Can you continue to deny that you're an addict if your New Year's resolutions are about poker?

I have made three poker-related resolutions for the new year. I want to keep track of whether my success and failure is dependent on how many hours I have logged at the table to that point. We all get tired, I want to make sure it's not wrecking my game. I am, however, giving up on meals and travel in my hourly rate; I've decided it's not meaningful.

I also want to mathematically evaluate 4-5 key hands after each session and I found a cool free download (pokerstove.com) to use. I’ve been playing NL for a year now and still don’t know what to do with a pair and a straight draw. (Seriously, it looks great when it flops and I get killed with it all the time.) I guess what I'm saying is I'd like to learn from key hands each session and make sure I understand all the mathematics involved for the next time I run into a similar situation.

Lastly, I want to have a better command of what I like to call “defensive odds.” An example: when the third heart comes out, there’s a 40% chance someone was dealt two more to make a flush. This will help me improve the math which is what I like most about my game lately. I’m getting much better at saying stuff like “25% of the time my opponent has AA, 25% of the time it’s QQ, and half the time it’s AK or AQ. Therefore my JJ is a (.2 * .5 + .5 * .5 = 35%) long term winner. Therefore I can or cannot call the all-in based on the pot.

In fact, I would love to get to a point where I can employ a few game-theory moves. This would be something like figuring out the optimal bluffing percentage when three hearts hit the board. There is certainly a lot more to poker than math, but I wonder if you can get to a point where you bluff every third time (or whatever) and you could even tell your opponent: "I go all-in everytime three suits hit the board and the second hand of my watch is in the last 20 seconds of the minute. Try and guess If I've really got it or not." Sometimes you've got the flush, sometimes you don't. If you can find what they call the Nash Equilibrium, it wouldn't matter if you told your opponents; they wouldn't be able to beat you (mathematically). We'll see if I can get there. Pot size and stack size obviously have a lot to do with the calculation.

I know, what a dork.

Stay tuned.