Year in review

It’s been a long time since I updated this blog…way too long in fact, since an awful lot has happened since then.

So what’s new in life. First off, I have a new girlfriend now, her name is Victoria and she is absolutely wonderful. She is the most thoughtful girl that I have ever met, is wonderful to my daughter, Abby, and most importantly supports me in everything that I do. This mostly refers to poker, whether it be a trip to Vegas or an all-night tournament, she has been very supportive.

2006 REVIEW

So I basically wanted this to be a recap of the 2005 year, to analyze my game on all levels, and set some modest expectations for 2006.

I like to pride myself on playing all forms of poker (at least Hold’em, as my Omaha game sucks right now). I’ve been known to play limit, no-limit, sit and go tournaments, and multi-table tournaments, with success at all levels.

Cash Games

Last year around this time I was playing 3-4 tables at a time of the Party 15/30 game. A definite money maker, but I had been doing that for several months and started to get burned out on it. The up/down swings can be incredible for a game that was as aggressive as that. For the year, about 15% of my poker profits were derived from cash tables. This was very low because of some bad sessions, as well as lack of desire to play these levels. This year, I have dabbled in some 20/40 and 30/60, as well as a bit of 50/100. I am killing the 20/40 game lately, so I think if anything I will play that more than anything else.

As far as Limit Holdem, I don’t feel like I have any weaknesses. I am able to change gears very well between short handed and full table. I would like to improve my shorthanded game to be able to win more hands where I don’t catch a piece of the flop, but who wouldn’t. For the year I would like to improve my discipline in a few different areas. Firstly, improved table selection, and secondly, walking away from an unprofitable table instead of chasing losses.

As far as No Limit Holdem, I have had some very solid sessions at the cash tables, but feel that my game is very weak. I need to be able to get away from big pairs / overpairs when the evidence is starting to show that I am beaten. In tournaments this leak isn’t very costly, as you see more bluffing or raising with just top pair. This is an adjustment I need to make to my NL cash game.

Sit and Go tourneys

Sit and Go tourneys became my bread and butter last year. They accounted for over 50% of my profit for the year. I started at the 100 level, and spent at least half of the year at the 200 level, basically accounting for a huge amount of my profits. But the game got boring multi-tabling, and I looked to improve and move up. I eventually started playing the Pokerstars 500 games, which include several top players, including a few WSOP bracelet winners. I have more than held my own in that game, turning a nice profit. I have also been playing occasionally in the 1K step tourneys on Party, again with some success. As far as sit and go’s, I don’t see any glaring leaks. I would like to improve my bubble play even more, as that is where the money is really won or lost. My playbook used to involve playing ULTRA tight in the beginning, but I have sinced loosened up, even limping (and re-raising) big pairs early on. This has increased my variance, but it has also improved my game and made me more difficult to play (IMO). These sit and go’s are already the biggest online, so I would like to play many more of them and hopefully rack up the profit.

Multi-Table tourney's

The last category is multi-table tournaments. For at least the first half of the year, I didn’t play them at all. The prospect of having to be available for 6-8 hours in a row, with the chance of very little profit to show for it was not all that enticing. But as I started playing them more, I have become re-hooked. First I won a limit (of all things) tourney on Pokerstars for $4200 in June….then in November I won a NL tourney for $11K. In December I had several other scores of 1K and up, and made the money a large portion of the time. The closest I came to a huge score was one of the nightly tourney’s on Party, where I finished 9th out of 1200+, getting me 3700. First place was worth 51K, so I fell a bit short there. A lot of these fields are filled by satellites, and the caliber of player tends to be very weak. I think I am on the cusp of doing something really great in one of these, I just have to be patient as it is VERY tough to win a 3700 person tourney.

Improvements to my game need to come in picking my spots and opponents, especially in regards to re-steals. It would also help me if I was playing and focusing more on the game, as opposed to watching TV, betting on sports, etc….

This year I really would like to qualify/play in one big buy-in event. The ones to target would be the Ultimate Bet (Aruba) tourney, the Pokerstars Bahamas, or the WSOP (in order of preference). I won’t buy-in direct unless something life changing happens (like winning 100K).

Hopefully my game (and profit) takes the same leaps forward in 2006 that it did in 2005.