2007 the Year in Review

So just over a year ago I stumbled on Texas Hold 'Em. From just a tiny tike I had long longed to play poker. I loved the concept of gauging where I stood without seeing their cards. Of course, I never got to play. So when I found a place to play for free (poker stars) I went nuts. It was awesome. Not too long after I started playing in live tournaments.

Over the course of the year I ended up playing in over 70 tournaments. They ranged in numbers from as few as 5 to as many as 90 people. My finishes ranged from win to 2nd person out.

Early in the year I played way too many hands and, as is normal for people who play too many hands...I hit a lot of them. Late in the year I played way too many hands...but this time I knew I was playing too many hands and gave up a lot of winning hands between the time I should have folded them...i.e. pre-flop...and the time they would have won...the river...because I only hit part of them in between and someone bet.

In the middle of the year I hit my best playing style which involves a sliding scale number of hands. In that stretch I won tournaments left and right, my reads were awesome and I felt I could win whenever I wanted. Then, for whatever reason, I started screwing around with it, got worse, and never got it back. Worse, my reads got lazy to the point where as often as not I don't bother with them at all anymore.

With that said, looking back, here are some numbers to crunch:

I won 12 tournaments.
I finished second 7 times.
I finished third 8 times.
I finished fourth 10 times.
I finished fifth 7 times.
I finished 6th 2 times.
I finished 7th 4 times.
I finished 8th 7 times.
I finished 9th twice.
I finished 11th once (the first major tournament I played).
I finished worse than that about 10 times...it is not completely clear the exact number because there were several times I did not finish the tournament because I was running it, a few times where my results book was not clear.

So of 70 tournaments I KNOW the results for, I finished as follows:
First 17% of the time
Second 10% of the time
In other words, I reached heads up over 25% of the tournaments, and that includes an awful lot of tournaments I did not take very seriously

Third 11%
Fourth 14% of the time

Or, in other words, over 52% of the time I was top 4.
Of course, 14%+ of the time, I finished lower than final table.

In the two largest tournaments, one of 88 and the other just over 90, I finished 11th and 8th. The 11th place I had only been playing for a month or two and do not believe I could have done much better. I played pretty much over my head in that one. Ironically, Emily, who I had taught less than a month prior, outlasted me and could have done even better than she did. She keyed in on the key principles...play good cards, play them strong, don't get involved in big hands unless you are relatively sure...and did awesome.

The second tournament I could have done better. I had the chip lead not too long before final table, but for reasons that will not be discussed here, I wished to finish worse than 8th. I was unable to meet my objective, though I did bleed off almost all my chips before that point. I think I could have finished anywhere from 1st to 4th if I had continued playing my best game. So big fields (relatively speaking) do not drastically alter my finishes.

Here is the scary part: despite being in the final 2 over half the time, I actually believe I am a better player than my results show. There were a lot of tournaments where I wanted to "see where I was at", would build a chip lead, then would give it all away intentionally since I knew where I was...on top of my game, able to play with anyone.

There are only two tournaments I was disappointed with my performance. They were both Oregon Trail Poker related, the first at Lydias, the second at West Linn. Both times my day was crushed by donkeys.

The Lydias one, I was a prohibitive favorite (21-2) to double up. However, he hit his 2-outer on the river and I was the second player out. I do not regret my play. I had a strong hand, played it aggressively, and someone made a superstitious call that paid off. I got in far and away with the best of it, the wrong card flipped, and that is why it is not completely a game of skill. The inferior player ended up with the chips and I do not apologize for so saying. I have played that individual many times since then and the numbers pretty clearly show which of us knows what they are doing and which of us just gets lucky sometimes...though, to be honest, I never see him get far at the final table, so even saying he gets lucky is stretching a point.

At the second one, the hand that must still have me on tilt or something, my flopped set got run down after heavy, heavy betting by a hand that needed runner-runner to hit the ignorant end of a straight. While my read was so on that I laid down my set on a flop where the only hand he could have held that beat me was a ridiculous 7/9 on a flop of A/Q/8, it crippled me and kept me from ever being able to play during the entire tournament. It was all-in or fold, and that is just "get lucky" poker, no skill required. So though I outlasted the guy who donkeyed my chips to him, I never had a chance in that tournament and that disappointed me.

I say I regret my performance...but I do not know what else I could have done. I raised strong pre-flop, I raised and De re-raised the flop, I raised the turn...and not until the turn did he have a gut shot straight draw...so I do not know how I could have gotten him off the hand...and, to be honest, I am not sure I should have. I was value betting him up to that point, even though I was pricing people on draws off of the hand if they understood pot odds...though I suppose one could argue they had implied odds in their favor, though neither had the chips to play based on that...so I will argue I also played this hand correctly...much to my detriment.

Be that as it may, looking back I am pleased with my development. As with most things, once I reach a point where I have essentially mastered it, I am pretty much done with the game. I will still play from time to time, but much like my movie regimen...the numbers will be in serious decline. It was a pretty good poker year. Now I am ready for the next project.