I’m heartened to see I got a few comments on my last post.  Thanks to all who left comments or read my post, I’ll address the questions raised at some point (even the hooker one, even though I’ve never knowingly patronized one so I guess my opinion isn’t worth a whole lot in that regard).  Instead of speaking about weighty issues, I think I’ll talk about the most recent episode of House, entitled “Wilson.”  For those who have not yet seen this episode and don’t want to see a bunch of spoilers (this means you, Jason!) I suggest you don’t click through.

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After seeing the doctor on monday, we decided to continue ahead with the plan I discussed in my last blog and cut off the final drug I was on to control the ulcerative colitis.  It’s been years since a major episode, but going medication free is still a risk.  I’m obviously hoping to not fall into a flare, but we have plans in place if I do.  I’m excited, yet feeling a little trepidation over going drug-free.    I’m worried things will fall apart, but being that I have no real control over my digestive system – besides what I eat, and I’m very good with that – there seems little point worrying too much about it.  I need to know if I can survive without the meds, since living without it would be miles better in many ways.  Seems like a gamble I have to take.  I’m hoping all the various negative health problems I was blaming on the drug’s side effects fall to the wayside over the next week or so.

Today was my first pill-free day in 5 years.  It’s a very odd feeling not to have to take anything.  I’m going to have to stow all the pills I have strewn around the house because I keep compulsively reaching for them out of habit, haha.  Finally being free of the pills has put me in a pretty good mood, certainly buoyed by the great week for me online, a series of wins like which I haven’t had in some time.  I felt I played pretty good throughout on sunday (I mean, 60% of what I won was in a turbo.  I ran hot as hell, obviously) and am feeling pretty good about my game.  Hopefully the results (read:heater) will continue (and maybe spill over into PLO).

I sent my latest video series over to PokerVT the other day.  I’ve been told they’ll be released next week.  It’s some of my best stuff yet in my opinion, a review of a $.5-$1 NL cash game played by one of my students.  It’ll be my first cash video for PVT and I hope it’ll be well-received.  Make sure to watch it and send me all your comments/questions, I love getting feedback from members on videos…don’t be shy.  I’ve been trying to post more on the forums so be sure to fire away anything you want to ask me over there.

In addition to all of this cool stuff going on, I’ve got a project under way this week that should make things work smoother around here if it’s successful.  I have a lot of faith right now that it’ll work out, but it’s kind of taking my attentions away from poker for a couple of days.  It’s a secret for now   I really want to play poker though, and I’ll be getting back to it asap.  Will be back to grinding this weekend if not before then.

Speaking of grinding, I finished Oz the other day.  God what a disaster that show turned into as the seasons went on.  After season 3 the plotlines were just consistently riddled with unfathomable logic.  Anyone who has seen the show knows what I mean, it’s not really something you can argue.  It was a good show, but by the end, I was so glad to be done with it.  Not sure what’s next but I’ve been meaning to get around to Big Love for only about 6 months now so probably that.

There’s a good chance I’ll be blogging more because of a prop bet I was offered by Leo/Pechorin.  He offered some sort of blogging-last longer thing that I think will be a good motivator for us to keep our blogs current.  I for one want to hear the thoughts of the world champion of HUNL and I’m pretty sure the internet does too. 

First, apologies to my loyal readers (both of you) for not updating this thing since April.  Now, likely because I’m taking a law school exam in 12 hours and thus feel the need to distract (or sabotage) myself, I’m compelled to share some thoughts with the world.  It’s been a pretty interesting seven-or-so months since then, to say the least.  Let’s see, I…

• Didn’t fail or drop out of law school after two semesters.
• Helped defend people’s First and Fourteenth Amendment rights with the wonderful folks at the ACLU of Nevada.
• Lived with a great group of friends in the best Vegas poker house yet.
• Developed a slightly-greater-than-cursory interest in watching (obviously not participating in) MMA.
• Played three live donkaments.
• Won one of them.
• Lost ~$26k in about 209k hands of online cash.
• Won ~$10k in about 209 hands of live cash.
• Went through the motions of interviewing for 2010 summer jobs with big law firms.
• Failed to land such a summer job for 2010, perhaps due to being an awkward, inarticulate interviewee (for proof of this, you need only type my name into YouTube).
• Enjoyed most of the third semester of law school (exams pending…c’mon B-minus average!).
• Read at least one novel.
• Watched several dozen movies.
• Listened to 50 Cent’s “I Get Money” a few hundred times.
• Had needles jammed into my upper back on two occasions.
• Whined uncountably many times (insert diagonalization joke for Derk) to JCarver about poker despite being up way more on the year than I anticipated or deserved.  If there were justice in poker, one could posit that his most recent heater is a karmic reward for patiently absorbing all those whines without once threatening to beat the shit out of me.  You’re welcome, buddy!

I suppose I’ve done other stuff too; perhaps that stuff will merit mention in future blog posts.  And yes, there will be future blog posts, once I get the proper motivation to write ‘em up.  I guess I’ve always been a pretty private perfectionist, which obviously hampers my blogging abilities.  After all, if I’m unwilling to share my innermost thoughts with the world, and unwilling to churn out posts that consist merely of uninteresting poker whines and brags,  then obviously this blog’s output will suffer.  But for the love of money, I’ll shower you all in blog posts.  Until then, I’ll do my normal cop-out and list things I plan to write about.  Maybe, just maybe, I’ll get around to doing so this time.

So, dear reader(s), what would you like me to write about next?  The 10k WSOP Heads-up tournament (what little I can recall of it; I was very “in the moment” throughout much of that tournament, which I guess contributed to my success)?  Breaking even over 350k hands of internet cash games?  Books?  Movies (I’m definitely going to write about District 9 at some point, which, despite its flaws, is one of the better films I can recall seeing in recent memory)?  Law school and the law generally?  Politics?  Salacious details of my personal life?

I guess this is a call for some input in the comments.  I see those comments as proof that people actually read this; while it might be a nice personal exercise to write out my thoughts once in a while, it seems a bit pointless to do it on the internet if there’s no audience out there.  I hope at least some of you are interested in the fucked up things that bounce around my dome.  If you are, let me hear it, fuckers!  If you’re not, well, that’s just like, your opinion, man.

November was pretty damn good to me.  A lot of aspects of life are “progressing nicely” at the moment – I’ve got a rekindled desire to play online MTTs again, I’ve been successful at cash games, my coaching group is plugging along nicely, I’ve spent a ton of time working on my own game, and I’ve made a “life gamble” that hopefully will net gain happiness EV.  What a tease of me to put that last.

I’ve always loved tournaments.  Even in the old days when I was 18-19 and a MSNL cash player I’d enjoy the thrill and “challenge” of tournaments, even though I was making huuuuge mtt mistakes and basically donating (as much as a winning cash player could “donate” in 2006) week after week on sundays, never really winning any money.  Obviously my life changed once I started listening to Vivek and his hocus pocus aka “reasons for doing things” and started making sense of proper tournament strategy.  Mixed with a little bit of hijacked brown magic and you get a pretty ill 2007.  My affinity for the online variety of MTTs comes and goes; it’s not nearly as interesting as live tournaments are, and aren’t really played for large amounts of money, and structures tend to be pretty shallow and boring.  That being said, I’m back into them for the meantime, and the past few weeks have made 5 top-9 finishes (but 0 wins ) and it feels pretty good to be “back”.

In my last post that didn’t have anything to do with almonds, I mention that I’ve started dabbling in cash again and was looking to make a full transition back to it.  Well, de-rusting operation: success.   I’ve come back to the 3-6 games and put in a bunch of hands (without playing too much higher somehow!  well, at least not TOO often).  I’m very comfortable with my NL game right now and feel like it’s probably better than it’s ever been.  I’m putting a ton of hours every week into working on my game in watching videos or reading material, and reaping the benefits from all the coaching work I’ve been doing too.  My coaching experiment that I started a few months ago has been working on so many levels – it’s not what I exactly envisioned it would be, but it “works” much better than I imagined.  It’s obviously a good experience for the students, but it’s very very good for me as well as a player.  It’s an awesome motivator to keep current with videos, put in hours, and make sure all my reasoning is solid.  I’m very glad I did it and hopefully it’ll keep being successful.  I am still accepting students on a very limited basis, however, you need to have a minimum bankroll of 6k, some sort of reference (I have to know who you are or have someone I know vouch for you) and above all you have to have a passion and a ton of time to dedicate.  If you think you fit…well…message me.  Note even if you are the man I’ve been waiting all my life for you might not get in, though, since we’re pretty full at the moment, but you never know.

A few weeks ago, I played a guy at 2-4 HU plo.  In not too many hands, I was stuck 2.2K.  I felt like I wasn’t getting horribly outplayed but I really had no idea what was correct in so many spots.  I never really learned PLO or spent any time on the game (although I have HHs of playing 25-50 PLO from 2006, lol), and that loss although tiny financially kind of motivated me to unbury myself from my lifetime -70k cashgame PLO hole and really learn the game properly.  I’ve spent a dozen hours watching videos, about half that reading stuff, and about 25 playing the past week.  That is a lot of PLO.  I’m trying not to play above 3-6 (which can be a tough game sometimes), and so far so good – I’ve won about 5k at an avg stake of 2-4 and feel pretty comfortable.  My vpip has even sunk below 30 !!!!  I know, I didn’t believe it was possible either.  The first time I clicked fold facing a raise with I kinda tensed up for a moment sensing I was going to get smited from above for my sin, but I never did, so…maybe tight(ish) is right after all.  We’ll see.

As I’ve mentioned on this blog before, I was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis a few years ago, but outside of the 4-5 months of hellish misery a few years ago, I’ve been mostly fine and in remission.  I’ve decided though that the side effects of the colazal, the only medication I’m currently on to maintain remission, are just becoming too much on a day-to-day basis and I’m going to try to get off it entirely.  Rare is the day where I feel 100%; far more often I feel 80% and have some collection of headaches, pains, nausea, fatigue, tired from trouble sleeping, etc.  The hair thinning is annoying as hell too for a 22 year old.  I used to blame all the aches/pains/problems on the colitis itself, but it appears my maladies seem at least somewhat likely to be a side effect of the pills.  I wasn’t even able to swallow a pill until I was 17, and once I got sick, I haven’t had a day go by since then where I wasn’t taking something.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining, I know how bad some people with UC have it, and I’m very appreciative to be in remission and all, but I have to see if I can live better with less meds/no meds/different meds.  As my awesome doctor says, we can do whatever I want medication-wise, since I’m the one risking the misery of a flareup.  More gambling.

In PokerVT news, I’ve recently finished a 2.5 hour video that I truly think is my one of my best ever.  It came out really, really good, and I think it’ll be very well received.  It’s certainly not a beginner video, but I think I explain myself pretty well and obviously I’ll be available for questions after the videos are posted.  There’s also several ridiculously cool series in the works that I’m going to be involved in that will make for some awesome content….look for that in early of next year.  And maybe a blog post before then.  Promises, promises…

So on PokerVT there was a post yelling at me to make more blog posts so I’ll make an effort.  It’s not like I’ve forgotten about the blog, but rather that anything I want to write has another platform for it.  Strategy stuff I pretty much limit to the PokerVT forums.  In fact, I’ve made over 900 posts there in under 4 months.  I really make an effort to answer everyone’s questions.  Now that I finally have a Facebook account there’s a spot for a little bit of BBV there.  I just really don’t like to talk about myself much, especially to the world.  As far as what I read, I don’t check any regularly, per se, although anything that JCarver, Unamuno, MTC, or StefanProdan write are pretty good mostly because of a good amount of humor.  I absolutely detest blogs that are updated daily with results.  I can understand how it can be useful to keep a journal, but keep that stuff to yourself.  What really bothers me is that some people actually attract a following through self promotion, and despite being busto stakes/breakeven/bad players, use it as a platform to essentially scam people into wanting to get coaching.  Not naming names, but there are many people out there like this.

Anyway, evang spent a few days out here and I went with him one day to play poker at Treasure Island.  Their poker room is small and only had one table of 2/4 going.  A few of the players were there playing to try to accumulate 200 hours so they could play in some freeroll.  The rake as well as the players were atrocious and after about 3 hours I was ready to cut my wrists.  We hit up the Rio, my first time back since WSOP, and played some Texas Hold’em Bonus.  Going to casinos, aside from going to say hello to JCarver for WPT Festa al Lago at the Bellagio, kinda got me interested in killing some time there occasionally.

So, I got the awesome idea that I would go grind video poker and get up to a higher tier level of rewards at the Boyd group of casinos (The Orleans, Sam’s Town, Gold Coast, etc.).  I also took some sports picks from someone I know that has a pretty good record in this stuff, and was on my way.  Well I basically made over $1000 playing video poker while occasionally checking lines, placing some smallish bets, etc.  Then after maybe 10 or so hours of playing video poker across 5 or 6 days I realized it is the most boring thing ever.  I don’t even understand how people get addicted to gambling in that way.  Yeah, punting off your paycheck over 10 hands at the blackjack table is one thing, but I would see people grinding 25 cent video poker (be it +EV on full pay machines or -EV) for the entire day, several days in a row.  I actually even caught some woman surreptitiously pulling out a cheat sheat from her purse every 2 minutes or so to check on a hand.  Really, if you have to check that often, you’re not doing it right.

Anyway, about 1/3 of the way towards the next tier level I decided that was enough for me and quit video poker.  I’m definitely going to go check out some other sportsbooks though.  The NBA lines at the Boyd casinos were OK, but the vig on the MMA lines was pretty bad.  I don’t know if that’s standard or what, but I guess I’ll find out as I visit other books.  I’ve actually wanted to get more into sports betting for some time now, even buying some of the better known advice books, but I’ll just stick to going off other peoples picks that I trust until I get my feet wet.  Drop a comment if you have any tips on sportsbooks in Vegas.

a few days ago I found a package on my porch. it was pretty large – the side of the box informed me that it weighed almost 35 pounds. I was worried that I’d have to call some burly friends to help me move it, but I remembered a trick I had learned in my youth and successfully moved the box inside. Here is a short clip of the operation:

But what is it??? I hadn’t ordered anything lately, and was quite curious what fantastic item could be contained in such a high available content container. But look! On the side!

WOW! I’m rich! If you haven’t seen it, during the last bellagio $15K I made all the requisite bold moves necessary to land the biggest achievement of my career, the BOLD DIAMONDS BLUE PLAYER OF THE DAY, scoring me a YEAR SUPPLY of almonds (also that video finally motivated me to have none other than phil ivey’s barber cut my hair). By the end of the tournament, I hadn’t just won almonds but I also won weeks of recurring nightmares after being chip lead going into day 3 and bubbling on day 4 (sigh). Anyway, back to the box.

One might suggest another item for scale purposes; however, I don’t think I’ve done anything besides play call of duty and eat spaghetti in about a month and it seems like a tragedy to put spaghetti on the floor, so controller it is.

Upon opening up the packaging, I see five “cases” of almonds, all of a quite wonderful variety.

If you can’t quite make it out, the flavors are jalapeno smokehouse, lime+chili, wasabi+soy sauce, habanero bbq, and bold salt + vinegar. If you know me at all, you know that these flavors suite my taste palette PERFECTLY. Or, well, not. Not that I’d necessarily even eat plain almonds, but still, habanero, wasabi, and jalapeno? I might as well drink ground up glass for what it’ll do to my colon. I do like salt though (but I’ve never had bold salt) and vinegar is always good on a salad (as long as its specifically red wine). Upon looking at all these, I pause for a moment and wistfully think about what could have been, that perhaps there could have been a Kraft-y Bluffer of the Day instead for potential macaroni riches or some such instead, but it is what it is. But if I’m not going to eat them, what do I do with them?

The answer seemed pretty obvious….

Yes, I’m a whore. But I’m a whore with almonds. After spending an embarrassingly long time trying to stack these almonds in other configurations (spirals are TOUGH), my mind started to wonder : just how long would these last an adult with normal ish eating habits? These are supposed to be a year’s supply, yet they expire in 3 years. That’s kind of them to give some wiggle room there.

There’s 60 almond cans, each claiming to contain 6 servings, each serving size being 28 almonds. That’s a total of 360 servings, 10,080 almonds, and a grand total of 61,200 calories (170 per serving,*6,*60). If you ate 2 servings, or 56 almonds a day, it would last you 180 days. Apparently, they suggest you eat only 1 serving a day if you want to make this last you a a year.

Real blog post coming again soon, some quick good news for PokerVT subscribers though – I’ll be making a few new series to be released in December, alongside a cool one I did with Pearljammer that’s finished and going to be released soon as well.