Some information in life is worth nothing. For example*, directions to the nearby cafe; Aejones' favorite color; and how many HRs Ken Griffey Jr. hit his rookie year. This is because the information is either very easily accessible (mapquest/asking a neighbor, asking the man/myth/legend, baseballreference) or because it does very little for you. Brief interruption: "Information" alone generally cannot be used to make money. Rather, it's the implementation of information that allows one to profit. Applying this to poker, knowing that your opponent has a certain hand in a particular spot is very nice, but the real beauty is then being able to use that knowledge and perform the optimal action (whether it be bet, call, raise, fold, etc.). I want to add here that people make mistakes on the 2nd part far too often - GATHERING the information should be the tough job.

*Take a right off properzi, continue walking for .7 miles, it's across the street; blue; and 16 as a 19yr old.

Some information can come in handy but has low inherit value. For example, detailed knowledge of the US civil war. The reason this information is higher on the food chain is because it would take some time to learn all about the civil war. And, once you know about the civil war, it's possible you could parlay the skill into a tour guide job or something. Other information, though, has actual value (to differing extents, of course). Finance, nuclear science, and I suppose poker are things that few have "mastered," and there is great financial incentive to learn (and then apply) said art.

This blog entry is not about poker, though. It's about the NBA. This coming season I intend on making a decent amount of money betting on games. I'm not quite sure what my goal should be. That said, even though I come from a background that loves sharing (and in turn, learning/growing/getting better at the particular subject) I need to hold back most of what I've been spending all my time on. So, I'm sorry! I am attaching an interesting picture that doesn't really show anything of value, but provides some fun for NBA fans.



What this graph displays is that pace (or speed that you play) really doesn't correlate with point differential. At all. (Point differential is typically a better barometer of team success than win-loss, although I have those figures too) The reason this is a cool graph is that many coaches/GMs/analysts feel a team needs to "slow down" or "speed up" (philosophy-wise) for the purpose of generating offense or helping defense or [insert cliche] and the truth is it really doesn't matter. Although, I enjoy watching fast basketball > slow!

~~

I moved hotels to the Inn at Harvard, which is a big step up from the Holiday Inn. I'm here for another day+, and then I'm going BACK home to be with cousins/etc. for Yom Kippur.

FINALLY, I've sent out some PMs regarding the book, which is basically explaining what the hold up was, and that it should be (after a 3 month hiatus!) back on the markey. Soon. *About this, a guy contacted me about doing an interview regarding the book/process/selling it online, and I'm pretty excited for the interview. I think it'll be fun.

Looping around (I know I said "finally" but it's my blog, so :P ) NBA futures were announced yesterday. A "future" is simply a teams chance of winning the championship (this changes as the season goes on; like a future in the stock market, you can buy or sell it throughout the course of the season). Also, win-totals were announced. My immediate impression is that the futures didn't look very +EV (they generally aren't, Vegas makes sure of that!) but there are a few really horrible over/under lines. I likely will put down a decent amount of action, but I'm going to be tight lipped for the time being.