. What a stupid price to pay, given that Jacksonville sold 17,000 less season tickets this year. Kwamie has all but given up on his Jaguars, and I can't blame him. He's not gonna see one game this season, unless it's on the road and the stars align. Anyways, the wings were da bomb!! I went with the standard medium heat, honey and fresh crushed garlic. Evan had a blast and was able to hoot and holler amongst all the other rabid fans. I think he found his element. I'll leave you with a few more pictures:





Have fun at the tables!

Kyle Million

East Coast Travels

Hi everyone! How we all doing? I just wrapped up a nice trip to Atlantic City. The gambling hit within my budget to lose, and yes I did just that. We DID have 3 out of 5 crew members hitting the final table of Taj Majal's midnight tournament the first night. birddog2631 took 5th, I took 4th (as you'll hear me recount "The Hand" 8 times too many in the below video,) while chipolino went on to chop heads up. Here is a video, cut into 3 parts (just click the arrow on right to see next one in series):



I had a great time hanging out with everyone. The group was small enough where I didn't end up feeling like I missed an opportunity to hang out with anyone. When we went to Las Vegas in the summer, I regret not spending more time w/ most of the guys, especially mattyd86 and postbanken. Vegas was soooo big, and so many of us went, it just seemed like time went by too fast and everyone was spread out doing various things. This time around we mainly stuck close and did more things as a group.

We definitely went during a slow period. It could have been partly due to the economy, but most tourists show up during the weekends, NOT Monday thru Thursday. But it might have just been a blessing. With it so slow, they might just have needed our business enough for my loud personality to be tolerated. And boy did I ever put the staff of Taj Mahal's poker room to the task. I got cut off from drinks when we hit the final table of the midnight tournament Monday night/Tuesday morning. Scotch on the rocks were tasty and I was working the drunk loud guy to perfection. Fortunately, I was able to control playing too many hands and each time I had a good portion of my chips in the pot, I was ahead. I guess the new Kyle Million, being tight, spilled over into my live play as well. Tuesday night I got to the final 20 or so players, after spending all night being the EXACT OPPOSITE of the night before. The contrast was pretty sick: instead of causing a ruckus and being loud, I was as quiet as a mouse w/ my iPod loud enough to tune out if needed, but still able to hear the table banter.

I didn't get around to eating that 6lb. lobster at Dock's Oyster bar. Time just didn't permit, but luckily birddog and I ate lunch Wednesday at Metropolitan w/in the Borgata. I had a bowl of the best clam chowder I've ever tasted, and we each ate a dozen Oysters and drank a few Sierra Nevada pints. I got a few sessions of craps in, and didn't pull money off the table at any point. A few hundred was lost in Blackjack and Three Card Poker, along with some up and downs in cash games (probably was in the red $300-$500 playing cash throughout the trip.) I played $1/2 NLHE and won at Tropicana but lost a bit more at Taj Mahal. But the Taj had $5/10 Limit Stud Hi only (wish H/L but w/e) and I got to rock that w/ quaid745 for a good amount. My first session was a quick $300 loss, but I came back later on to win $70 or so in the second session (after losing a $300 in NLHE, when quaid recommended the move over there cuz he felt I "had an edge"... obv not!) We finally left the cash games around 8-9am, for what amounted to a long stint. Here are some picks of Q-baller getting caught w/ egg on his face... LITERALLY! (followed by other pics of the trip in AC):



And now introducing the fellas that this trip was planned for, so we could meet them. Starting with Jakuta:



And now the one, the ONLY... birddog:



Chippy was in Vegas with us, but in case some don't know what he looks like:



I'll leave you with a bit of humor. I had horrible luggage left over from the marriage. I realized how bad the luggage had become, after the Vegas trip this summer. I decided I'd buy nicer luggage that would, supposedly, stand the test of time. I didn't want too many pieces, so I opted for a huge duffle bag I found at Sears made by Dockers. Originally $180, I paid $70 on super-sale!!! w00t (or so I thought) It's not like I over packed, in fact I had 5lbs to spare for the 50lb weight restriction per bag. Getting it out of the shuttle (from Philly airport to AC) I ripped one of the handle straps. I didn't pay much attention to it at the time, because I was already late 90min from having to wait for my shuttle, which I had a reservation for (nothing gets me mad more than missed expectations.) Deciding to limp it along into the room, and thereby throughing it under a table, it never received attention again until Thursday morning at 9am.

See, quaid and I had talked about shuttling back to Philly that morning, but I really didn't like the service so we thought we'd hop a ride back w/ birddog and Jakuta. Welp, birddog, Jakuta and I got back to the rooms about at about 8am and soon afterwards realized birddog was in no shape to drive. I realized I needed to wake quaid up and find out whether we'd be taxiing or calling the shuttle, if available on such short notice. I woke quaid up at 9am, called the shuttle, and the only spot that made sure quaid made his flight in time required us to be picked up at 9:45am. This all being done in haste and with both of us still needing to pack up and shower. I was drinking all night, and sweating like my normal beastly self, so I definitely needed to get in gear, and quick!!! When I started to pack up, I was reintroduced to my prior issue... However, it was not until then where I found out the zipper line was attached to the same stitching as the handle. My zippers had fallen off the track completely and obv this isn't like a coat you can just fix... I was left w/ my main compartment exposed w/out closure. Being too big to carry on, I was faced w/ having to check it in while not knowing how to secure my goods. I thought about buying 100 safety pins, but wasn't sure if that'd work out. Suddenly, my inner-ghetto came through with a BRILLIANT idea:



Concierge + duct tape = WIN!! Anytime you get in a pinch at a hotel, call the Concierge, they probably have something to help you, along w/ helping you plan fun activities and w/e normal people use them for. Okay, another trip report is coming up soon. I'm in Florida right now. If you feel you can't wait, you can see the other videos by "AZBiggun" on Youtube for some teasers as to how I'm spending the rest of my vacation. I'll keep in touch!

Have fun at the tables! (I hear FTOPS is gonna get worked by our Skype crew wUtWuT)

Kyle Million (aka AZBiggun, aka Uncle Biggun)

Everyday Normal Guy

First off, I wanna give a shout out to a long time blog reader of mine: "biakkax" on PokerStars. Last night I wrapped up my SNG set and didn't want to go to bed quite yet so tcarnage mentioned we should get into a HORSE SNG. Instead, we got in some cash games. We started off at $1/2 Omaha H/L Fixed Limit. birddog2631 joined us and on the side got into a $2/4 HORSE game that tcarnage and I eventually crawled over too. That's where I met biakkax. He seemed like a nice fellow, sharing that he was a stow away from the BurnleyMik blog. BurnleyMik, if you still read: HELLO SIR!!! biakkax was witness to haters at the table calling me, basically a POS. I had to explain that this was my "fun game" and I was a rookie to HORSE strategy, even though I made $160 overall from both tables. One of the haters actually checked out the blog and seemed to cool down after stopping by Suckout City. I guess he realized I was just a regular Everyday Normal Guy!!!

Which brings me to a great find, Jon Lajoie. I wish I could say I've been down from the get down, but hey I became a fan after 3 seconds of watching. Suckout City is proud to give props to Jon Lajoie, a comedic MC:



"... And I'm pretty good at making paper planes!" LMAO Here is the first video I saw of his:



But seriously? This next one is the BEST!!! THE BEST DAMN VIDEO/SONG ON THE INTERNET...EVER!



Knock, knock... Who's there?
It's me... Wondering why you're not naked?
Knock, knock... Who's there?
It's me again... Still wondering why you're not naked?

ROTFLMAO. This guy is a comedic genius. I'd highly recommend scoping out the various videos on his channel, including Michael Jackson is Dead, Sunday Afternoon and Everyday Normal Crew.

On the poker front, I didn't get to play that many SNGs this month. I was sick for 2 weeks, and still have a bit of a Strep Throat Hangover today. It took me a week of throwing up before I went to the ER, on Monday. From there they ran a slew of tests, making sure my appendix and gull bladder were okay. Years after hearing this for the first time, again another doctor mentioned concern for my liver enzyme levels. I didn't even consider myself a drinker these days, but apparently I haven't shaken this bad liver issue. So now, until I can figure out how to better this, I'll be cutting extremely down on drinking. I feel limiting my drinking to when I'm traveling and visiting friends will help my liver in the long run. I don't think I need to quit alcohol all together, and yes I'm a bit selfish in my planning since I'm leaving next month to Atlantic City and want to have a few drinks with birddog2631 and the crew.

Yup, next month I'm meeting a few peeps in Atlantic City for some good times. birddog2631, Jakuta and quaid745 will be making this trip. Since birddog and Jakuta missed out on meeting us during our Las Vegas trip a few months back, quaid and I wanted to come visit them. I don't mind another excuse to travel and gamble it up w/ the fellas. After I leave Atlantic City, I'm going to fly out to Orlando, Florida and visit my best friend Kwamie! Madden 2010 just came out so we'll be playing a good amount of that along with doing some fishing. We're even planning a Saturday morning trip to go deep sea fishing and renting a charter boat. Should be seriously good times.

I have around 120 games to go, at $12+ levels, to hit Gold Star. I wish I could have put in a lot more volume, because at the rate I was going ($.97 per game) I could have achieved my profit goal for the month. Deciding to put a bit more money online, I'm now rolled to play $12/45s and $16/18s. To be honest, I never thought I'd be good at 18 man SNGs but something has clicked in my game recently. My confidence is high and I'm making a steady move upward in my SNG play. Chipolino was right, you just gotta push through and eventually you'll see light again. And the whole time you're going through your break even and downward spirals, you're learning, you're getting better, and hopefully you're able to take better notes and adjust to the regulars. This happened for me, and I can only hope it continues. I won't mind break even spots in the future because I know how easy it is to get sucked into the negative mindset. Instead, I've been positive through this entire process and am starting to reap some rewards.

Next month will basically be cut in half with my travels. So my goals will be:

- Maintain GoldStar (should be easy now that I'm in higher buy-ins)
- Play 1,000 games (this would be 5K VPP, 2,500 away from Platinum)
- Make $1/game to get to my $1k for the month profit goal.
- Finish watching Tigerbalm's videos on SitNGoGrinders.
- Plug leaks in my push/fold using SNG Wizard.

I think all of these goals are doable, and with being so close to Platinum, I might find time to put in some more volume, but we'll keep it reasonable for now. Below is my PokerTracker 3 graph for the month. I should be able to rock out another $150 profit with the remaining games I need to play for the month.



Have fun at the tables!

Kyle Million

I'm a start this out with a...

BING BLANG BLAOW!!!



I pay tribute to the classic:



That video and/or song (yeah, you can download it here: Link is on their YouTube video. I mean, it's on my iPod for fuque sakes. This post celebrates my getting my final check. Oh yeah baby, it's on now! I'm giving myself 6 months. I'll go back to work if I need to. But right now... This shit right now? This shit is to finalize my past.

Finalizing my divorce and completely separating from that has been tough. It took a bit over a year, and I'm sure I'll have lingering effects for some time to come. But I feel as if my life ready to begin, fresh, with a new start. I'm talented in many arenas and have what it takes to be successful in anything I do in life.

That being said, I will live and play these next 6 months without fear. For I know it's not the end of the world if I don't succeed. However, I will come out a better person and more than likely I'll be able to continue living a dream.

Have fun at the tables!

Kyle Million

Playing tournaments is fun

The Pièce de résistance (kids getting old ladies to say this):



And now Danger Doom's song "Sofa King":