I think I’m going to wrap this one up for the year. Having set some achievable goals at the start of the year, I’ve not quite reached any of them (!), but I did at least deliver a small profit of $4k over the past twelve months and doubled my bankroll at an average of around $7 an hour.

There have been some plus points this year for sure. April and May were really strong months in terms of discipline and I’m a lot happier with my understanding of pre-flop poker and abusing positional power much better than previously. I also continue to love all aspects of playing poker, even during the bad times, and I doubt there will come a time when this game isn’t at least some part of my life as long as I can continue to be a small winner.

Clearly there have been a lot of negatives too, which I need to take full responsibility for. I’ve focussed so much on volume this past year that I’ve undertaken practically zero study in terms of both the technical and mental aspects of the game, which is disappointing given I set out at the start of the year to really get hold of my tilt/discipline issues. It really is painful to think about just how much I’ve donated to the rest of the poker community during the year and there is not an hour of play that goes by where I don’t make at least one $5-$25 mistake where I think to myself “this is a pretty clear fold” before finding myself clicking call or raise. Jared Tendler will say that these issues are partly as a result of not having reached unconscious competence in my technical knowledge and he would be absolutely right. In short, much more work was needed in 2013 and I just didn’t do it.

Going into 2014 though, I’m feeling very positive about poker. I’ve seen nothing this year to suggest that the games aren’t beatable for a reasonable hourly as long as I’m willing to put a lot more effort into fixing my issues. Everybody is constantly making huge mistakes at 25nl/50nl and an hourly rate of $15-$30 is more than doable with rakeback, which is pretty good if you live in an area where gambling profit is tax-free like it is in the UK. Even if I don’t hit those kinds of rates, at least I can still enjoy playing the game and the huge personal challenge it provides.

Happy holidays all.