The Well: curtains 3/2/07

[curtains]

[ QUOTE ]
How much luck is involved in high-level chess?

[/ QUOTE ]

Not much. I mean you can get lucky that your opponent played a bad move against you and not someone else, if you want to call that luck. In general though, it's probably the most pure skill game that there is.

Anytime your opponent plays a substandard move you have to say its somewhat lucky they didn't play the best move. But it's not a matter of luck really, it's their skill level, and frequency of making blunders/mistakes that caused them to play the wrong move at the wrong time.

[curtains]

[ QUOTE ]
Who wrote "the chart"

[/ QUOTE ]

Jesus came down from the heavens and put it under my pillow.

In all honesty I was inspired by the K+S chart and wanted to expand it. I asked a mathematically inclined friend of mine to help me with putting together a formula that could expand the chart past heads up play. Then we spent a few days and put it together.

It was very valuable at the time because not many people were hip to the incredible importance of math in sit and go play. It's value has greatly depreciated through time due to the greater overall knowledge of the sit and go players, although it does still have some great benefits, especially for MTT play (as you can see the difference when antes of different sizes are added)

[Austiger]

What's the origin of the Pacman avatar? Have you ever changed it?

[curtains]

[ QUOTE ]
what is the biggest leak that people who are no longer able to beat sngs have? what was your biggest leak when you first switched to cash?

[/ QUOTE ]


Tough question. Are you referring to people who used to be clear winners and are now having problems? If so it's probably game selection and an inability to play lower limits and less tables. Also an inability to adjust and add some new moves to their game.

I believe that it's almost always true that the best way to beat a game one year ago, is no longer the best way to beat a game today.

[curtains]

[ QUOTE ]
How has your chess background helped your poker game?

Do you study both games with the same intensity or is poker easier in your opinion?

Thanks for taking the time. I have been a big fan of yours and remember watching your games online that were played I think on Tuesday nights at the NY masters. I think it was the Marshal chess club. Its been a while thats for sure.

[/ QUOTE ]

1. My chess background has helped because it made me used to competitive situations, helped me to think logically towards a specific goal and etc etc. But okay there are a ton of good poker players who don't play chess, I'm not sure if I would have been much worse if it wasn't for chess. Maybe it gave me a little bit of extra confidence since I'd already proved that I can succeed at such a competitive game of strategy?

2. Poker is much easier than chess. You can easily learn poker and become world class at an older age. Almost no one can do the same with chess. I think this alone is close to proving the point.

3. Yes that was the NY Masters that I ran at the Marshall Chess Club. Check out the US Chess League at www.uschessleague.com for more fun chess games. I don't play, but it's a fun event to watch on ICC anyway!

[futuredoc85]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
what is the biggest leak that people who are no longer able to beat sngs have? what was your biggest leak when you first switched to cash?

[/ QUOTE ]


Tough question. Are you referring to people who used to be clear winners and are now having problems? If so it's probably game selection and an inability to play lower limits and less tables. Also an inability to adjust and add some new moves to their game.

I believe that it's almost always true that the best way to beat a game one year ago, is no longer the best way to beat a game today.

[/ QUOTE ]

that sounds pretty dead on. your biggest leak in cash games?

edit: and how did you fix it?

[xPeru]

Great move doing this Curtains, TY. Post-flop play is becoming more important in SNGs, so it seems, what have you done to systematically analyse post-flop play. It doesn't seem quite as susceptible to charting ...

[curtains]

[ QUOTE ]
!controversy!

are you planning on shortstacking cash games in the future?

how profitable do you find it to be compared to buying in for max?

[/ QUOTE ]

1. No. I did it for 2 days and found it annoying. I think I was 2.6 BB/100 [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] Anyway I don't know if the profit potential is that huge and when you combine it with the negative stigma involved, I just don't think it's worth it. If I was sure that I could make a tremendous killing I would do it however, as I don't think there is any clear ethical reason not to.

It feels much better playing a full stack, because at least you are learning more when you play.


2. Probably if a game is weak you want to buy in for the max. If a game is strong, you should buy in for the minimum? This assumes you are only profit winrate motivated.

[curtains]

[ QUOTE ]
A while back you wrote some SnG articles. A couple in particular I remember were about playing AK. The site they were hosted on seems to have gone down. Are these articles available anywhere else?

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes they are. People ask for these articles quite a bit. I don't know where to find them but if someone reading this knows where they are, please add a link. Thanks!

[curtains]

[ QUOTE ]
What's the origin of the Pacman avatar? Have you ever changed it?

[/ QUOTE ]

Well I went like a year or two with no avatar and people got on me about it. I love to play Ms Pac Man and am pretty good at it, so I decided to use a PacMan logo.