Tony Guerrera

It's 1:20AM, and I just got back from a 2 mile run. Feeling energized and refreshed, it's now time to write my first ever blog entry for Wise Hand Poker. After this, I'll be working on my first article of the year for the site.

With the coming of the new year, everyone is reflecting upon 2006 and making goals for 2007. So...I decided to join the bandwagon! 2006 was a crazy year, but I wouldn't have it any other way. Most of my time was spent in my bedroom/office in sunny Pasadena, CA, writing and playing online poker while listening to tons of music...my computer boasts a wide range of music (how many people have Slayer, Kenny Rogers, Jodeci, Mobb Deep, and Vivaldi on the same hard drive). From January to March, I wrote Killer Poker by the Numbers, which will be available in stores by the end of this month. When I wasn't writing, I kept myself sane by playing basketball and ultimate frisbee. Unfortunately, those activities ended for me shortly after finishing my first book.

I suffered my worst bad beat ever shortly after finishing Killer Poker by the Numbers. I was playing basketball, and after stealing the ball, I was in a fast break situation. I jumped up for the lay-up, got hit from behind, made the shot, but crashed into the bleachers a few feet behind the basket and tore a ligament in my left ankle (third degree sprains are NOT fun). I was in physical therapy for about three months, and to this day I'm not 100%. However, I am back to running and playing tennis. Most importantly, my vertical is almost back to where it was before the injury (being able to touch rim at 5'7" is huge)! Once I'm confident that I won't kill myself by landing on someone's foot, I'll be back on the basketball courts!

While I was injured, I played a TON of online poker. I 6-tabled the 6-max NLHE cash games and 8-tabled the STTs on Party Poker. My cash game performance was sub-par...between the injury and being shell-shocked from all the work I did on Killer Poker by the Numbers, I couldn't focus well enough. I really learned the importance of not playing on auto-pilot. Since STT strategy is fairly robotic, I switched gears, and I ended up 8-tabling my way to a top 200 ranking on Poker Prophecy (push, push, push!!!).

Summer came, and I had to put my STT glory behind me to work on my second book. I co-authored Killer Poker Shorthanded with John Vorhaus (JV). I am really happy with the work we did--we very effectively put our 100,000s of hands of shorthanded NLHE experience into it. Look for Killer Poker Shorthanded in stores some time in the second half of 2007.

The rest of 2007 was mostly spent on freelance writing, working on my personal website, and working on my third book. Whatever poker I did play was mostly in home games.

2006 was all that and much more, but I'm excited for the new adventures that await, so let's move on to 2007. Here's my list of things to do in 2007:

1.)Finish my third book, Tournament Killer Poker by the Numbers, which I need to submit to my publisher by 2/1/2007.

2.) Continue cranking out articles about poker strategy

3.) Play more poker. 2006 was spent doing a lot of writing, but not a lot of playing outside of home games and my brief online binge following my injury. I plan on hitting The Bike and Commerce regularly and getting my online multi-tabling skills back (wait, let's make that skillz...with a "z").

4.) Make my website much better than it is

5.) Begin getting consulting clients; it would be nice to have some interesting projects on the side

6.) Begin my quest to popularize hi/lo chip declare games

7.) Begin my quest to make Super Duper Twist a WSOP event (I guess I should write an article about Super Duper Twist in the near future).

8.) And, most importantly...take care of my health and make sure that I take time for all the wonderful people in my life!

Well, that's it for reflection and goal-setting. I'll be back here next week to chronicle my first week of poker in 2007. I wish all of you out there a happy and prosperous new year, and may your EV (expectation value) always be positive!

Tony G