CARDRUNNERS

What's Your Edge

 
David Benefield : Poker Blog
August 02, 2008

Today was pretty cool, I woke up at like 930 and went to jits. I started taking it at a place in fort worth, Travis Lutter’s gym, and it is kinda cool because a lot of the training uses a gi. Couture’s gym is more of a pure MMA style gym, so a lot of the jits training is more focused towards grappling without a gi, so this was a completely new element for me. Needless to say, the first few times I rolled I got put in some pretty goofy chokes I was in no way ready for. Being able to use the clothing as a weapon is pretty sweet, though I think I prefer without, though I think its mainly because these guys were doing stuff I wasn’t prepared for. I finally got to a point where I wouldn’t get destroyed by anyone in the first 20 seconds, then rolling with a gi on got me submitted twice super fast, and it tilted me.
 
After that I hung out with my buddy Nate from high school I haven’t seen in a few months. He graduated rice recently and is working down there in Houston, so I don’t get to see him too much. He is one of the few people from texas that I can actually stand to be around. We hung out for a bit at my place, then went to go see the new Mummy movie with Jet Li. I think we were there for 30 minutes, I fell asleep, he punched me to wake me up, and we left. It was pretty brutal. I haven’t walked out of a movie since Battlefield Earth like 10 years ago, so I think that’s saying something.
 
Tonight I had plans to go bowling with one of the other ppl I can stand from texas, and his new GF who I have known for a good 4 years. She is pretty cool too, and they were sort of flirty for the last 4 years but were in and out of other relationships, but they finally hooked it up so that’s cool. In the 30 minute window I had to kill, I decided to play some plo. This is something I never do, because if I lose in the 30 minutes, I will want to keep playing if the game is good and get ‘unstuck’. I decided that I was going to play since the game was AMAZING, and just leave no matter what after 30 mins since I had plans.
 
IMMEDIATELY I dropped like 40k, lost 5 8k stacks in a row. I then ran one stack up to 60k and quit that table because I was oop to gustav and he likes to be an aggro monkey, and I was going to be sad if I lost 60k back now that I was about even. I considered quitting, but there were 2 other tables that were good so decided to short stack/run up stacks on those tables. I proceeded to lose 97k straight, pretty much without a hiccup in the up direction. I think I got all in 13 times during that period, and won 2 of them, with average equity around 55%. It was truly a remarkable experience some of the hands I was getting in against.
 
I am not really sure what the hell is going on, I am playing well, getting my money in good, and just cant seem to stop losing. The downswing has hit an all time high of 467k now in the last 5 days, and I have decided that that is enough. I came very close to cashing out what I had left online, (about 350) down to about 50k total, and just grinding out 5-10 and working my way back up. I still may do this, but I am not sure at the moment. I have never redeposited money online in my life. My initial 50 bucks has never come out of the poker economy, and I intend to keep it that way. This means I will have to be slightly more careful with my bankroll when I get back from Hawaii, but I am not sure if I will do anything drastic or not.
 
Something I do that I am not sure is standard or not is I almost always have tables and lobbies up even if I am not playing. Even if the biggest game is 2 25-50 games, I have them open and am still checking out hand histories in big pots to see if anyone is playing bad. A lot of times if I have no intention at all of playing, I still have the lobbies up and am sweating the games. I like to keep up with everything that is going on, all the high stakes action, and really have a feel for when someone might be playing bad and I can jump in and attack it. I think this contributes a lot of EV, though might be slightly ocd.
 
Anyways, I hid my pokerstars and ftp icons under like 10 levels of folders, which goes like this: G:Documents and SettingsDavidDesktopDO NOT CLICKARE U SUREARE U REALLY SUREHOW SURE ARE UDONT DO ITYOU KNOW BETTERTHEY HAVE DOOMSWITCH467k DOWNSWINGULL ONLY MAKE IT 500POKER IS RIGGEDTAKE A FUCKING BREAKYOUR FUNERAL. After your funeral of course I finally reach the ftp and pstars icons, and can click them if I desire. It is very hard for me to be on my computer right now without having my tables up, but I think it is something I will just have to get over. Like, I really am obsessive about it, even if I am in dota, I have a couple tables up on the other screen, and will alt tab out to check on the big hands and make sure I know whats going on. Now I cant do that, so I am just sort of sitting here watching ufc vids not really knowing what to do with myself.
 
This is definitely an exercise that I think will help me mentally. I really have no desire to ever play poker again, though I get like that often when I am losing, and even sometimes when I am winning. I don’t see myself playing 3 years from now, and hopefully I will be on to bigger and better things by then. I want to get into real estate, I want to do some travelling, I want to immerse myself in a new culture and learn a couple different languages, I want to go to argentina and learn how to salsa, I want to do all of these things while I am in my prime.
 
So, basically what I am going to do, I am going to go to Hawaii with everyone, and have an amazing vacation for starters. I intend to surf, explore, kayak, scuba dive, soak in sun, read, relax, eat, drink, play, and have an all around awesome, relaxing trip. When I get back I will have cleared my head, and be able to decide what to do from here. I find it entirely possible that I challenge myself to 9-12 table 5-10 6max or something on ftp, and try to see if I can make 1k an hour. This would be a cool challenge I think, and is something I do from time to time after a bad run to set my head straight. It is silly to think that I need to make more than 1k an hour to be content with life, as it is an incredibly ridiculous amount of money by anyone’s standards. With bonuses and rakeback and what not, I think this should be easily doable, though might be tough without, I hear games there have gotten much much harder.
 
It is also entirely possible that I just go back to playing 2-4 plo, but with the idea of running better and godmoding gustav on occasion. That would make me quite happy I think, getting it in with like, 1 out on the turn for a gigando pot and binking the shit out of him. I think this would bring me great joy, though going about setting it up could be an expensive proposition. However I would really like to be unlucky enough to get into that situation, but be lucky enough to be saved by the ftp boomswitch. Though, who knows, I might cash out all my money leaving like 40k on ftp and try to grind it up from there and get back to where I was.
 
Something that really sucks when on a downswing is the constant thought that it will take sooo much to get back to peak, especially I you have to drop down in stakes. I mean, if I drop down to 5-10, that is FORTY times lower stakes than what I have been playing the last few months. That is just insane to even think about getting back to peak. That is what causes suffering. I am beginning to realize this small fact, that suffering exists, but it is what I make it out to be, at least on a personal level. Obviously I cant control Darfur, but I can control my mental state, or at least influence it slightly. If the whole rest of the year I am looking at the last 5 days thinking wow if I didn’t play for the rest of the year I would be xx amount of happy, but now I have to play xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx hands at smaller stakes to make that back, and be miserable for the next 5 months, well, that is exactly what is going to happen. I will be miserable. If I just go into the next day feeling fresh, ready to take on the new day, and just going with the flow, I wont suffer thinking about what could or should have been. I wont be worried about what the future will hold. I will be focused on the present situation, the games that are currently running, and what my plan is to beat them.
 
 I think this downswing will be good for me. I have never had anything quite like it before. At the beginning of the year I had my worst up to that point, which was around 350 I think. I was getting my feet more and more wet in the nosebleed games, and didn’t run so hot. I got scared, dropped down, and grinded it out for a couple months. Eventually I moved back up and stomped of course, but now the variance has turned the other way. I am more prepared for it this time, especially emotionally. I have come such a long way in such a short time, and I am extremely impressed with the changes I have made.
 
I look forward to coming back from my 2 week hiatus stronger, more focused, and ready to crush once more. Who knows what I will decide to do, you guys might see me playing a lot of 5-10, or ill just go right back to the 2-4 games, I am really not sure yet tbh. What I do know is that I will not open up a poker site for the next 2 weeks. If tom txts me and lists of a list of the 5 biggest losers in the history of online poker and they are playing, I will not open up ftp to check, and I think this is a big step for me in separating poker and life, one of the biggest steps I am trying to take.
 
I think I will go to jits every day before Hawaii, hopefully make some improvements there. I think I will also try to play through MGS4. I haven’t beaten a video game in YEARS. YEARS! The last video game I played from beginning to end was Lunar Silver Star Story Complete on Playstation one. Granted I bought it prob 6-7 years after it came out, but this was like 3 years ago. I used to be soooo into games, but I just got more into an online fix where I just focused on playing other people and beating others, that I sort of got away from 1 player stuff and playing through a game and enjoying it for what it was, and not because I got to beat up on some helpless soul. I think I will get quite a bit of enjoyment out of such a simple thing as beating a video game, hopefully I have enough time to dive into it before I leave.
 
Something else I am considering doing is adding a pool to my vegas house. This summer I would get back from jits or from a workout and it would be like 110 and just awful hot. I would lay on the carpet under a fan for like 10 minutes, and wanted nothing more than to just jump in a nice pool. I didn’t realize how important it would be to me, but it is such a nice thing to have. In texas I jump in the pool randomly like twice a day, even if its for only 5 minutes, and it really makes me happy. Sometimes I just lay on a floaty thing for like 15 minutes and listen to the birds, and it is oddly relaxing. I am going to do some research on putting a pool in in vegas, if any of u guys know of a good pool company out there, please pm me a link or post in blog comments, I actually do read every one of those until I put up a new blog post. I thought that having a pool would just be an expense, since I am not in vegas more than 3.5-4 months a year, and since I am renting it out, its an extra liability, but I just really enjoy it so much I think it is worth it.
 
Don’t really have a lot else going on, tomorrow I am going to dinner with Haley and her parents. It is sorta funny, I have been with her for 2.5 years, but have never had dinner with her family. I have seen them and talked to them and hung out with them a small bit, but they don’t really know me, and I don’t really know them that well. I would like to get to know them better since they think I am probably some idiot dropout degenerate that sucks at life, and I would like for them to think that I am a good person for their daughter to be spending time with. Anyways, we are going to simply fondue, which is a super awesome place to begin with, but an even better ‘first date’ type place; if the conversation isn’t really flowing you can make it look like you are intensely focused dipping bread in cheese or whatever.
 
I am going to have to take a step away from my mega healthy ways of late, and eat cheese and chocolate, but that wont be so bad. Not sure if I will do beef or chicken, might try to get a lot of shrimp and salmon and stuff, but I will play it by ear. I don’t think I will ever consider myself a vegetarian, vegan, pescetarian (made up word?), etc. I intend to make the choice to eat whatever the hell I want whenever I want, but be aware of the effects on my body and the environment in so doing. I don’t think ill ever go to a hibachi place and be the guy that asks for his portion done without egg or butter, because that is just annoying as hell to deal with. I think everything is fine in moderation, as long as you are aware of the effects of your diet. I think people would be a lot healthier in general if they just got some damn perspective and learned a little bit about what they are eating and how it effects them, other than it tasting good and making them full.
 
So, this has been one of my longer blog posts of late, I have been doing quite a few though as there is a calming, almost healing quality in writing, so I do quite a bit more of it when I am feeling sad. Also, something I might consider doing is working on the headstand pose for yoga. Being in the semi advanced class I got to try this the first day, and I am addicted. I did it like 3 times today, for varying times up to prob 20-25 seconds. I was super impressed with the guy that just held this pose for 10 solid minutes, unwavering, unmoving, and seemed completely at peace. I think I am going to practice for like 10-15 minutes a day. It is also a pretty great ab workout trying to not sway back and forth and fall over, as well as being pretty relaxing. Not sure if I will update for a while since I will be attempting to get away from the computer, but maybe ill check in to see how u guys are doing in the next few days ;) (Also holy shit I just word counted this is 2882 words.)
 
 
 
-David Benefield

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Entry Tags: the,  and,  will,  that,  have,  for

Aug 2, 08 04:27:52

MGS4 is really an amazing game to get back into video games with, If any game wiill be worth the time for the game that it is, mgs4 is it, and its actually pretty short as far as gameplay goes so I'm sure you'll burn through it. Hope things turn up for you as I am too going through the biggest downswing of my poker career, although it's obv not as huge as your, but it's all relative to our own situations and the thought of making xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx back to get to peak really sucks. anyway gl.

Twentytwo




Aug 2, 08 04:33:48

Oh and here check out this song, listen to the lyrics and think of it in poker terms, it gave me some motivation and after a big downswing anything helps right? It's a pimp beat
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ty0u1PzXfTo

Twentytwo




Aug 2, 08 05:30:10

You're a badass...

desirae07




Aug 2, 08 05:33:48

David, have a great vacation. I'm sure the dinner with Haley and her family will go well, cause in all the TV interviews I've seen you in, you come off as a relaxed cool guy, so how can they not like you.

GL with overcoming your downswing after your vacation. Just make sure to only enter games when you're in the right mindset.

damanrico




Aug 2, 08 06:03:48

Dont focus on the past. You HAD 400k, and now you dont. The present is a new state of being. Thinking about "getting back" or somehow trying to obtain what you once had in the past is really damaging. Focus on re-structuring your surroundings according to the present state of things. This will bring you a much greater sense of control, help you to redefine your purpose, and set new goals. Whats done is done, dont try and chase it.

ama0330




Aug 2, 08 06:04:45

David, you rock!

M7778




Aug 2, 08 06:06:37

Also, dont think of every next 1k you make as just being a tiny step towards your previous peak. Every new 1k you make is its own reward, it is 1k that you did not have before. This is what I mean about rebalancing your surroundings. Remove all thoughts of getting back to even and focus on one accomplishment at a time.

ama0330




Aug 2, 08 07:40:10

lmao

G:\Documents and Settings\David\Desktop\DO NOT CLICK\ARE U SURE\ARE U REALLY SURE\HOW SURE ARE U\DONT DO IT\YOU KNOW BETTER\THEY HAVE DOOMSWITCH\467k DOWNSWING\ULL ONLY MAKE IT 500\POKER IS RIGGED\TAKE A FUCKING BREAK\YOUR FUNERAL

MrZeke




Aug 2, 08 09:13:08

since when was 'happy' an emotion?

wilneedheart




Aug 2, 08 11:18:10

These are my ftp tricks

I only keep enough for 1 session in my account..I plays 50c/1\$, so i keep about 300\$... every 100 to 150\$ i make i ask for a check and if i lose my 300\$, i resend 24h (minimum) later.

that way it feel like its a trip to the casino, i dont really have time to monkey tilt

streetfamep




Aug 2, 08 11:36:21

Either you're not telling us the whole truth or you're being delusional. See, what you've told us is that you just had a 1M month. Now, if you dropped 470k that means you're still about 500k up in a 30-60 day period. 467k is barely 10 buyins in the 200/400 game, and yes we've seen you play it with full stacks as well. Of the times you've been shortstacking, touch reality, everyone knows that ouf of all the variance in the poker world the variance of short stacking shorthanded PLO games is the absolute worst.

Now if you really have been playing good and can prove it by scanning through HH's without finding any major errors, there's no reason to drop down 40x in stakes after losing 10 buyins in your main game. Also you must have been withdrawing money pretty aggressively, after all you've said this has been you best year by far, and you only have 350k left online. When you have been taking money out as much as you have, putting it back is not depositing money in the same sense as your \$50 was.

Dropping down in stakes maybe a good idea, but not for the reasons you've said. It's because you can't handle the daily swings and variance in the game you play.

Fontus




Aug 2, 08 12:14:46

fwiw i don't think argentina would be the country of choice for learning salsa. I'd rather learn in colombia, cuba or puerto rico (in that order... diff styles in each country). great blog and gl with your downswing.

barnsito




Aug 2, 08 13:02:43

Surf - lots!!

You remind me of myself when I was your age (I'm 37 now, but not the BR). Just enjoying life, trying to figure it all out. I read your blog all the time and the WSOP interview I saw = you seem pretty cool.
When your on Kauai, try and surf a lot. It is relaxing, intense, peacefull with nature, and so much more all rolled into one, I think you get a ton out of it. I've surfed all my life and there is nothing like it, Hawaii is an amazing place to do it. A little advice - respect the locals (you'd prolly do this anyways) it goes a long way to make friends there / surf lesson: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IXYiuE5tuY . have a great time. sry 4 the long post

sand.n.surf




Aug 2, 08 13:27:44

If you're really intent on not depositing again then you simply can't play 2/4 PLO. The 467k isn't yours anymore so stop thinking about it. Now you have 350k online. So 50/100 NLH is probably the highest you should be playing. For PLO it may not even be enough as you prob need more buy ins. There is absolutely no need for you to drop down to 5/10 and grind unless you want to play full stacked PLO since by all indications you're pretty much a noob at that. But whatever dude. You seem like an insanely positive person who would succeed at anything you set your mind to. Here's to the next 500K

cormacbuzz




Aug 2, 08 13:53:39

I dislike most people. But I must say you're an inspiration and seem to be on the right path towards something that resembles nirvana. GL in the future.

greg258




Aug 2, 08 14:44:38

the folders you created for FTP might be hte funniest thing ive ever read in a blog. see you in hawaii, take it easy till then.

Taylor




Aug 3, 08 04:17:18

\$50 into 350 k online!! FORGET about whatever other bankroll you have had online! BLOCK IT OUT! Just realise what a small small small percentage of the online poker world you are in!! You have the roll, you have the skill. NOW GRIND BROTHER!!!... with the 50 buy in rule. yull be retired at 30

Trip8ights




Aug 3, 08 05:52:06

Hi I think "jits" refers to jiu jitsu? If so, can you just please call it jiu jitsu? Calling it jits is gay.

southerndog




Aug 3, 08 10:58:10

Another great entry. The folder part had me laughing out loud.

The big plo game like you've said many times just has huge variance and maybe now more than ever with some new high variance players becoming regulars. Well at least till they bust. I'm sure you'll do what's best. GL and enjoy the vacation.

have no idea why my font is red?? srry bout that

PI26




Aug 3, 08 12:41:34

i reallly thought you were gonna go vegetarian/vegan/pesco-vegetarian back there for a while...and i was just like daaaaamn please don't do that you're gonna lose so much joy in life. so good to hear that you intend to eat whatever the hell you want...with knowledge of how it affects your body of course.

and yeah, good luck with the date with the parents hahaha. aside from your poker achievements, you seem like a really intelligent and logical guy with his head on straight. so don't think you'll have a problem impressing them :)

DrSatisfaction




Aug 3, 08 14:23:27

My advice: Of your remaining 350K, take 150K out and invest it away from the poker economy (real estate or whatever). With the remaining 200K, take 50K like you were discussing and grind 5-10. If you can really make 1k an hour, you'll be able to double this in a week or two. Then, use the other 150K to take shots at whatever games you want. However, I would only use it for VERY good games because that's not many buy-ins at 200-400. So, in essence you'll have two rolls in your account, your real roll and the shot taking roll. Whatever money you make playing with each roll just goes back into the roll it came out of. Eventually, either your normal roll will be healthy enough to play high again or your shot taking roll gets big enough that you're just playing out of that all the time anyway.

Whatever you decide to do, definitely take some time off and I'm confident you'll be running over the big games again soon.

justinlca




Aug 3, 08 17:34:16

haha thanks everyone for for offering advice on how to manage the rest of my roll. I have lots and lots of money that is not linked to poker. I do lots of investments, real estate, stocks, what have you. The 350k or whatever is what i will use for poker. i have enough outside poker to retire right now if i wanted to, but not enough where i could just do whatever i wanted for the rest of my life, so i will continue to play. I dont really need any help on what to do what whats left of my online poker money, or any investment advice or bankroll management tips. The money that isnt in poker is tied up in investments, and i just dont really want to put anything back into the poker economy, i guess it is safe money that i dont really ever have to worry about, and what is in my poker accounts i can use for gamblegamble. Thanks for the responses, believe it or not i do read them ;)

David B




Aug 4, 08 12:54:22

Bet formerly known as teh ghey

For the new term, I would like to suggest BIT, or Bet inducing tilt.

You can use it as a verb - 'I'm gonna bit the river and hope he shoves';
or alternatively as an adjective - 'I'm gonna make a bitty bet and watch his head asplode.'

knivesout




Aug 4, 08 14:06:05

Great last video.

Rename the 'gay bet', the 'gimp bet'. We have them on a leash and own them.

wondlof




Aug 4, 08 15:25:59

Gay Bet suggestion

The Raptor Bet

koOma




Aug 4, 08 16:10:08

I dunno why every time I re read the folders part for FTP I LOL hard... you're too funny David.. keep it up , have fun in Hawaii and let us know how it went with the inlaws (oops, too early for that !! ).

fbg1919




Aug 5, 08 06:47:23

Yeah, defiantly call it the Raptor Bet!!
As for your poker career, it sux to big in a big downswing, but it seems like you're taking it as good as possible and dealing with it like a mature spirit.

Keep up the good thoughts, you'll get out of it soon enough!
Danny

D.Redstone



83 Views | Comments (27)
July 31, 2008

So, lost another 100k today. The downswing is hovering around 400 now, all in the last 4 days. I played sauce again HU at 50-1, ran decently, coolered him with AA vs AK aipf twice, which was fun, but got coolered here.. http://www.pokerhand.org/?2974692 pretty standard, but meh it’s a big pot for 50-1. Also had another sicko call, somehow I just seem to really like any button but the fold one, and did a miniown here, which I was proud of, and thought was insta end of downswing. http://www.pokerhand.org/?2976974 usually something like this is a turning point, but I continued to get stomped in plo.
 
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2976987 – this hand I wasn’t really sure about what to do. It felt like suchhhh a meh spot, but I felt like he would put me on aces and bet fold with a lot of his range, and I would have non terrible equity if he had a set, but not great, dual JJ blockers helps for the whole check shove thing.. I dno, I can never be bluffing really, so he has to have a hand to call, I think its ok but im not 100%. I asked a few ppl and everyone seemed to think it was fine, so w/e.
 
There were a few others, but I dno, everything just is pretty standard I think, there really just is a ridiculous amount of variance in plo. I guess I have just been running too good and wasn’t ready for the swings. Not sure what my plan is now, I don’t really see much of a reason to step down and play lower. There is little doubt that I am a winning player, the only problem is my emotional state. I have plenty of money, and would probably be fine if I didn’t play poker ever again for the rest of my life, but that doesn’t stop me from wanting more.
 
I have this cool ftp deal now, so I could just grind out 5-10 and make 1k an hour if games form enough, but that’s just so boring and after a few hours my head would start cramping. Plus I am not sure I am even that good at 12 tabling 6max NL anymore, it has been so long since I have played all that much. The other day I DID 18 table 25-50 plo, and I think I only timed out once, and it was on a fast table, so im not really worried about my ability to keep up, moreso just that I will be out of touch with the game flow stuff and wont know how the games have changed. Plus, I don’t even know if that many games RUN at 5-10 and 10-20.
 
The 2-4 plo games haven’t really been THAT good lately, so I guess it wouldn’t be terrible to just take a step back, its just hard to do after going on such a big downswing, you have it weighing over your head pretty much every day you are grinding it back, and you constantly look at how much u were up, and how much u have to make up now to get back to peak. This is the problem with my mentality, and I am working to fix it, though im not really sure how. Basically, if I play smaller, it will take a couple months of grinding to make it all back, and day in day out I will be looking at the peak, and trying to reach it.
 
What I need to do is just take it day by day, focus on the moment, and stop worrying about how far away the peak is. If I was climbing a mountain, it would be pure misery to just keep looking at the top and being like damn, that’s a long ways off, gonna be a miserable month climbing. Instead I should just enjoy the climb, take in the day to day surrounding area, and try to enjoy the experience. Eventually you get there. (not if I somehow turned into a losing player, but you get the picture). I am trying to have this sort of attitude every day I play, and I am definitely getting better about it, though have a long ways to go.
 
In other news, I went to a yoga class today with Haley. I actually REALLY enjoyed it. Silly little girl accidentally signed us up for an advanced class, and seeing how I had never done a downward dog, I was in for a surprise. We started off with basic stuff just going through the motions getting warmed up or whatever, then did some of the more difficult positions, starting with a headstand. Some guy put himself up in a headstand for like 10 minutes, and just sat there, unmoving, breathing, focusing, whatever. I thought it was one of the coolest things ever, and I am going to practice for like 10-15 minutes a day headstanding for focus, breathing, and meditation. It is super difficult, but I got the full extension on like the 5th time, though I was swaying a bit, and collapsed after about 15 seconds. It will definitely take some work, but it seems very peaceful and a great way to start the day.
 
Some of the other stuff we did was pretty intense, it was actually a pretty solid workout. I don’t know the names of any of the stuff, but we transitioned pretty fast in between poses and what not, got into some of the strength based poses, which looked completely impossible, but definitely intrigued me. At the end, we sort of layed there and completely relaxed for a good 10 minutes. Some people would chant and stuff, which was kinda weird, but also oddly relaxing. I felt great after the class was over, then went and checked out a new sushi place near my house that I had my eye on. It was pretty meh tbh, I am not a fan of texas sushi places I don’t think, every roll has fried crap in it, and though they always have toro on the menu, they mysteriously have ‘just run out’ every time I try to order it.
 
I am not sure if I mentioned this earlier, but I bought a bunch of vegan cookbooks, one being vegan baking. Basically baking can be deemed ‘vegetarian’ since it uses a lot of eggs, butter, and milk, but in vegan baking, you cant use any of this stuff, so it adds a different element. They also have vegan butter, which I guess is made of soy and stuff, and it seems to work well enough. I am not a vegan, however, I am trying to experiment with a lot of different recipes and trying to experience different flavor combinations I am not used to, and I am really enjoying it so far. Everything I have made has been delicious, and I am going to include my favorite one here. (It is not very healthy, uses quite a bit of suger, but it’s a cookie what do you expect, and it is quite delicious).
 
From The Joy of Vegan Baking, by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau.
 
Oatmeal Cookies. Incredients:
2 tbsp ground flaxseed (equivalent of 2 eggs when mixed with water)
6 tbsp water
1 cup non hydrogenated nondairy butter, softened
1.5 cups firmly packed light brown sugar
¼ cup granulated sugar
2 tsp vinalla extract
1.75 cups whole wheat all purpose flour (recipe called for white, but this makes it healthier, adding some fiber, etc, and still tastes delicious)
½ cup oat bran (this is diff than oatmeal etc)
¾ tsp baking soda
¾ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
½ tsp cinnamon
½ tsp nutmeg
3 cups whole grain rolled oats, traditional, not instant
Also it is optional to add raisins, I didn’t because I like regular oatmeal cookies
 
Preheat oven to 350, spray some pam on a few cookie sheets.
Whip up the flaxseed and water until thick and creamy, this is your egg substitute, and it should be somewhat gelatinous. Cream together the butter, sugars, vanilla, and flaxseed mixture until well blended.
In a diff bowl, combine the flour, oat bran, baking soda, baking powder, salt cinnamon, and nutmeg. Add to the butter mixture and mix until well blended and smooth. Stir in the rolled oats (and if you are adding them, raisins) until thoroughly combined.
Use a tablespoon to scoop up some dough, and with lightly greased hands, lightly press the cookies to form ½ inch thick rounds. Bake until cookies are golden brown (I did 12 minutes). Remove from oven and allow cookies to firm up for a few minutes on the cookie sheet (they will be VERY soft, I thought they weren’t done at first, but I went with it and they turned out amazing).
 
These were quite possibly the best cookies I have ever had. I know it is very high praise, and I don’t really eat cookies a lot, but they were extremely delicious, and I highly recommend making these. Say your mom gave u this recipe and invite a girl over to bake with, they love that kinda stuff. I also have a recipe for vegan brownies that Haley and I made the other night. It doesn’t use ANY butter, it uses an applesauce base which was kinda new and different. I wouldn’t go so far and say they are healthy, but in a gigando tray of brownie mix there is 3k calories, and I could barely eat 1/10th of it with some soy milk in one sitting, so it wont kill you. If you guys are interested in that recipe I will be happy to share it, and it is quite delicious too, though the cookies are better.
 
I am going to Hawaii in 6 days now! I cant wait, nothing like a week on the beach to cure a downswing. I think I am going to try to wake up and do a yoga class every morning to energize me for the day, and I also plan on surfing a bunch. Normally, my big problem when I go on vacation is I get way far off my diet, and eat everything I sight. Normally my lunch consists of a giant bbq bacon cheeseburger and a big plate of French fries, washed down with a couple strawberry daiquiris. This time I will be trying to eat a bit cleaner, though I probably wont cut down v much on the daiquiris, they are too delicious. Ya, life is good, downswings be damned.
 
-David Benefield

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Jul 31, 08 22:46:19

Pulling for you

I keep reading your blog and I love your new outlook on life. I'm looking forwards to hearing you say "I made 200K today". GL

djpatsajak




Jul 31, 08 23:40:57

If you are going to Maui play the Plantation golf course in Kapalua. Its relaxing and incredible views.

rookie




Jul 31, 08 23:47:50

strawberry daquiri's lol.

Disrespect




Aug 1, 08 03:32:31

Obviously I am not in a position to say 'do this' or 'do that', but I will make my observation none the less. It seems to me that you enjoy playing these really good players. Regardless of running hot or cold I was just wondering if it is really worth the aggro? I mean sauce123 is a superb player and although it might be a fun challenge and your edge is there (though I guess the edge two great players have head to head will be minimal), I'm sure you could make a ton of money just by dropping down a bit and crushing the weaker players. I would just hate to see you drop more and more money against players that you really don't need to be tangling with.

I love your blog though, keep it up. I wake up every morning here in Scotland and check my Google Reader for updated blogs and sure enough, yours is always there. I have followed every entry from day one and I hope you continue to write superb pieces day to day. Good luck with the swongs!

tehmac




Aug 1, 08 07:18:35

Great blog! Hope you get out of your downswing soon.

southerndog




Aug 1, 08 08:20:48

in before busto

SatisfyMyRoll




Aug 1, 08 12:01:49

I've been doing yoga for 8 months and completely addicted. The benefits are endless in regards to the mind and body. No wonder for an exercise that has been practiced for thousands of years:)

foxypham




Aug 1, 08 21:04:34

ever think that your downswing coincides with you vegan trial!! get some red meat into ya!!;-)

jappie



79 Views | Comments (8)
July 30, 2008

So yesterday there were like, 18 tables of 25-50 PLo running, so I felt like playing. I have no idea how many hands I actually got in because PT is broken or something and wont import a lot of my stars hands, but it must have been at least 8k. I ended down about 15k, which kinda sucks, but I feel like I played great and just got kinda screwed.
 
Anyways, I woke up today and hung out with haley. We cooked up some yellow fin tuna, seared it for a minute per side, and put some sesame seeds on it. Ate it with some teriyaki rice, and it was pretty good. I think I just don’t like cooked tuna that much, and rather eat it in sushi form, but it was still good. After that we baked some vegan brownies, as I got this cool cookbook that has recipes without butter or milk or eggs and stuff. Everything has turned out pretty amazing so far, and its cool to experiment with food and find things that work that you aren’t used to.
 
There was a plo game where ziigles had a 500k stack, so I decided to sit. Somehow I managed to insta lose like 70k. not sure how, it was all small pots, and I just lost every one of them. I decided to quit after ftp doomswitched me and I realized I couldn’t make a comeback tonight. Finished down like 135 on the session, putting my downswing around the 300 mark. Not my worst, but nearing it, so im starting to get a little unhappy. I still didn’t throw anything, and got rigged pretty bad in the NL part, so I am very happy with my progress. I am learning to accept that swings happen, and am dealing with them better I think. Now on to some hands..
 
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2971187 – this one is pretty standard I think. He of course has the absolute worst hand on the planet for me to be up against, and I brick it off.
 
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2971276 – maybe I coulda just called pf, but I was hoping to get a big multiway pot which seems to happen frequently in these spots, and was planning on shipping some huge equity. Unfortunately I got it in HU vs aces. Still 60/40 though. Sigh.
 
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2971074 – meh, just running bad, only 20% to lose, 50% to scoop, so I get binked.
 
There were a few more that were exactly like those, just pretty standard hands I just lost all of them. Nothing I can do afaik, just gotta cross fingers harder next time. Now on to the fun part. Sauce decided he wanted to 4 table 50-1 NL, so obviously I accepted. I am friendly with him so no grudge match or whatever, just looking for some action, and I wont really turn down anyone 4 tabling HUNL.
 
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2971315 – I really like playing deep, I did this a couple times. I really like being able to do stuff like this. This was the FIRST time I made it 1200, I had been making it 1000 but we were getting deeper, so I made it bigger. I think he picked up on this and felt I was weaker, but I felt that he felt that, so put in another raise. Fun times.
 
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2970943 – this started the match off right, was pretty early, so ya, wasn’t so happy about that since plo was going on at same time.
 
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2971305 – this one was mehhhh, I shoulda done something diff not sure where, possibly fold river, but I felt like he could follow thru on a bluff there with his rando flop raise. I lead a fair bit and this was first time he raised me, so I called down. Meh meh.
 
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2971309 – this hand was about as fun as getting cancer of the prick. Nothing like flopping the nuts and getting fisted.
 
BEST HAND BELOW DON’T SKIP!!
 
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2971215 – so.. not many people limp AA pf with 278x the bb against an aggro opponent, but I decided to for fun. It turned out being fun, but not for me. I thought my sizing was really cool, and so did he.
 
Not really sure what the deal is. I feel like I am playing pretty tip top, maybe I just am not used to the variance, or have been running better than im supposed to, but the last 3 days have just been bruuuuutal. 3 days ago I ran 220k below expectation on all ins at plo. That is fine and dandy if ur full stacking, but cmon im a short stack fish im sposed to run better than that.
 
Today in plo I ran only 40k below expectation on all ins, so that means I got my money in bad a bit, coolers or whatever have you. NL was 66k below expectation on all ins. That is cool and all too I guess, I would just prefer it to be in the other direction. Im down ~290ish in the last 3 days, which kinda sucks. I am sorta shocked about how well I am handling it. Last time this happened I was pretty depressed and just sort of puttered around and didn’t wanna be around anyone. Maybe ill take a couple days off, but I don’t really see much of a reason to, its not like I’m playing bad and have some deluded sense of my abilities.
 
Something that used to bother me a lot is when I would get stuck, and someone was around and saw me banging things they would be like dude u should quit ur gonna spew off, when they haven’t been watching what has been going on. I don’t bang anymore, and just sit here in a calm silence, but it used to really bother me. I feel like one of my best traits was the ability to not really ‘tilt’ in a sense of starting to play bad. I have a more subtle unconscious version of tilt that sort of makes me sad and probably makes me tighten up a bit. If I had to choose from the variations of tilt to associate with myself though, this is the one I would pick, so it works out.
 
I guess the part that bothers me the most isn’t even really losing the money. I had planned on going to the night class in BJJ this evening after hanging out with haley, but as soon as she left I loaded up the PLO table, then got HU action. I mean, I shouldn’t really be upset, if I ran even close to my equity I would have made moneys. I just get sort of sad when I planned on getting in a good workout, but instead I lost a bunch of money, so its like, a double awful feeling. I also planned on playing MGS4 on ps3, I just bought an HDMI cable so it would look all pretty, but that fell to the wayside too.
 
I have mentioned before that I am not cut out for high stakes emotionally, but I think that isn’t the case anymore. I feel like I am dealing with it very well compared to my old self, and all of the work I have put into the mindset and emotional aspect of poker is really paying off. It may not be ‘paying’ off right now in the traditional sense of ‘paying’ off in a monetary sense, but as far as life and happiness EV, it is definitely working. You guys are the best.
 
Love,
 
-David Benefield

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Entry Tags: the,  like,  was,  and,  that,  but

Jul 30, 08 22:24:46

MGS4 is amazing, and a good anti-tilt activity as well.

whitewash




Jul 31, 08 00:07:46

Good to hear your still playing your A game. It's impossible to dodge downswings so glad to hear your working through it mentally. I think it's the new vegan diet tho...

TrevRob




Jul 31, 08 01:04:14

amazing

good job handling the swings. poker is so ... incurable. =[ pretty much. one moment your on the heater of your lifetime, and then next ftp switches the doomswitch and goodbye any thought of equity.

hope you've been well sir. and way to keep yourself together. =D

jtanaka




Jul 31, 08 03:32:46

Trust me you will turn it around. What will be amazing is that when you do, you will be in shock how fast you recovered from the swing.

cpar1




Jul 31, 08 04:15:49

Happiness EV !!! New word to me - GREAT WORD

Geko4




Jul 31, 08 04:28:56

Just finished mgs4 as well and it's really one of the best games I've played in a while... if you've played through the previous installations, it's even better.

Your blogs have been really encouraging lately, as I'm working on tilt control right now. Keep it up!

bmxflatty




Jul 31, 08 04:54:42

I feel like Raptor is about to go on a tear. He's pretty happy (he even signed this blog with Love,), and seems to be playing well. Initiate boomswitch sequence.

JayConley




Jul 31, 08 05:54:42

You need to get the new PT patch and then reimport all the hands. Problem started early this month I think.

oscaracosta




Jul 31, 08 08:10:44

you dont like meat too much, do you :)

Swooper




Jul 31, 08 09:08:43

I like your blog very much, thanks for sharing your thoughts!

Knumsi




Jul 31, 08 09:59:35

Good post. Good luck David. You are a class guy.
Cheers

epdog




Jul 31, 08 18:57:21

Having what seems to be a similar spot as you (great last month and then huge downer the last 3 days, mostly due to variance) although on 10/20 so obviously not the same money. Your way of dealing with it really inspires me to handle it better than i would in the past. And as always, interesting and well written post. TY!

Zkrutt



106 Views | Comments (12)
July 28, 2008

Well, I just dropped 140k. One of my worst days ever, but not the worst. I have been running so hot, I guess I was due to lose. I ran about 200k below equity. I played some HU nl vs zig too, though he hit and ran me for a buyin. I feel like I played super great today, juts didn’t work out my way. Part of the reason I went to go get coaching was to deal with moments like this, and to be honest im not really that upset. I am obviously kinda sad, but games were good, I got my money in good, only so much I can do.
 
I AM upset a little bit that I broke my plan. I was gonna go lay down by the pool and swim a bit, but I got on and there were 4 plo games, so decided to sit.
 
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2959545 – this one wasn’t any fun, its cool to have 53.8% equity though 3 ways, too bad I couldn’t hold once I binked. It went like that a lot, id hit my huge draw on the turn, then they would fill on the river today.
 
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2959304 – this guy had been reraising me pretty light, and once I got a call, I decided to ship it for a 3 way pot. My hand plays super well 3 ways, plus a lot of times u get flop folds for extra equity. Too bad I couldn’t bink :/
 
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2960219 – this one is standard, aces vs aces he just binked :/
 
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2959182 – this hand was pretty early in sesh, I think I played it really sick, just again, not working out.
 
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2959555 – at least they gave me ONE big one. I was 63.1% on the flop 3 ways, which is pretty sick.
 
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2960239 – this was NL, ziig ownd my soul then insta quit. It is a shame really, he has an uncanny ability to have aces the one time in 10 he reraises and u catch a piece. Brick off a 36.3%er, but my eq graph gets prettier!
 
I really am amazed right now at how untilted I am. I didn’t bang or slam or break a single thing today. I just sat here, said ughhh a lot, and kept playing my game. I am talking to my gf online, and am not being short at all. Usually, after I have had a bad sesh, she will be like ‘hey wanna hang out tonight?’ and ill say meh a lot, as a standard response to anything she asks. I wont be mean, I’ll just be short, and make it clear I don’t really want to talk or be around anyone. I am just in shock, such a weird feeling. I guess whatever im doing is working, so ill keep it up.
 
This morning I went to BJJ in fort worth. Travis Lutter has a gym here and I worked out there for the first time. I have never rolled wearing a gi, and I got my ass kicked pretty good, scraped and bruised up a bit, but it was fun and a good workout. Hopefully I can find a nice fit at this gym and have a good spot to get in my workouts while im in texas. Part of the reason I was kinda upset to leave vegas was because of the great mma gyms there. I was worried I wouldn’t be able to find anything similar in texas, luckily I did though.
 
Not sure what ima do now. I went to whole foods for the first time ever and bought a bunch of cool stuff. I got a vegan baking cookbook, and picked up some egg substitute and vegan butter, so maybe ill make some cookies. I wonder how they will taste? The picture looked appealing, but I have my doubts. I suppose that sounds like a fun plan, so ill go do that and report back tomorrow. 
 
–David Benefield

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Jul 28, 08 18:44:06

ur embarrassing with other pros with your constant blog updates imo =D

RodeoBlue




Jul 28, 08 21:29:59

plzzzz try Uncle Eddies Vegan Cookies at Whole Foods, all of them are good but I highly recommend the Oatmeal Raisin and Chocolate Chip and Walnuts...you can thank me later for this they are fucking delicious...a little doughy but nonetheless delicious.

i wont accept \$\$\$ but some HU lessons will do in return for this recommendation

betwitnothin




Jul 28, 08 22:52:01

best poker blog, period. minus the random hippie hyperlink to saving the whales or some such.

anyway - thanks for keeping us tuned it, this blog has become a part of my routine as it's always interesting one way or another (minus confusing hippie links of course)

thanks!

MrZeke



78 Views | Comments (3)
July 27, 2008

 

Yesterday was the wedding. It actually wasn’t that bad, though the ceremony itself took FOREVER. The preacher guy went on and on about some story of jesus turning water into wine, and the history of commitment and stuff. I nodded off in the middle, but Haley hit me and I woke up. After the ceremony there was a pretty sweet reception at the petroleum club, one of the nicer restaurants in Fort Worth. It is 2 floors at the top of a 42 story building, and you can see everything in downtown fort worth from the floor to ceiling windows encircling it. Dinner was good, dancing was good, and the cake was delicious. I tried to limit myself, but I’m a fat kid at heart and ate 4 pieces.
 
We had plans of going out downtown afterwards, but Haley and I were super tired, so we went back at like 1130, and insta fell asleep. Somehow I slept until 1130 this morning when my alarm went off, and I just kinda laid in bed for a while. I woke up, got in a good workout, and decided to play some poker. I got some sweet action at 25-50 HU, and had a pretty good sesh making almost 8 buyins, though a couple were at the 1 six max table. Lately I have been absolutely demolishing 25-50 whenever I play, though I am not really putting in a ton of hands, im pretty sure on both my computers im over 15 ptbb in last 10k hands or so, so that’s nice.
 
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2954099 – this was prob most interesting hand of sesh. I had been reraising him a ton, and he hadn’t been calling a whole lot. I just couldn’t really put him on a hand that would play like this other than some kinda turned flush draw or a hand like 66-77 making a move. He overbet the river which was sorta odd, and I almost snap called, but I felt like timing down so I didn’t feel like an idiot in case he actually had KQ or something.
 
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2954942 – this was on the 6max table. I had been playing super agro, though picky tooth hadn’t been sitting that long. Honestly im not sure what the best line with AKo in his spot is, I think id call most times, but I don’t think its THAAAT bad to 5 bet get it in, I do 4bet quite a lot, but I DO manage to get the aces from time to time, which is helpful when you 4 bet a lot because u get action!
 
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2954953 – I put a big cooler on Ashman here, I guess perhaps not raising Q2o pf is only thing he can do diff.
 
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2954956 – this was actually biggest pot I lost of the sesh. He had been cr a decent bit, I really think I shoulda just called river though, his timing and sizing seemed like he had 43 every time, but I shipped it anyways cuz im a fish.
 
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2954960 – that hand was followed by this shortly after. Both of these were very early in the HU sesh, so I started off kinda bad which sucks, but I managed to do the run good and go on heater from there on.
 
Not really sure what else to say, I am super confident in my game lately though that’s for sure. My results have been off the charts in everything the last couple months, hopefully I can keep it up, whatever it is that I’m doing (running good).
 
I bought metal gear solid 4 for ps3 today also. I haven’t really played console games for a while, I just sort of lost interest I guess. I used to be a huge gamer, playing every second I had of free time when I was younger, and even after grad high school, I put in a ton of hours in WC3 and Shadowbane, with a wasted month in WoW before I decided it was garbage. I picked up devil may cry 4 whenever it came out, and I was pretty excited watching reviews for it, but got bored after the first 5 missions or so and haven’t touched it since. It was a pretty fun game, I dno I just don’t have the patience for console games that I used to. I guess I am just growing up, but its funny to see my tastes change. My dad used to make fun of me for playing so many vid games, and he told me in a few years id be bored with them and not play very much. Guess he was right. Anyways, I heard this game is sick, so maybe ill get into it and waste a good 20 hours or however many it takes to beat it.
 
I don’t really have any plans for the next 10 days or so. On Aug 7th, a bunch of us are going to Hawaii for a couples vacation. Taylor, Cole, Tom, and Aaron and their flavors of the week are all coming to Kauai for a week on the beach with Haley and me. MY plan is to go surfing at least 4 times while there, and I heard some awesome things about taking a tour in a ‘wavejumper’ which from the explanation I got, was a glorified dingy (blowup boat with a motor basically). In this you can go in and out of a lot of caves, explore around the island, etc. Sounded pretty sweet, so I want to tack that onto the list as well.
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0L5eHWIis6U – for some reason this song is addicting. It has been on my playlist for like 6 months, and still hasn’t gotten old. Lupe is the man.
 
-David Benefield

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Entry Tags: the,  was,  and,  that,  but,  for

Jul 27, 08 20:55:30

where are ya'll staying in kauai? we stayed at the Princeville on the north side for my honeymoon in May.
the restaurant Postcards is a small amazing seafood place in Hanalei Bay (northside): http://www.postcardscafe.com

go jump off the cliffs at Shipwreck Beach near the Grand Hyatt. it's real fun. if you go there, make sure you go before noon else the surf might get nasty. drive past the Hyatt and park near the access road on the right. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qqYbIDmJ6I

dont go to Spouting Horn - it's really weak and not worth the effort.

Phatsac




Jul 27, 08 22:11:04

lupe is definitely the truth...check out his latest album too

eagleeye148




Jul 27, 08 23:37:22

QT vs Q2 hand

Are you ever shoving worse than Q2 there? I don't really know the dynamic of the match. Obv he flopped a very strong hand HU but I don't know how much you shove as a semibluff in that spot.

Vintage00




Jul 28, 08 07:45:40

you need a better taste in music...start listening to basshunter...hes the sickest

tikatika2727




Jul 28, 08 07:57:53

theASHMAN103 = Danny Ashman = theBruiser500 on 2p2?

burningyen




Jul 28, 08 09:13:47

I was huge on Shadowbane, the only "MMORPG" I ever touched. It was like crack, good thing I quit eventually.

Stake Monster




Jul 28, 08 12:36:17

MGS4

Cant believe you have a PS3 and you havent bought MGS4 yet :O It's by far the best game I have played on any format. Hideo Kojima owns :)

manic




Jul 28, 08 18:22:25

Meditation...

David,

In response to your last post (where you're probably no longer checking the comments):

Best nuts & bolts meditation book on the planet: http://www.amazon.com/Meditation-Man-Perfection-God-Satisfaction/dp/0884974448/ref=sr_1_12?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1217288463&sr=8-12

Also excellent: http://www.amazon.com/Wings-Joy-Finding-Inner-Peace/dp/0684822423/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1217288919&sr=8-1

Kangaroo




Jul 28, 08 20:38:53

we're staying at the grand hyatt so that woudl be pretty close. cliff jumping sounds a little dangerous...is it?

Taylor




Jul 28, 08 21:32:26

Grand Hyatt is THE spot on the island, you'll have a blast... relaxing and doing nothing. And, yes, cliff jumping involves a considerable level of peril- caveat. Hope to see you while your here.

onodog



106 Views | Comments (11)
July 25, 2008

My last blog post was an experiment. I wanted to see how many people would just click it, read like a paragraph, then give up telling me to go join peta. I would imagine ~half or so did this, while probably 30% read a few paragraphs, and maybe 20% got all the way through it. I really liked this article, as it shares some similar thoughts I have. I care about animals and what not, but I care more about how they are treated because it affects MY health. When male chickens are useless and diseased, they are thrown into a meat grinder, then added to the feed for the live nondiseased chickens. This is COMMON practice in the farm world. Gosh I wonder how we can get disease from eating undercooked meat!
 
I care about my health, and when the chicken on my plate was eating dead diseased chicken a few weeks ago before it got to my plate, this doesn’t really bode well for my longevity of life. There are lots of things like that going on in the animal world, and I strongly suggest everyone reads up a little bit on US farm practices. From now on, I will only eat free range, grass/grain fed beef and chicken, so I know that at least it was fed good nutrients, not it’s grinded up parents, and my risk of disease will go down 100 fold.
 
Enough health talk for now.. So for the last week or so, I was back in LV for a coaching session I had with Tommy Angelo. Wayy back, probably 3 years ago or so, when I first started playing cash games, Jman had been playing cash games for a few months, and was looking for a coach. He ended up deciding to try out Tommy, and came back with the best description I had ever heard, ‘It was nothing I expected, but everything I needed.’ This is pretty high praise, and since then I have been interested in what he learned.
 
A few months ago, I was in the biggest downswing of my life. Nothing too ridiculous, it didn’t hurt me THAT bad, but it hurt the way I lived my life, and the way I treated the people around me. Every day I was constantly weighed down by the fact that I was stuck on the year, and that this year wouldn’t be even half as good as last year. I was constantly thinking about playing poker to get ‘unstuck’ on the year, and I let that effect me in the worst ways, and it was starting to mess with my head.
 
About this time, I decided I needed help in the non poker aspect of being a poker professional. I got in contact with Tommy, and he thought he could help. He had only been taking on new clients for a month or two at this time, so I felt fortunate he could squeeze me in. I made very clear the fact that I wanted little to no coaching on actual poker play, as I am very comfortable in my game, and don’t really feel like I need to make any changes. I work daily on evaluating my game, and making sure it stays at the top, and felt that the time would be better spent learning how to control my mini demons.
 
I am very lucky in that my problems and ‘demons’ aren’t in the form of drugs, tilt, inability to quit bad games, etc. Something I feel I have always been much better than my opponents at is constantly playing at least B level game, and never really tilting off or getting stuck and continuing to play in neutral or –ev games. I think a lot of people get into the habit of getting stuck, then sticking around even if the game is bad to get ‘even’. I definitely have problems sticking around in games to get ‘even’, but I have no problem quitting if I deem I am not +ev, and I feel like I have a pretty good ev radar.
 
Anyways, we started off playing live 5-10 for a couple hours, I guess to get a feel for my live presence, and see if we could fix a few things that would give me a bigger edge there as well, since I spend a lot of time playing those silly live mtts. We made a few minor changes, but nothing drastic. Tommy is a big advocate of playing what he calls ‘mum poker’ in which you really try to avoid saying anything at any point when it can be avoided. This doesn’t really work for me though, I am pretty talkative at the table, and if someone asks me a question I am usually happy to oblige. I also like to have everyone at the table like me, as I feel like they play more ABC and don’t really try to make as many plays. I feel like for an older guy mum poker is awesome and it causes fear and what not, but for a younger guy, it just makes everyone hate you and want to beat you more, so they make more plays.
 
Basically on the program, which lasted 2.5 days, we spent a lot of time in a ‘classroom’ setting with me taking notes, and discussing my thoughts on various things. I spend a lot of time dwelling on losses; after a losing session I am usually pretty unhappy, and don’t really feel like doing anything other than laying down and watching a movie or something. I usually push away anyone that tries to make me feel better about it, even though they have the best intentions. I am usually quite snippy caustic with everyone around me; it bothers me, and it is something I want to fix. I think I have made some great progress in the last few days.
 
We did a fair amount of talking about concentration and relaxation exercises, yoga, Buddhism, religion, and diet. Lately I have been spending more time focusing on things like this, though to be fair I haven’t really done much research on Buddhism or yoga, though I am now pretty interested in both of these things, and plan on expanding my limited horizons in these areas in the near future.
 
I am going to talk about a couple things that I would imagine most people would be rather lax to bring up in a poker blog. I am going to go into a few things on Buddhism. The word Buddhism, in the common westerner’s mind, brings up thoughts of a fat man sitting on the ground praying, crazy people that love pigs, or poor people that talk about ‘enlightenment’ because they don’t have any money so they trick themselves into thinking they are happy in poverty.
 
There are 4 noble truths in Buddhism, which I am not really sure if I completely understand, but will hit on a few of them here. The first focuses on the fact that suffering exists, we are going to grow old and die, people are going to get disease, there will be wars, etc. The CAUSE of suffering is desire; attachment. If we like something, it will eventually change, then we will be unhappy. Our 21 year old girlfriend is smoking hot right now, we end up getting married, and over the years she gets older and uglier. If we hold on to the image of what she was in her younger years, we will never be happy, and will suffer internally focusing on what used to be instead of what is.
 
In Buddhism, there are 2 components to happiness, having people, and gratefulness. There have been numerous studies done to show that poverty doesn’t matter as long as people have these things. If you are a poor person, but have a loving child, and a stranger just handed you a ripe delicious banana, you are grateful for this, and the brain releases endorphins causing happiness. You share the banana with your loving child, who giggles and eats it, and HE is happy. This makes you even more happy, and then the poverty doesn’t really seem to matter at this point. Obviously this is a ridiculously glorified look at poverty, but I just wrote out something basic that could sorta get the point across. I wish I could come up with something better, but that’s the best I have for now.
 
To end suffering, we must live in the moment; focus on the present. We must recognize that it is our thinking that makes us suffer, and not outside influences. These influences can certainly effect our mood if we let them, but it only exists in our mind. Suffering is exactly what we make it out to be. Let’s say I am running into the bathroom between hands because I cant hold it, but if I sit out, the guy im playing, who is up on me, will use that excuse to quit. While running to the bathroom, I whack the shit out of my toe on the doorway, and then sit there and scream about it, calling myself an idiot, etc. This is suffering. Suffering is not the minor pain experienced by whacking my toe, it is the fact that I acknowledge it and let it consume me. I certainly do this, and then walk around limping anyways even if it doesn’t hurt that bad. Next time I do this I am going to try to just stop, stand up straight, and focus on breathing. Acknowledging the pain, but not letting it consume me.
 
Lets say I am stuck in traffic, and get cut off. Random guy in the big truck with a lift kid and giant mud tires, and a bumper sticker saying ‘I love jesus’ next to one of calvin pissing on a grave, cuts us off. This makes us angry and we flip him off and start honking. Why? He didn’t do this as a personal attack to us. He has no idea who we are, and even though he was driving like an asshole, he wasn’t doing it as a personal attack, yet we take it personally anyways, and attempt to retaliate with our horn and finger.
 
Buddhism would try to teach us to just recognize that he is only an asshole in our mind. He is what he is, and we have little to no control over it, so we should accept that he is an asshole in our mind, but not acknowledge it. We shouldn’t get angry about him cutting us off, when it happens, we should try to focus on breathing, focus on the next moment, where traffic starts picking up, and we don’t get cut off again. Getting cut off was in the past, and focusing on that moment causes needless suffering.
 
Ok so that was my little tirade into Buddhism, I did a pretty sub optimal explanation of my thoughts, but I did the best I could, so hopefully some of you have a better idea of things. I am going to read a few books, including The Power of Now, by Eckhart Tolle, as well as The Miracle of Mindfulness, by Thich Nhat Hahn. I am pretty interested in these topics, and I think they can help me a lot in life as well as poker.
 
Something else I am going to start spending more time on is meditation. I have tried in the past to meditate, sitting up straight on the floor, attempting to clear my thoughts, and focus on breathing, but I struggled a lot with it as every couple seconds a tidal wave of thoughts would come crashing through my mind, throwing off my breathing focus, and disrupting my meditative state I spent a whole 8 seconds developing. I am going to try and take baby steps, and at first spend 10 minutes a day working on it. Apparently it takes a lot of work, and I have heard it compared to walking in a fog. Minute by minute, you wont feel yourself getting wet, but after an hour you will be completely soaked.
 
Some of you may think I am crazy and weird. This is ok, I am both of these things, and probably getting more so on both. However, I don’t really want to be like everyone else. I don’t care about fitting in to what is deemed ‘standard’ or ‘normal’ by western standards. I want to live my life on MY terms, doing what makes ME happy. I am narcissistic, I care about how I look, how I eat, how I think, how I feel, I DO care about how people view and think of me, but not enough to not be my own person.
 
Ok, enough of all that. On the poker side of things, I had a gross gross day yesterday. I sat down in what I thought were some pretty good games (this is literally an hour after I finished my ‘getting coached’ session), and was insta stuck 200k. Like, I was buying in for 8k stacks, then 12k stacks as everyone got deeper, and just lost every single one for about 45 minutes. These add up quick, and I was already in my standard bang the mouse scream WTF every time I lose, etc. Joe threw something at me and told me to breathe, and it definitely made a difference. I stopped for 20 seconds, took 4 long breaths, in and out, and from then on didn’t think about the fact that I was stuck. I insta went on heater and finished sesh up 30k or so. Granted, I ran like a god, and binked off a nice 200k pot, but I think that the breathing definitely helped calm me, helped me keep focus, and prevented tilt. Baby steps, but steps nonetheless.
 
I have to go to a wedding tomorrow, and am hanging out with Haley and 2 of her friends tonight, cooking out, and swimming. I am not very excited about the wedding, as it is one of her other friends, and I will know all of 3 people there. I bought a new suit, spent a bit on it, so at least I will look nice. I haven’t bought a suit in like 3 years, and so it felt good blowing some money on something that will look super nice, so at least I am semi excited about that. Sorta girly to get excited about dressing up I guess, but I’ll take excitement how I can get it. That’s all I got for now.
 
-David Benefield

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Entry Tags: the,  and,  this,  that,  but,  have

Jul 25, 08 12:45:26

Dude I love you. Walk on.

ama0330




Jul 25, 08 12:49:54

Nice entry. Kinda interesting to hear your new perspectives.

TrevRob




Jul 25, 08 13:35:59

Interesting entry. Regarding your suffering point, if you just had a bedpan, that would have avoided the whole situation =)

RodeoBlue




Jul 25, 08 13:43:26

Nice summery of Buddhism. I believe it helps a lot in getting the correct mindset for poker.

temple7




Jul 25, 08 13:54:26

Website Experiment

Next time you need to experiment with a site, try [URL=http://www.propclothing.com]PROP Clothing[/URL].

Probably a little less socially virtuous but hopefully slightly more entertaining.

propclothing




Jul 25, 08 14:00:33

you are a funny kid david

Taylor




Jul 25, 08 14:27:02

Next you are going to start walking backwards so as to not consciously step on any insects... I can't take anyone seriously that says "gosh" so I skipped all the hippy budhist/vegetarian ish and went str8t to the "raptors stuck a cool 1/5th mil" being that I'm a sadistic f*cker and all I was left wondering was if Joe helped you regain ur composure, inturn helping to set in motion the huge unstucko run good run, then why not break that nigga off a small piece you cheap bastid!?!?!

drunkpplaya




Jul 25, 08 14:27:47

The idea of meditation lies in that you're practicing; you're practicing mindfulness. When you clear your head and somehow get disrupted by a thought or whatever it may be, you simply acknowledge it and refocus. It's kind of like the examples you were giving about the stubbed toe and whatnot. You acknowledge it but you don't let it consume you. Your goal with meditation is to practice mindfulness and clarity.

In addition, you should look into reading Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind by Shunryu Suzuki.

By the way, this was a great post. Best of luck to you.

Eternal




Jul 25, 08 14:52:06

first i want to say that i love your blog and read every entry and i get the most excited about your blog because it gets the most indepth into your playing instead of "did well" or "did bad" Now, i think that it is great that you are trying to better yourself, but the first thing that i always think about when i see that someone is excited about something like buddhism is that it is not that far different from Christianity. I am not talking about being catholic or baptist, but the actual practice of Christianity. It teaches you the same thing but with a higher power. You are talking about reading these buddhist books. try the Bible. I know that this sounds preachy, but that is only because society tells you that christians are arrogant, closemided, and hypocritical. Now that may be true of some "christians" but not of the Christian practice itself. if you are truly looking to better yourself and become a better poker player it cant hurt, right? Buddhism may help you when you stub your toe, but once you get past all of that I think that you will feel empty and revert back to your old ways and will be no better off than now. I just felt that I had to add my two cents in as they say. Again, I love your blog and wish you nothing but the best in life and poker. Keep up the good work.

jibninjas




Jul 25, 08 16:09:01

Love the attitude. I started experimenting with Buddhism and positive thinking about a year ago and have really come a long way. I feel like all of my friends tell me im a "weirdo," but they are the ones that get cut off, go ape shit, and let it ruin their day. I am now trying to get into meditation, which does not come easy to me. Keep us posted on how it is all going for you, and gl with everything.

tayvon1482




Jul 25, 08 16:11:24

Even free range chickens will snack on the occasional sick/injured chiken if given the chance. (raised chickens on our farm growing up) They'll also eat all the eggs if they're not collected soon enough. Chickens are omnivorous. Just thought I 'd let you in on a little truth.

Dr_Jeff




Jul 25, 08 16:23:52

Thanks for your blog

Just wanted to say thanks for your blog dave. I think the mentality of gambling for a living is something we all struggle with whether we realize it or not. I appreciate how you talk about the life aspect of everything and bring your coaching and mind strengthening activitities into your blog, as well as your everyday activities.

eddieob




Jul 25, 08 16:43:29

no comment, you're greatness n the makin'

xptboy




Jul 25, 08 17:21:35

Great post. I imagine those sessions with Tommy must be priceless for any decent player. In case you haven't read it, The Zen of Poker is a great book you should check out in addition to your new findings on Buddhism.

Burdamania




Jul 25, 08 20:51:31

To start of im kinda drunk so i tell you all sorry right now.

Nice stuff... totally touched me on one point... Been thinking about the poverty stuff alot. Ofcourse money makes your life easier but that doesnt mean that you are happier. Cause i´ve been lucky to not having alot of money... but now I have the possibility to do stuff that people normally can´t do. I dont have a huge pile of money but never the less i can manage and just do what i really want to do.

but..... I´ve been thinking alot of what to do with my life though. The more i try to think of things i want to do. the more i find it not intresting or fun. That is what cosumes me the most right now and i struggle alot with it. Cause im afraid that im gonna end up as a bum cause i think everything is boooooring, i have a grad school degree, been drawing houses for 2 year.. quit my job cause it was not really making me happy. Being at a office 9-5 is probably the worst for me. Now i play poker but really dont enjoy it. But after 3 years im probably decent at it beacuse I can manage but i really dont want to play at all........ well well

I really dont know if any of this makes sense and my english is probably mediocre at best but anyway... sweet blog.. i like it very much i and wish you all the best.

/Sam

spinky




Jul 25, 08 21:32:07

have my babies

SpecT




Jul 25, 08 23:57:04

david will you marry me?

mmfb




Jul 26, 08 00:14:03

don juan

You should pick up a couple of Carlos Castenada books. There are heavy debates whether the books are based on actual experiences or not, but they talk about a lot of the things you mentioned in your blog. Whether they are based on real happenings or not the advice and concepts are pretty awesome, not to mention the books themselves are entertaining.

BenG2813




Jul 26, 08 01:35:13

I hear ya on the meditation thing, who would have thought it would be so hard to sit around and not think. I'm like you in the process of just taking baby steps "becoming the master of my thoughs" and what not. Another thing is just being a straight dick after having a crappy session or 5 and letting it effect my mood which i've realized doesn't pass as quickly as i once thought and really has some negative residuals. Don't know if you read these comments or not but somthing that really helpd me out was just make it a day to day practice to think about things to be greatful for. I shouldn't say think so much as to acknowledge, cuz there really are so many things to be greatfull for day in and day out and i'm talking about little shit like great weather, or your car starting (which for some people is very much a blessing) or maybe you think your hairs rocken that day. Once i started forcing myself to look at how fortuante i was for all these little things it gave me a foundation in humbleness and gratitude instead of desire, wanting and greed and it really just hleps to put positiveity as a defualt instead of depressed and pissed off when things go bad (which still of course happens for stretches). I'm sure if you just make it a practice to Really take alook around you from time to time at stuff like, your yard, your dog, your home, look threw your phone and how lucky you are to have some of those people in your life, day to day Freedoms, ect, once you start really soaking in just how amazing all those little things are and how fortunate you are to have them i really think it will help give you an underline sense of peace. At any rate wish ya the best and gl

C.R.E.A.M




Jul 26, 08 05:00:08

there is really a book you need to read. really. "spiritual practices of a ninja" by ross haven. i guarantee this is what your looking for right now and well just start by reading this article related to it /about it. yw in advance.

http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Spiritual-Practices-of-the-Ninja&id=571222

getstupidub




Jul 26, 08 05:25:46

Idd

I agree about what you say about external influences and internal dialogue. The way we feel is only our reaction to our external environment and isnt necessarily true. As for yoga... :P Stretching for anything longer than 30 seconds doesnt have any effect on your body. But if it helps you relax... *thumbs up*.

manic




Jul 26, 08 11:41:33

You have no idea how much I can relate to this entry. I see how everyone arouond me are leading
these mediorce lives and its refreshing to see someone who has high standards on how they want to live their life. Love the intensity of the blog! Keep it up!

foxypham




Jul 26, 08 14:11:07

That entry was really deep and interesting. I really like how you are trying to focus more on meditation and breathing. Though I feel that meditation really is difficult since I can completely relate to how thoughts just race through my mind when I just sit not doing anything. Keep these type of entries coming David.

dtat0529




Jul 27, 08 15:11:31

I got into the whole mindfulness concept a couple of weeks ago and was instantly very intrigued by it, as you obviously are. As for meditation, if you're having trouble focusing try counting your breath (counting every in and out breath up to ten, then starting over), that makes it easier if you're just starting. I'm looking forward to reading about your progress

crusad3r



60 Views | Comments (24)
July 23, 2008

http://www.cherihuber.com/onelessact.html

-David Benefield

Entry Tags: benefield,  onelessact,  cherihuber

Jul 23, 08 22:59:06

LOL!

navila




Jul 24, 08 00:35:07

cliffs notes?

Stinger885




Jul 24, 08 01:19:01

dallas

whats up dave,

i'm coming to dallas tomorrow/thursday for a week with my buddy. we own real estate around the city. anything going on this week, nightlife, anything, we're from los angeles, any recommendations would be appreciated,

thanks again,

kian

mookie834




Jul 24, 08 03:17:44

waaaaaaaaay tl;dr

brian4cards




Jul 24, 08 03:52:06

wtf is that? tl;dr

jxi




Jul 24, 08 06:02:37

Go to thailand bro

JetFuelGenius




Jul 24, 08 07:12:47

does this mean

no more sushi for you?

streetfamep




Jul 24, 08 09:32:11

omfg.... are you seriously a vegen? don't even get me started with the PETA group.

gambler2k4




Jul 24, 08 12:00:55

I would be fine killing animals for my own meals. Im not giving up steak or chicken for anything. And as far as sushi goes, I go fishing tons and from time to time eat what I catch. What are you going to do about sushi there David?

whodey0544




Jul 24, 08 12:54:08

respect.

To those who scoff at this in the comments:
It's one thing to disagree about the topic, and not want to participate in vegetarianism. State your points and debate at will.

It's another to disrespect and be ignorant of the issue David has presented here. He posted it because it's important to him. At least show respect. This isn't about PETA or other organizations, which from time to time show themselves to be zealous and equally ignorant of the opposing perspective.

Disclaimer, I am at this point in time not a vegetarian (because as the auther stated, many of us grow up in a "meat"-culture that looks down on this), but the thought has crossed my mind numerous times as a potentially positive lifestyle change that I am more interested in taking on as I grow older.

David, you have a good heart, it's good to see that you care.

gsaj




Jul 24, 08 14:22:47

sweet article, if you/anyone else is interested in reading more in depth philosophical arguments against eating meat i recommend "the ethics of what we eat" by peter singer and jim mason- its an incredibly well written and inspiring book. and lol at the no more sushi comment.

TheOracleAA




Jul 24, 08 22:28:18

ON TRIAL FOR MURDER

We can head down a slippery moral ethical slope when we start equating animals' rights at the same level as humans' rights. What should we do when the wolf "murders" sheep? Should we put that wolf on trial for murder? Sounds silly, right? Of course it is. We like to think of ourselves as exalted beings, when in fact we are just a little higher on the evolutionary scale than animals. Our evolutionary past never was that of pure vegetarianism. We are omnivores. We were evolved to eat MEAT AND VEGETABLES. As Doctor Evil told Austin Powers "We're not so different, YOU and I", the same could be said of us and MOST of our animal friends. EXCEPT for the fact that our BRAINS (especially our frontal lobes) are ENORMOUS compared to animals. Which, of course, leads us to ponder the DEEPER meanings of life, violence, "killing" sentient beings, etc., etc., etc. It is almost narcissistic the way we humans think (or the fact that we have WAY TOO MUCH FREE TIME on our hands). Now, don't get me wrong-I am all for deeper thinking (especially at the poker table, where I, along with many others, are truly deficient). And I truly admire most of Zen philosophy. However, blah blah blah. Now, if we really want to debate things, how about debating the fact that by commoditizing our food supply, we are truly being inhumane to animals. We take cows, which are meant to eat grass, and stuff them into overcrowded feedlots and fatten them up by feeding them cheap, unhealthy grains and corn. This, of course, makes them sick, which we counteract by pumping them with antibiotics. Then we dart gun them with estrogen to add another 25 lbs. or so. Then, after killing them, we irradiate the shit out of them to counteract any adverse effects from the fact that they have been living in a shit infested, overcrowded feedlot, etc. etc., etc. Now add the "carbon footprint" that this requires, by the fact that massive petrochemicals are required to make the fertilizer that we use to make the cheap, unhealthy grains that we then use to poison the cows (and humans, too, if you do a little homework on these topics). As an aside, did you know that fat from a "grass-fed" cow (which God Almighty intended them to eat) is a source of Omega-3 fatty acids (the REALLY GOOD STUFF that most of us thought only came from fish and flax), and when we send the cows to the factory to increase their weight from 250lbs. up to 1250 lbs. plus that their fat composition changes to almost all Omega-6's (extremely bad for your health when the Omega-6 to Omega-3 ratios become so high as it is in our "processed" diets, and the reason scientific studies pop up daily about the health benefits of Omega-3's). So, SUSHI is GOOD (esp. the fatty fishes-ie. tuna, salmon, mackerel, etc.). David can now breathe a sigh of relief as far as the Sushi. I could go on and discuss the chicken "factories", but I have grown weary and depressed, and fear that mankind is headed into a downward spiral from which we may never recover (JOKING).

bobkill




Jul 25, 08 02:30:04

David,

Are you from the Bay Area? I love Cheri Huber and go to her talks, she's very special..

Would be cool to meet up if you're in the area. There are two cool things around here, Cheri and Isaac :)

Best,

delonge19




Jul 26, 08 17:24:47

DAVID IM GLAD PEOPLE LIKE YOU ARE LEADERS THANKS FOR THE THOUGHTS. ITS TIME PEOPLE START HEARING HOW BABYLON IS KILLING THE WORLD. IT ONLY TAKES A FEW OF YOU TO GET THE WHOLE WORLD GOING. KNOW PEOPLE ARE LISTENING I AM.

dillyshak



42 Views | Comments (14)
July 20, 2008

Wow. I just got back from seeing this in imax at palms, and it was absolutely incredible. I highly recommend seeing it asap if you havent already. I also highly recommend seeing it in imax, as that was pretty ridiculously cool as well. I havent seen anything in IMAX since i was like 12, so it was definitely a good experience. I dont want to get into any spoilers or anything, but this was probably the best movie i have seen this year, though i guess thats not really saying a whole lot.

I got into vegas early this evening, and played a cpl hours online. I got a bunch of 25-50 Hu action from AlexandraPaul, who plays mysteriously like another mid-high nl reg that likes to 6-8 table HU. I was very surprised he gave me action, though perhaps he isnt aware that the david benefield name was converted from aeron73, though i find that a bit silly to not be aware of playing for the kind of money involved. Anyways, i feel like i smoked him pretty hard, though was only up like 3 buyins on him before he quit. I guess thats pretty good though. I got beat up by some of the guys on 6max though, but i am not too worried, i have been playing a lot more spewy than normal, and trying out a lot of things with pretty great results overall, so who knows maybe ill keep monkeying.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2917848 - this hand was pretty silly, i have no idea who this guy was, and was like oh great he has aces, then he flipped up his hand and i was just in shock. Not exactly the end result i was looking for, but whatever.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2918742 - this one here might not have been so good.. i have never seen this guy before but i was kinda hoping he would give me credit for aces or kings, but he shipped it in and i felt like a retard, though.. it set up this..

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2917782 - which definitely helped the day out. It is truly amazing to me how people just hurricane money in if they see you make one donkey overagg play. I thought for sure the guy had KK Ks and was trying to figure out if he had potodds to hit his flush. Lucky for me he had.. KK with no spade, so that was fun!

Heres a couple rando fun ones

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2917930

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2918758

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2918759 - the ol lead call raise lead call turn shove. those are always fun and mad tilt the opposing player.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2918760

I lost a lot of hands in the vein of the KT, but i think overall doing goofy spew stuff like that a bit is pretty awesome if you are playing with the same people for a longerish session. When you actually HAVE a hand, they cant wait to beat you in the pot light, so its pretty cool. I dno just something i have been messing around with, and i could be way off base, but i like the effect it has on the players in the games, as long as i can pick up a hand within an hour of being spewmonkey of course.

I also played some PLO on stars today which was pretty cool, stars plo doesnt run too often at 1-2 or 2-4, but Daniel Negreanu!! was playing so a game formed. I managed to run 16k below equity on allins for the 4 short stacks i slung in there, which was pretty annoying, but no big deal, i only lost like 6k after it was all said and done. Some of the plays people were making were truly abysmal, so i hope that game and lineup goes a bit more and i can run my stars roll up a bit!

Tomorrow i get to go suit shopping. One of Haley's friends is getting married, so i am getting dragged along for the ride. I havent really been to many weddings before, none while i have been 21+, so it should be a bit more fun than i remember (i hope). Anyways, been a long day so ima go get some sleep. laters.

-David Benefield

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Entry Tags: the,  like,  was,  and,  this,  but

Jul 20, 08 04:47:45

What did you think of Durr on PAD? Aren't you aching to get in there vs Guy and Phil?

Rerazor177




Jul 20, 08 06:00:25

how is the tommy angelo coaching?

dahoffman




Jul 20, 08 06:01:39

also if you feel comfortable talking about, It'd be cool to hear your thoughts on craig's chances at the ft, being a staking god, and all that...

dahoffman




Jul 20, 08 12:17:03

movie

My theory is that people love this movie so much because they are used to the usual garbage movies that come out so when a good movie comes out it seems like the best movie ever made. still a good watch though.

BenG2813




Jul 21, 08 20:45:47

Are u implying that Alexdranda paul is Takechip?

d2themfi




Jul 22, 08 01:05:38

no

David B




Jul 22, 08 01:37:04

he is from canada, seems likely to me, but doesnt matter my question was more rhetorical cos i didnt think ud admit to accusing anybody specifically

d2themfi



143 Views | Comments (7)
July 18, 2008

Hey guys, not a lot to report the last few days, I have been in TX spending some time with my family and Haley. First night into town I checked out a sushi place downtown with my dad and Haley, and although they enjoyed it, I would rate it about a 3.5. It was just so bland, the sushi wasn’t that great, and they tried to hide it with sauces and frying everything. The nigiri was mediocre at best, and they didn’t even have toro! The eel hand roll was quite good though, and it made the experience much better. So far nothing really compares to naked fish in my book.
 
Something I missed a lot more than I thought I would was my pool. After my workouts in vegas I usually sit around on the computer until I cant stand my stench and go shower. In tx though I hop in the pool and float around on a big floaty thing. This is probably one of my favorite parts of the day. I am all tired from working out, but get to just sit there and soak in the sun and feel the water. It is very calming, and puts me in a great mood. Perhaps at some point I will put a pool in my backyard in vegas. It just didn’t seem like a great idea, since I was not planning on being there too often, and having renters and what not it’s an extra liability. The pros just might outweigh the cons; though I will have to think on it.
 
On the poker side of things, I played a bit in the last couple days, and am really liking the red name. It gets me extra random HU NL action, and makes people play much worse against me in general, calling me down too light, and trying to make plays at me. I rather enjoy when people monkey more vs me, and feel like it is DEFINITELY beneficial to my hourly rate playing in red. There was also like 4 tables of 50-1 cap NL going on today, and hands such as this http://www.pokerhand.org/?2913301 I don’t think would happen if I was playing on Aeron73 or bebop.
 
I am leaving tomorrow to go back to vegas, and start my coaching session with Tommy Angelo on the 21st. I am very much looking forward to this, and hopefully I will get a lot out of it. I am trying to become better at dealing with the non poker side of being a poker pro, and I think Tommy is going to be able to help immensely.
 
Also when I get in, I will be going to naked fish. I haven’t been in at least a week, and I am having withdrawals. After that, I have tickets to see The Dark Knight in IMAX. I have heard absolutely amazing things about this movie, and can’t wait to see it in full IMAX glory. I haven’t seen a movie at an IMAX since I was like 11 and saw something about Mount Everest on a school outing, so I am pretty excited to go.
 
Oh also, I just submitted a video that is at 3-6 NL HU. There have been ppl requesting more of that kinda stuff, so I figured it would be a good idea to throw it up there. I am not really sure what I think so far, but I think it’s a good video. There are a lot of hands, and the action is pretty fast, so it shouldn’t really get boring. If you guys like it I will be happy to put up the second part, but if not I have a couple other things I can do. I recorded an hour and a half of some 3-6 6max as well that I will be happy to do audio on, so just leave feedback on the video comments so I know what to do next. Thanks! That’s all I got, I am quite boring when I am in TX.
 
-David Benefield

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Entry Tags: the,  was,  and,  just,  that,  have

Jul 19, 08 00:19:39

its a hard life

but someones gotta live it

RodeoBlue




Jul 19, 08 01:36:37

David, for gods sake get the 3/6 6m out at one point- tbh i cant imagine anyone not interested to see it. gl to you and thanks for your great work.

iheartcoco




Jul 19, 08 07:41:28

I saw Batman in IMAX last night. Was amazing. The last time I saw an Imax movie it was a cartoon, so it definitely didn't have the same realistic "I'm going to fall off the building" effect.

Stake Monster




Jul 19, 08 14:01:37

PLzz do audio on both David, and convince Taylor to release it - the sooner the better..:p

lemale




Jul 19, 08 18:01:20

The Dark Knight

was ridiculously amazing. That is all.

Vintage00




Jul 20, 08 02:20:19

naked fish is good but i think u are overating it more than anything and do you know the reason why all the poker players go there and why are there so many things signed by poker players?

omniheart




Jul 22, 08 03:50:38

The 6max one please!!! The HU too but 6max first imo.

clark116




Aug 11, 08 14:43:13

Vegan

David Are you Vegan?

Sick Cards



100 Views | Comments (8)
July 15, 2008

The last 2 nights have been great. I haven’t played any poker at all, I just hung out with Haley, went to eat sushi with my dad, ran a bunch of errands, and got caught up with stuff back in TX. After I busted the main, I tilt booked a ticket to come home, and it has been nice to just relax here. I went to the grocery store and got a bunch of stuff to cook. Some of you may know that I am interested in trying a vegetarian diet for a month, and am going to have a prop bet on it probably to keep me motivated, so I have been experimenting with cooking different veggie dishes.
 
Dish one today was a Chipotle style bowl. In it I used brown rice, pinto beans, navy beans, guacamole, corn, onions, green peppers, ‘smart ground’ vegetarian ground beef, and some medium organic salsa. It turned out pretty awesome, and is a super tasty dish. I could eat it every day and be happy.
 
Dish two was a spaghetti and ‘meat’ sauce, using organics whole wheat spaghetti, organics marinara, and smart ground. In the marinara I cooked it for 45 minutes on low heat, adding a healthy amount of garlic every 10 minutes or so. I have made this before in LV, and Joe, the token Italian in the house, couldn’t even tell it was fake ground beef. He really liked it, and I certainly love it. It turns out great and is a much healthier option than your traditional spaghetti and meat sauce.
 
Anyways, I had tons of leftovers to last me for a few days, so that should be nice. I rather enjoy cooking up my own food, it is almost always healthier and I know exactly what goes into it, as well as I feel some sort of accomplishment in creating something, even if it is something simple like food. I found a vegetarian cookbook which has a lot of cool recipes that I am going to try out over the next few weeks. I will probably start the prop bet on august 15th or so.
 
On a more poker related note, I played a bit today, and had a pretty decent day. Played a myriad of games, from 5-10 to 100-200, and everything in between including a good bit of plo. I’ll go ahead and post some hands.
 
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2899576 – Mean nasty brian binked me here, pretty standard though so whatever, but was biggest pot I lost today.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2899629 – This hand was pretty sick, this guy was monkeying pretty hard vs me, and I was in absolute shock he had bare kings here. I really couldn’t believe it, but I managed to whiff half the deck.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2899631 – rule number one in poker, don’t bluff people that don’t have a fold button. I felt like this was a great spot for me to ship it in, my plan was to bluff spades and 987 cards a bit, he just decided to snap call with top set, which I guess is ok. We had some pretty big hands and were going back and forth a lot, though this one was early in the match.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2899642 – This hand I think is interesting, because Tdanger is pretty deep also. I wasn’t really sure what to do in this spot, so I decided to ship it. Unfortunately I lost the flip again, so that’s kinda rigged, but I folded out Tdanger, which I think is a good thing.
 
Now for some winners..
 
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2899647 – I got my revenge on nasty brian here. I am not really sure how I feel about his river play, we talked about it after the hand happened, and I think we decided it was probably a check fold. I wasn’t happy to see an ace, but still snapped the river. Anyways, I think I played the hand fine, sick cooler that he turns a Q though.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2899655 – I thought this hand was kinda neat too. I really felt like rbk wasn’t leading out with a king very often, if ever, just doesn’t fit his style and timing in that spot. On the river I was sure I was good and was trying to figure out how much value I could get hoping he put me on whiffed strflush draw or something. I think I played it perfect.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2899660 – an example of our friend from earlier not really having a fold button. He had the 99, which is good in that spot once upon a never, but who am I to judge.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2899666 – and just for fun, one more hand vs omgwhata, displaying his ability to not fold ever.
 
On to NL losers..
 
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2899670 – I am really not sure what to make of this hand. I had been playing very aggressively pf, and felt like he could be check shoving with Ah that bricked, and a lot of smaller pocket pairs. The only hand I was actually scared of was TT, which he of course had. Perhaps he has TT more than I think, but I also felt like my hand looked really weak a lot, and so I felt like I needed to call. Might have been bad though.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2899676 – its amazing to me how seldom this works. I am repping a flush obviously, but no1 ever seems to be able to bet fold a set. I really like my line and feel like it should work 100% of the time, but perhaps I am getting too play happy. The me like 2 months ago would have the nuts here 100% of the time. The new me is a monkey though and gets ownd here.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2899681 – this hand really hurt my feelings. We hadn’t even been playing HU yet, but I had been 3 betting tons of buttons as per norm, and felt like I needed to call 330 more and get a good flop, which I did. I was very shocked that he had AQ, but whatever I guess he ownd my soul off, even though I was ahead on the flop.
 
Ok the NL winners..
 
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2899686 – I had been 4 betting pf about 80% of the time he 3 bet, since he was 3 betting a ton and we were super deep. Anyways, im not really sure wtf he was doing here, but it worked out well for me. I was like oh great he snap shoved im dead to a king, but.. he had the T6.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2899691 – pretty standard hand here, I guess everyone thinks I bluff nonstop. I guess the K and Q are scare cards, so I could be bluffing with.. I dno what can I have??? Whatever, im sure I have bluffed with like AJ Ah there before, so its prob not worst call ever.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2899698 – just a quick example of what happens when u 3 bet every hand. People decide to get ‘smart’ and ship in A9o on you. It is a cool thing.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2899702 – I also got some NL action at 1-2, and this hand happened v soon into the sesh. Luckily I held up, and stacked him.
 
I have been experimenting a lot with my NL and PLO game lately, and feel like I am making some great progress. I am doing things I never really considered before, I guess because I was happy and content with where I was at knowing what I did worked. However, I am bored I guess, and want to really crush these games instead of just beating them. Anyways, was a good poker day, made some money and stayed away from 2-4 plo. I had a sicko summer playing online, but made rules about playing plo that I could only play in great games, and games aren’t really great today, so I passed.
 
-David Benefield

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Entry Tags: the,  like,  was,  and,  but, 

Jul 15, 08 23:59:15

i tried the veggie diet thing twice...once for like a month, once for 3 weeks...it's not too tough cuz you can get so many yummy substitutes for the meat. but being the natural born carnivore that i am, i just went back to a healthy steak after a while lol...

one thing you can consider is like...letting yourself have meat/fish once a week or something? that way you can get your sushi fixes in and still have a super healthy diet...

anyways, seeing that you're playing so much plo these days, i would really love to see you do a plo vid.

DrSatisfaction




Jul 16, 08 01:03:45

i did see you call Brians shove set over set. Seemed to me he took to long to bet and you snap called, I was amazed you were not holding the nut srtaight. Nice read. If you had to put in 40K there would you have made the call?

rookie




Jul 16, 08 02:45:51

Hey David,
I dont even know if you read these but I was wondering if you could talk about your background and progression in poker someday? It would be really interesting to read about how you came to be where you are today.....and some good motivation for others looking to follow in your footsteps.
Congrats in the ME, youll take one of them down some day soon.

skippy13




Jul 16, 08 03:30:53

What is the smart ground actually made of and what does it taste like?

RichOK




Jul 16, 08 06:14:04

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2899691, 2nd o

I mean, I know you're being nice and all... but yes, it is.

Vintage00




Jul 16, 08 08:45:41

diet

Im trying out a wheatless diet, and later im trying out a paleolithic diet. According to S. Boyd Eaton, "we are the heirs of inherited characteristics accrued over millions of years; the vast majority of our biochemistry and physiology are tuned to life conditions that existed prior to the advent of agriculture some 10,000 years ago. Genetically our bodies are virtually the same as they were at the end of the Paleolithic Era some 20,000 years ago." anybody tried it/ know anything about it?

ChrisMcGregor




Jul 16, 08 13:01:44

im not really sure why anyone would want to try a wheatless diet, seeing how the healthiest, longest living groups of people in the world consume diets based around whole grains, veggies, and fruits. i can more than easily see dumping refined grains, sugar, all that jazz though. I know a fair amount about paleo, and i think its also silly to cut out legumes, which are often very high in fiber, vitamins, and minerals.

I DO think that paleo is VASTLY superior to the traditional american diet, and think it would be beneficial for everyone to do, however i do not think it is the BEST. I do like how at least when you eat meat, true paleo relies on grass fed beef, and only the leanest cuts, as well as wild game. Eating a burger isnt really sticking with the paleo diet. Also remember, if you are sticking with paleo, red wine is out! no alcohol of any kind! truly tragic considering the health benfits of a glass of red wine every day. Anyways, i could probably say a lot more about paleo, but i have to go eat my nice home made chipotle leftovers.

David B




Jul 16, 08 17:40:50

David, try lots of Morningstar products. They are the nuts. They have tons of fake meat products made with good protein mixtures and egg whites and shit. They are in the frozen food section. The Morningstar sausage patties have an awesome protein to carb ratio and are delicious.

DaveUO




Jul 16, 08 22:35:01

David, not sure if your in this mindset, but just a tip: you don't need to make veggies taste like meat. Just eat the veggies. I see lot of people go overboard trying to mimic meat, when that's not the point.

jfu




Jul 17, 08 19:52:01

I've been a vegetarian for 10 yrs now, so if you want some advice on dishes let me know. tofu/"fake meats" are your friends! :) GL.

Stake Monster



77 Views | Comments (10)
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