[Ixnert]

A year ago, I...

-- ...was beating my workmates pretty reliably for what felt like decent amounts of money in games after work. Thought I was pretty damn good.

-- ...really sucked.

-- ...had never played online.

-- ...thought any two broadway were really pretty.

-- ...was separated from my wife.

-- ...got very depressed when I lost large amounts gambling (used to have a blackjack leak).

In the last year, I...

-- ...made my first deposit at Party. Lost it. Made my second deposit. Lost it. Took a break for a while, made one last (and this one I really resolved it would be the last) deposit.

-- ...almost simultaneously found 2+2. Read without really understanding much of anything for a while, but even that level helped enough for the 11s.

-- ...reconciled with my wife, who (though this was the least of my worries) didn't really mind my new poker habit nearly as much as I thought she would.

-- ...eventually moved up to the 22s, where I'm solidly +ROI, and the 33s, where I'm borderline, then back to the 22s.

-- ...made about an extra month's salary from my 9-to-5 from my poker exploits, not so much as to be life-changing, but certainly enough to be able to do some nice things with it.

-- ...suck a bit less, and now recognize that I suck, though I can confidently say I suck less than the people at the tables I play.

-- ...am a lot tighter than I was a year ago, but still find myself seduced by pretty-looking hands at the worst possible times now and then.

-- ...am much more accepting of the swings of variance (especially since I have confidence that in the long run, they'll tend to work out my way), but still don't handle downswings as well as I'd like.

-- ...still leak, but at MTTs rather than blackjack, which feels like progress.

A year from now, I...

-- ...hope to have moved back up again to the 30s or 50s, maybe higher if things work out, but happy to only move as high as I can ultra-comfortably do (I have ~120 BIs on-line at the moment).

-- ...hope to have made enough to pay off some (all, in my wilder dreams) of the credit card debt I built up in college and haven't had much luck making a dent in since.

-- ...hope to suck even less.

-- ...hope to turn my MTT leak into an inflow. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]