The Year That Was ...

First post for 2009 and as per custom, let me do a quick recap of what happened to my poker playing this past year. Before anything else, let me qualify to everyone that I am a low limit recreational player. I work 8 hours a day, 6 days a week and travel quite a lot. So my playing time is limited to a few hours a day plus the occasional Sunday. I don't consider myself a pro in any sense of the word. But I am an avid student of the game.

With this in mind, I am happy to report to my stockholders (which is basically my wife and kids) that I've managed to triple my online bankroll this year while still managing to take out around $3K worth of profits. Whether this is big or small is relative obviously. But I am quite satisfied with this level. Again as I've always said, where else can you play a game which you enjoy tremendously where the money inflow is positive instead of negative. A lot of my previous obsessions have always taken out a chunk of my salary and poker is the only one that is the opposite, actually giving me extra spending money. It is also the only hobby that my wife encourages me to play, sometimes even chiding me for missing out on some of those early morning freerolls which I qualified for. Heheh. Buhay nga naman.

Also in 2008, I did finally get to play in a Sunday Million Tournament and even made it ITM which was good. My playing has evolved a bit. Instead of focusing purely on single table SNGs. I find that I play in a lot more MTTs now. Surprisingly, my ITM rate is quite high for MTTs hovering in the 30+% range. I find that I also enjoy MTTs more with its unique challenges and formats. Cash game experience is still zero except for the occasional stab at low limit tables when I am trying to chase a bonus. I find that I'm clueless when to quit when I play cash. Sometimes I'm already up 2 to 3 buy-ins and I end up losing it back to the table. This is so unlike SNGs or MTTs where you always know where you stand and there is a definite end time.

If there is any regret that I have for 2008, it is that I fact that I played in only one (count them in your fingers) live game. And it was even a charity event where the players were not really playing seriously. So for 2009, this is the main thing that I would work actively to change. I would like to play in at least 2 or 3 big live local tournaments. With the growth of poker in the Philippines, I am sure that there will be lots of live MTTs with great prizes. So let me try to qualify for one of these suckers.

I guess that's it. Happy New Year to everyone !!