2009 is coming to an end ... but there's still something left

My poker year 2009 is almost over ... just the big finale that weekend is still around the corner. Good time for a short look back to the last 12 months.

This is by the way my 400th blog post. This year wasn't my heaviest year in blogging. In fact it was my lowest with only 65 entries. My top year was 2007 with 102 blog posts. Maybe I blogged less because I was less successfull...?

Pokerwise this was a horrible year so far. In 2008 I had a huge race in the last quarter with three big finishes. But I wasn't able to keep the pace in 2009. With some small and only two big cashes (St. Poelten and Rozvadov) this was a very dissapointing year. Especially my trip to the WSOP and play at the Venetian had much space for improvement. Unfortunately in most cases there wasn't much I could have done different ... I just was running super dry on cards for a very very long time this year.

There's only one outcome in 2009 tournament that I really regret and that still creeps through my head from time to time. That's the "just-shy-of-the-money" finish in February at the Deepstack Event in Dublin. In three crucial decisions I made one (laying down AK vs. an all-in) which I still would play the same way in a similar situation followed by two more hands which I had played absolutely horrible. Those two finally resultet in my too early exit. After coming back from a short-stack early on Day 2 I had blown a huge opportunity just a few hours later.

I had started again with cash games on a very low level during the WSOP 2009 and was running quite good in the beginning. Unfortunately my dry ran swept over to the cashgames too - resulting in some heartbreaking losses recently.

But there's always hope. And although I didn't cash in my last tournaments either - they ran so much better than all the tournaments before in the last 6 months. Hope for the coming weekend. I'm really looking forward to that: The Poker-King Weekend with a slow 40 min. structure and 20k startingstack. So far 85 are registered but they will without doubt sell out at 100 players plus waitlist. A 20k prizepool for the best 12% sound very good just before christmas.

For 2010 there's so much more poker to play. Not sure about my whole schedule but there are two trips that I want to do if possible in any way. The first is another trip to the Deepstacks Championships to Dublin (February). Not only because this is an event with an extraordinay great structure but also because it's time to end my nightmare from 2009. The other trip is of course a vacation with much poker in Las Vegas during the WSOP. Not necessarily for a WSOP event but for the atmosphere and more Venetian Deepstacks. If I had to choose ... those would be the two I would take over anything else. And if I would have to miss one of those two I would be very sad.

There are other options that might show up which I can't talk about right now. But as soon I can tell someting about that you will read it here first.

Mike Matusow writes in his book "Check-Raising the Devil" that real poker players don't make "New Years Resolutions" ... they make "End of World Series Resolutions". I really like that idea. But still this is the time to reflect the year and it's time to make peace with the year. So my resolution is not to look back in anger at 2009. I stil had a lot of fun and learned a lot things. It wasn't a winning year but it wasn't a lost year either.

What ever happens this coming weekend I will enjoy my last big tournament of 2009 as long as it lasts. Hope you join me on that last trip too.