Year end summary

2007 was a year of transition for me as a poker player. I began the year frustrated playing full ring limit hold'em online. The games were getting tougher and the change in laws was threatening the games even further. I was also struggling with the variance involved in limit and was a bit jealous of the success of my no-limit counterparts.

Since I was in a good position financially I decided it was a good time to shift gears and focus on learning no-limit. I spent the first three months of the year playing and reading about no-limit. Unfortunately I was not quite getting the hang of it as fast as I would have liked. I found it very hard to unlearn all of my limit knowledge and take a fresh approach to the new challenge. At the end of March I found myself stuck about 5k for the year and extremely frustrated at my lack of success. Since I had taken three months to learn no-limit, and no longer felt I was learning at a fast enough rate, I decided to abandon the no-limit experiment and get back to focusing on limit.

For the first few months back I was playing smaller stakes online than I was used to since the legal changes were still heavily affecting the games. I started getting back to playing live much more, and ended up traveling to play live for a total of 91 days in 2007. My live game improved greatly this year through putting in a lot of hours as well as spending most of that time traveling with a friend who has been a live pro for about nine years. Before spending significant time talking about poker with him I was not making the proper adjustments to play successfully in live games. Going into 2008 I am very confident in my live game and consider my improvements there my greatest poker accomplishment in 2007.

Towards the end of the year I ramped up my online play again as more high stakes games were being spread again as the games recovered from the legal troubles. For the last three months of the year I have been focusing more on six-max play online, and have made some great strides in my game so I can capitalize on the shift towards shorthanded games online.

Some of my goals for 2008 include a move to LA so that I can play live without traveling and put in more hours live. In live games I still have some room to move up. I primarily play 60/120 at the Commerce now with some 100/200 when the game is particularly soft. In 2008 I hope to move up and play 100/200 more consistently as well as take some shots at the white chip games at the Commerce which are generally 200/400-400/800. If I can move up live and have continued success online, 2008 should be a great poker year.

I am also really excited about the future growth of this site. I look forward to seeing the community grow, and we have a lot of exciting ideas heading your way.

I hope everyone has a great 2008 on and off the tables!