Looking back... 2006

2006 was a very big year for me with a lot of changes in my personal life. But since this blog is intended to be mainly poker and some other stuff, I figured I'd do a general review of 2006. But before I get to poker, I do want to throw a few things here. The year started off great. Actually, better than great. Fantastic. Steelers became the first team in the NFL to win 3 straight road playoff games to get to the Superbowl and finally win a Superbowl. Even better, it was in Detroit, the Bus's hometown. I watch the highlight reels from the playoffs and I still get goosebumps. Aaaaah, great year. Couple that with my fantasy football victory (even though I guess that's sooooo 2005) and the year could not have gotten off to a better start. And to think that I got to close out 2006 with another victory in fantasy football (albeit a different league) is great.

In terms of poker, it was a very up and down year with some close calls. One big change for me was actually not in terms of how I play but meeting some new people and finding a group of guys who are probably just as enthusiastic about poker as I am. Around midyear, a friend of mine called me to ask me if I were interested in filling in for this one guy for a one table $25 tournament that they have every week. Generally, I'm not too crazy about SNG's (sit n' go, ie generally, one table tournament) but I thought what the hell. I don't do much on Tuesday nights so I said I would. So I went to this game that I figured was a soft game. Guys play every week but they just play for fun. I've seen it all too many times, didn't expect anything different. Well, I was wrong. It was a very competitive group and even though the skill levels may vary, nobody was a donkey. Far from it. Well, I guess I wasn't too slow or a major donkey so I was invited back after that. It also coincided with the time when couple of the regulars were moving so it naturally opened up a few spots. So, basically, I found a relatively cheap buy-in tournament that is played by guys who take poker pretty seriously. That was a very big deal for me. I've been looking for something like this for a very long time.

I'll save the details for the Tuesday group for another time because they do something interesting so that it becomes an incentive to do better each week as well as showing up to play each week. Well, before I discuss online play, here's the recap of how I did on Tuesdays:
I played in 22 tournaments:
1st place - only once (I suck!)
2nd place - 8 times (ok, apparently, I suck heads up)
Net (only top 2 gets paid) - +$10.
I guess I don't have to claim this for the IRS...

This Tuesday group also had a few "big tournaments" which was a $100 buy in. Generally, there were 14-16 people. I was in 3 of them and didn't cash in any. I think I came in like 5th or 6th in all of them. Oh, except for one. I came in 9th place on a bad beat... Some guy called off the rest of his chips with A-10 against my AK and he took it down. Yeah, I'm still bitter.
Net - ($300)

Online:
Total tournaments played (this includes one table SNG's as well as MTT's - multi table tournaments) = 97
The two notable tournaments I played in would be the $500+35 qualifier for the main event of the WSOP. One, I qualified for by playing certain amount of poker (a lot) and another, I qualified by placing 3rd in a $24+2 buy-in out of 81 players. The first 500+35 qualifier did not go well for me. Out of 3,050 players, I busted out in 2,661. The other one had 786 players and I came in 36th place. I think top 20 qualified for the WSOP and when I busted out, I was in 22nd place in chips... So close.

Total # of tournaments I was "in the money": 31
Highest finish in MTT's = 3rd place
Biggest win = 4th place out of 218 players in a $69+6 tourney = $1,391.60
Next biggest win = 3rd place out of 81 players in a $24+2 tourney = $509.00
Most devastating performance = 184th place out of 185 in a $69+6 tourney
Net of all online tournaments = $630.41

One quick note. Another reason I like FullTilt is because in MTT's, when you make the final table, the skin (ie the background) changes to a "final table" background that you can only get if you make it to the final table. I remember when I first made it, I thought it was the coolest thing. It's very WPT ish. Probably as close to a WPT final table as I will ever get. Once you see that, you do long for more...

Quick hits on cash games online:
Total # of hands played = 45,457 (as of 12/31 morning so this will certainly change)
Total hours played = 707 hrs (this is skewed because when you multitable, I think pokertracker computes the hours for each table. So, if I had 2 tables going for one hour, PT computes that as 2 hrs)
Month where I logged the most hours = July (9,412 hands/150 hrs) and the result? Whopping $7.55. This is a result of multitabling fellas. I can only do 2 tables at a time successfully. I think I was 3-4 tabling here.
Month where I logged the fewest hours = May (those of you that know me well, I guess this may be obvious why (769 hands, 11 hrs)
Interesting enough, the next one was August where I played 2,364 hands for 39 hrs. You think I got burnt out after July? Clearly.
Most devastating month = April (lost $868.50)
Most successful month = June (plus $1,261.70)

This came as a surprise because I know that early in the year, I made a huge run. But then I noticed that I didn't get PT till late January so my January is a little skewed. For personal reasons (ie taxes), I will not be posting the total net from cash games but I will have to report my income on the tax return this year...