24 The Newbie Chronicles: Quantitative Self-tests

[mdlm]

For quite some time I’ve wondered if there is a set of tests that I can take in the morning to determine whether I am in good physical/mental/emotional condition. If there were such tests then I could plan the rest of my day according to the results. For example, if the tests showed that I was in A+ territory along all three dimensions then I would play lots of poker. If the tests showed I was in F- territory then I would go back to sleep.

I thought of this when I read a story about a company that decided to stop doing drug testing on its employees and simply do performance testing. The idea is that the company doesn’t really care if an employee is on drugs or not. All they care about is whether the employee can do his job. There might be some employees who are on drugs who can do their jobs and some employees who are not on drugs who can’t do their jobs.

US Special Forces, which are in the news on a daily basis nowadays, are supposed to go through some very rigorous psychological/emotional/physical tests both during selection and during training. I assume that the military has lots of data on what the test scores mean. I even saw one test which compared cortisol levels in the blood stream of special force soldiers to the levels in normal soldiers.

I have found a software program (ThinkFAST by Neurobic Software) which tests various sorts of intellectual ability. It has a quantitative measure called “Brainpower level” which it reports after every session. My idea is to calculate my Brainpower level every day and then correlate it to my poker performance. If there is a good correlation then I will take this into account when deciding to play poker.

Unfortunately, I have not found a similar test for emotional/psychological state. I would like something to tell me whether or not I am particularly angry or upset or irritated or happy. However, there are a variety of biofeedback devices that will passively examine you and tell you something about your emotional state. There is one biofeedback device that looks like a mouse. You put two fingers on it and it measures the “heat level” (I assume that this is a synonym for temperature). If your fingers are cold this means that you are uptight and it invites you to do a “hand warming” relaxation exercise. It appears to give a quantitative reading of your “uptightness” which I can then correlate to poker performance.

I’m curious to know if anyone has any experiences or thoughts to share on this. Clearly, if this works it would probably lead to an amazing improvement in EV/hr. Say that I can eliminate the bottom 10% of my sessions (ranked not in terms of how much money I win, but in terms of how well I play). Those sessions would probably all be negative EV and I would increase my total earnings and reduce the time I need to spend at the table.


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Comments on Comments

Waveygravey picks up Louie Landale’s comments about making a computer play poker and says “the robot will only be as good as the poker player/programmer that made it.” This is certainly not true for chess and I doubt that it would be always true in poker.

jasonHoldEm suggests that I should ask the forum’s advice on what my Phase 2 goals should be. I will certainly do that if I get to Phase 2.


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Goal Update

Last week I spent 18 hours on poker: 7 hours in PokerPages tournaments, 9 hours playing TTH, and 2 hours on 2+2.

I have spent a total of $476.43 out of my $1000 budget.

An update on each of the four goals (which are to be accomplished by 3/30/03):

1. Read and study Jones’ “Winning Low Limit Hold ’Em”
I have confirmed 2 1/3 out of the three points I need to achieve this goal. A point (flush draw value bet) is pending an analysis of 10,000 hands.

2. Beat Acespade
Goal Completed on 11/5/02.
Over a period of 100 hours (3600 hands) I beat Acespade’s best lineup at the rate of over 4 BB/hr.

3. Beat Masque World Series of Poker
Goal Completed on 11/17/02

4. PokerPages 85% rating in one calendar month playing 20 tournaments
My rating is now 80.82%. I played three tournaments this past week and finished #106 out of 157, #1 out of 187, and #72 out of 170.

[Clarkmeister]

You get more bizarre every time you post.

[orbie]

I've enjoyed reading the dialouge between you two ( mdlm and clairkmiester ). thanks for keeping this forum fun as well as educational.
ORBIE

[Mike Gallo]

MD,


For quite some time I’ve wondered if there is a set of tests that I can take in the morning to determine whether I am in good physical/mental/emotional condition.

After I smoke a blunt, I usually feel in good physical mental and emotionaly conditioned.

I have a question for you. Do you ever plan on playing poker in a live ring game? Once you do, then the real education will begin. I think you could spend your time a bit wiser.

Perhaps play 2-4 and then see how theory gets put into practice.

See you at Foxwoods

Michael

[Waveygravey]

"For quite some time I’ve wondered if there is a set of tests that I can take in the morning to determine whether I am in good physical/mental/emotional condition. "

Get a girlfriend she'll tell you! (or cause said condition). Missed the point of my last post about computers and poker, but then you miss the point of most posts that try to help...

[Easy E]

Clarkster,
While he certainly is going off in some strange/unusual tangents, I think that the message/question between the lines, which I read as "How do i recognize/reduce my chances of playing when not at optimal playing ability?" is not a bad one to discuss...

"I’m curious to know if anyone has any experiences or thoughts to share on this. Clearly, if this works it would probably lead to an amazing improvement in EV/hr. Say that I can eliminate the bottom 10% of my sessions (ranked not in terms of how much money I win, but in terms of how well I play). Those sessions would probably all be negative EV and I would increase my total earnings and reduce the time I need to spend at the table."

Or, put in other words, how do I reduce the risk of tilt, of playing sub-optimally, etc.... so that I can increase my returns by decreasing my bad losses.
These types of topics that have been discussed often in other ways. That WOULD be potentially useful information for a player to have, if it was truly reliable. Certainly some of the software he's discovered sounds like crap, as far as a method to properly address these areas! (My favorite was the bullshit biofeedback one, which you correct your results by warming your hands....
** NOTE, mdlm, THAT should be a big flashing warning sign about the value of THAT particular tool...)

Now, I DO agree with you that many of these tangents that mdlm talks about are secondary (no, third-ary or lower) to his learning how to play initially... and that developing the discipline to OVERCOME or ADJUST to difficulities in the path of good play are MUCH more important... and those require real play to truly learn about and deal with.

Like you, I'm not sure if he's trying to CONVINCE himself that he has no chance to learn to play for or realizing/deciding that he doesn't HAVE the ability/talent to learn to play, without actually trying live poker... but we can't make that decision for him.

Three more weeks, then we'll see.... I think, in light of what's transpired over the last 6 months, mdlm should officially play his first live b&m ring game (i'll settle for online, but prefer face-to-face).... on April 1st, 2003!!

[Kurn, son of Mogh]

I agree with Clarkmeister on this one. Go back and substitute "go to work" for "play poker" and you'll see the absurdity.

In poker, as with any other endeavor, you must be able to function well within the normal range of physical/emotiona/intellectual ups and downs. Of course you avoid the very extreme down side of the bell curve, but otherwise, you learn to adjust.

[Easy E]

"In poker, as with any other endeavor, you must be able to function well within the normal range of physical/emotiona/intellectual ups and downs. Of course you avoid the very extreme down side of the bell curve, but otherwise, you learn to adjust. "

the portion of my post that was related to your point here: I now subtitute your much better, more precise statement.

You are a credit to your bloodline, warrior.

[Jimbo]

MDLM,

I am pleased that you brought this subject to light. I am in the process of patenting my "Pshcho-Emotional Ex Post Facto Testing Kit". If you would be interested in being a trial subject I will offer you a substantial discount from my future suggested retail price. Please either PM me or post here requesting further details. I guarantee 100% accuracy or the test is free!

[AmericanAirlines]

It's probably to comprehensive for your use... but the MMPI
(Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Index) should do it!

LOL!

Sincerely,
AA