I wasn't sure I was going to be able to make it down, but after busting ass to produce vids for Season 4 (which is looking most excellent, by the way), I got to the point that I was comfortable ditching for a few days to enjoy Vegas.  I'll still have a computer and still be doing some work, obviously, but I'm looking forward to seeing everyone, meeting DC members and coaches that I haven't met yet, and teaching Nolan how to play craps.  Hopefully I won't lose too much and be complaining about being lifebusto again once I get back to Seattle, but after lots of hard work I'm looking forward to enjoying myself for a few days, even if it's 110 degrees or whatever down there.

If any of you are looking to meet, check the DC forums for an unofficial announcement for a second dinner/drinks/meetup.  I'll also probably be down for playing some mixed $4/8 or something goofy at the Wynn or Venetian too.  70BB pots @ $4/8 LHE, here I come!

I'm starting to learn who I need to balance vs. and different ways to manipulate people into doing what you want.  Ran good today, +3 buyins or so over 1kish hands.  Not too bad.  Lifetime progress is near even despite running pretty poor IMO.  A few coolers in here, and lots of bad play with AQo and AQs.  Still working on those spots. 

Obligatory graph and horrible hand of the day:

Full Tilt $100.00 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players

The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

UTG: $45.80 MP: $249.10 CO: $132.95 Hero (BTN): $100.00 SB: $100.00 BB: $108.25

Pre Flop: Hero is BTN with Q A

UTG calls $1, 2 folds, Hero raises to $5, 1 fold, BB raises to $16.50, 1 fold, Hero raises to $36, BB raises to $108.25, Hero calls $72.25…

Obligatory suck-resuck. I hate his push postflop about as bad as I hate his call preflop (prefer shove to call pre obv if you think I'm a loose 4-bettor, which I can be).

Full Tilt Poker $0.50/$1 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players

The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

MP: $105.25 CO: $121.10 Hero (BTN): $100.00 SB: $182.45 BB: $150.10 UTG: $100.00

Pre Flop: Hero is BTN with 5 4

UTG calls $1, 2 folds, Hero raises to $4.50, SB raises to $16, 2 folds, Hero raises to $35, SB calls $19

Flop: ($72.00) J 4 5 (2 players)

SB bets $147.45 all in, Hero calls $65 all in

Turn: ($202.00) J

River: ($202.00) 6

On The Trail (a retrospective)

In 2001, I flew to San Diego with my friends Corey and Russell with only one thing in mind: walking back home.   Despite having a long-distance hiking record of nearly 10 miles (yes!!), something had grown in me in the past few months that made me want to hike the Pacific Crest Trail.  Starting in Campo, Mexico and ending approximately 2650 miles later in Manning Park, Canada, the PCT is considered one of America's more rugged long-distance trails.  At the time (it's grown in popularity since), a few hundred people would attempt the trail each year.  Within the first week, over 50% would quit, and only a handful of people finished the entire stretch.  Needless to say, it's a hell of a walk.

Somewhere along the line we had the clever idea of turning our journey into a benefit hike.  I'm a type-1 diabetic (since the age of 14), and in my first years after being diagnosed, most doctors had told me that my diabetes was going to be a limiting factor in my life — I had to be careful exercising, needed to watch my sugars all the time, and couldn't live in the way I was accustomed.  In retrospect it's easier to understand what they were saying, but as a kid I took this the wrong way; it always felt like people were telling me what I couldn't do, and not what I could.  So, for all the kids like me out there — who were being told what they couldn't do because of their disease — I wanted to show them the flipside: no matter what it is, it's possible.  So the three of us wrote to a ton of organizations explaining our goal: we were going to hike the PCT as a benefit for the American Diabetes Association.  Some companies were difficult to reach, but most of them were quite generous: Clif bar gave us several hundred bars.  Oh Boy O'Berto (a Seattle-based Beef Jerky company) gave us 55lb.  Frankly, I'm not sure how many cows that is, but I do know that we became known as the "beef jerky boys" to other thru-hikers by the end of our trip.  There were others that I've thanked many times and rewarded as best I can (Montrail, GVP Backpacks, even Safeway) but  this isn't an award ceremony and I've already done my best to say thanks.  On we go.

Even though the next three months changed my life forever, I really haven't spoke or written much of them since then.  Last night — June 05, 2008 — I listened to a reading by Dan White from his novel "Cactus Eaters: How I Lost My Mind-and Almost Found Myself-on the Pacific Crest Trail."  Suddenly, I'm inspired to write again.  Much like the hike itself, it's going to be a painful process — hopefully moreso for me than for those of you who are reading — but it's time that I started writing down what I remember of that trip.  I think about it all the time and it's one of the few events in my life that I can directly attribute to making me who I am today, as cliche as that sounds.  So I hope all you dear poker playing readers who expect hand histories and river checkraises will bear with me and maybe even leave a comment or two to egg me on when I (as I inevitably do) finish the first three or four entries, holding me accountable for writing a bit more.

With that said, I'm going to begin at the moment where most stories (unless you're a fan of Tarantino) begin: the beginning.  Campo.

I won one of these and lost the other.  I'm not sure about my postflop lines (other than flop play) in either of them.  The Kx hand I checked because my opponent typically checkraised or checkfolded the turn, and he didn't do it incredibly often as a bluff.  He reraised a lot of pocket pairs and Ax hands preflop and wasn't shy about bluff checkraising.

$10.00/$20.00 Limit Hold'em - 2 players

The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

Pre Flop: Hero is BTN/BB with T Q

Hero raises, SB calls

Flop: (3 SB) T 4 4 (2 players)

SB checks, Hero bets, SB calls

Turn: (2.5 BB) K (2 players)

SB checks, Hero checks

River: (2.5 BB) 7 (2 players)

SB checks, Hero bets, SB raises, Hero calls

$10.00/$20.00 Limit Hold'em - 2 players

The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

Pre Flop: Hero is BTN/BB with K 8

Hero raises, SB calls

Flop: (3 SB) J K 3 (2 players)

SB checks, Hero bets, SB raises, Hero 3-bets, SB calls

Turn: (4.5 BB) T (2 players)

SB bets, Hero calls

River: (6.5 BB) T (2 players)

SB checks, Hero bets, SB raises, Hero calls

I dunno if it's the WSOP or if I'm finally just starting to gel with the pace of work at DC and trying to do a billion things at once, but I've managed to start the month off putting in some hands.  Only about 1500 so far, all LHE (I'm mixing my play at LHE and NLHE), but I feel much more tiltless than I used to.  Obviously that may change when/if I begin grinding a lot more, but I played a lot of fun hands and really enjoyed playing today overall, thinking and questioning decisions that used to be a lot more autopilot…

This one was probably the most interesting of the day.  I think I miss value from Ace high diamond draws, I might gain a bet from Queen high diamond draws and worse, I think Jx usually bets and often pays off a c/r anyways because my line looks so weird.  Since I really can't bet-3bet the river if he raises here, this seemed like a good spot.  Will probably post it in the forums since I know I succumb to some river FPS that most people don't but this one seemed really close since I thought worse diamond draws and Jx were his most likely hands.

$10.00/$20.00 Limit Hold'em - 3 players

The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

Pre Flop: Hero is SB with J K

1 fold, Hero raises, BB calls

Flop: (3 SB) 4 4 J (2 players)

Hero bets, BB raises, Hero 3-bets, BB caps!, Hero calls

Turn: (5.5 BB) T (2 players)

Hero bets, BB calls

River: (7.5 BB) K (2 players)

Hero checks, BB bets, Hero raises…

Meh.  Now I remember why I prefer working on Deuces to playing poker. 

A long session today — over 4k hands.  I think I played really well at times and really horribly at times, in the end losing almost 10 buyins.  It was really a downward trend from the start and I could probably have saved myself a stack or two along the way (I bluffed off my stack with AQs once which was horrible but I thought villain knew me since I knew him (we're friends and he loves to bluff me)), but I don't feel that unhappy given the results.  My premium hands (AA-TT, AK, AQ) broke even on the day but I got coolered a few times (AA vs KK, AKs vs AA and KK) and sucked out on a fair amount as well.  I don't know what's typical for NL yet and I've definitely got some adjustments to make to my game — I'm too loose and too aggressive and tend to give my opponents too much credit for reacting to aggression when they're pushing with the goods for the most part.

Updated monthly graph:

But at least I've started playing again.  I'm definitely a tad rusty but I'm playing NL for now just to pick up something that feels fresh.  I'm digging it.  Obviously I should quit at 1500 hands.  Whoops. 

Here you guys go. Enjoy.

I know I'm too geeked out about all of this.  So yeah.  JFish #1, re-transcoded.

Working on improvements to the site and recording for some series material (looks like Season 4).  I'm really happy with some of the improvements we've made recently — some that will be obvious, and some that, if we've done our job, you'll barely notice.  For one of them, I've started shrinking the filesizes of all of the Flash/MP4 files we have on site.  What this means to you guys is that we're going to have even faster speeds for flash streaming vids.  In addition we've got some design changes, a nice change to the intro to our videos (no more loud glass breaking), and a few functionality improvements that you guys have been asking for.

Most of this is going to debut on Monday with the launch of Season 3.  Needless to say we're keeping ourselves occupied to make sure that we give you the best poker community you could ask for.