taxes give reflection

Tonight I went through my 06 records and compiled information for my taxes. Tomorrow I have to go to my accountant and find out how much I owe the government. Can't wait for that! Going through the months brought back memories, and I could remember almost every upswing, and all of the painful downswings. I got upset when I finished July, as I realized my profits from the rest of the year totaled less then $10k, and July alone was a $200k month.

I started the year with two simple goals: Get back into shape, and make $250k. By July I had accomplished both. I was in the best shape of my life, and I surpassed my yearly goal. It seems as if I just quit for the rest of the year, as I ended the year fat and out of shape without having won much on top of what I'd already done. I will do everything in my power to make sure 2007 doesn't turn out the same way.

I went to eat dinner, a bit upset, and determined not to be in the same place in 08. It got me thinking back even farther until I remembered a specific night that likely changed the course of my life.

It was sometime in the Fall of 03, after Moneymaker had won the World Series and started the poker boom. I had always liked cards, and I knew most of the poker games. Texas Holdem was just starting to get popular in my area. We played for fun every so often, sometimes for quarters, but it was just a game to pass the time before we went out drinking.

On this night, for whatever reason, I had a lot of alcohol in my car. My friend and I had taken some trips to rent a movie and couldn't find anything interesting and came back empty handed. He invited me to a poker game, which is what we decided on doing. My mom knew I drank, and was very much against it. When we came back without a movie she thought it was a cover to buy booze and went to search my car, where she found the alcohol that had been there for almost a week.

The typical argument ensued, and she wouldn't let me go out for the rest of the weekend. By some act of god, she relented, and let me go with my friend to the game. The game was the first time I'd played for decent stakes, and the blinds were $.5/$1, which was high for a highschool kid who made $6 an hour working a few nights a week. It was early morning when the final player went broke, and it was me and my friend sitting with all the chips in play. My stake was well over $300. I had just won a paychecks worth of money in a single night, all while having a blast. I was hooked. Through the next year I was a regular player with these guys, and won $5000 before I left for college in 2004. They also introduced me to online poker; likely I'd have never found it without them.

To this day I don't know why my mom let me go out that night. Most parents wouldn't have believed we were just going to play cards, but for some reason she believed us. If she simply told me no that evening it's very possible that wouldn't be here writing about traveling and playing poker.

So as I sit here a bit disappointed looking back at 2006, I know that if I could have seen my future in 2004, that I'd be very, very happy.