I've been blogging for four years now and each year I've done a yearly review. The previous ones were relatively successful and always included a few decent scores. This year's review reads basically; got knocked out, got knocked out, got knocked out etc etc...
From a personal point of view I really enjoyed myself in 2010. I enjoy the lifestyle and freedom poker has afforded me over the last five years and last year was no different.
The highlight of the year for me is always Vegas. The highlight for my ego was being on the cover of Cardplayer magazine, although the airbrushing was a bit iffy. I also started a month
ly column in Bluff magazine, which I enjoy and seem to get good feedback from.
It was a great honour to represent Boylepoker.com for the year. I feel these days sponsorship from a site involves a lot more then turning up at a tournament and wearing a patch.
I'd like to think I have added value for Boyle's from a marketing position and hopefully was seen as a good ambassador for the site.
From a poker perspective, the first five months of the year I was worried if I'm honest. I couldn't seem to get anything going, exiting loads of events without getting above the starting stack. A lot of these tournaments I felt I was just making up the numbers and didn't think I was playing well.
The last seven months I think I played very well, accumulating stacks freely in the early to middle stages of events. However, I kept falling short in tournament after tournament. I've practically never bubbled over my poker years, so seeing myself outlast 75-85% of fields in event after event and then exiting was surprising to me.
I like to think I'm pragmatic about how I'm playing and couldn't see how I was doing anything wrong over that seven-month period. All I can put it down to honestly is variance catching up with me.
Win a race here and there, the main event day three springs to mind, and it could be very different looking back. Basically that's how small the margins are between a great or terrible year in tournament poker, a flip here and there.
When I did a 'well' on the old boards forum, (John is doing an excellent job on his one, at irishpokerboards.com ATM, check it out). Tony 'Flushdraw' Baitson asked the following question...
What is your poker expectation from 2008?
I answered, "Because the variance is so much in MTTs,i wouldn't be surprised if I didn't have any results that register for all of 2008 on the Hendonmob database. On the other hand I wouldn't be surprised to have ten results on it for the year. That's the nature/reality of being a live tournament player".
When I did my poker accounts at the end of the year it showed around €20,000 in profit. The only reason it was in profit was Boylepoker.com were picking up the tab for most of my tournament entries.
As my poker expenses over the year would have been close enough to €20k. The bottom line is a bad losing year relative to my buy-ins, but not on my pocket.
This isn't the first time I've had a losing year playing live MTT's, 2006 was similar but well offset back then by online profits.
The past two years I'm more of a recreational online player, playing just some of the big Sunday tournaments if I'm at home, or the odd tournament during the week. I did have a decent enough year punting golf, which always helps.
Looking towards 2011, I'm confident, if I keep playing like I have since June, it's only a matter of time before I click again. I do intend to play more online over the coming year.
I've never been much of an online MTT grinder but my intentions are to get stuck into them this year and see how it goes.
I kind of fell out of love with playing online, but I can feel a real zest for playing building in me recently. I even bought a new desktop and installed hold'em manager this week, in preparation.
Anyway, I hope people have enjoyed reading the blog for the year gone. Have a great 2011.
