2013 Goals

So I had a close call up in NH on new years day when I got to two and a half tables left in a $150 that got a field of over 11 tables. Unfortunately I was unable to secure my first cash of the new year or get any traction going forward in paying Finch back the money that I owe him. In the tournament I tried to resteal against a middle aged women for 13 BBs with A10s, I had seen her make the same raise with 10 9s earlier in the tournament in roughly the same position with roughly the same stack sizes behind and I felt pretty good about my decision, even though in this case she happened to hold AK and managed to win the pot.

In a successful pre new years goal I was able to achieve the next VIP level playing on Carbon poker, playing super turbo HUs rotating between $4's and $8's. I haven't been crushing them but I have been holding my own playing 4 tables at once.

In the spirit of the New Year I am going to write down a couple of goals for 2013.

1) Get and Stay out of debt.
-This is not entirely a poker goal, it really is more of a life goal. I was able to make $12,000 playing poker in 2012 and here I am in January 2013 with under $100 in my checking account and $800 worth of debt I owe to Finch. A large part of this is poker expenses, doing things like not planning a trip to Vegas in the spur of the moment during a winning streak. This is especially true since I went to Vegas where I played mostly cash games after winning most of my money this year in tournaments. This trip cost me a couple thousand dollars before I even got on to the tables, where of course I got buried losing several buy ins throughout the week. If I go back to Vegas or any other poker trips in 2013 I think I need to plan them well in advance and plan them around good value tournaments.

2) Win $20,000 in poker.
-I think this is an attainable goal, considering I am now invited to a couple of home games and in fact if I was not broke right now I would likely put the number higher, this is a goal that I am not going to pace myself to get because I think that with enough volume in Foxwoods MegaStacks and some well timed run good I could possible obliterate this goal. The bigger the better (obviously).

3) Win $2,000 online (if possible)
-I have been playing poker on Carbon but I am not sure how steady the online poker climate in the US is and if I get my account balance to anything respectable than I will likely try to withdraw (after all I am in debt) and if there is any issues getting the money than I will obviously stop playing online. For this reason I am least concerned with realizing this goal but if the climate allows it than I think $2,000 is a very attainable goal even for someone whose primary focus will be on live poker.

4) Do something healthy with some regularity.
-I know it's pretty vague. I am pretty ridiculously out of shape and this is especially disheartening because when I was in high school I used to go to the gym every day after school and was in the best shape of my life. I have since tried to get back into the swing of going to the gym but I don't stick to it because I don't enjoy it like I used to. So in 2013 I want to try to find an activity that is both healthy and enjoyable. My top choices are Yoga and Swimming but I am also thinking about learning how to play tennis.

5) Bowl more often.
-Bowling is another habit from high school which I have largely abandoned in recent years. This past year I only went bowling a hand full of times and every time I really enjoyed it. If I could possibly get into a league or something that would be ideal. I think if I play even a few times a month my average could be between 190 and 220, which would be awesome.

6) Get a car by 2014
-I just need a car. If I have a car than I could drive to tournaments or home games without having to schedule it with my parents. Obviously this would be easy if I get a job out of college to afford a car and an apartment but if I run into some difficulties getting a job, you know if by chance my country decides to run itself off a fucking fiscal cliff, but that is another issue entirely.

7) Try to get a girlfriend.
-I am pretty social in situations where I am introduced to a girl, but I am still a bit shy trying to cold approach a women, which I recognize as being pretty dumb because the worst that can happen is a random girl that I don't know and will likely never see again will reject me. So I will try to do that more.

8) Drink less during the week.
-I go to a bar with my friends every Monday and that is not going anywhere in my 2013 plans, but last semester I drank more than I likely should have and going forward I think I should taper it down a bit. This also goes to my first goal of staying out of debt because there is no need for me to be spending $50-$100 a week on booze.

9) Make some more college memories during my last semester.
-This may get in the way of me staying out of debt because I would like to do either a Spring Break or a weekend at Foxwoods (without the normal poker agenda). But whatever I want to enjoy my last semester as much as I can without putting myself over the poverty line.