Yodaddy's Poker Blog

Updates

2010-11-29T10:26:00.000-08:00

Hey guys,

I'm about 3 weeks away from finishing up my semester. London's been a ton of fun but I can't wait to be back at school either. Some updates:

I'm gonna be in NYC full-time next year, figuring out my apt. details as we speak but I'm excited for that. I'm taking a tough math class this semester and looking into the possibility of taking a few more as a non-degree student after I work for a year or two. I want to keep math grad school open as an option so we'll see how this class goes. It's supposed to be tough and the fact that only math majors take it won't make it any easier...

I want to get through 100 pages or so of the 250 the class will cover but that's ambitious to say the least. It takes forever to read a few pages because the topic is so proof-based. Add in the fact that we're using an advanced undergrad/beginning grad text and yeah...you get the point.

Trying to get in shape too. I've been doing biking intervals ~4x/week. I do 5 min warmup, 1 min on level 9 at 100+ rpm's and 45 seconds rest (repeat 20x), 5 min cooldown. It's definitely challenging but I think cardio fitness is the biggest weakness I have atm.

I've played a little bit of cash but it's hard to get in hands and I feel kind of dumb playing when I could be socializing, getting ahead on this math book, playing sports, etc. Part of me thought how nice it would be to go back to school in the spring and take easy classes and just hang out. But I'd feel pretty stupid for not having used all my school's resources and I may not have the chance to take certain classes again. Poker will always be around tho I won't have much time to play once I start work.

I had a coaching session with Keyser last week and it was super helpful. It was $300 for 8 hours of coaching which is a sick deal imo. I'm doing 25nl 6m atm and have ~$2,600 online so we'll see how that goes. I still like poker but part of me thinks it's not worth the effort if I can't really commit to playing a lot. I know a lot of guys do it casually but I can't imagine myself doing that when I'll have little free time after work/on the weekends and will want to spend it with friends.

Anyway, I hope everyone's doing well.

Thanks for reading.

Unexpected

2010-09-24T06:04:00.000-07:00

Hey guys,

I'm in London now for study abroad and it's going really well. Lotta cool people on my floor, guys from Duke, one of my good friend's gf

I've been thinking about the past few years and all my time in college and it's just been the most unexpected series of events.

Not get into where I wanted for college, transfer to where I do wanna go, end up not really liking it but making good friends, doing well at squash, running a 4.0 at new school, dating girl for all of junior year, youngest brother passes away...

I didn't think about it that much over the summer because I was so buy interning but it's slowly hitting me that Max is gone. I'll find myself crying and repeating his name to myself. There's nothing to do but feel terrible about it. Even though I know it's not productive, I can't help myself and I think that's natural. I'm talking to a shrink weekly so I'm getting help for it but it's far and away the most devastating thing that's ever happened to me. The worst part is realizing that this isn't some temporary condition that will be resolved or cured after a certain amount of time. Thirty years from now, I'll look back on this and miss him as much as I do now. Even writing this makes me cry.

Then a few weeks ago my mom got a call from the New Haven police saying, "Is Sam your son?"

"Yes."

"Well, we found him lying face down in one of the most dangerous parts of New Haven."

He's alive and fine now but my mom told the story as she heard it and my heart just stopped. My absolute worst fear is that something happens to Sam. He's my best friend and to repeat any trauma like Max's passing would absolutely destroy me.

It's put a lot of stuff into perspective for me. I've always been focused on "making it": doing well in school, sports, work, whatever but all of that kind of pales in comparison to family and friends. So I'm trying to do a better job of staying in touch with friends, and taking care of my family.

I hope everyone's doing well. I wish you guys only the best.

Talk soon,
Ben

Internship Over (thank god)

2010-08-01T12:55:00.000-07:00

Hey all,

So my internship ended yesterday and I'm so glad it's over with. I ended up taking home ~$7k after taxes/expenses but had to work 80-90 hrs/week to get it. I'm glad I can put it on my resume but there's almost no way I'll go into banking full time. The work's not interesting, the hours are terrible, no social life, blah blah. Great for exit opportunities but I don't think I'd be interested in private equity anyway (even though the pay/hours are better). I hear this coming Friday if I got a full time offer, but I'm pretty sure I didn't.

I was at a pretty big disadvantage coming in because I knew nothing about finance/accounting so I had to play catch-up for the first three weeks. My mid-summer review wasn't great but I "made a dramatic turnaround"...doubt that's enough to net a FT offer but we'll see. I would only want it so that I could leverage it for trading anyway but it'd be easier than applying the normal way.

At any rate, I'm back home for the summer and it's great to be back, see my brother and parents. They completed renovating our house a few weeks after I left for NYC and the place is great. I just have to get a desk/chair and set up my monitor/PC and I'll be good to go. Speaking of which, I have to figure out what I'm doing in August. Here are my tentative goals:

-talk to career services about contacting trading firms before I go to London
-contact 15 alums/week to network
-read Nudge, Misbehavior of Markets, Against the Gods
-play 1.5k games (get chair/desk today)
-pushups every other day, run every other day

We'll see how it goes, I'll keep you guys posted.

Talk soon,
Yodaddy

Made in the Shade

2010-02-14T12:25:00.001-08:00

Hey guys,
Things have been going really well lately. I'm pretty burnt out on squash but that's to be expected with only a week left in the season. It'll be nice to have a ton of free time although we'll still have lifts 2x/week.

I got into my study abroad school a few weeks ago so I have the option of going to London which I think I'll take. At the very least, I'll commit to it now because I'd rather decide not to do it at the last minute and have that option than want to do it and not have the option.

What else? My hard work paid off and I landed an offer from one of the top 10 banks in the country. I'll work in their investment banking division so it should be interesting to see how I like it, etc. It was a sort a lengthy process although not as bad as a lot of other ibanking ones are. I submitted a cover letter and resume, got selected for a first round interview, go put through to a final round interview, and then got a call saying I got it. It was pretty stressful at the end for a few reasons. I'd rather be in NY than Boston because my best friend from HS might be there, my GF is working there so it would have made the relationship difficult if I were in Boston, and some other friends are in NY as well. I also didn't really have other places to interview at after this one. I was 0/3 up to this point at first round interviews so it would have SUCKED to get to the final round and blow it. It was annoying though because I knew all of this and was worried that worrying about how the final round went would make me perform worse. Sort of a self-fulfilling prophecy so I tried to be as relaxed as possible.

The job's gonna be a ton of hours (80-90/week I think) but it's 10 weeks, 70k pro-rated (meaning I get paid over the course of the internship as if my yearly salary were 70k). So I'll make about 14k + 2k relocation stipend. I'll have to pay more for housing and I'll lose like 30% in taxes so I'll take home like 9k or so. I'm going up there in two weeks to meet alums from my school, people I'm gonna work with, etc. I have to formally accept by March 1st but will do it on Monday. It was pretty surprising and frustrating to get negged by a ton of places but rejection's a big part of the business so I just have to get used to it.

Also, things with the gf have been going really well. Been dating just over 5 months now and it's been really smooth. She's really cool, smart, etc so I really have no complaints on that front. Taking her to Beauty and the Beast and then dinner tonight and got roses that I'm giving her in a few hours.

Really pumped about this summer. I'm gonna chill for two weeks after classes end, then the internship, then I chill for another month before classes start abroad (assuming I go). There's really no downside to this internship however it ends up. I could:

-like it and get a full time offer at the end of the summer (40-50% get this)
-like it, not get a full time offer, but decide against going abroad so I can be on campus for recruiting in the fall. having this on my resume will be a huge plus if I don't get a full time offer
-not like it. At least in this case I'll know that banking isn't for me and I won't be put in the position of trying to decide how valuable it would be to stay on campus for fall finance recruiting. It would just be so hard to gauge and also so hard to be a competitive applicant having not interned ("Oh really? You want to do this? You have no experience, wtf...?")

Classes are also pretty interesting which makes my spring awesome. Squash ending, more free time, good classes, great summer lined up, study abroad in the fall. I've got it made.

Hope everyone's doing well,
Yodaddy

P.S. Shout out to Vers for finally getting what he deserves. Ship the Sunday Brawl and satties, boi.

Internships Son

2010-01-22T09:54:00.001-08:00

Hey guys,

Been applying to internships lately and it's been such a huge pain I can't even begin to tell you. So much busy work like filling out my name, address, major, gpa, submitting a resume and a cover letter, applying through my school's careers website, finding more banks to apply to blah blah blah.

At any rate, I've applied to about 15 places and have contacted another 10 or so. Basically the firms will look over my resume/cover letter and decide whether or not to grant me an interview. Then they'll decide, based on my interview, if I should get to do a super day which is a long ass day full off interviews. I've been applying for a lot of ibanking and sales and trading places and am pretty confident that I'll land a lot of interviews. I don't mean to be arrogant, but it's tough to imagine what more a bank could want on a resume:

Varsity Athlete
3.9
phil major with multivariable calc, ODE's, linear algebra, abstract algebra (currently taking), intermediate micro, management of business and non-profit organizations

ivy league school
did original math research last summer

The only problem is that I really know very little about finance at the moment. I'm getting educated but I'm starting from scratch so it's pretty tough. I think it's pretty stupid how interviewers ask you market specific questions. I suppose it gauges how interested you are in the field, but I'd rather gauge aptitude. Who cares if you know what our firm's stock is trading at...I want to know if you're smart enough to do good work.

Oh well...It'll be interesting to see how it turns out. It's gonna be a really busy next few weeks as I'll have 3 biggest matches of the season and nationals, interviews start in early Feb, transfer counselor stuff starting this Saturday, and two a days until school starts on the 27th. I also really have no idea what I would do if I don't land one of these internships. I suppose I should look into policy think thanks and other things like that but I'm pretty fried from all these apps.

I also worked out a deal with a coach where I teach him 180s and he teaches me 6m nlhe so I have to make time for that too. He's won at like 4.8bb/100 at nl600...not incredible, but still good imo.

Roll's been growing from my one stakee, who after 2k games has made like $1.6k (probably 1k below EV.) He plays well and gets in a ton of volume and keeps his rail updated constantly so he's been great. And after doing a lot of HH reviews at the start, I really haven't had to help him that much. Getting money for doing nothing is pretty nice. So yeah, have like 5.3k atm, gonna have to drop some dough on valentine's day and for a vegas trip. Kinda want a new chair but I need money for 6m cash. Although I guess I can count on more coming in in the future...meh.

Gonna go learn more about how the credit crisis happened. fml

Later boys,
Yodaddy

Decisions

2010-01-19T18:29:00.000-08:00

Hey guys,

I'm slowly trying to figure out what to do when I graduate but it's not easy. I briefly considered law school but think I was only interested because of where I think I could get in, and not because I'm actually interested in being a lawyer or really studying law. On that note, there's a constitutional law class that I'll check out this semester and we'll see if that piques my interest.

So far my schedule looks like:

Philosophy of Science
Political Philosophy
Philosophy of Mind
Constitutional Law: Individual Rights
(Easy Class)

Still not totally sure what I'm doing with this math class. I picked up topics in algebra and the book looks really fucking hard. It's basically one of the hardest classes my school offers and would probably require like 15hrs/week. I'm just not sure I want to commit that kind of time in the spring. Having said that, I think there's a good chance I'll regret not taking this class. It's supposed to be some of the most beautiful/elegant math out there and it's being taught by a big name professor (not THAT important.)

Anyway, we'll see how that goes. Have had squash/internship apps so haven't played at all. My stakee is doing well though, playing the 2/180s. Here are his first 1.8k games:

1,800 $1 $2 37% $1,413 Tilt N/A PokerStars Last1800 E180-180 x

Not bad, amirite?

I do think he ran pretty junky and his ROI in the 2s should be like 70-80%. I'm a bit hesitant about moving him to the 12s because my roll atm is ~5kish and the swings in the 12s can be brutal variance wise. I'm thinking I'll wait till the roll gets to 6k and then I'll let him mix in 7s and 12s. If he drops 1k, it's back to the 2s. Rinse and repeat. We'll see. My roll's also not as big as it seems because I'll be spending 1.5k for Vegas.

Eh, it'd be nice to have a bigger roll but I'm not gonna sacrifice schoolwork or my social life to play cards.

Almost forgot: went AAAB this semester, for a 3.75 semester and 3.9 overall. I'm gonna do some work and get the B changed to an A hopefully.

Finally, I'll be interested to see how internship apps go. I'm a phil major but have taken calc 2, calc 3, ODEs, linear algebra, intermediate micro so I have a pretty strong quantitative background. We'll see.

Thanks for reading,
Yodaddy

w00t

2010-01-07T12:39:00.000-08:00

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker! The WBCOOP is a free online Poker tournament open to all Bloggers, so register on WBCOOP to play.

Registration code: 805286

Just gotta want it

2010-01-05T19:45:00.000-08:00

I think I do a lot better when I set goals for myself, at least in the immediate future. So here's what I want to do over the next few weeks:

Tonight: Hand Readers 3

Wed: HR 4, 3 mi in 24 mins

Thurs: Speak with career center about trading internships, HR 5, 3 mi in 24

Fri: HR 6, bike sprints

Sat: (on plane), HR 7 and 8

I'll move onto +EV of a poker pro and micro nl grinder later in the month but so far hand readers has been really good. It was pretty inspiring to read boywonder's post on 2p2 about what separates a good 200NL player from a good 2kNL player (he claims it's mainly emotional control.) He also thinks that basically anyone who's not retarded can make 150k-200k/year playing 6m cash.

So I'm gonna start learning it and Reasons told me that PT3 came out for mac so I'll probably have to get that.

I also just picked up a guy I'm gonna coach and profit share with but not stake which is really an ideal situation for me since it's all reward no risk. We'll see how it goes. I'm hoping these few guys will come through and pad my BR to 6k or so, so I can really treat myself in vegas, etc.

Congrats to msusyr for his 26k score the other night!

Thanks for reading,
Yodaddy

Getting in shape and setting some goals

2010-01-04T06:33:00.000-08:00

Hey guys,
I just got back from NYC for NYE. It was a ton of fun but this morning was brutal; I had to get up at 5am, to work out at 6 because my mom read some book about the benefits of excercise and forced me, my brother, and my dad to go (because my brother couldn't go until 5pm otherwise.) Needless to say it was awful but it's good that I'm going and getting into better shape.

I have to figure out what I want from poker this year. I'm just not sure right now. I'm getting better at 16/18s but long term I think I really have to do 6m cash. I'm staking a couple guys in 2/180s which has been fun and it's great to make some money without playing. I've been doing HH reviews and one of the guys is down a bit but playing fine (only 200 games so far) and the other is +1300 or so over 5 weeks so that's been nice. I don't have any strict rules about how much to let these guys drop before I drop them (I've reserved this right) but I'm pretty sure I'll keep both just because they're both playing well so if they aren't making money, it's sorta w/e in the short term.

These next 2.5-3 weeks I'm pretty busy. I have to:

1) get in shape (gym every day before intersession starts)
2) watch Hand Readers, +EV of a poker pro, real life micro nl grinder (this is actually sort of hard to do cuz i have to pay attention and the vids are pretty boring)
3) pick up another stakee
4) start reading real analysis book (I'm thinking of taking this class, but want to give myself a head start)
5) put in 18 mans
6) apply to finance internships, get interview book

1 will happen, I want to do 4, and the other 3 are sort of up in the air. I'm not entirely sure how many 18 mans I can play because I have so much going on but we'll see.

I'm hoping that I can expect to get like 500/month from staking. Vegas will cost 1.5k and I wanna set aside 1k for coaching, so my roll's down to 2300 if that's the case. I might start at 25nl but that seems pretty lame. So I wanna grow the roll and be able to jump into 50nl. I might do 10k hands at 25nl and then move up.

Gonna be some pretty busy days up ahead.

Thanks for reading,
Yodaddy

End of Month

2010-01-01T17:51:00.000-08:00

Hey guys,
December was pretty good. I didn't get in a ton of volume but did alright. Here are my results:

December Results (all): 693 $3 $8 27% $1,995

18 Man Results for December: 597 $2 $8 19% $1,107

I'm mixing 6/18s and 16/18s and I'm still not making a ton doing that but I think my 18 man game has gotten a ton better. I've started passing on some spots and really slowing down with a big stack which are two things that are really helping I think. My roll's been growing too, which is nice. I'm up to 4.8k or so which is nice because my vegas weekend trip in the spring will cost me like 1.5k. Here are the things I'm thinking of doing:

-seeing "O"

-playing cards live (obv)

-good food, going out both nights

That brings me down to 3.3k and I'm gonna start watching some cash videos and really try to mix in some 6max. Intersession starts the ninth but here's a tentative plan that I'm really trying to make sure happens:

By January 27th (when classes start):

-have watched Baby Steps, From the Ground Up, +EVolution of a Poker Player, Real Life Micro NL Grinder

-400 18 mans

This is pretty ambitious but if I do this, then I can start playing 6m cash at 25nl for 10k hands then 50nl. I think I'll get coaching after 25nl from TheLoon on DC. He plays 100nl and I don't see any reason to pay more for a coach that plays higher and isn't as comfortable with lower stakes (or at least as accustomed to it.) So ten sessions of that will run me $700, adn will leave me like $2.5k for a roll which is 50 buyins and hopefully enough.

I'm pretty excited about this but it'll take some work.

I've also started helping out a couple guys in the 2/180s. One of them is improving but not great and the other is solid and getting better so that's been padding my roll a bit and it's pretty nice to have at least a little money coming in without playing (although I'm doing HH reviews, etc.) I'm not Shen or Vers, but I can def. help these guys get good and I think they can get like 100% at the 2s and then move up so eh.

Had a great New Years party at a friend's house in NYC last night. Tons of fun, people got hammered, and hilarity ensued.

I also have to grind because my brother has $200 left for the schoolyear and, even though I don't want to just give him money, I really don't want him to have to get a shitty $10/hr job at school. So I'll probably ship him $500 or something for the rest of the year so he's not wasting time at a job and can still go out at night.

Hope your holidays went well,
Yodaddy

18 mans

2009-12-26T09:19:00.001-08:00

Hey guys,

I've been playing the 18 mans and this is what it looks like for the month so far:

413 $1 $7 19% $513

And I've stopped pussing out and have started mixing in 16/18s. The play's still awful, I saw this today:

MP raises to 120 at 10/20, I jam QQ from the btn for 1500, villain calls with 66...

I dropped $200 the other day which was annoying but I have to just get over it. The worst that'll happen is that I'll get into makeup which is w/e. I think my game's improving a lot, I've been posting a lotta HH's and getting feedback. I'm still not great, but think I'm doing much better.

I still haven't gotten two grades back from school. We finished exams on the 21st, but my stuff was in for these classes 4 days before the end of exams. It's the 26th now and apparently these two classes regularly submit grades as late as mid January. What is that? Can you really not grade exams/papers within a week or so? It really shouldn't be that hard.

Still picking out classes for next semester. I'm thinking:

Political Philosophy
Philosophy of Science
Nature of Morality
Easy Class/Maybe Math Class/Philosophy and Tragedy

We'll see.

Trying to get back into shape so I've started running. I go back 18 days before other kids for sports so my break's much shorter than most. Gonna go run now and put in another set later.

Thanks for reading,
Yodaddy

Hot Session

2009-12-18T21:58:00.000-08:00

Played 180s tonight for 4 hour or so, got in 37 games, +937. Obv ran really hot but it was pretty annoying because I donked off huge stacks at FT's to get 2 3rds, 1 1st, and some other finishes. Oh well, it'll get my online roll up to 3800 or so and I just realized that I didn't cash a check from two summers ago so +1k for my checking acct, ship it.

Got the gf a bracelet from Tiffany's which I think is pretty reasonable for the holidays, but I'll be interested to see what she gets me. Three weeks in she got me a $500 belt so we'll see...

Going home on Sunday, should be good.

Semester's End

2009-12-17T23:31:00.001-08:00

Hey guys,

Semester's coming to a close and I can't wait to get home for the holidays. I really wanna make some money in the time that I'm home because I'll have my 30" monitor and desktop (I only have my mac laptop aka no scripts at school). I played some 180s tonight and got a 3rd in a 12 but only ended +10 or sth. I think I'm playing pretty well and submitted the HH so we'll see how I'm doing. I was looking at a cEV push/fold chart and I think I may not have been pushing quite wide enough in certain spots. It's just that antes are such a big deal in the 180s that they can make a huge swing in your shoving range.

Anyway, we'll see how many games I can get in over the 18 days that I'm home. I would be off from now until the 27th (I know, right?) but have to go back on the 9th for squash. Just brutal.

I've also managed to get through like 3k this semester in spending money so I wanna grind and avoid withdrawing from my online roll. It's nice being able to eat off campus, get drinks, etc and not have to really worry about the cost. I guess it's a small thing but some kids probably stress over it and I just don't think about it too much.

I checked out my SS for the last 2,000 games (all 180s) and here are the results:

Yodaddy379 2,000 $3.07 $7 35% $6,143

So it's good, I just have to really get on my grind over break and make it happen. I think 1000 games in 18 days is a good goal to shoot for. Hopefully I can get at least 3/game over that span and get a bit more spending money.

Not much else is going on in my life, but given where I'm at, no news is good news imo.

Happy holidays to everyone,
Yodaddy

Update (finally!)

2009-11-27T21:58:00.000-08:00

Hey guys,
I last posted in July so a lot's happened since then. I'm a ton happier this year than I was last year and I think that's attributable to a few things: gf, better circle of friends, ton less schoolwork/class given that I'm doing phil instead of math. It's been a lot of fun and a lot less stress.

I haven't played much poker since I've been at school but I've started putting in a few sessions here and there. I don't have 5 hour blocks to play 180s so I'm learning the 18s. I guess there's good news and bad news. The bad news is that I'm sucking at 18s right now. I'm just not that good at them. The good news is that I have great resources at my disposal and I'm willing to accept that I suck right now. I think this is a pretty big strength because a lotta guys are pretty biased when it comes to their own abilities. If I send in a hand history and Reasons/Whoopsy say I'm missing a ton of shoves, I'm not gonna write it off as a bad game. I'm sure I'm missing shoves in loads of spots. So we'll see how that goes, it's nice because I can finish a set in just over an hour.

It's weird but this semester is almost over. I have three papers, a presentation, and a final until I'm done. It's basically one week of class, a week of reading period, and then exams. Should go by pretty quickly.

Sports have been sort of annoying because I've been plagued by injury. I'm just beginning to get healthy now and our season is really kicking into gear so I'm gonna have to get fit quickly. We have lift 3x/week in the morning and practice 5 days a week but I want to get in some runs/sprints in the mornings that we don't lift. I'll probably do something like:

Mon: 3mi

Wed: ghosting/court sprints (1 min on, 30 sec off x 4), break, 4x 20 lengths in under 60 sec

Fri: 3 mi

And I'll work up from there. Our team's gotten much more serious as it's improved (we lost our 9 and have two freshmen playin 4 and 6) so I've got to keep up. We also have a great shot of beating the #12 and #13 which would be awesome. We'll see how it unfolds.

The gf wants to go to vegas and I have to do some trip planning. I'm not sure how much it'll cost me but I may have to grind a bit. I have 3k online and 3k in my checking account for the rest of the year. I'll probably spend at least 3k in the spring but I'll try to grind some on Christmas break. I think we're going to the Carribean, not sure though.

Finally, I'm debating whether or not to study in London next fall. On the pro side, going to London would be great, classes come back pass/fail so I could really slack off, and I wouldn't have to put work into two boring phil classes for my major. The downside to going is that I'll have to apply for jobs in the fall and wont' be able to use my school's resources if I'm abroad. I also wouldn't be able to write a thesis, captain the team (if I get elected) and live in one of the best houses/locations at school (off campus, great house). I'm going to apply and give myself the option but I'm really torn at the moment. Thoughts would be great.

Holler,
Yodaddy

1/3 month updataments

2009-07-12T21:48:00.001-07:00

Hey guys,
Been putting in some more volume. Internet's now fixed so that's not an issue anymore. Put in 110 games today in 5 hours, -$194. AA < KK for t55k and the CL with 11 left. So it goes. The roll's growing, which is nice and I'm working on watching some DC vids and really starting to think about poker (more than 15bb's deep...weird, I know).

I finished "The Great Gatsby" the other day and didn't find it that great. Everyone raves on and on about it. I started "Slaughterhouse Five" which is supposed to be really good too but I don't really like Vonnegut's writing style. It's really casual and sometimes he just comes across as stupid, or, at the very least, overly simplistic. I actually have a pile of books I want to read but haven't. They include:

The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Mind Gym
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
A Clockwork Orange
Ender's Game

There are some others but hopefully I'll get through some of those this summer.

It's sort of annoying having put in 570 games 1/3 of the way through the month and have -$200 to show for it but that's the nature of playing mainly 180s. I did 888 last month and had 2k prof. so you can see where I'm coming from. Just gotta keep grinding.

Reasons pointed me toward a thread (http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/36/stt-strategy/account-hacked-529537/) about a guy who's been a regular in the STTF forum forever. Apparently he's a really nice guy, plays for a living, and got hacked on Stars for 14k. He has a wife and daughter, etc so obviously this is devastating for him. People on 2p2 usually piss me off (with super short, unhelpful responses like "ez call" or just by being dicks) but SSTF has been surprisingly good about this. Everyone has expressed their condolences and they're organizing a 10+10 tourney (where the 10 in rake goes to kevstreet, the guy who got hacked). I'll be playing in it, so will Reasons. If I can't make it, I'll ship him some money. I just can't imagine what it would be like to lose 14k, especially when it's money he relies on to support a family. Just brutal. Check out the thread and the tourney.

Gotta watch the end of Airforce one. Also, congrats to wbmustang on 10k prof. Nice work.

Later,
Yodaddy

Getting Some Volume In

2009-07-07T22:24:00.000-07:00

Hey guys,
I've been getting some good volume in recently. I think I've played ~350ish games in the first week of July so that's pretty solid. I've been mixing in more 12/45s and less 2/180s so there's more variance (higher buyin + lower absolute roi). I was kinda pussing out before because it's nice to just learn one game and not have to be super concerned about bubble factors but I'm on a stake, I get more rake this way, and like Manhat says, "30% of $12 > 100% of $2." We'll see if I'm 30%...my guess is that I'm more like 15-20% tho it's really hard to tell. The play in 12/45s is pretty bad but I'm significantly worse at them than I am at 180s.

Work with Shen has really started to pay off and my HH's have had less and less mistakes. I'm still making some, to be sure, but far less than I was initially. Now, if only the results would follow...I think I'm breakeven over the last 900 or so games which is sorta frustrating. I think downswings/BE stretches force people to respond in one of two ways: Group 1 gets motivated by a downswing and grinds harder (think Lipo's marathon sessions when down). Group 2 gets a bit disenchanted and takes it easy poker-wise. I think I'm definitely more a part of group 1, but I can't totally commit to grinding b/c I have other stuff going on.

It'd be nice if I had a two week+ period where I could just grind and see how many games I get in and how much $ I make. This may happen at the end of the summer, after my research/job is over.

On a different front, I've thought more and more about next summer and have realized that I at least want to check out banking/finance firms. I know it's a long way away but I have to basically start getting my stuff together in the fall and plan for the interviews and all that they entail. To that end, I think I'll take at least Probability (if not, another math class in addition) so I can market myself as a math major instead of a phil major. It's sort of weird in that the difference is one math class but on paper, which looks better to a prospective employer?:

Yodaddy
Good Uni
Major: Mathematics
GPA: 3.9

or

Yodaddy
Good Uni
Major: Phil
GPA: 4.0

I'm sure all of these firms would take the math guy with a much lower gpa (as low as 3.5 I'm guessing) any day. Even though I think philosophy can be v. rigorous, the public conception of it is that it's a lot of bs'ing and dicking around. So even though I'm not sure that I want to be a math guy, I'll stick with it for at least one more class to set myself up for the summer.

The economy has obv. hurt a lot of investment firms but they offer a ridic high percentage of interns full time positions upon graduation and the internship compensation is pretty nice (someone I know is getting 11k from a top firm). I'm not saying I'm committed to this route, just that I'd like to check it out and it's nice to know that if I do a good job and like it, I can probably land something nice. It'd also be interesting to see math applied in the real world. The further along I go in math, the weirder and less applied it seems to become. Linear Algebra was really like this and I've heard it becomes more so in other classes later on. It's pretty cool (although I'm not particularly good at this kind of math) and it really makes me feel like I understand a proof/problem when I finally get through with it. I think a lot of disciplines spoon-feed students answers/ways to go about problems but math is one of the few that bucks this trend. It's like:

Econ 101:

Set Marginal Cost = Marginal Benefit
Find equilibrium
Repeat as many times as professor wants

Often the student doesn't have to really understand what's going on to do this sort of calculation; he's just being told what to do and following the prescribed algorithm.

Having said all this, I don't want to ditch phil just because of how it would effect my job prospects/resume.

I read a quote the other day that said "Make sure that every step you take on the ladder of life is one you enjoy." It went on but the point was that if you follow this, you won't find yourself in a situation you don't like. But it seems sort of simplistic to say "Just do what you like, that's all that matters." I can think of loads of scenarios where I do something I don't want to do for something that I'll REALLY enjoy down the line (or, to put it in more economic terms, where Marginal Cost > Marginal Benefit for a while and then MB>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>MC). It's a sort of complicated issue but I guess it can't be that wrong to just follow your interests.

Thoughts?

Thanks for reading,
Yodaddy

Getting Better

2009-07-01T11:34:00.001-07:00

Hey guys,
Sorry I haven't updated in a while. I've been pretty busy between math research, my shitty job, and playing. I'm getting pretty comfortable with my 180 game and FT stuff. Here's my July:

Yodaddy379 888 $2.39 $8 39% $2,118 Super Tilt N/A PokerStars <1Mths SNG Only

Not bad, especially considering that I've been playing mainly 2s and 12s. I've been posting my HH's with Mentors and getting some help from Shen which has been really helpful. 2k's not a bad month so hopefully I can get some good volume in in July.

July Goals:

1) Play mainly 180s.

2) Keep posting HH's

3) Get sessions with Vers/Shen

4) Get over 1k games

4 shouldn't be hard it's just that I have a bunch of other shit going on. In other new, I've finally set up my 30" monitor/PC/scripts and it's so convenient. Debustifier is great and I have yet to set up my HUD / SFSO but I've been able to 16-18 table (occassionally getting up to 20-tabling) which has been pretty nice. Instead of tiling, I've been using 4 stacks (a custom setup) and it's worked well. It's nice not to squint to see stack sizes/player names and the script makes sure I never sit out so that's not an issue (it was before).

In other news, I'm somewhat excited for the fall. I may not take any more math (maybe just probability). There are some cool phil classes. One of them is "Measuring Value" and it's basically decision theory applied to ethics. It's a grad-level class so we'll see how much work that is but the professor's good so it should be interesting. The other phil class I really want to get into is called Rational Belief. It's about when we can believe certain things and when we can't. Here's an interesting question:

Is it reasonable for two perfectly rational people, given the same information about a topic, to hold different beliefs about it?

I'm taking a few easy classes too so it shouldn't be a super tough semester like this past spring.

Anyway, Wimbledon's on and Roddick's at 3-3 in the fifth with Hewitt.

Gl,
Yodaddy

yeah boi

2009-06-09T09:53:00.000-07:00

Hey guys,
Sorry I've been so bad about updates. Life's gotten pretty hectic lately so it's been tough to blog.

Parents forced me and my brother to get shitty jobs so we're doing that 20hrs/week which is ridic for a few reasons:

1) I'm already doing math research this summer

2) I make way more playing cards

3) Job is so miserable (we're cutting meat at a deli)

Semester ended up better than I thought. Somehow I've luckboxed my way into like a 3.9 over 4 semesters, though that'll likely take a precipitous drop in the fall given what I'm taking.

Onto the poker side of things: I've been grinding but my heater sorta came to an end. Even so, I have 3k on ftp right now as my own roll and I'll just keep playing games on my mentor's stake and building the roll. I think I'm learning a lot. I mean, whenever I get a top 3 in a 180 I just send the HH in and Vers et al review and I get feedback on where I can improve. I really think my game has come a long way and I still have leaks to plug but have to think that, over the long run, I should average $4/game at the 12/180s. We'll have to see.

I've started mixing 12/45s in for a few reasons:

1) The next jump in 180s is to the 36s so that's a pretty big jump from the 12s

2) the next jump in 45s is the 27s (a jump, but i imagine the players will be worse than int he 36/180s and my roll can handle it better, we'll see when i get moved up)

3) i get more fpp's/vpp's with 12/45s than with 2/180s

I've gotten up to 16-tabling which is nice, if a little hectic at times. My computer is fucking finally coming tomorrow which'll be great. I've had the 30" monitor sitting next to me for like 2.5 weeks and it's just killing me. I also will be able to use scripts/debustifier/etc which'll make me able to play more tables at once. MSUSYR's doing up to like 30-35 tables at some points which is so sick, both in terms of fpp's and just volume.

I'm working with Shen in a few hours which is super helpful b/c he's obv a 180s baller. I can't wait to finish off my stake and hopefully start coaching for mentors once I iron out my leaks in my game. For now, it's time to get in some more volume.

I'll let you guys know how it goes.

Holler,
Yodaddy

Update

2009-05-13T11:29:00.000-07:00

Hey guys,
Sorry I haven't blogged in a couple of weeks. I've been pretty busy with finals which were a huge pain in the ass. I finished yesterday and it was such a relief. Semester ended up alright, I'll ship a 3.5 or a 3.75 so we'll see how that turns out. No idea how I pulled off an A in that math class but w/e, I'll take it.

Onto more interesting things: Poker's gonna start heating up for a few reasons: I ordered my desktop a week or so ago and it should be there when I get home today, I ordered my 30" monitor today, and I have a ton more free time now that summer's officially started for me. I also want to grind pretty hard for the next couple of weeks to see if I can make enough bank to go to Vegas. I have around 2k of my own money but I don't want to totally busto myself to go. I should be able to get in 1k games and hopefully ship 2k+. We'll see how it goes.

I played a lot last night. Started around 8:45 and went until 4:45. Played the mini-Ftops event and sucked out AQ>AK for 10bb's but then lost KK
I'm looking forward to grinding this summer and making some bank. Reasons has set the bar kinda high by putting a ton of work into his game and grinding hard so I've got to follow suit. I'm hoping Vegas works out because it'd be a ton of fun to go out at night, play live MTT's or cash games during the day, and meet Vers, Draqq, etc IRL. We'll have to see how I run over the next 1,000 games though.

I'm starting to like philosophy a bit more. Here's an interesting problem we came across in class:

Two men, A and B, want to kill someone. Each points his gun at a man, thinks his gun is loaded, and pulls the trigger. It turns out, only Man A's gun is loaded and Man B's gun is not. While A is a murderer and B is not, it seems that they are equally guilty because they intended to do the same thing, held the same belief (that their gun was loaded), and took whatever action necessary to do so (pulling the trigger). That there were different outcomes seems moot. Of course, it's far from moot in a court of law, but it seems weird to penalize one man without penalizing the other. Thoughts?

I'm also starting to realize that there is a lot more depth to most subjects than I had previously thought. Math is just one example but it goes way beyond what I thought "math" typically covered. The majority of people probably think of math as numbers and solving equations, but even something like multivariable calc. isn't concerned with that so much as really developing an understanding and intuition for what's going on. I'll definitely check out a few courses in the fall to see if any courses pique my interest. Here's a problem from abstract algebra, a course I might take in the fall:

Anytime you multiply 9 by an integer, you get a product. The sum of this product's integers is always a multiple of nine. EX: 9 * 3 = 27 and 2+ 7 = 9 = 9 * 1. Prove that this holds for all integers.

Pretty dope problem and, without such a course, I would really have no idea how to approach this problem.

I'm also starting to realize that there's a huge difference in innate ability for math. I went to the Math Resource Center and was getting help from a freshman from Bulgaria. I made some joke about how she was probably on the national math team there.

Tutor: No, I didn't do stuff like that.
Me: Eh, I don't buy it.
Tutor: *mumbles* alternate...

She was a fucking alternate for the Bulgarian International Math Olympiad team. For those who don't know, each country administers tests to figure out who their best young mathematicians are. So each year, all across the US, honors math kids participate in these contests. So in a public school you have to be in an AP math class and in a private school you have to be in the honors track to take it. So I took it and did well enough to get into the next round (the AIME contest). Now, only 5% of kids qualify for the AIME so it was pretty cool. That was, until I took a 3 hour, 15 question test and got 1 problem right. After this exam, they take the best kids (top 100 or so) and give them another, longer, harder contest and from this group, the top 10 are chosen for the team. 9 and 10 are the alternates. This girl was a Bulgarian alternate. Jesus.

Here's probably my favorite story, though:

Paul Erdos, a mathematician, sat down with some other math guys for dinner. They were all specialists in a field Paul knew nothing about. They were discussing a famous unsolved problem, one that had eluded experts for ages. Paul began asking questions about definitions so he could understand the problem. Ten minutes later, he had the solution. Right then, right there. Unfuckingreal.

I'll update again soon,
Yodaddy

180s imo

2009-04-23T21:38:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-18T22:43:00.000-07:00

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?

2009-04-15T14:58:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-14T15:47:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-05T11:09:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-02T10:19:00.000-07:00

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

Fitness and Midterms

2009-03-31T18:53:00.000-07:00

Hey guys,
Now that my season's over, I've been trying to stay in shape by running with my roommate 3x/week. We started off on a program that had us alternating jogging 10mins and walking 5mins. It seems kind of lame at first because people see you walking and are like umm...cool...But we've been increasing our mileage and did 4miles in 36:00 (9mins/mile), so that's a reasonable pace and distance. Wednesday we'll do 3 miles and Friday we'll go back to 4 miles. Then we'll do 4, 5, 4, then 5, 5, 5. I haven't ever really focused on getting in really fit so it'll be nice to do so for once. I'm not sure when we'll stop adding miles (10 miles seems insane to me at the moment, but I'm sure if we just keep adding steadily it'll be fine by the time we get there).

On a different note, the second round of midterms are hitting me over the course of the next week and it's gonna be brutal. Math pset due yesterday, math midterm on thurs, phil paper due next tuesday, applied math midterm and pset due on the following wednesday (a week from tmrw). What kind of professor has a midterm on the same day a problem set is due. For those who don't think this is a huge deal, this class takes up about 70% of my hw time and an average problem set takes up like 15 hours. Oh, did I mention this is the non-honors version of the class? That's right.

I found a cool major called mathematical econ. It's basically a few classes short of a math major and a few classes short of an econ major and generally pretty badass. Unfortunately, my school doesn't do grade with + or - so it's just A/B/C/No Credit. I have an A- in both of my math classes at the moment which is good but sort of stress-inducing because it's so easy to drop to a B+ which actually = B. Basically if I get 90 or above, I'll get points added to my grade (cuz I'm not getting 95+) and if I get 89 or below I'm getting points taken away (cuz I'm not gonna get 85 or lower). This wouldn't really matter if I weren't considering grad school (econ) or an honors thesis (need a 3.5 for that). As of now, I have A, A, A-, B+, A (some classes from previous school) for the relevant classes so I should have the necessary gpa for the honors thesis when this time of year comes around next year. We'll see though.

Here's a little taste of some of the math we're doing for the midterm this Thurs:

Find the maximum value of the function f(x,y,z) = x + 2y +3z on the curve of intersection of the plane x - y + z = 1 and the cylinder x^2 + y^2 = 1.

Right...

Haven't played cards cuz I'm at school but I can't wait to grind this summer. So much more fun than stressing over school.

Holler,
Yodaddy

On Privilege

2009-03-27T20:34:00.000-07:00

I was pissed off the other day at professors who assign a ton of work over break but that got me thinking about just how lucky I am. In two years, I'll graduate from one of the best colleges in the country, in one of the most privileged (if not the most) countries in the world. Despite the United States' wealth relative to the rest of the world, only 25% of adults hold a college degree. This percentage is surely lower in almost any other country. On top of the educational advantage I've luckboxed my way into, I have a great family, parents who genuinely care about me and brothers I enjoy being around. How many people can honestly say that?

Think of all those news stories you've heard about abusive parents, about kids who don't receive enough attention in foster care, about kids whose parents aren't directly abusive but are simply apathetic. These stories don't make headlines but they negatively impact their offspring in a seriously detrimental way.

Furthermore, I've won the genetic lottery: I'm smart, capable, and (moderately) motivated. I'm almost certain to find a job that pays well and that I really enjoy. Again, how many people can say this about themselves? While I'm not overly focused on the financial aspects of my future employment, I'll likely end up making 100k+ and be able to provide a comfortable lifestyle for my future wife and kids. Very, very, very few people know in advance that they'll have such a degree of financial security.

Poker is icing on the cake. Who knows what will happen with online poker in the future, but assuming games don't die out and no new legislation is passed, I'll be able to make 80+/hr (hopefully 100-120/hr). I'll have disposable income that most people simply don't have access to and this only adds to my sense of financial security.

So when I'm worrying about getting a B in differential equations or whether a philosophy degree won't look as rigorous as a math one to prospective employers, I like to take a step back and look a the big picture. These little things that I stress and obsess over simply don't matter in the long-run. When compared to others on an international scale, I must be in the top .000001% in terms of educational opportunities, financial well-being, and family life. In short, I'm pretty damn lucky and should really begin to appreciate it.

Thanks for reading,
Yodaddy

First Post

2009-03-26T16:07:00.001-07:00

Hey guys,
A lot of the guys I talk poker with have blogs (Reasons, Amerzel, etc) so I'm jumping on the bandwagon. A little bit about me:

I'm a sophomore in college debating between studying math, philosophy, or both. I'm working with some guys on sngmentors and plan on focusing on 180 man sng's. I play varsity squash at my college (top 15 in the country) and devote a lot of time to that during the schoolyear.

Onto the more interesting things:

I've been trying to decide between math and phil for a while now. I only need 5 more classes for phil but they're ones that I'm not super excited about (think ancient phil, early modern phil, logic, and two others). I'd rather take some higher level/more interesting phil courses. For instance, one of the foremost experts in the world on philosophy of mind teaches at my school and I'd love to take his class on it. I know some of you may be thinking "Just major in phil, ldo" but it's not that simple. I have to consider my future prospects as well and it's way easier to go from a reasonable phil background to grad school in philosophy than it is for someone who hasn't majored in math to go to grad school in math.

On the other hand, I only need six more classes for math but they're gonna be hard. Really hard. I have to take the 2nd hardest undergrad math class as one of the requirements for the degree along with 5 other electives (and these won't be a walk in the park either). But I like math, I'm reasonably good at it, and a math degree would be a really valuable asset down the line. I don't mean just for graduate school but for anything employment-related. It'd be tough to get into a banking/consulting/optimization job with a phil degree.

I'm sure I'll figure it out soon (I have to declare within the week) so we'll see.

I'm on spring break atm so I'm hanging out in FL. It hasn't been a great break though because I have a ton of work looming over me. Something like two math psets, two math midterms, and a phil paper coming up in the two weeks after I get back to school.

I'm sure you guys aren't reading to hear about school-related stuff, so here's some poker stuff:

I've been playing the 2/180s and 7/180s lately because long term I'll have the highest $/game in 180s ($12s+). Variance is pretty gross but over the last 200 games, I'm up 300 which isn't great but I've been playing mainly 2/180s (they load much faster) although I'm sure I've been running under expectation. I'd expect to be at around 150% roi long term at the 2/180s.

I haven't had much time to play on break and I don't play at school because work rapes me so I'm really looking forward to the summer. When I get back to school (in about five days), I'll only have 3 weeks of class left, then 11 days of reading period, then exams. Summer's just around the corner.

I also recently cashed out 2k for a new desktop pc and a 30" monitor. Can't wait.

Thanks for reading,
Yodaddy