2010 Recap, 2011 Goals

2010 was a wild year for me, and now it's over.  If I had thought being a professional poker player would come with a lot of swings, I really had no idea.  The poker itself wasn't all that swingy until the end of the year, but my personal life was just a rollercoaster the entire year.  The highs were amazing and the lows were downright scary, but I ended the year in a pretty good place and I can't complain all that much.

So enough about my personal life, as most of you readers only know me by my online persona.  Here it is, the graph of all the hands I played online in 2010.

Combine that with the ~$115,000 value of Supernova Elite, a bunch of live play/tournaments where I actually ended up losing a good deal of money, and some staking/coaching deals through the year, and I'd consider 2010 poker to be a massive success.  My goal at the beginning of the year was to make $150k, and I definitely achieved it.

It's funny, I was out playing golf with a buddy of mine the other day (who apparently secretly reads my blog... what up Gricius) and he said, "You know, you probably made more than any other Georgia Tech grad from this past year."  While I'm not certain he's correct (there were a lot of incredibly intelligent people who graduated with me, and were looking to go into other fields besides engineering), it's interesting to think about.  Looking back I'm thrilled that I made the choice to pursue poker instead of engineering.  And it's not entirely about the money.  The money is certainly nice, but the lifestyle is also amazing.  The only thing I really don't like about what I do is the isolation.  It's one of the reasons I'm actively looking to get into something else, so that I actually get to interact with people on a daily basis.

So I met all of my goals for 2010, unfortunately when I look back I realize the only goals I had were poker related.  Therefore, most of my goals for 2011 will have nothing to do with poker.  So without further adieu...

2011 goals:

[ ] Enjoy life

[ ] Start working out regularly, put on 25 pounds by the end of the year

[ ] Eat healthier

[ ] Feel comfortable enough to snowboard on any mountain in the world after 3 months in Tahoe

[ ] Travel to 5 different countries

[ ] Volunteer as often as possible

[ ] Break par on the golf course

[ ] Win another ALTA city championship if I come back to Atlanta

[ ] Find something I want to learn and potentially go back to school

[ ] Learn the basics of trading stocks, options, bonds 

[ ] $200k profit from poker

[ ] Cash a $10k tourney (planning on playing at least 3)

So that's about it.  I don't feel that any of these goals are ridiculous to expect, and so I hope to achieve all of them.

Good luck and Happy New Year to everyone, and best of luck in making 2011 a year to remember!

- Dan