Ask Me Anything - spoonitnow

Hey everybody,

I've been a member here since September of 2005. I'm currently the main moderator for the Beginners Circle and Small Stakes NLHE forums here on FTR, and I'm known for having entirely too many posts, an ex-girlfriend who tried to kill me, being called a misogynist and taking up more room in the BC and SSNL digests with posts I've written than is probably necessary.

I also have a weekly strategy column here on FTR that players seem to get a lot out of.

Ask me anything about poker or anything else.

When do you think online poker will be regulated in California? What about the rest of the US?

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Originally Posted by Eric

When do you think online poker will be regulated in California? What about the rest of the US?

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I'm pretty pessimistic about these things, and even I was expecting 2014 to be the year for online poker (and other forms of gambling) in California after New Jersey really broke out and took the lead. As far as California goes specifically, the most recent attempt AB 9 is apparently going to make it a massive pain in the ass for players to get registered. Instead of just being able to sign up from their computer, they actually have to go to a business front to register their account. I believe the intent is to help provide protection against opponents who have issues over underage gambling, etc., but it would be a major obstacle to getting games going.

In the US right now, one of the major problems for online poker is that the people making these laws and even many groups running the games lack a sufficient understanding of how poker ecosystems work. In my opinion, the best thing that's happened for regulated US online poker so far is Delaware and Nevada making an agreement that allows them to share player pools. Ultimate Poker shutting down was a major setback, but the problems that caused them to be unprofitable were all about the player pool and the poker player ecosystem. Intrastate poker would provide the mechanism to fix that.

In short, 50 states running 50 different player pools will never work because the individual player pools are entirely too small.

Because you need a certain number of active players to get momentum going, I think it will take just as long for the first 10 states (give or take depending on which states they are) to come together for intrastate poker as it will take for the final 40 to come onboard.

I honestly don't think we're going to see regulated poker on a large scale (eg: in 25+ states) for several years to come because the first few states to enter are going to have to endure breaking even or losses for a few years before other states hop on. With that having been said, I wouldn't be surprised if another option came in to replace the Rational Group (PokerStars/FTP) as one of the top sites. Bovada isn't doing a bad job, but their marketing sucks lately.

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As far as California goes specifically, the most recent attempt AB 9 is apparently going to make it a massive pain in the ass for players to get registered.
Instead of just being able to sign up from their computer, they actually have to go to a business front to register their account.
I believe the intent is to help provide protection against opponents who have issues over underage gambling, etc., but it would be a major obstacle to getting games going.

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Unfortunately I think the "in person" clauses might be more complicated.
Adelson says he's against online gambling because he's concerned about protecting people.
We know the real reason is money.

Here some tribes and card clubs might be saying this "in person" clause is about protecting people.
It could be more about money. Specifically, encouraging online customers to become
active brick and mortar customers by getting them familiar with the brick and mortar locations.

Borgata said the online demographic is separate from the brick and mortar demographic.
The good news is this lessens canibalization concerns.
The bad news is it could be part of the logic behind these silly clauses.

NJ doesn't have these silly in person clauses and their players are still well protected without them.

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In my opinion, the best thing that's happened for regulated US online poker so far is Delaware and Nevada making an agreement that allows them to share player pools.

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Agreed. Liquidity is key in poker.
Smaller states are dead if they don't pool players.
Even California won't reach its potential if it doesn't pool outside the state.

Hi Spoon, I am genuinely curious about your ex-girlfriend, if you don't mind sharing the details, that is pretty fucked up if she tried to kill you!

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Originally Posted by MTCashman

Hi Spoon, I am genuinely curious about your ex-girlfriend, if you don't mind sharing the details, that is pretty fucked up if she tried to kill you!

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She was mentally ill and tried to pull a car off the road while I was driving doing 70-80 mph down the highway on more than one occasion. She also woke me up in my sleep choking me more than once. It sounds a lot more interesting than it really is.

I was told that I have PTSD over it, but I'm not really into that kind of shit. I eventually stopped having trouble sleeping over it with fucked up nightmares and shit about two years after I split up with her.

What kind of time, and more importantly, effort do you think it would take to climb from micro to $50NL or $100NL and have a winning winrate ahead of rake. On Stars, not on Stars?

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Originally Posted by spoonitnow

She was mentally ill and tried to pull a car off the road while I was driving doing 70-80 mph down the highway on more than one occasion. She also woke me up in my sleep choking me more than once. It sounds a lot more interesting than it really is.

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Holy crap. I'm glad you escaped from that relationship.

What is your earliest poker memory?

I liked Antonio's commentary on this year's November 9. What did you think of this year's November 9?

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Originally Posted by jyms

What kind of time, and more importantly, effort do you think it would take to climb from micro to $50NL or $100NL and have a winning winrate ahead of rake. On Stars, not on Stars?

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I can't put enough emphasis on this: The games are harder on PokerStars by a larger margin than they have ever been when compared to the rest of the industry.

On PokerStars, I don't know if 30 hours of play/study each week would be sufficient to make that jump inside of a year for someone of moderately above-average intelligence. Off PokerStars, I think 15 hours of play/study each week would be enough to do it inside of a year.

The following is why I say this. I know a player from FTR who I won't name since I'm not sure if he'd want me sharing this story about him. He played 10nl for most of the last half of 2013, and then he bounced between 10nl and 25nl on PokerStars for about six months straight in the beginning of 2014. He couldn't ever "stick" at 25nl and always had to move down. He moved over to Bovada and now beats 100nl for about $5/100 hands and is in the process of moving up to 200nl with no signs of problems so far.

You didn't ask about this, but I'll go on my rant about this anyway. I would not recommend that anyone try to start from the micros and go up through the stakes on PokerStars right now in no-limit hold'em cash games. The competition is too strong, and the rake has went up recently on a lot of games. Let me also say that I anticipate that this will change by the end of 2015 with the changes that Amaya is making. It's an unpopular opinion, but I think that their changes will result in a softer player pool with games that are easier to beat by the end of next year. I have a blog post about it here that anyone can reference to see why I believe this is the case.

My recommendation would be to get into non-hold'em games like seven card stud, badugi and five card draw. The edges are bigger, and the games haven't been exploited as much with software/training sites/professional players. In short, I think that you could become proficient at three or four games in the time that you would be able to beat 25nl cash games for 1 ptbb/100 on PokerStars if you were starting out.

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Originally Posted by Eric

Holy crap. I'm glad you escaped from that relationship.

What is your earliest poker memory?

I liked Antonio's commentary on this year's November 9. What did you think of this year's November 9?

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This isn't my earliest memory of poker, but it's probably a more interesting story:

Back in like 2005 I had a moment which led me to finding FTR in the first place. I was playing NLHE cash games on PokerStars and had moved up to the dizzy heights of 10nl with my $50 bankroll. I'd figured out this amazing strategy of just waiting until I got a set or made my draw and shoving all-in. It worked wonders, so when I got up to about $75, I decided that 25nl was probably just as easy. I double up off some flush draw I hit or something, and one guy at the table has me covered. He raises pre, I call with 66. The flop comes 963 rainbow, and we get the stacks in. The board comes out something like 96323 and he has 33.

I literally threw up in my bedroom floor beside of my computer chair that I was sitting in.

As for the November 9, I really have no idea. I'm such a bad poker fan that I don't even know who's in it or who has won the past like four or five WSOP's.

Why did you hate my AMA so much?

On a scale of 1 to 'fairly hot', how hot is your current gf

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Originally Posted by Penneywize

Why did you hate my AMA so much?

On a scale of 1 to 'fairly hot', how hot is your current gf

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I don't recall you having an AMA.

Fairly hot. Audrey can attest to this.

What are your favorites of the following?
1) Drink (non alcohol OK)
2) Color
3) Hobby

Do you still play chess? In your opinion, what is most similar about chess and poker? What is the most different?

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Originally Posted by Micro2Macro

What are your favorites of the following?
1) Drink (non alcohol OK)
2) Color
3) Hobby

Do you still play chess? In your opinion, what is most similar about chess and poker? What is the most different?

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1. I drink the hell out of grape Propel and cherry Juicy Juice (100% juice). On a related note, I haven't had alcohol in about 10 and a half years. I have a very hard time stopping once I start, and the vast majority of my run-ins with cops have been because of this.

2. My favorite colors are grape purple and sour apple green. Actually they're not, but girls ask that question a lot, and those are fun answers when you give them with a strong frame. Chicks frequently bring up remembering me tell them that years after the fact. My actual favorite color is black which is much more boring as a concept but much more appealing in concrete application like lingerie, car color, etc.

3. Building furniture is my favorite hobby. If I could live in the middle of nowhere near a lumber yard and just work in the mornings and spend the rest of my day building shit to sell at a flea market on the weekend for the rest of my life, I would be happy.

I don't play chess in any serious fashion, but I do play regularly online kind of dicking around playing fast games. Chess and poker are very similar in that you put a ton of time, effort, money and work into it to get anywhere, but you don't really get anything back out of chess in terms of money unless you end up landing a job as a teacher by some fluke or make it to the top like 0.000001% of players aka like top 50 in the world and can get sponsors.

In terms of the nature of the games themselves, stylistic play is a much bigger deal in poker than it is in chess. While chess players definitely have specific styles to some degree once they have developed enough as a player, it's not nearly as helpful to know what type of player you're facing as it is in poker. In poker, knowing how your opponent plays is a really major issue for obvious reasons, but in chess it's not all that important because style isn't directly tied to the strength of the player.

I feel like a good example is MMA. There are people who tend towards different styles, but that's independent of their overall skill level.

Thanks for the questions.

you used to be somewhat of a proponent of mindfulness practices and such for poker mental game training/dealing with life in general. is this something you're still practicing without a serious poker career/mental game you need to upkeep? if so, what exactly do you practice?

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Originally Posted by rpm

you used to be somewhat of a proponent of mindfulness practices and such for poker mental game training/dealing with life in general. is this something you're still practicing without a serious poker career/mental game you need to upkeep? if so, what exactly do you practice?

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I feel like there's going to be a strong mental game in anything you're trying to excel at. For the past few years, I have been building up a business around providing content for various types of online gambling websites. When I slack off of my mental routine and things that help me to stay in a mindset of producing good work, I drop to about 30 percent of my current maximum (if that much). It can happen after just a day or two of getting out of a routine or not following the things that I need to follow to make sure that it's easier to make the right decisions than the decisions that won't get me what I want.

I meditate daily for about 20-25 minutes in the late morning/early afternoon, and I have for years. One of the biggest issues I've learned to deal with through this is the feeling of being burnt out. If I start feeling that way, I can relax and take a few deep breaths to gather my focus, and then I'm good for another 30 minutes or so at least. I can repeat this several times until I feel like I need to get up and take a break.

Tits or ass?

I'll think of some poker ones soon.

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Originally Posted by The Bean Counter

Tits or ass?

I'll think of some poker ones soon.

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Ass 100%

However, I have this weird thing that's happened with the past like four girls I've been involved with. They start out being flat up top and having a nice ass, and then their tits just start growing and growing after we're together for a while, and only one of them really got fat or gained much weight at all during the transition. I've had three girls go from A cups to C cups, and my current has went from A to B well on her way to C.

Alright, tough one coming.

Azn girl works in my office. Be like 6/10 I guess, but, dresses very professional-like and that makes me want to F her all the more. Also very career driven and practices MMA which is oddly attractive to me. Petite though. Anyway - after a few months of chatting / flirting with a general cocky & funny-type attitude (assume I'm doing this relatively well) I feel like I'm in a spot where I can close the deal with a bit of effort. That is not what I am concerned about.

The question is, should I go through with it? There are some balancing factors here.

A: She works in my office, though in a different division and I probably wouldn't have to interact with her all that often if things went south.
B: I feel like she would want / expect a more or less committed relationship with anyone she would be intimate with. This isn't so bad on the surface (and I apologize in advance for racial profiling) but my last significant relationship was 4 years long and with another asian girl. Things got kind of fucked because her family was mega conservative and would not accept that she was dating a white guy. Also I feel like I'd either consciously or unconsciously be comparing this girl to previous said asian girlfriend. Which, who knows if she would measure up to an imagined standard of that sort.
C: I am not sure if I would want a long-term relationship with her or anyone at this point in my life. I basically spent the entirety of my 20s in two long relationships with a few smaller ones in between, and now 31 and earning well / very comfortable with self and feel like I can explore a little and make up for lost time (in a manner of speaking).

Thoughts -- go

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Originally Posted by Penneywize

Alright, tough one coming.

Azn girl works in my office. Be like 6/10 I guess, but, dresses very professional-like and that makes me want to F her all the more. Also very career driven and practices MMA which is oddly attractive to me. Petite though. Anyway - after a few months of chatting / flirting with a general cocky & funny-type attitude (assume I'm doing this relatively well) I feel like I'm in a spot where I can close the deal with a bit of effort. That is not what I am concerned about.

The question is, should I go through with it? There are some balancing factors here.

A: She works in my office, though in a different division and I probably wouldn't have to interact with her all that often if things went south.
B: I feel like she would want / expect a more or less committed relationship with anyone she would be intimate with. This isn't so bad on the surface (and I apologize in advance for racial profiling) but my last significant relationship was 4 years long and with another asian girl. Things got kind of fucked because her family was mega conservative and would not accept that she was dating a white guy. Also I feel like I'd either consciously or unconsciously be comparing this girl to previous said asian girlfriend. Which, who knows if she would measure up to an imagined standard of that sort.
C: I am not sure if I would want a long-term relationship with her or anyone at this point in my life. I basically spent the entirety of my 20s in two long relationships with a few smaller ones in between, and now 31 and earning well / very comfortable with self and feel like I can explore a little and make up for lost time (in a manner of speaking).

Thoughts -- go

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This is an absolute, 100% no. You work with her and you earn well. There is absolutely no reason whatsoever to put your job in jeopardy over this female. If you don't believe that it would be putting your job in jeopardy, then that's another problem completely.

You should have no problem finding plenty of females to be involved with outside of the workplace. This girl is not special. Do not risk what you have over her.

Edit: I had to come back a few minutes later just to re-iterate. This girl is not special. She is not a unicorn. It's in your best interests to get over her and fill that void that getting over her creates with females (emphasis on plural) who you do not work with.

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Originally Posted by spoonitnow

Ass 100%

However, I have this weird thing that's happened with the past like four girls I've been involved with. They start out being flat up top and having a nice ass, and then their tits just start growing and growing after we're together for a while, and only one of them really got fat or gained much weight at all during the transition. I've had three girls go from A cups to C cups, and my current has went from A to B well on her way to C.

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Yeah, it's interesting how this can change with pregnancy or just a general weight fluctuation.

Do you think Amaya paid the right price for PokerStars?

What do you think about the Daily Fantasy Sports business in the US (fanduel etc)?

Are you excited about the next Star Wars movie?

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Originally Posted by spoonitnow

Ass 100%

However, I have this weird thing that's happened with the past like four girls I've been involved with. They start out being flat up top and having a nice ass, and then their tits just start growing and growing after we're together for a while, and only one of them really got fat or gained much weight at all during the transition. I've had three girls go from A cups to C cups, and my current has went from A to B well on her way to C.

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maybe stop dating 11 year olds

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Originally Posted by Eric

Yeah, it's interesting how this can change with pregnancy or just a general weight fluctuation.

Do you think Amaya paid the right price for PokerStars?

What do you think about the Daily Fantasy Sports business in the US (fanduel etc)?

Are you excited about the next Star Wars movie?

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I think Amaya paid a fair price, but they are ridiculously good at what they do, so they will likely turn a profit on the deal faster than people where expecting. What they did with CryptoLogic is a good example.

I don't know anything about fantasy sports, but I guess I should learn lol

I'm eager to see what they do with the new Star Wars movie in terms of timeline and plot direction since it's allegedly not following Lucas' original story for Episode VII.

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Originally Posted by Keith

maybe stop dating 11 year olds

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I'm 30, and she's 23. :P

Coke or Pepsi?

Favorite beer?

Favorite cocktail?

• What is the origin of the name spoonitnow?
• Do you think it's possible, or recommended, for someone in the US at this current time to become a professional online grinder?
• Are you an atheist?

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Originally Posted by Eric

Coke or Pepsi?

Favorite beer?

Favorite cocktail?

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Mountain Dew!

I don't drink alcohol because it doesn't usually work out too well for me.

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Originally Posted by givememyleg

• What is the origin of the name spoonitnow?
• Do you think it's possible, or recommended, for someone in the US at this current time to become a professional online grinder?
• Are you an atheist?

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The origin of 'spoonitnow' is ridiculous, but here goes. I was about 13 years old and needed a screen name for an AOL account. For some god awful reason, my male peers would yell SPOON IT at random intervals. That's where it came from, and I just kept using it.

I think it's possible under the right circumstances for US players, but I wouldn't recommend it. It's really just a bad time to try to use online poker as your main source of income. It's too unreliable, and the long-term viability of it is questionable at best. For people outside of the United States, things are a bit different depending on what they have going on in terms of legislation.

But seriously, there are such better opportunities than trying to go pro at online poker right now.

I'm an agnostic atheist. I know that we cannot prove or disprove the existence of a god (the agnostic part), and I personally believe that the chances are in favor of there not being one (the atheist part). It's not something I think about very much at all, and I don't have a problem with people who are religious.

assuming no poker background whatsoever, what do you think is currently the most beatable format of poker in the online world? by most beatable i mean the game which would provide the most favourable dollars:time invested ratio (including studying, grinding, preparing for sessions, whatever else)

what % of the opinions you express in the commune do you consider be true and clear reflections of your beliefs/personality vs trolling or just being provocative for the sake of being provocative

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Originally Posted by rpm

assuming no poker background whatsoever, what do you think is currently the most beatable format of poker in the online world? by most beatable i mean the game which would provide the most favourable dollars:time invested ratio (including studying, grinding, preparing for sessions, whatever else)

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Let me start to answer your question with this: With what I'd consider tight/aggressive play, both seven card stud and five card draw (fixed-limit or pot-limit, to a high) are both fairly easy to beat at low stakes. Razz is easy to beat at low stakes as well, and though seven stud hi/lo is a bit complicated for some players, it may be the single classic game with the weakest player pool because it's full of people who have studied for five minutes and think they have a winning strategy based completely around playing for the low. Fixed-limit Omaha variations are really tough to beat at low stakes because of the rake, and pot-limit versions have a fairly high variance that can be problematic. Badugi and triple draw are both really easy to beat at low stakes as well as long as you learn some basic strategy and play with the standard winning tight/aggressive style.

So to answer your question more specifically, I think mixed games are the most beatable format available as long as you become proficient at all of the games. Even if you break even in big bet games, you'll still have plenty of opportunities to crush your opponents in everything else.

Honorable Mention: NL 2-7 Single Draw is an amazing game, and you can play it well with 20-big blind stacks. The only problem is that to get past the beginner levels of strategy, you have to jump into some math/game theory rather quickly.

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Originally Posted by rpm

what % of the opinions you express in the commune do you consider be true and clear reflections of your beliefs/personality vs trolling or just being provocative for the sake of being provocative

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I tend to help generate discussion in the commune by posting what could be considered outrageous representations of my own opinions. There are three good examples that are fairly recent, and I'll provide easy-verifiable facts to back my opinions for each.

Example 1: Feminism. If you go by the original definition, then feminism is a belief in the equality for opportunities for males and females. In practice today, it's the advancement of female interests only and by any means necessary. Many feminist leaders of the past decades have rallied against what feminism has become today because the notion has been hijacked, and they have been attacked and protested against by modern, third-wave "feminists."

The notion of seeking equality is often used to push a pro-female agenda. You're seeing plenty of programs towards pushing more women into STEM fields, for example, because they say women are under-represented there. Why don't you see plenty of programs towards pushing more women into prison (or feminists pushing hard for fewer men in prison, same point) because women are vastly under-represented there? Why no feminist push towards fair proceedings in family court (where men are at a drastic disadvantage)? Why no feminist push towards the male suicide rate? Why no feminist push to end male circumcision?

Men and women are not equal, and feminism was never about men and women being equal. Instead, it was about giving men and women access to the same opportunities to prove themselves. There are some things that men are always going to be better at on average, and there are some things that women are always going to be better at on average. People who deny this are just like people who deny evolution because they want to ignore reality and stick to some fairy tale world instead.

Example 2: Rape. Rape is the only crime in which you can falsely accuse someone and rest assured that you will not be punished for it. A statistic that makes the rounds a lot is that "one in five women will be raped in college," and it's complete horseshit. The actual report that it's drawn from itself puts it at less than two percent. Not-so-fun-fact: Just as many men are raped in the United States as women. This ties into example #1, but you'll never see feminists at a rally against a movie that depicts a male rape scene.

Example 3: Ferguson. People are looting, rioting and doing all kinds of dumb shit to rally against the idea of cops killing people without accountability. I have two major problems with this.

Problem 1: There were no major protests against the thousands of black men killed in 2014 in gang violence, as an example. They also weren't protesting people who died in Iraq. The logic here would dictate that lives only matter to these protestors under certain circumstances. This means that the idea that they are doing this because a young man was killed is out the window. So then you have to ask yourself, "What were the real reasons?"

Problem 2: If that real reason is police violence, then they picked the wrong case to go nuts over. Darren Wilson, the cop in the Ferguson shooting, did his job in a major way. The facts of the case (and people should actually go read the facts of the case instead of just skimming over news stories) show that it's super clear that Wilson was in the right every single step of the way. Every bit of evidence that would suggest otherwise has been proven incorrect, and there is no doubt whatsoever on this for thinking people.

The case they should be going nuts over is the Eric Garner case. They have the guy on video being killed by a cop who was not following the right procedure or anything that would have to do with common sense. The NYC medical examiner's office say that he died from what the cop did. The cop wasn't supposed to do that. It's on video. That's fucking murder. And the cop gets cleared by a grand jury. The difference with this and the Ferguson case is that the evidence clearly proves the NYC choking situation being straight-up murder while the evidence clearly points to the Ferguson situation being justifiable homicide.

In summary, Michael Brown forced Darren Wilson into killing him, plain and simple. Eric Garner, on the other hand, was more or less murdered for selling loose cigarettes.

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Mountain Dew!

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The guy hosting our Tuesday game usually has Mountain Dew in his fridge. He didn't have it there this week so I had to find some on my own on Wednesday.


What do you think about college football moving to a 4 team playoff for the first time? Alabama, Oregon and Florida State all seem to be widely accepted but there was a lot of talk about having TCU or Baylor instead of Ohio State. What do you think of the selection process? Who do you like to win it all?

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Originally Posted by Eric

The guy hosting our Tuesday game usually has Mountain Dew in his fridge. He didn't have it there this week so I had to find some on my own on Wednesday.


What do you think about college football moving to a 4 team playoff for the first time? Alabama, Oregon and Florida State all seem to be widely accepted but there was a lot of talk about having TCU or Baylor instead of Ohio State. What do you think of the selection process? Who do you like to win it all?

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I'm really the worst ever at this. I apologize. I don't know anything about college football lol

Yeah and I'm a Mountain Dew junkie for real.

What's your favorite dealer's choice form of "poker" in home games (midnight baseball, 3-5-7, screw your neighbor, 2-22, etc)?

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Originally Posted by Eric

What's your favorite dealer's choice form of "poker" in home games (midnight baseball, 3-5-7, screw your neighbor, 2-22, etc)?

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I really like Chicago, but I have very rarely played live poker of any kind unfortunately.

Okay so here's a fun dealer's choice story. Back in late 2005 and early 2006, there was this poker site called something like GameTime. They were known in part for having tables for their windows that were square-shaped instead of rectangular. One of the games they ran was a dealer's choice where the person on the button got to pick a hand from a list (if you didn't pick in time, a random game was chosen). I really liked the format, but there was a problem with the software...

...which was that the images for your opponent's cards were saved locally at the beginning of each hand, and you could just open up the file in MS Paint and quickly figure out what your opponents had.

So I figured it out independently, but I later discovered that other people had figured it out before I did (or at least around the same time). I emailed the support team about it, but it was never fixed. They actually went defunct not long after the UIGEA was passed.

Bonus Question: Did I exploit the ability to see the cards of my opponents on this site?

No I didn't, though I kind of considered it after the support team blew me off multiple times. For fun I even made a simple program that would automatically pull up the right files on an adjacent window over a screenshot of the table so that I knew what cards the opponents had seconds after they were dealt. Something really cool about this was that it worked on tables I was observing as well, so I could watch high stakes online games with my own hole card cam. :v

ha jesus, that is messed up. Was it on all tables or just the dealer's choice tables?

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Originally Posted by spoonitnow

I'm an agnostic atheist. I know that we cannot prove or disprove the existence of a god (the agnostic part), and I personally believe that the chances are in favor of there not being one (the atheist part). It's not something I think about very much at all, and I don't have a problem with people who are religious.

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Yeah, I'd classify myself agnostic atheist as well.

Do you give any thought to the big mysteries of life? Do you have any opinions or beliefs on what this is all about, where it came from, or what one should do with their limited time here? What is reality to you?

Glad to hear that stuff is behind you man. Thanks for sharing with us, best of luck moving forward!

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Originally Posted by givememyleg

ha jesus, that is messed up. Was it on all tables or just the dealer's choice tables?

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It was all of them that I tested. In retrospect, this is probably why the UB/AP superuser scandal didn't surprise me so much when it came along.

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Originally Posted by MTCashman

Glad to hear that stuff is behind you man. Thanks for sharing with us, best of luck moving forward!

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Thank you.

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Originally Posted by givememyleg

Yeah, I'd classify myself agnostic atheist as well.

Do you give any thought to the big mysteries of life? Do you have any opinions or beliefs on what this is all about, where it came from, or what one should do with their limited time here? What is reality to you?

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I'm giving this one its own post since it might get lengthy. I'll try to break it up in a way that will make it mildly readable. My thoughts on this are as follows:

First and foremost, I don't think anything we do here will ultimately matter all that much in the overarching, grand scheme of things. When the sun explodes, if we aren't off of this planet, then we're toast. If we are off of this planet, then some other beings somewhere has already beat us to that. I just don't think we're very significant, and I'm okay with that.

With that having been said, I realize that I'm biologically driven to do a few things like not off myself, bang women, eat pizza, etc. I've basically decided on this reality where life is a game, I have a team, and my goals are to get myself and the people I consider to be on my team to the highest levels of success possible. I try to go with this biological programming to accumulate resources for, provide for and protect the people on my team. By my team I mean myself, my significant other(s) and anyone else who I decide to have on Team Jesse for whatever reason.

As far as what I recommend other people to do, I don't really know. I'm extremely amoral and indifferent about it, so as long as it's not negatively impacting myself or my team in some significant way, I don't really have an opinion on it. I'll give people the best advice that I can if they ask for it, and I'll help people the best I can for the most part if they aren't just going to be a total clusterfuck about it, whether they choose to take that advice or help is up to them.

Cliffs: I don't think we're significant in the universe by any means, but I've decided on certain objectives that fit in my biological framework that give me something to do until I croak.

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Originally Posted by spoonitnow

...Okay so here's a fun dealer's choice story. Back in late 2005 and early 2006, there was this poker site called something like GameTime. They were known in part for having tables for their windows that were square-shaped instead of rectangular...

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Are you talking about GamesGrid poker? Man, I played there quite a bit back in the day and never heard anything about being able to access opponents' hole cards. Good to know about it even belatedly.

Regarding your advice to take up non-hold'em games, what do you think about playing in mixed games like HORSE and 8-game? It seems to me that the players who are proficient in the Hold'em parts of those games are utterly clueless in the other games. Similarly, those who are skilled at the "other" games usually are not adept at Hold'em. Do you think that being good at Hold'em and perhaps 2-3 other games in the rotation is enough to have an edge in most games even if one is mediocre at 1 or 2 of the games in the list?

How do you suggest that US-based players gain familiarity with the other games? There is probably enough action at PLO to get practice online, but it seems that the games other than NL Hold'em and PLO rarely run on sites that serve US clients. It's even hard for LHE players in the US to find enough action sometimes.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mike1013

Are you talking about GamesGrid poker? Man, I played there quite a bit back in the day and never heard anything about being able to access opponents' hole cards. Good to know about it even belatedly.

Regarding your advice to take up non-hold'em games, what do you think about playing in mixed games like HORSE and 8-game? It seems to me that the players who are proficient in the Hold'em parts of those games are utterly clueless in the other games. Similarly, those who are skilled at the "other" games usually are not adept at Hold'em. Do you think that being good at Hold'em and perhaps 2-3 other games in the rotation is enough to have an edge in most games even if one is mediocre at 1 or 2 of the games in the list?

How do you suggest that US-based players gain familiarity with the other games? There is probably enough action at PLO to get practice online, but it seems that the games other than NL Hold'em and PLO rarely run on sites that serve US clients. It's even hard for LHE players in the US to find enough action sometimes.

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Q1: Regarding your advice to take up non-hold'em games, what do you think about playing in mixed games like HORSE and 8-game?

I feel like this should be the goal for someone who's looking to eventually make money from poker in today's environment. The days of specializing in one form of poker are basically over for people who are coming up. The more games, the better the opportunity to get an advantage over players who are not as well-rounded.

Q2: Do you think that being good at Hold'em and perhaps 2-3 other games in the rotation is enough to have an edge in most games even if one is mediocre at 1 or 2 of the games in the list?

Everybody is good at hold'em these days. To put that another way, it's much harder to get a decisive advantage over the field. Ideally, you would be proficient in all of the games by understanding the basics and putting hands in one game at a time.

Q3: How do you suggest that US-based players gain familiarity with the other games?

I suggest that US-based players don't try to go pro at poker and instead put that effort and energy into something else like starting a business. The return is much better and the future is much more certain because the poker landscape has consistently gotten worse every year for at least a decade.

Simply put, you really don't have the access to these other games that you would need to put that plan into action. If the poker landscape changes for the better, then that could change as well.

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Random question via Skype: What do you think is one situation that low stakes NLHE regulars screw up regularly?

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My choice would be playing draws too aggressively in position when it's checked to you. The value of checking increases a lot in position when you have outs to strong hands, and that means that checking is going to be better than semi-bluffing more often when you're in position. When you're out of position, it doesn't change nearly as much.

Does it piss you off that I once beat you at chess?

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Originally Posted by OngBonga

Does it piss you off that I once beat you at chess?

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I've lost thousands of games, many of which were to players much worse than yourself.

Who are the 3 guys you have never met personally from FTR that you would like to spend a weekend with in Vegas?

Who on FTR from the past do you miss not posting anymore and why?

If you could have Chelle banned and not be connected to in any way you would you do it just for the lol's?

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Originally Posted by jyms

Who are the 3 guys you have never met personally from FTR that you would like to spend a weekend with in Vegas?

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m2m, renton and Harley Guy

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Originally Posted by jyms

Who on FTR from the past do you miss not posting anymore and why?

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Man there are so many, and I just know I'm going to miss some people here.

fatb doesn't post on the forums a lot to begin with, but he was always active in other FTR groups, and he's absolutely hilarious. He should definitely post more because the guy is seriously one of the funniest people I have ever spoken with in my life, online or IRL.

Ripptyde was also hilarious, though unintentionally. It's probably for the best that he's not active on here anymore, but I do miss his antics and crazy stories. He showed up on 2p2 a few years ago bitching about some hooker who wouldn't fuck him, and I can remember almost pissing in my pants from laughing so hard.

Stacks was a pretty cool guy who got wiped out with Black Friday and other US problems. I think we connected on some level because we're both rednecks.

mcatdog was a really laid back and hilarious guy who was always really reasonable too. His style of understated, subtle humor was something I enjoyed a great deal.

Again, I'm sure there are tons I'm missing. Of course, there are also some people who I really dislike and who I think can pretty much eat shit. Those probably are probably more entertaining.

One guy I was coaching and helping a lot in IRC. He was kind of young, maybe like 19 or 20? After our third session, he hit me with a chargeback on PayPal for all of my fees for coaching him and made up some story about me just scamming him and providing useless advice or whatever. PayPal was like lol sorry but that's not covered you jackass and he wasn't able to screw me over. I just thought it was ridiculous after I had spent hours unpaid helping him specifically one-on-one in IRC and other channels. He's obviously not around anymore.

Another guy is just kind of well-known for being an overall piece of crap, but I'm kind of wondering if he grew out of some of it at this point. He actively worked to sabotage my relationship at the time, and he also slandered me in other ways to some people who thought he had enough clout in the community to believe him, and that was annoying. I'm pretty sure he's not around anymore, and if he is, then he's doing a good job of hiding it.

You're going to run into all kinds of crappy people in the gambling industry just because it is what it is. I've been fortunate enough to meet some really cool people too though, and it's been worth putting up with the dumbasses.

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Originally Posted by jyms

If you could have Chelle banned and not be connected to in any way you would you do it just for the lol's?

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I can think of a few people that I'd have on that list ahead of her.

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Anonymous Question via PMs: could you talk more about some things that happened with your ex? why didnt you just leave? do you regret dealing with all of that? not to pry but that sounds really interesting

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I'll try to do this in some reasonable, informative way without being too boring but without bashing anybody.

About her mental health issues: The notion of "multiple personalities" as a mental disorder is real, though it's generally misrepresented and sensationalized, and it's also frequently faked. In its real form, it's an extreme level of dissociation where the self becomes effectively broken into different parts that are generally a reflection of where the person was or thought they were at some point in their lives. Along these lines, you end up with different parts of the self that can be in control of the body at any given time, and there are varying levels of communication that can happen between the parts. These parts are called alters. The endgame for someone who has this going on is called integration which involves correcting the high level of dissociation by merging the parts back together.

I was with this individual for about five years, and she started having problems about a year into it which led to eventually getting a diagnosis that made sense with all of this shit that seemed like it was straight out of the Twilight Zone. While she'd had this going on for the vast majority of her life, she thought the things she experienced were normal because they had never been problematic before.

One type of difficult situation that can come up with this is that an alter emerges without her knowing it was going to happen. From her perspective, it's like she just woke up or something, and there she is dropped in that situation. She doesn't know me, she doesn't know where she's at, and she doesn't know what's going on. She might not even know what she actually looks like. This is particularly problematic in a number of scenarios like the following:

- You're in the middle of having sex. Chick's riding your dick. And now she's an eight year old screaming wondering just what in the hell is going on.

- You're driving down the highway doing like 80. A particularly distressed alter emerges who is hellbent on killing herself and is willing to take you with her, so she grabs the steering wheel and starts trying to pull you off of the road.

- You're on your way to a wedding for her cousin. An alter emerges who has no clue what's going on or who you are, but she knows her family circa 12 years ago because she's from when the girl was 10 years old. You now have to explain to this little chica what's going on not only with the wedding you're about to be at in 20 minutes, but also with her entire existence, why she's in an adult body and why it's not appropriate for her to be chewing on the seat belt.

- She wakes up in the middle of the night after a 13-year-old alter has emerged who doesn't know where she's at or who this half-naked guy is laying beside of her in the bed. She makes the not unreasonable assumption that he kidnapped and drugged her and that he'll try to kill her if she tries to escape. Logically enough, she stabs him in the shoulder with a Bic ink pen that was laying on the nightstand and jumps on top of him trying to choke him with both her hands and her entire body weight.

What made it really difficult to leave was the fact that the first year together was so ridiculously good. My motivation was to keep pushing and doing everything I could to get her back to being able to function normally and manage her mental health in a way that didn't cause a lot of problems because that first year with her was the happiest I had been at any point in my life up until then. I was eventually able to motivate her to try to integrate, and it started working in a major way.

About four and a half years into the relationship, she showed me beyond the shadow of a doubt that she wasn't interested in keeping up herself or the relationship, and I struggled with the decision to end it for about six months before I pulled the trigger. While all of the above scenarios were particularly stressful and definitely played a part in the problem I've had with depression since it all happened, the worst part about it was knowing that she wasn't taking care of the things that were in her control while I was doing everything I could for her.

As far as whether or not I regret staying with her that long, it's tricky. If you had asked me that at the time I split up with her, I would have told you that I didn't regret it. Now that I've had time to reflect on what actually happened in that relationship, how I was taken advantage of both before and after the split, and how I was slandered afterwards, it's hard to say. I definitely learned from the experience, and it's definitely one of the most critical experiences I've had in my life. It also completely derailed any career I would have had in poker aside from the 2-3 years I played as my sole source of income and caused me to quit college during my senior year.

My understanding is that she's doing relatively well now, even if it's not as well as she puts on. I wish her the best, but I'm not interested in seeing her or being friends.

Yes Ripptyde was a freaking mess. The hooker story was hilarious. Some of his stories and pics of his life made me understand why I didn't want to be the degenerate type.

I agree about fatB being hilarious and never posted enough. The guy is FTR but never recognized in the forum. Always like being in IRC when he was around and ripping on someone or something. I've met Renton and a ton of FTR'rs, he was fun as hell in Vegas. It sucks that FTR doesn't do the Vegas trips anymore like we used to. It's funny how you can think you know someone, but until you eat, drink and party with them they will never truly be revealed.

Why you so open about your life?

favourite position?
favourite book/author?
if the opportunity arose to become a highly in demand gigolo who could pick and choose clients, would you take it?
hookers or blow?
do you have a bucket-list?

also, sounds like a yes below ;)

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Originally Posted by OngBonga

Does it piss you off that I once beat you at chess?

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by spoonitnow

I've lost thousands of games, many of which were to players much worse than yourself.

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Originally Posted by !Luck

Why you so open about your life?

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There are basically two parts of my life. One part is an open book, and the other part is only for people very close to me or "on my team" as I referred to in an earlier post in this thread. It may seem like I'm particularly open about a lot of important stuff, but I'm not really.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by daven

favourite position?
favourite book/author?
if the opportunity arose to become a highly in demand gigolo who could pick and choose clients, would you take it?
hookers or blow?
do you have a bucket-list?

also, sounds like a yes below ;)

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Favorite Position: Reverse cowgirl with the second girl licking my nuts.

Favorite Book/Author: Hard to put a favorite on this, but I'll recommend The Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin and anything by Carol Dweck. Dweck's research on children is absolutely amazing.

Gigolo: If you'd asked me this ten years ago, I would have enthusiastically said yes. Right now I'm just too happy with my life and the direction that it's going to take this type of thing on. However, I have been paid for sex before on one occasion. I realize that requires an explanation in a thread like this, so I'll give it under the list of answers to your original questions.

Hookers or Blow: Never pay for either is probably not bad life advice.

I don't have a bucket list, per se. As I've gotten older, however, I've started having very concrete ideas of the things I want to consider myself successful. With Christmas happening right now, I put up Christmas lights for the first time on my porch, and one of the things that was added to that list was having a ridiculous amount of Christmas lights on a fairly large house that looked amazing. It's so weird and oddly specific considering I haven't ever really put much thought into it before, but I think it would make me happy.

I also have somewhat vague ideas of doing something to help troubled teenagers, but I'm not really to the level I need to be at yet to be making concrete plans.

So about the getting paid for sex thing. When I was 21 or 22, I had an ex-girlfriend who lived about two hours away. She paid me gas money plus $50 to come bang her a few times over a short weekend. It turned out to be a bad idea because I started throwing up and convulsing on the way home from what was probably some sort of intentional food poisoning.

have you tried playing werewolf?

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Originally Posted by Keith

have you tried playing werewolf?

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I've looked at the rules and through some of the games that have been played here on FTR, but it lacks an appeal for me. I think it has a lot to do with why chess isn't as appealing to me anymore because I don't enjoy it all that much and I'm not able to really make any money off of it. That's not to say that everything has to be about money, but I stay pretty busy, and I don't think I'd be able to put that much time into it like I'd probably want to, so I avoid it.

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Anonymous Question via Facebook: why do you hate feminism/women

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I probably expected this one earlier than I got it. I covered some of the basics of why third-wave feminism is a farce in post #30 in this thread, and I don't think anyone wants to see me rehash that since it's not exactly entertaining. However, I should probably touch on the hating women comment.

It's generally claimed that I hate women and/or that I am sexist when I assert that men and women are not equal. Sexism against women is generally defined as unfair discrimination. I discriminate in no ways which are unfair. The simple fact of the matter is that men and women are biologically different in an extremely interesting number of ways. The narrative that men and women are the same other than the plumbing is a joke, and that idea that the source of traditional roles for men and women are a result of cultural conditioning instead of biology is easy to disprove.

Since I'm not really looking to write a novella here, I'll give one simple piece of information that can be used as a basis for doing your own research if you are so inclined: The makeup of a man's brain is extremely different than the makeup of a woman's brain. This single fact by itself can very easily help to explain a lot of things that are considered evidence of sexism against women like the so-called wage gap. Here is a very short list of the numerous ways in which the brains are different to get you started thinking on this:

• The differences in overall, general intelligence between men and women are essentially nothing
• A man's brain is about 10 percent larger on average.
• A man's brain contains between 600 and 700 percent more grey matter than women.
• A woman's brain contains between 900 and 1,000 percent more white matter than men.

Men and women also use different parts of their brains for the same task. A great example is navigation:

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"Women use the cerebral cortex for solving problems that require navigational skills. Men use an entirely different area, mainly the left hippocampus -- a nucleus deep inside the brain that's not activated in the women's brains during navigational tasks," Geary tells WebMD. The hippocampus, he explains, automatically codes where you are in space. As a result, Geary says: "Women are more likely to rely on landmark cues: they might suggest you turn at the 7-11 and make a right at the church, whereas men are more likely to navigate via depth reckoning -- go east, then west, etc." (Source)

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So how does this apply to the alleged wage gap? Generally speaking, the wage gap is this notion that women tend to make somewhere in the range of 70-80 percent of the amount that men make. Some people like to suggest that this is because of discrimination against women, but the fact of the matter is that there are only two main sources for this difference:

• Women prefer to go into different types of jobs as men (largely related to the brain differences)
• Women tend to be less aggressive in negotiating pay (largely related to the brain differences)

The only way that we're going to do better for both men and women as a culture is if we get over this "everybody should be equal" shit and start really embracing these differences in a way that allows for better forms of education. One example is the pure and simple fact that boys and girls should be taught in different ways because they are so different. It's not fair to expect boys to sit still during seven hours of class each day and then drug them if they aren't able to do it. It's also not fair to expect girls to perform on the same level as boys in mathematics at early ages because girls tend to lag behind an average of four years in those types of subjects in the early years (feel free to look that one up since I didn't just pull it out of my ass).

Boys and girls both have weaknesses in education because of biological differences. Instead of trying to force everyone into the same mold and dragging down the performance of the entire group, boys and girls should be educated separately but socialized together for the most part, at least at the earlier ages of up to 12 or 13 or so. A lot of people bitch that there aren't "enough" women in STEM fields, but if you stop trying to expect them to be on the same level as boys at age 12 (which correlates to a boy's mind for mathematics at about age 8), then you'll stop making them think like they "aren't good at math" which will go a long way towards fixing those problems.

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Originally Posted by spoonitnow

I've looked at the rules and through some of the games that have been played here on FTR, but it lacks an appeal for me. I think it has a lot to do with why chess isn't as appealing to me anymore because I don't enjoy it all that much and I'm not able to really make any money off of it. That's not to say that everything has to be about money, but I stay pretty busy, and I don't think I'd be able to put that much time into it like I'd probably want to, so I avoid it.

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I've found this with Poker and video games. I quit video gaming becasue of poker and now that poker isn't in the "Making money" realm for me I haven't done either much in the last year.

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Originally Posted by spoonitnow

[*]Women tend to be less aggressive in negotiating pay (largely related to the brain differences)

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I was having a conversation along these lines at a boozy work lunch recently with a mixed group of finance professionals. The overwhelming consensus was that all of the men were more than comfortable with pursuing an above-average pay rise (and would move on if they didn't get it) and all of the women said that they would "never" consider doing either of those things. Small sample, but was definitely an eye-opener.

as a self-described amoral person, are there any aspects of experience to which you think morality does/should apply?

if you answer yes:
why those ones? what criteria cause a situation to prompt you to consider "morality" in your dealing with it?

where does this morality come from to an "agnostic athiest"? in case the intention of this question isnt clear, i'm looking for an answer such as "cos god decreed so" or "cos society functions better if we do it that way" or "im an egoist so i will only act on consideration of anothers feelings insofar as i think i will benefit more from doing that than otherwise"

if you answer no:
fair enough. i dont believe in god either

Quote:

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Originally Posted by rpm

as a self-described amoral person, are there any aspects of experience to which you think morality does/should apply?

if you answer yes:
why those ones? what criteria cause a situation to prompt you to consider "morality" in your dealing with it?

where does this morality come from to an "agnostic athiest"? in case the intention of this question isnt clear, i'm looking for an answer such as "cos god decreed so" or "cos society functions better if we do it that way" or "im an egoist so i will only act on consideration of anothers feelings insofar as i think i will benefit more from doing that than otherwise"

if you answer no:
fair enough. i dont believe in god either

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I'll provide a quick discussion of where I think morality comes from and go from there. I'll try to bold some of the main points for easy consumption. We can consider the source of morality from a few possibilities:

1. God made us this way. Yeah, okay.
2. Some sense of morality (eg: killing your mother is wrong) comes from biology ala natural selection. For example, people who have an urge to kill their mother would be less likely to have his or her mother contribute to the gene pool, etc.
3. Some sense of morality is cultural, humans raised in a vacuum would not have a strong sense of morality, etc. Also ties in with a belief in #1 that has been taught to lot of people.

I'm going to assert that the biological source of morality (#2) is minimal at best and that the vast majority of morality comes from the cultural/conditioning aspect (#3) instead. I'll provide a quick argument as to why I believe that is:

I think that morality (and the manipulation of it) is one of the main tools used to control the masses by people who are truly in power. (Also important is that I don't think that there's anything inherently wrong with that.)

Morality is great for keeping people from taking your shit while you keep taking theirs. For the sake of not getting off on some grand political topic, look at how this works on the micro level. Think about the morality of the kid on the playground who always gets bullied and always gets his ass kicked. He doesn't want to get into a fight, and he doesn't want to get into trouble, and that's why he's always the first one to become a victim. Think about the morality of the guy who is hopelessly friend-zoned by some chick who uses him to help her move furniture or borrow money or whatever else is stereotypical. A strong sense of absolute morality can easily blind you and make you into a victim by people who do not have the same absolute sense of morality.

So back to why I think the biological (#2) sense of morality is much less of a cause than the cultural/conditioning aspect (#3): In the two examples I just gave and many more that you could think of, the people who have a lower sense of absolute morality have a massive advantage over the people who have a higher sense of absolute morality. Over tons of generations, it would seem that biology is largely working against morality instead of for it in the sense that you would have a huge competitive advantage in the gene pool if you are sly, tricky and cunning instead of sticking to some strict moral code.

Suppose you have some degree of power over someone else in a way that benefits you, and suppose the source of this power is that you are amoral while the person you have power over has a "strong moral compass." It would be wise to do a few things:

spoonitnow's Three-Step Guide to the Basic Weaponizing of Morality

1. Pretend to have a strong moral compass so that the person you have power over doesn't figure out how to overtake you.

If someone's running for major office in the United States, they always put on a big show of having a strong religious faith. As long as they know there's a camera around, they're always hugging fat chicks, kissing babies, visiting sick kids and wearing pink to help cure cancer.

2. Encourage people to have their own strong moral compass.

This is to help keep people from getting out of line, and it goes beyond the sense of enforcing laws. You want to encourage people not to take the "shortcuts" that would allow them to challenge your power.

3. Attack other people in power who do not pretend to have a strong moral compass because they risk fucking it up for everyone in power.

When a celebrity slips up and makes a gay joke or uses the N-WORD, then other celebrities are going to speak out against them. When people found out Tiger Woods was banging a bunch of chicks besides his wife, a lot of his major sponsors dropped his ass. It's a cooperative effort to keep people in line so that they keep buying your shit, and you don't want them to wake up one day saying fuck this, I can go bang a bunch of hookers and stop being a productive member of society.

spoonitnow's Three-Step Guide to the Advanced Weaponizing of Morality

Now if you really want to put the peasants as a whole in a fucking chokehold, then you have to deal with the people who aren't abiding by your structure of morality that's been set up to protect your power. Instead of keeping them in line using the three-step process listed above, you have to sap them of all ambition to gain any real power.

1. Allow them to steal from the "productive members of society," but only to a small degree.

People who know they will make more money off of welfare than working a minimum wage job have a choice to make.* They either work the job anyway and are one of the "productive members of society" who have taken the morality bait, or they take the welfare and are comfortable enough that they have a hard time getting motivated to actually accumulate any power.

* Note: I made a very specific distinction here to point out that not everyone who receives welfare falls into this category.

2. Create a farming system to profit from the "immoral" ones who get too far out of line.

And this is your prison system, aka modern day slavery in the west. I could go on a long ass rant about prisons and the justice system as a whole, but for the purposes of this discussion, it suffices to say that this is another way of keeping control over the particular group of people who don't buy into the "strong moral compass" side of things. While this does include a minority of people who do fucked up stuff like murder old ladies and fuck kids, the vast majority of people are in prison for dumb, non-violent offenses.

So anyway, there you go. I hope I answered your questions.

I don't think we're alone in the universe but the Fermi paradox is interesting. What do you think about it?

Maybe intelligent life is spread out across great distances and maybe it destroys itself a large percentage of the time.

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Originally Posted by Eric

I don't think we're alone in the universe but the Fermi paradox is interesting. What do you think about it?

Maybe intelligent life is spread out across great distances and maybe it destroys itself a large percentage of the time.

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I'm a total buzzkill, but I don't really agree with the Femi paradox. If some sort of life was advanced enough to show up here, they would surely be advanced enough to not be detected if they didn't want to. They probably rolled up and was like, "Okay these things are boring," and maybe abducted a few to study just like we would if we discovered some kind of algae in ice on Mars.

It's also worth noting that we're probably the first species on this planet to think about life from other planets visiting us, and we haven't been around all that long in the grand scheme of things.

I agree that life dies out from either destroying itself or other causes eventually, and even if human beings are around for another 300 million years or something, that's not really going to be that long compared to the history of the universe (about 2 percent of the life of the universe according to our best estimates), etc.

I've been asked if I think that we'll colonize other planets before our sun explodes or whatever it does (about 5 billion years from now). I think we will eventually establish a colony on the moon and on at least one other planet (probably Mars).

very interesting response, thanks for taking the time

Thank you for the questions, and feel free to ask away on more. :)

Nice Q&A you got here!!!

I´ve been watching two players on twitch.tv pokerstaples and cygnuscross. Do you watch poker on that channel and if so do you recommend any other players there and does it help you as a pokerplayer? If not why did the Arabian horse tell the duck to get out of town?

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Originally Posted by spoonitnow

Thank you for the questions, and feel free to ask away on more. :)

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as much as i'm sure you'd rather i didnt do this, i'm still curious.

in light of your aforementioned personal moral framework (or lack of, however you want to describe it), where does the motivation to take time out of your life to mentor/help young people, as i've heard you talk about doing at least 2-3 times on this forum, come from? why are you interested in helping unknown troubled teens as you mentioned earlier in this AMA? how did they make "the team"?

not trying to pick flaws or inconsistencies in your worldview by the way, for the record. i find myself drifting more and more towards an amoral perspective as i get older, too. just curious as to how these plans/desires to help strangers are afforded by your worldview

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Originally Posted by Mr. Buster

Nice Q&A you got here!!!

I´ve been watching two players on twitch.tv pokerstaples and cygnuscross. Do you watch poker on that channel and if so do you recommend any other players there and does it help you as a pokerplayer? If not why did the Arabian horse tell the duck to get out of town?

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Welcome to FTR. I don't understand your question, but I hope you'll stick around to clarify.

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Originally Posted by rpm

as much as i'm sure you'd rather i didnt do this, i'm still curious.

in light of your aforementioned personal moral framework (or lack of, however you want to describe it), where does the motivation to take time out of your life to mentor/help young people, as i've heard you talk about doing at least 2-3 times on this forum, come from? why are you interested in helping unknown troubled teens as you mentioned earlier in this AMA? how did they make "the team"?

not trying to pick flaws or inconsistencies in your worldview by the way, for the record. i find myself drifting more and more towards an amoral perspective as i get older, too. just curious as to how these plans/desires to help strangers are afforded by your worldview

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I just want to say this first: It doesn't bother me a bit that you're asking me this. A few points to start with:

When I was younger, I got a whole lot of enjoyment out of helping people to improve who were showing me that they were worth the effort (I'll cover where this enjoyment comes from in a moment). I've been burned a lot by the vast majority of the people I have tried to help because I gave entirely too much credit to them and had lower standards for who I should invest a lot of time and effort into. In short, I did not have much of a vetting process. As I've gotten older, my vetting process has improved, and it's led to a lot less wasted time. For me to really go out of my way to help anyone at this point, I have to be able to trust them enough to feel comfortable with them being on "my team" which isn't particularly easy.

So about where that enjoyment comes from, I want to start out by saying that being amoral doesn't mean that you don't care about anyone. Instead, you probably have a more objective viewpoint and discriminate a bit more about who you invest your resources into. I don't have to get more out of the relationship than I get from the person I'm helping, but I'm definitely in a patriarch type of position when it comes to the group of people I consider "my team." That means I have to regulate my resources (time included) in a way that helps the team as a whole and not just whatever my ego gets out of helping random people.

It's easy to see that helping someone makes you feel good, and whether that's just your ego making you feel like you're a better person or what, I don't really know. It could be some sort of biological thing that's kicking into gear making me want to take on the provider/protector role.

A good example is a chick that I'm more or less taking care of right now. I've talked about it from time to time in the commune here and there, but she's basically a fairly talented chick with a ton of potential and a drive to work hard to improve. I helped her to get out of a really shitty living situation, and now she actually lives with myself and my girlfriend. I'm very much a father figure to her, and she's likely to be the closest thing to a daughter that I ever have because [oddly enough?] I don't want to have kids. I vetted this chick for more than a year to decide if I was going to actually put time and effort into her, though I didn't have any idea at the time that it would get to this point. I posted a cover of a song she did in the commune recently too (you should go listen to it heh).

I also think that at some point it's okay to admit that it's a game. You want to see if you can help someone get to level X who wouldn't get there by themselves. I don't think anything's wrong with that especially when it's mutually beneficial.

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Originally Posted by spoonitnow

Welcome to FTR. I don't understand your question, but I hope you'll stick around to clarify.

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Sorry if my question wasn´t clear enough.

My question was do you watch twitch.tv live stream of poker? If so do you like it and do you know of more players to watch than Pokerstaples or cygnuscross?

The Arabian horse question was only if you don´t know anything about poker players on twitch.tv :)

What is your favorite thing about the Holidays? Least favorite thing?

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Originally Posted by Mr. Buster

Sorry if my question wasn´t clear enough.

My question was do you watch twitch.tv live stream of poker? If so do you like it and do you know of more players to watch than Pokerstaples or cygnuscross?

The Arabian horse question was only if you don´t know anything about poker players on twitch.tv :)

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I don't watch much poker of any kind honestly. It's just not really that interesting to me after playing a millions of hands. :)

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Originally Posted by Eric

What is your favorite thing about the Holidays? Least favorite thing?

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I really hate snow with a passion that I don't have for a lot of things that would probably be more reasonable to hate. We rarely get more than 8-10 inches at a time, and it usually only snows about once or twice, but sometimes we'll get like 24 inches all at once. Everybody freaks out and drives like idiots and everything pretty much closes down.

Along similar lines, I particularly dislike cold weather.

My favorite thing about the holidays is that it's deer season, so I end up with a lot of meat which is great for jerky. I also like having an excuse to blow money on shit for people.

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Originally Posted by spoonitnow

My favorite thing about the holidays is I like having an excuse to blow money on shit for people.

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What part of the brain controls that? Cuz that shit seems to be year round for me. Lol

What do you think about Sony pulling The Interview?

What do you think about the prisoner swap with Cuba and the policy changes with them?

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Originally Posted by Eric

What do you think about Sony pulling The Interview?

What do you think about the prisoner swap with Cuba and the policy changes with them?

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I completely and totally think that pulling The Interview was a horrible move by Sony, though it's for different reasons than what I've heard from anyone on it.

The reaction surrounding Sony pulling The Interview is funny to me. I feel like Sony has the right to do pretty much whatever they want there with their property. People who are going on the freedom of speech rant over it need to get over themselves and learn what freedom of speech actually means. They're really just mad they don't get to see a funny movie and that they feel like the terrorists won.

From Sony's perspective, there are two sides to this. On the one hand, Sony was really getting shafted hard by hackers, and if pulling The Interview put a stop to some of that, then it could certainly be worth it. On the other hand, it sends a message that Sony can be pushed around and controlled by this type of thing. This is a huge liability, and as a general rule, it's usually better to take a significant loss than to establish this dynamic.

This might not seem related, but David Letterman gave an extremely good lesson on this. The video is like ten minutes long, but it shows exactly how to deal with this type of situation:



In that video, Letterman outs himself as having affairs with several young women who had worked with him on national television to kick off his show instead of letting some guy blackmail him. That is exactly the way to handle a situation like that in a lot of situations, though I'll be the first to admit I don't know what kind of shit Sony could be in if all of the stolen information was released.

I don't really know about any prisoner swap situations with Cuba, but I do know that our relations with them are pretty stupid in general.

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Originally Posted by acg123

What part of the brain controls that? Cuz that shit seems to be year round for me. Lol

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I'm really the same way which is why I like having an excuse lol

How do you think we would be impacted if the earth's rotation was faster? In other words, what if it only took an hour for a single rotation instead of 24 hours?

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Originally Posted by Eric

How do you think we would be impacted if the earth's rotation was faster? In other words, what if it only took an hour for a single rotation instead of 24 hours?

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Super serious, long-term answer: If we evolved under those conditions, I'd suspect that we would be more inclined to stay awake through multiple "days," and we might not have evolved to sleep at all. I say this because it would be too easy (ie: too likely) that we as a species would gain a competitive advantage at some point by doing this. Then again, we might not have evolved into what we are now under those circumstances, so it's hard to say.

Shorter-term answer: If we suddenly started having 1-hour days instead of 24-hour days without any other measurable difference, then I think we would probably keep the same calendar and just call each rotation an hour and have 24 rotations be a day to adapt it to the calendar we already have. I think we already have all of the technology available now that we would need to keep public areas lighted.

I'm having a hard time coming up with anything interesting on this one. Sorry lol

Any rolemodels?

What book(s) are you reading?

Top 3 books you've read?

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Originally Posted by a500lbgorilla

Any rolemodels?

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Hey man, thanks for the questions.

On the topic of role models, there are a few in particular that stand out, and they're probably kind of atypical, but here goes.

Role Model #1?: Agathocles of Syracuse

Maybe this isn't so much of a role model in the general sense as it was a role model in one very specific way. I guess ignoring 99.99% of what someone did doesn't make them much of a role model, but here we go.

Knowing how Agathocles came into power and how he was able to stay in power of Syracuse after basically just murdering the entire elite made a big impression on me in my early teens in a weird way because it showed me that you could do something that almost everyone else fails at as long as you plan it correctly. He was able to remain in control of Syracuse for a long time even though he came into power by force under really shady circumstances, and this is something that very few rulers were able to do. I'll provide a brief explanation since I know that sounds kind of brutal, though it wasn't the brutality that mattered to me so much as the concept and the lesson.

[TL;DR alert] In The Prince, Machiavelli developed this idea of the "new prince." A new prince is essentially someone who accumulates power through his own deeds instead of having it given to him along the lines of a family lineage. He wrote on a few of the different ways that a new prince can acquire power. One of those was by what he called by "criminal virtue," and that basically means taking power through what would be considered obviously immoral actions (murder, genocide, kidnapping, systematic rape, etc.) He advised that the new prince who acquires power in this way must plan things out so that he can do all of this dirt at one time so that he doesn't have to continue doing dirt for the rest of his reign. The point of this approach is that it allows your reputation to recover and gives you the maximum chances of staying in power in the long term. Agathocles is widely considered the best example of this approach because he's one of the only tyrants in history who was able to come to power through these types of means and stay there for a reasonable amount of time. (Cliff notes: He gathered all of the ruling class and had soldiers kill them all at once to leave himself the only person in control of Syracuse.)

Role Model #2: Stringer Bell

I don't know if this is really a role model in the traditional sense, but he was easily the single character that I most identified with in any television show, book or movie ever. In my experience, the favorite character of most people for The Wire is either Bunk or Omar. For me it was Stringer. He had this overwhelming drive to rise to a higher class and get away from the bullshit that he grew up in. That resonated with me in a major way because, if we're being fair, I probably should have grown up to be a notch above pure trailer trash. For some reason, I have this huge drive to do more, and it's something that really stuck with me because I'd never really connected with anyone who had the same kind of drive. It was a little weird for me that it was a fictional character.

Role Model #3: Tigran Petrosian

Petrosian was the world champion for chess during most of the 1960s. His style was exceptionally prophylactic, and he made a point to be very in tune with how he was feeling each day so that he was able to play openings that led to more types of positions that he would be emotionally and psychologically comfortable with based on that.

He affected me both in terms of chess, but also in terms of how I deal with people. He was likely to be the best defensive player of all time, and his focus was on preventing his opponents from having good plans instead of building up the advantage for an attack himself. While this led to a high number of draws against strong competition, it also made him the likely the single hardest player to score a win against in history.

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Originally Posted by a500lbgorilla

What book(s) are you reading?

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I reread Robert Greene's The 48 Laws of Power about twice a year, and I'm in the middle of that now. From one point of view, it could be seen as a handbook to impersonating an sociopath. From another point of view, it could be seen as the first effective treatment of realism when dealing with people.

I'm also reading from David Sklansky's latest book DUCY? which is partially about gambling, but not so much that it's boring. It's some really interesting stuff and covers everything from parallel parking to boosting revenues at casinos and allowing people to pay to park in handicap spots without a placard.

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Originally Posted by a500lbgorilla

Top 3 books you've read?

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The 48 Laws of Power (Greene is my favorite writer, and the 50th Law [his book on fear] is one of the most underrated books of our time)
The Brain That Changes Itself
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (Pirsig is my intellectual hero)

I just got "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" for Christmas, and I'm 99% sure I was sizing up "The Brain That Changes Itself" as a possible read before as well. You just made the decision for me, and I guess I'll give "The 48 Laws of Power" a whirl while I'm at it.

I can't really post without asking any questions so: do you speak a second/third language? If not, have you ever considered learning a foreign language?

I've enjoyed reading your responses, gg.

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Originally Posted by seven-deuce

I just got "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" for Christmas, and I'm 99% sure I was sizing up "The Brain That Changes Itself" as a possible read before as well. You just made the decision for me, and I guess I'll give "The 48 Laws of Power" a whirl while I'm at it.

I can't really post without asking any questions so: do you speak a second/third language? If not, have you ever considered learning a foreign language?

I've enjoyed reading your responses, gg.

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I'm glad to have been helpful.

I took three semesters of French in high school and four semesters of Spanish in college. Unfortunately, I was still in the mode of doing the minimum I could to get by and make good grades, so I have very little functional knowledge of either.

I would be very interested in learning Spanish just because it would be so useful here in the United States. Even if I never go back to finish my undergrad, I may take classes and things for that just to learn it.

What did Pirsig teach you about Quality?

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Originally Posted by a500lbgorilla

What did Pirsig teach you about Quality?

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Cliff Notes/Practical Answer: I was able to use his teachings as the basis for my understanding of performance psychology and for my understanding of how people relate to each other.

My first experiences that I could relate through his metaphysics of quality (MoQ) were from chess. Inside of a year of tournament play, I had maybe ten or twelve positions in the late middlegame where I ran into the same sort of situation. That situation is that I would have two different moves that worked towards my plan and improved my position, and they both seemed to be fine, but I would have a strong feeling of preference for one over the other. In my post-game analysis of almost all of the 10-12 positions, there was something I had missed in my initial calculations during the game that could have put me at a major disadvantage if I'd taken the option that I didn't feel the preference for.

It's probably important to note that I do not think in the terms that the MoQ framework uses, but I think it's extremely important to see how he really worked hard to flesh out a logical framework for these things. Along these lines, I've noticed that major portions of how I view learning are extremely similar to the pursuit of quality ala the MoQ. In fact, focusing in on quality and treating it as being isomorphic (for lack of a better term) to tao is probably extremely useful as a mental trick to give yourself something to "believe in" to get you through the difficult portions of learning something.

One of the most important lessons from his first book that I've been able to use to teach other people is as follows. If he's working on the motorcycle and strips the head off of a screw in the wrong place, then the value of that screw drastically changes. In fact, the value of handling the screw correctly can become almost the entire value of the motorcycle itself because failing to handle it correctly would render the motorcycle useless (and not worth much). The lesson here is that the values of things are constantly changing, and the only way to keep up with what the current values are is by staying present in the moment. For example, when you are assessing the value of something in the present based on its evaluation even just a few moments in the past, you open yourself up to major mistakes. To tie this into poker, tilt is a good example. A lot of people let something that's happened in the recent past affect their evaluation of the current situation in a not-so-good way, and this happens when they aren't maintaining presence.

Simply put, presence is the single most important thing that affects performance outside of skill level. The better your presence, the better your evaluations of the situations you're in for the present moment, and the closer you're able to perform to the best of your ability.

I realize this is probably a bit hard to follow for people who aren't familiar with his work at all, and I apologize for that. Consider the following:

Jared Tendler jumped into the scene a few years ago carving out a very specific niche of being a performance psychology coach for poker. In a framework that he has used before, he identifies four stages to learning something, and I'll summarize those stages:

1. You aren't aware that you aren't competent.
2. You are aware that you aren't competent.
3. You become competent on a conscious level.
4. You become competent on an unconscious level.

A good example for this is with a baby learning to walk. In stage 1, he doesn't know that he doesn't know how to walk. In stage 2, he realized that he can't walk or that he can't walk well. Stage 3 sees the baby able to walk, but only if he's focusing on every little movement, and everything is really slow and choppy. Finally you reach stage 4 where things have been learned on the unconscious level, and you're able to do it on "auto-pilot" without having to think about it because your brain is handling it on its own without needing your conscious input.

Once you reach stage 4, you start to be able to "feel" for how it works, and the task becomes a mental extension of your body in a lot of ways. There are different things that you can use to refer to this like intuition, feel, unconscious competency or whatever else, but whatever you call it, you know what I'm talking about.

Robert Greene called this level 'mastery' in his most recent book (titled Mastery), and it's a pretty decent read. Josh Waitzkin talks about how achieving mastery in multiple disciplines put him in a position where he was able to think in terms of one while doing the other, and vice versa. Carol Dweck described the mindset required to achieve this level of mastery in her book Mindset which I've referenced several times here on FTR, and she also did a lot of cool experiments on children that helped her to flesh things out. The book mentioned earlier in this thread The Brain That Changes Itself looks at the biological basis for the changes in the brain that happen to get it to this stage.

And Pirsig's idea of quality comes at the center of all of this if you believe mastery to be the pinnacle in pursuing quality, which I do. That's the impact his work had on my life. In short, it's the center of how I relate to pretty much everything.

Thank you everyone for taking part in this AMA.