Hate Hedge Funds & Wall Street - Why Not End Them All?
With so many users on WSB, there are many point of views about Wall Street and the market. However, it seems to me the majority of the community dislikes Hedge Funds and the big players who have trampled over retail investors to make a living.
Considering the current economic environment, it's more imperative than ever to be "invested" in the stock market. The problem is the financial system and Wall Street ultimately benefits from the growing amount of investors. Even when retail outperforms hedge funds or manages to achieve trades like $GME, it eventually works in their benefit. The value of assets increasing allows higher returns, speculation, and the securitization of these assets(& rehypothecation) to use for financial gain.
The Financial system has changed ever since 71s departure of the Gold Standard(which had problems due to Bretton Woods) and 1977 amendment of the Federal Reserve Act. Ever since then you can see interest rates have trended in down for 40 years now - this is because the Federal Reserve's mandate of "maximum employment" causes Fed to stop recessions with lowering interest rates which to incentivize debt/consumption. Ever since the beginning of the 80s community banks have been annihilated due to monetary policy, its structure, and Congress. Wealth inequality just so happens to start it's trend upwards, favoring the 1%(really the.1%), and corporations shift board compensation from salary to stock/option compensation; corporations have also increased share buybacks and dividends as a % of profits too. Again, this is caused by monetary policy and it rewarding speculation and short term invesments over long term(capex/wages). This structure/policy is also why private equity went on a boom in the 90s and continued ever since. If you examine corporate bankruptcies from private equity their % is more than double the average. Pestakeholder.org has a report titled Pirate equity or something along those lines and they tracked retail employment for from 2007-17 or a time frame close, and in 10 years the retail sector had added over 1 million jobs while retail owned by private equity had "suffered" almost 600k job losses!
The monetary system is how the financial sector and big banks control our economy. They have more power than Congress and literally direct how capital flows and which sectors thrive or die. The Federal Reserve is just an extension of Wall Street - the NYFED is a corporation with a board that is mostly bank CEOs or members of their board. These people are responsible for bank supervision...
I saw a popular post on here about a guy holding his $GME position.. It was titled: "This is for you, Dad". They were holding their position just to inflict any pain and losses possible on hedge funds. Their explanation for this was the housing crisis and how it caused his dad to lose his business and a lot more, all while these funds were bailed out and their livelihoods unaffected by a crisis they helped create. Unfortunately, his reasoning doesn't address the real culprit that caused his father's and families pain.. Along with millions of Americans.
The Federal Reserve has created an economy for the Big Banks and their control - assets have literally only grown at big banks(mostly big fousix). In fact, the Office of the comptroller of the currency quarterly report will show you FOUR banks control 155 TRILLION of the derivative market while ALL OTHER BANKS control 23 trillion.
The 800 billion bailout for banks has been mentioned as well... Try 16 trillion(Google GAO audit) or 29 trillion(Link below) if we include currency swaps(which were for other countries not the banks). The Fed created emergency facilties to specifically bailout banks and AIG. These emergency facilties were managed by... WALL STREET. In fact, 8 out of 10 of the highest paid contracts to manage facilities with taxpayer money to bailout themselves were given "non-competitively" - usually gov contracts have to provide a fair auction so they can't favor companies over another. The Fed can just say these are "unusual and exigent circumstances" to bypass that. They paid Blackrock over 100 million to help manage these facilties. I think PIMCO was over 100 million too. Then BofA and other banks were paid tens of millions as well. The banks literally were involved in bailing out themselves. They received trillions in lending by the Fed - Citigroup had the highest total at 2.6 trillion. They literally had their toxic debt offloaded onto the Feds balance sheet. It took the Fed 10 years to unload all of their "Maiden Lane" MBS purchases.
Present day they bailed out banks in 2019 - before covid - with repo operations.
From Wallstreetonparade.com "If the Fed had wanted the public to clearly understand that its repo loans were ongoing but had simply gone dark, it could have printed a statement to that effect on the daily page it posted showing zeros going out in repo loans. After reading the F-SOC revelation, we searched the New York Fed’s website for hours to see if it had ever made a public statement that it was going dark on the dollar amounts of its repo loans. We finally found this statement dated June 11, 2020:
“Beginning with this month’s release, the Desk will no longer publish daily updates with the next business day’s operational details.”
The Fed's cumulative loans from Sep 2019 to mid March 2020 totaled over 9 trillion. Half way into 2020 they stopped publishing. However, as WSOP points out from the F-SOC the big banks are currently using 2.5 trillion of loans. These are typically overnight or a few days.
None of this is transparent because the NYFED is a corporation and is not subjected to FOIA - The board of Fed is but I tried getting records on the emergency facilties and they stated they do not have these records because the NYFED conducts the lending and facilties. So, the trillions of bailouts in 2008-10 and in 2019 and 2020 are literally at a corporation and not the agency(Board) of government.
Alright, I could go on for another 100 pages quite literally.. Let's get to the point.
The only way to beat this system is to stop using it - practically impossible. The only way to achieve that is to stop using Dollars... Also practically impossible. However, a huge impact to the system would be to not hold any savings or any large holdings of dollars the banks. It's imperative. Investing in anything outside of dollars, debt in dollars, and any investments is necessary - holding savings in metals is one and there are many others(dig c) could actually inflict major problems IF many people actually committed to this. If a few percent of Americans did this the banks would have huge problems.
Nothing is going to change until we address the Federal Reserve. Anything less is just a *game that won't *stop the pillaging of avg Americans from this industry.
Didn't proofread sorry if there are many typos.
http://www.levyinstitute.org/publications/29000000000000-a-detailed-look-at-the-feds-bailout-of-the-financial-system
https://bettermarkets.com/newsroom/new-report-details-first-time-20-plus-year-crime-spree-six-largest-wall-street-banks
https://bettermarkets.com/blog/jp-morgan-chase-bernie-madoff’s-648-billion-ponzi-scheme-crime-wall-street
http://webuser.bus.umich.edu/gfdavis/Papers/Davis_Kim_financialization_revised.pdf

I'm going on my 3rd month of living in Caesar entertainment hotels on the strip because it's much, much cheaper than comparable apartments. I've been averaging ~$600-$800 per month ($577.16 was my nov cost).
Here's how it works--the key is to become a diamond member at Caesars because you get resort fee's waived and reduced prices. Now obv all gambling will be -ev (expected value, the house will always win) unless you're playing poker, but you'll never get diamond playing live poker (it's possible with online poker on wsop though). But, if you wanted to spend some time and study an optimal video poker or blackjack strategy (I'd probably multi machine video poker), you can reduce the house edge and your variance in becoming diamond.
edit: once you get diamond, there's no need to keep playing -ev games since your status is year long. If you get diamond in 2020, you'll have it all 2021
edit again: apparently you can buy diamond for $450 founders card. I know nothing about it but if there's no catches, do this.
for example, here's what the room rates for the LINQ look like this month for diamond
https://i.imgur.com/VJs2kww.png
few things I should mention:
-Proceed with caution, it's entirely possible that the governor shuts down the strip hotels again based on the Covid situation
-If your bankroll is small, even at a reduced house edge playing optimal, you run the risk of ruin. I think if you're going to proceed with this strategy that you have at least a few thousand to work with
-Every 29 days you'll have to check out for 48 hours for residency laws
I realize this strategy won't work for everyone, but if you're in a situation to, good luck and god bless
https://wizardofodds.com/

Link to Previous Tales From 2+2: Poker player steals $1m+ chips and tries to sell it on 2+2 poker forums
More Tales From 2+2: A Very Controversial $70k prop bet
Tales from 2+2: Homelessness, Grinding and the Biggest Shot of a Grinder’s Life: The Jared Huggins Story

The Blossoming of TV Poker

The Year is 2006. Online poker is thriving. Partypoker has the highest traffic of any poker site but Pokerstars are gaining new players quickly with aggressive marketing strategies. Lots of poker sites are investing heavily into marketing and one key place to channel their advertising budget is TV. New innovations, improved graphics and increasing funding meant that poker TV is at an all-time peak of popularity.
40% of the the 2006 WSOP Main Event’s attendance is from online sites and poker sites are offering large amounts of cash for players on TV to wear an advertising patch. According to Dan Goldman’s blog, Pokerstars spent over $730,000 on WSOP players’ gift bags. The WSOP is seeing more TV time and this year the $50k HORSE event is added to the TV schedule alongside the WSOP main event. This year’s $50k WSOP HORSE final table saw some huge names including Chip Reese, Phil Ivey, Patrik Antonius and Doyle Brunson.

The Path of a New Player

In Finland, Mikael Paisting is watching the 2006 WSOP on TV. He enjoys watching poker broadcasts and is fascinated by the game. It’s a very common story for players to catch an interest by watching poker TV and sign up with to one of the many poker sites available. He chooses to deposit on Partypoker. Mikael is a committed learner and player. He reads several poker books from well-known authors such as Dan Harrington and David Sklansky. He also watches many training videos. Like many players starting in online poker he begins at the microstakes cash tables.
Microstakes are a rite of passage for many online poker players. The limits range from 2nl to 10nl, so the standard buy in is $2-10. Some will play microstakes for weeks, months or even years improving their game and increasing their bankroll so they can move up to small stakes, 25nl and above. Some players see the microstakes as a job and play as many tables as they can to eke out a living wage. Some players have never played microstakes and skip it entirely for higher stakes. Mikael starts to play and doesn’t do well, this is normal for many beginners, even those who study. However, over the next few weeks Mikael continues to lose. Months go by and Mikael still hasn’t turned a profit. He discovers problems with tilt and often takes his frustration out in the chat box. An example of his rage:

Paisting:THAT IS NOT NORMAL OMG!! JUST UNBELIEVABLE

Mikael doesn’t play 10nl very often and spends the majority of him time playing 2nl and 5nl. He continues to multitable cash games on Partypoker but he just can’t win. He starts to lose big, thousands of dollars, mostly at 2nl which is known as the softest cash game on the internet.

Getting Noticed

Mikael continues to play long sessions over the next five years, he claims to play 5-7 days a week for 4-8 hours a day. By 2011 he had played 2 and a half million hands while playing 6 to 9 cash tables at one time. Mikael is still mostly playing 2nl and is down a colossal amount: $7000. Mikael has been suffering from major tilt problems and has a very wild and noticeable style of playing microstakes. He starts to get noticed on 2+2, a very popular poker forum. A player posts a link to his PTR graph, a site which tracks online cash games. They are shocked at his losses over so many hands:

yegor: wow such a massive fail
he played 2.5m hands at 2nl and 5nl and he's losing
Donkey111: I remember him from my 2NL days.
often goes on some massive tilt sessions and spews like 20 BI in 500 hands by shoving any 2 cards preflop.

He even gets hate from his PTR account where he is ridiculed on his profile comments, he also replies:

VELAir26: Spend your time with family, friends or other hobbies instead
Paisting: im fine with this you stupid idiot

Mikael continues to play his reckless and tilting style over the years. By 2014, he has been playing for 8 years and is down five figures at microstakes; he starts to look for excuses for how much he has lost. He posts a thread on 2+2 detailing how he feels that he wins at the start of the month and then inevitably starts to lose. He asks how he can take legal action against Partypoker. His fellow posters tease him:

5thStreethog: Did the thought ever cross your mind that it might be possible that the reason you cant beat NL2 in over a million hands might be because you arent very good at poker?

An Attempt at Redemption

2019 comes and Mikael Paisting has been playing microstakes for 13 years, and steadily losing a lot of money. He got a new computer in late 2018 and has been grinding away on it. Mikael is getting mentioned more on 2+2 and he is well known on the tables of Partypoker as he drops stack after stack. Many players on Partypoker furiously try to get on his tables to call his tilt shoves; when Mikael is present other player’s stacks can get as high as $100 at 2nl as he shoves buy in after buy in to button steals. Some were said to be using seating scripts to instantly be placed on a table with Paisting. At this point he is feeling very low. But despite years of losing money and insane tilting he is determined to improve. Mikael is aware of his losses and has a fierce desire to make back the money he has lost since he’s started tracking on his new PC.
He decides get help and he looks to 2+2, the very same forum that had mocked him over the last decade. He logs in as Paisting, his last name. He starts a new thread, types out a post and chooses a title: 'Biggest loser in online poker history wants to grind $16k'. He posts this thread in the sub-forum Poker Goals & Challenges, a place where players post their goals and try to update their thread with their progress. He posts graphs of his losses from his database on his PC. He starts the thread by posting some shocking graphs of $8700 lost at 2nl, $6000 lost at 5nl and $800 lost at 10nl. At 2nl he had an incredible rate of -170BB each 100 hands. The final graph of his microstakes losses posted show $15,000 lost over 365,000 hands. An average loss of $75 a day.
The 2+2 poker community are stunned by the graphs:

HorseofHell: I'm actually shocked it's possible to lose this much at 2nl
Mahsjdj: This can't be real can it?

Mikael posts about the hard work he’s put into poker and mentions that has watched videos, read many instructional books and is honest with his astounding losses:

Paisting: I've lost literally all my money including all my life savings to online poker. I want to try one last time to win those money back and little bit of extra. That's why $16k. What I need is support and guiding.

The community react to his plan to grind all the money back at microstakes:

Fodersneso: This is really disturbing.
Why on earth would you try to grind this all back? Losing at this rate is traumatizing. You're going to grind out 3000 BIs @nl5 now or what's the plan? Really curious how you think you can turn this pile of insanity around...

The community show disbelief and doubt that his story is real but several posters claim that what he says is true. He has been active in Finnish forums for more than 10 years and players starts to share hand histories and stories about his playstyle. He posts about his regret of picking the game up:

Paisting: Never had a winning week in 13 years.
If it were possible to go back ten years I would say to myself "Do not never play single one hand!"

He then goes on to tell 2+2 posters a disturbing source of his funds for his staggering 2nl losses:

Paisting: I've taken huge amount of fast loans.

He sheds a little light into his personal life:

Paisting: My age and relationships has nothing to do with this. But not working, no kids or wife and middle aged. What I have is time to play.
I get a little unemployment benefit that goes straight to the rent. My eating costs are very little because I'm only eating one meal per day. There are times when I must take more fast loans if need of clothes, unexpected bills, sickness etc. That's why getting back those $16k is so important to me.
No disability, never played anything else than poker or lottery when pots are bigger, maybe 5 times in year. Playing poker does not give me any excitement or I'm not cheering won pots.

Posters try to give him strategy advice, they try to persuade him time and time again that shoving 100+ blinds to a minsteal isn’t a good idea. Some others question his sanity and tell him to quit:

FazendeiroBH: Not trolling, I´m actually serious here. You lost an absurd amount of money playing the easiest stake in the world (nl2). You keep losing doing the same faulty strategy. No book ever said you should jam 100 bb preflop rfi. It´s quite obvious there is something wrong with you and your brain, and the more you delay seeking professional care for your mental problems, the worst it´s gonna be for you.

Paitsing updates his thread with highlight hands from his cash sessions. He seems to cherry pick hands to post and will only post hands where he loses all ins as a 70-95% favourite. He delusion leads him to blame the site, his luck and the other micro grinders. He often writes about specific players and gives his opinion on how badly they play. He often quotes their HUD stats and wide calling ranges while ignoring that they are probably adjusting heavily to his own playstyle. Some time passes and he discloses that he has lost almost $500 at 2nl since starting the thread three weeks ago.
He updates his followers with the first monthly graph of the thread from his 2nl play in April 2019. He plays for 90 hours in April and his average daily loss is $50, 25 buy ins each day. 2+2 players start to analyse the graph. They notice that there are several breakeven spots where he may be playing reasonable poker but also huge 150 buy in downswings, some drops in the graph are so steep that he is losing about a buy in every 5 hands for periods of hundreds of hands. He says:

Paitsing: Only trying to get my money back from guys who are playing nl2 forever and never moving up. When I started poker long time ago I tought it's exciting to read watch videos if it gives me more money. After 2 years figured out it's just sitting on computer like in work and if I'm someday +-0 never ever playing this stupid game. This is like war.

The thread goes on like this for almost a year. The thread repeats itself over and over. He will post a few selective bad beats, ignore good advice and berate his microstakes tablemates. A fellow microstakes grinder makes his first appearance in the thread: 6betpot. 6Betpot would play at Paisting's tables and often win many buy ins, 6Betpot would go on to post highly contrasting hand histories to the bad beats that Paisting posts, he would also reveal Paisting’s preflop 3 bet is around 30%. Some players would criticize 6Betpot for predatory behavior but 6Betpot would maintain that he would try to persuade Paisting to stop playing in a spewy manner. Someone asks to see the hands and 6Betpot posts some, here is one:

888 Poker - $0.02 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
BTN: 250.5 BB
SB (Paisting): 425.5 BB
BB: 101.5 BB
UTG: 100 BB
MP: 106.5 BB
CO: 84.5 BB
Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) BTN has AdQs
fold, fold, fold, BTN raises to 2 BB, Paisting raises to 425.5 BB and is all-in, fold, BTN calls 248.5 BB and is all-in
Flop: (502 BB, 2 players) Kh4s4c
Turn: (502 BB, 2 players) 3h
River: (502 BB, 2 players) Jc
BTN shows AdQs (One Pair, Fours)

Paisting shows 5s Js (Two Pair, Jacks and Fours)

Paisting wins 471 BB<
Later in the thread Paisting would reveal his line of thinking during hands like these; a poster asked why he though 3 betting hands like J5 was a good idea. Paisting replies:

Paisting: If you don't want them to run over you, you must do something. Blind play is very important and you can't let them run over you. When 80+ habit stealer gets shoves straight to his face he must learn at some point that I'm not giving blinds.

Many tried to reason with him and show him clearly why this was wrong, he not only refuted their strategy but would argue against them, often citing his opponent’s HUD stats.
Later on in the thread Mikael posts horrifying news. He explains that he didn’t transfer hands from his old computer to his new computer. The graphs he posted at the start of the thread only showed the tip of the iceberg. He reveals that $16k loss from the graphs was from just 7 months of play!:

Paisting: That 16k is in 209 days and in about 1 year as you can see from the first post. Big part of my losings has left to hard drive of my old crashed computer. That's past and I don't wanna think about it anymore. Main goal is this database I have here in my computer. But yes what I have been repeating many times, moving to 888 poker has sky rocketed my losses although I can play only 6 tables compared to party's 9 tables.

Posters speculate that his lifetime microstakes losses probably amount to six figures:

SpinMeRightRound: I mean if he's lost $20k in the last year, and he's been doing this for more than 10 years, he may have lost $200k or more.

In late 2019, Paisting claims that there was a ring of players were colluding against him. He goes on to say that the new site he plays on, 888, were asking for hand histories from certain players. He showed emails of his communications and posted that 8 players had had their account frozen. He also shows screenshots that his account is temporarily frozen during the investigation. Posters speculated:

CrunchyBlack: Pretty sure they think you're chip dumping lmao
.isolated: They think you're chip dumping to him. Funniest. Thing. Ever. The irony here is nearly palpable.

2020: The Struggle Continues

At the end of the year Paisting posts his 2019 graphs. He says that he hasn’t had a winning week yet and he’s still committed to making back 2019’s losses. His graphs show down 12k from 320k hands of 2nl in 2019.
In January 2020 he continues to post regularly and makes comments about him hunting down players worse than him:

Paisting: When you hunt really bad player (yes enzet there are plenty of worst player than me on 888 look those hand histories really carefully) hours and hours and wait good hand just to site let them to suck out it is affecting your game really badly.

He posts about his continuing struggle to win back the $16k:

Paisting: I have years dedicated for this project and anything back from that amount is winning to me. At this point it’s impossible to make any profit because of horrible suckouts.

He also posts about the high interest loans he’s taken out:

Paisting: I have huge amounts of loans that are basically all taken for poker. I don't eat much and all my other costs are very low.
And because of those loans I must get back so much money that is possible and these suck outs must stop.

February 2020 arrives and he posts his January chart, the worst posted yet. He takes a gigantic loss of $1,550 at an eye-watering rate of 210bb/100 hands. Often when he posts monthly graphs he would highlight that he ran a few buy ins below EV when he would be down hundreds of buy ins for the month.
The months pass and the cycle continues. Paisting posts the usual bad beats, posters berate him and try to give him advice and Paisting resists their efforts. Here is one of many similar hands posted in February:

888Poker, Hold'em No Limit - $0.01/$0.02 - 6 players
UTG: $1.46 (73 bb) Paisting (MP): $7.45 (373 bb) CO: $15.44 (772 bb) BU: $2.00 (100 bb) SB: $3.47 (174 bb) BB: $2.00 (100 bb)
Pre-Flop: ($0.03) 1 fold, Paisting(MP) raises to $7.45 (all-in), CO calls $7.45, 3 players fold
Flop: ($14.93) 6c7c4d (2 players, 1 all-in)
Turn: ($14.93) Ts (2 players, 1 all-in)
River: ($14.93) 8h (2 players, 1 all-in)
Total pot: $14.93 (Rake: $0.93)
Showdown: Paisting (MP) shows 7dTc (two pair, Tens and Sevens) (CO) shows JsJc (a pair of Jacks) Paisting (MP) wins $14

March comes and the regular monthly graph is posted. The uploaded graph shows is he down $1900 or 950 buy ins for last month. Mikael refutes that he is a gambling addict:

Paisting: 888 has given many 10 dollar bonuses to me play slots. I have never played them and in fact my account has 20 dollars freeplay bonus to play their slots. I will not use those money now or in future. So that's gambling addict to you.

April and May roll by and the monthly graphs are posted. He played fewer hands than normal, 43,000. But is down $1,250, all at 2nl.
In June he posts the usual monthly graph with -$1900 and it’s the lowest win rate he’s posted before, a colossal -335b/100hands, the graph has some alarmingly steep downswings with one section where he loses $500 in 1000 hands. That’s a loss of one buy in every 4 hands. Getting these monthly updates shows how quickly he loses money at 2nl and collaborates with earlier estimations that he is likely down more than $100k at microstakes over the past 14 years. Approximations indicate that Mikael has paid over $20k in rake to poker sites over the years.

The End, for Now

Mikael is still playing microstakes to this day. His poker story isn’t over yet but so far it is a sad one. My previous two Tales from 2+2 stories had mostly happy endings but not this one. This story is like a car falling down a cliff and it hasn’t hit the bottom yet.
Let this story be a lesson that poker isn’t for everyone. Players with addiction or mental issues should reconsider if the game is best for their lives. Serious poker players should consider bankroll management and how tilt affects their winrate if they do choose to play.
Seek help if you think you or others need it.
Original thread (Still active)

Link to my online poker HobbyDrama posts: Poker player steals $1m+ chips and tries to sell it on 2+2 poker forums
A Very Controversial $70k prop bet
Poker Forum Help Homeless Player Attempt The Shot of a Lifetime

The Blossoming of TV Poker

The Year is 2006. Online poker is thriving. Partypoker has the highest traffic of any poker site but Pokerstars are gaining new players quickly with aggressive marketing strategies. Lots of poker sites are investing heavily into marketing and one key place to channel their advertising budget is TV. New innovations, improved graphics and increasing funding meant that poker TV is at an all-time peak of popularity.
The World Series of Poker (WSOP) is the biggest event in the poker calendar, it features many poker tournaments culminating in the prestigious $10k Main Event tournament. The Main Event is a popular televised tournament. 40% of the the 2006 WSOP Main Event’s attendance is from online sites and poker sites are offering large amounts of cash for players on TV to wear an advertising patch. According to Dan Goldman’s blog, Pokerstars spent over $730,000 on WSOP players’ gift bags. The WSOP is seeing more TV time and this year an extra event is added to the TV schedule alongside the WSOP main event.

The Path of a New Player

In Finland, Mikael Paisting is watching the 2006 WSOP on TV. He enjoys watching poker broadcasts and is fascinated by the game. It’s a very common story for players to catch an interest by watching poker TV and sign up with to one of the many poker sites available. He chooses to deposit on Partypoker. Mikael is a committed learner and player. He reads several poker books from well-known authors. He also watches many training videos. Like many players starting in online poker he begins at the microstakes cash tables.
The standard buy in for microstakes online is $2-10, if a player plays microstakes for an hour they would probably win or lose a few dollars. 2nl means the big blind is 2 cents and standard buy in is $2, the standard buy in at 5nl is $5 and 10nl is $10.
Microstakes are a rite of passage for many online poker players. Some will play microstakes for weeks, months or even years improving their game and increasing their bankroll so they can move up to small stakes, 25nl and above. Some players see the microstakes as a job and play as many tables as they can to eke out a living wage. Some players have never played microstakes and skip it entirely for higher stakes. Mikael starts to play and doesn’t do well, this is normal for many beginners, even those who study. However, over the next few weeks Mikael continues to lose. Months go by and Mikael still hasn’t turned a profit. He discovers problems with tilt (when players get angry and it negatively affects their play) and often takes his frustration out in the chat box. An example of his rage:

Paisting:THAT IS NOT NORMAL OMG!! JUST UNBELIEVABLE

Mikael doesn’t play 10nl very often and spends the majority of him time playing 2nl and 5nl, buying in for $2-5 at a time. He continues to multitable cash games on Partypoker but he just can’t win. He starts to lose big, thousands of dollars, mostly at 2nl which is known as the softest cash game on the internet.

Getting Noticed

Mikael continues to play long sessions over the next five years, he claims to play 5-7 days a week for 4-8 hours a day. By 2011 he had played 2 and a half million hands while playing 6 to 9 cash tables at one time. Mikael is still mostly playing 2nl and is down a colossal amount: $7000. Remember that he is mostly playing 2nl, with a buy in of $2, even losing $1000 at 2nl is unheard of. Mikael has been suffering from major tilt problems and has a very wild and noticeable style of playing microstakes. He starts to get noticed on 2+2, a very popular poker forum. A player posts a link to his PTR graph, a site which tracks online cash games. They are shocked at his losses over so many hands:

yegor: wow such a massive fail
he played 2.5m hands at 2nl and 5nl and he's losing
Donkey111: I remember him from my 2NL days.
often goes on some massive tilt sessions and spews like 20 BI [buy ins] in 500 hands by shoving any 2 cards preflop.

He even gets hate from his PTR account where he is ridiculed on his profile comments, he also replies:

VELAir26: Spend your time with family, friends or other hobbies instead
Paisting: im fine with this you stupid idiot

Mikael continues to play his reckless and tilting style over the years. By 2014, he has been playing for 8 years and is down five figures at microstakes; he starts to look for excuses for how much he has lost. He posts a thread on 2+2 detailing how he feels that he wins at the start of the month and then inevitably starts to lose. He asks how he can take legal action against Partypoker. His fellow posters tease him:

5thStreethog: Did the thought ever cross your mind that it might be possible that the reason you cant beat NL2 in over a million hands might be because you arent very good at poker?

An Attempt at Redemption

2019 comes and Mikael Paisting has been playing microstakes for 13 years, and steadily losing a lot of money. He got a new computer in late 2018 and has been grinding away on it. Mikael is getting mentioned more on 2+2 and he is well known on the tables of Partypoker as he drops stack after stack. Many players on Partypoker furiously try to get on his tables to call his tilt shoves; when Mikael is present other player’s stacks can get as high as $100 at 2nl as he shoves buy in after buy in in bad spots. Some were said to be using seating scripts to instantly be placed on a table with Paisting. At this point he is feeling very low. But despite years of losing money and insane tilting he is determined to improve. Mikael is aware of his losses and has a fierce desire to make back the money he has lost since he’s started tracking on his new PC.
He decides get help and he looks to 2+2, the very same forum that had mocked him over the last decade. He logs in as Paisting, his last name. He starts a new thread, types out a post and chooses a title: 'Biggest loser in online poker history wants to grind $16k'. He posts this thread in the sub-forum Poker Goals & Challenges, a place where players post their goals and try to update their thread with their progress. He posts graphs of his losses from his database on his PC. He starts the thread by posting some shocking graphs of $8700 lost at 2nl, $6000 lost at 5nl and $800 lost at 10nl. At 2nl he had an incredible rate of losing an average of $75 a day. The final graph of his microstakes losses posted show $15,000 lost over 365,000 hands.
The 2+2 poker community are stunned by the graphs:

HorseofHell: I'm actually shocked it's possible to lose this much at 2nl
Mahsjdj: This can't be real can it?

Mikael posts about the hard work he’s put into poker and mentions that has watched videos, read many instructional books and is honest with his astounding losses:

Paisting: I've lost literally all my money including all my life savings to online poker. I want to try one last time to win those money back and little bit of extra. That's why $16k. What I need is support and guiding.

The community react to his plan to grind all the money back at microstakes:

Fodersneso: This is really disturbing.
Why on earth would you try to grind this all back? Losing at this rate is traumatizing. You're going to grind out 3000 BIs [buy ins] @nl5 now or what's the plan? Really curious how you think you can turn this pile of insanity around...

The community show disbelief and doubt that his story is real but several posters claim that what he says is true. He has been active in Finnish forums for more than 10 years and players starts to share hand histories and stories about his playstyle. He posts about his regret of picking the game up:

Paisting: Never had a winning week in 13 years.
If it were possible to go back ten years I would say to myself "Do not never play single one hand!"

He then goes on to tell 2+2 posters a disturbing source of his funds for his staggering 2nl losses:

Paisting: I've taken huge amount of fast loans.

He sheds a little light into his personal life:

Paisting: My age and relationships has nothing to do with this. But not working, no kids or wife and middle aged. What I have is time to play.
I get a little unemployment benefit that goes straight to the rent. My eating costs are very little because I'm only eating one meal per day. There are times when I must take more fast loans if need of clothes, unexpected bills, sickness etc. That's why getting back those $16k is so important to me.
No disability, never played anything else than poker or lottery when pots are bigger, maybe 5 times in year. Playing poker does not give me any excitement or I'm not cheering won pots.

Posters try to give him strategy advice, they try to persuade him time and time again that his strategy isn't working. Some others question his sanity and tell him to quit:

FazendeiroBH: Not trolling, I´m actually serious here. You lost an absurd amount of money playing the easiest stake in the world (nl2). You keep losing doing the same faulty strategy. It´s quite obvious there is something wrong with you and your brain, and the more you delay seeking professional care for your mental problems, the worst it´s gonna be for you.

Paitsing updates his thread with highlight hands from his cash sessions. He seems to cherry pick hands to post and will only post hands where he loses all ins as a 70-95% favourite. He delusion leads him to blame the site, his luck and the other micro grinders. He often writes about specific players and gives his opinion on how badly they play. Some time passes and he discloses that he has lost almost $500 at 2nl since starting the thread three weeks ago.
He updates his followers with the first monthly graph of the thread from his 2nl play in April 2019. He plays for 90 hours in April and his average daily loss is $50, 25 buyins each day. 2+2 players start to analyse the graph. They notice that there are several breakeven spots where he may be playing reasonable poker but also huge 150 buy in downswings, some drops in the graph are so steep that he is losing about a buy in every 5 hands for periods of hundreds of hands. He says:

Paitsing: Only trying to get my money back from guys who are playing nl2 forever and never moving up. When I started poker long time ago I tought it's exciting to read watch videos if it gives me more money. After 2 years figured out it's just sitting on computer like in work and if I'm someday +-0 never ever playing this stupid game. This is like war.

The thread goes on like this for almost a year. The thread repeats itself over and over. He will post a few selective bad beats, ignore good advice and berate his microstakes tablemates. A fellow microstakes grinder makes his first appearance in the thread: 6betpot. 6Betpot would play at Paisting's tables and often win many buy ins, 6Betpot would go on to post highly contrasting hand histories to the unlucky hands that Paisting posts which shows the hands Mikael was not posting. Some players would criticize 6Betpot for predatory behavior but 6Betpot would maintain that he would try to persuade Paisting to stop playing in a crazy manner.
Many tried to reason with Mikael and show him clearly why this was wrong, he not only refuted their strategy but would argue against them.
Later on in the thread Mikael posts horrifying news. He explains that he didn’t transfer hands from his old computer to his new computer. The graphs he posted at the start of the thread only showed the tip of the iceberg. He reveals that $16k loss from the graphs was from just 7 months of play!:

Paisting: That 16k is in 209 days and in about 1 year as you can see from the first post. Big part of my losings has left to hard drive of my old crashed computer. That's past and I don't wanna think about it anymore. Main goal is this database I have here in my computer. But yes what I have been repeating many times, moving to 888 poker has sky rocketed my losses although I can play only 6 tables compared to party's 9 tables.

Posters speculate that his lifetime microstakes losses probably amount to six figures:

SpinMeRightRound: I mean if he's lost $20k in the last year, and he's been doing this for more than 10 years, he may have lost $200k or more.

2020: The Struggle Continues

At the end of the year Paisting posts his 2019 graphs. He says that he hasn’t had a winning week yet and he’s still committed to making back 2019’s losses. His graphs show down 12k from 320k hands of 2nl in 2019.
In January 2020 he continues to post regularly and makes comments about him hunting down players worse than him:

Paisting: When you hunt really bad player (yes enzet there are plenty of worst player than me on 888 look those hand histories really carefully) hours and hours and wait good hand just to site let them to suck out it is affecting your game really badly.

He posts about his continuing struggle to win back the $16k:

Paisting: I have years dedicated for this project and anything back from that amount is winning to me. At this point it’s impossible to make any profit because of horrible suckouts.

He also posts about the high interest loans he’s taken out:

Paisting: I have huge amounts of loans that are basically all taken for poker. I don't eat much and all my other costs are very low.
And because of those loans I must get back so much money that is possible and these suck outs must stop.

February 2020 arrives and he posts his January chart, the worst posted yet. He takes a gigantic loss of $1,550 at an eye-watering rate.
The months pass and the cycle continues. Paisting posts the usual unlucky hands, posters berate him and try to give him advice and Paisting resists their efforts. Here is one of many similar hands posted in February, this hand shows him making an awful play and raising huge with a weak hand:

888Poker, Hold'em No Limit - $0.01/$0.02 - 6 players
UTG: $1.46 (73 bb) Paisting (MP): $7.45 (373 bb) CO: $15.44 (772 bb) BU: $2.00 (100 bb) SB: $3.47 (174 bb) BB: $2.00 (100 bb)
Pre-Flop: ($0.03) 1 fold, Paisting(MP) raises to $7.45 (all-in), CO calls $7.45, 3 players fold
Flop: ($14.93) 6c 7c 4d (2 players, 1 all-in)
Turn: ($14.93) Ts (2 players, 1 all-in)
River: ($14.93) 8h (2 players, 1 all-in)
Total pot: $14.93 (Rake: $0.93)
Showdown: Paisting (MP) shows 7d Tc (two pair, Tens and Sevens) (CO) shows Js Jc (a pair of Jacks) Paisting (MP) wins $14

March comes and the regular monthly graph is posted. The uploaded graph shows is he down $1900 or 950 buy ins for last month. Mikael refutes that he is a gambling addict:

Paisting: 888 has given many 10 dollar bonuses to me play slots. I have never played them and in fact my account has 20 dollars freeplay bonus to play their slots. I will not use those money now or in future. So that's gambling addict to you.

April and May roll by and the monthly graphs are posted. He played fewer hands than normal, 43,000. But is down $1,250, all at 2nl.
In June he posts the usual monthly graph with -$1900 and it’s the lowest win rate he’s posted before, the graph has some alarmingly steep downswings with one section where he loses $500 in 1000 hands. That’s a loss of one buy in every 4 hands. Getting these monthly updates shows how quickly he loses money at 2nl and collaborates with earlier estimations that he is likely down more than $100k at microstakes over the past 14 years.

The End, for Now

Mikael is still playing microstakes to this day. His poker story isn’t over yet but so far it is a sad one. My previous two Tales from 2+2 stories had mostly happy endings but not this one. This story is like a car falling down a cliff and it hasn’t hit the bottom yet.
Let this story be a lesson that poker isn’t for everyone. Players with addiction or mental issues should reconsider if the game is best for their lives. Serious poker players should consider bankroll management and how tilt affects their winrate if they do choose to play.
Seek help if you think you or others need it.
Original thread (Still active)

I have tried to find this on my own and failed. Wanting to watch, not play, 2020 WSOP, something as close to what WSOP used to be on cable in the past. Willing to pay a subscription for a month or two. It looks like cable doesn't provide that. It looks like PokerGo doesn't provide that. It looks like I can't access GGPoker in the U.S. and it doesn't provide that. Is there anyone who will take my money and let me stream most of what WSOP used to be, but in 2020? Thanks

Take my DD with a grain of salt, I rarely touch weed stocks but recently saw this and made a play and did some DD reading up on near term catalysts that may drag this dead overvalued cat down further. I also have been having issues cross referencing where they mean CAD vs USD so feel free to correct me
So not only did they have the worst trading day they've ever had in five years apparently (down 15+%) after they had a horrible earnings report that had widening losses, shrinking revenue, and a strong indication of lowered guidance as they basically killed all expansion, they have attempted to try to clear up upcoming debt in the sum of 230MM$C as part of march 2020 debentures (ie convertible debt) by offering a discount to convert immediately, get all interest owed between now and the expiration in March, along with a snazzy 6% discount
They are giving a window of time between Monday and Wednesday evening next week for people to step forward to have their debt converted and have already guaranteed to get a group with 155MM worth of their debt to commit to this.
That means there is an additional ~80M worth of debt that may end up deciding to actually take the deal (I'm not an expert but if you thought this company could go bankrupt, getting your debt converted early to shares and the interest up front seems like a good deal to take to take your money and run)
Even just with 155M worth of debt, this is approx 115M in USD which is 4.5% of float shares given current market cap is 2.58B
That's 4.5% of equity dilution guaranteed, with a potential additional 2.3% share dilution occurring (this will be announced 11/22 after hours). This dilution can be even higher if the stock price keeps going down through Wednesday several percent
You can also bet that this 4-7% worth of float that has been diluted is going to get liquidated fast given the share price is in a downtrend (I haven't seen any mention of a lockup preventing this)
Given that 4-7% of float is 40-70M shares, thats 4x average volume that will flood in sell orders. I think there are still people who want to BTFD but even then I doubt this thing will get filled at a great price deal and will drag this thing down below 2$
So we could see a 10-15% drop again, in addition to whatever standard bleeding we see occurring next week from this overvalued sector correcting finally.
Also note, it sounds like just to keep FCF going ACB will need to keep selling equity (they sold 25M shares this half it seems) which will dilute equity further
November also may prompt more selling for tax loss harvesting
There's a chance the opening up of vaping market in several weeks could make this thing go back up, but I'm not sure there is evidence that even ACB expects it to make a material difference in near term.
Edit: My positionshttps://imgur.com/gfmWSop
Link to the details on the convertible debthttps://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/aurora-cannabis-announces-temporary-amended-early-conversion-privilege-for-its-2020-convertible-debentures-300958805.html
Tl;dr buy 2.5 P at least 2 weeks out and profit on tendies
Edit:
I was reading some articles and realized we may not see a big drop on Monday, we may in fact see a short squeeze as all of the debt holders are likely already shorting ACB hence why it's dropped a ton already this week. It may be worth being careful this week as after Friday it may have a lot of shorts cover (or it could drop big on the diluted equity), it's hard to say :(
Stay safe and lock in profits when possible
I'm holding extra CGC puts I bought near the top of the high cat bounce (I think CGC is just going up on word of the federal legalization bill, I think once it fails to get support it will likely drop again briefly)

Ok guys so here is my story.
I discovered holdem when it became popular in 2006, saw a show on TV, and deposit 10$ on Everest poker at the time.
Very quickly won a ticket for a 109$, finished 18th for around 800$ and I was immediately hooked. I was sure back then I could make good money if I played seriously so I bought some poker books and a very good run combined with the poor level of the game at the time got me up maybe +5k in the next 3 years. Nothing to brag about but I was happy to make some money on the side.
Then 2009 came, the level rise, and the bad run begin. And when I say badrun, I mean BADRUN! It was incredible to be honest. Even when I ran good there was always something around the corner to make me mad, like this time when I managed to reach 3 final tables (on Everest it was 200-300 players only) then my internet connexion broke! I know today I was not really good but damn I suffered a lot.
So the next 3 years I lost all the money I won and digging up for 3K more.
By 2012 I was totally disgusted by that game. As I was then sure that some players, maybe 1%, run bad for life and that there is no way to make money if you are really unlucky (wich I was to be fair).
So I stopped online poker for the next 6 years except for the occasional poker with friends.
But I never stopped to watch videos from doug polk, wsop tournament, killtilt vids, winamax vids, etc…I still loved the game, but didn’t want to lose more money so I just watched videos. I am not a gambler, and I think it’s stupid to play games like black jack or jackpots where you are sure to lose money.
Fast forward to 2020. A little virus named covid-19 forced me at home so I decide to deposit 20 bucks on PS with the idea to play some low stakes MTT and just past the time.
Then the unexpected happen. I almost directly won a 1$ with 850 players for 160$ then a week or so later 1/950 on a 2$ for 330$
I decided then to try some sat for bigger tournament. I got and entry for 11$ where I finished 5/1196 then 1/2190 on another 11$ and some other results. I was absolutely sure I was just lucky (and for sure I was) so I decided to withdraw all the 3K I won so far and just left 100$ on the site.
But in April and May I continued to try sat for bigger events and the results still coming. 3/2285 on a 22$ for 3K and other final tables on lower tournament.
So I played 930 mtt for around 6K profit in about 2 month, made more than 10 final table on 800+ players fields (and won 5 of them)
I am now sitting on a 3K bankroll. I thought I could maaaaaybe get another chance to be a real profitable player on the long run.
I am 100% aware that I ran like god, but I can’t believe I had so many good results if I’m not a winning player. But I still remember that awful bad run I had years before, so now I am scared to play 11$+ mtt without earning a satellite ticket. I don’t feel safe if I haven’t like 1000 times the buy in.
So in your opinion, what should I do? Could it be just a god-tier good run as my doom-tier badrun was back then? Should I stick to micro limit and get shots at bigger MTT via satellite? Or should I move from micro to low stakes? I have the feeling that the second I level up, the good run will disappear.
I am a little lost on what should be the next step. I must add that I lost my job because of the pandemic, so even if I didn’t plan on making a living with poker, it could be a great help for my financial situation.
Sorry for the bad English I’m French.

The 51st World Tournament was postponed from July 1 to September 6, 2020. 85 games were decided to be held online. Previously, representatives of the WSOPCircuit have already announced the full transition to the new format.Executive Director Tai Stewart announced this on June 8. According to him, the largest poker event in the world cannot jeopardize the health of participants, and in this version more players will have a chance to win brand move.Brandon Shack-Harris was the first to express indignation on Twitter. A pro for mixed games and a two-time bracelet owner wrote that the brand’s prestige would be lost and the prize would be discounted.Shack Harris is convinced that the World Series of Poker online tournaments should be run in parallel with live games. Nobody forbids generating traffic for winning the legendary gold bracelet, but simplified access to the game will significantly reduce the cost of a half-century-old product.At the same time, the player assures that this format will raise the poker rating and attract new fans. In any case, in his opinion, the golden bracelet should remain a symbol of live tournaments. For a mass online series, it’s worth introducing another trophy, for example, a ring, jacket or the right to participate in the relevant WSOP live tournament.Daniel Edem called the transition of the tournament into the network the end of an era.However, there are those who support such a World Series solution. Users believe that the top 100 players are conceited and do not want to share a place in the sun with ordinary guys. The historic WSCOP of 2003, which provoked a poker boom, consisted of only 36 tournaments. The first episode of the series was planned for 2020, and 85 gold brletslets will be played online.This is a huge number compared to all previous events.The holder of the gold bracelet and six rings of the WSOP Alan Engel is sure that there will be no decline in prestige.But Andreas Thorbbergsen, a pro who made a career in virtual poker, on the contrary, says that the winners of the online series will receive a more prestigious status than traditional players.Recall that since March 2020, the entire gambling business has been forced to enter the network. Terrestrial establishments compete with online platforms and regularly change the terms and conditions to attract more customers. www.auscasinomoney.com

Good morning/afternoon/evening/night everyone :)
So, I’m 17 and looking to apply for pilot in December 2020. I’ve done some preparations, have some preparations planned and have some things which would help my application, but I haven’t been able to do.
Any feedback on any of the topics I discuss will be greatly appreciated!
Preparations I’ve already done

• I’ve been to my local AFCO (1.5 hours away oof). Had a chat with some RAF personnel about the pilot role and it’s application process and other roles such as WSOp and avionics aircraft technician.
• Was vice-captain of my local swimming club (~8 years) of 60 competitive swimmers. Learnt a great deal of organisation and leadership.
• Played second row at my local rugby club (~2 years). Grew a great sense of camaraderie and teamwork as well as improved my leadership skills.
• Attended NCS (National Citizen Scheme). Got the chance to do some voluntary work and lead a group of ~12 people. Organised a small charity triathlon.

Preparations I’m doing/planning

• Currently looking into DofE Gold. Many sources (including the AFCO) have said this demonstrates good leadership and teamwork as well as strong will, all of which vital for the officer role.
• Planning volunteering in Sri Lanka in the summer holidays (July / August) for 2 weeks helping renovate government buildings and Buddhist temples.
• Regularly updating myself with the latest developments in and around the world of the RAF, albeit not as much as I would like to. I will be stepping this research up closer to my application as the information will be more relevant and fresher in my mind.
• Talking to many family friends who have either served in the RAF or are familiar in the world of aviation.
• Have a part time job at Tesco. This shows I have some commitments and responsibilities.
• Hoping to become Head Boy in my sixth form (I’m only in Year 12 so this will be in SeptembeOctober).
• Some brief revision for the CBAT, finding similar tests online as well as using this app to practise.

Preparations I wasn’t able to do

• Air Cadets; I was quite lazy as an early teen and so didn’t have the motivation to attend Air Cadets. The AFCO said this wasn’t a massive set-back though.
• Any flight experience/work experience in the field of aviation. The closest air field to me doesn’t allow work experience so I’m doing an internship with my Computer Science teacher, helping out in classes once every week.

Education

• 10 GCSEs.
• Chemistry Level 9
• Physics Level 9
• Biology Level 8
• Computer Science Level 8
• Mathematics Level 8
• English Literature Level 7
• French Level 7
• Geography Level 7
• English Language Level 6
• Religious Education Level 4
• Predicted A*AB in my A-Levels of Computer Science, Physics and Mathematics respectively.

Questions

• I was (and still am) extremely not passionate about Religious Education. Would it be worth not bringing in my RE GCSE certificate at all (it’s on its own certificate thankfully) and only presenting 9 GCSEs all above 6 or would it be better to have 10 GCSEs with the one 4?
• For my research, I’m looking at NATO and it’s origins and purpose in the modern world, ~5 RAF bases in the UK (not decided but will probably be Brize Norton, Marham, Odiham, Cranwell and Valley) and a few international bases (most likely Akrotiri, Ascension Islands and Gibraltar), RAF current affairs, RAF brief history, the role and responsibilities of the pilot role, the ranks and their ordestatus/responsibilities within the RAF, CBAT overview and OASC overview. Is there anything else I should be looking at?

And that about wraps it up! Like I said, any feedback and help would be appreciated and I appreciate you taking time out of your day to read this!
EDIT: Some formatting.

Clone of his blog, can be found at martinshkreli.com
Biopharma/Investing
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Moderna is a good short. With winter’s inexorable arrival, concept biotech looks like a good short while there are pockets of good value in high probability development projects and specialty pharma (non-generics).
New generic ROIC has dropped from unbelievable to meh. Only those who can invest heavily in capex or find extreme niches will find success. The overlevered landscape is not auspicious and may help deflate competition at the margin, but an ugly ‘new normal’ is here for generics. I would not be long TEVA, for instance. Buffett may be right (by accident) if the bet is on biosimilars (which Teva is fairly weak in), or perhaps ROW generic performance. But as far as the US is concerned, these armageddon conditions will prevail.
GSK has done a marvelous job replacing AdvaiSeretide. A generic Advair would mean next to nothing to GSK now. They’ve also reshaped the portfolio quite well. Still my favorite big pharma.
SOBI’s new antibody will be really interesting.
We will be doing Celgene as the first “deep dive”. Thanks for your comments.
Papers I’ve Read
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Drosophila model of myosin myopathy rescued by overexpression of a TRIM-protein family member. Dahl-Halvarsson, et al. PNAS 2018.
I am not too familiar with most of the rare disease purely-cardiac myopathies. This was a good catch-up without being a review. The workers overexpressed “Abba/Thin” to rescue Mhc-mutant phenotyes.
Local structure can identify and quantify influential global spreaders in large scale social networks. Hu et al. PNAS 2018.
I’ve been reading more applied math articles. A lot of work has been done on information “spreading” models.
Brief Review – “Things That Mattter” by Charles Krauthammer
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Krauthammer is a transcendent essayist who I’d almost enter into a conspiracy to write like (criminal justice joke). This collection of essays is humbling for any writer, professional or begrudging practitioner (guess which one I am). Further, I just like this guy–a chess and math fan, a conservative and a PHYSICIAN! A lifelong spinal cord injury victim who recently passed away (I think), Krauthammer is a fairly inspirational (and perhaps missed) figure in politics.
This collection of his works shines when it discusses personal affairs, such as the death of a family member, a baseball game and other mundane “things that matter”. His political writing, especially on domestic affairs is also and convincing. He writes accessibly, endearingly and logically–usually without beating the reader over the head. The essays on his interventionalist leanings are less exciting, probably because of my own personal isolationist perspective, but still provide a narrative to consider. I recommend the book to any conservatives confused by the current hyperpartisan/no-compassion meta-neocon-nihilist environment.
Poker
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In a run of bad cards or bad beats, one feels like such an idiot. In the opposite run, an unstoppable player ready for WSOP. Taming those emotions is tough and probably more than 50% of the game. The actual theories are fairly trivial and probabilistic. I think sometimes we read too much into some variables in the game: the ultra-meta is probably not where “the money is”. I’m still feeling my way around this game but I get the sense that interpreting primary game conditions (player tendency variables such as loose/tight, aggressive/passive, pre-flop playbook, general aptitude, always cbet/not always cbet; aggregate table tendencies such as volume, speed, etc.), emotional control and good theoretical underpinnings are the likely key to the game. Most top players will not edge each other out over the long run. I could be very wrong on that but I doubt the money is made being Tom Brady vs. Brett Favre, but just in being a NFL starting QB vs. not being an NFL starting QB.
My last big bad beat was a Qs flush from the flop, outdrew by the Kxo when the fourth spade flopped. Drawer is gonna draw.
Sorry for the typo in the last hand I posted! Will try not to make it happen again.
Football/Basketball
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My Bills came through, in the “battle of the bums” against the sorry Jets. I pushed on the sorry Jags and lost with the Dolphins. So 9-2-1, last 12 games. I’ve toned down the NBA as my bankroll suffered but will be returning soon.
Why did it suffer? I took the Golden State moneyline, which was a “too good to be true” 40c on the dollar. Of course, for their 2nd loss of the season, the Warriors went down.
Personal
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To all the US Senators who were not re-elected and used me as a campaign prop. You barked up the wrong tree. That tree fell on you. I make no apologies–you made your own bed. To all future would-be political opponents: I have a very long memory and an enormous amount of money growing at a rapid pace. Play games with your career at your own risk.
Clinton running in 2020 would provide me great joy. I will move Heaven and Earth to ensure she will never see the White House again.