Also he final tabled SCOOP 1 and SCOOP 28 for $350k in cashes.

And he won a watch, probably this one:

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. 

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…

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.

1. I planned to finally get officially started with a workout program/diet regimen with Alfalfa from SA. He operates a company called PetraFitness where he creates customized plans for training/nutrition. I was active pretty much all throughout my life up til the past few years when poker and traveling kind of put a stop to it all – but hopefully this program works out and gets me back on the good health wagon. I got in touch with David earlier and it seems we’re good to get started, so mission accomplished here.

2. I planned on playing some cash this morning. Not much was running when I wanted to start, so I ended up putting in a shorter session since there wasn’t too much action. I’ve really been committed to playing a bunch of hands at 3/6 before moving up and have been mostly successful in this ‘mandate’. There’s no real reason for it – I’m a winner at everything up to 50-100 – I just haven’t played cash in awhile and wanted to put in a bunch of hands to get the rust off before letting my inner degen out to play 500-1k. I’m pretty happy with how it’s been going, although I’ve certainly been running pretty well. There was a hand today – co raises, btn calls, I call bb w KQ w/ the K of clubs, flop comes JcTc9c and get it in 3 ways vs JJ and Ac2c. Equity looks pretty dismal…until we river the ol queen of clubs for the scoop. Yeah, I’d say I’m running well. Anyway, I ended up playing for about 90 minutes or so and won about $1500. I was going to play longer, but I wanted to get to the loftiest goal of the day…

3. FIX THE FUCKING DESKTOP. I pretty much knew starting the day that this was going to be the worst task ahead of me, likely meaning sitting on the phone with Dell for hours on end. After spending at least 30 minutes trying to find the “right” number (XPS ‘premier’ support might be the biggest inside joke in Dell company history) I got hold of a woman who clearly had no idea what to do with me and my fairly complex issue. After a 105 minute phone call, about 60 minutes of those with me sitting on hold, and literally 0 progress, the phone call disconnects – without me having been given a case number. Sigh.

I call back a few hours later, this time to a different number. Energized by what might have been the most unique meal I’ve ever made for myself – baked tilapia with string beans (yes, you are still reading a jcarver post!) – I prepared myself for another war of attrition with support.

This time I spoke to a guy who had a much better grasp of “computers” than the first woman. I was put on hold for very short periods of time, a case was officially detailed, and we actually did things that might result in a solution. In the end, it seems like Dell is going to have to ship a bunch of new components – hopefully that’ll fix whatever the issue was.

I feel like I’ve been pretty productive so far today – compared to my usual definitions of productive being “get out of bed” and all, this is like building the golden gate bridge in a day – but there’s one thing left that I’d like to get straightened out. The prop bet that’s been proposed to me seems to be falling through mostly due to the fact that I’m having trouble quantifying the very hard-to-define edge that my competitor has. In short, it’s a profit race; the first one to $X in income wins an additional (large) sum.

The sticking point in getting this off the ground is that I’d be restricted to mid-stakes cash (no higher than 10-20), where I’m a proven winner, versus his mid-stakes PLO + SNG play, where he’s not a proven winner. I’d certainly be a favorite straight up, but he wants some silly amount of edges (rakeback, etc) to balance my perceived edge, complicating things. I’d like to do the bet but I’m not going to do some huge prop bet if there’s a chance of hustlage…we’ll see. The other thing is that this is a “volume bet”, meant to get both of us to play more than he currently does. I, for one, am happy with my amount of play, and I kind of like the idea of being free to do other things if for some reason I wanted to in the next 4 months. If I took this bet, I wouldn’t have that freedom, so…meh at the spot.

I’m playing the PLO and 2-7TD wcoops tonight. I’m not particularly good at PLO, but I’ve been watching a lot of jman’s videos lately trying to improve my understanding of the game, with mixed results. I want to play a bunch of plo hands at $3-$6 or $2-$4 to try to get more experience at some point – I enjoy the game a ton, but there’s just so much I don’t know about it…gotta get some more experience. 2-7TD I’m even more inexperienced at – Daniel’s been trying to teach me but I still make rather silly mistakes. Mind you, I’ve been playing fairly high stakes 8game – 40-80 on average – where my mistakes are amplified and exploited more often than not – but in a $300 tournament, I think I have a (tiny) edge on the field. I probably should get to focusing to this moon poker, so let me just say there’s a little PokerVT news and maybe a little more poker conversation to come in the next few blogs…