Broken Ass, and Some Swings

Well it took me about a week to have my first snowboarding injury.  We had been watching X-Games on ESPN2 all week, and seeing these guys easily pull off jumps and grinds, I couldn't wait to get out there and try some of it myself.  We headed out the part of the mountain that had a park run, and I tried to grind a box near the top of the run.  Now, any snowboard instructor would likely tell a beginner/intermediate snowboarder to just do a normal 50-50 grind, where you simply ollie onto the box and keep the board parallel to the grind.  However, since "everything I do, I do it big" I went for a rock-n-roll grind where we come in normal, and do a partial spin in midair before landing, and then ride down the box with the board perpendicular to the rail.  Ok you probably aren't following this, so I will help.

What I should have done...

What I tried to do...

What ended up happening...

Ok, so it wasn't exactly like that.  But, midair I kind of forgot to put the board on the box, so I ended up landing completely on my lower back / butt on top of the box.  Not the worst injury, but it's 2 days later now and sitting still isn't the most fun thing to do.   Anyway, we got our first storm last night and it's still snowing now, so the mountain is likely awesome.  I don't think 1 little broken ass cheek is gonna keep me off the mountain today!

Oh, and I finally took a couple pictures of the place to show everyone.  It's pretty much always a mess as 4 constantly drunken poker players have trouble keeping a place clean, (see Vegas blogs from last Summer) but I figured ya'll would wanna check it out anyway.

The living room work area.  Real chairs on the way!

More of the living room, and our busto PS3.

Kitchen!  Probably the cleanest it'll be the whole trip.

Hot tub on da porch.

View from the balcony.

My master bedroom.

And since it stormed last night, I took another balcony picture this morning...

Looks like we got a bunch of inches, but I have no idea how many.  Hopefully there's some powder out there today when we finally make it out.  The rest of the house ended up going out and getting trashed at the club last night, but I had had a long day and lost a bunch and wasn't really in the partying mood so I stayed in.  But looking around right now I see a bunch of drunken passed out people, so who knows if a ski day is on the horizon.

As for poker, January is just about wrapped up and my results have been decent.  I made a bunch online before PCA, lost a ton at PCA, and was up a lot out here in Tahoe before a pretty brutal day yesterday.  It seems when things go wrong, they usually go wrong in clumps, and almost always at the high stakes of the mix I am playing (5/10 or 10/20).  I guess it's just part of what comes with mixing stakes, but it hurts to win a flip for $200 and then lose a 80/20 for $1k a few seconds later.  And then lose a flip at 5/10, and then get set under setted at 5/10, and then tilt happens and suddenly I'm down nearly 5 figures and breaking things seems like a viable plan.  Maybe I should try this out everytime I lose a couple of stacks in succession and begin to feel the blood boiling.

CALLLLMMMMMMMM!


Hopefully I can get a bunch of hands in today as the games have seemed incredibly good the past few days, possibly as a result of Poker Stars announcing the death of the 20-50bb tables on Feb 10th.  I realize you non-poker folk have no freaking clue what I'm talking about here, but basically it's a good change as it keep certain players from exploiting the game in ways that it was never designed to be played.  So hopefully I can get back on track and pump out some big profits in the upcoming months!

As for the rest of this week, I'm headed back to Atlanta on either Tuesday or Wednesday, as I have to get a few things done back home, and want to see the parents and some friends.   And my birthday is on Thursday so I'll be heading out around town with a bunch of people and hopefully won't remember any of it on Friday. I guess I'll be close to an old fart in the online poker world turning 23 and all.

Till next time,
- notontilt

Gettin' settled in Tahoe, about to become famous video maker for internets

I think the title just about says it all.  We've been out here for about a week now, but haven't really gotten into too many shenanigans.  Speedle's a bit upset as we've only gone out and gotten wasted once, but he'll get his wish soon enough.

Interesting sidenote, Speedle was unable to finish the shot of vodka in this restaurant and had to be helped out by the one and only BLAABAR.  Somehow, he was then cutoff from drinking the poker room before he even had 1 drink.  Well done sir.

Besides for that night the rest of the days have been pretty much the same.  Wake up, go out for breakfast, lose credit card roulette and have to pay for everyone's meals, hit the slopes for a couple hours, then come home and grind for a couple more hours.  After a pretty bad start to the month losing about 10k online out here, I've turned it around and am now up somewhere near that amount.  Which is good, because we can't stop buying stuff for the house out here, so I need to win or I'll likely have to come home soon and live with the parents.  Kidding, maybe...

A couple nights ago we went out to the nice sushi place in town called Naked Fish, which was absolutely amazing.  I don't think it's the same as the Naked Fish in Las Vegas, but I think I liked this one even better.

Even with some awesome appetizers, we still managed to devour that plate pretty quickly.  Even better than the food was the fact that I actually didn't have to pay for the meal this time.  Speedle won the honors of paying for this one, and it was the biggest bill of the trip so far.  I'm ballparking here, but I think this is breakdown of who's payed for meals so far...

Me: 5
Speedle: 2
Ryanmack: 1
Dmitri: 0

Very rigged!

Yesterday, Speedle finally bought some warm clothes and made it out onto the mountain for the first time.  He'd never seen snow 7 days ago and now he was stomping into a set of skis and getting ready to hit up some black diamonds.  Ok, I'm kidding a bit there, he was on the bunny slope the whole day.  And it was ugly :).   After a few hours of failing there, he resorted to pounding a brewski and waiting for us to finish up on the slopes.  I think we're gonna try and put him on a snowboard today, so hopefully that works out better and I have another boarder to hang out with as the other two guys in the house both ski.

Some Speedle pics:

He's looking very pro in the gear however.  Dmitri is the one in black doing circles around speedlebot.  I'm finally starting to really feel comfortable on my board now too, which is great.  I think we've hit every run on Heavenly that's been open in the last week (lack of snow and 50 degree days have iced up some of the double diamonds) and have been getting better everyday.  We went to the park run the other day and I failed pretty miserably, so hitting some boxes, rails, and jumps is next on the agenda.  Hopefully I can spend some less time on the ground this time!

Well that's about it for the Tahoe stuff.

In other news, I'm about to start my first video series for Pokernews Strategy.  The team of pros with PNS is absolutely amazing, and I've had the chance to meet a couple of them which was definitely a blast.  I may have almost killed nanonoko when I turned the wrong way down a one way highway with him in the back, but I think we're cool.  If not then I may have an internet legend out to get me!

But back to my videos.  I'll likely be putting out about 2-4 videos in the next week or two, likely at micro or small stakes full ring.  Ideally I'd like to avoid making them over 200nl as I don't really want to give away a ton of my thought process to the small group of regulars that I play with everyday, but as long as I stay below 400nl for now I don't think that'll be much of a problem.

If I get bored making the videos by myself, I may try and see if someone would be interested in having me sweat them for a video or possibly get a collection of hands from a bunch of players to analyze.  In my past video making experience, things can be pretty dull if no interesting spots come up for an hour, so hopefully I can find a way to make these interesting and watchable.

If you aren't already a member at Pokernews Strategy, I'd definitely recommend heading over there.  I've already listed one of the big name pros, but there are tons more, and soon I'll have videos up there as well.  Although most of these guys have made close to 10x more than me in their poker careers, so if you just want to watch their videos I won't be too disappointed.  Here's the link to check it out...

Pokernews Strategy

And now I must decide if I want to go boarding before poker, or vice versa.  It's a rough life right now :)

- Daniel

World Blogger Championship

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker! The WBCOOP is a free online Poker tournament open to all Bloggers, so register on WBCOOP to play.
Registration code: XXXXXX 754916

Who knows, maybe I'll win a tournament now!


- Dan

PCA Shenanigans - First Days in Tahoe

Hello world, it's been a while, and a ton has happened.  This might get long so I'll try and throw in a picture here and there to keep you occupied.  As I write this, I'm just chilling in the master bedroom of our Tahoe house (yeah, that was a nice flip to win), and watching the 3 roomates grinding it out downstairs.  Unfortunately I lost a boatload already today, so I figured I'd take a break and write some stuff and get my mind off poker.

PCA:

I left Atlanta and headed down to the Bahamas on January 7th with my stepbrother Jerel.  At the Atlanta airport I happened to be sitting next to another Supernova Elite from Atlanta 'king10clubs', who I'd tried in the past to meet up with but never could get our schedules to work out.  Nice guy, although he went to that shitty school in Georgia.  The plane ride down was hilarious, as probably 75% of the passengers were young internet poker players.  Kathy Liebert was on the plane down seated a few rows ahead of me.  Should you care, eh not really, but I thought I'd give her a shoutout.

We arrived in the Bahamas, and took an hour shuttle ride to the Atlantis resort.  The drivers were out of their damn minds down there.  If you weren't laying on the horn, you were doing something wrong.  There were about 10 passengers in the cab with us, and all of them got out at the Royal towers, where most of the PokerStars rooms were for the tournament.  Fortunately, being a SNE, Stars put me up in the Cove suites, which were isolated from the rest of the resort.  When we told the driver where we were staying, he asked how many millions we had brought to gamble with.  I felt like a boss, he probably just wanted a bigger tip.

The room was cool, here's some pics to prove it.

Those don't really do the room justice.  The bathroom was bigger than some hotel rooms I've stayed in, and the room itself was great.  It also had a pretty nice view from the balcony...

That day I went down the registration desk and was given something truly awesome.  It certainly made my entire grind last year worth it.  See, I give them over $200,000 in rake, and they give me a cool black card with my name on it!!!

We ended up meeting up with a bunch of guys that night who I play against nearly every day, but have never gotten the chance to meet in real life.  I didn't get too belligerent as the $10k main event was starting the next day, but we pounded some Bahamas style brewskis called Kalik and played a bit of live poker.  I think this was the night I was playing poker with internet legend MeleaB, who after finally beating me in a pot ripped his shirt off and starting singing and dancing at the table.  The floor told him to please keep in down, and he simply asked the lady "do you like it when I rub my nipples?"  I wasn't too interested in getting a shirtless pic, but I did get one of him staring down a player very intently.

And I found this picture of me and the stepbro.  Don't we look alike?

The main event started the next day.  My only previous $10,000 buy-in event was the WSOP main event last year, which went terribly and I busted about 2 hours in.  I was determined not to blowup in what was sure to be a pretty soft field with a $2.3 million dollar payday for first.  I really don't love writing about actual poker hands, and I know they are boring as hell to read, so I won't go into much detail here.

We started with t30k chips.  I played a lot of pots because I was bored and I wasn't getting free drinks at the table.  Hoyt Corkins was 2 seats to my left the entire first day, so there were cameras all over our table.  He's a real nice guy from Alabama who folds a lot.  About 6 hours into the day I opened KK and he 3 bet from the button.  I 4 bet to about t10,500 and we were both about t50,000 deep.  He tanked for about 10 minutes and finally folded what he told me to be AQ at the end of the day.  That was about the only time we tangled.  Hoyt, if you read this, you defend your big blind too light my friend.  That really can't be optimal.  Luckily you box and weak players just pay you off because you are a legend and are always on TV!

Near the end of the day I was up to about t90,000 in chips.  I got QQ all in pre against JT for 40k each, but the board ran out KQJ9x and I ended the day with t50,000.  Had I won this pot I would have had a really great stack headed to Day 2, but instead I was in the bottom half of the remaining field.

I had the next day off, so we layed by the pool and drank a bunch of Kaliks.  I was also introduced to the official mixed drink of the resort which was called the Goombay Smash.  Very simply it's a lot of Bacardi 151, some coconut rum, and pineapple juice.  You don't taste anything but the pineapple so inevitably you end up passed out on the floor somewhere yelling GOOOOOOMBAY.  Yes, I did this multiple times.

Day 2 started rather poorly.  I was in a few bad spots and was down to about 20k in chips from the 50k I started the day with.  I stole my way back to about 30k, and then at 1k/2k blinds I looked down at KK after an open to 5k from early position.  I jammed it all in there and he quickly called with AA.  It was nice, confrming my suspicion that live poker is rigged, and I was out in around 400th place.  243 got paid so I got a whopping $0.

The rest of the trip was a bit of a blur.  Jerel went home and my buddy Rob from college came down for the last week or so.  We drank... a lot.  I ended up losing about $10k more in random cash games and pit games.  I also bubbled a $1k 6max tourney where 40 got paid and I finished 43rd.

The highlight of the trip was probably playing a ton of poker with Sergio Garcia.  He was down playing the event, but busted late on day 1.  For the rest of the 10 days, he was constantly in the poker room playing $100 sng's and random cash games.  One night, I drunkenly hollered at him to play a hand for me.  We got to the river with about $500 in the pot before he whispered in my ear "Why do I have 4 cards."  Apparently Sergio's not up on his Omaha.  But we talked some golf, and some poker, and he seems like a good guy.  He gave me a butt pat when I lost a sit n go we were playing together, and I haven't washed that cheek since.

We went out and had nice dinners a few nights.  I wasn't really impressed with the Nobu at the resort.  It seemed ridiculously expensive and I definitely had better food at the Nobu in Vegas last summer.  Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill was amazing, and I'll definitely be eating there a ton assuming I'm back next year.  I think I had some sort of seared tuna which was out of this world.  The final day we went off the resort and tried to get some real Bahamas food.  Unfortunately, the meal took about 2 hours as the wait staff really doesn't care about the customers because a 15% tip is already included in every meal.  And the food was pretty bad, I remember both myself and Rob feeling pretty terrible the rest of the day.

The next day we flew home.  Verne Troyer aka Mini Me was in the front seat of the plane back to Atlanta.  I thought about shaking his hand, but figured that it probably would give me nightmares as he's a real small guy, and I have bad experiences with people with small hands (boy, I hope she reads this blog).  We got back in pretty late, and I spent 2 hours looking for my car in the parking lot because my phone was dead and I forgot where I had parked.

All in all it was a good trip.  It was pretty poor financially speaking, but I had a ton of fun and got to meet a lot of people that I had been dying to know more about besides a little picture and a poker name.  Assuming I get SNE again this year, I'll definitely be down again for PCA 2012.

Back in ATL for a few days...


I had 3 days in Atlanta before my flight to Tahoe, and I was all pokered out from the PCA, so I got some relaxing in.  I spend a day or 2 moving all my crap into storage and only managed to break one table, which was glass, and shattered all over my arm.  It felt nice.  About a week before I went down the Bahamas I had met a really great girl named Sydnee, so we went out the couple nights I was back in town.  Sorry I don't have any cool pictures of us diving out of planes or anything, but here's the best I can do.

Look, we got matching milkshakes.  Isn't that cute?  You're damn straight it's cute.  Very cute.  Unfortunately I had to leave for Tahoe pretty abruptly, but hopefully things will work out for the best.

The last night I was in Atlanta, I left Sydnee's place around midnight to head home and pack for the trip.  Yep, I'm very organized.  I went to parking lot and my car was gone.  I figured it had been stolen as there had been a murder at the Apt. complex a few weeks earlier.  But as it turns out it was simply towed away at 10:30pm, which I still don't really understand.  So there I was, in Atlanta, with no car, haven't packed for my 3 month trip, flight to catch in < 12 hours.  Many would just call in quits right there, but luckily I have some great friends who are on weird sleep schedules.  My good buddy Mike and his gf Bailey (CyOswalt and TennePenne) for you internet poker players out there, picked me up and took me to the towing place.

Midtown Towing in Atlanta is probably better described by one word: crackhouse.  It was scary.  There was a little shed and two guys were asleep inside cuddling.  In the main office 3 or 4 people were asleep.  Somehow I managed to get my car back from this disaster zone and only had to pay $150.  I flew home and didn't even get to sleep, but I packed everything up and made my flight with about 30 minutes to spare.

Tahoe


I've been out here for 2 days now.  I met Ryan at the airport as we had planned, but Speedle and Dmitri were late for some reason.  It turns out someone on their flight from London to LAX had a heart attack, and the plane was diverted to Canada.  They ended up getting in the next day and took a shuttle down to South Lake Tahoe where we picked them up.

I went out and spent a ton of money on a snowboard and boots, and a bunch of random gear that the people in the store told me was necessary.  I think the coolest thing I got was a helmet with built in headphones.  I haven't tried that out yet, but I'm looking forward to it tomorrow.  Awww who am I kidding, the coolest thing I got was definitely this...

Yep, it's green, it's sexy, and I cuddle with it at night.  Ryan and I went out and checked out some of the runs while Speedle and Dmitri got settled and we had an absolute blast.  It was about 50 degrees out and sunny, and I ended up just wearing a thin long sleeve shirt and pants to go boarding.  It was amazing having a nice board and not being on rentals, turning was a breeze and I can't wait to get back out there.  Ryan managed to snap a picture of me with the mountain and lake behind.

It's nice out here.  I'm really looking forward to these 3 months now.  Everyone else seems to be having a good time as well (although they are all winning today, and I"m the big loser).  Here's some pictures of the crew from breakfast this morning.  We've got Speedle who has no warm clothes and stands out as clearly not being from this country, Dmitri and moustache, and Ryan lookin' like a bum.

Well, that ended up being super long, so I'm gonna go downstairs and drink a brewski with the gang.  Were headed out to check out the action at the casinos tonight, so hopefully things will go well!

Till next time
- Weinman

Trying out a widget thing...

This is cool.  Apparently it's a map of where all of my hits come from.  Now I can see who's stalking me from all over the world.

I'm moving out to Tahoe tomorrow and I've got a long day on planes so expect a big blog about what's been going on the first 3 weeks of the year.  I've been down in the Bahamas for PCA for most of the time, so I've got some cool pictures and stories to share.

- NOT

2010 Recap, 2011 Goals

2010 was a wild year for me, and now it's over.  If I had thought being a professional poker player would come with a lot of swings, I really had no idea.  The poker itself wasn't all that swingy until the end of the year, but my personal life was just a rollercoaster the entire year.  The highs were amazing and the lows were downright scary, but I ended the year in a pretty good place and I can't complain all that much.

So enough about my personal life, as most of you readers only know me by my online persona.  Here it is, the graph of all the hands I played online in 2010.

Combine that with the ~$115,000 value of Supernova Elite, a bunch of live play/tournaments where I actually ended up losing a good deal of money, and some staking/coaching deals through the year, and I'd consider 2010 poker to be a massive success.  My goal at the beginning of the year was to make $150k, and I definitely achieved it.

It's funny, I was out playing golf with a buddy of mine the other day (who apparently secretly reads my blog... what up Gricius) and he said, "You know, you probably made more than any other Georgia Tech grad from this past year."  While I'm not certain he's correct (there were a lot of incredibly intelligent people who graduated with me, and were looking to go into other fields besides engineering), it's interesting to think about.  Looking back I'm thrilled that I made the choice to pursue poker instead of engineering.  And it's not entirely about the money.  The money is certainly nice, but the lifestyle is also amazing.  The only thing I really don't like about what I do is the isolation.  It's one of the reasons I'm actively looking to get into something else, so that I actually get to interact with people on a daily basis.

So I met all of my goals for 2010, unfortunately when I look back I realize the only goals I had were poker related.  Therefore, most of my goals for 2011 will have nothing to do with poker.  So without further adieu...

2011 goals:

[ ] Enjoy life

[ ] Start working out regularly, put on 25 pounds by the end of the year

[ ] Eat healthier

[ ] Feel comfortable enough to snowboard on any mountain in the world after 3 months in Tahoe

[ ] Travel to 5 different countries

[ ] Volunteer as often as possible

[ ] Break par on the golf course

[ ] Win another ALTA city championship if I come back to Atlanta

[ ] Find something I want to learn and potentially go back to school

[ ] Learn the basics of trading stocks, options, bonds 

[ ] $200k profit from poker

[ ] Cash a $10k tourney (planning on playing at least 3)

So that's about it.  I don't feel that any of these goals are ridiculous to expect, and so I hope to achieve all of them.

Good luck and Happy New Year to everyone, and best of luck in making 2011 a year to remember!

- Dan

So you wanna go for Supernova Elite...

I've had a lot of people ask me what it takes to make Supernova Elite (henceforth referred to as SNE), so I'll try and write something up to outline just about everything you need to know before you take on the beast.  I'll also try and give some pointers out to SNE hopefuls based on everything I went through this year in achieving SNE.  Yes, that is a not so subtle brag, but I feel I've earned that right.


First, a little overview of all the benefits you'll be receiving if you make it all the way to SNE.  


Milestone Bonuses:  $30,800
Tournament Packages: $18,000 - $30,400
WCOOP Main Event: $5,200
Frequent Player Point Value: $48,700 - $74,400

(Thanks to FPPpro.com for those figures)


The range of values for tournament packages comes as a result of some packages being worth slightly more than others.  Obviously to maximize value, we'd simply select the 2 highest valued packages (PCA and EPT grand final), but some would prefer to not travel to those places, or simply to take $20,000 cash which is a new addition in 2011.


The FPP range is based on what VIP level you start the year at.  If you start at the bottom rung of the ladder as bronze star, you'll have a low FPP multiplier until you make Supernova (100k VPP's) at which point you'll be on level playing ground with *most* of the rest of the chasers.  If you start as SNE, you'll immediately be getting a 5x FPP bonus and will hit the high end of that range.  Players who start as Supernova (but not Elite) will accrue 70% of the FPP's accrued by those who start as SNE.


Ok, but if you're seriously planning a run at SNE, you know all this already.  So hurry the hell up notontilt, and tell us some important stuff.  Fine, I'll share what I know.


Here's a list of what I believe are 6 most important things to consider while going for SNE.  Do you have to do them, no.  I certainly messed up a lot of these and as a result had a brutal 2nd half of the year.  You'd be wise to take my advice here, I'm only gonna offer it once.  Or multiple times if you read this post again I guess.  


1. Stay Ahead of Pace

Every single SNE will tell you that you need to stay ahead of pace.  Why?  Because 90% of them don't do it, and end up having to play huge volume at the end of the year to make up for slacking earlier in the year.  Trust me, there is nothing worse then waking up in the morning, feeling like absolute shit, and having to go 24 table for 8 hours that day.  I know, because I did it every day for the last 2 months of 2010.  Having days off is a blessing and if you fall way behind pace, you'll be forced to play too much at the end.  Combine this with the runbad that most SNE's experience near the end of the journey, and you could just find yourself busto when you've completed 90% of your goal.


2.  Plan for time off

This may seem to contradict the first point, but it should not.  You need to take days off along the way.  It's good for your mental state.  When you are making your plan of how you want to go about achieving SNE, don't plan on getting your 2,741 VPP's every day of the year.  Set the bar around 3,000 or higher giving yourself a day off every 2 weeks or so.  I don't care what you do on your day off, but get away from the computer and treat yourself to a nice break.  I'd also recommend planning a couple of vacations throughout the year.  Grind hard the 2 weeks before to allow yourself to not fall behind pace when you get back.


3.  Make some friends that are also chasing SNE

At the start of the year, there are probably close to 2,000 players who have the goal of achieving SNE (this is just my guess based on how many achieve it and how many end up quitting during the quest).  Get in touch with some of these players.  2+2 has a great thread every year just for those chasing SNE.  Talk with players at the table who you constantly see day in and day out, and find a way to get in contact away from the tables. Having someone that understands what you are going through, and can talk you out of a shitty mindset (trust me, it'll happen) is amazing.  Non poker friends and family who are supporting you don't fully understand what you are going for, so having the insight of someone in the same boat is a godsend.


4.  Balance, Balance, Balance

Ok, what is balance, and what in the world does it have to do with making SNE.  Well for one, if you are going for SNE, you know how important balance is in your poker game.  Without it, good players will easily exploit you and you'll crash and burn.  But balance at the poker table is really just a small part of what this section is about.


Just like you need to balance at the tables, you need to balance your life away from the tables.  If you tip the scales so that poker is the only aspect of your life with any meaning, you will have a downright miserable year.  I know this from experience as it definitely happened to me for a while.  You need to have a life away from SNE, something that gets your mind away from the game and the journey.  Go out with friends, exercise, volunteer, etc.  Basically have a bunch of activities that force you to get up from the computer and go outside. And I'm not talking about once or twice a month.  Do this 4-5 times a week, if not every day.  I remember specifically one week where all I did was play, and never left my apartment.  It was probably the most miserable week of my life.  Balance poker with your social life and you'll find that everything falls into place.


Find a routine that works with your lifestyle and stick to it.  Have planned time away from the tables, with people who know absolutely nothing about poker and don't want to hear you complaining.  If everyone you talk to is constantly moaning about running bad, being behind pace, and downswings, it's a quick path to insanity.


5.  Don't be a bum!

This is the diet, exercise, health section.  If you are like most SNE chasers, you are a male in the 18-25 year old range, with a terrible diet and tons of bad habits.  You likely are on a bad sleep schedule, don't eat anywhere close to what is considered a healthy diet, and live on sodas and energy drinks.  It will wear you down if you keep this up, trust me.  


The year I went for SNE was the first year I lived on my own, without someone (parents/chef/dining hall) preparing meals for me.  I ate terribly, and hence lost a bunch of weight.  Then I went to Vegas and lived with a bunch of people like me, and nothing improved.  We lived off frozen pizzas and fast food.  Then I came home and nothing changed, I still ate crap all day every day.  You may not think much of it, but it's terrible for your current and long term health.  So get in the habit of eating well, cut out sodas and energy drinks as much as possible (green tea is an excellent substitute for caffeine), and exercise routinely.  Not only will exercising keep you in shape, but the rush you'll get afterwards usually leads to good long sessions at the tables in my experience.


This is the area that I'm looking to improve on the most in 2011.  I'm not 100% certain I'll be going for SNE again, but if I do a lot has to change.  I'm sitting at my desk looking at boxes upon boxes of 5 hour energy drinks and 10 empty pizza boxes.  If you don't have someone to cook you healthy meals, then eat out or learn to cook for yourself.  


6.  STAY AHEAD OF PACE!!!!
I mean it.  Don't fall behind.  Every SNE will tell you this, and you won't listen.  And then you'll get to December at 850,000 and you'll find you're not accumulating as fast as you'd hoped.  And then you'll start losing and get frustrated.  And then you'll start looking for tall buildings.  


Save yourself the trouble and plan to finish by early-mid December.


**********************


Do you have to do each of these things to have a successful year and make SNE.  Absolutely not.  I'll be the first to tell you that of the 6 points I laid out above, the only one I did well was having a few friends that I talked to regularly that were going for SNE.  Every other aspect of my life was a mess for most of the year, and a result I found myself miserable and massively depressed at many points.  I really wouldn't wish that upon anyone, so I'm writing this to help anyone else avoid going through that.


At the end of the day, you'll end up making over 6 figures playing a game.  Even if you aren't all that great at the game and only break even over the course of the year, you still just made 6 figures which is a pretty amazing accomplishment.  Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.  There's a reason only 340ish people made SNE this year and thousands tried.  It's downright difficult to do.


So with that, I wish all the 2011 and future SNE chasers the best of luck (except in pots against me!) on your quest to obtaining the black stars that everyone so desires.

- Dan