I have so many questions...

 

comparing opening ranges pt. 1 (?)

i've become a big fan of Sky Matsuhashi's Smart Poker Study podcast. i'm also realizing the need for some form of accountability in poker study so rather than type junk into evernote i'm going to make notes here and try to do some semblance of a coherent write-up.

why do i like his podcast? because it's meta. the best teachers, coaches, and people teach you to become better students, players, and people. Sky does a good job of teaching how to learn poker. His "how to study poker" book is a perfect place to start prior to doing his podcasts. i will warn the gentle reader, though, that you're going to want to read or listen to it twice.

anyway, he encourages accountability and goal setting. i'm going to set the bar low - i want to do 2 of these per month. i'm going to start by talking about recommended opening ranges because i think i'm guilty of opening too many hands from all positions.

we're going to start out with what i believe is my current UTG and UTG+1 range (i currently believe my range is the same for both positions in live cash (what i'd like to get better with) and online low-stakes (what i'm using for practice). note that i plotted this out without looking in my hand history db or looking at the other material, this is supposed to be my tightest range and i would add other hands if the table was super-tight and i was loosening up to counter.

fig. 1: current opening range from utg and utg+1

next i looked at ed miller's recommended opening range advocated in the excellent "the course" and online at his training site, red chip poker (i paid for one of their course, didn't care for it, more on that later). here's that range:

fig. 2: ed miller's "tight" opening range early position vs limpers. note - ignore KJo it's highlighted darker blue for no reason. note that it's a significantly tighter range. i would have expected it NOT to be based on reading the book previously.

this range is much much narrower than my present range - at least what i believe. it's 10.1% vs 7%. further, here's the "loose" range:

fig. 3: ed miller's "loose" range for unopened pots.

this "loose" range is still narrower than my current range - 8.75%. even when you add in semi-bluff/bluff hands like K8s and 76s that may flop well with good implied odds.

ok, i wanted to look at some other recommended opening ranges from utg and early position. for some reason, annie duke's mediocre book (but a good book to serve as a starting point) "decide to play great poker" came to mind first. unfortunately she eschews charts and dictating ranges. she just advocates a super tight borderline nitty range when you are a starting player. she points out (correctly) that most of your opponents are playing too many hands postflop.

jonathan little has written about playing low-stakes cash (which is what i like to play). his two recurring themes are to not be afraid to get out of line in low-stakes cash and to model your play after higher-stakes players to enable you to eventually be able to play higher stakes. here's his suggested opening range in early position:

fig. 4: jonathan little's recommended opening range in early position.

i was surprised by two things looking at this chart - that this is 10.1% of hands (same as my impression of my own range), but that this represents a much stronger set of hands that will also be easier to play post-flop. my personal feeling is that opening 22 and 33 and even 44 is a bad move for online where it's loose/passive and there's lots of limping. i do, however, agree that this is a quality range for live. in general though even at live i detest opening 22 and 33 because of their terrible realized equity.

the goal of this thought-piece is to create my own range for opening utg and utg+1 for both live and online cash and have identical ranges for both. keeping that in mind and having watched and read and studied other poker materials, here's what i've come up with:

well, i use commander flatus as my player name on multiple poker sites, so i'm not going to play face up the rest of my life. let's just say i used the excellent PokerCruncher to create a range of hands I like playing from ep with appropriate frequency for online and live cash. these hands play relatively straightforward post-flop.

keto/sugar-free beef jerky recipe

I generally hate food blogs. The unctuous writing. The loathsome abundance of worthless content before the actual recipe. I especially dread the Q&A type worthless content - "Is jerky right for me"?

Anyway, I generally didn't like any of the recipes I found online so I decided to wing it and make my own. This is my first attempt at this and I will revise or make a future post if this doesn't come out well.

Food blog-esque high quality pics.

On to the recipe:

1.75 lbs top round, sliced, beaten with a meat tenderizer (a flat one, not a spikey one)

1 cup each Worcester sauce, soy sauce, and Diet Coke

2 Tsp salt

2 Tsp garlic powder 

1 tsp cayenne 

Marinated overnight 

I put them on my pellet grill (I have a Rec-Tec) on the "Low" setting which is about 180F for 2 hours before even checking on them. I recently got a jerky rack thing off Amazon - it's a Traeger brand but fits fine I have a Rec-Tec "Stampede". It would probably be best in the future to load up the rack on a cookie sheet and then put the rack in the grill. Looks like it could hold 3-4 lbs or so. These cooked for a total of 3 hours.

Ici nous avons le jerky du bouef.

 The finished product could use a little more salt and sweet flavor. Spiciness is at the correct level. I'm generally happy with the result.

some miscellaneous thoughts about a recent trip to Thailand

Just returned. Here are some thoughts to share.

As hotels go, the St. Regis is not terribly expensive, is extremely convenient to the BTS, and has wonderful food, service, amenities. Great staff. Property is slightly dated in some common areas - pool and spa. Overall my though is that if it's within your budget it should be your first choice unless you are determined to be near the river.

Many people rave about the Sheraton Royal Orchid (it's a favorite on the flyertalk forums). We spent 2 nights there and it's OK but not great. Larger property. Close to the river and has nice ferry service but hard to get around because you usually have to take the ferry to the BTS stop then proceed on from there.

Grab is the Thai version of Uber. They used to have Uber. Not sure why they got rid of Uber. Grab is convenient and inexpensive. The drivers we used spoke no english or so little that it made things difficult. Don't count on communicating directly.

Google Translate is now useful for Thai. Previously when I had tried it lacked significant functionality vs German or French (for example). That appears to have been fixed.

I've spent probably 3 weeks in aggregate time in Bangkok. I think in the future I only need to go for 2-3 days and then go someplace else - either Chiang Mai or Laos for the next trip. Would like to see Ko Phi Phi also. This isn't because I don't love Bangkok. I do love Bangkok. It's just a big city and there are limited attractions. I like going primarily for good food and shopping at this point.

Lime soda (both home-made at restaurants and the stuff in 7-11's and Family Mart) is delicious and not sweet.

Check the Buddhist calendar as there are now days during the year (1-2 or even 3 day periods) where there are no alcohol sales anywhere but duty-free stores.

Also note (I could not find an answer on the web anywhere) - airport lounges (Thai Air in particular) DOES SERVE BOOZE during these holidays.

Crab yellow curry was my favorite dish this trip. I also continue to love Chiang Mai and Issan sausage.

Cooking schools seem to always offer the same few dishes (or minor variations) - glass noodle salad, some kind of curry, and fish cakes.

Raja's Fashions in Bangkok - make sure you go to the correct one (there's an imposter across the street) - is probably the only tailor I will ever use in the future. Made my 4th (I think) visit there. Lovely people. Lively shop with many returning customers. Reasonable prices. Lovely garments. Click the URL link and take note of what their logo looks like so you don't go to the wrong store.

That's it.

ESXi 6.5u2 and macOS High Sierra

I found this surprisingly easy to set up.

It doesn’t matter but the hardware is a Dell r210ii with 16gb of RAM. 

Installed the Dell ESXi image from the Dell website. 

WinSCP to move DrDonk’s Unlocker v2.1 to a datastore and ran the ESXi installer included. 

Downloaded High Sierra on a Mac using the App Store and made an ISO using instructions found online. 

Installed ISO - went without a hitch. 

Downloaded VMWare tools from VMWare website. Used latest version (10.1). Dug darwin.iso out of the zip file and installed the macOS tools. This enabled changing screen resolution. 

Everything is working perfectly, no problems so far.

EDIT (17-Sept-2018) - you must follow these instructions for High Sierra or your VM disk will keep filling up and crashing the machine.

The Dell Poweredge R720

Certainly a beast of a machine. Problem is the lack of user configuration for fan speeds. Dell seems either not to care about sysadmins and their hearing; or users tweaking their hardware.

It's a shame, it's a nice box and prices are reasonable for a home server.

See also: information from the UnRaid forums

Update (19-July-2019) -
Here's a how you do it:

https://www.reddit.com/r/homelab/comments/7xqb11/dell_fan_noise_control_silence_your_poweredge/

i haven't posted in a while, here's a nifty script

there are lots of queries everywhere about how to script PRAW and youtube-dl to download videos off Reddit subs (i use this to load my Plex server with relevant music videos). here it is (it'll take a CLI of the sub you want to scrape and get the "Hot" 10 links:

#!python2.7
import praw
import youtube_dl
import sys      
#import urllib
 
r = praw.Reddit(client_id='insert your info here',

                     client_secret='insert your info here',
                     password='insert your info here',

                     user_agent='insert your info here',

                     username='insert your info here')

        
        
urls = []
 
def yt() :
        for submission in r.subreddit(sys.argv[1]).hot(limit=10):
                urls.append(str(submission.url))
        return urls
 
yt_urls = yt()
ydl_opts = {'ignoreerrors': 'False'}
ydl = youtube_dl.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts)
 
for item in yt_urls:
        #print([item, ])
        ydl.download([item, ])

Sausage heaven

Yes, it's real

Blichmann Tower of Power reviewed

So, first off, this thing is expensive and I personally think there are WAAAAAY too many self-congratulatory reviews on the internet for expensive products. Like everything else, this thing has pluses and minuses. If you want the short-but-sweet version: it works, it has some nice features, several drawbacks and I think it's too expensive to give it a sound recommendation.

Positives:
Very small form factor
Stainless enclosure is nice
PID controller eliminates overshoot (but is of questionable utility)
Flame rectifier
Works for natural gas or propane setups

Negatives:
PID seems unstable
PC software is clunky, poor user interface, and only runs on Windows
Communications cable is overpriced
Programming your own mash steps is tricky
PID controller has insufficient documentation
Installation not straightforward

Some additional information that I've gathered and think is useful:

The PID they're using appears to be the venerable Love Series 16B. At least they appear similar in appearance and they're also using the same software! The "TOP-Link" software has the same appearance/look/feel of the "Love-Link" software from Love Controls. This is very disappointing to me because this software is a stinker, only runs on Windows and has a craptacular UI.

I'm reasonably confident that they're also using this Fenwal 120v ignition module (or a similar product from the same manufacturer), and here's an appropriate electrode.

I'm not saying this whole thing is a piece of cake, but I do think it's overpriced but by how much is hard to say. The PID is about $90, the ignition module is about $200, and the electrode is between $20 and $50. So that's at least $350 before you add wiring, a case, a solenoid valve, etc. It retails for about $575, so I guess it's a matter of how much you like doing this stuff and how much it's worth to you.

Perfect example of "too many lawyers"

Bank of America has an "Unsolicited Idea Submission Policy" on their "Contact Us" page:

Bank of America and its associates do not accept or consider unsolicited ideas, including ideas for new or improved products, processes or technologies, product enhancements, advertising and marketing campaigns, promotions or new product names. Please do not send any original materials, suggestions or other items. The sole purpose of this policy is to avoid potential misunderstandings or disputes when Bank of America’s products or marketing efforts might seem similar to ideas submitted to the Bank. If, despite our request not to send us your ideas, you still do, then regardless of what your communication states, the following terms shall apply to your idea submission.
TERMS OF IDEA SUBMISSIONYou agree that: (a) your ideas will automatically become the property of Bank of America, without compensation to you, (b) Bank of America can use the ideas for any purpose and in any way, and (c) any information you provide will be considered non-confidential.

Because this probably happens all the time, right? Somebody sends them an idea on how to construct a new credit default swap. This is what caused the financial crisis - user submitted ideas.

commander flatus's mom's new orleans barbecue shwimp recipe

1 cup butter

2 cups olive oil

1 cup Worcestershire sauce

4 lemons halved then quartered

2 teaspoons cayenne pepper

1 tablespoon italian seasoning

4 sprigs fresh rosemary

1 pod garlic, peeled

1 teaspoon paprika

1 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons chef paul prudhomme seafood magic

4-5 pounds large shrimp weighed before you remove the heads

here's the commentary:

use like 2 sticks of butter and the same amount of olive oil, you can't tell the difference except you won't have a heart attack when you're 40

use 2 lemons instead of 4 - 4 is way too many

use 2 pods of garlic. garlic. garlic. garlic. beer. scotch. bourbon. bacon. garlic. what else do you need, really?

maybe use more rosemary too - like 6 or 8 sprigs - take the little leaves off the stick and throw out the stick

OK - it's easy - take everything except the shrimps mix well, low heat and reduce uncovered at least 30 minutes. lemon should just look like brown stained peels. garlic should be soft-ish and taking on the color of the sauce.

now here's the real trick part - turn off the heat and let it sit for several hours. if you can't do this part, don't worry. it's still great. but making it around lunchtime and then letting it sit until dinner gets the lemon soft, mild and delicious and gets the garlic all tasty too.

when you're ready to eat, throw in the shrimp and cook for 10-15 minutes uncovered on low heat in their shells without their heads. 

shrimp should get orange and curl up.

serve with pasta or warm bread.

have fun.

teddy

Some thoughts about tailored clothes in Asia

A Dong Silk is a highly marked tailor on tripadvisor.com. Their clientele (the clientele of tripadvisor.com, that is) are notorious cheapskates. I had 14 shirts, 12 trousers, and 4 suits made by them about 6 years ago. They've worn very poorly and are not the fabrics they represented - 100% cotton shirts are cotton/poly blends.

The jackets of the suits are coming apart - they appear to be somewhat glued together.

If you have special tailoring needs (crooked back, leg length differences, etc.) you really need to speak up for yourself. Usually there's a salesperson who isn't a tailor doing all of the measuring. If you have special needs, you'll have to insist that the tailor come out and have a look.

If you get a mens suit made and don't have at least 2 or 3 fittings before the jacket is finished then they haven't really done their job. It's just not possible. It's like if you told your kid to take out the trash and they come back inside 5 seconds after they left. If this happens, you're not getting a well made product and you're usually too late to back out. You'll have to make demands about the fit and finish and you likely won't/don't know enough about clothes to do so.

Finally, recognize that you are not capable of telling the difference between egyptian cotton, cotton/poly blend, wool, wool blends, cashmere, etc. Further, if the material is presented to you in a deceptive fashion, you're really gonna be screwed.

Use somebody you trust. Use somebody that's not super duper cheap. Do not count on tripadvisor ratings. Gather ratings and reviews from elsewhere, and be prepared to spend money. It's like they say: fast, cheap, good - pick two.

New Orleans municipal water analysis for homebrewers

I tried googling for this, to no avail. If you're interested in the New Orleans water supply for homebrewing, here it is (links to PDF).
The commentary from the scientist that passed it along follows:

The hardness and alkalinity vary as our source water (MS River) varies. Currently, the total hardness of the tap water on the east bank is about 150 mg/L as CaCO3 and the alkalinity is about 120 mg/L as CaCO3. Typical chloramine levels uptown are 2.5 - 3.5 mg/L; typical free chlorine levels are <0.2 mg/L.

Vacation haiku

Great food, nice people, cheap beer
Shopping, tailored clothes
Hangover, credit card bill!

Today's vacation haiku

My new television pitch:
Man versus buffet
Must buy much bigger pants soon

Paris, 1989(?)

View back towards the city from Notre Dame back towards La Tour Eiffel.

Jazz Fest 2013

Worlds worst welder

Right here. No arguing.

Welding thin sheet metal

Just can't get the hang of it. Temporary setback, need to redesign...