May14

Contest: Let’s Make the 2013 WSOP the Nicest One Yet

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Contest: Let’s Make the 2013 WSOP the Nicest One Yet

Recently, an excellent blog by Kara Scott got me thinking more about bullying in poker. The number of times I’ve seen a “pro” berate a recreational player for sub-optimal play (both live and online) is sickening to me. It is my number one pet peeve in poker!

I’ve heard the argument that poker is a game of emotional manipulation, and that raising a fuss about nastiness at the tables is, in effect, trying to remove a component of the game itself. Personally, I think that is just a weak defense: Rudely pointing out poor play may get inside your opponent’s head, but at the cost of causing them to think more about the game and improve, or leave the felt for good.

Many years ago, when I was learning the game, getting berated made me want to play less, but it also inspired me to continue to improve. At this point, I’m not berated often, but when I am it occurs online and usually results in me gleaning more info about my opponent. If a reg gets irate when I make a standard call versus him and starts hurling insults, I take a note on that player that he probably calls too tight. In reg versus reg bullying, the “victim” can actually have the advantage!

To get back to winning players berating recreational players, though, there are so many reasons why it is a losing prospect for all involved:

-Makes the berated player less likely to play poker.

-If the player does keep playing, makes him more likely to study and improve.

-Has the potential to make everyone else at the table study more and improve.

-Creates a negative environment that is likely to make the table uncomfortable and other recreational players at the table not want to play in the future.

-Has the potential to expose the bully’s leaks to other players at the table.

Closely related to this is another annoying habit of some “pros”: talking about optimal strategy at the table. While this is a lesser offense, as it initially appears to be a victimless crime, it has many of the same negatives as the primary topic at hand. These effects are magnified if the tournament is televised, as it is essentially giving poker lessons for free to a much larger audience than just the other players at their table. And aside from the meta-poker concerns, I have a more Emily Post-like objection to this practice as well– it comes of as arrogant and rude, as if the person’s analysis of the hand is so perfect that everyone is just dying to hear it. Did Garry Kasparov ever openly discuss his chess strategy while playing a match? I highly doubt it!

So, looking forward, what can I (and those that agree with me) do to change this? With the WSOP coming up in a few weeks, that seems like a good place to start! Having sold my prelim package, and with some action remaining in the Main Event, I’m really excited to get back to Vegas and hopefully to not see a single recreational player berated at the tables.

If you agree to stand up for recreational players being berated by winning players at the table, and to avoid discussing optimal game strategy on the felt, please post your name below my blog on CardPlayer. I will pick one of the posters at random to get a free 1% sweat of my WSOP Main Event action this year!*

Together, we can make poker a friendlier game at the WSOP this summer! :)

* Your post must include a way to contact you in case you win, such as email, or twitter handle to be eligible. If I don’t play the main event (I almost definitely will, but just in case), contest is void. Winner will have to fill out a W9 for taxes before paying out. I will announce the winner by June 1st, 2013.

May2

WSOP Stacking Package

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WSOP Stacking Package

Now that the WSOP is just a few weeks away, I’m really getting excited about what has become known as “summer camp” for poker players! :)

Here’s the link to my package that I just posted on TwoPlusTwo:

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/184/staking-selling-shares-live/katie-doziers-wsop-vdse-package-2-ladies-events-wsop-main-event-1327635/

Should anyone wish to invest that doesn’t have a 2+2 account, please just shoot me an email: katherinehdozier@gmail.com.

Thanks, and good luck to everyone this year! :)

Apr18

Next Installment of “Anatomy of a Sunday Grind” Released

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Next Installment of “Anatomy of a Sunday Grind” Released

My latest piece for PokerStars Women in my “Anatomy of a Sunday Grind” series is out, and it certainly was an interesting Sunday, though not at all for the reasons that I’d hoped it would be.

As an update, I’m getting satellite internet installed tomorrow, and my my nails are still painted with the “mellow yellow”! ;)

In other news, PokerStrategy included me in a Daily Rewind, and released my latest training video– a Nash Equilbrium look at a $15 180-man.

Good luck to everyone playing this upcoming weekend, and I hope to see you at the tables (and not be sitting out)!

 

 

Apr8

Hotjenny314′s Grinding Setup

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Hotjenny314′s Grinding Setup

As a result of the PokerStars Sickest Setup contest, it’s been fun to read about how a lot of grinders arrange their work area. Because I think I have an amazing view, and love any excuse to dress up my dog, I decided to enter: http://instagram.com/p/XtUjeluno7/  (I’d appreciate if you’d vote for me by <3ing it.)

Most days, I choose the lack of sun in a dark bedroom for grinding (since it turns out that being able to see your poker tables is +EV), and my setup looks like remarkably less glamorous, with a decided lack of dogs in clothing:

Katie's Office

Through the years, my setup has actually gotten simpler instead of more complicated. Some things though haven’t changed. Of course I play with tracking software and a HUD.

20130406_105003

My pink TI-84 calculator has been with me almost from the beginning– it was a Christmas gift from Collin many years ago, and in terms of usability and cuteness it is one of the best presents I’ve ever received! Most days I’ll only use it a couple of times, such as when I’m deep in a tournament and want to accurately adjust for the ante in close spots. I also have a colorful printout of the HoldemResources.net Heads Up Nash Equilibrium chart, which I use mainly to aid my close calling decisions. I bet that my high school math teachers would be shocked to hear that I consider a graphing calculator one of my most important work tools!

I used to play with more charts, but as the years went by I had them down cold and more and more I’m playing exploitively. Playing with charts can be a great tool, but if one doesn’t often stray from unexploitable ranges then they’re likely missing out on profit (especially at the mid-stakes that I play). To counter my not playing with the charts I used to, I spend a great deal more time studying than I used to.

Other items I keep around me when I play are: a giant bottle of water, some almonds, and extra batteries for my wireless mouse. While some people like a more substantial mouse, I’ve found that I prefer small mouses designed for laptops, because they fit well in my hand and are easier to zip around the screen.
Back when I lived in Maryland, my setup looked like this:

oldschoolgrinding
Which is a bit too college-dorm like for my tastes these days! But I really miss my Herman Miller chair. It made the trip on the move to Vegas, but when we moved to Mexico, we sold/donated all of our furniture. Somewhere, someone owns that chair now, oblivious to the fact that I played more than a few million hands of poker in it!

As for hardware, I’ve gone through more than my fair share of computers. Right now I have a high performance gaming machine, which is proving to be worth the investment.

20130405_192130

I’ve always prioritized updating my tower over monitors. My dream setup would be playing on two 30” monitors, so that I didn’t have to overlap my tables when I have 30 games running– but I’d also need a bigger desk for that. My next upgrade will likely be whatever the best chair is at the Rosarito Office Depot…and more size XL poker clothing for Wilbur.

Feb15

Why I Want Men to Play the 2013 WSOP Ladies Event

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Why I Want Men to Play the 2013 WSOP Ladies Event

There’s a distinctly awkward moment for me every year in the WSOP ladies tournament when a man busts the tournament, and the room fills with applause and celebration. Much of the table talk seems to be dominated by the discussion of men entering the ladies events, and nearly everyone has a strong opinion on it. Once, I witnessed a seemingly kind octogenarian woman tell off a 20-something male for entering.

This year, the WSOP has taken a creative step by making the tournament $10k for men to enter while maintaining the $1k buy-in for ladies. For it to be profitable for a male to enter, they’d need just under a 900% ROI, which would translate to someone selling their action at a markup close to 10 (1 – 1.5 is the common range). Last year, only the final table was paid over $10k. Legends abound as to the softness of this particular tourney, but not even the best in the world has that extreme of a long-term edge in this fast-paced tournament.

Being as I think any male that chooses to enter is making a minus EV decision, I’ll feel a lot differently the next time a guy sits down at my table. By entering, he has vastly increased the prize-pool, and I’m happy to have him there— whatever his reason for choosing to play may be.

One issue that this new solution brings up is the registration for transgendered women. I’m sad every year to witness the discrimination my trans friends face in the tournament, so I am really hoping that the WSOP takes the time to educate their staff to ensure that transgendered women don’t get asked to fork over $10k.

With the new change, I’m more excited than ever about the WSOP ladies tournament this year! I hope that the tables will be full of even more smiles, and devoid of the raucous behavior that used to occur when a man busted.

Jan4

Poker Goals and Dreams for 2013

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Poker Goals and Dreams for 2013

Collin and I have a New Year’s tradition of sitting down at a restaurant to recap on how meeting our goals last year went and look at what we hope to accomplish in the year to come. I went a bit crazy with my list, to the point that Collin joked it was too bad we weren’t doing this in school because my extensive list would have made me the teacher’s pet!

Leading up to this year’s list, I did some research on accomplishing goals. It seems the most effective way to go about it is to take a broader goal and break it down into smaller, measurable steps. In terms of poker, this means not listing goals that are actually dreams where luck comes more into play—such as winning a WSOP event or getting sponsored. While these are two dreams I obviously very much hope to happen one day, I think focusing on setting myself up to get there is the real goal that I can control.

2013 will be the first year of my life where I spend the extreme majority of my time in a foreign country. In a few weeks, instead of spending around half my time in Mexico, I’ll be living there full-time. The decision is very bittersweet (and really the subject for an entire post by itself) but it suffices to say that most of poker goals wouldn’t be possible without taking this step.

So, over a plate of charcuterie in an empty French bistro, I disclosed my 2013 poker goals to Collin:

-Play over 15,000 tournaments (MTTs and MTTSNGs) with an ROI of at least 30%

This is a pretty achievable number of games, and I if I were going to be in Mexico for the entire year, I would likely have made it a goal of 20,000. In trying to be realistic though, I kept in mind that I have a cross-country move with 3 pets to deal with during the first couple months, that I’ll be in Vegas for at least some of the WSOP, and that I hope to go on a vacation at some point.

If I play just 450 games a week 34 weeks of the year, then I’ll hit that number of games (playing a bit over 40 hours per week). The ROI is something I can’t totally control, but it will be helped by:

-Having a weekly study session, and looking at my games with Collin at least twice a month

This is something that I already do, and articulating my thought process to others in my monthly DragTheBar and PokerStrategy videos also helps me to think as lucidly as possible about poker. When Collin and I study together, we’ll often debate hands that result in me thinking more creatively in the future.

-Play at least 5 WSOP tournaments and the Main

In 2012, I played a jam-packed summer of WSOP and Venetian Deep Stack events. Considering that I’ll be staying in a hotel and have way more expenses than when I lived in Vegas, playing almost every NLHE WSOP is something I’ll have to forgo. It’s unfortunate, but also the tables online will likely be softer!

-Leaderboards

Though these are also something I have less control over, I view them as further motivation to study and always seek to improve my poker. I’d like to be on the PokerStars yearly table leaderboard, and win SharkScope’s 4-6 tables total profit leaderboard (since I have gotten so into grinding 45-mans). I’d also like to win the PokerStars women leaderboard (if they decide to have it this year), and move up on the Women’s GPI list into the top ten, (though without grinding a lot of live tournaments this is a rather lofty goal).

-Poker Writing

In the three years that I’ve maintained a poker blog I’ve found that blogging about once a month strikes a good balance for me (and hopefully for those of you kind enough to read my blog). Another goal is to have at least one article a month published, whether for Card Player, PokerStars, or TwoPlusTwo.

-Maintain Balance in Mexico

The last time I was in Mexico, I played about 75 hours a week, which was a lot considering that I work on a plateful of other things every week too. I want to keep in mind while I’m there that while taking an afternoon to go to the beach with Collin, or an evening off to learn to cook Mole is not something that will immediately make me a better poker player, it will be +EV for the meta-game that is my life!

While I have many long-term dreams in poker, I hope that the best way to actually see them come true is focusing on things I know I can do. I have some ideas about small ways to make the poker community a nicer place in the coming year. I also have many non-poker goals for 2013, including writing a YA book, which, lucky for me, starts with “research”: rereading _Harry Potter_.

GL to everyone in 2013!

Dec17

The Octopus, the Turkey, and Poker Staking

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The Octopus, the Turkey, and Poker Staking

The last few weeks have been a blur of online poker, turkey, and octopus.

Of course, the turkey came into play for Thanksgiving, my favorite holiday of the year:

Collin’s parents (Tamara and Marc) came to visit us in Vegas, and I went all out on the dessert, concocting a recipe for pumpkin cake with chocolate butter-cream frosting. I decorated it with pecan tartlets to look like sunflowers:

The Monday after Thanksgiving, we headed back to Mexico, and my mid-stakes online grind resumed. I played around 150 hours in the two weeks that we were there. My best win occurred the day before we left, and wouldn’t have been possible without this hand at the final table.

 

 

Also in Mexico, Marc and Collin assisted in adding to my collection of sea urchin shells found on the beach near our place:

As always, Wilbur and I loved going to the beach almost every day before starting the grindetting.

A few minutes from our beach are dozens of tide pools, full of unusual sea life. I loved playing with hermit crabs, and I got to live out a childhood dream of holding a starfish.

Collin and Marc procured the best shrimp I’ve ever tasted (more like lobster than shrimp) from the Ensenada fish market. I also got to cook cactus paddles for the first time; they tasted like intense okra. Which, in my case, was a good thing!

At the fish market, they also got octopus, which is a notoriously difficult thing to cook correctly, but both at the tables and behind the stove, I love a challenge!

One night, I asked Collin to order takeout so that I could start playing earlier. Instead, he said he wanted to make the octopus.

“Okay,” I said, “But you’ll need to cut it into small pieces and sauté it in a really hot pan—but don’t let the pan catch on fire.”

Once in the kitchen, I guess Collin correctly deduced that cutting the octopus into tiny chunks was going to take a lot of time. So he neglected to do that and (though I was playing and unaware of it at the time) the oil in the pan caught on fire. Despite years of chemistry classes at Cal-Tech, he elected to throw water on the pan.

Fortunately Marc swooped in to the rescue. I guess you could say that the octopus was “saved” but let’s just say that I choose to eat nuts for dinner. Collin does brew the best coffee in the house though!

Now we’re back in Vegas for a couple of weeks, and a lot of our time is being spent heavily debating making a full-time move to Mexico in February. As much as we love Vegas, moving to Mexico seems to make a lot more sense, and we’re leaning towards moving south of the border.

And finally, I’m happy to announce that I’m getting more involved in the staking side of Team Moshman. I’m taking applications to hotjenny314@gmail.com

Please include the following info:

Your name, country, and contact info.
All screen names that you have on all sites that you play.
The game format that you play. (Ex: 9-man, Double-or-Nothing, Cash, MTT)
The buyin level. (Minimum $5 for SNG, $25NL for Cash)
How many games (or hands for cash) are you willing to play each week? (Minimum 150 games for 9-man SNG, 8,000 hands for cash)
Why do you need a stake? What are your goals with this stake?
A concise paragraph on your playing history, including previous coaching undertaken where applicable.
Details and contact information for each reference.
–
I wish everyone a happy holiday season, totally devoid of octopus fires!

Nov20

Visiting Big Sky Country

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Visiting Big Sky Country

After having just returned from a week in Montana, I think “Big Sky Country” is the most apt state nickname I’ve yet to see. Collin, Wilbur and I made the trek to see his Dad, Marc. Bringing Wilbur meant that we couldn’t fly (it would have involved two legs, which doesn’t seem fair to impose on a four-legged creature that’s too big for the cabin). Marc kindly offered to drive Wilbur back to Vegas afterwards— since that’s where I’m hosting Thanksgiving, so our driving time was cut in half.

And thank goodness it was, because our drive up was downright scary for me at parts. We drove through baby blizzards, and the roads were very slippery. The worst moment came when we slid a bit on a sharp exit. The anti-lock brake mechanism started beeping loudly, and I thought we were either going to slam into the jersey barriers or run off the road. Despite my desire to sleep at the gas station and wait for the roads to be plowed, Collin said our best option was to keep heading north. I’m very happy to say it was the right choice!

Once we arrived in Rollins, MT, I soon knew for sure that the trek up north was going to be worth it. The scenery was gorgeous, with the deep blue of Flathead Lake juxtaposed to crisp green pines trees and snowy mountain tops in the distance.

We soon settled into a routine of eating scrambled eggs for breakfast, then setting out on a new hike. With an escalating altitude, most of the hikes were snowy. The first day, we hiked up a mountain surrounded by pine trees with snowflakes melting on our cheeks. The snow seemed to absorb all the sound in the world, and I hope my memory of those beautiful alpine landscapes will remain frozen in me forever.

!( caption){width:360px;height:480px;margin:0px 0px;border:0px solid;}http://media.cardplayer.com/assets/000/009/023/marccollin-360×480.jpg!

Back in the cabin, I realized that I had no hope of a career in wood chopping. Both Marc and Collin were great at it though, and we enjoyed many intense fires which were even more beautiful because they didn’t spring artificially from a Duraflame log. We also went fishing (didn’t catch anything, unless you count having to coax Wilbur back to shore after he jumped in after the line), and shooting where I was pretty happy with my aim.

!( caption){width:440px;height:277px;margin:0px 0px;border:0px solid;}http://media.cardplayer.com/assets/000/009/017/shooting-440×277.jpg!

Wilbur had the time of his life, and swam in many lakes. So that no hunter would mistake him for a bear cub, we had to put something neon on him. Naturally, I only had hot pink. Here he is asleep on my lap on the way back to our cabin after a long hike:

!( caption){width:512px;height:384px;margin:0px 0px;border:0px solid;}http://media.cardplayer.com/assets/000/009/018/wilbur_lap-512×384.jpg!

Even with the water near freezing, he was always thrilled to fetch a stick:

!( caption){width:552px;height:413px;margin:0px 0px;border:0px solid;}http://media.cardplayer.com/assets/000/009/019/wilburCollin-552×413.jpg!

Or a log:

!( caption){width:512px;height:384px;margin:0px 0px;border:0px solid;}http://media.cardplayer.com/assets/000/009/020/wilburlog-512×384.jpg!

Although it looks like Wilbur’s trying to push Marc off a cliff, Wilbur loves him even more than a 48-ounce NY Strip:

!( caption){width:336px;height:448px;margin:0px 0px;border:0px solid;}http://media.cardplayer.com/assets/000/009/021/marccliff-336×448.jpg!

On a clear night, the sky in Montana looks different than any I’ve ever seen. Instead of just a few twinkling stars in the distance, the sky commands your attention and is closer to the moving thing it actually is than the stagnant art it often appears to be elsewhere. We saw a meteor shower, and the big dipper seemed so close that I almost asked the sky if I could borrow it to serve my pumpkin soup on Thanksgiving.

Even without a heavenly ladle, I’m excited to spend Thanksgiving in Vegas with Collin’s parents. I have some fun ideas for what to cook on my favorite holiday, and hope that everyone has a great Thanksgiving!

!( caption){width:528px;height:396px;margin:0px 0px;border:0px solid;}http://media.cardplayer.com/assets/000/009/024/fire-528×396.jpg!