Games

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As I come to the tail end of my twitters and FB sabbatical, I'm finding that some things have changed with respect to my social media diet (and my thoughts on same), but I recognize that my displaced habit simply manifested in new ways.

Namely, I just channeled a lot of energy into Instagram (which was pretty much my only other social media outlet, besides email and blogging). But, life also happened and without constantly looking into my iPhone screen (or laptop or desktop screen), I found I read more, did more, and was present more.

But...the thing is, social media is just part of our landscape today. And I like it. I've made some really good friends via social media and I really wouldn't want to trade that for anything.

Understatement of the year - Twitter is a great source for news. But, it's a constant streaming of "eye-bites" that unless you do a little (or a lot) of digging on your own, can often lead to a really distorted picture of what that piece of "news" is really all about.

One way I've counteracted the loss of Twitter "news" during my day was to subscribe to two newspapers that I now read over breakfast or before going to bed. One is my local paper (the San Antonio Express News) and the other is the New York Times. I'm aware (at least via my folks) of a bias against the Times for being a liberal rag, but I find it excellent. A very wide array of news, entertainment, opinion, that reaches globally. I've enjoyed the heck out of my subscription to date.

I bring up these two reading items to say that one downside I've discovered from my Twitter usage was just that I'd stopped reading as much as I used to, and I hate that. I think there's a lot to be said about the many stories of late that have come out illustrating how much our attention span is impacted by using things like iPads, and iPhones, and other electronic devices to read everything from books, to work documents, to our newspapers. For me, anyway, I do find myself in the middle of a kindle book, or news story, and if I want to look something up, it's just a swipe of the finger to connect me to the internet, which can lead to indiscriminate surfing or gaming, and before I know it, an hour's passed and I haven't returned to the book, or the article, or the whatever.

It's an issue. And apparently, it's changing the way my brain works (and your brain, too!). I'm reading The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains right now, and it's some interesting stuff.

Then, last night, I read this great piece from the Times that realllllly resonated with me. If you've ever found yourself inexplicably drawn for the kajillionth time to a game of Angry Birds or Words with Friends or, my personal favorite, Land Grabbers (don't judge me), it'll probably resonate with you, too. It's called Just One More Game...Angry Birds, Farmville, and Other Hyperaddictive 'Stupid Games'. And, it even has a poker component that I find amusing.

The author, Sam Anderson, makes some great points. One, simply being his description of the iPhone itself: they're "sophisticated game console(s)" that otherwise non-game playing consumers can now carry around and interact with at all hours of the day and night.

Think about people you know on Facebook who you constantly "see" playing Farmville or the Sims. This stuff is addictive, and Anderson tries to find out why.

He writes:

Stupid games, on the other hand, are rarely occasions in themselves. They are designed to push their way through the cracks of other occasions. We play them incidentally, ambivalently, compulsively, almost accidentally. They’re less an activity in our day than a blank space in our day; less a pursuit than a distraction from other pursuits. You glance down to check your calendar and suddenly it’s 40 minutes later and there’s only one level left before you jump to the next stage, so you might as well just launch another bird.

Hmmm. I know the feeling.

The poker component comes in at the tail end of the article, when Anderson spoke to Frank Lantz, the creator of a game (Drop7) that had overtaken Anderson's life. Lantz claimed that poker was the game to which he had the deepest relationship. To him, poker was:

...like a tightrope walk between this transcendently beautiful and cerebral thing that gave you all kinds of opportunities to improve yourself — through study and self-­discipline, making your mind stronger like a muscle — and at the same time it was pure self-destruction. There’s no word for that in English, for a thing that does both of those at the same time. But it’s wonderful.

I can definitely relate to that, too.

Anderson ultimately concludes that 'stupid games' "force us to make a series of interesting choices about what matters, moment to moment, in our lives."

With an iPhone or other mobile device constantly at the ready, it seems to me (from experience) that it's easier than ever to leave 'real life' decisions to later in favor of one more drawing, or one more level, or one more...something in whatever game I find myself then immersed...that, ultimately, really just doesn't matter.

And at what cost? Seems to me that as these devices become more and more prevalent in our society, the people who are better able to compartmentalize and detach will be the purveyors (of what?) to those that can't.

At any rate, just some food for thought. One thing that's been a blast in helping me to 'detach' is my daily trail chronicle, which I've been keeping a record of over on Instagram.

This is from today (I'm never gonna be able to get a job as a camera person in Hollywood, that's fer dang sure. Back story, over the past couple of days, I've come across a nest with chicken-size eggs. Before Tuesday, the nest has always been unattended, and what started out as four eggs, turned into seven. Maybe she's now sitting on babies?):

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The Road to Excellence is...one without end

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I wrote this on the plane ride home after spending four nights in Vegas.  Interestingly enough, I didn’t play one hand of live poker.  I nitted it up, stayed in one of the cheapest hotels, and hunkered down for three straight days of poker theory/training.

 

While in Vegas – and thanks to twitter – I had the opportunity to meet one of poker’s best players, Kathy Liebert, the top earning female player in the world – there’s just no question (if there is, help me see it).  We talked poker and twitter and cats and life in general, but mainly enjoyed a fine meal from Onda (Mirage).  I never in a million years would’ve thought that playing around on the internet would’ve brought me face to face with a poker legend, much less provide the opportunity to have dinner with her – but it did and it was cool.  Kathy’s a really nice, genuine person (and a helluva poker player, obv).  

I recognize I’m a dork, but I really don’t care.  Meeting Kathy was awesome and I hope there'll be other opportunities to meet other fellow twitterers – whether it’s in Vegas or Texas or Hawaii (yes, Hawaii would be good – ha!). Speaking of which, Vegas was also a nice place to meet the really smart and funny @Ftrain (Thank you for the drink, Dave!).

So about the pokers…I’ve written before about my desire to become a better poker player and I’ve tweeted this link and talked about Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers, both of which are studies of what makes an expert.  There are no secrets, no shortcuts, no concepts that will make me, or anyone, an excellent player (or an excellent anything else for that matter) in the short run.  As I’m learning in training, poker is one long, continuous, never ending page…all about the long run.  And if you don’t have the internal fortitude to handle that, then you’re in the wrong sport/profession.  Moreover, if you’re not interested in studying this game and deliberately practicing it and working with others (true students and good coaches), then you might as well admit to yourself that poker is a recreational hobby for you.  Yes, you may get lucky (because there is luck involved) and hit a big score, but if you are not actively pursuing excellence, you are the fish at the table.  As the referenced studies show – experts are made, not born.  

If you don’t read the links, the only kernel of truth you need to know is that it’s going to take coaching and a decade of deliberate practice to become a winning player.  This isn’t ground breaking stuff – as with any sport, any profession, any calling, if you’re going to be good, there is no other way to get there but long hours (see the 10,000 Hour Rule) and hard, smart work.  Period. 

 

The poker media highlights these young, online phenoms and often makes it seem as though they plopped $5 into a Stars or Tilt account and ginned it up overnight to a kajillion dollar bankroll from which they've never gone busto. The truth is - the people you see online and live consistently running deep are people, generally young men, who are deliberately studying the game and using every tool available to them, working with a coach and/or crew of like-minded people when they’re not playing, and playing ungodly amounts of volume online, all day, every day, 365 days a year.  To make a profit, there’s no other way to play this game – especially tournament poker due to the variance (I mean, look at the payouts - if you’re not scoring in the top three, “congratudolences” as @BJNemeth says…). and, on average, you’re going to bust 98+% of the tournaments you enter.  Do you disagree with that percentage estimate?  Am I wrong?  I don’t think so, but I’d love to hear your thoughts about this.

So where does that leave someone like me (and maybe like you?), who's not 21, and who has a family and a job and a life you like outside of poker?  I think it’s pretty simple…without tons of deliberate practice, we’re dead money.  Period.  

I've written before about how I got started in poker and how I started taking it serious in 2010.  Knowing the work it'll take to become really good, I'm kind of daunted that I've got such a long road ahead. But, the road is just the road, each step a starting point.  And there really is no end to it. Because if I stop traveling it, by failing to deliberately practice and study and get coached, then the game will pass me by.

So. This week, I’ll take my next step down that road – I’m moving to Vegas! 

Jokes.  No, I’m “moving up” to the smaller field ($1-$11 BI) MTTS and will continue to get coaching, to deliberately study and practice, and to work with my friend Terry, who is just as serious about the game as I am.   We’re setting up a grinding pad in an office and for scheduled days, every week, grinding online is going to be our job (in addition to our regular jobs, until we can either quit ‘em in full or realize that we just can’t cut it).  With that schedule, I suppose one of us (me, sorry Terry) can expect to win the Main Event on or after some date in 2018.  In reality, though, even that amount of grinding is a drop in the bucket compared to people like daisyxoxo, mement_mori, CrazyHorse76 and that's the competition we are up against.

Previously, one of my goals included traveling once a month to a WSOPc event and playing in one or two of the smaller BIs.  I didn’t do that this month (January), replacing an event with the training; but, I’d planned to start up in February.  That goal’s been modified. Now, life permitting, I’ll travel once a month to Vegas, on the cheap, and play as many $100 tourneys as I can in that trip window.  Full disclosure, I’ve pooled my online and live BR (minus a portion for the grindage setup and travel) and will start this personal challenge with a $3000 bankroll (whatever limit you’re playing at you need a BR 200x that size…so, to play $100 tourneys, I need at least $2k and the rest will be online for the $1-$11 MTTs). So $3000's the floor, and I'll be updating its rise and fall each month.

I mean – what’s the worst that could happen?  I’m just some old lady (I don't think I'm old, but by poker standard's, I'm old) going up against all of you and the 21 year old internet phenom crew – how bad could it be?  

Ew.  I know, right?  Good luck, me!!

Whatever - lulz and all that.  When you see me HU at final tables within the next ten years, you better reco’nize and bring your A-game, because, I am.  Bring it!

As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts and your stories and your poker dreams.  In the meantime – BR management, people, and good luck at the tables.