Well there are a couple of books that feature the DG aspect - I know you know of these two "novels" (both based on real life): "King of a Small World", and "Shut Up and Deal". And of course Dalla's book about Stuey Ungar.

The first real study I saw discussing the DG phenomenon with respect to poker was "Poker Faces - the life and work of professional card players" by David Hayano. Specifically the chapter "Losers Walk". That would be a very interesting study to update in the modern poker era. Bob - next book?

But I guess I'll check this article out too, thanks for the ref.

Eef U Don Haf My Money...!



Thanks to a random text from a friend (what does Teddy KGB have in the final hand?) I just watched Rounders for the first time in like ten years. Very solid film, so easy to like b/c of the poker, Damon and Norton, and the cameo by Malkovich (didn't realize that he's barely in the film, tho he's obv hugely important).

WTF is Malckovich doing playing a Russian gambler-gangster? Such a hilariously awesome casting choice. Love Damon's story in the clip above. Also, with Damon doing his promo tour for the new Bourne movie, he's already talked about his desire to do Rounders 2. Would be epic if they can assemble the old cast. A sequel could also put to rest the riddle of the final hand.

Yep. I probably should have mentioned, in fairness to Kang, that he's talking about Hollywood's representations of poker: stuff like 21, or Rounders, or Casino Royale.

I really like Hayano's book for many reasons, not least cuz he's willing to study run-of-the-mill players and even (especially?) the losers. That said, the book is hopelessly outdated in certain areas and would greatly benefit from an update. I won't be writing it tho

I think you'd like the essay, I plan to reread it soon.

July Results, August Goals

July Results
[x] cover wsop Main
[x] read and write stuff
[20] Play 30 hours of poker

Already wrote a short WSOP recap, so not much more to add there. It’s been very nice to be back in Nola after nearly two months away. Only one thing has changed.

August goals
[ ] Play 30-40 hours of poker
I’ve actually been wanting to play, but in thinking about priorities for the next month or two, it’s high time that I circle back to my reading and writing goals. This certainly means less poker-playing in August, which is fine. With the Circuit Event coming in September, I’ll have plenty of chances to return to the felt.
[ ] read (If anyone is interested in hearing my thoughts on any of these books just holler and I'll throw my notes onto the blog)

Sheri Fink, Five Days at Memorial
Jesse May, Shut up and Deal
Elena Ferrante, Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay
Elena Ferrante, The Story of the Lost Child.
James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time
Richard Campanella, Geographies of New Orleans
Ta-Nehisi Coates, Between the World and Me
Cal Newport, Deep Work

[ ] establish consistent reading/writing/exercise schedule
I’m gonna be pretty aggressive with this one. A big benefit of being in one spot for a full month is that I can really focus on being productive, healthy, and enjoy the city.

[ ]dominate kickball league
First the Big Easy Ballers crushed Nola basketball, now Uptown Oysters is poised to torch the local kickball scene. What's next?

Certainly would love the reading notes How else am I going to plan for my poker reading

With the exception of Shut up and Deal, none of those books are about poker (far as I know). I'll be sure to say something about that one

I read Shut Up and Deal already ; the others are gambling books though, aren't they? Just as interesting, me thinks...

They probably are, Dubn, we'll see. i'm about halfway through Five Days at Memorial and it's definitely a gambling book.

Looking forward to your response to Deep Work. I just finished it and found some of Newport's strategies for countering "shallow" commitments and online distractions convincing.

Oh, hoping you're keeping some of the contents of your Ford Escort. Much of the stuff scattered on the back seat and in those boxes looked kind of valuable!

Interview with Rob Harwell

I spoke with Rob Harwell last month about growing up in Georgia, recovering from a spinal injury, Will “Monkey” Souther, and Harwell’s deep run in the Main Event. Good times as usual!

Will def poast some thoughts, I started it today.

Rest easy, Dr! When you were privileged to ride in the Bobmobile it was filled with treasures that have now been secreted away in an undisclosed location. I've salvaged a fluffy stuffed dog, a Tony Romo jersey, a Tim Tebow jersey (the Jets one obviously), hiking sticks, loose change...the list goes on!

"A dark and seductive poker obsession has possessed urban India—and the stakes are high" [!!!!!!!!!]

If I were to write a parody article about the tantalizing highs and the soul-stomping lows of the poker world, this might be it. Beware! A sordid tale of blinged-out ballas and coke-fueled binges lurks within.

Shut up and Deal by Jesse May (Doubleday, 1998, 217 pages)


bitterness and denial aren't
realistic ways
to deal
with something that happens again and again
never to know exactly when
but that the only stop is not to play.
but to play
that's the thing.
shut up and deal.

I read Shut up and Deal three or four years ago, back when I first wondered if writing about poker might be worthwhile. My memory of the book had always been hazy. Aside from a glimpse into the 1990s poker scene—especially at Foxwoods and Atlantic City—does anything actually happen? After rereading the book this month, I can now answer in confidence: not really. Which isn't to say that you shouldn't read May's novel, just that it's steeped in detail and experience rather than action.

An old NYT review puts it this way: "A common problem with poker tales is a want of climactic variety: either a shrewd bluff drives out the better hand or the cards defy credibility and somebody makes a straight flush against the other guy's four aces. When, like May, an author sticks closer to the reality of poker, which is more like ritual than opera, there's not much punch."

That's a good summary of the problems involved in writing about "the reality of poker." I don't think it's a coincidence that two of the best poker nonfiction books, The Biggest Game in Town and Positively Fifth Street, use tournaments as a narrative tool to drive the action. Tournaments offer guaranteed drama. But if one's goal is to capture the reality of poker—the day-in, day-out grind that many of us know well—then these final tables and WSOP bracelets are the exceptions, not the rule (which, by the way, reminds me of a good podcast that's worth checking out, Fighting Chance, which capture the monotonous and usually unsuccessful donkament grind).

So yeah, not much happens, but what the book lacks in action it makes up for in keen insights about the poker world--and, by extension, about life. Kudos to May for pulling this off. Having watched him host lots of European poker shows that I can't name at the moment, he's always struck me as a lovable buffoon, a guy whose enthusiasm trumps any real understanding of the game. But that can't be right because the same guy wrote Shut up and Deal. He knows stuff. Here are a few insights that ring true to me.

Perception
"Now don't go thinking about who the better poker player is, because I could just as easily tell a hundred stories that make Ace look good and me look like a chump. And what's the moral? What I'm saying is this--there is no reality, it all depends on how I present what is and how I cloud it. And the answer doesn't matter."

The Poker Room as Communal Space, as Ritual

"Foxwoods' poker room opened and now there's a casino within thirty minutes of his house and it's nonstop action and he meets all the guys who fill a romantic void of ramblin' gamblin' men and he can sit down at a poker table and not get up again for two days except to go to the bathroom and have excitement, gossip, and companionship, and time stands still and there's no need to think in any terms other than up and down, aces and kings. So it becomes a very pleasant place to spend eternity. Because that's what time becomes in there. Not Monday, Tuesday, days and weeks, but forget it all and welcome to the monkey house and nobody ever asks you any questions you don't want to answer, just bet or fold, how much did you win or lose, and did you hear what Bart did today that crazy mother****er" (62).

Luck vs. Skill
"Poker is a combination of luck and skill. People think mastering the skill part is hard, but they're wrong. The trick to poker is mastering the luck. That's philosophy. Understanding luck is philosophy, and there are some people who aren't ever gonna fade it. That's what sets poker apart. And that's what keeps everyone coming back for more."

I could go on. Actually, I will mention one more thing: May's protagonist, Mickey, is the best of his kind imo, I appreciate his language, his goofiness, his self-awareness, and the way in which he embodies a distinct social type, maybe the most distinctive poker type of all: the counter-cultural world-weary twenty-something male grinder.

Cliffs: If you have even a passing interest in poker, then you must read Shut up and Deal. But your gramma or girlfriend might get bored with the book.

^ Good reason for me to explore this area of the poker novel genre. It's interesting that your view of the book has changed considerably over the space of four years: I guess you're effectively a different reader now.

I'm guessing OP has seen a lot more of the "regular" poker world in the last four years than he had previously seen

August Results

[25] Play 30-40 hours of poker
Coming off the heels of the WSOP meant time away from Harradise. Enthusiasm for playing live has been low all month, but I dragged myself in and booked 6/7 winning sessions. On the other hand, I've been playing a bit online and am enjoying those games quite a bit.

read
[X] Sheri Fink, Five Days at Memoriall
Fink’s book takes an in-depth look at five harrowing days in a Nola hospital during Katrina and the aftermath in which one doctor and two nurses were accused of euthanizing patients. I admire Fink's exhaustive reporting and detail-driven narrative. Still, I felt like the book, at 500 pages, was a tad overwrought, and I’d recommend her article-length piece “The Deadly Choices at Memorial” instead.
[X] Jesse May, Shut up and Deal
[X] Elena Ferrante, Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay
Go read her books, now.
[ ] Elena Ferrante, The Story of the Lost Child.
[ ] James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time
[ ] Richard Campanella, Geographies of New Orleans
[ ] Ta-Nehisi Coates, Between the World and Me
[ ] Cal Newport, Deep Work
will be done with this within a week and will poast some reading notes as promised.

I also read two books not on my list. Janet Malcolm’s The Journalist and the Murderer is a fascinating, pessimistic account of the relationship between reporters and subjects. In the infamous opening lines she writes: “Every journalist who is not too stupid or too full of himself to notice what is going on knows that what he does is morally indefensible. He is a kind of confidence man, preying on people’s vanity, ignorance, or loneliness, gaining their trust and betraying them without remorse.” She explores this subject through the scandalous lawsuit between convicted murderer Jeffrey MacDonald and reporter Joe McGinniss. MacDonald's claim was that McGinniss, who embedded with the defense team with the understanding that he'd write a book about the trial, lied over a course of years about his true thoughts about MacDonald (namely that he was guilty). The two sides would settle out of court.

I also read Random Family, a journalistic tour de force by Adrian Leblanc, who spent eleven years among poor families in the 1980s Bronx. The writing is sparse, detailed, and strangely compassionate yet detached. While I'd like to recommend this book, the truth is that it didn't grip me. The book has a ton of characters to keep track of and it's essentially plotless/repetitive: girls get pregnant, dudes go to jail, people get shot and smoke dope. Having watched The Wire and other dramas that are essentially "about" the same subjects—the American underclass, addiction, the war on drugs—I might have set the bar too high. Still, I appreciate Leblanc's style and her attention to detail. The one scene I have burned into my memory is when Lourdes, a grumpy drug-addled matriarch, gets in a sour mood and calls sweetly to the family dog, Scruffy, who trots tail wagging to her mommy. Lourdes punts her down the hall. This happens over and over, Scruffy getting excited in spite of herself and Lourdes kicking her through the air, until the dog would eventually whimper at the sound of her owner's voice. Come to think of it, another reason why I didn't finish is cause the book's so damn depressing.

[X] establish consistent reading/writing/exercise schedule
I feel pretty good about this one given a few curveballs thrown my way. I started teaching again, which was an unexpected but welcome addition to my schedule. Teaching has always been my favorite thing to do, it's instantly satisfying. The downside is there's no tangible "payoff," there's nothing to show for your hard work, since your "finished products" are unfinished students who wander to their next class, perhaps no better off (and maybe even worse!) than before they met you. Writing, on the other hand, is rarely satisfying but offers something tangible—itself—as proof of hours, days, weeks of toil.

[ ]dominate kickball league
Despite none of its members having any experience past fifth grade, Uptown Oysters is in second place after seven games. That's what happens, I guess, when you throw a bunch of ex-athletes onto a team. Sorta connects to the discussion a while back about how a team of poker players would do vs a team of lawyers, or doctors, or whatever. So far we're doing just fine!

I'm sure that you'd find lots interesting in the book, Dr., because of its attention to the culture of the poker room, the gossip, the rivalries and the chatter. And yeah, my views have changed and are changing because of this

I'm convinced that, just as most poker writers and media sensationalize the game, May also exaggerates the "reality of poker." He latches onto the most colorful characters, the marathon sessions and big games. The majority of poker-playing is boring, and who wants to read about that? Or, put differently, how can you make something that's boring interesting? I'm sorta interested in the aesthetics of boredom—whether it's Seinfeld ("a show about nothing") DFW's The Pale King (the IRS daily grind; cant get more monotonous than that!) or Knausgaard (writing 3,000 pages about every damn thing LOL).

meh, this is getting long, only one solution

this has to be one of the - if not THEY - GOAT thread saver on 2 + 2

A Year at the Clubhouse with Gary Teter


I mentioned a few times itt that I've been working on a story about a Houston artist who, for most of his life, has been struggling with mental illness and addiction. That story, "Off the Rails," finally came out today in The Big Roundtable. For self-promotion reasons I'm not going to link to the story here; I've poasted it on my twitter (check my location) or just google the title. As always, I'd appreciate any thoughts, criticism, questions!

The editors asked me two questions about writing the story, which I'm pasting here. This was a challenging piece for lots of reasons, and I'm sure the experience will help me in my future (poker) writing journey.

Why did you feel you had to tell this story?

Because of Gary Teter. When we met at St. Joseph House, a psychosocial rehabilitation center in Houston, I was struck by Gary’s charisma, his intellect, and his fascinating artwork. I wanted to know how a man with so much promise had been derailed by mental illness and addiction.

What did you learn as a journalist in the process?

I learned that telling someone's story is hard. Thanks to Gary’s relentless enthusiasm—he talked for hours about his life, showed me hundreds of paintings, passed along notebooks and letters and emails—I was overwhelmed with material. All the familiar questions were magnified: what to save, what to cut, what to think.

Gary also taught me about the importance of outpatient mental health programs. For the last few years, the members and staff at the Clubhouse have been Gary’s friends, his family, and his shelter. They keep him going.

one of the many benefits to googling "fluffy puppy"!

Interview with Tim Louie

I interviewed Tim Louie, a New Orleans-based dealer who also works as a tournament supervisor during the WSOP. We discussed life as a floorman, taking the LSATs, the 2015 film Mississippi Grind, and highlights from the 2016 World Series of Poker.

September Goals

[ ] Play 30-40 hours

Another light month but this can't be avoided, I'm out of town a bunch. I've looked over my schedule for the rest of the year, though, and plan to log heavier playing months in October/November (tentatively 100 hrs each).

read

[ ] Ed Miller's Poker's 1%
[ ] Elena Ferrante, The Story of the Lost Child.
[ ] James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time
[ ] Ta-Nehisi Coates, Between the World and Me
[ ] Cal Newport, Deep Work
[ ] Rebecca Skloot, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

write

[ ] write one rough story/essay/interview per week, most are poker-related so will be poasting here.

Loved the "off the rails" article. Very well done.

any update on the "hero's" progress or lack thereof since 2014?

Glad you enjoyed it!

I don't see Gary as much anymore, but we've met 3-4 times since I left Houston, most recently a few months ago. We also email. Cliffs is that nothing has changed: he's in and out of housing (usually homeless), in a precarious state of health, painting a bunch, and a regular at the Clubhouse. He's doing as well as can be expected, I think, given everything that's happened in his life.

I liked it, too. (Thought the tone was spot on.) Passed it onto a friend (a DFW fan) who loved it. Would seem to me that Gary T offers most value to society as a visual artist and general companion---no matter how cyclical his life situation might be.

Congratulations on nailing the non-fiction long form!

More on Shut up and Deal

“Now don’t go thinking about who the better poker player is, because I could just as easily tell a hundred stories that make Ace look good and me look like a chump. And what’s the moral? What I’m saying is this—there is no reality, it all depends on how I present what is and how I cloud it. And the answer doesn’t matter.”

This quote, from Jesse May's Shut up and Deal, has always stuck with me. Using the quote above as a starting point, I wrote a short story about an old poker sesh at the Aria. You can read it here.

Thank you, Dr! I struggled with many aspects of the writing--especially with the tone and how to insert myself into the narrative--and I'm glad that you and your friend enjoyed it.

Gary's art is really cool. A bunch of it is here, if you want to take a look.

Deep Work by Cal Newport (304 pages)



"I don't always work. But when I do, I work deeply." —Cal Newport

OK, I might have made up that quote. But it's a good summary of the book imo. Deep work is not only more effective and fulfilling than shallow work; it also saves time.

There are plenty of good reviews of Deep Work, so check em out for a full summary. I think that the book is accessible and lucid--esp when compared to similar texts in the self-improvement/mindfulness genre--and Newport seems like a grounded, confident, successful guy. He declines to enter into moral or philosophical debates about the dangers of distraction or the virtues of deep work. "A commitment to deep work," he writes, "is a pragmatic recognition that the ability to concentrate is a skill that gets valuable things done. Deep work is important, in other words, not because distraction is evil, but because it enabled Bill Gates to start a billion-dollar industry in less than a semester."

What's Deep Work?

In 1974, a young Bill Gates worked with such intensity for such lengths during an eight-week period of BASIC programming coding that he would often collapse into sleep on his keyboard in between writing lines of code. Then he'd wake up and keep working. The one trait that differentiated Gates, according to biographer Walter Isaacson, was focus. Gates was a serial obsessor.

"The ability to concentrate intensely," says Newport, "is a skill that must be trained. It's common to treat undistracted concentration as a habit like flossing--something that you know how to do and know is good for you, but that you've been neglecting due to a lack of motivation" (157).

We also tend to emphasize our circumstances by assuming that what happens to us (or fails to happen) determines how we feel. But decades of neurological research show that our brains construct our worldview based on what we pay attention to--an illness versus nice weather, a bad beat versus good conversation. "Who you are, what you think, feel, and do, what you love--is the sum of what you focus on," Newport says.

The book includes plenty of concrete strategies that can facilitate deep work. Two that jumped out:

Segregating Internet and non-Internet Use

Schedule in advance when you'll use the Internet, and then avoid it altogether outside these times. Instead of scheduling the occasional break from distraction so you can focus, you should instead schedule the occasional break from focus to give in to distraction.

Imposing artificial time constraints (259-60)

One way to work deeply is to work under pressure, without the benefits of an open schedule that something like graduate school affords. In order to prepare for the more demanding life of a professor--with faculty meetings and limited time--he began to take long lunch or go on long runs in the middle of the day, to force himself to return and work deeply when time was limited.

Overall, I enjoyed Newport's book and plan to return to it.

The Sequel to King of a Small World

wait, what?

Yes. It seems, according to this recent thread, that Rick Bennet has published a sequel to King of a Small World. It's called The Baltimore Truth and can be found only on Amazon. Since KOASW is one of my favorite poker novels, I'm going to look into this further!

Had a great weekend in Biloxi, where the WSOPc and Gulf Coast Poker Championships just wrapped up. I had friends chop three-handed both tourneys, and was great to see some familiar faces go deep. The cash games were also excellent; for the first time in ages, I booked another night in order to keep playing in an infinitely deep 1/3 donkfest. In the interest of including real, actual, true-blue poker hands in my blog that's at least partly about poker-playing, and for further proof that LOLive poker isn't ded, here are a few hands, not super interesting but should have more soon.

Hand One

900 effective.

Villain: well-dressed geezer who flatted an open with 24s in MP, binked a flush, and, after facing a big river bet, said, "Well, you got me, but I can't fold" (he was good).

Hero: New to table, I've already observed lots of foolishness and am active vs. whale to my direct right.

EP limp $3, hero raise $18 with black aces, MP flat, Villain reraise to $100 otb. Folds to hero who RE-RE-RAISE to $250, fold, Villain frowns and flats.

Flop AQ4 ($520).

Hero check, villain quickly bets $300, hero calls.

Turn 7, ch ch.

River 2, Hero ship $280, villain tank-call with KK.

Hand Two

Hero: lag (covers all)

Villain (utg, $420): nit. hasn't opened a pot, has limped in a few times.

Straddle otb for $6, Hero limp sb with 33, bb call, UTG raises to 25, MP calls, button calls, hero calls, BB folds.

Flop K32

Hero ch, UTG $40, folds to hero who raises to $100, Villain reraises to $200, hero calls.

Turn 7, hero checks, villain shoves $240, hero calls.

Villain is supposed to flat my c/r so I can bet turn and shove river. I wanted to hero-fold the turn. Should I?