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My sleep schedule has been epic bad the last few days…so I have spent a lot of my time trying to sleep. It got really bad the other day when I had to get some work done by 5a, and then had the uFR draft for the July Challenge at 11a (btw, whoever made it at that time is a jerk, lol). So I stayed up, went to bed after coaching at like 3p and woke up at 9p. Aaaaaaaaaand the sleep schedule has been terrible since. Damn sleep…

This will be pretty scattered, so I applogize in advance. On Friday I went down to the strip and put in a session at the Venetian. Really couldn’t get anything going. Pretty card dead, and my SC’s were just bricking in epic ways. O well. Got back at 3a, put in a Halo session, and crashed out. In an effort to play more poker I have been playing a little 6max. Still getting used to it, so just messing around 3tabling 25NL and just trying to get used to how online 6max works. Not bad, but it’s odd thinking I’m playing tight and it turns out I’m running a silly 48/36 ATS: 77 3b: 9.

Also played a 2hr HU session of PLO the other day with Cwar. Very interesting game. I’m still trying to get the hang of it (because I want to be proficient at every game ever…except LHE), and I’m amazed at how different this game is from PLO8. I came from PLO8 actually back in 2005. I love the game, and still love it…but sadly it will never be big. The edge you can gather is just too large, especially in 6max and HU games, so the fish have no sustainability. Who knows…maybe a capPLO8 game could get huge =)

Other than poker stuff, work is going well. The product is moving along pretty nicely, and the time and effort is looking like it’s paying off well. I’ve also been experimenting with some SEO (to get the hang of how Goggle indexes things, etc) stuff that will help the business (so if you notice the title tags on some pages seem a little odd, that is why). I know I’ve mentioned it before, but because I am still pissed off, I will reiterate how angry I am that at no point in my college career did I learn about iMarketing. So I am still learning and trying new things to see what I can do with it…it really is amazing the opportunities available in it though.

And on that note, I am going to crash out. I’m looking forward to July for some odd reason, so cheers to it being a good one. Also, enjoy this song. Amazing to say the least

*SS*

Just a quick update and a patch of random things I’ve forgotten to mention over the last week or so.

1.) While I was back in Boston (my last night oddly enough), I was attacked by a bat. I’m not sure why I forgot to write about this, but O well. Took my dog out at like 2a for his late nighter, and because I walk him without a leash (he’s a fairly good listener), he was out doing his business in the lawn. While he’s out there, I feel something just land on my left back shoulder (like if someone lightly threw a Nerf football at your back). I instantly got my shirt off, threw it on the ground (just as my protective 5lb dog comes over to help) and see the gross bat just trying to get out of it. Damn bats. Lucky for me, no bites or anything, just really odd.

2.) I went with my housemates to “Rosemary’s” last week. Absolutely delicious. I am a huge seafood buff and was a bit turned off by the panko crusted crab boulettes , but the shrimp tartar made up for it. Pan seared scallops for dinner and some awesome cheesecake for dessert…awesome place imo. Will def be going back, and because my housemates are obsessed, and it’s a little pricey, we decided that it’s a place to go when business stuff goes right.

3.) Business stuff is going well. Ended up running into a roadblock, but it turned out to be easily fixable. There are 3 main jobs, and everyone was trying to do all the jobs for their section of work…oddly enough though, everyone wanted to do 1 of the jobs, so we are just streamlining because of it. Cheers to Mr. Ford and his assembly line procedures.

4.) My sleep schedule is nut bad right now. Bed at 6a, up at 11a for coaching. Like every day. I need to get it back on track. I will rummage around for some left over melatonin after I write this.

That seems like enough for this random ass post. Sorry the thoughts are kind of haphazard, just wanted to write something. Enjoy the playlist…I heard a bunch of Jedi Mind Tricks this week, and wanted to share some of the ones I’ve listened to like 90x this week =)

Hope all is well

*SS*

There are things that are inherently +EV and pretty much all of them are necessities: eating, sleeping, making money, wearing clothes. Without these we would die of starvation or embarrassment.

-EV things are almost always non-necessities: luxury and entertainment. But are they really -EV? From an economical standpoint in real $, yes. From a quality of life standpoint in entertainment dollars (E$), no. We would die of boredom without entertainment. Dying is generally a -EV proposition.

The only logical conclusion then is that people actually never choose actions that they calculate to be -EV. People always choose the best option available in their opinion and in some way or another try to accomplish their goals. Because of this and for the purposes of this article, accomplishing goals, whatever they are, is always +EV for the person trying to accomplish them. At least at the time the decision was made in their own mind.

Everyone is free to miscalculate expected value by overestimating, underestimating or excluding any and all variables in any decision they make. This is why some people choose illogical or irrational actions that end up being massively -EV for them. All the stupid things we have done in life probably seemed like a good idea at the time.

One entertainment example is buying a ticket to a hockey game. It is a -EV economical decision. You watch the game, spend a bunch more on overpriced drinks and souvenirs and come home with nothing to show for it but the experience and memories and worthless artifacts. But these experiences and memories are what make life interesting and therefore it is very difficult to determine what an entertainment dollar is actually worth.

Even more so, when coupled with the fact that people have different reasons for undertaking the same economical -EV decision. Some people go to the game because they are fans of the team or players, some like the social atmosphere, some just like the idea of excessive drinking and screaming. I decide that the entertainment value for a mid-level ticket is E$40 and I’ll spend $15 on concessions. My breakeven point for deciding to buy a ticket or not is $55 total for the event. I manage to get a ticket for $30 and they are having ½ price concessions, therefore I am left with a pretty big +EV decision when balancing E$ with real $ and decide to go. This is why the closer to the action you get in the arena, the higher the ticket price is as being closer to the action is more entertaining and therefore E$ value goes up.

The overall EV of any activity whether it be economical value, entertainment value or a combination of both, needs to be +EV for everyone involved for it to continue and survive. If any one group of participants become -EV in the activity, the activity ceases to exist because it requires the participation of all groups to function.

Gambling is a form of unnecessary entertainment, an apparently -EV decision, for most people. Yet they continue to deposit one quarter after another into that slot machine for a variety of reasons. Some people like to go to the casino to hang out with friends, some need something to do to kill an hour before work, some are in search of that elusive jackpot. These all have E$ value.

And what happens when they hit their one in a million shot? Bells and sirens go off in celebration and the casino manager comes out all smiles with a monster check and congratulates the lucky winner despite losing a ton of money. He doesn’t inform the winner that a one in a million shot at a $50k jackpot in quarter slots should cost him about $250k to win on average. The fact is that the player has determined that the enjoyment of the anticipation of a jackpot win plus a $50k overlay outweighs losing $250k one quarter at a time.

What would happen if the monster check was written out to “LOL Fish” and the staff came out and ridiculed the winner? One of two options: he either quits gambling or takes his winnings across the street to the next casino and proceeds to dump his entire jackpot in the next few months.

So how does this translate to the poker table? Poker clients do their part to bring fish in by literally giving away millions of dollars in sign up and reload bonuses as overlay on their entertainment value. At the table, we need to act like casino managers and make sure that the entire poker system remains +EV overall to everyone involved. If people become -EV overall at the table, they will either quit or switch tables, the same way the slot winner will quit or change casinos.

Fred is a 20-something and enjoys gambling with online poker. More accurately, Fred enjoys the rush of winning a big pot more than anything. Fred just sat down on your right at a 100NL table for 100BB and plays in a peculiar fashion. He limps in with 100% of his hands and calls a postflop shove 100% of the time with any pair or any draw because of his love of winning big pots.

You pick up pocket 2′s in the BB. Everyone folds to Fred who completes in the SB and you check. The flop is A74. Fred checks, you check behind. The turn is the marvelous 2. Fred checks, and you shove for obvious reasons. Fred snap calls and flips over 74o for 2 pair with 10% equity and yells “One Time!” The dealer burns and Fred does bink a 4 one time.

Now before you go and type LOL Fish into the chat box think about what exactly it is that you are saying. In your opinion, Fred made a -EV decision because according to your motives for playing the game, real $ equity is all that counts. However, if the -$80 real EV plus the enjoyment and rush aquired through anticipation of winning $100 (E$) outweighs the direct odds he needed to make the “correct” economical play, he absolutely made the correct +EV play according to his motives for playing.

Telling him that he played incorrectly is just as absurd as him telling you that you’re a boring person that doesn’t know how to have fun based on the fact that you’ve folded every hand for the past hour while you were card dead. Your motives, and therefore your decisions, are completely different and neither of you are ever making -EV plays according to your goals.

But we have a reg with a tilt issue sitting across the table and he starts berating Fred. Now we don’t really know much about Fred but we do know that embarrassment is a horrible thing to experience and greatly reduces E$. Fred could just be an idiot and he’ll quit playing because he is now -EV in the game due to his E$ value being reduced. Or, Fred could be an Ivy league student who plays because it’s what the cool kids do and figures he’s going to become good at this game now and starts crushing it within months

Either result is detrimental to the ultimate goal (making money) of the reg, who finds berating to be a +EV decision for the purposes of blowing off steam but mistakenly excludes the variables that lead to him accomplishing his ultimate goal from this calculation.

So whenever Fred binks a 4 on you, just smile and say NH. As long as he’s having a good time, you’ll continue to have a good time, too.

Just consider it your turn to feed the fish.

-JH1

This weekend was pretty awesome, albeit I feel like hell at the moment. Let’s start back a little bit…

Friday I spent most of the day working. Had 2 students, then did some business work. Still spending time restructuring and constantly tweaking. It’s very very meticulous, but my current style was counter-productive to the end product. So now I am spending a lot of time using a new bassline, and working to not only follow it, but understand it and implement it well. Sorry I haven’t been more revealing about the business, but when it is launched I will give plenty of details.

Went down to the strip Friday night. My friend is in town and the people she came with are fairly boring. All her friends wanted to do is sit in the room, sleep, and not leave the hotel. So I took them all to this little lounge that I knew of (at the Venetian, but at least it was new to them). They had the band doing all popular 80′s music, and it was a laugh riot to watch the older people (older of course being like 45) dancing their drunk asses off. Her and I cut out and walked the strip for an hour or so after being there for a while. Nice to catch up, and I love walking the strip…so works for me

I walked her up to her room at like 3a, and then went down the Venetian and grinded out a quick 3hr session. Only 2 big hands. I called a raise with , flop . Dude fires $35 (with $450 back) into $60. I raise up to $115, just he calls. Turn . He checks, I bet $185, he calls. River . He shoves, I snap call. He shows . Sweet hand dude! I reload to about $800 and then this happens:

My biggest pot of the year. I open to $15 with and $1200, 1 caller, blinds call. Flop is . Check, check, I bet $40, nutter goes up to $200 (with about $900 back). Folds to me and I think for quite some time. Didn’t seem he would have a set with this sized raise, so I figured this was probably draws (straight or flush), top 2, a 9, a 7, or some random crap. I take a minute and then 3b to $585. He snap calls. Turn is a gorgeous . I shove, he snap calls. The guy two to my right says “OMG THIS IS LIKE SET OVER SET!”, the guy one to my right LOLs and says “there is no fucking chance there is a set here”. I LOL in my head. River is a terrible 7d, but he shows a 9 and mucks. Sweet.

Got back home at like 7a, got to bet by 8a, and had to get up at 11a for 2 LeakFinder sessions. Did more work during the day, and headed back to the strip at about 11p. I was feeling sick all day due to lack of food, lack of sleep, and overall stress. But it was my friend’s last night in town, so I figured I would be nice and rescue her again since her friends were once again sucking. Took her over to O’Sheas (the casino with beerpong, blatantly made for college aged kids) and we met up with some old friend of hers who also happened to be in town. Sadly didn’t get a table for pong the whole night, which was fine as a lot of the players there were atrocious and annoying. Walked the strip one last time, and then walked her to her room at about 3a again.

Went back to the Venetian to do another session, but only lasted about 2hrs before I was tired. No real hands of mention. Though there were a few funny hands. In like a 6 way limped pot on an A5586 board, checked all the way to the river, a nit bets $45, and a college dude chats him and raises (aka, omg I has 66!) to $145. folds through and the nit JUST CALLS with 88. Says there was a good chance he had AA or 55, and didn’t want to risk that. LOL. Good table actually with this gangterish Mexican, but every pot we got into he seemed to hit stupid outs. O well, is what it is.

Got back at 5:30a, called my dad (3hr time difference worked out in my favor) to say happy father’s day, and then I passed out. Woke up at 5:30p, had “breakfast” (aka, dinner with the house that my first meal, so chicken and biscuits were breakfast), and am now typing this up before I pass out.

Hope all is well everyone!

*SS*

So I got back into Vegas on Tuesday. Plane ride wasn’t terrible, but I will undoubtedly never fly Delta/Northwest again. Why do you give me the damn option to pre-select seat assignment if you are just going to seat me wherever the hell you deem it convenient? Stupid airlines. O well. Laid over in Minnesota so got a buzz going there (riding airplanes with a buzz = bearable), then go to Vegas a few hours later after some nice delaying.

Got back to work hard on Wednesday. I have been picking up a bunch of new students as of late, so have had some intro sessions this week. Had a couple sessions on Wednesday and a couple today, and have a few over the weekend. I love my job =) So did some coaching, got some more work for the business done, and have just been mixing in relaxing and grinding.

Picked up my friend from the airport that night, and her friends who I hadn’t met before. Decided to drive them down the strip as it was my friends first time (as opposed to avoiding the damn thing) and of course they were staying at Palazzo (exact opposite side of the strip) so it took like 30min to get there. Dropped them off at their room, grabbed a midnight snack (shrimp fried rice from Noodle Asia (outside the poker room at Venetian) which was amazing, and then bounced home. I have been capping most of my nights with hours of Halo3 just to relax, so did some of that and crashed. Damn sleep schedule is still averaging from 4a to 11a, but I will try to get it better.

Also, today started the beginning of the uFR escrow (aka, ppl send me money, I collect and hold, and then I ship it all to the winning team). I will probably never do this again, lol. I have to triple check names, spreadsheets, cashier pages, etc. Huge PITA. I am actually looking forward to the challenge as it will give me some much needed motivation to grind online. I won’t like, July will be the busiest month ever, but I’m looking forward to the grind.

Alright, that is enough babbling from me tonight. Hope all is well everyone!

*SS*

I’m not going to lie, I am very tired. The last few days have been terrible as far as my sleep schedule is concerned. I’ve been going to between 6a and 8a, which isn’t terrible when I look at it on westcoast time (the timezone my brain is still on). O well, hopefully it will get back on track when I get back to Vegas

So on Friday night ForGlory and I went down to the homegame in Boston (the game I’ve spoken about in previous blog posts). Got started at about midnight, and was happy that we started on opposite tables. Got started quickly and started winning a few pots. Won a big side pot with 2pr v TP+draw (lost the main pot to a set, standard). A few hands later I raise As2s, get a few callers. Flop Qs Js 9s. I fire, get raised, I super small 3b and get it in against Ts7s. We run it twice and I somehow hold I both spots. Another few hands later I get it aipf with QQ against AK for a small $250 pot, and win running it twice. Initiate Godmode yes?

So my image is garbage cans which I’m loving, but I can’t do anything with it. I get it aipf with KK v 99, and chop the pot running it twice. Have K3 on an A353A board, and lose to AJ (that he checked behind on the river with, LOL). Have Q9 on a Q8328 and lose vs A8 that again checked the river behind. Apparently people hate value.

Then the fun starts happening. Have KK twice in 2 orbits, both his Ahi boards MW, so I’m missing sick value. Have KK a little later in a 6way pot. Flop: Th 6h 2x. I lead, get 2 callers. Turn is a lovely T, and a I have to c/f against QQ and AT. Have 87 on a J87 board, calling bluff box calls (if this description doesn’t make sense, you don’t play enough live =) ), turn a is 3, he calls. River is a T, I check/call cuz he likes to bluff and bet TP there, he slowrolls Q9 (cuz thats the cool thing to do, obvi) and berates me for not stacking off there. Last fun hand of the night was as the game was closing. I call a raise with KTs in the CO, 1 more caller OTB and we go 3 way to the flop of 6h 9h 4x. OR bets for like 1/2PSB (this is ALWAYS a bluff), I raise to $26, checker calls, OR folds. Turn is the worst 4x ever so I knock, he checks back. River is a Tx and I fire $56 planning on getting calls from 1pr hands because my image is crap and the turn check probably confused him. Stands, huffs and puffs, calls me after 3min of debating. I show my KT, and about 30 seconds roll by before he shows 87. I swear to God, getting slowrolled live is maybe the most infuriating thing in the world.

O well, get back home as the sun was coming up, check email and pass out for quite some time. Wake up at 4:30p, do some work, and then go back to Boston with my mom+BF and sister to “Fire And Ice” (a Mongolian wok type restaurant). Got back, did birthday cake for my sister (who just got her first tattoo, which I might copy and get as my next tattoo), and then went home, tried to crash, and had ADD until 6a.

I put in a small session last night, and decided to play 6max. Was a ton of fun, and although I felt I was playing tight, it turned out I was running 51/42 with an ATS of 76. LOL. Nice to get my brain thinking about some new spots, and even though it was short lived, I pulled some sick profit for $0.85. So I’m off to the candy story to ball out. Hope all is well =)

*SS*

I have been busy as hell, and loving it all. I have been getting a ton of action from prospect students which has been awesome, and had 3 different intro-sessions this week. The new “PM for Coaching” title I have on 2p2 seems to be a much better marketing tool than the old post in the coaching forum. At first I was skeptical about the new change in policy, but I actually think it will be much better for the forums overall. It encourages coaches to post more strat (exposure, ldo) and brings up the level of solid participation. Good stuff for everyone!

Other than coaching, I’ve been going into Boston a lil bit to hang out with this girl I like. I swear, Boston is the worst city ever. For the listed reasons:

1.Every other city I’ve ever lived in has had a fairly grided layout of roads. Not Boston! Nope. In fact, I think they let somebody with parkinsons draw the city layout.

2.I think MA spends all of their tax money on things OTHER than road signs.

3.Bostonians seem to be mentally retarded when it comes to driving.

4.Let’s look at an example: The left lane is closing so you must merge right. It is closed in 1/4mi. There have been signs for the last 4mi letting you know of such things. And yet, these fucking retards speed up the last 1/4mi to try and “beat” people in. Fantastic! Good job sir! You just created traffic because you felt you were going to “fool” us all! Thumbs up to you dude!

5.There are just too many other reasons to list, so I will cut this short

Oddly enough, I feel better having gotten that off my chest, lol. Though I suppose I have to pick my poison. In Boston I deal with “entitled retardation” and in Vegas I deal with pure retardation. I just realized I’ve probably said the word retard about 92 times, so I will stop.

As far as poker goes, I’ve been focusing on coaching and business stuff, so I haven’t been able to put in much volume. I was supposed to go down to a Boston game with ForGlory the other night, but it ended up not going. O well. And on top of that, I had two checks frozen in the whole processor thing. At least I made some money off the deal, but I’d much rather have cash in hand =) So hopefully they get this whole thing figured out sooner than later. I also watched the most insane interview reviewing different view points on the whole situation. Without going into a huge rant (which seems to be a common theme in this post, my apologies), the government really needs to improve education rather than try to protect Americans by blinding us from the “evils”. DUCY? If a person is educated better, they will make better decisions, which means government won’t need to protects us from everything. Silly government

Alright, that’s enough complaining from me tonight. Here is a random playlist of Prodigy songs. I randomly found a few tracks from them last night, and was vibing for quite a few hours. Enjoy!

*SS*

So my time in Boston has been going well so far. Mostly just trying to relax and get work done. My sister’s graduation wasn’t too bad. Spent most of the time texting and trying to keep my 8 year old cousin from going nuts with boredom. Lucky for him, and me, the graduation ceremony really only took about an hour and a half. I got to say “hi” to some old teachers which was cool…and all of them seemed to find it humerous that I now play poker as a profession. Glad I can be a source of comedy =)

Did a family get together after (always awkward when divorced parents try to be in the same room together, lol). My great grandmother came for the graduation as well, which was awesome as I havn’t seen her in about 2 years at this point. Got out of there, got some business work done, and then passed out, only to be woken up at 6a by a very excited 8 year old. Apparently, my only purpose of being an older cousin is to play video games and give him pieces of gum. O well, yet another night with limited sleep….at least I got to hook my old orginal Xbox and play some classic Blitz with him.

Spent most of Sunday being a lazy hobo. Got a little bit of work in, but mostly just read 2p2 and talked to people on AIM. Finally took a shower at 5p and then did dinner at “Toscas” in Hingham. Good place, had a really some really good pan seared scallops, and this restaurant is a traditional post-graduation location. Was a very cool thing for me to actually see 4 generations of women at the same table, my sister, mom, grandma, and great grandma…the interaction between them all is a laugh riot. Got out of there, attempted to do a little work, and then passed out.

Apparently my Google Calendar didn’t want to switch my appointment times and I ended up being 3hrs late for a coaching session. (3hr time difference from PDT to EDT). Oops. Student understood, which was awesome, and then we got it done later in the day. Was kind of cool as he is pretty much going pro this month (seems a few of my students have been taking this option lately) so we talked a lot about the approach to that. He’s also considering getting into coaching as well…so I certainly feel as though I have done a good job with him =)

I’ve also been downloading a shitton of music since being home (as I’ve had some issues with DL’ing in Vegas). Got a wide range of stuff from Royksopp’s new album (another good call FG), The Blanks (Ted’s group from Scrubs), City And Colour, Justice, and a few discs of random Indie rock to explore some new stuff. I have so much new music it’s awesome! I’m actually having a very tough time listening to it all, but I’m sure I’ll manage. And on that note, I’m going to pass out and then wake up for counseling and work. Hope all is well!

*SS*

I’m pretty sure there is no such thing as an awesome flight. I left Vegas at about 11p PDT and all went off without a hitch. However, when I was printing my tickets I noticed that my seat assignment had changed from when I bought them (I always pre-choose my seats to ensure I don’t get window seats as being claustrophobic doesn’t work well with window seats). Apparently, some jack-ass thought it would be funny to press “Inverse” on all my selections and I was so lucky as to not only have window seats on my first flight, but also my connector!

First flight was meh. I fell asleep before we took off and figured I would sleep until I caught my connector in Indiana, about a 3hr flight. However, I woke up about 20min into the flight and could not for the life of me fall asleep. My ADD has been really bad for the last few days, and it was kicking my ass on the plane. I could not sit still, could not sleep, it was terrible. I also couldn’t get up and walk around because there were 2 fat people blocking my path to the isle…FML.

Got to Indiana and connected to my flight. Not only another window seat, but also on one of those smaller planes that leaves your knees in your stomach. Quite possibly the most uncomfortable flight of my life. Also, the dude on my left was wreaking of curry, so FML once again. I just wanted to get my laptop out and write for a lil bit, but there was seriously no room for even that. Touched down in Boston 2hrs later, and finally got home to take a nice 7hr nap.

Woke up and did dinner with my dad. Went into Boston after that and got severely lost. My stupid ass forgot my GPS so was left to try to do the drive by memory and feel. Not a fun traveling day to say the least, but at least it’s done. Had a good night and got back today to shower and get ready for my sister’s graduation. About to go get my sister a present and then bounce. Hope all is well, and sorry about the bitching, lol

*SS*

So the week has been going pretty well. Been spending a lot of time on product finalization and it is insanely tedious. But, it is getting done, which is all that matters. My sleep schedule has also been getting increasingly worse. Averaging getting to bed about 4a and today I didn’t even wake up until 4p. Oops. O well, maybe I’ll get it back on track when I get back to Boston.

Random note…people in nicer neighborhoods are fucking odd. I got a notice on my car when I first got to Vegas (like, 1.5 days after I parked my car) that I had been parked their too long (72hrs in fact). This is laughable because, even though my math isn’t great, I understand that 72hrs = 3 days. Well I got another notice yesterday (mind you, these notices aren’t even from real cops, they are from local fake cops) on my car. They also chalked my tires to ensure that they can track if I move my car or not. Because, you know, young kids that park their cars in clear zones are the REAL trouble in Vegas now a days. People have odd priorities.

I have also been getting into using my Netflix a little more. My friend suggested a British show called “Coupling”…absolutely brilliant. Also watched “Dog Day Afternoon” and DL’d some other movies as well. Giving my brain something to dumb out too has been so necessary. I have been grinding with brainstorming lately so giving my brain relaxation time seems like a good idea.

Other than that, I will be back in Boston in about 24hrs. Looking forward to it, and then will be back to Vegas soon enough. Hope all is well everyone!

*SS*