CARDRUNNERS

Last week was Taylor, David, and myself's Poker After Dark appearance.  I thought it went really well and that the show was pretty entertaining.  There are always going to be haters, but I thought the overall sentiments on the poker forums was that the show was great.  Playing an eleven hour very high stakes poker session that's going to be on national TV is tough and I think we all did a good job.  There were definitely some interesting hands

• David's 65 laydown.  Man, this was a tough spot.  I was just fooling around with him when I said that Doyle flipped KJ of course.  David had been playing pretty tight and raised UTG, I think value raising anything worse than AA on the river is pretty nuts on Doyle's part.  At the table, it was clear that Doyle for sure thought he had the best hand.  I like David's fold, but I think it's close (closer than lots of ppl who I've seen say "lol ez fold"; cmon Doyle is pretty fearless and could have a bluff sometimes with 72 or TT, and as we see he can show up with KJ)
• Taylor's QJ checkraise.  Good play.  I hate folding flush draws.
• Gabe's A6 bluff.  When you can see his cards it's a lot easier to say that you hate the bluff.  At the table I thought Gabe was pretty strong this hand and was surprised David called.  Nice hand David.
• My AQ vs Doyle.  I like how I played this one, bet sizing especially.
• My TT vs Doyle.  Meh, I think I like how I played this one as well.  The river is tough and is a bit of a levelling game since he got caught bluffing me before in the same spot, but he has to have a four and I figured he'd generally fold 4x for such a big raise preflop.

All-in-all I thought the show was great.  I liked and was surprised how they included a bunch of poker analysis in the director's cut as well.

Another poker media opportunity I have had lately was with Mediocre Poker Radio.  I can definitely say that this was the most fun poker interview I've ever done.  These guys were really laid back, very interested in poker, and hilarious.  The show is based in DC (on 106.7) but all of their podcasts are online and they have had some really great interviews -- Taylor, the Dang Bro's, Jay Krantz, and Brad Booth have all been on their show.

Poker this year is going incredibly well.  I've been sticking to playing most of the 25/50 and 50/100 PLO and NL games and my results have been very good.  I've been getting a surprising amount of good NL action too;  I hadn't been playing much NL in the past year or so and it's good to get back into it.  It's a fun game, but the regulars are very tough these days so it's important to game select quite a bit.  PLO as usual has been fun and I'm still learning a lot about the game.  There are just so many different situations to analyze and different winning playing styles to dissect.  I've played a few sessions 12 tabling the 5/10 and 10/20 PLO games as well, and it's always fun to play so many games and have so many decisions per hour.

David Podgurski (thatpfunk) started making videos for Cardrunners!  He's one of my best friends and a very good poker player, check out his video.  David and I do a lot of travelling together and took our girlfriends to wine country for Valentine's Day.  We stayed at the Kenwood Inn and Spa in Sonoma after seeing it rated #1 resort in North America by Conde Nast.  The hotel was great and a lot younger than I expected.  Sonoma is a beautiful place and we'll definitely go back soon.  In Napa we went to the boutique wineries Barnett, V Madrone, and Frias Family.  All three had great wines and unique environments.

Barnett had several different wines that were all incredible -- I'm normally a cab sav/pinot drinker but I really enjoyed their Merlot and Chardonnay as well.  Their Cab was sick too though.  Barnett's wine caves were brand new and the winery has an incredible view of Napa.

V Madrone is a very small winery that only produces Cab Sav and Petite Sirah.  It was run by a very nice couple that left their normal jobs in NY/CT to buy a vineyard in Napa.  It was just us and them in their living room, talking and sharing lots of wine.  The Cab was fantastic.

Frias Family was a trip!  It's run by two brothers, Fernando and Manny Frias.  They were so hospitable and it felt like we were drinking (an insane amount of) wine with college friends.  In particular, their library cabs were amazing.  After drinking for a few hours, we went with the Frias' to a local Italian restaurant where we had some amazing food and more of their wine.  We were running late to catch our flight and Fernando even drove us all the way to SFO!  Their hospitality was incredible and we had so much fun hanging out with them.  If you're visiting Napa, make sure you check out their vineyard;  you'll have a blast.

Wine country vacations are always so much fun and since I'm talking about wine, here are a few others I like.  My favorite (but expensive) Napa cabs are definitely Araujo, Quintessa, and Shafer.  You just can't beat these, they are incredible and make any occasion special.  They dominate the wine lists at the best restaurants for a reason.  For an amazing value though, McKenzie-Mueller is one of my favorites.  I've loved all of their wines, especially their cab and malbec.  And at $30-$50/bottle these are definitely my favorite mid-range wine.

Ah, wine.

Snowboarding!!!  It's that time of year again.  I took a Whistler trip last month with Martin and Rob but the snow was a bust.  They have just been getting owned by the weather this year and their base is so thin.  I heard they got dumped on yesterday though so hopefully things turn around in BC.  Right now I'm in Utah with Martin and Rob again.  Again though, it's just too warm and the snow is subpar.  It's supposed to snow tomorrow, we'll see.  I rode great yesterday though which felt nice and if conditions suck today maybe we will just hit the park.

Life in DC is great, it's kinda cold now but I couldn't be happier living in an awesome city with a great girl and a great dog.

Good luck at the tables,
Cole