Disapointed or Happy with what you have accompished for 2008?

[Wes]

Even though I won a lot more than most people make in a year I am most likely disappointed with my results in 2008 pokerwise. Some of that comes with the disillusions that came with running like god at the end of '07 that made me think "high stakes no limit is so easy. all i got to do is play more hands and i'll be a millionaire." unfortunately, soon after i thought i was a god, i started to run poorly and didn't win for the first half of the year. Which was really a shocking thing to say the least since I didn't have a losing month in close to 3 years. Who knew that poker was such a volatile thing?

It also came rushing back all the tilt that I thought I stopped having over the past couple years. Which is far more upsetting to me than ever having three consecutive losing months. I'm a fucking professional, why would I ever get upset about not being up on the 70/30 rollercoaster that I know is poker? So fucking stupid.

Looking back at I can fully say that I failed at all three things. The three things were,

* work out way way more
* stop dwindling away most of my day on the internet
* start plans for business venture outside of poker

Even though #3 could be argued to be successful, it was mostly through passivity instead of aggressiveness into venturing into this realm. I was basically propositioned by my landlord into investing into the company he works for which I think was highly +EV (we'll see in '09 when all these things start to roll out). But the other two were massive failures. I still "work out" maybe twice a week and still dwindle away my life on the internet instead of interacting with people.

So how was your year? Did you accomplish what you wanted to?

[Zybomb]

Ive also made good money, but overall the year has been a failure for me. I didn't make as much as I wanted to, or as much as I expected to after June of this year (I basically did a flip of what you did, and am actually down money since July). While running bad I also began to tilt a little more than I thought I did. Not anything extreme, but just not playing as good as I know I could. Like you also, I had had 1 losing month in the past 2 years. This year (assuming things dont go south at the end of this month) I had FOUR . Granted 2 were basically break-evens (tiny losses) but two were 5 figures. I also had 4 out of 5 winning months in the first half of the year 5 figures or better and the 5th just shy of five figures...May and June were my biggest months of the year (first May then June I broke Mays amount)...since then however I havent had one 5 figure month in the second half and after this month I'll only be 3-3 in the 2nd half (winning months vs losing months)

I also wanted to start future plans as far as investments, saving etc which I did not do, as well as potentially get involved in other business opportunities which would not involved my time (or much of it....basically letting the $ work for me) which I also did not really do.

Ontop of that, while I did make more than I'd likely make at a typical job (and had the freedom to do what I want blah blah blah) i didn't make stunning money of any kind.... particularly after June I was expecting 6 figures easily, and I didnt hit that...

All this court shit came to pass and I ended up having to plea out to 3 years of probation in sept and Ive just been transfered over to queens this month.... besides the headache of dealing with all of this, I've also been entered into this "special" program for probationers without employment (great I cant wait to see what kind of jobs theyll find me...I think Im the only one with college degree and real job experience). I don't really wanna get into too much detail because this is a public viewing thread and who the fuck knows who's reading this but yea....basically this year I haven't been a big fan of.

I was hoping to be halfway saved toward a condo with a big bankroll on the side -- Im getting there, but just not as far as I wanted to be....

[Kurn]

Being out of work for almost half the year gave me a little perspective on a lot of things.

Poker-wise:

On the happy side is my successful completion of the SNG staking arrangement. In addition, although I did not cash at the FPC, I am happy with how I played my stake from my home game group at that tourney.

Disappointment-wise:

The flip-side of the SNG stake is that there is something unsatisfying about SNGs, even when playing profitably. The bottom line is playing SNGs for profit is an internet-specific life. There is no way you can turn that skill into a profitable live-game venture. I haven't played many SNGs since the stake, choosing instead to try to better hone cash game skills, playing a mix of stud hi, 50 NL and 50 or 100 PLO, all full ring. My work schedule has me getting up at 4:30 AM and not usually getting home until almost 7:30 PM, so there is little time left for poker.

That being said, I am as always an optimist, and I'm certain that as 2009 approaches, I'll figure out where my poker time should be spent, even if it means I go back to the SNG grind to build up a stake for bigger pursuits.

[Penguinfan]

I've withdrawn more than I deposited for the third year in a row so thats a win.

Most importantly I have got better as a player for sure. I can point to a few specific beats at the final two or three tables in tourneys that could have really made things different.

Still a ton to learn, but I am definatly better than I was last December.

[Talking Poker]

Good thread.

I haven't looked at the 2008 Goals one yet, because I'm a little bit afraid of what I will find there. But let's have a look, shall we?

Fail. Fail. Partial credit - My stock market investing went to hell, obv, but I did fairly well investing in poker players. I did cut down on the big purchases for the most part.

Overall, I suck.

As for poker, 2008 was the year of the HU SNG for me. It started when I was out of town and wanted to keep my Iron Man status. I can't multitable very well on my laptop, so the quickest way to get my 200 points was to play 3 $200 HU SNGs. So that's what I did, and it went well. I decided I'd keep at it for a while and wanted to master them. I had a HORRIBLE run (playing and running badly) with the 150ish turbos I played, and that hurt my overall numbers quite a bit, but looking at my regular speed HU play (including 90 4 mans), I won about $30k playing almost 2000 matches.

I'm happy with those numbers for the most part, but I'm disappointed in the volume I put in. There is no reason I couldn't have played 5000 HU SNGs this year. Yeah, that's a lot, but 20 a day for 250 days isn't impossible by any means... and I usually play more than 5 days a week anyway. Extrapolating my win rate, my lack of volume potentially cost me $45,000. Even if we say my win rate would have dropped and I wouldn't have played that many, surely I left 20 or 25k on the table by not putting in the volume I could have.

Ironically, just in this last week, I switched back to 6 max NL and am kind of enjoying it again. I've been beating the 1/2 game pretty well, but I've lost a few sick pots at 2/4 deep that have ruined my numbers there. I'm not sure what game I'll focus on in 2008, to be honest.

I did get engaged this year and I also got a dog. So that's cool.

[melioris]

it is a tricky question for me and I will break it down into some component parts:

professionally: 2008 was more or less a wash. Several years ago we (my wife and I ) created a plan and we are, more or less, on track with that plan. Yet somehow it doesn't feel like we have made as much progress as we should have this year. I am taking that to mean the year is a wash. Adequate progress was made, but nothing specular.

Poker: terrible year. I cash out more than I made. Yes, there is a big reason for this and I still have not deposited since the original deposit, but the bottom line is that I should be making more than I am cashing out poker-wise.

Private: great year. I feel that I let the above two reason keep me from my family more than I should, but even so it was a good year. We got our remodeling project done, and while every remodeling is a compromise between aesthetic and budget, we came out on the good side of that deal (thanks to poker). My kids are healthy and seem to be developing wonderfully, my relationship with my wife is still the most important thing in my life, and I get to be the almost full-time (except mornings which I need to go to work and not talk to people) stay-at-home Dad that I always wanted to be. So despite the above two strikes against, it was a good year.

So all in all, I guess ultimately I am disappointed with what I accomplished for 2008 but I wouldn't trade it for what the year got done in my private life. Meh, fuck the professional and poker as long as the private is good.

[Invigilator]

Work: an obvious downward slope that SPIKED HARD right at the end of the year

Poker: Had to drop down a level for cash games due to various purchases, and have not played much since September due to work, but I made a number of FT's, including one on New Years Day. Also can't forget that Wes helped me live the dream by staking me into a WSOP event (my first trip to Vegas). On the same trip I won the day tournament at Binion's. Gotta say I am okay with things at this point.

Personal: Lost a bit of weight, ran my first 5k, 10k and 20 mile races. missed my first 1/2 marathon, completed 3 sprint triathlons. Got my blackbelt in Yoshinkan Aikido. Returned with vigour to my spiritual pursuits. Family is healthy and everyone loves each other.

Overall Analysis: BIG TIME WIN!!!!!!!!!!!

[PShabi]

Oh boy....DISAPPOINTED is not strong enough. I started playing midway through '03 and profited around $3k. In '04, I tripled that. In '05, I had my best year profitting around $13k. I moved out here at the end of '06 and my career outside of poker became abundantly more important to me. I still squeaked out $6k. In '07, I played very little. I wasn't motivated at all and my abilitiy compared to the ability of my opponents wasn't as good as it used to be. The games got much tougher. Still, I was able to profit a little bit. I made around $3500 (w/o digging up my tax records).

Fast forward to '08 and my poker career is basically dead. I barely play. I go 2-3 weeks w/o sitting down for a session. When I do, I seemingly log a losing session everytime. the games are so much tougher than they used to be. I do absolutely nothing to improve my game. I have no motivation to play. I just looked at my records, honestly, for the first time as a whole for '08. You guys ready for my staggering numbers?????

-$345.

Yep. I lost $345 this year. What a fucking joke. I figured I was right around break even. What used to be a passion, is damn near nothing to me. Now, if I was still able to make money like I used to, maybe I'd be more motivated to play. Who knows? The fact is I don't care about poker. A 3 month downswing for me today would've been two weeks worth of hands a few years ago. When you aren't playing many hands and you are losing when you do play, it's a bitch.

I look back at my "career" and realize that it was a substantial amount of money for a "hobby." I'm happy with that. I wish I could still do what I used to, but I'm afraid poker has passed me by. In my passion to play and learn, but also my ability compared to those I compete with.

Recently, I cashed out to pay for Christmas. My FTP account has $380 in it right now. I'll fuck around with that, probably playing $1/2 LHE (lol, oh fuck) and see if I can flip it into something substantial. If not, I'll still be around for the community and friendship but other than that, bye bye poker.

[Penguinfan]

Wow, Pshabi. That post is a real downer.

Good luck, whatever happens.

[Robbie Robb]

I can sorta echo what Shabi's saying too. The past few months I've played almost zero poker. MAYBE a few SNGs a week. RL has just sorta swooped in and grabbed up spare time. Well...that and playing at Conquer Club - a Risk like website. (Shameless plug: If you like the game of Risk check it out . *referral link - gets me an extra month if you sign up for the premium membership @ $25))

Poker-wise: I didn't grow my game nearly anywhere close to what I was hoping to do. But I'm okay with that. Thus far my exploration in the world of internet poker has been profitable and bought us quite a few nice toys. I'm good.

Work-wise: Well, got a promotion in November so that kicked-ass. Technically, it's a "seasonal" promotion that ends in January but there's been no mention of me moving back to my former position at that point yet so I'm keeping my fingers crossed there.

Life-wise. Fuckin' A! Ryan was born. 'Nuff said.

Overall: A+++ Would do over again!!!!

[Spidey44]

2008 was a pretty good year for me. Definitely had its ups and downs.

Family is great...great wife and two sweet little girls (sweet MOST of the time )

Work is work... I got laid off the beginning of September, but somehow managed to get my job back AND get a normal schedule AND get to work from home Mondays and Fridays. Definitely not really want I want to do when I grow up (even though I'm coming up on 11 years wow), but it pays pretty well and I'm going to grad school in the spring and they pay for it...nice!

Poker...just haven't had much time for it. Passion is there, but time is not. During football season, I pretty much put it on complete hold. I've only sat at a couple SNGs since it ended, but definitely looking forward to playing more in 2009.

Football...Pretty good, but we'll see if I get promoted in the off season. Really hope I do, or else I'll probably hang up the official stripes. I did work my first NCAA playoff game and that was VERY cool.

Hope everyone has a GREAT 2009.

[thadeas1]

My 2008 and 2007 for that matter has been a utter car-crash.

It started in Jan 2007, previous to this I was living in a Caravan (americans would call me trailer trash), it was a very nice and very expensive caravan though, on a excellent park which had all the modern facilities for owners, we had a indoor swimming pool with spa and steam room, we had a massive club/pub house with excellent entertainment at weekends, but as uk law says you have to move out for 8 weeks every year so on jan 7th 2007 I did move out.

I rented a room from friends of my best mate, he lived there as well, it was only going to be for the 8 weeks and then i'm back to my caravan (trailer) but on the 13th of Jan I literally did have a car-crash, I was crossing traffic and some boy racer smashed into the side of my car, he admitted to me he wasn't watching the road as he was texting on his phone, obviously he forgot to mention that to the police though. I only had third party insurance and was blammed for the accident as I crossed traffic, my car was a complete mess and no payout from insurance so that was £7000 down the drain plus I got banned from driving for 6 months for careless driving.

Since that my financial situation changed dramatically and I ended up missing acouple payments on the finance for the caravan and loseing it completely so I stayed where I was with no home of my own and no car, fast forward to the end of 2007 and my resolutions were to rectify the situation for 2008, I was going to move out of the lodgings and find a nice flat/apartment, since my driving ban would have finished I would also try to find a nice used car (finance wasn't finished on the previous smashed up one).

now its the end of 2008 and have I moved? err no, do I have a nice used car? err no, but the one I do have is deffinately used.

So in 2009 will I get stuff done? Well I'm very optimistic as the finance for the car which I smashed up finishes in march and I can then take out new finance on a brand new one so that is something. And I will definately be moving as I need my own space, it doesn't matter how small it is as long as it's mine.

Now we get to poker. I've played online for alittle over two years and if i'm honest they are loseing years, i'm a eurodonk and can play on almost any site I want to, this is a hinderance and not a plus, I have accounts on all the major sites and most of the minor ones, I switch my money between them and as a result if im running bad I lose money on them all, combine this with the fact that I like a few beers (i'm not a alchoholic but if i'm honest I probably aint that far away from being one), alchohol and gambling is not a good combination. I've lost money and tilt hugely, I cant stick to one type of game and rarely work on improving my game even though I have invested in books and tools to improve it.

So for 2009 will this change? again i'm optimistic, all those books and stuff that i've invested money in to help improve my game I actually am going to read/use, I plan on taking the first 3 months of the year away from the tables and just study the material I got and we will see what happens, at the very least I'm gonna save my self 3 months of deposits (if I stick to my plan lol).

I'm hopeing 2009 will be a very busy but prosperous year for me but you never know whats around the corner, whatever happens I would like to wish anyone who has actually read though this dribble a happy and prosperous new year.

thadeas.

[PShabi]

Then for the love of god DO NOT READ Thadeas's post above this one!

[thadeas1]

lol, whilst it's been a rough time the last couple years i'm sure i'll turn it around, i've been through worse and i'm still standing, what doesn't kill us makes us stronger right?

On a good point, I have a fantastic and beautiful 10 year old daughter who is the reason I get through most days and I wouldn't part with her for all the money in the world. When taking the good with the bad the good always shines through.

[lightfungus]

Poker: Absolutely not what I wanted. I haven't played live poker in forever having moved to a new location and not being around enough to find a steady game. Online I have stunk, and lost this year.

On the positive side, the wife is pregnant (new news) and I am moving with the job, to California. At least I can look forward to some good ole B&M poker in my future.

Here's to '09.

[melioris]

Holy Shit fungus, congratulations!!!!! Start a thread and tell us when she is due and all that.

And moving to CA from NH? Are you somewhere in NH right now? Manch-vegas or something? Where in CA are you moving to?

[Nikita]

CONGRATS!!

And I second mel's request about a new thread. This news is going to get lost in here.

[Talking Poker]

Agreed - thirded!