0 'azntracker' becomes quickest to achieve Supernova Elite

Andrew 'azntracker' Li has become the fastest person to attain Supernova Elite status on PokerStars, after taking just 59 days to accumulate 1 million VPPs. By reaching this target on February 28th 2011, he broke the previous record of the 18th March by 19 days, set by Jorj95 in 2008 (a leap year). Andrew described himself as being in "subdued elation" after achieving this feat.

This is very reminiscent of the feeling I used to get shortly after finishing a huge exam or project back in college - I would characterize it as "subdued elation." I'm not going crazy in jubilation or anything like that, but I am tremendously happy that I was able to accomplish this...I believe this is my most impressive poker achievement so far and I am most proud of this

Andrew 'azntracker' Li

Reaching Supernova Elite requires raking $181,181. As a long-time SNG pro, this is unsurprisingly where a majority of azntracker's rake came from. He played a little over over 14,000 SNGs in the first two months of the year in a variety of stakes ranging from $33 to $2000:

azntracker SNGs (100+_ played Jan/Feb 2011

In order to try and break the record, azntracker was constantly playing upwards of 25 SNGs in his sessions (up to as many as 45 tables), which for 9-man and 6-man SNGs is remarkable, especially with most of the games being at high-stakes. As a consequence Andrew said he experienced swings like never before. Upon reaching 1 million VPPs he said:

I will relish not having 10-15k upswings and downswings literally EVERY session. It's enough to make most people and sometimes even me go a bit berserk. 

Certainly from his graph (below) you can see the brutal swings that putting in such crazy volume in such a short space of time have led to.

Prior to this mega grind, I always thought -10k days were immeasurably brutal, but with these new sessions I was putting in, I was losing more than that every day (and going on a few upswings of course). I had to learn to suck it up and just keep focused on playing well

azntracker SNGs Jan/Feb 2011

Although azntracker made a loss at the tables in terms of profit, thanks to a brutal downswing as he neared the finish line, he is more than $100,000 richer thanks to earning almost $130,000 from the PokerStars' VIP program. Having started the year as a Supernova Elite, he has consequently earned:

• $80,000 of FPPs (having earned 5,000,000 FPPs)
• $43,200 in Milestone bonuses
• $5,200 WCOOP Main Event ticket
• $1,200 in Stellar Milestone bonuses

azntracker SNGs + Rakeback, Jan/Feb 2011

Attaining Supernova Elite status in 2011 means azntracker is now a four-time-SNE (earned in consecutive years) a feat that he shares with only a handful of people.

Now 26-years-old, Andrew first made money from poker after selling all the 10 million chips worth of play money he earned whilst at high-school for $300. He's one of those sickos that built up his bankroll from just a $50 deposit, and has never looked back. He has been a fixture on the high-stakes SNG tables at PokerStars for many years, playing his first SNG there in April 2005. He has the most impressive Sharkscope resumé that I can recall seeing (see  below). With over $225,000 in earnings, and having raked more than 1 million dollars, azntracker is truly one of the sickest grinders, which has only been further proven by his record breaking feat.

Andrew has vowed to at least take a whole day off to relax after his epic grind, and has already expressed his intention to take a crack at breaking Team PokerStars Online Pro Kevin 'WizardofAhhs' Thurman's yearly VPP record of 3,055,385, as I reported here back in November 2010. 

Congratulations to Andrew for his epic achievement in reaching Supernova Elite already. Make sure you check out his blog here which features his insights, as well as some interesting stats, from the last 2 months.

azntracker grinding