2009 Poker Goals

I started this journal last March, and I didn't really have any concrete goals then - only to increase my bankroll and try to climb out of the micro stakes games. Things started out fine and I pretty quickly climbed up from 25NL to 50NL, but then I stalled for several months after the birth of my first child. I didn't play much until the itch kicked back in hard enough in late fall that I found a way to cram poker back into my schedule. Now I hope to keep poker in my schedule throughout all of 2009.

Now I play poker for a few reasons. One, because I love and enjoy it. Two, because I like winning money. But I have no pretense about making a load of money, going pro, or any other such pipedreams. And I have a busy life, especially since my girl was born. So I won't be setting ambitious goals. The main goals here is fun, and for me, that comes from playing, discussing, analyzing, and winning. But I may not have time to play, so I will set modest goals so as not to set myself up for disappointment.

I'm going to try to quantify as many of my goals as possible, but I have a few more goals that are pretty much impossible to measure.


Quantifiable Goals:

1. Don't go broke (based on my online BR as of Jan 1).
Very modest.

2. Play at least 2500 hands each month.
Modest - this comes out to ~7-8 1-2hr sessions per month.

3. Finish each month + in profits.
Seems modest, but could be tough due to variance.

4. Withdraw 30% of my profits for each $500 in profit earned (assuming I earn it!).
Easy goal, but gotta hit those $500 marks to make it happen.

5. Get my online bankroll up to $2500 and move up to 100NL by the end of the year.
Less modest, but will depend mostly on the amount of time I have to play.

6. Keep accurate records of live play.
PokerTracker makes this easy for online play, but I am awful at tracking my live cash flow. I wanna fix this. Pretty modest goal, I just have to execute.

Vague Goals:
1. Reduce frequency of crying calls.
2. Quit when tilting.
3. Make at least one biggish score in an MTT. Big meaning maybe $300+?? Hard to set MTT goals since they are hard to work into my schedule.
4. Put together another SNG challenge.