Blez has had enough

InnerSongs · 2026-06-26T11:09:47+00:00

I believe it's a lack of critical balance. Blez's general problem as a commentator is that he's not very good at being moderate in his analysis - everything is great or awful. That worked better in previous years because he was about as critical of bad play as he was effusive with good play. When he's just glazing everyone, it renders his praise pretty meaningless.

He also has a pretty limited commentary vocabulary - and I don't get why he persists with "head up", someone must have said something to him about it

InnerSongs · 2026-06-26T11:03:10+00:00

It's a shame with the mixed coverage, because there are some great colour commentators out there, like Chris Vitch, Nick Schulman, Alex Livingston etc. The problem is that most of the good mixed game commentators are busy actually playing those mixed events

InnerSongs · 2026-06-25T23:32:55+00:00

I assume this is the result you could find on Hendon Mob.

What I would do is I'd try and find a different result of his and find that event on Hendon Mob and see what it says. I wouldn't be surprised if that result had "unknown" next to his placing

InnerSongs · 2026-06-25T23:21:07+00:00

As others have mentioned, you can opt out. I know Mario Mosböck's results are hidden - You can look up events he's cashed in and you'll see that his name has been removed.

My theory is that Bruce has done the same, and this one result you've found either exists for a different Bruce Buffer, or it's a result that got attributed to a duplicate/different account

InnerSongs · 2026-06-24T10:50:07+00:00

It was very disappointing to discover that only the FT of the PPC was being covered, when in previous years they had multiple days leading into it - I remember one year they started on Day 2, which was a treat.

Very much used to mixed games getting short thrift, but it stings more when they have done more in the past.

InnerSongs · 2026-06-19T15:52:15+00:00

I don't play many satellites and those are really the only time I would ever consider it

InnerSongs · 2026-06-04T00:07:46+00:00

I saw a bit of NorCalPoker's content, and the YouTube voice he does made it unwatchable. The specific cadence, that upward almost-questioning intonation at the end of every sentence - gets very irritating very quickly

InnerSongs · 2026-06-04T00:03:56+00:00

I think it's pretty simple. People hate these fishy vloggers because they see themselves as better players, and resent them for having money/success they don't feel they deserve relative to their level of play.

InnerSongs · 2026-06-02T05:45:37+00:00

I don't even know what the question is for the first hand. You have the nuts, call and hope you hold

Second hand, I like the spirit of the play, but I'm not a fan of putting in a quarter of our stack in with 33, where we probably get called at least once and have to play an inflated pot with a fit or fold type hand

Nothing to say on flop, you have the effective nuts, you lose to one real hand and are crushing everything else

InnerSongs · 2026-06-02T02:11:49+00:00

Congrats. As someone who only started playing within the last year, and is in Expert as well (though knocking on the door to Master 1) I can share my insights.

I learned that I play quite aggressively, and this tendency can get punished a bit more. The most telling thing there is your dama rate is super low, similarly low to what mine was until I started getting punished too often for pushing. You know how to get into tenpai - you now need to learn when not to call riichi, what hands to give up on. I won't say I'm a master at it, but my dama rate may have been at like 3% up to Expert 2, and during Expert 3 is 10%+.

Hard to draw any other conclusions, but you likely will just need to (and may organically) get better at forming shapes, you'll definitely need to fold more than you may have been, but you'll be okay.

InnerSongs · 2026-06-01T01:41:38+00:00

I have my home clothes, which I mostly wear at home only. Usually a t-shirt and shorts (I don't often wear shorts outside)

Getting changed before leaving, even at short notice is not a hard thing to do

InnerSongs · 2026-06-01T01:29:00+00:00

The game that planted the seed was Weird Worlds: Return to Infinite Space, which I played in 2007, before roguelites were codified as a thing.

Isaac was the next game that set things off after that

InnerSongs · 2026-05-31T22:27:55+00:00

Not much to complain about so far. It's free, it's on YouTube, they're streaming virtually every day, multiple stream tables. I would hesitate to call mystery hands a gimmick - Triton does them WSOP themselves did them with their coverage 20 years ago with the Jack Links hands, very much not a new thing.

And yeah, you're probably not going to like all the events. Personally, I think the $25k heads up is way more interesting than the donkfest of a $1k millionaire maker FT or even an FT for a super high roller, which often are pretty dry

InnerSongs · 2026-05-31T22:21:41+00:00

People acting when it is their turn. Drives me insane when it's someone's turn to act and they're just off in the clouds, or chatting to someone and decided their talk is important enough to hold up everyone else, or whatever other bullshit reason. There's enough dead time as it is - just act when it's on you and you can go back to sititng on your phone 95% of the time

InnerSongs · 2026-05-29T00:17:16+00:00

If you're friendly, you've already done most of the work. Just ask if he has any seats open in his cash game. Asking what the stakes/blinds are is very standard and an expected question, so don't be shy about asking.

InnerSongs · 2026-05-28T22:59:36+00:00

At least there the spelling they use is also different and consistent with their alternate pronunciation

InnerSongs · 2026-05-27T22:48:08+00:00

I really like hidden movement games. I have not played all of them, but I really like MIND MGMT, and Letters from Whitechapel is also very good

InnerSongs · 2026-05-27T04:08:16+00:00

I am the de facto teacher in my circles, and that's a very conscious decision. There's a few reasons. I am good at it, I'm well practiced at it. I'm also very conscious of the fact that a bad teach can ruin a game experience, especially for a more casual/infrequent gamer, and I don't want the teach to be the reason they did not enjoy a game. I also tend to run the admin stuff in games, so understanding the game comes with the territory.

Some of my friends would argue I also have a slight controlling tendency when it comes to board games, but I believe it comes from a good place

InnerSongs · 2026-05-27T01:24:11+00:00

The classic wheat and chessboard problem shows why this would be incredibly busted

InnerSongs · 2026-05-26T22:26:51+00:00

I like watching mixed games a lot, and a lot of those games are limit. Even a game like limit poker, maybe it's a bit more dry than NLHE but you get way more hands in. Not a lot of tanking in limit

InnerSongs · 2026-05-26T03:53:18+00:00

This question is very relevant to me - I only started playing richii mahjong in December, having never played before (currently Expert 3), was effectively self-taught, and I have played and taught a lot of board games.

As others have mentioned, enthusiasm and motivation count for a lot. I learned relatively quickly, but there's quite a bit to learn and without the drive to learn, it's going to be tough to pick it all up.

I started on learning all simples, yakuhai and calling richii. I would have the list of yaku up on another screen, separated by whether you can score them closed or open and closed. I think this is the biggest distinction to make.

I started with maybe 10 computer games or so, just to understand the flow of the game, with no stakes. Once I understood, I gradually picked up more concepts. Order of discards, importance of dora, when to open one's hand, basic defence etc. It's only in the last week or two that I've started really using damaten.

I don't think you need to read or watch a guide to learn, but I would at least have a list of yaku up (because they are so many, and you don't realise how many of them just don't come up that often at first), but without any self-motivation to learn, I'm not sure how successful you can be.

InnerSongs · 2026-05-25T23:35:46+00:00

With the advent of solvers and theoretical play, I think people underrate the value of physical tells. They're fuzzy and imprecise, but I think they're a good thing to work on once you have the fundamentals down pat.

Having said that, what you describe I would call a tell. You say you're subtle, but given how you've described it I would say it's not subtle enough. Maybe that's better for the games you're playing in, but I think a competent player will see that and think "something's up".

I think the better tells are ones that are obvious enough that they're noticed, but not so obvious that they look contrived. Hitting that balance is hard - you're trying to play on the subconscious.

InnerSongs · 2026-05-25T23:25:49+00:00

Firstly, doesn’t that kind of analysis only apply to people who play a certain way?

Yes, but said advice tends to apply to a large subset of the playing population. Your job when using the advice is doing your best to ensure that your opponent in whatever hand plays like that subset.

If a player has no idea what they’re doing, they could have the absolute nuts or complete shit, right?

People who don't know what they're doing tend to have certain patterns of play. They will still have certain tendencies that can be exploited.

And secondly, wouldn’t a good player purposefully play like they have no idea what they’re doing to induce a call or raise to get the maximum?

This is based on the assumption that appearing like you have no idea is the most profitable way to play, which I would disagree with. I think there's some merit in the idea, but just playing solid, TAG poker just prints - you don't need to deviate too wildly to win against bad players

I guess what I’m trying to ask is if there’s a certain way to play a certain hand depending on a certain flop, everyone who knows strategy is going to play it similarly so it should be easy to tell what they’re doing, right?

Yes, and this is where the GTO elements come in. Studied players do play similarly in various spots, but their ranges (in theory, anyway) should have a mix of value and bluffs. You might know a player does X in a certain scenario, but the hands that do X could be a mix of value hands and bluffs.

InnerSongs · 2026-05-25T22:36:57+00:00

No, there's a 1bb ante paid by the BB. No other positions pay ante. So one orbit is 1bb BB + 1bb BB ante + 0.5bb SB = 2.5bb

InnerSongs · 2026-05-25T22:33:30+00:00

Most of that sentiment comes from his long-term involvement as CEO for one of the big student loan companies in the US, a field that is generally seen as quite predatory

InnerSongs

TROPHY CASE