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| Daniel Negreanu's Blog February 16, 2007 Negreanu writes about his new dog and playing online poker |
| Daniel Negreanu's Poker Blog |
| UltimatePokerForum.com The Ultimate Poker Site |
| Welcoming a new member to the family!!! |
February 16, 2007
Lori and I had been thinking about it for a while and we finally agreed to go
through with it. Our immediate family since we got married a while back has
always been me, her, and Mushu. Well, that's about to change.
Lori is officially... getting us a new dog! My good friend Tyson (he is Asian and
I thought I should point that out to prove that I like Asian people :-), has a
Beagle Pekinese and she had puppies about seven weeks ago.
Tomorrow, Lori is picking up our new dog, a little girl, so that Mushu can have
a sister. We decided to name the dog Marley, after my favorite musician Bob
Marley.
Since I've been learning more about "PC" stuff I guess I should also add the
following: our decision to name the dog after a half white/half black singer, in
no way means that we believe that people of mixed races are like dogs. It
was not meant to disgrace the Marley family.
It's kind of bizarre that all of this race discussion is happening now. About a
week ago I ordered a movie on Netflix. Netflix is the bomb by the way. It
suggested a few films for me. One of them called, "America Beyond the Color
Line,” which I ordered and plan on watching this week.
Anyway, with the new dog I have a few concerns but I hope everything
works out ok. The thing is, Mushu is pretty spoiled and territorial. That's one
of the main reasons I asked Lori to get a female puppy.
****PC ALERT. This in no way means that I believe males to be superior or
dominant over females. Whether canine or human. I respect women and
think they are great! END PC ALERT***
Mushu sleeps with us and is very territorial when it comes to the bed. It's
probably not a good idea to have them both in the bed at the same time as I
don't want Mushu to get jealous at all. It's going to be really tough in the
beginning, but I think if we show them both enough love that we'll make it
work.
Last night Tyson (Korean-American), Sam (Thai-American), and Ming
(Vietnamese-American), and I went out to play pool and then went bowling
after that.
I was excited to play pool after playing so well last time out, but I just
couldn't make a ball at all. We played 9-ball, because we all agreed that the
essence of 8-ball is rather offensive and we didn't think it would be
appropriate. I mean seriously, you win the game by getting rid of the black
ball? If that's not offensive, I don't know what is!
The bar was packed and it was very hip. It's called Sierra Gold and it's
located at Jones and the 215. We ended up hanging with some of the locals
there, most of which were cool. At one point, the cocktail waitress (White-
American) told me to yell across the room and tell the bartender he sucks.
Seemed harmless, so I yelled out, "Hey Jackson, you suck." He points at
himself, nods awkwardly and didn't look happy about it.
Not too much longer, Jackson (A White-American) came over to our table and
grabbed the back of my neck. Not in an aggressive way at all, but it was kind
of weird. He then says, "Ok man, I don't need to hear that I suck all the time.
You need to just cool down ok man. Just cool down."
***PC ALERT. Just because this guy was white, that doesn't mean that all
white people behave this way. In no way do I want to send out a message
that whites are angry people. END PC ALERT***
I was kind of shocked, and explained to him that the waitress made me do it!
After he calmed down, he actually came and apologized to me for
overreacting which I thought was cool.
He ended up being a cool dude that was just having a bad day. We also met
another couple at the bar, a White-American girl that worked as a waitress
there, and her husband, a Romanian-American guy who seemed pretty cool. I
got a chance to brush up on my Romanian as it's been a while since I spoke
the language.
***PC ALERT. Not all Romanians are cool. Some are racist and very mean.
Others may be boring and/or lazy END PC ALERT***
Tomorrow we get the new dog and then at 5:00pm we are going to watch
the slam dunk contest and the 3-point contest.
***PC ALERT. Many of the best athletes in this country are African-American.
However, it is not appropriate to discuss such things in any way or even
acknowledge the fact that there are no white cornerbacks in the NFL. To
make any reference to this would be highly inappropriate and offensive to all.
END PC ALERT***
*************************************************************
I've been wasting way too much online recently posting in the poker forums.
Little good came of it, but there was one thread that got side tracked and I
thought would be interesting to discuss.
I think I suck online. Not so bad that I couldn't win, obviously, but online
poker just doesn't satisfy my competitive urges and I've never been able to
take it as seriously as you should in order to be successful.
In fairness, I've played very few hours online, especially in comparison to
others, so I have no idea how good or bad I would do long term if I played
high stakes online.
There are several things that keep me from doing better:
1. I have a bad habit of playing poorly when the stakes are too small. That's
something I've always had a problem with, and while I wish I could play my
best when playing small limits, I don't see it happening any time soon.
2. I find it difficult to read players online. When I play live and have a chance
to look at the person, whether in a hand or not, there is more information
available that helps me make informed decisions. I haven't seemed to be
able to do that online, albeit, it's a very small sample as I said.
3. Passion. I don't try hard enough. It's strange, but it just doesn't feel real
to me. I'm either watching something on television, sweating hockey scores,
or talking to friends. In order to do well online against the top players, I
imagine that you'd need to focus on the task at hand, and that's not
something I've been good at. I get bored way too quickly.
4. There is more bluffing going on in high limit cash games online. This one is
a little more complicated, but it's definitely something that seems significantly
different about playing online versus live.
It's much, much easier for a player to follow through with a bluff online than it
is in a live scenario. There is no fear of giving off a tell, and no fear of an
opponent staring you down, etc. All you have to do is press a button and
"voila," bluff attempt is made. In a live game, you have to actually count out
the chips with your opponent watching you. You might even have to count
some cash, all of the time with the added pressure of your opponent
watching your every move. Some players choke under that kind of pressure.
Not all, but some definitely do.
Online, you have to remember how your opponents have played past hands
based on their screen name as well as taking notes. That's very different
from being able to remember a player in a live scenario. I suck at that.
The best online players play anywhere from 3-8 games at once. Seriously, I
can't focus on more than one for any significant length of time. Playing in two
games makes it even more difficult for me to read my opponents as I lose
track of what is even happening.
One of the posters claimed that my admission to sucking online was an
admission to having a technically flawed approach to no limit hold'em. I
disagree with that. I don't think that's true at all. I don't think my approach to
the game is the problem at all. The problem with my game is a lack of
patience online coupled with poor reading skills.
Having said all that, I think I could become good at it. It would take lots of
time and energy, but I have total confidence that I could do it. I just don't
know that I want to. When I play online I often feel like I could be doing
something more productive. Like playing video games, watching Lost season
2, reading, shooting pool, bowling, or playing golf.
Read More Entries from Daniel Negreanu's Blog
Lori and I had been thinking about it for a while and we finally agreed to go
through with it. Our immediate family since we got married a while back has
always been me, her, and Mushu. Well, that's about to change.
Lori is officially... getting us a new dog! My good friend Tyson (he is Asian and
I thought I should point that out to prove that I like Asian people :-), has a
Beagle Pekinese and she had puppies about seven weeks ago.
Tomorrow, Lori is picking up our new dog, a little girl, so that Mushu can have
a sister. We decided to name the dog Marley, after my favorite musician Bob
Marley.
Since I've been learning more about "PC" stuff I guess I should also add the
following: our decision to name the dog after a half white/half black singer, in
no way means that we believe that people of mixed races are like dogs. It
was not meant to disgrace the Marley family.
It's kind of bizarre that all of this race discussion is happening now. About a
week ago I ordered a movie on Netflix. Netflix is the bomb by the way. It
suggested a few films for me. One of them called, "America Beyond the Color
Line,” which I ordered and plan on watching this week.
Anyway, with the new dog I have a few concerns but I hope everything
works out ok. The thing is, Mushu is pretty spoiled and territorial. That's one
of the main reasons I asked Lori to get a female puppy.
****PC ALERT. This in no way means that I believe males to be superior or
dominant over females. Whether canine or human. I respect women and
think they are great! END PC ALERT***
Mushu sleeps with us and is very territorial when it comes to the bed. It's
probably not a good idea to have them both in the bed at the same time as I
don't want Mushu to get jealous at all. It's going to be really tough in the
beginning, but I think if we show them both enough love that we'll make it
work.
Last night Tyson (Korean-American), Sam (Thai-American), and Ming
(Vietnamese-American), and I went out to play pool and then went bowling
after that.
I was excited to play pool after playing so well last time out, but I just
couldn't make a ball at all. We played 9-ball, because we all agreed that the
essence of 8-ball is rather offensive and we didn't think it would be
appropriate. I mean seriously, you win the game by getting rid of the black
ball? If that's not offensive, I don't know what is!
The bar was packed and it was very hip. It's called Sierra Gold and it's
located at Jones and the 215. We ended up hanging with some of the locals
there, most of which were cool. At one point, the cocktail waitress (White-
American) told me to yell across the room and tell the bartender he sucks.
Seemed harmless, so I yelled out, "Hey Jackson, you suck." He points at
himself, nods awkwardly and didn't look happy about it.
Not too much longer, Jackson (A White-American) came over to our table and
grabbed the back of my neck. Not in an aggressive way at all, but it was kind
of weird. He then says, "Ok man, I don't need to hear that I suck all the time.
You need to just cool down ok man. Just cool down."
***PC ALERT. Just because this guy was white, that doesn't mean that all
white people behave this way. In no way do I want to send out a message
that whites are angry people. END PC ALERT***
I was kind of shocked, and explained to him that the waitress made me do it!
After he calmed down, he actually came and apologized to me for
overreacting which I thought was cool.
He ended up being a cool dude that was just having a bad day. We also met
another couple at the bar, a White-American girl that worked as a waitress
there, and her husband, a Romanian-American guy who seemed pretty cool. I
got a chance to brush up on my Romanian as it's been a while since I spoke
the language.
***PC ALERT. Not all Romanians are cool. Some are racist and very mean.
Others may be boring and/or lazy END PC ALERT***
Tomorrow we get the new dog and then at 5:00pm we are going to watch
the slam dunk contest and the 3-point contest.
***PC ALERT. Many of the best athletes in this country are African-American.
However, it is not appropriate to discuss such things in any way or even
acknowledge the fact that there are no white cornerbacks in the NFL. To
make any reference to this would be highly inappropriate and offensive to all.
END PC ALERT***
*************************************************************
I've been wasting way too much online recently posting in the poker forums.
Little good came of it, but there was one thread that got side tracked and I
thought would be interesting to discuss.
I think I suck online. Not so bad that I couldn't win, obviously, but online
poker just doesn't satisfy my competitive urges and I've never been able to
take it as seriously as you should in order to be successful.
In fairness, I've played very few hours online, especially in comparison to
others, so I have no idea how good or bad I would do long term if I played
high stakes online.
There are several things that keep me from doing better:
1. I have a bad habit of playing poorly when the stakes are too small. That's
something I've always had a problem with, and while I wish I could play my
best when playing small limits, I don't see it happening any time soon.
2. I find it difficult to read players online. When I play live and have a chance
to look at the person, whether in a hand or not, there is more information
available that helps me make informed decisions. I haven't seemed to be
able to do that online, albeit, it's a very small sample as I said.
3. Passion. I don't try hard enough. It's strange, but it just doesn't feel real
to me. I'm either watching something on television, sweating hockey scores,
or talking to friends. In order to do well online against the top players, I
imagine that you'd need to focus on the task at hand, and that's not
something I've been good at. I get bored way too quickly.
4. There is more bluffing going on in high limit cash games online. This one is
a little more complicated, but it's definitely something that seems significantly
different about playing online versus live.
It's much, much easier for a player to follow through with a bluff online than it
is in a live scenario. There is no fear of giving off a tell, and no fear of an
opponent staring you down, etc. All you have to do is press a button and
"voila," bluff attempt is made. In a live game, you have to actually count out
the chips with your opponent watching you. You might even have to count
some cash, all of the time with the added pressure of your opponent
watching your every move. Some players choke under that kind of pressure.
Not all, but some definitely do.
Online, you have to remember how your opponents have played past hands
based on their screen name as well as taking notes. That's very different
from being able to remember a player in a live scenario. I suck at that.
The best online players play anywhere from 3-8 games at once. Seriously, I
can't focus on more than one for any significant length of time. Playing in two
games makes it even more difficult for me to read my opponents as I lose
track of what is even happening.
One of the posters claimed that my admission to sucking online was an
admission to having a technically flawed approach to no limit hold'em. I
disagree with that. I don't think that's true at all. I don't think my approach to
the game is the problem at all. The problem with my game is a lack of
patience online coupled with poor reading skills.
Having said all that, I think I could become good at it. It would take lots of
time and energy, but I have total confidence that I could do it. I just don't
know that I want to. When I play online I often feel like I could be doing
something more productive. Like playing video games, watching Lost season
2, reading, shooting pool, bowling, or playing golf.
Read More Entries from Daniel Negreanu's Blog
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