2005 Reflection and 2006 Poker Goals

Looking back at 2005, I think I did alright for myself as a poker player, but I think there was definitely some room for improvement. I started the year playing mostly $20 sit and go with a few MTTs in the $10-50 range. By the end of the year, I was regularly playing $50 sit and go with a few shots at the higher limits. I also had a lot of success in the last 3 months of the year on the MTTs on Full Tilt Poker. I must have had over 15 cashes for more than $1000 each in the last quarter of the year. This is a drastic improvement from the beginning of the year when I would struggle to just make the bubble in the MTTs.

I can definitely say that my game has improved over the course of the year. Much of this has come with experience and playing 2-3 hours per night. However, I also spent a lot of time studying the game. I read a lot of the poker books, magazines, and poker forums .....basically anything that I could get my hands on that was poker related. In that regard, I achieve my goals for the year.

One thing that I wanted to do this past year was to satellite my way into a major tournament. On that aspect, I failed. I just didn't take many shots at those satellites. For the first half of the year, I was cashing out most of my winnings to pay for various things associated with buying a new house. I also stayed away from the highest level MTTs in order to protect my bankroll. However, as well as I was playing, I should have definitely taken more shots. It was hard to read the forums on Monday morning and see the same group of players do so well in the Sunday big tourneys.

My poker goals for 2006:

* Continue to improve my game and learn new advanced concepts.
* Continue to have fun playing the game
* Make more money this year than I did last year - as a matter of fact, I want to make more money playing poker this year than I make at my current job. I have a pretty good paying job so this will be a challenging goal to meet but it will keep me motivated. Although I currently enjoy what I am doing, I would be lying if I said I would rather work than play poker professionally. At this point, I am no where near good enough to go pro, but I want to build a little nest egg and see where this poker thing goes in the next couple of years. Is the poker bubble going to bust? I doubt it, but I won't leave my secure job for something that may not be here a couple of years down the road. It would be nice to make a score in one of the Sunday tournament so that I can buy some investments that will generate some residual income to subsidize my poker earnings.
* Play a WSOP or WPT event. Although I would like to play one of the 10K event, that will be unlikely unless I win a satellite. I promise myself that I will try harder this year, but I will not jeopardize my bankroll by buying in directly.
* Graduate to the $100 level for sit and go. I have experimented at this level and have had some success. I haven't been able to justify the variance, but I am planning on keeping a bankroll large enough to be playing at this level sometimes this year.
* Cash in a MTT for more than $10,000. To date, my biggest cash is a little less than $5000.


So far 2006 is off to a good start, I won my first MTT of the year last night. It was a $50 MTT on Full Tilt. There was only 80 players so I cashed for $1280. Hopefully this is the first of many MTT wins this year.

Good luck at the tables!