A Feeling of Deja Vu?

So, started this year off playing on a relatively new site (for me) more often (iPoker through Blue Square and Sun), which is a bit like I did late 2007, when I signed up for Full Tilt in December. Hmm, results last year were good in December, then I had an awful January playing beyond my capability and hitting the cash tables too much. Net result was $325 down for the month, with 21 losing days.

Fast forward to 2009. I have had 7 losing days so far this month out of 12 completed, with a $150 down day. Yet I am still up, a princely $6.67, but that puts me about $150 ahead of where I was in 2008. Main reason for this is my cash game results have improved. I know I am far more aggressive now and it has really started to show. The big down day was just a car crash, I was 5-buy-ins deep in a O8 rebuy and got runner-runnered for a straight when I flopped a set of Ks, whilst playing cash at the same time. Both of the buy-ins on the cash tables went as well, I stayed on beyond when I knew I should get up and leave (like when I went out of the MTT).

Anyway, back later in the month hopefully with some improved results. Currently 7/17 in a PLO rebuy on Full Tilt, so hopefully will have an emergency late update FTW later.

[2.5 hours later - 3rd for $250 :)]

Save the buy-ins, save the stack, or something like that anyway.

2008 Round-up

Well that's a wrap then, I definitely hit a rich vein of form in the second half of the year, with six months consecutive profit and an overall $3,080 in profit for the year, making up for the nearly $600 down in the first 6 months. Looking back on Official Poker Rankings (Full Tilt) reinforces what I felt at the time, that I was on a massive heater for the HILO STTs. I actually cashed in 46% of them in the month, playing 9 seat tables. This was the foundation for the rest of the year and helped me develop my game to the extent that I am now playing O8 and PLO cash games without fear of emptying my poker accounts.

In addition to that I also had some nice MTT results for a small stake player, the best of which came just in time to pay for some Christmas extras (see the last post). I am quite pleased that I managed to win MTTs on 3 different sites, results in both regular, rebuy and knockout tourneys.

At the end of the year I received an email from Sun poker announcing a migration to iPoker, where I would retain the rakeback privileges I had picked up when I first created the account. I stopped playing because I never really adjusted to the Cryptologic structures and games. Not sure why, maybe with another year of learning behind me I would have coped. However, I am quite comfortable with iPoker and proved it to myself by final tabling my first O8 rebuy on New Years Day with a shiny new Sun account. I am also now registered in 9 freerolls over the coming weeks, which means I am going to have to remember how to play Hold Em again. New account name is uncontrolled, say hello if you see me on the tables.

I will split my play mostly on Full Tilt and iPoker, with some small games on Betfair, where I will also try and play the weekly $3k gtd PLO by qualifying through the satellite. At least, while it lasts, I was in a game 2 weeks ago with 5 seats gtd and only 8 runners - and it still started!

Lastly, I have a couple of small aims for 2009, which represent a small improvement on the overall results from 2008. One is to buy a new number plate for my car, cost about £1k. Second is to try and get out to Vegas for a $1500 PLO or O8 event in the WSOP. I have enough air miles to fly there, so reckon could do the whole trip for about $2500 including some spends while I am there. There are a couple of hurdles to overcome here that are not just financial related, like can I persuade my wife that it is a good idea and can I book the flights. But other than that I am planning on making a profit, which is probably more than I was this time last year, when I would have been happy to make anything.