2005: A Look Back at the Poker Year

Poker had another big year in 2005 on every level, from the growth of $10,000+ tournaments to the growing exposure on TV to the continued explosion of play online.

In the professional "brick and mortar" circuit, no player had the break out year that Daniel Negreanu had in 2004, but it was a year where:

-- Greg Raymer proved he belonged
-- Phil Hellmuth reminded people he had game (heads up win, WSOP cashes, WSOP TOC)
-- Jail time gave Mike "The Mouth" Matusow some patience resulting in some brilliant poker
-- Phil Ivey, I believe, showed why he is the greatest player in the world.

In 2005, I began to understand the online world of poker. I started playing online in August, 2004 and when I look back at my records, it looks like I started playing in those $1 and $5 Multi-table tournaments in October of 2004. So for me, 2005 was really my year to start learning how to play online poker.

I stress "start learning" because the more I learn the more I realize how far I have to go. I just made a video of a tournament I won this month and while recording the narration I saw play after play that I mishandled. So, while that's disappointing, it's a very good thing. I can get better and plan to do so.

During the summer of 2004, I probably played more poker than I ever will again. Day in, day out, I was playing MTTs, satellites, and SNGs with mixed results. Some wins, some bad runs. Lots of learning. It was stressful because I was slightly profitable during this run but my bankroll was fairly low as I finally made my move to playing $100 tournaments on a regular basis. Those entry fees add up.

Then for me something happened to my game in mid-August leading to a good finish that month, and much more profitable months in September, October, and November (with my biggest single cash, 4th in the UB Sunday $200). In December I played much less as I began to really focus on PokerXFactor.com, but it was a slightly profitable month. It was great not to feel stress over a bankroll. Enough about my play.

In 2005, Pocketfives.com launched, quickly becoming my favorite online community and establishing itself as an important destination in the poker world. Everything hasn't always been as wanted between Pocketfives and myself (they wouldn't let me talk about ExtremeTilt for a long time because of possible competition between my UB leader board and their leader board or leader board they may create), but Adam and Cal have always been upfront and honest and that's a pleasure. They took very important steps during the year to protect the community and to stop hate filled posting. The results speak for themselves. It's not just a community anymore -- it's also a forum that can actually result in significant change in the online poker world. Poker playing sites like Ultimate Bet and others are using it to improve their services -- and it's working! Congrats guys!

In April I launched ExtremeTilt.com, which features the Extremet Tilt Ultimate Bet $100+ Tournament Leader Board and my poker blog ramblings. Early in 2005, two buds and I teamed up to improve our play, talking hands, talking players. We would share our thoughts on who the best players were at Ultimate Bet, our home court. That lead to us wondering who really had the most consistent results in the higher entry fee tournaments and that eventually lead to ExtremeTilt and our leader board.

In our first month, lucky-7 took the top honors but in May, leggggggggggy asserted himself and was never out of the top three again. Even if AngryClec pushes his way to first on the last day of the year, no one has been as consistent as legggy was this year. Month in and month out, he's dominanted. It's been great watching you play. Very well done sir.

In June, DoubleLucky began his impressive push up the board. In August, JohnnyBax (long the top ranked player at PocketFives), made a run to the top of the board. Both played incredible poker to stay in the top five. Other players like one o clock, the silent sailorlobell (who never took up my offer of $1 just to say hi to me), J FREE and buckelvis moved into the top 10 and never moved out. In the Fall, TTTTTTTTTTTTTT and Miraclegro started playing fantastic poker and by the end of the year pushed into the top ten (and pushed me out -- looks like I'll finish 12th). Then in late December, AngryClec made a huge run into 2nd overall! Also worth noting is papoorboy's recent play, which resulted in the greatest single month of the year with an insane run of finishes in the $200s (1st, 1st, 10th, and 12th). There were many other notable achievements that I can't list here. Congrats all on a fantastic year.

A special note to a bunch of online pros: I've railed many of you silently and not so silently throughout the year. There are just too many to name but off hand the ones I've watched the most may be JohnnyBax, Sheets, AngryClec, Legggggggggy, feldlis, SailorLobell, Texas Troll, Wachovia, brsavage, DoubleLucky, iMsoLucky0, gator93, and P0ker H0. Many have offered me great advice ... including posts on ExtremeTilt or in answer to my posts on PocketFives. From the time I was in the final 20 of a $100 tournament when leggggggy openingly urged me, in the board's chat window, to go ALL IN the next time the betting comes around to me unraised, to AngryClec offering a bounty on me in the same tournament (both just trying to get me to PLAY), to sheets and bax graciously going over a hand with me and when I mentioned I should have bet to get more information, both screaming in almost perfect unison: "This is NO LIMIT, screw information, GO ALL-IN!" Thank you all.

As corny as this sounds, what I'll remember the most about my poker experience in 2005 are the players I've become friends with and the many people I've simply enjoyed chatting and playing with for oh so many hours.

Some are good buds, some are great people (even if they are not great players), and some are terrific players that I respect and who also show respect to others at the tables. From SusieQue's terrific ecrew tournament every week that is stacked with pros (and which demands at least one ridiculous bluff per tournament) to playing the friendly (but scary good) J FREE in the dialy 11am $30 to battling AngryClec in some insane 55 person satellite that only pays ONE SEAT (and where he demands that my blinds are his and where rule #2 was born) to the same 9 donkey's who I have played a hundred times for a TEC ... thank you all. We've had bad runs together and railed each other to big wins. We've bluffed each other, sucked out terribly, made sophisticated plays, steamed horribly, and helped pull each other off that high ledge called TILT to play yet again.

It has been a pleasure my friends. I look forward to doing it again in 2006.

Happy New Year!