Sunday + Monday

I was planning on getting in a lot of hands on Sunday, but after 915 I wasn't very happy with my play. It's never good to force it when you feel your game is a little off, so I decided to take the rest of Sunday and all of Monday off from poker. I had a very good weekend and didn't want to screw that up by playing a few sessions with my B- game. Even though I was a bit off I made $114 (and $16 bonus).

To reach my 50k month goal I'll have to play about 7k hands on Tuesday and Wednesday, and that shouldn't be much of a problem. I'm very happy with how this month went, and am excited about doing a review of it along with setting new goals for February.

Bankroll: $5122
Hands played this week: 915
Bonus cleared this week: $16
Hands played this month: 43520
Bonus/rakeback this month: $1073

The Best Poker Books

I was messing around with squidoo a little bit today and made a list of my favorite 10 poker books. I just made a list and set it for others to vote on which they think are best. It will be interesting to see what every one's favorite books are.

Top 10 Poker Books

It Feels Good!

Since I've started this blog I've been running pretty cold at the table. I'm still making consistent money, but not at the rate I know I should be. After the last few days that seems to be changing. It's not like I'm outdrawing people, I try to not put myself in the position where I have to, but more of my hands have been holding up.

I've really enjoyed putting in some real hours this weekend, and there is no good reason why I shouldn't be able to do the same 5 days a week. If I play 3500-5000 hands a day I should be able to make a lot of cash. Even if I don't do well at the tables the bonus money will be more than enough.

I played 3895 hands on Saturday, and the games were awesome. It's really cool when you are outdrawn in a lot of pots, but still put up a large win. I was able to make $656 on the day, and clear $71 in bonus money. The weekly UB bonus is going to be very nice this week, as I'm already near the 2k points mark. If the Sunday games are anywhere near as good as Saturday's this could be a very very good weekend.

Bankroll: $5008
Hands played this week: 16373
Bonus cleared this week: $473
Hands played this month: 42605
Bonus/rakeback this month:$1057

Amending the 20K Challenge

The 20k challenge didn’t get off to the smoothest start on Friday. Full Tilt was down for quite a while last night, so Jared wasn’t able to play more than one session. The whole point of the challenge was to sit down with a fellow poker pro and talk poker/keep each other sane while we played a large number of hands. Full Tilt’s down time wrecked any chances of making it to 20k, so we have amended it to the “Play a Shit Ton of Hands” weekend challenge. I'm sure there will be another challenge where we can atually get in 20k, but we will have to settle for just "a shit ton" this weekend. It wasn’t really ever about getting in 20k exactly, the goal was just to get in a ton of poker while the games were at their best.

There were no problems with UB, so I still got in a lot of hands…. 4425 to be exact. The first session was about 3.5 hours long, and it was one of the most uneventful sessions of my life. I don’t think I played a big pot the entire time, which is pretty crazy for a longer session. There were no big outdraws and no big winners, just a lot of folding and picking up small pots. I ended up losing $38 on the session.

My next session was 3 hours long, and the complete opposite of the earlier one. I lost some big pots but won even more huge ones. During the whole session it seemed like I was always in at least one giant pot. At one table I had 4.5 buy ins and another player had about 5, so we had some very interesting super deep stack confrontations. I played some great poker and was able to take advantage of some bad play. Even with losing a few big pots near the end of the session I was still able to make $754… not too shabby for a day’s work at $100NL. I also made $91 in bonus on top of that.

It felt good to get a ton of poker in, and I will definitely play a ton more on Saturday. I have already passed my bonus/rakeback goal for the month. Now that I am at the $100s I should have no problem smashing that base goal every month. This just proves that with some solid play you can play poker for a living, even if you are playing low limits.

Bankroll: $4352
Hands played this week: 12478
Bonus cleared this week: $402
Hands played this month: 38710
Bonus/rakeback this month: $986

Mid Week Update + The 20k Hand Weekend

Every time I tried to update the blog the blogger site seemed to be down, but everything seems to be in order now. Tuesday started off just about as bad as it gets. Jared was playing next to me and won a giant pot when he set over set someone. I mentioned “You know, it’s been a while since I’ve been in a set vs. set situation either way.” Within the next half hour I twice had the bad end of SvS on the flop, and lost two other big pots when we got the money in with my set vs. their over pair. There were a few other funny cooler hands in the first 1.5 hours of the session. I was happy with my play, getting a cold deck like that can often send people into a raging tilt, but I kept my play level all the way. For the rest of the session the hands were pretty dry, and I stayed about even the rest of the way. Overall I lost a little less than 6 buy ins in that session.

The next session went much better. After such a tough session it’s easy for the after shock to affect your next few sessions, but if you were able to hang tough and ride out the first one you shouldn’t have that problem too often. I made back about 3.5 buy ins giving me these totals for Tuesday: -$227, 3216 hands, and $58 in bonus money.

I was wavering between playing on Wednesday or taking both that and Thursday off. I didn’t really feel like playing but I decided to get in a session. Nothing too interesting happened, and I decided to break until Friday after about 1.5 hours. I played 725 hands, made $39, and cleared $12 in bonus. On Thursday I also received $170 from the weekly UB bonus. It’s a great bonus and I plan on taking better advantage of it in the next few weeks than I have in the past.

Jared proposed we do a 20k hands weekend challenge, and I decided to take him up on it. Doing small challenges with others is a great way to motivate yourself. If anyone wants to join in this weekend we will have a thread going about it in the forum. 20k hands are definitely a lot, but are certainly doable. The weekend’s games are always great, so hopefully I will be able to win a good chunk of change during the challenge.

Bankroll: $3636
Hands played this week: 8053 (I think I acc carried over the total from last week in the last post)
Bonus cleared this week: $311
Hands played this month: 34285
Bonus/rakeback this month: $895 (with the rakeback I currently have I have passed the $1300 goal!)

Motivation

Realizing that online poker might not be around forever has put a sense of urgency in me that has really motivated me to hit the tables more than usual. It's something that needed to be done, I guess I just needed a little perspective to get over the hump.

Jumping up to the $100NL tables was definitely the right move. People are giving away money, and I have been able to take advantage of it. Between Sunday and Monday I played 4112 hands, and won $827 (+$71 in bonus). The tables are too good to spend too much time writing a blog, so I'm going to keep this short.

If we want to keep this game alive everyone needs to do their part. I added a "Save Online Poker" board to my forums, so please join us HERE. Currently it's pretty informal, with people just bouncing ideas around, but if I can get some momentum behind it I would consider turning it into something more serious.

Bankroll: $3824
Hands played this week: 13647
Bonus cleared this week: $224
Hands played this month: 30344
Bonus/rakeback this month: $645

A Silver Lining

The events of the last few days have angered me more than anything in my entire life. If the government used the time and effort it’s spending fighting gambling instead fighting terrorism, maybe we wouldn’t be sending more troops to Iraq. I won’t go into it anymore now; I need to dedicate an entire post to say everything I need to.

One thing that is certain, the online poker landscape will be changing dramatically in the following weeks. We will see who the pretenders are, and who the contenders are. Some sites will have the balls to say “F the US government” and continue to bring the people the entertainment they want. The game make up will also change significantly. I actually think this might improve the games for a while. For the next week there will be panic among the masses. Many players will be tilting away stacks from the current uncertainty. Fish with a few buy ins in their account will probably just gamble them away knowing it will be difficult to cash out.

In the long term I see the break even, or slightly profitable, players leaving the game. That means there will be fish and sharks. People playing for a living will find a way to play, as will the people who really want to gamble. This could actually make the games more profitable, as long as you practice excellent game selection.


From this assessment, I made the decision to move up to the $100NL games a bit early. I need to take advantage of the current climate while I still can. I can’t wake up each day and be certain online poker will be there. This means the correct way for me to maximize my bankroll is to move up now. If you’re not certain you can beat the next level I wouldn’t suggest this, but at this point I can’t blame anyone for taking a shot. Before you even think about doing this you must be certain you have enough money to get by in the event you can no longer play online.

I started the $100s on Friday and Saturday, and was right on the money with my assessment of the current poker climate. Players were playing much worse than normal, many having a fire sale of their online bankroll. I think this hand sums it up pretty perfectly:

http://www.pokerdynasty.net/forum/index.php?topic=463.0

The first session didn’t start off too hot. I was playing with a few decent aggressive players (had no prior data available for table selection) and every time I decided to make a move I was shown the nuts. I also lost a $400+ pot when my AA didn’t hold up vs top pair. I wasn’t worried about the poor start. The play was terrible, as expected, so I wasn’t going to let the initial results affect my plan.

It didn’t take very long to cash in on the ridiculous play, and I had a very good Saturday. Between the two days I played 4872 hands and made $292. One of the biggest factors in moving up was the extra bonus money I could earn, and I was able to make another $83 from that. I hope to clear $500+ per week in bonus money for as long as I can.

While it’s true the current situation blows, but like in every other poker situation, you must make the most of what you’re given. If you don’t give up and start blowing your bankroll, you should be able to find some incredibly profitable games. Online poker may not be here forever, make the most of it while you can.

Bankroll: $2997
Hands played this week: 9535
Bonus cleared this week: $153
Hands played this month: 26232
Bonus/rakeback this month: $574

Tilted By The Government

Apparently I was a little more pissed off about this whole Neteller situation than I thought. Along with some annoying computer issues, the US government trying to take away my profession didn't make me the happiest person yesterday. The bad part was I didn't really realize how mad I was until about halfway through my first session. What that meant is I started off my first session of the day on tilt. I made a few terrible plays where I called someone down because I knew they were weak. The problem was, even though I was correct about their weakness, their weak hand still had me beat. Half an hour in I finally figured out I was on government tilt and was able to slap myself in the face to snap out of it. My image was set up pretty good to get paid off, but I didn't get anything to really take advantage of it. I rode out the end of the session about even, so I ended up losing a little more than two buy ins.

Tilt from outside the poker table often goes unnoticed, and this makes it the deadliest of all the tilts. If you have a fight with your girlfriend, have a bad day at work, get into a car accident, or you realize your government is slowly telling you how you can or can't spend your money you need to be able to recognize that your mental state is not conducive to good poker. There is nothing wrong with re-scheduling a planned session to clear you head. Go do something that. makes you happy. If you're in a bad mood, any time spent at the poker table will be a waste.

The second session of the day was much better than the first. I did make one mistake near the end, but it was just a case of a misread, and I never really get upset at myself for going with my instinct. When I go with my gut I'm right 9 times out of 10, so it's much better to focus on the times I'm right than the few times I'm not. I still made $91, leaving me down $18 in the 2037 hand I played. I still made money on the day when you add in the $40 of bonus money cleared.

Bankroll: $2685
Hands played this week: 4663
Bonus cleared this week: $70
Hands played this month: 21360
Bonus/rakeback this month: $491

Heads Up Insanity

Monday was my weekly heads up day, and it was yet another crazy 2626 hands. The last few weeks have been like a roller coaster. I feel like I'm making the most of a pretty bad run of cards. My style is prone to some high variance for a couple of different reasons. The most obvious is that I play very aggressive. I could probably play a little tighter at the $50NL level and make the same profit, but aggressions is the natural play style for me. Another reason is people love getting all in on the flop/turn with only a draw against me. I'm not sure exactly what about my play makes people want to call off their stack on the flop or turn with a draw, but they do against me more than any else I know. It's a good thing since I'm usually a pretty big favorite, but when they hit more than their fair of draws I can see some big fluctuations.

I played a mix of $100 and $50 heads up on Monday, and it started off pretty horrible. I made two very bad moves early in a match. Besides those plays I thoroughly outplayed him, but the cards didn't let me take advantage of it. If it weren't for those two mistakes I would have been up on him, so I have nothing to blame but myself. On other tables I had some people hit and run after getting pretty lucky. Unlike most people I don't mind the hit and run. I know I'm a better player than most who use the tactic, so I will usually end up on top. It might take someone getting incredibly lucky to realize they are outclassed, so it would be stupid of them to continue when it's likely they will lose.

I made a pretty good comeback at the end when I found someone who apparently had no love for money. He had a big stack when I sat down, and had no problem playing all in for multiple buy ins with bottom pair. Overall I ended down $122, clearing $30 in bonus money. There were definitely a couple of big mistakes made, all pretty much simple brain farts. If you play 50k hands a month you are bound to make a few bad plays now and then, don't beat yourself up about them.

I decided to take days off in the middle of the week now that there is limited football on the weekends. The weekends are really when you make the best money, so you want to be able to put in a good amount of hours then, especially in the evenings. Friday and Saturday nights after the bars close is pretty much the same as printing money. If you can work those slots into your schedule you will definitely see a nice boost in profits. I didn't play any on Tuesday, and may or may not play Wednesday. The Q&A thread is going pretty good. I'll continue answering any questions you have there, so keep them coming.

Bankroll: $2703
Hands played this week:2626
Bonus cleared this week: $30
Hands Played this month: 19323
Bonus/rakeback this month: $451

Poker Pro Q&A

Since I took it easy this weekend (what an awesome week of football) I thought I would do something a little different here. I'm going to use the post to open up an open Q&A about being a poker pro. They can be general questions or anything more personal about my career. Go ahead and post your questions in the comments here and I'll be happy to answer it.

Thursday and Friday

Sorry the updates haven't been quite as consistent. I've been crazy busy with some other projects, but the real reason is I've had a little bit of writers block for the daily posts. I like to put in some nuggets of wisdom to go along with my project updates, it can get boring if it's only results. My sessions on Thursday and Friday were pretty mundane and didn't inspire me to write anything interesting. I guess one thing that comes from that is to show you that your career as a poker player will not always be exciting. It's easy to become disheartened when you realize playing poker for a living is not as exciting as when you were only playing part time.

Just like any activity, if you do it often enough there will be streaks where you're incredibly bored. Hopefully you have an intense love for the game (if you don't you shouldn't be playing pro) and it won't last long. Whenever I find myself getting bored during a session I just try to focus more on my reads. Even if I'm not in a hand I try to figure out what everyone has. Not only will this keep things interesting, but it will improve your overall skills. I also remember how much worse it would be sitting at a desk all day, and that seems to put me in the right state of mind.

I'm gonna keep the results short today, like I said the sessions were pretty boring. Between the two days I played 3500 hands making $149. With the weekly UB bonus I cleared $150 in bonus money. It looks like I'm moving along quite nicely for my $1300 rakeback/bonus goal.

Bankroll: $2825
Hands played this week: 10,120
Bonus cleared this week: $253
Hands played this month: 16697
Bonus/rakeback this month: $421

Tuesday and Wednesday

I got in a two sessions for a total of 2200 hands on Tuesday, one in the afternoon and one at around midnight. Recently I've noticed a trend that I'm still not sure whether it's just coincidence or something I need to change in my habits. I've found that I crush the tables during my afternoon sessions, but do much worse at night. There hasn't been any noticeable reason for a difference, but I will definitely be investigating it more. If you feel there is some part of your game or playing habit that is causing a leak in your profits you need to investigating it thoroughly before chalking it up to chance. Even with a poor night session I made $153 on the tables, and $34 in bonus.

Wednesday was a whole other story. Once again it was a day that I had planned to take off, but decided to do a session later in the day. I really should stop myself from doing that, as I think it's very important to have a few days off each week. Pretty much everything that could go wrong did in this session. I made a few bad plays, had some big outdraws, read players correctly as weak on the flop but ended up broke when I bluffed into their turned/rivered monster, etc. I think this hand is probably the best example of how the session went.

Hand #37040776-108705 at Anaheim (No Limit Hold'em)
Started at 11/Jan/07 02:28:08

P_Dynasty is at seat 0 with $57.25.
bltomato2007 is at seat 1 with $57.25.
jacks_fullAK is at seat 2 with $22.
Baak_Drah_Ker is at seat 4 with $62.20.
adam_ant is at seat 5 with $67.55 (sitting out).
The button is at seat 5.

P_Dynasty posts the small blind of $.25.
bltomato2007 posts the big blind of $.50.

P_Dynasty: As 8s
bltomato2007: -- --
jacks_fullAK: -- --
Baak_Drah_Ker: -- --

Pre-flop:
jacks_fullAK calls. Baak_Drah_Ker folds. P_Dynastycalls. bltomato2007 raises to $2. jacks_fullAKcalls. P_Dynasty calls.

Flop (board: Ts 5s 2d):

P_Dynasty checks. bltomato2007 bets $1.25.jacks_fullAK folds. P_Dynasty calls.

Turn (board: Ts 5s 2d 7h):

P_Dynasty checks. bltomato2007 bets $3.75.P_Dynasty raises to $15. bltomato2007 calls.

River (board: Ts 5s 2d 7h Jc):

P_Dynasty bets $38.50. bltomato2007 calls.

Showdown:
P_Dynasty shows As 8s.
P_Dynasty has As 8s Ts 7h Jc: ace high.
bltomato2007 shows Js 7s.
bltomato2007 has Js 7s Ts 7h Jc: two pair, jacks and sevens.

Plays like this work a huge percentage of the time time on UB and I was correct with thinking that he was weak on the flop/turn. I know he's not calling if he doesn't river the two pair, so even though my play was correct I got a little bit unlucky. It can get frustrating when making the right play doesn't work out, but you need to pride yourself on being able to see the whole picture. Never become results oriented and always strive to make the correct play. So even though I lost $195 (+$12 bonus) in the 900 hand session I was still think I mostly made the right plays, and that's all that matters.

Bankroll: $2676
Hands played this week: 6620
Bonus cleared this week:$103
Hands played this month: 13197
Bonus/rakeback this month: $271

Don't Be That Guy

I was going to take Monday off to do some website work and other errands, but I finished everything early so I decided to get a session in (I just can't stay away from poker!). I still feel like I'm in a pretty bad run of cards, but that isn't an excuse to go and lose, so I ended up winning $119 (and $20 in bonus) in 1270 hands. The only really "interesting" part of the session was some bad beats, that I'm not going to bore you with. As a pro you should get in the habit of not telling bad beat stories. First of all, nobody cares. The need to constantly tell bad beat stories is a terrible habit that leads to a losing mindset. When you learn to swallow the stories you begin to realize that the beats don't matter in the long run. One good way to lose the attention, and respect, of your poker buddies is always being the guy who has another bad beat story to tell.

Bankroll: $2718
Hands played this week: 3520
Bonus cleared this week:$57
Hands played this month: 10097
Bonus/rakeback this month: $225

What A Crazy Day Part 2

While sitting down to watch some NFL playoffs on Sunday I decided to kill two birds with one stone and play some heads up on my laptop. I had so much fun that I ended up playing 2150 hands one tabling the heads up games.

The session started to remind me of Friday, as I lost a lot of huge pots after getting my money in well ahead. I wasn't too worried about it as heads up can be a very volatile game when you're running bad. Just when I was about to call it a day someone sat down at my .5/1 PL table with $38. There was no reason to leave and pass up the free money. People who sit down with buyins like that usually give it up pretty fast. It couldn't get any faster as we got all in preflop on the first hand and my AK held vs his T9. He reloaded for $68 and I stacked him on the second hand my AT vs KQ, once again all in before the flop.

My eyes got wide when he reloaded for for a 3rd stack, this time for the full $100. It took me a little longer this time, but 10 hands later he was felted once again . I knew I had hit the jackpot when I saw another $100 appear under his name. The match started going down hill when we got all in preflop again, my AQ vs his AK. I wasn't disappointed in my play as AQ was well ahead of the hands he was getting all in with. The real damage came when we got all in on the turn, my J3 vs his AA on a JT37 board and the river came a T.

I was a little sad when after I re bought he started playing very tight with a big stack. If he was going to play like that I decided to go into ultra berserk blitz banzai mode until he started playing like his old self. After about 50 hands I got K9 on the button and the flop came K9J. We got all in on the turn, and my two pair was good enough to beat his QQ. After that he started playing crazy again and I soon had $800 in front of me.

It was an incredibly fun day, and it felt very good to make another 9th inning comeback. I ended the day up $84 and made $37 in bonus. While it's pretty rare to see two day like this in a row, as a poker pro you must be prepared for it. If you can't handle swings like this it will be very hard to make comebacks when you are in the valleys. Always remember that the only way to come out of a down streak is to stick with it and play great poker.

Bankroll:$2599
Hands played this week:2150
Bonus cleared this week:$37
Hands played this month: 8827
Bonus/rakeback this month: $205

What a crazy day

Friday was one of the craziest days I have ever had at poker. It was a day that showed the peaks and valleys possible in the game, in only a few thousand hands. As I said in my last post I was going to really start getting a lot of hands in each day. At about 2pm I sat down to play a 4 or 5 hour session. It started off incredibly well, and I was up 4 or 5 buy ins right away. The good times didn’t last very long as I started spiraling into a ridiculously bad run. I had about 8 hands where I had someone crushed with 2 or 3 outs on the turn only to hit one to beat me on the river. That will happen and it doesn’t bother me at all. It’s very easy to take a session like that and chalk it all up to bad luck. What I want to look at after the session is spots where I could have saved money but didn’t. In this session there was definitely some room for improvement. I ended the session down $138, but could have made some folds that would have saved me at least a buy in.

The next session was more like a train hitting me directly in the face. I sat down, and on the very first hand I got a player all in on the turn with JJ on a 2A27 board when I had AK. He hit a J and I wasn’t too happy about that. On the next hand I had just a gut shot, but was pretty sure the player didn’t have much of a hand on the flop so I pushed the turn. While I was right about the flop, the turn had made him set. The very next hand (all on the same table) I had AK again and the flop came A93. I led the flop and was raised. I thought it was the perfect time to faint tilt and pushed all in. He let his timer run all the way down and called with his set of 3s. I started to feel a little tilt tingling down my spine but continued playing. I made a few bad river calls that I normally wouldn’t make. I finally gave up when I had AK TPTK(I’m almost never folding this in the $50NL game) beat by a set of 3s (again) on 2 tables at the exact same time. That session I ended up down $191, not a good day so far.

I had planned to take the rest of the day off, but after relaxing for a while I decided to give it another shot later that night. My main goal was to not do anything fancy. I would play a little tighter than usual, not trying to make any big calls or bluffs. The strategy seemed to work very well as I crushed the games for +$271. It felt great to make such a good comeback, only losing $58 on the day. With $54 in bonus money earned it was pretty much like breaking even. I was happy to get 3401 hands in, and expect to do more of the same next week. I’ll probably either take the weekend off or only play some small sessions as I really want to watch all the football playoff games.

Poker is always taking you for a ride but Friday was more of a rodeo. There were definitely some mistakes made along the way, but for the most part I stayed strong and was able to ride out the storm. 2007 has been off to a rough start, but I’m certain there is big money in the future after I ride out this streak.

Bankroll: $2515
Hands played this week: 6677
Bonus Cleared: $168

Weekly UB Pay Day!

Thursdays have been a pretty good day since I've started playing UB. Every Thursday they pay out their weekly bonus, and it's always nice to get a little boost. This week it was an extra $50, but it will be much more in the coming weeks when I am able to get some real time in. As for my play I made $86 (and $20 in bonus money) in the 1056. I was happy to get that as I ran very bad for the session. I have had the stomach flu for a few days but am feeling better now. I expect to get in a minimum of 2500 hands in 5 days a week, if not more. I'm feeling good about my play so hopefully I can keep that up while the bad run I seem to be in passes.

Bankroll: $2573
Hands Played this week: $3276
Bonus Cleared: $114

Let's Get This New Year Started

I'm very excited about 2007. I have some great stuff lined up outside of poker, and can feel this is going to be my best year to date at the tables. The poker gods have a sick sense of humor, and do a good job of trying to bring you down a peg. Luckily with the right attitude and some good play you can give the poker gods the finger. I was able to get in 2220 hands in a very rocky first day. Even after a few very tough hands I was able to eek out a $33 profit. I really enjoy days like this. It's a good feeling to salvage a win when the cards say you should have a loss. I won't say it feels better than a huge win, but it definitely makes me feel like a better player. $44 in bonus money made it a respectable day. All in all not a bad start to 2007. If I keep playing well it's going to be a great year.

Bankroll: $2487
Hands Played this week: 2220
Bonus cleared this week: $44

December in review and looking forward

You definitely couldn’t call the first month of this project boring. Circumstances led to me not being able to play nearly as much as I would have liked. Now that I’m back in FL and the holidays are over I’ll be able to get a full month of play in. Let’s take a look at my December stats:

Profit: $454
Hands Played: 25,305
Bonus/Rakeback: $897 (after $367 in monthly rakeback)

Numbers wise it was a pretty disappointing month. It just goes to show how important putting in a lot of hours really is. The 25,000 hands is about half of the minimum number of hands I should be playing each month. This is reflected in only making $897 of the $1300 in bonus money/rakeback I set out to earn. A bankroll management error at the end of the month led to a big loss and knocked down the almost $2000 in profit down to $454.

All that being said, the month wasn’t a total disaster. I’m not going to go hungry only making $900 in bonus money, and my bankroll did increase. It also should make it clear to both you and I how important professional management really is. I started this blog to improve exactly that. If I had been playing higher stakes I would have made plenty of rakeback money to cover the $1300. This month showed that those flaws still exists, which is no surprise, as I hadn’t intended to have them completely fixed the first month. I know what I need to do to fix these flaws, and that is the most important step in getting it done.

So where does that leave me for 2007? Well, here are my goals for January. They’ll be a bit more modest than my December goals as its more obvious now that it will take some time to fix the flaws in professional management of the game.

January 2007 Goals:

Play 50,000 Hands
Make $1300 in bonus/rakeback
Study 10 hours a week
Practice excellent bankroll management

If I take care of my business like I should these will all be very attainable.

Happy New Year!