The Year that is gone and looking forward

Right now I'm in a jam packed doctors surgery in le gets, France. I feel awful , very fluey. And could there be a worse time to be ill? I'm not sure, it's new years eve and I am on a skiing holiday with some of my family and geoff. It's got me thinking about the way I live my life.......I treat my body like shit everyday and this needs to stop soon or it could amount to some serious health problems in the future. My diet is shit, I don't excercise enough and I drink too much.

So as I do everyear I'm going to write some life goals/aims for the future and do the same for poker.

Life goals/aims for 2009

1) lose 2 and a half stone........very easy to say it, so how will I achieve this? I'm going to get a personal trainer, tell him my goals and get him to make me an excercise and diet plan. It's going to take alot of determination to do this as I have failed plenty of times before, but I want it more than ever this time. Being a fat prick is the thing I think about most next to sex and poker:)

2) learn to cook.......I got 3 cool cookbooks for Xmas (hint) , and let's be honest, it's about time I learnt how to make more than a toastie! I may take a cooking class also, who knows

3) invest some of my $. Perhaps into property? Bonds perhaps? Although most ppl are saying it's not the time for investment, however I believe when the property market hits rock bottom it will be (obvious statement I know). I invision ppl not being able to give places away......and that's where I come In:)))

4) travel to places in the world I have never been. Thailand , brazil, Argentina?the world is my oyster

5) continue to keep in touch with friends from abroad . Make the effort

Poker goals for 2009

1) Play alot more live events..........I have had mixed sucess live in the past and at times find it boring as you only play a couple of hands per hour. However when things are going well when you are playing in a live event its a hard feeling to beat. I want to play in a few GUKPT's (I am already booked in for Brighton in a couple of weeks) try play an EPT, the Irish open and of course the WSOP. Now, just playing in these isn't going to be enough for me, obviously, being competitive as I am. So what is a good goal to set, results wise? I guess final tabling an event from one of the above would be awesome. I agree it is a lofty goal, but fuck it, you gotta aim high.

2) Win a Sunday major...........eg Sunday warmup/million. I think this is defo achievable. My game is good enough it just requires running insanely well and playing insanely well. Not alot to ask really! But winning one of these tounries is what I need to strive for.

3) Work harder at trying to improve. Read more HH's, talk to better players more, read more on 2+2, critique and question your play more and more. I think in getting to the next level I know what I have to do, fold more big hands. The top class players can fold a big hand when they know they are beat, this is soemthing I need to improve at.

4) Well my goal this time last year was to earn $100k for the year. I have easily surpassed that this year, so thats nice to know. So for this year I would like to earn $300k+. Again, its aiming high, but I can do it. Ppl doubting me only makes me want it more.

5) Enjoy the game...........Try to play only when you feel like it, obviously this can be hard at times because it is my job and when I am not playing I feel like I should be. But my best results have come when I have been in a good state of mind. So don't play when you don't feel up to it you muppet.



Flew home from skiing early because I was so ill. Not ideal. Played online the last two nights, went awful. That is all for now.

Nick