Episode 149: Brian Koppelman

13 thoughts on “Episode 149: Brian Koppelman”

1. Just a brief note to say that Brian’s recent The Moment podcast where he interviews his wife is very interesting. I am looking forward to listening to this chat with Andrew and Nate.

2. Wow, based on Nate’s screenshot, it looks like KGB accidentally mucked a chop.

3. Andrew – I think you’d really like Open, the Agassi book (am pretty sure Nate would too).

   Guys – starter DFW? Or straight into Infinite Jest? His work is not the rite of passage over here in Europe that it seems to be in the US.

   Thanks

   • I usually suggest people start with “A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again”, which is a collection of essays. They’re much easier reading and more straight-forwardly entertaining, and give you a sense of DFW’s wit, insightfulness, etc. Several of the essays are also good introductions to some of the themes that he addresses in more oblique ways in IJ. Basically, I think it’s good to be sold on DFW before you start in on IJ, because otherwise I think it could be tough to keep going. Enjoy!

     • Thanks Andrew, I’ll get that using the affiliate link soon. Your comments and advice are much appreciated.

       —

       For anyone interested, in the mention of a Buffett biography. I heartily recommend the book Snowball by Alice Schroeder. It is that good that it is hard to imagine that the one linked to is better. If it is, wow!

4. Love your podcast. Addressing the beginning discussion with your listener challenged in continuing with poker after marriage and a kid on the way.
   I am also a rec player, somewhat on the opposite end of the spectrum.
   – Age 50+, fully employed, kids out of the house, some spare time for my hobbies.
   – I learned poker from my son in 2007 after he freerolled into a small winning at Fulltilt.
   – Got my feet wet with small tourneys and home games.
   – Became an avid student of the game, reading every good poker book and posting/responding quite a bit at the floattheturn forum (Jon Little’s domain).
   – These days, play recreationally at small stakes (usually $100-$200 buyin cash games, $100-$500 buyin tourneys). I get in an average of 5-6 sessions per month.
   – In 2015, played the WSOP for the first time, $1,500 Monster stack, made it to day 2, didn’t cash, will definitely be back.
   – As a resident of Washington state, I can’t play online for real money.

   My humble advice to your listener is:
   – Don’t give up. Shift to play when you have time. Join a home game or two and play local live tournaments if you can. Even if you don’t make money at it, you’ll still get the adrenaline rush playing live.
   – Create a separate account for your poker money. If you’re a decent winning player, you’ll be surprised how nicely you can grow it even with casual play.
   – Play a lot of play money hands at Pokerstars zoom tables. This may seem counter intuitive for a former 100nl+ online player, but it’ll keep your mind trained to see a lot of hands and reacting to loose (sometimes wild) play. The interesting thing about these tables, is that once you get past the donk-shoving zone (the first few levels), play is mostly loose-passive, just like you would see at the real money $1/$2 tables! Of course, this is only level 1 play, but it’s instructive how correct tight laydowns are on late streets, even at these tables. For some reason, players hate losing play money chips.

5. Hi, wanted to comment on the questions of the soon-to-be Dad who is looking to transition to cash. I am now a Dad of a 16 month old girl and currently playing at $5/10 and occasionally higher on Friday night live games at the local casino.

   Here are my tips:

   1. The amount of expendable free time that you have is going to go down an order of magnitude once you have a kid. It’s crazy. If you want this, you have to get your study in NOW. I almost quit poker after my kid was born due to no free time. I now play only Friday nights, down from previously 15-20 hours a week. None of my other Dad friends get to go out once a week every single week for hours. I only get to because my wife is a saint and because the extra income is significant. I also highly advise you to get your child on a consistent sleep schedule and get them to bed early so you have a few hours to spend with your wife, or maybe even get a few hands in… :). Google is your friend for sleep training.

   2. You have a lot of options on how to get started, but you need to move to a game/stakes where you aren’t bleeding money and then start putting in hands and studying. If you have a live casino nearby and your roll can support the stakes, you may consider live $1/2 as an alternative to online games. The skill needed to beat a $1/2 live game is a small fraction of what is needed to beat $100nl online. You can still do this after the wife goes to bed as long as you clear it with her first. You will have to wear pants though, so that’s a minus. If you really can’t/won’t play live, I recommend Bovada, but you’re making winning harder than it needs to be.

   3. Completely agree with other poster that you need 100% segregated bankroll for poker only if you don’t have one already. If you ever have aspirations of moving up, don’t spend it, grow it. Eventually, you hit a point where the wife doesn’t ask or even care if you had a big win or a big loss last night.

   4. Don’t let your poker get in the way of your wife or your baby. Remember, when you win, they win. When you lose, they win.

   Good luck!

6. One thing I would add to what other posters say, is to start by buying in to cash games for 50 BBs, which is a stack size you are more familiar with from tournaments. When you win a few pots you are up at 100BBs and learning more about that stack size but with .

   Live poker doesn’t work at all when you have young kids. Play online if you can.

   Other than that, I think a good question to ask is, and relevant to Nate’s play money hand, is would you see the point of entering the WRGPT? If the answer is no and you’re just playing for the money then it may not be profitable enough for you anymore. For sure you can beat the bottom level of cash, so maybe withdraw most of your money and start there. Follow an inflexible BRM strategy and try to run it up as far as you can like a video game.

7. final paragraph above should end with “but with money you have already won earlier.”

   I just did the Rounders hand in slow motion. Are we talking about the two cards that go flying through the air past Mikey’s right shoulder? What causes them to fly is Teddy KGB (who’s self-dealing) flinging the stub down on the table in disgust (most of the rest of it goes quickly off the right of the screen), so when Brian says “that’s not what you think it is” he means that those cards flew off the top of the stub and they’re not Teddy’s hand.

8. Great episode guys. I think this is one of my favorites because the interview flowed so well across different topics. I was floored when I realized Brian produced Tracy Chapman’s album before writing Rounders. I liked the how the interview culminated in a good discussion about various books. In past episodes, you’ve brought up Cormac McCarthy and the Meditations and that is one way you guys differentiate this podcast from others about poker. Thank you for listing all the books referenced, it is very helpful.

   After listening to the podcast, I felt compelled to rewatch Rounders again. Based on Teddy’s dialogue when the river Ace appears, I assume that he had a set of Aces. I haven’t yet searched for the commentary on this but will do it soon.

9. Brian mentioned the movie Stand And Deliver (without naming it), the one about teaching a historically under performing school district crushing the AP calculus exams and getting accused of cheating. If you have Hulu Plus (or other means of acquiring it) season 12 episode 5 of South Park does a really funny parody of it. Preview – http://southpark.cc.com/clips/165712/how-do-i-reach-these-kids#

10. Thanks for a very good interview! Seemed like everyone had a really good time making it!

11. I also wanted to add my personal opinion about continuing to play poker with a newborn child on the way.
    I used to 8-10 table 200NL and 400NL on full tilt between 2004-2008 for almost 30 hours a week, while working a full time job. I thought everything changed in 2009 when I got married and had to cut back my internet poker playing. Once Black Friday hit, my poker was limited to Bovada, so my online poker got cut even further. However, that was nothing in comparison to 2013 when my son was born. I practically gave up poker altogether because family comes first, and poker was just a hobby at that point. I didn’t factor in the millions of hands I put in online and the hundreds of hours I spent studying. Family always came first, and honestly, I was too tired to even want to play, and was incapable of playing well.
    I do get my poker fix in by playing a home game (only $0.25/.50) with friends once a week. I still have some money on Bovada that I haven’t touched in over a year. I also listen to poker podcasts (thinking poker, twoplustwo pokercast, PokerNews) because I still love the game and want to keep up. I also get to play live at casinos every once in a while if I’m in Vegas or LA for work or vacation. I wish I could play more, but I have accepted the fact that poker is only a hobby now, and that family comes first. That need for sleep will outweigh any desire to play poker, trust me.

    I would suggest that you continue to enjoy the game you love by finding a small stakes home game with friends, maybe play a little online or live, and definitely continue to listen to poker podcasts.

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