Let's see how many people still have us in your reader.
Needless to say a lot of stuff happened to the poker world the last 12 months. I will go over how I did on my goals, Black Friday, my Hong Kong trip and some other random stuff.
2011 Goals
Let's see how I fared on the goals I set in the beginning of the year:
Play in two WSOP-C Main Events and one WSOP event – cashing in one of them. - Fail. I ended up playing in just one WSOP-C Main event and did not make it through the first day. I did however play two preliminary events in Tunica where I final tabled the $340 HORSE event and finished 4th.
Make a realistic push to win a WSOP seat. It's safe to say that Black Friday fucked that one up for me. I was going to push hard to win a seat on PokerStars so I could get a 50k VPP head start on SuperNova in 2012. I did play a number of single table satellites at the Rio but opted to take the cash instead of trying to play a mega. We shall see how the bankroll looks in 2012 and maybe try a mega this year.
Learn online cash games. Again, this one fell by the wayside with Black Friday. I had no significant amount of money on any sites that still accept U.S. players and I had no real interest in putting money on either. I could start watching training videos now but by the time I would get a chance to play, I would have long forgotten it.
Play a minimum of three live cash sessions per month. This didn't happen either. Be it a combination of life expenses and work, I had neither the time not money to make this happen. I went multiple month stretches on two occasions this year where I didn't play any cash game sessions at all.
I don't have any real poker related goals for 2012. I would like to play more cash game sessions and try to stay away from tournaments for the most part.
Black Friday
This obviously hit everyone like a ton of bricks. I really wanted to put in the hours online this year and learn the game even more. I really wanted to make that push for SuperNova.
After being without online poker for the last 8+ months I can honestly say that I don't miss it one bit. My life is now a lot better without online poker. However, if they announced that online poker was to be regulated, I would be back at it in a heartbeat.
Right now I am getting by competitive fix by playing PS3. The Show and FIFA 12 have occupied my time.
Work
At the beginning of 2011 I had just started with the role of News Editor at Rakeback.com. I held that position until a couple months ago when I moved over to the content side of the company. I think Matt mentioned the title Content Manger once in passing and I ran with it. I am now the self-titled Content Manager.
We are now up to four sites with PokerVIP.com, Pokerbonus.net, and the latest addition, Pokerbonus.com.
I started working with the Rakeback team back in mid-2010 looking to add to the bankroll. I never dreamed it would turn into what I do now. I am lucky to work two jobs that I love doing when some people hate going to work every day.
Hong Kong
I took a two week trip to Hong Kong and Macau in October. I went during the Macau Poker Cup Championship. I played in one event and a number of step mega-satellites with noting really to show for it. By far the fun part of the trip was to meet all of the great people at Rakeback. I was well taken care of and they told me where to go, what to do and what to eat. I even had cow stomach lining.
Looking Forward
My 2012 and beyond looks to be moving along more and more with less poker, but you never know. Hitting the WSOP isn't on the top of my list this year but it looks like I will be in Albuquerque and Salt Lake City in June so a long weekend isn't out of the question. Other than that I have no poker trips planned for this year. I am looking at taking the whole family to Melbourne and the Aussie Millions in 2014. Start saving now.
This will probably be my last post for a long time. I tend to use Facebook and Twitter a lot more these days. You never know though.
