Rocks Off

Me:"Check the fuckin order, and get an order number."

Clerk:"OK."

The news wire said that planes were heading toward buildings that had the name "Board of Trade," and people started to evacuate. I remember thinking,"get cash, and food." I had no idea idea what we were facing, but I did get cash, and wake up a sister who crashed at my place to ask for the keys to her car to get gas, and more non-perishable food items. The rest of the day involved time spent with friends contemplating "12 Monkey Style" end of the world scenarios, and who would win the World Series. 

The Tito-Hopkins fight was a classic, and the first major post 911 sporting event in the country.  Before the gladiators were announced, I remember the crowd at MSG erupting as the NYC fireman walked to their much deserved seats.  When I saw them walking down the isle, as they were honored by the arena, and our nation, I broke down and cried.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2sWjouB1YA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtZNNV4d_rA&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjA_RtsBfAo&feature=related

As we rushed back to the pit, the floor had more chaos then anyone could imagine, and a "slow" day on the floor usually has more chaos than Joe Stroke can contemplate as he holds the rail while he listens to the gal who needs exercise, and a lot less make-up, blab about nothing on the phone, as he rides the train to work.

Mayhem.

Me(looking around to where shit's trading): What's the market?

Broker:"I got nothing."

Me:"Everything 200 points lower, sold."

Broker: "I got nothing."

I look at one the 60' monitors on the floor and we see the second plane hit!!!!!  The only time (back then) you would have ever heard silence on the floor.  A scary, heart stopping, is this fuckin possible silence. Total chaos, but I see someone with a bid. SOLD.

It was another Tuesday morning, post 7:15a opening, and nothing of note.  I remember thinking " I want to see the Trinidad-Hopkins fight, but Tito has his hometown crowd at the MSG, and if things don't go Tito's way, watch out."  Sure, it would have been great to see an undefeated boxer at, or close to his prime face a beast of a man at the same arena that hosted Ali-Frazier, but the more prudent side of me said NO.  Anyway, I left the pit -with a replacement clerk in tow- on my way for breakfast when one of the many monitors at the CBOT displayed a WTC building hosting a small plane. I remember thinking "not even a Kennedy is capable of such a fuck up," and I grabbed my clerk and said "we are under attack, let's go."

Fuck breakfast. We ran back to the pit.  More to follow

A few days ago I spent time pondering how much I have changed the balance between playing poker and studying poker. In the past, my poker schedule consisted of playing when I could, and that was about it. I completely neglected to think about ranges, stove situations, construct various ranges, etc. Anyway, after less than impressive results, I decided it was time to decide whether or not I wanted to take studying the game seriously, so I might eventually create space to learn something. Well, after deciding that learning by only playing poker was not working for me, I changed.

The big change – and it was difficult to do because habits can have a drawn out death – was to spend a lot more time away from the tables. In fact, I would venture to say that I have about a 1:1 ratio ( or close ) between non-play/ play time.

Most of my non-play time involves constructing ranges from different positions, and deciding what lines I would take against different opponent types given certain conditions. One can easily spend hours doing the pokerstove dance, and learn quite a bit.

Also, I spend a fair amount of time reading posts and thinking how I would handle the situation, watching videos, and listening to mp3s about poker theory over and over.

I must say that time spent not playing, for me anyway, has been incredibly helpful. I do not think that grinding is necessarily bad. However, I do think that grinding without actively thinking about what is going on can be quite detrimental to learning and understanding what is fundamentally solid play.

Maybe next time I will post some hands that illustrate how productive study time away from the tables has changed the way I play.

F

This is my first blog post and I plan to add more than talk about poker, to the content. So lets jump right in with the happiness treadmill and how it relates to dealing with wins and loses, in poker.

It appears that we are genetically programmed to prepare for the lean times, by engaging in activities that favor survival, such as acquiring food and passing on our genetic material. Today, survival behavior, entails more " greedy " acts, like acquiring money and engaging in all manner of materialistic pursuits, that please our genes and make us temporarily happy, but not for long. So what exactly does this have to do with poker ?

Well, I think it is important to maintain an emotional balance and understand why having balance is important. Have you ever won a few big pots and felt pleased? How about having taken a few bad beats and becoming more than just a little annoyed?

We inherited the genes of our ancestors, who happened to take enormous risks and certainly had a lot of gamble. They needed it, just to survive. So when we acquire something like money, we please our genes because the acquisition is a sign of progress, in terms of survival. When we lose some coin, we are not at all pleased (survival being threatened) and often make matters much worse.

Do numerous short term/immediate and regular gains produce long term happiness? Most studies find the answer is no. It is analogous to putting a lot of effort on a treadmill and going nowhere. So how can we benefit from this knowledge?

I think that having knowledge of our internal theatre will provide enormous gains by allowing us not to waste energy on short term results. We know why we get happy or mad, but we also know that definitive performance results require many, many hands. There is really no need to ride the exhausting and fruitless emotional roller coaster.

Ok, now a hand from a recent session.

I played the hand, in that manner, because I thought it would be a good time to balance my calling range in that particular spot. There was also the possibility that I would face a 3 bet, which is not bad, when you hold “the hand.” Not surprisingly, that hand totally changed the dynamics of the table. I had a solid and unpredictable image, which seemingly left the others giving me a lot of repect, which in turn made it easy to win a number of non-showdown hands.

Poker Stars $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold’em – 6 players
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

Hero (MP): $82.60
CO: $53.15
BTN: $25.95
SB: $70.05
BB: $56.65
UTG: $55.85

Pre Flop: ($0.75) Hero is MP with A A
UTG raises to $1.50, Hero calls $1.50, 3 folds, BB raises to $6, 1 fold, Hero raises to $14, BB raises to $37, Hero raises to $82.60 all in, BB calls $19.65 all in

Flop: ($115.05) J Q 4 (2 players – 2 are all in)

Turn: ($115.05) 9 (2 players – 2 are all in)

River: ($115.05) 4 (2 players – 2 are all in)

Final Pot: $115.05
Hero shows A A (two pair, Aces and Fours)
BB shows K K (two pair, Kings and Fours)
Hero wins $112.05
(Rake: $3.00)