A very close friend of mine, Jeremy Kaufman, passed away suddenly over the weekend. Jeremy was an integral part of my poker network in LA and Chicago. Jeremy was a very successful wealthy businessman with 3 teenage children and left us way too early at the young age of 56. He certainly didn’t act his age. He was always the life of the party. He always had a smile on his face and made people laugh. I’m certain he was the most loved person in our poker group. Everyone loved spending time with him. His attitude at the table was perhaps the best of anyone we know. Never once did he ever complain about losing a hand. No matter the size of the pot or how bad of a beat it was, he would lose graciously with a smile. He popularized the phrase “fair” as a comment after an all in run it twice situation where the result clearly wasn’t fair. Sometimes players who didn’t know him would say “wtf how was that fair” and we’d have to explain that it’s what we say no matter how fair or unfair the hand is. He also popularized “drats” as a comment after losing a big pot. Jeremy really was a one of a kind unicorn. His humor, his positive attitude, his words of wisdom, his caring for all of his friends made him so amazing to be around, whether it was poker or vacations or dinners or just phone calls. I met Jeremy in 2020 when Phil Hellmuth brought me into his online poker group during COVID with Danielle, Matusow, Jason Otto, Markus, DC Lawyer, etc. Of course I knew who Jeremy was from his infamous appearance on Poker Night in America. We quickly became good virtual friends and the first time we met in person it was like we had known each other forever. He treated everyone with so much love. A year or 2 later, he became an integral part of the Chicago poker community with Luiz, Ala, Texas Mike, Pink, etc. So many times he told me how thankful he was for us putting this group together and how poker was the most fun thing in the world for him and how much he loved our group. He started off as a competitive recreational player. By the end, he was considered one of the best players in our group. It shows how insanely smart he was for such a successful businessman to teach himself without coaching how to go from a fun player to one of the toughest players in the high stakes Chicago scene. Jeremy, we will all miss you so much. It’s hard to even put into words how much we will miss you. Getting that call was one of the worst feelings of my life. I cannot imagine what his family is going through right now, especially his children. Remember to hug your loved ones every day and live life to the fullest.

2005. Dallas, Texas. I’m racing through the hallways of my dorm, door knocking on a mission. “I’ll give you $50 free if you make an account on PartyPoker”. “Sure, I guess,” Luiz says. “But I’ve never played poker before.” “Then it’s better to learn for free,” I joke. “Alright, sign me up!” At the end of the month, PartyPoker pays me for every player I sign up. Luiz opens his laptop, makes an account, and I transfer him the $50. He loses it all a few hands later and forgets about poker altogether for another decade. I dropped out to turn pro a few months later, while Luiz would go on to graduate, open a trading firm in Brazil, and earn the name “BrazilGod.” @TheBrazilGod Year's later, he decides to take up poker as a hobby. He goes down the rabbit hole and learns his former dorm mate has become a professional. We email back and forth, but never cross paths. 2023, I’m scheduled to play on Hustler Casino Live. I get a text with the lineup. Luiz is playing. WTF?! Turns out, he’s become quite the player. We connect on the show and catch up about the good ol’ days after. We’ve kept in touch, linking up whenever I’m in Chicago or we’re both in Vegas. It’s great to reminisce about coming up together 20 year ago, us both taking similar life paths, then coming full circle to playing in the same high stakes circles together. I can’t help but reflect on the duality of how long ago college feels, yet how fast all the time went by. We’re both nearing 40 now, double age we were when we first met back at SMU. If there’s a lesson here, other than the randomness of it all, it’s that life goes fast. The older I get, the more I cherish all the moments, big and small. This, right here, the dinner with an old friend sharing some great food, it all cumulates into the thing we call life. It happens in a blink and then it’s gone. And you can only run it one time. Sometimes, those 20 years just hits you all at once. The only thing I keep coming back to is, do it now.

Joined @TexasMike2014’s Legendary poker game featuring “Pink” At @RiversCasinoCHI w @texasmike2014 @shaundeeb @junglemandan @TheBrazilGod @Ellie_xie1029 Soby #POSITIVITY

The moment Vozinha realized the World Cup had changed his life forever. 🥹❤️

BREAKING: All charges against myself, my partners, and the Lodge have been officially rejected. The seized money and equipment will be returned and we will reopen as quickly as possible, hopefully within a few weeks. The Grand Jury in Williamson county heard the allegations against us, and refused to authorize proposed charges. Justice has prevailed. The damage to our staff and members has been tremendous, and it is now time to rebuild. We will be putting together a kickoff event in the near future. In the words of a great man: “you gotta know when to hold'em”

Nick Wright (@getnickwright) announced as new co-host of No Gamble, No Future, and will join @BuffaloHanks in the booth. ⚡️ 👉 pokergo.com/news/nick-wright…

These motherfuckers really do seem to see and solve every problem differently than everyone else. Really inspiring. Congrats Tesla.

men, 2026 is the time to get our shit together. the modern world has made human slop of us. fertility rates are down 62%. metabolic disease afflicts 35%. obesity has hit 40%.  63% are not having sex weekly. testosterone is dropping 1% every year. 42% over forty have erectile dysfunction. sexlessness has doubled to 24%. enough. fucking enough. reject fast food, junk food, vaping, gambling, porn, nicotine, sleep deprivation, phone addiction, and excessive scrolling. these are your enemies. this is dopamine extraction. they are mining you for profit and leaving you weak and miserable. they are predators and you are their prey. no, not just this once. no, not in moderation. no, it’s not living life. it’s suicidal and deranged behavior. sleep. get jacked. eat well. set limits. be consistent. build the schedule. put on autopilot. don’t let your mind rationalize. replace inner weakness with systems strength. don’t listen to other people’s criticisms. they’re projecting their own stuff onto you. straighten up. let it roll off of you.  be great. be unabashedily you. maintain friendships with those who make you better. who inspires you to be your best self. do not continue to hang out with people who encourage debauchery. maintain good posture. stand tall. get up from your desk and walk around, stretch, do light exercises. do these things to reclaim your self respect. be a sovereign person. do not be owned by evil companies or influence. do not listen to the critics. build your life systems. make them habits. don’t let yourself talk you out of it. as you gain strength, it will require less energy to maintain.