Sticking to the script

2010-12-14

Sup fellas..just going through some more rehearsing of my script tonight, thought I'd take a break and update. Rehearsing a script for an audition is generally done as a dry read-through, which means you just read your lines back and forth ad infinitum with another person in complete monotone. The reason for this is because all you are really trying to do at this point is remember the lines. Then you start analysing the script... looking for beat changes and, importantly, what the objectives are behind each thing your character says (ie what are they trying to achieve) - everything the script writer has down is for a reason. What we learnt at NIDA was then to create a separate (imaginary) situation in your mind that would invoke a feeling in you that suits the feeling the character might have. For example (Chuckie talking to Will):

Look, you're my best friend, so don't take this the wrong way, but in 20 years, if you're livin' next door to me, comin' over watchin' the fuckin' Patriots' games and still workin' construction, I'll fuckin' kill you. And that's not a threat, that's a fact. I'll fuckin' kill you.

Chuckie's objective is to make Will realise the world has more to offer him, but he starts off really tiptoeing around the topic and then forces the point home at the end. When he says "look, you're my best friend, so don't take this the wrong way", I imagine I'm telling Mellanie that what she said to someone was really inappropriate. You can pretty much make it whatever you want, like one of my old teachers was on Lost, and he has to listen to this tape of this woman screaming, and then says with a horrified look, "I don't ever want to hear this tape again". He reckons what he imagines when he says that is that his (pregnant at the time) wife just had a miscarriage. I know, kinda perverse, but makes for a very convincing performance.

The beauty of this process is you're learning the words and the feelings separately, so if a director/teacher feels you're not putting the right emphasis on something, it's much easier to create a new imaginary situation in your mind then say the words you've memorised.

Back to poker, which is going okay this week in some ways. I feel like all the study I have been doing lately is slowly coming together, because when you grind day in and day out, 20 tables at a time, most of your real 'learning' is away from the tables. If I was to honestly assess my progress over the last twelve months, I'd say that I got much better at poker (hand reading, lines, postflop decision making, inducing spew), but didn't improve as much at aspects unique to MTTs, specifically late game/final table play, until the last month or so. I am kind of hoping that this will see a big improvement in actual dollar results; even though I don't expect that I will get deep any more than I do now I am pretty sure I will make the final table with a stack a lot more often.

So even though the results this week have been mixed (9th FTP 24k, 10th FTP 23.5k, 10th UB 5k, 12th Stars 55/500 cap, 13th Party 5k, 15th Stars 22/20k, 16th FTP 32k)...pretty much all of those busts were me stacking off for 50bb+ pots rather than sticking 10-15bb in and losing, and I feel like that's something to be happy about. In terms of good scores, I shipped the UB 4k (too small for a screenshot lol), 3rd in the Stars 27.50/30k and second in the FTP 20r today after making the FT with a 40bb stack.

I played a midstakes reg HU and started off with 35bb compared to his 70bb, but worked my way back to even without having to get it in preflop, and despite losing I'm pretty sure it's the best I've ever played HU (not hard cause I've sucked so much HU this year if you've railed at all). I felt like for the most part I had control of the match, I was able to pick out specific things he did and exploit those:

- he cbet every open so I alternated between c/r flops and flatting/donkbetting turn on boards where he shouldn't have much;

- he didn't 3bet enough and also 4bet folded three times;

- he almost never showed aggression postflop; even when he turned two pair with like 45bb eff and I donked into him with a flush draw+gutter after he checked flop, he flatted (he had Q9o on Q8x9dd and I had KJdd)..idk prob not awful, think I'd prob raise given I'd donked a few times already;

- when he bluff 3bet OOP he only made it 2bb more and picked some hands that are very hard to flop anything, and I was able to flat and win at showdown.

Unfortunately after whittling him down a bit he clawed back with some very lucky rivers, blinds were up next hand which would leave us <30bb so I chose to make a play in a spot where I didn't think he had much in the hope of getting him down to a reshove stack. I check/called flop then check/raised pair+gutter+over small with A5 on 2385hh with a PSB left, which is normally a really strong line but obviously he has 64o for the turned flush so when I shoved for pot on the river he made the easy call, gg. Doubt I played perfectly but it was definitely an improvement.

Anyway, audition tomorrow and no poker till Thursday, looking forward to both.