Recent Posts by Tommy Angelo | DeucesCracked

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10/01/10--11:04: Just how big was the poker explosion? posted by Tommy Angelo @ Fri, 01 Oct 2010 18:04:41 +0000 (chan 1716540)

If you would use the main event field size as an indicator you would just get 3/4x growth.



Below are the WSOP ME number-of-entrants stats, from Wiki, supporting what you said. (See 2003 to 2004.)

1994 268
1995 273
1996 295
1997 312
1998 350
1999 393
2000 512
2001 613
2002 631
2003 839
2004 2576
2005 5619
2006 8773
2007 6358
2008 6844
2009 6494
2010 7319




10/25/10--09:22: The Eightfold Path to Poker Enlightenment : Episode Three posted by Tommy Angelo @ Mon, 25 Oct 2010 16:22:08 +0000 (chan 1716540)

What is your opinion on taking notes during play? As you take a note, you are missing action, but by not taking the note, you may forget vital information. Is there a way to notetake, but remain single minded?



For you, taking notes is simply part of the game. It's not a "distraction from the more important task of playing." Think of note-taking as one of the many profitable things you do as you "play poker."

Can you take notes and remain single-minded? Yes! Of course! There is no task that can't be done single-mindedly. If you take notes mindfully, then single-mindedness is maintained. You single-mindedly takes notes while you are taking notes, then you single-mindedly resume focusing on your game(s) when the note is finished. If you go back and forth between those two tasks a hundred thousand times per year, then your objective is to be aware when you have moved from one task to the other as many times as possible.

I am playing now.

I am taking a note now.

Let those two thoughts come and go thousands of times along with all the other less mindful thoughts.

And while we're here, read this:


http://tommyangelo.com/articles/on_the_importance_of_paying_attention.htm

:-)

Tommy




11/05/10--17:37: The Eightfold Path to Poker Enlightenment : Episode Six posted by Tommy Angelo @ Sat, 06 Nov 2010 00:37:10 +0000 (chan 1716540)

Really fantastic Series, loving every episode more than I have the last. This music interval is really soothing and I'd love to get hold of it. What's the music/melody?



It's the song "Hurricane" by Neil Young. That track, and almost all the other music from the series, is on this page. Just keep on scrolling.

http://tommyangelo.com/the-eightfold-path-to-poker-enlightenment.html




01/13/11--09:28: Tommy Angelo : Nostalgia Corner: The 5 (and a bit) Stages Of Your Poker Career posted by Tommy Angelo @ Thu, 13 Jan 2011 17:28:52 +0000 (chan 1716540)

Today’s post was written by guest writer Greg Walker. This article is highly funny and relatable, if you happen to be an online poker degen. Greg runs thepokerbank.com, a Texas Hold’em strategy site. Thanks Greg!

Nostalgia Corner: The 5 (and a bit) Stages Of Your Poker Career
Do you remember your early days of poker?
Either underage or barely legal, trying something new for the first time, desperate to earn some money on the side.
But that’s quite enough about my search history.
It was way before your $50 faux leather desk chair developed its groove (Moses couldn’t part foam padding like online poker can). The time when you had more real-life friends than “Internet friends”. It was also before your poker skills became inversely proportional to your general levels of health and fitness (you’ve still got the looks though – nothing’s ever going to take those looks away).
Yep, those days.
Feel free to brace yourself and join me for an awkward fumble through the past, present and future of your poker career, starting with…
1) Making your first deposit.
Hands up; who was thinking about the movie “Rounders” whilst they were making their first deposit? To be more specific, who was thinking about the “Judge’s game” scene?
Due to one of the small flaws of writing articles for the Internet, I can’t see or hear all your responses. However, I’ll safely assume that we just shared a collective sigh of agreement.
With more ambition than Hitler, you decided you were going to take over the poker world with your mad undiscovered poker skills. Not even legal gambling age laws were going to stop you.
This first deposit was a uniquely exciting and life-shifting experience for all of us. I’m sure you wonder what things would be like if you never dropped $50 at Party Poker. Probably not that much different if we’re being honest, but we can all dream. Either way, you certainly wouldn’t have experienced the pleasures of…
2) Losing your first deposit.
Damn.
How can you go from winning a steady $14/hour over 318 hands to losing everything? It was all going so swimmingly.
2a) Vowing to never play online poker again.
“Okay, that’s it. I’m wiping Party Poker off my PC completely.” *Drags Party Poker desktop shortcut to the Recycle Bin.*
For most of us this period lasted a few weeks at best. The problem was that you just couldn’t stop dreaming about outplaying opponents with absurd all-in shoves on the flop, not to mention cunning open limps with pocket aces UTG.
Thoughts of these devious, masterful plays build up until…
3) Your first comeback.
After skimming through a perfectly legal copy of Doyle Brunson’s Super System, you’re back.
Unfortunately, after a decent 2-week long run you end up losing another $50. Sorry, Doyle, but I don’t think JT suited is as invincible as you suggested. Nonetheless, the seed of degeneracy has been sown.
Figuratively speaking, you’ve opened that bag of Doritos and you’ve been stopped half way through. Not even a lack of hot salsa dip is going to prevent the inevitability of…
4) Your next comeback (with added seriousness).
This time, playing poker and learning strategy becomes an addiction.
You can’t stop yourself from consuming more and more poker until you’re a mental mess (or more so than usual). Countless hours are spent browsing/refreshing the 2p2 forums. You begin buying more books from Amazon than you’ve ever actually bought in your entire life. “2am” is now referred to as an “early night.”
You also no longer have to lock your door before “researching” something on Google. Well, not as much as before anyway.
I’m sure we’d all like to think that this super comeback was reminiscent of the cheesy Rocky IV montage of Stallone training in the wilderness. However, I don’t believe scenes consisting of being slouched in a desk chair surrounded by Subway wrappers would look quite as epic with “Hearts On Fire” in the background.
Nonetheless, the bottom line is your poker game improved significantly, even if everything else in your life regressed. In fairness though, it’s an impressive development when you look back at it from a hard-work and commitment point of view.
5+) The grind.

You’ve now “found your groove”, which is a euphemism for “hit a massive life plateau”.
Dreams of Champagne, Lobster and Cirque du Soleil turn into Red Bull, Ramen Noodles and Xbox.
The fact that the inside of your mouse now contains more dust than an urn is causing a slightly annoying tracking problem. The keyboard characters; p, m and / no longer work, but that’s okay because none of those are needed to type “wtf”, “fish”, “blonde” or “hardcore” anyway.
Your username is becoming more famous than your real name, and if you printed out a screenshot of your 2p2 post count you’d consider sticking it on the fridge with your other lifetime achievements.
Congratulations, you’re a reg.
Final thoughts.
Thanks for joining me for the uneasy shuffle down Memory Lane. I hope you didn’t mind the lengthy detour through Disappointment Avenue.
Not to worry though, you’re only ever one PokerStars Sunday Million away from greatness.
Now anyway, I have to head off. I believe my search history needs some deleting.




01/19/11--06:38: The Eightfold Path to Poker Enlightenment : Episode Eight (Full Version) posted by Tommy Angelo @ Wed, 19 Jan 2011 14:38:41 +0000 (chan 1716540)

If I may anticipate Tommy's response here ... In the case of someone who has committed themselves to a life as a Buddhist monk, being thrown into jail is a test that is entirely in line with the journey they have chosen. For the rest of us, that may not be the case, and that's fine.



Nailed it.

There are millions of little blamings we can move away from. When I first learned blackjack, I thought it was expected that I should blame the other players for hitting when they shouldn't and therefore giving me the wrong card. Later, I got wiser, and I stopped doing that kind of blaming. It seems so silly and absurd now, to blame in that way.

It's possible to keep stepping back from blaming -- leveling -- and to see other instances of blaming change in your perception from serious to silly. What monks do is irrelevant to all this because they are so many levels removed from us.



However, to take an example from Western culture, Timothy Leary was unfairly targeted and imprisoned, including a long stint in solitary confinement. When a friend went to visit him, he said 'I'm so high right now, I often forget that I'm in jail'. And he didn't mean he was on drugs.



Gandhi was in and out of jail, totaling about 7 years in jail. He wrote about looking forward to his time in jail, and teaching his fellow rebels to do the same.




03/09/11--07:16: The Blueprint : Episode Thirteen posted by Tommy Angelo @ Wed, 09 Mar 2011 15:16:45 +0000 (chan 1716540)

Tommy,

have you been to Munich Germany on your trip or is this just a random picture of an airport ?



That was a picture Rusty found. One thing kind of cool about it is that in the upper right is a sign that says "San Francisco Coffee Company." I asked Rusty if he chose that picture because of the subtle SF connection. He said he hadn't even noticed that. He was just happy to have found any picture of an airport flight schedule.




03/09/11--07:23: The Blueprint : Episode Thirteen posted by Tommy Angelo @ Wed, 09 Mar 2011 15:23:16 +0000 (chan 1716540)

Tommy, did you use a tab for the guitar you played in the video? If so, can you send it to me. If not, can you make one for me? If you were using someone else's guitar riffs, can you tell me the name? That would be awesome, thanks.



Sorry, I have nothing for you. No tabs, no names. Except for a few phrases from "If I Were a Rich Man," and one phrase from "Norwegian Wood," all of the guitar was "made up" by me. I have to put "made up" in quotes because I think of myself as a musical sausage grinder. A whole bunch of crap goes in one end, and little musical turds come out the other. Each turd is "unique," but I have a hard time thinking of them as "original."




03/10/11--07:00: The Blueprint : Episode Thirteen posted by Tommy Angelo @ Thu, 10 Mar 2011 15:00:28 +0000 (chan 1716540)

Hi Rob,



So I have a bit of a side question about this: if you had the power (friends with the city council or whatnot) to prevent the fence from being built, would you have stopped it?



No. Which is kind of the point. My happiness could not be changed by the arrival of the fence, so if I had had the power over the fence’s existence, I would have turned that decision over to the professionals (the government) who make those kinds of decisions every day. This is a decent example of one of the benefits of being non-attached to a thing or idea. You can make decisions entirely with the good of others (individuals and groups) in mind. Let’s say the choice is between chicken or beef, and you truly don’t care. You can let your friends have whichever he wants. He is happy, at no cost to you. Let’s go the next step. Your friend/spouse doesn’t want to decide which movie to see. You don’t care either. But you step up and make a decision right away because that’s what’s best for the team right then. Non-attachment doesn’t mean wishy-washy. Not at all. It means knowing exactly what your preferences are, and when you don’t have any. And it allows for excellent yielding, and taking charge.

What was the question again? lol



I'm curious how much of this is based on not allowing things to impact our mindset when we are powerless vs. how much it is simply learning to accept everything as it is and will be.



I think there’s too much absolutism in your question. We can’t learn to “accept everything as it is and will be” in some sort of once-and-for-all way. We can learn to do it more often than we do now, and that’s it.



Is resisting change to something that you love something that you should avoid because it shows that you have a degree of attachment?



The idea is to love what you love when you love it and know what you are loving and that you are loving it and that you are loving it now. You’re not loving the idea of having it for a long time. You’re not loving what it took for you to accomplish having the thing you love. You’re just loving this right now. And later you’ll be loving that. That applies to loving things, ideas, people, sucking out on your arch enemy, etc.

Meanwhile keeping it in sharp focus that nothing lasts, trying really hard to not wince at the thought of losing what you love. It will be lost.

Repeat.

I have known everyday for years that my beloved Kepler walk would end, and in the meantime, it would be modified. For example, someday I might walk my walk with a cane. Or maybe someday they might build a big fence and alter the look and feel and things. I already knew the walk as it was would not last and I think about that shit all the time. So when it happens, it’s no big deal. There was no doubt that it was coming. The benefit of that mental effort is that I can love my walk everyday just as it is, and that I love. :-)




03/11/11--06:34: The Eightfold Path to Poker Enlightenment : Episode Six posted by Tommy Angelo @ Fri, 11 Mar 2011 14:34:06 +0000 (chan 1716540)

What your standpoint about turning the chat off completly?



If you think that's a good idea for you, then it almost certainly is.




03/13/11--18:54: The Eightfold Path to Poker Enlightenment : Episode One posted by Tommy Angelo @ Mon, 14 Mar 2011 01:54:04 +0000 (chan 1716540)



What do you think about it? Does this practical idea sounds OK?

Thanks.



Yes. Those are good ideas and they are coming from good awareness. That you thought them up means they are likely do-able, meaning, practical.




04/12/11--13:46: The Eightfold Path to Poker Enlightenment : Episode Eight (Full Version) posted by Tommy Angelo @ Tue, 12 Apr 2011 20:46:54 +0000 (chan 1716540)

Thanks for the headsup on the links. My site just got a total makeover. I'll get those links fixed soon.




06/11/11--09:34: The Eightfold Path to Poker Enlightenment : Episode Five posted by Tommy Angelo @ Sat, 11 Jun 2011 16:34:26 +0000 (chan 1716540)

LOL ...
I'm a professional orchestra musician... The one where you did pieces backwards etc was so funny it hurt....guy next to me on the plane must have thought I was stone or something.....



Mission accomplished!




07/26/11--21:25: % of winning and losing players posted by Tommy Angelo @ Wed, 27 Jul 2011 04:25:04 +0000 (chan 1716540)

FWIW, before the no-limit explosion, when almost all pros grinded at mid-limit hold'em, it used to be that 5% of the live $20-40 limit players won enough to make a living.

Which brings us to what I think is the problem issue whenever this topic comes up. What is a "winning player?" What's the time frame? How much does he have to win to be a winner? What I'm getting at is that there would have to be a ton of players hovering around even, right? In actual results, and also in theoretical expectation. Picture three players: One who is barely a loser, one who is barely a winner, and one who is a huge winner. With the "Percentage of winners and losers" question, the two players whose results are furthest apart are in the same group, and the two players whose results are closest are in different groups.

The question I always wondered about was, "What percentage of players make enough to support themselves from playing poker."




08/05/11--10:24: Ethical Dilemma at Venetian last night posted by Tommy Angelo @ Fri, 05 Aug 2011 17:24:01 +0000 (chan 1716540)

Poker is a team sport. The players and the dealer and the floorstaff all want the same thing: A smooth-running game that is fair. One thing that happens in a fair game is that when the cards are shown at the showdown, the pot goes to player with the best hand. It doesn't matter at all how that happens. It doesn't matter who made which mistakes. It doesn't matter who speaks up to correct an error or if they do it politely or rudely. The team succeeds when the winner gets the pot.

It so happens that when we are directly involved in the pot when a mistake is made, it's possible to forget that we are part of a team dedicated to running a good game together. It's possible to forget that we actually love, support, and rely on the self-policing nature of all poker games. It's possible to forget that we are all deputized when we sit down. We are not obligated to actively police the game. IOW, we are not all always obligated to speak up every time we see a mistake. But we are definitely obligated to speak up instantly when somebody else's money ends up in our stack.




08/08/11--16:46: Cheating at live cash game posted by Tommy Angelo @ Mon, 08 Aug 2011 23:46:55 +0000 (chan 1716540)

One time I was swapping my action 50-50 with another pro for a few months to diversify risk at a time when we were both running low. We played nothing but live. During that time, we played in the same casino day in and day out, and he was playing exclusively no-limit, and I was playing almost exclusively limit. One day he got in my $20-40 limit game for about an hour, waiting for the NL game to start. We didn't talk about it. He just sat down and took a seat. We were playing out of the same bankroll, which somehow has to be an ethical breech. I knew I wouldn't do anything different as a result so in my own little mind, it was cool. What I want to share are some things we learned after some analysis. We made up common betting situations where we would deploy collusion tactics and thought them through. We discussed the risk of confusion and error and frustration. Would it really be worth it if we were already beating the game for the standard amount?

Even if we were really good at signalling and such, and using the additional info well, we concluded that the extra money we would make from our cheating would actually be less than we would make as a team if we just played at different tables. I'll leave out all the details. Our conclusions here were sound and took in many factors, some of then subtle, such as this: The effort it takes to cheat well could detract from the ability to simply play well.

This doesn't mean that colluders aren't bad for the game. These are just a few thoughts on the side.

(I don't think the word "colluder" should get a squiggly line under it at this forum! :-) )

Tommy




08/14/11--08:55: The Eightfold Path to Poker Enlightenment : Episode Six posted by Tommy Angelo @ Sun, 14 Aug 2011 15:55:54 +0000 (chan 1716540)

there are benefits to keeping the chat visible, even though you fully intend not to contribute to it. Seeing the comments of other players gives you a read on what their state of mind is



Agreed.



A related point regarding "right speech" in general. It's well known that Daniel Negreanu chats a lot during table poker to provoke information from his opponents. I would strongly advise other players from assuming they can easily adopt this practice, since it takes a real master to be able to make it work, but in principle it demonstrates that "right speech" isn't necessarily no speech. Provided that you have awareness of your speech, its impact on others and on yourself, you can use it to your advantage.

I'm on the right track here right?



I think so.

A couple related add-ons are 1) independent of whether we decide to use speaking as an information gathering tool, we still need to be rehearsed at how to be on the receiving end of an interrogation and come out ahead. 2) Even an expert at the vocal game needs to also be an expert at the quiet game for those times when it occurs naturally or on purpose.




08/14/11--10:00: The Eightfold Path to Poker Enlightenment : Episode Eight (Full Version) posted by Tommy Angelo @ Sun, 14 Aug 2011 17:00:24 +0000 (chan 1716540)

What is the piece of music that starts at 32:51? It's really great!



That's a song by The Who from their Quadrophenia album called "Love, Reign O'er Me."

If you want to download the 32:51 piano rendition of that song without all that talking going on, go here:

http://tommyangelo.com/the-eightfold-path-to-poker-enlightenment/#music

It's the fourth link under the "ROCK" heading.




09/07/11--15:40: Today I folded AA preflop... posted by Tommy Angelo @ Wed, 07 Sep 2011 22:40:58 +0000 (chan 1716540)

Tommy definitely has folded aces preflop: http://tommyangelo.com/articles/the-worst-play-ever/



Hello judges. For you today I have made (<-- I've been watching too much CHOPPED!) some excerpts and clarifications...

Here are two pertinent paragraphs from the link above. First, the third paragraph:

But the story I will tell you now is true. It must be, or there would be no point in the telling. I am like an astronaut who walked on the moon and returned to write of feelings unimagined on earth. I am like a man who for years lived alone in a forgotten forest and returned to write of his trials and triumphs. For I am the poker player who longed to fold pocket aces before the flop at $20-40 limit hold’em, and finally did it. Here is my story.

And here is the final paragraph:

Now, one month and a dozen pocket aces later, I can report that I am unchanged by what happened at noon on May 19, table 41, seat nine. I don’t play or think any differently. I am like the moonwalker who returns to say that the earth is indeed round. I am like the wilderness dweller who returns to say that the forest is in fact full of trees. Nothing remains, in mind or matter, from my journey, except that now, when I lift the corners and see ace-ace, it’s like I’m getting winked at.

To clarify, I have never suggested to a client that they fold pocket aces before the flop, and there is nothing in EPTPE about folding aces before the flop.

I see the whole folding-aces-before-the-flop thing as identical to any other private test of will (spontaneous or planned) we might give ourselves. For example, I have a scab on my foot that I haven't touched all day even though I could definitely get some of it to flake away without causing bleeding. Several times it has itched a little, and several times my hand move toward it, and several times I just left it be. Why?

I don't ask that. I mean I don't ask it anymore. I just know, from doing it, that if I mix little moments of discipline in with my default hedonism, I feel better.




09/07/11--17:38: Today I folded AA preflop... posted by Tommy Angelo @ Thu, 08 Sep 2011 00:38:44 +0000 (chan 1716540)

Kind of reminds me of Thoureau. A lot of people think that Thoureau was encouraging people to live in the woods. Actually he didn't think that it was a good thing for people to live in the woods because he felt it caused them to become less civilized. He was only sharing his own transcendental experiences from his time at Walden.



I think I get what you're saying here. You shouldn't fold pocket aces before the flop because it will make you less civilized. I agree! :-)




09/07/11--18:28: Today I folded AA preflop... posted by Tommy Angelo @ Thu, 08 Sep 2011 01:28:14 +0000 (chan 1716540)

I thought he was saying that if you get dealt aces, you shouldn't just Thoreau them away.



I fold.