miscellaneous things

poker

I’ve been playing poker seriously for several years, with a focus on No-Limit Texas Hold’em cash games. I founded the Columbia Poker Club as an undergraduate, have spent time as a semi-professional player, and have coached many eager students. What drew me in originally is that poker is fundamentally a game about decision-making under uncertainty. Every decision is a probabalistic bet under various assumptions, which happens to be a framework that maps pretty well onto a lot of problems I think about in my research.

I play both live and online, and I’ve spent a lot of time studying game theory optimal (GTO) strategy and solver outputs. I’ve always been fascinated by superhuman performance in strategy games, and my poker philosophy integrates objective theory with the human element of the game: table dynamics, reads, and opponent-based adjustments. I often think about how and why exploitative strategies may outperform GTO, and this theme of reality deviating from the theoretical has also become a common subject in my research. For coaching, hand-reviews, database analysis, or anything poker-related, feel free to reach out.

chess

Chess is another game I’ve played for most of my life. Like poker, I find it satisfying as a domain where you can make progress through studying, refining your pattern-recognition, and logical thinking. I particularly enjoy online speed chess. These days, my ratings on lichess.org typically hover around 2100 in blitz, and 2200 in bullet. I’m always down for a challenge!

My favorite opening is the Smith-Morra Gambit (1.e4 c5 2.d4 cxd4 3.c3). While unassuming on the surface, it’s capable of generating a thick maze of sharp, double-edged complications that put Black under serious pressure very quickly. It has produced some remarkable games, with IM Marc Esserman vs. GM Loek van Wely being a personal favorite. For fans of romantic, tactical chess who are looking for a weapon against the Sicilian, I’d strongly recommend Esserman’s book Mayhem in the Morra, which provides both comprehensive opening theory and plenty of funny stories.

movies

In addition to playing and studying games, I also love to watch and write about movies. I’m an AMC A-Lister and you’ll catch me at all the big new releases, but I also really love the classics and generally expanding my film horizons. Recently, I’ve been on a huge Asian cinema kick. A few favorites: Cure (my all-time favorite film), Pulse, Memories of Murder, and Chungking Express. I try to log and review everything I watch on my Letterboxd. In the world of STEM research, I find having a hobby that engages with the arts and involves some non-academic writing is a healthy way to stay grounded.

research assistants