2009 Year in Review

My poker started fairly slow. I skipped all of the January events and mainly just played online and searched for a house. I had a couple smallish scores online to keep my accounts floating plus Morgan and I found our perfect house. I went to LA in February for some events including the main event. I bricked all of them and somehow broke even on cash games. In March I managed to make three final tables at the Wynn, but zero first places. In April I took a terrible beat at a Five Star prelim to go out 8th, but I managed to find a deep run into the main event. I was a massive chipleader with 14ish people left, but I found a way to go out in 8th, leaving me just short of another WPT final TV table. It was a major opportunity that I let slip thru my fingers and one of the few tournaments I question my play in, long after the fact. A bunch of my buddies and I went on a boat trip the week prior to the WSOP. One of the best weeks of the year. The series was rough, as I only cashed twice in twenty some events. A 17th in the 10K PLH event was my deepest run. I lost a huge hand with AdQd vs KhKs on a Jd7d6d board and then a flip against Isaac to cripple me. This was another professional opportunity that I just missed out on. On the up side I watched a lot of my friends make final tables, including Eric winning his first bracelet. After the series I played mainly online. I was able to pull of a 1st in the Sunday Brawl and a 2nd in the Mulligan in consecutive weeks. These were my biggest two online tournament scores up to this point. I went to LA for the Legends main event and busted on day 2. Eric convinced me to go to Barcelona with him for an EPT. I made a final table in a post lim, but bricked everything else. It was my first time in Europe and I loved it. When I got back to the states I won my first WCOOP bracelet in heads up PLO. This was the high point of my year financially and confidence wise. The rest of the year included a trip to Aruba and plenty of tournaments here in Vegas. I did not produce any real scores the rest of the year. I did have lots of fun as I spent some time with family and got to watch Eric on his strectch run to the 2009 Cardplayer POY.
If I were ranking this year I would make it a 8.5. I did a lot of firsts that included buying a house in Vegas, going to the Grand Canyon, going to Europe, going to Aruba, and even snowmobiling. Poker was a bit of a drag, but its tough to ignore all the fun I've had this year. I feel I will be more focused and more selective in my live tournaments this year. Either way I am looking foward to whats next.

Justin "robert07" Young