2008 Goals Recap

I'm in Corona, CA right now, staying at my girlfriend's sister's place, with the sounds of a crying newborn flickering on and off. 12:18am is still much too early for me to fall asleep. If I was home, I'd probably be in a SNG right now; alas, I'll devote this time to cranking out some posts on a borrowed laptop.

At the beginning of the year, I set myself 5 poker-oriented goals. Some of them I crushed, others I failed at miserably. Nevertheless, it was an exciting year of poker for me, highlighted by:

1. The month of May. I final tabled 3 MTTs within a week or two, adding over $3k to my bankroll almost instantaneously. Although I still never exceeded my single biggest cash ever, the sum of the scores was certainly very close.

2. My first live cash ever. Although it was a chop at a very small MTT, it was certainly a boost to get this monkey off my back.

3. My foray into online cash games. Although this wasn't quite the success I hoped it would be, it was fun while it lasted.

Of course, the year wasn't always full of sunshine and puppies; I had my share of low points too:

1. Self-destruction over the summer. I lost nearly $1500 in a week, due to a combination of tilt, inadequate focus, poor bankroll management, too much gamble, and playing out of my comfort zone. Prior to this, the results suggested I was crushing the tables, but this streak did more than humble me, it severely wrecked my confidence for many months afterwards.

2. Yet another hiatus. Had I been able to find a job as soon as I hoped, perhaps I wouldn't have needed to withdraw my entire bankroll.

3. A failure to improve. I'll explore this statement to greater length in a separate post.

Anyways, like I said, I had 5 goals for 2008. Although most of these are probably better graded in a Pass\Fail format, I think there's some merit in grading them on more of a sliding scale.

1. Build my bankroll to $2k by November. Mission accomplished in May, thanks to that string of final tables. Original expectation was to grind it out to $2k but one fell swoop works as well. Maintaining that bankroll was something else, and beyond that, learning to play with a bankroll of that size while living with several financial burdens. The letter of the goal was accomplished, but not necessarily the intent. Grade: B+

2. Win a Mookie. Done and done, my sole victory coming just before the BBT3 kickoff. Part skill, part final table cardrack (back to back AA for huge pots? Come on!). Doesn't matter, a win is a win is a win. Bonus points for outlasting LJ at the final table. Grade: A+

3. Read all of my poker books. Epic Fail. I breathed on HOH2 a couple times but hardly more than that. At least I didn't spend any money this year adding more to the collection. Grade: F

4. Win a MTT of 300 or more people. This one hurts. Two of my FTs this year qualified, maybe all three. The money sure was nice, but it still stings to get that close yet not finish it off. I'll award myself a bit of a lenient grade for getting so close, but ultimately, a goal like this is measured in victories, not cashes or runner-ups. Grade: C

5. Become a more visible blogger. Kind of a hard goal to measure without defining "visible". Although it seems that more people are aware of me than I think do, I've felt like a D-list blogger, sort of like Kathy Griffin only not nearly as annoying or plastic. I guess I was looking to see some of the relationships I've developed through this blog grow a bit more, but that only happens when effort is put forth, and just putting a bunch of blogs on your Google Reader isn't really effort. So, although I know more of you and maintain some form of correspondence with a handful of bloggers fairly regularly, I can't give myself a fair grade on this blog unless I know exactly what it is I'm expecting when I set a goal like this. Grade: Incomplete.

I'll return before the new year with some goals for 2009. Hopefully you've all enjoyed whatever holidays you may be celebrating this time of year. See you again soon.