CARDRUNNERS

Just a quick post as I am running late.  Yesterday was my financial section of the CPA exam.  This is by far the longest test and has the most material.  I really think I pulled this one out as I feel really good coming out of the test (this feeling usually never happens).  So in honor of that Kristen and I pulled out a nice reserve bottle of red wine to celebrate.  The only shitty thing was while studying I got the dreaded "blue" screen on my laptop and couldn't do any practice tests before the exam. Oh well...all I'm asking for is a 75!

On to today, which is my birthday.  I'm 25 and feel ooooooolllllllllllllllllllllllld.  Maybe it’s the wine we drank last night that’s giving me this headache but I just don't recover like I did when I was 18.  Kristen and I are heading to the SB wine country today and we are both really looking forward to the trip.  It’s a combo trip that includes v-day, our anniversary, and my b-day in one.  I'm pretty happy with myself for getting V-day and anniversary combined into one trip.  In order to get ready for the trip yesterday we watched Sideways which is a great movie but some of the small things really bugged me.  In the beginning of the movie some of the driving scenes are all f'ed up.  The have one part where they are driving in SB then the next part (still heading north) they are back in Ventura (which is south of SB).  Then when they are tasting in Los Olivos I think it is they show the ostrich farm which is in Solvang.  Just little things.  I'm no movie critic but I would have fixed those things.  Back to the wine tasting though.  We're looking forward to trying some really good wines and eating some good food.  Spuddy has recommended a Cajun winery to go to (Rideau).  I'm totally shocked that he suggested a Cajun winery.  I'm actually shocked he hasn't moved to the south to be with his Cajun brethren (sp).  I don't think I can remember someone who likes/writes more about Cajun food.

Pic's & report from the wineries to come next week.  I think CR should maybe start a Wine & Cheese forum section as to give suggestions on places to go/eat/see.  Just a thought if any of the CR team reads this.  I'd be more than willing to help moderate/contribute to it.

Poker related news: I'm semi-participating in the Spuddy/Kriz SNG challenge (although I haven't had a chance to email yet) but I'm 1-5 in them.  1 first, 2 3rds(in 6man) and 2 4ths (in 9 man).  The first I dominated start to finish but the other 4 I have played HORRIBLY on the money bubble.  I usually have a big stack and have been playing too aggro and getting myself into -EV situations.  I'll need to watch some videos and improve this but I think overall I will stay agressive but need to pick my spots better.  Cash wise I'm up 2 buy ins this week which feels good. 

Ok off to the Wine Country now.  GL at the tables!

 

Man its been a while since I blogged.  After I got back from my Santa Barbara wine tasting trip I got broadsided by the bus that is tax season.  The light at the end of the tunnel is slowing approaching. 

It's Kristen's birthday tomorrow so I'd like to be the first to wish her a Happy Birthday.  12 of us are taking a limo to the Dodger Exhibition game at the collesium and bringing alot a beer pong table and a keg.  Should be alot of fun.

CPA Exam Update:

I've passed 3 sections and I'm taking audit on Thurs Apr 3rd...The day I get that last passing score I will be heavily heavily drinking.  The CPA exam is like a year long stretch of finals week.  It's miserable and I'm glad I never have to think about it again.

Santa Barbara Wine Tasting:

What a great freaking trip.  We stayed at a great hotel (The Petersen Inn) in Solvang that was really nice and had great food (all inclusive).  As I say that I'm thinking about Michael Scott and The Office.  We went to several wineries including:

Sanford: This place was recommended because of the Pinot Noir.  Kristen and I enjoyed the wine but it was not our favorite.  The scenery here was awesome and we both enjoyed the wine tour.  The staff was also not as friendly and approachable as other places.  (Purchases: 1 Bottle)

Babcock: This winery is owned by a former Seal Beach, CA resident and was the main reason we stopped by.  The tasting area was pretty small and compact which I didn't like because I like to be able to roam around and enjoy the wine and views.  6 "tasting" glasses later and some fun and interesting conversations later we hit the road to our final destination. (Purchases: 4 Bottles)

Foley: Foley was by far our favorite of the day.  We decided it was time to open the cheese and crackers and sit out on the lawn and relax.  Their wines had a lot of distinct flavors and and I think thats why we got so many bottles.  This was also where we met Mike Weir and Adam Scott's swing coach (They are pro Golfers).  He and his wife drove down from Pebble Beach for the day to do some wine tasting and relaxing.  We sat and hung out with them for a couple hours and then headed off to dinner. (Purchases: 6 Bottles)

Foxen: We started our Sunday off at Foxen.  This vineyard and tasting room was definitely a favorite of the trip.  Essentially the owners took an old blacksmith barn and turned it into a tasting room.  Very rustic and a pleasure change from the typical large commercial tasting rooms.  They were also nice enough to make a generous donation to Kristen and my cork collection. (Purchases: 4 Bottles)

Zaca Mesa: By far the nicest people of the trip.  We spent close to 2 hours here tasting around 10 wines.  The staff were very knowledgeable about the wines.  Zaca specializes in Rhone varietals and had some others wines that would go great with a BBQ. (Purchases: 4 Bottles)

Curtis: This winery is stil owned by the Firestone family.  Recently the Firestone family sold their Firestone Vineyard to Foley.  While we enjoyed Curtis, we found it strange that you were not allowed to go outside and drink the wine (something to do with new restrictions).  It was at this point that Kristen started to get a little tipsy as she had already had close to a bottle of wine. (Purchases: 6 Bottles)

Ok as I write this I'm realizing the blog is quite long.  The last 2 wineries were Firestone (1 Bottle) and Scott Cellars (3 Bottles).  All in all Kristen and I bought 29 bottles of wine this trip.  Needless to say our wine refridgerator is now completely stocked!  Scott cellars was really cool as it was owned by a guy just started out and he was by far the most enthusiastic out of everyone we met.  For those aspiring wineooooo's when you see Cuvee on a bottle that means "blend".  I'm putting some pictures up from our trip.  Next blog I'll talk about going to Dodger Spring training and Kristen's Bday Celebration. 

Poker side note: I've turned the 20 dollars UB gave me into 210 bucks.  Pretty happy with the way I've played there.  Also have been doing fairly well in the SNGs on FTP.  I feel like whenever I'm late in a SNG and I have AQ i run it into AK.  GJ to Spuddy and Kriz on their SNG challenge.  Both of them have been playing very well and I'm impressed with both of their abilities to stick within their guidlines and bankrolls.

Me being a "Barrell Fucker"

images/file/Matt & Barrell at Sanford.jpg

Kristen and I at Foley

images/file/Matt%20&%20Kristen%20at%20Foley.jpg

Kristen and I at Foxen

images/file/Matt & Kristen at Foxen.jpg

Well my blog was deleted twice already tonight so I will try to include my thoughts on other subjects besides poker in another entry.  I ended up playing only about 400 hands today due to pokertracker malfunctions but still ended up winning 350 bones.  Afterwards my girlfriend made a delicious dinner for me and we went to see the Dark Knight which lived up to the hype and the Joker turned out to be an amazing character and will probably go down as one of the best movie villains of all time.  Here is the one big hand from today's session:

Winners:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2933370  I dont love being called by two players out of position in a three bet pot, but this board is as dry as it comes.  The player I was most worried about folded his hand and the second player time banked and called.  Now of course I could be getting owned here by 3 queens but I just couldnt fold with 40%+ of my stack in the middle against a fishy player and he eventually called me on the turn drawing to two outs ($132.00)

 

Always good not to have any hands in the loser collumn but hopefully tomorrow I can have more winners too!  By the way if anyone is at all interested in wine, loves wine, or wants to learn a little something, check out this

http://tv.winelibrary.com/

What Jim Cramer is to stocks, this guy is to wine.  He is exceptionally energetic, is a lot of fun, and still comes from an exceptionally knowledeable background.  In one of the recent episodes, he made a reference to U2 and to the WWE/WWF in the span of about 40 seconds, so this show is definitely right up my alley.  The last two times I have been out to a nice meal I have taken some of his suggestions and they have not failed, now that I ordered my cigars definitely time to buy some more nice wine to add to the collection.

 

Salud!

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