It's a bit strange to think that at the beginning of this year I had a BR of only $65 bucks. Grinding out $2.25 9 man turbo and 180 man SNGs on FTP to build myself up while using up my FPPs on Stars to win enough $T to take a few shots in some $4.40s. To go from that to finally breaking through and getting my first $1K+ score, then doing it two more times in a 6 week period, coupled with my first ever live FT and first major cash for $50K at Foxwoods, let's just say it's been a pretty good year. That being said we're now into November and 2009 has nearly come to a close. In the next 8 weeks I will have 3 full weeks off from school as well so I plan on going out strong in 2009.
Cash game grinding I'm trying to get in 10+ hours a week. Win, lose, or draw I think it's important to log in the hours and improve. I do need to get used to playing 25+ hours a week at some point, that way I can grind out the cash games and rely more heavily on them for income. If I can get 10+/week right now, I can maybe bump that up to 15+/week by the year's end and maybe get myself into the $100NL level. Ideally that would be the result, to move up to playing for some decent money by year's end. The process of moving up isn't a quick one for me though. Usually what ends up happening is I'll make the jump, take an initial hit, move back down, grind up again, and try another jump to the next level. It takes a few weeks normally but I find that it is certainly doable and the transition usually takes about 2 weeks. That would give me about enough time to make the jump to $100NL by Christmas this year, which would be a great way to start off 2010.
As far as MTTs are concerned I'm still tinkering with my schedule right now. Right now I'm looking at a nightly rotation of:
$26 $35K Guaranteed @ 20:00
$3.30 $10.5K Guaranteed Rebuy @ 20:35
$12 Daily Double A @ 21:00
$12 Daily Double B @ 21:02
$26 $5K Guaranteed PLO @ 21:15
$26 $28K Guaranteed @ 22:00
$26 $4K Guaranteed HORSE @ 22:15
There are a few holes in the schdule right now. First off I need to add in at least one more MTT in the schedule. I try to play 8-10MTTs/night when I do play so I'd like to find at least one more MTT to get myself into. Preferably one that starts before 22:30 server time. I thought about the $55 Fifty Fifty @ 21:30 but I don't think mixing that in and bringing my average buy in up that much is a good idea just yet. I maye end up still adding it in anyway, but for now I'd like to keep the buy in's more around $26 than $55. I have been playing in the $26 $2K Guaranteed Razz @ 20:15 but I don't think that is an MTT with a whole lot of value to it. I could be VERY wrong but regardless my Razz game is a little rusty anyway ATM so I'd like to mix in something else. I thought about maybe just putting some satties back into the mix and trying to win my way into some $55 and $109 buy ins, still on the fence about that. For right now my MTT schedule stands at 7/night, but I'll be playing more cash games in the next week so I'll have some time to think of what I'd like to do.
The year 2009 will be my last full year as a student and 2010 will be my first as a poker pro. I've had a great year so far and moving forward I can make more trips to Foxwoods and Mohegan for live cash and some more $400 buy in events that they will be running. For arguably the first time in my young poker career, I have plenty of options moving forward. Right now I just have to plan out my next few moves and really get after it. Would be nice to hit another $50K sooner rather than later.