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Monday, January 31, 2011
30 days in 90 seconds
It sort of makes more sense to do this at the end of January instead of on the 31st, but whatever, I'll put the 31st into the Feb video since Feb is only 28 days.
Click the graph for full-size:
Click the graph for full-size:
Braaaains
So it is actually completely coincidental that I have started thinking about brains, but it occurs to me in thinking about them that I have a good many good reasons to comment on them at the moment. Aside from the obvious becoming a zombie joke, which I already made in the title.
Matt and I saw The Rite tonight and it reminded me how fascinated I am by possession, exorcism, and human psychology in general. I am the only person I know my age who actually read the Exorcist (it was a book first. The book is way better than the movie). In the book the question of whether Exorcism is actually demonic in nature, or whether it is a very specific (or even very general) psychological state, and whether that is ultimately a meaningful question to ask, is dwelt on a great amount.
I am fully atheistic, although my spiritual involvement with the world is far more complicated and human than that word would make it sound. That said, I fully believe that there are people who believe themselves to be possessed, and that people under the impression that they are possessed can do things which appear supernatural. I read something once about the "demonic" voice commonly reported in possessions. You can even find audio recordings of it online quite easily (not for the faint of heart). Incidentally, I'm pretty sure those tapes are from the exorcism which was the basis for the movie the Exorcism of Emily Rose.
Anyway, people usually think of such voices as demonic, possessed, etc. But it turns out that us humans have two sets of vocal chords (you may remember this was awkward during puberty), and the voices are generally caused simply by the activation of both at once. This is not supernatural, but it is very impressive. Actually, there are monks who spend great amounts of effort to train themselves to do this at their own whim.
As an atheist, I think possession is an amazing example of how far beyond our understanding of our own bodies our bodies can actually perform. Superhuman strength, speaking languages we do not generally understand, sudden changes in blood distribution throughout our body, activation of vocal chords simultaneously. Yes, it is terrifying, but it is simultaneously amazing. Also as an atheist, I think that if people can be tricked into thinking they are possessed and start acting possessed, and that if exorcism can trick them into thinking they're not again, then exorcism should be pursued regardless of the existence of God or of demons.
As a mass-volume poker player, I achieve flow states where my body functions beyond my understanding of its abilities. There have been times when I have been consciously planning to call or to fold on a river, only to click to make the opposite decision subconsciously before I am able to do what I had been planning to do, and I have never to my knowledge had my subconscious decision be wrong (hard to know for sure because when I fold I don't get to see their cards). When you get all-in preflop it's very common for the range of hands your opponent can have to be QQ+ or AK, but very often I know with a fair amount of certainty which of those hands I'm going to see. How? How long it takes them to press call, I guess. Maybe how quickly they reraised me the first time. It's hard for me to say exactly. In Blink Malcolm Gladwell talks about a guy who knows instinctively whenever a tennis player is going to double-fault as they are throwing the ball up for their second serve, but cannot work out how he knows. How wonderful it would be to actually work such things out, and be able to teach them and use them.
At the last coaching session I was at we had KQ on K9xK with two clubs, and we raised. Our opponent tanked for a little and then shoved all in. I said quite confidently that he had JT of clubs. We called. He had JT of clubs. We didn't have the queen of clubs in our hand, but I had absolutely no instinctual thought that our opponent had QJ of clubs, despite them being almost identical hands on that board. Maybe people take longer to raise JT preflop, or bet slightly differently on the flop and turn. I don't know. Maybe I'm just lucky and succumbing to researcher bias where I remember when I'm right and don't when I'm wrong. Probably some of all of the above.
I've heard people use the expression "playing like he's possessed". I wonder at what point that becomes technically true.
Matt and I saw The Rite tonight and it reminded me how fascinated I am by possession, exorcism, and human psychology in general. I am the only person I know my age who actually read the Exorcist (it was a book first. The book is way better than the movie). In the book the question of whether Exorcism is actually demonic in nature, or whether it is a very specific (or even very general) psychological state, and whether that is ultimately a meaningful question to ask, is dwelt on a great amount.
I am fully atheistic, although my spiritual involvement with the world is far more complicated and human than that word would make it sound. That said, I fully believe that there are people who believe themselves to be possessed, and that people under the impression that they are possessed can do things which appear supernatural. I read something once about the "demonic" voice commonly reported in possessions. You can even find audio recordings of it online quite easily (not for the faint of heart). Incidentally, I'm pretty sure those tapes are from the exorcism which was the basis for the movie the Exorcism of Emily Rose.
Anyway, people usually think of such voices as demonic, possessed, etc. But it turns out that us humans have two sets of vocal chords (you may remember this was awkward during puberty), and the voices are generally caused simply by the activation of both at once. This is not supernatural, but it is very impressive. Actually, there are monks who spend great amounts of effort to train themselves to do this at their own whim.
As an atheist, I think possession is an amazing example of how far beyond our understanding of our own bodies our bodies can actually perform. Superhuman strength, speaking languages we do not generally understand, sudden changes in blood distribution throughout our body, activation of vocal chords simultaneously. Yes, it is terrifying, but it is simultaneously amazing. Also as an atheist, I think that if people can be tricked into thinking they are possessed and start acting possessed, and that if exorcism can trick them into thinking they're not again, then exorcism should be pursued regardless of the existence of God or of demons.
As a mass-volume poker player, I achieve flow states where my body functions beyond my understanding of its abilities. There have been times when I have been consciously planning to call or to fold on a river, only to click to make the opposite decision subconsciously before I am able to do what I had been planning to do, and I have never to my knowledge had my subconscious decision be wrong (hard to know for sure because when I fold I don't get to see their cards). When you get all-in preflop it's very common for the range of hands your opponent can have to be QQ+ or AK, but very often I know with a fair amount of certainty which of those hands I'm going to see. How? How long it takes them to press call, I guess. Maybe how quickly they reraised me the first time. It's hard for me to say exactly. In Blink Malcolm Gladwell talks about a guy who knows instinctively whenever a tennis player is going to double-fault as they are throwing the ball up for their second serve, but cannot work out how he knows. How wonderful it would be to actually work such things out, and be able to teach them and use them.
At the last coaching session I was at we had KQ on K9xK with two clubs, and we raised. Our opponent tanked for a little and then shoved all in. I said quite confidently that he had JT of clubs. We called. He had JT of clubs. We didn't have the queen of clubs in our hand, but I had absolutely no instinctual thought that our opponent had QJ of clubs, despite them being almost identical hands on that board. Maybe people take longer to raise JT preflop, or bet slightly differently on the flop and turn. I don't know. Maybe I'm just lucky and succumbing to researcher bias where I remember when I'm right and don't when I'm wrong. Probably some of all of the above.
I've heard people use the expression "playing like he's possessed". I wonder at what point that becomes technically true.
Friday, January 28, 2011
Week Four
This week was tough. Going to put in lots of volume this weekend and see if I can finish the month strong, be on the lookout for a monthly results update with VPP info in a few days.
Monday, January 24, 2011
Friday, January 21, 2011
Week Three
The Lakers won by exactly seven, which was what Matt needed to win his massive prop bet with Joey (okay it was only $50).
Not a very good week for volume, but an excellent one otherwise. Was great to have dad here and looking forward to seeing mum and Peter next week.
As of this moment:
Total VPPs - 135,746
Average VPPs - 6,787.3 per day
VPPs required per day for...
1MM - 2,505.1
2MM - 5,403.6
3MM - 8,302.2
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Week Two
It turns out one part of becoming a zombie is that I forget to explain important things in vlogs. Here's a quick recap of things mentioned (or not mentioned) during the week which will hopefully fill in some gaps.
Friday: Tilt is a term used for when your mindstate is off-kilter, generally from losing at the tables.
Saturday: I played poker.
Sunday: I played poker.
Monday: I played poker.
Tuesday: I played poker.
Wednesday: Chris Sparks AKA GoMukYaSelf is a absurdly accomplished online cash player and the goto coach for mid-high stakes fullring. Matt and I have both had coaching from him in the past, and since we're in the same city now and all get along pretty well we decided to get together for a live coaching session (usually they're online over skype). We paid for our $230 dinner by credit card rouletting; asking the waiter to randomly pick our credit cards out of a napkin until there was only one left.
Thursday: I fail to explain at all why I didn't play much today. Thursday every week is date day though, so the reason is I slept in late (still sick), then got an hour-long massage with my girlfriend and spent 2-3 hours having dinner with her and talking. Good to catch up and have some us time. I plan to catch up to 3MM VPP pace by the weekend.
As of this moment:
Total VPPs - 100,135
Average VPPs - 7,702.7 per day
VPPs required per day for...
1MM - 2,556.4
2MM - 5,397.3
3MM - 8,238.3
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
What am I doing?
Hi, I'm Stephen. I'm a 23-year-old college dropout. I studied Classics and grew up in New Zealand, and have lived in Rome, Lyon, Auckland, and Seattle over the last two years since dropping out. This year I'm bunkered down in Los Angeles though, living with my girlfriend and a fellow poker player and grinding out an income.
Matt and I both play poker online on Pokerstars. We play mainly No Limit Texas Hold'em cash games, with buy-ins ranging from $100 to $1,000. Usually when we're working we are playing 16-24 tables at once.
Pokerstars makes money by taking rake out of each pot played (generally 5% of the pot up to $3), and rewards players for playing a lot of pots with a VPP program. Essentially, the more you play, the more of the money they're taking out of your pots gets given back to you.
My goal for the year is to play a ton. I'm going to try to stay on pace to hit the current world record for most VPPs in a year, until I cease being able to function as a human being (or, very unlikely, I succeed in matching it). This will net me over $300,000, assuming I can break even at the tables. If I actually am able to win money at the tables as well that's wonderful.
I'm recording what is likely to be my gradual mental and physical decay with video blogs, which I'll be posting here every week. I'd love it if you followed my blog, asked any questions you have, and gave as much encouragement as possible. I could use encouragement!
Hope you enjoy the videos,
Stephen
Matt and I both play poker online on Pokerstars. We play mainly No Limit Texas Hold'em cash games, with buy-ins ranging from $100 to $1,000. Usually when we're working we are playing 16-24 tables at once.
Pokerstars makes money by taking rake out of each pot played (generally 5% of the pot up to $3), and rewards players for playing a lot of pots with a VPP program. Essentially, the more you play, the more of the money they're taking out of your pots gets given back to you.
My goal for the year is to play a ton. I'm going to try to stay on pace to hit the current world record for most VPPs in a year, until I cease being able to function as a human being (or, very unlikely, I succeed in matching it). This will net me over $300,000, assuming I can break even at the tables. If I actually am able to win money at the tables as well that's wonderful.
I'm recording what is likely to be my gradual mental and physical decay with video blogs, which I'll be posting here every week. I'd love it if you followed my blog, asked any questions you have, and gave as much encouragement as possible. I could use encouragement!
Hope you enjoy the videos,
Stephen
Friday, January 7, 2011
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