I"ve already sussed the changes I"m going to make to my poker for the next 12 months, so rather than leave it until the last day of the year, I"d thought I"d place this on record whilst its fresh in my mind. The improvements I have in mind chiefly centre around improving my poker playing discipline so here goes:
1) At the moment, I currently keep a running profit/loss each week, then when I finish each saturday night,add the weekly total to a total for the year to date. I set myself the target of trying to be in profit for each seven day period. This seems to have been successful in getting me to concetrate on areas when I can make a steady profit. However, in practise this means I"ve almost cut out playing tournaments and I don"t think this helps maximise my potential upside. Therefore, in 2009 I will set myself the target of being in profit each month rather than each week. I think this will allow me a greater degree of flexibility to play MTTs and have more shots at a single big payday, but retain the discipline I"ve introduced in recent months.
2) I have noticed that playing whilst fatigued has a huge influence on my bottom line. Therefore, I will not play whilst off work sick or start any SNG or cash table after 11pm. I"m sure this will put me at least a couple of hundred dollars a year further into profit.
3) When playing I will not check my emails or send messages to friends on Facebook.
4) I will probably play less hours but try to have greater focus when I am on the tables.
5) Completely unconnected with my profit or loss, but at the moment I"m not sure how long I"ll keep writing this blog for. I"m already writing another one on the website of a local newspaper and as mentioned in a couple of recent entries, am starting a short writing course in a few weeks. For at least the duration of the course, I will have a crack at trying to do some proper writing, so I"m not sure how much time I"ll have for playing poker. Something will have to give and at the moment I"m not sure what.
