New Year's poker plans

I have been reading a lot of poker books this year - mostly by respected winners such as Doyle Brunson, Daniel Negreanu, David Slansky, and Dan Harrington.

I thought I had decided my goal for 2010 was to be a model of consistency - and strive for first quartile results in all tournaments I enter. Surely in so doing, I will stumble into cashing and placing high occasionally.

I have been scanning the results of many successful online players - seems to me cashing 15% of the time is the minimum I should strive for, and some players are a touch north of 20%.

Top quartile play is something I have been striving for in live tournaments for the past few months - and it seems to be working.

However, this is a grinding game - I am rarely in a dominant chip position at the table - seems that is best left for the looser, more aggressive players.

I just finished Doyle Brunson's new autobiography called "The Godfather of Poker" - an enjoyable read to be sure.

Doyle is in his mid seventies. He seems to have an incredibly high opinion of his abilities (I say this with respect since I believe it has served him well) and he also espouses on the need for relentless aggression and fearlessness at the table. And his results certainly speak for themselves.

Funny how he and Bobby Wolff and Bob Hamman (renowned world champion bridge players) are all from Texas and of the same generation. Must be something in the chili.

So now I am rethinking my goal. Maybe I should conduct an experiment for one or two months. I could start two online accounts with identical stacks and enter the same tournaments on the same days. One account would be played according to my chosen style (top quartile objective then see what happens) and the other could be played far looser. I would expect the loose playing account to cash far less times, but perhaps the overall results will be better if this account goes very deep on occasion.

Maybe I can use this experiment to formulate my player profile for the future. To be sure, regardless of how you begin a tournament, you have to modify and adapt your style to the changing size of field and playing conditions, so I guess I am mostly talking about the early stages of tournaments.

One edge I may have is that I am not afraid to play with aggression. Not afraid to lose. The money doesn't scare me - you have to be immune to the money (in the moment) since to play with fear is a losing game.

And I am not an old dog who cannot learn new tricks. (Well I am oldish, but I pride myself on my willingness to learn)

This is gonna be a great year. I feel it. At the same time as Svetlana and I are adapting our business to new realities (more on that later) I plan to write lots, play lots, and develop a winning aura about myself.