ITRIED, how many times have I publicly undermined you in a 2+2 thread? I made a bet with someone back in May that I could make it over 10.5 separate instances from that point on in 2011, do you think I've gotten that many? I've lost track of the Word document I was using to count them.

Zero, the same amount of times I have undermined you. This wasn't at you or towards you, it was about livb and something I just talked with him about. If hijacking = undermining to you in this case then I am guilty (albeit not purposely).

As for the +/- 10.5 towards other folks I think it is very close. If Black Friday hadn't happened the over was looking really +EV though. It is funny though how often I'll say something on 2p2 and then get PM's/IM's about "LOL, I was just thinking the same thing". (Note: I think this could also be a very crafty way for you to make me stop because you know I don't want you to win a bet like that).

I was teasing you about how I've taken some opposite positions to you recently

The more I think about this, the more confused I'm becoming. Snuggling up and watching the Jon Stewart show, this, many other things that you've said...hmm...not sure this stuff is a lvl anymore.

Has he ever denied it?

One thing I can say for absolute fact: Max did not write this for financial reasons. And I agree with his point about ego being a pretty automatic factor any time any of us do something like this.

As for the effect on the games, who knows. But even if NLH HUSNGs were to somehow become really $#@ing tough to beat, god knows there are tons of other ways to make money playing cards.

I always find it funny when two intelligent people talk past each other this hard core.

Maybe you all realize this, but Mers and Livb seem to have different definitions of what it means to "hurt the games" in mind.

Livb's definition is this:
Mer's definition is related to this:
I think the bolded part suggests that hurting the games means something like "decreasing profitability".

If we accept Livb's definition then this book obviously hurts the game. If we accept Mers' definition, then it might hurt the games depending on how much you get out of it. In fact all of these discussions about whether X "hurts the games" is related to a lack of a clear definition for the term.

I think that it doesnt hurt most of the games because the vast majority of husng players are not "regs" ( and wont read the book). this will benefit to a small part of the players.

For ppl who only play regs, games will get tougher if they dont improve, but for lower stakes where there aremany recreational players, the part being uneducated will still be massively bigger than the part having read the book. games there could get softer.

i think if the bolded bit is true, then some regs will find themselves moving down in stakes, meaning the underlined bit will be false.

Amusingly (this is just an aside, not part of a larger argument) most heads up poker players have egos that make it so that they would rather quit the game than move down more than a level. Do players even exist who play a big sample at the 200s and then a big sample at the 50s later in their career?

i guess we're about to find out

Plauzee?

by quitting the game, do you mean going broke at the $200s instead of moving down?

I think everybody itt need to chill. I want to make a comment on a broader scale because I've been thinking about this a lot after reading the argument itt today. Here's what I think:

Yes, games are getting tougher. Yes, no one guarantees that they will still be worth playing 5 years from now. This is a macro process and as much as I admire mers' teaching abilities, this process has nothing to do with any particular individual. Feeling sad about it is not going to help.

The games today are still great. People are making awesome money playing a video game in their underwear. Is it used to be better? maybe, but you can say that for almost everything in life, and it's never a good thing to think about. Nothing productive can come out from this type of thinking.

No one said we are entitled to play cards for 200$/hour for the rest of our lives because we are smart kids. I don't wanna sound like I'm judging or anything, I'm just saying, there are other ways to look at things. I think people have to focus on crushing poker as hard as they can as long as it's here, and not on where the Poker economy is going. Yes, it's a good idea to prepare yourself for the possibility that you'll have to do something else at some point in your life. But that's not necessarily a bad thing.

People that had the qualities to crush husngs will crush a ton of other things in life. I've met on 2p2 some of the smartest, most talented people I've met in my life. For those people it would be a pretty terrible idea to assume that the future of the poker economy is going to dictate their success in life.

I hope this is no news to you: Even if husngs died, there will still be other ways for smart people to make a lot of money. Maybe another form of poker, maybe a completely new gambling game, and maybe even something legit (just kidding ofc). And it's a good thing that it doesn't last forever, because who the **** wants to play the same game for the rest of his life.

So I just wanted to tell everyone to worry less and grind more, We are lucky to have husngs and we need to acknowledge that rather than take it for granted.

Cheers.

Nh sir, I think this is the feel good post of the month. HUSNGs thank you for existing <3

hi

Yeah I guess that makes sense, why would you have an ego?

Good thread

I don't know why people make such a big deal because of this.

We all know the talent and capabilities mers has, he is a well respected member of the community, and my perception of him , is that he has been succesful at this, feeling sometimes that success wasn't enough for him, so he wanted to give something back to the community.

This forum per -se has really valuable information, but for that you have to be willing to work. The information is there, you just have to look for this. There's a lot you can do to improve

There are a lot of places where if you work for it and you're interested you can really be better. So why are there so many fishes/donks/live ones etc etc?


Thing is pretty simple in my opinion, Poker is meritocracy at its best. If you work for it you'll definitely will improve, so what mers is offering is a tool (a valuable tool) but first you have to be willing to work on your own, otherwise those are just words. And that's the big difference, most people won't work hard on this. So it doesnt really matter if you give them a valuable tool, most people won't even use it.

yesterday by chance, after getting back to basketball i started investigating how to get my vertical leap back, after an ankle injury i had, and i found this.

You change air alert for (book, video, or whatever that serves at making you better at poker) and it really illustrates what i think about this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZZjPGrq7t4

filthyvermin?

This is none of my business but actually he did deny it on his well. I mean, if he is then he is, better to be honest with yourself and become comfortable in your own skin rather than trying to satisfy society; life's better that way.

mersenneary you are simply the best. Thank you so much! Can't wait to get your book.

Thanks Mers. I am looking forward to reading this as I may somewhat fit the definition of 'reg fish'.

However, I do wonder what benefits HUSNG.com will get from this free ebook. We don't have much litterature for HU SNG. The 2p2/HUSNG.com forums are imho the best written resources available but they require a lot of browsing and it's easy to miss something important. This makes video the main learning tool and adding free quality litterature can only steer potential customers clear of getting a membership at HUSNG.com.

Wonder how much of this is plagiarized from Collin Moshman's excellent heads up book. I'll have his work open alongside me as i read through the sections on Bayesian Inferences and optimal VPIP OOP and I'll have Collin on speed dial. You have been warned.

FYP imo

ask him why the f does he have two socks on the book cover