January 1, 2007!!

Well, a quick few thoughts before I start playing. I am going to try to grind as hard as possible for as long as possible. I need to see what I am capable of because I need to either give up poker or focus on it, but this half-assing has got to stop. I know I can make a good amount of money doing this, but the question has always been if my level of commitment is there. I am going to test that in 2007.

I am halfway to getting a new monitor to start 6-8 tabling. I would like to log about 500 sngs this month while I start to work out as well. Time to bring some discipline back into my life. I am going to try to clear my Full Tilt bonus as quickly as possible. I have been nickel and diming it down, but its time to clear it and start raking up the rakeback.

Here is a quick review of my revised goals for the year...

1. DISCIPLINE!!!!
2. Stay employed at my current job. I am starting a new job and would like to have some stability. As long as I am not going to be a full time poker pro, I might as well keep a decent day job.
3. Win at least $20,000 playing poker (not including rakeback!)
4. Enter at least 1 WSOP event - or play is larger buy in online tourneys with regularity.
   
5. Move up to playing $109 sngs
6. Hit my goals of playing 400 sngs a month. Moving up to 500-800 sngs a month as my game progresses.
7. Enjoy my life more
8. Appreciate my friends and family more
9. Work out!!! Getting too fat!!
10. DISCIPLINE!!!!

There is just so much to say about the past year and my plans/ambition for the new year. I have a great mental state of mind right now. The past year was interesting and I have learned a hell of a lot about myself. The one thing that I have internalized is that I need to work a little harder at my game, concentrate harder while playing, and be much more disciplined in everything that I do. I suppose those are fairly generic statements, but I think we often know how we are supposed to live our lives, but executing the plan is often difficult. I allow myself to be distracted too easily and end up losing a week of my life doing absolutely nothing. I need to quit wasting time and starting looking towards the future. That is why my blog will take a different tone because there is a new level of intensity I am hoping to bring to my game. I have been so lazy at the tables that I feel I owe it to myself to play proper and log the tables. My previous posts were typically afterthoughts...a bunch of yammering about bad beats and just venting frustration. Those are going to go away and I am going to start to focus on the progress I have made because I used to play at a significantly higher buy in than I am now. Now, its time to get back there and get over the next hump...

Full Tilt is down right now, but as soon as it gets back up to 25k+ players, i will start to 4-table.

I got my first 10 sngs in 2007 finished. I am down, but playing disciplined. Still surprised by the aggressive CALLING range that I see. I was called by 89 on the bubble. I think tightening up on the bubble might be in order due to this wide calling range...I also see a lot of King hi calls with kickers all the way down to 2. Getting in ahead and playing well...just need to keep doing what I am doing and I think I will be fine.

Took a beating tonight. Hoping that things will take a turn for me in the next few days. I think today I was able to play solid from the start...donked one sng off with a loose call early. I am finding that I get myself into good +EV situations, so I will take that as a good sign and continue to play this style. One thing to note, I often play slightly too loose when I first sit down...I need to be careful to sit down in a focused mindset...otherwise it takes me a set to realize that I need to pull back a bit. As I increase my volume of play, I am excited to see a hot streak all the way through. I often quit after a hot set...but it would be nice to keep playing and hopefully catch fire. Often, it isnt just the cards holding up, but you just get in the zone...I would like to see what happens when I log 3 hours in the zone :)