Daniel Negreanu has set the bar high for 2016

We are just a few days away from 2016, and with the new year comes resolutions. In recent years, Poker Hall of Famer Daniel Negreanu has posted his poker goals for the coming year. On his blog at Full Contact Poker on Monday, Negreanu listed what he wants to do in 2016 and offered a recap of how he did on his 2015 goals.

In 2015, Negreanu wanted to score $2 million in live tournament cashes with at least 12 total cashes during the year, make five final tables, and win three World Series of Poker bracelets, all while playing no more than 55 tournaments.

He handily beat his dollar goal, winning $2,482,489 according to the Hendon Mob. As Negreanu said, though, it “came down to the wire,” as he had to rally for a third place finish at the $100,000 WPT Alpha8 event at the Five Diamond World Poker Classic in December to earn $640,103 and get over that $2 million hump.

Negreanu missed some of his other goals, though, as he cashed only 11 times and made just four final tables, missing his marks by the slimmest of margins. He understands, though, that by limiting himself to no more than 55 tournaments, he hurt his chances at hitting all of his goals. He actually only played in 49 tournaments in 2015 and believes that had he entered 55, he would have reached his other goals as well.

As for the three WSOP bracelets, that didn’t happen. In fact, Negreanu didn’t win any in 2015. He had some close calls, though, finishing third in the $10,000 Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo Championship, sixth in an event at the WSOP National Championship, and 11th in the WSOP Main Event.

Daniel Negreanu’s 2015 live tournament results

Negreanu fully realizes that setting a goal of three WSOP bracelets is a lofty one to say the least. He is not concerned with not hitting the marks he set for himself, though. “I am not attached to the result,” Negreanu wrote. “This is really important to wrap your head around so that you don’t get into trouble when goal-setting. I throw things out in the universe that I’d like to see happen. Whether I do or not has no effect on my psyche. If I accomplished just 1 of the 10, I don’t see failure. I celebrate the result I accomplished as well as the journey towards all of them.”

Among his other goals, Negreanu aimed for a top ten finish in the 2015 Global Poker Index, but he acknowledged that putting a cap on the number of tournaments he entered for the year worked against this goal. He finished 39th.

For the upcoming year, Negreanu is getting more aggressive. He is flipping around his 55 tournament target, making it a minimum rather than a maximum. He also now wants to cash for $2.5 million rather than $2 million: “The price of poker tournaments has reached new heights, so buy-ins could exceed $2 million in a single year quite easily. Setting a goal of $1.5 or $2 million (means I’m not) guaranteed to show a profit, so I needed to up this from $2 million to $2.5 million,” he wrote.

Most of the rest of the goals remained fairly similar, though he added a couple new ones: play 200 hours of cash games and win $250,000 in cash games. He said he used to really enjoy high-stakes cash games, but has gotten away from them, so this goal is an effort to jump-start his love for the games again. He feels that he will have some catching up to do, as the young competition has gotten fierce, but he is confident he will figure things out and do well.