A Defense of Gambling
I feel that among poker players, there is a culture of being obsessed with minimizing variance and with legal debates hinging so much on the definition of gambling, people are always super quick to point out that poker when played well against players worse than you is not gambling. I think gambling in general gets a bad rap and is not only important for poker players to embrace but also can be a net positive overall as long as it is done in moderation and with money one can afford to lose.

I just set out a pretty giant task for myself so I’m going to start with the easiest part. Poker at its purest form is gambling. People who currently make a living playing poker could not do so if there were not gambling involved. If the better player won every hand you would be hard-pressed to find a fish who would ever enjoy the game of poker. No one bad at chess is challenging chess grandmasters to chess matches for money. Some might pay money just to play someone in chess, but that’s not the same at all. If I played a chess grandmaster I would literally have a 0% chance to win. Ok maybe I have the chance that he goes mentally insane during the match and forgets how to play chess, but realistically I will not win. Now put the same chess grandmaster who has not played a single hand of poker and put him in a game against say Phil Ivey. He is going to win some percentage of the time. And that’s part of the appeal. If he was going to lose 100% of the time there would be little fun in playing the game. But the idea that if you have some disposable money you can have a reasonable chance to beat someone thought to be the best player in the world in the short term excites a lot of people.

That was the easy one, now I’m going to attempt to make a defense of pure flipping. In general I’m a bit of a life nit. I’ll go out of my way to buy something from somewhere or use a coupon if I can save a dollar. I’ve also done a good amount of 1k flips. That may seem contradictory but I assure you it is not. The ev of every flip I’ve done with other poker players is $0. The ev of a coupon that saves me $1 is $1. So why am I flipping for large sums of money when I go out of my way to save small amounts every day? Well the easiest defense for it is that such flips will come up naturally in the course of poker games so doing those flips on their own will help make them not seem like such a big deal when they do come up. There shouldn’t be a place where you’re fearing getting stacks in for a flip situation as this could negatively affect your decisions and you may opt not to take small edges that may involve getting into a flip situation.

But I’m also going to go even further in this analysis and say that assuming you can afford to lose what you are flipping for, it can be a positive even for people who don’t play poker. Whether you know it or not, there is a lot of variance in your day to day life. Things affect you in ways you can’t control. Every time you get behind the wheel of a car you have a nonzero chance of crashing and dying. Now that’s not super relevant because the ev of having a car in terms of getting a job or going to anywhere outside of walking distance is so huge. But it’s not hard to come up with examples where this is not the case. And in close decisions it’s important to weigh all the options without the fear of losing. I think the more you gamble in life, the more willing you will be to take risks that may have a positive expectation but also have the potential to turn out badly, rather than simply always taking the safe route. On top of that, I’m not very religious at all but it is very humbling to know that whether you win or lose is completely out of your control. And that’s something that I think is a plus to anyone, especially in a world where people seem to underestimate variance so much. Think sports analysts talking about a team winning “because they played better today”. Now sports is another topic I could write for pages on so I’ll just make my point that usually it’s more likely that the team got luckier that game. It’s important to realize the role luck plays in your life. I feel that gambling has led me to be a more adventurous person in general in life. I’m used to being put in spots where my fate will be determined by luck, at least in the short term, so I don’t mind taking risks in life that might turn out badly as long as it also has a good upside.

But I figure I also must address the issue of addictive gamblers. You’ll notice that in this entire piece I have not once mentioned anything about a rush when you’re sweating the flip. I have not once mentioned the high of winning a flip. That’s because that’s not what gambling should be about. If you are gambling enough such that a loss will hurt you financially, you are in over your head and should stop. Similarly it should not be enough that you are ecstatic when you win. In general I like to gamble with an amount that matters to me so I am happy to win but it’s not enough that I can’t just shrug it off if I lose. I’m not arguing to flip for money you can’t afford to lose, I’m arguing that flipping for money you’re fine losing has way more merits than it gets credit for. Hopefully I’ve made a decent case for why despite the bad rap gambling gets, it can be a positive if done responsibly. Sometimes it’s good to be reminded that you aren’t in control and practice handling something like winning or losing money when you have no control over the outcome. Because in life you will sometimes have to face choices when you have limited information. If the decision is made fearing failure, it almost always will be a bad choice. However if you’re used to flipping you can simply focus all your energy on the actual decision rather than being results oriented if it turns out badly. You’re already used to losing flips, and you realize that a flip has a neutral expectation and that you can lose without doing anything wrong. It helps detach us from the results from our decisions. And any time we can focus simply on making the best possible decisions we can, rather than the results, be it at poker or in life, it is going to be a good thing. Gambling helps us realize that we can’t control everything, and in doing so helps us to understand what we can control, and focus on these things, which is all that really matters when making a decision.

Extract from press release by PTR. Read the full release here.

Recent contact by Stars has led to the removal of this network’s player profiles from PTR. The current management team of PTR has been in place for just under a year and since day 1 we have been exploring ways to compromise with brands in order to create positive relationships for the betterment of the community. Through these valued partnerships we have created innovative promotions and features for our users and have many more in development. Unfortunately we have been unable to gain communication with Stars during this time and it has come to a hostile dissolution of service for this brand. They have taken formal action against us and we will comply with their demands and have the brand removed from the site.

What They Tweeted

adam johnson ‏ @BrahsWorld84
@KevinKCFD not 2 surprised, PTR killed HU games & outs fish, making them realize they R fish.

Vincent Wille ‏ @vinivici9586
good news. pokerstars issues cease and desist letter to PTR:http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/29/news-views-gossip/pokerstars-issues-cease-desist-letters-ptr-1194294/ maybe @Joeingram1 will never pass me now

bigacsiga ‏ @bigacsiga84
@PokerStars thanks for dealing with PTR. voicing my oppinion and really like this new situation of it gone #thanks #goodforthegames

Justin Bonomo ‏ @JustinBonomo
Early reports indicate PokerStars has defeated PTR!

Andrew Ferguson ‏ @TheEurekaKid
So @PokerStars has defeated PTR? Still waiting for Lee Jones to appear on an aircraft carrier in front of ‘Mission Accomplished’ banner

Mazin Khoury ‏ @MSauce_
Nice to see @PokerStars finally stepping up on the PTR issue. Hopefully this law suit goes somewhere.

What games and stakes?
Currently Zoom Poker is only offered for cash games, from 1c/2c to $2.5/$5 at no limit hold ‘em and upto $0.50/$1 at PLO.

How does strategy change?
Less Meta-game
There is less meta-game to consider when playing Zoom than there is in regular games. Your table is new every hand and while you may develop some history with particular opponents over time it will take a lot longer than usual, particularly at lower stakes where the player pool is larger. Things like mucking a marginal hand because you’vee been quite active in recent orbits or making a call because you think a guy is on tilt because you just saw him lose a stack come up less often.

Games Play Tighter
It comes as little surprise that when people are given the option to fast fold marginal/junky hands and go immediately to another hand/table they end up playing a bit tighter. Adjust accordingly!

Games Play Deeper
Because one tabling Zoom gives you so many extra hands per hour than a regular table, players get deeper a lot earlier in their sessions playing Zoom. That results in the games playing a little bit deeper than normal.

Tips
Know Your Table
Your table line-up changes every hand and therefore so should your ranges/decisions. My number one tip would be to be very thorough about colour coding your opponents allowing you to quickly recognise the dynamics of your table and make decisions accordingly. This can be difficult as the hands move so quickly and you don’t always have time to be taking notes. My advice would be to cut down to one table for a bit and just focus on colour coding everyone for a few orbits. Alternatively, use the replayer to go back over past hands and you can take notes from there.

Play Tiled
A lot of you probably do this anyway, but tiling your tables is the most effective method for playing Zoom in my opinion. With stacking and cascading you won’t get the opportunity to ‘Fast Fold’ as often and therefore be costing yourself one of the main benefits of playing Zoom (being more hands per hour).

Look At Showdowns
It’s easy to just move onto the next hand and forgo a lot of information by forgetting about a hand as soon as you’ve folded. If you’re interested to see a showdown in real time you can hold the Ctrl key as you fold and remain at the table to see the rest of the hand. Alternatively, scroll back through hands using the replayer to pick up vital intelligence.

Will my HUD work?
It is my understanding that Zoom Poker is now supported by Hold ‘Em Manager 1 & 2 as well as PokerTracker 3 and 4. A few bugs are still being ironed out and it may take you a bit of tinkering to get it functioning.

How many VPPs per hand can I expect?
It’s going to depend largely on your style, but in general because the games are a bit tighter your VPPs per hand will be a little lower than at regular tables. This is more than made up for by the ability to play a lot more volume though. For $1/$2 nlhe you’ll probably get somewhere between 0.30 and 0.40 VPP/hand for $0.50/$1 nlhe you’re looking at 0.20 to 0.30 VPP/hand. I can’t comment on PLO or microstakes NLHE.

• Grind 100nl rest of month
• No looking at results until until end of month (get rid for esults/EV columns in HEM and use AHK to block cashier on Stars)
• Listen to Mental game podcasts
• Buy/read Mental Game book
• Write a short blog about confidence
• Develop some focus excercises
• Break zoom tables every two hours
• Review marked hands from previous session before resuming from break
• Review a regular per day
• Two sweats/reviews with LifeFish guys
• Review a hand (my own or from forum) everyday with a LifeFish
• Watch a few Ultimate Grinders free videos and decide if I want a membership
• Review these goals on May 1st and post another goals blog

I’m writing this blog from Newmanmi’s kitchen table after a week of hanging out with him, pwnchizzle and RaiderDuck. It’s been fun as always, but at the same time a sad reminder that we were all holidaying in tropical North Queensland this time a year ago without a care in the world. So much has changed in our worlds has changed since April 15th, 2011. Pwnchizzle is only chilling with us when he’s not busy saving lives as a doctor and poker is much less a topic of conversation.

Pwnchizzle had a couple of days off and we headed on a road trip North to a small fishing town called Cervantes. I went on monkey tilt because the local tavern couldn’t show me the Lions game live on TV and we had to wait for two hour delayed broadcast and then at 3 quarter time the entire town was blacked out. The next day with few less drinks in me a I realised I had a season pass on my phone to watch every game live. Thankfully, we were getting thrashed and it didn’t matter, but it soured the first night a little.

The next day was much more enjoyable though as we visited the Pinnacles (limestone formations sticking out of the ground). Newman’s lowered car struggled to tour as round the narrow and rocky dirt track through the

National Park, but got through unscathed. I was kind of hoping I’d get see him in rage mode having to change one of his brand new tyres (after he blew one of hisod one’s in the boiling heat on middle of highway last time we were on a road trip).

The weather has been great the whole trip and we’ve been spending a lot of time by the beach and swimming pool. RaiderDuck has been to pole dancing class twice to keep up his skills, as well as an amateur pole dancing show with some randoms he met on Facebook. I’m averaging about 15 games of pool a day, and still enraged by the Newman house rule that you must nominate a pocket on the 8-ball and that pocket is yours and yours only for the rest of game, results in some ridiculous end game play. Other than that, we’ve just been waching/betting sports, playing basketball and having a few drinks. Good times.

There may or may not be a video blog published at some point later in the trip (it’s been too long!). For now, enjoy this…

A New Direction

Before online poker stole all my attention and wonderment, I was a biology/pre-medicine major at Northwest Missouri State University.  The end game was to work in the radiology field, and that’s exactly where I’m returning!  Seeing what life throws at me between now the foreseeable future will determine if medical school is part of that plan.  Obviously, there are numerous variables that can impact it either positively or negatively.  My first goal will be to become a radiologic technologist and move forward from there.  And although I’ve been separated from the healthcare field for the past several years, so many things factored into this decision.  And it was a very exhilarating, organic process.

First, finding raw foods and putting many hours of study into that really spurred me along.  The mentors I look up to inspire me so much; I really loved that feeling.  (I can’t imagine how gratifying it is for them.)  But helping others is just that, freakishly soul-filling and addicting.  Good karma for the win! Feed me!

Soon after getting knee-deep into my education in raw foods, I met Reniece.  Every day at about 5:30 a.m. my time, when she gets off her shift as an RN at a local Kansas City children’s hospital, she calls and tells me all about her night. Unbeknownst to her, this has been a highly concentrated daily dose of inspiration that I’ve never felt before.  She and her co-workers are making a real difference.  They’re adding, contributing, creating.  I want that.

Lastly, although I made what I consider to be a very solid income from low to mid’ stakes heads-up cash games online, my passion for the game, once very solid, has taken on a much more translucent feeling in the last few months.  That unrelenting passion hasn’t disappeared.  It’s just been transferred. My priorities, and the things I want out of life, have just dramatically changed right before my eyes. I’ve never been so sure of anything, either.  :)  Do I hate poker?  Hell to the no!  I still dig poker very much; it’s just not what it once was for me.  For many of my friends, even my best friends, this is the first they’ll have heard of all this.  Even though they know me as a huge science nerd, this will come as a pretty big shock to them.  But I will most definitely still be playing poker; it just won’t be my career anymore.  I’ll be dispatching even more urgency into my new passion…helping people!

Exiting the Poker Lifestyle

So how the hell do you go from being a professional online grinder for about 3.5 years to re-entering the real world? Well, having an epiphany like I did really helps…ha ha.  (I want to be very clear, though. I am not denigrating poker or poker players at all.  It’s just not doing it for me, specifically.)  I actually will be playing full-time for a bit longer, anyway. I’m moving back to my home, Kansas City, in just a few days (4/2/12).  I will be looking for a modest job there and grinding ’til that comes about.  I want to get enrolled in college as soon as humanly possible.  (I’m extremely excited to get back into school!) Yes, setting an alarm will be something I will not like doing, but the overall life EV I’ll be gaining from having to be places at designated times can’t hurt.  ;)  I’ll continue to be an active CardRunners, LifeFish, etc. member.  Too many great people in the poker world to just leave it completely.  But I’m truly stoked to just be playing as a hobby and a means of supplementing my income.  Has such a refreshing ring to it.

Some of you may be thinking that this has everything to do with Black Friday and its impact on poker. Yes, that definitely played a role in my decision, but it was far from the primary reason.  In fact, it’s near the bottom of the list. Establishing a lifestyle that’s both fulfilling to me on an individual level and one that’s conducive to raising an awesome family…that’s my dream.  Can a poker player do those things?  Many can; I’m just not sure I can do it in a way that doesn’t dilute the effort I want to put into other, much more important, aspects of my life & future.  And this all just happened to coincide with my lust for poker significantly diminishing and my love for helping people spiking to a new high.  A perfect (awesome) storm, if you will!

Away We Go

Look, the bottom line is that I want what all of you want.  To live as happy of a life as humanly possible. I’m a simple guy.  I don’t need a lot of money or a lot of “stuff.”  I need love, good health, and a fulfilling career.  Those equal happiness to me and in that order.  I don’t find my current career fulfilling at all now, and I’ve a returning passion that’s growing at an alarming rate…and that’s just to be a better human being and to help others.  So I’m taking that path and moving on it with the quickness.  Maybe you’ll see me with an MD following my name in the next decade.  Maybe not. But I can guarantee you one thing: I will approach whatever is best for me & mine with a vigor that’s rivaled by literally no one. As cliche as it is, when I want something this bad, I go very hard.  And I want this new life.  So away we go…

Thanks for reading, guys.  Hope you’re all crushing whatever it is you’re up to.  Remember that anything worth fighting for has its share of struggles along the way.  Keep fighting.  And never take your eyes off the smokin’ bacon.  Prize, I mean!  ;)  Peace.

Poker…

Poker has been going really well so far in 2012.  (Although it’s been a tough last couple of days…ha ha.) Prior to Black Friday, I was sitting up to $2/$4 HU, although game-selecting hardcore as those were new stakes for me.  Things are a bit different now, so I play a little lower, but I feel my game advancing quickly…more than pre-Black Friday, in fact.  (I don’t really know why, but it’s strikingly evident.)  Let’s hope this new bill passes before I get my Merge money seized too.  Ha!  Anyway, good stuff on the poker front.  More updates to follow, of course.  As for coaching, for those of you who’ve contacted me about my reduced coaching rates, I’ll be starting to contact you guys within the next week or so.  If I don’t, please just email me.

Health…

My one big resolution was to start cutting out all meat except bird and fish products but try to eat as much raw food as possible.  There’s been 45 days so far this year, and I’ve cheated on 11 of them.  I don’t know if you consider that good or bad, but it’s pretty good for me.  Plus, I’m eating extremely healthily just in general.  Once I can finally ditch the beef, pork, etc. with no cheating, I’ll start eliminating the rest of the meat products and dairy.  It’s quite a process when you’re addicted to degen’ eating, though.  Still, I’m down a ton of weight from when I started this healthy transformation back in October.  Just got to keep raising the bar to get to the ultimate goal of a complete raw vegan lifestyle.

Valentine’s Day…

Lastly, I want to wish all the females out there a very happy Valentine’s Day today/yesterday, depending on your time zone.  My girlfriend is about 1,400 miles away working a 12-hour shift at a hospital, so my Valentine’s Day evening is going to consist of getting in the spa, which is heating now, and doing some relaxing and meditating out there.  Tranquility for the win.

Okay, that’s it for today.  Blogs to come in the near future will include more from The Unfiltered Truth About Men series, poker updates, progress on my health, and other stuff I find blog-worthy.  Hope everyone’s crushing at the tables and enjoying the new year!  Cheers, y’all.

The person…

I don’t know much about him, honestly, but he seems like a super-nice dude.  As a big football fan, he’s great for the game.  He’s a winner and works extremely hard.  This is what I know.  Because he’s not my personal friend, all that matters to me is how he approaches football.  If I had children, I’d have a vested interest in what kind of role model he is.  Even though I’m not a Christian, nor religious at all, allowing my children to see him pray to Jesus on the football field would still be setting a solid, positive spiritual example, in my opinion.  Period.

The praying…

To start, who cares?  This is such a non-issue.  Why is literally anyone upset about what this guy does in his own personal space?  Unless he’s hurting or endangering others somehow, leave the dude alone. Religion is each person’s individual right.  If he’s uber-religious and enters into some meditative, peaceful place when he’s praying, more power to him.  How does this upset so many?  I’ll never get it.

America’s negative reaction…

I’ve pretty much stated how I feel about this already.  Those who are extremely opposed to this, what’s your basis?  Maybe I’m missing something.  But why does this irk you so very much?  Seems like a completely reasonable thing to do if he so desires.

America’s positive reaction…

Hearing the extremely religious people defend Tebow’s praying sort of makes my ears bleed, but that’s just me.  The end result of their argument, no matter how hilariously they arrived there, is correct.  God does not help Tim Tebow win football games.  He doesn’t help him complete passes.  So on & so forth.  I think most of these Christians know this.  Hopefully, he’s praying for strength and/or thanking God for the opportunity to play professional football.  Sounds pretty humble to me, a very good quality in this day and age…especially for professional athletes.  Do I think he’s talking to Jesus Christ?  Of course not. But damn, that doesn’t make it wrong in any way.  Any disagreement I have with the mega-religious people is not aimed at their opinion of this topic, it’s usually the elitist demeanor in which they convey their message.  (But I’ve come to expect this from most Christians, so no big deal.)

All in all, Tebow appears to be a very good person and an exceptional football player.  The way I look at it, praying is his way of meditation, which as I said before, is just a vessel to a very peaceful & calm place.  And if I had to go up against all those insanely large NFL defenses, you’d better believe I’d be meditating my ass off too.  Cheers.