A little less than a year ago I entered this realm of the FTR world thinking that I was already a quite accomplished online player. I had a bankroll of over $1k and was ready to take on the world. I remember telling Ilikeaces he was just "lucky" and that he had no real "poker skills." I remember advocating a buy in once for rebuys and treat them like Freeze-Out approach for MTTs. And I remember posting "great hands" of mine which included my open-limping in Limit. And each time I made one of these posts I was roundly and sometimes harshly shot down.

I want to thank each and every poster who shot me down.

When I came to this site I was a better than average player... any player who is beating the rake is better than average. But this site has helped make me a much better than average player. I still find myself saying every couple of months that I am finally starting to "really see the light." I believe that this site will continue to let me say that.

I still have leaks in my game which I am trying to overcome. In my case, playing outside of roll and tilting, and refusing to step into the technology age are my biggest errors. But the patches are falling off less and less now. In fact, for the first time ever, I am probably actually now playing within my bankroll.

I am now at a point where I believe I can offer meaningful advice to help others get to where I am at and I am willing to help if asked. I also know that I am no poker god and will continue to seek to improve my own game by posting here with my thoughts on others' hands as well as looking for advice and criticism on my own hands.

I hope this next year will be as good as this first one (both in terms of my bankroll and in terms of my skill level).

Thank you FTR.