So everyone needs to have “New Year’s Goals” and I am, well, no different. So here is the list in no particular order:

• Limit Poker Skills: my limit game was doing well in the earlier part of the year, I moved from 25c/50c all the way to $1/$2. Then it went south. I tried to play through it- no luck. I ended up back in 50c/$1 and am managing to slow the losses. I am going to do a bunch of research and hand tracking. I think I am going to use the The Limit Challenge Structure – High on Poker from HighOnPoker’s Blog. Hopefully 2006 will allow me to improve my game to a point where I can compete at any table I sit at.
• Tournaments: although my SnG results are not pisspore, I would like to move up from the $5 and $10 ones to the larger $20+ games. I also want to play in more MTT events. An ultimate goal would be to qualify for a WSOP, WPT, or EPT event. If so, I would like to make it deep- even if I don’t cash.
• Vegas: I am going to go at least a twice this year. And ultimately, I would like them to be self sustaining. The only thing better than a vacation is a free vacation 🙂
• Live Games: We have a home poker league and I would like to play that more often and with better results. This is going to be more difficult, but I think it will be wise to play against both donkeys and players that have significantly improved their games.

After being at work for 12 hours yesterday, I decided to enter a SnG (or more). Of course I bubbled.

One more. OK, I finished 2nd- great. My end game was not so good though. I need to work on even stack heads up more- I just bled out and got crushed at the end. It sucked.

One more. Damn it. Got up to 2000 or so (7 or 8 people left) and I needed to head to the house- a 10 minute drive from the bar I was playing at. As an aside, having someone bring you beer while you play poker on WiFi may be the coolest thing ever. It took me 10 minutes to get home and I was down to 1500 after being blinded off. I ended up in a battle of the bubble with another short stack and I lost. Damn it.

One more. This one I played pretty darn solid, top 3 most of the way. Got to heads up with a 40/60 chip distribution. Again, my heads play was not steller. I ended up losing with a flush draw and two live ones on the flop against a naked ace. If one part of my game showed weekness last night it was my heads up play.

For the night: four $5.50 buyin SnGs ($22). two bubbles ($0). two 2nd Place Finishes ($27). Total: Up $5. Woot!!

So I signed up for Wil Wheaton’s weekly event again today. Despite the fact that I had to sit out two orbits because I couldn’t get online at 6, things went very well. I was in the top 10 in chips most of the event, chip leader for quite awhile. We made the final table and I was in the top 3 the whole time. What killed me was doubling up Change100 when my AQo ran into 77, I hit a Q but the board 4 flushed giving her the win. Next hand I had 33 and ran into AKo by SeedyV and a K flopped. Oh well. I finished 5th of 60, not to shabby.

I decided to play the WWdN Bonus Code IGGY Invitational tonight. It was a $10+1 event with 70 entrants. My overall goal was to make the final two tables.

I did very well early pushing up into the top 10 in chips. However I ran into a key hand where I pushed a short stack all in with my QQ and was called by another player. The board tripped 8s but there was an A as well. I lost a bunch of chips to 8s full. I hung on until 31st place.

The only saving grace is that I earned my entry fee playing 50c/$1 earlier in the day.

Thanks for a great event Wil. I look forward to playing it often.

This one was a record for me. It lasted just over 1 1/2 hours and 178 hands were dealt. Wow. It was six handed and the blinds were 200/400. It ended when the blinds were 400/800. The amazing part is that there were very few eventful hands. The play was solid- good bets, good bluffs, good laydowns, the whole deal. It is nice to have won though 🙂

Last night was a decent stop to a week long skid. I played a bit of 50c/$1 limit to pass some time and I made 7 or 8 bucks. Not horrible, and it almost payed for my entry fee to a private heads up event.

I played in the 3rd or 4th Big O Poker Room PokerStars private event. We had 8 players and I think I played pretty solid. In the first round, “moku” and I danced for a good while as the blinds climbed to 50/100. I ended up hitting quads and although there was no showdown I took a bunch of chips and moved onto the victory. The second round I was put up against “Qn of Hearts” I got down early but built it back up and ended up winning an all-in with KJ against AQ when I hit a K on the river. It put me in good chip state when my AK ran into QQ (fitting hand eh?). I spiked a K on the turn. This got me into the final round. The final round lasted exactly one hand. I had J6 of diamonds in the small blind and limped in. The flop gave me a gut shot straight and 4 to the flush. A single bet didn’t get me off the pot. The turn broght and offsuit 5 filling my gut shot. I made it two bets and got called. The river was a 9 of diamonds giving me the J high flush. My opponent, “brucewayne31”, went all in and after pondering a spell I called. He showed Q7 diamonds for the bigger flush.