Sophomore Slump, or Comeback of the Year?

You’re probably wondering what’s up with these titles I’ve been using lately…they’re titles from either Fall Out Boy songs, or Episode titles from a few TV shows I like. I like them because their kinda crazy, plus they’re way more creative than something I could come up with. So I try to find something that is close to the subject of my post, and I use it. I’ll keep using them mostly because I’m entertained by it and I like the challenge of trying to find one that matches the content of my post.

I’ve been officially been playing poker tournaments regularly for a year and half, calendar time. I’ve really only been playing for about 15 months, because I’ve only played in one tournament in the last 3 months or so. So I figured I’d try to analyze how far I’ve come, how much money I’ve made, and some of my goals for the next year. So here goes nothin.

In the past 18 months or so, I think I’ve evolved from a very novice and inexperienced tournament player into an experienced player that has formed a solid tournament strategy. I’ve come to understand some poker theories that are more complex than anything I ever thought I’d be able to comprehend, although I’m still in the process of learning how to apply these strategies in the correct situations. I think I’m on my way to becoming a good player, and now that my little sabbatical from poker is over, I’m ready to start devoting more time to poker again. In the next year or so I hope to continue to improve as a player and continue to learn more strategies and how to correctly apply them. I also hope to improve on becoming better at reading players, and trusting these reads.

The past year was a pretty profitable one for me poker wise. Just counting tournaments, I’ve probably won about $2,500-$3,000. This isn’t a huge amount, but for the tournaments I’ve played in, I would say it’s pretty successful. If it wasn’t for a few untimely bad beats in big situations, I probably would have made close to double that. But that’s poker, what can you do. One of my biggest strengths in tournament poker is cashing in a high percentage of the tournaments I enter, but I want to improve on that as well. I am going to try to become more aggressive in the later stages and build a stack that can help me win, not just cash. I’d accept a few less times in the money for a few more higher finishes.

I have a couple of goals for this upcoming year of poker. The first one is to try to qualify for the World Series of Poker Main Event. There are online satellites everywhere, so I’m going to try my best to qualify. If it doesn’t work, I guess I’ll just gain a lot of tournament experience, so it’s really a win win situation.

I also want to become a better cash game player, whether it be limit or no-limit. I sometimes struggle in cash games with making good decisions, so I need to improve upon this in order to increase my bottom line. If I can cut down on the bad decisions I make, this will allow me to save $, and in poker $ is just as good as $ won.

That’s pretty much it for this one. I guess the question is, will I have a Sophomore Slump, or will it be the Comeback of the Year? Stay tuned, I guess we’ll find out together.

“Don’t be afraid to be great.”