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Friday, December 19, 2008
Thursday, December 18, 2008
2008 Reflections / 2009 Goals
In early 2008 I was still playing on UltimateBet and was having a great time at that site. I was making a ton of friends with MTT regs and having a great time seeing them deep in tournaments nearly nightly. There were a few players that I spoke to on a regular basis and discussed HHs with and I feel like my game improved tremendously from these frequent exchanges.
I remember I didn't have much time for MTTs and played 6-max cash games for a while. I believe I was a winner at them although I was probably still terrible. Eventually I made time in the evenings however and was able to make decent coin at MTTs. Tournaments started clicking for me, and I began to refocus on them.
I applied to be a writer for a start-up poker strategy site and got the position. I wrote a few articles early in the year but sadly didn't keep up with it. The pay was fairly decent and it was pretty cool to show my published articles to my friends. I wish I'd kept up with it but oh well.
Tournaments were continuing to go well and after reading on 2+2 awhile I began to realize that people were shipping tons more money than me by playing on bigger sites. I pondered switching sites and eventually decided on Full Tilt.
I had an account with rake back but unfortunately that lasted roughly a month and a half before they realized that I had 2 accounts. I didn't do this intentionally at all and it was a blow to lose the rakeback, but I still wanted to play on Tilt, rakeback or not.
The summer was a big time for me. I placed 3rd in a MSOP event for rougly $4,500 (my largest score at the time). A week later had a ridiculous 3 final tables in one day, outright winning 2 events: the Daily Double A for around $2k and the nightly Fifty-Fifty for $10k. My bankroll was at the highest it had ever been in my entire life. I had turned something like $50 into nearly $20k in a matter of months.
Nightly I played in the biggest tournaments on Full Tilt, and slowly bled money away until I realized I needed to play smaller. The games where within my bankroll but I was getting beat and didn't like the feeling. I dropped down levels and played the $55s and $75s and had mild success.
In late September, I moved out of my parents house into a house with two other friends. I really enjoyed the move because it allowed me to play cards a lot more freely. I didn't have to worry about having to run an errand or go shopping or have dinner with the family, etc. I also lived with two guys that didn't play poker and who were interested in learning. Because of this, I'd explain what I was doing as I was playing, and as a consequence I played a ton better. This made for a very successful end of the year.
The end of the year has been somewhat tumultuous for me and I had to withdraw a ton of money because of 1) Repairs due to Hurricane Ike and 2) I switched jobs and had no income for nearly 2 months. Because of this I have two small bankrolls on Full Tilt and Stars.
In 2009, I'm looking forward to building my bankroll up on both sites. I want 2009 to be a breakout year for me and I have a few goals I'd like to share.
- Play 1,000 hands of cash per day, alternating between Tilt and Stars and adhering to bankroll management.
- Use good bankroll management for MTTs/SNGs
- Study my game, maybe just once a week. But to look skim over the MTTc on 2+2 weekly and post/discuss hands there will probably help my game out a ton.
- Make more friends online, discussing hands online, etc.
- Play live events (possibly a $1500 WSOP event?), but particularly in Louisiana/Mississippi.
- Play at more home games in Houston. I love meeting new people and interacting with them so I think it'll be fun and a way to mix things up and make poker more fun. Online can be a dull grind at times.
I think that's it for this entry. Good luck to everyone in 2009, I wish everyone the best in reaching their goals.
- SH
I remember I didn't have much time for MTTs and played 6-max cash games for a while. I believe I was a winner at them although I was probably still terrible. Eventually I made time in the evenings however and was able to make decent coin at MTTs. Tournaments started clicking for me, and I began to refocus on them.
I applied to be a writer for a start-up poker strategy site and got the position. I wrote a few articles early in the year but sadly didn't keep up with it. The pay was fairly decent and it was pretty cool to show my published articles to my friends. I wish I'd kept up with it but oh well.
Tournaments were continuing to go well and after reading on 2+2 awhile I began to realize that people were shipping tons more money than me by playing on bigger sites. I pondered switching sites and eventually decided on Full Tilt.
I had an account with rake back but unfortunately that lasted roughly a month and a half before they realized that I had 2 accounts. I didn't do this intentionally at all and it was a blow to lose the rakeback, but I still wanted to play on Tilt, rakeback or not.
The summer was a big time for me. I placed 3rd in a MSOP event for rougly $4,500 (my largest score at the time). A week later had a ridiculous 3 final tables in one day, outright winning 2 events: the Daily Double A for around $2k and the nightly Fifty-Fifty for $10k. My bankroll was at the highest it had ever been in my entire life. I had turned something like $50 into nearly $20k in a matter of months.
Nightly I played in the biggest tournaments on Full Tilt, and slowly bled money away until I realized I needed to play smaller. The games where within my bankroll but I was getting beat and didn't like the feeling. I dropped down levels and played the $55s and $75s and had mild success.
In late September, I moved out of my parents house into a house with two other friends. I really enjoyed the move because it allowed me to play cards a lot more freely. I didn't have to worry about having to run an errand or go shopping or have dinner with the family, etc. I also lived with two guys that didn't play poker and who were interested in learning. Because of this, I'd explain what I was doing as I was playing, and as a consequence I played a ton better. This made for a very successful end of the year.
The end of the year has been somewhat tumultuous for me and I had to withdraw a ton of money because of 1) Repairs due to Hurricane Ike and 2) I switched jobs and had no income for nearly 2 months. Because of this I have two small bankrolls on Full Tilt and Stars.
In 2009, I'm looking forward to building my bankroll up on both sites. I want 2009 to be a breakout year for me and I have a few goals I'd like to share.
- Play 1,000 hands of cash per day, alternating between Tilt and Stars and adhering to bankroll management.
- Use good bankroll management for MTTs/SNGs
- Study my game, maybe just once a week. But to look skim over the MTTc on 2+2 weekly and post/discuss hands there will probably help my game out a ton.
- Make more friends online, discussing hands online, etc.
- Play live events (possibly a $1500 WSOP event?), but particularly in Louisiana/Mississippi.
- Play at more home games in Houston. I love meeting new people and interacting with them so I think it'll be fun and a way to mix things up and make poker more fun. Online can be a dull grind at times.
I think that's it for this entry. Good luck to everyone in 2009, I wish everyone the best in reaching their goals.
- SH
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