Goals

Here's how I did on my December goals:

10,000 hands. Played just a little more than that.

Community participation. I did pretty good here, I guess there is always room for improvement. Strengths were pretty good blog updates and blog reviews. Did a couple of sweat/group sessions (would like to do more of those in Jan.). Forum participation was kind of spotty, but I did try to single out posts from my two main groups, and I think I responded to most of those, if they were in the Low Stakes forum. Biggest weak area was video reviews.

Review hands. I did a good job getting through the hands that I played, over 3/4 of them, going by day played. I am catching some things, but I am beginning to question how effective my self reviews are. I have a sense that there are a number of things I'm missing...perhaps that is what poor results will do to you.

Review showdown hands. I failed at this one. It's been several months in a row that I have wanted to do this and have not had the time. I think that I am just too busy with other stuff, and this one goes. I'll continue to think about it, but this may just be too ambitious right now. Barry suggested that I just pay attention when I review my own hands to get practice at this. I do, and I think it's a pretty important part of the review, so I will be satisfied with that for now.

Review 5 coaching videos. I did this one, and I mean seriously reviewed them with notes and pausing before they take a likely controversial action to work it out myself. That really helps get something out of them, but it makes it take a while. While there's a bunch of moaning on the CR forums about a lack of content, I can't keep up with it all if I really study. Between pauses, rewinds, and note taking, I would guess that it takes me over two hours to review a video typically. I'm now making enough in MGR to get free access to Stoxpoker (leave a comment if you want a referral for the same deal). They are utilizing a different format for some of their videos, basically giving lectures and made-up hands to illustrate concepts. I have to say that I really like that. I hope that Cardrunners takes that approach with some of their instructors as well.

Overall thoughts. From development standpoint, December was a good month. I didn't get to watch as many videos or participate in the forums as much as I would have liked. But I started reading a lot more blogs from all stakes, and there has been a lot of good food for thought. I also ordered a couple books I'm excited about. In general, I think that I am almost done laying a pretty darn solid foundation from which to expand. My 100NL results have not shown it, but I think I should be able to beat the low stakes pretty soon. My challenge has been, and will continue to be, balancing poker with all the other good things I've got going.

January Goals

• 10,000 hands. Seems I can reasonably hit this, although I would like to devote some time that I would normally play to some other activities. So, we'll see.
• Review hands. Same as before, I think the challenge is going to be to draw some actionable conclusions from the review, not just go through them. But in order to draw some sort of conclusion, you do have to get through them.
• Active study of 5 videos.
  
• Raise Won $ at Showdown. This one I'm less sure about, because it's a little out of my control, but I'd like to get this higher than it is now. I think what I can do to this end is not call down so thin. Hopefully general good play takes care of it...but it's one stat that has bothered me for a bit. I would accept a lower Won $ at Showdown number if I were being more LAG, but I'm trying to play pretty much ABC after the flop, for the most part, so I think that this should be higher.
• Finish one poker book. This is kind of a cheap one, because I'm already 2/3 done with Elements of Poker. But, it's still a good goal.
• Regular sweat sessions. Noel and I have been chatting about setting up some sweat sessions on alternate weeks, and hopefully that will take off. Noel is farther along with poker development and plays higher stakes than I, and I'm sure that I'll get a good amount of insight from his play and his advice, but I think I'll be able to hold my own as well, as someone to sweat him. It's a bit difficult for me to participate in sweat sessions, since I'm usually playing when the rest of the family has gone to sleep, and I'm trying to keep things quiet. But I feel it's a key part of improving.
  

I would have included coaching in this list, but I'm already finalizing a time with Verneer for our first 1 on 1 session, and he's busy enough right now, that monthly may be all he has time to do. That's probably not terrible for me anyway, as that would mean getting some coaching every 10k hands or so, which is not a huge gap between coaching sessions, compared to a lot of full-time players. If he has time for more frequent sessions, great. If not, this will still be a valuable start for me, I'm sure.

2008 goals

So, I've been chatting with a couple people about overall 2008 goals. I'm not sure what to think about as a reasonable goal besides continuing the general goals that I've set out. Get the hands in, keep actively trying to improve (as opposed to going through the motions), and keep poker appropriately balanced with the other stuff in my life. But those are pretty high level.

I've still got the desire, determination, and potential to improve, and I guess that's what it boils down to for a year-long goal. The methods to improve will probably not change much from a lot of my January goals. Where would I like to see that culminate? I guess at the least, I would like to be a solid mid-stakes player by the end of the year, including being able to withdraw a significant chunk regularly once I hit 200NL or 400NL, just for some fun money for the family. I don't like making $$ or win rate related goals, because I don't play enough volume to leave that goal unaffected by variance. Let's just say my goal is to play as well as a solid 3/6 regular and leave it at that. If that means I'm at 3/6 or beyond, fantastic. If not, hopefully I'll still have the enthusiasm for the game that I have right now.