Thanks for all of the content and information that you provide itt and elsewhere. Congratulations on a nice 2019. Best of luck in your 2020 pursuits!

Impressive you've kept this thread going since 2013. It's very unique to the standard pgc thread. Keep up the good work!

Skimming that last post for a second I thought you lost 20k in a high stakes mix game

Looking forward to another year of this thread! Thanks for listing the book recs, decent chance I’ll check out at least one of them.


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BTW, just purchased the Paul Auster book, thx for the recommendation

It did not leave a profound effect upon me unlike his first introductory podcast did (loved Busquet's his self-awareness, honesty and insights). That said, a few notes about the Colman episode :

- I was surprised (even at first astonished) by Dan saying he felt empty inside/drained/depressed after his One Drop win And then flashbacks of the protagonist in (the excellent gambling movie) California Split feeling completed depleted, uninterested and void after his one-in-a-lifetime upswing rush at the end of the movie, made sense of Colman's statement. And only then did I remember feeling exactly the same after my first big tournament win - at least big at the time... -, but that existential has never happened since following a binkage, on the contrary.

- I can relate to him being less interested in poker and having now stepped out of that realm since the money is no longer needed.

- I can also relate to him living in South America (and pretty cool that he learned Portuguese ).

That's it, I don't really have other thoughts on the Colman episode.

Thanks for the good wishes, Zombie! Hope things are good in your neck in the woods. I'd be interested to hear how things are going with you with education and poker--here, or in your own PGC.

I'm nothing if not stubborn Thanks for the good wishes

When I lose 20K in mix games, it'll be in Bobby's Room with Gus and Jungle and Ike. And then I'll go on to lose another 200K because what's money to a Bitcoin Balla like me? #lifegoals



Yes, it was interesting hearing Colman's take on his post-One Drop funk, and their discussion of the flow state in poker resonated with me. I've experienced milder versions of what he's describing in tournaments, as it sounds like you have, and many others have, I'm guessing. I've mentioned Natasha Dow Schull's work a few times itt, and her discussion of slot gamblers playing in order to get into "The Zone" sounds very similar to what Colman's talking about, as well. A good reminder that for many pokerers, the primary reason "to play" isn't for money but for the experience, or for the flow state, or for some other kind of feeling. Your example from California Split is spot-on. Also reminds me of this story involving Nick the Greek: Kudos to Colman for being open about his feelings and recognizing that the last available thrill—playing for absurdly high stakes, even higher than the one milly One Drop to him—is irresponsible. Sounds like he's living a nice life in South America.

Something that also interested me from both podcasts (it pops up more in the first one) is Olivier's discussion of "physiological sensitivity." He argues that, just as basketball selects for tall dudes, poker selects for people who experience fewer mood swings, who are less tilty, who don't experience such steep peaks and valleys that are correlated with variance, etc. This is a fascinating topic in its own right, and it also connects to what I see as a separate issue: the rise of robotic grinders who apparently feel nothing and always take the +EV line, no matter how high-variance. To which Colman more or less says LOL, I'd rather live ten lives as an emotional human being than ten minutes as a grinderbot.

The topic of mood swings and regulating emotion reminds me of this quote from Moby Dick:

Poker Faces in the Crowd: Motorbike Mike

For this month's issue of Two Plus Two Magazine, I wrote about my adventures grinding the sunrise shift with Motorbike Mike.

..and that Melville quote is Exhibit A why I'm looking forward to another year of this thread. Had never seen that one until your post, great stuff.

Wow, that was a beautiful snapshot of a character found in a poker room. Will your novel about the NO poker scene (am I even right about the subject ) be similar to this? I certainly hope so

Ya I don't think that's found its way into this thread, though it's one of my favorite quotes. I can't exactly recommend Moby Dick, as it's a very uneven book, but there are passages like this that will just blow you away.

I got the Colman quote wrong. He says something closer to, I'd rather live one week as a tilting emotional player than ten lives as a grinderbot.

Thanks Dubn, glad you enjoyed it. As for the book, there's a lot that I'm unsure about, and things might continue to change, but I can say this much:

The book will be a nonfictional journey into the New Orleans poker world (Vegas/the WSOP will also play a part). I want to show readers how a cardroom "works" and some of the characters/stories you'll find there. So I expect that it'll be a mix of journalism, personal essay, history, and ethnography.

Happy to share more writing as it emerges and keep yall updated itt. The biggest update within the last year is that I got an agent, and now we're working on revising and selling the proposal to a publisher.

2020 Goals, Bob's 1K Freeroll


Work Out Harder. Sleep Better. Get More Done.

Rise and grind, mother****ers!

This thread has been important to me because, being the homeless barely-employed miscreant that I am, I have to keep myself accountable. Of course, a slavish attention to Work and Productivity risks being reductive and anxiety-inducing and impoverishing (existentially, if not financially). So I’m going to move away from a goal-oriented approach itt, with one exception:

[ ] Write 1,200 hours

I fell 200 hours short last year. It’s only fair that I punish myself by rolling over the hours into 2020.

Because achieving this goal is important to me, I’m pleased to offer the following freeroll: If I fail to hit my hours goal, I’ll ship a grand to the first person who poasts a puppy pic itt.

At the time, or now?

Now. Wouldn’t want to deprive you of the anti-sweat. Congrats, and enjoy!

I like that the one on the left looks like he has an old man beard, for all that he's only a few weeks old.

Cute AND grizzled

Why?

Thanks for the good wishes. Welcome aboard!

I share your hatred of poker. But I wouldn't say, unequivocally, "I hate poker." I found myself writing this in my notebook:

I often hate playing poker.
Sometimes I hate playing poker.
Depending on the day, I hate playing poker.

It seems like the distinction between poker-as-a-game and "playing poker" is important to me. As a game, I find poker beautiful and fascinating. But the act of playing poker and all that accompanies it—especially the people and the environment—contains a lot of ugliness. And also some beauty within that ugliness, for me, which is why I'd describe my attitude towards poker as intensely ambivalent.

I haven't yet worked through your entire blog, but you aren't grinding full-time, are you? If I played professionally or if I played in LA, then I might straight-up HATE poker. The Commerce seems like the nut low.

Grinding live in one of the most expensive places to live in the world with constant traffic and a seemingly toxic environment at the casino - disclaimer : I have never played in LA -, would definitely make me want to either quit or move The games seem soft af, but I was shocked by the echos I got of the behaviour of some peeps

I've played at the Commerce, the Bike, and Hawaiian Gardens. ruff stuff

That said, I imagine the games are still among the most profitable in the country (excluding private games of course) and parts of LA are awesome. You just have to be willing to deal with the traffic.

Chess and its Characters

As bad as I am at poker, I'm even worse at chess. But I enjoy following the game and often watch current world champ Magnus Carlsen crush all comers on YouTube. What a time to be alive!

A few months ago I read Brin-Jonathan Butler's The Grandmaster: Magnus Carlsen and the Match That Made Chess Great Again. The book is less a biography of Carlsen than a deep dive into chess culture, and as a result there's considerable overlap with the pokerverse. Butler is a very engaging writer but he was handcuffed by a lack of access to Carlsen and the narrative suffers as a result. As a NYT reviewer puts it,

Here are some quotes from the book that I found esp interesting.

Overall, The Grandmaster is a decent but flawed book imo. For a deep dive into a dysfunctional gaming subcultures, Stefan Fatsis's Wordfreak is better.

January Recap



American Diagnosis is one of the best healthcare-focused podcasts that I know (don't listen to many). I've been working my way through the season on opioid addiction and it's been interesting/disturbing.

"Alex Plays Poker," an episode from The Addicted Gambler's Podcast, is worth a listen imo. One of the hosts makes what seems to be a useful distinction between drugs and gambling:

George Packer, "The Enemies of Writing"

Agnes Callard, "Who Wants to Play the Status Game?"



Boris Fishman, Everything You Think You Know About Chekhov is Wrong

Operation Deny Garick
[62/1200]

Pretty interesting listen, thx for sharing I was there "mehhh" at first, when it seemed like a standard degen story of lacking complete emotional control, until you found out that he was actually a crusher with a sizeable BR that proceeded to dump it

Busquet's 4th (featuring Alvarado) episode is pretty darn fascinating as well for the same reasons

Very nice interview with Spider. My first experience with public poker was in illegal rooms in Louisiana in 1969 and 1970. I'd flamed out of my first try at college and was working on a seismograph crew offshore (9days on 5days off) and spent most of my off time gambling and drinking like the other guys on the crew.

I may have told you this story but my first experience with a card mechanic happened in Houma (a bit west of New Orleans) - we had just moved the quarter boat to off of Houma and Troxy's Bar had a check cashing service for oil workers. To get to the "teller" you had to walk back past the poker table and then again pass the table on the way back out . I was crushing the stud games on the quarter boat (not that the opposition was that strong) and thought I was quite the player.

So when we went to cash our checks at Troxy's I thought I might as well make some extra dough. The game was 7 stud - I sat down with all my money and the first or second hand dealt I picked up rolled up jacks. Someone bet I just called. Hit the 4th jack on 4th street and villain had something like 4d 6s showing. I checked he bet and I just called again. 5th street he hit a 6d, bet, I raised, he reraised and I just called. 6th street gave him a 4 for two pair and we went to war. I got all my money in the middle, 7th street was dealt and he came out of the hole with 2d,3d,5d for the straight flush. Kind of like the final hand in Cincinnati Kid. I was sitting there stunned and then noticed how all the cards were bent and crimped and knew I'd been gaffed. At least I had sense enough to shut up and walk out - otherwise probably would have ended up as alligator food

During my time hanging around New Orleans I met several guys loosely connected to the Marcello crowd, and it's possible I even ran across Spider.
But in any case this piece did bring back memories of a fun time in my youth.

lol

Poker Faces in the Crowd: Spider

Here's an interview with Spider, an old-timer who's been involved in the Nola gambling scene for most of his life. He told me about growing up as the son of a card mechanic, Carlos Marcello, and stock car racing.

Glad you enjoyed it. I don't think we've talked much about your experience in the LA gambling scene. It seems that, because you have so many other stories, we somehow missed it

Very cool, if sobering, story about getting hustled. Glad to hear you had the good sense to keep your mouth shut and get out of there. I've been to Houma. Never gambled there. Have played in underground games in Nola/Houston. Don't particularly enjoy them, for the obvious reasons.

Awhile back I interviewed an oil guy who also spent time in the Houma/Thibodeaux scene. I'm pretty sure he mentioned Troxy's, and he had some good stories about Eskimo Clark.

Ya, I had a similar impression as they first started talking. But it becomes clear pretty quickly that Alex is knowledgeable, and his discussion of incinerating his FTP roll is well worth a listen.

On the other hand, it was surprising to hear just how clueless the co-hosts are about poker. The game is truly the red-headed stepchild of both the gaming and the gambling worlds.

Thanks for the HU about the JC interview. I really liked it. The convo flows from the get-go and covers some very unique territory.

YESSSSSS

Building a $1-million poker game for ‘Live at the Bike’, LOLimit Achievement Unlocked

The LA Times published a piece on a recent high-stakes game on LATB in which, at one point, one milly was on the table.

I like this description of Matt Berkey: "a well-mannered but strategically disruptive professional gambler."

The author nicely describe the poker ecosystem, the main characters (including "the kingpin" of LA poker, GEEMAN), and in-hand dynamics. No ez task.

In other news, I'm supremely displeased to announce a journey into uncharted territory: during my last LOLimit session I either lost or folded every hand that I played. I don't think I've ever gone o-fer in a sesh before, in either limit or NL.

But then, as I trudged despairingly to the Lucky Dogs stand, I stopped at the Total Rewards kiosk and discovered that my luck had turned. Behold!

So you played for at least half an hour? Well done!

When I visit NOLA and want to park near the French Quarter, that's how I always accomplish it.