28 Comments

Interesting concept but terrible photo choice. George is anything but a nit, he regularly takes unnecessary and dangerous risks. See him quitting his job for no good reason and then trying to pretend it was just a joke, or instead of cutting his loses with the Ross's upping the stakes by driving to the Hamptons in The Wizard. He even risks real prison time by helping his girlfriend go on the lamb in "The Little Jerry" or trying to embezzle 20,000 dollars of Kruger's money via The Human Fund. (He even puts his life on the line often for no reason, see him insulting a murderer just for the heck of it in The Airport.)

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Jun 6·edited Jun 6

I think Ben Stiller's character from Along Came Polly would be a better nit archetype. George certainly was willing to go all-in degen style.

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Yup, Kramer has a very real gambling problem (betting on if flights will be late to the airport!) while George is a degen in other aspects of his life.

Jerry is kind of a nit, he breaks up with otherwise nice women over the dumbest stuff (she had man hands etc) rather than take a risk. Likewise in The Opposite he apparently plays poker just to break even.

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"George isn't a nit, Jerry's a nit" was a take I wasn't expecting to see but am glad I did.

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To be blunt Nate is confusing "loser" (which George is!) with "nit" which is different.

There's a Venn Diagram here or something (indeed some "cool people" are probably Nits (perhaps Topher Grace? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnC8b6pvE_8) )

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It also occurred to me later that of course the most famous George episode of all involves him running a massive bluff.

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Good luck!

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"Nit" is also a piece of jargon used with lawyers (and perhaps other writing oriented professionals) to refer to a small, inconsequential edit, usually to fix a small, inconsequential error.

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Software people use it the same way in code reviews.

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You're using the wrong unicode character to represent the suit of hearts. It should be ♥️, not ❤️.

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Here’s a question I like to pose to friends who play cards and follow politics. At this point in the Presidential race, how would you describe Biden/Trump as a Texas Hold ‘em hand?

For example, you might say that Biden is a pair of 5’s while Trump is Q-9 suited. Curious what Nate and other readers have to say.

And this comes into play if the Democratic Party thinks their hand is a loser and has a chance to muck it and take two new cards from the deck at the convention.

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Biden has 97o, Trump has JJ. The flop just came out 678 monochrome. Trump is ahead and has a flush draw. Biden is behind but can catch a 9 or a straight. To simplify this absurd analogy they are both all in and just have to see how the cards fall. Lots of outs for both sides, probably more for Trump.

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Biden is bluffing as his campaign strategy is to avoid interviews or press conferences and in the few unscripted comments has trouble keeping his facts straight.

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Thank you for the poker information. Several years ago, I played Hold ‘Em fairly often, and was better than dead money but not nearly good enough to be considered an above-average player. I didn’t have the time or desire to do what it took to get better, but am glad now to “live” vicariously through your poker exploits. All the best!

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Good luck. And WSOP says you're 4th in chips. Don't short-change yourself!

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Now go write a post about how important it is to sun run a Day 3.

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I love this content Nate. Just don't spew!

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Great update and good luck. I appreciate your insght from the table at the WSOP.

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Another drawback of being a nit is that you won’t get invitations to private games — even ones organized at casinos.

In tournaments nits tend to min cash a lot. They’re too predictable and have a hard time adjusting because they like security

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Honestly, the normal-life applications for some of this philosophy make it better than standard coaching & self-help. It's a great lens for decisions & I don't understand poker at all. I'm also constantly having to monitor my own risk-aversion.

Also, as an oldish Brit it's nice to see the word 'nit' used again. Growing up, it basically meant idiot in my world.

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Heading back out tomorrow for the rest of the season. Good advice here:)

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So my facile understanding of this is that to go far in the upper echelons of gambling of this kind being too risk-averse is actually a weakness in a competitive setting.

Applying that to, say, the market, doesn't that possibly explain somewhat how you get recurring volatility from high risk investing practices?

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Congrats on the deep run! I thought nit in poker means the straight forward tight passive player who is easy to read (I.e. me)?

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Good luck. Thanks for using my question about the NYT. For the foreseeable future the election is all about Biden. Why the NY T opinion writers and Editorial Board criticize his strategy is head scratching as many plotters need to see and hear a vision for the future and the American Dream is not slipping away. But the Time opinion writers keep publishing the same pieces about Trump being unhinged and gangrenous, the same content as the last 100 pieces they have written. The June 27 debate sets up as a disaster for the Democrats, who are mostly in denial.

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