I finally won the monthly sng challenge!

Yes the blog title is true! I did it, I finally did it... Of course it only took like 12 attempts give or take 4 months, meh. A few runner up spots a couple of times, but I finally did it.

Leaderboard (final)

Score Games
falenangel 690 8 ($145)
Bestill7 660 8 ($100)
Punky 650 8 ($57.50)
kwstroud 650 8 ($57.50)
PKJimmmay 640 8 ($20)
dcmaster42 640 8 ($20)
jamesdubec 630 8+1
kinn88 620 8
213v 620 8
oucardkid22 580 8
roxiewells 560 8
sticky 550 8
havemercy 550 8
equity 550 8
Robo2008 530 8
Intuition 520 8
ranchbrat 520 8+1
MxKlptz 510 8
MikeLeeH 510 8
(Of course there were more players entered, but I stopped the list for my blog post at 19 and an old PVT friend Mike)
I imagine this could mean one of many things, either I am actually starting to improve my game a little bit and can start to consider playing a bit higher stakes or I got lucky that everybody else played so poorly.
I do get to have a hand history video review done by Derek, one of the PokerVT pros and get a chance to see if he thinks my play has improved since the last review he did of my play. I also decided to write down all of the different videos that I have "appeared" in on PokerVT and re-watch them a few extra times to see if I can recognize the bad plays I have made in the past more easily now, by pausing the videos every time I get dealt a hand and thinking about, what I would do in each spot if... based on the possible action in front of me.
Either way my confidence is up and I have been breaking even and slightly winning in most sessions of games I have been playing recently and feel I am making a few "smarter" play based on situations. Of course I have also caught myself doing something like deciding if a certain thing happens or plays out in a given hand that I should fold, end up calling, get knocked out, usually in bubble spots, then tell myself "Hay self, I thought we decided we were gonna fold, we new it was a bad call, but then your finger clicked the call button"... What's Up With That!!!! But at least I know it, knew it and should play smarter in the future in turn giving me a better in the money percentage and more money, more money, more money.
I have also put a lot of thought into how much time I have been playing lately, basically not enough. I am simply playing enough to qualify for monthly bonuses on given sites and think that since I want to improve, I want to play higher limits, I want more return out of the game of poker, then I have to give more to get it.
I am also putting serious thought into getting a coach as of late, that being the last few months, however when I finally get around to it, I keep reminding myself that I have yet to even get SNG Wizard and use all of it's benefits first... I am sure that is what any good online poker coach will say to me anyway. So in turn I guess I will need to wait a few more months for the coaching, at least after I feel more comfortable with doing everything I can to improve first before moving on to that next step.
So in a nutshell, I guess I am saying I feel better about my game and decisions, I believe I am playing on a higher level than I ever have before, so goals for the next 6 months include:
1. Increasing my volume of play, back to what it was before 300 games/month in March up to 600 games/month by May and then 900 games/month by July.
2. Purchase and start using SNG Wizard by the end of February, become familiar with it and be able to competently use it by May, and fluent in it by July. Reviewing at least 10% of all of my games played.
3. By July acquire the services of a poker coach to further improve my game.
As long as I can focus on these goals I feel I am providing myself the opportunity to improve my game and make the transition into higher buy ins, as I have been over nitting it up with my bank roll management for way, way, too long.