2009 treated me alright. I was a lost soul in 2009, mostly. In '08, I was so dedicated, so new to the HSNL scene... so green. I was so driven to make a million, and then I did... and then I was proud. I had the money, I had a name for myself. I probably only made half or two-thirds of that in 2009. I probably played half as much, maybe less. I hated putting in the hours, would often take off a few weeks at a time. I find myself unable to put in long sessions, more prone to tilt and bad play and justifying playing badly with some B.S. that I know is B.S. The thing is, I don't really care. I mean, it would be like... "Jesus, I like $100k last night," but then I had more money. There was always more money. There is always more money. For the most part, I play within my bankroll, so there will always be more money until I decide I just don't want to play poker anymore. It's not fun to be un-motivated.
Lately though, I've been getting a lot of action at 25-50 HU. I'm very happy about this. I'm not really playing that well.. I'd say between my C and B- game, if I had to guess. Today I played one hand really well, and a dozen or so pretty poorly. The rest I played okay, I suppose. It's hard to rate how well I'm playing, to be honest. Sometimes I'll be playing too straightforwardly and auto-piloting; other times I'll be thinking too hard and second guess myself. The extremes, in this case, are just really not good. I need to sharpen my skills when I'm focusing so that I'm tuned in to making the best play. I think that'll be my New Year's resolution: To be a better professional poker player.
Business related things went pretty well though this year. Leggo is doing well: Our last few pros to come on have been fantastic and our community is stronger than it ever was. The people who are here really make up the site. I think the great thing about Leggo is that you can be as important as you want. Probability's latest blog post is a great example. He saw the makings of something awesome and pestered people until he could become part of it. Now, he's a huge, huge part of it. Everyone in the community can be as big of a part of Leggo as they want.
Life went pretty well. I dealt with a tragic passing of one of my cousins who was only 18. That was difficult for me because it forced me to deal with mortality, a subject that poker players are generally so unfamiliar with. I guess unfamiliar is the wrong word here... uncomfortable isn't good either. Suffice it to say that poker players are used to focusing on positive things and dealing with the swings of winning and losing money, not the swings of life and death. I had to confront some things, and it's difficult. It's tough to look inside yourself and be able to watch yourself having emotions. It's tough to try to figure out if you can control them or not, if you want to control them, and if you should control them.
I guess what I'm saying is that 2009 was an alright year, all things considered. I think I would be doing okay if 2010 went about the way 2009 went, but I think I'm going to strive for greatness. I think I'm going to try to go the extra mile so that when I'm writing a blog post on this precise day one year from now I can say that 2010 was fuckin' awesome.
The best way to start off the year is to bring on a coveted new pro. Everyone wanted to sign this guy, and he choose us. It makes me feel so great-- like Leggo is really doing something right. So today we present to you boywonder. I'm not sure if I should be releasing this sensitive information, but when I took a look at his first poker video I couldn't find many (if any) criticisms. I usually have a mouthful of negative comments about everything I watch poker related, but this video was fantastic. And then... he decided that the video wasn't good enough, and that he could improve upon it. I watched almost an hour of one of the best poker videos I had seen (this guy instantly moved into my second favorite video producer list, sorry Sauce123 and BobboFitos, try making a few videos every once in a while and you might overtake him again
) and then he decided he was going to improve upon it... Cool. It's the kind of work ethic that I'm trying to mimic in 2010.
A bunch of other cool things are going on at Leggo (as if you didn't know), including K_Man being part of Team Poker Star Online Pro (or-- something like that, I think). He is going to try and put in the real work and make SNE, I believe. Jesus, good-freaking-luck (seriously, you will have our support.. maybe put a little less time into the intros, I don't think you have the free time, haha).
I feel like there are a million things I've wanted to blog about, but I knocked a few of them off the list with this post. I'm headed to the PCA in a few days. I am stoked to have been upgraded to the Cove, which I hear is very legit. The PCA is the PCA. It's not glamorous or anything, it's a week in warm weather (it's not sweltering hot or anything, but it usually stays in the 70s and sometimes touches the mid-80s) with a bunch of poker players. It's also somewhat of a tradition. I met a lot of my best poker friends down there, and this is like the 5th or 6th year I'll be heading down there. I found the key to happiness at the PCA last year though: bring a girl.
