Happy New Year, Ya'll!

When I was in the third grade back in 19... well, many decades ago, (no need to give you a math problem) the teacher gave the class an assignment to write an essay about where we thought we might be and what we thought we might be doing in the year 2000. Mine was short and sweet. It said, "I will not be anywhere and I will not be doing anything because I will be so old that I will be dead!"

I'm really glad I was wrong about that and I cannot believe how many years have past since we were ringing in 2000! So here we are entering a brand new year, all fresh and clean, just waiting to see what we will do with it. My plans are more of the same as far as the resolutions: get back on the treadmill, lose the weight, etc. My plans also include winning more tournaments, selling more books (and other poker stuff), and having the biggest year, financially, that I have ever had. There, I have made it public. I hope to get back to you one year from now and report that is exactly what happened. As for the year just past, I know many have had a hard time of it. I have much to be grateful for. My accomplishments that I am most proud of are winning two championships (The Wildhorse and the Golden Nugget), being one of the initial inductees into the Women in Poker Hall of Fame, finding my wonderful assistant, Michelle "Sassy " Richey, meeting my "rays of sunshine" my friends, Bob and Doralee "Lady Pink" Rae, and having a wonderful adopted family - The Sniffens! I also have a wonderful "real" family but they live far, far away. I'll close out the old year with some wonderful sayings from some of my wonderful friends that I found noteworthy: "Growing up has nothing to do with getting older."

Hermie Sniffen In reference to my novel, White Knight, Black Nights, Lady Pink had this to say, "You can walk away from a poker game but you can't walk away from life!" And from yours truly, "Believe in the power of positive thinking. It can change your life!"