Grading the Year

Well, we're coming up on the end of another long, challenging, and rewarding year. As usual, about this time last year, I listed my top-10 poker-related resolutions for 2014 (click here to read that post). And as usual, here's a look back on how I did on the ten:

1. ABC Poker Training. While I didn't get nearly as far with the training program as I had planned, the whole project took on a quantum step-up in vitality when Le Monsieur joined the party. I'd been poking at the idea of a training program for sometime, researching, writing, pondering... hell, I even registered a domain name for the ill-defined project. But the whole thing was missing action traction; I was making progress, just not forward progress. Enter Le Monsieur. There's something very motivating about having a partner in crime for this type of endeavor, and we've gotten into a fairly regular weekly cadence of pushing this beast forward, lesson-by-lesson. In addition to just plain motivation, Le Monsieur brought in a very clear vision for the project (short/focused lessons; app-based; lots of real-time quizzing; etc..) that has greatly helped get the project headed in the right direction. Plus it's just plain fun working with a partner on this. Ergo, the grade for this resolution is: A+.
2. The Blog. Meh. My work and home life have been entirely too crazy this past year. At work, I was given an extra full-time job midway through the year, and frankly it's kicked my butt. Long, long, long hours, lots of extra travel, and challenging personalities to deal with have all conspired to take time away from poker things like this blog. Ergo, I've really slacked off posting, only writing an average of 1x every 1.5 weeks. Grade: C+.
3. WSOP 2014. The aforementioned work thing totally scuttled plans for Vegas. I also didn't get to attend my backup major live tourney (AZ State Championship) because of travel. Grade: F. (On a side note, WSOP 2014 was a success, but just not in the way I envisioned. Fellow poker blogger and all-around-good-guy Dave "MemphisMojo" Smith made a super deep run, taking third place in the Seniors Event for a cool $280K. Sweating him online during the final table almost made up for me not attending/playing in person myself. Almost.)
4. Plug da Leaks. I had two key leaks I wanted to work on this year: Impatience and BRM. I did great on the former, and so-so on the latter. Grade: B-.
5. SnG and MTT. I've played a few MTTs and SnGs every month, and did relatively well. Didn't really improve, per se, but I did get in some reasonable quality seat time. Grade: B-.
6. Fitness. Had a horrible year on this front. I (honestly) blame the new/extra job at work, but I also (honestly) know it's in my control to, uh, control. I literally put on 10 extra pounds since taking on the new job in Mach. My sleep quality is crap, I'm exercising at half the frequency I was last year, my diet sucks, etc. The only (semi) bright spots are a) I started playing some racquetball with co-workers (including Mr. Multi) which has helped somewhat; and b) I've dusted off the bicycle and have started riding into work 1x per week. Otherwise, this resolution was a total fail. Grade: F-.
7. Poker Videos, Podcasts, and Books. Didn't watch hardly any videos; did listen to lots of podcasts; read a couple of poker books. Grade: B.
8. Perfect Practice. Prior to March, when I took on the extra job, I was doing really well on this front. After March-- eh, not so much. Grade: C.
9. PLO. I've actually been playing almost as much PLO as Hold'em the past few months, and I feel my game has definitely gotten better as a result. I'm now technically a profitable player at $10PLO and am breaking even at $25PLO. The variance is pretty crazy in this game, but there is real money to be made for someone willing to put in the hours of study and practice. It almost feels like the olden days of NLHE, when the fish outnumbered the experts. It's fun, profitable, and I'm definitely improving. Grade: B+.
10. Have Fun On/Off the Felt. I still enjoy playing, studying, reading, talking, and watching poker. A lot. I also really am enjoying the process of the training app development with Le Monsieur. Time has been my one true enemy, and occasionally I've felt pressured when working on poker stuff like the app, instead of enjoying the journey, but for the most part, I think I did well on this one. Grade: A-.

Stay tuned for poker resolutions for the upcoming 2015 year...
All-in for now...
-Bug