'Summertime, and the livin' is easy' - is the first line of the song Summertime written by George Gershwin for the opera Porgy and Bess. This song always puts me in a good mood.
Summertime Finally the summer has come to Denmark. Even though we had a little bit of snow a few nights ago the temperature during the day has risen just about enough to leave the coat at home. Yesterday I decided to go to a local park for a walk in the afternoon sun. I sat down on a bench by a little lake and watched ducks, pigeons and people walking around as if the rest of the world didn't exist. Two ducks kept me company in the shadow just out of reach of crying babies wanting to pet them all the time. Life is good.
As I sat there I let my thoughts wander and thought about all the nice things this summer is going to offer.
Most importantly my sister is having her first child (a girl) hopefully this week and we are all very exited about that. She will the first child in our family since my sister was born herself some 30+ years ago. I wish both of them all the best of luck during the birth.
Sports on TV I like watching sports on TV. This summer I'm as always looking forward to Wimbledon and Tour de France. There's also the Soccer World Championship with Denmark as a participant, but I really don't care much for soccer, sorry guys.
Right now the Snooker World Championship and the Chess World Championship is going on and I spend way too much time following those two events. I'm truly fascinated by the skill level required to compete at the highest levels. Of course there's noticeable difference in pure skill from the best of the best to the strong outsiders. What still amazes me is how much the psychological part of the game matters. The absolute top players seem to always be able to dig a little bit deeper and find some hidden resources making them able to do the impossible when needed the most.
I heard two different commentators talk about the difference between current top players and past top players still being somewhat active. They both pointed out that they all have this great game and they all can perform up to near perfection. The past top players just have a harder time getting motivated enough to perform their best. This is why you don't want to motivate a past champion when playing him. It's like waking a sleeping lion. Go Steve Davis!
This year I'm planning on going to Monte Carlo to try to win the Backgammon World Championship once again. I've been highly motivated over the past 6 months and I got back the urge to learn new things and improve upon the things I already know. Receiving backgammon coaching has opened my eyes for how much I actually know and even more how much I don't know. The tournament is schedules in mid June.
Poker This first month here at CoinFlip has taken it's toll on the energy and time I've had to play poker. So far I've managed to play a mere 6K hands in NL200 5M breaking almost dead even. Of course I'm disappointed that I didn't put more hours into playing but I'm really thrilled about the degree of intensity I've been able play with. Certainly I've been more relaxed when playing because I really looked forward to every single session I was able squeeze in.
All the time I'm trying to find a good balance between playing what I consider my ABC-game and incorporating new concepts. Usually my showdown winnings graph is going up just a little bit more than my non-showdown winnings is going down. My game is centered around value bets and pot control and I think my blue/red line profile shows that pretty clearly. My stats are 22/18/3.0, 3-betting about 6%. At the moment I feel quite comfortable playing this kind of low variance poker. The problem is that it's somewhat limited to only be successful when my opponents makes mistakes in fairly standard situations.
I've decided to add two new ideas into my game. The first one is to play a little looser in position. Just a few percent, nothing more. This will hopefully make me a little bit harder to play against even though I can't play those extra hands to +EV. I generally try to keep my ranges wide and this will help me do that just a little bit more.
The second idea I'd like to test is bluffing more without showdown value when I'm pretty sure my opponent can't call. Very often I feel like I end up in the situations where, if my opponent bets, I have to fold even though I don't think it's likely for him to have anything. I know he might know that I don't represent much. Picking up a 50 big blind pot once in a while that didn't have my name on it could help my winnings a lot.
By implementing those two ideas hope to be losing a lot less money in non-showdown winnings. This will definitely make it harder to play against me resulting in more mistakes from my opponents averaging over all hands and thus making me more money.
At the table next to ours some English speaking guys were having dinner. Later another guy joined them. We realized it was Lars Ulrich. Suddenly it wasn't just some guys having dinner... It was freaking Metallica!
Having dinner 'with' the rich and famous... A few days ago one of my old friends turned 30. Among other things we celebrated the occasion by going out to the best restaurant we've ever been at. We all live in the heart of Copenhagen and Tivoli had just opened it's doors for this season. This is why we decided to go to 'The Paul' which is placed inside Tivoli. 'The Paul' is one of the few restaurant in Denmark having a star in the Michelin guide.
The dinner consisted of nine small courses with a specially selected wine menu to compliment the food. This was, if not the best, one of the best food experiences I've ever had. At the table next to ours some English speaking guys were having dinner. Later another guy joined them. We realized it was Lars Ulrich. Suddenly is wasn't just some guys having dinner... it was freaking Metallica!
Why am I telling you this? Is this name dropping? Haven't I ever met celebrities before? Well, I tell you this because I just realized how big a poker nerd I actually am!
The rest of our party were pretty hyped about the situation while I was thinking of how cool it was to have a real life example of how the whole can be much more than the sum of the parts.
The path to enlightenment What I want to explore is the work of finding a good way to learn poker were you learn one concept at the time and just build upon that when you move to the higher stakes. I guess that what I'm looking for is a way to learn poker as we all learned math back in school. At the moment I'm not sure it's even possible but I'll share my thoughts on the subject in the remainder of this blog.
To open the subject I'll ask some question and try to answer them myself. This will also give you a chance to disagree with my answers and ask more questions yourself. I'll be delighted to debate this subject with you and we might all learn a thing or two from it. There can be written books on this subject but I only want to scratch the surface and see what is underneath.
Questions and answers What is the most important thing to know about poker (ultimate goal)? Let's work under the assumption that we are playing poker ultimately to win money. Now, the old saying that - 'poker is not about winning pot, it's about winning money' - seems quite relevant. To me this reminds me that I don't have to win every pot to make money. At the end of the day the money saved is just as good as the money won.
Approach learning of poker as bottom-up or top-down? The classical way of learning poker is bottom-up. We start out by learning something about starting hands and preflop play. Then postflop play gets added and then you might be ready for some overall understanding of the lines and hand reading. The problem of learning things in vacuum is that there are just many more things you need to know/remember rather than understand.
In a top-down way of thinking we could start learning about how the streets are connected and get an idea of how our early actions in a hand affects the later. Getting an understanding of how the parts work together as a whole might help us better understand each of the individual parts.
Example: Say, we have top pair 2nd kicker on the flop. It will be hard to get three streets of value and we have to make a plan were we get two streets of value the best way.
As a bottom-up learner we might just fire away on the flop and on the turn and slow down on the river. We know we have a good hand, which is why we bet the flop and the turn, but we also know we might be in trouble if we get to the river.
As a top-down learner we might understand that we have to decide which street we want to pass. We could check the flop behind and under represent our hand. We could cbet the flop and check the turn behind and get value from some bluffs on the river. We might end up as the bottom-up learner and get value on the flop and turn. The point is that by top-down understanding, it's far easier to pick the right alternative because you understand that there are alternatives.
What type of game is poker? I understand poker as an information exchange and probability game. We give and receive information through very action in a hand. This is what we base our strategy on. Because this information isn't complete we need to apply some kind of probability to it. In some ways it's like bridge where you are bidding on a contract against others all with imperfect information. There is a link to backgammon in the betting/calling (odds setting part) of poker.
Understanding that information is an important part of the game is again an essential part of being able to device a good plan for a hand. This is along the lines of - when you want to define your opponents hand and when would you try not to define your own.
This is getting a bit long and really want to hear your thoughts on all of this. Please give your thoughs on the subject here at the forum.
Where did we leave off in part 1? Oh, yes now I remember...
The tournament director started the tournament and I went home not feeling well at all. I had a quiet evening with my wife where we saw a movie and relaxed. The disappointment from not being able to play seemed to fade away with the growing pain in my throat which resulted in not being able to sleep at all that night. Hot tea and blankets helped a bit and by the end of next days supper I pulled myself up and dragged my soar body back to Nordic Open.
I guess you didn't come to hear me whine and just for you I managed to get some work done.
Presenting Sander Lylloff First order of the day was to get an interview with my friend Sander Lylloff. His story is interesting for everyone that wants to learn how to play games well. He managed to become a rather good chess player when he was younger. Later on he took up backgammon where he reached a phenomenal skill level in few years. Of course that wasn't enough and he started playing poker and won an EPT.
Not having a voice couldn't stop me from getting this interview for you. I edited out my questions and posed them on writing instead. Here is my interview with Sander.
Presenting Gus Hansen I could write a lot of things about Gus but it has probably been written many times before. This man needs no introduction. I caught up with him right after he secured the win for Team Denmark over The World. I'm sure Gus would rather have been with his team celebrating the win than talking to us but that's is what I'm here for. Getting a unique story once in a while.
Get ready for Gus.
And the winner is...
'What about the rest of the tournament?' - you might ask. Just now the result came in and Søren 'Carlsberg' Larsen won the Nordic Open 2010. Congratulations Søren! Even though Søren has been playing backgammon for many years he is probably most known in Denmark for winning the Danish Poker Championship - this year also!
Last I only have a couple of pictures for you. The first is of Sander and I and the second is of Søren 30 minutes before he could call himself Nordic Open Champ!
Now, I'm going to bed for a week so talk to you in mid April.
Every sport has some events that are just a little bit more important than all the others. Tennis has it's grand slams and golf has it's majors. In backgammon we have the Nordic Open.
First day: Beginners division Usually backgammon players tend to show up at the last minute - just like poker players. Today was no exception. I arrived just 15 minutes late. Well, actually i arrived 1 hour 45 minutes early. Somehow I got the impression that I was late and I just hurried as much as possible. It wasn't all that bad because it was kind of nice just hanging out talking to people and calmly getting ready to start the tournament.
As a tradition I donate some kind of prize for the winner of the beginners flight which is a one day tournament. This year I donated a one hour backgammon lesson and a CoinFlip hoodie. There were just about 100 entrants in the beginners flight. About 13 hours later a girl named Tina Rosenqvist Petersen had won all of her ten matches which is an incredible score.
She was very exited after her win which reminded me of how much enthusiasm I used to have back when I started. In some strange way I miss the old days. Thank you Tina for reminding me of what backgammon used to be all about.
Denmark vs. The World As a new side event some of the biggest names in the game set up a team match over severel days. There's a Danish team and a world team. At the moment none of the teams seems to have a clear edge. Each team has put up $200.000 meaning a good payday for the winner. As mentioned before the Danish team captain is Morten Holm, who got a couple of well known poker players on the team along with an impressive lineup of Danish backgammon super stars. Of course the biggest name of them all is Gus Hansen who probably was the best backgammon cash game player in the world before he turned his attention to poker.
In the line up one other player stand out. This is Sander Lylloff who is by many considered the best backgammon player in the world. He is also a very strong poker player which his EPT win states. Sander is one of the poker pros at the newly opened Victory Poker with Antonio Esfandiari as the front figure. Sander won his EPT heads up against his friend Mark Teltscher who also turned his attention from backgammon to poker.
The world teams top names are 'Mochy' and 'Falafel'. Mochy is the current world champion and he was voted the best player in the world this past year. That list is called the Giants list and it is bi-annual. Falafel has been among the top 3 players in the world for quite some years. He had to give up his first place on the giants list to Mochy but he still remains in the top two. To be honest I don't know many of the new American guys on the world team because backgammon is to a certain extent divided by the Atlantic Ocean.
There's an experimental live feed from the team match, which is scheduled to continue Saturday at 3 p.m. GMT.
Main event This past two months I've been refreshing my backgammon tournament play by taking lessons offered by the best backgammon trainer in Denmark, Kedde Mathiesen. This helped my game a lot and I believe I'm close to my highest skill level ever. Unfortunately I had to withdraw from the main event due to a problem with my eyes caused by some new pills I'm taking for allergies.
When I got over the disappointment I pulled myself up and decided to experience the tournament from a spectators point of view. This is one of the reasons why I found time to write all of this.
The entry fee for the main event is $1000 which is one of the most expensive tournaments on the world circuit. Many of the very best players travel to Denmark to participate making the field extremely tough. More than 130 players decided to play the top flight and play for the money and honor. This is the tournament I want to win the most.
The tournament director has just started the main event and I'm looking forward to a lot of action the coming days.
:: Online backgammon ::
Play backgammon online at the worlds biggest server: Play65. For more information on how to signup and get your bonus follow the link below.
Recently the Danish Backgammon Federation announced a new title system for backgammon players. It's now possible to achieve the title 'grandmaster' (GM) and 'international master' (IM) within the Danish Backgammon Federation. Six players achieved the GM-title.
We are at the moment working on fine tuning the last couple of details.
:: Next tournament ::
Danish Team Tournament 2012
This year I will once again be playing for Nemesis and we will try to improve on the runner up spot we got last year.
Finally the summer has come to Denmark. Even though we had a little bit of snow a few nights ago the temperature during the day has risen just about enough to leave the coat at home. Yesterday I decided to go to a local park for a walk in the afternoon sun. I sat down on a bench by a little lake and watched ducks, pigeons and people walking around as if the rest of the world didn't exist. Two ducks kept me company in the shadow just out of reach of crying babies wanting to pet them all the time. Life is good.
I heard two different commentators talk about the difference between current top players and past top players still being somewhat active. They both pointed out that they all have this great game and they all can perform up to near perfection. The past top players just have a harder time getting motivated enough to perform their best. This is why you don't want to motivate a past champion when playing him. It's like waking a sleeping lion. Go Steve Davis!
