Thanks for the updates.

Wow congrats on the major weight loss and day 3 of The Big 50! Haven’t really been following I’m guessing this means you’re in the money, hoping you get that big score!

Good luck in Day 3!

Lets go Spike!

Gogogo man! Run good!

Nice!

Continued success on your transformation from a bowling ball to a pin.

good karma sent from Denmark to you now !!

Good luck in the Big 50, but it seems like drum set in the house is the big win.

Is day three today?

Nope, Day 4. Only like 150 remain.

****. I had a quick update written here but it just deleted thanks to my forum token expiring. That's even a thing? I guess? I don't know.

I'm not retyping all that. But I will say this - between poker, school, work, the Knights, and applying for every job under the sun, I am busier than hell. I did, however, finally take some time to myself and I'm getting in the car Wednesday to drive to Reno for the Run It Up series. Anyone here going to that? Want to say hello? Drop me a PM here and we'll figure something out.

As for surgery, I'm in onederland and down over 100lbs. Doctor thinks I can safely drop another 30-40 but he wants me to start adding muscle. So that's a little weird to think about.

Spike,

Good for you, you dog you.

You bought a house on Centennial right? I’m looking at stuff around Teton and Skye Canyon and just wanted your opinion on your experience living up there so far? Also which builder did you use and did you have a good experience? Housing holding up quality wise?

GZ man with the weight loss.

very happy for your significant weight loss!

I can basically spit from my backyard and hit that intersection.

I love love love love love love love love love love living in this area. The houses are kinda cookie cutter, typical Vegas HOA homes, but the neighborhoods actually feel like neighborhoods. I don't know if it's because we're all (relatively) new to the area or what, but I actually know my neighbors and am friendly with them, we've got like 4 block parties in our community planned on Halloween alone, even the kids aren't shitty. BUT - it's half an hour to the Strip at the best of times, and there's not a lot that's currently built/open in Skye Canyon. Smith's and Burger King. That's it. For anything else, we have to go to Providence or Centennial. Not a huge inconvenience since it's not a big drive to get to either of those places, and there's a lot being built in Skye Canyon. Just none of it is finished yet. Even Station Casino bought about 40 acres a few miles north of where I'm at. But yeah I wouldn't want to live anywhere else at this point.

We went with Pulte. Their single-story (which is what we wanted) made the best use of space without feeling too big/overwhelming. The price was right and we jumped on it. The build quality is SOLID. I mean like a ****ing rock. I can't get cell reception in my house since the building and insulation kill the 4G (at least, that's my working theory since it works fine outside). There are the typical lazy contractor mistakes that we found, but the good thing with Pulte is that the give you a full year to document and figure out what you want fixed, and they'll send someone in to take care of all of it.

You gotta figure out what you want in a house and if the builders are offering you what you actually need or just cutesy little add-ons that don't do much for you. If you go with Pulte, I can give you specifics on what to get/what to avoid when you get to the design center, because that process alone took two separate visits of about four hours each. We're completely happy with the house, don't get me wrong. But holy hell are there more things to think about than you could ever realize.

Thanks guys! Really weird fitting into **** that would have been too small for me in high school. Also, I've started to become vain. It's weird.

Also, I am absolutely obsessed with this song lately:

stick with the strict diet, unfortunately it does get easier to eat quantities and once you start eating carbs, its hard to stop. What is a 10lb bounce back becomes 30lbs 2 years out and more if you don't keep it in check. I am a almost 3 years out now still down 100lbs, but i now have to watch and avoid things. Was down 125 1 year out.... no regrets, but too easy to backslide, when in year one you can't ever imagine overeating again.

Great job!

How you’d end The Big 50? Good job on the weight loss.

I don’t think I get living way outside town in an underdeveloped area unless you’re a farmer or something. Yes the house is beautiful and big and I’m something similar in an area like Summerlin is way more expensive. I’m really odd though as if I had no kids and was moving to Vegas I’d straight up live in a place like North Las Vegas. NLV I’m sure is super ghetto cheap and seems convenient to get to a lot of parts of town.

Spike,

Congratulations on the weight loss and GL in Reno.

It's nice to land in a neighborhood with people that care about you and you care about, having fun together.

Since you mentioned Halloween, I'll tell what I've been doing for many years now,weather permitting.

First, set up out in the driveway. Get the fire pit out and started, since it's kind of cold during the evening.

On the table, a bowl full of candy bars for the kids. Milk Bones for the local dogs.

And, of course, a cooler of beer so moms & dads can trick-or-treat too.

Everyone comes to my house.

Didn't recognize you at first glance, you are looking healthy man. Congrats on the weight loss!

Yeah I could feel a backslide incoming so I'm trying to be better about things. I plateaued pretty hard so I said I'd take a week off from being super strict and going to the gym before amping up both the diet and the exercise. That was six weeks ago. Fortunately I'm still at such a calorie deficient eating pattern that I haven't gained anything back (yet).

Super stoked to hear about your weight loss and how it's been going for you. My wife is talking about getting it now since she's seen what it's done for me.

Actually there has been one negative to all this - I've become significantly more vain. Yikes.

I finished about 1300th place, for $1750. I made a really, really dumb play early on in the day that got me to bust. But there were a couple of interesting hands.

One was early on. I had taken a mid-level **** break and came back just in time for my big blind + ante at 500/1000/1000. A new player raises to 5000 with about 55k behind and I call with black 99 with about 80k behind. Flop comes A94r. I check he cbets 13000. I figure I can raise here and there's a good chance he's going to get stubborn with any ace, so I check-raise to 33k. He insta-shoves and all of a sudden I'm starting to wonder if I just ran into AA. I just shake my head and call it off, and I hear the villain mutter the wonderful "Oh ****..." and turns over AJ.

Got into a really, really weird spot on Day 2 where I don't know what to make of it. I'm in MP with about 700k and raise to 3x with 22. I thought it folded around so I went to give my cards back to the dealer when I hear the BB say "Wait wait, I haven't acted yet." Then he shoves all in for about 250k. So now I'm stuck. Does he have a hand? Does he see that I'm trying to fold and think I'm weak? At the absolute best I'm flipping. Even if he has like A3 I'm barely ahead, so I just let it go, but that spot kinda ****ed with me.

Day 3 was... interesting. I looked up my table and there were 2 players with six-figure Hendon Mob profiles, and a couple others with bigger scores. One player had 2 million, a couple of us had over a mil, and the rest were kind of alive. Blinds started at 15k/30k/30k. I had two times where I raised to 70k, then folded to a 3bet with KJ off. The second time it happened I showed and commented on it, just to see if I could get information from people. Sure enough, guy who 3bet me shows AK, second guy said he had AQ when he did it to me. Fair enough.

I lost about half my 1mil stack with JJ. Raised to 70k from CO. BTN calls BB calls. Flop comes KK6. BB checks, I cbet 170k. BTN calls BB now check-raises to 400k and he's got me covered. I think and think and think about it, and eventually talk myself into a call, thinking he's never doing this with a K to scare people away from the hand. Turn and river are bricks that go check check and he shows K4. Awesome.

I made it back with JJ again and the short stack jams about 600k with AQ and I hold.

The bust out came at the end of the level. I again raise from MP with suited AQ to 70k. Guy on my left raises to 210k. Folds back to me and I call. Flop comes 9 high. I check he cbets 200k. I say to myself "He has AK. Jam." But I call. Turn is a T. If I jam here, I know I can take it down. I know he has AK. Be aggressive! Take it down!

I check.

He checks back.

River is an Ace. My brain - "Don't do it. You know you're beat. You know he's got AK. He's going to call if you shove now. Just check/fold and let it go. Don't be a hero."

My mouth - "I'm all in."

My brain - "Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck you."

Guy shrug-calls and shows the AK. He's got me covered by like 40k.

As for where I live - yeah it's underdeveloped, but they're building. And they're building a lot. There's going to be a ton of stuff around us within a year, and even more coming after that. Plus another community called like Sunstone just got approved for even further north, which will bring in more businesses. As for getting places, I'm 2 minutes from the 95 and 5 minutes from the 215 (****ing stop signs. C'mon Providence get your **** together and get some lights). Even with it taking so long to get to the Strip, the benefits of being in a new community, new area, and having it be so quiet and what not... It's absolutely worth it. But different strokes I guess. I've known people who lived on the Strip and would never do it again, and others who would never live somewhere else.

That's such a solid idea. I might try to talk the wife into something like that. We're doing the full boxes of candy ($1 each at Smiths, and we're buying like 100 of them) but I love the idea of other goodies for the parents and whatnot. I'm totally stealing it and taking credit.

Yeah I figured after like a minute that you had zero clue it was me. Hahahaha glad to see you're here man. How'd Silver Legacy treat you? I busted kinda early tonight but I'm going back there tomorrow again. Run It Up canceled a small-ball turbo tournament tonight which is why I ended up there, but I had tomorrow's Silver Legacy bounties on my schedule all along.

Pretty good, nice mix of retired super nits and action players. Kinda bummed they didn't start a NL table til 7 yesterday but it opened at 3 today. GL with the bounties, I think I might check out Atlantis tomorrow. I'm in Reno through Sat we should grab a bite or something.

Definitely. If you've still got my number text me. Or drop me your number in a PM and I'll shoot you a message tonight.

Spike you still around?