Where have I been and what have I been doing????

Believe it or not, this is my first post of 2007. Early January is one of the busiest times at work for me, and I am glad to have survived.

I have thought carefully about the time I spend playing poker and what changes I need to make in the new year. Although I would not call them resolutions or goals, I have come up with some objectives for myself for 2007:

1) Use my time more effectively. That means, among other things, limiting the number of freerolls I play. Although I belong to several poker groups, I rarely enjoy playing the private freerolls they offer. Too many wild idiots who don't understand or care about playing good poker make the freerolls a nightmare. All in with A-6os? Enough!

2) Play at sites and in games where I am actually enjoying the play. Time to stop playing in tournaments at places that seem to always do me in -- bad cards, cold decks, rapidly-rising blinds, wild players ...

3) Spend less time playing poker and more time doing other things. Most importantly, spend more time with my family. As everyone knows, you have to invest time in poker in order to get better. 2006 was a period of rapid growth for me, but now that I have achieved at least a certain level of skill, it is time to remember that life exists outside that monitor in my bedroom.

4) Improve the depth of my understanding of poker, and therefore the complexity of my game. What I seem to need now is to go to one of those poker boot camps run by top pros and become a lean, mean poker machine.

5) Do something major. That might mean winning one of the end-of-the-year competitions for WSOP seats, entering and going deep in a regional event or a stop in the Heartland Poker Tour or similar group, or winning something that would greatly pad my bankroll. I tend to shy away from the massive MTTs like on Full Tilt and other sites, but maybe I should give a few of these a try.

Anyway ... yes, I am still here and doing well. I look forward to a great year of poker in 2007.