180s imo

Hey guys,
I haven't played a ton recently because of work but I did manage to play over the past 3 days. I think I'm +$1800 over the last 200 games or so. I've been playing well but I've also run pretty hot. Needless to say, my sharkscope graph looks insane. Obviously, there's a ton of variance in the 180s but I'm trying to get better at just making the right shoves/calls and forgetting about the outcome. It's much harder to do than I would have thought and I still haven't gotten to the point where losing AK to A7 aipf for massive CL doesn't tilt me but I definitely think I'm getting better at it.

I really don't see any reason to play 18 mans. 45 mans are way more profitable and if I really need to load a lot of games at once I can just mix in the 6s. As of now, I'm just playing the 12/45s and 12/180s which makes the most sense, I think. I may start mixing in the $16 turbo mtt's (the kind that jbrown shipped for $4.5k), but we'll see.

Also, my brother who is a total fish wants to get into poker. He's been asking me about it fairly consistently for the past couple of weeks so I'll be sweating/teaching him MTT SnG's this summer. On the one hand, it seems like I can just explain push/fold and he'll be profitable from the get-go. Having said that, he really has no background at all in poker and so I'll have to really build from the ground up. On the bright side, most of the profit in these games comes from push/fold so it's ok if he isn't maximizing value at the 10/20 level. At the moment, I have him watching "Math of NL Holdem", "Push", "From the Ground Up", and "Last Man Standing." I'll probably start him at the $3/45s and hopefully get him up to the 6s before the end of the summer. We'll have to see how it goes.

On the fitness side, my roommate and I ran 5 miles on Monday and Wednesday and plan to do 6 miles tmrw. Five was pretty rough yesterday (not exactly sure why) so I'm expecting six to be pretty brutal. It'll be great to be done with it, though. We lifted today and it turns out I'm a bit stronger than I thought. I'm super tall (6'7" ftw) so benching is harder for me than for most but I managed 3 sets of 10 reps of 85lbs. Not super impressive, but we'll kick it up to 95lbs. on Saturday and see how it goes. My max right now is probably 140lbs. so it'd be nice to get that up to around 180-200 but obv that's a long way off. We'll probably do 6 miles 3x next week, so that should be fun.

I'll keep you guys posted.

Funny manhat story to come.

Holler,
Yodaddy

fitness and spring weekend

Hey guys,
Been doing some more fitness stuff though I haven't been lifting 2x/week and running 3x/week every week, so that's been a bit disappointing. My roommate and I went running on Friday but didn't get in five miles because I had to go file math at 4:30 blah blah. For whatever reason, his gf decides to tag along. Now, she hasn't done a single athletic thing all year, so she just has no chance of keeping up with us. Imagine like...Vers. Yeah, that's it. Just no chance at keeping up. So we're running on a track where 8 laps = 1 mile. So we do the first two laps and this girl is huffing and puffing and barely able to keep up. Chris (my roommate) and I are holding a normal conversation and his gf just can't contribute because she's so winded. As we complete the fourth lap, she drops out. Keep in mind, we had been doing like 9min/mile pace and giving her the innermost lane just to maximize her chance of staying with us. No dice.

Now, instead of admitting defeat and throwing in the towel, she lets us run a lap and then tries to hang with us again. Can you say GTFO? Seriously. I mean, I really have no idea a) why she would suddenly feel inspired to run (she's never done this before) and b) why she would think that she'd be able to run alongside us. Totally ridic and a bit tilting because Chris and I had to slow down for her. Anyway, she keeps alternating between walking a lap and trying (read: failing) to run with us while Chris and I keep going. We ended up doing 4 miles at 7:55 min/mile pace which was definitely our hardest run so far. This week we'll prob shoot for 5 miles, 5 miles, 6 miles (all at about 9 min/mile pace). I really do hate running but it feels great when I finish and it's cool working toward a concrete goal.

This weekend was also pretty crazy. I didn't do much today but on Friday I went out with my friends to see Nas (he came to our school) and that was a lotta fun despite not knowing any of his music. It was sort of funny that this badass, thug rapper is getting gigs at top schools. It's like...oh rly?

The concert officially started at 7 but Nas was supposed to come on around 7:30 and we wanted to pregame before it. So it's 6 and Stephanie, my roommate's gf, says that she has to go shower and change back in her dorm and then she'll come back blah blah. At 6:15, she still hadn't left. I ask, "So steph, are you gonna go change so we can pregame before Nas?"

*cue gay voice* "Yeah, like totally."

Then she started having a babytalk session with my roommate for the next fifteen minutes. At this point I'm bitching to Reasons cuz this is tilting me hardcore and there's not much I can do about it. It's like right...you guys can do whatever you want as long as it doesn't fuck up my plans. Ofc, they didn't consider that I'm just sitting there being like "can we go....can we go....can we go?"

So anyway, Chris and I start drinking and have like five or six shots before heading to the concert. Concert was good but I get a text from Stephanie at like 10:45 (Nas didn't get on until 10) that they were in the back and couldn't really see and that she was getting cold so they left. Now, this has happened pretty consistently for the last six months. Any time we go out together, they leave early because they're not out trolling for ass. I get that. But for whatever reason, they feel obligated to make up excuses to go back and have sex.

It's like...it's 65 degrees out...you're not cold...anyone could have gotten within 50 feet of Nas. And they know I know this, so it's just insulting for her to shovel manure at me like that. Ugh. So I end up going back around 11:30 and meeting up with one of my friends and her roommate. One of the frats that a lot of my teammates are in was throwing a toga party and obv I run bad at togas so I had her help me tie it. We head over, they know the doorman, we get in ahead of 100 people in line. I run good, fwiw. So we're there and the party's sick. Lots of people, I know a good number of them, dance floor's packed, good music, just a great time all around. End up dancing with some girl, going back to her place, and hooking up. I wake up at 12 the next day dehydrated, without my shirt (I left it in the room of the girl who runs good at togas), and without my phone. Now I have few problems:

1) I'm worried I lost my phone because I just lose shit when I'm drunk.

2) I have to walk back to my dorm (across campus) without a shirt on or wearing a toga. Bad and worse options.

3) I have to deal with the awkward post-hookup conversation. "yeah, i'll see you around...right right..."

Just brutal but a great night on the whole.

Next post'll be poker-related.

Holler,
Yodaddy

prop bets imo?

Hey guys,
I was just reading about a guy who's doing a mile prop bet with his friends. He's like 6ft. 210lbs and has been a chainsmoker for ten years. For whatever reason, he has accepted a prop bet that gives him 75 days to run a 6:00 mile or better. There's honestly just no chance this guy does it. I mean, he's going to have to undergo such a serious lifestyle change (not smoking, eating well, excercising 5-6x/week, etc) and even if he does all of this, there's no guarantee that he'll be able to run a sub six minute mile. Speaking of which...

I ran a 6:04 mile during the season and have been running about 3x/week for the past 3-4 weeks. Yesterday I did 5 miles in 9:10/mile pace (not going for time, just distance). I want to train for the mile. Unfortunately, Runner's World only offers training plans for 5k+ so I can't really use that as a resource. It just kills me to be on the track for like 50 minutes at a time and I think I'll see gains more quickly when training for the mile. Now, I'm not sure what to set as the goal for my mile. Obviously, it gets increasingly hard to shave time off as your time gets lower and lower (e.g. it's much easier to go from a 10 minute mile to a 9 minute one than it is to go from 6 minutes to 5). I've never officially done sub 6, so I'm thinking 5:30 would be a reasonable goal for the summer. Let me know what you guys think and we'll figure out details.

Holler,
Yodaddy

Moving along

Hey guys,
Haven't updated recently because things have been pretty hectic here. Thankfully, I only have two weeks of classes left and no more exams or papers until then. Applied math midterm went ok, but not great. I fucked up a problem I really should have known so I probably shipped an 85 or something. Pure math was better, though. I got a 92 on a curve where 86+ was an A (yeah, I run good at maths fwiw). Unfortunately, only 60% of my grade has been accounted for so far and that class is getting insane. The final is largely based on the last two chapter and I'm so lost it's not even funny. We'll see how that goes.

I had to write a phil paper on Pascal's wager. It was basically "Do you find Pascal convincing?" and I was like no because he's forcing us to commit to belief or disbelief (to "wager") in the absence of evidence...and we can only form a genuine belief when we have evidence...so we can't wager at all. Blah blah phil.

I originally declared mathematical econ but decided to quit being such a wuss and go for math, even though I'm sure my GPA'll suffer as a result. I thought of doubling with phil, but tbh, I'd have to take three classes (ancient phil, early modern phil, and logic) that I really don't want to take. So I think I'll just take the phil classes that appeal to me (philosophy of mind, political philosophy, morality, etc).

I am somewhat excited for the upcoming math classes though. I'll take abstract algebra in the fall which'll rape me HARD, but then I'll take a topology class with one of the department's best professors and the following year I'll do probability, statistics, operations research (basically optimization), and cryptography (which is supposed to be tight). This'll also open the door to a ton of cool jobs and leave a lot of doors open (econ grad school, math grad school, optimization jobs, etc). I think I've been sort of a wuss in terms of worrying about how my gpa'll be effected by my major. It's surprisingly hard to separate what I like and what I'm good at but I think I've done a reasonable job of figuring that out and, even though I'm not incredible at math, I do find it pretty satisfying. Although it happens rarely, when I really understand something (and can rigorously prove it), it's pretty satisfying. I have to run but I'll update later tonight about poker, etc.

Holler,
Yodaddy

Little Update

Hey guys,
Things are slowly winding down for me. I just have a pset and midterm on wednesday and then I'm cruising till exams. I played a couple hours last night with Reasons sweating and ended +35 or something over twenty games maybe? Play at the 6/18s was ridic bad. It was so nice playing on my 20" monitor b/c, over break I played on my 13" laptop screen and that was just brutal. A 30" is gonna be unbelievable. Although figuring out how to work mikogo (downloading it, making a new acct, and setting it up with Reasons) while 10-tabling was so tilting because I'd be sitting out at times and the whole time Reasons is like "let's go, wtf's going on?" ugh it was brutal. But yeah, I started tiling and I definitely like it more than stacking. 1) You get a better sense of game flow and 2) You know instantly if/when you're sitting out (as opposed to when I have just one big stack of tables).

I've been keeping up with the fitness, culminating in a 4 mile run (at 8:35/mile pace) this past Friday. We'll shoot for 4, 4, 5 this coming week and see how it goes. Don't think I've ever run 5 miles straight before (no real reason to) so should be good. Running for the sake of running sucks but building towards some goal (say 10 miles) makes it much easier to motivate myself.

I can't wait for summer. No schoolwork, no stress about exams, only squash, poker, running, and a bit of math research. This summer's shaping up to be pretty sick. Let me lay out some goals:

1) 3-4k games (hopefully 6-10k profit)
2) play squash 3-4x/week
3) put in some good hours on math research (I'm working with a local prof) and turn work into a paper at the end of the summer
4) be able to run 20 miles at once (this one may be really hard but as long as I build slowly towards it, I'm confident I can pull it off)...(prob bets anyone?)

Later boiz,
Yodaddy

Finding My Place

So I'm slowly realizing a few things, one of which is that being a small fish in a big pond may not be > being a big fish in a small pond. The high school I went to is one of the best in the country (my senior class had the highest avg. SAT in the US) and I was middle of the class there. It was fine, but come college admissions time, it was super hard to get in where you thought you belonged simply because there were so many smart kids competing for the same places and colleges can only accept a certain number of kids from the same school.

As a result, kids get placed at schools they can crush. My first semester I had a 4.0, two of my friends had 4.0's (at different schools), etc. So I transferred to where I had always wanted to go and, now that I'm here, I'm back to being a small fish in a big pond. Just the other day, one of my professors was saying that our weekly problem sets should take 2-3 hours. Rigghhhhttt....Mine are taking 8-12 hours...

It's just frustrating having to bust my ass to stay afloat when I know I could be cruising at other schools. Maybe more frustrating is the fact that a lot of kids here aren't putting in nearly as much work and they're doing better, just coasting by because they happen to be really fucking smart.

This isn't to say that going to a good school doesn't have its advantages. It'll look good on a resume, I like being around intellectually curious kids, etc. But it also means that I'm competing with them for grades and that makes it much harder to do well. I think part of my frustration stems from leaving a small liberal arts college, thinking that the big, bad ivy was going to be all I thought it would be...and then having that dream shattered upon matriculation.

Knowing what I knew at the time that I decided to transfer, it was definitely the right choice. It simply would have been impossible for me to know what this (new) school would be like without actually being here, studying here, and taking exams here. Now that I know, I sort of wish I hadn't transferred. At the liberal arts college, I had constant access to professors, a really collaborative math department, the best professor I've ever had (who would have been my advisor), and a great group of friends. It was just too hard for me to realize what I had at the time. I got caught up in feeling like I belonged at a top-flite school, in putting too much emphasis on prestige instead of enough on the actual experience.

Surprisingly, I've found that professors here are generally not as good. By and large they're more qualified and they're far better researchers, but this doesn't imply that they're good teachers. In fact, I've found quite the opposite; it may be that quality of research (or at the very least, focus on research) and quality of teaching are inversely related. Sure, it's cool to say that I have access to a Fields medalist, but if he isn't a good teacher, how does it really benefit me?

We also have lots of TAs here who suffer a similar phenomenon; they're great math students, but not great math professors (and this is even more true with TAs than professors because they have virtually no teaching experience). One of my TAs can't pronounce words with more than three syllables...you get the point...

Go to a liberal arts college, get access to professors, get a good gpa, forget what US News has to tell you about colleges. Don't get me started on US News...

Thanks for reading,
Yodaddy