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Friend of mine needed a visa to China, couldn't get it in Korea so we decided to go to Hong Kong for the weekend. Had a pretty brutal first day ---

Some pre-info: My friend had to express re-new his passport as it had run out of pages, so we were due to pick up the new passport just a few hours before our flight left.

8 am: Wake up, get ready to go take BJJ test (first stripe white belt - I'm a fish).
11 am: Take test - scary as fuck, especially as I normally go to the evening classes so when at first I barely recognized anyone I wasn't feeling too at ease, but a bunch of familiar faces trickled in as time went on. Passed just barely, as did the other guy taking the same level test as me. Teacher asked me what I thought of my performance, I said soemthing along the lines of "I'm missing a lot of details, and whenever I have to do it left-handed I'm screwing things up royally". Teacher said "Agree 100% with that. Be better prepared next time!". Then turned to the other guy: "Exactly the same applies to you".
Tests are honestly one of the few things that make me nervous in life - like, I'm not insanely confident or outgoing or anything, but I don't actively dread most things... Tests will keep me awake at night. So glad I passed.

Come back, go to Seoul to pick up my friends passport from embassy, head to airport... head to checkin...... My ticket is NP, my friends ticket? "It appears it was cancelled....". After a long wait my friend has to basically re-book it on the spot (and gets a better price than me wtf, I booked in advance and picked a nicely priced one, wtf is this shit :D). Just barely make it to plane.

Arrive in Hong Kong, it's like.... 11 pm I guess? We get a crazy young HK taxi driver who has seriously 4+ phones all sitting in his dashboard and all connected to his head by various earpieces and what not. Crazy guy and also a bit of a hustler vis-a-vis tollgate fees but w-ever.

We get to our hotel, go to check in....... Ticket booked for 1 week from now. What..the....fuck? Friend re-books. We go to find an ATM and get something to eat, pretty tired by now. ATM eats my friends card. Does not give it back. I put in a random expired gym card, machine is like 'nah, i only eat credit cards' and gives it back... so apparently freak accident. We call support number and go eat, finally get through after 40 minutes on hold (looking forward to seeing what his phone bill will be after that). They say go bank and we can pick it up tomorrow.

Next day, wake up 6 am, get to travelling agency to apply for China visa at like 8:30~, head back to bank... Cute young bank lady is pretty helpful and calls around a bunch and determines that yeah, the card is there etc and let's go down and get it. Older bank manager type woman says hmmmmmmm, yeah the name on the card is your name, and you have a passport, drivers license, ID card, other card from the same bank and papers from said bank... but to be safe we're gonna ship this card back to canada, you can collect it there.
.............
So after 2 hours of this (bank lady #1 fought the good fight for us), my friend gets his card back. We go pick up the visa and do some shopping. Somehow vaguely disappointed with the shopping, I feel like we missed all the good spots :/ We checked out Times Square area, bunch of stuff along Henessy Road (SOGO, Jardine Crescent area etc) and some other random places. Feel like there could have been a lot more quality shopping with someone who knew the place a bit better.

So, Sunday we decide to go Macau for some poker. I've never played live poker in my life, haven't played Hold'em in forever, and my friend hasnt played in forever in general, but has played some live. When we arrived the first mode of transportation we saw was a free bus to the Venetian so we hopped on that, walked around til we found the poker area and sat down at a fresh HKD 25/50 table --- I guess that's like 3.5/7 USD). Probably the softest table in Macau that day lol

All fish except for 2 nits and they are basically 2 empty seats for all the hands they play. Unable to fold anything tho and keep paying the any-2-cards guy off monstrously with their overpairs.

One of the two nits was an old guy in a hoodie and headphones...
I don't know if any of you guys read the Live Poker guide by Rumnchess on twoplustwo, but in there, there's a description of a player type called "Old Man Coffee". Basically old man coffee is an older man who plays incredibly straight forward --- deuces is a limping hand, so I'll limp etc. This guy might have been slightly more towards a nit grinder than that, but when he busted out the starbucks I almost had to start laughing
Eitherway, this guy plays about 1 hand/hour at most, but will never fold top pair ever.

Finished up a little then went to eat at a really nice Brazilian steak house. Delicious o.o

Returned, got back to same table but completely different lineup: Old man-nit is still there, but the rest have been replaced by a bunch of very obviously chinese young-regs. We play 6 handed with them for a bit, until it fills up. One unpleasant retard - who thankfully leaves very soon - accuses my friend of string betting because the 4 chips he picked up to raise the river didn't all drop at th exact same mili-second (it was seriously dumb, the delay was infinitesmal). So 4k raise turns into a minraise. Might be a good thing as the guy talked himself into calling vs the nuts, but who knows.

This guy thankfully leaves, gets replaced by a Korean - we get to surprise him by saying we're from Korea too etc. Always fun. Anyway, funny hand happens.
Korean raises in ep A8s, old-man-nit calls AK behind him, chinese reg flats A3s. Flop A83, Korean bets, old man nit calls, reg raises, Korean calls, old man nit goes all-in. Chinese reg, who btw was a Chinese version of SaSe, complete with hat and everything, starts agonizing. Thinks for an eternity, and folds. Korean shrugs, calls.

Chinese guy sees old-man-nit has AK and goes crazy.

Not too much else interesting - had some run-good with A7 (kept flopping monsters with said hand), but there was one hand:
2 limps, reg in sb makes it 300, I 3bet in bb to 1k (we're like 8k deep or something). One of the limper folds and (accidentally?) shows an ace. SB makes it 2.3k. I felt incredibly strongly he had KK, considered calling for set+to bluff A flops, decided I was too likely to do somethign dumb on low flops and folded. Guy showed me KK, was so happy.

Got recognized at the table by some friends-of-a-friend, which was fun. Overall finished up a little bit, really enjoyed playing live tho --- really makes me 1) Miss hold'em 2) want to start taking some trips out to Walker Hill here in Korea.

Online this month has been meh - I feel like everytime I play badly, I run good and get rewarded, then when I play good I run like acid, part of poker I guess but still annoying to deal with, so much easier on your mind when you play good = win and play bad = lose. Down like 4 buyins or something in 30k hands.

Food in HK = amazing, one of the things i dislike the most about Korea is how difficult it can be to get a diverse selection of food... Korean Chinese restaurants generally only have Koreanized chinese food, and Korean sushi is on average pretty Koreanized too. HK had everything everywhere and that was sweet. Hong Kong also felt waaaaaay bigger than Seoul tho, kind of exhausting just being there. Want to go to Macau again badly, really hope the new table-cap law doesn't fuck over poker there....

I took like.... 3 pictures total from this trip because I'm the most horrible tourist of all time.


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got them on my mind

http://babyshow.me/eoe/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/ff99379b.jpg
got her on my mind



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got her on my mind






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she has got my soul




http://babyshow.me/eoe/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/in5aN.jpg
ye






http://babyshow.me/eoe/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/mn9Y8.jpg
HAWT!




Poll: ??????????
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RESULTS!
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I haven't been dating/seeing anyone for quite a while. It wasn't really a conscious decision but maybe the mix of having no real viable options + contemplation about views on love, relationships.

Anyway I met a new friend, and she is so beautiful, I am finding myself drawn to her. I have been having a blast with her, and have taken her on a few play dates, like driving into the country and looking at the stars with no kissing but hand holding. I don't know if she likes me more than friends.

Anyway earlier this week I saw her talking to some other guys, and I got kind of ridiculously jealous and felt really stupid for feeling this way. I didn't enjoy the way I was feeling because it's so stupid. Maybe stupider than this post. Anyway I adjusted by cutting my time with her.

I'm just confused as to what to do and want to just save myself any future embarrassment or heartache

Sigh..this is prob the gayest post ever


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NOT

$700 HU WCOOP 30 left:

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Sunday 500:
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Standard shit. But then the real bullshit begins:

$215 HU 9 left:
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$1050 WCOOP 2nd chance:
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$1050 WCOOP 2nd chance HU:
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$2100 WCOOP near the bubble:
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$215 WCOOP 100 left out of 9000:
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/wrists


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sdf


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DOES MARIJUANA CAUSE CANCER? RESEARCH SAYS MARIJUANA FIGHTS CANCER
by Lisa Garber

Does marijuana cause cancer? The censorship-happy government’s war on marijuana may be sorely misplaced, especially when considering all the other issues in need of focus. Dr. Sean McAllister of the Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco has spent years researching cannabidiol, a cannabinoid found in cannabis, the plant that flowers marijuana. “Cannabidiol offers hope of a non-toxic therapy that could treat aggressive forms of cancer without any of the painful side effects of chemotherapy,” he says. You might remember Cash Hyde, the 3-year-old boy from Montana diagnosed with brain cancer but who beat it with his father Mike’s help and marijuana oil. Well, Hyde’s case isn’t the only one revealing the positive relationship between marijuana and cancer. Does Marijuana Cause Cancer? THC as Therapy In 1998, Cristina Sanchez of Complutense University in Madrid reported in a European biochemistry journal that THC—the famed psychoactive component in marijuana—“induces apoptosis [cell death] in C6 glioma cells,” which are a type of brain cancer. Lead author of another study and Harvard University researcher Anju Preet says, “THC can have a potential therapeutic role.” His findings, presented in a 2007 American Association for Cancer Research in Los Angeles, showed that THC has a direct antitumoral effect. THC’s First Human Trial The first clinical trial studying THC’s antitumoral effect on humans was conducted by Manuel Guzman and his team of Spanish scientists. Guzman administered THC to nine patients who had not responded to traditional brain cancer therapies for the study. As published in a 2006 issue of the British Journal of Pharmacology, tumor cell proliferation reduced in response to THC administration through a catheter – showing the medical benefits of marijuana. THC and the Lungs Another Harvard study reports that THC slows lung cancer progress. Moreover, unlike chemotherapy which damages all cells—healthy or cancerous—THC specifically destroyed tumoral cells without harming healthy ones. In another study published in the Journal of American Medical Association, spanning from 1985 to 2006, over 5,000 men and women smoked about one joint daily for seven years. Co-author Stefan Kertesz found that subjects, rather than having damaged lungs, showed increases in lung air flow rates. Surprising findings indeed. Cannabidiol and Breast Cancer With backing from the National Institute of Health, Dr. Sean McAllister conducted a study and found that cannabidiol inhibited breast cancer cell proliferation, metastasis, and tumor growth. McAllister researched cancer’s relationship to the ID-1 gene—a protein active during embryonic development but, in healthy subjects, turns and stays off. In the case of breast cancer patients, the gene turns back on, which causes malignant cells to metastasize. In the journal Molecular Cancer Therapeutics, McAllister wrote that cannabidiol switches off the gene’s expression. McAllister found that cannabidiol can even work alongside standard chemotherapy treatments by performing synergistically with pharmaceuticals. This means that maximum, toxic doses don’t have to be administered. Despite accusations that marijuana smoking can compromise the immune system, mountains of research indicate that the plant has more to offer than a high. More studies are undoubtedly in the works. — In this research, Manuel Guzman located in Madrid, Spain discovered that cannabinoids substantially inhibit the growth of tumors in a variety of lab animals. In the study he also found that not one of these tested animals endured any kind of side effects seen in many similar chemotherapy treatments. If all of the research doesn’t appeal to you, then maybe the 2,500 total studied patients throughout these 37 controlled studies may. None of the patients reported any kind of adverse side effects from the use of THC and based medication – further adding to the benefits of medical marijuana and strengthening the positive connection between marijuana and cancer. So, does marijuana cause cancer, or does it fight cancer? Additional Sources: Bloomberg The Daily Beast Sources: Natural Society image credit

Full article with sources and links to studies


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sdf


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This post by RiKD got me thinking about a few things, I was going to write a reply in the thread it's from but thought it's a worthy discussion in its own right and deserves its own post.

On September 15 2012 10:33 RiKD wrote: One thing to consider is poker can be pretty damaging to other facets of life and development. Getting to the point: [other text that was getting to the point in the thread but not the point here]

I'd love to hear some more thoughts from RiKD, and anyone else who wants to join the discussion, on how poker can be damaging to other facets of life and development. It would be good to get the perspectives of current other professional poker players, but actually especially valuable to get the perspective of guys like RiKD who have seen both sides of the fence. Guys who used to live the poker grinding freedom lifestyle and are now following different, more traditional paths, and so have seen both sides of the fence.

I have my own thoughts which I'll outline below, but do add to the discussion and let me know if you see it the same way, or where your perspectives vary, and especially new ideas I haven't been able to consider as someone who's only seen this side of the fence.

When you get strongly interested in poker (a period that i think pretty much all players that manage to become successful experience at some point) and the whole process of playing and learning and improving, you find you become addicted to this creative process and want to invest 100% of your limited mental energy+focus every day on the process. Personal growth generally happens as a result of mental energy/focus being invested in something challenging, and to limit the avenues you invest your mental energy in is to limit the avenues in which you'll grow. By investing only in poker you'll only grow in the areas of risk management, rational decision making, mental discipline and being able to play card games well (obviously). Breadth of experience will be sacrificed for great depth in one limited area, which can have all sorts of suboptimal consequences on personal development and therefore ultimately, happiness and quality of life (anyone disagree with this leap of logic?).

In my experience both personally and from talking to several other poker playing friends, a very common facet of life that poker brings negative consequences to is social development. As poker is inherently a very isolated profession, much more effort needs to be made to rectify the default situation than for someone in a traditional job who spends large parts of his work life interacting with colleagues, and social groups are easily and conveniently formed from the workplace. Generally, overcoming any kind of life-inertia like this takes some conceited effort and will, and so not everyone will do it. The problem can be especially compounded by the possibility that if the dedicated poker player is investing 100% of his mental energy into getting better at poker and/or trying to make more money, and some mental energy is required to overcome inertia, it's unlikely to happen if there isn't any left. Your most likely social group (the one for which the least amount of energy invested in overcoming inertia is required) as a poker player is other poker players, and so your perspectives and circle all become limited, which limits your potential avenues for growth, development and discovery (going back to the idea of breadth of experience being a positive).

I believe that while professional poker does present these challenges and can bring these pitfalls, it's up to the individual player to overcome the inertia of the default situation playing poker for a living puts you in with an investment of energy and will. This is quite a difficult thing to do generally, and that's why you see a lot of unhappy professional poker players and a lot of obese people to name another example. Since this is just some stream of consciousness thoughts to open discussion, I won't bother to write any sort of tidy conclusion beyond this and instead hope the discussion starts flowing from here


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Been lurkin on this site for almost 4 years now. I guess I feel like I owe the cummunity some content. I am a Limit holdem player and will try to post my thoughtprocess and progress as I go.
I have been playing for almost 10 years in what I call a part-time professional capacity. I am moderately successful but have lately been very driven to perfect my game. Join me on tracking my progress.


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sdf


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Was waiting till I got back on the grind till I posted my summer blog


Basically started 3 day drive home to Vancouver, fly to Vegas, Win bunch at 50/100 plo and take bobbys room shot and profit, fly to San Diego for a few days, Fly to Ibiza for 1.2 weeks and proceed to fall in love with raging/drugs/edm/potentially a person, fly to Barcelona with group I met in Ibiza, fly to Belgium for Tomorrowland which was one of sickest things I ever been to in my life as well, fly to Malta to visit ze german TimStone and bigasiga, get convinced by stinger to fly back home to Chicago for Lollapolooza, Rage hardddd there and meet a crew of people who are into staying awake until 8am and raging crazy style, decide to go out with them for a few weekends in a row and wake up questioning my life lol, debate investing in a nightclub, book place for 3 weeks in Vancouver with stinger instead, and leads to this graph of being back these first 3 days. Now I HAVE to write the blogs for this summer because its some crazyyyy shit



http://i.imgur.com/0Nple.jpg



BOOOM



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been trying to get eating utensils out of my kitchen drawer but there's a stack of plastic measuring cups that gets stuck against the end part where the wood material hands down a bit lower every time i try to open it (there's a bunch of crap behind the cups that prevents me from moving them back to get unstuck). i tried jamming it a little but i'm afraid the cups will break b/c they're plastic. anyway pretty bummed, i've been to starbucks twice today because i cant get it open.
http://i940.photobucket.com/albums/ad241/bouttreefiddy/stupiddrawer.jpg


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IS THIS JAM AWESOME?

MAYBE OLD TO YOU BUT IM PRETTY SURE SWEDEN IS THE NUTS.


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Hey , got coaching but cant send money to him , pls help i ll send you stars $ and you send to paypal or MB , thnx a lot


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sdf


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cha won my fav tourny again got some wcoop money
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I wish they would make good hybrid tablet/laptops. Ive tried ipad and sold it, now using a droid tablet and its not any better. Laptops are too heavy and battery life is bad. Why did they invent these things anyway lol




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