I use the statistics pretty much as confirmation as to the decision I made. I’ll look back and say,...

I use the statistics pretty much as confirmation as to the decision I made. I’ll look back and say, ‘At least it lines up with the stats,’ and sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn’t.

Jerry Manuel talking to Kevin Burkhardt about stats

And this, ladies and gentleman, is our manager. Also, according to this link, he'll be doing interviews with Cerrone once per homestand. I shudder at the thought. I imagine it will go something like this.

Cerrone: Omir Santos?
Jerry: Love the guy.
Cerrone: Ramon Castro?
Jerry: Who?
Cerrone: Nevermind.

over 2 years ago Mark Himmelstein 27 comments 0 recs |

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What the hell does that mean?

Ugh. And double-ugh to the Cerrone/Jerry interviews.

by jasondg on May 28, 2009 3:51 PM EDT reply actions

It means he's a dummy

It’d be like calling off all your chips in a poker hand because you “have a feeling” one of the two remaining dueces in the deck is coming on the river. Then, after losing, going to an odds calculator and seeing you had less than about a 5% chance of hitting and going “ah well”.

"All energy flows according to the whims of the great magnet

What a fool I was to defy him"

-HST

by Mark Himmelstein on May 28, 2009 4:34 PM EDT up reply actions 2 recs

Rec'd

Haven’t played poker in awhile.

by James Kannengieser on May 28, 2009 4:44 PM EDT up reply actions

Better than the guy

who deliberates for an hour then folds and says “can you just show me the river.” I hate that guy.

by Zwill on May 28, 2009 5:47 PM EDT up reply actions

Oh definitely

I mean, I’d love to play poker against a guy like Jerry if this is how he uses statistics. The kind of thing you’re talking about is just annoying when other players do it. The kind of thing this seems to imply Jerry would do, I’d wait in line for hours to get at a table with him.

"All energy flows according to the whims of the great magnet

What a fool I was to defy him"

-HST

by Mark Himmelstein on May 28, 2009 5:55 PM EDT up reply actions

Gus Hansen

doesn’t use statiscal numbers, he goes with his gut and beats other pros with 3/8 off suit, that’s Jerry, in his own mind.

by Sokojoe on May 28, 2009 6:07 PM EDT up reply actions

I think

Gus Hansen uses stats more than he lets on sometimes, he just plays them differently than is traditionally expected. People might have thought Doyle Brunson used the numbers improperly before Super System came out. But Gus knows the outcomes and the probabilities as well as anyone. He was a world class backgammon player before he was a poker player, and at the very least, is a master of game theory. Maybe he doesn’t use the numbers to the extreme that Chris Fergeson or David Sklansky does, but I still think he has a better understanding of them than the average poker pro does (or any of us do, for that matter). Plus, when he’s on TV, he loves to go into super-aggressive mode, if only to enhance his table image to the general population. I have a feeling he’s a much more conservative player than you’d think when the cameras aren’t on him.

Also, Gus Hansen is a scary, scary man when he’s sitting behind a large stack of chips.

"All energy flows according to the whims of the great magnet

What a fool I was to defy him"

-HST

by Mark Himmelstein on May 28, 2009 6:41 PM EDT up reply actions

I completely agree

It’s so much fun watching Gus because he def plays up the reckless aspect of his game, but you can’t be a pro and win consistantly without having advanced knowledge of the game. Still, it’s got to be tough to tell when he’s actually got the nuts.

by Sokojoe on May 28, 2009 7:10 PM EDT up reply actions

Absolutely

Its hard to watch poker now because most of the major tournaments are just such crapshoots. It seems like the pros just play them now because their agents tell them its good for their websites and such. But watching the real uber-pros is still great. Daniel Negreanu’s my favorite. He just always seems to be enjoying himself while maintaining such a consistent level of focus at all times. Everyone at the table loves him, even though most of the time he’s taking their chips away.

Gus is definitely one of the most enjoyable though, too. He commands so much presence at the table, everyone expects him to do something completely reckless, and yet a lot of the time they expect to lose to him anyway. He doesn’t even have to do anything like stare them down or ask for a chip count. He just has to look like he’s thinking really, really hard and people get so nervous. Its awesome.

"All energy flows according to the whims of the great magnet

What a fool I was to defy him"

-HST

by Mark Himmelstein on May 28, 2009 10:33 PM EDT up reply actions

Jerry's the guy

drawing to the low straight when there’s three clubs on the board

by Zwill on May 28, 2009 6:10 PM EDT up reply actions

LOL

Exactly. And Bobby Cox is the guy with the flush draw and top pair already and an understanding of how to play it. This is pretty much the analogy to the Pedro Feliciano vs. Matt Diaz situation.

"All energy flows according to the whims of the great magnet

What a fool I was to defy him"

-HST

by Mark Himmelstein on May 28, 2009 6:44 PM EDT up reply actions

Cerrone's twitter

Is it bad that after leaving the dentist today I went home and ripped right in to a chocolate chip cookie?

by jasondg on May 28, 2009 3:57 PM EDT reply actions

and for the zillionth time

I find that I am not missing out on anything of significance by not being on Twitter

by JoshNY on May 28, 2009 5:30 PM EDT up reply actions

Yeah

I saw it on the Metsblog sidebar when I clicked Meddler’s link.

by jasondg on May 28, 2009 5:42 PM EDT up reply actions

+1

Couldn’t agree more.

"All energy flows according to the whims of the great magnet

What a fool I was to defy him"

-HST

by Mark Himmelstein on May 28, 2009 5:51 PM EDT up reply actions

I have to disagree

If you’re following Matt Cerrone, I can see why you might think that it’s a useless novelty. When used properly, it’s a very good tool. I use it as a modified RSS feed for the most part.

by Zwill on May 28, 2009 6:02 PM EDT up reply actions

why the hell would anyone care about this?

I don’t care you went to the dentist, just like you don’t care that I went to the dentist. Get a hole in your tooth, you blue shirt-wearing, no grit hippie!

/end crotchety old man rant.

by meigs1414 on May 28, 2009 6:32 PM EDT up reply actions

You missed the next bit:

Kevin Burkhardt: But, what happens if it doesn’t? Oh well?

Jerry Manuel: (Laughing) Yeah, oh well. I’ll check my gut again next time, you know, that type of thing.

by Eric Simon on May 28, 2009 4:33 PM EDT reply actions

Yeah

I stopped reading after this part, feeling the need to vent about what I’d just read by making it a fanshot, then I went back and read the rest. Lets just say there’s a large, red, hand shaped imprint on my face, and it may be there for a while.

"All energy flows according to the whims of the great magnet

What a fool I was to defy him"

-HST

by Mark Himmelstein on May 28, 2009 4:35 PM EDT up reply actions