I've been at home the last couple days just winding down the end of the year. I may or may not go out tonight b/c the Iowa bowl game is tomorrow at 10am local time. I think we have a family gathering tomorrow for dinner and then I'll probably head back to Iowa City on Friday and try to log a lot of time at the tables. We're going to Vegas 4th-9th, so I want to get quite a bit of grinding done the 2nd and 3rd.

For some reason I've still felt an itch to play 6max (ego I think). Playing heads up has made me a much better poker player so I think my winrate will be still be good (if not better). I think I'm going to put in 10-15k 6max NL100 hands in January just to see what happens. It's not going to hurt me mentally and should help keep me from getting burnt out on HU.

Some goals for 2009.

POKER
-Continue HU as main game, would love to be sitting confidently at 5/10 by the end of the year, but realistically I'd be quite happy with sitting at 2/4 and 3/6 b/c there will be more consistent action.
-30hrs/week
-No specific monetary goal, but am definitely looking to set new personal bests
--No more than 4 tables of 6max, regain confidence at 100 and 200, then beat NL400 just to prove I can do it.

LIFE
-Move to Austin, TX for a short period of time (end of Jan-April)
-Figure out where I want to go from there whether it be return to Iowa City, stay in Austin, or find a new destination
-Cardio 5x/week, lift 3x/week
-Vegas for WSOP, not for donkaments but just for the atmosphere of being around other intelligent players
-Consider going to chiropractic school. I'm going to apply in the near future, just not sure when I want to go. I've been thinking I would be a lot of happier if I was in school and putting in hands in my free time, but the thought of making a lot of money and having freedom sounds very intriguing.

Happy new year!

2008 was a special year for me. First major accomplishment was successfully moving up to 1/2 6max at the beginning of the year. After finals in April (we have a mandatory 1 class May Term) I flew in anairplane for the first time when I went to California for a week. It was a nice reward to the end of the semester. In late May I graduated from college. It was more of a relief than an accomplishment...school felt like it was always getting in the way of poker. Truth of the matter is I don't really play much more now than I did when I was in school. My grades were still very good, but it is almost embarrassing to think how much I slacked off in school. It's amazing I was able to grind 20+hrs/week, watch videos, go to class, do h/w, and still have time for video games and going out on the weekends.

It was a shock to go from a busy bee-->bum in June. It definitely affected my mental health and overall play. I lost 5bis at 3/6 chasing a fish one late evening when I was not playing well (had 50% of the actoin, 100% of the responsibility) and destroyed my month and confidence. June 08 was my least profitable poker month since Jan 07, but it was an incredibly valuable experience.

July and August were better (looking now I was a very marginal winner during this period but mentally I felt good), so I took a shot at 2/4 6max on Sept 1st. I was up early on and then lost a $1400 pot in a 3-way all-in my AA vs AK vs 44 (well played 44 called raise, cc'ed 4b, and was third into the pot after I 5bet jam, lol so sick really). After this hand I lost my mental composure and proceeded to hit my small stop loss.

My roommates/mentors had been playing heads up since early in 2008. The thought of the game tilted the living hell out of me and I usually only played when I was tilted by 6max. For some reason, I decided to sit down and play heads up NL100 at 4am and proceeded to make 7bis in no time and went to bed. I had acquired the itch and decided to take the game very seriously after seeing how badly the villains had put money into the pot. Stuck to NL100 for the rest of the month and kicked ass.

October I went to NL200 hu with much confidence and kicked more ass and easily surpassed my best month ever with a total of over 10k. November was another record month at over 17k. December was a bit of a struggle in regards to winning all-in pots, but I still had a great month making 12.5k In Sept/Oct I had a few tilt/discipline issues, but have taken care of that for the most part. I have a lot of confidence heading into the new year and am looking forward to setting new personal bests.

I'll be making another post in the next couple days outlining my plans for 2009.

Graph Jan-Sept 3 probably 90% 6max, 10% HU



Graph Sept 5th-Present 95% HU, 5% 6max

Got the mental confidence back b/c I finally started running good.

Probably gonna sit exclusively at 1/2 for however long it takes me to book a solid day with no spew/no run bad. 2/4 is going extremely well I'm just getting so raped at 1/2 that I need to avoid 2/4 b/c I'm admittedly playing bad poker right now. 1/2 has been a train wreck. Ill-advised bluffs, crappy boards, misclicks, etc.

Game availability has been quite bad and I have been getting hit and run A LOT by the biggest fish. This really hurts my bottom line if I'm trying to flip/push a small edge. If I get it in I make a small EV play overall, but the thought of losing a fish immediately after losing the pot makes me cautious.

I've already got 23hrs in this month! Not bad when the previous best is about 100. Not running as well as I would like, but luckily most of the run bad is happening at 1/2 and 2/4 is going well.

It seems every little problem has begun to agitate me. Doesn't really matter if it's a hot running fish, software problems, a small misclick...it's been bothering me today. This is usually when I take a break, but I'm going to grind through it instead of being mentally weak. Looking to put in a solid weekend of work since I don't think we have any major plans.

Most everybody I know is in school and this time of the year is definitely hectic. My last "crunch time" for school was in mid-April, but it feels like so long ago that I don't know if I can even remember just how stressful the end of a semester truly is on students. NOT looking forward to going back to graduate school in the future.

Our mentor, Stacysmom001, returned from Argentina recently and is staying here this week. It's nice to have him around. His presence has definitely increased the amount of poker being played and poker being discussed in the condo.

Things went well to say the least. I haven't been looking at results until the end of the month the past couple of months. It's was nice in Oct. to total up the spreadsheet and book my first ever 10k month. November turned out to be even better with a total around 17.5k, mostly at NL200. I made 4 buyins during random NL400 sessions and will be sitting at NL400 at all times during December as well as NL200.

While I was happy with results I was not happy with the amount of work I put in. I put in 100hrs, 20 short of my goal. I was in a good groove of grinding every day and then Thanksgiving hindered that and I decided to take off the last 4 days.

December should be a good work ethic month. It snowed yesterday which = the ghey, but that is good for grinding. Hate cold weather and have no incentive to be in Iowa from Jan-->April so I may get away to a few different destinations in the States. I would like to see Tennessee, Texas, Southern California, and Vegas.

GL at the tables!

HU has been going VERY good. The reason I never stuck with it as my main game before is b/c I would tilt/spew when somebody ran hot on me. I've got those emotions in check for the most part, but have slipped up a couple times this month. Looking at my graph I've had probably three 5bi downswings and two that were 7-8bis. I clearly remember these sessions, especially the two bigger ones. They involved a lot of tilt and spew, much of it coming when deepstacked. I remember bluffing off $400 at NL200 2x in one session. That really hurt me mentally and I took this past weekend off and went home. I went fishing, shot some guns, and got my car ready for winter.

Speaking of winter...I hate it with a passion. Walking to the gym sucks, getting in my car and freezing my nuts off to go get a gallon of milk sucks. I hate everything about it. The only positive I see with cold and snow on the way is GRINDING!!!!!!!! I only played ~80 hrs (probably sat for 100 total if I had to guess). I want to rev that up to 120hrs next month. I mean c'mon that's only 30hrs/week. I'm a piece of crap if I can't do that.

I'm not quite sure what to do about moving up to 2/4 HU. I feel 100% comfortable at 1/2 and moving up shouldn't be a huge deal since I only play people that I have a big edge when playing. Yes, I'm a bumhunter. Some people really get angry at this but I don't know why. Their edge playing me is minimal, if any, so do us both a favor and don't sit at my table when I sit out. Another reason I'm thinking about sticking at 1/2 is b/c I want to pay my sister off for money she loaned me for college. I figure that would make an awesome Christmas present for her to open up and see a check for lots of money (****, she came out ahead b/c it probably would have been in the stock market).

I finally decided to get back in the gym this week. I've been in a huge funk since I sprained my ankle 8 weeks ago, but now it's not really an issue and I'm excited to do some cardio and lift. Daily schedule looks something like this: 9:30-10:30 workout, 11:00-2 grind, break 2-5 (games seem dead at this time), grind 5-8. Everyone is really busy with school so grinding this much and hanging out shouldn't be a problem at all. I've been SO bored lately it's driving me a little crazy.

This got a little long, but I guess the main goals for the next couple months is...

-30hrs/week
-Discipline (don't tilt)
-Don't spew deep stacked. Just b/c you're deep doesn't make the donks more likely to fold top pair no kicker!!!!! They don't understand stack sizes, so forget bluffing.
-Workout 4-5x/week
-Pay off debt
-Move up to 2/4 once debt is paid
-Iowa bowl game in FL or TX (hopefully)

Haven't updated in a long time, but heads up has continued to go well. I've got the itch to play 6 max, but have decided it's ghey and I hate it. I got in there last night for 500 hands and saw quads twice and another set. It's just a cooler fest anymore. 6max is obviously most profitable at night and that is not how I want to go about playing poker. My current schedule has me awake by 9 or 10am every day and that is something I enjoy.

I'm really looking forward to making some good money, being happy, and having fun. There's just something about 6max that is depressing. I plan on sitting at both NL100 and NL200 to ensure I have VERY!!! fishy action at all times. I believe in table selecting like a madman when it comes to HU.

This will be the last monthly recap I post. I'm sick of always being trapped behind results and 1 month isn't long enough to determine anything. In the future I'm going the business route and looking at winnings with respect to quarters. I've had a couple of break even months this year (1 b/c of school, 1 b/c of playing terrible), but when looking at the year in quarters I've had 3 successful quarters. There will be no more "I'd like to play but it's the end of the month and I don't want to ruin my month." That's really just silly, but it happens to all of us at some point or another. I know I'm a winning player, so it shouldn't really matter how much I'm winning at this point.

LIFE

Football has been a little disappointing. Both the Iowa Hawkeyes and Chicago Bears have huge offensive issues. Hawks are (3-2) and Bears (2-2) but both teams should be undefeated if not for a lack of execution and fundamentals. Went tailgating last weekend and had quite a bit of fun, but it was disappointing to be at the game and watch the Hawks piss it down their legs.

The ankle is getting closer and closer to 100%. I've been avoiding anything even resembling physical activity that involves impact (leg press, biking, squats). Rode the bike a couple of times and today was the first time I was completely pain free for 10mins so I think I'm gonna try to go 3-5x/week now on the bike and continue lifting 3x/week. It's nice to be getting back into the gym.

Baseball playoffs start tomorrow and I am extremely pumped up. The Cubs have a great shot at the World Series and the chance to do something special. Losing first round would be an incredible disappointment. It's a bit ironic the Cubs play the Dodgers. I went to a Dodgers game when I was on vacation out in California, but have yet to attend a Cubs game this season.

STATS/GRAPH

Not much to say...just gonna ride it out until the heater is over!

Had big plans to have a great weekend with the Iowa/Iowa St. matchup being in Iowa City, but it's going to rain. There's no way in hell I'll be caught outside in the rain for 10hrs tomorrow tailgating and going to the game.

GL at the tables.

Went out Friday night, got buzzed and sobered off before bed. Drinking and then sobering off seems to make me unable to sleep. What else to do but play some HU pokerz from 3-6am? Made like 5 buyins on complete donations where guys would donk pot 3 streets into my nuts

Saturday I watched some of the Iowa game and then my new sound system came from FedEx just as I was about to take a nap. Got that all set up and it seems to be really nice so far. Played a session before going out and made about 1 buyin. Saturday night was quite fun.

Sunday I went home to get a new cell phone and pick up my 2nd 20" monitor that I was letting my parents use. Watched the Bears play a very good game against the Colts and went to bed.

Monday my new laptop got here. Spent quite a bit of time working on that. I had an eye exam to order some new contacts in the afternoon. The weather was cold and rainy so I grabbed my PokerStars hoodie. Mistake, lol. The doctor starts telling me how he plays on JokerStars and how he really enjoys play moniez! He even plays Omaha once in a while just to remind himself how much he enjoys no-limit hold 'em. SIGH. He did ask about real money play so I gave him all the info I know so as to encourage another fish to deposit.

Today was a big day of grinding. HoldEmManager says I played 5 hours, but I'm pretty sure I was at the computer at least 8 hrs waiting for games at NL100 (so sad). I'm a religious table selector when it comes to HU, but I've never seen the games so dry. I don't know if it was just an odd day or if there are just fewer idiotic opponents. Managed to make 4 buyins though, so being completely results oriented it was a good day.

Gonna stick with HU until variance catches up to me and I get bored with it.