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What's Your Edge

David Benefield : Poker Blog: CardRunners
 
David Benefield : Poker Blog
December 22, 2008

This weekend CTS and his gf Larissa came into town to hang out in Fort Worth. Haley had all of these aspirations of super cool stuff we were planning on doing, like some ice bar in Dallas that is made completely of ice, with ice slides, cool ice shot glasses, and ice everything. This sounded like a pretty cool idea, though kinda cold. Anyways, we didn’t do any of that.
 
They missed their flight getting in on Friday night so were only able to stay Saturday night and leave Sunday afternoon, since one of the group is an official working person (gg). When they got in we didn’t really have a plan, so went to the mall for some xmas shopping. I hadn’t done ANY xmas shopping up to this point, so I figured I would get some of it out of the way. I never really know what anyone wants, so I end up doing a lot of gift cards, which I think are generally appreciated more than an unwanted item. I got my sister a hair color cut thing which is actually pretty damn expensive. Apparently for women they need more than some electric clippers and 5 minutes.
 
My family does a gift exchange with each other every xmas in florida, where my grandmother, aunt uncle and cousins live. I drew my cousin Marla, who just had her second kid a few weeks ago (congrats). She likes ann taylor loft so I picked her up a gift card there. For those of you guys who don’t know what the ATL is, it’s a girl store. Now you know. I got my parents a new computer, though not at the mall. Their computer is like 4 years old, and takes about 6 minutes to turn on, then another 5 to make the little sand timer thing go away next to the mouse so u can click stuff, then once you do, another 3 minutes per application, including webpages. I think they will be pretty happy with it.
 
The girls went into Victoria Secret and me and Cole walked around aimlessly trying to find jackets since it was all of a sudden 28 degrees in TX. We walked by one of those roasted nut places, and I couldn’t resist. Haley’s parents love chocolate stuff, so I picked up a big tin of chocolate covered pecans and almonds, which I made sure to sample and they were amazing. I also got some cinnamon toasted almonds for walking around, and they were also fantasmical.
 
We had dinner at Simply Fondue that night, which is easily one of my favorite places to eat. You never think eating fondue will fill you up, but after a salad, 2 enormous bowls of cheese, lots of meats cooked in peanut oil, and 2 giant bowls of chocolate with brownies, angel food, bananas, rice crispies, and marshmallows to dip, hunger isn’t really the first thought.
 
After dinner one of my buddies from frat days was having a little shin dig, so we headed over there to hang out and have a drink. We weren’t planning on staying long, but ended up having a lot of fun. Cole and I headed out to the garage for some icy beer pong, and lost our first game to some mystical beerpong masters. It was unreal. We stood outside sweating the first game for like 30 minutes as no1 could make the last cup, and then we show up and get beat within 7 minutes. It was awful. We declared insta-rematch and got our revenges. We also won the next 2 games to finish 3-1 before my hands started to rot off from the cold. I was happy with the result.
 
We went back I guess around 4 or so and went our separate ways. The next morning I woke up at like 1130, and tried calling Haley to see if she wanted lunch. No answer. I called her again at 2, to make sure she was awake to grab food with cole and larissa, no answer. I called her again at 330 and she finally picked up all groggy like and I was like hahaha u were sleeping whole time. What a bum.
 
Anyways, we went to del friscos pretty early at 445 as they had a flight at 8 or so, and airport is about 30 mins away. We ate in fast mode, but had some great food, crabcakes were amazing as always. We passed on the wine since we were in quick mode, and didn’t have enough room for dessert. I told cole the night before that the del friscos crabcakes were the best ive ever had, and he was like ‘WHOAH WHOAH high praise im from Maryland area we are better at that’ etc etc. Seems like he enjoyed them though.
 
We took em back to the airport with plenty of time to make the flight. All in all a great trip. They also gifted us some ridiculously cool advent calendars, conveniently only like 3 days before xmas, so there is lots of chocolate to eat (how awful [I love fat mode]). After dropping them off I met up with Mario, his little bro, and Mike Graves for some bowling at a place near the airport. I hadn’t seen any of them in a while and it was a lot of fun. We were pretty tired from the weekend experiences, but it was good to see everyone.
 
OK so I may have blogged about it earlier I don’t remember, but I reinjured my shoulder a little bit a couple weeks ago drilling takedowns at jiu jitsu. I fell kinda awkward with all the pressure on my elbow and my shoulder did a slip out pretty bad, and damaged a lot of muscles and nerves and stuff around it. I thought it had healed up pretty well until last night. I even managed to play some volleyball and basketball the other day with minimal pain, only extreme soreness when I woke up the next morning. But yea I hurt it initially in high school during baseball season, and doc said it would heal up 75%, be a little loose, etc if I didn’t have surgery, but if I had it, I would be probably 100% after a 12-18 months. I was like whoahhh 12-18 screw that, so never had surgery, quit baseball, and insert poker.
 
Anyways, the other night I had a dream I was at jiu jitsu and this guy was talking mess, and then he hit me, so I hit him and he like did some kinda flying shoulder lock and it ripped my shoulder out of socket. It was extremely painful, and I woke up and the pain didn’t go away.. I was like ok wtf is going on, and I was sort of in tears and I couldn’t really move my arm. I was like ahhhhhh and realized it must have dislocated or something during sleep. I jerked it back to where it needed to be and got out of bed. This was all extremely painful and very odd to me, as I had never experienced something like this.
 
I am pretty much anti doctor and medicine and stuff unless it’s for extreme cases, so I try to avoid going whenever possible. I think it might be time for me to go get this checked out again. Likely, the doc will tell me exactly what he told me 4.5 years ago, that I could have surgery that will put me out for 12-18 months, or I can just let it heal and itll be loose and not 100% but feel fine for the most part. Meh.
 
I am pretty much done with my college app stuff, I just have to send everything in. I wrote some really cool essays, and think I should have a good shot at getting into all the schools I applied to. If I don’t, well, I will likely do something drastic like take a 4 month romp around new Zealand or something on a bicycle. That does sound pretty sweet though, so all will not be lost.
 
-David Benefield

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Dec 22, 08 15:29:02

ice bar

I live in uptown dallas and was wondering where this ice bar you were talking about. Sounds like fun although it is pretty damn cold out now

spike96




Dec 22, 08 19:49:03

Shoulder injury

David,

I am a Naturopathic Doctor and treat a lot of sports injuries. You do have options other than surgery. I would do "prolotherapy" probably for your injury. You can google it to get more info but it is very affective for ligament/tendon injuries. Really speeds up the healing time. Acupuncture is also an option but takes longer than the prolo. A combo treatment would be most effective.

Let me know if you want any further info. I do these procedures all the time and have great success.

GL

I'm not a member so you'll need to reach me via this posting section

jkipfer




Dec 22, 08 19:51:53

Just e-mail me at

dr_kipfer@yahoo.com

with any questions.

jkipfer




Dec 22, 08 21:02:52

i have a very similar injury to what you're talking about davic..

try http://orthopedics.about.com/cs/generalshoulder/a/bankart.htm to get an idea of what your options are..

or try googling "bankart lesion" for further info..

scrappy




Dec 22, 08 22:45:02

this bankart lesion sounds like exactly what is wrong with me. I have been researching a lot of shoulder stablization exercises that strengthen the muscles around the shoulder for this kind of thing, and tried some today but wsa too painful. I have a habit of trying to push myself too hard too fast after an injury which probably slows the healing time. I am going out of town for a couple weeks for nice beachy relaxation, so will try to give it some rest. Thanks for the links.

Jkipfer, ill email you, thanks.

David B




Dec 22, 08 22:47:32

jkipfer, i tried that email and it doesnt seem to work.

David B




Dec 23, 08 01:21:15

It's

dr_kipfer@yahoo.ca

I put .com on the last one.

jkipfer




Dec 23, 08 09:03:41

David I had what seems like a similar injury playing hockey in college. Kept reinjuring it where I couldnt raise my arm for about a week. Finally got the surgery rehabbed for five months and its been great ever since. For me it was well worth it.

stickman26



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December 20, 2008

This afternoon I went up to my high school for some Alumni games. Every year after winter finals, they get the alumni to come back and play against the varsity in the winter sports. I showed up for soccer, volleyball and basketball, and ended up playing the full 40 minutes in basketball. Now, I was never a great bball player in high school, they recruited a lot of the talent so I sort of stuck with football and baseball, but this was pretty fun. I was pretty surprised with myself playing full court I managed to score about ¼ of our team’s points, and picked up a bunch of assists and rebounds. I would say I put in a solid triple double. Unfortunately, I was playing against people under the age of 17, so it really isn’t all that impressive. It was a lot of fun to get together with a lot of graduates from past years and play some bball. I was in a lot better shape in high school.
 
OK so I just got back from a little house party at my friend Evan’s house. It was a lot of fun, we did a lot of beer pong and a lot of flip cup. My team crushed in flip cup, but my teams didn’t do so hot in beer pong, I guess I have to blame myself because it is only a 2 person team. We did some cool stuff, we had a 6 cup round which was pretty sweet, but nothing special I guess.
 
ANYWAYS, the biggest part I wanted to talk about was AFTER all the festivities. We were messing around talking about the guys from high school we thought were d-bags and we wanted to fight. My boy Stephen was like ok yea I would knock him out, I was like whatever dude he would mess you up. He was like whatever dude I would mess YOU up. I was like whatever dude I would flying armbar you and mess your arm up.
 
Obviously this escalated into him being like OK dude no chance you could flying arm bar me, I was like ok bitch lets go ill step up. So I stepped up, flying armbarred 4tw. It was pretty fkin hot. I sort of made my shoulder sore a bit, but it was hurt from a couple weeks ago so I figure itll be kinda meh for a while. For those of you who don’t know what it is, its this..
 
 
yea, gg. Anyways I felt cool, so I wanted to share that with everyone. Also, my lost luggage was FOUND. They didn’t have my bags waiting for me in TX after all the airport confusion in LV, so I was pretty happy to arrive home tonight with both of my bags here. I was getting scared a bit as I don’t have too many clothes sitting here in texas, was going to have to start triple dipping into the jeans. Eww
 
CTS and his gf were supposed to come into town tonight, but they had some delays in their flight plans, so are getting here tomorrow morning. I am not sure what we have on the agenda, Haley put some stuff together afaik, some kind of ice bar thing that is made entirely of ice, should be pretty interesting. Also a dinner at del friscos and possibly simply fondue, both of which are my favorite spots to eat with friends. I am looking forward to it. I am NOT on the other hand looking forward to waking up in 5 hours to pick them up from the airport. Hopefully Haley surprises me bright and early with DONUTS! I love donuts.
 
-David

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December 17, 2008

Today started off pretty neat. I woke up at like 10am, came downstairs, ate a bowl of some weird healthy cereal stuff, and then played a game of dota. We lost. I have been playing dota quite a lot lately. For those of you who are part of the uninitiated, DOTA is the greatest game on the planet, and it isn’t even a real game. It is a mod, or custom game, based off of Warcraft 3. I am pretty sure DOTA is bigger than wc3, and there are definitely more tournaments and such. I am on a CAL team, we have done pretty good so far. Yay.
 
So after this, I packed up my bags and went to naked fish with my old roommate long time ago Dustin. We ate a lot of sushi and made fun of people we didn’t like, and talked lots of mess about live poker pros and how funny they look/smell. It was snowing during all of this. I had to get to the airport for my flight home, and we powerslid(slided?) around turns for fun.
 
At the airport, I figured my flight would get delayed due to snow in Las Vegas. This is something that isn’t exactly a common situation. Anyways, I walk STRAIGHT past the auntie annes, I could sniff out that pretzel bitch from a mile away. I knew she was waiting there to tell me I couldn’t have salt on my pretzel dog. I decided that today was the first day of my new conservative lifestyle. I have been saying that every day for the last 2 months.
 
Last night I went to yard house in honor of Mikey’s last night in vegas. He finally graduated from college (congrats) and is moving back home to Maryland or somewhere rainy with crabs. I went there not hungry at all, and was planning on getting some lettuce wraps in honor of conservative lifestylism. Unfortunately, an order for coconut shrimp found its way to sweet Audrie’s steno pad. Unfortunately, an order for a bbq bacon cheese burger made its way there too. A few rogue hazelnut browns found their way in front of me as well. I couldn’t control this. I blame tom. Upon finishing this greasy, delicious heaven meal, 2 gigando skillet brownies with extra ice cream were placed in the center of the table. Everyone ate like birds and I probably shoved 1.25 brownies and 4 scoops of ice cream into my gullet. I didn’t order these. I made it a point NOT to order these, but someone must have sneaked it in. Tricky tricky bastards they are.
 
Back to the airport. Las Vegas got 4 inches of snow. There was snow on top of airplanes. On my way home, there were children SLEDDING down the hills on the golf course. My flight was obviously canceled after 4 hours of delays, so I went outside to find a cab. Unfortunately, the other 138,392 flights that were canceled this day all were canceled before mine, making the line pretty dang darn long. I went to the limo area and there was an hour wait so I said blehh and got in line for a cab. I didn’t have my jacket because my bags were checked and I was too lazy to get them seeing as I had to be back up here at 7am for my flight.
 
While standing in line, a boy that appeared to be no older than 5 threw a snowball at my leg. It was a very wet, sloppy, dirty snowball. He had a shit eating grin on his face as he did it. His parents payed him no heed. I secretly wished I could drop kick him into a giant puddle. I decided this would be a good time to practice meditation. I counted 23 breaths, nice, calm, delicious breaths that made me forget the cold and the sop soaking through my pant leg. At the beginning of breath 24, demon child struck again. Fortunately for him, his mother noticed, and was very apologetic. I secretly wished I could drop kick him into traffic. As I was imagining his look of fear as the taxi came barreling towards him, the greatest thing on the planet happened. Demon child slipped on some ice, fell on his face, and started crying. An evil grin crept across my face, the subdued satisfaction of justice in the world served.
 
I think my goal for the rest of the year is to get as fat as humanly possible. This way, when my shoulder heals and I can start working out again, and start eating super clean once more, it will look like a much bigger difference than it actually is. I just got my power rack set up in my house, but I refuse to use it until I get back from all of my trips. I have lots of travels in the next few weeks, and lots of desserts to eat. I love winter.

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Dec 18, 08 00:05:14

Nice story about the kid. I don't think I could've held my laughter back.

huskerwank




Dec 18, 08 00:28:35

"Demon child slipped on some ice, fell on his face, and started crying. An evil grin crept across my face, the subdued satisfaction of justice in the world served."

god you run good

macgyverlol




Dec 18, 08 04:10:34

best blog yet

best blog yet sir. seriously. best blog yet.

BenG2813




Dec 18, 08 09:47:38

powerslid (slided?)

drifted*

gatorblood9




Dec 18, 08 09:52:00

Funny stuff. I look forward to the day you go on monkey tilt at the airport and strangle the Auntie Anne salt miser.

skoldpadda




Dec 18, 08 11:13:25

I would've rolled up one and throw it at him.

tritri




Dec 19, 08 19:42:29

F'n Hilarious

PerpetualRush



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December 14, 2008

So this morning i woke up, did an hour of yoga, 15 more minutes of meditation focusing extra hard on my posture. Today was the day of the 15k bellagio 5 diamond. My buddy Jeremy is in town staying at my place, so we headed up there around noon to play. I managed to bust out 30 minutes into level 2. Blinds started at 50-100 and we got 45k chips. I must not be very good at poker.

SO! i get home, and am planning on quitting poker for the rest of the year, but there are good PLO games! This is my plo story, and the biggest pot i have ever lost!

Full Tilt Poker Game #9499025861: Table Barn (deep 6) - $200/$400 - Pot Limit Omaha Hi - 22:24:36 ET - 2008/12/14

Seat 1: OMGClayAiken ($80,000)

Seat 2: Urindanger ($129,677)

Seat 3: Gus Hansen ($149,296.50)

Seat 4: David Benefield ($108,098)

Seat 5: patatino ($51,421.50)

Seat 6: Brian Hastings ($74,197)

David Benefield posts the small blind of $200

patatino posts the big blind of $400

The button is in seat #3

*** HOLE CARDS ***

Dealt to David Benefield [Kd Qd Kh Jd]

Brian Hastings folds

OMGClayAiken folds

Urindanger raises to $1,200

Gus Hansen calls $1,200

David Benefield raises to $5,200

patatino folds

Urindanger folds

Gus Hansen has 15 seconds left to act

Gus Hansen calls $4,000

*** FLOP *** [Tc 9d 2d]

David Benefield has 15 seconds left to act

David Benefield bets $8,400

Gus Hansen has 15 seconds left to act

Gus Hansen has requested TIME

Gus Hansen calls $8,400

*** TURN *** [Tc 9d 2d] [8c]

David Benefield has 15 seconds left to act

David Benefield checks

Gus Hansen has 15 seconds left to act

Gus Hansen has requested TIME

Gus Hansen bets $24,400

David Benefield has 15 seconds left to act

David Benefield has requested TIME

David Benefield raises to $94,498, and is all in

Gus Hansen calls $70,098

David Benefield shows [Kd Qd Kh Jd]

Gus Hansen shows [7c 3s Jc Qs]

*** RIVER *** [Tc 9d 2d 8c] [6c]

David Benefield shows a straight, Queen high

Gus Hansen shows a flush, Jack high

Gus Hansen wins the pot ($217,793) with a flush, Jack high

David Benefield adds $20,000

*** SUMMARY ***

Total pot $217,796 | Rake $3

Board: [Tc 9d 2d 8c 6c]

Seat 1: OMGClayAiken didn't bet (folded)

Seat 2: Urindanger folded before the Flop

Seat 3: Gus Hansen (button) showed [7c 3s Jc Qs] and won ($217,793) with a flush, Jack high

Seat 4: David Benefield (small blind) showed [Kd Qd Kh Jd] and lost with a straight, Queen high

Seat 5: patatino (big blind) folded before the Flop

Seat 6: Brian Hastings didn't bet (folded)

goodbye for now.

-David

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Dec 14, 08 22:52:07

I watched this hand david, pretty sick.

I was wondering about meditation. I dont know much about it, but i thought the objective is to clear your mind completely and just focus on being as in tuned to the present as possible. I've tried doing this before and i always have a problem keeping thoughts from coming in. I know your supposed to just observe the tought and then continue, but i've never gone more than like 2 minutes w/o that happening.

Any tips or good books/sites to read would be cool, thanks

TJ

overbet56




Dec 15, 08 17:27:15

pretty sick david. gus did the same thing to phil the other day too. phil had top set and the flush draw and gus backdoored the club flush. gl hope it turns around

dtat0529




Dec 17, 08 06:21:28

Hope you had good Yoga and meditation as I assume poker did not give positive feelings for your day!

Mikodeemus



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December 10, 2008

 So right now I am sitting at the Portland airport waiting on my flight back to Vegas. I just got done looking at Reed College, and really enjoyed it. It is very clear that the act of learning and the pursuit of knowledge is the priority here, and that is definitely what I am looking for. Everyone was super nice, I had a private guided tour, and probably 10 people randomly joined us and walked for a cpl minutes and answered any questions I had about the school. I also had an interview which I was pretty nervous about to be honest, but it went really well I think. I am pretty sure I am just applying to Reed and St. Johns, so hopefully I get in to both. 

 

After the campus visit, I got a recommendation on a good microbrewery that was relatively close to everything, and went and had some of the best beer I have ever had. It is a place called Laurelwood Brewing something or other and I had the Vinter Varmer which was fantasmical. I also managed to wolf down a ginormous burger and garlic parmesan fries, so I am feeling extra skinny right now. I am thinking at the new year I might go back to being a pescetarian, but we shall see.. I do love a good burger from time to time. 

 

In other news, this last week I was down in Fort Lauderdale with the Cardrunner’s crew hanging out and making vids. My buddy Jeremy lives in Miami and was nice enough to make a video then do a shared leakfinder of his play at 2-4. He is the absolute nuts at poker, and quite honestly there weren’t many spots I would have done things differently. It should turn out as a pretty sweet vid. 

 

While down there we had a pretty intense beach volleyball game, where I won a cool 200 dollaz off mr Taylor Caby (which he hasn’t paid me yet). We also went into south beach and checked out a pretty sweet dinner spot which had the best duck I have ever had. Afterwards we went to some club called Louie’s or something and it was pretty sweet. Somehow we ended up staying pretty late and left around 5 or 6. I got to find the way home since everyone passed out in the cab on the way back and none of has any idea where the hell we lived. Thankfully Ezra stayed up to answer my incessant phone calls. Also, as soon as we got home, stinger was walking around and randomly decided to puke in the hallway next to the kitchen. It wasn’t that bad at first, then he took 2 steps and it ALLLLL came out. Very gross. He didn’t bother cleaning it up either, so it got to fester a bit and had a nice smell around the house in the morning to go with my granola.

 

I am headed back to Vegas and am planning on playing the 5 diamond main event on the 13th. I haven’t played a live tourney in a while so am looking forward to this, and hopefully it goes well. A lot of my friends are out here so I’m sure we will end up going out somewhere cool as well. There is also a big cardrunners party on the 19th I believe, though I am not sure I can make it. I have a lot of work to do to get my applications done and my papers finished properly, but if I can get it all taken care of before then  will definitely go. I am leaving for florida for family stuff on the 23rd, then have a cruise over new years till the 4th, then possibly going to the Bahamas for PCA. That doesn’t leave a ton of time to work on college apps if they are due on Jan 15th. After that I am probably going on a snowboarding trip, though I am not sure where yet. My last trip to Tahoe was fantastic, so I wouldn’t mind going there, but am open to trying something new.

 

Anyways, I don’t have much else new going on in my life, have been pretty laid back and boring lately. I sublexed my right shoulder, the same one I jacked up in high school, so I haven’t really done any jiu jitsu for the last week. During our super intense volleyball game I had to serve underhanded and do most of my overhead shot stuff with my left arm, so it felt a little awkward. Hopefully it heals up soon and I can go back, it’s a bit stiff right now and painful when I lift it over my head past a certain point, but I should be able to work through it. That’s all I got for today, hope everyone stomps this week.

 

-David Benefield


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Dec 10, 08 20:48:31

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3548684

do you think you can fold this flop?

My friend played this hand and although I think on the surface that it doesn't look that bad to shove, I think based on his minraise it is 99% sure that he has a set and you can make a big fold there. It would be great if you could comment on whether you agree with that thinking or what your thinking would be. ty

Tyler

TheTyman9




Dec 10, 08 22:34:09

Any school will be extremely lucky to have you David. I went to 3 colleges and found that the teachers you enroll with will be the most important aspect, so do some scouting. Trust me a lot of teachers dont like there job anymore and thats no fun.

rookie




Dec 11, 08 12:30:58

Reed

I visited Reed College as well when leaving high school many years ago. It was a very cool place and I regret deciding to stay closer to home. I think it would have been a perfect fit.

MikeThk




Dec 11, 08 19:10:19

go to PCA raptor! would love to meet u. im flying out from australia. r any other cardrunners ppl going?

jcl




Dec 12, 08 12:56:01

Nice to hear, i live on reed college place, across the street from campus and my cousin was married there. Growing up it seemed like just a bunch of crazy hippies but now I realize their IQ was just too high for me to relate. If you could get accepted there more power to ya..cheers

ManUtd




Dec 16, 08 01:19:41

hey! my sister goes there she loves it even though she always seems stressed from the workload. Good luck!

DarkFelt



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November 29, 2008
:(

This week has been pretty meh. I got a call while in jiu jitsu Tuesday that my grandfather was in the hospital for pneumonia. He is 93, and has been starting to have some health problems, so we were sort of expecting something like this. I booked the next flight out and met up with my mom in Ocala, about a 2 hour drive from the Orlando airport. We met at the hostpital around midnight, and they let us go see him.
 
I haven’t really gotten to be around death all that much, and it kinda sucked watching him struggle to speak with the breathing tube down his throat. All he wanted to do was talk to us but they had to tie him down so he didn’t pull the tube out. The next morning they ended up taking it out and we had a few laughs and thought he was going to pull through. A couple hours later they called us back to hospital and he was in bad shape. They had him doped up with morphine and it was up to us if we wanted to increase it. He was completely out of it, so we did, and a couple hours later he was gone.
 
It was all very sad, watching him like that. My mom and aunt were very crushed, and unfortunately my dad wasn’t there so I had to try to keep all the women together and offer support. I drove everyone home then picked up some red lobster and lots of fried food and a couple bottles of wine to celebrate my grandfather. He liked his wine and friend shrimp, so it seemed fitting.
 
I stayed that night then left in the morning, the day of thanksgiving. I had told Haley I would have dinner with her family and watch football with her dad etc etc. I got home and was running on like 4 hours of sleep over last 3 nights, and was starting to get sick, so I ended up just laying in bed being miserable for thanksgiving.
 
I woke up the next day and had a few friends in town, so I went to the mall and wound up seeing Twilight, which was pretty boring. The acting was very stiff, and honestly I wasn’t all that interested in the story. I heard that the books were fairly entertaining, so I guess I was expecting more, not exactly sure why though. I planned on going out that night with some friends, but was still feeling pretty miserable so I layed in bed and fell asleep early.
 
Haley came over and brought me donuts at like 630am, and I had a giant assortment of goodies, which I mainly snacked on some of those mini pigs, as well as a cake donut with vanilla frosting. I ate until I felt sick, then food comad until about 1. Something apparently crawled into the attic and died in the last couple of days, and it was raining so I presume it was wet. I called a pest control guy and he found it. It was a dead rat that crawled in the attic, it spread its disgusting odor all over my house, so I bought like 4 of those glade plugin things and lit a ton of candles.
 
I have been working really hard on my college essays in the last couple days, and am thinking I am finally getting on the right track. I have had a lot of help from a lot of great people trying to get them where they need to be, and am extremely appreciative of the support. Hopefully I will be able to get these wrapped up in the next few weeks so I don’t have to fret about meeting deadlines.
 
From a poker standpoint I have played just about nothing. I played deano supremo on stars yesterday for like 45 minutes 4 tabling 2 each of plo and nl 25-50. He is actually quite good at nl it seems, but was really awful at plo, so I managed to make a couple buyins off him. Also, I have been sweating lots of HSNL action! Watching mastr and durrrr go nutso vs each other at 2-4 is really fun, there are tons of cool hands and it’s a blast to watch.
 
On to the video thing, I am sorry you guys aren’t enjoying it. I thought it would be a cool idea, but I agree that it sucks to use up every high stakes Friday with the same video. I think it is extremely awesome hearing different perspectives on hands and getting to hear our thoughts playing against each other. Perhaps go back with a different mindset in watching them, instead of being like ‘oh man I get to see some big pots and cool action’, try to figure out why we are doing this vs each other’, then hear another perspective the next week, etc.
 
I think they are extremely helpful, but probably don’t need to be eating up the HS Fridays. Hopefully the brains behind the CR operation will see this and switch it up and get some regular vids back in for the HS Fridays so u guys get to see all ur cool action. I do think u should keep watching though I have watched all of them and will continue to, as I think its cool idea and I want to see what everyone had. I guess it is a lot cooler having played in the game, but w/e.
 
That’s all I got, peace.
 
-David

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Entry Tags:

Nov 29, 08 21:54:05

sorry about your Grandfather

rookie




Nov 29, 08 23:05:24

For what it's worth, no video is worth a 1 or a 2. That's f-ed up. People that leave ratings like that need to be camel slammed (no homo).

-lee

Przytula




Nov 30, 08 02:05:23

sorry bout ur grandfather. losing loved ones sucks. but its good that they helped him not be in pain and that you got to have a couple laughs before he went.

TheTyman9




Nov 30, 08 02:32:21

condolences, man

busto_in_hawaii




Nov 30, 08 11:03:01

Sorry about your grandpa -- just know that I'm sure he was very proud of your success and was also very lucky/grateful to have had you guys by his side in his last moments.

nomo4life




Nov 30, 08 12:11:31

condolences from germany :(

antiplanB




Nov 30, 08 13:32:18

I just lost my grandfather this past week to pneumonia as well, with literally the exact same circumstances. My deepest condolences go out to you and your family.

Maits10




Dec 1, 08 06:26:12

Sad to hear about your grandfather :( Condolences to you and your family from Sweden.

As for the vid, I think it was a good idea. Unluckily though, there weren't as manny interesting spots as could be expected imo. There certainly are some, like the hand between you and Cole will be real interesting to see.

It's also nice to hear about you guys different perspective on hands. Always love to hear you discuss position and other random stuff.

Just fyi, what I've enjoyed most in your vid is seeing you discuss folding the 55 hand on the button to SB raise. Long discussion on nothing happening really, except opening and folding 55. From that standpoint I guess it doesn't really matter seeing the same vid as long as the commentary is good.

However, as pure enjoyment, I think we CR members like to see different vids.

Herveao




Dec 1, 08 19:10:27

condolences

wouldn't mind living to 93 fwiw but sad to hear

LesW




Dec 6, 08 15:27:31

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3548684

do you think you can fold this flop?

My friend played this hand and although I think on the surface that it doesn't look that bad to shove, I think based on his minraise it is 99% sure that he has a set and you can make a big fold there. It would be great if you could comment on whether you agree with that thinking or what your thinking would be. ty

Tyler

TheTyman9



70 Views | Comments (10)
November 24, 2008

Daut was talking a lot about BJJ, so I wanted to share a fun experience today with everyone. I am back in TX, so am working out at Travis Lutter’s, and most of the days we roll with gis on. All of the experience I have comes from an MMA school where I guess they teach ‘sport’ jiu jitsu, with an emphasis on setting stuff up for face smashing, as well as submissions that work on slippery arms, necks, legs, whatever.
 
My first day back to Lutter’s I got caught in about 6 stupid rigged horse crap neck gi chokes where you basically reach behind and grab the cloth at the back of the neck, and then reach an arm under, crossing the arms, and rotate the hands causing the gi to choke the person out. It was probably the most frustrating, annoying thing to deal with on the planet, because these no talent ass clowns would just crush me with their trickery.
 
Anyways, I managed to pull off some good stuff involving getting in side control and trapping their arm under my legs basically letting me have my way with their other arm to set up kimuras or the occasional step over head triangle from top (which didn’t work out so well, but oh god if it did I would look super cool). I felt cool because I don’t think they really drill that kinda stuff too hard in traditional BJJ, so it may have been something even the purple belts had never seen before, though I am sure the instructors have.
 
Today, I did all of my drilling and most of my rolling with a blue belt who was about my height, but weighed prob 240, though its entirely possible he weighed more. At one point, he was trying to catch me in an arm bar and we got into a very fun position for both people where my face is basically in his nuts, and vice versa. He then proceeded to rip the most disgustingly raunchy fart I have ever experienced the discomfort of being around. He quickly rolled off and sort of sat there looking all embarrassed, while I gave him a look of disbelief mixed with disgust and agony at being trapped under a 240 pound man in that position.
 
I told him not to worry, and it was a natural bodily function and he was just a little stressed out so relieved it by farting, and he sort of laughed uncomfortably. We continued about 5 minutes later, after the fulmination had time to dissipate, and he proceeded to suffocate me more, this time with the trickery of having 65 pounds on me. Honestly, against someone that knows what they are doing vs someone that doesn’t really, I don’t have much of a chance. He kept requesting that I start in his guard, at which point he would easily sweep me into mount, and I would sit there gasping for breath until the inevitable bullshit neck choke.
 
I want to go back to the fart, and explain in more detail what happened. I was starting in guard the whole time, and obviously he just reaches up and grabs my gi and pulls me down, then tries to set up arm bars or sweep me. He got the arm bar in by clutching onto my gi (has anyone noticed I am not a fan of gis? I have a private lesson tomorrow to become more adept at this), and somehow he got me on the ground on my back, but he couldn’t get me to release my arms. As this was going on, he was sitting up, and I shrimped a bit and got on my right shoulder (he was attacking right arm) and I stepped my left leg over his head, and locked it under my other leg in a triangle around his neck, but coming from the opposite angle than normal. I started stretching out to get it tight, at which point he released his gaseous explosion. I like to think the reason he did it was because he didn’t want to get tapped by a skinny white belt. I am not really sure if I could have gotten him in that position, but it felt like I was getting the triangle in tight, and it was right around his neck even though from the wrong side, and probably looked pretty cool, which is always fun bonus points.
 
Anyways, I just wanted to ramble about that a bit. I am also getting a lot better, and it is about 100x more fun when you learn some techniques and can actually catch people in stuff on occasion. I need to get in better shape though, as usually I can give a good 2-3 minutes of good hard rolling before I start to gas out a bit, especially if it’s a bigger guy. I try to mostly work out with the bigger guys so I have to really get my technique down and cant just throw people around, but I am way out of shape for being able to go for over 5 minutes or so. What daut was saying about staying calm etc also makes it easier to maintain energy. If you are flopping and flailing around when a giant behemoth is on top of you smothering you, it is easy to run out of steam. Being in control will definitely help, and I need to work on that.
 
I haven’t really played much poker in the last few days, though I did get in a quick 25-50 sesh on stars. The once mighty take chip has devolved into an overagg call station (if that makes sense) that stacks off much too light vs me, and he slid a few stacks my way helping to pad my month a bit. I just haven’t really felt like playing, and games haven’t been particularly great, so I have been hanging out with friends and trying to get my ass in shape.
 
On a diet front, I am not exactly in top form. Saturday we went to simply fondue, which is just absolute heaven on earth as far as food goes, and is a great setup for hanging out with a good group of people. We had a group of 7, and got 4 different cheeses, every meat on the menu, and 4 different chocolates. I ate until sickness, which I seem to have a problem with when I go out to restaurants. I can’t seem to control myself when deliciousness is put in front of me. When I don’t order food or go out I eat super clean super great, but I just love eating so much, I dno.
 
Tonight I picked up season 1 of the wire, and Haley brought over Mellow Mushroom, which is some of the best pizza I have ever had. I obviously ate too much and passed out after watching only 1 episode. Everyone has been talking lately about what a great show the wire is, best on tv blah blah come off it. I watched like 4 eps of season 1 like 3-4 years ago and just remember it being slow. Apparently it picks up a lot and theres a lot of character development, so I am giving it a second chance now. Just what I need, another show to eat up a week of my time. It does rank up there on stuffwhitepeoplelike.com, so maybe that plays a part.
 
Me and tony, one of my roommates out in vegas, have a lot of talks about the whole mentality as far as food, working out, spending money, whatever, the thing ‘ok TOMORROW starts the first day of my new conservative lifestyle’ and how he/we/lots of people say that every day, then don’t do shit about it. I want to say right now, that tomorrow I will start eating super clean and healthy again, but I know its probably not true. It is the holiday season, a bunch of my buddies are in town for thanksgiving, and I will probably go out a bunch, eat crappy food, and drink quite a lot. The best thing I can say is I will do jiu jitsu a bunch, which is a really good work out. This should keep me in check a bit.
 
I am going on a cruise at the end of December, so was planning on getting in really good shape, but quite frankly I just love food too much and am not going to want to be super healthy when all the deliciousness surrounds me. I will likely eat 1 crap meal a day, and keep the rest super clean. I think it is the best I can do for now, seeing how I have such little self control in this regard at the moment. I do well on occasion, but as soon as I start eating unhealthy even a little bit, it opens up a floodgate. It is funny, because like, otday for example, my meals go,
 
Oatmeal with almonds and half a sliced banana
Cup of green tea
 
Apple in car on way back from jiu jitsu
 
Protein shake with 1.5 scoops whey, half tbsp peanut butter, half banana, 2 tbsp ground flax seed
 
6 guava slices
 
GIANT ENORMOUS FAT MELLOW MUSHROOM PIZZA NOM NOM
 
Food coma
 
I am just sort of rambling without much coherent thought or purpose, trying to acknowledge my own weakness in regard to food, even though I have shown enormous control in the recent past. Anyways, I am getting sort of tired, so am going to go watch a couple eps of the wire, and try to pay attention and get into it. I really don’t think I have heard a single person say it sucks, with MANY saying it is the greatest show on TV. So, here we go.
 
-David Benefield

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Entry Tags:

Nov 25, 08 02:39:17

WAIT TILL WIRE SEASON 2

It does start slow but gets better - also Deadwood is sick in case you never checked that out.

LesW




Nov 25, 08 05:08:11

The Wire is much more enjoyable once you get to know the characters. I watched the first 4 seasons in like 6 weeks and just getting onto the 5th now.

Heineken23




Nov 25, 08 07:50:23

TJngSB's

Tony is eating a sonic blast right now as we read your blog and laff at you, BUT, tommorrow its on Dave... Also, Miles misses you so much he took a giant shit right in fornt of your door... That is all -- carry on...

drunkpplaya




Nov 25, 08 09:45:27

The Wire is pretty addictive although it starts to wane a little in the last couple seasons.

ornycjv




Nov 25, 08 14:27:13

i just got my roommate started on the wire. he can't stop now...

join the club.

DrSatisfaction




Nov 26, 08 09:48:03

The Wire is awesome, but be patient, it is slow at first. And lol at trying to start eating healthy day before Thanksgiving.

Stinger885




Nov 26, 08 21:06:40

"I can't seem to control myself when deliciousness is put in front of me."

This is the best sentence ever written in the English language.

jtphila




Nov 27, 08 07:39:28

hey dave, as a brazilian and a bjj fighter I can say those gi chokes are quite easy to defend against, Once you keep practicing with gis I'm sure you will rather use them than not..........

gmeibak



58 Views | Comments (8)
November 18, 2008

Oh man, what a week. I am finally fully recovered from the frivolities that ensued this past weekend. We got tickets to the UFC fight Couture vs Lesnar, and it was a blast. I had never been to a live fight before, and the atmosphere was really incredible. The prelim fights were great, everyone really fought well, and there weren’t any boring moments. Unfortunately Couture lost halfway through the second round to the ogre, dampening the evening a bit, but that’s ok. Brock really is enormous, and it is super tough to fight someone that weighs like 60 pounds more than you.
 
After the fight we went for a few drinks at one of the bars in MGM, and then ended up at Tao. It was a pretty long night, and I got pretty drunk, which I do maybe twice a year. Everyone had a good time though, and I don’t think we got in TOO much trouble.
 
That same day but earlier, I played in a pretty sweet 100-200/400 button ante game at Bellagio. It was a bunch of NY guys that were in town for whatever reason, and a few of the vegas live pros. I managed to run pretty hot and won about 82k in about an hour and a half before having to give up my seat. I was playing over Rick Soloman, and wasn’t super happy to get up, but I agreed that when he showed up I would give up my seat before I sat. I was happy I booked a good win, but it was a pretty great game so it kinda sucked to have to quit it. Anyways, I hung out at Bellagio for an hour or 2 over in the limit area with my old roommate and then went to the fight.
 
Yesterday I played like 3500 hands of 10-20 NL trying to be extra spewy. I managed to be able to 12 table for like 3-4 hours and got in some pretty goofy hands, but nothing too super exciting. I ran a bit below equity, and got in KK vs AA for 8k, as well as AA vs 66 in rr pot 962 rainbow flop, so that didn’t help losing 16k pots worth of that. I got stuck like.. 12k I think overall, and then there was a good 200-400 nl game so I 1 tabled for 5 minutes with a short stack, ran hot, made 22k and that’s all she wrote.
 
It actually sort of annoyed me that I spent 4 hours grinding it out playing really well I thought, got stuck 6 buyins, then randomly played 20 times higher for 5 minutes with a short stack, played just as good but ran hot, and made almost twice what I lost. Obviously I am not ‘annoyed’ annoyed, I am super happy that I did a run hot to fix my day, but I am just sort of annoyed at the poker world in general for allowing that to happen. Obviously I cant do anything about it and it is super great that so much money can be made in such a short period of time, it just isn’t real.
 
I mentioned this in a video I just made with the other CR guys. We really do all live in a fantasy world. This isn’t real life. Nothing any of us will ever do will make us as much money as we are making/have made now. (OK maybe some of us that become successful at biz or RE or whatever). But for the most part, this is it. I wonder what the long term impact of that is? All of us have been EXTREMELY fortunate to be in the situations we are in right now, and to have made so much money at such a young age. I wonder though how it will affect us later in life. Will we ever look at money the same? Will we be able to be frugal, and save money/put it away for retirement or when we really need it? I think I am doing a pretty good job investing my money and not going nuts spending it, but I worry about some people.
 
I don’t really know what to say about it really, and all the thoughts are sort of jumbled up in my head, but I honestly don’t think it’s all that great from a long term happiness perspective for a lot of people. I mean really.. we didn’t work hard for this. We spent a lot of time studying the game, playing hands, whatever, but it’s just that.. PLAYING. It wasn’t really work when we were coming up. All of us enjoyed doing it, and were playing as much for the fun and competitive aspect as much as for the money. The money was a nice bonus. We would have spent just as much time mastering warcraft or whatever stupid game we could be playing other than poker.
 
Look at trust fund kids. I don’t really know any, but I feel like a lot of them get caught up in drugs, end up sucking at life, and just sort of stumbling around without any drive to succeed at anything. I worry about some poker players that have had success so early with such little work might turn out like this. Most of my good friends are very solid and stable as far as this aspect, but even some of them are a little bit jaded. To say that I am not jaded would be retarded as well, because obviously money has lost quite a lot of its meaning. I mean, making 100k in an hour doing little else other than clicking buttons is just ridiculous. I don’t really know how to say it any other way. That can NOT have a positive impact on how any of us view money in the long or even short term future. It is too easy to justify stuff like oh who cares I lost a 200k pot yesterday I can spend x amount on this whatever. Getting into those habits early in life can be extremely destructive.
 
Anyways, on a more fun note, I have been doing jiu jitsu almost every day I have been out here. I think I am actually getting decentish. I bought some grappling mats for both my tx and vegas places, and will hopefully find some people I can roll with randomly. I really like the competitiveness of it, and you cant really blame luck or someone else when you get tapped out. It is completely your fault, and you are the only thing that can hold yourself back from improving. I really like that in that I can’t be like oh I ran bad or oh this guy on my team sucks. It is entirely up to me how good I can get, which is cool.
 
Over new years I am going on a cruise. I have never been on a cruise before, but everyone seems to love them. Frankly, I get a little seasick when I am on smaller boats, and am not the biggest fan of being at ‘sea’. I like the water, I love swimming, I love laying on the beach, but ‘boating’ isn’t one of my hobbies to be sure. It is a nicer one I think, and I have to get a tuxedo for the New Years Eve party, which is sort of cool and sort of rigged, depending on how you look at it. I enjoy getting dressed up on occasion, but a tux seems like overkill. Everyone will look super sharp though, and I’m sure all the ladies will look gorgeous in formal gowns, so that’s pretty sweet. Haley seemed super excited about it, and we are going with a couple other friends, so I think it will be a fantastic time.
 
 I am up in the air about PCA at the moment. I have gone the last 3 years in a row, and have always had a pretty good time. This year they are having a 25k event as well, which is pretty tempting. I also need to do quite a bit of college visiting, though it looks like I am probably only applying to Reed and St. John’s. Honestly, the only place I really want to go to is St. John’s. The program just seems super interesting to me and I think it is exactly what I am looking for. That’s all I got for today, ttyl.
 
-David

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Nov 18, 08 16:37:30

this is gonna sound quite gay but i think i has a mancrush on raptor

edruseli




Nov 18, 08 17:09:42

hes a good kid but we need another word to replace super. hmmm lets think!

rookie




Nov 18, 08 18:40:53

i think about this respect for money issue a lot, and i'm really glad to hear you talk about it.

i've made over 60k playing poker this year, and yeah that might not seem like much compared to the #s you're posting but before that i was making probably 20k/yr as a starving artist/musician/waiter. It's completely changed my life and my relationship with money.

before i definitely wasn't elated about my life, but i liked it well enough and at least i knew i had perspective on things.

now i just sort of get free money for playing this game and i feel like i live in a play land where hundred dollar bills grow on trees.

it does feel a bit diseased and wrong. but one needs money, so it's kind of easy to justify.

but i know what you're getting at, and it's nice to hear someone addressing it.

great blog.

killerbee112




Nov 18, 08 18:55:48

seriously just quite gay?

TCA




Nov 18, 08 21:06:22

Great Blog!
What are you going to study? And why do you go to college when u have so much money?
=)

sunsii




Nov 18, 08 22:20:05

Reed FTW

I don't know St. Johns, but Reed is in my neck of the woods in Portland. Its an intellectual's school and not stereotypical like most colleges. If you come up for a visit, let me know.

-Zimba

Zimba




Nov 19, 08 00:31:36

hey david im not much of a comment guy but just wanted to say i enjoy reading your blog.always cool to hear your perspective about having enough money to never have to work or earn again if u dont want to.being able to do the things in life that u are interested in even if once u start down that road it loses its lustre is awesome.just to satisfy ur curiosity.im very passionate about poker but run my own business so the time i put in is very limited.it amazes me that guys your age,through passion and hard work can become so successful ,so early . ive worked full time since i was 15 am now 32 so to see people so successful so early doing something they love is awesome.i feel like some of the guys think they need to be successful business owners to be fulfilled but FUCK THAT enjoy yourself and only go to school if its bcuz your interested in the courses your taking.WORKING CONVENTIALLY SUCKS BALLS so dont ever feel ur missing out ur just ahead of the game.blah ,blah, ramble( take a shot )ramble ,

deushbagalow




Nov 19, 08 01:18:04

i think you sort of glossed over the most important part of the blog, rick soloman is playing 200/400?

Balbomb




Nov 19, 08 02:51:47

those 12 tables...were they 6 or full ring?

thank you

streetfamep




Nov 19, 08 04:26:06

in regard to your thoughts on the effect of poker:


dont think meat just throw the ball

d2themfi




Nov 19, 08 05:35:46

St. Johns

Hello David,

I had written you previously with a few book recommendations. In light or your interest in St. Johns, I would like to recommend a few more.

I'm sure you are aware that St. Johns is a coeducations college; there are no separate disciplines or departments, only electives. The program is known for is "Great Books Program".

For this reason, I would strongly recommend you pick up 2 books which are extremely popular on campus. They include:

- How to Read a Book by Mortimer J. Adler
- How to Think About the Great Ideas: From the Great Books of Western Civilization by Mortimer J. Adler

From what I have heard, the most valuable part of the college is its ability to produce better thinkers. Being a better thinker will invariably improve your ability in whatever field you should chose to pursue, including poker. These books will help you get the most out of your reading, and if you should attend, there will be plenty.

Please feel free to ask any questions (emboroian@gmail.com)

I wish you the best of luck sir,

Eric

eboro




Nov 19, 08 09:23:21

Do I get anything for picking the school you want to go to?

Seriously, my brother graduated from St. Johns Annapolis campus. It's a great school for a "searcher". Best of luck!

jtphila

P.S. Try to restrain yourself from using the word yummy in any research papers, particularly in anything related to Kant's Critique of Pure Reason

jtphila




Nov 20, 08 17:37:18

Hmm. I think St. John's and Reed are two very different schools. My son looked at both, and I actually visited the Reed campus with him.

My sense of it is a lot of really - REALLY - bright kids who didn't fit in in high school, partially because they were crazy smart, and probably partially because they didn't go in for a lot of the social bullshit that defines the high school experience.

But you would be surrounded by insanely smart people and that's never a bad thing.

They also have the only female certified atomic reactor technicians in the U.S., due to their (I'm not making this up) working atomic reactor on campus.

I also hear very good things about the St. John's program - it will be a totally different crowd of students, and you certainly want to spend a day or two on each campus before deciding.

As regards the issue of losing touch with the value of money, it's definitely a concern for the young online poker ballers. But that you recognize the concern is 80% of the battle, and then it's just a question of maintaining focus on real monetary value as you grow older.

Regards, Lee

Lee Jones




Nov 24, 08 04:06:08

Can we be manfriends and adpot a baby tohether?

Ole P