A mediocre year

We've reached that time again. The passing of one year and the transition into a new one. A good time for reflection, analysis, forward planning and hope.

All things considered i'm disappointed with 2009 from a professional perspective. Here is a quick review of my various results:

ONLINE CASH:

This was certainly where the vast majority of my 'work' hours were spent. I made $75K playing mostly 200 and 400nl, Hu and 6-max. I'm fairly content with this return but not over the moon. In all fairness i hardly played for 4 months of the year so the figure could certainly have been higher if i had managed more than a rather pathetic 250Kish hands which in poker terms isn't exactly high volume.

ONLINE TOURNIES:

I'm a little surprised that i actually has a losing year in online tournies but when you consider my volume this really was always going to be a possibility. I only managed around 40 tournies in an entire year which is obviously fairly laughable considering how profitable they are for me. Anyway i lost $5K.

LIVE CASH:

Only played 3 sessions all year and it was all quite low stakes. I made about $1k.

LIVE TOURNIES:

Oh dear!! Lost quite a lot of my own money in these bad boys and quite a lot of other peoples' as well. Lost approx $11K of my own money.



You don't have to be a genius to work out that gives me a +$60K 2009. The low point of my year was GUKPT Manchester where i played an awesome tourney, took the chip lead into the final and ended up finishing 8th. The highpoint has been the last two months online. I've been playing well, running good and have made just over $30K which has kind of saved my year from being a bag of shit. I'm also happy to report that i've improved as a player this year and this is something i'm obviously looking to continue with for as long as i'm playing for a living. I've also really worked hard on my Bankroll management and have never felt close to going broke at any point. I had to move back down to 200nl when i got back from travelling and even though i knew i could beat the higher limits i swallowed my pride and grinded hard.

Personally the last year has been fairly awesome. I'm just a really positive, happy person most of the time and i'm not one to take how lucky i am for granted. I have a great family, fantastic friends and a lifestyle that i just love, happy days!! I had an amazing time travelling with one of my best friends and also a great month in Vegas. Whenever i hit a low point with poker i just try and remind myself of these things and it serves as a great way for me to relax and stay positive. The year certainly ended with a bang with a little get together round our house. It was only about 30 people but i had a really good time and it was much better than going out for new years which tends to be an expensive anti-climax most of the time. Highlight of the night was our friend Bestie getting to drunk to stand by 8pm, getting naked and then being put to bed, i love that man!

Anyway that just about rounds up the year and the only thing to do now is look forward to 2010. Here are some goals that i'm shooting for:

• Make $100K from online cash games.
• Be beating $5/10 at a solid rate by the end of the year.
• Make the final table of a major live event.
• Win the WSOP main event.

I've also added a couple of rues that i will be trying to stick to:

• No drinking the night before a live tournament.
• No playing online before 5pm if i have been drinking heavily the night before.
• No listening to music when playing live, (amazing how much you can miss).

My general plan for the year is to play quite a lot of online cash over the next 4 months. I'll be playing all of the GUKPT main events in this time but won't be playing live apart from that. By the end of April it should be a little warmer so i'll be coming out of hibernation. I'll be looking to play more live tournies and maybe some £5/10 live. I'll then be smashing up Vegas for 5 weeks in the summer and preying i can do better than last year. Break even one time!!! After the series i might do some travelling for a month but i'm not sure yet. The contract is up on the house in september and i'm almost certain i will not be staying in London. I'd love to live overseas but i'm the laziest man alive so this could be a real hassle to set up.

January tends to be a fairly shit month in general but i've never really minded it. I'm going to be getting plenty of sleep, drinking lots of tea and hopefully win lots of $; let the games begin!