Update/Year in Review/2009 Outlook

Didn't post all of December, a lot to get to.

December wasn't much of an improvement over November. I think I was about break even. Stopped shortstacking. With only 20 BBs, it's very hard to beat the blinds... you're just not going to win enough big pots. Grinding out 10k hands/week breaking even to collect the rakeback cheque isn't something I'm interested in.

Got the HEM trial just to see how bad I've been running over the last couple of months. Combined between NL and PLO, I'm well over 5.5k below equity in the last couple of months. It's rough, completely destroyed my game. It's really sad that after what I've been through pokerwise since September, I've come out of it breakeven and a worse player... Dropped all the way down to 50NL.

The good news is that I'm starting to pinpoint a lot of the places I'm going wrong.

First of all, I'm realizing just how much work I have to put in to my PLO game. I've done a lot of equity simulations and such, and definitely picked out a lot of my leaks. Also have to work on playing more pots in position and avoiding playing out of position... my position stats are far too 'flat'.

Tons of stuff to work on in NL. Like PLO, my position stats are too flat. My red line in both games has just completely gone to hell, and there are some sub-categories on things I have to work on about that that I'll talk about below. Also, I really have to stop randomly spazzing out.

Goals:

2009:
1. Finish the year at least a 400NL/400PLO reg
2. First, I think I need to stop sucking at PLO
3. $15k
4. Fix tilt/focus issues
5. Become an awesome bonus *****

January:
1. Deposit and clear CD Poker bonus
2. Grind out a free month of CR
3. Are those two combined going to be a lot of hands?
4. Don't play more than 4 tables at a time, preferably less
5. No watching TV and stuff while playing
6. Work on the red line
7. $1k
8. Watch these PLO vids saved on my computer

Certainly doable IMO. I went from $44 on March 10th to $8k and taking 400NL shots in October. Had to run superhot to do it, but I have a lot of other advantages that I didn't have. First, I'll be starting with like $1500 and not $44. I'll have 12 months instead of 8 months. I'll have rakeback all year instead of just for the last 2.5 months. I've fixed problems I had depositing and now I'll be able to bonus whore all over the place... going to start with $200 bonuses on CD Poker and Titan, after that I'll evaluate my BR and probably go after the bigger ones on places like UB and FTP. Playing cash instead of SnGs and MTTs is hopefully going to be more profitable.

I'll also be a much better player. I have a ton of resources I didn't have to start out with... forums are a big help (although TBH they might be a hindrance to now). I'm obviously a CR member now, and that's very very +EV. I know how to think about NL right now. My game has a lot of holes in both NL and PLO, but at least now I have the means to fix them.

Will need to work on the 'other' side of the game. I certainly have some issues to work on. I do believe in aggressive BR management for the most part, but I took it too far. When I was playing 400NL with an $8k BR (which is fine) I would often be sitting 250BB deep against regs (which is not fine). I'm a complete tiltmonkey and I need to fix that, although I'm not sure how.

The biggest mental issue I need to work on is focus. I'll often be watching TV or surfing the internet or be distracted in some way while I'm playing, and that has to stop. (Music probably doesn't help, but I can't imagine playing without it). I also think that rakeback has hurt me a lot. In my upswing my MT ratio was about 2.5, then I got rakeback. (Seriously, getting rakeback is just about the point right between my upswing and downswing). Then, my MT ratio was about 4.5. I feel pressured to play more tables than I should, and I just tell myself that rakeback and volume will make up for the EV I'm giving up. It doesn't. I'm 18, have a high IQ and have played video games all my life, but mass-tabling isn't for me for whatever reason. It also completely fucks up my non-showdown winnings.

So, here's to 2009 being a much better year than 2008.