2010 Goals.

so 12 days into the new year, its time to set some goals that I feel are attainable with hard work. None of these goals are going to come easy, and I'm going to have to bust my ass to acheive them, but I feel they are all there for the taking.

1. Make 100K playing poker online. While money goals are not always the best thing to set, I feel that is more of a short term thing. Setting monthly or weekly goals can be a very disheartening thing if you run into a bad bout of variance, and so a yearly money goal (while still not the best way to judge your worth in the game) is more suitable and allows for swings both up and down.

2. Do not have a losing month. This kind of falls into the last goal as variance is tough to account for, but if a month is winding up to be a loser, that will just mean I need to put more hours in towards the end of the month. More hours = more results.

3. within 1 month, move to the $12 180-mans, and within 3 months move to the $36 180-mans. More money in the pot = more money to be won. Bigger games = bigger scores. As long as I continue to play the game at the highest level, goal number 1 should fall.

4. Begin mixing MTT's into my game. These are the big money makers of the poker world. While making a living from these requires an extreme amount of patience (hundreds of loses can be offset by one big score, variance is much much higher than in the 180 man tournaments, and you can often play for 6-8 hours without making a single dollar) playing these often but not as a primary source of income is key. The 180-mans will continue to be my money maker, the MTT's will fall into the side of extra income.

5. Play 25,000 games this year. Posting yearly game goals is a lot better way of judging yourself than a yearly monetary goal. Why? Because when you attain and keep a certain Return on Investment for every game that you play, playing a certain set number of games will net a certain set amount of profit. 25,000 games is a little over 2,000 per month. A lofty goal for sure, but as each month passes, it will become easier and easier.

6. And this is why. Goal six is to increase my number of tables played from 9 to 24 at a time. This is a big jump, and I'm going to allow myself 6 months to get it done. 9 tables is comfortable now because they fit well on my beautiful 23 inch monitor, but changes that I hope to make in the near future will help increase the number of tables I can play.

7. Improve my poker setup. Nothing in particular wrong with my current setup, but there are some improvements that need to be made. I'm entering my fourth year with my current computer, and the 1GB memory and 250GB hard drive, plus a fairly slow graphics card just isn't going to cut it soon. Upgradng my computer to something with dual or even quad graphics card capabilities will be key to increasing my multi tabling options. For each graphics card, i can add another monitor to the setup. By the end of the year, I would like to upgrade to two 30 inch monitors, which will provide more than enough space for 24 games at a time. My computer desk and chair will also need to be upgrade to provide the maximum in long hours comfort.

8. My final and most important goal will be to get this to the point where I am playing full time and no longer need a second source of income. This is a little tougher for me than most of Nick's studnets as I have a wife, children, and a mortgage. These things require a consistent source of income, something I am positive I can get from the game, but I will need to show a continued 3-6 month life supporting profit before I can transition to making this a full time job. By the end of December 2010. I will be at that point.

I also want to add that I want to keep updating the blog reguarly, not just with poker content, but with my thoughts about the world and life in general. I have a few posts that I'm drawing up that I hope you all will like, including a recap of last season's survivor, including why Russel couldn't win and why he looked so downtrodden at the final council. I also want to go into detail about the UIEGA, why it was so dastardly to begin with, and why, once congress realizes just how wrong the law was and repeals it, that another poker boom as big or bigger than 2003 will be coming. When that day comes, us that have transitioned into professional play will all be making a ton of money. So keep checking back, I have a lot in store for 2010.