Happy New Year!

Well I actually didn't do anything for this New Years for the first time in a while. I got offers from cousins/friends/family etc to go do various things... some of which sounded pretty damn fun like a cruise/ski trip but I decided that since in all actuality I'll be able to travel at any time I please, I don't really have to go do something when everyone else is doing something specific to the holiday since as poker players we really have the freedom to do all that fun stuff to our heart's content anytime. I decided that I wanted to stay home and really try to get the New Year started off in a productive manner.

December was very meh as far as poker goes, even though it was still TECHNICALLY one of my best months ever at $40k, but it just felt very meh because I only got to play really for like 1 week of the whole month... or maybe a week and a half and then the 2nd half of it was spent running pretty bad. I got on my friends site where I made like $35k in my first 4 days on there and then for the next 4 days (so actually yeah, I guess I only played like a week), I proceeded to have a lot of swings where at one point I was down like 8500 but ended up having like a nice +12k session on the last night to finish the week off +3k and +40k or so overall on the month.

So this month I decided I wanted to make it my best month ever and at the very least get back in the HABIT of being on a productive schedule where I'm getting things done. In November I felt like I did a pretty good job of being in the habit of waking up each day and getting my tables open for every minute I was on the computer so I can play... whereas this month the first 2 weeks got kinda screwed and even when I got back I did a lot of time wasting which appears to be my specialty.

So this month I've already had myself banned from 2+2 and wrote out a very easy to follow schedule for myself to get me back on track. Since the money I make in poker is a direct product of the effort/time I put into it, I'm still trying to make my main focus putting in the hands and not getting distracted with other things on my computer. I mean, the math is kinda ridiculous for what I should be able to reasonably expect by putting in enough hands.... in November I averaged a little over 3 buyins a day... so at the higher stakes I'm playing now that would be an average of 6k a day which would be a $180k month assuming I play the full month. And obviously I'd be very happy with A LOT less than that so I'm just hoping I can average 1.5 buyins a day for 3k and have my first 100k+ month ever.

As far as poker goes collectively on the year, it was my best year to date and things are going rather well. I'm moreso happy that I am now in a position where I can REALLY start making a lot if things continue as they are at the higher stakes I'm playing. In poker that's one of the good things is that the earning potential you have skyrockets pretty fast as long as you get good enough. As soon as you move up in stakes one level, your earning potential just doubled since you're playing for twice as much, and presumably if you are properly bankrolled mathematically, it doesn't have to mean at all that your risk of losing more money increased.

Well, best wishes to everyone's 2009!