Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Happy New Year!

Well I am done playing for the month of December and I hope you all find players like this guy to play against.





So played almost 6,800 hands in December which has to be a record for me. I even tried to 6 table it for a bit this evening to see how that would impact my win rate. I found the players this evening playing much more aggro and seeing much bigger pot sizes which didn't help. Nothing worse than trying to make things more difficult and people are playing back at you more often.

The results for playing that many hands of NL25 worked out to be up 21 buy ins which is way above average (I doubt I could possibly maintain 15.8 ptbb / 100) for a bigger sample size.

I also wanted to add a resolution to actually read something that is educational again instead of those silly best sellers.

Hand of the night

So got in a few more hands this evening but feeling a bit tired so I will try to catch up on some needed sleep.

Here is the hand history for my hand of the evening.

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

A few resolutions for 2009

Well just got through the first 5k hands and so far still winning at 15 ptbb / 100 which is much better than I have run anytime in the past. The main goal is go get the bankroll back over the 1k mark so I can move up to NL50 and start to build the roll at a more respectable rate.

So some resolutions for 2009:

1. Play poker in every month of the year. Attempt to get at least 5 hours in a week playing. Also spend 3 hours a week reading or studying the game. I may spend all of my FT points on some video training site like Cardrunners but they had another choice that was less expensive that I may try out.

2. Build bankroll so I can afford to play NL100 again without worrying about a 10 buyin downswing... so I need probably 3-4k to do that comfortably.

3. Datamine a lot more prior to playing and focus on always playing my optimal game. When the fish leave the table I will leave the table (or am I the fish?!). Realize that I don't have to crush everyone at every table or win every hand. It is always up to me to determine the size of the pot and if not then get out of that situation and find a better one to attack with.

I would like to win more than 10k this year from this game and I think that is more than possible.

Some non poker resolutions:

4. Do not let the market mess with your mind... go out and find a way to make money regardless of the current situation. Work on technical analysis to help with entry and exit points.

5. Learn how to speak Spanish as that opens up a lot of places to travel. You have the Rosetta Stone levels 1-3 so start working your way through that. Also play a CD in the car to help you brush up on some other parts of the language using another program.

6. Utilize what poker teaches us in not letting others know what we think. No one cares to hear your politics or opinions even if they are asking for your opinion. Keep your thoughts to yourself and blog about it instead of talking about it.

7. Find something to do that is athletic. Starting to get a little tubby which isn't good so time to take off 15-20 pounds of fat and maybe replace a bit of that with some muscle. The extra poker will give me the mental stress that is better utilized by exercising instead of tilting away 2 more buyins.

Lots of stuff to work on this year but I will be better for it in the end.

Sunday, December 28, 2008

Been forever

Well it has been a super tough year on me but now I am trying to work out what the hell I am going to do for 2009.

For starters I am going to put poker back into my life and try to play all 12 months this year! I had a couple really good poker results in the live area with a 3k win in a free event plus a few good nights at the Nutz poker club. Unfortunately my club got shut down and it stopped me from playing as much live poker as I would have liked this year.

My online funds were so low that it was always frustrating to start over at NL25 to rebuild. Well those thoughts are behind me and I have been working well over the past week and running a little hot over the first 3k hands (if you think that 23 ptbb / 100 is hot!). Had to go back to full ring because my usual 30/20/5 was getting me in trouble at 6 max so now I am 4 tabling and running a tight 23/17/3.

I find that I play a good optimal game when I stick to my goal of having me decide when I want the pot to get large instead of following someone else's lead. Full ring is a bit more on the nitty side but my first goal is to build the stack and so far that is happening.

Hoy mentioned UB and that reminded me that I do have some cash stranded over there and I will work to build that up to something respectable as well. I doubt anyone is going to abuse the NL25 crowd illegally when they are more than willing to give you cash.

Anyway over the next couple days I will post some of my goals for next year which also includes actually spending some time writing on this blog!