With only a few hours left in the year and no plans to play cards tonight, I think it is safe to calculate my totals for the year and see how I did in poker.
My goal for the year was to play at least 150 hours of poker and earn an hourly rate of $17, which would have resulted in approximately $2,500 in profit. Of that I was hoping to have built up a poker bankroll of about $1,500. The good news is I met one of my yearly goals and the bad news is it wasn't the monetary one. I was able to log 164.5 hours of play, but my hourly rate was only $5.59. Excluding the one year I lost money, this is my lowest hourly rate ever since starting to keep details statistics.
Despite not meeting my financial goals, I did finish with a profitable year. I won a total of $920, which is not a very good considering my peak was $2,165 in profit after five months of play. I also lost a lot in the final stretch of the last five months of play, so my bankroll is non-existent.
As for the upcoming 2019, I would like to again have the same goals as I did for 2018: 150 hours of play, $17 hourly rate, $2,500 in profits, and a bankroll of $1,500. However, I probably need to add an additional goal that isn't something calculated in an Excel spreadsheet. The final goal I have for 2019 is in regard to my mental game. I need to keep my emotions in check, whether I win or lose. Poker isn't a single game. It is a marathon of games that culminates in getting better, not just from a strategic point of view, but also a mental one and emotional one. In addition to the financial goals, I want to take the wins and losses in stride.
Coming up on Saturday I have my year-end tournament with the Weatherford group. In years past I have had a starting chip stack of $4,150 and $6,800. This year's starting stack is in the middle at $6,025, which makes me third in chips and above the average chip count of $5,100. There are a total of 13 players and the possible draw I will have for tables includes Darrell (chip leader), Randall, Mark T., Dennis W., Andy, and Wes.
I don't plan to change up my tournament strategy too much for this tournament. I will probably be patient while the blinds are small and once we combine to a single table of nine and the blinds have increased to a significant amount that it is worth trying to steal some pots I will open it up a bit.
The past two years I've finished ninth and eighth. I'm hoping Saturday ends with a much better finish than those.
