to continue blogging...

not sure if I will.  I kind of don't want to see this thing die.  quick update:

1. I played PLO full time for the last half of 2013.  I had some success.  Not any worth bragging about.  I'm stuck playing small stakes due to size of roll and my relatively poor understanding of the game (despite having played about 350k hands of it in the last 6 months of the year).  If I continue to play poker full time in the future I think most all of my play online will be PLO.  I lost interest in studying NLHE and I felt as though I was getting behind the curve.  Added to the fact that I find the environment around online NLHE cash games to be utterly toxic right now, and I really am not that interested in going back into it.  That being said I totally respect the guys that are at the top of that player pool right now, and I think for the right person that is willing to go after it there is still a lot of money to be made.  I had that kind of passion for the game 3-4 years ago.  After black friday and the aftermath I'd say my passion for NLHE mostly died at the beginning of 2013.

2.  I had a nice season of baseball playing in a couple of leagues.  I mostly closed for a few teams, but I did start a handful of games.  I pitch well with a low ERA, WHIP, and something like a 4-1 K/BB ratio with close to 1.5 Ks/IP.  My velocity has dropped due to lingering arm issues.  My arm slot has also dropped.  I also have to deal with a lot of pain now when I throw.  Other than serious surgery and rehab I'm not sure that this a problem I can fix.  But I'm going to keep playing as long as I can be effective.

3.  I failed in my attempt to learn some stats software and/or some programming language.  Mostly I found myself frustrated at either my poor understanding of the lessons (ie I was a beginner and I was being taught at an intermediate level) or my relative lack of interest in the subject matter.  How this impacts my long term career plans I don't really know.  Mostly because I haven't really formulated any long term career plans, but partially because many of the things I'm interested in would require me to add a lot of tools to my relatively bare tech tool box.

4.  The wife is doing very well.  She is a very private person so I won't go into details, but she's a rock star and continues to move towards the top of her field.  Needless to say I brag about her to anyone that will listen. 

I'm going to try and post some 2014 goals in a future post.  And maybe I'll start posting and discussing PLO hands.  I think the blog is a nice way to connect with people, and more importantly it helps add some structure to my personal history.  It's nice to be able to look back at posts I made or people's comments and help color my memories or add context to certain events.

hope any potential readers are doing well, and best of luck to everybody in the coming year.

Jim aka thepizzlefosho

Good Advice

Learning SPSS

I'm trying to learn some Stats software.  First up is SPSS.  So I'm going to use the blog to update progress along with occasional poker thoughts.

First up is how I'm getting a free two week trial, using this link:

https://www14.software.ibm.com/webapp/iwm/web/pick.do?source=SWG-STATS-DESKTOP_TRIAL&S_PKG=CRJK5ML&S_TACT=101KR3HW&lang=en_US

Next up is the first tutorial I'll be using:

http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/spss/

If you have any suggestions as to tutorials, books, blogs etc please let me know.

As for poker, I've been playing exclusively PLO for the last two months.  I have had good results for the most part.  For my first 115k hands I'm winning at about a 9bb/100 pace.  But I definitely have had some tilt issues lately, and I think I'm going to move back down a couple of stakes until I win a few BI after some frustrating losses at 1/2 and 2/4.

I also played a big sunday tournament today and unfortunately busted with only 115 players left.  I had a AJs vs K8s to get a 40bb stack and some room to work, but got outraced and was forced to shove 3bb a few times before getting caught with J3o vs TT.  Lost that one, and was out with a cash for about twice my BI.  That would have been nice if I hadn't dropped 10 BI playing cash games.  Oh well.

hope everyone is doing well.

holy crap, I made a post

http://www.blackbeltpoker.com/blogs/read/4330163/badbeat/Failure-to-Engage/

really enjoyed this post by Mr. Channing.  responded on 2p2 with this thought:

I'm a young professional (for almost 7 years now) who plays 99.99999% of my hands online, and I 100% agree with everything Neil said in that post. Real pros rarely talk the game at the table (frankly they usually prefer that others don't know that they're pros) and smart players engage their opponents in open and friendly conversation. Not only does it make for a more profitable game, but it makes for a more enjoyable game. Plus the guy that may not know how to balance his preflop raise/4b range might actually be super intelligent and accomplished and just plays for fun. Maybe he has some unique insight into life or business that might be valuable to you. or maybe he has a boatload of money that he wants to lose at poker if he could just find a fun table. Either way you're better off trying to be a open-minded, humble, socially engaged competitor than the type of *******s that Neil described in his post.
My guess is that most of the people that act in such a way are not, nor have ever been, true professionals. My guess is they're also probably pretty immature, and should try and figure some things out. That guy staking them to 1k donkaments may not be around forever and they might need to find a job. Probably wouldn't hurt to learn how to network.
good work Mr. Channing.

Will try to post more in the future.  Mostly playing PLO these days.  Hope everyone that occasionally clicks on this blog is doing well in life and in poker.

best,

Jim