Month one of my six month conquest to 60k is now officially over.  What a great month it was too!  I ended up the month at $15,972.11.  That number is good enough to put me $5,863.41 ahead of the pace.

But be forewarned:  I ran pretty freakin good this past month.  I cannot expect to make over 15k on a monthly basis.  I am still unsure as to whether or not I will reach my ultimate goal.  This past month saw a ton more action at the 5 card draw tables than what is customarily running.  So with more games going and some running good, 15k was achievable in July.  But those two elements are not the norm.

Lets look back on the month shall we…….

Remember, I cheated by starting out my goal at $2004.28. Since I applied what I won in the last couple days of June towards my goal.  As I just really want to reach this goal, and I am giving myself every little advantage I can.  For those that want to write it off, then you can call my goal 6M58k.   But either way, it is pretty moot if I end up getting that high.

I played a total of 24 days (of 31) in July.

I had only 4 days in which I did not post a profit.

I made $12,427 in 5 card draw cash games.

I made $1,252.50 in NL 5 card draw heads-up sit-n-gos.

I played 6 NLH tournaments, and only cashed in one.  (-$235.70)

And I made about $500 playing some other random games, like the the random PL draw session.  Also, I played a little 2-7 Triple Draw last night (for which I did not post about) in which I made a few hundred after coming home from a wedding shower party at which I had quite a few beers.

*Speaking of 2-7 Triple Draw, that is a game that I am eager to learn and become more efficient at.  But that will have to wait until this goal is over.

When this 6M60K goal started, I would have put my chances of reaching the goal at about 40-50%.  I was not a favorite by any means.  I just don’t normally put in enough hours.  It can be hard to put in the needed hours with a family and a full-time job.  After a great first month, I would rate my chances as a slight favorite, somewhere in the 50-60% favorite range.  But if I can manage to have an August as good or better than my July, things would be looking great as I will have reached my halfway point only 2 months in.

Plus, I should be reaching my Supernova yearly status sometime in early August.  That just means more $$$ to apply to my account as I will add in some Frequent Player Point bonuses.  I will save those though for when things aren’t looking so good, to hopefully keep me away from any detrimental losing trends (if that is possible).  Since I only logged like 5 hours total in January, reaching 100k VPPs this early is actually pretty surprising.  I might even shoot for 200k VPPs on the year as there is a pretty nice milestone money-bonus I could apply towards my goal.  But that would be a pretty tough milestone to reach.

It is getting pretty late for this, but I never did discuss what my New Year’s resolutions were for 2010.  With the trip to the PCA, alot of my goals have been put on hold.  In fact, I have only played poker two nights now this year.  Not a great start.

But nonetheless, I do have goals I intend and hope to reach this year. 

1.  Lose weight

Ah yes, the most common resolution that always seems to be at the top of everyone’s list at this time of year.  I don’t really have a set amount of pounds that I want to lose, I just want to make a better effort of it this year.

I am planning to eat better and become more active on a daily basis.  I don’t think it is necessary to have to work out on a daily basis.  I just need to get out of my lazy boy and do more “stuff”.  That and simply just learn to cut down on portion size when it comes to meals.  Of course, the occasional work out wouldn’t hurt though. 

Pretty easy right?  Well in past years it really has been easier said than done, but I still have the faith that I can make a drastic improvement in this department.  It is never to late to try and better yourself health-wise.

2.  Poker

I just titled it “poker” because I have multiple things that I want to achieve pending a good year at the tables.  These goals are all pretty much dependant upon each other and are broken down further:

A.  Win 100k in 2010. 

It is crazy to think that I could win 6 figures playing poker.  But since I made almost half of that last year in about 7 months time, I definitely think it is doable.  I plan to play some 5 card draw cash games, more MTTs, and SNGs/Steps to reach this goal.

My ultimate goal is to be able to play poker full-time and I think if I can reach this objective, it would be hard for me not to make a try at it by sometime in 2011.  In fact, if I didn’t have a wife and kid at home; I more than likely would have already taken a shot.  But I want to take the most risk-adverse approach as possible since I have people depending on me.

I just really dislike my current job though it is really not that bad as compared to other positions out there.  I just don’t think I like being a part of the “workforce”.  It is just how I am and have always been since I was a kid.  I want to be able to do what I want to do when I want.  I just want to do things in my own way without someone breathing down my neck.

B.  Better use of my poker-playing time.

I can not tell you how many times, whether because there is no 5 card draw game going or not, that I just sit at the computer and waste much needed poker-playing time.  In order for me to reach my goals, I need to put in the hours.  I cannot slack in this department if I intend to reach my other goals.

C.  Play the game with less tilt.

Tilt, playing poorly after running bad, is something that effects many if not all players.  I definitely played a few “tilt sessions” last year.  I need to cut this out completely. 

How do I do it?  Take emotions out of a losing session and realize it is part of the game. 

Today I am actually much better in this department than I was 2-3, even 1, years ago.  I just would like to build on the improvements I have made in the past.

D.  Study the game more

This is pretty standard.  I just wanted to add this in because I have slacked overall in the past year with my learning.  I made great strides in my game last year and alot of that was because I took a different approach to my game.  With this new approach, I need to study more with my new outlook on the game.

My outlook?  Well I used to over-analyze aspects of the game that are really not as important than other parts of the game.  Though I was learning, I was also hurting myself as far as my overall evolution as a poker player.  It is really hard to articulate how I have changed over the past couple of years as it concerns to my poker play.  Somethings have just kind of “clicked” for me recently.

E.  Learn a new game

This one is something that I have been meaning to do for quite a while and is in line with the last objective of studying more.  No-limit holdem games are definitely getting tougher each day as far as competition is concerned.  In fact, many people have been playing pot-limit Omaha because of this.  I could choose to learn PLO, but I think it would be better for me to take my skills in 5 card draw and apply them to something like 2-7 triple draw.  I think alot of what I have learned in 5 card draw can be applied in 2-7.  But that is still yet to be seen.

In Conclusion

So that is pretty much it.  Lose weight and play winning poker.  It is very much in line with my goals from 2009 in which I titled it to be “healthy and wealthy”.  Well I am hoping for more of that.

If I miss any of my goals, I will feel happy if I make a good attempt at each goal.  So far this year, I am not getting off to a good start thanks to my trip to the Bahamas really messing up my routine.  But I did take away alot from that trip that I think will only help me for the year to come.

It’s all dreams and speculation though until it is done, so wish me luck!

I can’t believe that the year is over.  What a crazy year it has been too!  Before I share my goals for 2010, I want to review the goals I set for myself in 2009 and see how well I did with each goal.

1. Work out for a minimum of 30 minutes EVERY day.

Well, this goal started out extremely well.  In fact I didn’t miss a day until our first child was born in April.  I had dropped about 10-15 pounds and seemed to be well on my way.  Unfortunately, other things took precedence as I pushed this goal to the side.

Final Grade:  D

Final Thoughts:  It would be and F, but I cannot forget that I did go for a quarter of the year without missing a workout.  If anything, I showed myself that I can do it.  I just need to put my mind to it.

2. Start an online business or businesses.

This goal was more of an aspiration to do something different.  I moved my blog onto this site and monetized it (check out the ads) to hopefully bring in a little bit of cash.  But overall, this goal was a miss.  I learned alot about online businesses through my experience with building this site and studied various outlets and realized it is much harder than I expected to bring in a constant revenue stream.  I am sure if I didn’t have a full plate for the majority of the year and I had more free time, this might be something I could achieve.  But it takes alot of work.  Work that I was unmotivated to do for one reason or another.

Final Grade: D-

Final Thoughts:  Again this is not an outright F because of the fact that I have this site to show for my hard work.  Though I have only brought in less than ten dollars from ad clicks on this site.  Essentially, it is an online business.

3. Surpass my goal to 10k in poker.

Finally, a goal that I achieved outright.  At the turn of last year my online poker bankroll was in the range of 1k.  In fact it was still around 1.5k around June.  That is when I had my first big win.  I won a seat to the World Series of Poker playing the step system on what was basically a freeroll.  I started from step 1, only using frequent player points.  When it was all said and done, I had a bankroll over 12k in June.

I started playing 5 card draw on a more frequent basis after my win and was doing quite well for myself from July to the end of the year.  Unfortunately, some pretty rough stints in multi-table tournaments and other cash games made my bankroll barely increase, if at all.  But then that is when a couple of big breaks came.  I won 2 seats to the PCA for 15k a piece by playing in a couple multi-table tournaments by using a few step 5 tickets I had left over from my WSOP steps attempt from back in June.

Final Grade: A+

Final Thoughts:  I made a substantial amount more than my goal from just June until the end of the year.  It was definitely a good year in poker for me.  I am leaving for the Bahamas soon for the PCA as almost like a celebration of my achievements for the year.

4. Eat healthier.

Sigh,was there ever an attempt at this?  Not really.  I didn’t do much to achieve this goal.  Though I feel I am eating less fast food today than I was this time last year, I still am not eating what I think to be a healthy diet.

Final Grade: F

Final Thoughts:  This is something that I would still like to do.   I just hope that I make a better effort than I did over the past year.

5. Get on a better sleep schedule.

Lol, yeah right!  My poker playing can keep me up quite late some nights, and add in the fact that we have a baby in the house now….this goal seems almost unachievable.  If poker was something I could do more on a full time basis and not have only a few hours to play at night, I could see getting on a better sleep schedule.  I have other goals that are conflicting with this one as I have a full time job that takes all the time in the day and I need to be able to play poker at sometime, that sometime is after the baby is asleep.

Final Grade: F

Final Thoughts:  This is not as important to me as it once was.  I do feel like I am on a pretty decent sleep schedule, just not decent as most would see it.  If some things are able to change in the future, I can assure you I will take a stab at being on a better, more healthy sleep schedule.

Overall

Well, I guess it looks like I failed more than I passed.  I only really achieved one of my goals.  But the goal I did achieve I surpassed with flying colors and am still pleased with myself overall.  I hope that I can achieve my other goals to some extent in the future.  Unfortunately, some things have changed and I need to take priority on other goals.  Come back in the next couple of days, and I will share with you my goals for 2010.

So I left off talking (last post) about how I was lucky enough to turn four step 4′s into a step 6.  I actually went ahead and decided to play my only step 6 on Sunday afternoon.  Well to make a long story short, I won my seat to the WSOP!  It is a package that is worth 12 thousand dollars!

I am so excited, even 24 hours later, I don’t know where to begin.

As I was browsing the lobby at PokerStars, I saw a step 6 had 10 of the needed 12 players signed up.  The field was tough as what would be expected in a step 6, but I didn’t care.  Something inside told me that this was the one to play.  So I listened to my gut and signed up.

The game moved along incredibly slowly since we started with pretty deep stacks and the blinds were not escalating as they would in a turbo.  There was definitely plenty of play.  Some players obviously knew this as I noticed alot of deep-stack-type plays such as “floating.”  I had to adjust pretty quickly.

It was nearly an hour later and only 1 of the 12 starting players had been knocked out, and you could sense other players making moves to try and chip up.  When the following hand came up:

Click here to view a larger version.

Depending on how you look at it, AK is really a tough decision here.  I could easily make a case for folding.  However, I really thought that the button (M555SSM) was making a move.  Up to this point he had shown he is not afraid to reraise pre.  I thought he was just making a squeeze play here, and well Wes was cold calling all day.  I also felt that the SB who pushed all in knew this as well.  So I thought his range of hands here could easily be behind my AK.

I took up quite a bit of time as I finally made the decision to call.  Unfortunately it didn’t work out, but I am still happy with my call.  So it looked like this tournament was not mine to win as I was left with 7 big blinds as the blinds moved up to 75/150 the next hand.  I was really in dismay thinking that it was over.  But I never gave up!

I slowly worked my stack back up to find myself in the final 3.  It was then that I was confident that the seat was mine.  I knew it was just a matter of time.  A little while longer, the other two stacks played a huge hand in which one player got lucky to win.  It was a hand that I was shocked to see played out the way it was, but I was elated as the player that won had more chips than the other; meaning we were down to 2 players.  The game was over.  I won a seat (two were up for grabs).

I was jumping up and down like a school girl at field day.  I took a desktop pic of the lobby after I won to just make it official as I was still pinching myself.

So now I am 12 thousand dollars richer!  I have since decided to take the cash and opt out of playing in the the WSOP.  I might however attempt to win another seat.  If I do win another, I will definitely play the main event then.

I also want to note that a poker goal of mine that I set in October of ’07 has FINALLY been reached.  It was my 100 to 10k goal.  I was up to 5k within 6 months and nearly lost it all and then I basically had to start over.  I was starting to question if I would ever make it.  Now, I am looking forward to my next goal 10k to 100k.  Wish me luck! 

Oh….if you wanted to see the full hand history of the step 6:

Click here to view a larger version.

The Goal and The Underlying Motive

One of my New Year’s resolutions for ’09 was to become more active.  I set a goal to workout or do some type of physical activity for at least 30 minutes every day.

Since I have left the life of being a student-athlete in college, I have seen the pounds slowly add up and the bad habits multiply.  It was getting to the point where all I was doing on a daily basis was sitting and eating, no exercise whatsoever.  This goal is my attempt to win back my life and prevent myself from slipping deeper into the hole.

Plan of Attack

When this goal first started at the turn of the year, I told myself that I am not necessarily looking to lose weight.  I am just looking to be healthier.  With this mindset, it is less likely I become discouraged for the lack of weight loss.  Discouragement that could lead to quitting this good habit.

The plan was to use the eliptical machine my wife and I have if the weather was unfavorable or to go for a run outside.  That is of course if I didn’t already have an activity planned for that day such as playing softball or raking the leaves.  Even the slightess activity can become more strenuous if you make it your purpose to workout.

Update

Some days have been tougher than others to keep up with my goal.  In fact, I had to miss one week when Stacy Ann was born.  But I think that was a pretty good reason to put this goal of mine sidelined for a while.

Outside of the week my first child was born and two days around the untimely death of my grandmother that I hadn’t seen in a few years, I have not missed a day.  I am proud to say that I have made it a part of my daily routine.  Though I have to admit it can be a pain at times to set aside 30 minutes I feel I do not have, but it is definitely for the better.

Good thing I had the mindset of just being healthier as compared to trying to shed some pounds.  The first two months I managed to lose zero pounds with some weeks of actually gaining weight!  But the last 4 weeks, I have averaged losing about 2 pounds a week.  I am pleased with that, but what I am more pleased about are the strides I have made in my fitness.

I can already tell that I am more active throughout the day.  Not just while doing my daily 30 minutes, but with every little thing.  My couch-potato-ness is not quite as bad as it once was.

The Future

Now I am not trying to get into olympic-competing shape.  I’m simply hoping to lead a healthier lifestyle.  A lifestyle I can use to lead by example as it relates to my children.  I am just taking the proper steps I need to get to where I want to go.  Where do I want to go?  Weighing in at about 275 at the turn of the year, I would like to get back down to the 200 pound range.  My baseball playing weight, at my best, was 195-205.

Whether it takes me one year or three, one thing is certain.  I am in the right direction.

Well, just a quick update since I haven’t written here in a while.

More of an update about my New Year’s Resolutions.

I have worked out EVERY day in ’09 for at least 30 minutes and I have managed to drop 0 pounds. But not really that big of a deal, I am happy that I have yet to break this good habit. I feel better about myself and feel healthier in general.

I think one reason that I haven’t lost any pounds is due to my poor eating habits. When I am on the road for work, I am constantly stuffing my face with fast food. They say that a person that eats at a fast food joint just twice a week for a year can expect to gain about 10 pounds. Well, this is one habit I need to break. It is one of my resolutions (eat healthier) that I have yet to tackle.

I have played absolutely no poker over the last month until this week. I just haven’t really had much time. Since I have been trying to read up more about starting an online business and brainstorming. Not to mention that the “honey do” list is continuing to grow since the baby on the way is getting closer and closer to being here.

I still plan to reach my goal to 10k in poker though.

Better sleep schedule: yeah, I am doing a better I think. But not quite where I want to be. I am sure when the baby gets it won’t matter anyway.

That’s all for now……..Also, just thinking about doing websites, I am thinking about moving this blog to another site, but we will see.

For a review of my ’09 resolutions: click here.