Agreed. Fun to follow ups/downs and big sources of motivation.

Best of luck next year

Heh, unfortunately it is. I've seen several regulars over the years that do it, well, regularly. And then sometimes needle when asked for it back "oh, didnt know a dollar was that important to you!" type stuff.

I would think (hope?) that it is forgetfulness 95% of the time, but there's deffo scuminess in the mix.

Like gg, it tilts me severely. When asked (and the dealer is incapacitated) I joke that I want a red bird as collateral.

Ah, the white chip dilemma. It's such an impossible situation to deal with.

Which makes me wonder: what is GTO white chip strat? If I've seen a reg repeatedly fail to return one, then no way am I loaning. But that seems rare. In most cases I would never deny someone a white. The biggest question for me is whether to ask for a white chip back, after ten or thirty minutes or whatever, in which case you run the risk of seeming petty, cheap etc and offering ammo for the smarmy but effective response ("didn't know a dollar is that important to you!"). Of course, if you don't ask, then you're tilted and resentful and out a dollar.

How bout this: after it becomes clear that your white chip won't be returned, you calmly ask your forgetful or scummy neighbor: "Excuse me. Would you mind lending me a white chip so that I can tip the waitress?"

If that's the case, it's worth the $1 to just chuckle at the absurdity. Now I'm hoping it happens to me.

The white chip strat is the only strat that keeps me up at night anymore

2019 Goals, January Goals

Poker

[ ] Play xxx hours.

No volume goal. I will play whatever I want, whenever I want. This almost certainly means that I will play less, which is fine, and I’m hoping that more freedom will keep me hungry to play and improve.

As I look ahead, it seems that March/April/May will be a good time to grind and study. Depending on how that goes, I’ll reassess for the summer. I’ve already committed to a WSOP Vegas house

but I’m not sure how to spend that time. This is the first year when playing the Main is a realistic option. I’m leaning against it at the moment, but won’t rule it out and plan to take things 2-3 months at a time.

Writing

[ ] Write 1,000 hours

Gotta write, right?

Reading

[ ] Read 24 books

January Goals

[ ] Play xx hours
[ ] Write 100 hours
[ ] send out proposal

[ ] Read

Meghan O'Gieblyn, Interior States
Rita Charon, The Principles and Practice of Narrative Medicine
Bill Barich, Laughing in the Hills
Lisa Halliday, Asymmetry

This is a teaching-heavy month, I want to get on a good exercise schedule, and Mardi Gras is around the corner, so I imagine there won’t be much pokering. I will be heading to the Million Dollar Heater, though, which is always fun. GL ALL

careful what you wish for!

#whitechipprobs

Poker Faces in the Crowd: Bruce Little and Cool Bad Beat Story, Bro

This month I interviewed Bruce Little, a WSOP Circuit Event champ who's had quite an eventful life away from the tables. We discussed Bruce’s prestigious military career in Special Forces, approaches to crime fighting, and next summer’s WSOP Main Event.

I also wanted to share an article that's also in this month's 2+2 Mag, Cool Bad Beat Story, Bro, by Daniel Jones. We all talk about bad beats, and sometimes we catch ourselves telling bad beats, but not much has been written on why the bad-beat storytelling impulse exists in poker. DJ's article explores some possibilities.

Amazing life Bruce Little has lived, would be a great movie.

Do You Even Work, Bro? Millennials and Burnout

Burnout and the behaviors and weight that accompany it aren’t, in fact, something we can cure by going on vacation. It’s not limited to workers in acutely high-stress environments. And it’s not a temporary affliction: It’s the millennial condition. It’s our base temperature. It’s our background music. It’s the way things are. It’s our lives.

—Anne Helen Peterson, How Millenials Became the Burnout Generation

AHP's essay has generated a lot of conversation in the last few days, and I wanted to share it here.

The problem is this: AHP is burned out. Why? Because she—like most Millennials—has internalized the idea that she should be working all the time."Work" means not just a 9-to-5 but also side hustles like driving an Uber, AirBnBing a spare room, tutoring, freelancing, or participating elsewhere in the so-called gig economy; it includes grocery shopping and dog-walking and party-planning and email-answering and package-mailing; it includes seemingly recuperative activities that may also take a mental toll (is yoga or meditation or focused breathing "work"? Perhaps ). At its most insidious, "work" also includes social media "branding," which is nothing less than a commodification of the self:

The bottom line is that as a result of generational upheaval and economic turmoil and Facebook, lots of millennials have been reduced to this


Is the essay fatalistic? Depressing? Exaggerated? Perhaps. Whenever I read one of these sweeping cultural commentaries, part of me wants a grizzled geezer to chime in and tell the younguns about when things really sucked (or, maybe, that things have always sucked)

Nevertheless, I liked the essay and it offers some food for thought—also in the context of poker, which strikes me as a unique kind of side hustle in which the definition of "work" is often confused: some of us don't "play" poker; we "grind" poker, or vice versa.

For sure. I feel like Bruce gave me a gritty, official version of his life story. Tip of the iceberg. Maybe he'll write a memoir

Very interesting article on millennial burnout and loved the Emma cartoon - with some trepidation I shared it with my wife . Always look forward to your referrals to stuff like this I would likely never have seen.

Bob, ask Bruce Little if he knows Bucky Burrus. If not, I'd suspect his other stories. They sound pretty legit, though, so I suspect it will elicit a lot of other interesting stories.

Ty JR, glad you enjoyed. Hopefully your wife did too

I'll continue to share interesting articles/podcasts/videos as they pop up. Please feel free to do the same.

Google tells me that Bucky is a vet who wrote an impressive but underread memoir about Delta Force, yes? I see Bruce often and can ask him about Bucky.

Bob Co-Hosts the Thinking Poker Podcast

This week I had the chance to contribute to one of my favorite podcasts. Nate was busy daddying, but Andrew and I chatted about writing, interviewing, cardroom culture, and our favorite books, TV shows, and podcasts. Hope you enjoy!

Re: millenial burnout

I would deffo agree for at least a chunk of my peer group. They go 100 miles an hour and are working 18/7.

The rest are pot-heads that live with their mom tho

Maybe this is just a variant on hey kids, get off my lawn, but the problem with sweeping generalizations about generations is that you're never dealing with a generation.

Usually, you're dealing with the most important thing: a single person in front of you; sometimes you might be dealing with a group of them. Always have to grant them space to both conform to and transgress those expectations.

Yeah, he's one of the founders and is a legend in the Special Forces community, but relatively unknown outside it. I find it's a good filter for people who claim SF experience (there are a lot of posers out there), at least up until the 90s. More recent folks might not know about him.

I had the good fortune to be his daughter's boss when she was active duty Air Force.

Planet Money Podcast on Staking in Poker

This week's Planet Money podcast was about staking in poker. The episode, which originally aired in 2016 and has a short update at the end, focuses on a poker pro named Derek who staked 2012 November Niner Jake Balsiger.

Always interesting to see how mainstream media represents the poker world. The creator of the Planet Money episode, Keith Romer, also reported on a recent 30 for 30 podcast about Moneymaker and the Poker Boom. I'm gonna listen to it soon.

Stories check out.


We just can't resist those metanarrativizing tendencies, can we?
His book looks interesting. I know almost nothing about Special Forces. Black Hawk Down made them look like the ultimate badasses.

January Results, February Goals


[83] Write 100 hours
[X] Read

Meghan O'Gieblyn, Interior States
Bill Barich, Laughing in the Hills
Jeanette Walls, The Glass Castle

I really enjoyed all three of these books. Bill Barich's account of racetrack culture might appeal to some itt. It's an incredible effort, and hardly "about" horse betting at all...

I have been BOMBARDED with great stuff to read lately, and am looking forward to diving in. To that end, let me put this book on yall's radar: We Cast a Shadow, by Maurice Carlos Ruffin. I was at the book launch this week (Maurice is a Nola native, and a great guy) and his novel looks to be important and award-winning. I'll report back next month, after I actually read it

On the poker front, I read an amusing HH in Sol Smith's 1868 memoir—perhaps the first-ever recorded slowroll...?

[21] Play xx hours

I enjoyed not playing much and, when I was playing, I enjoyed that too. Had a solid weekend in Biloxi for the Million Dollar Heater, which is the biggest tourney series of the year for us Gulf Coast folks. Also had a belated intro to the Houston poker club scene. The room we visited, Prime, was action-packed and well-run. I never thought I'd say this, but...

[ ] send out proposal

I realized recently, as I reflected on the series of calamitous events that have inexorably dragged me into the abyss of the gambling netherworld

that I'm locked in habitual cycles: vagabonding and fishy poker-playing (obv) and puppy-pic posting and "working on my proposal." Will I break the cycle? Will I survive Mardi Gras? Is Mr. Nobody the greatest scifi flick of all time? These are not rhetorical questions!

February Goals

[ ] Read
[ ] Write 100 hours
[ ] Play xx hours
[ ] Survive Mardi Gras
[ ] Send out proposal

My current BFF

Snowy Frolicking

Life goals attained. I can die happy now.

Poker Faces in the Crowd: Captain Peace Marvel

This month I interviewed Captain Peace Marvel, a pioneer of Louisiana swordfishing and a jovial regular in the Gulf Coast poker scene. We discussed hunting and fishing, self-sabotage and self-help, and bad beat stories.

must b nice to live the dream in Htown...wake up, drive to Prime, print money while downing tequila shots with jovial whales

Meanwhile, Nola is more or less the live equivalent of Stars 500 Zoom. Everyone confirmed solid, no money to be made, someone used the phrase "triple range merge" at my table last week. I'm doomed! #bustosoon

"I’ve recently considered the possibility that I have addicted myself to being the underdog." Interesting idea, and one that I definitely embraced in my degen days of yesterdecade...

Also curious where in the Yukon he lived in the bush for 6 months... Nice read

To be fair, I said it as a joke (are triple range merges even real??). I really need to start following Tommy Angelo's advice and stop talking at the table.


Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk

Yes, I also found that idea intriguing, and I can see parallels in my own life as well.

I don't think Peace mentioned where he was living in the Yukon. When you visit Nola the three of us can have a chat

Trippel range merge is clearly real, as evidenced by my opponent in the hand you witnessed. Unfortunately for him, he was trying to bluff a recreational calling station! Gotta know your opponent.

You definitely shouldn't stop talking at the table. How else am I going to learn about magic and cardsharps? (I found that book you mentioned, btw...Thanks).

Brandon Adams's New(ish) Book, Email Vitiates Professors, Andrew Robl Interview, Dogs B4 Instagram

Has anyone read Brandon Adams's book Personal Organizations for Degenerates? With a title this good I assume the book is a must-read, but hadn't heard anything about it till recently.

"Is Email Making Professors Stupid?" Cal Newport wants to know.

A good Andrew Robl interview came out recently about poker, purpose, and personal growth.

Do you even dogwalk, bro?

Interesting excerpt from the Brandon Adams book- looks to me like the excerpt might cover most of his key points. Which kind of makes me wonder if it's necessary to read the whole thing . I guess I'll wait for your review