"Gambling" is Blissful Ignorance

My sportscasting mentor, good friend, and intermittent student NOEL ZARATE keeps a blog on the yahoo sports pages.  His recent posting entitled "The Sport of Poker" mounted yet another thoughtfully written presentation of why Poker must be stripped of its gambling tag and be considered a sport.

I had the privilege of being quoted as part of his presentation.  As he wrote his blog entry, Noel asked me to name 5 skills that make poker akin to a sport.  In my reply, I said that the first step of the presentation of poker-as-sport was to talk about TRAINING.

GAMBLING activities are luck-driven.  That means no amount of intention, attempt at understanding, or manipulation can affect the outcome.  Nothing we do affects the outcome.  All we can do is pray for good luck.

Hey buddy, that's not very "skilled"

SPORT pits the players' SKILLS against each other.  To quote JOE ROGAN:  "It's not a sport if there is no defense!"

In a SPORT, your opponents' skills get in the way of your chances to be successful.

Spin a roulette wheel - no one can "defend" against your choice.  you will either win or lose and there is nothing anyone can do about it.


A KEY DEFINITION is this:  If you cannot intentionally lose, then you are gambling.

I cannot intentionally lose at Bingo.  But I can easily blind myself out of a poker tourney.  I can muck the winning hand.  I can call down seven-high and play the board against a 3-barreler.

If you cannot even intentionally lose, then that is proof that nothing you do can affect the outcome.  It is all LUCK.




In my Poker Training Program, one extremely important basic understanding that one cannot possibly continue without is this:  LUCK CANNOT BE TRAINED.

So let's go back to talking about training, because that is what makes poker a sport:  You CAN get better at it!  You can improve your SKILL!  I dare you to say the same about flipping a coin.

Having established that poker requires skills that are trainable, I proceeded to give Noel his 5 examples, which he then thought to be good enough to cite in his piece:

My good friend and Asia Poker Academy coach Ron Regis interprets it this way: "Poker players require endurance (like in Marathons and endurance races), situational awareness (like an NFL quarterback or an NBA point guard), betting lines (like moves in Chess), bet sizing precision (like swinging at a curveball or cutting in a shot in billiards) and reading opponents (like in combat martial arts or boxing)."


I thought we made a pretty good case.  (Noel admits he cannot defend Cash Game Poker as a sport - which hurts our case unnecessarily, because I can defend it easily.  But that is something we can walk through later).

Unfortunately, as good a case as presented, there remained the usual (vast) amounts of comments - which I can all summarize as all being like this:

"Ah, basta, sugal yan."

One counter-commenter in defense of Noel's piece simply stated:  "The only gamble here is whether people like you can actually read."


Ah, frustration.  Why do we waste so much time on the ignorant when they are not willing to open their minds? One particular reply made me run to the nearest Handiman so that I could purchase a crowbar and open his mind up for him:

"nice explanation but obviously not convincing. life is so simple if you just walk as straight as possible. let me go straight to the point, any sport if you call it sport, if you bet in terms of cash or equivalent that is obviously gambling. even the simple requirements is just to pay entrance that still a gambling simply because your still trying your luck or maybe you simply convincing yourself that your smarter than others or let say skill if you want, but anyway my point is YOU STILL BET and BET is a form of GAMBLING. if not? sorry i probably don't know, what is the definition of gambling."

"obviously not convincing"...?!?  This reader was "obviously" in-convincable.  If there is such a word, say it like Vizzini from the Princess Bride.

So, crowbar.

gam·ble  (gmbl)

v. gam·bled, gam·bling, gam·bles

v.intr.

1.

a. To bet on an uncertain outcome, as of a contest.

b. To play a game of chance for stakes.

2. To take a risk in the hope of gaining an advantage or a benefit.

3. To engage in reckless or hazardous behavior

1a) poker players do not bet on an uncertain outcome.  they use bets to create outcomes.
1b) poker as we discuss it is no longer considered "a game of chance"

2) well, that just described our daily lives at the home, playground, and office.

3) poker players are extremely "the opposite of reckless" - we are cautious and consider more angles than my highschool geometry teacher.



Ah, but why do I bother?  Why am I bothered?  Why do people like these refuse to open their minds?


The answer is BLISS.  Whether willingly - stubbornly - or unwittingly, PEOPLE WOULD PREFER TO REMAIN IGNORANT.

I'll tell you why:  Fear.

What are these people afraid of?

Ignorance is a defense against responsibility.  We all need some excuse to not be held accountable for our actions.  To not be the cause for the effects in our lives.  We want it to never be "our fault."

We all have a friend who runs into some "bad luck" in their lives and says "Bah, what could I do?"

What you could have done, my tragically blameless eternal victim of a friend, is you should know better.  You should make an effort to know better.

Change of scenery:  Let's pretend we gather up some people for a game of Golf (barely a sport, which is why I use it as an example).  Let's pretend absolutely none of these "players" have ever played Golf, or read much about it.  They are all blissfully ignorant.  They play 18 holes.  Who wins?

It's an absolute goddam crap shoot.  And whoever wins, every other player will say "he was lucky."  And of course he was.  All things being equal (skill advantage to none), "luck" in the form of the winds, and the sheer randomness of muscles spasming accidentally correctly, determines the winner.

They were all gambling.  The entire field was blissfully ignorant.

Now let's put that same bunch together - say a month later.  Some of them went to a driving range and practiced.  Some of them read books and stayed awake through entire Televised Golfing shows.  Some of them could not be bothered till the day of the reunion.

They play 18 holes.  Who wins?

Not quite the crap shoot it was before.  I still cannot say for sure who wins, but I can say for sure who has no shot at winning:  The blissfully ignorant.

People want to remain blissfully ignorant - they close their minds - because they want to hold on to their favorite excuse for failure:  "bad luck"

Lost at poker, bad luck?

Missed the game-tying free throw, bad luck?

Foot died and car crashed at a Le Mans race, bad luck?

Fired from the job, bad luck?

Girlfriend found somebody she liked better - someone who was nicer to her and listened more...bad luck?


So yes, go ahead and continue to believe that poker is gambling.  Refuse to train any skill.  Hell, refuse to play, for all I care.  It is your loss, and do you know why?

Because how you play is how you live.  Good luck, my friend, good luck.

ride the donkey, or the donkey rides you.  the one being ridden is the one who needs the horseshoe.

ps, my comment on Noel's blog, in brief(er) response to one of the unconvinced:

"you, sir Leo, have inspired me to present the idea in more detail. i posted it on my blog, which i cannot link to here, but here is one excerpted phrase you might want to consider: "poker players do not bet on an uncertain outcome. they use bets to create outcomes." perhaps you are misled by a limited interpretation and contextual usage of the word "bet" - and, i think, by a limited understanding of the definition of gambling, as you said. I can only hope that those who are similarly "obviously unconvinced" can find it in their minds to examine the convincing (and readily available) information. Wait, I can actually do more than hope, which is why I post here. If I just sat at home and hoped without action...well, that, Sir, would be gambling."

Headache Free Holdem for your B-Game

I used to be a solid proponent of never attempting to "play through tilt" - something i had to learn the hard way as a beginning full-time online grinder back in my Limit HE days.  My Coach Dr.Eldoradon had to point that out to me at the time, as I was constantly trying to "power through" during times of tilt.

Head versus Wall.  Wall wins.

It was an example of flawed-male-superhero-ego thinking:

"Kaya ko to, okay pa ako."

"A few deep breaths and I will be back on track."

"He calls?!?  OKAY, I won't do THAT anymore, I promise."

"Jesus fucking Christ, another suckout!  (Breathe) ...but that's okay, that's fucking poker."


So I learned - and taught others - to recognize the beginnings of their tilt, and to nip it in the bud by choosing from a pre-selected list of "untilting activities" - e.g. immediately swapping the mouse for the xbox controller, or jumping off the computer chair and straight into the swimming pool.

In short, don't just sit there and expect to be able to gather yourself without actually standing up to do the gathering.


There was one problem with that approach, if unregulated - and it was one pointed out by Dusty "leatherass" Schmidt:  when you grind full-time, that's your job.  A good worker does not take breaks whenever he suddenly does not feel like working.  You can't close the shop every time you feel a little stressed - you must have a way to keep going.

So, conflicting ideas?  On one hand, don't try to power through tilt...But on the other, don't stop working just because you happen to be a human being with some remnants of emotion.

There had to be a compromise - so I added two options to apply to the generally sweeping "don't power through tilt" idea:

1. Retreat, BUT regulate your "untilting sessions" - I learned this the hard way when I stayed away from the game more than three days just because I did not feel my confidence had returned.  The price to pay was a huge momentum loss.  Okay, I stopped the downward momentum of my tilt, BUT I also sat back down and thought "now, where the hell was I?"

It's hard to pick up where I leave off without risking that a brief relearning curve will cost me.  Breaks or no breaks, the routine of the game must not be compromised.  Some call it a grind, but as a gamer, I have a different perspective.  It is a game, and we work on it daily because it is fun and it is fulfilling and we can always find ways and chances to do better.

When I started playing Fallout 3, I stayed on that game day in and day out till it was done three times over.  That game does not even pay the bills.  So why should my dedication to my grind be any less?

So, practice quitting to take a break, but also practice that we actually rest and come back mentally reset.  Don't walk away just to stay away.  I know many people in relationships who also make this same mistake - running away without a clear plan to fight another day.


2. Stand your Ground.  All that being said about the necessity for retreat, I felt a need for an alternative to quitting a session.  B-Game.  I know the classic advice is to "always play your A-Game or not play at all," but times have changed.  Perspectives have changed.  Many mental game coaches now advocate "embracing your B Game"

For basketball players and fans, this is the equivalent of the scorer who sits back and passes the ball for a while because his jumpshot keeps clanking.  B-Game helps him get his rhythm back.  B-Game eases the frustration and allows a small "in-game" retreat without actually turning the player into a non-contributor.

John Lucas once had a whopping 24 assists for the spurs.  He finished that game with 0 points.  Not bad, for a B-Game!

HEADACHE FREE HOLDEM
for my B game

No matter how pro I try to be about my grind, there will always be days when I don't feel like a well-oiled machine.  Not everything is clicking.  My hero calls are way off, my bluff timing is bad, or I am constantly one bet shy of a takedown.  For rhythm-deprived times like these, going to the beach is always tempting, but kind of unproductive - especially when I still have plenty of energy for the grind.  Quitting the session would just be too drastic, so instead I downshift for a while.

B-Game: not crushing like the A-Game, but just enough to not bleed while I gather momentum and realign my poker brain to The Now.  B is for Basic.  As in, just get me BY until I'm ready to go back into high gear.

Here are my B-Game reminders:

APA Basic Rules of Engagement
1. don't put chips into unraised pots
2. don't accept a proposition where you will be out of position unless you have initiative

SMALL HAND SMALL POT
1. 3bet only for value for now
2. when cbetting, one bullet is fine for now
3. ATS till they play back, then leave them alone for a while

VALUE ONLY
1. CCPF only from the button, and never with dominated hands
2. RFI, RWPC, SQZ for value only
3. never LWPC
4. Decide (go or give up) EARLY (Flop), not late (River, after check-raising and getting reraised lol)
5. get MAX value, shove over him EARLY (while ahead)

Don't be a HERO
1. absolutely no river calls (or calls of shoves) when in doubt!  (as a study exercise, those of you with pokertracker or HEM can do this: set your filter to show only hands where you call on the river - any river call - and see what comes up!)
2. Just hold on.  That double-up will come for you.  WAIT FOR THE MISTAKES, THEY WILL MAKE IT!!! (THE REGS MAKE THE BIGGEST MISTAKES!!!)


Hey, sounds easy and headache free - why don't I just play like this all the time?  It sure beats busting too many brain cells complicating a game of imperfect information, eh?  If you are in the micros, this B-Game can easily plow through it anyway.

But just to reiterate, this is a gear I use while I re-situate myself.  B-Game is nice to have as a fallback, but I want to be better than that - most of us do.  After all, this is why we play every day, to keep levelling up.

To RPG gamers reading this:  consider B-Game as that time when you stop questing for a while so that you can go to the forest and level-up your skills and perks on critters.  It won't move the story forward, but it will build your character so that you can move well once you decide to continue the questing.

Sometimes you just wanna kill the boardom, get it?

I'm ready, so why am I so scared?

It has been a while, and my current class of APA VIP Trainees are down to their last week, and a final exam.  I am excited for them, remembering what it felt like to feel ready to rock after my own training stint in 2009.

Apparently, there is one thing I did not readily remember until I received this cry for help from one of the graduating trainees:


"so here I am coach, done with VIP trainee sharing almost everyone (sic) what i was doing but then just last night i realized they did not understand me...

"...I feel so lost right now, it seems that i am pressured to earn big as soon as possible to let them feel what i am doing. it's like they won't really understand it until they see a progress. What i mean is, they will just believe me if makakakita na sila na i am earning talaga. now both on and off the tables i am pressured, i think a lot... i don't know what to do especially now na i am very down so i can't get to higher stakes...

"...i need their support so that maybe i can ask help from them(financially) so that i can go to higher stakes but of course they will not trust me.

"This is my first experience na ang isip ko ay lumilipad. i can hardly play on my own game. i am always thinking about them and about the results. If you are just here to help me explain to them everything.lol i am sharing this to you coach 'coz i look at you as an older brother(though it may sound OA) but it's true... i always chat or text you when i have problem, it may only be poker but hey poker is part of my life and for me i want to be earning my money kung saan ako happy. i love poker and i know i have future if meron lang talaga maniniwala sa akin...

 

"...Now I really want to talk to my parents but i don't have the guts. I really want to ask a help from them to start my real job but i don't know how to explain it to them..."

Hi,

I will sum up most of what you are feeling:  it is a phenomenon I like to call "Re-Entry Anxiety"


As you know, when a space shuttle returns to Earth, the atmosphere burns it up as it re-enters.  The tiny capsule will take all that heat, melt a little, burn a little, then break through.  But it doesn't end there.

It will fall and hit the ground pretty hard.  Then the recovery team has to find the capsule, extract the people (and things) inside it, and everyone picks up the pieces before life will go on - albeit with more wisdom and information that we ever had before.


This happens every time people come home from a vacation, and this happens every time somebody goes back to the real world after a retreat, seminar, or intensive workshop.  Sound like it is happening to you.

We learned a lot training together, and there were guides along the way.  Now we are on our own (well, not really, but it will feel that way) and it will be time to prove we are better people.

That's where the pressure will come from.  Whenever you tell someone "I learned something" or "I am a better person" the bad news is that they will have higher expectations of you - and so will you.  Some will support you and will be excited for you.  Most will envy you at some level, and secretly take pleasure in watching you falter.

"Akala ko ba may natutunan ka?"

"Bakit ganyan ka pa rin?"


Do not let people who refuse to move forward hold you back.  Just move forward the best way you know how.  If you seem to be moving in a different direction than those around you, be gentle and embrace that people are different, and peoples' lives are not supposed to follow a template.  Your only job is to grow - as a person, not just as a poker player.

DO NOT RUSH YOURSELF.  Growth happens in microscopic steps.  Try to watch a plant grow, it will drive you crazy.  You have to trust in the process.  Trust yourself.

This trust in yourself will create an aura of confidence about you that others can feel - helping them trust you as well.

Ever see someone climb up a coconut tree without a harness?  Scary to watch, but after a while, we look at the dude up there and we think "well, i guess he's not gonna die.  I guess he knows what he is doing."

If I climb up a coconut tree, I will be full of fear, doubt, and obvious incompetence.  Anyone watching will feel that vibe, and they will fear for me.  More appropriately, they will fear WITH me.


So back to you:

Your VIP training program has run its course, and it is time for YOU to take off the training wheels.  You may fall off the bike a few times, but so what? 

All these expectations are a source of performance anxiety.  Get over it, and just do what you trained to do: Observe, evaluate, make the best decision - moment to moment.  Screen out the kibitzers and voices in your head while you are playing.  When you play, just play.  When you review, then just review.  When you eat, then just eat and actually enjoy your food.

Stay rooted in your HERE and NOW.  Thoughts of the future - of your goals and your proof and validation and accolades and all that - can disrupt your rhythm now.  If you are worrying right now, then I guarantee that your mind is not on wherever else it is supposed to be.  Multitasking is a lie:  you cannot worry while focusing on doing your best.  You cannot think of a villain's raising range while wondering what your family is thinking about you right now.

Do not rush.  Crawl, then walk, then run, then jump, then fly.  These thoughts of asking for help to jumpstart your career and play higher stakes asap is probably (sounds to me) like a form of panic and induced tilt.

I must reiterate:  this is your Re-Entry.  It is normal to feel anxious - even depressed - but there is no excuse to stay inside those feelings.  Feel it, understand it, let it go.

Then you will go!

Targets Versus Goals, revisited

I am a big fan of Tommy Angelo.

Of all the efforts one should put in studying the game of poker, I believe most of it should be in creating and honing the proper mindset.  Once you've read the basics of strategy (hand charts, concepts like pot odds, SPR, etc) I believe in skipping the more advanced technical material (potential game destroyers like "Exploiting Regulars" and "Let There Be Range") and just focusing on the management aspects of the game - Mental, and Business.

So yes, I am also a fan of Dusty Schmidt.

If I could only offer two things to a poker student (for whatever reason) it would be "The Eightfold Path to Poker Enlightenment" and "Treat Your Poker Like A Business."


To illustrate a bit more:  Once you know how to be at least a break-even player, the learning curve steepens A LOT.  You can exert a huge amount of study effort to get that one extra bb/100.  But without a strong mental game, you can easily tilt off everything.

So which aspect matters more, if you think long-term?  A skill that gains you more money when you are focused, or a mindset that gains little but keeps you focused?

First things first, in my honest opinion.  Put that huge amount of study effort in your mental game!


To further represent this idea and revisit the value of "targets versus goals", here is an excerpt from a thread on the Asia Poker Academy Forums where a new player has set for himself a goal of having $1k after a month:

"I am planning to make a deposit of $100 and make 1k in 1month, starting from Nov 1st. The goal might be far fetched, but I want to make sure I take the right path, which obviously sooner or later will take me there."

My immediate thought was this:  the "right path" is to NOT set such a goal.

But I of course could not just reply so succinctly.

"i wish you luck, but i also wish to offer perspective:

i've seen players race to $1k as a goal and hit it (and subsequently lose it). but to do it in a month? might be too much pressure on yourself? if you play really well but only have $600 with a few days to go, would you be happy or would you double your efforts to reach your goal? what is more important to you - the medal after one month, or honing skills that you can use for the long-term?

i know goals are a motivator, but i advocate setting smaller measurable targets. (a Tommy Angelo nugget i'll never forget). a result-based goal might set you up to feel like a failure, even when you do very well.

how about a discipline-based target? like, "i will only play NL4 for one month solid" or "i will play at least twenty $1 SNG's a day for one month." or "i will learn and strictly follow a BR management strategy."

so why not define an aspect of your game that you feel is "not your best" and work on that instead?

i know that stuff is boring and not something you can post a brag about, but at least that is something that is directly under your control. having $1k at the end is a bonus, but it is not really something you have direct power over. all you can do is play your best, budget your time well, and play a lot.

if my goal was to have 1k in my BR at month-end, i can just keep loading $50 and joining big MTT's till i bink one...or i can save myself the trouble and just deposit 1k.

imagine if a new basketball player sets a goal to "make 10 three-point shots" in one game, it will be an awful sight to watch him try. the fundamental issue is that he is craving the result, and not the skill.

but he can set a target to shoot 500 threes (not make, just shoot) every day at practice. and one day, he may or may not make ten threes in one game, but he probably can make a few consistently, and do it every game.

i hope this is not a downer. i mean it as a motivational redirect. when we have the passion and the energy to want to be better, it is our duty to ourselves to use that passion and energy where it is most efficient and rewarding."

Digging In Deep

There is a reason APA VIP TRAINING is a program that lasts 10-16 weeks.  There is a reason it often takes a bit longer than that.  Let me shoot off the cliche and get it out of the way:

Poker takes a minute to learn and a lifetime to master.  From game theory and techniques alone - the basics of how to play, the intermediary modules on Cbetting, to more advanced concepts like 4betting light - the amount of time necessary to take it all in as your own personal knowledge is easily never going to fit into the 16-weeks.

But there is a more important reason we designed the intensity of the training the way we did.  To break a student down mentally.

Anyone can play great poker for short spurts of time - a three-day tourney here, a few cash games there.  But to be a true pro and grind it out consistently and constantly?  To sit there as the game itself tries to grind you out?  It takes a while for that ugliness to manifest.

That time, I've discovered, happens between weeks 6-9.  Roughly halfway thru the training program.  It is at this point that the student has that feeling that he has "learned a lot" and "should be sailing smoothly"

It is also at this point that - variance delivering - a student will smack into a wall and slowly slide downwards like a wet wad of tissue.

Elsie and I are at this point. 

Surprisingly though, it is not Elsie that has hit the wall hard, but another student we are training parallel to him.

This one is not a bad student by any means - he listens to all our input, he has a great natural knack for the game, and his starting hand ranges are impeccable.

So, in a world where a lot of poker authors devote massive amounts of energy to teach the preflop game (starting hand range), how can someone with the optimal range still be losing?

This is a good place for the cliche "You can lead a horse to water, but can you make him drink?"

If you can get him to float on his back, you really got something.

The sheer volume of hands that go to showdown betray the leak.  Our student loses focus post-flop.  And I wrote him thus:


"...BRING THE FOLD BACK!  your WTSD is ridiculously high.  even with a decent starting range (you have that) if you can't let go post-flop, you are an even bigger fish.  because by then you have put in more money to lose.  remember this:  SMALL HAND = SMALL POT.  when you have one pair (HUGE losses with one pair hands) and the pot is being bet twice or thrice... always always always consider letting your one pair go..."

"...bad preflop plays.  again, your starting hand selection is GREAT.  it is your decision to continue after heavy action that is costing you.  it looks like you have no respect for their bets and raises.  you play your mid pocket pairs like a person in a tournament.  DON'T!"

This next part, I find amusing, given recent revelations in my own game.

"...also, please try this: NEVER FLAT a 3bet preflop.  NEVER flat a 4bet preflop.  ever."


The clarion call here is for FOCUS.  We have set our student up with sandbags, guns, and ammunition.  Now that the battle is truly joined - with bad beats and suckouts and coolers on a daily basis - it is the time to really feel what this stupid game we love so much can do to our psyche.

It can make them forget the very basic questions we train them to ask:

do i have a reason to bet?
do i have a reason to call?

I write our student further:

"...now i know you may be feeling crushed right now.  but losing $200 is the reason we gave you a 300 EURO bankroll.  we saw this coming - and we prepared for this ;-)

it is demoralizing, but it is an important experience! you have to:

1) find the strength to pick yourself up and stay focused - keep moving forward
2) trust us when we say this is just a part of the bumpy ride - especially during the learning stages.  the key is to learn from it.  losing this much helps you to never forget some of the things you did wrong.
3) trust yourself the way we trust you... and more!  as i show you some of your hands, you already know what was wrong and right.  you just have to practice and get used to the idea of doing the right thing all the time.

do this, and this will be your lowest point.  we go up from here!"



Time to dig in and clear our heads boys.  The enemy is going to come rushing over that yonder hill.  There will be many of them, but they are going to come at us one at a time.  We won't need a machine gun.  A simple bolt-action rifle will do.  You have the weapons, the ammunition, the protection, the element of surprise.  PICK THEM OFF!  Load, Aim, Fire, Kill.  Rinse and repeat.

One hand at a time.

When you look at things that way, it really is just like shooting fish in a barrel.

Reverend Dave

It has been a few weeks since the last update.  Me and Lightbulb have been busy training and learning.  Remember I promised a story of how my own training sessions were going?

This one is a story about a leak.  And a plumber-reverend.

In my apartment, I had an old gooseneck faucet in my sink that refuses to completely shut anymore.  Getting it fixed would have involved the simple task of buying a new gooseneck, and the not-so-simple task of ripping out the old one to put in the new one without flooding my apartment in the process.

Not really knowing how to do the second part of that task, I let it slide for a while.

 Now I am not the kind of person who can sleep at night knowing i am losing a drop of water every five seconds - water that I will be paying for but never actually use.  So I placed a small pail under the leaky gooseneck to collect the water, which I then used for whatever reason when it filled up.

Stopgap solution.  I had a leak, but nothing was going to waste.  Except the time I took to attend to it every time the pail filled up.  Sometimes I had water that I had no use for yet, so I would pour it into a bigger bucket that I could bathe with later.  Okay, so let's call it a break-even proposition at best.

I knew I had a leak, and I KIND OF dealt with it.  But something else kept me up at night.  It was a sound that was magnified with every new drop - the more water in the pail, the louder the reverberation of the additional plops.

Also, it was getting steadily worse - it came to a point where water was dripping every second.  The pail was filling up five times faster.  I was getting up to have to attend to it more and more.  It was time to get this thing fixed once and for all.  I bought the gooseneck.

Then I stared stupidly at it.  And I stared stupidly at my empty hands.  No tools, no knowledge.  I was not about to do this with my bare hands.  And I was not about to do this on my own.

I called for help.  Not the neighbor, but a plumber.  Professional help.


This is a poker blog, by the way.  So while that story was entirely true, it is also a fitting metaphor for my poker game - leaking since 2010.

And the worst part of it?  While I knew exactly where my apartment leak was, I did not know where my poker leak was.  It kept me up at night - I could hear the BB's dripping as I lay in bed.  I did not know where it was dripping from.  There was no place to put a proverbial pail under it.

It took Poker Drill Sergeant Dave Tam to shove it under my nose - where the leak was all this time:  "Oh my God, are you fucking kidding me?  You have no 4bet range!"

It was a leak I had pointed out to many students before.  I even wrote a bit about it with regards to my own self-studies.  But I strangely blindsided myself and ignored it.

I had no 4bet range.

I looked at my data and old screenshots of my stats.  Years of flatting 3bets with Aces, Kings, Ace-King.  Years of folding to 3bet resteals.  It's not that I never 4bet - because I did about 5% of the time.  But if I had a PFR of 18, that accounted for a 4bet range of (18% x 5%) not even 1%!

I reviewed hands where I actually 4bet - yes, there were a few Aces and Kings and AK's in there, but hardly enough!.  What made it worse was that I was more often 4betting as a re-resteal with hands like A5s and other garbage!  I wasn't even polarized - my 1% 4bet range was GARBAGE.


It was not uncommon to hear Poker Coach Dave come down on us for weak play, and follow it up with a great (and super simple) suggestion.  He would close the pitch with "My word is Gospel.  GOSPEL."

His Gospel for me on that session was a two-part setup.  First, he asked me to run a filter on my hands - taking all my instances of AA/KK and AK and comparing overall profitability when I flat preflop 3bets with those, versus when I just 4bet them.

I had a smug notion in my head that the results would be too close to call.  I had it in my head that SURELY it could not be that big of a difference!  There were too many articles and books where authors advocated "keeping the garbage part of his range in the hand by flatting" - and the value I was missing by 4betting was supposed to be more than made up for when I flatted a 3bet and collected his FCbet.

"I'll show him," I thought as I ran the filter.  I would show Dave why I was not a Catholic.  That his Gospel could not apply to a decorated veteran like me!

Boom.  My brain exploded.

Even thru skype chat, I could hear the smirk on Coach Dave's face:  "I bet as you were running that filter, you were excited to show me I was wrong, eh?"

I typed a meek "hehe" as a reply.

Gospel.

"Who told you that flatting 3bets with your best hands was a great idea?"

I could not name names.

"Whoever he is, delete him off all your friend lists!"

A bit excessive, but point taken.  And taken hard.

Those numbers were shocking enough, but if I was to take into context that I was hardly even 4betting to begin with, could I even imagine how much VALUE and DEAD MONEY I had been missing out on?  The illusion that flatting 3bets to "keep their garbage in" was going to make up for that missing value was completely and utterly shattered.  Not only was it not making up for it, I was losing money from fit-folding (or spewing) Ace-King!

The second part of Coach Dave's Gospel was a simple 4bet-sizing fix, and with that I was off to the races with one less leaky faucet.

One of the truly telling marks of a great man, in my humble opinion, is when he says something and you think two things - in this exact order:

"Pssh, well that's obvious."
"Damn, why didn't I think of that?"

and then weeks later, you find yourself thinking:

"Seriously, how did I not think of that...?!?"


Thanks, Reverend Dave!

The Irony of Know-More-Tilt-More.

I've had many a student with MENSA-level IQ's.  They are easy to train.  They understand everything I throw at them in a snap.  They come up with new things and end up teaching me more than I can ever teach them.

But they are not my most successful students.  They all tilt harder than everyone else.

Nobody can bust a bankroll faster than a guy who is so smart, he can convince himself that he does not care.  He cannot care about a game's results because he thinks of everyone else as an idiot.  His ego will refuse to allow himself to be lumped in with all these idiots.  So he will do things to separate himself from these lucky fucking donkey idiot losers.

Since genius-ego needs to be the best - better than everyone - it's not much of a stretch to play like the biggest idiot of them all.


What it all boils down to is self-flagellation.

It's very simple.  The more I know, the more I hate myself for doing the wrong thing.  Even when "I did everything right"... The more I understand that I am doing the right thing, the more distressed I am when the results are unrewarding.

Then confidence disappears:  "Maybe I am not doing the right thing after all...?"  (See this previous post about loss of confidence).

And then it's time to punish myself.  Which is sad, because the real first step to being successful is to have fun.  And I can't have fun if I'm not being nice to myself.  Nice to my bankroll.  Nice to my fellow (fucking idiot!) players.

(I posted previously about recovering the A-Game and having fun here)


I post all this today, because I ran into a post on a player's blog on the PilipinasPoker Forums.  Now this player is someone I consider to be a definite inevitable game-crusher.  He has all the tools - the passion, the ability to ask the right questions and get the right answers, a grasp of the math, an articulation of the game's concepts, and the vulnerability to put himself out there to be sculpted by the wisdom (or lack thereof) of others.

He plays well.  He wins.  But he plays NL10 with a bankroll of $1200+  And he confesses to tilting easily, as evidenced by a brief outburst:

Bankroll:  1263.21
And just like that, I'm down again.  FU Stars!


The thread runs to a point where he confesses a loss of confidence, which is shocking to those of us who have seen him play.

On a serious note I know it's ridiculous, but my confidence level at this site is at an all-time low.  I've never been 15 buyins below all-in EV before and also being rivered too often lately it just feels like Pokerstars is cheating me out of my money.  Of course I know it's not true, it just feels that way.

I just need my confidence back.  Maybe win a few sessions in a row.  Maybe win 15 buyins.  Maybe suckout on somebody 5 times in a row.  I don't know.  Playing at Donkroom and winning doesn't help, so maybe this will do?

I'm even thinking about playing and just shoving all hands at 2NL and see what happens and maybe break this bad variance.   After I lose like some 50 buyins then maybe I can start winning again?  Bad idea of course.


So after a few well-meaning but empty replies where it is suggested that he "control his emotions" or "develop composure" I thought I'd pay a big blind and throw in my two cents.


"There are many techniques to manage tilt yourself, detect early warning signs, etc... I am very sure someone with your passion and resourcefulness has already seen the materials.  There may be almost nothing I can share with you that you haven't read somewhere.

Counting to ten is good (Tommy Angelo?) but I personally use it mainly as an indicator of my focus (i.e. if I can't make it to ten, I'm washed out).  IMO it's only going to pipe you down a bit, but not completely reset you if you are the emotional type to begin with.  Dusty suggests one can (and should) tough it out and "play through tilt" - but he's leatherass, and I'm not.  So I have to take swim breaks, boxing breaks, xbox breaks...

The other devices are no guarantee - alarms that go off after an hour so I can cold-quit, monetary stop losses, going to a "quiet place" (internal or external) to re-center, sitting on a slow-fired water boiler so that I have to literally and physically get off my seat  - the very nature of tilt means that I am predisposed to ignore all those devices at a time when I need them the most anyway.

It's unrealistic to expect rational actions during emotional stress.  So if you are prone to emotional blackouts, you cannot save yourself.  You can only hope the wave passes before you can destroy yourself.


So where does that leave this attempt at advice?  Get a grindmate.


People of high intelligence tend to be overachievers who are very hard on themselves.  Any error or failure or bad result triggers a desire to self-flagellate.  The thing that makes it doubly harder is that we pride ourselves in figuring things out and lifting ourselves out of the funk.  We know all too well what needs to be done, and we believe in our own ability to "buckle down and just fucking do it."

Yes, I've switched pronouns, so that you can hopefully believe me when I say I know how it feels.


The bad news is that the more I know, the less likely I am going to seek help.  It gets to a point where the help I need isn't someone who will give me more tips and ideas, but just someone who will cuss me out, embarrass me, squash my ego, and remind me that I am imperfect.

I once asked a student to think hard and name someone that she would allow to pull her off the table when she starts to act tilty.  She couldn't name anyone.
 
And you?  Is there a person who can say "tsk tsk" and make you say "sorry, I'm being stupid"...?

Is this person realistically nearby?  You could sync your grind with someone like that.  It could be someone from these forums, who will sit with you and threaten to take screenshots of your bad play for posting.  (I am sure many will volunteer.  Harsh reality: people are always waiting to knock you down a peg or two.)

In lieu of a grindmate, you could clear up some drivespace and camtasia all your sessions.  Make sure you post them online unedited.  That's not a lot of work if you have the machine for it (it all just runs in the background).  That creates a virtual grindmate.  If you know the lot of us are going to see you do dumb things, it might help."

Old Student, New Student

This is a tale about two old students.


This morning I got a call from one of my first Poker Trainees - and possibly one of my favorite converts.  Let's call him Excitaboy.

Excitaboy was the biggest fish around.  He had no respect for the game.  While everyone tried to play well, he would laugh and say "you all are trying to win, I'm the only one having fun!"

This line best delivered after laying a bad beat on somebody.

He was always first out of a tourney, and he would cover up the shame by saying he had to go leave anyway.  But we knew he wanted to keep playing.  And I knew that deep inside, he wanted to win.

Long story short, I changed his way of thinking by bombarding him with sports analogies.  As a very competitive athlete, Excitaboy could never again look at poker and willingly lose because "it was more fun."  Playing well was more fun.  Winning was more fun.

Cut to many years later, and Excitaboy is known as one of the tightest guys around, although still tilty when his wife calls and he is at a poker table (he is, after all, a guy).  I introduce him to the online cash game grind and sell the idea to him that it made way more sense than a tourney grind - especially for the casual amounts of time he spared - about a couple of hours on some nights of the week.

But Excitaboy - like many casual players - wanted to just play tourneys.  His money, his business, we left it at that.  After all, half of everyone else was just playing tourneys.  And logging on and jumping into a Sit and Go was so easy.


So this morning he calls me and wants to share a realization.  It took him this long, he started to confess, to realize that he was wasting his time and money with Sit and Go grinding.  We broke down the math in the most simplistic manner, just to share the point he was making:

Sit and Go's pay the top three players.  Since they are ten seaters, if all things are equal, all he needs to do is finish in the top three.  Basically, if everyone gets their fair share of luck and skill, if he plays ten games, he will finish once in every position.  So let's say he plays $10+1 buyin SNG's...

--> Buyins = $110
--> Finishes paid = $20 + $30 + $50 = $100
--> Net Loss $10

Now Excitaboy is tight and loves the game and is always learning, but he has no illusions about being the best player at the table.  He can appreciate when something might be bad business.  He's Chinese after all.  And he knows Kung Fu.

We move on from the simplistic math and he talks about the investment of time.  We talk about the feeling that once you buy into a tourney, that money is a sunk cost.  That money is gone, and you are pressured to play hard for a full 45 minutes to two hours just to see some of it back.  He talks about the stress of having to ebat every-fucking-body at the table.  Worst of all, as a nitty player, he talks about the inevitable coin flips - half the time behind, and nothing he can do about it because, well, "you gotta make a stand because the blinds are too high."

So he tried playing a few cash games again some days ago and finally got the idea I was selling him years ago when he first started training.  You control how long you play, you can leave anytime, you don't have to go into coinflips, you can wait for a hand, and, most of all, your buyin is NOT a sunk cost.  As long as it is in your stack, you can leave with it.

In a Sit and Go, he spends $11, and either leaves with $20, $30, $50, or a big fat zero and two hours of his life gone.  In a cash game, he can buyin for $10 and leave as soon as he is up one cent if he wants to.  And believe me, Excitaboy is the kind of player who can leave with any kind of small profit.

And Excitaboy does not have to be the best player - nor the luckiest - to win money playing cash games.  He does nto have to beat everybody - which is great because he doesn't have an ego that needs to beat everybody.  He can just be an above-average slightly-more-informed poker player and get paid by the one or two worse players at the table.


I tell you all this to get to what he says towards the tail end of his sharing:  "I know you told me all this before, but I was never going to know it without personally seeing for myself."

Which is funny, that the world works that way.

My father - in his forty years or so of conducting workshops, training, teambuilding, and shifting paradigms - almost always ended his speeched with this disclaimer:  "...but don't take my word for it, see for yourself."

He would reveal the secrets of life, the power of prayer, the keys to love and happiness, and the pitfalls of conventional programming.  Then after all that he would recommend that he not be believed.  because, well, some things in life (most, I think) are just not believable.

I can tell you all about getting wet, and you're going to know about it.  But you don't understand till you fall into the pool.

I once asked my father where the line was.  I mean, some things you tell people, and they had better believe, right?  I mean, you don't tell someone that cyanide will kill you and then say "but go see for yourself"...or do you?

I think women have the line closer to safe, while men have our lines closer to cyanide.  We will stick our finger in the socket.  We will lick a 9-volt battery.  We will eat red meat till the day we die.

We can mismanage our bankroll despite everything we've read.  We can tilt till we are busto even after seeing and hearing about a hundred cautionary tales.

We will see for ourselves what the red button does, and no amount of information will stop us from ordering chicharon bulaklak.  We will make disastrous choices (but never let it be labelled as "wrong choices").

I think for most men, anal sex is the line.  But I digress.


Elsie is reading a poker book.  I think it might be more than intermediate stuff.  He asks me about the book, and I tell him "don't worry about it, you're going to have to read it again anyway."

I think most of my poker books I read at least twice.  The first reading is strictly informational, and it's an aphrodisiac.  Then I play a few thousand hands for a few hundred hours.  Then the bulbs in my head go off - "Oh, I think THAT's what the book was talking about!"

So I read it again.


Never forget: We are allowed to make mistakes.  Yes, even after reading the fucking manual.  We are allowed to change our minds.  We are allowed to keep learning.  we are allowed to start from the beginning if we must.


Which brings me to the tale of an even older student.

This one learned the game around 2004 or 2005, I forget exactly.  This one had a natural knack for it and finally trained formally in 2009.  This one became a full-time poker pro.  This one lived off Limit Holdem.  Then he lived off Full-Ring No Limit Holdem.  Then he trained to coach the game and teach others.

This one became great at helping other players improve their game.  This one spent more time coaching and less time playing.

One by one, the Full-Ring tables were closing.  This one had to learn to play the 6-max game.  But the game had quite possibly already left him behind.  This one felt...well, that something was up.  I finally I found the word I was looking for a few days ago:

I felt antiquated.


So I had to make an effort to become a new student again.  I spent years studying to be of service to other players, but nobody was servicing me.  I tried to find leaks in my own game, but my efforts all seemed myopic:  I could see small flaws here and there, but I was too close to the picture to see the big flaws.

I didn't want to be one of those guys who slowly run out of people to look up to.  I promised myself that I would always always always have mentors.  I haven't had one in a while.  Outside of saying "I read it in a book" or "I saw a great video about it,"  I haven't really had the chance to learn from someone else in direct fashion.  I haven't taken a tongue-lashng and been called a nitty numbnut for too long.  I haven't had many chances to say the words "Thanks for pointing that out man, I never would have thought of that."

I wanted to be coached again.  An opportunity knocked, so I took it.

I am now some three or four weeks into a training program designed for beginners.  One of the trainers is an abrasive drill sergeant.  Seriously, if R. Lee Ermey taught poker, he would be this guy.  At the beginning, I find myself struggling to constantly keep my cup empty - as my ego constantly threatens to flare up:  "Dude, you've been there, done that!"

Well, ego, I haven't been here and done this in a long long time.  Maybe I can't just take your word for it anymore.  Maybe I have to see for myself.

Ego says "Dude, my game ain't broken, these guys are going to dismantle it!"

Well ego, I'm going to let these top-notch coaches go ahead and dismantle your crushing "unbroken" 1bb/100 6max game.  What do you say to that?

Yesterday I hit paydirt big time, but I will tell you about it tomorrow, because that is another story.

This one is about an Old Student who is now a New Student.

Decision Script - Be a man with a plan!

This week, after two weeks of mastering The Rules of Engagement, we do a module designed to round out our students' preflop tools:  The Decision Script.

The concept is simple:  Decisions come from information.  Good information, good decision.  So the key is to have an efficient way to gather this information.  We have to ask the right questions to get the right answers.  But since not all information is useful, we can't waste thought-energy asking too many questions.

Hence, a Decision Script.  A Players' customized thought-process for gathering the information he needs.

I first heard this idea listening to Phil Gordon audiobooks.  Phil liked to ask a bunch of questions as a checklist that he went through when it was his turn to act:

Should I bet or raise?
Should I fold?
Can I call?

Naturally, given the target audience and the era that poker was in at the time, this was a very general decision script.

Harrington introduced me to a script that I ran for a long time and found to be quite efficient.  he just looked at three things - and in this order (I'm paraphrasing, btw, since he spends a chapter on this):

1. STACKS - what (how deep) are the stacks involved?
2. POSITION - who is where?  how is this hand going to play out towards/from me
3. HAND - what have I got anyway?

Just going through #1 and #2 often made #3 automatic.  The first two items are great because almost all that information is available if you care to be aware!  It is not hidden.  The only hidden part of the information concerns the "who" part of the "who is where" question.  But even that, you can consistently solve with a HUD in due time.

So let's say I am in a hand.  I can start my Harrington-style Decision Script as soon as the dealer shuffles!

1.  STACKS - hmm, I have 120BB at the CO, a shortie is UTG, the small blind is deep, the button is also a shortie with 30BB.  every one else is 100BB-ish.  If the shortie opens for a raise, calling is out, set-mining is out, speculating with SC's is out.  If i somehow open and the BU 3bets, it's shove or fold for me.

2.  POSITION - action gets to me unopened.  the guy on the big blind folds to steals 90%.  the small blind is also a nit.  both have a very high fold to Fcbet.  the BU is unpredictable - could be steaming - god knows he has had chances to reload, but hasn't.  If I open from here, with anything less than the top of my range, I want him (the BU) gone.  With the rest of my range, I am willing to fold to a 3bet.  If the BU drops out and either of the blinds see a flop with me and check, I am going to Fcbet a little more than usual (even rag flops).  What about my PF bet size?  I standardize at 3bb, but since the big blind is just mostly going to fold, 2.5bb serves.  However, since I want to discourage a light 3bet from the BU (and I want to buy his button), perhaps 3.5bb this time?  Since both blinds give up a lot post-flop, 3.5bb is the choice.

3.  HAND - even before I've seen my hand, I have actually already sort of constructed the range I am going to play, and how I am going to play it.  Time to look at my hand...

72o, not in the range, fold


Okay, okay, sometimes if you have 72o you can save a lot of brain cells and just fold.  The exercise of this whole concept however, has to do with organizing our thoughts and getting to know how we go about them.

Elsie's assignment is to create a video with him thinking out loud.  Then we will listen to it and fine tune his thought processes.  he must write his script down.  That is the discipline of the exercise.  Nothing becomes automatic without practice.  And nothing can be practiced without the intention of fine-tuning.

For those of you thinking of creating your own decision script (I think you must!) here are some of the questions you always want to work into your script in some way shape or form:

1. Where is the money going to come from?  is it coming from folding out most of villain's range?  Is it coming from value?  This is most important when we make plays like 3bet stealing or set-mining.

2.  What is the plan?  (and post-flop:  has the plan changed?)  let's say your plan was to capitalize on the big blind's folding range by raising 94o from the BU.  he folds 80%, so that is outright profit with any two cards.  Once he resists, we shut down.  That's the plan.  It does NOT change when the Flop comes 937r.  The money comes from the outright profit of his likelihood to fold preflop.  The plan changes when the Flop comes 944.  Now the money comes from getting called by a worse hand to the showdown.


Listening to thinkaloud videos is both rewarding and extremely tiring.  Some students have such an inarticulatable thought process, it is a nightmare to fine tune.  Their thought processes can be filled with statements like "coz I am feeling this hand" or "because i think he is on tilt"...

Other times, they are articulate, but the thought process is somewhat flawed - as in:  "I bet to see where I am"

Because, well, you can also see where you are by checking.


To close out the week's module, here is a link to a great video on preflop planning.
(credit dnb118 for finding this and sharing!)

My final reminder for this module has always been this:  if you cannot run a decision script - If you fail to gather the info, or gather info and fail to follow what the info suggests - then your mind is mush.  Time to rest and play some xbox!

The Rules of Engagement

Missed an update on Elsie and Me the last couple of weeks as I nowadays split my time between the poker tables and the........ fruit farm.  That's another story.


Elsie is doing fine, hovering around break even as we enter the actual training.  Everything is installed, time to work.


First order of business is to clarify the MINDSET we are supposed to be in as poker professionals.  So here it is, the first thing I have all my APA VIP Trainees read:

POKER is NOT about making money.  Yes, we measure ourselves by that bottom line, BUT Poker is all about making the right decisions - the best possible decision with regards to that bottom line.  It's about making a decision with the best long-term outcome.  It's about making this decision EVERY TIME, at EVERY MOMENT, and at EVERY CROSSROAD.

The money we make is just the result that REWARDS the decisions we make.  We are not here "to make money" - if you play that way, you will inevitably make the wrong decisions...even when you do get lucky.

DO THE RIGHT THING.  Drop your ego and fold to the outrageous bluff-raise.  Make that positive EV call even if it means you could get stacked.  Use your best judgment with the available information every time.

Do the right thing, and the rewards will follow.

This is how we play.  This is how we live.

My job is to make sure Elsie understands this and shifts his paradigm.  To stop trying to take peoples' money, because they are going to be giving it to him.  Instead of trying to be better than them, he just needs to be the best he can be.  The spoils go NOT to the most-talented, but to the one who makes the fewest mistakes.

Like Tim Duncan, we are going to take high-percentage shots, while the crowd chants "Booo-ring!!!"


Got the mindset down - or at least the foundation.  We will be going back to spot-check this mindset many many many times over the next few weeks.  Any bad beat, burst of good luck, bad luck, or ego can seriously challenge a player's will to keep this mindset.


So on week 2, I gave Elsie a Starting Hand Chart.  The SHC is there to serve as a default.  With no information, go to the SHC.  with tons of hands, a HUD filled with stats, and notes filled with observations, the SHC takes a backseat and we can have what I like to call a more Dynamic Hand Range.

94o is not on any SHC, but if OTB and the BB folds to steals 100% after 700 hands...well, that's a raise.

We combine the SHC with The APA Rules of Engagement - first passed on to me by Dr.Eldoradon in 2009.  Although I hardly ever hear of it anymore, it is still one of the foundations of my training program.

1.  I will never accept a proposition where I will be out of position, UNLESS I am the preflop raiser.

2.  I choose not to be involved in unraised pots.

And of course, the disclaimer:  This is not how we are going to be playing forever, but since this is a training program, these are the goddam training wheels.  They do NOT come off till we say so.