Midlife Crisis? What Midlife Crisis?

jbpatzer · 2010-06-24T10:48:39Z

After reading endless blogs by students and 20-somethings, some of which are very entertaining, I thought it might be nice to write my own, focussing on the what it's like to try to play poker when you have stuff going on in your life that tends to get in the way. Reading blogs by people like TwiceT just makes me feel simultaneously jealous, old and also relieved that I'm not that young any more (this will only make sense to the over 40's). I have a) A wife b) Three kids, ages 3, 8 and 15. Anyone like to guess which one is the most troublesome? c) A full time job d) 44 years of wear and tear, both mental and physical, to cope with. e) An unfortunate tendency to compile lists. About me --------- I'm a maths professor at a British University. I'm not going to say which, as I want to stay anonymous. I'd be horrified if any of my students worked out that this is me. However, it's a very good university, and if you do work out which one it is, you should definitely encourage your teenage children to come here. I specialise in mathematical methods and modelling, mainly continuum mechanics, but I'm trying to learn some game theory in a feeble attempt to improve my poker (more on this later). I used to be a keen and quite good sportsman (cricket and badminton) but dodgy ankles have recently caught up with me, and I'm slowly expanding (think Jabba the Hut!). Poker does not help much in this regard. I've always been interested in games. My grandparents taught me a rummy-like game called Kalooki (just googled this and found there's a web site! Can't believe it!) and we used to play for Licourice Allsorts, so I suppose I have a history of gambling from an early age. Remember, no video games and no internet when I was a kid. I also used to play Bridge (badly) when I was a teenager, mainly because my friend and I could play at the Bridge evening at our local tennis club when we were too young to get into the pub, and get served at the bar (50p a pint!). There was one memorable occasion when we went to the Young Chelsea Bridge Club (so many wanky posh kids there!) to play a duplicate tournament, and my mate wandered off to the bar mid game, and had to be dragged off the fruit machine claiming he was too pissed to carry on. We finished exactly half way and earned Bridge Master Points. Who says it's a game of skill! Anyway, I haven't played Bridge for years, but I've always been a keen chess player and still turn out for my local team (current grade 170 BCF = 2000 ELO for those who know about these things. County standard for those who don't.). Edit: For all you Americans, 'pissed' means drunk. We say 'pissed off' when you say 'pissed'. Me and Poker ------------- I always thought that poker was a game invented in Westerns as an excuse for people to shoot each other, and that it was now mainly played by Texans in silly hats and gangsters. Of course, I was right, but it turned out that normal people can have fun playing it too. I discovered this last August when my brother-in-law showed me that you could play Zynga poker on Facebook. I quickly became hooked, and after about 6 weeks could even reliably remember that a full house beats a flush. I have a shed load of books on chess, so it seemed only natural to get some on poker. Started with the books by Harrington (brilliant!) and Moshman (also brilliant, but what a dreadful writer. His style makes the average scientific paper look like it was written by Nick Hornby.). Then found I could win tons of chips on Zynga using Moshman's SnG tactics. I decided it was time to play for money. I deposited $50 on 888 poker, nearly lost all of it immediately, but fluked my way into 3rd place in a new depositer's freeroll for $50. Managed to build my BR up to $100 playing cash and SnGs, then withdrew my initial $50, and haven't deposited since. This is an essential element, as my wife thought I was going to become addicted to gambling and throw away all our money. I assured her that I am addicted to poker, not gambling. This does however mean that my BR management is very conservative, as I will be in big trouble with her if I ever have to redeposit, and I want to keep my gonads intact for now. Discovered pokerstrategy.com last November, eagerly claimed my $50, and started playing on FT. I've tried lots of different games on there and had some success with super turbos, rush and steps. I also continued playing on 888 and came 2nd for $150 in a $2 MTT. Once my bankroll reached $350, I deposited on Pokerstars and, inspired by chenny's TableNinja video, have been 12 tabling $3.40 SnGs to try to clear my bonus ($110 so far, and as a nice side effect, gold status. I'm going to have a break to read some gold articles and watch some gold videos over the next couple of weeks). After trying lots of different formats, I feel I want to concentrate on SnGs and MTTs...

doctorkgb

Joined: 01.04.2009

Posts: 1,263

04.04.2012, 13:27 0

Originally posted by jbpatzer

Originally posted by EmanuelC16
You do look like a future prof, Prof!

Btw, you are not racist if you hate Romanians... we are the same eurofish race as you.. I think the word is xenophobic.

Xenophobic. Yes, that's the word. Bloody foreigners correcting my English! :f_mad:[/quote

lol

His English is surprisingly good, actually. Yours JB as well.
My English is like my poker skills. I think I know how to play, but people are thinking like

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BOBOsvk

Joined: 14.02.2010

Posts: 1,072

04.04.2012, 21:26 0

Originally posted by jbpatzer
I just opened up Facebook, and two more of my old school photos have turned up. I wasn't going to bother you all with another one, but this one is a classic so I had to post it. You can just tell exactly what everybody is like. I reckon we're all about 15.

I also stumbled across the audio of my old headmaster ranting about respect for cleaners. He loved a rant, god bless him. I expect they weren't all Romanians then.

Spoiler

Yes, I am an evil racist! My secret is out! HAHAHAHAHA! ♠_evil:

And btw:

1) It's snowing! Last week I was contemplating putting my shorts on. Wtf!
2) I finally listened to Pendulum today. I quite like them, but no guitars?? Wtf!
3) I think I'm reacting badly to pre chess nerves by overblogging (new word invented). Wtf!

I should study but I am reading this, to comment on your photo from the top left:

Chemist, Maths Prof, Retard, Manager, Politician, Nurse, Homeless, Teacher

Bus driver, Chemist's work partner, Security guard, Model /retard/ Homeless, No idea, Policeman

Dentist, no idea, no idea, cleaner, secretary, porn business ?, teacher, Chemits' collegue, teacher, secretary

Am I right ?

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jbpatzer

Joined: 23.11.2009

Posts: 6,972

05.04.2012, 09:25 0

Lol. Mainly wrong. When I said 'You can tell just exactly what everybody is like' I should have said 'as long as you're not Boris'. I'll give you a list of professions I know and you can try to fit them to the picture if you like.

Ship broker (still my best mate)
Civil servant
Solicitor
Lesbian (not sure that's a profession, but I like to think it is)
Photographer
Oil company manager
Class bully (probably a policeman or a dentist now)
Maths prof
Airline pilot (me and him used to open the bowling for the school cricket team)
Violinist
Architect

It was the big chess match last night. We drew, so we only managed to come second in the league. Still a good effort as they outgraded us heavily on all but the top board. The most frustrating thing was that our bottom board managed to turn a clear win (mate in 4) into a draw, and then lose it on time. A draw would have won us the match and the league. :f_mad: I can't grumble (although I think I just did) because I lost too. I was just outclassed really. I looked up the line I played afterwards, and my book said '11....e5 is often played by amateurs, but it gives white a nagging initiative'. Bollocks! That's just what he got. I defended manfully, but he managed to swap off all the pieces, and in this position

I thought 'Oh! I should have had a look to see what the pawn ending is like for me. Oh shit!' and resigned. Ho hum. I had a quick chat and analyse with him afterwards and discovered that (a) he's graded about 2200, (b) he played in the 4NCL (that's the big national chess league) at the weekend, (c) he knew I play the Alekhine and looked up a line to play 'in the nearest copy of New In Chess that he had lying around'. In contrast (a) I'm graded about 2050, (b) I played poker and shouted at the kids a lot at the weekend, (c) I thought he'd probably know that I play the Alekhine, but all I have lying around my house is Nerf gun bullets and pictures of princesses. At least I don't have to play again until September, and that's if I decide to carry on. I'd rather play poker, but they'd miss me if I go. Maybe I can persuade goldchess and dublimax to relocate to Leicestershire and play for my team so that I can go play poker instead. That would work.