2008: My year in review

Similar to my review of 2007, I figured I'd write up a few sentences about each month of this past year. Enjoy!

January '08: I began the year down under in a trip that was filled with poker and tennis. Andy Black knocked me out of the Main Event with the good old I-have-a-flush-draw-so-I'll-throw-all-money-in-even-if-it-is-4x-the-pot-amount move.

February '08: EPT Dortmund was a two-day tournament for me. I should have gone home right away but instead I stayed and hurricaned off a ton of money playing chinese poker $*%#!! tilt. The rest of the month I go into grindmode and win what I can with an upswing. What would I do without online poker?

March '08: My online results plummet but I am distracted by tons of NCAA basketball on TV. A trip to Vienna turns out to be unsuccessful both in tourneys and cashgames. A great NL 20/40eur game develops around some spewy Russians but I'm unable to capitalize. Little did I know I would be seeing the Russians again a couple weeks later in happier times.

April '08: Two EPTs in San Remo and Monte Carlo both have me finishing out of the money but both were great trips nonetheless. Italy and France in the springtime are phenomenal. I recoup all my March losses online, now I just have to get my live results in order.

May '08: My favorite trip of the year, the PartyPoker Million Cruise. 7 days of touring through Greece/Turkey/Croatia/Italy with great weather and a ton of poker. My Russian friends give me my money back with interest on board in cash games. The Main Event does not go so well but Alex Jung ships the tourney. Chris and I start our 5k challenge.

June '08: Vegas!!! I warm up with a $1500 shorthanded and a $5000 shootout tourney where I end up heads up with Phil Tom, father of AP founder Scott Tom. He tells me he and his son spend a lot of time in Thailand as sex tourists these days (true story). He was unbeatable that day and even went on to win the bracelet (lol donkaments). Then came another $2500 shorthanded and a $5000 shorthanded, which I bubble. Butttttttt Seb manages the win and ships a world championship bracelet! Shortly afterwards Martin Klaeser ships another one! I don't know if we'll be able to top their bracelet party this year, I kinda doubt it.

July '08: I luckbox my way through the Main Event, most notably on Day 3 at the very first hand of the bubble. I get set-over-setted but quickly turn it into a quads-over-full house situation obv. I even get some TV table time though none of it aired on ESPN. Eventually I make my exit in 99th place for around $51k. Picture blogs of Vegas can be seen here and here.

August '08: CelebPoker invite us to London for some go-karting and a Kylie Minogue concert. I got rigged out of the karting but the concert was very entertaining! After getting back to Berlin I lose the 5k challenge to Chris, it's still making me mad writing about it.

September '08: Rake race on BossMedia. After 14 days and 191k hands I win the rake race as expected :) Meanwhile Seb takes down another tournament, this time EPT Barcelona. This calls for an EPT Bracelet party.

October '08: Happy birthday to me! I spend my bday in London after busting from the EPT on Day 1. I then am offline for a whole week while vacationing on the Maldives, a place I will definitely be returning to.

November '08: Some unsuccessful shots prove to be quite expensive and expensive remains the theme of the month. The Deutsche Meisterschaften are a fun getaway but Day 2 is my final station.

December '08: Boring online grinding and the start of my journey around the world begins in Kansas. So far I've hit up Salt Lake City for some skiing which turned out to be a blast (minus my skis going missing on the first day). On Wednesday I'll head towards the Philippines with my sister, prepared for a culture shock.

Wrapped in a nutshell, 2008 was an awesome year for me lifewise and a decent one pokerwise. I can't fully say that I am satisfied with the results, only having one semi-significant live poker cash after playing all those big buy-in tournaments was certainly a disappointment. The online games are getting harder by the day and the variance that accompanies that change is no fun to deal with.

That being said, 2008 enabled me to see different parts of the world (I should really start saving frequent flyer miles) and that is something I want to continue through the new year. This year I'll be starting in the Philippines followed immediately by Australia, similar to last year. At some point during the year I'd like to make it to South America as I've never been there yet and I've heard so many good things about it.

2009 is going to be a great year, I can feel it! CelebPoker have decided to sponsor me for several live tournaments and that is something I have been wanting for a very long time now! I'm so happy that we finally worked out a deal that will see me playing some live tournaments wearing CelebPoker's flag. Those of you who have followed this blog know that they have been my site of choice since the early days, getting to know the people behind the operation have just solidified my opinion of the site.

As far as goals are concerned, I'd really like to improve my live poker results. I know the shortterm variance makes live poker results pretty meaningless and winning a tournament requires an insane amount of luck (now imagine how much luck winning two tournaments takes *cough cough*) but still I think with enough focus I can really come up with a significant cash or two.

Thanks to anyone who still throws an eye on my blog from time to time. I'll try to keep it as updated as I have in the past though it's not always easy. I love the freedom to blog whenever I want and have turned out offers to blog at paid sites because I don't want the obligation of having to blog x amount of times in a month. I appreciate all the comments, they are what really keep me blogging!