joe_totale

Zoty, i mistakenly flagged one of your posts as inapproriate, in truth it was a mistake mate, sorry man.

"Sometimes I wish that instead of a business career I had chosen something that would have added greater value to the world."

I don't know anything about your work situation, but see if you are doing okay financially and work is going well and you're on the up and up...and if you have time...you can do some volunteer work. Loads of charities out there always needin volunteers man. Then your success in your current profession affords you the opportunity to give your time to a cause and you get to do something that has an immediate positive impact on others and a huge amount of value to yourself.

I've done about five years voluntary work off and on, it was always about two to four hours a week, sometimes more but i found giving up 2-4 hours a week no bother at all. I was mostly mentoring a kid with autism and attachment disorder...so we'd go play football or go carting and stuff like that and along the way I'd try and help him to become more comortable with regular human interaction and answer his random questions about life and stuff.  More recently i was doing hosptial radio in a cancer hospital, taking requests and talking to patients. Both gigs unpaid, 2-4 hours a week's nae bother You don't need to get paid to make the world a better place, and helping one guy or a small group or whatever, as long as you make a wee bit of difference often times you have no idea the difference you can make.

Don't define yourself or your value as a good citizen by what you are paid to do. Cos if that were the case most folks in life would be knee deep in anti-depressants. I know it's off topic but maybe have a think about it.

I think it would help if people outside of poker understood the subtle difference between luck and variance. Everyone has an idea and impression of luck, but not of variance. One guy gets lucky...shit happens, he's just lucky...another guy understands variance, understands the probabilities and makes an informed +ev decision. But the thing with the more esoteric aspects of poker is it can get quite dry quite quickly. In TV poker there's been a kind of tug of war regarding how it is presented. A fun game of skill and luck...or a serious game of skill with an element of variance played by hard working highly intelligent professionals. The Norman Chad approach or the Haxton/Busqeut approach to commentary. Entertain the audience or educate the audience. Finding the balance is important.

If we are to educate the ignorant it must be palatable, digestible and interesting...so you can't just hand someone a copy of Mathematics of Poker, but one can very quickly explain simple equities in a standard hand like a pair versus a flush draw with overcards and explain a little about pot odds and why, in the long run, to call a bet of a certain size is a profitable enterprize with a positive expected value.

One can talk about reads and tendencies quite easily too, the difference between a TAG and a LAG, but without using the acronyms. I think it's a case of peeling the layers of the onion, but making it seem neat...opening the doors so to speak of the other person's perception. It doesn't actually take much. We've all done it with friends. Pulled out the cards dealt some hands and shown them stuff and explained stuff they'd never have thought of. Like why it's fine to get caught bluffing, that's always a good one.

So yea, course it would help if more people knew more about the intricacies of the game. I think 'Tony Dunst's Raw Deal' segments on the WPT shows and Stapes's commentary on The Big Game (helped by the Poker Police) were good examples of finding the right balance. Or someone could just develop an Ike Haxton App that could commentate on any given poker hand.

How excited do you get?  Are there varying degrees of excitement? And is there perhaps a better word or words to describe what is going on internally and externally? The reason I ask is i wrote you a long reply (too long) with references to Movement Psychology, which very few folk know about, and it was a bit much to be honest. But i thought your original post was very interesting, with respect to what you said about your concern regarding giving off live tells.

If you really want to be discreet and not (too) disingenuous - Professional Gamer.  If anyone asks, do you/can you really make money playing games, just say, yes, if you work hard at it and you're good enough you can make decent money. Not everyone wants vanilla, but most people want solvent. 

BBC 5 Live Kermode and Mayo's Film Review  A weekly review of the week's new releases with Mark Kermode one of if not the UK's leading film critic and purveyor of Wittertainment. They also get great guests, the likes of Spielberg; Spacey; Hanks anyone and everyone basically, informative, passionate and witty.

Script notes podcast with Jon August and Craig Mazin A weekly podcast from two pro screenwriters. Jon August's credits include: Go; Big Fish; Frankenweenie. Craig Mazin's credits include: Identity Thief; Hangover 2 & 3. Just loads of info and advice and interviews about screenwriting; Hollywood and the movie business...but from the perspective of the writer.

Get a book that deals with the mental game, such as 'The Mental Game of Poker' by Jared Tendler...i think there's a new edition that came out recently. I got the audio book a few years back. It's really good, especially the stuff on Tilt, the different types of tilt, what causes it, etc...(I had/have Injustice and Entitlement tilt...and have to keep working at it)

I used to grind HU SNGS and quit them after the last big downswing when I realized i couldn't handle the swings and variance and the tilt that was being induced. HU SNGS take a lot of mental fortitude and objective thought to be able to analyse your play and be honest about the upswings/downswings and break even periods. Knowing when it's run bad or bad play. I know this is true with all poker disciplines but i think HU SNGs are a beast unto themsleves. Calling too often when you 'know you're beat' is a sure fire sign of tilt that needs to be addressed. Give yourself a chance, work on your mental game...get a book...there's others out there, i just mentioned the one I own...but get to work on it if you're keen to be grinding full time. 

If this sort of thing happens again look and see how many Zoom tables villain is playing. People rarely mention it when they post Zoom hands where they have no reads on villain but i think it's decent information, cos if villain is playing 4 tables then he has more decisions to make in less time. If he's one tabling all his attention is on this hand...no distractions. Factor in timing. How long did he tank street to street? If a guy 4 tabling Zoom is making quick decisions, it means he has standard spots or is folding on the other tables and is focused on this hand.

I know when i play Zoom sometimes there's moments in each session when I have decisions on each table and i get pushed for time and realize I have a couple of seconds before i time out, in those spots the first thing that goes is my bet sizing (once I decide i'm not folding). Not saying that's the case here, but some of the time, especially at the micros, i think Villains find themselves in close/difficult spots, don't quite know what's optimal and just stick it in. EG: i can see a recreational player taking this line with JJ.

When you take a quick break during the session, pull up some of the hands where villain has won the pot (takes two seconds on Stars) and see if you get info from that. I appreciate this ain't helping with this hand but, in future, it's a quick easy way of getting valuable info when you don't have many/any hands on villain. And it can give you peace of mind, which has value.

Mr Computer Screen: with all due respect; your manner is much like that of an Evil Genus in the prologue of an as yet unmade Pixar Cartoon. (I'm thinking a young Megamind on steroids or something of that nature.)  You're passionate; wrought; no one understands; no one gets it or you; no one proves themselves a worthy cohort or adversary.

But this is not a cartoon. You have to get along with people. If you want the best of and from people, you have to be a little more human, more diplomatic, more respectful, more forgiving, understanding and humble. If you are coming from a place of knowledge, as an authrority on some matter you care deeply about, then please use some tried and tested people skills. It's not about who shouts loudest, or even who knows the most. You gain very little by adopting an arrogant, dismissive 'on computer screen' persona. You catch more bees with honey than vinegar.  All you gain is the reaffirmation that no one is worthy and that you are the sole voice of reason.

Why don't you calm own a little, get off the high horse and start again. Be a bit nicer, warmer. Stifle your rage. Look outside of yourself and see it from the point of view of those you are trying to engage. You are clearly a very intellgent person, I am too, everyone on this forum is...and we all have things to do...and right about now it seems like engaging in a discussion with you, as you present yourself here is a poor choice of how one might spend one's precious time. Life gets lonely pretty fast when one perceives oneself to be surrounded by Phillistines. And back to my original comparison with an animated Evil Genius. We always feel sorry for those characters, we're supposed to...(and pity is the bassest of coins.) But there's always room for the redemption that comes with self-awareness and a more charitable dispostion.  All the best and i wish you well on your quest.

Some NL25 or NL50 Six Max content would be nice for the Essential Membership oiks. There is quite the dearth at present. I don't expect there to be a perponderance of such videos, but keeping in mind the Essential Membership is a mere 10 of your fine (but unsecured)  American Dollars, and this being a fraction of a single buy in at the aforementioned levels of the No Limit Holdems I think the absence of such video content is conspicuous. If there's no plans to include such videos then perhaps an explanation would be fitting. Thank you and good health.

Chael, I think you make some excellent points. (And for the record i think $10 per month is great value for The Essential Membership.) So i was wondering if you or any of the quality posters/players can advise here:

What advice would you give a micro stakes player, when watching a 100/200NL live video or session review, bearing in mind that the play at micro stakes clearly differs in many ways from the play in the videos we're watching. What are the main things we can take from watching these videos being played at a higher level to that which we are ourselves playing?

It seems to be that at micro stakes you have to play more exploitatively as there's more recreational players. This means getting more value when we think we have the best hand, but also making exploitative folds, when villains rep a very narrow/nutted range. In the cash game videos there's a lot of emphasis on balance, blockers, having a bluffing range in various spots etc etc...and obviously that applies and is key to beating the stakes being played in those vids...so again...how do we take this to our own games at smaller stakes?

I ask these questions coming from a relative, but humble place of ignorance, that being a state of not-knowing. So if i sound stupid...it's because I am, so i hope anyone replying can keep that in mind. And i just want to say that since i joined RIO i have tripled my (meagre) bankroll and i am a recreational player, albeit one who takes the game very seriously...I'm not complaining about RIO or the videos.

"A good card for my story appears and I check to pretend I want to trap. (I guess this is too fancy though?)"

Firstly I agree with the Ch/f flop line as mentioned above. But, something a (better) player said to me. 'If you're going to tell a story, make sure it's one the other guy can understand.' I imagine many players have said much the same thing. Ergo, Goldilocks and not Alice in Wonderland at NL25.

I'm just wondering what story you tell/line hero takes with our actual value range on the turn and river.  I think I've done the same thing you did here a few times and not realized that I'm out of my element and my story doesn't check out. Do many players go for double check raise lines for value at the micros? I don't think you see it that often. And i think it's cos we can't expect villains to bet when we check to them on the turn after we ch/r flop. That's borderline esoteric for micro stakes and we'd require a good read to take this line. (Sorry for taking things beyond the actual hand.)

If this was a 4 tabling reg, i concur, i think it's a (tight) fold. If it was a one tabling recreational player, i might well call the river bet...might. (The timing might influence me somewhat.) But the bet sizing makes me think villain knows you have are relatively strong (but weaker range than villain) and he's going for max value. This is one of those hands (vs a reg) where (if*) i call and lose to a straight or set, then i make notes on bet sizing (round numbers on turn and riv; riv around 80%psb.) And i make a note of his timing on turn and river too.  Cos i know if I am going for value on the river and i think you're calling most of the time i am thinking about my bet sizing. And that might take 5-15 seconds. 

* If i was hero, I likely tank for three seconds press call and if i lose I tell myself i did nothing wrong, but don't quite believe myself. If I'm right I doubtless sit out and touch my sexual apparatus for 6-12 seconds.

It's better if you know the song and have seen the video. I can barely cut and paste but i advocate a listening of the tune and a watching of the video. The rest is pause.

Reminds me of that fine ditty by Aussie Samplenicks The Avalanches - 'Frontier psychiatrist' - 

What does that mean?

That boy needs therapy, psychosomatic,

That boy needs therapy, purely psychosomatic

That boy needs therapy

Lie down on the couch! What does that mean?

You're a nut! You're crazy in the coconut!
What does that mean? That boy needs therapy

Daniel Negreanu

Phil Galfond

Vanessa Selbst

Andrew Brokos

Isaac Haxton

Barry Greenstein

Talal Shakerchi

Neil Channing

Bruno Fitoussi

Victoria Coren

There's so many things you can do in those five minute breaks, here's a just a few. You can vary it depending on how you feel and what you reckon you need most. Some have already been mentioned.

Always make sure you have some liquids, preferably water. When we lack water, our ability to focus and concentrate drops quite a bit.

Circulation: You can do anything from 30 seconds to 5 minutes to warm up and get the blood flowing.  Pulls ups are okay but I'm wary of anything that puts too much tension into the neck. But a few push ups or pulls ups are fine. Running on the spot flat out for 30 seconds at the start of the break then 30 seconds just before break ends is good. Star jumps work well too.

Realign your back and spine: If you have a sponge ball (or a rolled up pair of socks)  and an average sized book say two inches thick. Lie on your back, rest your head on the book and just take note of your spine in contact with the floor. There will likely be a gap in the middle of your back that is not touching the floor - this is normal. Now. Take the ball/socks and put em under your tail bone and do some meditative breathing for one minute or two. You breathe in through the nose and out through the mouth. As you breath, starting with your feet and working up through the body you just focus on each main body part and you acknowledge the tension or lack there of in each body part. (but don't do anything physical, just the breathing) So you go; feet; calfs; knees; thighs; pelvis; spine; elbows; wrists;hands.

Make sure your jaw is relaxed. When we are tense it often manifests itself in our jaw, we clench our mouths, this impinges on the breathing and deprives us of oxygen to the brain.  When you've done this for a minute or two, you remove the ball/socks and notice your vertebrae in contact with the floor. What should happen is more of your spine will be in contact with the floor. What happened is you've actually streched your spine just a little in the small gaps between each vertebrae, but you did it with minimal mucular tension - which is what you're working for. You also meditated and relaxed your body. You've basically undone a fair amount of the damage caused by sittiing in a chair, often in a bad posture. It's basic Alexander Technique...Alexander Technique is excellent and really easy. 

Quick tip for anytime: If you make a 'MMM' sound ' then make a 'ngggg' sound you'll notice the soft pallate rise in your mouth. Thats what you want, that means your jaw is relaxed and you open your throat - you'll be letting more air flow in and out of your lungs (takes two seconds).                   

1 Minute foot massage; 30 seconds per foot. We can get rid of so much tension just by massaging our fingers and feet. Fingers you can do anytime, but feet, you can do on the break and it's really good. You start with the big toe and the one next to it and pull them out a little and stretch and separate them and rotate them, and work along the toes then put your fingers inbetween your toes and pull them all back then work through body of the food pressing in and around. Takes no time and it really centres you. It grounds you. And it removes a lot of tension and improves circulation. 

The nose pinch: takes twenty seconds but it wakes you up and gets the breathing going. You just take two fingers and dig your nails into the bit at the bottom middle of your nose and then pull down as you breathe in through the nose and out through the mouth. Your eyes may water, it's a sharp pain, but it wakes you right up, done in 20 seconds.

Fresh air (as mentioned) - takes your mind away from the tables for a short time. If you like you can do the four Cardinal Alexander Technique Commands. I swear by this one, and you can do it anywhere anytime and it takes a minute and it really focuses you. All you do is relax and breathe and as you breath you say to yourself...in the following order: Free the neck; Head forwards and up; lengthen and widen the spine; release the shoulders. Don't physically do any of these four things, just say them word for word; do it two or four times. It's harder than you think. But it really relaxes you and will ground you and aid your focus. It also in a slight but significant way physically does all the things you just said. I don't know exactly why this is, but it's the cornerstone of Alexander Technique, whereby we send a message to our brain to perform a task, but we do not physically perform the task.

Massage your face; You can do this as you play. You want to take two fingers of each hand and start above the nose and work upwards to the centre of your forehead and out to the sides. This stops you frowing; when you frown you don't breath properly; when you don't breath properly you don't think as well as you can. Also just work the side of your face and your cheeks. Around from the side and down through the cheeks, quite firm, but not too hard. Then give your face a quick few rubs with your hands. Twenty seconds here and there (or more) is good.

Just like at the poker table you have a bag of tricks, moves you can make. Same with relaxation; breathing; focus; removing tension; warming up; cooling down. You need an arsenal of things you can do. I got taught all this and loads more stuff over 5 years studying acting, cos, to go on stage, or in front of a camera, you need to be focused, you can't be tense, you need to be on control of your body.  You're always working for minimal muscular tension. Don't clench the mouse or your jaw. The more you do these little excersises the more you notice when your shoulders rise up; your mouth gets clenched, your breathing becomes shallow and you can rectify it in the moment. 

Basically, time (amongst other things) is an abstract concept relative to thought. When we are relaxed, and breathing well, we have more time to think. We can fill more time with objective and productive thought. Poor posture and breathing and muscular and mental tension impinge on our ability to do the aforementioned. This affects our play at the tables.

       

Sorry guys if this post is TLDR. I'm never gonna be much of a forum poster, and I'm not good enough at poker to comment much on hands played, but this mental game stuff is important to me in life and poker, so here's some words for Chael. If these words suck, sorry man for wasting yours or any one else's time. [I just read through the post, it takes about three minutes to read. Roughly as much time as an ad break.]

To be in the right place mentally in order to play poker to your best ability is a never ending process. Having a good understanding of where you are with your 'mental game' is key.  It's been said, one of the best ways to improve your win rate is to lop off your D and E game. But what's your D and E game? What's your A game? If I'm being honest i reckon I've played my A game 5% tops in all the time I've played poker. When i was able to play without emotion, or to be in control of my emotions, to think clearly and calmy and act with clarity, street to street, hand to hand, and accept the cards as they fall. Yea, maybe less than 5% if I'm being honest.

I think my B game involves my dealing with my emotions and winning the war, but i know i lose some energy and some focus on the hands, the games, when i have to keep my emotions in check. I'm not so sure about my C and D games but i know that my E game is full blown Tilt; Injustice Tilt; Entitlement Tilt...'I wanna go out in the street and strangle a dog Tilt but instead I'll just spew off ten buy ins in half an hour instead cos that 'feels' like the right thing to do Tilt.'

I bought the Mental Game of Poker a while back and thought I'd lopped off my E game, but i was wrong. Last time was about six weeks, ago. I didn't see it coming, I let it ruin my day. I don't play poker for a living. But i am serious about the game and my life (who isn't?)...and my poker tilt comes from the same place as my life tilt. I'm trying to make it as a writer (of plays) and what i learn from one i try to take to the other. My A game as a writer is pretty good, but my E game is awful, just emotional distress and anxiety and frustration and a little bit of Injustice Tilt. Nothing gets accomplished.

Poker and writing, they are grinds, but they can and should be fun. Poker is a game, games are fun, games are cool, kids play games, adults tend not to so much. To play a game, to profit from a game, that's cool. To make up stories and characters, put words in their mouths, that's cool too. But so often it isn't, it hasn't been...it's just frustration, anger and some self-loathing and a feeling of time not being well spent...and all we have is time, and less and less as we go.

So...you have to enjoy poker, you have to enjoy the struggle, you have to enjoy getting better at something. But...you have to do the right thing, you have to be good to yourself, treat yourself with some respect. So...you have to be mindful, as much as possible, be mindful, in the moment. This is where I'm at with writing and poker. When i play now I monitor my tilt constantly. I'm happy playng my B game, when i slip into my C game, when emotions start to cloud my mindful thinking in the moment, i am making more effort to take notice. It's an ongoing process.

Example: a ten minute sequence (we all have them). I get two bad beats then make a bad call for my stack, then I fire the turn and not the river and lose to King High; then I slow play when i should have fast played, then i get my bet sizing all wrong and find myself on the river realizing i fucked this hand up...even though i win the pot i lost a chunk of value and berate myself. And then i make another bad call and get one more bad beat and that's it. The B game went from C to D and i didn't even know it. TIME TO SIT OUT. Cos the E game is on the way.

So that's what i do. I click sit out next hand on my tables. That's the first step. Then I take a minute or two to breathe. In through the nose and out through the mouth. And i imagine the air going into my lungs is like air filling up a Greek or Roman Collumn (i was taught to use a visual at Drama School  - it works - when i use it.) Those minutes of controlled breathing are akin to meditation and they're the longest minutes of the day. Just focusing on the breath and the air going in and out and nothing else. As thoughts come into my/your head, treat them like cars or buses watch them go by but don't get in the car or wait for the bus, let them go by and keep breathing in (through the nose) and out (through the mouth). Relax your jaw. Massage your face. If you need more time, make tea, get some water, look outside or step outside for five minutes. Three Hundred Seconds - five minutes, it's not long. But it will save you money and as such it will save you time.

Then, if you can, go back to poker. Replay those bad hands in the replayer, think about what you actually did wrong. If it's a bad beat, you did nothing wrong...good. If you played bad, make notes, was it the turn, the river - or were you so tilted you botched the whole hand from the get go. Take your time...As much time as you need. The games will still be there, and you'll soon be back at the tables and able to play your B game at worst.

Next thing: be mindful of when you start to slip, from A to B to C to D to E, when the conscious mind moves from managing and coping with the constant split second problem solving and decision making process of playing a hand of poker to emotional thinking that is governed by feeling. That's another part of the brain right there and you 100% cannot play close to your B game when you're being governed by this part of your brain...it is, quite simply, impossible. Can't be done. You have to conquer that part of your brain, not by fighting emotion or feeling with feeling, but with mindful, logical, calm and conscious objective thinking and good breathing. Be good to yourself. Know yourself and know your games A to E.  Get better at noticing the drift from the comfort and semi serenity of your A and B games to the unpleasantness of the C game to the dogshit mire of your E game.

Enjoy the journey. I've spent too much time fretting over 'when will this be finished' and not letting myself enjoy the process of writing, the sheer fun of playing around with characters, the satisfaction of improving my technique, knowing i am a better writer now than i was five years ago cos of the work i put in. Anyone who has ground up a roll from the micros, to mid stakes, enjoy that shit, you're winning...it just might not feel like it 'right now' - but you are winning, you're better than you were...and you're not done yet...that's pretty fuckin cool.

Again: sorry for the TLDR.

It's a movie about an autistic person and his non autistic brother.