Vegas...

Date: Fri, Jun 6, 2008 Professional Internet

I arrived in Vegas late last night. It was a real hassle getting out here. I had a miscommunication and missed my morning flight which required me to fly in at midnight last night. On the plane ride I sat by one of the most beautiful girls I had ever met. In true baller fashion I managed never to say a word to her as well as never speak to her when both our bags were lost and we had to wait around for an hour for US Airways to find them. What can I say I got no game. I finally arrived at my hotel very late last night.

In the morning I had a quick breakfast and then had meetings all day long. Jed (kinda CR's CEO), Lee, Taylor, Andrew and I had numerous discussions about the direction of the company as well as other miscellaneous tonics. It was exhausting but very productive and we got some things in order which needed to be taken care of. After we finished we went over to the Rio where we checked out all the advertising. We spent a ton of money this WSOP on promotions something we had never done in the past. I was impressed with the work Ezra did on putting together all the booths and banners, though we did get some bad placement for a few banners and the booth isn't in one of the prime locations.

Tonight we are heading out to dinner at Okada at the Wynn and then going out for drinks. Tomorrow is another full day of meetings and then I fly out on Sunday. I am not playing any tourneys this trip, but have to come back at the end of June for some filming with Full Tilt Poker.

Nice job UB

Date: Mon, Jun 2, 2008 Professional Internet

I recieved this email from UB a few days ago:

Auburn 1/2 ironman

Date: Thu, May 22, 2008 Professional Internet

Amy ( www.amynave.com ) and I have been training for the 1/2 ironman for 20 weeks. Amy and I followed a training guide at www.beginnertriathlete.com, which was pretty rigorous and required about 10-12 hours of working-out a week. I didn't stick to the schedule as well as I should have and neither of us trained with a heart rate monitor. For the next triathlon I do I plan on rigorously sticking to the schedule and using a heart rate monitor.

The race was on Sunday the 18th and we drove up to Davis to stay with my parents Thursday evening. Auburn is 45 minutes away so we stayed the two preceding nights with them and the evening after the race. The night before the race I took a bunch of sodium tablets which dissolved in water and bubbled very similarly to alchzelsor. I also filled up the water bottle on my bike with the sodium tablets. I had never had them before, which is something you should NEVER do before a triathlon. You want to have trained with all the nutrition that you use on race day.

The day of the race we got up at 4:30 and made the trip to Auburn. The race had two transitions so we had to leave our running gear about 7 miles from where we were swimming and biking. It was lucky that my parents came to watch so we didn't have to ride from the bike transition do the bike transition as many of the athletes did. When we arrived at the swim/bike transition I realized the aero bar water bottle I had was missing the tube, so I couldn't use it. I only had one water bottle on my bike and temperatures were supposed to be over 100 degrees.

Amy and I had been training together and although she is faster than me, quite a bit actually, we agreed to do the race together. I used to be much faster than her but over the past year she has really improved her running, biking and swimming. I can still beat her in swimming and biking, but not by much and she is a much faster runner than I am. I think that she would beat me in a triathlon right now, but I really plan on working hard and beating her at the Santa Barbara long course in August.

We started off the race at 7:05. I was supposed to be in the male heat at 7AM but I didn't realize you had to be out in the water and not at the dock. So I hung back and started with the women five minutes later. I really enjoyed swimming in a lake. Its so much easier than the ocean since you don't have to deal with currents and salt water in your mouth. I finished the 1.2 mile swim in 42 minutes. Here I am coming out of the water:

Here I am putting on my bike shoes:

Here is Amy after the swim getting ready for the bike:

Here we are just about to start the ride:

I felt good after the swim. The first 7 miles of the bike was straight up hill. There was about 1500 feet of elevation gain going from the lake up to the foothills. I was rested and we did the climb very easily. When we got to the top of the hill I started to get a quezy feeling in my stomach. The water I was drinking with the tablets I had the evening before were not sitting well. When we reached the first aid station at mile 10 I was feeling horrible. I looked at Amy and told her she had to go on because I didn't think I could finish. It took allot of convincing but I finally convinced her to go on and finish the race. I unclipped from my bike right after the aid station and decided that I had to clear out my stomach. I stuck my finger down my throat and threw up three times. It was almost completely liquid as I had been drinking tons of water over the past few days.

After puking I was sitting on my bike feeling a bit sorry for myself, I hate when I do that, when a very very fit women in her mid 40's biked by and said "I bet you feel better, make sure to rehydrate so you can finish." I quickly thought to myself "finish I was thinking how I was going to get back to the car." Her calm demeanor and encouragement really got me going. Instead of quitting I got angry at myself for wallowing in my own self pity and decided to go on. Once I began riding I began to feel much better. I was biking pretty quickly and I caught up with Amy at about mile 20. She had slowed down and was annoyed at me for thinking I gave up so easily.

Once we got going again we really jammed on the bike. It still took us four hours to finish, but we were passing up allot of people as we went. Two miles before we finished the bike on the final climb, my chain came off and my back derailer and my bike was clicking every time I pedaled. Luckily we only had the downhill left and I cruised to the run transition. It took us about four hours to finish the 56 mile bike.

Right at the start of the run I got the quezy feeling again. My stomach was hurting and I puked again. At this point it was about 100 degrees and I was a bit dehydrated. My body and legs felt really great, but my stomach was hurting every time I ran. So I had to walk for a few minutes then run a few. Amy was feeling great and probably could have finished the run in about two hours, which is amazingly fast for how hilly it was, hot it was, and the fact that we had been working out for five hours. In total it took us three hours to walk run the 1/2 marathon. We finished just over eight hours. I really think Amy could have finished in about 7 hours and I would have been 5-10 minutes after her if I hadn't got sick. She was a great friend and waited for me and walked even though she could have gone much faster. I am really lucky to have such an amazing friend.

Here we are crossing the finish line, she wanted to make sure she beat me, she is very competitive.

Auburn 1/2 ironman

Date: Thu, May 22, 2008 Professional Internet

Amy ( www.amynave.com ) and I have been training for the 1/2 ironman for 20 weeks. Amy and I followed a training guide at www.beginnertriathlete.com, which was pretty rigorous and required about 10-12 hours of working-out a week. I didn't stick to the schedule as well as I should have and neither of us trained with a heart rate monitor. For the next triathlon I do I plan on rigorously sticking to the schedule and using a heart rate monitor.

The race was on Sunday the 18th and we drove up to Davis to stay with my parents Thursday evening. Auburn is 45 minutes away so we stayed the two preceding nights with them and the evening after the race. The night before the race I took a bunch of sodium tablets which dissolved in water and bubbled very similarly to alchzelsor. I also filled up the water bottle on my bike with the sodium tablets. I had never had them before, which is something you should NEVER do before a triathlon. You want to have trained with all the nutrition that you use on race day.

The day of the race we got up at 4:30 and made the trip to Auburn. The race had two transitions so we had to leave our running gear about 7 miles from where we were swimming and biking. It was lucky that my parents came to watch so we didn't have to ride from thebike transition do therun transition as many of the athletes did. When we arrived at the swim/bike transition I realized the aero bar water bottle I had was missing the tube, so I couldn't use it. I only had one water bottle on my bike and temperatures were supposed to be over 100 degrees.

Amy and I had been training together and although she is faster than me, quite a bit actually, we agreed to do the race together. I used to be much faster than her but over the past year she has really improved her running, biking and swimming. I can still beat her in swimming and biking, but not by much and she is a much faster runner than I am. I think that she would beat me in a triathlon right now, but I really plan on working hard and beating her at the Santa Barbara long course in August.

We started off the race at 7:05. I was supposed to be in the male heat at 7AM but I didn't realize you had to be out in the water and not at the dock. So I hung back and started with the women five minutes later. I really enjoyed swimming in a lake. Its so much easier than the ocean since you don't have to deal with currents and salt water in your mouth. I finished the 1.2 mile swim in 42 minutes.

Here I am coming out of the water:

Here I am putting on my bike shoes:

Here is Amy after the swim getting ready for the bike:

Here we are just about to start the ride:

I felt good after the swim. The first 7 miles of the bike was straight up hill. There was about 1500 feet of elevation gain going from the lake up to the foothills. I was rested and we did the climb very easily. When we got to the top of the hill I started to get a queezy feeling in my stomach. The water with the sodium tablets I had beendrinkingwas not sitting well. When we reached the first aid station at mile 10 I was feeling horrible. I looked at Amy and told her she had to go on because I didn't think I could finish. It took alot of convincing but I finally convinced her to go on and finish the race. I unclipped from my bike right after the aid station and decided that I had to clear out my stomach. I stuck my finger down my throat and threw up three times. It was almost completely liquid as I had been drinking tons of water over the past few days.

After puking I was sitting on my bike feeling a bit sorry for myself, I hate when I do that, when a very very fit women in her mid 40's biked by and said "I bet you feel better, make sure to rehydrate so you can finish." I quickly thought to myself "Finish? I was thinking how I was going to get back to the car." Her calm demeanor and encouragement really got me going. Instead of quitting I got angry at myself for wallowing in my own self pity and decided to go on. Once I began riding I began to feel much better. I was biking pretty quickly and I caught up with Amy at about mile 20. She had slowed down and was annoyed at me for thinking I gave up so easily.

Once we got going again we really jammed on the bike and we were passing up alot of people as we went. Two miles before we finished the bike on the final climb, my chain came off and my back derailer and my bike was clicking every time I pedaled. Luckily we only had the downhill left and I cruised to the run transition. It took us about four hours to finish the 56 mile bike.

Right at the start of the run I got the queezy feeling again. My stomach was hurting and I puked again. At this point it was about 100 degrees and I was a bit dehydrated. My body and legs felt really great, but my stomach was hurting every time I ran. So I had to walk for a few minutes then run a few. Amy was feeling great and probably could have finished the run in about two hours, which is amazingly fast for how hilly it was, hot it was, and the fact that we had been working out for five hours. In total it took us three hours to walk-run the 1/2 marathon. We finished injust over eight hours. I really think Amy could have finished in about 7 hours and I would have been 5-10 minutes after her if I hadn't got sick. She was a great friend and waited for me and walked even though she could have gone much faster. I am really lucky to have such an amazing friend.

Here we are crossing the finish line, she wanted to make sure she beat me, she is very competitive.

Hardest thing I have ever done...

Date: Mon, May 19, 2008 Professional Internet

I will write up more when I get home, but I finished the Auburn 1/2 ironman. I spend the last three nights with my family in Davis CA and am currently there. I plan on driving down to Santa Barbara this afternoon. It was very very challenging but its only been 16 hours since I finished and I feel pretty good. Part of the reason the race was so challenging was my lack of preparation. I broke the cardinal rule of triathlons and tried something new on race day. I had these sodium tablets which were like alkazelser and they caused me to puke four times during the race. Other challenges were the heat. They had record highs and it got over 100 degrees and about 105 degrees in the valley where we were running. I will write up more in the next couple of days.

Monkey tilt...

Date: Thu, May 15, 2008 Professional Internet

I played a horrible session last Sunday. I was on pure monkey tilt and knew I could only play for 15min. I ended up playing two 15 min sessions and lost 73K. It really bugs me because I know I play poorly when I don't have atleast an hour to play. Also my family was there for Mothers day and they were in the room talking. Anyways I am really disappointed in myself. It wasn't even like I lost that many big pots, I just managed to lose almost every pot I played for the 200 hands I put in.

Not much to say here except thats PLO.

www.pokerhand.org/

I like bet calling in this hand, I think checking is a bit to weak and gives to many free cards. Couldn't win the flip.

www.pokerhand.org/

Here I probably should have checked the flop, but when the shortie went AI I had odds to try to outdraw.

www.pokerhand.org/

My Mom had a great Mother's day and loved, walking the 1/2 marathon with me. We had an amazing dinner that evening at my favorite sushi restraunt. The next day we had a nice Sunday brunch.

My 1/2 ironman is quickly approching. I am very nervous and not feeling very confident in my ability. I am just not feeling like I am prepared, but I am sure when I am out there I will be fine. I thought I would finish in 5-6 hours, but after looking at the times of last years top performers I am probably going to come in betweeen 6-7 hours. I am fine with taking my time as its my first 1/2 ironman and self declared as the worlds toughest 1/2 ironman.

200/400PLO and 50/100 HU PLO

Date: Fri, May 9, 2008 Professional Internet

Yesterday evening I played 200/400 PLO and 50/100 HU deep PLO. I really like these new deep PLO tables at FTP. HU I played against Steel Bunny, who seemed to play well and I would suspect is a regular, even though I haven't seen him play much. Early on I reraised and got a very nice flop. I don't know if I really like how I played this hand, I feel as though I may have missed some value.

www.pokerhand.org/

I made a bunch of strong hands early in our HU PLO match. This allowed me to make allot of strong bets which I am sure frustrated him, but I wasn't bluffing. That’s why when this hand came up I received some extra action.

www.pokerhand.org/

He left shortly after that hand with me winning 13K. I need to get back to playing my HU hands and after my ironman I intend to finish them up.

I also played some 25/50 and 200/400 6 max winning 15K. Here I suck out, and I think my turn call is very close with David behind me who may reraise.

www.pokerhand.org/

This was my largest pot of the evening. I think I played this hand well and made a nice river VB. David called me so quickly that I thought I had lost to some random seven.

www.pokerhand.org/

In total for the day I ended up winning just under 30K. My family is in town this weekend for Mothers day. Tomorrow I am walking the Santa Barbara Wine Country 1/2 marathon with my Mom as a mother’s day gift. Last year was the inaugural year and it was a great time. You run a 1/2 marathon and then spend the afternoon in this park in Solvang with all the local wineries having tasting. There is great music, along with tons of great restaurant in this little Danish village. I am really looking forward to it.

Getting a bit burnt out…

Date: Mon, May 5, 2008 Professional Internet

Today I went for a three hour bike ride followed by a 20 minute run in preparation for the Auburn ½ ironman. We biked up Gibralter which is the largest hill in Santa Barbara. It’s actually a very dangerous road and I had a friend who was killed on it two years ago when she lost her balance and was run over by a truck. After her death there was a big petition to adjust the width of the road, so it’s much safer now, but I still get nervous whenever I ride on it.

We have been training 2-4 hours 5-6 days a week for the past few weeks as we are in the most intense portion of the training schedule. I have to admit that I am really looking forward to the final two weeks of tapering as working out this much is very time consuming. For me when I workout for three hours, I spend another three hours eating, showering, and resting.

I used to be debating about doing a full ironman, but after training for a ½ I don’t think I will be doing it. I already spend a ton of time training and I couldn’t imagine having to devote twice that time to working out. I also don’t think I am the greatest tri athlete build. I am a bigger guy and was always drawn to sports with contact, like football and rugby. I tore my ACL in rugby my senior year and whenever I run for more than 1.5 hours it really begins to hurt. It is partially bad when I run on concrete or other hard surfaces. So I think this will be the longest race I ever run. That said I can’t really say that running 13.1 miles, biking 56 miles, and swimming 1.2 miles is a small feet. If you told me even two years ago I would be able to do that in one day, I would have thought you were crazy.

Yesterday was a day off from training and my friends and I spent it celebrating my friend’s birthday at my house. We had a little surprise party for here and BBQed from 2 until we went downtown at ten. We ended up staying out until 2AM and I really felt the 12 hours of drinking on the bike ride today.

A little poker

Date: Thu, Apr 24, 2008 Professional Internet

I got the iche to play some poker last night but unfortunatly there were no NLH games running. I wanted to get some hours in at NLH but unfortunatly I couldn't. Instead I played three tables of 50/100 PLO. The lineup seemed pretty good and I booked a small win in about an hours worth of play. I ended up winning about 2.5K in that time which is a nice win for that game in that time period. Here are some of the interesting hands.

I often jam dry flops like these with wraps, but here I opted to call as I was pretty sure my opponent had a set or two pair.

www.pokerhand.org/

Another nice pot, which I played deceptivly. This is defenitly not my standard line.

www.pokerhand.org/

Other than those pots I didn't really play any big ones except for this hand where southside made a very good call on me. I do however like my bluff, I am unsure what his reasoning for calling was. I will have to give it some thought.

www.pokerhand.org/

Horrible race

Date: Sun, Apr 20, 2008 Professional Internet

Yesterday I ran the worst race of my life. I could make a bunch of excuses as I was not feeling well, but I won't. I am a bit worried about my upcoming 1/2 ironman now. I used to be very confident in being able to finish easily but yesterday I ran a 10 mile race in a pathetically slow time (which I am not even going to share) and what’s worse was I felt horrible the entire time. I have been traveling a bit and not focusing on my training as I would like to be. So for the final seven weeks I really want to step up my training and make sure I don't miss a workout. That entails working-out 6 days a week for about 1-3 hours a day. As the race gets closer I will begin to taper and workout less but for the next few weeks I will have some long workouts.

My diet as also deteriorated a bit and I have been eating some very unhealthy foods which is affecting my energy level in workouts. I have a dietitian who puts together everything I eat, but I have been out drinking and with friends and not really sticking to it for dinners. Some days I have been going back to just eating one gigantic meal during the day and not eating the rest which is very unhealthy. So for the next seven weeks I really want to stick with eating good foods.

Hopefully I can stick to these changes and have a great performance in seven weeks.

Poker After Dark

Date: Thu, Apr 17, 2008 Professional Internet

I promised you guys a Poker After Dark trip report and I can give some details, but unfortunately I signed a non-disclose agreement and can't give to many details of actual hands etc. I can say the show went about as well as it could have for me. The line up pitted three younger player’s vs. three more experienced ones in a "net vs vet" format. It does sound a bit corny to me but I think the show is going to be very exciting to watch. The younger players were Myself, Tom Dwan and Andrew Robles who you may know as Good2cu. The "Vets" were made up of Doyle Brunson, Johnny Chan and Huck Seed. We had allot of very good table banter and even had the opportunity to discuss some interesting prop bets. Huck Seed really impressed me when he won a bet against Doyle Brunson for standing on his head for an hour. That is such a hard thing to do; I would have bet him 10K he couldn't have done it. They had a bunch of other really interesting prop bets such as running mile times. I am in pretty good shape training for this 1/2 ironman and I couldn't even come close to the mile times Huck and Doyle were discussing in their primes. Anyways I think the show will be one of the best, as we had tons of good discussion and everyone seemed to really enjoy themselves.

It took me awhile to write this blog, because I have been sick the pas few days. I have a 10 mile race Saturday which I am really looking forward to but won't run if I am still not 100%. My 1/2 ironman is in 7 weeks and I have been training, but travel and being sick have caused me to miss some workouts. Hopefully I can stay on schedule these next few weeks and have a good time in the Tri. My goal is to have the same time as the Santa Barbara long course tri even though the 1/2 ironman is 30% longer. I came in about 4 hours for the SB tri I want to have a time of about 5 hours and 15 minutes for the 1/2 ironman. This may be too lofty but I will do my best.

Vegas and a new video...

Date: Fri, Apr 11, 2008 Professional Internet

Today I made a very different video than I have in the past. I am unsure how popular it will be as it’s not of me playing but of me analyzing a hand in a PowerPoint presentation. It actually took way longer to create than my normal videos. I would love feedback on the video because it gives a great opportunity to create something different. I am fearful that most people will find it boring and not as good as my other videos. I really think I discuss some very important issues and generally focus on how I analyze a hand away from the table. I usually don't have the opportunity to walk through a hand slowly because the action at the tables moves very quickly.

I am in Vegas for Poker After Dark, which I am very excited to play in. I heard there is a special table line up so I think the show will be very interesting. I will give a trip report next week.

A bit of poker and Poker After Dark

Date: Wed, Apr 9, 2008 Professional Internet

Sorry about not having too many updates I had a bunch of friends in town last week. Every year a bunch of my good buddies come down and do a pub golf competition. Basically it’s a group of 40 of us who go around to every bar in Santa Barbara dressed in golf attire having a drink. We start at two in the afternoon and by two in the morning the group has usually dwindled to about five people. It’s really a lot of fun and it’s always nice to see friends. I hope the tradition continues as it has for the past four years.

Last night I played a bit of poker in the first time in a week. I had had a few beers and was on a waitlist for some 25/50 NLH games. I never got on the 25/50 6max games but did play some 25/50 full ring and a bit of 200/400. I didn't really have any interesting hands as most of the pots I played were very small ones. I quit after 15 minutes partially because I had some beers and partially because my opponent at 200/400 HU was a very strong HU specialist who has played allot more HU than me in the past 6 months.

Tomorrow I leave for Vegas for the evening to film Poker After Dark. I am really excited about being invited onto the show and can't wait to play. It’s filmed at the South Point Casino and I feel very honored to be invited. The producer also mentioned that I may have the opportunity to play in more than one heat which would be great. I will give a trip report when I get back.

Worst Joke Ever...

Date: Fri, Mar 28, 2008 Professional Internet

I had the worst practical joke played on me. I was down in LA on some business and when I received a phone call from a number I had never seen. I answered and the lady on the line identified herself as Lisa and said she was coordinating the invites for the Playboy Mansion celebrity poker tournament. She was instructed to call everyone who had been invited the previous year. I explained to her that I was not invited last year but that I would love to attend. She was kind of surprised and said that I was invited this year. She asked me for my email so that she could send me a formal invitation. I gave it to her repeating it three times and having her say it back to me.

Right after I got off the phone with Lisa I instantly called Taylor, Andrew and Ezra to brag about my invitation. They were stoked as most mid 20 year old males would be. As I was driving home I started to check my email on my phone. I probably checked my email 100 times in the two hour drive just to see if the invitation had arrived. To my surprise I never received any email. Nor did I receive anything the next three days. So then I finally decided to call back this Lisa to see what the deal was only to find the number ring indefinitely. I never heard a thing about it after that. I must say thats probably the worst practical joke you can play on a guy who’s in his mid 20's. To make him think he has a chance at hanging out with supermodels all night is a pretty cruel joke.