New Resolutions for a New Poker Year

2008 has ended, and the poker boom has still not turned into a bust. The World Series of Poker main event saw its second-largest field ever, and the great "delayed final table" experiment went down as a success. A new administration was elected in the United States, and we all hope that election will be the first step toward getting online poker accepted and regulated in this country. If regulation does eventually happen, we may look back on 2008 as a turning point in poker's history.

In past years, I've established a tradition for this column in which, at the start of each year, I make some poker resolutions, and review the resolutions that I made a year earlier. Writing this column every January enables me to focus my priorities, pin down my strengths and weaknesses, and think about my game at the most macro of levels. I've also heard from readers that this column is helpful to them in their own planning and goal-setting for the poker year. So, let's begin!

It's easy to dwell on the bad things that happen to us in poker, so I like to look back on at least three positives at the end of every year, to remind myself that sometimes, things do go well.

1. I had a very good World Series of Poker. I cashed five times in 15 events, including a final table and a 78th-place finish out of 6,844 entrants in the main event.

2. I made the final table of the WPT North American Poker Championship, finishing in seventh place to just miss the televised portion of that final. It's easy to get disappointed by coming close and not winning, which makes it all the more important to remember that reaching the final table of a big buy-in event is nothing to sneeze at.

3. I produced a few dozen well-reviewed training videos for stoxpoker.com. Working as a coach there has helped me plug some of the leaks in my own game, and, I hope, enabled many small- and medium-stakes tournament players to achieve some success and to think more clearly about how to approach poker tournaments.

OK, on to the resolutions! Let's start with the most general.

2008 resolution: Spend the amount of time that I want to spend, on the projects that I want to work on, at the times that I want to work on them.

Grade: C-. I'm not great at scheduling, but I definitely got better at it in 2008. In fact, there were times when I was getting all of my stuff done when I wanted to, and balancing my productivity between playing poker, writing, coaching, and recreation in the exact proportions that I wanted to. I need to do more of that this year.

2009 resolution: Make weekly schedules so that I am focusing and working on the things that I want to be focused and working on.

2008 resolution: At the end of any day of brick-and-mortar poker, write down at least one read I had and, if possible, the accuracy of that read. Compile these observations into one database.

Grade: F. This resolution turned out to be in direct opposition to the first one. Spending time after every single day on the grueling tournament circuit to make notes and compile them into a database turned out to be far too ambitious an idea. In fact, if I'd carried out that plan, I'm pretty sure that it would've been counterproductive. I really need to rest and relax during the downtime of long tournaments. I am, however, still very much interested in the value of my instincts at the table.

2009 resolution: After returning home from a poker trip, make notes from hands in which I had an instinct on what to do or how to play, with the hope of eventually compiling these notes into something useful.

2008 resolution: I'd like to find a reliable method for determining exactly how tight or how loose I should play at a particular table at a particular time.

Grade: C. I was introduced this year to the wonders of heads-up display software, and as a result, I started using statistical data to inform my decisions about when to raise or fold against certain opponents online. I still, however, do not use data nearly as often or as effectively as I should.

2009 resolution: Use data to inform more of my online poker decisions.

2008 resolution: Begin a project in which I can analyze data from my games and determine my bet/value-bet/semibluff percentages on each street.

Grade: F. Again, this goal seems too ambitious. I think increasing my study time will take care of issues such as this one. On that note …

2008 resolution: Set aside and schedule time for poker study, and do this studying at least once a month.

Grade: C. Setting aside the time was the hard part; as I mentioned above, I have issues with scheduling. But I did study more this year - through coaching, through discussions with other thinking players, and through old-fashioned reading (I very much enjoyed Gus Hansen's book Every Hand Revealed). I'd like to further emphasize poker study this year.

2009 resolution: Set aside and schedule time for poker study, and do this studying at least once a month.

2008 resolution: Record time, date, hours played, and location for every cash-game session I play. Record number of entrants, finishing position, buy-in amount, and net profit/loss for every tournament I play.

Grade: D. Man, I stink at record-keeping. And it should be so easy. I wrote last year, "I think I've finally turned the corner to where I can keep solid records for an entire 12-month period." Not even close. It might be time to try breaking this down into steps as a way to attack the problem.

2009 resolution: Schedule time each week to update records, thereby solving this absurdly embarrassing issue. The theme seems to be that scheduling better will solve the other problems. I really hope that's true.

Here's one last resolution for the new year that's completely unrelated to scheduling:

2009 resolution: Play at least two tournaments in fun locations.

I enjoyed my trips to Australia and Canada so much in 2008 that I'm just going to have to find some equally exciting destinations for two tournaments in 2009. Poker tends to be more manageable and less consuming when there are awesome sightseeing options available after busting out. I'll just have to find a way to get to some great new locales this year.

Best of luck to you in 2009, wherever you may be playing!

Matt Matros is the author of The Making of a Poker Player, which is available online at www.CardPlayer.com, and a featured coach for stoxpoker.com. Matt finished 78th in the 2008 WSOP main event.