1. It’s just money. If I lose it all I am still in a pretty good position. This makes me feel a lot better when running bad.

2. I think after Mike Graves won his bracelet. I was super happy for him, but I was also in a better spot financially than I had ever been before, and it finally felt a little real.

My most memorable life experience is ****ing up my shoulder. That will be with me forever.

3. Fine dining. I waste wayyyy too much money on this. I just got back from dinner at Per Se with Apathy, Durrrr, and our ladies. Final tab for 6 was 5k. Apathy lost.

I don’t think I am any more intelligent or skillful than a lot of people, but I am very good at assimilating a lot of different information and making good use of it. In poker, I incorporated a bunch of different winning styles in developing my own, and I think it worked out pretty well. I also am able to devote my mind to something and get it done. I am pretty good at being able to block out everything else in order to accomplish a goal (this is not always good).

If you had to trust either Galfond, Hac, or Dwan to hold onto all your money for 1 year who would trust the most?

did you just do the std last man standing pays or did you do something more creative/more drawn out since it was a 5K bill?

This question has been asked and answered in like 4 different ways already + it's incredibly pointless.

Tom could go blow it all up in Macau playing 5m-10m. I trust all of them 100% though.

Really great to see someone honestly discuss thier deal.

I got nothing to ask but can only say well done for doing this, can only imagine how much of ur time this took.

We were a little more creative. Standard CC roulette for first card out (me, yay!), then we did Lodden thinks with the waiter, trying to guess the dollar value of all the alcohol consumed from noon on the 31st until noon on the 1st. Peter lost rps so had to set the line, and picked 20m. Tom chose over, and I think both were pretty good lines. Waiter seemed pretty with it and, after some deliberation, threw out 40m. GG Peter ty for dinner.

I guess I can ask you the same question and you actually happen to be around...

David, if I started working on my NLH 6max game starting 1.1.2012 how long would it take me to become as good as you are assuming you will only get better at NLH in very tiny steps because you're so much closer to having mastered it (and maybe stopped playing for the most part)?
Could I still become better than you one day?

Just make random assumption about my intelligence, poker skills right now etc. (good enough, mediocre at best if you take my word)

What date would you put the over/under of me rising to your skill level at?

HNY David

Just made it through all 56 pages, quite an excellant read, THANKS for sharing and being soooo open!!!! I literally had every question i'd ask answered, so happy new year!! and best wishes to you and the ones you love.....

Thanks for doing this well,

What is your favorite read as far as non-fiction books go? Preferably one that kinda opened your eyes and made you look at something/s with a new perspective. Any subject matter is fine, just the one that may have really floored you.

Thanks again

Seems like you have a very good taste in food, that said,1) have you wanted to learn how to cook? Not just simple dishes, but REALLY cook?
2)Ever watch top chef on bravo?
3)If you could have 1 world class chef give you cooking lessons, who and why?
4)Who, if any1, were you "excited" to see sitting at a poker tbl w/ u?(celeb or player)maybe just some1 that has always intrigued u and finally got the chance to talk to them...

Haha how can I even begin to answer this question? It is certainly possible that you could be better than me at some point in the future, though I have absolutely no idea in what kind of timeframe.

I haven't read a ton of nonfiction honestly. I used to read a lot of books about investing and real estate, but I wouldn't say any of them floored me. Fooled by Randomness was good but I felt it was overrated by poker players. Definitely worth reading though. I have been reading a bit about China lately, but still nothing has blown my mind. I liked The Emperor of All Maladies (though I actually haven't finished it, school got in the way). It is a really cool story about the history of cancer. Naked Economics was the first economics book I read and it was a great introduction. This is the best I can do!

1. It would be cool, but it takes tons of time, and I rather spend my time doing other things and have someone else make delicious food for me. Not a knock on any cooks or chefs, it just isn’t for me.

2. Nope.

3. I don’t really want cooking lessons. If I had to get them, I would want someone very patient that let me ask a lot of questions. I feel like a lot of famous people would be wasting their time on me. I can make anything out of a cook book if I have good directions to follow, but I don’t have the patience to experiment with food.

4. I really like playing with Haralabob. Pretty sure he is up money on me, but I always enjoy his company and having him at the table. He keeps things interesting.

when/where was this NLS8 game and why wasn't I informed?

Thoughts on PED's in baseball and poker? I think the general thinking is HGH or steroids is cheating and players get punished if caught.
1.Do you consider certain stimulants, or focus enhancers (aderall, cocaine, etc... comes to mind) to be cheating in poker?
2. Do u think there should be a line drawn and testing done in major tourneys?
3. What ball park% of players (cash/tourney) would fall into the more than just some coffee category of performance enhancers?
4. Do u think ball players should not be allowed in HOF after testing positive or is it a case of they all were doing it?

PS, I'd rather a no comment answer than a PC one if this question puts u in a weird spot w. acquaintances

Thanks again, awesome well

I'm being a bit greedy here with my 3rd question in this well but thanks so much for your detailed responses.

1. Do you think there is a chance that either Tom or yourself wouldn't have made it to the highest levels if you hadn't lived with each other. I just think that living with another player has to be a huge factor in your development.

2. Can you rate the following learning methods in order of effectiveness.

Training vids
Personal coaching
Forum posting
Personal HH review
Peer review
living with a player
Sweat sessions
Books

Go away. You are too good for that stuff. It was only nl and plo players, your dream game probably.

1. No. I would love for all of my opponents to be running to the bathroom every 15 minutes to do blow.

2. No, I think most drug enforcement is a joke.

3. No idea, do you consider pot a performance enhancer? I would imagine some take Adderall and some are high on coke, but I doubt it is even close to a majority.

4. I don’t know enough about major league baseball to really say. Steroids and HGH can’t do all of the work for you. They certainly help, but these guys are still great ball players. My thought is that high level athletes will always be looking for an edge, so if some drugs are banned, they will find ones that aren’t.

1. I have never hung out with him, met him only a handful of times and we didn’t really talk, so I can’t say.

2. Phil Galfond probably could have, but he likely was holding out for something better than a minimum deal like mine. I joined up with CR so I could get a red pro deal, other people generally win tournaments or crush souls a ton in big games.

1. I would have lived with some other successful poker player. I think we both would have done well still.

2. This will be completely arbitrary. Living with a (good, motivated) player, personal coaching, peer review, training vids, personal hh review, sweat sessions, forum posting, books.

Pretty irrelevant, if anything it means I like to waste my time.
Happy new year though. Waiting for an answer from David.

I guess that's good enough I'll give myself a couple of year I suppose. I doubt many current nosebleeds players outside of maybe Tom will play in 3 years because it seams you all have more interesting stuff to do. I'll bump this once I hit nosebleeds and maybe we can play a friendly 1k-100k NL HU match or smoething silly (I'll simply assume you won't play poker mucht then)

Either way I kind of hoped you'd say I couldn't do it, maybe you can fake that answert to give me some extra motivation? Pretty cool well regardless, I approve.

I guess I'd be curious how you'd estimate equity if you ever bet over/under in such a prop though. Like what kind of traits would you look for in villain (aka me) and at what point would you up your game again (i.e.randomly say I'd hit and beat 10kNL some day would it maybe motivate you to get back on the grind train).
My guess is that most really good players would estimate my equity at close to 0%

Just noticed your Best Friends list on PTR includes Gus Hansen, Urindanger, Phil Ivey, durrrr, and jungleman. Easily the most impressive Best Friends list I've ever seen among HS pros.

Surprisingly no.