Disapointed or Happy with what you have accompished for 2008?

[Invigilator]

Work: an obvious downward slope that SPIKED HARD right at the end of the year

Poker: Had to drop down a level for cash games due to various purchases, and have not played much since September due to work, but I made a number of FT's, including one on New Years Day. Also can't forget that Wes helped me live the dream by staking me into a WSOP event (my first trip to Vegas). On the same trip I won the day tournament at Binion's. Gotta say I am okay with things at this point.

Personal: Lost a bit of weight, ran my first 5k, 10k and 20 mile races. missed my first 1/2 marathon, completed 3 sprint triathlons. Got my blackbelt in Yoshinkan Aikido. Returned with vigour to my spiritual pursuits. Family is healthy and everyone loves each other.

Overall Analysis: BIG TIME WIN!!!!!!!!!!!

[PShabi]

Oh boy....DISAPPOINTED is not strong enough. I started playing midway through '03 and profited around $3k. In '04, I tripled that. In '05, I had my best year profitting around $13k. I moved out here at the end of '06 and my career outside of poker became abundantly more important to me. I still squeaked out $6k. In '07, I played very little. I wasn't motivated at all and my abilitiy compared to the ability of my opponents wasn't as good as it used to be. The games got much tougher. Still, I was able to profit a little bit. I made around $3500 (w/o digging up my tax records).

Fast forward to '08 and my poker career is basically dead. I barely play. I go 2-3 weeks w/o sitting down for a session. When I do, I seemingly log a losing session everytime. the games are so much tougher than they used to be. I do absolutely nothing to improve my game. I have no motivation to play. I just looked at my records, honestly, for the first time as a whole for '08. You guys ready for my staggering numbers?????

-$345.

Yep. I lost $345 this year. What a fucking joke. I figured I was right around break even. What used to be a passion, is damn near nothing to me. Now, if I was still able to make money like I used to, maybe I'd be more motivated to play. Who knows? The fact is I don't care about poker. A 3 month downswing for me today would've been two weeks worth of hands a few years ago. When you aren't playing many hands and you are losing when you do play, it's a bitch.

I look back at my "career" and realize that it was a substantial amount of money for a "hobby." I'm happy with that. I wish I could still do what I used to, but I'm afraid poker has passed me by. In my passion to play and learn, but also my ability compared to those I compete with.

Recently, I cashed out to pay for Christmas. My FTP account has $380 in it right now. I'll fuck around with that, probably playing $1/2 LHE (lol, oh fuck) and see if I can flip it into something substantial. If not, I'll still be around for the community and friendship but other than that, bye bye poker.

[Penguinfan]

Wow, Pshabi. That post is a real downer.

Good luck, whatever happens.

[Robbie Robb]

I can sorta echo what Shabi's saying too. The past few months I've played almost zero poker. MAYBE a few SNGs a week. RL has just sorta swooped in and grabbed up spare time. Well...that and playing at Conquer Club - a Risk like website. (Shameless plug: If you like the game of Risk check it out . *referral link - gets me an extra month if you sign up for the premium membership @ $25))

Poker-wise: I didn't grow my game nearly anywhere close to what I was hoping to do. But I'm okay with that. Thus far my exploration in the world of internet poker has been profitable and bought us quite a few nice toys. I'm good.

Work-wise: Well, got a promotion in November so that kicked-ass. Technically, it's a "seasonal" promotion that ends in January but there's been no mention of me moving back to my former position at that point yet so I'm keeping my fingers crossed there.

Life-wise. Fuckin' A! Ryan was born. 'Nuff said.

Overall: A+++ Would do over again!!!!

[Spidey44]

2008 was a pretty good year for me. Definitely had its ups and downs.

Family is great...great wife and two sweet little girls (sweet MOST of the time )

Work is work... I got laid off the beginning of September, but somehow managed to get my job back AND get a normal schedule AND get to work from home Mondays and Fridays. Definitely not really want I want to do when I grow up (even though I'm coming up on 11 years wow), but it pays pretty well and I'm going to grad school in the spring and they pay for it...nice!

Poker...just haven't had much time for it. Passion is there, but time is not. During football season, I pretty much put it on complete hold. I've only sat at a couple SNGs since it ended, but definitely looking forward to playing more in 2009.

Football...Pretty good, but we'll see if I get promoted in the off season. Really hope I do, or else I'll probably hang up the official stripes. I did work my first NCAA playoff game and that was VERY cool.

Hope everyone has a GREAT 2009.

[thadeas1]

My 2008 and 2007 for that matter has been a utter car-crash.

It started in Jan 2007, previous to this I was living in a Caravan (americans would call me trailer trash), it was a very nice and very expensive caravan though, on a excellent park which had all the modern facilities for owners, we had a indoor swimming pool with spa and steam room, we had a massive club/pub house with excellent entertainment at weekends, but as uk law says you have to move out for 8 weeks every year so on jan 7th 2007 I did move out.

I rented a room from friends of my best mate, he lived there as well, it was only going to be for the 8 weeks and then i'm back to my caravan (trailer) but on the 13th of Jan I literally did have a car-crash, I was crossing traffic and some boy racer smashed into the side of my car, he admitted to me he wasn't watching the road as he was texting on his phone, obviously he forgot to mention that to the police though. I only had third party insurance and was blammed for the accident as I crossed traffic, my car was a complete mess and no payout from insurance so that was £7000 down the drain plus I got banned from driving for 6 months for careless driving.

Since that my financial situation changed dramatically and I ended up missing acouple payments on the finance for the caravan and loseing it completely so I stayed where I was with no home of my own and no car, fast forward to the end of 2007 and my resolutions were to rectify the situation for 2008, I was going to move out of the lodgings and find a nice flat/apartment, since my driving ban would have finished I would also try to find a nice used car (finance wasn't finished on the previous smashed up one).

now its the end of 2008 and have I moved? err no, do I have a nice used car? err no, but the one I do have is deffinately used.

So in 2009 will I get stuff done? Well I'm very optimistic as the finance for the car which I smashed up finishes in march and I can then take out new finance on a brand new one so that is something. And I will definately be moving as I need my own space, it doesn't matter how small it is as long as it's mine.

Now we get to poker. I've played online for alittle over two years and if i'm honest they are loseing years, i'm a eurodonk and can play on almost any site I want to, this is a hinderance and not a plus, I have accounts on all the major sites and most of the minor ones, I switch my money between them and as a result if im running bad I lose money on them all, combine this with the fact that I like a few beers (i'm not a alchoholic but if i'm honest I probably aint that far away from being one), alchohol and gambling is not a good combination. I've lost money and tilt hugely, I cant stick to one type of game and rarely work on improving my game even though I have invested in books and tools to improve it.

So for 2009 will this change? again i'm optimistic, all those books and stuff that i've invested money in to help improve my game I actually am going to read/use, I plan on taking the first 3 months of the year away from the tables and just study the material I got and we will see what happens, at the very least I'm gonna save my self 3 months of deposits (if I stick to my plan lol).

I'm hopeing 2009 will be a very busy but prosperous year for me but you never know whats around the corner, whatever happens I would like to wish anyone who has actually read though this dribble a happy and prosperous new year.

thadeas.

[PShabi]

Then for the love of god DO NOT READ Thadeas's post above this one!

[thadeas1]

lol, whilst it's been a rough time the last couple years i'm sure i'll turn it around, i've been through worse and i'm still standing, what doesn't kill us makes us stronger right?

On a good point, I have a fantastic and beautiful 10 year old daughter who is the reason I get through most days and I wouldn't part with her for all the money in the world. When taking the good with the bad the good always shines through.

[lightfungus]

Poker: Absolutely not what I wanted. I haven't played live poker in forever having moved to a new location and not being around enough to find a steady game. Online I have stunk, and lost this year.

On the positive side, the wife is pregnant (new news) and I am moving with the job, to California. At least I can look forward to some good ole B&M poker in my future.

Here's to '09.

[melioris]

Holy Shit fungus, congratulations!!!!! Start a thread and tell us when she is due and all that.

And moving to CA from NH? Are you somewhere in NH right now? Manch-vegas or something? Where in CA are you moving to?