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peterbirksIt's amazing what you can do with accounts. The more I look at company figures, the more I realize that, basically, you should take them with a pinch of salt. Invest in companies you trust (or, rather, executives you trust); avoid sensational companies; ignore the figures; invest for the long term and go with your gut instinct.
I write this because I did my own bit of account-adjusting yesterday. I blitzed the bonuses, but still managed to lose $126 (gross) on Empire while clearing a $100 bonus, and then I burnt another $125 (gross) on Ultimate while clearing $50 in bonus. However, the wonders of modern accounting came to the rescue. I had $400 in two Ultimate bonuses and yesterday I cleared off the first $200 of it. So, all I have to do is write that to book and, kapow, the day becomes profitable to the tune of $49. This, despite losing $251 at the tables. Enron, eat your heart out.
Three-tabling is difficult, but you get used to it. It will be some time before I can establish whether I can win at it. The problems are not the plays. I completed 1,500 hands on Ultimate and I can't have had more than four or five "decisions". By way of a whinge, may I say that I think KK under AA twice and QQ under KK once (all three with rag undercard boards) is a mite unlucky, even with a 1,500-hand databank.
No, the problem for me is that I forget what I've done in the hand. Say, 88 in the small blind on a flop of KJ8 two clubs. Shit, what happened pre-flop? Was there a poster? Did I raise? If I raised, then I have to push here anyway because a check will smell of trip 8s. But if I flat-called an early position raiser, then I want to check. So, you have to teach yourself to remember what you have done. Single or double-tabling, you do not need to make a conscious effort to remember what happened pre-flop. Three-tabling, something can happen at one of the other tables which blitzes from your short-term memory the pre-flop play at this table. So, it's simply a matter of saying to yourself: "remember what happened, this happened" and then you can move back to the other table.
+++++
I finally emptied the Party account. If my theory about their marketing strategy is correct, and if they are as moronic as most marketing-led companies seem to be, this should result in me being reclassified as a marginal customer who needs tempting back into the fold, rather than as a reliable old warhorse who can be treated like shit. I'll admit that part of the reason for pocketing the cash was that there was only $550 left in it after the serious hit I took late last week. I was damned if I was going to deposit any more cash, and I couldn't face playing $2-$4 on Party to rebuild my bankroll. So, up up and away I was, out of it and glad we did. Let's see what response this brings from Party next month.
++++++
My employers received a letter from Reuters last week telling us that, because we were considered a competitor, we would no longer receive any of the Reuters feeds on the Factiva news service (Factiva is jointly owned by Reuters and Dow Jones). It then informed us that the remainder of the Factiva service was well worth whatever money it was we were paying for it.
Well, it isn't. In fact, Factiva (known as Fuckedtiva within some Reuters circles) is awful. Many years go, in the back-end of 1996, I went to a convention at Olympia where I saw Reuters Insurance Briefing, which was being launched as a different front-end to Reuters Business Briefing.
It was Ace. It was a dial-up, and if used properly (the guy demonstrating it didn't have a clue, but, what do you expect at these stands?) it would clearly be a brilliant tool. I got back to the office and persuaded the boss to drop the MAID service we were then using and to shift to RIB.
Then, as time went on, Reuters went to pot. They sacked many of the employees at their most powerful resource - the content providers. You see, marketing people don't realize that content matters. Factiva, a web-based rather than dial-up service, became a rehasher of stuff that you could get for free elsewhere. It also repeated many stories because they had been printed in different publications. It was badly designed, expensive, and the content was pretty worthless.
Not too long ago, Reuters released disappointing figures for Factiva. They said this was because businesses were cutting back on their use of research and business news sources. In fact, they stopped using Factiva because it wasn't very good and what it offered wasn't often worth reading.
It looks like we will also be teling Factiva, "thanks but no thanks".
++++++
I'm still considering a punt on the Yen vs the dollar, but I'm trying to make my mind up on the timing. I guess that when I come back from holiday would be the best time.
Speaking of which, I will not be posting daily when I am on holiday (unless I change my mind). I'm on holiday, for god's sake. That means getting away from writing.
Two of the blogs that I read have good writers, but both, as appears to be the American way, seem to specialize in screenwriting rather than narrative. And they (saddlepoint, Paul Phillips) are very good. Certainly quite good enough to discourage me from attempting to enter what is clearly an overcrowded arena. Stick to what you know, I say. So, if I go for the big bucks, it will be via a book.
Phillips' parody of a political commercial is marvellous. How to attack a diligent politician who never missed a vote? Simple, allege that he neglects his family as a result. Marv. And the swiftly spoken soft-voiced caveat at the end has a great line, which goes, roughly: "since Joe Incumbent represents Hawaii, he may have only limited responsibility for Hurricane Katrina".
Saddlepoint wrote the Rounders/Omaha parody, one of the great contributions to the poker canon in 2005.
Speaking which, never underestimate the stupidity of the average poster. While people were desperate to find out who wrote it, someone posted on a blog "this is the source", referring to the 2+2 posting where it first got the widest publicity.
The opening line of that post is "I did not write this".
I mean, these are people who are thinking about poker. What must the unthinking masses in middle America be like?
PJ
I write this because I did my own bit of account-adjusting yesterday. I blitzed the bonuses, but still managed to lose $126 (gross) on Empire while clearing a $100 bonus, and then I burnt another $125 (gross) on Ultimate while clearing $50 in bonus. However, the wonders of modern accounting came to the rescue. I had $400 in two Ultimate bonuses and yesterday I cleared off the first $200 of it. So, all I have to do is write that to book and, kapow, the day becomes profitable to the tune of $49. This, despite losing $251 at the tables. Enron, eat your heart out.
Three-tabling is difficult, but you get used to it. It will be some time before I can establish whether I can win at it. The problems are not the plays. I completed 1,500 hands on Ultimate and I can't have had more than four or five "decisions". By way of a whinge, may I say that I think KK under AA twice and QQ under KK once (all three with rag undercard boards) is a mite unlucky, even with a 1,500-hand databank.
No, the problem for me is that I forget what I've done in the hand. Say, 88 in the small blind on a flop of KJ8 two clubs. Shit, what happened pre-flop? Was there a poster? Did I raise? If I raised, then I have to push here anyway because a check will smell of trip 8s. But if I flat-called an early position raiser, then I want to check. So, you have to teach yourself to remember what you have done. Single or double-tabling, you do not need to make a conscious effort to remember what happened pre-flop. Three-tabling, something can happen at one of the other tables which blitzes from your short-term memory the pre-flop play at this table. So, it's simply a matter of saying to yourself: "remember what happened, this happened" and then you can move back to the other table.
+++++
I finally emptied the Party account. If my theory about their marketing strategy is correct, and if they are as moronic as most marketing-led companies seem to be, this should result in me being reclassified as a marginal customer who needs tempting back into the fold, rather than as a reliable old warhorse who can be treated like shit. I'll admit that part of the reason for pocketing the cash was that there was only $550 left in it after the serious hit I took late last week. I was damned if I was going to deposit any more cash, and I couldn't face playing $2-$4 on Party to rebuild my bankroll. So, up up and away I was, out of it and glad we did. Let's see what response this brings from Party next month.
++++++
My employers received a letter from Reuters last week telling us that, because we were considered a competitor, we would no longer receive any of the Reuters feeds on the Factiva news service (Factiva is jointly owned by Reuters and Dow Jones). It then informed us that the remainder of the Factiva service was well worth whatever money it was we were paying for it.
Well, it isn't. In fact, Factiva (known as Fuckedtiva within some Reuters circles) is awful. Many years go, in the back-end of 1996, I went to a convention at Olympia where I saw Reuters Insurance Briefing, which was being launched as a different front-end to Reuters Business Briefing.
It was Ace. It was a dial-up, and if used properly (the guy demonstrating it didn't have a clue, but, what do you expect at these stands?) it would clearly be a brilliant tool. I got back to the office and persuaded the boss to drop the MAID service we were then using and to shift to RIB.
Then, as time went on, Reuters went to pot. They sacked many of the employees at their most powerful resource - the content providers. You see, marketing people don't realize that content matters. Factiva, a web-based rather than dial-up service, became a rehasher of stuff that you could get for free elsewhere. It also repeated many stories because they had been printed in different publications. It was badly designed, expensive, and the content was pretty worthless.
Not too long ago, Reuters released disappointing figures for Factiva. They said this was because businesses were cutting back on their use of research and business news sources. In fact, they stopped using Factiva because it wasn't very good and what it offered wasn't often worth reading.
It looks like we will also be teling Factiva, "thanks but no thanks".
++++++
I'm still considering a punt on the Yen vs the dollar, but I'm trying to make my mind up on the timing. I guess that when I come back from holiday would be the best time.
Speaking of which, I will not be posting daily when I am on holiday (unless I change my mind). I'm on holiday, for god's sake. That means getting away from writing.
Two of the blogs that I read have good writers, but both, as appears to be the American way, seem to specialize in screenwriting rather than narrative. And they (saddlepoint, Paul Phillips) are very good. Certainly quite good enough to discourage me from attempting to enter what is clearly an overcrowded arena. Stick to what you know, I say. So, if I go for the big bucks, it will be via a book.
Phillips' parody of a political commercial is marvellous. How to attack a diligent politician who never missed a vote? Simple, allege that he neglects his family as a result. Marv. And the swiftly spoken soft-voiced caveat at the end has a great line, which goes, roughly: "since Joe Incumbent represents Hawaii, he may have only limited responsibility for Hurricane Katrina".
Saddlepoint wrote the Rounders/Omaha parody, one of the great contributions to the poker canon in 2005.
Speaking which, never underestimate the stupidity of the average poster. While people were desperate to find out who wrote it, someone posted on a blog "this is the source", referring to the 2+2 posting where it first got the widest publicity.
The opening line of that post is "I did not write this".
I mean, these are people who are thinking about poker. What must the unthinking masses in middle America be like?
PJ
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May contain nuts
Date: 2005-10-16 12:09 pm (UTC)Was Phillips' piece an update of "have you stopped beating your wife?" I loved the string of get-outs at the end.