Officially done with poker for 2009. Slightly disappointing December, I ran bad, but also noticed tilt creeping into my game. I ignored my stop loss rules this month. I think stop loss and disciplined quitting is very important in heads up. It's something that doesn't seem important until you abandon your rules and start bleeding money. Don't want to set any hard goals, but here is an outline for my plans for 2010.

• Grind a LOT from Jan-April. May is NBA playoffs and good weather. June is Vegas. July/August I might be moving + cricket season. Hopefully I will crush and win a ton of money at the beginning of the year, maybe even hit my rough year goal before May.
  
• Fine tune my 6-max game. Ideally I'd play 3-4 table matches at HU all year. Realistically it's hard to get consistent action, tilt is more prominent in long HU matches, variance is bigger etc. So I need to play a lot of 6-max next year to reach my monetary goals. 25k hands 6-max and 15k hands of quality HU play per month is a good target for me.
  
• Take more shots. Like most poker players I'm too risk averse. This year my calculated shots actually went really well. I need to put myself into those good games more often.
  
• Get group coaching off the ground. I didn't coach much in 2009. But it's something I've always enjoyed, and group coaching is a great way to offer help to small stakes guys at an affordable price. My mother is a teacher, I taught calculus in grad school. Teaching is in my blood I guess

My bags are packed, leaving today for vacation until Jan 17th. Sucks that some idiot tried to bomb a plane last week. Airport security is bad enough already. At least I'm not traveling through the US.

This is a good chance for me to reflect on my life, goals, gain some perspective. In general breaks are not very fruitful IMO unless it includes some level of self reflection and self improvement. There's a lot to consider as poker player. Legislation and future of the games, perceived edges in games, staying ahead of the learning curve and tweaking your hand ranges, work ethic and psychology etc etc. Something Sauce123 said recently is worth pondering.

I'll be checking leggo/PMs, so feel free to contact me about coaching requests etc. Later guys, and have a good new year.