Overall it's been a good two weeks. I had a horrible weekend two weeks ago where I dropped around 3k (half live and half in tourneys), but 6 max 2/4 has been going really well so far. I've also decided to put in some hours playing heads up 1/2. My goal is just to put in as many minutes as I can at 1/2 in addition to the 80k minutes at 2/4 by the end of March. Below are my stats:

Overall:
30.19 hours
$401 rakeback

2/4:
39,178 mins (5804)
$27.12/hour/table

1/2 HU:
721 mins
$141.66/hour/table

Hello All

The year ends today, but technically my poker "year" doesn't end until March. Everyone is posting their year end graphs and I've seen some sick sick graphs that make my year pale so much in comparison. It's very clear to me that I have to get better in '08 and I have a ton of room for improvement. This month went relatively well. I updated my goals for the next 15 months and I'm posting them below. I put in the 70 hours at cash games that I wanted to plus a couple of long tournament days. I didn't make nearly as much money as I would have liked but for some weird reason that's ok with me this month. I just cashed out all my money above $16k like I said I would and for January I will be 4 tabling 2/4. I'm excited for a new challenge. Below are December's results as well as postponed week 3 results and my goals for the next 15 months.


3rd week of December:
1/2:
80,632 (5,390 mins)
15.69/hour/table
14.97 hours

Month's end:
Totals: monthly totals in (...)
$70,921.58 ($6,554.03)
$1156 rake back
69.68 hours + (2) 10 hour tournament days
167k fpps (20k)

½:
$21,988.10 ($2,378.25)
88,258 mins (25,084)
$14.95/hour/table



Ways I'm going to achieve my goals over the next year:
*Blog more often
*Be more active in cardrunners forums
*Begin a table selection process (which I've never done before)
*Keep even more detailed records starting in April (which I think my results right now are incredibly detailed already)
*Go through my sessions at the end and really think about various hands
*Play less hours but more focused hours (hoping for 60-70 hours/month)
*Broaden my game, re-focus some energy on tournaments as well as some other form (like heads up or sngs) just to mix it up
*Have at least (6) 5 figure scores between me and the guy I chop w/ (this year we had 4)
*Go and play in my first wsop event (play at least one of the $1500 events)



Plan by end of March '09:
December: Finish 1/2 w/ at least 80k minutes at $16/hour/table ($21,333)
**Done: Finished 88,258 minutes @ $14.95/hour/table ($21,988.10)
*Move up to 2/4 w/ 16k, withdraw profits
**Done
January: 4 table 2/4
Feb.: 5 table 2/4
Mar.: 6 table 2/4 (Finish 2/4 with at least 80k minutes at $28/hour) ($37,333)
*Move up to 3/6 w/ 24k, withdraw profits
April: 3 table 3/6
May: 4 table 3/6
June: 4 table 3/6
July: 5 table 3/6
August: 5 table 3/6 (80k minutes @ $36/hour) ($48,000)
*Move up to 5/10 w/ 50k withdraw profits
September: 2 table 5/10
First week of October: 2 table 5/10
Last 3 weeks of October: 3 table 5/10
November: 3 table 5/10
First 2 weeks of December: 3 table 5/10
Last 2 weeks of December: 4 table 5/10
January: 4 table 5/10
Feb.: 4 table 5/10
March: 4 table 5/10 (be done w/ 80k mins at $50/hour) ($66,666)


**Have 100k saved up for first condo in downtown Chicago**

Ok, I tried to update my blog after the first week of November and I had a long story written out and then somehow the browser shut down and I lost it all, so it tilted me and I've boycotted blogging for the last 3 weeks (excuses excuses I know). October ended up being a very mediocre and disappointing month and the start of November wasn't any better so I changed a few things up. Here are my first week's stats of November before I go any further.


Week 1: Weekly results in (...)

2/4 NL SH
33374 minutes (3392)
27.19/hour

1/2 NL SH
47071 minutes (690)
21.91/hour

Total Time played at cash games: 13.6 hours
$198 rake back


My hourly rate fell so low that I took a step back from 2/4 for a while. It was clear to me that I needed to work on my game some more as well as get some confidence back so I came up with a new plan. I want to finish 100,000 minutes of 1/2 and 2/4 by the end of this year (March). I'm going to be 5 tabling 1/2 for the rest of November and then 6 table 1/2 for all of December and part of January until I get to the 100k minutes. After that I will 5 table 2/4 for the rest of January and half of February and then 6 table for the last 6 weeks of the year and hopefully get to the 100k minutes goal. As for monetary goals. I want to make an hourly rate of $20/hour/table at 1/2 (5 bb/100) and $30/hour/table at 2/4 (3.75 bb/100). Here are the next two weeks stats:


Week 2: weekly results in (...)
Total time played at cash games: 14.3 hours
1/2:
51361 minutes (4290)
19.45/hour/table
$391 Rake back ($193)

Week 3: weekly results in (...)
$687 Rake back ($296)
1/2:
54594 minutes (3333)
Total time at cash games: 11.1 hours
$19/hour/table
MTT's: 68501 (4058) minutes @ 16.27/hour


I haven't played tournaments in forever but this past Sunday I decided to play all of the major tournaments ($100 buyins and above) including the FTOPS main event. Myself and 2 of my friends played and chopped up the tourneys 3 ways. It ended up being a great day. My buddy tsubakisanjuro and I signed up for the $216 heads up tourney thinking our other poker friend would play too but he missed the sign up because it filled so we were stuck playing in a tourney that we weren't too crazy about because we are both very mediocre heads up players (or so we thought). Also, on stars within 15 minutes of a tournament starting you can't unregister. Long story short I made it all the way down to the final match and the guy and I chopped the tourney and took home 10k each and played the last match out for the remaining $1500. A few hands into the match we were allin for all of our stacks on a 2d4d7h board, I held Qd8d and he had As7c. My hand didn't improve and he was the winner. This ensured a big win on the day for us especially since this tourney was only chopped 2 ways. Our other friend, xtcbx finished well in some other tournaments, nothing too great of note though. In the FTOPS main event I was the last guy of our group left in it with 600 guys to go (585 paid) with only 5 big blinds left. We played just to hold on and get in the money which I luckily did. Then things started to pick up, I kept doubling up over and over again. Before I knew it I was into the final 100 guys with a healthy chip stack. I kept grinding away and felt like I played very well over the course of the next couple hours. When we made it down to the final 2 tables, I was 3rd in chips and looking great, then 2 hands came up. The first one was very standard, I raised up 88 from late position and AK shoved for 1/3 total of my stack so we raced and he got there. The next hand is an interesting one for debate. I'm in 8th place w/ 17 guys to go and 800k in chips: I have 88 in late position w/ blinds at 20k/40k. Aggro middle position makes it 100k to go, I make it 400k, and then standard abc bb shoves for another 400k (my entire stack). Mathematically, it's 400k to call and the pot will be 1,720,000. I was very confident he had an overpair but at the same time getting laid 4.2/1 odds it's almost like you have to call there. I ended up laying it down and blinded myself down over the next 45 minutes to finish in 10th place (on the bubble) for a 21k payday. I'm not positive about the 2nd 88 hand w/ what is the correct decision and I'm definitely open to opinions. I will probably post it in the cardrunners forums later this week. Anyways, there are 9 days left in November and I need to put in a ton of hours considering the lack there of this month. I'm home for the next 4 days for Thanksgiving, so it's going to be hard to put the time in but I'm going to try my best.

Good luck to all at the tables.

-imawhale26

I'm going to cross my blog from www.imawhale26.blogspot.com into this thread. Basically I just keep track of my results each week and I try to attain goals that I have set out for myself. I recently just finished my 3 months of play at 1/2 and now I'm moving on to 2/4. For October I will be 4 tabling 2/4, November 5 tabling and December I will 6 table before I move up to 3/6. My goal was to finish 40,000 minutes at 7.5 bb/100. I was on track for the entire sample until the very end where I hit the ugly side of variance. I ended up playing approx 47,000 minutes at 5.5 bb/100. I will update the exact numbers in a couple days when I have it all in front of me. For 2/4, my goal is to run at 5 bb/100 over the next 3 months and I hope to put in 50,000 minutes during this time frame by playing approx 15 hours/week.

I graduated from Notre Dame in May and I'm now working to become a trader on the Chicago Board. The further I advance in poker the more and more I think about quitting my job and just focusing on poker. I have a feeling this will be a constant decision I face over the next year or so. A couple weeks ago I took my poker winnings and joined a sweet golf course in Michigan called Lost Dunes. It's top 50 in the country, and I'm really excited to get out there quite a bit before it gets cold outside.

Anyways, that's all I've got for now, I'll post again soon when I have all my stats up and going.

-imawhale26