New Year's Goals and Updates

My apologies for not updating in over a month. The reason I haven't updated is because I had really been unsure where my future in poker was headed this year. I will explain; I was in talks briefly with a friend and professional poker player that I admire quite a bit. He is a small stakes player who averages between $5000 to $10,000 a month. I had offered him a profit sharing deal where he would earn a generous supplement to his poker income. This would have been a very time consuming relationship between coach and student. However, due to time constraints on his side we decided against it. So I have adjusted my goals for the year accordingly. One change I made after a brief conversation with him was switching back to Full Ring instead of 6 Max.

I also purchased a discounted version of Hold Em Manager from Stoxpoker. I have no idea what has been my hold up. This may end up being one of the very best investments I have ever made in my poker career. Just being able to look at the numbers and now I am learning to make sense of all these numbers. Although, I will admit, I am just barely scratching the surface. I have so much more to learn.

So here are my goals for the 2008 and my projections for my bankroll through the year:

January -- playing $20NL
$200 (starting bankroll)
$100 (5 buy in win)
$100 (from Rakeback)
$400 -- Total Bankroll at the end of the month

February -- $20NL
$400 (starting bankroll)
$100 (5 buy in win)
$100 (from Rakeback)
$600 -- Total Bankroll at the end of the month

March -- $20NL
$600 (starting bankroll)
$100 (5 buyin win)
$100 (from Rakeback)
$800 -- Total Bankroll at the end of the month

April -- $20NL
$800 (starting bankroll)
$100 (5 buy in win)
$100 (from Rakeback)
$1000 -- Total Bankroll at the end of the month

May -- $20NL
$1000 (starting bankroll)
$100 (5 buy in win)
$100 (from Rakeback)
$1200 -- Total Bankroll at the end of the month

June -- $20NL
$1200 (starting bankroll)
$100 (5 buy in win)
$100 (from Rakeback)
$1400 -- Total Bankroll at the end of the month

July -- $20NL
$1400 (starting bankroll)
$100 (5 buy in win)
$100 (from Rakeback)
$1600 -- Total Bankroll at the end of the month

Once I cross the $1500 mark with my bankroll I will take a shot at $50NL because I will then have at least 30 buy ins for that limit. Before stepping up to higher limits beyond $50NL, I will seriously consider having 40 buy ins or more.

The rest of this projection is assuming that I can continue to beat $50NL at the same rate as previously projected with $20NL.

August -- $50NL
$1600 (starting Bankroll)
$250 (5 buy in win)
$250 (Rakeback)
$2100 -- Total Bankroll at the end of the month

September -- $50NL
$2100 (starting bankroll)
$250 (5 buy in win)
$250 (Rakeback)
$2600 -- Total Bankroll at the end of the month

October -- $50NL
$2600 (starting bankroll)
$250 (5 buy in win)
$250 (Rakeback)
$3100 -- Total Bankroll at the end of the month

This is where further discretion will come in. My biggest goal is to take shots at $100NL by the end of 2009. November and December, may be used to make up my goals if my bankroll is not up to at least $3000 or in this instance we will assume that I use the remaining two months to build my bankroll at $50NL.

November -- $50NL
$3100 (starting bankroll)
$250 (5 buy in win)
$250 (Rakeback)
$3600 -- Total Bankroll at the end of the month

December -- $50NL (at some point this month will also take my first shot at $100NL)
$3600 (starting bankroll)
$250 (5 buy in win)
$250 (5 buy in win)
$4100 -- Total Bankroll at the end of the month

This is obviously just a projection. In a lot of ways this is a very conservative plan. I should be able to at some point learn to beat my limits for more than 5 Buy Ins. However, the single biggest challenge may been that I haven't been a winning player very long if at all. So it will be interesting to see how the next 3 months shape up and if I can maintain this track. Another factor that makes this plan very conservative is that I am not using BB/100 goals or X number of hands per month goals. This is for two reasons, the first is that I don't have a problem averaging at least 2 hours a day playing poker and on the weekends I can play much more up to 6 or 8 hours a day. So if am at least a winning player and not on tilt I can simply play more to hopefully help me hit my goals. Second, I have not had Hold Em Manager long enough to know what my current BB/100 or monthly hand totals are.

So far this month I have won $100. The first ten days or so I was only up about $27. Today I seem to have run well and my bankroll has just tipped over the $300 mark. However, I'm only at about $50 in Rakeback. The good news is I have 2 weeks to go. So lets up my bankroll continues to hold up. Maybe I can start out ahead of plan the first month that would be great.

Thanks for reading,
Brandon Mark