Hella Hold'em

Happy New Year!

Tomorrow, this blog turns 2 years old. The cliche thing to do around this time of year is to draw up some resolutions for the new year. I thought I'd first look back at last year's resolutions, and see how many came to fruition.

Become consistantly profitable in the $200-max NL cash game at the casino

Not long into 2006 (and shortly after the Dec 28, 2005 KK Quandary, which led to my biggest single-hand cash game loss ever, $800), I decided to go back to limit holdem, which much better suits my playstyle. While I didn't accomplish this particular goal, I think I accomplished its intent, which was to become profitable in my casino cash game. During the first half of 2006, I was in the black playing $5/10 limit holdem at the casino.

Online poker goals: Learn to play "my game" online. Become profitable at the $50-max buy-in level of online NL cash games. Continue to work on my no-limit cash game.

After switching back to limit holdem, I was again relegated to the micro limits (ie. lower than $3/6 holdem). I've never had enough faith in my online game at the low limits to invest significant amounts of money to my online bankroll. 2006 solidified my opinion that there are just TOO many newbs and donkeys at the lower levels to be able to outrun their luck. I'd much rather play at a casino. With that, I spent much more time this year at the casinos and much less time playing online. Throw in the US prohibition of online gaming, and I haven't seen too much online poker action this year.

Focus more on each hand's story and my opponents and less on my own cards.

I still have trouble with this. I play my cards. I rarely have the ability to play in spite of my cards. I'll keep this on my list for 2007.

My final (and a bit lofty) goal for 2006: build up to $5,000 in my poker bankroll.

I got about halfway there. In July 2006, I decided to sell my house and buy a bigger one in a more expensive neighborhood, closer to all of the shopping and entertainment amenities of the area. I had about $2,500 in my bankroll at the time, and spent it all on fixing up my old house and buying stuff for my new house. Considering that was around the half-way point of the year, I might have been on target to reach my goal. I'm going to consider this a possible success.

Where does this leave me, heading into 2007? Well, Empress Casino Joliet closed their poker room, and my schedule currently doesn't allow for many trips out to the Indiana boats. I'm still not comfortable investing money in an online bankroll, so really it seems that poker will take a bit of a back seat to life for a while this year. I don't have the money to reseed my bankroll right now, though I'd like to do that at some point this year. I need to work a bit more than I did last year to afford my new house, and I'm OK with that.

My poker goals for 2007:

• Reseed my B&M bankroll and continue playing $5/10 limit holdem
  
• Learn to play the player and not just my cards
• Make it out to Vegas at least once this year
  

Yup, that's it. Keep it simple. Sometimes, life, family and work have to come before poker - but that doesn't diminish my love for the game. I still love the game of poker, and I'll carry that with me into 2007.

Here's hoping you reach all of your goals in 2007, whether personal, professional, or poker related. :)