New chapters

Recently I decided to take on a new poker student. He's very smart, hard working, polite and grateful. He seemed to be the perfect student. But after living with him, I lost a lot of respect for the guy.

He makes weird sounds when he eats (similar to sounds my dog makes when it eats), he can't speak a word of English (after 10 years of Starcraft and traveling the world for a year), he can't get a free parking card for our apartment because he doesn't have the proper documents (it took me 5 minutes with my limited Korean abilities, not taking "No" for an answer, and my charms i guess, to get it), he'll cook and use the whole bottle of sauce he's using to make 400 grams of chicken curry (we now use 1/10th of a bottle), to make it short, he doesn't seem to think very much, wether he's cooking, working out or dealing with a figure of authority.

I didn't except that from him. He's got the longest winning streak on TV (or used to have?) as a progamer ever, he's famous, smart, good looking. His name is Chrh. He seems to have it all; he's so talented, but why, sometimes, does he seem FUCKING STUPID? It blew my mind, until I read the book Outliers. It taught me that no amount of talent will get you anywhere if you don't get help along the way. Mozart, Bill Gates, Bobby Fisher and Wayne Gretzski needed help (and they needed ten thousand+ hours of practice, the magic number to become a master at anything) to get where they got.

Chrh's mom is a 600$/month waitress in a restaurant, his father is an alcoholic who spent the last two years in a hospital. His older brother calls him crying because his ugly girlfriend (who stole money from him) won't marry him and now he wants to commit suicide. Chrh didn't go to high school when he was a boy. Things weren't easy for him, to say the least. It's amazing that he became who he became under those circumstances. I didn't know how truly amazing it was untill i read that book. I now have a newfound respect for Chrh.

"Outliers" is currently a top 10 amazone.com book, by Malcolm Gladwell. When you order it, you must also order "Blink", Gladwell's most famous book. It will teach you why you can type 120 words a minute without knowing which letters are next to "G" on your keyboard. It'll tell why sometimes you know you've got the best hand without really knowing why.

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Other recent reads that improved my life greatly.

"The south beach diet". Yea, I used to be fat. My whole family is fat. Now i nearly have a 6 pack, and i eat pretty much whatever I want. I just stay away from fast carbs. I'd say that my success rate in nightclubs is 10 times higher. I'm not fucking kidding. Those Korean girls don't like the fat foreigners. Thats why Rekrul is currently temporarily living in the States until he gets in shape LOL.

"A man's search for meaning". This is one of the best selling book of all times. It's about a doctor who became a war prisoner during world war II. If you think life suck, that you're running bad, think again. Your life is fucking GREAT. This guy, and 2.5m people his in prisoner's camp, had it worse than you. They had it so bad that only 1 out of 28 prisoners survived. You can't go on tilt after reading this book. It just doesn't feel right.

"Decoding the universe". It's a small book about the theory of information. When physicists fully understand this theory, they'll understand the universe. After reading this book, you'll realize that you are not special. You do not matter. Nothing you do matters. Really, nothing matters. (Elky says that all the time, and he didn't read that book. He's a genius.) I don't know why, but I loved that book. I felt at peace after reading it. (It'll also teach you that your life, that life itself, is just a way to conserve information, that you brain is just a computer that can and will be duplicated, and, of course, that a black whole's size isn't proportional to its mass). Again, how can you tilt at anyone or anything if nothing matters?

"Fortune's formula". The title sounds retarded, but the book isn't. It's one of the best selling book right now. It was recommended to me by Tillerman and Slayer, possibly the two richest gamers turned poker players. It'll tell you how someone used that same theory of information to beat casino house games (yea, you must be thinking what the fuck is that theory of information by now). It'll teach you that even if it's plus EV for an insurance company to sell you insurance, it's also plus EV for you to get insurance. (What that last sentence means: taking a shot at 25-50 with a 25k bankroll isn't plus EV even if your expectation is 4bbs/100. It does not increase your geometric mean to play in that game.)

"Blink". There's thinking. And there "blinking". Blinking > thinking. When you play Starcraft (assuming you're a gosu), you're blinking, you'r not thinking. When you're getting shot at, you're blinking. When you're typing a reply to this thread, you're blinking. Cool stuff. When you get really good at something, the subconscious part of our brain is taking over the conscious part.

"Freakonimics". If you plan on having kids, you must read it. It's important for your kid's education. The book answers all sorts of questions, like how it's obvious that Sumo wrestling is rigged in Japan. I was going to buy this book for my favorite Japanese gambler Masta but its banned in Japan. (Masta not to be confused with Massa.)

http://Amazone.com

P.S : Please do suggest books that you've read that aren't about poker but can help a poker player in any way.

Dan - LA/Commerce says:
we were int eh rhino
Dan - LA/Commerce says:
elkys stripper memphis
Dan - LA/Commerce says:
was trying elky not to drink the vodkaa
Dan - LA/Commerce says:
and i told elkyk
Dan - LA/Commerce says:
do whatever u want, nothing matters
Dan - LA/Commerce says:
and he started laughing his ass off
Dan - LA/Commerce says:
then 1 shotted half hte bottle
Dan - LA/Commerce says:
then kept saying it more and more

So rekrul's the genius. He's given me the title to this post as well.

fuck i posted this in the wrong forum. someone move this to General

thx for the heads up giyom, I just ordered fortune's formula, blink and outliers on amazon and I can't wait to get em. It would be nice if others shared their favorite books.

I'll start by sharing some of my personal favorites:

"Understanding Power" Noam Chomsky

- I'd have to say that this is the single most influential book that I've ever read. Before I read this book, I was politically and socially leaning right, a product of an elite prep school education. I feel as though I learned more about the world by reading this one book than I did through a lifetime of formal education. This book is an excellent overview of Chomsky's politcal views and it covers both foreign issues ranging from US involvement in South American countries such as Nicaragua, Guatemela, Chile, The Vietnam War, Iraq Wars, Israel/Palestine conflict, East Timor, etc. to domestic issues such as the role of the media, US educational system, class warfare, etc. Most importantly, this book comes with an online resource of footnotes that reference a plethora of primary sources. I no longer accept the commentary of others as truths, rather I actively seek out the primary sources upon which they draw their opinions and I draw my own conclusions from the unaltered facts. I did extensive research on my own after reading this book to check up on Chomsky's claims for they seemed quite extraordinary at the time, and they all turned out to be substantiated and this was what converted me into the diehard liberal that I am today.

"Historical Baseball Abstract" Bill James

- The bible of baseball. An absolute must read for any baseball fan. The book is very balanced between a very readable conversational type overview of the history of baseball, different players, eras and stadiums, etc. and a very detailed statistical overview of win shares, his mathematical formula that breaks down the total value of a player down to a single number. Coincidence that the red sox went almost a century without a title and right after they hired bill james as a consultant, boston has already won two in less than a decade?

"Fooled by Randomness" Nassim Nicholas Taleb

- In Fooled by Randomness, Nassim Nicholas Taleb, a professional trader and mathematics professor, examines what randomness means in business and in life and why human beings are so prone to mistake dumb luck for consummate skill. Well, I don't necessarily agree with this book 100% but it was nonetheless a fascinating read. This book is especially relevant for poker players and traders since it discusses in detail the effects of variance. Although somehow I doubt Fayth will have any interest in reading this book.


That's it for now, but I have many more that I would like to share. I'll just put them up a few at a time.

On February 27 2009 22:44 TenBagger wrote: "Fooled by Randomness" Nassim Nicholas Taleb - In Fooled by Randomness, Nassim Nicholas Taleb, a professional trader and mathematics professor, examines what randomness means in business and in life and why human beings are so prone to mistake dumb luck for consummate skill. Well, I don't necessarily agree with this book 100% but it was nonetheless a fascinating read. This book is especially relevant for poker players and traders since it discusses in detail the effects of variance. Although somehow I doubt Fayth will have any interest in reading this book.

NEED MY BLACK SWAN HEATER PLZ

A BLACK SWAN PATTERN PREDICTS THE BEAR MARKET

looooooooooooooooool Jyang I dont even get it and yet I find it hilarious hahaha

I expected new chapters from rekrul's book he's working on but this post was interesting well

GL Chrh

Mastery by George Leonard
Think and Grow Rich by Napolean Hill

I'm not usually a big fan of self-help type books but both those books looked pretty interesting. thx for the recs KSC, I just ordered both.

Lol I thought the entire thread was about how you were going to kill your roommate, but it turned out to be about books.
And wtf is Chrh is real name or tag? it has no vowels. how can it not have a vowel

I bought "Marketing High Technology" by Willian Davidow and it's sitting on my bookshelf . Gotta read it.

On February 28 2009 00:12 Bigbobm wrote: Lol I thought the entire thread was about how you were going to kill your roommate, but it turned out to be about books. And wtf is Chrh is real name or tag? it has no vowels. how can it not have a vowel

Chrh is his Starcraft gamer ID. Like mine, it doesn't have any vowels.

[B]"Fooled by Randomness" Nassim Nicholas Taleb - In Fooled by Randomness, Nassim Nicholas Taleb, a professional trader and mathematics professor, examines what randomness means in business and in life and why human beings are so prone to mistake dumb luck for consummate skill. Well, I don't necessarily agree with this book 100% but it was nonetheless a fascinating read. This book is especially relevant for poker players and traders since it discusses in detail the effects of variance. Although somehow I doubt Fayth will have any interest in reading this book. .

So is Warren Buffet and Georges Soros just running hot?

I heard about this book before. It's next on my list. thx

wow really nice read Grrrrrrrrrrr, I will definitely take those books into consideration for future... and it's always interesting to read/learn more about the progamer behind the gamer... I remember watching Chrh in old old reps, and esp the one vs boxer TvT.

these documentary vids on progaming for foreigners in korea is how i learned more about ElkY...








has nothing to do with books but just thought i should share for anyone that hasn't seen them

HAHAHA i love watching old Elky pictures/videos.

totally agree about frankle's man search for meaning. every time i feel bad about myself after i read that book i just hear his voice in my head calling me a pussy bitch

On February 27 2009 23:58 TenBagger wrote: I'm not usually a big fan of self-help type books but both those books looked pretty interesting. thx for the recs KSC, I just ordered both.

You're welcome I'm pretty sure you won't regret ordering them; good investments imo