By DeuceSeven on January 14th, 2009 (more posts by author)

Yep basically December was a repeat of November losing roughly 50 avg. buy ins. Over and over I lost big pots with way the best of it or a coin flip in crucial situations, but really that's tournament poker. You can only work on your mistakes. Bemoaning the fact that you got it in as a 95% favorite on the turn and lost really doesn't do anything but lead to negative thoughts, which in turn can effect your play.

I had taken about 12 consecutive days off work to grind in December then a couple of days this month. I didn't grind much in December mostly to running bad. It's just not that much fun when you're in the midst of a 100 buy in downswing.

January started out fairly disappointing as I bubbled the UB $25/8k when my AdTd< 77 on a T7d6dA board for a monster cl. I was 2/10 at the time and of course ran into the a cooler vs the only guy who could bust me. Everyone else at the table could only bring me down to 20bbs. I don't think there's anything worse in mtt poker then having a really bad run then in your latest mtt you get very lucky and play well just to get coolered to bubble the ft.

2 sessions later I finished 4th in the ftp $26/28k for 2.3k which was much needed. Everything went very well until the ft where I got coolered 2x and lost one too many 60/40s but I'm not complaining after my long downswing. I'm very optimistic starting a new year. In 2008 I started with a 1.7k bank roll and despite running like shit the last 2.5 months managed to finish with a 5.2k roll. Certainly I didn't make huge money but surely making $7/hr while enjoying your hobby can't be a bad thing. Last year my goal was to have a 10k bank roll which meant I had to make 8.3k, I fell well short of that goal. My goal for this year is to make 10k and I think the odds of me making 15k+ this year are much better then even money.

Best of luck in 2009 guys!!!