The Bam-Bam New Year....

Well……. this kid turns another year older Friday. The ‘older’ part, I seem to be getting down pat. It’s the ‘wiser’ part that I always have to wonder about.

As always at this time of year, I go into great reflection on the year that was #1,000,045.
I do this so that I can go into #1,000,046 with a goal or two in mind, and a fresh look at how I want to live my life.

I break things down into four categories. Loves, Likes, Dislikes & Hates.

Looking back on the year that was, my list goes like this.

Loves :

Pebbles - All that needs to be said here is, I hit the lottery wife wise!
Not-so-mini-Peb’s - What a kid! From her grades to her growth as a person.
Laughter – Hard to believe, but I laughed even more than the year before.
Hugs – Live ones were awesome and the many virtual ones were too!
Winning – Winning my first blogger MTT was a rush.
STUD – Continued to be my bread and butter, funding all of my poker play.
TuckFard poker – Being the first repeat champion and getting a second bracelet. Need I say more?
TuckFard poker on-line - Brudder carson and Nutzy deserve a huge thanks, for getting us up and running with not one, but two Monday night games. Making the 8:00pm game HORSE, stroke of genious. (even if it was Al's idea)
Blogger gatherings – If you want to argue about this being on the “Loves” list, then you’ve just never been to one.
Being a pest – from wanna-B’s to luckboxes, lightweights, whiners and phonebooks. Nothing say’s friends to me like a little shot or two across the interweb, at either my place or yours.

Likes :

New friendships - They ran rampant this year. I can never get enough of them.
Poker – Gave on-line NLHE a serious go. It makes me smile. :o)
Teachers – I have a couple invisible and not so invisible ones and they’ve really helped my on-line and live games.
Team TuckFard – A very strange almost Ryder Cup like feeling, to team up with your biggest competitors and try to crush the rest of the world. I like!! I like a LOT !!

Dislikes –

Losing at poker – With learning a new style and game, this comes naturally I say.
The hammer – What a joke! Such a huge waste of time and energy.
Split games – Again, just a learning curve here.
Being busy – I typically try and make time for the things I want to do. This last year however, posed much more of a challenge than I’m used to.

Hates :

Hmmmmmmmmm……… I guess I had a pretty good year.

So looking back in reflection is all done now. Moving forward is important and I need to set a few solid goals going into my next year as a kid. I typically like to break it all down and set a few attainable goals, with a few that are a stretch. Just to keep me motivated and honest in the upcoming year.

So my goals are;

1) I think my on-line NLHE game needs some real improvement. Therefore I challenge myself, to move losing at poker down into the “Hates” category. I think I need to be a little more pissed off about losing than I have been. Not at my opponent or the RnG or anything else. Just at myself for getting into that position in the first place.

2) I will laugh more this year than I did last year. How that can be possible is way beyond me. But I did say a few needed to be a stretch right!

3) I will meet and make another new friend, for every one that I made this past year. Speaking of stretches, WOW ! I made out like a bandit in the friends department last year. But this goes hand in hand with goal #2. My new friends make me laugh, both at them and myself. So making that many new ones, HAS to help me achieve goal #2 right?

4) Another combination here. I will get more live hugs than I did last year from friends. To achieve this goal, I will make it out to more blogger gatherings than I did last year as well. I know, I know. It’s like cheating making a couple of uber-attainable ones. But hey! They’re my damn goals for Pete’s sake!

5) For the split games, I will improve my current status of OMATARD, up to at least OMAPLAYER. I know where the leak is and I should be able to develop the plug. With that, I’ll also work on my limit leak in HE and OMAHA formats. I can’t decide right now if these are in the attainable or stretch categories. I honestly feel that they fall right in the middle. I think it’ll be up to me and the drive I push myself with, to conquer either or both of these goals.

6) I will win another blogger MTT and soon! This is not as much of a stretch as I first thought. I really studied the BBT3 points from the month of March. Considering that I only played in 9 events, finishing up in the top 10 %, ( or 30th in point’s ) is pretty decent if you ask me. The players ahead of me in the standing averaged at least 16 events. Of those behind me, the next 30 or so played in an average of about 14 events. Although I know this will open me up for much deserved BS from some, maybe I’m not quite as bad a player as I thought!

And finally,

7) I will attempt to eliminate “being too busy” from my vocabulary. I’m a kid for crying out loud! I love being a kid and having been a kid my entire life, that means I love to play. Playing keeps me a kid and it’s what keeps me going from day to day. There were far too many instances where, I let something else come before play. Yes I know that there is a time and place for everything in this life and that sometimes, play must come second. I do not for one second want to ignore the seriousness that is real life. But if you ever even come close to learning anything even remotely important from me in our short time together. Please remember this.

A life without play….. isn’t really living at all.

My sincerest thanks for dropping by….