It’s that time of the year again, March Madness! Thousands if not millions of people have filled out their NCAA brackets and are anxiously sweating their favorite teams and/or picks to see who will pull it all off at the end of the….oh wait, this isn’t a basketball post. Oh no. This is day 23 of a different form of March Madness. For reasons unknown to mankind, in late February our family decided to attempt the unthinkable: Go an entire month, a FULL month, without ever eating take-out or fast food. For us, that month was March, conveniently scheduled to have the full 31 days aka the longest time period allowed. Since we’ve endured I mean experienced this challenge for 3 weeks, I thought it would be a good time to go over how the challenge has gone so far from my point of view. And in my view all I can see are delicious, crunchy and conveniently prepared visions of yumminess. Uh oh, maybe I need to think about baseball. D’oh!

On the last day before the challenge began, we all got to enjoy a great going away mouth-party that was an Arby’s lunch and a Mexican fiesta dinner, all takeout baby. I’m surprised there wasn’t a McMuffin in the forecast but I probably didn’t realize how long a month truly takes. For example, try staring at a clock. All day. It takes 1591651316511 hours to complete the day if you do so. I’ve found it works the same for calendars, except maybe longer. Anyway, we started the challenge on March 1st and I dutifully drew chalk lines on the wall counting the days until we’d be able to enjoy the bountiful goodness of Fast Food America. But what happended next was most suprising.

I totally forgot about wanting fast food. The first couple of days went by very smoothly, with me avoiding TV and their super catchy $5-dollar-foot-long jingles and High Definition close-ups of all things sandwich. I even avoided driving by any fast food places just in case I had my window down and would be trapped into cracking like a bear and those damn pies the old ladies set out on the window prompting new episodes of When Animals Attack. But for some reason, I just really didn’t feel the need. What the heck. I’m not sure why, but I think I wasn’t missing it because while we were busy having every meal in we were all noticing that everything was tasting even better than usual. And everything has always tasted great as is (thanks to my wife’s awesome cooking abilities), but it was heightened to a new level somehow. It was like our tongues had been reborn! The first two weeks went by in a flash.

For some reason, though, week three was a bit tougher. All of a sudden I started noticing the fast food places again. I started noticing the commercials. To date, I’ve stayed strong and have not cracked (no one has) but it is definitely going to get harder heading into the home stretch. We only have 8 more days left in the experiment that no one really thought we could accomplish, myself included. I think it will be cool to complete our run, I will feel very good about outlasting my cravings, especially since I always enjoy a challenge where I come out the winter. Wish us all luck, and I’ll be sure to let everyone know if we can make it and squeak into April fast food free!

You can bet I will be tempted to burn the magnetic strip off my debit card on April fools day though…no joke!

I’m just in the blogging mood for some reason! I’ve recently redone the look of our dormant blog and am really looking forward to sweeping the dust off of it and actually doing some posting this year. Yeah, I know I’ve said it many times before but let’s face it: You weren’t here to read it, and if you were well I wasn’t here that much and I didn’t notice. But I’m keen on letting by-gones be by-gones, so out with the old policy and in with the new more-frequent postage.

I had a great year in 2008 in just about all aspects, particularly in the online poker world where I enjoyed a very profitable year with multiple wins in both MTT (multi-table tournaments) and SNG’s (sit-and-goes) which I will be catching everyone up on in the near future. I plan on posting hands I’ve played with commentary on a semi-regular basis, which will help chronicle the 2009 poker season for me. For starters, I AM DONE WITH FULL TILT POKER! Well, at least for a little while. More on that to come, and more of the random blogs about relatively nothing you’ll come to love.

We’ve added another great guide to the site, which can be found on our homepage menu: the Tower of Hanoi guide! This is one tough puzzle and I hope our guide sheds some light on the techniques used to solve it and helps out those of you who have been stumped by it in the past. It’s really quite beautiful, and mesmerizing, to move the tiles back and forth and finally solve the puzzle. Enjoy!!

In other news, I’ve been focusing much more at the poker table and have even booked several top 3’s including a win (woot), a second and two thirds in MTT tournaments, with various Sit-and-Go wins and placings in tourneys across the web. It feels good to take one down after a dry spell and puts me back in the winning spirit. I’m working on my game pretty hard and plugging leaks as they occur. My results can only improve! Check out the Tower of Hanoi guide and get ready for the upcoming Hold’em (and who-knows-what-other-forms-of-Poker-I-might-focus-on) guides :)

The games most recognizable pros are winning bracelets by the bushel this year, and we’re only several tournaments into the long schedule that unfolds throughout the month. Here are some of the more notable wins:

Nenad Medic: Previously described as an amazing Cash game player, Nenad came into the tournament spotlight when he won the WPT Championship at Foxwoods. He continued to have success in the World Poker Tour arena, including a third place finish in the same event the next year. Now Nenad can lay claim to yet another notable achievement: WSOP Bracelet winner. He took down the pro-laced $10,000 Buy-in Pot-Limit Hold’em World Championship.

Erick Lindgren: Often referred to (very unfairly) as one of the games best players to have never won a World Series of Poker bracelet, Lindgren put the nonsense to bed by taking home a bracelet in another pro-heavy event, the $5,000 Mixed Limit/No Limit Hold’em event. Erick has had an incredible year so far, including winning the Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS) Event #9 where he was actually the host of the event!

Daniel Negreanu: Easily one of the greatest players to have ever played the game, Daniel had been on a WSOP drought by his standards, having bracelet-blanked at the WSOP for almost four years. That all came to an end when he won the $2,000 Limit Hold’em Event #20 in the exact same event he won his last bracelet in. If you follow Daniel’s blog you’ll understand what an achievment this really is, so congratulations Daniel on a huge win!

There have also been big wins by fan favorite Mike Matusow and relatively not-well-known but very successful David Singer as well as some very high finishes by some of the “Internet Pros”. I put that in quotes since so many of the players who got their start online are now forces in the Live arena as well the line is becoming blurred between the two previously distinct styles of play. Good luck to everyone and keep the wins coming!

Two new strategy guides can be found on the ChessandPoker.com homepage: Solutions to the Fifteen puzzle and Einstein’s problem!! We have lots more in production as well so keep your eyes peeled for more additions to the site!