CardRunners

Poker has been lousy lately, so I decided to take the end of the year easy and enjoy myself.  Right now I'm in Vail, CO on a snowboarding trip with 10 friends.  We've been here all week and the conditions have been incredible!  Our house is pretty sick and we've been pushing it really hard, riding from open to close each day.  I remember going on snowboarding trips as a kid when my parents would drive us to the mountain and I'd push it 150% from the second the lifts opened until they kicked me off the mountain.  Now that I'm a bit older and the cost of a lift ticket is less important, it is easy to go out for a couple of hours and take it easy for the rest of the day.  This trip we have all pushed it really hard though and it's felt great.

Obligatory shot of me flying off of a cliff,



The crew out here is a great group of guys that I've done a fair amount of traveling with.  Our house is me, thatpfunk, sponger, TJ, MN Dave, Jay, Bill, and Mike P.  We've also met up with a fair amount of other poker players up here including BradL, BK, Dave P, and stinkypete.  Bill knows the mountain particularly well and has been a great guide -- we've basically been living in Blue Sky Basin.  Can't beat the fresh powder of riding Lover's Leap over and over.

My new gear is awesome.  I picked up a Burton Malolo 162 with the Channel binding system, Burton CO2 EST bindings, Burton XIII boots, and a Burton Custom Wide as well for some park stuff.  The Malolo handles insanely well in powder and is what I mostly rode.  It's still versatile enough to get away with some airs as well.  I took the Custom out for a day as well and it will be a good east coast board.

I'm leaving Vail today and can't wait to get back out on the mountain.  Martin is living in Whistler this winter so I will definitely be going to visit him when it dumps in BC.  Last year I went to Baldface in Nelson, BC which was incredible.  I would definitely be up for going back there, or possibly do some heliskiing in Alaska.  And to fulfill the need to ride, Pennsylvania has some bushleague mountains (Liberty and Whitetail) that are a short drive away.

This trip has been incredible and I felt that I've rode very well, but I'm excited to get back home to my girlfriend and puppy.  The holiday season is here and we're visiting her family in Michigan for Christmas.  They're great and I'm looking forward to (hopefully) a white Christmas.

Life is good.  Hope you all are running well and have a nice holiday.

Just had a bad 200/400PLO session.  Not HORRIBLE, but bad -- lost 266k.  I'm going to at least review the hands I lost, and take a look at the rest later...

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3534205
Ziig opens so loose UTG and this hand plays well and makes nutty stuff so I like repopping it in position with very deep stacks.  Obv on the flop it plays itself.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3534210
Meh.  There's almost another 100BB to play with if I call preflop, so I did.  On the flop I'm 42% against AA**, and it turns out there are weaker hands in his range so I of course have to get it in.  I run into a really good one for me but can't pull it out.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3534212
I like how I played this one.  Don't think I can fold at any point, especially against Gus.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3534218
Standardish?  I guess you could argue for a fold preflop, but with Gus in the pot and a fair amount of money behind I thought I should continue.  On the flop I have 29% equity in a big pot and have to call of course.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3534225
This one is a bit of spew probably.  I'm in a weird spot on the flop with stack sizes.  Just flat preflop next time and avoid this I guess.  Against a naked top two pair I'm 42% on the flop, his hand was a horrible one to run into though and I only had 16% equity.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3534231
Standard with these stacks vs Gus, 57% doesnt hold.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3534232
Gross.  68% pre, 93% on flop, 85% on turn for the lose.

Well, I think the games were good and I wasn't playing great.  But I don't think I was playing terrible or anything and ran pretty far below expectation.

annnnnd NL fun!  http://www.pokerhand.org/?3534237 88% shot at 113k pot whiffs

Oh well, I had been pretty hot lately and I'm still in a decent mood.

Tomorrow I leave for Florida to meet up with the Cardrunners guys and I'm really looking forward to it.

I'm going to order a new snowboard online today.  I ride a little park, but mostly just look for the powder and am probably going to get a Burton Malolo (thanks Jamin for the recommendation).  It's starting to get cold here and I can't wait to get back in the mountains.

 November just ended and it was a great month.  I (think) it was my best month ever playing poker.  The past couple of months had been a little frustrating and breakeven, but I studied my play very hard and did everything I could to make sure I was playing my A-game.  I got hot right at the start of this month and really killed it all month long.

I played a bunch of both NL and PLO this month and the biggest pots have been

this $374,000 PLO pot against Ziigmund
http://www.pokerhand.org/?3525790

and this 500/1kNL hand
http://www.pokerhand.org/?3526750

it definitely feels good to be running well again and hopefully the games stay soft!

Life-wise the month was great too.  I'm getting very excited for the winter and getting back on the mountains.  Hopefully I'll be able to make it back out to Baldface this year, and I'm definitely making snowboard trips to Whistler and a few other places out west.  I've heard that Whitetail mountain is the best option for day trips from DC and so I am planning on buying a season pass there and going a bunch.  Anyone in the DC area interested in day trips snowboarding during the week?

For the past couple of months I was also working very hard on a NLHE book.  I coauthored one with my friend Tri (aka SlowHabit).  He's an excellent NLHE player and teacher and has been steadily killing the games for a long time now.  I am very pleased with the way our book turned out and so far the reviews of it have been great.  It's geared towards mid and high stakes players that want to take their game to the next level, and it's price reflects that.  At $1850 a copy, the book is expensive but those who have purchased it have been very pleased and feel that the impact on their hourly rate has more than paid for the book.  You can get more information and purchase the book at DailyVariance.com.  Writing the book was a great experience and really made me think long and hard some deep NLHE concepts.

Happy holidays and good luck!
Cole

The past month or two has been very fun and very busy.  I've been doing a lot of traveling with my girlfriend as well as hanging out in DC with our puppy playing poker.  Poker has been swingy, but overall good and this has definitely been my best year ever (hopefully I don't jinx myself with two months to go).  Life is great though and I'm very happy settling down in DC.

Our first trip was to London during the WSOPE.  I didn't get to play the tournament due to some scheduling conflicts, but it was great to explore a new city with my gf.  We did all the touristy stuff our first day, going to Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, Hyde Park, Harrod's, etc.  That night we double dated with Brian T and had way too much wine with some decent Japanese food.  It was a blast.  We stayed one more day for some poker stuff and then booked it back home.  London was a really cool city and I can't wait to go back.  It didn't hurt that we got absolutely amazing weather the entire time.  We stayed at the Dorchester, which I would highly recommend.



The next weekend we went to Jacksonville, FL.  One of our close friends is a cheerleader for the Jags, so we met up with her for the weekend and finished it off at the Jags/Steelers game.  The Jags lost, but it came down to the wire and sporting events are always fun.



A week later we headed west with a couple we are friends with from college to enjoy wine in Napa!  We are big wine drinkers and had been looking forward to this trip for a while.  I mostly enjoy big reds so Napa/Bordeaux are my ideal wine countries.  Our hotel was the Carneros Inn, which is beautiful and I would highly recommend.  We went to a lot of really small boutique wineries and indulged in some really amazing stuff.  Day one we all drank way too much and slept through dinner, having a lot of fun the whole time.  Day two we took it a little slower and really enjoyed experiencing the whole wine culture of Napa.

My two favorite wineries were Allora and Del Dotto.  Allora is a very small winery with the most beautiful grounds I had ever seen.  Very natury, and a cozy tasting room in the cellar where we drank and ate with the owner.  We were the only people there and I'd imagine that's how it usually goes there.  Del Dotto is bigger, with a really cool cave area where we tasted wines straight from the barrel.  They really pride themselves on the customization of their wines -- each wine is separated by the location and type of grape and barrel wood for a lot of different flavors.  These wineries are must hits.  Our other favorite Napa wineries that we didn't get to visit are Shafer and Quintessa, so we can't wait to get back.  I also love big French reds, so hopefully we can make it to Bordeaux soon.




After that was last weekend, which was my gf and I's anniversary.  I surprised her with a weekend getaway to Paris, which went amazingly well.  We basically only had one day there, but I swear we walked the entire city.  It's a great city because if you are up for a lot of walking, you can hit just about all the cool touristy spots (except maybe Sacre Cour) in an afternoon.  We went to the Grand Palace, Petite Palace, the Louvre, Notre Dame, the Eiffel Tower, and plenty of the other big spots.  That night we ate at Table de Joel Robuchon, which I was excited about because I had heard amazing things about his restaurants.  It was pretty good, I don't think French food is my favorite but if you like it, I'd recommend it I guess.



Our puppy Joey has been so much fun and he's a great companion.  He also gets me out of the apartment a lot and keeps me exercising.



and Joey sporting his 'Skins bowtie after a big win!



I used to lift weights and run a lot in high school as well as freshman year of college, but as I started getting really into poker I lost some motivation for it.  I never got out of shape really, just lost some muscle and tone.  But the past few months I've been running a lot with Joey and working out with a personal trainer three times a week.  I'm in better shape than I've ever been and that certainly makes everything in life feel better.  A lot of poker players (myself include) struggle with finding a balance in life and I think that I've gotten a lot better about that lately.

In an hour or so I'm leaving for Vegas to play some big live cash games.  I'm pumped!  I played a little lower online this morning, 10/20, but had a big win which is always a nice confidence booster and I hope I am still hot at the tables in Vegas.

I've also been working very hard on another major poker related project the past few weeks that I will be talking more about on Monday!

Good luck everyone,
Cole

   My gf and I spent two weeks traveling through South America (Venezuela and Argentina) followed by a week in Hawaii.  Both trips were so much fun.

  On my last blog I wrote a trip report on the South America part of our trip and here are some pics

Spilling a beer at dinner in Mendoza -- the food there was out of this world, had some of the best meals I've ever had there.

 Chillin with a busker in Plaza Independencia, Mendoza.

My gf and I are usually pretty adventurous when we travel.  In Mendoza we hit up the wineries of course but also went trekking, rapelling, ziplining over a huge lake, and swimming in some hot springs.  We like lounging by the pool drinking and reading obviously, but we can do that anywhere so when we're somewhere new we try to get out of the hotel and explore.  In Hawaii we got to do a little of this, but it wasn't as fun mainly because some people weren't going into stuff with positive attitudes and then spent a lot of time whining afterwards.  I mean it's of course understandable to be more of a pool person and not like an activity, but then to complain about it for three days straight afterwards bringing negativity everywhere while you're on a gorgeous island isn't how I want to spend a vacation.  Don't get me wrong, we liked the people we were with a lot, I just now will be a little more cautious when it comes to suggesting stuff like rafting, surfing, and luaus to poker players.  In Hawaii, my gf and I got to catch up with Taylor/gf and David/gf who we've done some traveling with and it was great to see them again, they're both really fun couples.  We also got to meet Aaron and his girl who were nice.  I can see how it might be hard to come along for the first time on a trip when David/Taylor/myself have know each other pretty well, but they were great and sociable.  Tom and his girl also met up with us and we had a lot of fun playing a pretty epic game of drinking volleyball and polishing off a bunch of wine with them.

Kauai was such a gorgeous island.

After we flew back from Kauai my gf and I started to get settled in DC.  The place I bought is so perfect for us, I'm really really happy with it.  House shopping was tougher than I expected, or maybe I'm just picky.  I looked at a bunch of places, hated all of them except for the one I got, but the one I got I was absolutely in love with.  The rest of our furniture arrives TODAY!  Finally, so excited.  Our designer has been really helpful with everything though and I would highly recommend Eric at Vastu.  Everything he has picked out for us has been incredible and he's spent a lot of time making sure our place is just right for us.

Last night we got a puppy!  His name is Joey, he's a black lab we rescued, and he's the cutest thing ever.

Now that we're in DC I'm gonna buckle down and grind it out a bit more.  The past few days I've been playing all the 2550 NL and PLO games with pretty good results.  The new CardRunners site looks great!  Hope you guys like my video this Friday.

gl

Cole

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

I decided to go to San Diego for my birthday which was an awesome choice. My girlfriend 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, my gf, 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 :/ ...

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