Focused on 2008
Posted: 2008-01-08 15:52:06By: KrazyKanuck
I have very mixed feelings about 2007 in many regards. The year certainly had it's ups and downs. Most of all it was a learning experience. Everything from poker, to life to arranging priorities. 2007 carried valuable lessons that if learned from will launch 2008 to be one of my best years ever.
Coming out of 2006 I was on a real high for my tournament poker game. I was on a string of very deep finishes and had a number of cashes to my credit. I had learned a valuable lesson after the 2006 World Series of Poker when I came home sick, exhausted and utterly drained. I felt awful and probably wasn't at my sharpest by the closing weeks of the WSOP 2006. I decided to try and get in better shape for many reasons including being in better physical condition to go into the 2007 WSOP. Over the year, with things getting in line starting in January of 2007 I started working out more and paying a lot closer attention to what I was eating in the effort to get into better shape. For the most part, that worked as I went into the 2007 WSOP about 22 lbs lighter than the previous year and in a lot better shape. I was also coming off of a number of successful road trips with some great finishes to my credit. One of my last poker tournament stops before the 2007 WSOP was the WPT's $25 000.00 main event at the Bellagio. I played in 3 tournaments while I was there and cashed in all 3 events including the $25 000 main event where I got a 16th place finish and a pretty good 6 figure pay day. So close to that 4 million I could taste it. Unfortunately on day 5 I went horrifically card dead and couldn't get anything going. All I could do was survive until I busted out in 16th place. But, I was riding a high, 3 straight cashes, 3 deep finishes and I was extremely happy with my game. I felt that going into the 2007 WSOP I was riding a great wave and was looking forward to a great and successful series. Fate dealt me some curve balls though just before the 2007 WSOP started. Big personal changes were happening and I developed a wicked case of pneumonia the week before I left for the WSOP. I was a week late arriving and didn't really have my doctor's blessing to go yet, which in hindsight was really dumb of me to ignore it. I arrived in vegas, started to play right away but was feeling awful for the first 3-4 weeks that I was at the Series. Between everything that was happening in my life, to being completely knocked down by pneumonia I had my worst WSOP in 5 years. The only games I had success in was the single table satellites while there and I actually didn't cash in any of the events I played in. 2 harsh lessons were learned while there, you can't play your best game when your thoughts are being directed elsewhere and you most certainly can't play your best game if your not healthy. In hindsight, I should have skipped the first 3 weeks of the series and got myself organized and in better health. I took 6 weeks off of travelling after the WSOP to get my life, thoughts and game in order and it was a very welcomed break.
Over the course of the year though, I did get to travel quite extensively and really had some amazing experiences. 2007 started off with being one of the instructors at a Playboy Poker Fantasy camp held in Palm Springs in January 2007. Chris Moneymaker, Antonio Esfandiari, Phil Lack, David Williams and myself were the fantasy camps instructors and over 4 days we all, including the campers had an amazing time. The camp itself was a lot of fun and the night time parties were over the top. Anytime you have Antonio, Phil and Williams in the mix, you know there's going to be some serious partying going on. After 2 days of that I wished I was 10 years younger to keep up with those guys. The final night's party was held at the Playboy Mansion and that in itself was quite an experience. The unfortunate part for me was that I was so exhausted and sick of drinking that I took it easy that night figuring I was ready to keel over and die if I had another ounce of alcohol. All and all, it was an amazing time and one hell of a memorable experience.
I travelled to LA, Palm Springs, Phoenix, Atlantic City, Tunica, Biloxi, St Maarten, Bahamas, Florida, San Diego, Las Vegas, Turks and Caicos, Arubaaaaaaaaaaaa, Madrid and Barcelona Spain, New York City, Houston, Portland, Vancouver, Montreal, Calgary just to name a few in 2007. I got to travel and stay in some exotic places in 2007 and play the game that I love to make my living. That ain't so hard to take.
My favorite road trip of the year was my 25 day excursion that started in the Turks and Caicos Islands for the WPT event there, then off to Aruba for UB's huge event there hopping from the Turks to Aruba on the private jet that UB had chartered, then it was off to Madrid then Barcelona for another WPT event. I've written about these experiences in previous blogs. The blog about this trip is worth going back to find and read, the Grapa story alone is worth the read. Never again will I have that lemon flavoured Gasoline!!!....omg...(Click here to read)
2007 was about reorganizing my personal life too and setting priorities. First and foremost was making my decisions on travel, career, time etc. based around my 8 year old daughter. Some of my best memories of 2007 have come from experiences with her. I put her in a girls hockey league this year and have a ball getting up to watch her play on Saturday Mornings. She's in soccer, Hockey, piano and choir and all of it I want to see and really regretted the times when I was on the road and missed concerts or games. It is an amazing life to play poker, see exotic places and be on the road meeting people and making money at a game, but NOTHING is as rewarding or exciting as seeing your child participate and having fun in the things they like to do. You can't replace experiences that you've missed and I've realized that to me, the single most important thing in my life is her. 2008's schedule will be made around her schedule ensuring that I don't miss out on any of the important events with her. Even my online play will be changed and refocused in 2008 to ensure top results and minimize my time spent in front of the computer while potentially missing out on other important things in life.
One of the most valuable lessons from 2007 has been that you don't increase your profitability or your quality of life by spending every waking hour in front of the computer playing. What good is making $1000 a day, everyday online if you don't ever see the sunshine or experience life. In reality, you can't keep up that pace anyways without your life, health, friendships and relationships suffering. The reality is that you can play better, sharper and smarter when you have good *balance* in your life. You will be more profitable, and more successful when other parts of your life are happy and fullfilling. I find that when I am satisfied with other areas of my life, when I do sit down and start to play I am sharp, on top of my game and tough to beat. I've realized that you can't play while upset and have learned that walking away and taking breaks are one of the best things for my game. It's about balance, happiness and
fullfillment. What the hell good is a great bankroll if you have no quality of life outside of the game? It is really meaningless. The reality is you can have both, and if you treat life with as much passion as your poker game, you will be successful in both aspects. I've learned that you have to surround yourself with positive people and influences and not negative, opportunistic using people. The relationships that you have in your life directly affect your sharpness in your game. 2008 for me is about relationships, about balance and about success in different areas. Surrounding yourself with good friends and people that care about you is critcal for your quality of life and your ability to focus properly on your game. I don't think anyone can really play their best game when other things in life aren't going smoothly. There's a lot of emotions in poker and minimizing the drama in your life outside of poker will aid you in being sharp. 2007 taught me that developing your friendships and relationships is one of the best ways of keeping balance in your life and staying mentally sharp. 2008 is a back to basics kind of year. Working on poker weaknesses, learning from previous mistakes and being disciplined in your game and not playing based on ego. You don't have to play the biggest stakes to make amazing money in this industry, you just have to play smart and grind out a daily half decent win percentage to be very successful in the long run. For smaller players, you don't have to take down a $2000.00 win in a tournament to make your year, you just have to grind out $50 bucks a day to make over $18 000 profit in a year. People ask me why I usually play $100 to $500 sitngos, well, the answer is very simple, they add up, and they add up fast. In reality, I don't really have to play over a $100 sitngo to make a very good living. My daily goal may not be the most glorious goal like winning the tournament rankings title online, but it is a high goal over the course of the year, and it's based on money made, not status earned. I won't make the mistakes that I made in 2007 where I started to chase some losses in bigger games because of either ego or being on tilt. Sometimes it worked out, sometimes it made matters a lot worse. The reality is, going back to basics, grinding out my daily goals and achieving them helps me play my best games when I step into the tournaments that I like to play. You go into those tournaments with the love of the game as your motive, not the NEED to win. All my tournaments played are paid for from my earnings in my sitngo and ring game play therefore any tournament revenue that I make is a pure bonus. Going back to that mentality was probably one of the best decisions I made in late 2007 and will prove to be one of the most profitable ones for 2008.
2008 is all about new directions, balance and using the lessons learned. I was happy 2007 closed out despite all the great experiences I had. I am very excited about 2008 and am gearing up for the best year ever on all fronts.
Good luck to all and
Knock Em Dead!
Jim *KrazyKanuck* Worth
