Saturday, May 28, 2016
Freakonomics YAP - Yet Another Podcast
Drat. Tim Ferriss gets himself interviewed on the Freakonomics podcast and cross posts it to his podcast. Now I've subscribed to Freakonomics Radio podcast and have about 8 or so podcasts lined up to listen to...
"But I didn't Call!"
Tonight at the casino I was involved in a scenario where I was trying to get a read on my opponent and my opponent misread the situation and ended up throwing his toys well out of the cot.
The hand in question had three players. BB, Main Villain UTG +1 and myself in Hijack with AsJc. Villain had been pretty loose and aggressive with air. Middle aged guy. I had been watching some of the hands he had been involved in and had seen him run a 3 barrel bluff out of position after he had limp/called with 84o. And the flop was Qd6dQc. On that occasion he had talked a lot in the hand. Especially on the turn and river.
In the hand in question, the flop came down monochrome - all rag clubs and the flop was checked around. Turn was Ac giving four club cards on the board and I had 3rd nuts. BB Checks, Villain bets 30 into about 40. I flat and BB flats. River is a blank. BB checks, Villain shoves his remaining chips - about $115. I think for a bit. Villain is not talking. And is looking directly at me. The feel of his behaviour is different to when he ran the 3 barrel bluff.
My concern is whether he has Kc or Qc. To see if I can firm up my read I decide to cut out the required chips to call. I do this to the right of my chip stack while trying to remain aware of both the BB and Villain's behaviour. There is no forward motion and it is common for players to cut out a bet next to their chip stack and to then decide whether to bet or not. Either by verbally declaring call or raise or by moving their chips forward. Villain, for some reason, decides I have called and swiftly switches his attention to the BB and stares at BB who immediately folds. Villain immediately tables Qc10s and I say "But I haven't called!". Villain goes ballistic. The dealer and the rest of the table are on my side. With an older, gnarly regular saying. "He was just playing with his chips. He did not call". Villain goes on tilt and calls the floor manager. The floor manager sides with the dealer
Villain stays on tilt and shortly thereafter loses all his chips. He asks the dealer to lock up his place while he toodles off to reload. The general consensus at the table was that everyone wished he would return. Alas he never did.
The hand in question had three players. BB, Main Villain UTG +1 and myself in Hijack with AsJc. Villain had been pretty loose and aggressive with air. Middle aged guy. I had been watching some of the hands he had been involved in and had seen him run a 3 barrel bluff out of position after he had limp/called with 84o. And the flop was Qd6dQc. On that occasion he had talked a lot in the hand. Especially on the turn and river.
In the hand in question, the flop came down monochrome - all rag clubs and the flop was checked around. Turn was Ac giving four club cards on the board and I had 3rd nuts. BB Checks, Villain bets 30 into about 40. I flat and BB flats. River is a blank. BB checks, Villain shoves his remaining chips - about $115. I think for a bit. Villain is not talking. And is looking directly at me. The feel of his behaviour is different to when he ran the 3 barrel bluff.
My concern is whether he has Kc or Qc. To see if I can firm up my read I decide to cut out the required chips to call. I do this to the right of my chip stack while trying to remain aware of both the BB and Villain's behaviour. There is no forward motion and it is common for players to cut out a bet next to their chip stack and to then decide whether to bet or not. Either by verbally declaring call or raise or by moving their chips forward. Villain, for some reason, decides I have called and swiftly switches his attention to the BB and stares at BB who immediately folds. Villain immediately tables Qc10s and I say "But I haven't called!". Villain goes ballistic. The dealer and the rest of the table are on my side. With an older, gnarly regular saying. "He was just playing with his chips. He did not call". Villain goes on tilt and calls the floor manager. The floor manager sides with the dealer
Villain stays on tilt and shortly thereafter loses all his chips. He asks the dealer to lock up his place while he toodles off to reload. The general consensus at the table was that everyone wished he would return. Alas he never did.
Wednesday, May 25, 2016
Poker downswing....
I've been avoiding Crown Casino over the past week or so as I've been experiencing a pretty significant downswing. About 10 buyins now. With my last session ending with my 4bet shoving preflop with AsAc, getting called by KdQd, and seeing my Aces cracked with a diamond flush. Plenty of 2nd best hands and some bad play on my part.
I've gone back to playing some online and have been pretty much breakeven online over the past couple of weeks. And I've been trying to put some more hours in study wise. With some focus on some of Alexander Fitzgerald's videos, rewatching a webinar with Ed Millar and Jonathan Little, and re-reading Moorman's book on tournament poker. Maybe there has been some improvement in my tournament play. Last night I ran 16th/1249 in a $22 bounty builder on pokerstars and 56th/3111 $7.50 bounty builder. So I made some money on those tournaments. but tantalisingly close to where the money started to become significant for those tournaments.
A week ago I relocated from Port Melbourne to Box Hill. Quite a change. From a house with a couple of early 30's white Australian entrepreneurial types to a house with elderly Chinese who are welcoming but with little English. Commute wise, Box Hill is the longest commute from the CBD of any of the suburbs I've resided in since landing in Melbourne. Probably as far out as I would want to be commute wise.
I've gone back to playing some online and have been pretty much breakeven online over the past couple of weeks. And I've been trying to put some more hours in study wise. With some focus on some of Alexander Fitzgerald's videos, rewatching a webinar with Ed Millar and Jonathan Little, and re-reading Moorman's book on tournament poker. Maybe there has been some improvement in my tournament play. Last night I ran 16th/1249 in a $22 bounty builder on pokerstars and 56th/3111 $7.50 bounty builder. So I made some money on those tournaments. but tantalisingly close to where the money started to become significant for those tournaments.
A week ago I relocated from Port Melbourne to Box Hill. Quite a change. From a house with a couple of early 30's white Australian entrepreneurial types to a house with elderly Chinese who are welcoming but with little English. Commute wise, Box Hill is the longest commute from the CBD of any of the suburbs I've resided in since landing in Melbourne. Probably as far out as I would want to be commute wise.
Putting off Poker Study by Procrastinating about Psilocybin
Whilst on my servitude at a recent Vipassana course (April 14th - April 25th), Alexander Fitzgerald put out a webinar with a title like "Mastering Poker by studying one hour a day". And while I'm trying to study for at least one hour per day, I'm finding I'm currently procrastinating a fair bit with respect to poker study. Whether it is meandering around the internet, reading some fiction or investigating bucket list items.
Recently I've been consuming a lot of content that features James Fadiman, author of The Psychedelic Explorer's Guide. In several of the interviews I've found and listened to, he refer's to a friend / colleague who refers to the impact of the US government's ban on all research into a number of psychedelic compounds as "a 40 year lull in research". Being in the tail end of my 50's now, with the information I've found recently, I'm a little bit miffed that due to US government stupidity in the 1960's I've missed out on the positive aspects of psychedelic agents. It wasn't until quite late in my life that I started to become aware of the possible positive outcomes that could be derived from taking psychedelic agents.
In 2012 I was boarding in Sydney in a house where one of the other members of the household was a criminal defense barrister. Over dinner one night she mentioned a case that she was aware of involving an overseas student who had been apprehended with a tab of LSD and how a conviction would cruel that student's life when he returned to his homeland. I mentioned that I was aware that Steve Jobs had passed a comment along the lines that taking LSD had been one of the 2 or 3 most important events in his life. This comment excited her as she could see the possibility of using such a comment from a leading business identity in the defense of the student. I became intrigued at why Jobs may have made a comment and took some time to look into whether LSD may be beneficial in any way. Up to that point in time I'd never had the opportunity or inclination to take LSD. With the benefit of hindsight, my world view on LSD at that point in time was towards the negative. There had never been anyone in my social circles who had admitted to taking LSD or who spoke of it in a positive light. And what information I'd taken in had been towards the negative, with a vague idea that there was a real possibility of having bad trips and flash backs.
To my surprise at the time I found much in the way of positive information. And while some of the research was from the 1960's, and held the possibility of being from trials that were less well designed than trials would be today, there was some tantalising tidbits of information. Such as the trials with alcoholic patients that saw the patients staying off alcohol for six months. Or the trial with advanced cancer patients that saw their requirement for pain medications decrease post LSD treatment.
Or the anecdcote by a 77 year old bhuddist who took LSD every so often as an antidote to the tiredness and aches and pains of old age.
My attitude to taking LSD changed. But there was still several factors that held me back from taking LSD.
In the meantime my bucket list idea of taking LSD had been modified to that of taking LSD on the ninth day of a ten day Vipassana course. (Ten day Vipassana courses being ten day meditation courses that are, by design, silent meditation "boot camp" courses where the students sign up to Noble Silence from the evening intake on Day 0 through to 10:00 am on day 10. Noble Silence being defined as no talking to other students and to only talk if being interviewed by the teachers, or if you had to ask a question about the technique at defined times to the teachers, or if you had an administrative issue that you needed to communicate with the management. So by and large, no talking for the majority of the course.
Why the ninth day of a ten day Vipassana course? Well, I'd gained an idea that "Set" and "Setting" was important for the purposes of having a good psychedelic experience. And, without having any social contacts with people who could act as a guide for my trip, I envisaged that the way to get myself into the best possible mind"Set" was to be most of the way through a Vipassana course. By way of context my first Vipassana course as a student was in November 2006 and I've now sat around six ten day courses and served on four ten day courses so I had some idea that I would be in a good place after nine days as a student on a ten day course. And with respect to Setting, while taking a trip on a Vipassana course would be breaking one of the precepts you sign up to when entering the course, having a trip while on a Vipassana course would, in my view, be in one of the better settings you could have the trip. The only caveat being that you should be sure you don't take a heroic dose trip otherwise you will surely be sprung.
Anyhoo. That was all idle bucket list ideation.
There is a recent article from the New Yorker that covers research in which psilocybin—the active ingredient in so-called magic mushrooms—was being administered to cancer patients in an effort to relieve their anxiety and “existential distress.”. And that article has firmed up my bucket list ideation. Particularly if I get into an end of life scenario. Andrew Denton's excellent podcast series, "Better off Dead", examines the question of "Why are so many Australians dying bad deaths?" and draws attention to a phenomenon known as "Existential Angst". It seems a single dose of psilocybin in a supported setting has the potential to alleviate much of the existential distress that terminal cancer patients suffer
Time to publish this meandering post.
Additional links re psilocybin that I enjoyed during my procrastination away from poker and poker study.
Interview with Dr James Fadiman by Matt Dwyer
Tim Ferris interview with Dr James Fadiman
Ted Talk by psilocybin researcher Roland Griffiths - 2015
Ted Talk by psilocybin researcher Roland Griffiths - 2009
Recently I've been consuming a lot of content that features James Fadiman, author of The Psychedelic Explorer's Guide. In several of the interviews I've found and listened to, he refer's to a friend / colleague who refers to the impact of the US government's ban on all research into a number of psychedelic compounds as "a 40 year lull in research". Being in the tail end of my 50's now, with the information I've found recently, I'm a little bit miffed that due to US government stupidity in the 1960's I've missed out on the positive aspects of psychedelic agents. It wasn't until quite late in my life that I started to become aware of the possible positive outcomes that could be derived from taking psychedelic agents.
In 2012 I was boarding in Sydney in a house where one of the other members of the household was a criminal defense barrister. Over dinner one night she mentioned a case that she was aware of involving an overseas student who had been apprehended with a tab of LSD and how a conviction would cruel that student's life when he returned to his homeland. I mentioned that I was aware that Steve Jobs had passed a comment along the lines that taking LSD had been one of the 2 or 3 most important events in his life. This comment excited her as she could see the possibility of using such a comment from a leading business identity in the defense of the student. I became intrigued at why Jobs may have made a comment and took some time to look into whether LSD may be beneficial in any way. Up to that point in time I'd never had the opportunity or inclination to take LSD. With the benefit of hindsight, my world view on LSD at that point in time was towards the negative. There had never been anyone in my social circles who had admitted to taking LSD or who spoke of it in a positive light. And what information I'd taken in had been towards the negative, with a vague idea that there was a real possibility of having bad trips and flash backs.
To my surprise at the time I found much in the way of positive information. And while some of the research was from the 1960's, and held the possibility of being from trials that were less well designed than trials would be today, there was some tantalising tidbits of information. Such as the trials with alcoholic patients that saw the patients staying off alcohol for six months. Or the trial with advanced cancer patients that saw their requirement for pain medications decrease post LSD treatment.
Or the anecdcote by a 77 year old bhuddist who took LSD every so often as an antidote to the tiredness and aches and pains of old age.
My attitude to taking LSD changed. But there was still several factors that held me back from taking LSD.
- procuring LSD for personal use is a hard task for a guy in his 50's who does not move in the circles where LSD is regularly used
- the concern that acquiring a substance that was reputedly LSD may or may not be LSD. And given the nature of the transaction there was little chance of being able to get your money back.
In the meantime my bucket list idea of taking LSD had been modified to that of taking LSD on the ninth day of a ten day Vipassana course. (Ten day Vipassana courses being ten day meditation courses that are, by design, silent meditation "boot camp" courses where the students sign up to Noble Silence from the evening intake on Day 0 through to 10:00 am on day 10. Noble Silence being defined as no talking to other students and to only talk if being interviewed by the teachers, or if you had to ask a question about the technique at defined times to the teachers, or if you had an administrative issue that you needed to communicate with the management. So by and large, no talking for the majority of the course.
Why the ninth day of a ten day Vipassana course? Well, I'd gained an idea that "Set" and "Setting" was important for the purposes of having a good psychedelic experience. And, without having any social contacts with people who could act as a guide for my trip, I envisaged that the way to get myself into the best possible mind"Set" was to be most of the way through a Vipassana course. By way of context my first Vipassana course as a student was in November 2006 and I've now sat around six ten day courses and served on four ten day courses so I had some idea that I would be in a good place after nine days as a student on a ten day course. And with respect to Setting, while taking a trip on a Vipassana course would be breaking one of the precepts you sign up to when entering the course, having a trip while on a Vipassana course would, in my view, be in one of the better settings you could have the trip. The only caveat being that you should be sure you don't take a heroic dose trip otherwise you will surely be sprung.
Anyhoo. That was all idle bucket list ideation.
There is a recent article from the New Yorker that covers research in which psilocybin—the active ingredient in so-called magic mushrooms—was being administered to cancer patients in an effort to relieve their anxiety and “existential distress.”. And that article has firmed up my bucket list ideation. Particularly if I get into an end of life scenario. Andrew Denton's excellent podcast series, "Better off Dead", examines the question of "Why are so many Australians dying bad deaths?" and draws attention to a phenomenon known as "Existential Angst". It seems a single dose of psilocybin in a supported setting has the potential to alleviate much of the existential distress that terminal cancer patients suffer
Time to publish this meandering post.
Additional links re psilocybin that I enjoyed during my procrastination away from poker and poker study.
Interview with Dr James Fadiman by Matt Dwyer
Tim Ferris interview with Dr James Fadiman
Ted Talk by psilocybin researcher Roland Griffiths - 2015
Ted Talk by psilocybin researcher Roland Griffiths - 2009
Wednesday, May 11, 2016
Morphing into a vegetarian
Prior to my trip to Blackheath, and serving at Bhudi Dhamma Vipassana Center for a 10 day course starting April 14th, I had been eating meat of one sort or another at least once, and sometimes twice, a day. Since my return I've stayed strictly vegetarian and have found it hard to visualize eating meats. This seems a little strange to me as, after all my previous Vipassana experiences, I've gone straight back to eating meat. Now, if I had eliminated my desire for the crappier part of my diet, such as the licorice and crisps, then I'd be feeling pretty good about myself rather than wondering whether I should be worried about the lack of meat in my diet, or whether this is just a phase, and pretty soon the meat will reappear on the menu. Yeah, yeah. First world problem
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