The Well: kkf

[fish2plus2]

After reading some of the other Well's, it seemed like alot of fun and a good chance to reflect on my life. I wrote a short bio about my life before moving to Thailand. I seperated it with -----'s, incase you dont care about that crap.

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I grew up in Miami and I was a normal kid with a normal kid life. I am not Jewish and I didnt know a single non-jewish white person in Miami except my brother. When I was in the 2nd grade I won the school Chess Championship and defended it throughout 6th grade. I was also involved in mental math competitions.

When I was about 12, my parents went Busto and we moved to this backwater redneck town. For those of you who have never lived in a redneck town, it is exactly the way you see it on TV. Every house has a rebel flag.

My school classes were probably two years behind the classes I took in Miami, and the kids were borderline retarded. There were a few incidents I remember, a couple of kids were snorting pens in one of my classes and their noses started bleeding all over their desks, these two kids had a huge brick of pot in their backpack, and during the year several girls (6th grade, now) ended up getting pregnant.

Kids were really into drugs already, which I had never even seen before that point. I also had to ride the school bus for 45 minutes in the morning and 45 minutes in the afternoon. Everyday I would explain to the bus driver that the bus should go in opposite directions in the morning and afternoons to make it fair, but he had no teeth and didnt seem to listen to anything I said. There was no after-school social interaction or anything like that.

The only thing good about moving out there was that because there weren't alot of people, when someone knew moved into town, they were like the rock star of the school. There would be tons of girls who wanted a piece of you simply becuase you were a new face. I got to make out/feel up a couple of chicks during school and on the bus. In hind sight, it actually might have been really sweet to be a new face in high school instead of middle school, however there werent that many hot girls, and most of them had probably already been de-virginized by a family member. Oh yeah, Christianity is really big in these small towns. There are more Churchs then gas stations.

Two years later, my parents relocated again. This place was better, but it was still a small town and there wasnt much to do. At this point, I didnt care about school. I would do as little as possible to get a B in each class. My GPA upon graduating was exactly 3.0. I graduated a year early by taking some community college classes. The first two years of high school I was pretty much a normal kid, but during my final year I pretty much withdrew completely mentally and socially. When I started playing poker, I actually ended up paying my little brother(who is pretty smart and sadly never picked up poker) to do all of my homework. It was around this time that I really began questioning my life and what I wanted to do with my life.

I read On The Road by Jack Kerouac. I thought most of the book sucked except the ending, which I thought was spectacular, specifically Neal Cassidy coming back to see Jack Kerouac early before he could save money and not knowing why, it portrayed the restless energy I felt inside of myself. I also read The Catcher in the Rye which I thought was a great example of youth caught in what Camus called the absurd. The stuff he says about traveling not being the same after you grow older (when he wants to run away with the girl and then gets in a fight with her). So, I feel in love with the idea of lonesome traveler who goes from place to place with a minimal amount of possesions and just experiences life. In the movie Pulp Fiction, Sam Jackson says "walk the earth like kane in kung fu".

I finished high school, spent 6 months playing poker in isolation, saving about $25K and then headed to Thailand. Arriving in the airport was pretty crazy because I did zero research and left on the spur of the moment. I didnt have a hotel or guide book or anything, I just knew that Ko Sarn Road was where a bunch of guest houses were located. In the arrival area of the airport, I followed some tout who made it look like he was running a real taxi service, but it was actually an illegal/non licensed taxi. I had already paid and didnt feel like turning back after three flights and thiry hours of travel. I get in the car with this young guy who keeps looking at me and breaking up in hysterical laughter. It is after midnight so he was probably drunk. The car was a real piece of crap, but it drives fast as hell. My seatbelt didnt work. The whole way he kept looking at me and laughing and then adjusting the air conditioner to make sure it was hitting me perflectly. He adjusted it about 15 times. He was going about 140 on the highway and my eyes are bugging out my head because at that point I didnt realize it was kilometers.

I was totally disorientated. At some point, I realized how out of my element I was and started seeing headlines of tourist robber and murdered, but then I relaxed a little bit. Driving around, Bangkok looked like a total third world crap-box. Everything looked so old and the people on the streets looked very poor. We finally got there, and I opened the door on the wrong side of the road to get out and the car behind us had to stop short and the abrupt beeping of its horn jolted me awake. I got out of the taxi and walked into the first Guest House.

I quickly realized that I made the right decision to leave when the Guest House receptionist smiled at me. From that point, I would become infatuated and intoxicated by thousands of Asian girls w/ their cute thin arms, innocent expressions and small breasts. I would also come to appreciate Bangkok and its absurdity.

At this time, I was only traveling with one backpack: 3 shorts, 4 tshirts, a couple pairs of socks, sneakers, and some toiletries. It is kind of funny thinking back about it now. Needless to say, I quickly ended up buying more stuff and ended up renting a studio apartment that I described here. (Here is an OOT thread about Thailand, if you have any basic questions like "do they speak english or how do i get a visa"

I dont have much (any) contact with other foriegners. I dont know why exactly, I just dont have any desire too. Most of guys have probably never been around a native Asian girl. Its hard to explain it, how they are, how great it is. I guess its one of those things you just have to experience. But for me, there is no going back. The idea of meeting an American Rocket scientist-Model as Diabo put it, doesnt do anything for me. I would much rather hang out with some poor waitress or shop girl.

I always see other people writing stuff like "I wouldn't want to be rich and sit around doing nothing all day except looking at girls, watching films, eating great food, and reading great books... I want to have a job that challenges me..." I am not one of those people.

I play poker strictly for money. Otherwise, I am indifferent towards it. I dont like/dislike it. I only come back to America around Christmas to visit my family, and I have no intentions of ever moving back to the states.
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Thoughts on other posters: Most influential to my poker game were Ray Zee, Diablo, and RBK. RBK's posts about checking behind on the flop really opened alot of different doors to me on how to think in terms of multiple streets. Zee has a number of really great posts that steer more towards TAG strategies that I thought were important. Zee's underbetting thread also really helped me think about multi-street plays/theory. Whenever I had some poker ideas that I didnt want to share on this forum, I would pm Diablo about them and he was pretty influential in shaping and accepting or rejecting some of these ideas/strategies.

With all the young LAGs like Strassa, alot of the strategy threads got somewhat fancy and kind of goofy. i would recommend people to go back and read the archives of zee, GoG, flyyn, Diablo etc for a more fundamental understanding of the TAG game - the crazy Sam/Strassa LAG game comes after that.

I think most people know my poker history. I played SNGs for awhile starting in middle 03'. Then started playing $.5/1, $1/2 NL poker, and then $5/10 NL when Party opened it, then $10/20 NL, and then dabbling in the higher stake games. Ive never played higher then $50/100 NL and the idea of it scares the crap at me.

I have been pretty conservative with my bankroll. When I lose 10 buyins I have a really hard time not dropping down. This has probably cost me some money. My confidence and patience were shot in early 06' and I tried to grind low stakes like a moron and didnt make any money since I wasnt making the correct adjustments. 06' was going very unspectacular until Party $25/50 NL opened and I was able to take a nice chunk out of that.

I have found that when new games open, I play at my most focused level. For instance, when I first started playing $5/10 NL on party, $10/20 NL on Party, $50/100 NL on UB, and then $25/50 NL on Party, my first 40K hands were always my personal best, and probably some of the best in the game overall too, and then my stats would fall off (sometimes significantly). I feel like I am playing my A game probably less then a 1/3 of the time. And throwing out a B/C game most of the time, but almost never a D/F game. Anyways, who gives a crap since we have been so lucky to make so much money at this stupid game.

Most important skills: finding a game where you know that you have a strong edge. for instance, maybe you find a game where someone is stacking off too easily or folding too much. But more so, this statement is made in relation to the entire table then to an individual player unless they are a big fish. Is the table too tight or too loose that you can take advantage of it?

In chess, you sometimes turn the board the other way and look at it from your opponents perspective, learn to think that way in poker. follow their actions in their head and find the best move to cause the best reaction - when to induce a bluff vs when to overbet vs when to bet half pot.
alot of guys are always betting full pot in every situation, but i think there is something to be said for using other bet patterns.

any questions?

[KRANTZ]

in deference to your multi-street discourse, a multi-street question:

what ethnicity/race are you?

how much poker/day do you play currently?

describe what the period of your life was like when you and prahlad went at it (he was probably at the height of his dominance online, did you think you were better than him, etc. etc.)

[bap2086]

how old r u now?
how long have u been living in thailand?

[El Diablo]

kkf,

Do you think you're going to stay in Thailand for much longer or go somewhere else?

[PartyGirlUK]

Post a pic of yourself!

[AZK]

kkf,

1) Do you miss your family? Wish to see them more frequently than once a year? What about any friends?

2) I don't understand how you are content without pursuing some sort of goal...it's probably a function of our childhoods but I was always curious about the world around me, how it worked, etc...it pushed me towards science, but it can also push people towards other subjects...you never felt something like this? This desire to learn as much as you could about something?

What about a desire to improve oneself? I'm sure you are more well-read than me and probably more cultured as far as the world goes, but I just get the feeling from this post that you are content with a life of mental mediocrity... of course this is probably me placing my ideals/concerns on you and assuming you would want the same things...I'm still curious.

[Requin]

1. Did you only speak english when you moved out there?
2. Are you ever afraid that you'll get bored with the lifestyle you've describe and not know what to do next?

[fishfather]

top ten movies?

top ten books?

[kitaristi0]

Thoughts on The Outsider/The Stranger by Camus?

[KingNeo]

KKF you were a rockstar for approx a month while playing Prahlad HU.

Why did you decide to play him HU in the first place?

How much $ did you take off of him?

Why did you quit him and never play him again? Was it because you felt you took advantage of him while you were running hot and he was tilting? Did you feel you didn't actually have an edge on him and were satisfied walking away the victor?

Thanks.