South America!

Date: Sat, Aug 2, 2008 Professional Internet Live Tournament

Right now my gf and I are in Mendoza, Argentina. On the 20th we left for Venezuela to do a week of traveling there followed by a week here in Argentina. This trip was very last minute, but all set up by Cardrunners member and friend Juan. He was extremely helpful, very nice, and we wouldn't have had half as much fun on the trip without his help. Thanks Juan!

In Venezuela we started off on the Los Roques islands, which were beautiful. The water was very clear, we had great weather, and the island is a national park so we stayed in old converted fisherman's houses (since there is no new construction allowed on the island). We did four scuba dives and saw all sorts of marine life including a huge
eel, some rays, barracuda, and lots of colorful fish and coral.

After three days in Los Roques, we embarked to Canaima National Park, not too far from Angel Falls (the world's tallest waterfall, at >1000m it is 19 times higher than Niagara). We took a three hour boat ride to the jungle and then hiked to our campground where we spent the night in some hammocks. The next morning we woke up early and
completed a two hour hike to the waterfall. It was an awesome site with so much water and mist. Rain had been pouring for a few days straight so there was much more water than usual. That night we took the boat back to Canaima and flew to Buenos Aires.

In Buenos Aires we stayed at the Four Seasons which was a nice change of pace from the jungle! The city was beautiful, very safe and clean. Overall it felt extremely European, most similar to Prague or Barcelona. We had some great food, went to a tango show, and enjoyed ourselves exploring the city.

After just two nights in Buenos Aires we flew to Mendoza, where we arrived a couple of days ago. We'll be spending about a week here. On the last night in the jungle in Venezuela, I got a pretty heinous insect bite and my ankle slowly
started to swell up. By the time I got to Mendoza it was in full on watermelon form so we went to the doctor and I got some medicine for it. It's feeling a bit better now and hopefully I'll be good to go for any strenuous activities we decide to get into. Two days ago we did a tour of some wineries in the Maipu region and drank mostly Malbec, which the Mendoza region is most famous for. They also have really great Cabernet Sauvignon. The food here is incredible and everyone is really nice. Our Spanish is so-so but I can tell it's gotten a lot better on this trip and it's definitely fun to practice! Yesterday we tried to go snowboarding but two hours into the drive the road turned out to be closed by the police due to too much snow :( On the way back though we did six massive ziplines over a lake and through some small mountains which was a blast.

This weekend we will probably get into some more wine action and maybe try to snowboard once more if the roads clear up. We took a ton of pictures but left our camera in Venezuela so hopefully it'll be shipped home by the time we get back and I can show you guys some pics.

Since I've been on the road with no laptop I haven't been able to play any poker, but it's been a nice break and I'll be playing a ton starting August 18th, when my gf starts her 9-5 and we become settled down in DC. We'll still be able to do lots of weekend trips and I'll do the occasional longer adventure, but I´m very much looking forward to getting settled down in the city. There is so much stuff to do, I´ve got lots of friends nearby, I'm excited to be able to put more time into poker and CardRunners, and I love love love the new place I bought there. That said, traveling is the best and this trip has been awesome. We've got one more trip left this summer -- a week in Kauai with David and his gf (and maybe some others)? My gf and I do a fair amount of traveling with them and they are a lot of fun, we can't wait to be back on the beach.

Setting up my new place in DC has been very rewarding. Picking out all of the furniture, art, etc with my designer has been a lot of fun and I´m thrilled with how it is turning out. All the stuff is custom and a lot of it from overseas so it takes a while to arrive, but hopefully by the end of August everything will be in place. I went for more of a lounge-y feel that will be perfect for entertaining friends.

gl and have fun!

Cole

San Diego, LV, Caribbean

Date: Thu, Jun 19, 2008 Professional Internet Live Tournament

edit;; sorry if the formatting looks terrible, maybe my mac is actin up? I decided to go to San Diego for my birthday which was an awesome choice. Larissa and I had a fantastic week there and did plenty of touristy stuff as well as relaxing. We went to the zoo, Temecula wine country, a Padres game, Nobu, and plenty of other places. Martin flew out which was great since I hadn't seen him for a while and I'm excited to plan our next adventure together. In San Diego I also met up with David (thatpfunk), TJ, Andy (Sponger), Kevin (ktrieu) Jay, Dave, Bill (MN crew) and a few other people (sorry if I forgot anyone! it's late). I hadn't seen David, TJ, or Andy since our last snowboarding trip to Whistler and they are a really fun group so it was fun to explore the city with them. David and his girlfriend were particularly awesome hosts and I can't wait to get back to San Diego again! Wine country was great, we all rented a limo and hit up a bunch of wineries tasting different wines and picnicking. Of course I got stuck 7 shots of the winners choice to Dave so that night we all got pretty toasted. Hopefully all pictures have been incinerated. After San Diego we all (me, Larissa, Martin, David + gf, TJ, Andy) flew out to Vegas for some WSOP. I hadn't been to Vegas in a long time and this was my first time there being 21. It was a lot different not having to be worried about playing big poker games or going out to clubs and we had a great time. I played the 10k heads up no limit tournament first. In match 1 I drew BrynnKenney. He played well but I ran better, winning two flips and the match. We play quite a bit together online and I've ran pretty good against him, but he wasn't bitter at all and was very nice. My second match I drew Dutch player Raszi. Tough draws! The whole field was tough to be honest. Raszi also played well and beat me. I don't really remember any big pots except him stacking me once for 40bb my AJ vs his A8dd on J83dd6c4c and another hand where the board came out exactly the same two hands in a row despite us having different hole cards each time, very weird. Anyways he beat me but was a good player and gracious winner. The next day I played the 5k plo rebuy. I managed to build up a big stack and was only in the event for $10k despite some others being in for close to $100k. With 155 runners or so and 18 paying I busted 20th. Annoying and I'm kinda sick of live poker after playing for three days straight and having zero results. I guess I like that after three days of cash games I'll either be stuck a ton or up a ton usually so it feels like I'm making some sort of progress. A big congrats to Phil for taking down the PLO event, you deserve it. We did some fun stuff in Vegas too -- eating Fix kobe sliders (my favvvvorite), seeing Ka, and taking a helicopter to the bottom of the Grand Canyon (hiiiighly recommend, awesome trip!). It's way more fun this way than playing poker all day. Just played this hand against applsgrl (v tough player) http://www.pokerhand.org/?2777722 ; annoying :/ The games online haven't been too great lately so I've just been enjoying traveling, seeing friends, being with Larissa, and relaxing. Tonight I decided to hop on and got some 500/1k heads up no limit heads up action for once against a player I've never seen before. I stacked him twice quickly and he left but hopefully it's a good sign that more no limit action will start up since it's been pretty dead lately. I've enjoyed playing PLO though and have been running well so that's always nice. I close on my new place in DC on the 27th and am very excited about it. It's in a great location in the middle of lots of action and I can't wait to set it up with all sorts of new cool stuff -- tempurpedic bed, new apple computer and monitors, furniture etc. I'm ready to get into a new home and sort out a new routine. I also want to start up mountaineering training as I've been reading lots of good books lately and can't wait to get back into the mountains. Right now I'm in the Caribbean getting ready to do some scuba tomorrow. It's getting late so I'm going to get some sleep soon but I had a great day of relaxing at the beach resting up for tomorrow. First I will rant though. I am running soooo sick bad in credit card roullette the past few weeks it's insane. I've lost literally every large bill with big groups. That's all. gl! Cole

Discovered by the Germans in 1904...

Date: Thu, Jun 5, 2008 Professional Internet Live Tournament

So instead of Vegas for my birthday, Larissa and I are leaving Virginia today to spend a week in San Diego with some friends (Martin aka alexeimartov, TJ aka TJ, David aka thatpfunk and his girlfriend). I'm excited, we've never been there before. We're planning on hitting wine country for a couple of days, going to a Padres game, flying in a hot air balloon, going to the zoo, and relaxing at the beach.

After San Diego we leave for Vegas for four days or so and I will play the $10k heads up and the $5k plo rebuy if I lose early.

Four days in Vegas should be plenty for me until the main event so we're flying from Vegas to Anguilla! I'm really excited about this, the island looks awesome and we're going to get our scuba certification.

I close on my new apartment on June 27th and then I'll get right back to Vegas for the main event. I'm definitely looking forward to that being over though because I'm not a huge fan of live poker and I'm psyched to get my new place set up and get into some semblance of a routine.

There hasn't really been any good action lately so I haven't been playing much poker, but Ariel won me a bit of money in the $5k mixed event. Unfortunately he was chip leader for most of day one and day two but it started to fall apart after a big bluff got picked off. He's not a sixth place type of player, he's either going to get a ton of chips or bust early so hopefully he can run hot and take one down this summer.

gl!
Cole

Sick session

Date: Sun, Jun 1, 2008 Professional Internet Live Tournament

So earlier today I was stuck a bit playing some heads up PLO matches and the occasional 25/50 game, mostly just waiting for action and a little bored. This is always a little annoying when your stuck too, and I think I was -$100k or so which in a high stakes heads up PLO match is a drop in the bucket.

I quit and went out for dinner and did some reading and relaxing. I'd like to get into mountaineering soon and so I've been reading some books on it, right now I'm reading No Shortcuts To The Top. I really like it; the author has a great writing style and sense of humor.

After dinner I saw that there were two deep 200/400PLO 6-handed tables running, but the line-ups didn't look that soft. I sat anyways to feel out the game for a bit and it became apparent that Ziigmund was playing and re(re)(re)(re)raising every single hand preflop. I think his stats on the session were something like 75/60. This is unusual even for him and regardless of how well someone plays postflop, when they are putting in so much money as a dog preflop, especially out of position, they are just leaking too much to win. It's going to be high variance to play against them though.

Well, for the first hour Ziigmund could not miss a full house if he tried and was stacking everyone over and over. He was mostly abusing David Benyamine and I and at one point I was stuck $400,000 or so. This made me a little sad so I decided to sit out and take a five minute breather, going for a quick walk outside. I came back refreshed and started crushing. Ziigmund made some untimely bluffs and I started catching hands. The upswing was huge, almost $1M, and I finished the day up over $400,000.

Some hands...

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2698800 This was the biggest pot I won. At $330,000 I think it's my biggest pot ever? 50% three-ways is huge in PLO but obviously shows how huge the variance is going to be since I'll be losing the massive pot about half the time.

Results:
Omaha Hi: 658008 enumerated boards
cards           win   %win      lose  %lose       tie   %tie        EV
7s Ad Ah 3h  331005  50.30    327003  49.70         0   0.00     0.503
Ac Jc Jd Td  195560  29.72    461780  70.18       668   0.10     0.298
Kc 6c Kh Jh  130775  19.87    526565  80.02       668   0.10     0.199

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2698811 Big favorite on flop, big dog on turn, BINK!.... check/call.

I'll end with this hand, one of the sickest hands I've ever played. http://www.pokerhand.org/?2698813

Ziig said he had 96. He's been playing really well lately and got the best of me in our last few matches (in NL too, weird) so it was nice to get one on him. It's always fun playing him though and I look forward to our matches in the future.

gl
Cole

Hmmf

Date: Sun, Jun 1, 2008 Professional Internet Live Tournament

Decided to play a tourney today for this first time in forever, the 5k winner take all on Stars. Busted in the first 10 minutes

PokerStars Game #17844391951: Tournament #89644325, $5000+$200 Hold'em No Limit - Level I (25/50) - 2008/06/01 - 14:37:45 (ET)
Table '89644325 1' 10-max Seat #6 is the button
Seat 1: BrynKenney (4215 in chips)
Seat 2: westmenloAA (5290 in chips)
Seat 3: strassa2 (5018 in chips)
Seat 4: ADZ124 (5180 in chips)
Seat 6: cts687 (4590 in chips)
Seat 7: nordlending (4930 in chips)
Seat 8: mindgamer (5795 in chips)
Seat 9: muchbetter (4982 in chips)
BrynKenney: posts the ante 10
westmenloAA: posts the ante 10
strassa2: posts the ante 10
ADZ124: posts the ante 10
cts687: posts the ante 10
nordlending: posts the ante 10
mindgamer: posts the ante 10
muchbetter: posts the ante 10
nordlending: posts small blind 25
mindgamer: posts big blind 50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to cts687 [5c Ac]
muchbetter: folds
BrynKenney: folds
westmenloAA: folds
strassa2: raises 100 to 150
ADZ124: calls 150
cts687: calls 150
nordlending: folds
mindgamer: calls 100
*** FLOP *** [Qc 3c Kc]
mindgamer: checks
strassa2: checks
ADZ124: checks
cts687: bets 400
mindgamer: folds
strassa2: calls 400
ADZ124: folds
*** TURN *** [Qc 3c Kc] [Js]
strassa2: checks
cts687: bets 1150
strassa2: calls 1150
*** RIVER *** [Qc 3c Kc Js] [Kd]
strassa2: checks
cts687: bets 2880 and is all-in
strassa2: calls 2880
*** SHOW DOWN ***
cts687: shows [5c Ac] (a flush, Ace high)
strassa2: shows [Jd Ks] (a full house, Kings full of Jacks)
strassa2 collected 9565 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 9565 | Rake 0
Board [Qc 3c Kc Js Kd]
Seat 1: BrynKenney folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: westmenloAA folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: strassa2 showed [Jd Ks] and won (9565) with a full house, Kings full of Jacks
Seat 4: ADZ124 folded on the Flop
Seat 6: cts687 (button) showed [5c Ac] and lost with a flush, Ace high
Seat 7: nordlending (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 8: mindgamer (big blind) folded on the Flop
Seat 9: muchbetter folded before Flop (didn't bet)

cash isn't going much better, playing Ben Grundy hu plo right now and lost the first two big pots

i'd say his play is pretty suspect here http://www.pokerhand.org/?2696021

meh unlucky ? http://www.pokerhand.org/?2696020

IRON MAN

Date: Sun, Jun 1, 2008 Professional Internet Live Tournament

Last night Larissa and I saw Iron Man. It was so good, Robert Downey Jr. is the man, if you haven't seen it go check it out. Sundays are usually pretty good action so I think I'm going to try to play some poker today. Hopefully I get some games.

The start to a new month always pushes me to work hard and get a lot of hands in. May went great, hopefully June is just as good.

I'm starting to rethink spending my birthday in Vegas because there are no WSOP events I want to play around that time. Maybe I'll go somewhere more fun and hit Vegas later on when there are good events. Maybe something like

now - June 12th: travel somewhere fun for my birthday. Wine country? Europe? hm. I want to go to South America soon but I want to go for longer than a week. Go somewhere to get scuba certified? Caribbean?

June 12th - June 16th: Vegas for the 10k HU, 5k plo rebuy

June 16th to June 25th: more travel

June 25th to July X?: Vegas for the 5k 6m, 10k plo, 10k nl

I get sick of Vegas pretty quickly and am not trying to do a whole summer thing there, I think I'd be fine with these trips though.

gl

Cole

Ship

Date: Fri, May 30, 2008 Professional Internet Live Tournament

The offer on my condo got accepted today! Sweet.

I also had my biggest day of poker ever, all on Full Tilt, +$435,000. I'll post hands later.

Out to celebrate a bit.

gl

Cole

Busy busy

Date: Fri, May 30, 2008 Professional Internet Live Tournament

Sorry I haven't gotten around to blogging in a while, I've been really busy with traveling/poker/life.

Everyone's out in Vegas by now for WSOP it seems, I will arrive on June 4th and my birthday is June 5th so if you're around come out and celebrate. I plan on playing the big fun events like the 10k plo, 10k hu nl, 5k plor, 5k nl6m, 10k nl, and maybe the 50k horse if I get good enough at those games in time.

This past month has been the last semester at college and even though I'm not in classes this is a big deal for me because all my friends are graduating. I've been trying to spend as much time with them as possible since everyone will be scattering for real world stuff soon. It's been a really fun month and I've gotten a lot of traveling in too.

Since my last blog I've been to Phoenix for a friend's wedding, Detroit for a trip with my girlfriend's family, NYC for Jay (KRANTZ/pr1nny)'s birthday, Chicago to see Taylor and Andrew and catch a cubs game, LA for the Playboy Mansion party, and Maui with David and our girlfriends. Here are some various pictures from some of these adventures

TJ and I at the Playboy mansion. So much fun.

David and I in Maui. I went 8-2 in credit card roullette and lost the two smallest bills. Ship it. He started off trying to make skill games but I was owning his soul too hard that we resorted to flipping coins. Watch out because now he is due to run hot in WSOP.

Krantz, myself, Emil, and Ariel at Jay's birthday in NYC. They're with a competing company now but we've been friends for a long time and are still buds of course.

I'm looking to move to D.C. in the next month or so and today I place an offer on a really sick place. I went up there two days ago and looked at 5 or 6 places but only liked one of them. However this one fits me perfectly so hopefully they accept my offer today. I'll post pics if I get it otherwise it'll probably make me sad :(

Poker has been going really well lately. I have been pretty hot everywhere (mostly 200/400PLO) and am closing out a huge month. Also I got a $181,000 refund from UltimateBet where I played against some cheaters who could see my hole cards about a year ago. I never thought I'd see any of this money again so it was a pleasant surprise when they called me up to tell me it was in my account. Including this money I think I broke a $1M month which is awesome of course. Good timing too if I'm buying a place in DC. It's been a swingy year in poker but overall really good and I've had a lot of fun "life" stuff too. I've learned a lot about managing upswings/playing big/choosing your spots wisely and hopefully I can keep it going. I never sell pieces of my action when I play and very rarely buy pieces of other players which I know some people were wondering about after the ADZ/MzPlz scandal and a recent article about a Stars 2/4 game.

My knee is starting to finally feel better, it's still not 100% but I can walk and run a little bit now. I'm anxious to get back on the mountains for snowboarding and rock climbing. I'm kinda interested in getting into some mountaineering too.

Right now I'm hanging out in Williamsburg until heading out to Vegas in a few days. Hit me up if you're going to be around.

gl

Cole

Snowboarding!

Date: Sun, Apr 13, 2008 Professional Internet Live Tournament

I've had a pretty crazy and really busy month and haven't gotten around to blogging, but this one should be a good one with a lot of cool pictures. In Mid-March, I took a spur of the moment trip (planned about 15 hours before we left) to Whistler with Andy (Sponger), TJ (TJ), and Dave (thatpfunk). We had a blast out there and they are a great group to hit the mountains and chill with. Whistler was really nice with lots of cool advanced terrain and a neat villlage area with good food. On our third day we rented a helicopter and hit some really sick backcountry runs, the longest being one vertical mile! They took a while to get down and there was deep powder all over the mountain, we had a blast.

Andy and I chillin in the gondola on the way to Whistler peak.

Dave and Andy taking a breather before hitting a run.

Backcountry shot

Heli landing

Whistler was a great trip and I'm definitely going to make it out there again as it's probably the best large mountain resort experience I've had. However, a few weeks after Whistler I went to Nelson, BC with my friend and CR member Jamin to hit Baldface mountain. This place was incredible and by far the most fun snowboarding I've ever done.

Absolutely gorgeous. The whole mountain is completely untouched, with a massive base and tons of fresh powder everywhere. I was fine on my Nitro twin tip board in the Whistler backcountry, but the powder was just SO deep at Baldface I had to switch to Burton Fish and Manolos.

Trying not to start an avalanche

Airing off of some steep ridges

Jamin shreddin some pow

More powder shots

The mountain is very remote (you have to chopper up) and there are no lifts, so all the boarding is done via snowcats. There were only three of us plus our guides on the mountain, which spans four times the terrain as Whistler!

Baldface was in incredible experience, but halfway through the third day I injured my knee hitting some jumps in the trees. I had to take it easy the rest of the trip and am still hurting pretty bad (this happened two weeks ago). I've got a torn MCL and have some meetings with surgeons this week to determine if I need surgery or can just rehab it back into shape. Anyways it sucks but I had a great season on the mountain and am staying positive, it's not slowing me down much.

Right after Baldface I went to Phoenix and Prescott AZ with my girlfriend to catch a friend's wedding which was a great time.

The weekend after we went to Michigan to see some of her family and we had a blast up there. I got to hit a Tiger's game while we there and the game was pretty good despite them blowing their lead and losing to the White Sox. Mostly the trip was just good company, good food, and good wine -- hard to beat.

Every semester since college started, a bunch of my housemates and I have road tripped to Atlantic City for a night and it's always pretty epic. We generally go to gamble a small amount, play $2/$4 limit hold'em, and milk all the free drinks that we can. There are plenty of great stories from these trips and I remember vividly going to play $5/$10 limit hold'em sophomore year with a $500 bankroll or so to my name and being very scared money! Well, things are a little different these days and this year I stepped it up for the crew by getting a private jet for all of us. None of us had ever flone private before and it was really convenient, a 26 minute plane ride as opposed to a 6.5hr drive through I95 traffic. We suited up, grabbed a few cases of beer, hopped on the plane, and partied at a few casinos for the night. Pat booked a solid win at $2/$4 limit hold'em and the rest of us had fun with low stakes poker, nickel slots, and double crown n cokes till it was light outside. We ate dinner at the Borgata's steakhouse, "Old Homestead," I believe. I would highly recommend it, the food was exceptional. Both the filets and the 20-oz Kobe burger are musts.

Self pic in the plane

Will and Jorge planning out the night

Rich playing "That Girl" slot machine.

AC was really fun and we flew back Friday morning. Friday night was my girlfriend's sorority formal which is always pretty crazy and a good time, so needless to say it was a long week.

Yesterday I took it easy and went to see "21." I thought it was entertaining and some of the Vegas stories felt very familiar. I hadn't written anything in a long time since I've been out of school and was a math major in college so for fun the other day I wrote out a few pages of memoirs from one particularly crazy night in Vegas. It was a good experience to put some of my thoughts on paper and I'll probably continue to write over the next few weeks, maybe some of it will make it on here. It's weird to think that a lot of the stuff that was supposed to be insane out of control high roller from the movie seems kinda meh been there done that to a 20-year-old. Hopefully this didn't come off as a brag or a knock on the movie (which I enjoyed), but it's definitely how I felt when I watched it.

I've been picking up music lately. Back in middle school I played and excelled at the drums and even played in a sweet rock cover band (think lots of Sublime, Nirvana, 311, Rage, etc) but, well high school band was really lame, so I lost interest in the drums and hadn't played them since eighth grade or so. My old housemates picked up the game Rock Bank for XBox last semester and we've been playing it quite a bit. The drums are so much fun and I'm really enjoying picking them back up. Everyone's got their own instrument and I'm (wait for it, brush it off) pretty legit at drums and can play just about everything on expert. When I move out of Williamsburg maybe I'll get an acoustic drum kit, but for now I picked up an acoustic guitar the other day and have been messing around on it. Martin says it sounds like I'm strangling baby kittens I think, but he's all the way in Australia right now and can't hassle me!

Well I've been writing for a bit and I don't really feel like talking poker now. Next time.

gl
Cole

Big Day!

Date: Mon, Mar 10, 2008 Professional Internet Live Tournament

Today is a big day for Cardrunners. We've partnered with Full Tilt Poker in a move that will definitely benefit CR members. There is announcement on our main page as well as a good blog post by Taylor if you want to read more. Myself and the rest of the CR team have also become red name Full Tilt pros which I'm very proud of. So I'll be playing on the screen name "Cole South" for now, MUCKEMSAYUHH has been retired.

I'm leaving for Whistler in a few hours and meeting up with Andy (Sponger) TJ (TeeJay) and David (thatpfunk) for a week of snowboarding, should be a blast.

The other day I picked up the new Macbook Air which I'm loving so far, but I haven't used a Mac in a long time so it's taking some getting used to.

I need to get to packing and make it to the airport, gl all
Cole

Spring Break

Date: Sun, Mar 9, 2008 Professional Internet Live Tournament

I just got back from Spring Break late last night. It was awesome. Me, my girlfriend, two of her sorority sisters, and three of our guy friends got a house in Ft Myers Beach, FL. It was right on the ocean and very relaxing to chill out on the beach for a week. On Wednesday night I got us all a limo (5 days old, stretch Chrysler 300 with lambo doors, cool bar, etc) to South Beach and tickets to the Heat game. The ride down there was a lot of fun and even though the heat got smoked (obv) we had an awesome time at the game. After the game we all headed to Nobu, which is my favorite restaurant on the planet. I've been there a ton so I've got the ordering down pat now and we got some really great food. After that we hit some clubs until calling it a late night and heading back to our hotel. The next day all of us piled in the limo pretty hungover and watched Top Gun on the way back to Ft Myers. It was a great week all around, I'll post some pics when they get put online.

I was without internet all week which was a nice change of pace but so much happens in the poker world in a week I had to get a quick update from everyone last night when I got back. Today I played a nice session and booked a pretty big win. This year is going great and I'm having a lot of fun playing. Lately I'm very confident in my game as well and I'm proud of my PLO results. After starting off on a $250k PLO downer on the year I'm on a half mill+ upswing and enjoying the game once again. It's one of those games where it feels like you are on top of the world and can beat anyone when you are hot, but feel like you can't win a pot against someone playing with two cards when the deck is cold. NL is going well too and I'm enjoying the action on Prima although the games have been slow on Stars and FTP. Here's a sick one from today where I was pretty sick to see the cards brick off, and then somehow get shipped the pot

- cts sitting in seat 1 with €61799 .00 [ Dealer ]
- xxx sitting in seat 2 with €16247 .00

cts posted the small blind - €100.00
xxx posted the big blind - €200.00
** Dealing card to cts:
cts raised - €655.00
xxx raised - €2020.00
cts raised - €6220.00
xxx called - €6220.00

** Dealing the flop:
xxx went all-in - €10227.00
cts called - €10227.00

** Dealing the turn:

** Dealing the river:
xxx shows:
cts shows:
cts wins €32893.00 from the main pot

and two PLO hands against g376 from today -- lose the first (with my set I'm a sizeable dog, 43% to win geez) and win the second getting it in very good.

FullTiltPoker Game #5565927071: Table Pantheon (6 max) - $200/$400 - Pot Limit Omaha Hi - 13:51:18 ET - 2008/03/09
Seat 1: guaranteed376 ($44 199)
Seat 4: MUCKEMSAYUHH ($49 199.50)
MUCKEMSAYUHH posts the small blind of $200
guaranteed376 posts the big blind of $400
The button is in seat #4

Holecards:
Dealt to MUCKEMSAYUHH [ ]
MUCKEMSAYUHH raises to $1,200
guaranteed376 raises to $3,600
MUCKEMSAYUHH calls $2,400

Flop:
[ ]
guaranteed376 bets $7,200
MUCKEMSAYUHH raises to $28,800
guaranteed376 raises to $40,599, and is all in
MUCKEMSAYUHH calls $11,799
guaranteed376 shows [ ]
MUCKEMSAYUHH shows [ ]

Turn:
[ ] [ ]

River:
[ ] [ ]
guaranteed376 shows a flush Queen high
MUCKEMSAYUHH shows three of a kind Eights
guaranteed376 wins the pot ($88 397 .50) with a flush Queen high
MUCKEMSAYUHH adds $34 999 .50

SUMMARY:
Total pot $88,398 | Rake $0.50
Board:
[ ]
Seat 1: guaranteed376 (big blind) showed [ ] and won ($88 397.50) with a flush Queen high
Seat 4: MUCKEMSAYUHH (small blind) showed [ ] and lost with three of a kind, Eights

FullTiltPoker Game #5565984147: Table Pantheon (6 max) - $200/$400 - Pot Limit Omaha Hi - 13:56:34 ET - 2008/03/09
Seat 1: guaranteed376 ($70 397)
Seat 4: MUCKEMSAYUHH ($57 997)
guaranteed376 posts the small blind of $200
MUCKEMSAYUHH posts the big blind of $400
The button is in seat #1

Holecards:
Dealt to MUCKEMSAYUHH [ ]
guaranteed376 raises to $1,200
MUCKEMSAYUHH calls $800

Flop:
[ ]
MUCKEMSAYUHH checks
guaranteed376 bets $2,400
MUCKEMSAYUHH calls $2,400

Turn:
[ ] [ ]
MUCKEMSAYUHH checks
guaranteed376 bets $7,200
MUCKEMSAYUHH raises to $28,800
guaranteed376 has 15 seconds left to act
guaranteed376 has requested TIME
guaranteed376 raises to $66 797 and is all in
MUCKEMSAYUHH calls $25 597 and is all in
guaranteed376 shows [ ]
MUCKEMSAYUHH shows [ ]
Uncalled bet of $12 400 returned to guaranteed376

River :
[ ] [ ]
guaranteed376 shows two pair Kings and Nines
MUCKEMSAYUHH shows three of a kind Sixes
MUCKEMSAYUHH wins the pot ($115 993 .50) with three of a kind Sixes

SUMMARY:
Total pot $115 994 | Rake $0 .50
Board:
[ ]
Seat 1: guaranteed376 (small blind) showed [ ] and lost with two pair Kings and Nines
Seat 4: MUCKEMSAYUHH (big blind) showed [ ] and won ($115 993 .50) with three of a kind, Sixes

Tomorrow morning I leave for Whistler very early and am going snowboarding through Thursday with my friend Andy (Sponger). EDIT: just convinced Martin to go too, his flight leaves in 1.5hrs, gonna be a fun trip. If anyone else is out there let me know and we can meet up for drinks or some boarding. After my Tahoe trip I'm really psyched to get back on the slopes.

I have one other very fun snowboarding trip planned this month and the story of how it got set up may interest some of you. I do some poker coaching at the rate of $1250/hr, but demand is very high and I'm not able to coach the vast majority of people who are interested in receiving lessons. Cardrunners member Flash237 PMd me a while back asking for coaching but my PM boxes on CR and 2+2 are flooded with messages so I generally cannot reply to them. When he didn't get a response he tried a different approach and e-mailed me telling me a little about himself, mentioning that he's an avid expert snowboarder and wanted to do an all expenses paid trip to Baldface in exchange for some poker lessons while we're up there. If you haven't heard of Baldface, check it out -- they only allow 24 people on the mountain at a time, there are no lifts so all riding is done backtrail via heli and snowcats, and it's some of the sickest powder in the world. He's been out there before and said it was the most fun snowboarding he's ever done so we're going to meet up there for four days of boarding and poker, I'm definitely looking forward to it. I'm at the point right now where the games are good, I've been hot lately and am really enjoying playing, so I haven't been terribly motivated to start back up coaching. But I love traveling and learning new things (for example going to Thailand with Martin to learn rock climbing) so if you've got a unique skill or talent that you would want to trade for poker coaching drop a comment on my blog.

gl all
Cole

Damn you KK

Date: Fri, Feb 29, 2008 Professional Internet Live Tournament

Seat 1: MUCKEMSAYUHH ($102,346) -
Seat 2: guaranteed376 ($98,911.50) - -


PRE-FLOP:

Dealt to MUCKEMSAYUHH:


guaranteed376 posts small blind $300
MUCKEMSAYUHH posts BIG blind $600
RAISE guaranteed376 ($1800)
RAISE MUCKEMSAYUHH ($6400)
CALL guaranteed376 ($4600)


FLOP:

Pot: $12800


BET MUCKEMSAYUHH ($8600)
RAISE guaranteed376 ($24000)
RAISE MUCKEMSAYUHH ($95946)
CALL guaranteed376 ($68511.50)
UNCALLED MUCKEMSAYUHH ($3434.50)


TURN:

Pot: $197823




RIVER:

Pot: $197823




SHOWDOWN:
MUCKEMSAYUHH:

guaranteed376:


guaranteed376 collected $197822 from main pot with a full house, Queens full of Threes

SUMMARY:
Total pot: $197 Rake: $0.50

Final Board:


Seat 1: MUCKEMSAYUHH big blind showed [Kc Ks] and lost with two pair, Kings and Queens - Net Gain/Loss: ($-98911.5)

Seat 2: guaranteed376 small blind showed [Qd 3d] and won 197,822.50 with a full house, Queens full of Threes - Net Gain/Loss: ($98911)



Seat 1: MUCKEMSAYUHH ($56,199) -
Seat 2: guaranteed376 ($201,922) - -


PRE-FLOP:

Dealt to MUCKEMSAYUHH:


guaranteed376 posts small blind $300
MUCKEMSAYUHH posts BIG blind $600
RAISE guaranteed376 ($1800)
RAISE MUCKEMSAYUHH ($6400)
RAISE guaranteed376 ($201922)
CALL MUCKEMSAYUHH ($49799)
UNCALLED guaranteed376 ($145723)


FLOP:

Pot: $112398




TURN:

Pot: $112398




RIVER:

Pot: $112398




SHOWDOWN:
guaranteed376:

MUCKEMSAYUHH:


guaranteed376 collected $112398 from main pot with a straight, Five high

SUMMARY:
Total pot: $112 Rake: $0.50

Final Board:


Seat 1: MUCKEMSAYUHH big blind showed [Ks Kc] and lost with a pair of Kings - Net Gain/Loss: ($-56199)

Seat 2: guaranteed376 small blind showed [Qs 4d] and won 112,397.50 with a straight, Five high - Net Gain/Loss: ($55898.5)

It's safe to say KK is my biggest losing hand of the year after last night. I played two tables of 300/600NL heads up vs g376 and know I had a large edge in the match, but he got slapped in the face by the deck and I lost $244,000 to him. Despite that brutal session I broke exactly even (-$400) on this trip thanks to running hot in some PLO and smaller NL. And I had a blast in Tahoe, can't complain.

Stinger was nice enough to ship me $50k on Eurolinx yesterday, where I haven't played in forever. After getting off to a rough start and almost busting it I got some good heads up NL action at 50/100Euro and ran the account to $115k so hopefully I'll continue to get action there. It's a nice change of pace to play some of the Scandi opponents on Prima, fun and a challenge.

I'm about to head to the airport and catch a flight back to Virginia, then going to Ft Myers for Spring Break on Sunday!

gl

Cole

Tahoe!

Date: Wed, Feb 27, 2008 Professional Internet Live Tournament

Yesterday I arrived in Tahoe for a bit of a vacation. This place is awesome. I had just finished traveling with all of the CR guys in Santa Barbara and next week I'm off to Florida with a bunch of friends so it's nice to have a few days in between to do my own thing.

My snowboarding is pretty strong, and I have no problem just wrecking it down any of the toughest slopes on the lousy Virginia mountains, but I had never been riding out west before. This mountain is so sick, the entire thing is covered with ten feet of snow, and there is deep powder everywhere (Squaw Valley for those who know the area). The coolest part is that there aren't named trails, there are just 34 (34!!!) lifts that take you wherever and the whole mountain is pretty much fair game. My room is right on the slopes which is great, and I just finished riding all day.

Snowboarding here is quite an adventure since you can basically go anywhere and I did have one close call earlier today going down the toughest terrain on the mountain (KT-22) which was crazy steep, had deep powder, and a lot of obstacles.

Halfway down I notice some sign that I'm going way too fast to read and then about 100ft later I notice that 20ft in front of me I can't see any more ground. So I insta pull back on my heel edge and manage to stop five feet or so in front of a cliff

This is a picture from the top of the cliff after I backed up ten feet or so. So I manage to save myself from going off this cliff but now I'm completely off the trail and have to hike back up a couple hundred feet in waist deep powder. EXHAUSTING.

Climbing back up the mountain in this powder was just so tiring I had to call it quits for the morning and take an hour lunch break back in my room. After lunch though I hit the slopes hard and was really pleased with my riding on the KT22 "trails."

Bottom view of my cliff -- I probably could have made it down if I hit it at full speed but it would have been really damn dangerous for sure

I've played a little poker since I've been here and have been continuing to run well in the bigger Omaha games as well as NLHE despite somehow getting crushed at the 25/50PLO? A big PLO pot and an interesting deep NL hand against a tough player:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2179741

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2179746

I'm really having a blast out here, today was so much fun on the slopes and I was a little nervous that my snowboarding would be pretty rusty but I got my skills back by the afternoon for sure. I'm heading to dinner now, then lying in an outdoor hot tub with a beer and the latest Economist.

gl

Cole

Unstuck!

Date: Mon, Feb 25, 2008 Professional Internet Live Tournament

Maybe my last entry was good luck or something because I just finished a big day at 200/400PLO and am now unstuck in PLO for the year. Feels good!

Games are still sick good but I made dinner plans with my girlfriend and a break would probably do me some good so I'm going to book the win.

biggest pot of the day http://www.pokerhand.org/?2166773

gl

Cole