Now I know what a crack addict feels like

I have been playing a lot of the hyper-turbo SNGs on full tilt and they are very addictive. I probably have averaged playing 20-25 per day over the past week. I mostly play the $45 and $30 buyins, since the variance is huge.

For those who are not familiar with the hyper turbos, you start with 300 chips and the blinds start at 15/30. The stacks aren't so thin where you have to push absolutely anything early, but they are pretty short. The trick in this (as with all SNGs), is knowing exactly when it is right to push and when it is right to fold. A good knowledge of ICM is crucial, although with stacks this short, you can't push all in as liberally and you can call all in more often. I actually don't think my ICM knowledge is perfect, but it isn't bad.

My best guess is that I have about a 5-10% ROI in these things (probably slightly higher counting the full tilt rakeback).

I have played a tad on stars, but not much, I had a nice run a week ago on the cash game tables there, so my bankroll is higher now than it has been in a while. I also have no more plans to cash out for a little bit, as our basement expenses are now covered.

On January 1st I will start putting in some hours on stars as I try to maintain my supernova and build up FPPs early in the year. Regardless of how devoted I get to earning Stars VPPs, I will certainly have enough for one $1500 event at the WSOP. I likely would have enough for two events or a bigger buyin event. However, I don't know whether I will be making the trip this year. (Since we have 3 kids, it puts a pretty big burden on my wife.)

I hope everyone enjoys the holidays. I will try to provide more-frequent updates (hopefully with good news).

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker!

This PokerStars tournament is a No Limit Texas Hold’em event exclusive to Bloggers.

Registration code: 685903

Update

I made supernova shortly after my last post. I had felt like I was in a rut where things were not going right so I had not been playing as much. It was cool to make it - and I cashed out 186K FPPs right away to help pay for finishing our basement.

I have played a tad more recently. I got back into SNGs and sats. I have had some limited success. On stars, I have been bounced from all sats except I won a 650 W$ sat, which makes the overall experience profitable. On stars I have only played multi-table SNGs. I haven't played too many, but of those I played I took down a $36 45-man tourney.

I have played a bunch on full tilt recently also. A wise person might ask: "Why the he** would you get supernova on stars, then go play on full tilt". The reason is that they have these "super-turbo" SNGs. They are like crack: very addictive. The levels are 3 minutes long, and you start with 300 chips. ICM becomes very important, although some adjustments are crucial as well (big stacks there are extremely powerful). I have probably played 250 of them by now. I am +EV in them (at least up to the $70 level), but the variance can be pretty brutal.

I have played some NL FR and SH on stars as well. I am only playing that when I want to, however. In January I will make sure I put in the time to maintain supernova - but for the rest of the month I can avoid cash games if I choose.