2025 In Review

Thus far my play in 2026 has started out in the pits, so my mood to talk about what happened in 2025 is a little tainted. While the end results were another positive year and I ended up making more than $20 per hour, I feel I could have done better.

I started out pretty hot with a trip to Las Vegas last January with Joanna and the Veceras. After playing five different sessions at the Horseshoe Casino, I ended up leaving town up $845. Only five days into the year and I was on one of the fastest starts to a winning year I've ever had.

I then went into what is probably the worst losing streak I've ever had. At my lowest low, I turned that $850 profit into a a loss of $400 by the end of February. Luckily, I had a great night in Weatherford that turned that around and I never looked back.

In just one month I went from down $390 to up $1,220. And there really wasn't a win larger than $500 in that timespan. During the month of April I then bounced up and down and ended up at nearly the same spot, up $1,095.

At the very end of May I broke the $2,000 profit mark and finished up $2,440. And by June I had broken the $3,000 mark.

In July, August, and September I had some wins and losses that kept me right around the $3,000 profit point. It wasn't until October that I was able to finally hit $4,000 in profit. However, that didn't last and I dopped back down to $3,000+ in November.

I finished the year in December with some good wins and ended up with a total of $4,600 in profit. I played a total of 219.75 hours and my hourly total was $20.93. My largest win in a single session was $765, played in Weatherford, and my largest loss was $600, which was at WinStar.

Since 2022, I have started profiting at a higher rate than I had for the decade before that. From 2009-2021 I averaged an hourly rate of $10. However, in the last four years, I have averaged $20 per hour or higher. This is mostly due to making more calls and bluffing at a more frequent rate. I was a very tight, aggressive player and since becoming a little looser, but less aggressive, I have pretty much doubled my hourly rate. My best year was 2022, where I profited $6,150 and averaged $33.65 per hour.

I'm still working to find the right balance of aggression, tight play, and mathematically correct decisions that will optimize my hourly rate. I've challenged myself to implement some new strategies and after only a couple of games it has not worked out well. I will post next week about some hands that haven't gone the way I'd hoped, but poker isn't a grouping of multiple sessions, but one long game. Even if I am losing now, I have to keep plugging away and believe it is going to turn around for the better.

I've got my year-end tournament coming up in a week and that could result in a very big win if I can pull off the victory. I won it all in 2019 and hope this year is when I get my name on the plaque for a second time. As I prepare for the tournament I will make a post of where everyone stands in chip counts and what my odds are. With only 10 players making the freeroll tournament, I feel confident I will at least make the money.