The Year That Was

    To every thing, turn, turn, turn,
    There is a season, turn, turn, turn,
    And a time for every purpose under heaven       The Byrds

   It's the end of another poker year, and time to take a look back and analyse my results. Although I previously vowed to concentrate less on results and more on just enjoying the games, a little end-of-year analysis can't be a bad thing. OK, so the calendar year hasn't ended yet, but for reasons I need not go into here, my poker playing year ends on 30th November. Furthermore, for convenience I divide the year into 4 seasons: Dec-Feb (Summer season), Mar-May, June-Aug, Sep-Nov.
   I started this year in a poor situation. After a disastrous Winter/Autumn 2012 I was showing an overall loss. During the 2013 Summer season I was playing online SitnGos only and, fortunately for my bankroll, came up with some good results, achieving a return on investment (ROI) of 29% for the period. Then in the Autumn season I started playing 7 Card Stud cash games as well as SitnGos. This period started out OK but then I went into a bit of decline. By the end of May my results were looking so bad that I decided to take a month off from poker playing altogether. Nevertheless, this period did show a very small overall profit (about $40).
   I started the Winter season with a new attitude, and a new game. I started playing live Texas Holdem Tournaments in this period, as well as the other two previously mentioned online games. Although I played only about 9 weeks of poker in this period I clocked up a 65% ROI. This was almost entirely due to a couple of live tournament cashes. Then came the Spring season. I managed to show a net loss in every game type in this period, amounting to a total -12% ROI. So not a good way to end the year, but I'm still showing a net profit for 3 out of 4 periods, which is encouraging.

   As far as the different game types go, it's been a bit of a bumpy ride. This has been especially true of online SitnGos. Although I haven't been keeping records of the number of hours played for each game type, I'm sure that I've played far more hours at SitnGos than any other game type this year. It is certainly true that this game type accounts for most of the money I've spent this year. My SitnGo year started out really well, then went into a bit of a decline as the year progressed, showing negative results in the last two quarters. Oddly enough, the Autumn season showed a small profit but it was my awful April results that drove me to take a break from poker for a month in this period. That frustration has not returned, even though the 2nd half of the year has shown a net loss. Overall, the Summer season has saved my SitnGo results and I finished the year with an overall 7% ROI for this game type.
   As for 7 Card Stud, things have not gone well. My ROI for the 3 quarters I played this game are as follows: -27%, 14%, -29%. It's a surprise to me that I actually managed a period where I showed a profit in this game. I just could not get a handle on how to play 7 Card Stud. I tried playing tight, I tried playing super-tight, I tried playing like everyone else and just calling, calling, calling in the early stages, and I tried playing make-it-up-as-you-go poker but nothing seemed to work. The Winter season profit appears to be just due to variance and is not related to any particular playing style. Maybe I just didn't give it enough time to work it out; it's certainly true that by the end of the year I was looking for excuses not to play any more 7 Card Stud. In the end I showed an overall 17% loss for this game type. This may sound bad but I had the good sense to play this game at very low buy-in levels, so this loss amounts to only about $20.
   The live Texas Holdem tournaments have given me my best results for the year, although I've only been playing them since the middle of the calendar year. I started out in this game type with some very good results, although the cashes dried up a bit towards the end of the year. But I'm still reasonably confident that that I'll be able to keep up a good win rate going forward to the new year. I'm still refining my tournament play as much as I can by studying strategy articles from various sources. I've just played in the last game of the series for this year, although the organisers are now considering setting up a game for New Year's Eve. My ROI for live tourneys was 39% this year. Nice.
   Despite the ups and downs, it's been a pretty good year, both in terms of results and of the degree of satisfaction I get from playing poker. Going on tilt halfway through the year and taking a break as a result led to me developing a much better attitude towards my poker games. Apart from that, I'm very pleased with the fact that I'm now back to playing in regular live games. I started the year with a net loss but ended up seriously back in black, although I've dropped back down a bit since hitting my all-time high August bankroll level. Over all games, for the 12 months to 30th November my ROI was 23%. I'm pretty happy with that.
   Heading into the new year I've already started playing my Summer season game. This year it's online Texas Holdem tournaments: no rebuys, no add-ons, no turbos. Just straight-up tournaments. I've also worked out how to get around the problem that I had the last time I played tournaments as my only game. Previously I couldn't always find suitable tournaments at convenient times. But now that I play on PokerStars as well as 888poker, I have access to a wide variety of Multi-table SitnGo tournaments, usually involving 18 or 27 players. These on-demand tournaments are available pretty much all the time. So I'm launching myself into a new season of excitement, adventure and really wild things. Or something.