2005 How was it for you?

[MrMoves]

2006 is creeping very close.  How was your 2005?

What were your highlights and lowlights?

For me.  Highs:

Meeting some of my poker heroes
Pausing my old job to work in poker full time
Getting sponsored
Travelling around Europe playing poker
Winning a European ranking event
Winning my biggest ever cash pot online

and lows:

Not playing alongside a friend anymore due to his back injury.


Anybody else want to share their year?

[mikkyT]

Highs:

Cashing in more tournaments than I dreamed of, having only started playing in earnest this year.
Meeting and playing against some top class players.
Meetng various sporitng and TV celebrities whilst playing poker.
Reaching 6th place in a European ranking event.
Being a sizable amount up in my first year.

Lows:

(Bad beat story alert) Going out to Falconer in above stated 6th place after he made four runners to a straight against my trips and making me bubble.
Not saving my winnings to build a decent sized bankroll.
Realising everyone is just a person and those feelings of being overwhelmed by celebirites and poker gods at the beginning of the year where just embarrassing newbie blues.

[TightEnd]

Highs

Blonde Poker was launched in January
Being asked to be a moderator
A lot of very good and several extremely close friends made via my association with Blondepoker
Winning (alright, chopping!) my first ranking event (even though it was small)
Final tables in two other ranking events
Taking £ cough thousand out of the Luton cardroom since August
Always remembering that there is more to life than Poker, and getting my priorities right

Lows

My bad beats and a couple of bad plays in the recent Walsall and Luton festivals
Being unable to consistently match my live results on the Internet
er, that's it

Poker wise, a good 'un

[Trace]

Bloody crap - nuff said!  lol

[dik9]

High
Running the best potentialled cardroom so far for most of year

Low
Realising that potential means just that and no plans to achieve it ...thus leaving it

[MrMoves]

Oooh I should of added discovering Broadway casino.  My favourite in the UK.  I really hope it doesn't go downhill now you've left dik9.  That would be a travesty.

[dik9]

I Will give it 5 weeks before it is self deal on some tables

[Heid]

Been a mixed year .. some very highs, some very lows...

Lows
Dealing with some HUGE family issues

Work - well not work, I love my work - colleagues/office politics.

Had a big life changing choice to make - 6 months on I am still not sure it was right in every way, but nothing I can do about it now, so it's a low til I know better.

Loss of a relationship - realisation that it was dying.

Prozac - good when it works, lousy when you realise you need it.

HRT - great, but again really lousy when you know you need it.

Poker - drives me insane, I am undoing a lot of bad stuff through it, but it causes me a lot of stress.


Highs (in no particular order)

Blonde! Kept me sane for ages, now drives me insane and makes me elated, but I can deal with the insanity

Vegas - has to be in here, as it's part of me - only made it once this year, but it was a good 11 days.

Flight to and from Vegas - you can't beat £250 for full Biz class....Two words - Onboard Chef!!!

Friendships - Can't explain this one properly, but from going to a wasteland, I am lucky enough to have found an beautiful garden. There's a few people on Blonde that I would lay my life down for, and in anyone's book that is a beautiful treasure - I found some kindred spirits, some good friends and a lot of people that I will be hugging when I meet them finally.

Cheesey Game - everyone has to visit Ali's game at least once - I've not laughed and had such fun, and learnt so much in years. Its damn good, and I am lucky they put up with me

Mobile phones - I'll admit I was a Luddite - I got a new phone to go abroad with in July, and it's been a bloody godsend, I am a convert, and while I know why I coped before, I wouldn't cope without it now - so thank you 3<g>

Turkey - Took my sister (with her broken leg, pins, metal plates, booted and suited) to Turkey in May just before I went into hospital, she came alive, healed her mental wounds and I got a sister back. I'll forgive her for copping off and leaving me alone most of the week (used to it<g>).

Being asked to be a moderator. I do this for a living, well I manage people who do this ... but I was more thrilled by being asked and being able to help out than anyone can understand. I really love this place, and I marvel at the strength, the bonds, the community and the intellect that lives here. This is a special place, and I'll do my bestest to look after it with you guys. 

Poker has been a high and a low - a couple of people have spent time helping me, and I am grateful - it's all there, and I just need to crack a couple more neuroses, and I will be dangerous! Thank you to you, with all my heart - you know who you are.

The Lister Hospital - turned a nasty situation into a morphine filled haze, and it was all private - let's all thank my work's medical insurance!

The highs outweigh the lows, and all in all I wouldn't swap this year, it's been tough..but I am tougher

[yt]

Highs -
Making more than i lost at cards (but not by much!).
This place. Keeps me sane while at work.
First festival event played in.
Family being great.
Seeing my baby walk and do all the great growing up stuff.

Lows -
Nan dying
I'm not making this up - 2 hours ago I reversed into the neighbours car. I've only had my car 1 month and its 1 year old. He WAS STANDING RIGHT BY HIS CAR when i did it. I feel such a fool right now. bumpers/headlight/his wing and £160 excess. bummer.
otherwise not too bad a year.

[matt674]

to be honest i try not to differenciate between the highs and the lows, instead trying to treat them all as part of the same learning curve of life. Though throughout the year there have been testing times i try and keep as emotionally stable as possible with the same outlook on life regardless - so long as i wake up in the morning in good health, i cannot ask for more. As the words of the song went "don't worry, be happy........"

I have a good friend in poker - BigArmo, who not only is he there to help celebrate should one of us have a decent win but i know i can confide in if things are not running smoothly and i thank him for being there to listen when i have something i need to get off my chest - just as i am there for him if he ever needs an ear to bend. And now that i've discovered blondepoker i believe i have made even more friends within the poker community.

Its been another decent year in terms of both winnings and profit - hopefully next year i'll be joining Snoppy in the murky waters that is professional poker and although monkeys dont make very good swimmers (it takes ages to get all the fur dry) i've hopefully gained enough knowledge to keep me afloat.

Here's to more of the same in 2006 - may everyone achieve what they set out to achieve but if not have an enjoyable time along the way!!

[MrMoves]

I Will give it 5 weeks before it is self deal on some tables

Say it ain't so, say it ain't so!!

Your bosses must be crazy.  I'll be gutted if they start self deal or change any of the other reasons for visiting Broadway:

free safe car park
no rake or tournament fees
free snacky food at the breaks
no smoking at the tables
good dealers

Is the Heart of England festival still going ahead?

[jammer]

5th full year 1 in poker:

year 1: broke even
year 2: small profits
year 3: solid profits
year 4: profits overtook my salary
year 5: Spanked. Smacked about. Kippered. Every river outdraws me. Every big pair cracked. Bubble after Bubble in big  live tourney's, entries start to mount up. Start chasing and game collapses. Huge losses in high blind online cash. Eventually see sense and drop to lower stakes and finally go on a self enforced break for sake of sanity. I'd say thats a hoooorible poker year.

Well its the year I found out I wasn't as good as I thought I was. Not because my game was crap, but cos I couldn't control my bad runs. Sure a few months is fine but when it turns into a seriously bad run, that was a different matter.  I now realise nothing is more important, because no matter how good you are, when the bad run hits it can hit you hard - staying on top of it is everything.


But is it all bad? No, cos snoops  is playing like a demon, and hey 2006 is approaching right! 

[MrMoves]

Some nice responses here.

I see someone did well enough for a Ferrari too.  Is it a red one, Tikay?

[Graham C]

It's been two months(ish) of introduction to poker for me, and I've loved it so far.  I've learnt not to play stupid hands and perhaps most importently learnt how and when to fold a semi-decent hand. 

Highs for the year.  My first £5 STT win was a great moment for me.  Turning a free $50 to $160 on Party was a great feeling.  Most recenty, my highest finishes in the £2 mtts of 24 and 32 were great.  I think I've played the best poker I've played so far and at one point was second in the chip counts both times.

Low points - Losing all of that $160 on Party, mainly in cash games - the same was as I built it up but I've decided that they're not for me at the moment - I prefer mtt's now.  A couple of hands I've played recently on pocket 9's have disapointed as they knocked me out in 24th the other day.  I saw overcards on the flop yet I still reraised a big bet from someone - not really a low point but a 'stop and think about'  point.

Also, I'm glad I stumbled upon here.  I feel free to ask any questions I'm stuck with and I have had some great pointers from people on here too.

The next year (was that a question too?  Anyway ) To regularly be in the cash in mtt's, visit Readings Stanley casino and play some live poker, maybe take in a Blonde live event and try and build a bankroll.  I'd also love to win an online qualifier to somewhere nice too, but that maybe taking things too far - but someone has to win em

[dik9]

I Will give it 5 weeks before it is self deal on some tables

Say it ain't so, say it ain't so!!

Your bosses must be crazy.  I'll be gutted if they start self deal or change any of the other reasons for visiting Broadway:

free safe car park
no rake or tournament fees
free snacky food at the breaks
no smoking at the tables
good dealers

Is the Heart of England festival still going ahead?

I should imagine so, if it doesn't then there will be some serious egg on some faces. I hope it goes ahead and is successful (a little bit of  me wishes it to fall on its arse) But I wouldn't want the other staff to be tarnished with a failure. I have confidence in them but not heirarchy.