CARDRUNNERS
What's Your Edge
Last week I went to Baldface, a catski op near Nelson, BC with my buddy Jamin. We went last year and had an amazing time, but I tore my MCL at the end of the trip. This year I was excited to get out there again, ride well, and stay uninjured. The snow was absolutely incredible and we had a blast! After four days of pow and 60,000+ ft vertical my legs were pretty dead, but this trip capped off a great year on the snow. Utah and Whistler were busts snow-wise, but Baldface and Vail were great trips as were a bunch of small ones to East Coast mountains with friends from back home.



Unless I make an unlikely last minute heli trip to Alaska in the next couple of weeks, it's looking like I'm done for the season! Hope all the skiers and snowboarders out there had a great time on the mountains as well and stayed safe.
Poker has been great in 2009. I can't seem to get much momentum when playing big, but I've been crushing 25/50 everywhere and won a lot playing high stakes on Cake (under CalNaughtnJr and Cole South) to put together a great start of the year.
I've started doing some triathlon training for one I'm doing with Martin in September. It's hard!
Life in DC is great, been spending lots of time with friends and family and have gone on some fun trips.
Gotta run!
gl,
Cole
Apr 12, 09 08:01:29
i am very impressed, with those jumps. ur so good at life ;) sick pics.
just mic'd up some ravioli
May 10, 09 02:19:34
Its summer dude. You got some fawking pics where you're skiing. Update the blog.
Last week was Taylor, David, and myself's Poker After Dark appearance. I thought it went really well and that the show was pretty entertaining. There are always going to be haters, but I thought the overall sentiments on the poker forums was that the show was great. Playing an eleven hour very high stakes poker session that's going to be on national TV is tough and I think we all did a good job. There were definitely some interesting hands
- David's 65 laydown. Man, this was a tough spot. I was just fooling around with him when I said that Doyle flipped KJ of course. David had been playing pretty tight and raised UTG, I think value raising anything worse than AA on the river is pretty nuts on Doyle's part. At the table, it was clear that Doyle for sure thought he had the best hand. I like David's fold, but I think it's close (closer than lots of ppl who I've seen say "lol ez fold"; cmon Doyle is pretty fearless and could have a bluff sometimes with 72 or TT, and as we see he can show up with KJ)
- Taylor's QJ checkraise. Good play. I hate folding flush draws.
- Gabe's A6 bluff. When you can see his cards it's a lot easier to say that you hate the bluff. At the table I thought Gabe was pretty strong this hand and was surprised David called. Nice hand David.
- My AQ vs Doyle. I like how I played this one, bet sizing especially.
- My TT vs Doyle. Meh, I think I like how I played this one as well. The river is tough and is a bit of a levelling game since he got caught bluffing me before in the same spot, but he has to have a four and I figured he'd generally fold 4x for such a big raise preflop.
Another poker media opportunity I have had lately was with Mediocre Poker Radio. I can definitely say that this was the most fun poker interview I've ever done. These guys were really laid back, very interested in poker, and hilarious. The show is based in DC (on 106.7) but all of their podcasts are online and they have had some really great interviews -- Taylor, the Dang Bro's, Jay Krantz, and Brad Booth have all been on their show.
Poker this year is going incredibly well. I've been sticking to playing most of the 25/50 and 50/100 PLO and NL games and my results have been very good. I've been getting a surprising amount of good NL action too; I hadn't been playing much NL in the past year or so and it's good to get back into it. It's a fun game, but the regulars are very tough these days so it's important to game select quite a bit. PLO as usual has been fun and I'm still learning a lot about the game. There are just so many different situations to analyze and different winning playing styles to dissect. I've played a few sessions 12 tabling the 5/10 and 10/20 PLO games as well, and it's always fun to play so many games and have so many decisions per hour.
David Podgurski (thatpfunk) started making videos for Cardrunners! He's one of my best friends and a very good poker player, check out his video. David and I do a lot of travelling together and took our girlfriends to wine country for Valentine's Day. We stayed at the Kenwood Inn and Spa in Sonoma after seeing it rated #1 resort in North America by Conde Nast. The hotel was great and a lot younger than I expected. Sonoma is a beautiful place and we'll definitely go back soon. In Napa we went to the boutique wineries Barnett, V Madrone, and Frias Family. All three had great wines and unique environments.
Barnett had several different wines that were all incredible -- I'm normally a cab sav/pinot drinker but I really enjoyed their Merlot and Chardonnay as well. Their Cab was sick too though. Barnett's wine caves were brand new and the winery has an incredible view of Napa.
V Madrone is a very small winery that only produces Cab Sav and Petite Sirah. It was run by a very nice couple that left their normal jobs in NY/CT to buy a vineyard in Napa. It was just us and them in their living room, talking and sharing lots of wine. The Cab was fantastic.
Frias Family was a trip! It's run by two brothers, Fernando and Manny Frias. They were so hospitable and it felt like we were drinking (an insane amount of) wine with college friends. In particular, their library cabs were amazing. After drinking for a few hours, we went with the Frias' to a local Italian restaurant where we had some amazing food and more of their wine. We were running late to catch our flight and Fernando even drove us all the way to SFO! Their hospitality was incredible and we had so much fun hanging out with them. If you're visiting Napa, make sure you check out their vineyard; you'll have a blast.
Wine country vacations are always so much fun and since I'm talking about wine, here are a few others I like. My favorite (but expensive) Napa cabs are definitely Araujo, Quintessa, and Shafer. You just can't beat these, they are incredible and make any occasion special. They dominate the wine lists at the best restaurants for a reason. For an amazing value though, McKenzie-Mueller is one of my favorites. I've loved all of their wines, especially their cab and malbec. And at $30-$50/bottle these are definitely my favorite mid-range wine.
Ah, wine.
Snowboarding!!! It's that time of year again. I took a Whistler trip last month with Martin and Rob but the snow was a bust. They have just been getting owned by the weather this year and their base is so thin. I heard they got dumped on yesterday though so hopefully things turn around in BC. Right now I'm in Utah with Martin and Rob again. Again though, it's just too warm and the snow is subpar. It's supposed to snow tomorrow, we'll see. I rode great yesterday though which felt nice and if conditions suck today maybe we will just hit the park.
Life in DC is great, it's kinda cold now but I couldn't be happier living in an awesome city with a great girl and a great dog.
Good luck at the tables,
Cole
Feb 24, 09 14:20:29
omg lol thatpfunk stole my idea! lolol i swear thatpfunk was at my house last night and i told him about my joking plan to get you to mention in your blog that you've been coaching me and that i'm a good player. how much did he pay you i will double it
Feb 24, 09 20:10:32
I was planning on spending a nice productive evening reading and studying. Instead, Ill speed-read half of it and go out to get a couple bottles of wine.
Feb 24, 09 20:10:38
I was planning on spending a nice productive evening reading and studying. Instead, Ill speed-read half of it and go out to get a couple bottles of wine.
Feb 26, 09 23:33:31
Hey Cole,
My buddies have seen you around the Cliff the past few days. I ride there everyday! Drop me a message for info on where to go for the goods. Have fun out here
Feb 27, 09 13:50:55
Hello Cole, you played the hand well, but how do you think Doyle played it? I think alot of people are quick to write it off as very bad, but what do you think if he saw you capable of bluffing any draw (maybe you had been playing loose, or even if you weren't) + protecting a weaker pair, and floating you with the intention of bluffing almost any river?
And great read btw
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.
Dec 18, 08 17:44:01
I am in Telluride if you ever have the itch to come down, lots of expert terrain. I could make sure you stay in the right places, eat, ride....just sayin. We got lots of snow down here too, snowed a foot plus in 4 hours today, weeee...
Dec 18, 08 21:35:10
haha I live in vail, glad you enjoyed it here and you caught some great snow. As for Lover's Leap, it avalanched about 40 minutes after I rode it on Sunday :S
Dec 19, 08 09:40:51
man I'll be boarding in 1 week two, can't wait! :)
our setup is pretty similar btw..
I don't know if you're into snowboarding videos but I just have to recommend "that's it that's all".. sickest movie ever made and it makes me wanna ride so bad!
gl for 2009, keep us updated!
Dec 21, 08 20:16:33
come on man you cant hate on the sweet mountains we have here in the metro area!! haha good to see youre having fun
Dec 29, 08 20:40:49
next time you should get some turns in at a-basin if you're going to be staying in/around summit. Loveland Pass is also great for some afternoon hiking/back country.
Feb 21, 09 09:22:30
Just a question.....
why do you have that stupid look on your face the entire 5 shows of PAD?
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.
Dec 3, 08 12:10:31
Ever try a skate banana They are the best all around board you can buy! Seriously check it out
Peace
Dec 3, 08 13:47:01
i feel you think about the months too much in poker. it seems like u always play right at december 1, novermber 1, etc and try to get ahead "early".... or get a lil' lazy with hands later in the month if you do get ahead early. i think poker has infinite days and should be thought of as infinite. i think your psychological flaw is approaching poker from month to month results standpoint.
Dec 3, 08 16:47:49
Most of those hands seem pretty standard at quick glance, but then again I think I monkey around too much sometimes 6 handed. See you in FL
Dec 4, 08 11:24:56
Are these really standard hands in the nosebleed games ? I mean they seem so speeeeeeewy !
Dec 16, 08 21:40:44
man gus is such a monkey.. couple of those seem pretty bad spots to 3bet with stack sizes but you prolly know better
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
Dec 1, 08 17:56:47
as if he needs to make a poker book for money. he kills games. Making a book that price is a great idea.
I wish they all started out priced this high. I also think cardrunners should cost way more per month
Dec 1, 08 19:33:15
What am I missing here? Does this seem a tiny bit spewy by DaMunsta? I mean that 3rd reraise on the flop is really strong to me. Maybe that is just nosebleeds but I can't see how an over pair is good there enough to be profitable
Dec 1, 08 19:44:56
that books looks really in depth but thats like my whole rakeback check for the month.
Dec 2, 08 00:29:36
You forgot the decimal in the price on your book. People think it's selling for \$1,850.00 not \$18.50...Honest mistake.
Dec 2, 08 03:15:21
way to kill the games cole. this book is only relevant for mid to high stakes players, so 1850 really isn't that outrageous especially when it gives you insight into how and what it takes to get to the nosebleed games. and i'm pretty sure anyone who spends 1850 isn't going to copy it for everyone to read
Dec 2, 08 10:01:17
Funny how he didnt mention he lost 550,000 in PLO yesterday. or that he got it in with a pair and a flush draw for over \$300K against Ziig's top set and lost. hmmmmm..... Selective memory! :) ...Still a beast though...
Dec 2, 08 10:31:05
I think its pretty cool. Never heard of a book selling for \$1850. To all the retards talking ish consider coaching costs and I think the price is very fair.
Dec 2, 08 11:29:50
busta,
you probably should have read 2 lines above the link where Cole told you the price.
Cole,
Congrats on the big month and I hope the book sales go well, I think it's a great idea. See you in Florida
Dec 2, 08 14:52:30
i thought this was a def typo, but then clicked on the link saw the price and fell off my chair..gl with that
Dec 2, 08 20:11:51
Its actually surprising to see how people are attracted to high priced stuff like this bc they assume it was written by God. I think people will buy it but you should seriously reconsider the price bc not many CR type people will want to pay for it..
Dec 2, 08 22:08:57
Will we ever see a CTS PLO video? That is something that the PLO fans of Cardrunners would surely appreciate.
Dec 3, 08 00:27:02
1850 sounds like a good bet on the river.
Your are blurring the lines between a value bet and a bluff.
At 2k, i fold, at 1500 I call..but 1850\$ makes me think for a second....
I hope its a hardcover atleast
Dec 3, 08 03:51:38
Stinger, Well put.
Cpar... It was written by God. I can't wait to get my copy.
Obviously anyone who thinks the price is outrageous has no concept of investment, which is the fundamental + underlying concept behind every decision in poker. Right now I am looking at buying a market research report for ~3k so in many ways I could say the book is underpriced but since its the first of its kind it will likely be slow to take off. Not sure how you protect your copyright but I hope the information stays very well concealed.
Cole, Congrats on the big month I wish you blogged more. Something I really wanna see is pics of ur increasingly not so new pad. I don't get it you are flying to Montana for day trips... FML thats alot of air time. I would be down for any 4+ trip to any resort any time this winter, except jan 5-10 for PCA and Jan 17-20 for Sundance film festival (and snowboarding).
Dec 5, 08 00:03:38
I quite believe the book to be worth the price, but have to mention that it made me think of the Futurama episode where Fry is buying Leela a pet for X-mas (not christmas.) He asks how much for a lizard and how much for the parrot. Storekeeper says "The lizards are buck each, the parrot is \$500," and Fry whistles and says "That's a helluva good parrot!"
Such a book would be tax deductible, no?
Dec 5, 08 10:48:21
"Guys don't be so quick to judge, it may have 20,000 pages."
Awesome
Dec 12, 08 17:36:31
I think that you sell a book for that price just shows that you totally lost touch with reality.
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
Oct 24, 08 14:42:06
nice to see youre doin well, gl in vegas... but please, for the love of god, take that bowtie off your pup :)
Oct 24, 08 15:34:53
bow tie stays - you go update your blog GORDO
Thnkas gave me some more inspiration - actually the hitting vegas for live games part is my av cause i would love to be able to do that right now
Oct 26, 08 02:54:00
Cute dog! I love dogs. Me and my girlfriend have a bearded collie together. He is actually more fur then dog, but he is the best companion any human could ask for.
Nov 6, 08 01:45:10
Cute dog, i want to get one, might wait till i move up to 5/10 though and get a gf first.
Nov 11, 08 19:31:04
is the poker ebook you supposedly wrote being sold for \$1800 for real???
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
Aug 26, 08 17:50:09
how come u come to south america and dont come to rio de janeiro ?
u would not regret, its awesome in every way u can think
Aug 31, 08 14:00:17
pup looks like a rotty/lab or doby/lab maybe? good mixes though, should be uber smart and have that 6th sense regarding people you come in contact with. if the dog don't like em, you shouldn't either. they're never wrong.
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
Aug 2, 08 11:36:40
i know u have been out of the loop, but taylor, aaron jones, and tom are coming too with whatever girls they decide to bring. i cant wait, enjoy south america, and dont let ur leg rot off.
Aug 2, 08 12:22:19
I hope Juan is not from Venezuela because he will get offended. But thank goodness
you are out of the that country. For sure it has replaced Colombia as the most dangerous country in Latin America. Maybe I am exaggerating and it only corresponds to the capital, but gosh darn Caracas is extremely dangerous. I hope if people decide to go to Venezuela or Colombia someone like Juan shows them around.
On a side note some Poker Stars Latin American Poker tournament for \$2500 tournament will be at Punta del Este, Uruguay on August 7th. Punta del Este is a 45 minute flight from Buenos Aires. Punta is beautiful and is a great place for traveling newbies (certainly not CTS, a hardcore traveler) to get acquainted with Latin America. Extremely safe and there will be lots of poker players there. If anybody is going send me a pm, I have stayed in Punta many times and know the place well. Great food, great girls, but not so great beach right now (it might be a little chilly). December is great food, great girls, great beach, great nightlife.
Aug 3, 08 12:19:17
sunny chip get a life a grow some balls..... have u ever actually used ure passport..hup!!! drunken post but thats how i see it.....
Aug 4, 08 09:06:22
welcome to DC dude. Drop me a line if you ever want a tour of a production studio.
Aug 11, 08 22:55:22
hey cole nice job on the 6 table video :) keep it up id like to see your thoughts on PLO though
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
Jun 19, 08 08:51:56
If you're on a mac, try using Firefox for your blog entrys instead of Safari.
Jun 19, 08 23:38:00
The Cardrunners site is not friendly to Macs.
In order for your paragraphs to be formatted, you must use Boot Camp and type them from the Windows side.
You will also notice on the Mac that when watching videos in Flash, often the video will stop working somewhere in the middle of the video.
GL
Jun 20, 08 03:23:42
[QUOTE]In order for your paragraphs to be formatted, you must use Boot Camp and type them from the Windows side.[/QUOTE]
This is of course not true.
As I said, just use Firefox instead of Safari and you can format your Blog entry just like in windows.
Jun 20, 08 11:53:27
someone please explain how cred card roulette works? I kinda get it but not totally :P
So instead of Vegas for my birthday, my gf and I are leaving Virginia today to spend a week in San Diego with some friends (Martin aka alexeimartov, TJ aka TJ, David aka thatpfunk and his girlfriend). I'm excited, we've never been there before. We're planning on hitting wine country for a couple of days, going to a Padres game, flying in a hot air balloon, going to the zoo, and relaxing at the beach.
After San Diego we leave for Vegas for four days or so and I will play the $10k heads up and the $5k plo rebuy if I lose early.
Four days in Vegas should be plenty for me until the main event so we're flying from Vegas to Anguilla! I'm really excited about this, the island looks awesome and we're going to get our scuba certification.
I close on my new apartment on June 27th and then I'll get right back to Vegas for the main event. I'm definitely looking forward to that being over though because I'm not a huge fan of live poker and I'm psyched to get my new place set up and get into some semblance of a routine.
There hasn't really been any good action lately so I haven't been playing much poker, but Ariel won me a bit of money in the $5k mixed event. Unfortunately he was chip leader for most of day one and day two but it started to fall apart after a big bluff got picked off. He's not a sixth place type of player, he's either going to get a ton of chips or bust early so hopefully he can run hot and take one down this summer.
gl!
Cole
Jun 5, 08 15:40:40
If you like burgers, make sure you go to Rocky's in Pacific Beach. You will thank me later. (Note: 21 & over)
Jun 5, 08 21:40:19
+ev destinations, i am from/still live in san diego and have been to anguilla...... i must agree w/ above about rocky's but i'd be eating cali burritos..... and when in anguilla, make sure to make it to bankie banx's dune preserve..... sip on a duneshine and take in life for a minute, or if they have webz now (not a chance in hell), stay for the rest of your life!
let me know if you want more diego/anguilla info!?!?!
Jun 5, 08 23:12:46
Enjoy the San Diego Zoo, it's a pretty cool place
Make sure you see the polar bears, the elephants, and the meerkats
If you get really lucky with the polar bears, they'll swim right by the glass (the side of their swimming area is glass and you can go underground and stand next to it) and you'll literally be inches away from a gigantic polar bear. They're really really big, they could eat your face right off, it's crazy
The elephants do funny things
The meerkats are nuts
And obviously you should ride the skyfari over and over again, it's a lift suspended on a cable that flies over the whole zoo
The lines for skyfari can get pretty long during peak hours though. Just explain to them that you're CTS and I'm sure they'll scoot you right through
Jun 6, 08 12:15:56
you guys have to try the frisbee golf course in balboa park. it is some sick shit. it's run by hippies and everyone smokes joints on the course. you can't go wrong in balboa park; it's probably the coolest outdoorsy spot in san diego. the stone brewery in san marcos is also worth visiting. just a few ideas. have fun man.
Jun 6, 08 15:23:54
im pretty sure san diego was actually discovered over 1000 years ago by the germans. I think it means whale's vagina, dont quote me.
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Cole South : Poker Blog
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