The year stands alone as an all-encompassing thought, both adjective and noun, grammatically speaking. We move forward into a new calendar year. We break the year down into months and weeks and days and hours and minutes, we break it down into intervals between those things and smaller than those things. I'm a year older, and I can say with absolute certainty a year wiser.

I've done a great deal of reflecting, and I'm itching as always to write some kind of life-changing super-blog which includes, but is not limited to, my intricate views on self-awareness and my 'place' in the 'world'-- whatever that means. I'm going to hold off though, because (coincidentally, or perhaps ironically, I'm not sure) one of the things I'd write about is moderation. If I write too many blogs about how keen my perception of life is, or how awesome I am at poker, or how to be as smooth with the ladies as I am-- then I would be unbalanced, I'd displease Shania, I might even lose my status as the best blog on the internet! That would truly be ashame; and what's worse, Ashman might get more views than me! That would be the real traveshamockery.

But here I am, writing about nothing in particular. The words might make you comatose with boredom, they might tantalize your poetic appetite, or they might jump off the page and grab you by the scrotum; though I'm not sure why they'd do the latter (can I use the latter when referring to three things? I'm not sure I can, but there I leave it, in grammatical turmoil). Regardless, here I am and there they are, on the couch and on the page, straight to your PC or Mac, and subsequently materializing in front of your very eyes. What you make of them is up to you.

Really, they are nothing. Relatively speaking, nothing of substance. I stand to tell you that I've written nothing meaningful up to this point in this blog. Perhaps it might even be said that I've wasted X minutes of your life, where X represents a number and that number represents an amount of time, the time which is already somewhat been qualified in this blog. And that X is directly related to how well you, the audience, reads the English language and how distracted you are. So you've spent that time reading nothing, but is nothing in fact something?

The enigma which has so far represented my first blog of the year 2009 is primarily related to the bliss that occurs a few hours after the new year begins. A fresh start and a new outlook on life. This year I've chosen not to make promises that I cannot keep, so I won't trivialize the 'tradition' of making a resolution. And incidentally, maybe I've backed into a resolution.

The substance of the blog is short and sweet: The holidays have come and passed successfully. I'm going to the bahamas tomorrow and I'll be there, without a computer, for 10 days. That's my story and I'm stickin' to it.

With still two weeks left, I've decided to wrap up most of my real poker playing for 2008.

Just after New Year's last year I had just gotten back from Florida and I made this post on 2+2.

Today I won $4,229 in 48 hands and 9 minutes and 24 seconds, which allowed me to hit a milestone and prompted me to make this post.

It's very difficult to say how much I actually made this year because I lost quite a bit staking, quite a bit at live cash, quite a bit taking pieces of people, quite a bit at live tournaments-- but I won a decent amount at 200-400 as well. I elected not to include anything higher than 50-100 in my results because I usually only had 25-50% of myself. I thought it was pretty unfair to get an accurate depiction of downswings and run good/run bad. I also did not include PLO because that was a nightmare. So, without further ado, and with plans to only play midstakes over break (if at all), here are my results at 50-100 and lower for 2008:



I guess I ran about $80k below EV.

This is the breakdown of stakes and other stuff:



Finally, here is my work ethic and hourly:



Needless to say, I pretty much matched my goals with regards to poker. I'm still somewhat disappointed in the amount of discipline that I sometimes don't exhibit, but I'm pretty happy with my shorthanded NLHE game. I think the other things I lost money in were mostly due to short term variance.

If you haven't stopped reading to post your comment yet, I'll elaborate on what the short term future has in store for me. I'm going to spend the next few weeks before the PCA trying to relax as much as possible. I want to distance myself from poker as much as possible, and if I do touch poker, I'd rather it be non-playing things like Leggo related stuff, strategy forum stuff, and Memoirs related stuff. Getting caught up on everything life related, including random chores and Christmas Shopping, is also on my to-do list after I finish my last final tomorrow at 8 AM. I might even try to meditate and do some yoga-- keep my head in the right place where it is.

I'm very content with things, and I don't mean that in a negative way. Without sounding too cliche, sometimes life can get you down. I generally feel like the million things to try to kick you when you're down are easier to see the things in life to pick you up. Keeping your awareness at a high level and being on the lookout in general will allow you to see be more optimistic. Look for the good in life.

Every once in a while I watch this speech, which adds up to probably a half dozen times every winter. Tonight, I watched it twice. If you haven't seen the Jimmy V speech, I encourage you to watch it-- although perhaps I could devote an entire different blog to the Jimmy V Foundation for Cancer Research.

Either way, I'm really stoked Christmas and the PCA in the next few weeks. I'll definitely pump out a few blogs to give you guys the heads up since I know you're concerned about me as always.

Until then, be good.

So yesterday I got stuck a bunch by running really badly against some good spots at 100-200 HU, but I managed to grind it back at 25-50 and 50-1. It was one of those days that are mandatory once a month or so to put things in perspective. Thankfully, and largely in part to a 1700 bb pot at 25-50, the largest on record (I mean, if you know of a bigger one, lemme know), I did not lose 6 figures on this day-- I broke even (roughly).

So, in honor of making the sickest 1709 big blind hold with 66% equity, I'm going to play only 5-10 and 10-20 today. Although I'm usually pretty even and calm in my demeanor, I actually remember intently sweating the nine of hearts and the nine of spades on this turn and river, and then practicing counting upwards from four to see if there was a break in continuity until I reached the number nine. The shake afterwards was too much for me, and I think I'll take it easy for the rest of 2008, unless I get another spot I can't pass up at 100-200.

So, without further introduction, here is the pot in question:

Full Tilt Poker, $25/$50 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 2 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

Hero (BB): $42,789
SB: $42,730.50

Pre-Flop: A A dealt to Hero (BB)
SB raises to $150, Hero raises to $675, SB raises to $2,025, Hero raises to $5,775, SB calls $3,750

Flop: ($11,550) 4 5 2 (2 Players)
Hero bets $7,500, SB raises to $36,955.50 and is All-In, Hero calls $29,455.50

Turn: ($85,461) 9 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

River: ($85,461) 9 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Results: $85,461 Pot ($0.50 Rake)
Hero showed A A (two pair, Aces and Nines) and WON $85,460.50 (+$42,730 NET)
SB showed 6 7 (a pair of Nines) and LOST (-$42,730.50 NET)

And that's all I have to say about that.

You know it's almost Christmas when you get two aejones blog posts on back to back days. This will be a little shorter, but I'll still invite you to read up, sports fans.

Today I had a really cool day. We won an intramural basketball game for a second night in a row, the thumb hasn't been hindering me too much. We beat a team that was probably better than us, but I was lights out. I must have scored 17 of our 22 points, including some ridiculous run to start the second half where we went from down 3 or 4 half, to up like 7. It was almost vintage me. Tomorrow we play the best team in the league.

To celebrate, the gf and I went out to my favorite sushi place in Indy. The meals I get there are absolutely ridiculous, and I have had a pretty strong taste for sushi lately. The evening had a little bit of a damper because my gf and I had some kind of misunderstanding. It's so difficult to try to explain a situation to someone that you know is having trouble believing you when the situation itself is, in fact, so pedestrian. I just felt like I kept coming off wrong when I was trying to rectify the situation. It really wasn't a big deal though, and she's got a pretty good tolerance for me so I think we'll be okay.

It couldn't put a damper on my day though, and I came back and won a few buy ins at 25-50, then made a monster video at 200NL for release hopefully soonish. I definitely broke the 6-figure plateau for the month at some point in the last 48 hours, which is nice.

Also, I've done quite a bit of writing in the Private Strat Forum Lately. I wish I'd get a little help in there, but I wrote a big essay last night and I wrote another chapter of aejargon today. Hopefully you guys get in there and give me some constructive feedback on everything, as always.

I've got one HH for you guys, for entertainment purposes:

PokerStars Game #22751842215: Hold'em No Limit ($25/$50) - 2008/12/08 23:27:49 ET
Table 'Lameia II' 9-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: Samhot84 ($3686.75 in chips)
Seat 2: wwwBTHEREcom ($5000 in chips)
Seat 5: aejones ($5598 in chips)
aejones: posts small blind $25
Samhot84: posts big blind $50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to aejones [Jd Ac]
wwwBTHEREcom: raises $100 to $150
aejones: calls $125
Samhot84: raises $3536.75 to $3686.75 and is all-in
wwwBTHEREcom: folds
aejones: calls $3536.75
*** FLOP *** [Ts Js As]
*** TURN *** [Ts Js As] [8s]
*** RIVER *** [Ts Js As 8s] [3c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
aejones: shows [Jd Ac] (two pair, Aces and Jacks)
Samhot84: mucks hand
aejones collected $7522.50 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $7523.50 | Rake $1
Board [Ts Js As 8s 3c]
Seat 1: Samhot84 (big blind) mucked [Ad 9d]
Seat 2: wwwBTHEREcom (button) folded before Flop
Seat 5: aejones (small blind) showed [Jd Ac] and won ($7522.50) with two pair, Aces and Jacks

Anyhow, tomorrow I've got some classes and I plan to go to 2/3 of them, which is pretty good for me, so I better get to sleep.

Be good.

Edit: I almost forgot, I've got a super cool link to an SNL skit that was apparently controversial. I think it's hilarious: Controversial SNL Skit

Today was the worst 15k I ever won, it left a terribly sour taste in my mouth. I grinded all day, which is what I regrettably do on most Sundays now that my Fantasy football teams have all tanked. Once my gf leaves in the morning/afternoon, I'm usually left to just play poker. The games are pretty good, I really have no complaints, I'm super happy about them. I got to play LarsLuzak and TheJokerJSB at 100-200 HU today. The Joker is a weird creature who I played good against sometimes, but bad against at other times. Overall he's just a terrible player, and I ran a little bad (situationally) against him.

But it wasn't the run-bad I took today, the AK
I'm always complaining. Tonight at my IM basketball game I bumped heads with another kid, but I'm not in very much pain and worst case scenario I probably have a mild-ish concussion. I've been playing with my broken/sprained/whatever thumb, but its annoying that it's been a month and this thing is hard and swollen and barely bendable at all.

It's cold as **** here, if I didn't have so many friends and family around here I wouldn't subject myself to this crap. I think next winter I should move somewhere on the other side of the globe for 6 weeks, but it's a long way off and I never do these drastic things to my life that I say I'm going to. We'll see. Tonight after being frustrated I was walking around in the 20 degree night. It's very cold and still here, and there's a light layer of snow. It's really nice actually, and if I was well dressed and didn't constantly ***** about how chapped my lips are I might have enjoyed the walk even more. I like to be alone. As social as I am, I don't think I really trust anyone. It's just really hard for me to fathom that anyone can do anything as well as I can.

Here's my graph from today with the run-bad, keeping in mind that I only had half myself at 200-400 earlier.



At least I'm getting hands in this month. Here are two of my favorites from today since I haven't put any hands in my blog lately:

(converter doesn't work on the second one, live with it you maggot)
------------------
HAND #1
------------------

Full Tilt Poker, $25/$50 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 2 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

Hero (BB): $8,075
SB: $7,694

Pre-Flop: Q 2 dealt to Hero (BB)
SB raises to $150, Hero raises to $550, SB calls $400

Flop: ($1,100) 2 9 7 (2 Players)
Hero bets $575, SB calls $575

Turn: ($2,250) K (2 Players)
Hero bets $1,250, SB calls $1,250

River: ($4,750) 3 (2 Players)
Hero checks, SB bets $5,319 and is All-In, Hero calls $5,319

Results: $15,388 Pot ($0.50 Rake)
Hero showed Q 2 (a pair of Twos) and WON $15,387.50 (+$7,693.50 NET)
SB showed Q 6 (King Queen high) and LOST (-$7,694 NET)

PokerStars Game #22723794399: Hold'em No Limit ($25/$50) - 2008/12/08 0:33:48 ET
Table 'Nongoma II' 6-max Seat #3 is the button
Seat 3: Hold em 888 ($7614 in chips)
Seat 6: aejones ($9645 in chips)
Hold em 888: posts small blind $25
aejones: posts big blind $50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to aejones [Qc Kc]
Hold em 888: raises $100 to $150
aejones: raises $400 to $550
Hold em 888: calls $400
*** FLOP *** [Ts Ad 5s]
aejones: bets $575
Hold em 888: calls $575
*** TURN *** [Ts Ad 5s] [Kd]
aejones: checks
Hold em 888: bets $1400
aejones: calls $1400
*** RIVER *** [Ts Ad 5s Kd] [7h]
aejones: checks
Hold em 888: bets $4150
aejones said, "oh maaaaaaaaaaan"
aejones said, "this is clooooooooooooooooose"
aejones: calls $4150
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Hold em 888: shows [6c 4c] (high card Ace)
aejones: shows [Qc Kc] (a pair of Kings)
Hold em 888 is sitting out
aejones collected $13349 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $13350 | Rake $1
Board [Ts Ad 5s Kd 7h]
Seat 3: Hold em 888 (button) (small blind) showed [6c 4c] and lost with high card Ace
Seat 6: aejones (big blind) showed [Qc Kc] and won ($13349) with a pair of Kings

Finally, post even my hands, I just wanted you guys to know I'm really crushing 25-50 this year. As much as I complain, it's been a good '08 at online cash, and I've got all my results on my desktop in HEM now to show you guys when the time is right.

On Monday, December first, I turned twenty-two years old.

It was an uneventful birthday, but my birthday, birth-week, and subsequently birthday month, were, have been, and will be awesome. Birthdays are just an excuse for me to indulge myself more than I already do, and get treated better than I already do-- two things that are hard to come by. Anyways, in short, I had a good time and am glad that my friends and family are so good to me. Sometimes I think people are overwhelmed by not being able to live up to monetary standards or something and the pressure that comes with getting someone who is already rich a present-- but it's really stupid, and all I can do is try my best to assure everyone that I don't want anything money can buy, I want everything it can't buy as gifts.

Since my birthday is over, I'm on a quest to start eating better between now and Christmas, mostly as a challenge to myself. I feel like self-restraint and dedication to moderation is a difficult way to live life, but is necessary as a means of feeling accomplishment by keeping disciplined. More or less-- its good for stuff to be difficult.

This is a quote from a book I just finished which ties the above paragraph in with the paragraph following this quote: "When things are easy a person doesn't really learn about himself. It's what a person does at the moment of his greatest struggle that shows him who he really is."

The quote is from a booked called Shadow Divers, the true story of some deep sea divers who discovered a German U-Boat and re-wrote history. It was super cool for so many reasons: the fast paced and full of thrills, but remains completely true; it taught me a lot about history and WWII-- probably much more than I ever learned in high school, and I barely realized how much I was 'learning'; it gives a very keen insight into the human psyche and the overall quest to "feel alive." I even provided the amazon link so you guys can insta-buy, since I know you all love my recommendations. Oddly enough, this was the first book that I actually finished in probably two+ years. It's kind of embarrassing for me, but I don't really read that much anymore, and when I do I have a nasty habit of reading the first 80 or 100 pages and getting bored of a book. Primarily, I think I was really choosing the wrong books to read and for the wrong reasons. In junior high and high school I managed to read a lot while class was being taught, a lot of sports related books and biographies (those two categories are not mutually exclusive, obviously). Overall, A+, would recommend-- read it in probably 4 days, and would have done it quicker if it hadn't been the holidays.

Some of you just scan through my blogs for the word "poker," I'm sure. Well, here's that paragraph: I won 50 or 100k or something in November. It was a pretty good month, despite losing 150k a few weeks ago, and finishing on some absurd 40k downer to Elky a few days ago, an anomaly that I'm still trying to cope with. HU NLHE sometimes has more variance than I give it credit for due to my success, but even someone as atrocious as Elky will obviously have his day when he set over sets me and super coolers me and spikes the under pair to the overpair before the flop. A wise person once told me, 'Stuff happens, just don't step in it.' Pretty great maxim if you ask me.

I'm not sure how much I'm up this year, but my goal in the next week will be to get my hands from my laptop to my desktop, and figure out how much I have to win or lose in December to reach my goal of making 1m. Honestly, I have no idea where I'm at, definitely would say my margin for error on a guess would be a few hundred thousand either way. Other than that, I have no real goals in December poker-wise. I'm working on some behind the scenes stuff and not so behind the scenes stuff at Leggo, all of which I think has made our product very good in the last few months. Today I even got a compliment that my last few videos were some of my best, and I got a PM a few weeks ago that just basically praised the site-- I don't always get to replies to these PMs, but I really think it's gratifying (decided to go with something besides awesome or super cool to demonstrate my literary prowess) to get messages like these. It's important to remember that not all training sites are in it for the money-- it's like teaching just about anything: 9 times out of 10, you're getting underpaid in a very prominent position. Anyhow, I'm definitely not complaining about that, just promoting the positive feedback I've been receiving and my thanks for it.

Tomorrow night I will curl up under my covers and watch my Tar Heels take on Michigan State at Ford Field-- possibly without the best college basketball player in the country. I think they're still a favorite without him, but I probably shouldn't jinx it. I will eventually give a more detailed college basketball breakdown (among other blogs designated for a rainy day: cbball, tv shows, how stupid tournaments are, an update on what the meaning of life is, how much i love christmas, etc.), but I believe the North Carolina Tar Heels, when healthy, to be the greatest college basketball team ever assembled. I think it'll be tough to gauge that now, because their first post man off the bench is lost for the season and their star player is nagged by injuries, but at one time I believe that to be a true statement, and I know a LOT about college basketball and its history. Also PSA: If anyone has any connection to getting Duke @ UNC at the Dean Dome on March 8th, I just wanted to announce that I do plan on going to that game. I'm looking for four tickets, and I don't really want to pay $2500 a pop, which I probably will end up paying. If you got the hookup, I'd be willing to talk about trading coaching services for them in addition to X price or whatever. Send me a PM if you know someone that can get some legit seats (I'm simply not sitting upper deck, this is a once in a lifetime thing).

That's about it, it's 5AM and time for me to catch a few hours sleep.

Had my biggest losing night last night, dropping 150k. I primarily lost it to dresdenGreen. I ran pretty good, and lost most of it from just not making pairs, him coolering me, and one fairly big suckout that would be given me a lot of momentum (if it would have held). A lot of the hands are a blurr, and he was spewing pretty badly, but I couldn't seem to win.

No worries, he is not one of the 3 HU NLHE players in the world better than me, so I will get him next time!

Here's a graph for reference:




I'm not going to go into it too deeply now, but suffice it to say that I don't "care." I'm really glad I finally got him, I always was so envious of the people dresden chose to play. I'm somewhat unhappy about my play in like 3 or 4 hands, but it was nothing ridiculous and mostly just situations that no one knows the perfect answer to.

I have too much money anyways, and I doubt this will keep me from making 1m this year, although it does put me down on the month and makes everything really seem like a "grind." Probably about time to relax and regroup, I still think I have about 100 online, so I'll be okay.

It's only money.

OK, so maybe it's not to the point of one of the Se7en deadly sins (sick movie btw, top ten all time easy), but I've been incredibly lazy lately. As a direct result of that, I bought a scale on Sunday night and got it overnighted so I could figure out my body fat (and exact weight, for that matter). It seems like I don't weigh as much as I thought. When I get as naked as the day I was born, I clock in at like 172. Also, according to this scale, I only have 11.5% body fat. I'm sure it's only reasonably accurate at best, but this seems way too ****en low. I'm a fat ass pig at the moment, and all the muscle I might've had in high school is long gone now.

So, starting on Wednesday, I'm going to eat super clean-- I'm getting rid of white rice and all bread, friend stuff, excess cheese (yum I could put cheese on anything any eat it), and anything that is super stupidly fatty and such. Also, I really need to concentrate on portion control. I've been faithful to the no-fast food prop bet so far almost 2/3 through the month, but it got really difficult this past weekend (drunk roomate comes home and brings me a milk shake from steak n shake, I tell him I can't eat it-- I probably should have broken it to be honest just bc of the gesture, but the fact is that I'm pretty sure he brought it home KNOWING that I couldn't eat it, so then it became him consciously testing my will power). The no fast food thing really isn't doing that trick though. Maybe I control my portions more, but it results in me having lots of bad snacks around the house, eating well into 2 AM anything I can get my hands on, and just throwing frozen pizzas in or mac n cheese. It'll be over in two weeks, on my birthday actually, and I'm definitely going to have a Chipotle burrito on the first of December. Anyways, David "Raptor!" Benefield and I are going to try to have some sort of competition between now and Christmas, save for Thanksgiving and my birthday, about what we eat and we're going to make some goals for ourselves. I'll also probably start updating that thread in our Health and Fitness forum.

The contest for our next Leggo pro appears to be over, as the last entries continue to trickle in. I have gotten around to only starting some of the videos, but other coaches have said that we've got some really good content so far. It's cool as hell that people put so much effort into this. I think we'll get a good winner, and maybe more than that we'll get some people who we ask to make a series here or there or come on as a guest pro every once in a while. I think everywhere advertises big changes every once in a while, but we're going to have some again come Jan. 1 of '09. The homepage will also be done sooner than that (hopefully!), which will obviously give us a better look than just videos on the front page.

I've been playing poker lately, and actually grinded some ridiculous 4k hands yesterday, and another 1k today. Straate and I have been playing heads up, which has been extremely interesting and I think its a good example of how two players can do things so vastly different and still come upon similar success. I'm not sure what we are lifetime to each other, but I was down a lot at a few points to him and I think we're close to even now. I also made an expert fold that some of you may have missed vs him in a 3-bet pot. I'll show the exact HH unconverted for maximum effect:

Full Tilt Poker Game #9030607049: Table Masters (heads up) - $50/$100 - No Limit Hold'em - 20:59:20 ET - 2008/11/17
Seat 1: aejones ($13,675.75)
Seat 2: LIBERTY 6 ($13,785.25)
LIBERTY 6 posts the small blind of $50
aejones posts the big blind of $100
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to aejones [9d 9s]
LIBERTY 6 raises to $300
aejones raises to $1,025
LIBERTY 6 calls $725
*** FLOP *** [9h 2h 4s]
aejones bets $1,075
LIBERTY 6 raises to $2,650
aejones folds
Uncalled bet of $1,575 returned to LIBERTY 6
LIBERTY 6 mucks
LIBERTY 6 wins the pot ($4,199.50)
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $4,200 | Rake $0.50
Board: [9h 2h 4s]
Seat 1: aejones (big blind) folded on the Flop
Seat 2: LIBERTY 6 (small blind) collected ($4,199.50), mucked

My internet was going in and out, and I might have been changing tables during the lag and clicked on "fold to any bet" or something. I'm not sure, but I insta quit and made myself some eggs so I didn't spew off a bunch of money.

I also managed to lose 30k in some magic way to a terrible player called Gaucho-something or other. This guy was trying to fold himself to victory, and then managed to one up me in every spot. A few two barrels weren't working either, I think he was just getting the most godly coolers he could get, and hitting every hand. I was amazed that he gave me action (as he never has before), and I probably should just keep my mouth shut so that he might keep playing me. So when I say I won 2/3 of hands, I'm actually not exaggerating:






Anyways, I'll leave you chumps with two things:

First, a graph that shows the last 24 hours or so of poker. The best 17k I've ever lost:



And secondly, I'd like to wish a very happy birthday to Dani "Ansky!" Stern, who turns 22 two weeks before I do. If you get a chance to bother him, please send him a PM on 2+2 and tell him how much you love him and his poker game in the most heterosexual way possible.

Be good.

My internet has been extremely bad lately at my house, so I've been on and offline randomly, and unable to do anything productive unless I'm on campus at a computer lab. I'm going to get my verizon wireless card back today, and hopefully I'll call AT&T and find out my wireless network key, which I also lost.

Things have been kind of a wreck the past few days. Not really in a negative way, I've just been very lazy about stuff and have rushed through a few papers I had due for school. My grades aren't very good, but I don't really care to be honest. I guess the next great debate comes now that I will have to start choosing classes for next semester. Should I go another semester and postpone the inevitable? I don't really want to be there, but like Chewy said, "I'm the last hope." The only one of my friends that still goes to school, really (poker-friends, that is). I don't hate it that terribly, and for the most part I'm just very negative about why I'm here. The thing I fear the most is that I'll become much more lazy than I already am-- but maybe I'm wrong about this; maybe I would start going to the gym or something more often? Maybe there are other options-- can I just take a leave for a semester? I'm not sure how that works, if I could stay a member of the community, use the gym, etc. because I was basically taking "sebbatical" for a semester. Ultimately, I'm sure it would end in me quitting altogether, but why not make it a slow death? The fact is that I'm just extremely uninterested in what I'm studying right now (well, half of it). I should look through the entire course book and see if there were some classes I could at least partially enjoy next semester.

We won two intramural basketball 3 on 3 basketball games yesterday, the second of which was probably a slight upset. It feels good to win under those circumstances, and it feels good to play with people that are smart basketball players for the most part. I played pretty well in the first half of both games, and even if I was somewhat absent from the second half, it was all we needed. I'm really trying to get in shape, do some form of exercise for a minimum of 30 minutes everyday-- yesterday I used the workout facilities at our apartment complex for the first time ever! I haven't been doing anything near strenuous, but I'll take any effort at all. I'm still doing okay on the "no fast food" propbet, but unfortunately it makes me eat everything in sight at times. I'm not sure why I eat so much, maybe out of emotion/frustration about random things, or even because I'm bored and it's "something to do."

At random: I challenge Greg to a rematch of our Heads Up session that we both recorded parts of ~10 months ago (I think). I think we should four table this year (and maybe even do live commentary if you can handle it). I also think it should be 5-10 or 10-20 since we're both ballin' out of control and certainly you're less afraid of me now. I bring the fire.

Below is an extremely important thing to the livelihood of me and many people that I know. The Bush administration, which has been such an enormous joke, is at it again. Apparently, my understanding is that they are trying to enforce the UIGEA hardcore at the very last second of their administration. What a bunch of cowards. Anyways, if you care about me at all please do the following:

Just one week after a historic election the Poker Players Alliance is pitted in a fight to keep anti-Internet poker regulations from being enacted and we NEED YOUR HELP!

The current Administration is hastily finalizing a number of “midnight rules” before they leave office and the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) is on the list. Just like UIGEA was snuck into legislation in the dark of night in 2006, our opponents are again trying an 11th hour sneak job. We need you to help us expose and stop this reckless rulemaking.

Please call the U.S. Federal Reserve and tell them not to approve the UIGEA regulations -- Consumer Complaints, 888-851-1920 or Public Affairs, 202-452-2955 .

Tell them:

* The federal agencies responsible for our nation’s economy should not be focused on Internet poker regulations.
* Finalization of the UIGEA rules will add additional burdens on our already crippled financial systems.
* Internet poker is a game of skill and form of recreation for millions of Americans; it should be exempted from the UIGEA.
* Please do not finalize the UIGEA regulations until their impact on our banking systems and average Americans has been fully studied.

Your call will make a huge difference and will add the public’s voice to these last minute policy decisions our government is poised to make. We can’t stand idly by while they make decisions that will impact our right to play America’s card game. PLEASE CALL TODAY!

Happy Election Day. I'm still not sure if I'm going to vote, at this point it's looking like no. I'm very conflicted about how important it is and whether or not I really want to. I think Indiana is going to be a pretty close state, although we've been red since Kennedy, Obama really has a chance this year. We don't have a bunch of electoral votes, but I think my vote is 'closer to mattering' than some other votes. It's all very relative, frankly, and I'm not educated enough on the matter to tell you guys one way or the other. All I know is that I woke up after noon today and long lines were/are projected. It's difficult to motivate myself one way or the other, especially since Obama is clearly the better choice for getting us out of this oil debacle in the middle east and hopefully our economic future, but McCain would be personally better for my tax purposes, as someone making >$600k a year. I'm too much of a utilitarian though to be that selfish. To be honest, I think any pressure that people put on me to vote "as my right, my duty, etc." is kind of misplaced and has the wrong motivations. Too many people do things because of what society says anyways, but that is another blog entirely.

Halloween went really well. I ended up going as a flasher/streaker, complete with Full Tilt Robe. Well, pictures are the only thing that could do it justice, I guess:





So now I've got this ten inch veiny mother****er laying around my apartment. It's got a suction cup on the end, so my roomate and I take turns hiding it in each others bathrooms and bedrooms when the other is away at work or school or whatever. I put it behind his towel yesterday so that he literally grabbed it when he went to grab for his towel. Good times.

At the end of last month I ate Chipotle 10 times in 7 days. I was pretty unhappy with constantly settling for Chipotle or Steak n Shake, and wanted a way to at least progress towards a slightly better diet. Because of that, I bet Alex (AK87) $500 that I would not eat fastfood in the month of November. So far, so good, as I've gone to the sushi bar by myself, went to the grocery store and stocked up on a lot of random ****, including the grilled cheese I had today, and have gone out to Ruths Chris after my gfs dance on Saturday night. I'm planning on starting to update that thread in the Fitness forum on Leggo pretty soon, so keep on the lookout for that if you give a damn about my diet and/or exercise habits. Unfortunately, this is leading to a lot of snacking because now I have food around the house-- but it's still better on me regressing towards the mean as far as fast food goes. I was eating waaay too much of it in October. The nice thing about the size of that bet is that $500 doesn't matter to me, but I STILL have to look at any burger I want to get and say, "Hmm, that bite will cost me $500." I'd like to hope that would matter to me at least a little bit.

Partially due to my urging, Leggo is having a contest to find our newest "Pro." I think it's a cool way to get people who are involved in the community even more involved. If nothing else, I'm going to be reviewing the majority of the videos, so you'll get a chance to have aejones watch you play. I keep telling people, there is always that chance that one of us sees something great in one of you and takes someone on as their protege or whatever. It seems to me like a great win-win, and two years ago I would have loved to enter something like this when I was playing 400NL. Additionally, I think it might actually teach you something about your own game because you get to verbalize your thoughts. It's a great thing to do if you're running bad or just playing too robotically. I've gotten a number of PMs about it asking what my advice is, as the greatest video producer in the industry. I have told everyone that there are two rules of thumb I give for making a great video and keeping the "downtime" to a minimum: 1. Always explain it like you're talking to someone who is JUST starting to play poker, even if you're saying something like "I'm raising 47s from the CO because the blinds are tight to play back, and the button doesn't understand the value of 3-betting in position" it is infinitely better than "Raising 47s is my standard here." Without being patronizing, it's important to be thorough. 2. Always explain alternative lines. Be very intricate when you're explaining alternative lines, there are basically infinite situations that can come up in poker and each little nuance changes it-- let your audience know what would change it for you.

Here's a link to the thread about the Promo on Leggo. Videos are due in about a week, so get those cameras rolling.

Poker has been pretty so-so lately. I had some rough days and I'm still struggling to run average in PLO (~$100k below equity in my first 6k hands, welcome to PLO) but I won $30k or $35k in NLHE yesterday, which was nice, including slaughtering Sauce123 heads up to the tune of two buy ins at 5-10! We did not make a video, but I think he's trying to sort of re-discover his game or something, so it gave me a chance to maybe give him some pointers, and just in general talk to him about poker stuffs, which is always nice.

I think that's about it for this update, I'll let you guys know if anything exciting happens, I'm very due for godmode at PLO so lookout.