Poker and Personality – Revelations

To hone poker skills, I have recently started reading books about the logic and history of poker and getting involved with ‘free bar poker’. There is a striking similarity among most of the poker literature, i.e. there is no easy way to win money, even if there is one….poker is definitely not it. On the contrary, if you are too casual about poker you can definitely help yourself to bankruptcy. Similar to any other game, poker deals with skills, especially with skills of knowing your cards, knowing your position and reading your opponent. The good news is that these skills can be learned and mastered with a certain effort. I don’t think knowing math, game theory or advanced statistics would really help coz at the end theories always revolve around the winners, who happen just to know how to do it. It is purely for academic purposes that we tend analyze and over analyze playing ability of a ‘pro’.

Gist of my observations and literature review, a tournament can be divided into three stages (about 40-50 people/5-6 tables) i.e. early stages, middle stages and final table. Each stage is distinctly different from others and needs a different mindset. There is tons of available literature on how to play during these stages and I would recommend reading Harrington’s or Brunson’s book for learning more about it. What is missing is these books are your mindset during those phases. This blog is to help beginner to intermediate poker players to understand the basic mindsets.

During early phase, be relaxed and have an open mind about people. Early stages are the first four blind raises. During early stage, the blinds are small; more people want to see the flop, some aggressive players and ‘suck outs’ take good hands. Follow the order cards……position….opponent. Poker is the last place where you want preconceived notions about a player on that particular day. BE PATIENT and seldom bluff. This is time where you can really establish your table image. This is the stage where you can gauge your table and opponents for a very cheap price. Firstly, play premium hands, secondly play by position. If you are only 2-3 positions away from big blind (in a 9 player table) you raise with a strong hand any hand not worthy of a raise should be strongly considered for a fold. There is no limping at these positions if you don’t have the right cards you ‘fold’. If you are under the gun or small blind you can limp in with a ‘call’. If you are big blind with marginal hand you ‘check’. if there is no raise during the round and only three people are involved in the game, you raise with a good hand (suited connectors or small pair). Well, these are only recommendations, as you keep playing you are bound to get more creative, both your play style and your mindset. Mantra: “A tight player with loose tongue is much better than loose player with a tight tongue”

During middle stages try to steal a few pots with your earlier image. Follow the order cards…opponent…..position. Notice that the difference between the early stage and middle stage is the shift in ranking between opponent and position. Since you have already established a table image and have taken mental notes on players, now you can play the player with your hand rather than the flop. During early stages, you have identified players and their playing pattern. Try to build momentum during middle phase, which doesn’t mean winning lot of pots, but winning few good pots. Try not to get involved in hands that don’t give you pot odds. This phase requires lot more attention to betting patterns and hands being dealt on the board. If possible get an energy drink and stay focused. As soon as it is down to 12 or so players you need to push the ‘gas pedal’ hard and get into the top 5-6 position. If you are already in number one position, take time to read other peoples game. It costs about 1.5 times big blind for every 9 hands/ (roughly about 30 minutes of game time).Time is worth more to you at this stage and that 30 minutes could well push you into MONEY. Mantra: “Chip and a Chair”- don’t bet all your chips with second best hand.

Once you reached the final stages and have avoided the suck-outs, you are in for good game. The final stages begin when the field is reduced to 2 (from initial 5-6 tables) tables. Take a small break and have some light conversation other than poker with other players. Look around, these are the players you will be playing in long run. In final stages you will see/encounter more bluffs, weak calls and bad beats. At this stage follow the order position, opponent and cards. All your hard work in the earlier stages to build your image will pay you off, this is definitely time to change a gear or two and induce “semi-bluffs” as you game strategy. You will seldom see more than 3 players getting involved in a hand. Some players just steal blinds while others are very patient. Get your full focus on the game. If you snooze even for one minute, the chances are that you will lose a big stack of chips. Right about where the money starts to come, people play really tight, your mindset should be to be “Very tight and aggressive” with big stack guys and “tight and aggressive” with low stack guys. If two big stack guys are playing this is the best part to learn about their cards and reactions that too with no cost for you. When you are not in hand, try to put your best guess on the opponents hand and simulate the hand play in your mind. The best way to approach a tournament is to build your attention span during the entirety of the tournament. With sporadic and distracted attention during the early stages to very vigilant on final table. If breathing techniques help you I highly recommend that you put them to use when you are not in a hand. Finally, I want to repeat myself “there is no easy way to win money, even if there is one poker is definitely not it”. It is a game and you MUST treat your play time with respect.

Three things that you would give up for Grad School

In order to orient new graduate students, the Graduate School arranges a panel of speakers from experienced students to share their opinions about graduate school life. The panel includes students pursuing degrees in diverse disciplines and at different phases of their degrees, as in near completion or initial stages. It was a real pleasure and privilege to be part of such an elite panel. Of the twelve questions, the one that set my thought process racing was “What are the three things that you would give up for Grad School?”

Serving on the panel for the first time, my answer to that question was very vague and was not even worth remembering the answers. However, the second time around, the question seemed like the one that I need to address myself. So I set about keeping a rough tab of how I spend my day and what would it be other than research that takes the most of the time. To my complete disbelief the first item on the list was “internet browsing” followed by "sleep time". These were the tangibles, the one that was intangible was my own “Ego”. It was my own unwillingness to accept new ideas and lack of vision to see equality in fellow researchers.

First things first, my thoughts about the biggest distraction of all is “internet browsing”. This addiction started as a pastime with viewing few sites of interest like BBC, blogging, mail check and social networking sites. For the news feed sites, an inquisitive mind and the unstable thought imposed an imaginary ‘responsibility’ of reading an entire site followed by comments. Considering that average reading speed is about 250 wpm, it would take anywhere from 5-10 minutes to read an entire article on web. However, this one article could be biased, so to find the truth I went about reading 2-3 articles from other authors about the same story. Effectively (may be not) utilizing 30 minutes of research time (without counting the loading speed and other distractions). Well this is only one topic. As the time progressed my curiosity increased and sometimes ended up reading about 20 other important happenings around the world. To be brutally honest, after updating my universal knowledge I went about refreshing short term memories by visiting social networking sites. Thanks to the wonderful web developers, we get to know about all the action in our friends lives in a live feed. As per my observations, a student with 150 or more friends in his network and with 5 of them online spends at least about an hour on networking site. Not but not the least the minor ingredients of browsing include blogging, mail checking and picture uploading. All together we are looking at sometime between 3-4 hours, just to satisfy our social urges. Assuming that a grad student starts his lab hours at 8am, browsing alone will bring the time closer to lunch. Like any other addiction it takes meticulous and conscious effort to carry out the action. And this would be my number one and relatively easier one to give up.

The second biggest factor that I would give up is “sleep time”. The term sleep doesn’t pertain to necessary sleep time, but is loosely used for all the times that you are thinking that you should be more productive, that you are lazy, when you are thinking about how to postpone the experiment for another day, about the time when you start thinking about lunch and other social events, hours prior to the actual events. This sleep time accounts for about 1-2 hours of your research time. Personally tried and tested approach to this problem is rather eloborate, however for simplicity it can be considered as a three teir approach. First, think about the experiments in hand atleast 6-8 hours prior to the experiment. May seem odd at first but works like a charm later on. Second, try to collaborate with fellow researchers to work on experiments. Thirdly, write a check list and meticulously keep track of progress. I guess prioritizing will greatly help, but the whole topic about priorities is not clearly understood by me (yet) and for simplicity and integrity of blog will leave it out of discussion. However, once you start following the three tier process the results will speak for themselves. Note: I strongly recommend at least 6 hours of sleep on a regular schedule. If you can’t do this on a 5 day work schedule, you better get some help from experts.

Thirdly and the most important of all it’s the EGO. This is not as tangible as others, is not easily understood by lesser mortals and worse yet not realized by majority of the students. But yet it is the single most important factor that puts us behind the curtain and isolates us from world around us. It is the ‘one thing’ that makes you deaf to others suggestions, blind to others work, mute to offer constructive criticism and disabled to employ help. Put together you get the picture……..you have arrested development. I’m not an expert to advice on how to deal with problems related to EGO, but being on the same boat can definitely see its intricate and subtle nature. It is winded into each and every action of mine, into every word I speak. There is no remedy since its part of me, and in broader sense it ME. The very thought of eliminating it leaves ME with no identity. The solution then, as it appears to me, is through proper education. It’s only through education that you can train your mind to hear and anticipate greater good. The thought that we are not alone in this world and only when all these souls work together can greater good be achieved. It’s through education that we learn it’s not through mere submission to others ideas but inquisitiveness to hear the idea.

If the question was what are the three things that you would give up……..then the answers are above. But the question is much deeper than that…..it is how open you are to learning and exploring yourself, it’s about how you can educate yourself to solve a puzzle larger than life. Then graduate school is just a phase of life, where we can invest quality time in ourselves. Welcome to Graduate School!!!

Raja’s brialliance tamed the RedBulls

In the clash of the titans - positive attitude, hunger combined with brilliance of Raja gave Assassins their claim to ISA CUP ’08.While dropped catches and miscalculations costed RedBulls the cup. It is very rare to see one player to have such a dominating effect on the match and the much deserved kudos go to Raja. He put brakes on RedBulls scoring with wonderful bowling and lifted Assassins to victory with calculated batting filled with strokes of luck.

RedBulls innings never got the momentum going, and in the end was short by atleast 5 to 10 runs. Praveen and Shakti started the innings with wonderful excellent running between the wickets. However, shakti’s stay at crease was cut short by good catch at covers. Praveen scored two consecutive boundaries but was run out in the same over. With Shiva, Sushanth and Piyush scoring no runs it put further dent in the RedBulls scoring rate. The icing on the cake was Vinay’s continued dominance with bat. He dismissed bowlers with ease and scored boundaries all around the wicket. Rana played perfect foil to Vinay and the duo propelled Redbulls to competitive score. However, intelligent bowling and athletic fielding from Assassins kept the RedBulls under control. A late onslaught from Vivek gave further twist to the already gripping match. At the end of first innings RedBulls were in driver’s seat with a formidable total of 74 from 10 runs.

Nayan started the innings with a boundary, but was fell to precision and control of Rana. Raja was welcomed to the crease with a dropped catch of the very first ball, which in the end proved to be the deciding point of the game. Assassins, particularly Vinayak, showed positive chasing approach and belted Sushanth and Vinay for 26 runs in 2 overs. Vivek and Piyush did well to control the scoring rate. Vivek was particularly impressive with his miserly spell. Vinayak chose his shots well, but fell to good bowling from Piyush. Benny and Raja continued taking singles and pushing the score board. Assassins were in Cruise mode through midway of their innings, scoring boundaries and singles with ease. At the critical phase of the game the equation was 20 required of 18 balls. Vivek bowled a maiden 8th over and gave RedBulls the slight advantage. Rana’s bowling was turning point of the game, during which Redbulls failed to latch onto catches from Phani and Raja. He induced four catches from the first four balls in the penultimate over, but missed chances meant runs instead of dot balls and wickets. With 9 required from 6 balls, RedBulls again missed an opportunity of a runout in the very first ball of Vinay’s over. Raja outplayed Vinay with clean hitting and scoring boundaries of successive balls. The final score card read “Assassins won with 7 wickets in hand with two balls to spare”.

In the battle of nerves, RedBulls once again failed to latch onto chances, while Assassins showed lot of character in overcoming a formidable total. In the end it was Raja, riding his luck for first few moments of his stay once, who guided Assassins to the trophy.

Congratulations Assassins……..winners of ISA CUP ‘08

Red Bulls outsmarted by Assassins………ISA Cup ‘08 unveils itself

The ISA CUP is one of the prestigious accolade one can expect to receive for cricket from K-State. This year there are four teams, each team unique in its approach and perspective. One of the teams had passion and competetiveness, while the other had talent and raw power. Of the two underdogs one team has a distinct international flavor, while the fourth team has courage and spirit to upset the big guns. Of the league games our game (Team Red Bulls) Vs. Assassins was billed as crowd pulling/entertaining game. And this certainly lived upto the expectations…….as the final scorecard read “Assassins won by two runs”. It was neither a high scoring drama nor bowlers death trap, but a delicate balance of both.

Assassins won the toss and elected to bat. Their objective was to set a decent target and depend on their quality bowling attack to win the game. Nayan (opener) started the game with a superb cut for four and set scorecard in motion. However Rana’s accurate bowling and Praveen’s athletic fielding fetched two successive wickets and scoring almost came to a halt. In midst of all the calm overs, the two quick wickets and being caught in the excitement, RedBulls conceded an extra over of powerplay allowing Raja to score 12 runs in the final over of field restrictions. At the half time (9 overs) the game was evenly poised with scorecard reading 52-2. Raja fell to a reverse sweep, courtesy of a well choreographed and athletic catch from Sushanth. Vinayak followed the suit with a caught behind. This brought Samuel and Pritish to the crease. Sushanth and KLN continued their good form with the ball and kept batsman at bay. After14th over that the batsman started freeing their arms, and in the process scored about 30-35 runs the next three overs. RedBulls did well to restrict Assassins to final score of 122-5. Although the fielding of RedBulls was a lot better than their previous outing, the Assassins found a way to make runs.

Redbulls fresh from their belting the minnows for 203 runs started the run chase in a calculated fashion. Praveen on top of his game and Vivek promoted to opening slot, made runs with ease. Vivek fell to a simple catch at point and prompted Vinay to the crease. Vinay with his clean hitting and excellent running between executed a prefect run chase. Praveen fell to an excellent catch at point by Sandeep. Shiva took time to settle down before taking cheeky singles. Vinay was still in ‘cruise’ mode scoring boundaries with ease. Shiva joined the run fest scoring 12 off Phani’s gently pace. The score at the half time was 72-2. With plenty of batting to come and Vinay well set, RedBulls were well on their way to win the game. However, Pritish returning from leg injury and Raja with his precise bowling had other plans. The duo gave only 12 runs in the next four overs and got four wickets, including the price scalp of hard hitting Vinay and Rana. On the other end, Shiva upped the tempo and started scoring freely with drives and reverse sweeps, bringing RedBulls ever so close to victory. Raja outsmarted Shiva and bowled him. Assassins were in with a ‘chance’. Sushanth, known for his ability to finish the game, fell for a mistimed shot and left the game wide open. JD responded well in the pressure situation scoring run a ball. With 8 needed from 6 balls, it was as gripping as it could get. Three runs were scored off five deliveries, needing a boundary off the last ball for a possible draw. Shakti gave his best to score boundary of the full toss ball, but brilliant fielding effort stopped his attempt.

In the end, to like of cricket aficionados and much to Redbulls dismay, the match lived up to the expectations. With three matches to go in the league stage, the finals are still an open spot. If Redbulls can buckle down and get back to business they can look forward for a sweet revenge. While Assassins need to comeup with few more tricks to claim the ISA CUP ’08.

U food science bowl team buzzes way into nat'l contest

http://www.mndaily.com/articles/2005/04/07/64042

Cultures united by passion for cricket

http://www.mndaily.com/articles/2004/05/06/9620

Step-wise guide to assemble an I-Scooter

1. The unit comes in a re-inforced steel cage
2. Carefully remove the top frame and the side bars of the cage (There should be about 8-10 screws holding the unit together.
3. Insert the key and rotate clock wise to open the trunk space (located under the seat)
4. You should find instructions, manual, nuts, bolts, screw driver, spanners and other tools in the trunk
5. The step-wise instruction is, the following sequence is preferred
a. Install front wheel
b. Install the handle
c. Install the front body work
d. Install the side body work
e. Install the seat supporter
f. Install the battery
6. Front wheel Installation. Caution: Do not remove the black plastic cap/holder between the disc plates.
a. The wheel should be on the foot rest
b. Unmount the moped from the cage by simply taking the long screw and two bolts out
c. While one person is holding the moped, carefully place the disc of the wheel into the brake dics (note: the black plastic holder should be taken out right before you place the wheel inbetween the brake disc).
d. Fit the wheel in place by using long screw and bolts that come along with it
7. Handle installation
a. Find the long screw along with two bolts.
b. First bolt should hold the handle in place while the other bolt goes in the back to hold the screw in place. (Caution: This could be very tricky if you are using the tools that come with the bike. I would suggest using a ricochet tool if you have one)
c. Make sure that handle is not wobbly, if it is then try to find a bolt that fits in the handle bar socket (there should be two of them in the kit)
8. Front body work
a. It comes in pieces, one that goes above the wheel (like a mud guard) and one that main frame
b. For the one that goes over the wheel
i. there should be a steel frame to hold it in place. The steel frame goes underneath the cover
ii. There should be three screws that hold it in place.
iii. Attach the cover to the main handle bar
c. Installing main frame involves three bolts on either side and one bolt in the front.

9. Side body work
a. There should be two of them for either sides of I-Scooter
b. Each of them is to be fixed using two sets of nuts and bolts
10. Battery installation involves filling it with fluid and placing it in the groove (in the foot rest). Attach three of the wires (as indicated in manual). The manual instructions are very clear on battery installation.
11. Seat supporter has four bolts holding it in place
12. Fill gas, use electronic remote to start the bike (Caution: do not use kick start or automatic start on the handle, they will not work)

Enjoy your first tank for about 130 miles.……….

I-Scooter: Going 100 miles and beyond on a gallon of gas

With gas prices soaring to over $3.50 one can only wonder how long before we all start using other alternatives. It was my turn to search for other economic alternatives and honestly there were only two other options a road bike or a moped, as it turns out I opted for the latter option of “MOPED”.

After searching for lot of models I decided to go with RoadRunner I-Scooter 50cc moped with a retro look. Can’t get any nerdy I guess!!!!. Of all the websites out there the one with a relatively lower price was http://www.ritz-e-rides.com/. It offers the moped I was interested in for around $800 including shipping and a nominal charge for a helmet. Provided the unit comes partly assembled and is delivered by mail, I wouldnt recommend it for people who just want to kick start and drive right away. Being a novice in motor mechanics I was very reluctant to take any chances. On the other hand, buying the same scooter from near-by showroom would have cost about $1050.

I called Jeff Ritz, owner of the site http://www.ritz-e-rides.com/. Jeff was really helpful in offering his thoughts about owning a moped. He also helped me (over the phone) with a stepwise detail of how to assemble the moped. The bike installation is about 1-3 hours process with 2 people working on it. Belive me, it takes about 5 hours for one person and at the end you are in for a sore back and frustration. It is much easier and fun with two people. All the necessary tools to assemble the moped come with it [Note: Read my next blog “Step-wise guide to assemble an I-Scooter”].

In certain states of the US, mopeds do not require extra insurance, parking permit or additional driving license. All you got to do is get the moped registered and enjoy the ride.

The best part of owning a moped is about finding a parking spot during busy class hours. Previously, I used to wait to find parking spot and spend about 20 minutes or so in the search process. This was very frustrating especially if you had to rush to a class or a meeting. But with I-Scooter I can park it in regular bike rack. This saves me ton of time. Moreover, the bike racks are very conviniently located right next to most of the buildings, so it’s a win win situation.

The real deal of I-Scooter is its mileage. Once you fill the tank about 1.1 gallons, you can rest assured for next 130 miles. With a maximum speed of about 40mph, street riding has never been so much fun. Word of caution though, do not attempt to go over 30mph for first 100 miles or so. It will result in unpleasant engine sounds and could ruin the transmission. For the first 200 miles you might feel the ride on I-Scooter to be still new, but believe me after that it gets better.

I-Scooter comes with storage trunk and automatic lock, emergency alarm and remote start. Which are very cool for a moped huh!!!!! However, word of caution again, do not leave your keys in rain or moist places. Like any other electronic device the remote can malfunction due to water.

I live in a small college town about 4 miles of diameter, so it takes me about 10 minutes to go to the farthest place, at about 1/5th of fuel as compared to fuel efficient car. I-Scooter may not be one for you if you want to muscle your way on a street but it is a wise and economic choice given the soaring gas prices. On a personal note, I would like to acknowledge efforts of Jeff, owner of http://www.ritz-e-rides.com/ for his advice and customer service.

Now you know how to get 100 miles and beyond for a gallon of gas………. Go ride on.

Attention Deficiency What???
Recent experiences with people who are at a higher intellect to compete at the same level as other mortals and their will power to succeed have reinforced in me the concept of faith in human sprit. One such recent exposure of mine was to friend of mine coping with ADD. Yes Attention Deficiency Disorder.
Having ADD doesn’t make a person any different. It is important that when going through ADD we need to be aware of certain special requirements when it comes to having a focused mind. Our medical science people did discover some drugs to benefit recovery from such phases, however the side-effects of these drugs are much complex. A simple Google search can result in about many pages that explain this phenomenon. It is important that we understand this and embrace our friends with ADD rather than ignore or much worse don’t let them IN.
This is my take on the ADD. Assume that you are viewing a web page and continuous pop-ups are disturbing you. It is hard to concentrate on the work at hand. And worse, assume that these pop-ups are related to your weaknesses or strengths. Then it is very likely for these pop-ups to catch our attention. In other words, they take your attention away from article you are reading or the original work that you are supposed to do. For most part we are equipped with Spam ware and a Pop-up blocker mechanism in our minds that prevents us from other distractions when focusing on certain work. However having ADD compromises our system and the pop-ups keep grabbing attention too frequently. Its more like opening a commercial site offering ridiculously popular items for FREE, which then takes you to pop-up land. On a normal functioning day we abandon those sites and try stay focused on our intended purposes. As mentioned earlier, having ADD makes us more vulnerable to these Pop-Ups. In combination to our pervious experiences that these pop-ups are not good we tend to develop a sense of insecurity in our thought process. Consequently, we are confused, and due to the overload on the brain start feeling dizzy. The worst of the feeling is not having the ability to control these pop-ups.
Now the important question is how to deal with ADD. One way is to have good friends/company when going thru these periods. It is more likely not to get distracted in a good company. It is essential for the friends not to force you to focus rather try to instill confidence in us with assuring words. Is it the real cure, may be not but at least gives them the comfort/pleasure of a worthy companionship.
There could be days when ADD tends to “zone us OUT”, i.e. sense of insecurity creeps in and makes us feel not so social. During periods like these we want to spend time in our own empty space. This is open for discussion. Please feel free to post your suggestions.
If it were to be me to deal with my friend with ADD, I would encourage them to work on things that they tend to like or have liked in the past. Be patient to recognize the behavior patterns and gently suggest them my observations. The important thing is not to create an unsafe learning experience, and understand that they have been hurt/scarred with those pop-ups before and largely believe that they will come back. I hope not to force them to face themselves too often, for they might tend to repel our presence. “One act of beneficence, one act of real usefulness, is worth all the abstract sentiment in the world.” – Ann Radcliffe