Last Year

   The calendar on your wall is ticking the days off,
   You've been reading some old letters,
   You smile to think how much you've changed      The The

JANUARY.  The year started off with me opening up a bank account specifically for my poker stake. Just to keep everything separate from my regular accounts, I went to a different bank. I'd been hoping to be able to do this for quite a while, and my bankroll had reached a point where I didn't want that amount of money lying around the house. Over the course of the year I've deposited a few times and never had to withdraw anything; so far so good.

FEBRUARY.  This month I had my third cash and my second first place in the Friday night tournament. At this point, things were looking very good, and these sorts of results continued through most of the year. In the end I was looking at about a 90% Return On Investment for this game type. I also won first place in one of the four 'ten week challenge' prize pools and I had more first placings than anyone else. I like the Friday night game.

MARCH.  With the start of the Autumn season I started playing online no-limit cash games. They started out very well with me winning a fair bit in the first couple of months, but after that my win rate slowed down dramatically. By the end of the year I was still ahead in this game type even though the Winter and Spring results were negative. I've decided to continue playing online cashies this year, although I'm prepared to drop down a level if the results continue on their downward trend.

APRIL.  Even this early in the year it was becoming apparent that I'd lost my SitNGo mojo. My ROI in this game type was -19% for the Autumn season, my worst result ever. By the end of the year I was sitting at around -17% over-all for online SitNGos. I really don't know why I've been doing so badly in a game type in which I've had reasonable success in the past. But I'm going to keep plugging away at them and searching for the secret to SitNGo success.

MAY.  I attended my first Clubs NZ North Island tournament at the end of this month. This was a terrific event that I thoroughly enjoyed playing in. And actually making the main tournament final table was the icing on the cake. It's great fun being part of a big poker event that involves a lot of players. This event is being held down in Wellington this year and my wife and I have been invited to play for the OWMC team. Can't wait.

JUNE.  Six months in and I'd played in six Inter-club poker events. My wife and I both play in these tournaments, held on the second Sunday of every month at various different Auckland clubs. This is strictly a fun game for me as I don't use my poker bankroll to play. It's nice to go to different venues and play in a game with fifty or more players. I cashed once last year, coming in second, which isn't bad considering there are only ten games in the year.

JULY.  I started playing in satellite games to live events this month. These games are available on Pokerstars and are satellites to Australia New Zealand Poker Tour events. I've played in satellites to games in Melbourne and Auckland, generally playing one each month. These are turbo events, often with multiple re-buys, so a big change in game strategy is required. I haven't got past the first level yet (there are usually three levels). Although it's a big long shot, I'll keep playing these games, although I'll have to give the ones in Perth a miss; it's too expensive to fly to the other side of Australia.

AUGUST.  This is the month when I started running occasional Saturday afternoon tournaments at my local club. They were not a raging success. I just couldn't get enough people interested and by the end of the year the games had fizzled out. In fact we only had five players for the December game, so we played a cash game instead. This turned out to be good for me, as I did very well in the cashie. Although the poker organiser has made some noises about playing again this year, I think she'd be flogging a dead horse. Oh well. It was worth a try.

SEPTEMBER.    This is when I decided I needed to find a 'fishier' poker site than the ones I was playing on. I actually had a lot of trouble trying to see the games on offer on the different sites I tried. I didn't figure out that it had to do with the lobby view that I was using until after I'd registered with Bet365. But all I was able to find on Bet365 was 6 max games (short-handed tables). I couldn't find any 9-player cash games at the level I wanted to play. So in the end, I just went back to 888poker.

OCTOBER.  This is the month of the TV coverage of the  World Series of Poker main event. In previous years ESPN has shown delayed coverage of this event leading up to the final table in November. This time, it was a bit patchy. They didn't start showing the early  stages until quite late, skipping the first couple of days altogether. Then coverage jumped from the final 18 to the final 6. Then when it got down to the last three players, they showed it live, but there was no edited highlights. So the whole thing was a bit of a shambles as far as TV coverage goes. Thank God for YouTube.

NOVEMBER.  As this is the end of Autumn, it marks the last month of my poker year. I played nearly 600 hours of poker over the year and showed a 16% ROI overall. My best profits were from live tournaments, then online cash games, then live cash games. The 27-player online tournies I played last Summer were bad for my bottom line, and the SitNGos have been very disappointing. I'm going to keep playing these SitNGos but I'll also be looking for more live tournaments to play in this year. The idea is to play to my strengths.

DECEMBER.  Looking back over the year two things stand out: my continuing good form in the Friday night tournament and the decline in form for online SitNGos. Obviously, I need to do something about the SitNGos and I am intending to gather more information about the games I play in and start reviewing some of my poker sessions. But the year overall has been pretty good both in terms of results and the satisfaction I get from playing poker. So now I am looking forward to another year and whatever challenges it may bring. Meanwhile, it's damn hot outside, so I think I'll have a beer...