As February begins, I’m looking forward to 2014, and I have three big goals for the coming year.

First of all, I was very grateful last year to be nominated for the Poker Hall of Fame. It was wonderful just to be picked as a finalist, and from discussions I’ve had with people afterwards it sounds like I received some support in the form of votes, too. So a goal I have for 2014 is hopefully to be nominated again and give the voters another chance to vote for me.

I do think there are a number of worthy players who are not American who deserve to be in the Poker Hall of Fame. Most of those who vote are from the U.S., and so it is understandable, I suppose, that more American players get attention when it comes to how the votes go. But it is time for some of the great players who aren’t from the U.S. to be voted in, too, I think.

My second goal this year is to start winning tournaments again! It has actually been a while — since 2011 — that I won one, so it is time for me to get back in the saddle. A lot of my Latin American friends have been winning tournaments lately, both on the LAPT and elsewhere, which is inspiring me even more to do well. So I’m making it a resolution of sorts to win one myself in the coming year.

Winning a tournament is very difficult, of course, especially since the game keeps evolving with players changing their styles and making it even more challenging as time goes by. Nonetheless, I’m still energized to play and am more motivated than ever to grab another win.

I’ll be playing all of the LAPTs as usual, and I’ll be in Las Vegas for the summer for the WSOP. I’m also going to play EPT Monte Carlo and EPT Barcelona.

Finally I have a third goal this year, too. My oldest son, Humberto, Jr., is graduating from university this year, and it’s always been a dream of mine to play in the WSOP Main Event with both of my sons, Humberto Jr. and Roberto. Humberto, Jr. has never played before, so I’ll be buying him in to play.

Ideally I’d love it to have Humberto, Jr. play in all of the LAPTs and the two EPT stops I plan to play as well. He’s actually more excited about the EPT stops in Barcelona and Monte Carlo, because he’s never been to either of those places. In fact, he kind of thinks of the WSOP as being mainly for older players like me and my friends (since I’ve been going for so many years).

Those are my goals this year. Here’s hoping 2014 is the Year of the Shark!

Humberto Brenes is member of Team PokerStars Pro

Back to Top