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Hey guys. Just doing a quick update here. 

I've been reading The Black Swan and The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying. The first one is pretty good so far and I've certainly got some good stuff out of it. For example, the author mentions how people in professions with high randomness (oh, hi mark!) can suffer from look-back stings. ("Oh, I should have folded there. Oh, I should have shoved the turn in that giant pot last night"). He mentions trying to block out these thoughts is not a great solution. Instead, a more appropriate solution is simply to write about these situations and analyze them thoroughly, learning from the mistake. This makes you less likely to suffer burnout effects from that constant second-guessing of your past actions in terms of what played out subsequently. Doing hand history reviews is very helpful. Recording yourself as you play and thinking out loud, then reviewing the video is much more helpful. Now you can analyze your current thought process, see if it your assumptions were realistic. There's also another benefit. If you make correct plays, you also confirm your reasoning and can free up more brain for new thoughts. Of course, there is a cave-at. You may not be analyzing hands correctly. This is one of the reason why having a group of poker friends is very valuable.

There's also another reason that comes up on this book. Taleb mentions how our brain (emotions) still haven't evolved from life in a primitive environment, where process and result were closely connected, ie we are thirsty, we drink water. Our emotional apparatus is designed for linear causality. In poker, process (learning and playing) and results are often not connected, especially in the short term. This becomes somewhat of a problem when we realize how our society favors results over process. That is, almost no one will be impressed if someone says: "I just made my 500th post in a poker strategy forum. I'm learning so much!" A much more impressionable thing to say is "I just won $500 playing poker!"

As a poker player, you know process-related activities are very important to achieve success over the long-term. Analyzing hands, watching/recording videos, running simulations and/or doing math stuff. These things help you improve the chances you win more money when you play. They also generate an auto-satisfaction of sorts. That's that good feeling we feel when we finish watching a video or analyzing a situation and getting solid conclusions. In general society it's definitely not worth much, however in 'the poker world' a solid player that's good to review hands with gets respect from his colleagues. Results obviously still get more respect, since we still have that human nature, but we point is we can appreciate process-related activities within our community. This appreciation and respect we enjoy from in a poker community replaces some of the negative feelings we could experience in the 'outside world'. This is probably not just feel-good stuff, as Taleb writes: The hippocampus is the structure where memory is supposedly controlled. [...] It is also the part that is assumed to absorb all the damage from repeated insults like the chronic stress we experience daily from small doses of negative feelings. (This also relates to how perhaps checking your results on a weekly basis instead of a daily or hour-to-hour basis is helpful in reducing stress and tilt, assuming you're a winning player of course)

Anyway, the point I was trying to make is that there are many advantages to associating with your poker peers, particularly a share of knowledge, dignity and respect. This way the negative feelings that we face from a non-appreciating or, I should say understanding society can be faced together and more easily turn it into motivation for improvement. So...yeah. It's much better to face the demons of poker with friends. Shout-out to all you crazy PLOwners in my Skype group, it's a pleasure for reals.

This actually got pretty long so I will talk about The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying in my next blog post. Cliff notes: Get it. Read it.  

Anyway, here's the "NH" I promised. It's from today, I actually recorded this session live with audio, but it became hectic very quickly playing 4-tables. Read: aggressive opponent, been playing with him across 4 tables for almost 2 hours. 

Poker Stars $0.50/$1 Pot Limit Omaha Hi $0.20 Ante - 4 players - View hand 1042775

DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

SB: $90.50
BB: $791.15
CO: $506.25
Hero (BTN): $428.10

Pre Flop: ($2.30) Hero is BTN with 7 K T T
CO raises to $3, Hero raises to $11.30, 2 folds, CO calls $8.30

Flop: ($24.90) 3 T 3(2 players)
CO bets $8, Hero raises to $24, CO raises to $77, Hero calls $53

Turn: ($178.90) K(2 players)
CO checks, Hero bets $86, CO raises to $180, Hero raises to $339.60 all in, CO calls $159.60

River: ($858.10) 2(2 players - 1 is all in)

Final Pot: $858.10
CO shows 5 4 8 8 (a flush, Ten high)
Hero shows 7 K T T (a full house, Tens full of Threes)
Hero wins $856.10
(Rake: $2.00)