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...

TwiceT

Joined: 15.07.2007

Posts: 4,451

28.11.2011, 01:35 0

Dear JB, grumpyGrandpa, Professor!

I feel honoured making the following blog post and I take my hat off to you Professor. This is one of the most entertaing blogs (probably even nr1) in our community with already 4000 posts

I don't necessarily admire your decision becoming a Math Prof @ Uni or your Chess, Uno or Monopoly skills.
However, I do like your style of writing, how you approach blogging and your overall life-gameplan.

It is impressive to see you being a role model and an inspiration for so many in our community. Your mindset is great and your balls must be huge:
Living everything BUT a baller poker pro lifestyle, pursuing a badly paid and undervalued job in a country where the weather sucks 365days/year while having a family that is testing your tilt resistance level to the maximum on a daily basis AND STILL managing to take on all those challenges with pride and confidence & simultaneously learning to swim in the pool of poker.

You are doing a great job of balancing all your responsibilities and I do believe all your Poker efforts are worth it in the end resulting in many $$$, a high level of confidence in your game, a certain degree of enlightenment and -last but not least- an excellent book.

You sir are a true ambassador of our community. :f_cool:

Follow me on Snapchat and Twitter @Tw1ceT
The Education of a Modern Poker Player by TwiceT, jbpatzer & EmanuelC16

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TheLastNail

Joined: 30.05.2008

Posts: 1,805

28.11.2011, 04:40 0

♦

indeed grats, good job. Unique person, ve been following infrequently, always found lost in many of the British jokes and weird gameformats ♦

hat off

-life is not abt finding urself, it's abt creating urself-

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jbpatzer Topic starter

Joined: 23.11.2009

Posts: 6,972

28.11.2011, 10:36 0

Thanks chaps. This place is the complete opposite of my house. There, everyone's mean to me, even though I'm really nice to them, and here I'm mean to everyone, and everyone's nice to me....except for Toby and Boris ofc.

I like TT's idea of playing some NLHE on PH. I'm going to grind PL 5CD for the rest of the month so that I can get gold star on Pokerstars, but next month, I can imagine playing two or three tables of 5CD on my laptop, and a couple of tables of PH NLHE on my other monitor, if I can be arsed to get it out. Sounds like a good way to get back into Holdem. I just hope HEM and PokerHands don't get into a fight and hurt each other. A quick calculation suggests that I could get platinum on PS next month if I stuck with 5CD, but tbh, I can't really see the point.