Episode 49: Sean Lango

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Sean Lango is the editor of the Thinking Poker Podcast and a member of Palmyra, the band you’ve been hearing on the show for the last few weeks. He’s also a professional musician who supplements his income with poker. We talk to him about how he cobbles together a living from music and poker, how Black Friday affected his ability to do that, and whether Elvis or Whitney Houston would win on American Idol.

Timestamps

0:30 – Hello and welcome, Andrew’s WCOOP life in Montreal
7:06 – Interview: Sean Lango
47:10 – Strategy: An ugly turn

Strategy

10 handed live $1/$2 NLHE
UTG fold
UTG+1 call 2
MP – call 2
MP2 – call 2
MP3 – call 2
HJ- call 2
CO (hero) call 2 with Jc8c
BTN – folds
SB (villain) – makes it 12 to go
BB – folds

all call 12 except HJ who folds.

FLOP ($71 after rake and BBJ)
KdJs8d

Villain bets $20, all else fold, Hero raises to $100.

Villain tanks a bit and then calls saying “OK I’m gonna call you.”

TURN ($271)
KdJs8d Ks
villain checks, Hero checks

RIVER ($271)
KdJs8d Ks 7s

Music

The following are the songs used on the podcast, listed in order, and with links to them on bandcamp.

Spires

http://palmyra.bandcamp.com/track/spires

Cold Coffee

http://palmyra.bandcamp.com/track/cold-coffee

Suicidal Female Poets

http://palmyra.bandcamp.com/track/suicidal-female-poets

Whereby The Signatory

http://palmyra.bandcamp.com/track/whereby-the-signatory

Here’s a list of albums Sean has been listening to over the past few weeks:

1. Mike Krol – I Hate Jazz

2. Jay Dee (J Dilla) – Welcome 2 Detroit

3. Charlie Parker – anthologies…no specific album

4. Yes – Close to the Edge

5. Die Antwoord – Ten$ion

18 thoughts on “Episode 49: Sean Lango”

  2. +1 to music being great and thank you guys for an awesome year of podcasting!

    BTW Palmyra is an ancient city in today Syria with a history of rebellions agains Roman Empire. In different times I’d strongly recommend it as a sight-to-see in the Middle East 😉

  3. +1 to great music.

    One suggestion for Andrew is that since he is in Montreal and presumably went through the process to be able to play on Stars is that he may want to consider do the same for Full Tilt to get access to his points while he is there. Since the new Stars-owned Full Tilt assumed the obligations with respect to the points, I think it is highly unlikely that the DOJ (via GCG) is going to ever give any value for those points. From the perspective of the DOJ, the points are as much Star’s responsibility as the payments to rest of world players were.

    I’m not saying that it’s fair that US players have to wait until FTP comes back to the US market or relocate outside the country to redeem their points, but I think that is just the reality and I wouldn’t delay getting any cash over the prospect of the DOJ thinking otherwise. [Insert standard disclaimers re no legal advice, talk to a lawyer, etc. here.]

  4. Whoa. Is that band still playing live stuff? So good. Love the podcast. Thank you so much for a well crafted show.

    • Palmyra does play live on occasion when our singer/songwriter/guitarist Gina comes back to the Brooklyn area on occasion. It’s a rare event these days, but it is certainly likely to happen again at some point down the road.

  6. Another enjoyable episode.

    Here’s a topic I wish you all would have pursued: how is music/podcast editing done? what software? what is available to the amateur? what are some tips from a pro such as Sean?

    Now that the show is a year old, I think an outtakes episode is warranted. In true nitcast fashion, you have to be able to create new content out of old rejected material.

    PS – I’ve spent way too much time prior to this episode putting in lyrics to the transition music into google, certain I should know what those songs and who the artists where.

    • When I did the editing, I used CallGraph to record our Skype calls and Audacity to do the editing. Both of these are free, and Audacity is a very powerful tool–I don’t doubt that professionals use something even better, but whatever editing failures there were under my watch were due to me and not to the tools.

    • Hey piefarmer-

      I use Pro Tools for the podcast editing (PT 10 for Mac). It’s the DAW (digital audio workstation) that I’m most familiar with and most comfortable using, but there are alternatives out there like Logic (made by Apple) which is another industry leader. For free, as Nate mentioned, Audacity is a good option as is Garage Band which comes installed standard on any Apple computer. I don’t know of any others off the top of my head that are free, but I have a feeling that it’s out there and available.

      Editing and mixing music is a topic on its own, but to briefly describe the process of editing an episode for the podcast here is a lot of what I’m doing:

      -removal of unwanted segments or stray noises (scrapped material or coughs for instance)
      -adjustment of pacing: adding or removing pauses in the event where it is a bit distracting to the conversation, fixing lags caused by Skype
      -processing the audio to remove background noise (using plug-ins)-
      -dynamics processing (gates and limiters) which serve to reduce background noises and boost the noises made by speaking humans
      -occasional fancier maneuvers which all serve to do the same basic functions as above, when those approaches aren’t cutting it

      I think tips from a pro such as me would be dependent on what type of project it is. For something like a podcast, I’m drawing a lot on my personal experiences with human conversation which luckily everyone has a lot of, so you can make a lot of intelligent decisions about what you WANT based on what’s in your head. Then executing those things on your computer is a matter of practice and building up a library of tricks that just comes from solving problems repeatedly. But for something like music, I’m drawing on a lifetime of playing instruments, studying music, and listening to music.

      In college I got degrees in Jazz Guitar (performance), Classical Piano (minor), and also majored in Sound Engineering. One of the great exercises from a Sound Engineering class was listening to various recordings and writing down detailed descriptions of everything you hear throughout the song as it progresses. Everyone’s method of articulating and describing things will come down to their backgrounds but pro or amateur you will absolutely learn a ton doing that process.

      • Also that’s pretty funny about googling the lyrics thinking it was something you already knew! It’s awesome hearing that so many people are enjoying Palmyra. It’s one of my favorite bands I’ve ever played with – good friends and everyone brought a lot to the table.

      • Many thanks. I realize the audio editing stuff was not the key topic for your interview, but I always like to hear professionals describe their craft. Thanks for taking time to answer.

        And I was convinced I should know the band/artist. Palmyra’s singer has a very familiar voice.

  7. I echo the love for Palmyra – really good stuff (and great podcast, as ever).

    This is off-topic, for which I apologise, but I was just thinking – Andrew, a while back I seem to remember you talking about working on writing a book. Is this still ongoing or has the project been abandoned? I’m sure I’m not the only listener/reader who would be eager to see it come to fruition!

      • Not totally sure I understand your post, Mr. Oxford, but are you (jocularly) saying I shouldn’t write a book because I misspelt ‘apologise’? (Because I didn’t – it’s just how we spell it on this side of the Atlantic!)

        • Thanks, Chris! (re: palmyra)

          And I’ve wondered the same thing… (re: book)

          And kind of funny that the name “Oxford” was chosen to contest a British spelling. (re: silliness)

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