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(5 votes) 
November 22, 2013
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I know it is a little early, but the only tournaments left on my calendar are the WPT Regional at Tampa this weekend and next. After that I will taking time off for the Holidays so I decided it was a good time to post my reflections on 2013 and my resolutions for 2014.
For 2013, my goal was to make 50K net playing poker, a goal that I reached. I cashed 12 out of 24 tournaments with buy-ins larger than $500 and made some money in cash games as well. However, I didn’t win any single large buy-in tourmanent, which left me slightly disappointed. I am also disappointed in the fact that not all of my events were reported in Bluff.com. Although playing just to have your name in Bluff is somewhat superficial, I am to the point where I would rather have some recognition than more money. I also didn’t play nearly as much as I could have due to getting married and also getting a new job and moving to Orlando, FL. These are perfectly good reasons for not playing as much as I could have; however, now that I am in a happy marriage and a stable job, I am ready to ramp up my poker goals. Now that I am working at a University, I am only working about 180 days a year, so I will also have more than enough time to play to my maximum. In a sentence, my win rate this year was fine, but I didn’t play enough hours.
My goal for 2014 is simple: win 1st place in at least one major, large buy-in, live tournament. To accomplish this goal I will play in the following tournaments: The Grand at the Golden Nugget, the WSOP bracelet events, the WSOP and WPT Regional Events in Florida, the WPT Seminole Hard Rock, and at least 12 HPT main events. I also have an adequate bankroll to play in all of these events. I realize that I have no control in the outcome of events, I only have control of my actions. However, I feel as if having some realistic, concrete goal is the only way to ensure that I will play as many events as I am capable of playing. At this point in my life, I’'m not really drawn to any financial goal as having more money will not add to my overall life satisfaction. I am happy with the amount of money I am making in poker, but I really just want to win one big one. I’ll post updates as I play the events, if there is any interest.
To steal a phrase from a buddy, “Good luck myself!”
November 18, 2013
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Congrats on your successes in 2013 and getting married Zur.
GL with your 2014 goals, I'm sure your time will come.
December 2, 2013
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Good luck!!! Keep us posted.
March 26, 2013
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Good luck Jeff.
One thing I will say though and it applies to the mental side of the game. If you make it a goal to win one of these things then you are likely to end up disappointed simply due to the fact that it is still a relatively small sample size of tournaments which means to come 1st in any of them will take a very large degree of luck no matter how good you are or how well you play.
Maybe a better goal would be to commit to being focused in each tournament and committing to playing your A game. If you can look in the mirror at the end of each event played and say truthfully to yourself: 'Heck, I played really well today' then I think that would be success regardless of the outcome. The big problem with MTTs is that you can play your A game as outlined above in every one of those tournaments and every outcome is possible from no cashes to winning 1 or more event.
I think it is great to want to win a big tournament. As players I think we all strive for or dream of that whether it is for finanical reasons or recognition reasons but it is important not to let the 'coming 1st' aspect swallow you up mentally.
For example, say you come 9th in the WSOP Main with 8000 players and win a circuit event with say 500 players then what do you class as the greater achievement with the most recognition?
Other than that I wish you the very best of luck.
I am thinking of putting a goals and challenges type thread up myself and updating it warts and all as it will help me focus. Now I've said all that I look forward to seeing you ship the first big event you play in the new year 
November 22, 2013
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So I have decided to ammend this challenge slightly. I still think winning one big tournament is a good general goal. However, I realized from 2013 that I have not been the best at tracking my winnings/win percentage from live. I do have a poker income app and input my winnings after each tournament. However, I think there are times where I have forgotten to input this data, and I have also used small amounts of cash from my bankroll to make small purchases (food, etc.). I realized that in order to more accurately determine whether I can really make it as a pro I need to exercise better bankroll management. So what I decided to do was take my bankroll and payoff my student loans and start 2014 with a completely bank slate. I wouldn't do this if I didn't have a good full-time job, but I'm sure that I can withdraw a small amount of money from my real-life account to start my bankroll fresh. I will not take out any money from my bankroll nor will I use money from my job to add to it after this initial investment. I will keep my bankroll entirely seperate from my real life money this year and will be more diligent in recording my wins/losses. This means I will be starting 2014 by grinding some $1-2 cash games. I really want to take this year seriously and find out if I truly can support myself on poker alone. So I'm going to start out 2014 by grinding $1-2 cash games until I have a sufficient bankroll to play the local $500 buy-in tournaments, and I'm going to play those until I get a big cash to enable me to play the $1650 buy-in HPT tournaments. I think this is the best way to truly gauge my skill level and determine how far I've come along.
November 22, 2013
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I won the first tournament I entered into in 2014! However, it was a low buy-in tournament, and first place was only 5K. Still good to start the year off right.
March 26, 2013
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Great start Wiz, well done and good luck with your bankroll building!
November 22, 2013
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Thanks!
Yes, I was extremely fortunate to win the first tournament I played in right off the bat, so my initial bankroll was never threatened. I'm playing in some tournaments in Daytona this weekend. Then my bud Cory Waaland and I are going to play in the Palm Beach WSOP Milly Gauranteed in February so wish us luck!
December 24, 2013
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Yo Jeff!! I didn't realize you live in Florida too. I'm from Tallahassee and I'm in the Tampa area all the time. We should meet up next time I'm in Orlando.
November 22, 2013
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Yeah I play in Daytonna, Seminole Hard Rock Tampa, Palm Beach, and Jacksonsville. I'm mostly live but I started back online. The next big live tournament I'm playing is HPT Daytonna in March. Final tabled the last one, anyway send me a message if you're going 🙂
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