A look back at 2007 and your goals for 2008 (Pokerwise)

[M3boy]

I am currently writing a new entry on my blog detailing the profit/loss of poker this year and thought it would be good to have a thread on the subject.

2007 has been the worse year for Poker for me since I started playing 6/7 years ago. Infact, this year I only made enough from poker to send me to Vegas and the wife to Egypt - VERY poor indeed.

It is true I have been playing less this year (live and online) so that could be a contributory factor - that and buying into 3 or 4 £750+ competitions with no cashes. Infact, this year online has been where the losses have occured, the profits have come from live poker.

The standard online has again increased and so have the numbers of players - I am hoping that the poor year is down to variance (as I am playing alot less online) but my game certainly needs improvement - I will be working hard on this.

So my goals for 2008 ? To improve my play online and hence make a profit and build up a bankroll again!
Live? obviously to continue to improve, to play smaller tournaments and try to build up some sort of bankroll - but this is hard as cash is alot easier to spend in the real world than an online bankroll is.
To play at least 4 GUKPT events.
Goto Vegas again - This time, with Charmaine.

[Snatiramas]

To retain my sense of humour and win and lose with as much style as I can muster

[boldie]

This year?..Went from playing professional to going back to work..qualified for APPT Sydney but couldn't go because of having to work..that about sums up my poker year..but..screw it all..I got married Best year of my life.

Next year it shall be Vegas ad 1GUKPT event and I shall get a new job (hate the one i have now )

[Snatiramas]

Forgot to look back at 2007............
Went on TV to play poker.........quite a lot.....great fun
Saw my children go to bed at 8.05pm on TV....quite a lot........great fun
Qualified for the Irish Open..........great fun
Went to Waterford.......great fun
Played at the G, Walsall, The Vic, The Gutshot, The Western........had great fun at all of them

Had a tougher year with the poker gods but still made a profit.........great fun
Felt I had to apologise to two players during the year for being unpleasant.......not great fun but own fault for letting outside influences affect my behaviour at the table.

2007 and poker............great fun

[Graham C]

Internet wise, it's been ok.  I've managed to build my empty bankroll to a small amount that will hopefully mean that I don't need to redeposit from my hard earned again, or at least for a long time. It's not mega bucks, but at my levels and given that I hardly play cash, I'm quite pleased.  I also made enough to go for a week away in May and pay for my DSLR camera and a couple of lenses, so overall, I'm very pleased.

Live wise, I'm well pleased.  I'd like to be able to get out more, but what I have played live, I think I've done ok for a newbie.  I've played at the Western a bit and honestly think I'm up overall.  I've made 6 final table appearances but have only played there probably a dozen or so times, overall, I'm sure I'm up or at least even.  Sadly I'm yet to win one, but I'm sure it's not too far away (tonight maybe!)

I managed to make a goal for the year in that I wanted to play live in a major poker tournament.  This was achieved in November when I won the Blonde/Virgin team challenge and played the GUKPT Blackpool.  This was excellent and I loved every minute of it.  My initial goal was to make day two which I did in reasonable shape having above average chips.  I was a little disappointed to get knocked out just shy of the cash, but I had a great time and it's definitely a route I want to be taking in my poker career.  Thanks again to Blonde and Virgin and also to my team mates for the opportunity

2008?  Well, to play more live poker is my main goal, I just love it.  I'm hoping to qualify for more live events.  I'll have a bash at the WSOP of course, but I'd like to play at least one GUKPT event.    I'll try and get to the Western more and will make the effort to go to DTD too.   I'd like to try and get at least one of my mates to come along for the ride to save me doing these things by myself, but I'm not sure that will happen   I also just have to win a tourney on Stars.   I'd settle for a win on any site, but I'd like to win one on Stars as I never seem to run good there.   I think it's mainly my fault, I'm sure it is, I can't blame anyone else I suppose!

[Dingdell]

From the middle of this year I've actually applied myself to the game better and my consistency of cashes is improving. I have identified one major weakness and have improved this, as my results show.

I will not be buying into the larger comps next year, I will try and win a seat otherwise I will be sticking mainly to the £50/£100 which seems to suit my game.

[RED-DOG]

2007- Absolutely thrilled to have paid all the bills and added a few quid to my bankroll.

During this year, prompted by snippets of wisdom from players that I admire a great deal, (Thewy, Wernick, Ash Hussain etc) I have made small but significant adjustments to my game. It's early days yet, but so far the results have been very positive. Thanks are also due to tikay, who has done much to help me develop a good mental approach to poker in particular and life in general.



2008- Well of course, like everyone else, I would like to win a major. Perhaps an EPT or a GUKPT. I would like to go to Vegas, and (dreamland now) I would like to find that holiest of holy grails, a sponsor! But...

The first priority is PAY THE BILLS and STAY IN THE GAME. After that, everything else is a bonus.
 

[Longy]

To be honest i feel abit like Red-Dog, i have managed to survive the year not having to get a job and playing poker full time. That is the main goal at the start of every year and for the 2nd year running I have achieved it.

In the last few months my  6 max cash game has improved allowing me to move away from sngs, which are getting harder to win at due to ICM becoming more widely known.

I would like to be less lazy, be generally better at poker in 08'. In all honesty if im still playing for a living this time next year i will be happy and that is the one big goal. The other is to qualify for WSOP any bracelet event will do, failing that some form of visit to Vegas with hopefully a bit of California tacked on the end.

[Eck]

For reference:

http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=17923.0


Will get back to you on my goals for 2008. Have been running good consistently lately so perhaps should be slightly more focused......or maybe not.

[TheChipPrince]

My goal at the start of the year was to match 2006 profit wise. 2006 was first year in which I started to make anything significant, $11k approx. I was determined to match that this year because I jumped around sites a lot last year, picking up various '1st deposit bonuses' then moving on.

I'd matched this target by June this year, which I was over the moon with, and in the last 6 months have roughly doubled this. But in a strange way I feel slightly disappointed as I feel as made numerous mistakes in MTT's at crucial points over the last 2 months, and have had little success to note in MTT's.

BUT of course I would have bitten your hand off for the profit ive made in 2007 12 months ago, so I cannot complain.

For 2008 I hope to match this year, no doubts it will have its ups and downs, I feel far from the complete player but realise you will NEVER be 'The best', but as long as your better than 'Most' there is profit to be had. I would also like to play more live, so we'll see...

[DaveShoelace]

Great year:

Quit my office job to play poker and write about poker
Won more than I ever would have earnt at said job
Also earnt a bit more writing than I ever wouild have there. This has been the first year of my life I've actually had plenty of money.
Moved in with the missus
Even played poker in Australia

2008:

Its funny, a year ago my response would have been something like 'I want to play in all the EPTs and some of the highest stakes games online'. But 12 months on I realised where the real value is in poker. Instead I would like to continue finding easy and profitable games online and reserve my tournaments for good value games - GUKPTs/DTDs/Green Joker Poker thingies.

Made a few final tables this year live, I think if I do have a specific goal it would be to actually win a trophy for vanities sake, but if I can grind in 2008 like I did this year, a happy man be me.

[barhell]

At the start of the year i had a few issues outside of poker which seemed to creep into my game, this manifested itself in the form of losses generally from throwing chips at marginal pots and chasing straights/flushes etc.
As a result my bankroll which was never that big as a recreational player, got slowly smaller and smaller. In the end i withdrew what i had left in a couple of sites and went away for a long weekend.
At this point with no bankroll i decided to just not bother with poker so stopped playing for about 6 months, this was partly due to not wanting to fund my bankroll but also that i felt disinterested with the game.
About two months back i got a free £10 to play at an online casino, which i managed to turn into £23 and having staked enough at the casino was able to transfer this to my poker account, since then i have played the occasional stt/mtt at low levels with my best result being in a 3$ freezeout coming 2nd out of 550ish runners for $220.
So coming to the end of the year i'm back to enjoying poker for fun, back to enjoying visiting this forum everyday and looking forward to the new year, where my poker goals are purely to get from that original £10 freebie to as much money as possible for my August two weeks in the sun with the family while still just enjoying my poker.

[MKKfish]

I gave up a £120k a year job in August to play online full time, (I am a contractor so it's not a real risk as I could return whenever I wanted).

Five or so months later I am up about $70k and going out of my mind. I cannot deal with being home alone playing day in day out so am packing it in and returning to work.

I'm glad I did it but it is just so not the life for me.

For 2008 I plan to play a couple of hours a day and spend all winnings on loose wimmin and booze... seriously!

[The_nun]

I gave up a £120k a year job in August to play online full time, (I am a contractor so it's not a real risk as I could return whenever I wanted).

Five or so months later I am up about $70k and going out of my mind. I cannot deal with being home alone playing day in day out so am packing it in and returning to work.

I'm glad I did it but it is just so not the life for me.

For 2008 I plan to play a couple of hours a day and spend all winnings on loose Swimmin and booze... seriously!

FYP..but why you would want to swim and drink at the same time goes beyond me.

[Tonji]

As a hobby player my aims are always simple, not go bust, any profit however small is a bonus, & keep enjoying playing. All achieved this year. More of the same for next year I hope.