2011 will be huge. It will be full of exciting new challenges and experiences. My wife and I will become parents for the first time, through adoption. We are waiting to travel to Seoul, South Korea to pick up our son Alex. He is currently in the care of his loving foster family.

It is impossible to know exactly what to expect from the parenthood experience. I know it will be full of emotional ups and downs, but I am confident (through my interactions with my awesome niece and nephews) that I am going to love it. 🙂

I am really grateful for both of our extended families. They have been so supportive throughout our entire adoption process. If you want to read more about our adoption experiences, please visit Jen’s blog, Our Family, Our Journey.

So what will 2011 bring, poker-wise? My current plans are to keep playing short-handed and heads-up limit hold’em on PokerStars, with a possible long term goal of reaching the top tier of the PokerStars VIP program, Supernova Elite (SNE). I say ‘possible’ because I plan to break this year into much smaller chunks; days, weeks, and months.

This goes back to process-oriented thinking. I want to really focus on the day-to-day tasks that are going to make for successful sessions, days and weeks, all of which will ultimately leading to a successful year. I also want to keep my options open in case the LHE games on pokerstars deteriorate, and I need to branch out into other games and/or other poker sites.

Until we officially begin parenting, I plan to set weekly and monthly goals that will put me ahead of SNE pace. January in particular is going to be a hardcore grinding month. Jen is going to be working and taking a bunch of J-term classes, leaving me home alone quite a bit to put in sick hours. I think 60k hands will not be out of the question, which would easily be a record for me.

During this time, it is going to be really important for me to take care of my mind, body, and spirit. It is way too easy to become burnt-out, leading to decreased motivation to put in quality, high-focus sessions. I will be posting some strategies that I will be using in my weekly goals in the beginning of 2011. Until then, enjoy the rest of 2010 and thanks for reading!