2008 in review, 2009 awaits

2008 in review

A little early for this post I know, but since I'm pretty much done for 2008, I'll go ahead and make it. 2008 was a break even year for me, but all in all I'm not too upset(also not very happy). I feel where I stand in my game today is far superior to where I was at the beginning of the year. A big part of this (truthful, not just a plug for the site) is CardsChat. Hours upon days of reading, chatting, analyzing(didnt do my fair share, more on this later), studying, railing, arguing, and all together having fun while improving my game got me a pretty good distance this year.

Tournament wise, I feel I greatly improved my game this year, and it is going to me my main focus point in 2009. Off the top of my head, I had ~15 final tables of 180 players or more(not nearly enough imo) and 4 wins. My favorite tournament runs this year are not my biggest cashes, but made for the best memories. One being the Sunday 200k where I finished top 100 I think(not sure, but somewhere very deep). Just getting that far in a field of 23k is an accomplishment in itself. Sure I would have liked to win, but I had a great time playing the tourney to that point. The other tourney was a recent one I took down on Full Tilt. I started the final table with one of the higher chip stacks, but a suckout left me with less than a single big blind. I have no clue how it happened, I guess just my will to win, but I came all the way back for the win.

In sit 'n' goes, I was a winner. Not a huge sum, but I profitted, and thats all that matters. I didnt get the kind of volume that I wished for, but thats ok, next year I will. I never did get a win on the Stars sng leaderboard, but that will be another goal.

Cash games. Well, what can I say, I suck. I might have pulled a very very very slight profit, but I know while taking shots at 10nl I was losing so bad my head was spinning and I was ready to rip my eyes out. This will be yet another focal point of 09.

The year as a whole, like I said earlier, I'm not upset, but I'm not happy either. I feel if I had more discipline than I do I would have a rather large bankroll at the time of this post. I have shitty bankroll management, and I need to get the fuck over it. On a lighter note, I did cash out more money than I deposited($120 total deposited, $1.5k withdrawn) so this I find a success.

Goals for 2009

New year on the way, and I am excited. This will be a breakout year for me, I'm going to do everything in my power to make sure it is. I feel that after 2008 I have a fair grasp on the game of poker, now its time to use it! I have a few(well, alot) of goals I would like to share with you all:

1.Bankroll Management-Like I said, this I feel is the only thing that held me back in 2008. I am a shitty brm player, and often find myself playing outrageous limits with a small bankroll. I feel if I had kept grinding, I would have had much more success(obv). Idk what kind of percentages of my roll I will set for certain games yet, but I'll be sure to update when I figure it out

2.Study, Study, and Study-I feel I have a good grasp on tournament poker right now, but by doing tons of studying I feel I can raise my game up several levels. I feel I only have small leaks in my game as of right now, once I find and fix them, watch out!

As for cash, LEARN THE GAME!!! It is very profitable, as shown by some of the CC regs. I do not feel I spent enough of 2008 trying to make a success out of this game, 09 I will definately make it a point to read hh's, comment on them, watch videos, post my own videos and hh's, and all around start crushing the game :)

I also want to make myself more of a presence in the HA(hand analysis) forums at CC. I feel I have a lot of tourney info I could share, but I feel there is much much more I could learn, the same goes for cash games. I have not done my fair share of this, and I will make it a point to do so in 2009

3. Cash games- I just stated my intentions to study, so I'm not going over that again. My goal for the year is to play 150k hands at the cash tables(I 6-8 table 6 max). I'm going to start my grind at 10nl, and hopefully end the year at 100nl. Another goal for cash games, STUDY MY ASS OFF!

4. Blogging-Ok ok, I know I let this blog completely die more than once, I'm going to work to fix this problems. At the minimum, I will be posting in this blog once a week, hopefully more. It shall die no more!

5. SNG leaderboard-This one has been a monkey on my back. I can never seem to crack the top 10, let alone get first place. In 2009, I want to have at least 3 wins, regardless of level

6. Sunday major tournaments-Another monkey on my back. If you know me and chat with me regularly, you know this has been eating me alive. I want to play in these on a regular basis so bad, this is going to be the year it happens. Weather it be by satty or just buying in directly, I'm going to be playing these a lot in 2009.

7. WCOOP/FTOPS- Prob not going to be buying into any directly, but definately want to satty into a few of the events! Some of the ones I would like to play are the NLHE's(obv), Limit Hold'em, HORSE, and Stud. Big cashes and big names in these, what a thrill it would/will be!

8. Tournaments and Sng's- My bread and butter. My favorite games :) I cant wait to see what 2009 has in store for me, but I'm feeling good about it! I'm going to make it a point find my leaks and correct them early in the year. By doing this I will maxamize my profit for the year :) Across all tourney types(mtt's, stt's, and sng's) I hope to play somewhere around 3k tourneys on the year, while making a solid ROI%. As stated above, I also hope to play in the Sunday majors and the WCOOP and FTOPS. I hope to have around 40 final tables, and obv some wins!

Those are my goals for the new year, I hope you can all tell I'm excited about it! Until next time!


-Inscore77