Like most, i have been inspired by the turn of a new year to get a little more productive. 2011 was a huge year for me both on and off the felt but I feel like I let myself down in certain areas. I truly believe that I could have put more time into studying poker but my mind was really preoccupied throughout the year.

At the turn of the year my mother was diagnosed with cancer and quite honestly I don’t really remember my parents telling me as it all kind of blurred over. It’s crazy how the human brain has ways of dealing with certain scenarios but mine completely shut down for a while. She courageously won her battle midway through the year and it’s only now when I look back Ii realize how depressed and run down I became. Not only was I moody, unmotivated and generally terrible company but I also lost focus on being there for others that needed my support throughout the troubling times. I didn’t know how to cope with such a situation but it is how we overcome adversity that makes us stronger individuals and now I have a whole new perspective on life. Luckily I had great support from a few close friends and my girlfriend Barbara. They really helped me stay positive throughout the whole ordeal and I will be eternally grateful to all of them. The day she was given the "all clear" I just remember breaking down, it was a huge relief to know she was clear of the terrible illness. I have a completely new found sympathy for anyone dealing with sick family members. I am going to make it a major priority of mine to committing some of my time and money helping people that are put in similar situations to what my family went through.

Midway through June I signed my deal with Lock Poker to become a Lock Elite Pro and I couldn’t be happier with how that has worked out. The Lock team is awesome! Each and every member of the staff/pro team are really great people and it’s an honour to work with them. Being an MTT grinder for the past 4 years I have started to make the transition into other game formats. I have been grinding 200nl, 6 max turbo sit n goes and heads up super turbos. I’m enjoying learning how to adapt and I feel like it’s really helping my mtt game as well.

On August the 13th I finally plucked up the courage to ask my girlfriend to marry me. Although I was 99.999% sure she would say "yes" I have to admit it was by far the most nervous moment of my life. We have been together for 6 years and I would have asked her earlier but I wanted to get a little more established before I proposed as she has a very old school Italian family and I wanted to show I could provide for her even though she has an awesome job already. After signing my deal I decided it was the right time to go hunting for the diamond and a few weeks later I was ready. Unfortunately she said "No" and now I’m single...... "Psyche out" she said "yes" and now we are engaged to get married either at the end of this year or the beginning of next year.

In October the Lock team all met up for a 3 day team building vacation in a private castle just outside of Lyon, France in a town called Beaujolais (full of vineyards). Those 3 days were life changing! I met some great people and we did a few things I couldn’t have dreamt of doing a few years back. Anybody that’s been on a team building exercise will tell you that it’s awkward at first. I personally only knew 1 person heading into the castle but it wasn’t awkward at all and after those 3 days I can honestly say I have another 40-50 close friends. I pushed myself to do every team building exercise even if I was hung-over, still drunk or sleep deprived and I loved it. We went on wine tours, hot air ballooning, archery, little picnics and sampled some of the finest foods you will ever see. Like I previously stated it was amazing and I can’t wait to hang out with all of the lock peeps again.

Now I’m back in Canada and I’m on lockdown. I’m putting in some serious hours and I’m determined to make 2012 my biggest year on the felt. I have crushed my UFC and NFL sports betting lately which has covered for my 4k downswing in mtt's on lock since moving over to the site. I am winning 2.5k in heads up sit n goes and I’m breaking even in all other games. When you factor in my rakeback I’m still winning at a really good rate but it would be nice to convert some of the mtt shots I keep getting. I have been very deep in a few huge tournaments lately and I’ve just failed to capitalize. A few mistakes and a little bit of run bad haven’t helped but 2012 is a clean slate and I’m really enthusiastic.

Here are my goals for 2012:

Buy a house

Get physically fit

Put in a deep run in a live tournament

Start a series of Video Blogs

Make sure I enjoy myself and not stress too much

Do more charity fundraising!

GET MARRIED!!!

So on reflection I have to admit that starting 2011 I was in the worst place I have ever been emotionally and gladly for me 2011 went above and beyond all of my wildest expectations. Like I previously stated its how we overcome adversity that defines us and makes us stronger. With a new look on life I am in a very happy place mentally. I need to concentrate on putting in the hours online, getting fit and enjoying myself over the next few months before the WSOP!

One thing i try to guarantee myself on a year to year basis is that i make it out to Vegas for the full WSOP which usually starts late May. I love being there for the entirety to support friends that get deep in the early events and to get into the zone before the main event starts at the beginning of July. This year was slightly different with moving to Moncton but i still managed to get in a good chunk of live poker. I arrived a few weeks into the series around the 20th of June which quite frankly completely sucked!

By the time i arrived in Vegas, just 3 weeks into the series, i had already missed Chris Moorman get 3rd in the $2,500 6max for $271,800, Rick Trigg get 6th in the $1,500 triple chance for $55,355, Matt Perrins get 1st in the NL 2-7 lowball for $102,105 and finally Jake Cody get 1st place in the $25k heads up for $851,192. Obviously i was gutted but my main focus was to put in a few deep runs of my own and the recent success of my close friends just gave me more confidence going into the series.

Over the series I played 10 events

11-Jul-2011 $ 1,060 No Limit Hold'em - Main Event - 2011 Mega Stack Series, LV

103rd $ 2,343

05-Jul-2011 WSOP $ 1,500 No Limit Hold'em - 42nd World Series of Poker (WSOP) 2011, LV 95th $ 5,261

27-Jun-2011 $ 2,500 No Limit Hold'em - Deep Stack Extravaganza III, Las Vegas

11th $ 12,921

I had 1 really deep run in the $2,500 at the Venetian and got quite unlucky running 1010 into AA 5 handed vs a young Bulgarian lunatic. We had crazy history and it was really just a massive cooler so i cant be to harsh on myself. The main event went terribly for me and i busted on the last level of day 1. I had a crazy French guy with pink hair named Guilliam Dacourt on my table who 3b and 4b pretty much blind. This created an insane table dynamic and i just couldnt find to many good spots. My final hand was super standard as i 3b called 99 vs the French guy button vs BB for 32 bb's effective, he had AA and reluctantly called. Matt Giannetti was sat to my immediate right on my starting table for the whole day and went on to make November 9 so i guess i will be routing for him come November time.

This year my "away from the table" time was awesome! The house consisted of Me, Tom Middleton, Paul Foltyn, Dave Jones, Madison Bergeron, Rob Bostock, Richard Trigg and James Dempsey. Even though there was alot of early success this year, i still managed to see Moorman get 2nd in the 10k 6max for 700k and Thomas Middleton, Paul Nash and Jonas Mackoff make final table showings. Needless to say there were many drunken nights spent railing which usually led to Beer pong at O'sheas or back at the house as Pab managed to buy an official table at the start of the trip. The highlight of my beerpong experience has to be Moorman and Pab's 1cup prop bet. Chris was absoloutely wasted and can barely stand up so Pab decided to offer him 20-1 on $100 min bet that he couldnt make the cup with 1 shot. Obviously Chris being Chris instantly took him up and looked to immediatly sober up. All night he had been missing the whole table with his shots but out of nowhere he got insanely focused. Long story short he nailed it!!!!

Most nights when beer pong is played we tend to get wasted. If i had to sum up this years Vegas experience it would have to be the series of the "lock poker videos". One night after numerous games of beer pong i had fallen asleep on the sofa so Dave decided to stick a Lock Poker patch on my head and make a prank video. I woke up in the morning and he showed me the montage of 2 or 3 videos they had made that night and i thought they were awesome. Over the next few weeks this happened.

Thats the thing with the group of friends i have, the banter is unbeleivable. Every single guy has moments of comedy genius and it just keeps it so fresh around the house even when poker is going badly. To stay sane in Vegas you have to take time to get away from the strip and just hang out with your friends. This year we did a ton of hanging out and that probably has some kind of factor in everyone's success this year. We were so chilled out that it wasn't a chore to go and grind, it was fun.

Once the series was over a few of the guys from the house went to San Diego to go to Six flags Theme park and then to Disneyland. I really wanted to go but i decided to stay and grind the main event at Caesar's. I ran deep in that and min cashed but i ran a set into a flush on a 3 heart flop for the chiplead pot with 103 left. I was a little tilted after that but i had some friends visiting from England and we basically just chilled by the lazy river at MGM for a few days and explored Vegas. I had never been to Texas de Brazil before this trip and to be honest i had never even heard of it. Quite honestly this is my favourite place to eat in Vegas and there is no comparison. Its an all you can eat menu and you have these little cards on the table, one side is red and one side is green. Whenever you are hungry you flip it to green and these guys come racing over with these skewers of all different types of meat and slice you a piece off onto your plate. The food is so good and theres literally 10 or 15 different types of meat to sample. When you leave the restaurant you literally cant breath, your that full.

Im not usually to fond of shows but Trigg managed to drag me down to see Le Reve at the Wynn. This show is simply amazing. It has everything you could ask for in a show. The creativity is awesome and the performers are out of this world. In place of a traditional stage is a huge circular pool that holds 1 million gallons of water and descends to a depth of 26 feet. Performers swoop, splash, dip and dive into this watery abyss while performing dazzling acrobatics, aerials and dance moves. The choreography took my breath away and the final stunt a guy free-falls over 80ft from the theater’s domed ceiling into swirling waters below.

This summer was all about pushing myself to do things i wouldnt normally do. The high point of that has to be when me and Moorman did the Stratoshere SkyJump on the final day of the trip. Me, Chris and Pab were supposed to do it together but the night we wanted to do it they were fully booked so it ended up being me and Moorman on our own as the others had an early flight. Chris is afraid of heights and had a bet on with Pab that he would do it before he left Vegas. I have to say its the build up thats the scariest part. The jump itself is just a complete adrenaline dump. I recommend everyone tries it! I was so pumped after i finished it. It capped off an awesome trip and its opened my eyes to other thrill seeking experiences.

So i left Vegas pretty happy and all in all it was an awesome trip. Since then ive been really busy and ive got tons of stuff to update you guys on so il make that a new blog post.

Oh ya i got engaged.....