Goals for 2013

2012 in Review

In previous years I played mainly for fun and wasn't too concerned with good bankroll management. Typically, I would win at microstakes sngs, then spew my profit taking shots at considerably more expensive MTTs.

This pattern broke last January when I made two important changes. Firstly, I bought HoldemManager and started analyzing my own stats. Secondly, I joined the Pokerstars PokerSchoolOnline (PSO) and got serious about learning. These changes made 2012 a milestone year for me:

• I learned a ton!
• I was profitable!!
• I won my first scheduled MTT!!!
• I became a cash game player!?
• PSO hired me to teach microstakes cash games!??! (That was completely unexpected!)

2013 Goals

My plan for 2013 is to continue improving the strong parts of my game and to continue reducing the leaks. Spesifically, I want to meet the following goals by the end of the year:

• Keep improving
• $6 000 in profit
• Goldstar VIP status

Writing up a list of goals is easy, but achieving them requires sticking to a solid gameplan. Here is mine:

Improving

I am improving my game by working on two fronts. Firstly, I am learning by using all the resourses at PSO. There is a huge video archive, live training, hand analyses and a forum. All the trainers (except me LOL) are scary good pro or semi-pro poker players. And, it is all free...  Secondly, I am analyzing my stats and reviewing my hands. Doing hand analysis for others at PSO also helps improve on my own game. It forces me to review the fundamentals on a daily basis. I have two spesific learning goals for the year.

Minimizing my losses
This is actually more a question of discipline rather than learning. I play pretty ABC poker at the moment. I can play ninety nine hands out of a hundred great with a decent profit.  Then I can make one very costly mistake by overplaying a big pair like AA and KK, or top pair top kicker with AK. One mistake can get me stacked and leave me with a losing session. Learning not only to recognize when my AA is beat, but to actually fold it, will have the geatest impact on my overall profit. Remember "It is just a pair"...

Moving beyond ABC poker
I am decent at straight forward ABC poker. This is good enough to be profitable at 25NL and lower. At these levels the opponents make enough mistakes on their own that I don't need to get tricky. At 50NL and 100NL, players are better and make less mistakes though. At these levels I often need to induce mistakes from opponents. Moreover, I need to be aware that they may be doing the same thing to me. My goal is to take my game up a notch so that I can profitably multitable at these stakes.

Building My Bankroll

In order to reach my yearly profit goal, I need to make $500 a month, or about  $17 a day. Most, if not all, of this should come from cash tables. Based on my results from the past few months this seems achievable. I have averaged 24 bucks a day so far in 2013. The biggest threat to building my bankroll is containing my urge to reg for MTTs like the Sunday Million or to sit down at 200NL cash tables. If I bink a tourney great, but in general I'll be playing cash games to build my bankroll and tourneys for fun.

Goldstar VIP

I have been a Silverstar for the last few months. Now that Pokerstars have reduced the VPPs needed from 750 a month to 500, remaining a Silverstar is easy. Goldstar has been reduced from 3000 to 2500 VPPs. I had 1552 VPPs in December. I won't reach Goldstar until I can multitable 50NL profitably. I don't expect to reach this goal until the fall.

Weekly Goals

Some days I play long sessions, and some days I don't play at all. All in all I average about one hour a day playing poker. Here are my weekly goals:

5 sessions multitabling Full Ring Zoom

I play for one hour exactly in these sessions and have six tables running. This works out to about 1800 hands an hour. The main purpose of these sessions is to make money and generate VPPs. At the moment I run four tables of 10NL Zoom and two 25NL Zoom. As I improve, I will be slowly replacing the lowest buyin tables with the next level up. I never run these sessions for more than an hour or I lose my focus. 1800 hands an hour is a lot of clicking and fast desicion making. Zoom is fun!

*After each session I review the hands where I won and lost the most. Each week I will take a closer look at my stats in general.

1 session single tabling Regular Full Ring at higher buyin level

This session is meant to be a learning session. I sit down at a single table one level above my normal buyin. Currently, I am doing this with 50NL and sometimes 100NL. I focus 100% on this table and bring my A-game. In this way, I gain experience at the next level before tossing it into my multitabling sessions. I also get to work on making all the minor adjustments to my game which will be necessary to take it to the next level. Thus far I have been profitable at both 50NL and 100NL, but I am not able to multitable at these levels.

*After each session I will post problem hands on PSO for review.

1 session for tourney play

I want to play less sngs and more scheduled tourneys. I will be playing Rush tourneys on Full Tilt, especially the multiple entry, rebuy tourneys with a gaurantee. I will be playing Zoom tourneys on Pokerstars as well as other Turbo tourneys that fit my time slot. I am striving to final table a big tourney. However, getting deep requires a fair amount of luck. So, I have not listed it as a goal for the year. I do want to be profitable at tourneys for 2013 though.

That is my plan. I'm sure there will be adjustments in the months to come. I'll keep you updated on my progress.

GL in 2013and have fun at the tables!

Roland GTX