2009 results/reflections, and 2010 goals thread

[PokerGirl015]

Just a quick note, I noticed you mentioned Kennl.

With a stroke of luck and possibly some lucky hands - I'm such a beginner at long tournaments - I managed to beat him in an $11 stars tourney to come first and win 5K.

I think he ended up 4th and played very well.

[59progolfer]

Originally Posted by PokerGirl015

I think he ended up 4th and played very well.

Congrats on win. i was railing the final table and you actually played him heads up for the title. nice score!

[foldhmmm]

2009
Have been playing poker for a couple of years regularly at Crown on 2/3. For the year I would be up $4000-$5000. $1700 in the last week, but I’ll get to that later.

At the beginning of 2009 I had around $8500 owing on my credit card. I was living out of home supporting my girlfriend, who went back to Uni in March. Every time I made any money playing poker it was always absorbed into life’s expenses. I was always one buy-in away from going broke (Not literally broke, but money I could reasonable allocate to poker). This placed a great deal of strain on my ability to play. I would have to play overly conservative and was extremely critical of myself if I lost. I realized that if I was ever going to be able to play the game that I wanted to play I needed to change my personal circumstances

The main financial obstacle holding me back was the credit card. Any hope of financial freedom and the deposable income required to play poker rested on getting rid of it. (For the record the credit card debt wasn’t accumulated because of online poker).

I started chipping away at it, around $200 per week. I spent the time away from the tables studying several good poker books including Phil Gordans little green book, Mike caro’s book of tells, David Sklansky’s The theory of poker and super systems.

Around March I deposited 100us into Titan after stumbling across it on PNW. I’d previously played on stars and FT with some minors withdrawals. I rode the $100us to somewhere in the $1400’s over the month playing cash games. I was still going strong when I realized what a sizeable chunk $1400us would take out of my now $6500 credit card debt. So I withdrew it all. It came to $1999.89. The exchange rate had been kind. To this day I still get calls from a Canadian call centre with a terrible phone connection asking me why I haven’t deposited any more money with them.

In August I received about $2000 back in tax. It was also a huge month in retail and I received a sizeable bonus and was able to pay off my credit card. Wow that was quick. So now I can go play poker without that monkey on my back. Almost, but not quite, still need to build bankroll. Shouldn’t be too hard now that I don’t have to pay $200 a week towards the now cut up and cancelled credit card. Unfortunately in September there was a sizeable downswing in the retail sector. Rudd’s $900 economic stimulus package had worn off. My regular monthly bonus became a trickle of its former self.

Not all was lost though, for the first time in eight months I had disposable income again. It was small but it was there. I started playing 2/3 whenever possible. This averaged out to twice a month. Not nearly enough if I want to work on my game and improve at a steady pace. It’s like playing a game of basketball once a fortnight and not even picking up a ball or practicing in between games. You’re not going to be able to go out and shoot 3’s or make plays.

Over the months I won more times than I lost and even took a small holiday with my girlfriend to Sydney with some winnings. But I was never far from going broke and still had the tension whenever I played. Side note: It was great to play in the new poker room in Sydney. I was there for the opening weekend and was very impressed.

In November I changed jobs and am getting paid considerably more than my previous job. Also over summer my girlfriend went back to her previous job until uni starts in March. This has meant she is paying 50% of bills and rent. Finally some REAL financial freedom!!!! A real opportunity to build a sizeable bank roll and some savings.

This leads me back to the $1700 in the last week. I have 2 weeks off during Christmas and had built a nice bankroll/savings leading into the holidays. Now I’m able to play with a lot less tension and with the financial freedom that I believe a person must have so they’re not constantly worrying about their chips. I have played 3 times for less than 8 hours since Christmas and am up over $1700. If I throw in a business trip to Sydney where I won $375 in mid December I’m up over $2000 for the month.

I’m hoping to continue this momentum into 2010 starting tonight with a big win. I believe I have set myself up in my personal life so I can be a winner in my poker life.

Goals

Increase number of hours per week playing.
$500 profit per week
Get more into tournament poker
Increase posts on PNW
Maintain or increase level of study

[JadeTaVernDegen]

Am i:

1. way too late
2. unimportant and therefore need not bother
3. lazy and therefore wont bother
4. stupid for not yet posting here.... get the fuk in there

[danchile]

First of all let me say hello to everyone and wish everyone a happy, healthy and prosperous new year for 2010.
Awesome to read this thread and be able to get to know you a little better.

2009
I had known of the game for years and even played a handfull of home social games with friends along the way but i decided
to have a real go after seeing alot of the media ads with relation to J. Hachem and D. Negreanu the "Pokerstars".
So i started playing Hold'em in April via Pstars.net playmoney tables to get a feel for the game and attempt to learn it.
It's true what is said of the game, minutes to learn but a lifetime to master.

So i Upgraded to the .com software a month later in order to have a go at the freerolls i'd heard about.
Over the course of the next six months managed to build a playmoney BR of 5Million.
Thought i had it down pat!! (yes i now also laugh at that too) even though i had never managed to make the final cut in the
freerolls (best effort was in the top 200) and so decided to try some real cash games.

BANG!!! $50 gone in a weekend !!! Damn it ?? WTF happened. i was only playing the 1/2c, 2/5c and 5/10c tables ?!!?!?!
Learned quicksmart that cash games are played downright tighter and rock solid than your loose aggressive/calling station/utterly
reckless playmoney tables. PISSED off, frustrated and head pulled in i thought lets try the freerolls again, exclusively tho,
maybe even some of the other poker style variants.

Its now October and straight away in that month managed to get 5 tickets to the WR2 freeroll from 8game, razz, HORSE, stud
and stud hi/lo tourneys. Even managed 1st place in three of them (woohoo!!)

Its November and i thought i was the ducks guts again, ready to take on the world.
Stayed up Late on a few Saturday nights and made the top 200 again but that's as far as i ever got to in the WR2 Hold'em freeroll.
Along the way invested a couple o' hundred more dollars into the other game styles but suffice to say managed to tread water
for a while with some highs and lows but always bottomed out eventually. Felt compelled to relegate myself to the micro
10/25/50c SNG's and MTT's both turbo and standard hoping to somewhere and somehow get lucky and get to a final table and
associated cash's.

December pretty much travels the same way the previous month did. Achieved a few FT's but nothing to satisfy the drive
that fuelled me. Still Fully engaged to be better, beat the online competition and achieve at least a good starting cash BR for
2010 i thought to myself there has got to be a better way to approach this.
Then one day googling "poker" i discovered a lifeline and enter the pokernetwork forum.

There is software out there that helps your game!! Books to read !! Strategies to study and adapt to!!
Table position means something!! OMFG, what more is there to discover?? Blinds can be stolen!! Pot odds and Implied odds!!
Hole card have strengths!! ... Suffice to say i was truly hooked now.
Have always loved a challenge and really, can you find a better challenge that tests your skills on a such a dramatic scale that
basically means its you vs the entire world?? lezz do dis!! bring IT ON.

2010
I now have a few software tools which are helping me improve my game and limit the leaks i had. So as far as goals for this year go??

- Play the freerolls alot more for experience against the many styles/attitudes of play across Hold'em, 8game, Omaha, Omaha H/L,
Stud, Stud H/L, Razz, 5card draw and 2-7 lowball variants plus a few WR2 tickets to stash away won't hurt.
- Continue to strive building BR in micro SNG & MTT tourneys
- Stay away from the cash tables
- Enter as many live event satellites and freerolls as possible (Would love to experience a live tourney and dare i hope to dream of
maybe even cashing?? Possible right?? I'd like to think so...)
- By the end of the year have a BR i can withdraw from to:
1. Renovate the kitchen and two bathrooms of mum's house (battles on her own with sis as a dependant) and who knows,
landscape the front garden she loves to tinker in...
2. Send mum to a decent holiday to explore Northern Australia from Darwin into and across the cape then down into middle QLD.
3. Launch into 2011 by being able to take a US or EURO poker holiday and enter some of the live events available on the roster.
4. Win some mad cash and exchange it for more mad Ozzie cash to buy an apartment somewhere circa 2013/2015.

[FSL009]

new here but will put myself out there...

2009 goals were:

get over $1000 in my online roll started at $525
play in a live tourney greater than $1100 buy in.
be profitable at another game - omaha or 2-7 lowball triple draw

my main exposure up to 1 Jan 09 was home games 2/3 at burswood and online 10/20c NLHE.

I sattelited into the WA poker classic ($2500 buy in) so done...was out first day but a great experience anyway played like shit, didnt sleep the night before and played real bad, but made it through 9 levels before i got knocked out on a stupid spewy call....

I ran my roll up to $970 then in the week before xmas and since then lost all of it back to $530 so i mark this as a big fat no.

I lost money at omaha, but won on 2-7 limit draw. although very small sample and very small stakes. lost at NL 2-7 big time...I sucked actually...lol.

So 2010

get my live and online roll to a point where i can play 5/5 live so what is that $5000 no $10,000 on my criteria. mmmmm that may be a little hard...but worth the challenge.

Get my online roll over $1000 again...lwithout investing extra money into it..lol.

play two major WA based tournaments during the year (which i have to satellite into of course)

Play in a sunday millions...via a satellite ticket while maintaining bankroll management.

yes low stakes goals for a low stakes player....who is also very very partime i did 9000 hands last year....online...so not many.

[clarence]

Foldhhhm is one smart young cookie. I wish I was as smart when I was his age.
FIRST RULE OF GAMBLING
"Don't play when you can't afford to lose."
(If you fear losing you will lose.)

[GRETZKY427]

2009- This year wasnt much of a year as i was only social playing online, this year i want to take it seriously building up my bankroll.

2010- Had a great start cashing in a daily dollar (1182nd out of 12,353 entrants) $4.30 into my account for my effects as every little bit helps.

My goals this year are-

Grind out the .02/.05c cash games progressing up the limits.
Enter 3 90man mtt a week.
Learn to play another hold'em poker game (limit omaha hi/lo)

[Strong Play]

Update: January progress

MTT Volume: very close to on track for January, prob one full day short.
Tourney Selecting: uncertain why, but I'm still not doing this any better...
Golf Volume: full rounds overs, practise sessions unders... call it even.
Downtime at live events: Achieved; played only ME at AM.
Second Language: zero progress.
Oktoberfest Trip: made a bunch of monies in Jan so I guess this is looking healthier.
WSOP Sched: Looking like the old tax loophole has been closed; prob won't go to WSOP in this instance unless something changes.

[tsapy]

My year thus far
AM live cash games: won 3/10 of the biggest pots I was involved in.
Winning 6 of these would have been EV neutral and would have put me ahead for the month in terms of cash game results. obv I need to get more volume in.

AM tournaments: cashed 0/6
Online cash: still can't beat them
Online tournies: I have no desire to wake up earlier than 10am to play poker

The road ahead
Grind out some $$$ in the local cash games over the next 2 months.
WSOP cash games - aim to play >= 40 hours/week. Will keep a log of big hands and potentially blog things so that I'm motivated.