CARDRUNNERS

Decided to bump down and win 10 buys at 25nl before I play any more 50nl (was on a -10 buy swong and took 2 weeks off).

lol 25nl

http://weaktight.com/1981354

CapAnson329: worried about the royal?
trent98375: dont like being greedy
CapAnson329: lol

EDIT:

Oh lord, he is at it again... I love it when a 48/23 and a 48/10 talk strategy:

http://weaktight.com/1981369

oakraiders83104: when the aces were on the board trent what did uhave
trent98375: what you have
oakraiders83104: an ace
oakraiders83104: big pocket pair?
trent98375: i had KK
oakraiders83104: i had AA
oakraiders83104: swear
trent98375: i believe you
oakraiders83104: shoulda reraised u preflop
oakraiders83104: i wanted to milk it
oakraiders83104: but i didnt win much
trent98375: nice play though
trent98375: i think technically i should of called
trent98375: almost did
oakraiders83104: yeah
oakraiders83104: tough laying down the kk
oakraiders83104: but great fold
trent98375: well i was think you had like AK
oakraiders83104: yeah haha
trent98375: Because you really didnt raise that though
oakraiders83104: i wanted to win more lol
oakraiders83104: i wanted u to make the bet
trent98375: yeah i hear you
oakraiders83104: but the flop kinda stopped that with a good player
oakraiders83104: if i went over the top preflop
oakraiders83104: are u calling?
trent98375: yeah
trent98375: aces are tricky to play
oakraiders83104: yeah cause more then half the time
oakraiders83104: ur not callig that preflop
trent98375: yep

Back in high school the group of girls going to the bathroom together phenomenon was a normal thing. Those of us with penises would question it from time to time, but eventually dismissed it and went back to talking about Tiffany Amber Thiessen. All these years later, I never would have thought the topic would come back into my life with the force of so many tidal waves.

The scenario:

-This past Friday evening my wife Amber and I were at her company Christmas party (yeah, in January).
-The party was at a house, not some restaurant with a large bathroom.
-Amber went to the wash room, or water closet, for readers in their late 90's (please note I was sitting on the davenport, next to the barcalounger).
-About 2 minutes after Amber went to pee, a female co-worker of hers did the same.
-They both returned at the same time.

As they returned from the piss party I said, "Wait a minute, were you in the bathroom together?"

They were incredulous: "Yeah, so?"

No matter how hard I pushed, they refused to see the issue with one of them pissing while the other stood next to them washing their hands. I pressed, "If this is acceptable adult behavior, why does the mall have stalls around the toilets?" What the hell, why not just line up shitters next to cash register at Taco Bell? You could order and drop a deuce all at once. Think of the time you'd save!!!

All I know is that when men are lined up at a urinal, there are two acceptable directions to look:

1. Straight ahead
2. Down

In fact, we go out of our way to NOT look at each others penises. Is this homophobia or is it just polite not to look at another man's manhood? I'll let you decide. The point is, I don't even want my wife in the bathroom when I am pissing, much less a co-worker (sorry Wiggins, but you're out). But apparently women can drop their drawers, squat, lean forward to wipe, then redress themselves, all the while talking about ironing and fingernails with their gal pals.

"It's not like I looked at her vagina."

Well thank freaking god for small favors.

-Jeff

Oh hi der. It's been a spell since I blogged last. Mostly I've had a dearth of material to share, so I haven't. I hate it when ppl blog just to blog - I don't want to be that guy. Other than some work, not much has been going on, so I'll spare you the details and skip to the good stuff.

Back in November I stepped on a scale for the first time in well over a year. I did not really look at what it said, only glancing long enough to see the red needle was beyond the number 235.

That's a lot.

Jeff is a pussy hair short of 5' 9" and have a very stout natural build (yeah, I just used 3rd person, deal with it). I am guesstimating that if I was around 175 I'd be in very good shape body fat wise. As I said to my wife, if I was wrestling, I'd be in the 152 lb class (I wrestled for 13 years. My senior year of high school, 12 years ago, I was at 135). If that is the case, 170-175 seems like a good walking around weight.

My last known accurate weight was about 195. That was in late 2006. I was, ummm, husky,  and could def have lost 20lbs. Since then I've worked jobs where I sit basically 8-12 hours a day, 5-6 days a week. I ate a lot of fast food and got very little exercise. I also like to booze a bit and 4th meal was standard.

All that being said, as of this morning I am under 220 for probably the first time in well over a year. The most amazing part is that I've done it in about 8 weeks....without working out.....or giving up everything good to eat. I know it has only been a couple pounds a week, but this is the RIGHT way to lose weight. I am not dieting, I am changing my lifestyle.

I'll explain:

-had pizza exactly once
-not had a single burger
-only had french fries once
-basically zero fried foods
-had 1 bowl of shitty cereal (froot loops, this morning)
-drank almost no beer and very little hard alcohol
-stopped eating in restaurants almost entirely
-Lots and lots of fish and chicken.
-ZERO junk food
-fruit for desert - no candy or baked goods
-much more veggies
-snacking often on not terrible for you things, so I stay full because....
-cutting my portions (one of my biggest problems)
-almost completely sworn off red meat

I should also note that I have not gone on a fad diet or turned to shakes, protein bars, atkins stuff, or pills (food pyramid baby). So what is next?

-Monday I start p90x. I'm not looking forward to this at all, but I think it will more than double my weight loss. I want to be at 200 on April 1, on my way to a goal of 175 (hopefully by summers end). Actually, I am looking forward to it, just not the first week of immense pain and soreness.
-increase consumption of salmon and tuna (protein and omega-3's baby)
-double amount of veggies I eat
-have at least 3 pieces of fruit daily
-ALWAYS FUCKING EAT BREAKFAST (I am REALLY bad at this)
-cut way down on sodium intake
-increase water intake by like 8x
-reduce the amount of unnecessary starches in my diet

Aside from feeling better about myself, feeling less tired on very little sleep (standard), and hearing things like, "have you lost weight?", the best part of this deal is that I don't have the chronic heartburn I suffered through for three years. Basically, I was on Prilosec nearly every day just to keep from being miserable at night. I've sworn off the stuff and have had nary a day of the burn since I stopped eating fried foods.

I really hope getting on a workout plan will speed things up and accelerate results. So far the big key has been the purchase of a scale. It is like a competition to me now. Every day I want to be a bit lower than the day before. Every week I want to see results. Now whenever I have a temptation to eat poorly, I think of that $35 scale sitting in my bathroom.

The real moral here is that if I can do this, freaking anybody can. I have felt like shit about myself for years. No matter what clothes I buy/try on I look like shit (not that I am a male model, but you know what I mean). I don't like going places where I have to dress nice because I feel self conscious. I just hate it. Plus my family has a long history of heart issues and diabetes. Despite all this it took me basically 10 years of steady weight gain to finally do something about it. That is really sad. All you damn kids all over this site: Don't be me. Lose the 10 lbs now, it is way easier than losing 60 later...TRUST ME.

So how did I go from eating like an idiot to losing 15+ lbs just by changing my diet? It was easy! All I did was take all of the shitty food, and I mean ALL of it, out of my house. I could not eat poorly if I wanted to (I guess I could drink come crisco or something). After a couple of weeks, it became normal, and now I don't even want the shit.

It really is just that easy.

I have a couple more things in mind for blogging. I'll be back soon, I promise.

xoxo

-Jeff

2010 has not been super kind to me up to this point. While nothing life threatening has happened, I have hit several speed bumps:

1. It has snowed a fuck ton. I blew my lower back out while moving snow at my aunts place. That was a week ago and I am still feeling it. Sitting at a computer all day has not helped.

2. One of our employees put in his notice. I consider Michael to be a good friend and will miss working with him. He was a machine who could put in a ton of hours and still turn out good work. Plus he has a cool Aussie accent which was always fun to mock in meetings.

3. Poker...ugh.... I've finally got my work situation to be more manageable. I'm putting in much closer to 40 hours than the 50+ I was for the last several months. So on Jan 1 I started grinding pretty hard. I've watched 5 vids this month and spent 22.5 hours at the table (5837 hands). I'm mostly playing 2-3 tables and trying to work on my game. I'm mostly playing pretty well, but have been absolutely fucking miserable in all-in pots. Of the 9 I have lost, 6 of them were bad plays (one was for 240bb's). The other 3 were KK<AA, KK<JJ, and JJ<KK when we both flopped sets. Not good.

Conversely, of the 7 all-in pots I've won, 2 of them I spiked a 2 outer to get there. I'm losing with QQ, JJ, AK, and AKs. Oh, and I am winning 42% of showdowns! Not a good combo of events imo.

I feel like I am just not being disciplined. I keep getting all excited with over pairs and just don't think. I look for reasons to stack off, and usually do. Most of this can probably be attributed to making over my game. Since I've been working with nute, I've gone from a 18/15 fit or fold player to a 23/19. My W$WSF has risen from barely 40% to 45% and my red line is no longer a staircase to hell. I've had a lot growing pains trying to figure out when to battle for a pot and when to give up, but that is part of the deal. I am def bluffing too much as well. Usually the thought process is, "He has 2nd pair at best, he just can't call if I fire this 3rd shot." The issue is, it is 50nl and not only can they call with 2nd pair...they can, and do, call with 4th pair.

The moral of the story is that I need to be more careful and more disciplined. Either that or I'll be at 25nl soon. I've dropped almost 1/3 of my bankroll so far in Jan. Thank god I started with a comfortable amount for the limit. That being said, I can't keep losing.

Hopefully this does not come off as ranting or whining. I actually feel pretty good overall about my game, save for some really glaringly stupid shit I do.

In the good news department, we raised $4000 via the Lou Pinella Memorial Poker Tournament. All that cash goes to our fall friend's son's college fund. Hopefully we've helped Davis and Patrice in some small way with our efforts. I should give a huge thanks to Andrew Wiggins for all his help with the tourney as well as his very generous donation to the pot.

I'll see about blogging more regularly. I am not great at it because, to be honest, it is just not a major priority right now. With so much going on, something has to get cut out. Sadly, it is often the blog. Till next time, whenever that is...

-Jeff

This Sunday, at 8:00pm EST, CardRunners will be hosting the Lou Pinella Memorial Tournament.

David “Lou Pinella” Doerr was a charter member at CardRunners who passed away as the result of an auto accident on November 18. To honor this great friend, husband, and father, we have put together a tournament this Sunday on Full Tilt Poker. It is a $15+$15 NLHE event, with 100% of the rake going to his son Davis’ college fund.

Whether you knew Lou or not, there is no reason not to get in on the fun. Team CardRunners and Full Tilt Poker sponsored pros, Taylor Caby, Brian Townsend, Brian Hastings, Andrew Wiggins, and Mike Schneider will all be playing!!! To sweeten the pot even further, each will have a bounty placed upon them. If you are lucky enough to knock one of our Red Pros out of the tournament, you will receive a CardRunners t-shirt and a free one month subscription to either CardRunners or StoxPoker! CR guest pros nutedawg, verneer, and Zaitsev will also be playing. Even FTP Red Pro Andrew Feldman is in the field.

To find the tournament go to the Full Tilt Poker private tournament tab. You can sort by date, look for the name (Lou Pinella Memorial) or the ID (122018681). The password is "DRD#1", which you'll need to register. It is open to the public, so please invite your non-CR friends to play as well.

Don’t turn away from this opportunity to give to a great cause and have a great time with the who’s who of CardRunners!

To read more about Lou, please click here.

To donate directly to Davis’ college fund, please send to:

College Savings Plan of Nebraska
P.O. Box 82644
Lincoln, NE 68501-9542
(888) 993-3746
Account number: 975-757-841 and the beneficiary is Davis R. Doerr

Alternatively, you can send directly to Andrew Wiggins on FTP (first letter of city is “C”). He will then cut a check to the fund for the amount donated.

It is late, so I'll make this short as I can. I want to go over three things which I will list up front so you can skip to a section if you don't give a shit about the other stuff.

1. Poker last week
2. Those idiots that hip-hop artists always have on stage with them
3. The Lou Pinella Memorial Poker Tournament

---------------------------------------

Poker

I beat up on my hours played goal, logging just under 14 total (my goal is 12). I got killed in the vid watching dept though, as I only watched one. Work has been heating up again and I lost time to both Thanksgiving, my final day of yard work this fall, and Christmas light hanging.

I am tired as hell and don't want to mess with screen shots, so here are my results for last week:

13.96 hours
+$86.80
2282 hands
3.80 BB/100

I feel like I played better overall than I have in my life, save for an ill-advised session on Thanksgiving at my parents house while visiting with people. I am battling for, and winning, a lot of pots but am still showing down with the second best hand much too often. Nute assures me this is a good thing as I will learn how thinly I both call down and value bet.

---------------------------------------

Hype Men

While working this evening I watched the American Music Awards. As I was doing so, something struck me. Do you know how bad I want to see Rihanna, Alicia Keys, Fergie, Carrie Underwood, and Lady Gaga naked in my bedroom? Yeah, I know, Lady Gaga is ugly and completely freaking crazy....so, that is why she is on the list.

Actually, that was not my main observation. OK, yeah it was.

The point is, there is probably nothing more irritating than when rappers have their posse in the background screaming "YEAH" and "COME ON" and "GET UP" into their mics. I am a firm believer that these people are less talented than a fry cook. At least they have to keep from burning food. I mean, what do you tell people when they ask you what you do for a job?

"I scream stupid shit into a mic and wreck musical performances while wearing a heavy coat and sunglasses indoors."
"Ummm, that sounds....interesting?"
"Yeah, they give me free Big Mac's. And weed."
"Your pants just fell down."
"It's OK, that's how I wear them. Do you have any cognac?"

---------------------------------------

Lou Pinella

We are splashing this all over, but I wanted to also post it here. I'll be blogging more about it as it comes closer and as we add some things to the proceedings, the official announcement follows:

CardRunners is proud to announce the Lou Pinella Memorial Poker Tournament.

David “Lou Pinella” Doerr was a charter member at CardRunners. His history with the site goes back to launch week in September of 2005. Over the years he was a vibrant member of the community and was known especially for his wit and willingness to help others. It was not at all uncommon for him to message another member to offer assistance with their HU game, or just about anything else.

On Wednesday, November 18, at the age of 43, David was taken from us as a result of an auto accident in the greater Seattle area. He is survived by his wife Patrice and 11-year-old son Davis. To read more about David and his life at CardRunners, please click here.

The Lou Pinella Memorial Poker Tournament, to be held Sunday, December 13, will carry a $15+$15 entry, with 100% of the rake going to a college fund for Davis (information below). We anticipate having several CardRunners pros and guest pros play, a full list will be announced before the 13^th. Each pro will have a bounty for those who are fortunate enough to eliminate one of them.

To register for the tournament, please head to Full Tilt Poker and go to the private tournament tab. You can sort by date, look for the name (Lou Pinella Memorial) or the ID (122018681). You will need the password “DRD#1” to register.

We look forward to seeing you all help support David’s family in this most trying of times.

If you’d like to donate directly to the fund, here is the information you will need:

College Savings Plan of Nebraska
P.O. Box 82644
Lincoln, NE 68501-9542
(888) 993-3746
Account number: 975-757-841 and the beneficiary is Davis R. Doerr

I'll make this short (for once), since I am about to play some hands after a long-ass day at work.

My goal, as stated two blogs ago, is to play twelve hours of poker per week without disctraction and to watch and take notes on 4-5 videos. I will say up front that I failed on two of the three fronts. This is bound to happen when you don't set a weekly goal until four days of the week have passed, followed by a significant loss in the CR family (see my last blog).

I played about four hours last week for a total of 561 hands. Results: http://img526.imageshack.us/i/lastweeka.jpg/


I started with Nute on the 2nd of the month, playing my first session after that point. I pretty much went on a massive heater where I ran WAY above expectation. Then I lost every hand I played for a week. Apparently, if you try and apply a game that kills 5/10+ to 50nl, bad things can happen.

Here is a screen of my month so far: http://img44.imageshack.us/i/thismonth.jpg/



As I am learning to play some actual real life post flop poker, I am seeing two things:

1. My redline is above zero for the largest sample of my life.
2. At the conclusion of hands I think, "Wow, I played that fucking awesome".

An example of the latter:  http://weaktight.com/1712523

The player to my left was 3-betting more than 25% for about 250 hands. He was running something like 57/35 and was probably the single most spewey player I have ever sat with (he is down $16k in 23k hands at 100nl and below according to PTR). The player to my right is a TAG player who seems to be a thinker, possibly a CR member, and certainly somebody that is solid for 50nl. He had been 3-bet by the idiot three previous times in the last short while. All three of those, he 4-bet.

I called with the idea of getting the idiot to squeeze. When he did, I was elated. When the TAG 4b, I initially thought I had to fold. A month ago, I woulda. I tanked and got to thinking. IMO, the TAG is 4-betting hands like 99+ and AJ+. He is folding 22-88 and things like KQ. He actually may be 4-betting even wider, since his previous three times doing so resulted in the idiot mucking. All that being said, I think my shove is way mega profitable.

1. The TAG should be calling my shove with nearly his entire 4b range, which I have crushed. He is getting overwhelming pot odds to do so.
2. The idiot could certainly do something spazzy with AT or something similar.
3. I do ocassionally take the pot down preflop, as I did here.

I know it is one hand and does not seem like much, but like I said....three weeks ago, I don't pull that. Apparently making reads, thinking about ranges, and acting upon them is +ev. Who knew?

On the other end of my goals (the vid watching thing), I watched and took notes on two of them. I also watched a vid of all four hours of my play and took a two hour lesson. Was there a ton of poker? No, but I also missed two entire days with the Lou deal. All in all, I am not too unhappy with myself.

And with that, I am off to start on this weeks goal. Wish me luck.

-Jeff

For those who don't know, CardRunners lost one of it's longest tenured members this past Wednesday in a tragic car accident. This is a forum post I put together about him, so his old friends could reminisce and some of our newer members could get introduced.

I did not paste the entire post here, just most of it. To see it all, please go here: http://www.cardrunners.com/members/forum/ubbthread...
Enjoy.

---------------------------------------

What has Lou Pinella meant to CardRunners as a site and a community? Much more than most of you could comprehend. As the oldest of the old school could tell you, he was a CR OG to the core. His leadership of the community that first year, and beyond, was truly integral to building what we have here today - a statement that Taylor, Andrew, and many others would undoubtedly agree with.

His first post was in September of 2005, hisfirst thread was written soon after, and his first foray into OT was because Wiggins wanted to get him a rail.

What many of you don’t understand, is that CR used to be a college fraternity. Even when I joined, 9 months after Lou first posted, there was around 1k members. Everybody knew everybody. We all railed each other - especially the UB crew (of which I wish I was a part). While I feel an immense sadness losing possibly the single most important contributor to the community of CR, I feel much worse for his family and friends. I send my sincerest condolences to Andrew, Spuddy, jt, Zimba, Joe, ajones, bdog, and all the rest of you who are hurting the most.

To show you all who Lou was, I suspended my daily duties and did some leg work. I went through Lou’s posts…nearly all 4000, or so, of them. Most of the real old stuff was poker related and hard to sift through – when we did the site redesign in Sept of 2007 he had the highest post count on the site (pushing 3k as I recall). I was able to find some gems from way back, and several from more recent times.

Who was Lou Pinella?

The Quintessential Rail Bird

dear joe ward

thank you for the great excitement this week...i really enjoyed meeting you last summer and although you are pretty much fucked when it comes to your eating habits, i really thought you were a great guy...i got home from a trip one day this week and couldn't wait to log on to see what you were doing in the main event..i sweated my balls off for you on the final day and you got somewhat lucky with the 88 but otherwise the reported hands sounded like luck went against you...i hope if you saw gus hansen you told him to fuck off for last year...thanks again for going deep, it was fun to follow

love,

lp

A Father

Risk Aversion:
http://www.cardrunners.com/members/forum/ubbthread...
A member shared that he became a father, Lou’s reply:
did you cry? i did

From a thread where CR members posted pics of their family:
do you have to host your pics to post them in this thread?

i would love to post my son on here so bdog and jtphila can print the pic out for their girls..plus any other cr daughters that are either extremely wealthy or a nice hotness factor

i don't do imagaeshack or any of that other silly stuff you kids do like myspace or facebook..any help would be appreciated

His son: http://img263.imageshack.us/img263/404/p1020204ll8...

Ann Landers

Hot Mom Making Work Uncomfortable (notice the fantasy basketball trade offer at the end):
i don't have the desire to go into the various avenues you could take on this. my best short answer advice is to let her go, there are plenty of out of shape peeps in america with money..i would just be very honest with client and tell her you have a strong feeling she wants more than exercise advice and you a happily married man

kidd for gordon for this advice...ty

What's worse than cankles?:
to answer the title thread, about the only thing that would compare is someone that is possessive ...i know thats not a mole or large areola's

also watch how they dance, that will tell you a lot

big ankles is just an indication they are going to always be fighting weight issues, buyer beware

why are you asking about women anyways?

how can you hate feet? you looking for a footless girl?

Always with the relationship advice:
ot replies should be ashamed and banned if this type of advice keeps up

first stormy, nice work on the qualifying date, now it's time to step it up..forget any of the ramifications of this next plan of action, just go have some fun...so i would tell both women you are stuck between a rock and a hard place (pun intended) and you think it would only be fair to go on another group date and see if the fun can't be extended a little more...the only risk in this advice is the business aspect, you can't be having this come back to bite you in the pocketbook with client who hooked you up...lifetime membership to cr legacy if you hook up with both girls along with clients wife in a 3some

report back

this advice about pick one if complete hogwash

Princessdonk dates a guy who thinks he can play poker but has no clue:
PD, the first piece of advice is you better be giving up the booty by now. 3 dates is a long time for a young man and a woman such as yourself.

Secondly, I would introduce the topic of poker over a night out drinking and go back to your house and ask if he wants to play some poker for fun and money obv. LAGtard the hell out of him, show your bluffs, and clean him out. Then bring up the fact you have been somewhat reserved for sharing with him you play poker since many people view poker as a bad thing. Unless the guy is a complete douche, he will have an instant hard on and you need to then go have sex with him again.

Enjoy.

Sunglasses at the table...yes or no and why?:
i have never owned a pair of sunglasses, reason being as i always thought peeps that wear sunglasses try and think to be cool..i have changed my views on this as i have gotten older for health reasons but still have never bought a pair

Message to an unpopular female member:
enjoy having your future husband cheatin on you to satisfy his ways if he is any kind of real man...i think you need to reevaluate and not judge on past but future actions with you in their life

you seem very high maintenance btw from your blog, you need a guy like stinger who can afford you..just do him

An Intergral Part of CR Lore

Lou used to be the king of post count:
http://www.cardrunners.com/members/forum/ubbthread...
Never forget, lou could play:
http://www.cardrunners.com/members/forum/ubbthread...
lolcats:
i'm really confused with today's youth...first there was a thread on 2 girls in a cup and i didn't watch the video but listened to this guy sing about the song which is apparently about two girls eating each others poop and the likes..and now we have this fascination with cats? and what's up with kids texting when you could just pick up the phone and get your message across much easier?

Always the gentleman (this post was to a new CR employee a couple years ago):
Hi Caroline, my name is Lou Pinella, welcome to CR. I think you will have a lot of fun with your new job and if you have any problems with anyone, you let me know.

Welcome again.

Random:
if you are looking for friends, i typically charge $200/month to be your friend, but running a special in the month of june for $179.95 with 6 months up front, i'll hook you up

Who is this guy on TV (from WSOP 2008):
does LL2 get air time with a hand? if espn got his voice on air i think i will make love to my wife while she listens to ll2 speak with that sexy accent

fuck gus hansen btw, i have lots of danish friends and gus would be considered an ass clown in their crowd...he sucks at poker as well

Pizza:
shitty pizza I will fold

good pizza will not be folded

Tattoos:
I'm curious why people like tattoos so much? Is it solely for identifiably purposes or is there something deeper? What if you change your mind at some stage in your life? Are you just fucked?

To answer the OP question, if my wife ever wanted a tat the only ink I could think of that would give me some joy is "Spuddy" on her right ass check. I'm kinda sick like that. But our house is/has/will be ink free.

Somebody With a Serious Side

Lawrence Phillips:
Lawrence is serving 10 years for trying to run over some kids with a car at a park after getting pissed during a pick up basketball game.

The best college football team I have ever witnessed during my lifetime was that 1996 Nebraska football team, even without Lawrence. Tom Osborne took a ton of heat for his decision to play Lawrence, and explains in detail why he elected to play him in his book, On Solid Ground.

Bottom line, Lawrence was raised in foster homes and the streets. Shows the importance of parenting and how some people will never understand the rules of life. I truly feel for Lawrence and is paying the price with his time. My heart weakens when I see the name Lawrence Philips.

A Charitable Man

Lou helps a member in need (somebody scammed nuht’s account while he was in Iraq fighting in the war. The community donated to help him out…Lou was at the front of the push to help nuht):
http://www.cardrunners.com/members/forum/ubbthread...
Generous guy:
HU brings out the worst in people including myself sometimes (I get real ugly when someone allin protects on me). Just because everyone else is being assholes doesn't mean you should be as well. I agree with everything Jeff has said in this thread.

This topic is exactly why Taylor Caby is why he is so good HU, he doesn't tilt and is always trying to just play great poker. All the other noise is just that.

Chatting in general is not good for me. I have tilted from it, and have felt sorry for people and given their money back before because they seemed nice and I got lucky in a pot.

Somebody questioned it in a subsequent post and Lou replied…

Yes I have on a couple occasions, found out they are CR, or busted their account. Nothing more than a buyin or two. It's so seldom I play people who are nice regardless of outcome I actually have a soft spot in my heart for when I beat them. That's a sad statement in my book and part of the reason if I was to stereotype poker players I don't like many of them at the tables.

I'm not looking for peeps berating my giving as I know I have never seen money coming my way, I'm a big boy and know my actions monetarily are stupid.

Honoring Lou:
I was speaking to Taylor today about doing something in Lou’s honor. We came up with the idea for a charity poker tournament with the proceedes being donated in his name to a cause he had supported. Details will follow in the coming weeks, but I wanted to make you aware of our intent to do what we could to honor our friend.

While I was digging through our archives, I came across a post he made in a thread about a charity tourney to help another member in need. That post:

dude, give me a fucking name on UB to send some monies or otherwise I will be pissed, lets get this ball rolling

CR is a community and there are enough active posters on this site who should respect what the site is all about and make any kind of donation many times a year...I think the "community" here shouldn't just be about having fun and what not, it should be to help any way you can when a member is in need

I certainly respect people have their own charities and monies might be tight, but even 5 dollars per member by the "CR Community" would ad up to some nice jack

XOXO,

LP

His Greatest Hits

Lou Pinella, Monitor Expert
http://www.cardrunners.com/members/forum/ubbthread...
Random Thoughts:
http://www.cardrunners.com/members/forum/ubbthread...
ATTN Kara Scott:
http://www.cardrunners.com/members/forum/ubbthread...
HU with Spuddy:
http://www.cardrunners.com/members/forum/ubbthread...
updog:
http://www.cardrunners.com/members/forum/ubbthread...
Lou HATED Full Tilt:
http://www.cardrunners.com/members/forum/ubbthread...
Princessdonk and Rodeo Blue on a date?:
http://www.cardrunners.com/members/forum/ubbthread...
Lou loved Tina Fey before it was cool:
http://www.cardrunners.com/members/forum/ubbthread...
The serious side:
http://www.cardrunners.com/members/forum/ubbthread...
jtphila’s blog about The Man:
http://blogs.cardrunners.com/jtphila/lou-pinella-s...
Final

Wiggins Blog Announcing Lou’s Passing:
http://blogs.cardrunners.com/andrew/a-truly-sad-da...
His Final OT Contribution:
http://www.cardrunners.com/members/forum/ubbthread...
His Final Thread:
http://www.cardrunners.com/members/forum/ubbthread...
His Final Post:
http://www.cardrunners.com/members/forum/ubbthread...
Goodbye Lou. We love you and will miss you.

-Jeff

Diclaimer: This blog is long and almost exclusively filled with poker related content laced with personal inflection.

I have not been blogging much lately for one main reason - Outside of family, work, and a wee bit of personal time, I have been spending every spare second of my life working on my poker game. I know I've gone through this has been said before in these (virtual) pages, but this time I have an ace in the hole: Nutedawg.

I started taking lessons from Tim on November 2. In the first session we spent together I think I learned more than I had in the previous year. He has a knack for putting things that seem like common sense into very plain English that is very absorbable (I think I just made up a word). I suspect that a lot of what he advocates is standard fare for many winners at mid-stakes games, but they either don't realize it or don't know how to articulate it nearly as effectively as he does. I think that if every coach on this site paid Nute to teach them how to teach, their students would be most grateful.

Outside of Nute's ownage, the main reason that I am learning so much is that I am a really terrible player and have a lot of room to grow. Why am I so bad? Well, there are a number of things at work:

1. All the previous lessons, sweats, conversations, and study was done sporadically and without vigor or passion. I have wasted literally thousands of dollars paying good, competent coaches, but did little to capitalize on what I was being taught. I fell asleep during videos, turned HH reviews into bitch sessions dominated by excuses for my shitty lines, and pissed away most of my spare time fucking around on AIM or studying for fantasy baseball.

2. As much as I have always been self deprecating about my poker abilities, I have always been convinced I am better than I am. I said it a couple months ago in this blog, and I'll repeat it: All men think they are better than they are at five things: Athletics, driving, drinking, sex, and gambling. How many of you are saying, "But I can drink a lot and I ran a 4.7 40 in high school!"? Well, all of you are lying to yourselves. So stop it. It is only hurting you.

3. I should add a sixth thing to that list: In general everybody gives themselves too much credit for their level of intelligence. How many mouth breathers do you know that think they are mouth breathers? Get my point? That being said, I know that I am an exceptionally bright guy. I don't need/want to talk about how bright in terms of measurements - that is not the point. The point is, my entire life almost every single intellectual pursuit has been very simple for me. I have been very successful, without any real effort, at many things that I assumed would translate over to poker. I know dozens of people I would not consider to be near my level of intelligence that kill mid-stakes, and higher. All of this is what has really led to the previous two points. I have operated for over three years under the assumption that someday, without effort, I would just get it. Even when I realized that was completely false, I acted as though it wasn't.

Now who's the smart one?

I would like to mention that I spent a really good portion of the day waging an internal debate about adding that last point. I really hope it does not come off as arrogant or elitist. If anything, I think it shows how ignorant, pigheaded, and just plain stupid I have been. Please don't flame me.

How is taking lessons from Nute going to change my indifference to effort?

1. At the ripe old age of 30, I have started to change as a person. I read Time instead of Maxim. I think of my family before myself. I pay credit cards off instead of charging things to them. One of the big things I have done is to push myself to be more efficient in everything I do. This push is opening time up to work on my game.

2. Having somebody as brilliant as Tim showing a sincere interest in my improvement is very motivating. If he thinks I can do it, there is no reason I shouldn't too.

3. Even though I am still a young man, I am not getting younger. At some point I want to be a dad again. I have things I'd like to do to increase the value of my house. I want to set myself and my family up for the future. While I love working for CardRunners, odds are good that I won't be driving a Porche as long as it is my only source of income. Poker is a window of opportunity for me, and it is very important to myself and my family that I grab it and not just wait for something to happen. It has taken me a bit to realize this, but I really believe that I am finally there.

One of the things we have spent a significant amount of time discussing is goals. Tim mentioned a past life where his company beat it into their employees how important it is to set goals and work to achieve them. He did not buy in at the time, but has since realize how right they were. To that end, he asked me to post my goals in my blog and keep my readership updated as to how I am doing. The hope is that you will help keep me accountable.

Without further ado....my goals, divided into short and long-term:

Short-Term

1. Watch and take significant notes on at least four, but no more than five videos a week from the best instructors across the poker training landscape (I have memberships to Bluefire, Leggo, DC, Stox and CR). I set this limit because I have a tendency to spend more time watching videos than I do playing.

2. Play twelve hours of poker a week, in sixty minute increments, for the immediate future. I do not want to set any hands played goals because I am not trying to make money right now. I am trying to make money later by transforming my game now. I have been two tabling and will stick to that for the next while.

3. Never do anything while playing poker other than play poker. No browsers, no fucking with iTunes, no chat - just poker.

4. No matter how poor the results, how much I would rather play Call of Duty, or how cold the beer is, always remember that improvement now leads to results, Call of Duty, and a lot more beer later.

Long-Term

1. Beat 200nl for a significant sample by the time I hit Las Vegas for the WSOP in early July.

2. Eventually beat 400nl, before deciding if I have the stomach to play higher. I have no time table for this as 200nl should easily allow me to reach my other goal...

3. Set myself up so that I never have to work a real job again. Please note that CardRunners is a lot of work - definitely a full time gig, but it is far from a real job. I work in my pajamas for god's sake. I think I'd have to be beating 5/10 to even consider leaving my job here. I cannot put an exact number on where I will need to be for this - I just trust that I will know when I get there.

As I was thinking about this blog tonight, I was listening to ESPN Radio. Former Chiefs and Jets head coach Herm Edwards was talking some pigskin with host Brian Kenny. In reference to his preparedness as an analyst he said, "Don't forget I was a head coach. And remember, a goal without a plan is only a wish."

I don't wish to be a good poker player, I plan to be.

-Jeff