It has been an exciting week medical wise. Last week I had a bunch of tests done with my new doctor, just the standard stuff for a 36 year old. At the follow up visit, she said I was in good health and all, but my cholesterol count put me at risk for a heart attack. HDL count (good cholesterol) was only 23, LDLcount (bad cholesterol) was 111. I think 111 pretty much rocks, but I need to up my LDL count. She said the only way to do that was exercise. That night, at work, I recognized a guest I knew to be a cardiologist. He comes in with a group of regs that are all cardiologists and the last time he was in, they were all talking about their cholesterol counts. So I brought it up and he asked me my results. He was really surprised, and told me I would have a heart attack at age 50 unless I did something about it. He said there were actually three ways to up the count. Exercise, prescription drugs, and alcohol. He said he never treated an 80 year old with a 23 HDL count because there just aren't many around. I think he probably has a fairly skewed sample dealing with only sick people in his profession, but all the same he said this with a lot of gravity, and it is really an alarm bell for me. I have been thinking a lot about my very young kids and what I want to accomplish in my life and such, and needless to say I am taking it very seriously. I think it is funny that since I don't drink a lot (maybe 3 drinks per week) I am actually more at risk. He recommended two drinks a day. I think I will start with one right before bed. I am also going to get a bike and start riding it every morning. I would like to pimp myself out with a baller bike, but I will most likely just get a used one since I will be riding on the trail near my house.

Then, I get a call from my wife right before work yesterday and she tells me her Dad is in the ER. He had been feeling like crap for a couple of weeks, I guess, but never went to the doctor coz he doesn't have health insurance or anything (he pretty much lives off the radar). I guess he had some tests done somewhere and was told to go. He had a really low blood count. They gave him some blood, he felt better, but it just went down again, so they think he is bleeding internally. They don't know where. He just went to the general hospital. They want to release him, which is strange, because he will just be back again soon, imo. My wife is going today to go sort sh*t out. The health care system in this country is so f*cked up, I can't believe it. It is sooooooo stupid how we got to this point. But anyway, he is only 65 or so, and that is twice this week that death has reared its ugly head.

But is it ugly? It seems jolting to think about it on the first day of spring and all. In the Bay Area we have had some beautiful weather this past week. The trees have been in blossom, the hills are green, everything dormant in the soil of my backyard is pushing up with an incredible life force. We make such a big deal over babies being born and ducklings and the first strawberries (well, we have strawberries year round these days, but that is another rant), but we pay very little attention to the other end of the story. If you are dying you are pretty much shitouttaluck, and we spend precious little time thinking about death even though, clearly, it is an equally important part of our lifespan as being born.

Pokerwise, it was a rough weekend. yesterday I was down like 5 bi running horribly and leveling myself to stack off light twice against a maniac. Today I played mostly solidly but made one super bone headed play out of frustration, pretty much. I also got caught up in my own private drama of should I check behind or bet my draws. Here is that wonderful hand:


SB ($31.07)
BB ($65.90)
UTG ($15.42)
UTG+1 ($30.29)------pretty nitty, maybe 12/10
CO ($11.70)
Hero ($33.77)

Dealt to Hero T 7

fold, UTG+1 calls $0.25, fold, Hero raises to $1.25, SB calls $1.15, fold, UTG+1 calls $1

FLOP ($4) 9 Q 3

SB checks, UTG+1 checks, Hero bets $2.25, SB folds, UTG+1 calls $2.25

I bet the flop here because I think he limp calls with pretty much small pps exclusively. I forget what I thought about the small blind, but decided he would be folding almost everything in his range, too.

TURN ($8.50) 9 Q 3 J

UTG+1 checks, Hero bets $6.25, UTG+1 raises to $26.79 (AI), Hero calls $20.54

Here is where I messed it all up. I need to either bet bigger to give myself the odds to call when I am shoved on, or just check it through. Betting bigger seems bad because we are just a little too deep to call a shove with how much equity we have in the hand. I could bet smaller and give up, too, if I really felt like I had some FE. Checking through is way better because he isn't folding a lot of things he calls the flop, and I am almost surely behind here. I was just thinking "I have fold equity" and decided to bet. I was sure he would be raising a set on the flop, so I put him on a club draw or underpair that he was getting stubborn with. I think there are very few club draws he limp/calls with in his range though. At any rate, I was more concerned with how I was playing my draw against certain types of villains than this actual scenario unfolding right in front of me (funny how that loses you money...). I think I played this hand in the worst way possible. Anyway, I keep messing these spots up big time even though I am playing lots of really solid poker.

RIVER ($62.08) 9 Q 3 J A

UTG+1 shows 9 9 Surprise!
(Pre 67%, Flop 95.2%, Turn 81.8%)

Hero shows T 7
(Pre 33%, Flop 4.8%, Turn 18.2%)

UTG+1 wins $59.08

Play well. Do good work. Keep in touch.

PFJ