Goals for 2011

I have been reading a lot of poker blogs and I see that everyone lists their goals for the year and it got me thinking. What are my poker goals? Do I have any? I have not really had any so I thought that it is about time that I create some goals. I have been playing this game a fairly long time and I have won and lost a lot of money over the years. Thankfully I have actually won more than I lost.

So my goals for 2011.

1. Cash in a "big" mtt. I am defining big as a tournament with at least 125 people and a buy in of more than $250. I have cashed in tournaments that qualify for each criteria but not for both. I should have cashed in the tournament at Meadows in December as I had a huge chip stack and was playing really well. Oh well. I think that I learned something from the experience.

2. Play at least 30 live cash games, excluding casino trips. There are a lot of home games and local "charity" games that I can play. Last year I only played in 20 such games and I did really well. (Excluding one trip to Gemini club where I played 2/5 and got killed with top boat vs. Straight flush. I should have left after that hand, but of course I bought in for another $500 and got squashed.) I need to play in more of these games as these are games where I can generally win.

3. Do not play 2/5. (except at the MGM or Palms in Vegas) I know that this is really not a goal but it is a reminder that I should not be playing in that game. My bankroll is not large enough to handle the swings. At most of the 2-5 games that I play in, the players hate money and just do not care. I have to exclude MGM and Palms because I seem to always win at those two places and I win big. For some stupid reason in my two vegas trips in 2010 I did not play in either place. Guess that is why I lost at the casino cash games last year.

4. Do not deposit more than $300 for on line poker. Lets face it. I suck at on line poker. I have had a few nice scores in mtts, but in general I am not very good. The other part that is hard for me is that it is not "money" that I can see and touch so I do not seem to mind blowing all the money in my account because it is not "real". I know that I will periodically deposit $50 here and there if there is a Sunday afternoon that I am home and a tourney that I really want to play so I do not want to cut it out completely.

5. Play Colin heads up. I am not really sure why I have this a goal for this year but it popped in my head so there you have it. I think that Colin is one of the best players that I know and I think it will be interesting playing him heads up.

6. Play another wsop event. I have played at least one event in each of the last three years and I had a great time. Each year I have sat with at least one person that is a "name" in the poker world. On two occasions I was right next to the person so I had the opportunity to talk with them. It was fun. Of course now I am like a stalker and pay attention to everything that they do.

7. Make up for the losses that I had in 2010. I know that we are supposed to look at poker as one long game and not be so concerned about short term variance, but I had a REALLY bad year in 2010. Most of my losses came in cash games at casinos. I have studied my notes from each losing session and have determined that most of the "big" losses have come after I take a horrendous beat and then play bad. Can you say TILT????

8. Stop going on TILT. It is really easy to say but oh so hard to do. I really think that if I get the opportunity to play more often that it will be easier to stay off tilt. My thinking now is that when I lose a big chuck of money because of a bad beat, I need to make up the losses now as I do not know when I will be able to play again.

To help achieve many of these goals this year I am going to have cash games in my office. I bought a table and chips and I am excited about it. The bad part is that the players that I will be playing against are pretty good, but I generally hold my own against them. I think that this will help me achieve all of my goals. We shall see.