You feeling any better - you know, those migraines?
Yo, thanks for the welcome back. As for the migraines, I knocked out all booze and caffeine for a couple of weeks and started taking Feverfew and haven't had a migraine since. I started to get the beginnings of one a week or so ago but it just...evaporated. Am delighted. I celebrated on Saturday by getting drunk.
If you took the advice proferred by my barber all those years ago, I hope it was this version.
Not sure my mind is ready for the alternative version.
You feeling any better - you know, those migraines?
Yo, thanks for the welcome back. As for the migraines, I knocked out all booze and caffeine for a couple of weeks and started taking Feverfew and haven't had a migraine since. I started to get the beginnings of one a week or so ago but it just...evaporated. Am delighted. I celebrated on Saturday by getting drunk.
If you took the advice proferred by my barber all those years ago, I hope it was this version.
Not sure my mind is ready for the alternative version.
Ha, it could have been both versions at once*. I know: graphic.
Hope the free coaching can at least help renew your motivation to play more.
Thanks a lot, waller02. Have been downswinging somewhat but think that's at least partly down to play-bad/perma-tilt as well as running bad but, yep, my motivation hasn't quite been there and I've been auto piloting the bulk of my sessions. Hopefully Tommy can sort me out.
Me too. I wonder if we'll miss poker in 2018 in 2024? I did write about this, but I think that's enough of my articles for one day.
In light of recent developments, I fear we'll be looking at a whimsical narrative along the lines of "ahh... do you remember when Sky Poker used to exist?".
I still miss the old cryptologic network where my poker adventures began many a year back. "The what network?!" I hear all the young whippersnappers cry.
Me too. I wonder if we'll miss poker in 2018 in 2024? I did write about this, but I think that's enough of my articles for one day.
In light of recent developments, I fear we'll be looking at a whimsical narrative along the lines of "ahh... do you remember when Sky Poker used to exist?".
I still miss the old cryptologic network where my poker adventures began many a year back. "The what network?!" I hear all the young whippersnappers cry.
Me too. I wonder if we'll miss poker in 2018 in 2024? I did write about this, but I think that's enough of my articles for one day.
In light of recent developments, I fear we'll be looking at a whimsical narrative along the lines of "ahh... do you remember when Sky Poker used to exist?".
I still miss the old cryptologic network where my poker adventures began many a year back. "The what network?!" I hear all the young whippersnappers cry.
Nice to have you back by the way
This prompted me to look up the cryptologic network - interesting stuff. I know I said yesterday that I wasn't going to put up any more columns but yesterday was yesterday and today is today and thought this was pertinent in light of your comments. It was written a couple of years ago for INSERTSCANDINAVIANMONIKERHEREBET:
The future of poker?
There are three potential futures. In one, everything that isn’t burning is dark and I am dressed in rags telling people about the past. “It was special,” I tell my bearded, toothless, malnourished followers. “You could wake up and sit around in your underpants in bed playing a card game on your computer and make money. And it was just thoughts. The better you thought, the more money you could make.”
“What’s a computer?” asks one of my followers.
“What’s a card game?” asks another.
“What are underpants?” asks someone else.
That’s one future.
Another possible future is like a hyper-Singapore. Everything is ordered, safe, efficient and clean but we all have to work hard. Nobody really plays poker. Nobody really drinks. Nobody really does much of anything.
The third future is like our present, only a bit tougher. Poker is harder, but not massively so. Money is scarcer, but not massively so. Fun and relaxation is harder to come by, but not massively so. We all wish we were back in 2016, but not massively so.
It is difficult to predict where poker will be in five, ten, twenty years time. If the things I have been reading, seeing and thinking about lately come true then the game is not going to be in great shape. The other day I sat down at a table and the following exchange happened in the chatbox:
Player A: Player C, you are so bad.
Player B: I agree. How are you even calling there? Terrible. Lol.
Player C: *silence*
Player A and Player B are both winning regulars at low stakes. They make money from players like Player C, players who sit down to try and enjoy the game and hopefully, sometimes, make a bit of money. If it wasn’t for Players like Player C (players who will make bad calls and do things that they perhaps shouldn’t do) then Players A and B would not make any money. Yet here they are openly criticising him for doing the exact thing that is profitable for them.
After the above exchange Player C clammed up and stopped playing hands. I imagine he didn’t feel like being attacked any more in the chatbox. Eventually the game fizzled out.
Is this the future of online poker? Recreationals being hounded out by the pros and semi-pros? It is certainly possible. According to a pro on a blog I was reading this week, “We couldn’t just win and shut up. We had to let our egos run rampant all over the casinos and the internet. How often do you go to the casino and see some young, arrogant kid blatantly telling (or modestly showing) the table how much better he is from everyone else or how bad they are. We have not only told and showed the fish that they are fish...we have rammed it down their throats.”
Bleak stuff. But it gets bleaker. Jason Les, a high-stakes pro who played Claudico, a poker playing bot, last summer, had this to say in an interview last year. “I have played online since 2005. In 2009 we were talking about 2005 being the good old days. And then in 2012 we were talking about 2009 being the good old days. In three years we are going to be talking about how 2015 was the good old days.”
Actually, is it that bleak? In some ways it is comforting to think that we are living in times that will be looked back upon fondly in the poker community. And there is still massive scope for improvement, in all of our games. Jason Les conquered that poker bot by betting oddly, bluffing with blockers and all manner of technical, unconventional stuff. Claudico played well against Jason by taking strange lines and polarising bets on the river: massively overbetting with both the nuts or near nuts and with complete air. It was a strategy that is difficult to play against.
So go forth and play. Enjoy yourselves, don’t insult anyone, don’t necessarily play in a standard way and do overbet-shove rivers with the nuts or with trash. Then we all just might be okay.
Me too. I wonder if we'll miss poker in 2018 in 2024? I did write about this, but I think that's enough of my articles for one day.
In light of recent developments, I fear we'll be looking at a whimsical narrative along the lines of "ahh... do you remember when Sky Poker used to exist?".
I still miss the old cryptologic network where my poker adventures began many a year back. "The what network?!" I hear all the young whippersnappers cry.
Right, I've got my first free coaching session with Tommy Angelo in an hour or so. Frankly, I need it.
First, as the coachee, you have to fill out a form about what you'd like to talk about. I began mine with, "My goodness, where to start?" then blathered on about various forms of tilt, peeling too wide, big blobs of stress on and off the tables and 4-betting light as some sort of misguided validation.
What I didn't blather on about on the form were the gangs of psychological, emotional and life maladies that appear to be chasing me about at the moment that include, but are in no way limited to, a two-and-a-half decade on/off relationship with depression (it's very much on at the moment), a career that has disappeared, cluster migraines, miscellaneous weeping, tinnitus, insomnia, and not getting laid since February.
Still, on a positive note, I've been getting really into chicken at the moment and spend lots of my time working on marinades. Perhaps I'll start with the chicken, stay positive, and go from there. Here's hoping Tommy isn't going to be witnessing a transatlantic breakdown this evening (well, his morning).
It's almost exactly one week - genuinely, nearly to the minute - since I finished my first coaching session with Tommy Angelo. After that coaching session, and probably because I was trying to hide from the "on/off relationship with depression, a career that has disappeared, cluster migraines, miscellaneous weeping..." and so on, I went out and got drunk and stayed drunk until 9am on Friday morning.
I know: far out.
Once the hangover clattered off, good things started happening. First, after smoking just three cigarettes on Saturday I thought, "perhaps I can smoke just two cigarettes on Sunday" ended up smoking no cigarettes on Sunday and haven't smoked one since. Then, after reading Tommy's work-in-progress Dailyness, I've been meditating every day. I've also been doing some kind of bastardised form of callisthenics every day. Plus I've been offered work (albeit short term), have really eased up on the miscellaneous weeping and haven't had a migraine for a while.
As for poker, I've barely played since in the throes of self-improvement/recovery but sat down earlier for a brief cash session, promptly lost with J9 all-in on a T78 flop and with QQ on a Q32 flop and there was barely an emotional flicker.
Hi Steve. Most splendid that you are back posting, I have missed the intellectual musings on the forum 😊 Good to read that you seem to be on the way to beating the migraines, hope it continues. Love the food for thought story, things are always better “back then” pity we can’t see how good things are in the moment ey 🤓 Having been an avid reader and sometime giver of ‘sage advice’ I feel inclined to offer my recipe for happiness. Get Laid. ( Not lard)
The bastardised callisthenics will help. Getting laid is obviously more fun but that's not always without complication is it? (both within and without relationships )...
...when I feel the Black Dog breathing down my neck I tend to run away from it. Semi-regular 10k's do the trick for me but you have to go hard; you need to feel like your skin has been pricked with hot needles, your heart is trying to squeeze itself through the gaps in your ribcage and your legs are no longer your own.
I would recommend getting hold of a copy of What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami as a companion piece...
Hi Steve. Most splendid that you are back posting, I have missed the intellectual musings on the forum 😊 Good to read that you seem to be on the way to beating the migraines, hope it continues. Love the food for thought story, things are always better “back then” pity we can’t see how good things are in the moment ey 🤓 Having been an avid reader and sometime giver of ‘sage advice’ I feel inclined to offer my recipe for happiness. Get Laid. ( Not lard)
'Get laid, not lard' could well become my new mantra. Splendid to have you here (and splendid use of splendid) and thanks, as always, for the good wishes.
Comments
Hope the free coaching can at least help renew your motivation to play more.
If you took the advice proferred by my barber all those years ago, I hope it was this version.
Not sure my mind is ready for the alternative version.
I think you do......
*but wasn't
I still miss the old cryptologic network where my poker adventures began many a year back. "The what network?!" I hear all the young whippersnappers cry.
Nice to have you back by the way
The future of poker?
There are three potential futures. In one, everything that isn’t burning is dark and I am dressed in rags telling people about the past. “It was special,” I tell my bearded, toothless, malnourished followers. “You could wake up and sit around in your underpants in bed playing a card game on your computer and make money. And it was just thoughts. The better you thought, the more money you could make.”
“What’s a computer?” asks one of my followers.
“What’s a card game?” asks another.
“What are underpants?” asks someone else.
That’s one future.
Another possible future is like a hyper-Singapore. Everything is ordered, safe, efficient and clean but we all have to work hard. Nobody really plays poker. Nobody really drinks. Nobody really does much of anything.
The third future is like our present, only a bit tougher. Poker is harder, but not massively so. Money is scarcer, but not massively so. Fun and relaxation is harder to come by, but not massively so. We all wish we were back in 2016, but not massively so.
It is difficult to predict where poker will be in five, ten, twenty years time. If the things I have been reading, seeing and thinking about lately come true then the game is not going to be in great shape. The other day I sat down at a table and the following exchange happened in the chatbox:
Player A: Player C, you are so bad.
Player B: I agree. How are you even calling there? Terrible. Lol.
Player C: *silence*
Player A and Player B are both winning regulars at low stakes. They make money from players like Player C, players who sit down to try and enjoy the game and hopefully, sometimes, make a bit of money. If it wasn’t for Players like Player C (players who will make bad calls and do things that they perhaps shouldn’t do) then Players A and B would not make any money. Yet here they are openly criticising him for doing the exact thing that is profitable for them.
After the above exchange Player C clammed up and stopped playing hands. I imagine he didn’t feel like being attacked any more in the chatbox. Eventually the game fizzled out.
Is this the future of online poker? Recreationals being hounded out by the pros and semi-pros? It is certainly possible. According to a pro on a blog I was reading this week, “We couldn’t just win and shut up. We had to let our egos run rampant all over the casinos and the internet. How often do you go to the casino and see some young, arrogant kid blatantly telling (or modestly showing) the table how much better he is from everyone else or how bad they are. We have not only told and showed the fish that they are fish...we have rammed it down their throats.”
Bleak stuff. But it gets bleaker. Jason Les, a high-stakes pro who played Claudico, a poker playing bot, last summer, had this to say in an interview last year. “I have played online since 2005. In 2009 we were talking about 2005 being the good old days. And then in 2012 we were talking about 2009 being the good old days. In three years we are going to be talking about how 2015 was the good old days.”
Actually, is it that bleak? In some ways it is comforting to think that we are living in times that will be looked back upon fondly in the poker community. And there is still massive scope for improvement, in all of our games. Jason Les conquered that poker bot by betting oddly, bluffing with blockers and all manner of technical, unconventional stuff. Claudico played well against Jason by taking strange lines and polarising bets on the river: massively overbetting with both the nuts or near nuts and with complete air. It was a strategy that is difficult to play against.
So go forth and play. Enjoy yourselves, don’t insult anyone, don’t necessarily play in a standard way and do overbet-shove rivers with the nuts or with trash. Then we all just might be okay.
Right, I've got my first free coaching session with Tommy Angelo in an hour or so. Frankly, I need it.
First, as the coachee, you have to fill out a form about what you'd like to talk about. I began mine with, "My goodness, where to start?" then blathered on about various forms of tilt, peeling too wide, big blobs of stress on and off the tables and 4-betting light as some sort of misguided validation.
What I didn't blather on about on the form were the gangs of psychological, emotional and life maladies that appear to be chasing me about at the moment that include, but are in no way limited to, a two-and-a-half decade on/off relationship with depression (it's very much on at the moment), a career that has disappeared, cluster migraines, miscellaneous weeping, tinnitus, insomnia, and not getting laid since February.
Still, on a positive note, I've been getting really into chicken at the moment and spend lots of my time working on marinades. Perhaps I'll start with the chicken, stay positive, and go from there. Here's hoping Tommy isn't going to be witnessing a transatlantic breakdown this evening (well, his morning).
Fingers crossed, eh readers?
I know: far out.
Once the hangover clattered off, good things started happening. First, after smoking just three cigarettes on Saturday I thought, "perhaps I can smoke just two cigarettes on Sunday" ended up smoking no cigarettes on Sunday and haven't smoked one since. Then, after reading Tommy's work-in-progress Dailyness, I've been meditating every day. I've also been doing some kind of bastardised form of callisthenics every day. Plus I've been offered work (albeit short term), have really eased up on the miscellaneous weeping and haven't had a migraine for a while.
As for poker, I've barely played since in the throes of self-improvement/recovery but sat down earlier for a brief cash session, promptly lost with J9 all-in on a T78 flop and with QQ on a Q32 flop and there was barely an emotional flicker.
Good old Tommy Angelo.
Most splendid that you are back posting, I have missed the intellectual musings on the forum 😊
Good to read that you seem to be on the way to beating the migraines, hope it continues.
Love the food for thought story, things are always better “back then” pity we can’t see how good things are in the moment ey 🤓
Having been an avid reader and sometime giver of ‘sage advice’ I feel inclined to offer my recipe for happiness.
Get Laid. ( Not lard)
...when I feel the Black Dog breathing down my neck I tend to run away from it. Semi-regular 10k's do the trick for me but you have to go hard; you need to feel like your skin has been pricked with hot needles, your heart is trying to squeeze itself through the gaps in your ribcage and your legs are no longer your own.
I would recommend getting hold of a copy of What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami as a companion piece...