Happy New Year all! As the year has come to an end and I reflect back on the past 12 months, I just have a big smile on my face. Like everyone else, I've had my share of downswings (poker, as well as life), but at the end of it all I turned out to be ahead. Here's a quick recap of my 2011:
-started volunteering at what I hoped would become my dream job
-had some palpitations and PVC's going on with my heart that required multiple EKG's, holter monitors, echocardiograms, and all types of visits to cardiac specialists (scariest times of my life, it really felt like I was going to die. As of writing this, the PVC's have basically disappeared and I couldn't be happier!)
-competed in several CrossFit events (so much fun)
-the volunteering I was doing DID turn into a dream job!
-I proposed to my girlfriend of 5 years and she said yes!
-completed all but 3 credits to finish my masters degree (Spring 2012 here we come!)
Aside from those bullet points, this year also had the creation of friendships that I wouldn't trade for anything in the world. My network of awesome people definitely expanded.
As for poker, it has been the learning experience of a lifetime. I started playing back in 2007, and I learned more in the last 3 months of this year than previous 4 years combined. I had a lot of swings and just some straight up bad playing that cost me a good amount of money (to me). I've really buckled down and fixed some aspects of my game that needed improvement big time. One of which was to move up in stakes to try and recoup losses quicker. That just led to bigger and bigger losses. The big downswings of the past few months are solely due to playing beyond my means. I've learned to control myself better and now only grind the stakes my bankroll can afford. From my $600 that I deposited on Carbon, I was at an all time low of $75 in mid/late November. Being down $525 really messed up my confidence because I thought I knew what I was doing. I didn't reload. I studied my ass off, took notes on videos, got some coaching from PHMERC, did some more studying, and grinded the 11.50's until I built myself back up. As of last night, my bankroll is up to $500. It took a while to get back to near my starting point, but everything I've learned along the way is worth it all. I feel like a much more solid player at these stakes because of it. I'm going to continue to get coaching throughout 2012 and hopefully keep up the hard work I've been doing.
Here are some numbers from HEM from September to December 31st at the $11.50s:
Stakes: $11.50
# played: 372
ROI: 7.5%
ITM: 58.2%
Winnings: $320
I'm really happy with those results. I'm going to stay at the 11.50s until I feel comfortable to move up, maybe when my account is up to $700 or so.
Here are my overall numbers for every game the past 3 months:
# played: 673
ROI: -1.1%
ITM: 52.6%
Winnings: -$92.69
There it is, my poker year in a nutshell. From being down $525 to being down $92, although there was no profit whatsoever, it's heading in the right direction.
