I've been really getting after it on the virtual felt over the past few weeks. Julianna is in the middle of her semester now and has had plenty of work to do lately so I've had plenty of time to do my own "work". I quote the word work because I still enjoy playing poker very much, something that I am very fortunate about. To keep in the spirit of working a job, though, I've been doing an increased amount of work away from the tables as well, mainly in two games which I'm relatively inexperienced and unsure in, 2-7 triple draw and Omaha 8/b. I've been doing some math on 2-7, mainly to figure out predraw strategy as well as how to play in situations that had previously confused me. I am a long way from figuring out everything that I want to but I think my game is coming along nicely, at least for someone who is relatively new to the game. I've been playing a bunch of 50/100 and 100/200 HU limit 2-7 TD and after struggling at first I've felt much more comfortable and confident lately. That said, I still have plenty of work to do and plenty of leaks, I'm sure. Or maybe I'm just trying to entice you to play against me. Or both. For Omaha 8/b I've mainly been trying to get a feel for starting hand rankings, which is easier said than done in this game, as well as trying to determine what % of hands to play in each position and given each set of actions in front of me. This is still very rough as well and unfortunately it's been tougher to find O8 action than 2-7.

Also, I've still been playing PLO fairly regularly, although it's pretty tough to get action for me there and my online roll is a bit short at the moment so some of the 100/200 and even deeper 25/50 games that have been running have been a bit bigger than I've wanted to play at the moment. I did record a second part of my 25/50 PLO series that debuted in January, I'm not sure when it will be released but it should be soon. I still feel very confident in my PLO game, as you'll hopefully see when I appear on Poker After Dark PLO next month. My episodes debut on (I think) April 11 and I am on for two weeks. I personally haven't watched a ton of poker on TV over the past few years but I really think this will make for some great TV, with Phil Ivey, Tom Dwan, Phil Galfond, Patrik Antonius, and myself playing both weeks as well as Brandon Adams for one and Jared Bleznick for the other. Back to online, I've also been playing some Stud 8/b and some mixed games, although the 10 game mix on FTP hasn't been running as much recently as it was in past months, at least during my typical playing hours, which are a bit abnormal as I'm still in Italy and often play in the morning.

Speaking of Italy, I've been here for about 2/3 of the past 2 months, and while I do miss some things about being back in the US (friends + family, sports, Buffalo wings, some other food, having a solid grasp of the native language), I am really enjoying it here. Julianna and I have been cooking some awesome dinners lately, typically pasta with chicken/beef/sausage (simple but delicious), as well as going out to eat at some cool places. We haven't gone out to bars/clubs a ton because Julianna has class at 9am most weekdays and has had field trips most weekends (she's in Tuscany right now), but this coming Thursday is St. Patrick's Day and there's a fun Irish pub down the street from her place so we'll definitely be hitting that up then. Friday, her spring break starts and we are doing some travelling, heading to Barcelona, Amsterdam, and Switzerland over the course of 8 days or so. Our plans for Barcelona and Amsterdam are up in the air, although they figure to involve a dance club in Barcelona and a bike tour in Amsterdam (I haven't ridden a bike in years but I hear Amsterdam is an awesome palce to do it). In Switzerland we are going to the Therme Vals, a resort/spa which I learned about in the architecture class that I took last fall at Cornell. I am super excited for this and for the trip there, since we fly into Zurich and then have to connect on 2 trains and a bus to get to Vals, which is a town with a population of <1k. It's a nice change of pace from the usual of just flying and taking cabs. In this spa, I'm leaning toward the hot stone massage with exfoliation, but I could be convinced otherwise. The one hot stone massage that I've gotten in the past was amazing though.

Keep an eye out for my video over the next week or 2. Also, for more frequent updates follow me on Twitter at twitter.com/brianchastings