Thursday Music Link
"You've got to know when to hold them, know when to fold them". Frankly, if I had just given away my last swallow of whiskey in exchange for some advice, I would have been hoping for something a little bit more practical, specific and actionable than a platitude like that. Also "Never count your money while you're sitting at the table" is actually incorrect even in the context of a poker game! If you don't know the size of your bankroll, you can't bet according to the Kelly criterion, and you can't adjust your strategy for being short-stacked. In fact, specifically, in a game with minimum bet sizes, if you don't count your money while you're sitting at the table then you won't know when to hold them and when to fold them. Sheesh.
Readers, what's your favourite Kenny Rogers breakbeat? If your tastes are anything like mine, it will also be your favourite Kenny Rogers song about cannabis-fuelled underage sex!
Tulsa Turnaround.
Performed with "The New Edition", a band which basically split up because they became famous in New Zealand (where Kenny is still popular apparently), and thus kept feeling compelled to tour there, despite the fact that in the days pre cheap air travel such a tour was more or less guaranteed to lose money. A band destroyed by a combination of expensive aviation fuel and social embarrassment.
Update: If you like "Tulsa Turnaround", you can learn the dance. I have no idea. No idea.
By the way, that guy's Youtube channel is absolutely fantastic (the Kenny Rogers link, not the clog-dancing one)
ReplyDeleteClogging is basically just Irish dancing, except you're allowed to move your hands. The Irish have many admirable qualities, but dancing isn't one of them.
ReplyDeleteWhich is just more evidence for my theory that the South is basically just the fusion of peasant/working class Irish culture, with upper class Victorian culture - fueled by way too many calories.
I find it mildly hilarious, perhaps even a little pathetic, that back in the old country there is still to this day, apparently, no distinction at all between one's money and one's chips.
ReplyDeleteBut then, it's precisely this sort of naive anachronism that we pay to reenact, here in the Advanced World, so I guess it works out in tourism, or something.
I was very pleased on a recent trip to Singapore to come across a Kenny Rogers Roasters restaurant, which now apparently only exist there and in the Phillipines.
ReplyDelete(Actually, one of the odder things about Singapore was that just about the only western food I saw for sale in the hawker centres was basically southern fried chicken. I can sort-of see why that would appeal to a Chinese palate.)
I find it mildly hilarious, perhaps even a little pathetic, that back in the old country there is still to this day, apparently, no distinction at all between one's money and one's chips.
ReplyDeletein the old country, we are trusted with our own money, and thus are able to play cards for cash, sitting around tables in our own homes and the like. We don't have to go to special regulated out-of-town corporate facilities for the purpose.
Once upon a time, America was a free country and the men who pioneered the Great West would also play cards in such a way. "Cowboys", they used to call them. Kenny Rogers' song is set in such a period. It also used to be legal to shoot people if you lost enough money - that's why the advice about "knowing when to walk away and when to run" is actually quite good (although also dependent on an assessment of the money situation).
Also, if you're in a casino the advice would be otiose - it's physically impossible to count your money (as opposed to your chips) while you're sitting at the table. Unless he refers to just counting the spare change in your wallet to see if you've got enough for another round of drinks, in which case why not?
There are a huge number of KFCs all over Malaysia, in comparison with the number of other western food chains.
ReplyDeleteEven better, you get a blob of mashed potato & gravy with your meal deal.
It also used to be legal to shoot people if you lost enough money
ReplyDeleteIIRC it still is, as long as you are regarded by the Federal Reserve as "systemically important" or "too big to hang".
I can confirm that Kenny Rogers Roasters also still exist in Indonesia, and possibly Vietnam. Tragically, I can't provide a review of their offerings.
ReplyDelete@John,
ReplyDeleteyou can prove it on google. Try to search it if does really existed.
I think it was Kenny Rogers and the First Edition (I consider it cheating to look it up). Back in the dawn of time their "I just checked in (to see what condition my condition was in)" was considered deep.
ReplyDeleteThe Kelly criterion only applies if the money on the table is all your money. Pretty frequently, the max buy-in is significantly less than your bankroll (in fact, the Kelly criterion on the meta-game says it ought to be). Of course, you still need to know the size of your stack to bet correctly.
ReplyDelete