CARDRUNNERS

I may have mentioned that I'm finally getting serious about running and plan to run a marathon in about 6 months. I'm following the "novice program" off of the following website www.halhigdon.com/marathon/Mar00index.htm its only 18 weeks, but with the amount of traveling I do I'm sure that it will take more than 18 weeks.

I just finished the 2nd week, I had 3 3mile jogs this week and a 7mile jog today.

My legs were sore all week since on the day of one of my 3 mile jogs, I decided to try to go at a reasonable pace(haven't ran with the intention of running fast in years) and did squatting/deadlifting the same day. It took 22:29 for 3 miles(about 23:30 for 5k) which I was pleased with, after reading the H&F forum on 2+2 and seeing so many people talk about how much they suck at running, but can run it in 18 minutes, I realize I won't be winning any races, but my goal is basically just to stay in shape and finish. Anyways, today Will and I were feeling good and decided to run a pretty hilly route with our friend Steven. It was a really enjoyable run, and we went about 11.5km at a pace of just under 6 minute kilometers. We played "what does Johnny Lodden think" for most of the run, and it really didn't feel physically difficult at all. We ended the run at Steven's and I ran another 2.5km back to my house. It was pretty nice to go for a long run(including the biggest hill in waterloo), be able to talk the whole time, never get cramped and still be able to run some more after.

The best question that came up in WDJLT was "when did the earth's population cross 10,000", if anyone has their own guesses, post them as a comment, I kind of like that question since the range of reasonable answers is pretty huge.

Anyways, the last week I haven't really played any poker, after my 3-4 biggest scores I've always lacked some motivation, but in the next week or two I'll probably get back to grinding.

Fortunately for the final table they pushed the blinds back a level, so we had an extra hour before it became a crapshoot. I hate that expression since I think I have an edge over most fields in almost any structure, but it still sucks how shallow tournaments eventually get.


For the first 50 minutes I didn't do much(that said we played only 7 hands in 30 minutes I think, so its not like I had many chances to do anything), I think I raise-folded once to Luca, and was left with about 570k

William limped UTG, UTG+1 (Cengizcan) raised to 150k @ 15k/30k/3k, I look down in middle position with Kings and shove, it folds around to Cengizcan who has to call 422 more when there is like 812 out there. He thinks a while, pulls a coin out, tosses is and sets "call" with Kd2d.

I think KK against K2s is about as good as you can possibly get it in against a suited hand, so I was pretty confident I was going to lose.

Flop: 862 with a diamond, but the turn and river brick and I double to 1.25m

An orbit later, UTG(William) limps, Johan limps, I limp KJo, both blinds complete and theres 171k in the pot

Flop: KJ8cc, William bets 95k about 8-900k deep, I raise to 300k and they all fold. William later told me that he folded KQ but I'm pretty sure he folded KQ more because he didn't want to flip with a combo draw than because he thought I had a monster. Against a range of nut flush draws, gutshot +fd's and pair +fd's that I could reasonably have, KJ and a slightly discounted 88 he has like 39% and is effectively having to put in 800k to win 1.15m, so against that range folding probably marginally correct.  I really thought he'd stack off with KQ in this spot, but even if I know hes folding KQ, I still think raising is likely correct since I doubt hes going to spew too hard on later streets, I think the blinds will often have a hand they can peel profitably with and folding out hands with equity is pretty huge when theres already so much in the pot and I can likely still stack J8/K8 from the blinds when I might not if I just called.

Anyways, this put me up to 1.4m good for chiplead with 7 left, avg was like 930k or something.

One thing I never used to do, and rarely do online is basically play a hand where I know multiple plans are reasonable I can basically just try to soul-read to sway it in one direction.

A good example from the final table bubble that I left out was against Florian, blinds were 8k/16k/2k, Johannes Strassman told me Florian is pretty good, mathematical, has a fairly similar style to me.

Anyways, he opened to 38k in the CO in a spot where I thought it was pretty good for him to open light(given how quiet he had been and stack sizes/players behind), he was like 530k deep, I decided with small pairs, ok suited aces etc I'd just jam, and looked down at AJ. I think there is a chance he can 4bet light, and I may be giving myself too much credit, but I think I'll be reasonable at guessing when he is and isn't 4betting light. I make it 120k, with the intention of sometimes calling it off, sometimes folding. At this point neither can be a huge mistake, and since I was pretty confident he was rarely calling(given Johannes' description) I thought this was better.

Anyways, at the final table, a similar hand happened, I make it 105k HJ -1 and Holger(Tonding on 2+2) makes it 320k out of the small blind. He recently doubled to about 900k and is probably 3rd or 4th/7.

I had TT here and although I don't fare particularly great against his range, I think when he makes that clearly committing reraise(rather than like 270k) combined with how he acted, I can slightly discount monsters from his range, I think his most likely hands are pairs similar to mine(99-JJ) and AK, I figured he'd probably have QQ+ more often than 88-, but it wasn't outside the realm of possability he'd 3bet like 66-88 sometimes. I also thought AQ, AJs, KQs were possabilities, but the later hands were probably discounted. Basically I should just save the rambling and say I put him on AK, I can't imagine my hand does fantastically against his range(I'd guess I'm marginally behind, but not enough to fold with how much money is out there)

I get it in, he has AKo and wins to be the massive chipleader and I'm down to 6/7 with just under 500k.

Here I go super card-dead, William busts and I hover around 400k. I had Q7o UTG and 64o on the button each with 9-10BB that were close spots where I could have made a case for shoving, but in general my cards were really bad and most people have seen the TV coverage from last year so they think I'm loco.

I shove a few hands during the hour and a bit when I was short before blinds go to 25k/50k/5k

I folded the button the very last hand, and shoved the CO this hand, and the BB calls 87s thinking I was shoving any 2. I had AQ and hold. I then jam QTs, A8o, AJo and Q5o, then resteal A9o within the next like 6-8 hands and am up to like 1.2m again. I think I did a pretty good job of acting as if I was cardracking even more than I was, after the first few shoves, I would just kind of laugh and say something stupid like "it worked so well last time" that clearly no one would say when they are shoving light. 

Anyways, blinds went to 30k/60k, I was like 3rd/5 after Luca busted and a little below average.
Sandra won just about every pot and went from 400k-1.2m pretty quickly, I raise folded one hand and was down to like 950k or something

Holger opens UTG in a spot where I thought he'd be opening light(he had been looking at stacks, asked me for my stack size, and it was immediately after Sandra had won so many pots, he actually had AJ though), I jam the button with KJo, Sandra calls out of the SB with TT, and I lose to bust out 5th

She busts Johan like 2 hands later to go from like 400k -4m in like 12 hands

After busting I was pretty tilted, but got over it pretty quickly

I was pretty happy with my play throughout the tournament, and really glad I binked that 4 outer on the river for my tournament life on day 1.

Alright, I stopped recording my hands after day 2, but I didn't play too many exciting hands so I'll go by the stars blog and memory for the most part. My friends co-worker recorded the final table, so if that works out maybe I'll be able to write up Day 4 a little more accurately.

This was my worst sleep of the trip(and I never slept well), I went to bed at 3:30 and woke up, stayed in bed trying to get back to sleep for what seemed like ages, looked up at the clock, and say it was 7:19 and play didn't begin for like 7 hours. With the TV delays and whatnot, today could be a really long day too. With 34 players left, I thought there were about 5 very good players left in the field, and none were at my table. Luca Pagano was 2 to my left, but I feel like anyone who has cashed 10 live tournaments out of a series that has only had 44 events(and I doubt anyone has played them all) isn't going to fuck with me too badly. I also had Sandra to my left who I had heard will try being agressive, but won't want try too hard to fuck with me(I was 5th/34, she was like 3rd). Other than that we had like 2 shortstacks and a bunch of Italians which isn't bad

Anyways, I was at the TV table which usually means people won't play back at you as much(95% of people try not to look stupid on TV), so despite being really card dead I was able to more or less maintain my stack. People dropped very quickly and after 2 levels we went from 34 to 19, and average stack was about 351, so I was probably middle of the pack with about 360. The final table was playing extremely slowly, at one point we played 7 hands in 30 minutes. I requested to the tournament staff that when they have the redraw at 16, if its at all close as to which table is the TV table to put me on the non-TV table. Even though people will play a little better off of TV, I'd rather get 30 hands than 20 hands an hour. They informed me its a stars sponsored even which means that the TV table is formed around where the Stars pros are rather than where I was.

Anyways, onto my first hand

5k/10k/1k Antes, we are 6 handed, UTG limps(he has to be chipleader, has like 900k) UTG+1 jams for about 220 or 230k, I look down at AKo and jam, everyone else folds and he flips over ATs(earlier on he had open raised to 70k of his 200k stack so I thought his range is wider than it should be here) the board comes like Q93J but I manage to hold and am up to 600k, probably about 4th/18 or so.

William Thorson takes his seat and I look to play pretty similarly against him as I did against Lellouche(especially since Sandra and Luca aren't the type to cold 4bet), I basically look to 3bet him for semi-value(is that a real term?) a lot.

We got down to 16 before I had a chance to play back at him at all and they redrew so I was off of the TV table. Seat 1 was Sandra, Seat 2 was Marc Gork(he was wearing headphones while reading a book, so he gave off the impression he was kind of a baller), Seat 3 was a Ukranian guy who I knew nothing about, Seat 4 was a young british guy who we talked to the night before and he seemed like he knew what he was talking about. Seat 5 was a very tight Scandinavian kid who apparently satelited in for $7.50, and Seat 6 and 7 were Johan Storakers and Andreas Hoivold, both good tightish/solid Scandinavian players.

Shortly after the level, Seat 4 opened like UTG+1, Seat 5 jammed for 110k at 6k/12k, I reshove QQ and hold against AKs to go from like 650 to 800. I then raise fold one, and 3bet Andreas planning to call a 4bet but get cold 4bet by Mark Gork and lay it down to what he claimed was kings(I later found out he satelited in, but he continued reading his book at the final table, so I still think hes a baller). I was back at like the low 600's.

During the next hour or so, Johan Storakers won KK>QQ and 99>AK to get up to over 1million chips, I decide if there are many spots where I think hes opening light to 3bet him, but I think he was aware of that and continued to play tight-solid, as we got 6 handed.


I had been able to win quite a few small pots in this time and was up to about 850k or so with 12 left

8k/16k/2k
I open HJ to 42k, SB(Ukranian guy) shoves like 130k, I call with AKo, he has A2o, board comes KJ2x2 and the crowd goes nuts. 10 minutes later Johan eliminates him JJ>AQ to get up to like 1.2 or 1.3

Again at 8k/16k/2k

Marc opens HJ to like 38k or so, Florian Langmann(who recently got moved to the table and was like 4-500k deep and I had already 3bet him once and he folded) makes it 100 on the button. I jam the BB with AKo, they both fold and that puts me up to a million.  Shortly after, blinds went up to 10k/20k/2 before a pretty sweet hand came up

Both Marc and Sandra seemed like they might be looking to make a move(I had opened a lot buttons) and I decided I'm almost never raise-folding the button(they had like 19BB each).

10k/20k/2k
I open the button with AsTs to 50k, Sandra makes it 150 in the SB with 220 behind
I jam, she folds and I'm up to like 1.1m

Next orbit she had 230k in the BB, I have Q6o in the SB and raise to 200k, she thinks a minute or two and says call, ready to expose her hand. Johan says "wait wait wait" and they count out her 200k and put it in the pot. The flop comes J76, I minbet, she shoves, I tank and call off 10k more. She has ATo and hits the A to put me at like 850k. I resteal once or twice more and get up to 956k going into the final 9. Good for 3rd/9 as they go down to 1 table(not the final table though, thats 8 handed). I request to the tournament staff that they add at 12k/24k level, but they weren't allowed to do that, and we go right into 15k/30k with avg of like 24BB. Last year it was over 50BB. There are a couple ninja stacks at the final table(Florian and Marc Gork each had 10BB) and I know Sandra and pretty much everyone else really wanted to make the final table.

It folds around to the small blind and we are 20BB deep, I think shoving here shows a big profit, but probably isn't the most profitable route, I raise to 80k with J9o, she calls.

Flop: AQ9, I'm not too sure what to think of her range here, online everyones range is so weighted against Ax in spots like these but you never know live. I think she could even just call some pairs preflop, and I think she'll have like QT or something and talk herself into a fold a lot. I bet 100, she makes it 300, and I fold. She likely had JT, but even with Ax I'm not sure I can get it in against that bet since she'll have like A9, Q9, AJ etc so often.

I then open UTG with AQ one hand, Johan calls the BB. Flop: 854dd, I have the best hand here probably <15% of the time here and the same hand maybe another 15%, I don't think I want to go to war, and hes not folding any pair on this flop, so I check it back, turn: 6, he bets, I fold, he shows 77. Eventually Florian busts, and I go into the final table with 746k when avg is like 834k as 4th/8

I guess I wrote a lot for playing almost 0 interesting hands on the day. I've been looking at the comments on my latest video and I'll try to take all of it into account for the next video.

Alright, I get seated at my new table and have one German guy who plays  well 2 to my left with like 55k(he reminded me he took me out of Dortmund last year, and at first am not sure whether he'll want to own me or avoid me)

Anyways 400/800/100

HJ at the table seems really bad, minraises a lot, transparent, basically the type of player who makes it as obvious as possible when hes calling, folding etc, and I decide I'm gonna play almost any pot I can against him(hes like 50k deep)

He opens the HJ to 1600, button calls, I call Jd3d in the BB
Flop: K87dd (pot =6000)
Check, check, button quickly bets 4200 of his 36k stack, I call, HJ folds
Turn: 8 (pot = 14400)
Check, he quickly bets 10200, I don't think people quickly bet big hands on flop or turn, I don't think he ever really has better than KQ here, and I don't think he's going to think I'll semibluff this turn much, plus I just think he has air here sometimes after his timing, I put him in for 20k more, he folds pretty quickly

2 orbits later

500/1000/100
Same guy raises to 2000, I call the BB with 77
Flop: Kh7h6s (pot = 5300)
I bet 4k, he makes it 8k pretty happily, I make it 20k, he jams for 40k, I call and beat aces and am up to like 130, I win KQs v 88 and QJo v 77 against shortstacks to get to 180k.

I then lose 5 consecutive allins( all of them were pretty short and super standard, this is the closest spot).

SB is ilios72 online, hes a 37 year old greek guy, but almost certainly by far the best 37 year old greek in the world. He was talking about equities, fold equity, ranges etc, he definitely at least lurks 2+2 or something, and says he is an instructor for a Greek training site. Anyways, hes quite tight but, but capable of moves(earlier on he raised pre, and bet 3bet the flop allin on a 987ss board with KT) anyways

Ilios has walked me a few times, and limps the SB for 2k at 1k/2k/200
I raise to 7k with 8s8d, he calls about 48k deep

Flop: Q62ss, he checks, I bet 8500, he goes allin, I hate life, hes not one of those guys who will be stubborn and always call after the BB raises a SB limp, think he can have like 66,22, Q8s-QJs, Q9-QJ or something like that, doubt hes limpcalling like Q7o, Q5s etc preflop, and spades that he defended, and likely an A2, A6, likely a 33 or something too since this board doesn't hit my range very hard and he clearly has a lot of fold equity. I call and he has QTo and after I turn a spade, I miss

After the 5 allins, I'm at like 60k, then decide to cooler someone

I raise the button to 5k with 88, SB calls, with 77

Flop: 987 and he check jams and I hold despite a 6 turning

Win a couple other pots and hover around 100-150 around the bubble without really getting many hands

I get moved to a new table, and people seem to want to own me more than avoid me(at my other table when I won QJo against 77, I raise called pretty quickly, so people didn't want to mess with me I guess) so I opt to tighten up.

At 2500/5000/500 I raise the button with AKo 125k, BB is an italian guy who reraised me earlier and showed a 9 jams, I call and somehow hold against QTo after a 5987 board. I win 2 more allins against ninja stacks(AJs>A6o and K5o >A2o) to end day 2 with 337k, good enough for 5th place with 34 left

Alright, figured I'll write up trip reports for the whole tournament, but its not as exciting as you'd think. I am pretty sure I only called one river bet in this tournament, but after thinking more about it, I may have only faced like 2 river bets all tournament, so prepare for some interesting hands.

Alright, day 1 I get a table that looks really really good, it got worse as the day went on, but still was never that difficult. Alright, onto the hands

25/50

Early in the level
UTG+1 raises to 150, I call TdTc UTG+2, 3 guys call in position, both blinds call
Flop: 853hh (pot=1050)
The blinds check, UTG+1 bets 375, I make it 1200, guido looking guy in the SB calls, UTG+1 folds
Turn: Kh (pot=3825),
check, I bet 1800, he folds

This may be a bit too spazzy, but I feel like UTG+1's cbet looks pretty weak, maybe hes just not aware of pot size and thinks 375 is a big bet relative to 150, but I think this cbet is often like 77 or something, and I obviously don't want 3 people calling behind with like 65, A8 and random hearts or something. I also think by raising this flop, I get people to play really faceup, I'm pretty sure the guys behind are rarely continuing with flush draws, and if they are, I'm rarely getting bluffed out of the pot. The guido looking guy in the SB seemed like he wanted to call preflop, so I wasn't prepared to put him on a monster hand, could be like bottom 2, or top and bottom even. On the turn I think he has a flush a decent %, but not nearly enough for the bet to not be profitable, and he could even have called with like 42hh knowing he has a big draw, even if I have a high flush draw, and fold it(I know this doesn't make a ton of sense, but people come up with weird plans for hands).

25/50
HJ opens to 300, I call CO AJo, button calls, SB calls
Flop: A22ss(pot=1250)
Checked to me, I check, checked around
Turn: K, checked to me, I bet 800, button folds, SB calls, HJ calls
River: 2 (pot = 3650), checked to me, I bet 2500, HJ calls with KQo

This hand was pretty sweet, thanks Zeebo

50/100
Stack =22k or so

UTG raises to 300, CO calls, button calls, I call T9dd in the BB
Flop: T8d5 (pot =1250)
Check, UTG bets 500, button quickly calls, I call
Turn: 5d(pot = 2750), check, UTG checks fairly quickly, button bets 1125 with 8500 total, I make it 3k, he calls
River: 8(pot = 8750), I put him in, he calls with TT, oops

I 've thought about this hand as if it were close, but I think its a pretty good bluff, just being results best. Earlier I played a hand against villain where I called his CO raise with 7s9s out of the SB, checkraised the AJ7ss board, and bet the 3d turn and he fairly quickly folded, so hes shown a propensity to call then fold in strange spots without a clear plan. I guess in a live tournament people frequently would check the turn with a decent number of hands they'd checkraise that flop, so maybe its not unreasonable against an avg villain.

Anyays, on the flop I think UTG's cbet could be an over pair, could be like 77, could be just missed overs, I had no idea, theres a lot of reasonable options and button called fairly quickly, I definitely didn't put him on a set, if the guy bet like 900, I might have considered a set, but against a small % bet, I was expecting button to raise alot(he was like 22 and probably European, at the time I thought he was just pretty tight, but as the day went on he played decent) I call since I have the best hand a lot and tons of backdoor draws. The turn gave me more outs, and a reasonable opportunity to represent the 5. I'd guess UTG almost never has trips or better, and the button also very rarely has trips or better. We check to the button who bets 1125, I think about shoving rather than getting in a shit spot if I get 3bet, but realized people aren't 3betting 7d6d, AT etc, and 3k looks stronger. I still think I have the best hand occasionally, but UTG could still have like QTs, JJ etc, the button often will have either a similar strength hand, or like QT-AT I thought, and checkraised with the plan of shoving the river. The river was weird since some guys could think I'm not valueshoving a 5, but I still think hes 3betting the flop almost always with a 5, and there are few enough combos of T8, TT,88,55 that I think a shove here is good. It wasn't

100/200

My stack ~8500

UTG+1 opens to 525, I make it 1325 on the button with AKo, he jams after we did the exact same thing last orbit, I fold

Kinda curious about this hand, but at this point am pretty happy with the fold. Either last orbit or the orbit before we had the exact same thing happen(I had 98s though and just folded), this time I just planned on soulreading him, and he just kind of looked like he knew it was a shove from the start, he just wanted to take some time. He didn't have the look of "wtf" that most people(myself included) would have on their face if they had like JJ or AK, but I wasn't exactly discounting them, I just think his range was pretty weighted towards good hands.

130/300/25

My stack = 15k
I raise AJo to 800 UTG+2, HJ calls
Flop: AJ9r (pot = 2275)
I bet 1300, HJ calls
Turn: 3d putting out 2 flush(pot = 4875)
I bet 2700, he asks how much I have back and makes it 8k. I feel like this hand might be foldable, but I think to myself "quit trying to hero fold Mike, and don't make it look like you're slowrolling him" and get it in after like a minute.
River: J and I beat 99, sick life

Meh, its pretty ridiculous how big of folds can be made when you get played back at by certain guys, but if you altered the rules of poker to either 1) you aren't allowed to call AK preflop 2) if you chop the pot you lose the pot or 3) there was no money in the pot already, I would have happily folded this happily(errr not happily, but would have folded it,  made a similar fold last year www.pokernews.com/news/2008/01/he-said-she-said-vol-06-timex-ept-dortmund.htm, but last year I was a little less concerned by the idiot factor than this hand)

300/600/75
My stack = 30k, Anthony Lellouche is HJ with 20k

HJ opens to 1500, I make it 4200 on the button with Ks7s, HJ calls

Flop: 932ss(pot=9975)
He bets like 4800, I jam his last 10k in, he calls with 54o and I hold

I knew Lellouche liked calling 3bets very wide, so I never wanted to 3bet him with air, only hands that I think fair well against his extremely wide opening range, and I think I have a fair bit of protection against 4bets since he knows I'm not an idiot and will look him up pretty light. Postflop is standard, but it was pretty sweet

300/600/75
HJ-1 opens to 1600, I call 77 HJ, BB calls
Flop: QT2r(pot = 5700)
checked to me, I check
Turn: 3 putting out a 2 flush
Checked to PFR he bets 2600, I call, BB folds
River: 5(pot = 10900)
He bets 7k, I think "wow, I wonder if he realizes just how terrible bluffing here is", slap myself and realize of course he doesn't and call and he instantly folds. Perhaps my read on him was wrong, but I don't think he was raising many hands preflop that don't beat KJ on that board, so I'm pretty sure he just barreled like AK or AJ or something that is almost certainly too good to be bluffing. This was the only river bet I paid off to my knowledge,  gonna write up day 2 tomorrow



I also wanted to talk a little bit about how emotionally involved I get in tournaments. After the final table I wrote up a ranting blog post entitled "fuck my life" but quickly deleted it. I by no means think I run bad, and probably can't think of a poker player who has done better than me and is significantly worse than me without having done well in the main event. There may be a few, but I realize I run good, I just get really into tournaments and its not even really about the money. The next day after the final table, I woke up and was actually pretty happy, just its disappointing to play for 30 hours, have perhaps the best opportunity of my life to freeroll life(no one has ever won 2 EPTs, or successfully defended a million dollar score) and just lose because the structure is mediocre, and even with the mediocre structure I have a pretty significant edge. I realize its not huge, but I just wish there was a way that the small mistakes would add up quicker to at least have some effect on the end result of the tournament rather than just getting to a stage where the winner of the tournament would have won had anyone else been dealt their cards.

I was thinking about this, and its pretty similar to diehard sports fans watching crucial sports games where their team comes up short. People talk about big games decades later(I still remember how disappointed I was when the Canadian hockey team lost to Czech in the semi finals of the 1998 Olympics), and I wasn't nearly as into hockey as some people. It shouldn't really matter to me whether they win or lose, and often times having your team come 2nd is far better than you'd predict, it just puts yourself in situations to be more disappointed. You aren't pissed off that your team cames 2nd and just being a sore loser, you've just had enough emotional build-up that the further they get, the more disappointed you get. The same was the case deep in this tournament, I'm not mad at how unlucky I am, 5th is actually a great result and will probably be my best result of 2009, I just had gotten so into it that its emotionally devastating when it comes to and end. Alright, not too sure how much I have to add, but at this point I don't care too much that I busted, but the day of I was pretty damn tilted


Oh, and my first video of my new series is up, feel free to watch it

Alright, I got my passport in time and managed to make it to Dortmund pretty easily. On the way here I read the book "The Wealthy Barber" (its a pretty simple investing book, kind of like the Canadian "rich dad poor dad"). The author is from Waterloo, and it basically is the author's story about how he decided he wanted to become wealthy and talked to his local barber who put away money, earned good returns and became a millionaire cutting hair. It was written in 1989(before I was even born) so it is kind of outdated I guess.

It basically talks about how you can turn small investments into large amounts of money over time by learning 10-12% interest, and this book has sold 2 million copies since that was news to people in 1989. My mom is an accountant, and my dad has always been an amateur investor who probably knows more than any professional investor I've talked to. When I grew up, my parents always stressed how important saving was(probably from reading books like this) and there wasn't a ton of new info in the book. My point more or less was that in the story, the barber has maintained a huge rate of return over a large number of years and compound interest made him very wealthy. The economic times that enabled growth like that are VERY similar to the state of poker.

Back in highschool when I played limit, I learnt from reasonable sources, won very consistently, could teach friends how to beat online games in a few hours, and in general, times were good enough it was almost impossible to lose. Anytime a friend of mine had complaints about their job or money related issues, I felt bad that they hadn't gotten into poker because it was so simple to get to the point where you could make more at poker than at a minimum wage job. The same goes for the state of the economy in the book; anyone who has reasonable investments would feel bad for their friends who didn't since it was just variance-free consistent income.

Nowadays after being much more successful at poker than I was in 2005, people who know me are much more tempted to get into poker than they were when I was earning like 1k a month in high school because my success gives off the illusion that times are better. In actuality to most people I don't really recommend getting into poker since it takes a large number of hours to get to the point where you can beat the smallest games, and 100,000's of thousands of hands before you can get to the point where you are playing reasonably big games if you follow proper bankroll management. Even if you do succeed at this, potential win rates are MUCH lower than they once were. Again, the same seems to be the case with the economy; now that everyone has seen how much money the guys who have earned 12% a year for 30 years have made, it seems pretty tempting to want to think thats still sustainable. I don't know what is a reasonable rate of growth, but I'm pretty sure its nowhere near what most people think. Actually I'm not that confident, I just feel like most people hate the idea of not matching previous results(whether it be having to drop down in poker, or accepting that investments won't be as profitable).

I'm not too sure where I'm going with this, money doesn't even really matter that much anyways, I'd probably rather be living now losing money investing than going mega-robusto 50 years ago. Reading this book, I just spent the whole time thinking about the changes that have happened in poker in the last 4-5 years rather than actually thinking about how well I could do investing.

Anyways, I played day 1 of Dortmund, I'm 9/252(650 or so started) right now, I'll probably write up some of my hands later