Friday 31 December 2010

Year 1 as a Pro - The Future


I hope everyone that has been reading my blog this month have found it useful and/or interesting - thanks for all the comments. However, the primary reason for me doing it was as a way to review my own year and think about what I want from the next.

Hence my goals for 2011 are:


Volume

I think this has to be my primary goal for next year. 470k hands feels like a lot to me still, but I know lots of people who are doing 70k-100k/month regularly. I'm not going to find more hours in a day for poker, so the only way I am going to get the extra volume is through playing more tables. Where I'm playing 2-6 tables now I need to be aiming for 6-10 I think. I started playing a few tables so that I could fix leaks and get better and I think I have achieved that this year, so I should be able to cope and I've put some 10-tabling sessions in recently without any problems.

As for a number, 1 million hands could be a little ambitious but I'll be pleased with 750k+. I'll need to work on playing with fewer distractions as well as all the other aspects to achieve it. It is expected that Full Tilt will add another tier to the Black Card programme in the next few days requiring 1500 ftp/day for an extra multiplier of full tilt points. As of today my average is 817.27 so quite a way to go to average 1500, but I think my hand target and reaching the new black card level will be closely linked so that is some extra motivation to achieve both.

Results

I'm not going to set any specific results goals. Playing extra volume and continuing to work hard should lead to good results. I'd obviously like to do better than this last year, and it would be a nice milestone to achieve a $10k month at some point.

Coaching

Its been over 12 months since I last had coaching so I think it is definitely time to find a coach to help take my game forward. I hope to get something organised by March if not sooner.

Within the first few months of this year I'd also like to get to the stage where my student feels he is able to go solo without regular sessions and be winning at a decent rate. I'll take time to review with him how it went so I can evaluate my own coaching skills and think about taking on more students.

Tournaments

I feel like I've been due for a decent torunament score for a while but it hasn't quite happened yet. I've been close a few times this year... coming 49th of 28,000 people in one of the miniftops events recently was a bit frustrating after playing well for several hours, going out JJ v KK aipf. I'll continue to keep trying as well as do some work on my MTT game.

Live Play

I'm going to try to approach live play with a bit more dilligence than I have so far. This will involve trying to build a proper live bankroll, keeping better records and accounting for it along with my online play. Vegas 2011 will account for a large part of my live play this next year but I'll also look to play a few larger live events than I have this year in the UK. With my online record I feel I should be better placed to sell some action so I hope this will create some more opportunities.

Study

I'd like to up the amount of time time I spend studying this year:

  • at least 1 training video per week
  • continue regular hh reviews with Gary & Darren
  • continue to do more villain analysis
  • spend more time with pokerstove and understanding odds and equity and general theory
  • do more sweats and talk to other players

Travel

I'll definitely be heading to Vegas for all of June & July but I'd also like to go somewhere else new this year and stay in a house with other poker players. Thailand, Australia or somewhere else in the US are all possibilities. If Gary will have me, I'd love to be able to go see the Redskins play in Dallas.

Other goals

Other goals I have are a bit harder to put specific targets on but I'd like to
  • continue to work on my mental game
  • try and live more healthily
  • achieve a better life balance
So, thats it for 2010. Just a few hours more of grinding and then I'll post my December review and update the year's results.

Best of luck to you all for 2011 :)

1 comments:

Wonder Flop said...

Happy new year mate. Been great reading this past month with all the regular posts.

Hope 2011 is even more prosperous for u!