Day 18

Took down the last post, getting wayyy too many PMs and emails about stuff. I appreciate all the help people are trying to give, but I got it figured out, and it really isnt a big deal. I just wanted to vent a little bit because i had a bad day, so thanks. Back to food, here is yesterday.

1015am : 1.5 cups kashi, 1.25 cups unsweetened almond milk, 1 whole banana

So.. I decided to play some HA instead of going to jiu jitsu. Games were good for some short stacks.. so far I am running like balls though and might decide to busto my account. We shall see.

Yah.. lost like 140ish. Was not fun. Should have gone to jits, now I don't know what to do for my workout, I really wish all my olift stuff was here. I guess ill go do a p90x cardio and some yoga. That always makes me feel good.

110pm : handful of dried guava slices. OMG I cant I forgot I ordered these. This is the best stuff ever. It is like eating candy. I know the sugar content is pretty high with dehydration etc etc, but there are tons of good nutrients in guava. Does anyone know if any of that is lost during the dehydration process?

130pm : 50 mins p90x cardio, 10 mins stretching

235pm : protein shake, 1.25 scoops whey, 2.5 tbsp ground flaxseed, 1 tbsp PB, 1 banana

500pm : 2oz beef jerkey, banana flax bar

545pm : handful sunflower seeds in shell

745pm : 3oz bison filet, broccoli quinoa shrimp leftovers

Somewhere around here the big downswing happens..

1045pm : kashi and almond milk, ½ pound strawberries

1230pm : dried guava, lots because im depressed. I wonder how many calories are in half a pound of dried guava

I went to bed pretty early and read some George Martin. His series, a Song of Ice and Fire is one of the best I have ever read, and i highly recommend it to everyone. Check it out, you wont be disappointed.

-David

Day 16

1110am : 1.25 cups kashi high protein, 1.25 cups vanilla almond milk, ½ pound strawberries.

I set my alarm pretty early today so I could go to no gi jiu jitsu in the morning, and really really didn't want to get out of bed. I did, only to find all my crap still balled up in my bad disgusting and wet. I found my excuse not to go. I am going to do some kind of workout though, I am just kind of annoyed at myself for giving an excuse to skip. My body always seems broken down after getting killed in gi jiu jitsu, so I feel like justifying it with 'ow my body needs rest it's in pain bad news bears.' I Will probably do some intervals on the bike, or maybe that p90x cardio workout. Hate all you want, that kills me more than any other workouts I do.

I also shipped like 60k in some HA games right before I did this workout. That was fun, felt a little bit better about poker as a whole, and found out I am still up a good salary for the average college graduate on the year.

100pm : 50 minute p90x cardio workout, again, I don't care what u say, this works me way harder than intervals on the bike. 3x9x20kg kb clean press. 10 mins stretching

205pm : 1.25 scoops whey, 2.5 tbsp ground flax seed, 1 tbsp peanut butter, 1 whole banana

Away baseball game today, double header, had to pack a lot of snacks.

500pm : 3oz beef jerkey, 1 banana flax raw bar

720pm : 1.5 scoops whey in shaker

810pm : lara bar

920pm : ½ lara bar, this flavor sucked (cherry pie)

1220am : 7oz bison filet, shrimp broccoli quinoa, 2 glasses beringer

130am on : 2/3 bottle champagne, 1 cup OJ.

350am : half pound strawberries, 3 oz beef jerkey.

Day 17

1200pm : 3 pieces salmon nigiri, 2 pieces super white tuna, 1 eel avocado hand roll, half bowl edamame, 2 hot green teas

250pm : lara bar

530pm : lara bar

655pm : 25 mins intervals on bike, 1x8x20kg KB swing, 1x12x28kg kb swing, 2x10x28kg kb swing. 3x12xresistance band standing press

I had very little energy today and had to cut my workout short for dinner plans. Those resistance band standing presses are killer btw, my arms burned like crazy during them, and I can only assume I will be suffering tomorrow for it. Fortunately I wont have to throw any BP or anything because we have a JV game tomorrow. I will likely try to wake up early and get a workout in before the game, though I doubt I will be able to make it to jiu jits, it is still too early for my schedule and am prob going out downtown tonight.

This video is hilarious for those of you that missed it. In response to it, I decided to go all out tonight. Props to AEJONES for making this possible.

830-1015pm : CHEAT MEAL (again). I didn't fk around this time. Lettuce wraps with duck, venison, qual, peppers, cabbage. Beer sampler, 2oz of 7 diff beers (this was a brewery that is sposed to be awesome). Ended up liking the amber ale, so got 2 pints of that. The Vienna lager was an award winning brew, but I really like ambers. 2 sliders (mini burgers) with lots of those mini onion rings and ranch. 6 chicken wings with ranch, 12 beer battered French fries. 1/3 of a chocolate mousse dessert. I feel like the fattest kid in the world, but this was soooooo good. Such an awesome meal. Definitely not worth it based on how I feel right now, and how I will feel over the next couple hours. Will probably repeat the sliders and the chocolate mousse at some point, as well as the amber ale. Great food spot, really enjoyed it.

HAHAHAHA Aejones sent me one more. Some of you may remember me bitching about a pretzel incident in my blog a while ago where they wouldn't put salt on my pretzel dog and it made me pretty unhappy. This is almost as good as the first one.

1030pm on : 2 glasses champagne, 1 crown and diet coke

130am : ½ pound strawberries

I fell asleep watching the sandlot. I haven't seen that movie in forever, and it was as awesome as I remember.

-David

Day 14

1150am : 1.25 cups kashi, 1 cup silk light vanilla soy, 1 whole banana. I slept for a while, felt really good.

130pm : 2 25 minute interval training workouts on stationary bike split up by 15 minutes of stretching and pushups

250pm : 1.5 scoops whey, 1 whole banana, 1.25 tbsp peanut butter, 2.5 tbsp ground flax seed

540pm : ½ pound strawberries, handful mixed nuts

800pm : 6oz broccoli, 16 small shrimp, 1 cup cooked quinoa, 1 glass cabernet. Really full after this meal wow.

Probably going out tonight, one of my ladyfriend's bday is tonight and a bunch of people are going out for it. I suppose I should join in the festivities. Hopefully I can get to bed at a reasonable hour and go to jiu jitsu in the morning, but who knows. If not, Monday class isn't until 630, so I can take my gear and go after practice.

1100pm : Lara bar

150pm : 3 eggs 1 yolk, ½ pound strawberries, 8 almonds

Nothing much to report today, took it easy for the most part. Went over to a friends and just hung out and watched a movie. Going to go lay down early tonight and read a bit, hopefully get up in time for jiu jitsu in the morning.

Day 15

1200pm : 1.25 cups kashi, 1 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk, 1 whole banana. !!! the almond milk tastes great, just found something new that is prob healthier than regular and soy. Yay.

I set my alarm for 945am, but couldn't get up at that time. I think I fell asleep around 230, but I am still catching up on sleep from 2 nights ago. I will take my gear with me and get to the evening jiu jitsu workout after baseball practice. I think when I go early in the day I am pretty worn out, but a lot of times practice runs late, or we have a game and I cant make it or something to the evening class. I think tomorrow I need to just suck at up and get there.

200pm : leftover broccoli shrimp quinoa, ate until I was semi full then stopped, still have about half a meal worth left.

430pm : lara bar

530pm : 1.5 scoops whey in shaker

630pm : 95 minutes jiu jitsu

840pm : 1.25 scoops whey, 1 whole banana, 1 tbsp peanut butter, 2.5 tbsp ground flax seed

Hrm.. felt really good, so decided to 4 table fullflush a bit at 100-200. Lost like 130k. Wasn't very fun. Everything outside of poker has been awesome, and usually when that is the case, poker is awesome. Oh well. I think I am down a little bit on the year, lost like 200 to this fullflush guy over the last 2 sessions, so prob not going to play him unless I figure out why he is raping my face off. I tried to put hands in pokerhand, but it seems to have frozen up. Basically, he just ownd me every pot, so that's what you should expect to see in the HHs.

Honestly I am just not that into poker right now. I felt really good today, and thought I was going to soul crush, but it didn't work out like that. I am super happy with the coaching thing, though it takes a ton of time. It has been going very well and I am enjoying myself. We have 2 games tomorrow vs a 4A public school like an hour away, should be pretty interesting to see if we can battle. I enjoyed Saturday running on 3 hours of sleep and doing baseball stuff for 8 hours. I never thought I would enjoy it this much, but it is just going great and I feel like I am contributing a lot to the team.

Jiu jitsu isn't going as well as I would like. My knee kinda kept me away, but I got in the gym today and had a great workout. I even got a pretty sick arm bar from mount when he tried to roll me off, though I did get collar choked a few times. I guess I am going to just have to learn to deal with the gi, since most of the workouts that fit my schedule happen to be gi. I don't want to not get work in, so I have to go to those classes. I am going to try to wake up early and make the 11am no gi class, but I'm not sure I can do that. 11am is really really early.

I got some steaks on the grill and a glass of red wine, and thanks to fullflush, I am going to catch up on 24. That is what he is doing tonight, so maybe it's the lucky thing to do. But I mean, life is awesome, wtf can I complain about. So I lost a couple hundred K clicking buttons, so what. I am getting in awesome shape, feel great about life, am figuring out what I want to do with myself, and am just really in a good place right now. Poker is poker, and I will continue to play when games are good (maybe fullflush doesn't constitute a good game for me quite yet). Anyways, I am going to go flip my steaks.

1150pm : 7oz bison filet, leftover broccoli 6 shrimp quinoa, glass of an 04 Beringer

-David

Day 13

Before talking about food, I want to address the 56 vs KJ hand I had on Poker After Dark. I am getting a lot of questions about my thought process during that hand, so I suppose I should talk about it a little bit. Before I say anything, I want to say that I think Doyle is a super awesome guy, a great ambassador for poker, and just an overall nice person that is impossible to hate.

The general outline is, there isn't a single hand he ever has on that river that he is bluffing with there. Not one. He is never double floating me, then raising super small after tanking for two minutes. It is just not a play that is in his arsenal, nor the arsenal of any winning/half decent player. This was definitely not an easy spot, and what I find myself doing most often is just saying screw it then calling, which I just don't think is the most profitable play.

The only hand I can conceivably beat on the river here is KJ. That is it. ONE hand. There isn't anything else that will call the flop, call the turn, tanking for like 90 seconds on the river then make a super itty bitty raise, and with my range, I decided it would be absolutely terrible to value raise KJ on the river in Doyle's spot. Obviously, if we want to be results oriented fish, we can be like haha Doyle OWND raptor what a stupid fish he folded TRIPS ZOMG ZOMG what a stupid 'net' this just proves how hard 'vets' own.

Well, yes, he ownd me, but he thought he was value betting, when he is getting paid off by NOTHING except hands that beat him. I am folding AK/KQ there, but he doesn't know that, and those are the only possible hands he could possibly expect to pay off there that he can beat. He decided to act like the stereotypical live player and think oh, this kid raised in EARLY position and bet all the streets on a K high board, he must have the AK.

I admit, I look extremely silly on tv here, but if I had to run that exact situation a thousand more times, I would still fold every single one of them based on my read(yes I am aware this opens up opportunities to turn top pair into a bluff blah blah we can talk this in circles). There just aren't enough hands that I beat in that specific spot, and I am still utterly convinced calling there is lighting money on fire in the long term.

Unfortunately, I made the mistake of giving Doyle too much credit. I find that happens a lot in live games I play in, well, even online for that matter, and it causes me to make a few errors I wouldn't make if I just continued to play under the assumption that everyone is an idiot. Unfortunately again, this makes me look like a huge idiot, but I am ok with that. I am not going to get mathematical and break down hand ranges and blah blah because that is boring, but I went with my read that Doyle thought Doyle had the best hand and that I thought Doyle thought about my entire range of hands instead of putting me on the AK, and made the very tiny super small value raise based on that. My read was incorrect, and I cost myself the biggest pot of the night because of it.

The closed minded individuals that are like haha stupid nit 'net' is scared to play in that big game with all that LIVE money zomg he shoulda just checked river.. well, I don't even really know how to respond to that other than LOL there is a reason you don't win money at poker. I think the decision was super close, and honestly could have easily gone the other way if I had a slightly different read, or he gave off something or if anything at all changed. Based on the information I had, I felt a fold was the best play. A super close play, but the best play. That's all I got, Love you guys, thanks so much for all the support. Now back to the food log, wheeeeeee.

745am 1.25 cups kashi go lean crunch, 1 banana, ½ pound strawberries, 1 cup silk light vanilla soy

Yeah.. I did really good at falling asleep. Went to bed at like 230 which was huge accomplishment for me. Unfortunately, I had a drunk visitor banging on my bedroom window and yelling out my name at about 405. I had to talk her down quickly and tell her to gtfo effectively, but it bothered me and I couldn't fall back asleep for a while. I finally did though after what must have been an hour, and here I am now. Going to be a loooooong day.

1110am : lara bar

200pm : 1.5 scoops whey in shaker at game

510pm : FAT MEAL: 6 bbq chicken wings, 6 oz grilled chicken breast, 1 strip bacon, ½ bun (probably had butter on it), 10 steak fries (the big delicious fat ones), ½ tbsp ranch dressing, 1 diet dr pepper.

Need a nap now, we lost baseball game, but to best team in our conference, so whatever. Was really fun, but like 47 with 30 mph winds. This is not cool when its 80 and sunny and no wind all week. I am exhausted.

Just took a 2 hour nap, it is like 930 now and I wrote up a little bit about the doyle hand and put it at the front of the log. Skipping the workout today, I am just too damned tired to get on the bike. I threw about 250 pitches off the mound today for BP before the game at a pretty rapid fire pace, so that got my blood pumping and a sweat going a little bit at least. Better than nothing, but cant count this as a workout day obv.

950pm : 6oz salmon, 1 cup cooked quinoa, 1 glass red wine. I am debating going out. I didn't really go out last night because I had to get up so early, but I also barely got any sleep so am pretty exhausted. I will see where this glass of Bonneau Cabernet takes me.

Yeah, it is 11pm now, and no chance I can go out. I am absolutely exhausted. Going to go read a little bit and get to bed early. Going to maybe do a 2aday workout tomorrow to make up for today. We shall see.

Short stacked some decent 1-2 plo games made a quick 20k before bed, so that was helpful.

100am : apple, 2 eggs 1 yolk, 2oz beef jerkey

Sleeeeeeeeeeep.

-David

Day 12

130pm : Sushi with dad, 3 salmon nigiri, 3 super white tuna nigiri, 1 eel avocado hand roll, 1 hot green tea, ½ bowl edamame

500pm : Lara bar

700pm : P90x cardio x workout. This was actually pretty tough, my muscles were screaming at me a little bit in the middle with some of the weird plyometric stuff, as well as some squat running. Mixed in 3x16x20kg kettlebell swings at the end. I am really tired.

815pm : 1.25 scoops on whey, 2 tbsp ground flaxseed, 1.25 tbsp peanut butter, 1 whole banana

1215pm : 2/3 chocolate fudge cake, 1 scoop vanilla ice cream, ½ bag sour patch kids, ½ bag trolli brite crawlers. Girl I been seeing brought over fudge cake and ice cream because we were talking about serendipity's and how amazing it was. I couldn't resist so figured I would make this my cheat meal. She also brought me candy. I think she is trying to fatten me up. It just might work. Back on the wagon tomorrow.

Have to wake up at 720 in the AM. I mean, are you joking? It is 150 right now, and it will take me at least an hour to fall asleep. I am screwed. The baseball game tomorrow is varsity, and it starts at 1pm. So naturally, we have to be to the field at 830 to prep it for pregame practice, and then load the bust at 11 to get to the game 75 minutes early and do pregame practice on THEIR field as well. This would be all well and good if I was in school and used to waking up at 7am every morning for class, unfortunately I went to bed at 730am this morning, so.. GG me basically. I am going to go lay down and not sleep, laters.

As an aside, i will address the 56 vs KJ hand against doyle tomorrow, i have to get some sleep.

-David

Day 11

1130am : 1.25 cups kashi honey almond flax, 1 cup silk light vanilla soy, 1 whole banana

I tweaked my knee somehow in the last couple days, not really sure what happened to be honest. I woke up yesterday and it was really tight and swollen a bit, so I went for a jog and did a lot of stretching, then iced it. Started feeling better especially after yoga. Went to bed, woke up, back to really tight and swollen. I meditate generally by sitting on knees ass on feet focusing on posture and breathing, but I couldn't get close to that position without my knee screaming at me in agony. Wtf could this be? I don't recall any incident where it was stressed, and it just sort of came on without confrontation. Woke up and did some light stretching and tried to do my morning meditation, no such luck, had to skip bjj.

2 25 minute segments of intervals on the stationary bike, lvl 12 round 1, lvl 13 round 2. This was pretty brutal, and I was exhausted after the second set. I did like 12 minutes of stretching in between my sets as a 'rest' period. Overall felt great, might do this more and try to up the resistance over time.

135pm : broccoli, shrimp, quinoa mixed together. This is absolutely delicious. Probably one of my favorite meals I have had. Found a sugar free teriyaki sauce that is great for mixing in with something like this.

455pm : lara bar

So the baseball game.. didn't go so hot. We lost 15-0. Good start to the season! Seriously though, the kids are young, almost all freshman, and they really love to play. That is the important stuff right? They didn't get too down on themselves, and it really is a great group of guys. There were a few mental mistakes, and a slew of other errors that we will have to work on. I think we gave up something like 8 walks in 4 innings, and that just can't happen. It is tough to have a great team every year at a smallish private school, but I fully intend to make the most of it.

720pm : glass of cabernet, 6 almonds. Felt like having some wine, and was a little bit hungry and wanted to tide myself over until dinner.

745pm : 6 oz bison filet, 1/3 cup quinoa, 1 whole apple. Wish I had some more broccoli shrimp..

940pm : ½ lara bar. Tried one with cocoa powder, didn't like it, threw rest away. If I have something with chocolate, I need it to have lots of butter and added sugar. This was just the basic lara bar, cashews, dates, almonds, pecans, etc with cocoa powder added. Nothing that makes tasty unhealthy chocolate actually tasty and unhealthy. Pass.

1030 on : Lots of alcohol, though mostly vodka sprite stuff, and some mimosas late night (OJ hangover cure right?)

600am : bowl of kashi and ½ pound strawberries, then 30 mins later like 3oz of beef jerkey. Good anti hangover.

Looking back, today might not have been the greatest day. I woke up at like noon to go eat lunch with my dad, and didnt get to sleep until like 7am. Was a long long night, but a good one. Single life is way tougher on the body than being locked up, i must admit. This baseball thing is taking up a lot more time than i thought as well, and is causing me to miss a lot of jiu jitsu workouts i otherwise would be able to make. I gotta come up with some more stuff i can do at the house, so i picked up P90x and maybe ill work in one or two of those during the week. I actually heard good things about the workouts, and the point is to just get me active so seems reasonable.

Day 9

1045am : 1.25 cups kashi high protein high fiber, 1 cup silk light vanilla soy, 1 whole banana

80 minutes jiu jitsu no gi! Everyone that goes to the no gi classes is really good. Most of the white belt people stick with gi, so I end up getting destroyed a lot. Today, I prob got tapped 10 times, but rolled for 7 5 minute rounds, and went over in a couple of them just for the sake of it. I was completely exhausted at the end of it all, and got caught in an arm bar that may or may not have injured my left elbow. I tried to tap soon but it was at an awkward angle and he just kinda fell hard with my arm locked down, not much that could have been done. I am going to ice it profusely and hope for the best, it almost feels like a tendonitis kinda thing right now, so that is good I think.

140pm : 1.25 scoops whey, 1.25 tbsp peanut butter, 1.5 tbsp ground flax seed, 1 whole banana

445pm : Lara bar

915pm : 3 salmon nigiri, 2 super white tuna nigiri, 2/3 salmon, eel, yellow tail, avocado, cucumber roll, 1 eel avocado cucumber hand roll, 3 pieces sea bass sashimi ponzu jalapeno. 300ml sake.

1030pm : ¾ bottle wine

300am : 2 eggs 1 yolk, 2 oz beef jerky, ½ pound strawberries

Long night, crappy evening turned rock solid, will go into it later, felt like drinking and partying a bit. Meh

Day 10

110am : 1.5 cups kashi high protein high fiber, 1.25 cups silk light vanilla soy, 1 whole banana

I feel ridiculously sore this morning. Something about yesterdays morning jiu jitsu sessions really messed me up. My lower back hurts a lot too, but it could just be soreness from the kettlebells. My body is still adjusting to those I guess. Normally I like how it feels to be sore from a workout, but lower back is just ughhh.

Also yesterday I couldn't even really throw BP. I don't think I am going to be able to do a workout before baseball practice. I was throwing in the cage, and after like 3 hitters, I couldn't get it over the plate. It wasn't even like I was missing by a little bit, I was throwing the ball directly into the ground, but my arm wasn't even that sore or anything, was strange, and I felt like a retard.

225pm : 1 apple, 6 almonds

355 pm : kashi bar

630 pm : salad with garbanzo beans, onions, edamame, cucumbers, almond slices, 2oz grilled chicken, splash of ranch dressing.

800pm : 55 mins yoga, 10 min meditation, 1x9x20kg KB clean press, 2x8x20kg KB clean press

945pm : 6oz bison filet, saut©ed mushrooms, broccoli and shrimp stir fry 8 shrimp

145am : ½ pound strawberries, 3 eggs 1 yolk, 1.5 oz beef jerkey

Played 1300 hands vs fullflush1 on ftp, had a lot of crazy pots. He got me for 70k then quit. He ownd my life a couple times, but I ran like 45k below equity in all ins, so that didn't help a lot. There were 3 big pots where he bluffownd my soul, and I felt kinda dumb, but w/e. I will play him lots in the next couple days me thinks. Time to sleep, first JV baseball game is tomorrow afternoon, wheeeee.

So I stayed up and tried to play in gus games. I got ownd there too, though not that bad, lost like 30 more or something, ran way way way below on this, like 90k. That is ok though. Life is still good. If I bust all my online money ill just quit and be a professional baseball coach. Now its like 430 and I have to skip morning jiu jitsu tomorrow. Rigged.

-David

1055am : 6 oz bison filet, 10 shrimp stir fry cucumbers, squash, onions, mushrooms, green/red peppers

1200pm: baseball stuff until 445. I threw probably 300 pitches of BP, my arm is jelly once again, and my upper back on the left side feels like it has a pinched nerve. Not really sure what that is about. I also did some running, not much, but I haven't actually run in a while, so that was good. I got tired way faster than I thought I should have. I also hit a bunch of popups to outfielders. Not exactly an intensive workout, but prob burned a few calories over the course. Doing jiu jitsu tonight.

145pm : 1.5 scoops whey in shaker

230pm : lara bar

515pm : 5 oz salmon, 1 cup cooked quinoa

630pm : 90 minutes jiu jitsu WITH GI. Ughhh. I worked out with a blue belt today, and he taught me 2 really really cool sweeps from guard, one of them will work really well with no gi as well, so I had a more fun practice today. I feel like my guard gets passed way too easy, but now I have a couple sweeps in my arsenal and he let me drill them over and over until I got them down smoothly. Fun times.

830pm : protein shake, 1.25 scoops whey, 1 banana, 1.25 tbsp peanut butter, 1.25 tbsp ground flax seed.

1015pm : apple, small handful mixed nuts

Felt like snacking, so grabbed a little something.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3870508 - I watched phil get ownd by this guy for a little bit, and decided to sit. This hand happened like 3 minutes in. Hrm..

100am : ½ pound strawberries, 2 eggs 1 yolk, 2oz beef jerkey

Just finished watching PAD, I really hate how they call me raptor. My name is not raptor. My name is in fact David Benefield. Other than that, I thought the production turned out great!

-David

Day 7

First I have to say, I feel amazing today. Yesterday was a pretty awful day money wise, but a pretty great day in every other aspect. It was my cheat day, so I chowed down on pizza and a little ice cream and indulged in a little too much wine. It was great. Today I woke up early and went to baseball practice. The kids look great, and everyone seems to really enjoy being out there. I am very hopeful for the season. Tomorrow I get to hit fungo to the outfielders, and I haven't done that in oh.. 5 years, so hopefully I don't swing and miss too many times.

As a side note, Monday night (technically Tuesday morning) Cole, Taylor, and I will be on NBC for poker after dark. I highly recommend watching because we are all really cool. Seriously though, it should be pretty entertaining, there were a lot of cool hands, a little fun banter, and just an all around good time. The game played pretty big too, as we had a straddle on for most of the game, and were playing 7-2 for 1k per person. Anyways, check it out!

11am : 1.25 cups kashi high protein high fiber, ¾ cup silk light vanilla soy milk, 1 whole banana

So I got up early today. Yesterday was a -6 figure day, but I feel great this morning. I got a good nights sleep, had some fun last night, and am about to head to baseball practice.

2pm : lara bar

415pm : 3oz beef jerkey, ½ pound strawberries, handful mixed nuts

6pm : 1 egg, ½ yolk. 1 apple

630pm : 85 minutes jiu jitsu. Awesome workout, had a 12 minute roll, but let myself get guillotined at end, I shot in with my hands down, im such a fish. This was a with gi workout. I got collar choked 3 of the 4 times I got tapped. Yay collar chokes.

815pm : 1 scoop whey in shaker

830pm : 3x15x20kg 2 handed kettlebell swings. Probably going to move up to the 28 and try to do like 10 or something in 3 days.

920pm : 8oz bison filet, saut©ed mushrooms, 8 shrimp stir fry with cucumbers, squash, onions, green/red peppers, mushrooms.

I am really full. Probably ate a little bit too much here but I was exhausted from jiu jitsu and 3 hours of baseball stuff. I really want to start doing 2-a-days for jiu jitsu. It is extremely enjoyable to me, and while rolling, I don't even think about poker, or anything else that could possibly not be awesome in my life. I am supremely focused on my opponent, and it is like a whole different world I enter. It is almost meditative, as well as being a great workout.

Unfortunately (or fortunately, im not really sure) I am probably the worst practitioner at my gym. This really helps me not have an ego though, and I don't really care if I get tapped as I can just say ok cool nice lets go again. It really is great catching people in stuff though, as I can tell they get really upset. It always makes me feel good, not because they are upset (well maybe a little), but because it means my skills are improving. I even caught someone in an arm bar with gi's on today.

I noticed today that I really never grab the cloth, and seem to have an aversion to locking onto the collar, wrist sleeves, etc. I started training no gi for about 2-3 months before ever even trying with a gi on, and I think that instilled some bad fundamentals as far as gi grappling is concerned. I am trying to fix them, and am getting better, but it is a struggle to be sure. There is a lot more emphasis on blocking your neck/face in every position, and I hate how being in someone's guard they just grab onto a collar and it's really tough to escape. With my schedule involving baseball, it will be hard for me to do mostly no gi classes though, so I guess I have to learn.

1245am : 2 eggs 1 yolk, 3 strawberries (all I had left), handful mixed nuts.

I am pretty worn out from the long week, going to get some sleep early, watch a little Its always sunny in Philadelphia, and get up in the morning for 4 hours of baseball then jiu jitsu. Tough life!

-David Benefield

300pm : 1.25 cups kashi high protein high fiber cereal, ¾ cups silk light vanilla soy

Went out to a party last night, it felt really awkward. There were like, 100 18 year old kids there, and I felt like an old sketchy kid. I ran into some of my older friends there, and they were going to some semi-formal dinner/party thing, and one of the girl's had her date bail on her and asked me to join, so I said screw it, went home and changed into my fancy clothes, and went out with them. It ended up being kind of busto, but I still had a good time.

A ton of people came back to my house, and one of the guys brought like 6 ugly 18 year olds. I was not ok with this, and had to shuffle them out after about 20 minutes or so. Young immature ugly people like to make messes of nice things, and I have a pretty nice house so that can't be had. I felt kinda bad kicking people out, but I didn't invite them and yea, young people drinking too much gets bad news bears, plus under 21 etc I don't wanna deal with that should they make too much noise, cops come, etc.

It was a blast after the initial drama of too many little people in my house, and I caught up with some old friends I hadn't seen in a while. I think I finally got to sleep around 7. Tomorrow I have to wake up and do baseball stuff though, so am going to prob keep it low key tonight.

I want to talk a little bit about Jiu Jitsu and the Gi vs no Gi debate. Someone mentioned researching 10th planet, which is Eddie Bravo's system of no gi jiu jitsu. He is very highly regarded in the community, and teaches the rubber guard, the twister, etc. I have read 2 of his books, and really enjoy his system, though it is not something you can just jump into.

A lot of the moves he teaches are moves that require a high level of flexibility. This is something I don't have yet, but am trying to develop. I am trying to stretch whenever I watch tv, or am just sitting around talking to friends or whatever. I have pretty tight hips, and can't even sit Indian style. My knees are way high off the ground still, even though I have made very noticeable improvements. Yoga and daily stretching has definitely helped.

Anyways, the whole thing with no gi, is that it is just much more practical in real life circumstances. When I roll with a gi on, 90% of the time I get tapped its from some bullshit collar choke that relies on the thick, heavy collar of a gi. It becomes a war of protecting the cloth and making sure your clothing doesn't get grabbed onto. This is really annoying, and isn't practical at all in MMA, or most 'street' situations. When someone is wearing a tshirt and jeans, there isn't going to be a prevalence of cloth to latch onto, or long sleeves to get grips on. No gi utilizes under and overhooks to get leverage.

Now, I could just be partial to no gi because I suck at getting collar choked, but I really don't see how training with a gi can be more practical in real world situations. For traditionalists, gi has been around longer, and that is how people have 'always' trained for bazillion jiu jitsu. With the increasing popularity of MMA, no gi training is starting to take over more and more. At most jiu jitsu gyms these days, even the more traditional ones like gracie academies, half of their classes are in the no gi art.

I don't really know what I am saying, more just rambling because I was thinking about how much more fun I have when I roll no gi. I really just enjoy it more, it is more enjoyable, seems like it takes more skill to catch people in anything. I never have to worry about collar chokes, and just have to worry about escaping when someone has my back, slipping out of arm bars, etc. Many times I have rolled with blue or purple belts while not wearing a gi, and they complain about how I escape something and I wouldn't have if I was wearing a gi. It is comical almost, because that really is a ridiculous complaint. I am not good, but neither is their technique if they can't tap me while not wearing a gi.

530pm : ½ lb strawberries, handful mixed nuts

This was today's plo session. I got it in over and over and lost over and over. It was a lot of fun. I like to think I played relatively well, but maybe not. Was playing spirit rock HU on ftp and he ownd me for like 45k. I don't think I played particularly well, but lost 3 all in pots in a row, 1 was 100x deep, other 2 were 200x deep, soooooo.. yeah. Granted he was ahead in 2 and we were flipping on other, was still 40% equity on avg, soulda binked one yo.

On stars it was just silly, whoever str8flushin5 is, he has a horseshoe shoved up his ass; I hope it hurts. I was mostly shortstacking for 4k, and running it up. Got a couple 20k+ stacks, then would get it in as big fave and get binked. It was a lot of fun. I decided to quit and go out and party instead of torturing myself. This is me quitting. Here are a couple fun hands that I thought the other people played epic bad, but they are up lots and I'm down lots. Perhaps I miss some key concept of plo where it is smart to shovel in as much money as bad as possible and try to suck out.

It is funny because like, I didn't really feel like playing, but I didn't feel like not playing either, and had nothing else to do. I haven't let wins or losses effect me in a while, and I mean, I don't think this one will in about 10 minutes, it is just really annoying to keep getting it in good and losing. I know its part of plo and poker in general, but it went on for a while, heh. I guess I am more upset that like, today was my off day, wasn't planning on working out, was going to go out tonight, probably eat unhealthy, etc, but now I feel like if I do that it's a complete wasted awful day. I am going to go make something healthy and see how I feel. Just needed to rant a little bit.

Ok I lied about that last part. I decided I am going to make this a good night. I called up a girl, ordered some pizza, just cracked a bottle of wine, and just got its always sunny in Philadelphia in the mail. Hopefully this plan can save the day!

10pm : 5 slices of pizza with sausage, pepperoni, and onions with NO cheese. 1 bottle 2006 Caymus cabernet. Hate all you want, I don't like cheese on pizza, tastes better to me without it.

145am: 3 oz cookies and cream ice cream, 1 lara bar.

Cheat day was fun. The day was saved.

-David