Starting the Year With A Whimper

$mokkee has a good post up today, on the benefits of being able to take beats philosophically. I'm reminded of the spot in yesterday's WSOP final table replay over at E$PN wherein Scott Montgomery's tournament ended on a river one outer. Even walking away with a couple of million dollars, I think there's a fair chance I'd be beside myself with tilt losing one or two payout levels to a one outer. I have to admire the ability of that crowd to take such a sick sick sick beat in such a quiet cool manner.

Anyway, yesterday being New Years Day, I managed to do a bit of the last thing I thought I would get to do. And by that, I of course mean donking around some online poker for a bit. The Good Doctor Mondo was hitting up a sale, so I decided to hit up some bankroll abusive $1/2 Limit Omaha Hi-Lo. Okay, it's probably not too far above my roll to play at that limit. But I'm a bit thin online these days, so it wasn't smart. And two-tabling a high-variance game was even less smart. And seeing 42% of flops was beyond less smart.

Actually, if the deck hadn't turned two scoops into chops on the river, I'd have ended up playing very nearly Waffles' style of breakeven poker. But those scoops did turn into chops, and I ended up leaving behind virtually half of what I brought to the table. I should know better.

I only played ring games because I didn't know how much time I was going to be able to play, so MTTs were definitely out. I suppose I could have played some 45-man SNGs, but those just don't appeal to me. The 180-man SNGs were out. Now if I'd have been paying attention, I would have picked up on on the new PokerStars 90-man SNGs. That would have been just about perfect. Next time, next time.

At any rate, it's the new year, and time to think of some possible goals. I was going back to see how I did in 2008 versus my goals, when I realized that my goals were far more writing-oriented than poker-oriented. The one thing I'm proud of is that for the first time, I've actually put time and effort into blogging on a regular basis. Not blogging well, mind you, but blogging often.

Nevertheless, 2008 was my best year in poker ever -- which is more a testament to my career mediocrity than anything else. But I made it through the year without having to reload on a single site, and I even managed to cash in the Caesar's Deep Stack series last summer. I managed to take down a few MTTs, but none of any real consequence. But that was another barrier broken. So I'll try to come up with a couple of targets for the coming year.

In the meantime, I need to get off my ass and write that CD review of The Parties that promised for Hybrid Magazine. So get to it, Mondo, and quit wasting time playing omatard above your roll.