Life As Nick Starr

Remember how I told you I had my first glass of Voss water back at the casino a while back, well last week I went and had 4 bottles. I’m not a HUGE fan of sparkling water, but Voss is awesome. I was told by someone there that you can buy it at Fresh Market. Advice I’m not sure I wish I heard.

The next day I went to Fresh Market and purchased $30 worth of Voss Still water, no more sparkling for me. Over the weekend at the poker tournament, which I finished in 45th spot out of 1000+ entrants, I drank through the entirety of the Voss water I had purchased. Time to go back to Fresh Market for some more.

They were all out of the glass 800mL bottles, so I got the plastic 1 liter bottles (Voss Red) instead. They are $2.99 each compared to $2.49 for 800mL. The smaller 300mL glass bottles cost $1.49.

I’ve tried to drink other water, and I can taste the difference. Nothing tastes good to me besides Voss anymore. I’m now up to drinking two 1-liter bottles per day at work, and at least 1 more at night. During lunch I bring a 300mL with me to Chipotle for my rice & beans. That puts it at over $10/day in water. Granted there are more expensive and far more harmful addictions habits. I guess since I am only spending $0.70 cents at lunch, and $0.70-$1.99 on dinner, it all balances out.

Still, there is over $30 in empty water bottles in the above pictured trash can here at work. I know water is recommended to help lose weight on a low-fat diet, but I can’t seem to drink anything else besides Voss.

I play in local poker tournaments that are free. The first prize awards a certificate, second place gives you additional starting chips the following week. Every quarter or so, there is a regional tournament for all of the certificate holders. Starting off at $10,000 in chips, each additional certificate is an additional $1,000 to start off with. I had more certificates then I could find, but I did end starting off with $17,000.

I started off folding for quite some time, not getting anything even worth calling a poker hand. Early on I had AA, bet $1,200, when the blinds were $200/$400. No one called. A few hands later, I had the same hand. In the small blinde I raised to $1,200 and the big blind and one limper called. The flop was J/4/8 (rainbow). I bet somewhere between $2,000 and $3,000. Big blind folded, limper called. On the turn, a blank, I went all in. The limper pondered for a few minutes, and eventually called leaving me with only $3,000 left if I lost the hand. He flipped over KK and didn’t catch a King on the river. I was now around $35,000 in chips.

I continued to grow my stack to $40,000 at break, and $50,000 by the next break. I got up to around $65,000, with only 20 minutes left until the end of the day. Once the blinds reached $4,000/$8,000 they called it a day, counted your chips, and you qualified to come back Sunday for the finals. There were tournaments Thurs night, Friday night, Saturday morning and evening. I played Saturday morning. In an unopened pot, early position raises to $16,000 (big blind was $4,000). I re-raise to $40,000 with AK of hearts. He goes all in after pondering for a few minutes for around $50,000. I am make the call and see his 77. His pair held up, and I was left crippled. In a desperate move, the next hand I went all in after just seeing the Ace of spades (yep that’s what we call tilt). I had A/9 off, and the chip leader called with KK. I caught a 9 on the flop, and Ace on the turn.

After that I chopped a few pots with ace high against the board pairing with a player who often was caught bluffing. I ended the day with $25,000 in chips. Not great, but the only one from Midtown Sundries (where I play) to qualify in the morning shift.

Last night I spent the night in Sarasota, can’t really find anything to do here, but I did make it out to one of the most beautiful poker room’s I’ve seen down at the Sarasota Kennel Club.

I will post how I do tomorrow, with some players with over $100k in chips, I’m going to play as tight as I can, and hope for the best. Either way, it’s been a fun experience.

Living out of my car, I tend to eat out for meals quite a bit, especially dinner. I really don’t eat breakfast anymore, and lunch should be a peanut butter and jam sandwich daily (although I tend to hit up Quiznos more then I should).

I’ve been trying to decide what is a good “meal” for dinner. It’s no secret that I’m not thin, although I would like to work on that. I’ve been thinking that a small dinner would be a good idea to decrease calorie count, using the old adage ‘if you burn more then you eat, you lose weight.’

Now I haven’t really come up with any ideas for dinner yet. I had a yogurt the other day for the first time. I’ve never been a fan of eating something that is bacterial cultures, but it didn’t taste bad. I got low-fat cherry vanilla, with the nutritional information below.

The sugars are a bit high in yogurt, even the “low-fat,” and the sugar free are a bit more difficult to come by. So, is yogurt a good idea? Can anyone thing of anything else that might work. Remember I am looking for something that is single serving, doesn’t require prep, and is cheap. 50 cents a night on yogurt dinner seems to meet all of those categories, although I would love more suggestions.