Or perhaps not. Tuff to say. So much unpredictability surrounding AI in all areas. Will be interesting to see how things pan out.

High-stakes online games appear to be the most vulnerable, but we'll see. Glad games are good for the time being!

Well I had to switch most of my volume from NLHE to PLO (all at 400), as the holdem games were just nit infested and pros are just getting better. But I presume a lot of this has to do with RTA... So the volume of players online is still very good/rising, but not sure about games still being that good, at least through my personal prism...

How rampant do you think RTA is at midstakes? (I'd define RTA as using a solver as you play--not having PF ranges open.) I listened to a recent pod with girafganger and he didn't seemed too concerned about it, even at the nosebleeds.

Nice pics; I'm jelly of your dog's life!

GcluelesslifeasadognoobG

There was an example given in the most recent Only Friends Podcast where Landen Tice took a screen shot where cheating was displayed @ 200 Zoom using GTOWizard. Not sure how rampant it is, by my sample of one eye test is not very optimistic on the matter... . Agree on ur solver definition, Preflop ranges not an issue nowadays, me thinks (even recs have a clue as to what to open).

I'm jelly too!

Yeah, seems important to distinguish RTA from have PF ranges open. Even if both are technically cheating (and some would disagree that having PF ranges open is cheating) one seems way worse than the other.

While I definitely agree 100% with online poker, I do want to nuance as far as live is concerned though. There was a situation several months ago where a pro used GTOWizard in a live tournament, albeit in between hands. I mean, the fellow was a fool to so, if only for portraying a terrible table image and destroying the game for the recs. But he was simply reviewing a previous played hand, as one would do so in hindsight from the comfort of his home. Yet a humongous scene was made of it. Simply because GTOWizard is associated with RTA. No questions asked. No nuances made. Nonetheless, in the comment section, while Wizard was made to be the devil, peeps were wholesomely accepting preflop charts as gospel. Now in a live tournament setting, preflop charts used in between hands are EXPONENTIALLY worse for the game than Wizard is, and it's not even close!!! So just wanted to through in that distinction, for arguments sake

Yes, I remember that incident. I agree that there's a ton of misunderstandings around terms like "GTO," "RTA," and the like, and it'll be interesting to see how the community "polices" available in-game technology in both the online and the LOLive arenas. Part of the problem (as the example you mentioned showed) is that cardroom operators appear to be clueless when it comes to understanding why using GTOwiz is "bad for the game." Even if players were to somehow reach a consensus about how to handle RTA (a big "if") communicating that consensus to operators is no ez task.

OK, enough scare quotes

September Recap


The pic above is from the Crescent Connection Bridge Run, an evening 5K that had lots of stellar views.

The teaching and writing grind continues. Ironically, despite have little time to study or play poker, I set a new session win streak—11 in a row. A near-meaningless stat, if there ever was one, but it still felt good.

Bob's Books [19/52]

Don't think I read any books this month. Disgraceful, I know!

Nevertheless, I'm looking forward to Ross Gay's "sequel" to The Book of Delights.

TayTay Dance Party

Inspiring Young Minds

Sunset in Biloxi

Fluffball Intruder

I listen to this song quite regularly, she has like zero following, i'm probably 10% of her total views

how did you discover her?

It's silly how much of my contemporary music education is indebted to one obscure Spanish blogsite. The guy regularly posts YouTube links to new albums, with an additional link to the full album in the comments. I found Lael there along with a bunch of other stuff I'm way too uncool to discover myself.

Hope you're doing well. I enjoyed your recent work in the BS thread.

ty will check it out

October Recap

Had an eventful month. As for book-reading...another swing and a miss. I've got three classes going at the moment, and we've mostly been doing shorter stuff. After a long hiatus, I taught David Foster Wallace (his cruise ship essay) alongside another cruise ship essay by Lauren Oyler. Both fun reads.

I'm looking forward to Bill Watterson's new book!

Respect It
Cruisin the Coast (a huge weeklong car show that spans Bay St. Louis to Biloxi)
No Club
My New Truck (the one on the right ldo)
Fluffballs Heading to Pensacola
Hundos Still Play in Pearl River
New Pal
Doing the Lord's Work (Bringing Max Pain Monday into the Classroom)
Observing Greatness
BOO!

My wife and stepdaughters went to the Taylor Swift concert movie, and now my wife is re-hooked and that's all that is playing in her car.

GnoTaylorSwiftonmyiPodG

just start talking about how sexy she is and that'll clear out tay tay from the playlist

Tay Tay never did it for me for some reason.

Actually saw her in concert years ago, and while it just isn't for me musically I was also unimpressed with her put on / cloying personality. Much more enjoyed opener Ed Sheeran with just him and his guitar looper.

GbuteachtotheirownG

the goal here was to get your wife to stop playing on repeat not really a discussion of her looks




but for real, now you got me wonderin, why no bang tay tay?

excellent use of cloying btw, a very underrated and underused word

Oh, I'd bang her, but I'd be all cloy about it afterwards.

GamIdoingthisright?G

i was once in a relationship with a girl who during the course of our relationship started going off the deep end in terms of mental health - never had anything formally diagnosed because she refused to recognize she had a problem and would thus never seek help - which was why I ultimately left because I realized this wasn't going to go away and she wasn't going to do anything to help resolve it

first few years she was a totally normal, well adjusted person - then slowly she started getting paranoid and suspicious of everything and then eventually everything was a conspiracy

any tv show, movie, music, etc i'd listen to would have deep hidden meanings to her - ie she'd here me listening to an REM album and she'd google the song lyrics and read along and try to find "the reason" I was listening to it and come up with absurd theories and then verbally attack me for them because she had figured it out and knew I was being deceitful/cheating etc because otherwise why would I be listening to that album which has a song that references a former lover in one line? it was so obvious isn't it? no way I could be listening because I like the music.

whatever "reason" she determined was never good and it always led to fights and ultimately just stopped playing music out loud (and would just use headphones) or even suggesting movies to watch etc because it'd always lead to an investigation of why i would want to watch/listen to that

was pretty heartbreaking seeing someone just disintegrate like that in front of you from someone you think perhaps you will marry to someone who you found it best not to share anything with because it'd just get twisted against you

she never got better, i spent way too much time hoping she would


glad you'd bang tay tay though and would always imagine you'd be cloying regardless after sex

RnotanitbetweenthesheetsR

as a proud Swiftie, I can say that the concert movie was excellent. You really get a sense of a full concert, in an up-close way that you wouldn't get at the real thing unless you have more money than God for primo tickets. That's a big If, of course, and for people who don't know or care about TayTay I'd imagine the movie would be boring as hell.

Congradudolences to you, GG, on your excellent taste in women and on your wife + stepdaughters' excellent taste in music!

Fret not about your iPod's colossal lacunae: I can feel a TayTay album-ranking poast coming soon itt...

you've really been on a (rick)roll recently. I just stumbled onto some of your finest work in the Vegas vloggers thread. Never did I think I'd want more erotic fan fiction involving the Trooper and El Diesel (and, lord willing, a threesome with LT?), and yet here I am. #MOAR

I lucked out in the wife department, and fear the music she has to sometimes sit thru for my sake is much worse than vice-versa. She actually got me the iPod as a Valentines present a ~decade ago.

Wife and stepdaughters have put their names on a list in an attempt to get tickets for a Tay Tay show late next year; one-in-a-million chance from the sounds of it, but you never know.

Gactuallyhadtolookup"lacunae"G

interested in an iPod last-longer?

Lol, I'm jelly of your zombie iPod look; mine still looks brand new.

Real struggle for me seems to be dealing with older version of iTunes and holding my breath as to whether it recognizes that the iPod is connected in order to sync my updates.

GcluelessoutdatedtechnologynoobG

Mine is pushing 15 years old, but I really can't remember. It's astounding that the thing is still going, charging etc. A few months back I was sure that it had died and so I ordered a new device (small mp3 player I'm glad I have). But then the iPod rose Lazaruslike from the grave!

November Recap


I finally read a few books!

Bob's Books [23/52]

Ross Gay, The Book of Delights
Sigrid Nunez, The Vulnerables
David Foster Wallace, Something to Do With Paying Attention
John Williams, Stoner

We're in the home stretch of the semester. Obstacles abound, but irregardless I soldier on


Jesmyn Ward and Kiese Laymon visit NOLA


Thanksgiving vacation


Fluffballfest


Sniffsniff!