Starting the year on a downswing

Well thus far the year has started out continuing the downswing I started in the end of 2k10. Before I get too involved, this is by no means a complaint. Merely an observation. If there is one thing I have learned about poker(and statistics), it's the existence of variance. I have been on my largest (and longest) downswing yet playing. So far it's close to 200 games and down about $75 Now granted this is by no means the largest or longest I will probably ever have, but at this moment and factored for my bankroll it is pretty significant. In writing about it though I hope I can formulate a plan to slow the variance down and eventually reverse it an upswing. I think one of my main problems is trying to "bite off more than I can chew" and playing stakes that are a little higher to test the waters. I've also been playing a lot more MTT's with higher entry #'s and while I can feel a big score coming with a lot of deep runs I've made, it just hasn't happened yet. So it looks like in slowing the variance monster down I may have to go back to what got me here, my bread and butter... the $1 45 man sng's. While I still mix in a good amount of the $1&3 45 man's, they definitely have gotten away from my norm. The main aspect in all of this is playing games I'm comfortable playing and know how to win, while still making the best decisions on the felt. Bad beats will happen, but as long as good decisions are made eventually they will pay off. I've read a lot on the variance forum on Pokerwit, and thru what some players say I've really examined the bad beats and downswing and view them for what they are. They are not "bad beats" unless I'm the one that beats myself with a bad decision. Sometimes I think people fail to realize that even thru all the glitz and money, that it is still just a game. And to me there is no point unless you are having fun and do your best to play your best. That is what all players should truly strive for and within that good things will happen. I guess what I'm really saying is there is no point in not being optimistic about poker, and life in general. You never know what each day will bring you, and sometimes you have a little bit of control over it too.

2k10 Summary and 2k11 Goals

Obviously I am not the most ambitious blogger as I had intended to be from the beginning of starting this. And obviously I did not nearly come close to achieving the goals I had set for myself poker wise this year. Perhaps my sights were set too high. However, with that being said I still managed to have my best year to date grinding (other than the lone $3k score back in 06) and hugely improved over 2k9 stats. I managed to move up in stakes twice on Stars and played really well overall IMO. Of course there is always room for improvement so that's more of what I will focus on this year. Overall I managed to play 129 games on FT and 638 games on Stars which gives me 767 games played for the year. I had total profits of $620 which amounts to winning about $0.80 per game played. Not bad when my average buy in is in the $2 range giving me an ROI of about 40%. Here are some visuals:




So all in all it was a decent year for me, but definitely leaves room for improvement. Moving forward this year my goals are mostly going to be volume oriented rather than monetary, because with volume will come money. My ultimate goal is to try to almost triple my volume from 767 to 2100 games which seems very reasonable, but will mean I will have to buckle down and play more. I plan to incorporate more MTT's as I've been getting close to a "big" score in the stakes I play and also continue to grind the SNG's that have built my bankroll to what it is. Also I was able to get slightly over 4700 tlb points on stars which was not too far off my goal of 6k. This year I am aiming to double that and get as close to 10k as possible if not more. So basically my goal in playing this year is just to play more and improve my game every time, with that the money will come. And yes perhaps I will try to blog more this year and make it a bit more interesting as I feel this has been very mundane and probably dry to read. Thanks for reading anyway for those of you that may check in every so often. GL in 2k11!