Hope everyone is having a great start to 2010! Life is good, and here is what I have been up to...

Poker

I've been very fortunate to start the year off hot. There has been a ton of action at very high stakes and I've had a lot of luck (hopefully some good play as well) on my side. Recently I did an interview with PokerListings about my play over the past few months:

http://www.pokerlistings.com/due-south-cole-on-fire-in-2010-26789

Most of my hands have been played at heads up PLO tables, where I've battled in some serious heads up matches mostly against Tom Dwan, Ilari Sahamies, and Patrik Antonius. They are all very strong players, and playing them has been a great challenge. While game selection is important, if you never play tough competition, it is tough to progress. Gambling big is always fun as well.

Today I got smoked by Ilari, he played great and got some nice cards too. I am going to take a break for a day or two to look over the hands from our match and make sure I am happy with my play. He's always in the middle of the action, and I'm sure we will play again soon.

I have had some heads up NL videos released on Cardrunners in the past month that I have put a lot of work into and have gotten great reviews. Soon I'll be wrapping up this series and maybe starting a PLO one.

DC

Life in DC is great. We got pounded with snow recently, and it was nice to be snowed in and relaxing with my girlfriend and dog. One of my best friends from college got evacuated from Guinea (West Africa) a month or two, and he spent the last weekend in DC. It was great to catch up and hear about his experience over there. Africa is a really amazing continent and I can't wait to go back.

It may sound lame, but I've been cooking a lot lately and really enjoying it. I've always been a decent "American man" chef as I can grill up a mean steak and put together a good breakfast, but beyond that I'm pretty clueless. Cooking is very relaxing for me, completely different poker, and has a nice reward when it's over! My girlfriend has been a great sport and guinea pig for whatever I cook up. My good friend David L. here in DC is an amazing chef, went to culinary school, and worked in Switzerland. He's been nice enough to show me the ropes over a few beers, and I have been teaching him PLO as well.

We had a really fun party at our apartment a few weeks ago inspired by Wiggins' blind light beer tasting. Fifteen people or so came over and everyone blind tasted 7 different light beers: Corona Light, Heineken Light, Bud Light, Miller Light, Natty Light, Coors Light, and Amstel Light. Across the board Corona performed the worst while Natty surprisingly did very well.

Travel

I've been on four (plus a few to our local mountain) snowboarding trips so far this winter. The first was to Whistler with Martin and his brother Lucas. We had a great weekend out there, and I really love that mountain. Over the past few years I've spent enough time out there that I know my way around really well, and we were able to find the good powder. Martin and Lucas have gotten a ton better at snowboarding since the last time we went, and we did a fun hike out to Flute Bowl, which rewarded us with a sick ride down.

My second trip of the season with was with David (thatpfunk) and our girlfriends to Tahoe. They just opened a new Ritz at Northstar-at-Tahoe, and I would highly recommend it -- killer "Ritz" everything, food, service, location. Unfortunately I swear it was 60 degrees and they hadn't had any snow in a few weeks, so conditions weren't great but David and I rode the park some. It was both of our girls' first time skiing, so they loved how warm it was and had a great time ha.

After our Tahoe trip, David and I jetted off to Utah with Mike (gordo16). What an awesome weekend of snow! In the three days we were there, close to two feet fell. We started off riding the 'Bird and moved to Brighton for the end of the weekend. I had never been to Brighton before, and it's definitely my favorite mountain in Utah after this trip. Empty trails, fresh powder everywhere, and a great looking park. Next time we really want to check out Powder Mountain as well. It was great to see Mike again, although I'm not sure if he is going to want to go skiing with me again after the beatdown I put on him in Chinese poker/shotgun calling/rock-paper-scissors.

For Valentine's Day, David and I managed to convince the girls to go skiing again, and we all booked it out to Sundance (Robert Redford's resort a la the film festival, in Utah). Sundance is an awesome family vacation spot, and we will definitely be back. There is so much to do from hiking to art to hot air ballooning, as well as decent skiing in the winter. Conditions were reasonable and we all had a very fun Valentine's weekend.

Apart from snowboarding, my girlfriend and I have taken a few other trips to St. Thomas and NYC. In the next few weeks I'm headed out to Alaska for a long heli-boarding trip with Jamin, can't wait.

School

It's hard to believe, but the semester is almost halfway over! My classes are pretty interesting, and I'm enjoying my time at Georgetown. It's a lot to juggle though and I will certainly be happy to graduate in (hopefully) another year. Apart from the work in my classes, I've been reading a ton lately. Two books I have really enjoyed are,

http://www.amazon.com/Open-Autobiography-Andre-Agassi/dp/0307268195

Andre Agassi's autobiography. His book was so honest and interesting, that even if you hate the guy, you can't bare to put it down. His ongoing struggle to find who he is and what makes him happy (hint; it's not tennis haha) made for a great story.

http://www.amazon.com/Born-Run-Hidden-Superathletes-Greatest/dp/0307266303/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1266869179&sr=1-1

David recommended this one to me, and I loved it. It's half Mexican canyon adventure, half running industry expos©, and all fun. I've been bored with running for a while, but this book really got me back into it; my girlfriend and I are training for the NYC marathon (and a race or two in between now and then).

Charity

It's important to remember how lucky we are to be in a position to play a game for a living, and a good one at that. What goes around comes around. The recent disaster in Haiti was abhorrent, but it made me really proud to be a poker player when I saw that all of the sites were matching poker player donations 100%.
If anyone needed one further reason to donate to charity, here's one. Before Brian Hasting's $4.2 million dollar win, he donated for the first time at

http://www.kiva.org/

Kiva is a great microlending site that allows you to make loans to budding entrepreneurs around the world. These really are loans that change lives. One reason I really like Kiva is how personal it is; you can see exactly who is getting your loan, and what they plan to do with the money. Kiva gift certificates are redeemable for 100% cash as well, so they make great gifts for friends and family.

One other charity I really like is Food and Friends,

http://www.foodandfriends.org

Facing a life-threatening illness is terrifying. Doing so while being unable to afford or obtain food is something no one should have to go through. Food and Friends provides meals to people desperately in need in the DC area. I have met many people involved in the organization, and they are great people who are extremely passionate about their cause. Last year they delivered almost one million meals in the area.

I'm not a firm believer in karma in any sort of religious or spiritual sense, but I do strongly believe that there is no better way be happy than surrounding yourself with good people and doing good for others.

Good luck all,

Cole