I have been slowing down a bit with poker the past 2 weeks. I have been thinking about what I want out of poker in 09. I have played for a living since Nov of 07 and things have gone well but I feel more like a blue collar poker player grinding away at low/mid-stakes than a professional poker player. So I want to bump my income from poker to a more "professional" level of 100K+.

With that in mind I have been talking with a few friends and looking at other games online. I have a friend who thinks I should go grind the $50-100 SNGs on poker stars and go for the supernova elite but I really don't know if I can play that much online poker and stay sane. I don't know if I can even beat these games but even at break-even the rewards program is worth ~100K so it is something I am considering. According to the poker stars website I could make SNE by 6 tabling $50 turbo 6max SNGs by playing 35 hours per week. On paper this sounds easy but I know from experience that playing 35hrs per week of online poker is not easy. I also don't know how accurate the pokerstars VIP calculator really is

The other path is more about quality and less about quantity. This would mean moving up more aggressively in stakes playing both 6max and fullring NLH.

I have a higher winrate at 6 max than full ring. I expected the 6 max winrate to be higher(standard) but I thought the ability to play more tables of full ring might offset the difference. My hourly rates for the year are about the same for fullring and 6max but I think this because I have played a lot more full ring 400NLH. I am a 4.39BB/100 winner at 6 max this year playing 25-400NLH(most hands at 100NLH) and a 1.62BB/100 hand winner at full ring 50-400NLH(most hands at 100-200NLH)

I have done very well at 400NLH over a small sample of 6363 hands this year. I am sure that this is due to playing only in very soft games, never more than 4 tables, and only playing when I feel like I am at my best

The other area that I have to change is lifestyle. Over the past year I have put on a bunch of weight and gotten into a crazy sleep schedule. I have become a fat vampire So no matter what my live play schedule has to change. I think I will be back to LHE as the only daytime games in my area are 15/30 LHE. I just hope these games are as soft as they used to be.

I have really enjoyed the poker coaching this past year so I plan on continuing this. I have a few ideas on some different formats to make coaching more affordable and effective for micro and low-stakes players. I will be working on this over the next few weeks and I hope to have an announcement in early Jan.