Sneijder as a #6 was what we discussed before game one, too. Seems like a very good idea but I think BvM is actually less likely to do it against us than against some other team.

I think he'll send out what he deems the most conservative lineup possible.

I dunno, I don't *think* I'm like that IRL. Who knows, self-awareness is hard.

I agree but fwiw my post might make it sound like all my friends are just constantly hating on me but I mean, it's happened like ~5 times in 6 years of playing poker professionally so it's not exactly a regular occurrence. I was just curious if anyone else has experienced the same thing.

I've probably encountered similar to you Keyser...I never thought much about it.

Some of it stems from peoples expectations of me. For instance, I was top of class in HS, and then did the natural progression to university. I got a mechanical engineering degree. Then I continued on to a masters degree (which I didn't finish). So, I think I established a certain expectation of where I was heading, and then through a wrench in that with the poker thing. Some people would certainly ask me, in a accidently judgemental way, when I was moving on from poker.

Others encounters I think stemmed more from peoples pre-conceived ideas about "gambling" or their own insecurities. I had a cousin that would ask me if I was still "just gambling" and kinda give a smirk. One of my family member gave him a hard time when I had a $40k tourney score saying "Devin won most of your salary in just one night!".

Others just don't understand that there is skill involved in poker. They ask you how's the "gambling" going? or you still playing cards? They just don't get it.

I never put much thought in though, cause **** em. I was making as much or more than any of them, and if it didn't work out, I would eventually get back to making as much or more as them doing whatever it was I chose to do in the future.

You could probably sum up a good chunk of the field of AI with that statement

I've encountered these type of responses a few times throughout the years. Almost never from close friends but sometimes from more peripheral friendships. I try to dumb down the significance of my success while stressing the amount of time I've put into studying the game and trying to improve. If after that the person is still ragging on me then I just change the subject. Though it was a lot easier for me to dissuade any comments I got but just telling people that I was saving up money for med school tuition which was true. Meh.

How's med school going shpanko? Time for 10k poast?

I've been thinking about this a lot lately. I have a friend who is just the least athletic person I have ever seen. Like, it's just awkward when we tried to play tennis or basketball or whatever. But sometimes he would indicate that he feels like he's athletic and good at sports.

I would always think, wowwww how could he not realize????

Then I remember thinking that I too feel like I'm very athletic.

And it hit me, that I could be just like him.

And then






Unrelated, but I've recently become obsessed with astronomy. It's like the most interesting/cool/awesome thing ever to me. You were an astrophysics major, what does that even mean? Like what did you do? Did you want to be an astronomer? I'm clueless.

Thanks for the thoughts Devin and others.

It's good. Just starting the process of applying to residency programs. Gonna do pediatrics and then hopefully a critical care fellowship afterward so that I can work in the PICU.

Yeah I'm gonna do a 10k-type post regarding my thoughts on beating ssnl fairly soon. Now that 3rd year clerkships are over I actually have some free time to myself.

FTP regs thread 4 lyfe

hmmm though since I don't think I'm like that but I am self-aware enough to know that I'm possibly just lacking self-awareness then that means that I am actually not like that and thus I am accurately self-aware? anyone??

Hah. Yeah astrophysics is an amazing field. If the life of an astrophysicist wasn't as isolating as it is I might be doing a PhD in astro instead of med school. To answer your question, being an astrophysics major meant taking advanced courses in physics, quantum mechanics, and cosmology. You could focus your studies more on observational or theoretical astrophysics. My undergrad research was kind of a mix of the two but my thesis was on the distribution of dark matter vs baryonic matter in the universe as a function of scale. It's pretty crazy **** to learn about how enormous the universe is and humbling to contemplate how miniscule we are in comparison.

I haven't kept up with the field much since graduating and I regret that as right now is a pretty exciting time in astrophysics with the recent studies of the cosmic background radiation shedding light on the curvature and mass density of the universe (and thus the ultimate fate of the universe i.e. infinite expansion versus eventual collapse). Hmm, I kinda just went on a rambling rant there. What in particular did you want to know about astrophysics?

We maybe should take it to PM? I guess it doesn't matter, other people might be interested too.

I've been listening to the AstronomyCast podcast a lot. Have probably listened to ~50 of them. Any other good shows/documentaries/whatever? I watched Sagan's "Cosmos," Brian Greene's "The Fabric of the Cosmos," and I tried to watch "Stephen Hawking's Universe" but I kept getting distracted and imagining him like the South Park character (lol, sadly not joking) so I didn't really like it. Any other recs?

I also want to get started in amateur astronomy (in addition to my current title of amateur pharmacist) but I'm not sure what to buy. I imagine there's some sick places I could go in the desert to get really good views. I hear that I should first buy binoculars and that newbs shouldn't start with telescopes. True? If you were just getting into astronomy what would you do?




-----------------------------------------



One more thought: I think none of us really care to admit just how linear the relationship between natural intelligence and poker acumen really is. Like, do you think the guy (robot?) who wrote this post, the astrophysics major from Princeton, ^^ just has better poker fundamentals and has studied poker more than the people who breakeven?

I mean, every decision in poker is just like a logic problem. If you're really f'ing smart then you can figure out the correct answer more often and faster than other people assuming some familiarity with the types of lines of thoughts you should be thinking about.

I guess this theory breaks down because it's not like everyone who is super smart is inherently good at poker, but I think if 100 people all have a similar capacity for risk-tolerance and emotional control and also have similar levels of experience, I think the dude who is just the smartest is going to be the biggest winner.

Okay I'm not sure why I'm philosophizing about everything.

@Clowntable. We can still advance if we lose tonight with say 1 goal difference. If we win from Portugal and you guys win from Denmark it's

Germany: 9
Rest: 3

IF Holland wins with 2 goals difference from Portugal we advance on goals

I think this is relatively accurate, though obviously doesnt take into account things like tilt and all of the important peripheral skills required to be successful (Jared Tendler's book + Leatherass' Book). I think it normalizes faster as well, because variance would even out faster than in other careers, as you are making thousands of decisions per day, whereas less intelligent people can survive a lot longer when decisions are made as part of a team and are less frequently made.

I'm starting to realize that I may just not be smart enough to crush. I mean, put simply, I'm a lot smarter than most people but a lot dumber than smart people. Should find something which smart people avoid and crush.

ok **** this holland team. This is just embarrasing.

tournament poker

Keyser if you need to come over and hang out that's cool, you're really tldr'ing up this thread

I quit drinking caffeine a few months ago but I fell off the wagon last week. My brain feels like it's in overdrive lately which is good for poker but not good for ADD and okay I'm going to quit typing now

I am now drinking ~ 132 oz of diet coke a day and I'm starting to think that's not healthy.

But my brain doesn't have overdrive, it has passing disinterest in consciousness altogether

yeah, after I've been drinking caffeine for a while I end up entering a period of perpetual tiredness. Quitting sucks pretty bad but after I get over that I always do have a lot more energy. Also lol at this: "my brain doesn't have overdrive, it has passing disinterest in consciousness altogether"

I too have bouts with caffeine, although it sounds like I have less of a problem than you guys XD

I probably drink 40oz of coke zero or a can or two of redbull a day. I'm such a crackhead for it... I feel like there's a string drawing, just slightly, over to 7/11 to grab a bad of chips and a coke, at all times. I did once give up caffeine and didn't drink it for a few months: I replaced it with orange juice. Every time I wanted to grab a dr pepper or whatever, I would just drink like 2 huge glasses of orange juice instead. Def helped with the caffeine problem, but then i was getting sugar OD'd every day :P

anyone ever play civ2? http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comme...vilization_ii/

weird, I have a 7-11 string too. but mine goes to:



and



(I had to dig this out of my trash because I couldn't find a pic online lol. While looking I learned that these apparently have caused salmonella or something but they're sooo worth it.)

I used to skip school so I could continue an all nighter. Civ ii was he nuts.

Zip fizz