2009/January Goals/etc

Hope everyone had a good Christmas, mine was pretty standard. Presents were not bad, I got some climbing shoes, some hand strengtheners and some clothes. I enjoy break alot and have just taken this time to reflect on both my poker game and this past year.

This year wasn't fantastic for me. I didn't get in any volume in terms of actually playing. I highly HIGHLY doubt that I broke 200k hands. I think 150k is more in the neighborhood, if even that. It's extremely pathetic and I think I'm going to be taking steps to increase my volume (prop bets/etc). As I posted in the 2+2 thread-

my graphs are spread across three computers, and my PT broke on my desktop a while back.

this year didn't go that well. i had a pretty decent start and was up maybe 45k during midyear. thank god for those soft AP games. i didn't play for a while due to trips in Europe and finals.

i went through the worst downer of my life for $15k (thankfully buffered by a WSOP 12k tourney win). i sortve floated along the last few months and probably will finish the year at around 65-75k depending on rakeback/bonuses/coaching/etc. PLO i've been fairly breakeven in the last month or two and sadly i've only netted about 12k from it lifetime. pathetic. (though i guess the hand totals are not bad, probably $12k in about 40-50k hands so meh).

i dont know...i truly respect grinders like shpanko, who can put in a ton of hands. i'm not sure if i hit 200k hands total to be honest.

here is the one ss i have on my laptop i have:

(I know it doesn't even really matter), but it's all I really have. As I said, I'm extremely disappointed with how few hands I put in. Poker isn't nearly as interesting to me as it once was. I'm far from a great player, its just that the passion is not as high as it was when I first started (when I could play for hours on end/etc). I truly respect some of my friends who can put in 100k hands+ a month.

I've taken a few weeks off from poker during my break, clearing my head (lost 17 BIs in less than 4k hands). I felt that keeping a stress free holiday would be best, even though I may be costing myself money (or saving myself some money, the way I've been playing :().

For January, I want to get in 25k hands. I know it isn't a ton, but I think it'd be more than any of my previous 4 months. In hopes to build my confidence, I think I'll play 1/2NL and 1/2PLO and go back to 2/4 when I feel comfortable.

I feel I have a decent grasp of alot of PLO fundamentals (though again I could be wrong here). 25k hands with some PLO might be a bit more (mainly because PLO hands run much slower than NLHE) but whatever.

While I know that 65k-75k or whatever I won this year is good, I'm still disappointed. I wanted to win more, I wanted to play more. I'm fortunate to have won this money and be in the position I'm in (to pay for school, expenses, etc). And I know I might sound like a bitch but it just doesn't seem like a ton to me. I remember people were hating on David Benefield (raptor) for him being unhappy despite winning close to 7 figures in a month. There are definitely other factors in regards to happiness, not pure money aside. People who don't play poker or have such mentalities can't begin to understand. I'm hoping that 2009 I'm able to play more and win more. And we'll see where the UIGEA takes me in the end of 2009...Not really sure where I'll be.

So hopefully I can start putting in some volume and playing well. I'm going to try and control my tilt problem, something that has recently resurfaced after laying dormant for a while. Back in the day I used to tilt like mad and shoved 76s pre and such in super unnecessary spots.

I've been debating learning HU. My HU game is pretty poor. I succeed in some of the games due to just being fundamentally better than my opponents (re- hand reading, making slight adjustments, etc). But I deal with some things very poorly (re- RR-ed pots, SUPER light call downs, etc). HU NLHE is fairly boring (imo) and I think I'd rather learn HU PLO.

I got a 3.4GPA this last semester. Fairly pleased overall, though I did slack in a few of my classes pretty badly. Next semester hopefully I'll do okay...I have a few semi-interesting classes that should bode well. I'm also 3rd in the SSNL bowl pickem group, moving on up. I'm extremely excited for the BCS NC game on January 8th and can't wait.

Hope everyone has a great new years and 2008.