Rebuilding and bloggery
Posted by ZenFish
Posted by
ZenFish
posted in
Gen. Poker
Rebuilding and bloggery
I've joined the ranks of people (poker players and others) who, for various reasons, have had to take a step back, rethink, and return with renewed energy and focus. I've decided to hold myself accountable through a little bloggery about the return to PLO midstakes , and other things that cross my mind as I go along:
http://nutblocker.com/category/blogs/zenfish/
If you've ever met resistance, clap your hands!
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*clap, clap*
I think if you never see setbacks, you're not pushing things very hard. This is true both in and out of poker. In my experience, you reach further by pushing hard and accepting the setbacks, rather than playing things safe and slow. It can be tough to deal with though, and people certainly prefer different strategies there.
Interesting first post. Will be interesting to follow.
I agree with jonna102. Setbacks are part of the game. I think it's mentally healthy to take a step back from the game if you happen to feel the need to, for whatever reason that caused the setback in the first place. While playing poker, it's important to have a fresh, clear mindset. It'll allow you to focus much better, and also play in a more profitable manner. Best of luck to you ZenFish on and off the felt and looking forward to more of your posts.
FWIW, I ended up with a long break from all poker between August last year and February this year. I didn't plan it that way, but it was well needed. I was a bit burnt out on the whole cycle of winning a bit and then losing a bit more, whether it was from run bad or play bad or just being too agressive with my bankroll or whatever. Looking back now on the period after the break, it's clear that my game has improved a lot, some of it consciously but a whole lot has also been subconsciously. Taking a step back and then attempting to recover clearly helped a lot, and I'm sure it will happen again and again.
Zen-fish awesome Blog post. I just finished reading the book "Good to Great", and was able to make connections to your Blog Post. Hope you can gain some insights from this post, and Grind back to Midstakes PLO. :)
http://www.ndoherty.com/stockdale-paradox/
That's a good post, and I can relate to it through a recent non-poker problem. I've struggled with an Achilles injury for 9 months now, and just recently gotten back to running. Feeling 95%, back to 4 runs/week, and confident that the last 5% will return before the year is over.
But during the first months it was damn near impossible to get a good feedback loop going. It turns out the Achilles is one of those injuries with lots of "variance". You do what you're supposed to, and it gets a little better, but then a few weeks later you can have a very bad day. Then you get confused, and it's hard to keep faith.
What I ended up doing, eventually, was surrendering totally to the recovery program I knew would work. Feeling pessimistic or optimistic just created noise and emotional swings that weren't useful. So I stuck with the recovery exercises and did them just like a daily chore, without attaching emotions to the process. If I was feeling anything, it was subtle spite ... "take that, pesky tendon, and you'll get more of it tomorrow".
Month after month of that, and now I'm almost back 100%. No breakthrough day where I could say "this is it, I'm back", just a slow, upward trend with daily swings, just like a poker graph. :-)
This mindset is obviously ideal for Getting Things Done, be it recovery from injury, poker or chores. Have a good plan and follow it. Working through the Achilles problem was a useful experience and a good reminder in that respect. I'm looking forward to applying the same stubborn attitude to the poker rebuild process.
Softskills are so huge these days, and is pretty low-hanging fruit for those with already decent playing skills. Making the most of what you already know is probably better than improving your strategies marginally. Up to a point, of course, but it's not necessary to be a wiz to beat the midstakes for a pretty penny.
I love your post Zen :) It gives me personally, a reality check and is really inspirational in some ways more than others. I don't have many poker friends in real life, so a lot of my frustration and steam goes straight to my girlfriend haha. And she doesn't understand the game so shes gives me generic responses that don't really help haha. I live through forums and spy on twoplustwo players for kicks to feel like I'm apart of the community. And for sure Gluck with everything will definitely follow your blog as well.
Nice blog - go get it !
The only issue I have - it isn't on RIO :)
yes, please repost here too :) we love rio and your blog, wpuld be nice to read it here
Thanks for the encouragement and kind comments, people! Right now I'm sipping morning coffee on a very nice September morning 7 AM, and feeling ready to be productive. :-)
Best of luck at tables, and cant wait see you at highstakes , just matter of time for you, im sure ;-)
Excellent read - well done Sir...
Massive props for ZenFish for putting this site up - good place for people interested in the mixed games (i.e me!!) as well...
I want part two now.
Here you go, blog update :-)
http://nutblocker.com/zenfish-blog-taking-inventory-zenfish13/
Nice read man... best of luck!
Adjusting to Aggressive Players on Static Boards
Blog update: http://nutblocker.com/zenfish-blog-nuts-and-bolts-zenfish13/
Indeed, no shortstacking please.
I just get web hosting ads when I click through. Is this still up?
I've been told the site is migrating to another server this weekend and will be up again shortly. The twitter feed will have info about when it's back up: https://twitter.com/Nutblocker
Blog update:
http://nutblocker.com/adjusting-to-aggressive-players-on-static-boards-part-2-by-zenfish13/
A strategy piece this time, with some modeling of c-betting on dry, paired boards against aggressive opposition.
Nice strategy breakdown :)
In the table where you compare open% and cbet%, do you have an automated way of doing that? Or is it manual blood, sweat and tears? :)
Manual combo counting using OO. I wonder if there's a way to run OO via a script, if you need to process a series of input like that.
You can at least do batch processing with the spreadsheet processor. It takes a PQL query and a table of parameters. However, with some of the limitations of PQL you often need multiple queries, and so you need multiple spreadsheets. Those multiple spreadsheets can be generated by scripts, so in a roundabout way you can semi-automate even very complex things. Like your table... when you want to vary preflop hand ranges, flops and continuing ranges en masse...
Would be nicer with some python glue. Not aware of anything like that, but if I remember correctly it's possible to use the OO engine from other external programs.
Excellent, sounds like the spreadsheet processor is what I'm looking for.
Blog update!
http://nutblocker.com/zenfish-blog-blissfully-bubbling-by-zenfish13-pokerjuice/
Naice e.e
Rather new to RIO and just found this. I have read the first two blogposts and I really enjoyed them. I have never been analytical in my poker game. Things have always come rather easy to me and I feel like I have been winning in poker almost since the first time I started playing. --> In other parts of my live like school I have always been in the top of my class (until I entered the University) and in both public school and especially at college (In Denmark it is called Gymnasium) I practically never did my homework but had great scores anyway. I think that since most things have come easy to me I have become rather lazy and have been for quite some time when I am honest. Now I have decided to really start to make an effort instead of just sitting back and be somewhat competent in many things. I know I can be better. A better brother, a better son, a better father, a better student, etc. I will be difficult to change who I am but I think poker is a good place to start!
So far I think this blog of yours, Zen, has a way of humbling me in a good way, if you know what I mean? It makes me think about what is important to me.
Nice to hear that you are inspired. Knowing what you want and getting there is one of the best things in life. :-)
Aha, read the next two as well. Pokerjuice seems exiting, but be honest, Zen, don't you have to be pretty good at math to find your way around it? A question off topic: Is it possible for a player over a longer sample of hands to have a positive Money Won Without Showdown graph? If it doesn't show, yes, I like these blogposts as well because they make me think instead of just going through the day with a 'foggy brain'.
What made me fall completely for PJ was the speed with which you can do useful analysis without math. Load hh file, run simulations, get result, no manual EV equations required.
If you want to calculate things PJ can't yet do, you can still use PJ to build ranges in a very elegant way. Then plug those ranges into Odds Oracle and work there.
Positive or flat Money Won Without Showdown graphs are reported by some players. The consensus is that a losing redline is standard. In the thread below, Andre Santos gives a good explanation of why this is expected:
The red line thread (non-showdown winnings)
Hopefully I can now focus on other things. Thanks for the link, now this obsession of mine with the redline can be scrapped leaving room for more important things. Looking forward to your next blog update. GL sir. ;)
2000 RIO points! Well deserved.
Hi Zen. Do you still have your blog on Nutblocker?-And will you be posting updates anytime soon? I really enjoyed reading it when I just signed up for RIO and for some odd reason I started to think about it and came back to it now. Unfortunately there is no new updates. :/
Great, great blog. I very much enjoy the way you write (English not my native language) and the content is really good. Consider updating more often. :)
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