CFBBBBBBBBBB

All day today...Saturdays are awesome. No other day of the week can compare in the fall. Any other CFB fanatics can agree as well. This season kicked off today, UF cleaned Hawaii out. I was fairly pleased with alot of the game but there is still significant room to improve. Some things I had gripes with:

-Penalties. UF showed its youth in the DL. True they were overly aggressive but the sheer number of penalties committed were frustrating to say the least. It's like it's 2006 all over again where we were among the most penalized team in the nation.

-OL didn't impress me as much. They had a few nice plays in terms of setting up nice runs for our RBs but they were touted to be among the best in the nation. Pass D can improve.

-Backup QBs were LOL. enough said. I don't even want to talk about them.

As I said though, I was pretty pleased. The corners and safeties played well, forcing some pick-6s and fumbles. Tebow played pretty well, I don't expect him to win the heisman as projected. He made up a very high percentage of our offense last year (perhaps due to a lack of RB). This year I hope that we are able to spread the ball around more (and namely run more). Though with the new clock rules I think offenses (alot of power running teams) will be able to control the game even moreso than before. We should be better for Miami with Percy and Spikes back. I was pretty pleased with Lawrence Marsh, our DT as well. Finally getting some pressure up front, a far cry from last year.

Nebraska won as well. Sucked because we didn't get any seats, we came too late because we were piles. Game was fun overall. NE has a pretty solid offense, running game was meh. Defense was meh at times. DL especially sucked. They have alot of work to do.

Some upsets this week. It's to be expected I suppose. VT loses to ECU, Clemson got hammered by Bama, Texas A&M loses (LOL) to some shit team. Mizzou held as did many other top 20 teams this week. Some significant headlines were Beanie wells perhaps hurt, which sucks for the tOSU/USC game (want it to be as huge as possible), UGA's starting DE got a torn ACL. Sucks ass for UWashington getting stomped by Oregon too, UW is a team I quite enjoy watching (partly because of Jake Locker as well as my gramps/parents both being UW alumni). Locker's OL got smashed from what I saw so bah.

Anyways, probably going home tomorrow for labor day, no school on monday so I'll get to catch UCLA/Tenn and do some scouting for 3 weeks from now. No poker recently either, the break has been pretty nice.

I also went to the bars tonight with a friend. An interesting event happened as well (posted in SSNL life thread too)-

okay so i met a friend at the bars tonight. she was in a group of her friends, one of which was a crazy meth addict looking guy who she met from another one of her friends. ANYWAYS

so we're talking...talking about football/whatever.

him: "yeah...i just won $280 this weekend. I bet on sports."
"oh really? that's pretty cool man. nice score."
"yeah man. A few weeks ago I loaded $300 onto pokerstars"

(cue orange's eyes lighting up, mouth cringing to a smirk trying to contain laughter)

"oh yeah? thats cool. are you up money?"

(enter him looking at me with a queer grin, super cocky and arrogant. It's like he has a super secret that he wants to let out but has noone to share it with).

"well...I'll tell you this...I bought my beamer with it." (holds up 8 fingers).

"you've made 8 grand man? wow"

"oh yeah...i ran that $300 up to 5k within a week. I play no-limit. I played $5 dollar/ $10 dollar, $1000 up front. It's such a rush"

"wow thats alot of money."

"yeah man. you don't know what its like to win a $2500 pot. (insert me saying i've won a 7k pot. in reality i held my tongue and kept smiling).

He continues to ramble, saying you can't play poker professionally because of the swings. "you could win $1000 in one hour and then lose $3000 within the next hour. I can't do it" He also bragged about him getting 200th in the sunday million for $1600, a nice $300 hourly or something. I kept nodding.

then I continued my sick game and asked if poker was all luck. he looks at me sheepishly and shakes his head frantically.

"hell no man. how do you think i ran my money up? S-K-I-L-L. you have to know what the **** you're doing. or its all just luck"

"ah okay. i always thought otherwise"

we hang out for a bit longer, we all depart shortly after, I never say a word about me playing poker. I laugh alot. I'm a sick human.

------------
maybe i sound arrogant but meh. I found it funny maybe noone else does. be good.

Updates

First week of classes went through. I don't have any class on W or F which rocks. Tuesdays and Thursdays are long though. I'm pretty pleased with the majority of my classes, though some are a real bore. Latin civs has a joke of a professor. He goes on random tangents about unrelated topics and churned through 4 different civilizations and 1000 years of history within about 40 minutes. Already a nice sign of things to come. Modern China is going to be semi-interesting but boring as well I think. Social Psych will be okay, there aren't any tests in there only papers and discussions, which is whatever. The teacher seems cool enough as well. Multi-ethnic education is pretty cool. It also has the most diverse crowd I've seen in college. I must admit I am racist to a degree (though I think only jokingly?). I'm going to have the oppurtunity to tutor another kid though in this class which I'm looking forward to. Finally I have a multimedia class which looks pretty cool, required class for teachers and a self-defense class as well. As for the difficulty of these classes, I think that China and Multi-ethnic will be the hardest. Time will tell.

Poker hasn't been going so hot lately. The variance in PLO is catching up and I'm no longer running like I was earlier this month (pretty well). I'm down about 11 or so buyins the past two days in little play. I also will not meet my monthly hourly goal which is disappointing. This month has been pretty disappointing, at least in the way I've closed it out. I feel as if my poker growth is stagnant, or I need something else. PLO was the game for me, it drove my interest and I loved playing it. But even now I can't really convince myself to play hours on end like some of my friends. I've never been good at grinding. The most I've played in a month is 35k hands and some tourneys. I've always been content with winning moderately, not gigantic by any means (especially given the volume of hands I put in). I just enjoy doing other stuff so much more. I'm also content that I did not decide to take a semester off or school off last year, as I don't know if I have the motivation or discipline to do this thing full time. I do want to travel after I'm done though. This month I probably won't make much, then again I doubt if I've played a ton more than 10,000 hands either. So whatever. I eventually want to get back into NLHE but alot of the ideas/concepts seem very cut and dry to me (at least at the limits I do play). Not saying that I'm a world crusher by any means, its just very 'fold, raise, fold, raise, etc). So, this month, very disappointing in the way I finished and hope I play better next month.

I plan on making a video within the week for DC. terp is on vacation so our project will be started when he gets back. Looking forward to it though, I don't think there's been much content on said subject(s) in the realm of ssnl, at least in video series.

Anyways, college football season kicked off last night, I'm so pumped. UF/Hawaii airs 12:30 EST on ESPN gameplan for those that have it, or yahoovideo. Not that anyone even likes UF just thought I'd throw it out there. Nebraska plays later that night and I'm happy that the NE games don't conflict with UF ones. I think this week of CFB presents some pretty interesting matchups. Utah/Mich will be fun. Utah is a competitive team that has been consistently solid over the past few years. Michigan is reeling from personnel losses and a system change, and it will be interesting to see how UM's players fit into Rich Rod's program. Alabama/Clemson should be cool too. We'll see if Clemson's line can come together quick against bama. I think this will show if Clemson is a contender or pretender as well. Bama isn't great by any means but they moderately average/above average in the SEC and should be gathering its recruiting classes (highly ranked) together within the next few years.

I want to see UCLA/UTenn on monday night. First and foremost I want to see how good UTenn really is. If they find a QB, UF could be in for a long night. UCLA isn't great either but like Bama, they are a competitive team from a BCS conference. Mizzou/Illinois should be cool too. It'll be fun to see two spread offenses against each other. I think Mizzou will win fairly confidently but if Juice has improved in his passing it should be interesting.

CFB WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

New Place

Moved into our new place and finally got internet up. Here are some pics:





Yeah, I know I need another moniter, etc etc. Whatever, its a nice place for $780/month for three of us. Plan on getting back into poker/etc soon. Though I am angry that I wasn't able to make iron man this month due to not having internet for the past 4-5 days. Played some PLO today, not too long of a session though. I don't think I'm going to make the 40 hour goal here...probably have a little more than half that right now. School starts tomorrow and I only have one class at night. 16 credit hours this semester but not sure if I'm going to waste my time with 'History of 20th century China'. mother would be happy that I took that class but let's face it, I'm more white than azn. CFB less than a week away so let's googoogogogogogogo

Triumphant Return to NLHE

I loaded up 6 tables of 1/2NL deep on FTP. I haven't played a serious session of NLHE for almost two months now. I ran pretty damn hot to say the least. I didn't play my best, which can be expected. I do admit that I am slightly rusty as well. There were a few folds that I probably could rethink, a few shoves that I think could be rethought as well. The last few sessions (very short) of NL I've played have been unsuccessful. I've spewed alot and made many marginal plays. My foray into PLO though has allowed me to make a few more different plays than I might've otherwise.

Full Tilt Poker, $1/$2 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 6 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

BB: $381.15
UTG: $418.55
MP: $334.60
Hero (CO): $400
BTN: $721.30
SB: $386.45

Pre-Flop: A K dealt to Hero (CO)
UTG raises to $7, MP folds, Hero calls $7, BTN calls $7, SB folds, BB calls $5

Flop: ($29) Q K A (4 Players)
BB checks, UTG bets $15, Hero calls $15, BTN folds, BB calls $15

Turn: ($74) 5 (3 Players)
BB checks, UTG bets $40, Hero calls $40, BB folds

River: ($154) 2 (2 Players)
UTG checks, Hero bets $115, UTG calls $115

Results: $384 Pot ($3 Rake)
UTG mucked Q K (two pair, Kings and Queens) and LOST (-$177 NET)
Hero showed A K (two pair, Aces and Kings) and WON $381 (+$204 NET)

Sure I could have justified playing it different on all streets. But I'm pretty pleased with the way I played it. One of the concepts I've learned in PLO is that there truly is alot of money to be made by letting people hang themselves. I've said this many times before but in PLO many of the TAG's raising/c/r-ing ranges are very heavily weighted towards nut hands or draws. I feel the same can be said in SSNL, where ranges are truly unbalanced.

Today's session was pretty swell. Poker really is about how hot or cold you are running. You can play optimally and still run dirt cold and the results will show. I went from -3 buyins to +3 within about 20 minutes. I 2-outtered a donk's JTs with KK on JJxxK board in a rr-ed pot then won with AQ vs. AK in a strange AI PF scenario (UTG opens, MP calls, I call, aggro BB squeezes, MP (donk) flats, I jam and he jams, I run a flush). There were a few hands that I didn't run so hot either, when a donk shoved the turn with 68dd on 543ccd board and got it in on Kd turn (he had decent equity I suppose) and got there on the river. Whatever.

I feel pretty good though about my NLHE game. It's going to take a few sessions to get back into it but overall, I felt like I played solidly enough. I used my button well, 3-bet decently in position and made an interesting play (perhaps a leveling war) early on-

(This was early on in the session but I already had the indication he was a good player/TAGgy).

Full Tilt Poker $1/$2 No Limit Hold'em - 2 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com

BTN/SB: $200.00
Hero (BB): $406.00

Pre Flop: ($3.00) Hero is BB with Q A
BTN/SB raises to $6, Hero raises to $21, BTN/SB calls $15

Flop: ($42.00) 5 2 7 (2 players)
Hero bets $27, BTN/SB calls $27

Turn: ($96.00) 9 (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN/SB checks

River: ($96.00) 3 (2 players)
Hero bets $77, BTN/SB folds

okay so PF is pretty standard I should think. Flop the same. You can make an argument to c/f-ing against alot of opponents but early on in the match I wanted to be aggressive. If it's a bit closer I definitely err on the side of betting. After he checks the turn its pretty clear he has a pot control type hand, I would imagine 66/88 stuff like that. He knows that I know this which would (typically) make a pretty poor bluffing spot on the river after he did check the turn. I think that checking the turn with alot of my range is fine here as well, (as well as betting I suppose). So meh.

Also found out that the cable company fucked up so I won't get internet for like a week. I don't know what I'm going to do without it. I guess just sit around on my ass and exericse/read more. School stars monday though. I am scheduled for 15 credit hours, taking a variety of classes. Two teaching classes, a 'history of latin civs' (maybe it'll be funny to read about how those south american countries got buttraped), an upper level psych class (ugh), and 'history of 20th century china', which should be a bore. I'm heavily debating dropping that class. I'm also taking a personal defense class which meets once a week which should be fun. Looking forward to working out more and getting in better shape while at school.

Live session

Was a funny one. No 2/5 games running at the Horseshoe so I played 1/3 with my friend. He's a recreational player who played in the past homegames (and was one of the better players there, not saying much). He knows the basics and is a pretty solid player in general. First hour or so was boring, no hands for either of us.

One hand where I limp/called with 44, it was probably like 6 way to the flop. 4T9dd, sb donks $25 into a large pot, I flat, PFR jams his short stack in ($75), retard behind makes it $140, Button tanks forever and folds, SB tanks as well and folds, I jam and win vs. AA and AT.

I win a pot where I iso-99, guy limp calls. Flop Q94hh. he checks, I bet, he c/raises I call. Turn 4x, he checks and I check. River 2x he checks, I bet large and he calls with KK. Probably misplayed this one, should have made a small bet on the turn I think. He was getting super frustrated with me and I thought he'd play back/continue his bluff or what have you.

I played pretty loose, limping and opening a ton. I overlimp 98o otb, bb made it like $10 or something, everyone calls. Flop 934r bb bets $15, everyone calls. turn 8, bb checks, MP bets $35, LP calls $35, I make it $115 and they all fold. Gay.

Another funny hand where I open K4o in LP, bb calls. he has a decent stack. flop J43r he check/miniraises me. I laugh and call. turn Qx he bets $16 and I raise to $75 or something and he folds.

So by this time I have probably a $950 stack or so. My friend that I came with (and staked) was also running sick hot, winning with sets and an overpair, probably up to about the same amount. This one douche 2 seats from me starts laughing and talking about how we have huge stacks, seems intimidated by the money. He nurses his $70 stack and continues to talk about how the nearby 5/10NL game is gigantic money. (should have played this game, I didn't have enough to play though).

So I open A7hh, get a bunch of callers. Flop KK9ss I bet and this douche calls. Turn Kx he checks, I jam for alot of reasons (putting his remainder $40 in). He sits for about a minute, mulling it over. Finally he puts his head to the sky in pain and closes his eyes, eventually sighing and saying "it's time to gamble I guess". He flips over KQ and points at me, cackling like a hyena with sweat protruding from his brow. He continues to cackle while dragging in the pot and says "THANKS MAN!".

I didn't really know how to handle this. I'm generally a pretty good natured human being and fairly easy going. I told him "that's a pretty fucking dick move man. If I actually had a hand I would have been really pissed." he continues to laugh, I think he was just incredibly ignorant on basic casino ettiquette. I shake my head and say "I'm coming for you..."

THE VERY NEXT HAND AFTER- He opens UTG with his fresh new $175 stack or whatever. I look down at Q4cc and call from the BB, saying "I'm on tilt now."

flop 479ss I check and call a bet.

turn Qx BAM. I check, he bets, I shove. He thinks again and eventually calls with QUEEN FUCKING QUEEN. HE AGAIN LAUGHS AT ME AS HE DRAGS THE POT IN. "THANKS FOR THE MONEY BROTHER!" At this point I don't even know what to say. As he drags the money in, he gets up, claims "that's all the luck for me" and walks off with my money.

Now, as I said, I'm pretty good natured usually. And it was 1/3, I was there to have fun. But jesus christ. I was about to lose it on this guy. Everyone around the table were shaking their heads, talking about what a d-bag this freak was. I probably paid for his next meth binge so maybe he can OD and die in a grease fire. That'd be funny.

So I continue to grind my stack up, my friend who I was staking built his stack up to $1k+. I lose a race with 76hh on 78Qhh board to KxQx which was no fun. Oh well. I finish up a few hundred and take a few hundred from the stake from my friend, netting like $500 or something idiotic like that. I also met another friend of mine who I intially met on the online tables (we both had locations of 'omaha' and talked online frequently). He was owning the 5/10 game when I saw, making a few questionable plays (cold calling a rr with 96cc with 80bbs...) but fortunately luck was on his side when I left.

Most likely the last live session I have for a while. Probably won't be coming back to Omaha during the school year. I also found out that the cable installers AREN'T installing internet (old hag that I talked to was too senile to file it I guess) so they said the latest they could come was the 28th of August. A week without internet is pretty bad, especially with school being here. My roommate bitched to them though and I think we are going to self install it, so hopefully that will be resolved.

Anyways, LOL live poker. fuck that meth addict who ran away with my money. Hope you're enjoying your trailer rent for the next few months.

JokerStars

Ugh. As I said previously, Pokerstars games (PLO 1/2) are vastly different than FTP's. The styles are so much different...PS's games are very good, very very very loose passive almost to a frustrating degree. I lost a very very quick 10 buyins there during my experimental foray there and am beginning to see why duck advocates such a tight strategy preflop in these games. At FTP I am comfortable running 29-35vpip but I think I need to severely tighten up if I want to succeed in these games.

Also need to cut down c-betting. People peel so very lightly that I am just wasting money. So, those are some of the basic adjustments I need to make for those small stakes PLO games on stars. Don't want to bust my small roll there though so I plan on moving another 2k or so on there.

So, losing at a nice -$400 an hour on 1/2 PLO on stars. hilarious. thank god I've been playing/running well on FTP or I'd be on suicide watch right now. AP made me weak. Got too used to the steady $250 an hour playing 1/2 there. Yay for more variance!

Bah

Poker isn't going so great these past two days. Been getting coolered alot. Not necessarily suckouts, just running into the top of people's ranges (or people making ridiculous hero calls). So that sucks. Hopefully I'll run better though and focus on my play. I haven't been playing the best either so I can't say that all of the losses are due to coolers. Bah...I also really don't want to play any more today but I probably will just to get my iron man status points. zioajgi;ojagi;ja;ga

Moved in more crap yesterday and organized my room a bit. I should have only one more day to move the rest in (I plan on Thursday), the same day we figure out our cable and shit. Also going to get ESPN Gameplan so I can watch UF play on Aug 30th. So far UF and Nebraska schedules don't conflict so thankfully I'll be able to watch both play.

So I think part of the reason I've been playing poorly lately is FPS. I've always had FPS to a degree and lately have been working to fight it when deemed unnecessary. Today I c/r-ed the river with 4xxx on 446cc Ac Jx board on the river as a bluff after villan 1/2 pot and he eventually called with 37ccxx. Perhaps this was a poor bluff against this specific villan, I haven't yet thought about it yet. Perhaps this fancy play isn't necessary at all at 1/2 PLO (trying to rebuild my stars roll) and straight play is just better. Jokingly enough, I wonder if 'moving up to where they respect your raises' is just better. Hmmmm....

Time to go to football practice though. This is serious business. Can't have another shitty year like last year. Also forgot to mention last time in the blog that I saw Chris Cornell live (singer for Audioslave/soundgarden/temple of dog) and he's fantastic live. Sounded very true to the track and his song selection was good as well.

Football Practices/Pokering/etc

We did our first practice today (only 3 of us could make it as all others were working). Flag football works with 7 on 7 in our league. We initially planned on doing a spread-option run based attack (with an option) but I think that doing more pass based (perhaps 3-4 WR sets) would be better. Unfortunately we couldn't get a ton of practice techniques in due to the lack of number of players we had but I thought it was productive nonetheless. We'll be getting our positions and depth charts figured out within the next few weeks. The season lasts for 4 games or so as well as a post season.

As far as exercise goes, I did a 'ball toning' class today with my mother and nearly died. I haven't been running a tremendous amount though which is disappointing. I look to get into better shape though when I do back to school which is fast approaching (first semester starts on the 25th). I also signed up for a personal defense class for college that meets once a week which should be fun as well.

Poker has been going solid. I'm way behind on my # of hours this month and to be honest I probably won't finish. Still though things have been going very solid at 2/4 PLO this month. AP has been different unfortunately. I ran pretty horrible in two situations where both players were super droolers (and I ran into the top of their range). I don't really have a tremendous desire to continue playing their either and probably will cash out my money. gg AP, you made me a much better player during my tenure there.

(here is a graph of my 1/2 play there. I obviously played other limits there with success. The days is pretty skewed since I played there very early in my career and some of those hands were filed in there).



So gg AP. I plan on moving the last 4.5k or whatever I have on there off there. As far as game selection/choosing other sites, I'll have to find other sites to play on. NLHE in general I've found to be pretty boring lately and very mechanical. Meh.

Looking to move in the rest of my stuff. We get our cable on the 21st and that should be nice. Also looking to get our series off (terp and I) and I'm pretty excited for what our outline is going to be. Also my video with Parlay Slow and Joe Tall got pushed back unfortunately so we won't see that for another 2 weeks or so. be good.

Moving stuff

Tomorrow I move in most of my crap, bed/tv/etc etc. Time to go back to shitty Lincoln...I like Omaha much much more. Whatever. I am pleased though as I've said in the past on our selection this time. We have a pretty decent location (can walk to football games, probably walk to campus as well), I'm close to alot of my friends who live nearby, we have more room and privacy compared to last years, etc. I do have to get a car though within the next few months so that should be fun.

I still have yet to play any NLHE seriously. I played a very short session today and was bored. It's so mechanical. And I'm not trying to sound arrogant either, like I'm the super NLHE master of the world- PLO is just alot more fun for me. I do want to get back into NLHE in the near future though.

Some interesting concepts I've been seeing on the forums lately. Alot of people like to 3-bet UTG openers with JJ+, AQ+. (6-max, 100bb stacks). This is a pretty interesting tactic that may not appear so to many. Think about the hands you ARE 3-betting an UTG opener with- okay, stop. You probably have a pretty strong range right? And that isn't to say thats bad. But when your range is so so so weighted towards very strong hands, villan can fold all but the very top of his range. So what do we do to widen our range?

In general, 3-betting UTG openers (generally against tighter players) with a polarized range works. Polarized meaning two poles, one very strong (QQ+, AK+) and weak (stuff like 75o as an extreme example). Instead of just 3-betting UTG villans with JUST strong hands, try to mix your range a little. I would say that generally 3-betting more medium hands such as AJs/KQs/99 is typically pretty meh in general (as a blanket statement). Even hands that start spiraling down the 'medium' label and going to the weaker value (45s or A2s) are okay candidates. And your opponents in SSNL will probably not catch on to this if you do do this. But having a wider 3-bettting range in general helps. (and in general, its typically better just to fold the 78o on the button to an UTG open).

Anyways, yeah. I haven't really played too much NLHE lately. terp and I ironed out some details however on an upcoming series. There are some things I have to take care of though before this happens. I have to figure out how to put the damn DC mods on my FTP background (I'm a computer tard, help me goofyballer), I have to move my stuff into my APT, and I have to figure out how to make a video to begin (for some its just soooooo easy, it'll probably take me forever). We plan on doing a decent series though on a variety of topics so hopefully we can get that off within a week or two.

As far as playing though, I haven't really been playing a ton (gasp surprise). This APT stuff along with just life in general has been time draining. Today I ran 3 miles (in which my friend beat me, I was impressed with how much endurance he has currently), ate dinner with family, then went over and watched two episodes of The Wire and finished with IHOP. (terrible idea as far as diet reasons but it's just soooo good). When I have been playing though I've been playing a mix of good and bad. I can't honestly say that I've played optimally full time. Today I played a terrible sesssion where I lost about 3 buyins within 20 minutes. I took a break and then won 2 back playing well. So who knows.

Speaking of The Wire, I really love that show. We are winding down though (we went through the first 5 seasons really quick but moving slow on the last one) and it's been quite a ride. For those who don't know, The Wire is a police drama based in Baltimore. The writing is fantastic and it follows many of the problems (primarily gangs and drugs) that the city faces.

Other T.V. shows I vastly enjoy are LOST, Sopranos (though done, I recommend it to anyone), Heroes (have to turn your brain off a bit but entertaining nonetheless), and The Wire. I recently picked up Jericho and it looks interesting (Post-Apoc is one of my favorite genres). Need to read more as well though so bah. Collapse is interesting but the opening chapters (on the economic troubles of Montana) aren't the best. We'll see how it finishes.

summer slipping away...CFB

This summer has been going by fast and school is starting in a few weeks. My schedule is pretty favorable as I don't have class on Monday/Fridays and only one on Wednesdays. Tue/Thurs are brutal though as I go nearly all day with few breaks. Still though, the appeal of 4 day weekends is pretty nice.

Also setting up our new APT, I decided to pay $30 extra for the bedroom with a bathroom. It's not larger in size but the extra bathroom along with a walk out patio from there is nice. As I said previously I'm pretty pleased with our APTs as we have a pool and a large field nearby to play football in. We also set up cable and this year I'll finally be able to enjoy DVR and save some UF games. Eventually I want to hook up a DVD burner to save games but we'll see if I can get that going.

As college football season comes closer I am growing more excited by the day. We are also preparing for flag football. Last year we were pretty shitty, went like 3-3. We had some heavy OL and tackling problems. I think that this year should be alot better as we are going to do some practices and think of a different offensive plan (we ran the option last year lawl). I also saw that ESPN and USA Today released their top 25 picks for CFB.

UGA is leading which is meh. I think that they are a pretty solid team overall. They answered the call last season with a totally new OL and all of them are more experienced. Further their RBs (K Moreano and C. King) are both pretty solid. Stafford has had two average seasons (not sure why everyone is creaming themselves over him). He's a good QB but I think there are plenty of other better CFB (key word: CFB, not necessarily NFL ready) out there (Daniel, Harrell, Tebow, Bradford, etc etc). UGA also doesn't really have a great WR corps either though so maybe that could be a problem. Still, with an experienced D they should be more than a match for most all of Div-I-A.

I'm still not completely sold on USCw/tOSU. Everyone is really excited over USC but they have lost a significant amount of starters. They have a new QB and a fleet of WRs that really haven't truly proved themselves. Their D is quite good though and Pete Carroll is probably the best coach in college right now. I think that if Sanchez can pick up on the offense and their OL can come together (primarily their offense being able to gel) I think they can be very good. But I'm not sure if this will happen by the third week when tOSU comes into town.

tOSU returns 19 starters and are seemingly on the path to another BCS NC game. Their biggest question is Toddd Bockeman, who frankly isn't very good. He's solid enough but when he gets harrassed (as LSU did last year), he loses all composure. There IS credit to LSU, as their DL was outstanding last season but the decision making of tOSU's QB was was poor. All other elements of tOSU are pretty solid though, with a massive experienced OL, very strong secondary (and excellent LBs) as well as a very capable RB. So i really can't wait until tOSU walks into the coliseium.

Anyways, enough ranting on CFB. I think there are a ton of teams that can make a run at the NC game this year, WVU/OU/UF/UGA/USC/tOSU/sleepers like Clemson/TTU have a shot as well. Though I'm not completely sold on Clem due to a very inexperienced OL.

Poker has been fair lately. I propped my friend for 40 hours this month. I know it's not a ton but meh. I'm going to be pretty busy in the latter parts with moving in to my new APT as well as preparing for school. I've still been doing coaching sessions with Parlay Slow which has been going well. I think that coaching is so +EV (and I'm not just saying that because I'm a coach). Adding 1ptbb/100+ to your win rate (especially if you are a high volume player) equates to alot of chedda. I have yet to play a hand of NLHE this month though and am waiting for terp to sweat me. Also thinking about ideas for a video series so that should be fun.

Home

Lollapalooza was pretty incredible. All of the headliners were pretty solid and some of the lesser known bands that I hadn't heard much of (Girl Talk, Blues Traveler, etc). The atmosphere of it all was pretty cool in general. I'm not a huge music fanatic (some people are super obsessed with all facits of the music industry), but I do enjoy alot of different types of bands/artists.

I was really pumped to see Rage against the machine and Lupe Fiasco. Rage put the best performance of everyone, the energy was just totally insane. They played all their old stuff as
well and the song lineup was pretty solid.




Some pictures of Lolla...as you can see, it was madness. There were several stages of various bands all throughout the park (Grant Park was huge) with beer/food vendors throughout. One of the biggest gripes I had with the whole setup was poor scheduling on Sunday night. They lined up Nine Inch Nails and Kanye West at the same time, which frustrated me. I'm not a huge NIN fan but still have heard their live performance is totally sick. I do enjoy Kanye though and decided to go see him. He put on an excellent show and I think Lollapalooza was split down the middle, with about 100k people going to each concert.

But yeah, Chicago was fun overall. A pretty cool city, they have a beach, pretty good food and tons of nice parks. Deep dish pizza > NY style imo.

I said goodbye to a good friend yesterday. He is going back to Afghanistan (in the Army) and was able to come home for a few weeks during his term. I won't see him for quite a few months though and it's quite scary (and sad). For anyone risking their life so I can enjoy all the amentities at home, I thank you (and them). Even though the reasons for this war may be hazy all military men are heroes in my eyes.

Moved into our apartment today. This year we expect it to be alot more solid than last year when we stayed on college apartments. Lots more room, much cheaper and a better atmosphere. I still have yet to buy a new car though and probably will have to grind a bit more this month in hopes to maybe purchase one. Walking to class was an easy solution in previous years but this year it might be a bit harder.

Poker has been cool as well. Swingy this month and I haven't been playing a ton of hands due to being out of town, but it's been going well. I've been playing very strange- I can't say I've been playing my A game throughout the month. There have been days where I've played great and others where I've just played like total dogshit. I suppose that's alot of what poker is but maintaining one's A game is pretty difficult and something I'll strive to complete.

I should be muddling back into NLHE though within the next few days. Going to have some sweat from some good friends to get back into the groove. Perhaps coaching as well.

Lolla/DC/Goals

In Chicago right now for Lollapalooza. I'm not interested in a ton of the day bands- they all look like pussy emo bands to me. The headliners look awesome though (Lupe/Kanye/NIN/Rage/etc). The first day (today) looks kindve dumb though so we are going to six flags during the day (in Great America). Chicago is a pretty cool city-ate some pizza last night and it pretty much blows anything Omaha has out of the water.

Got confirmed by Joe Tall yesterday that DC has accepted me as a coach. I'm pretty excited for this opportunity. I've coached a ton in the past and though I've been semi selective with students I still coached on a semi-limited basis. I have decided though that I enjoy it enough to put in more hours. I also finished a Late night coaching video with Joe Tall/Parlay Slow two nights ago on PLO which should be out in a few weeks so I'm pretty excited for that as well. Been talking about doing a series with terp though we still have to brainstorm some ideas for doing so.

Goals for this month are many. I succeeded in some of the posted goals I had last month but not all. I am fairly content with how my month ended though (14k hands of PLO +7k at mainly 1/2). I feel I learned a ton this month and even though I may have given some EV up in terms of hourly/total net profit, I think that PLO will eventually become very popular within the coming months/year. This month I plan on doing a number of things-

-Move into my Apt/eventually buy a sweet ass TV for College football season

-50 hours of poker, no matter what limits/game. I want to rebuild my AP roll if possible but if not just cash it out. I also want to play a majority of 2/4 on FTP, be it PLO or NLHE.

-Exercise more. Our flag football team didn't do so hot last year (we were average at best) which is unacceptable for the amount of speed we have. We aren't UF or USC but I think in terms of average speed for a FF team we have lots of it. We went like 3-3 last year which makes me want to puke. This year we plan on doing more practices/etc. I want to run more than I have been doing recently and 15-20 miles a week (if not more) sounds pretty good. Though we'll see if I can do that.

-Diet, has been pretty bad lately. Pizza/fastfood/IHOP/etc has taken its toll. Need to eat more fruits/veggies and such. I'm interested to see how my diet will be when I finally go to school. Also need to continue to learn how to make more dishes.

-Read more. I finished 'Comrade Criminal', a book on the Russian Mob which was interesting (albiet sometimes boring at times). Still, this book was the first I've read in a while (since my Euro trip, where I read like a fiend) and I started 'Collapse' by Jared Diamond yesterday.

We'll see if I can get this going. gogogogogo August