January in review and the Sklanksy Challenge!

New month, new start! (Kinda). January treated me fairly well, netting a hair under $5,400. That's pretty good considering I played pretty badly for some of that; if nothing else, I've learned to be more attentive to when I'm not on my 'A'-game (if I can be said to have one) and stop making dumb plays. The earnings exceeded my hourly goals by about $2,000 and my monthly goals by about $3,300, so I'm doing ok there.

For February, I'll try to focus on playing smarter and getting my money in better (see below) as well as improving at MTTs. I'm looking to play the same volume (about 100k hands), but I'm shooting for $6,000 net this time. I think this is completely attainable if I play smarter and avoid tilting when I get luckboxed out of big pots (strange, when I luckbox out I never go on tilt...so I'm halfway there ! guess!). Another area I want to address is volume...often in january, I would find myself putting in far less time some days than I had allotted; I would make $200 or $300 in 2 hours and stop playing....basically, I made enough to reassure me I was doing well and then stopped instead of continuing to make money, for fear of losing and 'ruining' my winning session. This month, I'm going to make sure I keep playing....as long as I play well, I've got nothing to fear.

To facilitate getting our money in better, PokerxPro and I are undertaking the Sklansky Challenge; 'Sklansky' because it's a competition to see who can earn the most EV and 'Challenge' because it sounds more meaningful with 'Challenge' on the end. We'll be competing in 3 categories: Most EV earned, Best EV/100 and Worst Luck (Showdown winnings - EV). As I play higher stakes, I should (hopefully) win the Most EV Earned category. PokerxPro's a pretty good player, so it should be a good comeptition for Best EV/100. Worst luck, of course, is anyone's race.

We'll be posting updates every monday as well as a recap at the end of the month. The winner of the majority of the categories will have bragging rights, with further awards being mutually agreed on at some later date.

Think you've got what it takes to try the challenge? Well, tough cookies, this month is only between us....but let me know and next month we'll hook it up.

Update: We've both agreed to additonal terms: winner receives a large 3 topping pizza! Now it's on ^_^