Former cheesesteak addict

I hired a personal trainer today at my gym in Pittsburgh. Ive signed up for 6 sessions. While I know a lot of the basic exercises for each major muscle group, I feel that a personal trainer will help me get down excellent form, as well as set an exact regiment. Also, I know that he works at my gym 7 days a week, so he will always be there to peer pressure me (and for me to ask questions to) long after our sessions are up. +EV for sure.

My diet is 2500-3000 calories/day, ~300g carbs, 60g fat, and 200g protein. I'm closely monitoring everything I eat for a week or so in order to give myself a better perspective on what I need to be eating in order to keep up with those guidelines. This may not sound too difficult, but when you re strictly eating quality calories, it isn't easy and can be quite time-consuming. I actually find the whole nutrition aspect of fitness to be extremely interesting.

I promise not to turn this blog into a clone of Raptor's blog, but here's a log of what I ate today:

8:30 AM = 1.25 cup Kashi cereal, 1.25 cup skim milk; 1 hard-boiled egg, 0.5 cup blueberries
11:00 AM (pre-WO) = 1 container yogurt, 0.25 cup unsalted peanuts
12:30 PM (post-WO) = 1 scoop whey protein, 1 cup skim milk, 0.5 cup orange juice, 1 cup berries
2:00 PM = 1 can tuna, 2 slices whole wheat bread
6:30 PM = 1 cup turkey chili; 1 scoop whey protein, 1 cup skim milk
9:30 PM = Stir fry (6 oz chicken breast, 1 cup broccoli, 0.5 cup whole-grain rice, 1 tbsp olive oil, red onion)

PuddlePirate and I are going to make a diet+exercise bet. The idea was inspired by a similar bet made between Blitzkrieg and Btimm. Turning it into a competition should help keep me strongly motivated for a long period of time. The real hurdle comes in a couple weeks when my inflated enthusiasm for this naturally begins to lessen. However, I recognize now that this needs to become a long-term life change for me. My ultimate goal is to be the 70 year old grandfather who is completely "with it" mentally and physically. Too many Americans wake up one day, realize they're 40 years old, rely on caffeine to keep them going throughout the day, have a huge beer gut, and have already crept down the path towards heart disease.

I have a revelation that many poker players will understand easily: Life is a game! It is an incredibly complex game with an infinite number of parameters, but it is simply a game. Some people play it better than others. You need to understand how the system works and then devise the best way to benefit from it. This applies to everything: general social acceptance, career accomplishments, money, successfully raising a family, physical health, etc. Thinking about it like this makes me happy every day to wake up and figure how I can better myself to make most of this game.

Trips with poker players = ++EV

I recently returned from spending a week in Jamaica with John (PuddlePirate/urmyatm44 on Full Tilt) for spring break. The experience was great and I definitely have the traveling bug now. We stayed at a 4 star resort in Negril, the spring break capital of Jamaica. Our resort had virtually no college students at it, but it was gorgeous and featured unlimited food and alcohol. We actually had a fairly tame time and spent much of it doing outdoors stuff. Scuba diving, snorkeling, and jumping off a 50 foot into the ocean (subsequently resulting in a bruised tailbone for myself) to name some of the activities. I'll post pictures when John uploads them.

The biggest upside from the vacation was a renewed enthusiasm for poker. John's passion for the game is contagious. We discussed theory, the online poker economy, and even played an insane 2/4 deep session against each other one night. By the time I returned home, my enthusiasm for the game was the highest it had been in several months. I played 3400 hands in the first two days back home. The argument could easily be made that this in itself pays for the trip in full.

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I have come to terms with the state of HU poker. Games are extremely dried up on weekdays, but are still decent on weekends. It is now crucial for me to grind a lot on weekends, even if it means sacrificing some other things on Friday through Sunday. My general goal indefinitely is to play ~3K hands each weekend, and concentrate my other priorities during weekdays. This is the only way I can still realistically get 20K hands a month in without having to play the better regs, or learning 6 max or PLO. However, I will strongly consider adding the latter options to my repertoire after graduation.

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I have some bad habits with blogging. Topics will often pop into my head that I am enthusiastic to write about, but then I put it off. As the number of topics continues to build in my head, collectively they become convoluted. As a result, I wind up making entries that are simply bland updates about my life. All of my favorite blogs to read are updated at sporadic, inconsistent time intervals and about a wide variety of topics. I need to impulsively type up my thoughts on any interesting topic, even if it results in more frequent 1-2 paragraph entries. Too much planning is a problem!

Much respect to skinny yoga girls!

February was mediocre at best. HU economy has been extremely slow, and now my results rely largely on how much I can play (and how well) on weekends. Even so, I did not put in nearly enough hands. My confidence in my game has slowly been increasing again compared to a few weeks ago, so here's to a successful March.



I took power yoga for the first time last week. It takes place in a 90 degree room, resulting in the most intense 75 minute workout that I have ever experienced. You do not just drip sweat, you drizzle sweat for the entire session. I had to do some dumbed down versions of the yoga poses due to limited flexibility, and my endurance was completely giving out well before the end. The strength, flexibility and endurance that many of the women in the class had was extremely impressive. It's an awesome workout. I'm going to take some basic classes to get the fundamentals down well. Once I get back from spring break, my workout regiment will be compromised of yoga 2x a week and lifting 3x a week. Should be a great way to get in shape.

My 22nd birthday took place on Friday. My roommate and I decided to throw a house party to celebrate, especially since this is the first time my birthday has fallen on a weekend in several years. About 25-30 people attended and everything went really well. I have developed a close group of friends here at Pitt, and it's something I've had nothing like in my entire life before. I do not take college for granted and will definitely make the most of these last months we have together.

I am now leaning towards renting out my Pittsburgh apartment for another year. I'd use 2009-2010 as a transition period where I figure out where I want to live and what I want to do with my life. My rent is relatively cheap compared to the other options. This would allow me to do a ton of traveling and not feel like I'm throwing a lot of money away on housing costs. If I go this route, I would likely visit Spain/Italy, San Fran, LA, Austin TX, and possibly southeast Asia. As long as I have broadband internet, the world is my oyster!

Still don't believe in karma, but...

Full Tilt just banned my chat privileges for 3 months. I mentioned in a blog entry months ago about my tendency to cross the line in chat. When frustrated in a match online (particularly against competent players), I have berated my opponent.

Here's the email. Yes, part of the reason I'm posting it is for humor, but also as a form of public humiliation for myself. It's hard to believe that any adult would talk like this to other people, let alone a professional poker player. I very rarely talk like this against complete fish, but that does not make it any more acceptable.


The chat ban has definitely been punishment, and it's costing me a lot of money.
-If I need to go to the bathroom, I can't tell my opponent this. My 2 options are to either hold it in, or just sit out and pray that they will still be sitting when I return. The latter rarely works.
-People get alienated when they ask me a question during a match and subsequently think I'm ignoring them.
-If I have played a fish in the past and discover them sitting in a different game, I cannot ask them if they want to play heads-up NL again.

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If you guys don't read Raptor's blog by now, you absolutely should. I believe he has the best blog of any poker player. It covers all aspects of life, and has been great motivation for me in terms of diet & exercise. I have begun to learn a lot about nutrition and my overall diet is excellent at this point. My work ethic with exercise is inconsistent, but lately I have been back on the ball. I'm not shooting for bulking OR cutting, but just to be overall more fit. I'm roughly 5'8", 145 pounds, 15% body fat right now. My goal is to get to 150 pounds and 10% body fat over the next couple months.

A specific aspect of Raptor's blog that fascinates me is how he has taken up Jiu Jitsu. I have not played an organized sport since middle school, and jiu jitsu seems like the ultimate sport. It involves strength, endurance, reflexes, and reading your opponent. I've found a gym that does group jiu jitsu in Pittsburgh, and will likely try it out after spring break. In the mean time, I need to continue lifting in the gym and doing cardio in order to increase my overall fitness level before I even attempt jiu jitsu.

Stephen Bennett, professor

This week I am lecturing a class called "General Poker Theory". My friend Danny is the instructor and wanted me to guest speak. He created the class (1 credit course) at his school, Carnegie Mellon, which is probably the best overall university in Pittsburgh. The class has 2 sections that meet on Monday and Wednesday evening. I chose to lecture about turn & river play. Some of the concepts include double/triple barreling and value betting thin.

Only about 15 students showed up for Monday's class, but they were very enthusiastic and assaulted me with questions. The lecture would have only lasted about 20 minutes if people didn't participate (I don't think I made the Powerpoint long enough). However, the class lasted 45 minutes with the high level of student involvement. It is very gratifying to be able to teach a large group of people, and know they have the confidence in your knowledge on the subject. Wednesday's class should be 30-40 students and I'm definitely looking forward to it.

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In other news, I am going to Jamaica with John/PuddlePirate for spring break. We booked a stay at a 4 star resort in the city of Negril. I haven't experienced spring break yet, nor gone anywhere international in many years. Even though it is only the two of us going, we are outgoing guys... I expect to have no trouble making friends. I wanted to go to the Caribbean and not Mexico/Florida. I'd like a spring break that is slightly more diverse than 7 straight days of being shit-faced in a huge sea of college students. This way, we will party but also get to try scuba diving, riding dolphins, get pampered by the resort, etc.

Here to stay, ladies and gents

January was strange. I had two $5K days and basically broke even for the rest of the month. I know it sounds bizarre to complain when I won almost $1/hand, but my confidence in poker has not been great lately. The state of the HU poker economy has really stung me. I have to wait so long for games, and the wait itself frustrates me and can take me off my A-game before a match even begins.



My poker game has been completely complacent the last 6 months. I had great months in October and November, solidifying the incorrect belief that my game needs zero work. My confidence has begun to break down lately and it's time for change. I finally gave in and purchased Hold 'Em Manager a week ago. I have been using PokerTracker 2 for the longest time. Watching poker instructional videos is another must. I have not watched one in probably 4 months... quite alarming given that I pay for 2 subscriptions. Most other online winners are watch videos regularly. If I continue to neglect this, I will fall behind the rest of the pack.

In the non-poker world, I went out more in January 2009 than any other month of my life to date. My passion lately has been on improving my overall social skills, in particular with women. I've become a voracious reader on the topics of social dynamics and body language. On a related note, my wardrobe has also improved greatly over the past month or two. I'm finally graduating to my own style of fashion and leaving the American Eagle's of the world.

P.S. You guys fully have the right to hassle me if I go too long without blogging.

Okay so, 2008 was pretty badass

I can honestly say that 2008 was the best year of my life to date. I had a solid results at poker, lived in Vegas for a month, made some close friends, moved out of the ghetto, and I'm sure other highlights I forgot while writing this. Most of all, I came to realize how much freedom my life has and appreciate that. We are all very fortunate to have even found poker in the first place. No one should complain about running badly without first taking a step back. We all run extremely above EV at life in comparison to the Earth's population as a whole.

My December was really dismal poker-wise, winning $2K over 10K hands. I had no desire to play for most of the month. When I did play, it was half-assed and I was often doing other things. I also came to the realization that I have not fully watched a poker video in months, nor discussed general theory with anyone. Complacency FTW! Thus I blame the results mostly on myself. That being said, December was the worst month ever in terms of the HU poker economy. Everyone seems to be playing heads-up now and wait times have become ridiculous. It is disheartening, but I still believe that my best bet is to focus on HU cash.

I got dinner with IHaveAStrong9, odub, and Fees the other day. We went to Del Frisco's, an upper tier steakhouse near downtown Philadelphia. The dinner was amazing (albeit incredibly decadent). Fees ordered a $200 bottle of wine and 5 pounds of lobster and just assumed we'd all approve of it. We hung out back at IHaveAStrong9's frat house at UPenn afterwards. All three of those guys are awesome, and give extra incentive for me to consider moving to Philly after graduation. (Actually Fees is moving to LA unfortunately.) I grew up in the Philly suburbs, but now I'm considering moving in the heart of the city.

From left to right: Myself, IHaveAStrong9, odub, Fees



2009 New Years resolutions:
-Exercise with improved consistency and effort. Decrease body fat from current 16-17% down to 11%.
-Make $250K+ over $250K hands.
-Go out much more often; have more success with women than ever before.
-Travel to 2+ places internationally.