The butterfly effect

Life is a never ending challenge that will always show a different face from day to day, it might appear to be the same or at least somewhat similar, but it will never be exactly the same. The way we welcome it and always adjust and are prepared for different scenarios separates us from each other.

We can’t change our past, but we can look back at what happened and accept it as part of our learning process. It doesn’t make any sense if we torture us and make us responsible for everything that happened … everything happens for a reason and we often have a certain influence on the situation, but the final decision might not always be in our hand.

Everybody regrets some of the things that happened in the past, but you have to ask yourself if you would do the same again if you had the choice … because you live in the present and you are who you are because of your past. All the good and bad experiences come together and build your personality and your character … you may be disgusted about a few things, but you may not have had the same knowledge and experience that you have now.

Afterwards we always know it better, but we also learn from our mistakes and have to avoid them in the future. If it doesn’t kill you … it just makes you stronger. You shall not see your past as a weakness, just look at it as an opportunity because without it you would have never gotten that far. Would we be able to improve if we are not aware of our mistakes? And if we never make mistakes, how can we actually be sure that we did something right either?

We are responsible for all our actions and can’t blame others, many things cannot be undone and we have to live with the consequences, whether we like them or not … but how we handle them defines our karma. It would make things less complicated though if we always try to keep in mind how we would feel if that happens to us and if we really want to get treated that way.

Or is there actually a difference between being faced with the consequences ourselves and handing them over on other shoulders? In the very end, the human species will always be egomaniac and selfish, it is part of our nature …. that doesn’t give us the right though to use it as excuse in every situation.

We are the sum of all our fears and hopes, strengths and weaknesses … and we can’t just press on a button and disable everything that we don’t like. We can’t ignore it either, it is part of our personality and makes us unique … how we deal with it defines our chance to know more about us and increase our understanding. 

Whether we want to show them towards others or not is our decision, for most it would just give out a weak impression … but we also have to be aware that nobody is perfect. Even though many will claim that they are perfect, this is far away from the truth … because otherwise we would be nobody, right? And do we really want to be nobody or do we rather prefer to be somebody, even if that would mean that we can’t claim anymore that we are perfect? We should be proud of what we are, no matter if the weaknesses outweigh our strengths … that would just be an added bonus.

Quite often you will get asked what is on your mind … but maybe the question shall be “Why is it on your mind?!” There is a reason behind everything and action will cause a reaction … knowing the cause and the potential consequences in advance gives us more faith in our own abilities. Keep your eyes open all the time and prepare yourself, if you have the stamina and patience … you are on the best way to handle all difficult situations.

Without any preparation, you will always rely on luck and variance … but consistently working on yourself and your game will give you an edge against your opponents. It is no guarantee that you will win, but the odds are much higher that you can use your knowledge to your advantage and this will always help you in the long run. Many don’t pay attention to the little things, but most of the time it’s the most subtle detail that might cause an emotion that you cannot deny and that will have an influence on all your actions.

If we are not prepared at all, we always risk getting hurt if we leave our comfort zone and crawl out of our cocoon. Only the strongest will survive … and this doesn’t necessarily include muscles, they may help but it doesn’t hurt if you are clever and know all your weaknesses and strengths. We may fear the unknown because it has been pretty comfortable so far … but without taking any risk in life, it would be pretty boring. No matter what road we have chosen so far, it is never too late to change it and try something new … because most of the time the potential reward outweighs the risk.

By the way, did you notice that almost every butterfly is unique and very special in its own way? It is the same for every human as well … we just don’t look at the butterflies and enjoy their beauty, because they seem so small compared to us. Well, maybe it is time to pay more attention to all those little things … who knows; it might eventually open a completely new world for you. 

Thanks for your attention.

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Is this glass half full or half empty?!

The question "Is this glass half full or half empty?" has been traditionally used to divide the world into two groups, optimists and pessimists. However it contains expectations, judgments and new possible meanings for a lot of different aspects in our daily life.

You can see a direct reflection of this theory in your poker game as well, as it points out the willingness to improve your understanding in order to improve or being lazy and don't look around the next corner because you are already happy with your current results.

It is crucial that you have an open mind and don't block out feedback from others just because they do not agree with your understanding of the game, even though it might not be correct but it does give you another perspective to think about. It doesn't matter if you are for or against something, as long as you know exactly what it's all about.

But a lot of times it might be quite difficult to believe in the own abilities, because the society tells us that almost everything is just based on the success. You can lose at poker and still play good, as long as you get your chips / money in ahead from your point of view. Yes, the final result of each hand will always decide how profitable you play ... but do you count that profit in $$$ all the time? Isn't gaining experience and improving the own understanding already a reward that you should aim for?

In order to become more open minded, you have to know your strengths and weaknesses first and believe in them ... just knowing that they exist and not doing anything about it does not help. It is not an easy task, but after all there is a solution for every problem as long as you are willing to put some effort into it. The problem doesn't go away just because you try to ignore it, the longer you ignore it the bigger of a problem it will be in the future when it finally catches up on you.

Some people never realize that though and are stuck in their daily routine, they don't care much about the problems as long as they don't cause too much trouble. But once all goes crazy, they are the first to scream how unfair it is ... even though it could have been avoided pretty easily. But when you never risk anything, even though you know exactly that it is quite possible that you might end up getting hurt, you can't expect to receive anything extraordinary in return.

Finding the right balance and not losing the patience or giving up hope is challenging for the most of us because we are humans and let the emotions take control and influence all our decisions ... and pretty often this just ends up in a lot of frustration. But how can you gain and maintain the confidence that it still can work out? Sometimes it does help a lot to enjoy the little things ... they might seem ordinary for most of us, but they all teach us a specific lesson and it is up to us if we accept that challenge and pay attention to all those tiny little details.

If you have a person that you can rely on and share your most intimate thoughts, it will give you something to fall back on when you are down ... but this person is not easy to find and does require a lot of trust on your part. You have to keep in mind that you are going to share experiences that you could never imagine to tell someone else ... and you have to be sure that the other person does have a similar level of understanding as well to give you power and confidence. Otherwise you risk of getting hurt even more and this will definitely have a huge impact on all other aspects of your life as well.

The final decision is always up to yourself, other persons can just give you another perspective and incentive to evaluate your own thinking process ... nobody can really give you an ultimate solution for every possible scenario. Also, we are all different because we all made different experiences in our life so far and have been taught different values from the people that surround us. Whether we respect those values or not, but they will always play a certain role in our judgments. On a bright side, the emotions that partly influence our decisions separate us from the robots ... we might not be perfect, but we are unique. Accepting the actions and all the potential consequences and not denying them is part of the personality though and show us if we believe in ourselves or not.

An important question that will have a direct impact on your self confidence and that can give you the power to believe in your own abilities and master all problems in different aspects of your life is the following: Do you think that you have already achieved something extraordinary in your life so far or does a specific skill exist that lets you handle things better than most and separates you from others? You don't have to write down your answer in a comment, but you have to be honest with yourself and think about it. Whether you want to share that with others or not will always be your very own decision.

If you can answer that question for yourself, you already made the first step to find that unique skill or ability that can give you more self confidence. You can always rely on it and when times are tough, it will be the upcoming sunshine on the horizon that provides hope to master every problem. Sometimes it requires feedback and input from other persons to trigger that knowledge, because we don't always pay attention to every detail ... in fact that is quite difficult and there is just so much that we can keep in mind ourselves.

Everybody does have that "mojo", the question is just if we are ready to accept that gift or not. We shall not underestimate the impact on our life though if we are not aware of it ... because how else can we bring up the motivation to move on and improve? Without any self confidence it is pretty hard to believe in something and master all our problems, because we will always have the impression that something is wrong. We will always make mistakes in our life, everybody does ... but this is not necessarily a bad thing as long as we accept and realize the lessons involved and don't make the same mistake again.

Being open minded in this case also means that we realize that it's not always the mistake from someone else and that we are responsible for all our actions ... whether it was intended or not. The consequences do not go away if we ignore them, they give us another challenge and make our life so much more interesting ... especially when we accept those challenges in order to improve. Life is a game, I'm all in!

Thanks for your attention and all feedback is highly appreciated.

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A state of mind Part 1: Poker is not pure gambling!

God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.

Looking back at the success of online poker and the boom it caused after 2003, it is quite understandable that everyone wants to get a part of the cake ... especially when there is so much money involved. Even the mass media has realized the potential and expands their horizon now and shows the average reader and watcher their very own mix of sensations and publicity, may it be good or bad ... it doesn't matter though as long as it does attract the audience.

The problem lies within the general "recipe for success": The truth does not always sell as good as a plausible story full of prejudices and false pretenses that will catch the attention of the ordinary and uneducated masses. It is not the responsibility of the mass media to educate the audience, they have to make profit and in the current society this is usually defined upon publicity. It already starts within the educational system that does barely encourage the younger generation to pick up knowledge on their own. 

It is a two sided sword though and we shall not blame someone else for the lack of education, we are responsible to do our utmost to gain knowledge and improve our chances to break out of the daily routine. But it is obviously by far easier to search the mistake everywhere else, it's a reflection of our current society that we appreciate everything when we can take advantage of something ... but if exactly the same does not help us, we want to send it to hell.

Unfortunately those prejudices don't stop around the corner; they are also well established in most of the governments all over the world. Online Poker is a thorn in the flesh of most politicians and they try their utmost to build up the impression that every poker player is a criminal and you get treated by far worse than the general manager of a bank that just burned several million Dollars due to a speculative trading.
It is quite remarkable though that most of those prejudices are just based on assumptions and not personal experiences ... and somehow surprising when you consider the fact that the government does not make any money with it. A really strange coincidence, isn't it ... the campaigns against smoking have also decreased dramatically in the last few years, maybe because they need the taxes on cigarettes?

I for my part can't wait for the day when an official research by the state will claim that poker is an illness caused by a specific genetic defect and that we should get a medical treatment to find a cure. Nobody is a gambler by default, some people tend to get addicted but that doesn't mean that every poker player doesn't know at all what he / she is doing. It doesn't automatically mean that we are fanatics that enjoy the danger and put our life to risk whenever we can, yet many still think that poker is played in a dark backroom and when you get beaten you pull out the gun and shoot your opponent as shown in the old Wild Western movies. 

Would it not be by far more profitable in the long run if poker actually gets regulated on a reasonable level, where the government and the poker players cooperate to establish a secure and profitable ambiance for all? Or is it evil by default that everything where the state doesn't get its fair tax has to be wrong? When you see the recent development all over the world, you might get that impression ... there are a few exceptions and we also know that organizations exist that want to improve that situation, however nobody really knows where this might end up. The poker business is still going strong despite the current economical crisis and the slow process of recovery.

It is the time though that we all do more to show that poker is not gambling, sure it is a card game and thus will always involve luck ... we as poker players are not denying this fact because it is more than obvious. But with the right preparation, strategy and also education there are a lot of potential solutions to cut down the variance and make the game more predictable. Or why do you always see familiar names in the big tournaments all over the world? They must either be the luckiest players on this planet and can maintain this hot streak for years ... or they have an edge and actually know what they are doing.

Part of the fascination of this game is that we all theoretically have the same odds at winning, this is mathematically correct ... yet some players seem to be more successful in the long run than others. Is it eventually possible that there is more than just luck involved? Holy crap, this would actually mean that everybody can learn to be successful at poker if they are open minded and constantly work on their game! More about the educational and psychological aspect to follow in the next blog entry ...

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How do you combat a downswing?

It happens to every poker player from time to time, no matter what you do ... you just can't seem to win ... you get in ahead and still lose on turn or river. How do you combat those situations and losing streaks? There are different approaches, however also a lot of ways to make it even worse and bust your bankroll pretty quickly.

What you shall try to avoid:

1) Tilt


The tilt is the most common mistake that many players make, they loose up in their play and try to win back their losses as soon as possible without even paying attention to the table and their opponents anymore. They just see their own hole cards and fire out as many bullets as possible until either they have the money back or bust their stack / money.

2) Move up in limits


Well, if you just lot of money, it is by far more difficult to get all losses back quickly at the same limit. So why not just move up ... more money involved also means I can get my money back faster, right? Of course that is true, but if you are in a downswing, it will always have a certain impact on your game and you more likely end up busting more money and destroying your bankroll.

3) Blaming the poker site

Obviously if you don't win, the poker site has to be rigged. And the more you tell that yourself, the higher your anger and rage will be if you get beaten the next time. It doesn't matter if it was a setup or if you went in behind, it has to be the fault from the poker site and they don't want you to win anything. Usually that is followed by quite a few swear words in table chat as well and / or blowing off some steam to everything and everyone near you. But wait, did you actually get your money in ahead or did your opponent just outplay you?
_____
There is no ultimate solution that fits for everybody, you can try different ways to combat them but there is no guarantee that you will be able to un-tilt your mind. It will always be part of the game and the best starting does not always win ... but you have to keep in mind that you shall always try to get your chips / money in when you are convinced that you are ahead. Let's take a look at a few potential ways to combat the downswing in a constructive way. 

Possible ways to combat a downswing:

1) Taking a break

Sometimes it just helps to close the software and take a break before you go broke. There is a concept at MTT / SNG poker that also applies here "a good fold is better than a bad call" ... if you just don't feel it, you can still come back to win it. Of course it is hard to declare a defeat, but Rome was not built at one day either and you might have lost one battle but the war is not over yet!

2) Analyze your game

It does help at online poker when you do have a tracking program, because if you want to review your session and just depend on your memory, the opinion will be biased and you just can't keep all the necessary info about specific hands. One way to solve this problem is to browse your hand history on the poker sites that are usually saved ... but it will take by far more time and manual work. It is an important step in the recovery process though to review your hands, because it will give you a better understanding of what actually happened. Most of the time we just see the final result of the hand and keep that in mind, but we barely pay attention of how the hand was actually played until the river.

Even if we are on a downswing, it does not automatically mean that we play bad. We can still get our chips and money in ahead ... the question is just if opened hells gates ourselves or if there was nothing that could have been done. Luck will be a part of the game, it is for every card game ... but you should always focus on getting in ahead rather than depending on luck yourself. 

3) Switch to another poker type

Most of the time the cash game players recognize a downswing much faster, because they play by far more hands than a Tournament or SNG player. It does not mean that you shall not play cash game anymore, but maybe you should consider to play on short handed tables instead of fullring ... or you don't play NLHE for a while and try PLO or Stud. Those are the poker types that require more thinking and might also give you more insight on your Hold'em play as well.

If you tend to tilt your money away quickly at cash game tables, try some SNG ... they don't take as long as MTT's and you might win less if you take it down. But you also just risk a fixed amount of cash and can't kill your whole bankroll in one hand (unless you buy into the highest SNG that you can find with your remaining money ... lol). And it may also give you some confidence in your own game back if you happen to take it down.

4) Follow BankRollManagement

There are a lot of poker forums and sites that offer articles about a proper BRM, if you follow it you will just risk a certain amount of your bankroll at a time. This requires a lot of discipline though and the temptation is pretty high to just ignore the restrictions because you would have to move down and play on lower limits, even though you know exactly that you can beat a higher one already. BRM is a more old fashioned approach, but it also reduces the risk to burn your bankroll at once. It is always up to the player how much risk he is willing to take, those restrictions are just guidelines that may help you on the way to become a better player ... because they always have the long run in mind and not the short term profit.

5) Get rid of all potential distractions

Most of us tend to do other things at the same time as well when playing poker. Do you know how much they influence your play? If you can't fully focus on the game itself, you won't be able to play your best game. 

6) Play shorter sessions

It is by far more difficult to maintain the same concentration and play your best game forever, you can use "natural drugs" such as coffee or energy drinks that might help to keep the same level for a while, but they usually just make everything worse after a certain time. Review your sessions and see if you lose a lot after a specific time ... cut the sessions down and play more short sessions with a small break in-between to refocus.

7) Workouts

Many are not aware that some sports may help to come back totally refreshed, you can release all your anger and frustration in a constructive way and also do something for your fitness as well. It is important to maintain a healthy connection between body and soul and if you generally feel better after a workout, you will also be able to focus the mind and get back to play your A-game. If you are ill, you will always be distracted ... even though you might not notice that you can't give your best. Would you let your star player participate in the next game even though he has a broken leg? 

I could go on and evaluate each topic more in depth, but I am afraid that would just kill the exposure and many people are not able to keep up the concentration or simply don't want to because it would require to invest more time to read through. Quite a few of those aspects in this blog entry are also part of my psychology project though and will probably be explained more effectively when they have their own topic.

Thanks for your attention.

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Expectation vs Reality

The hardest challenge in our life is to overcome our own isolation and don't mix up the expectations of our illusions and dreams with the reality, life might be cruel and complicated at times but that's what makes it interesting and worthwhile. What we make out of it is based on our ability to make the most logical and reasonable decision at any time and have full control over our emotions and feelings.

The human mind can be a powerful tool, at the same time it can lead to so much confusion and let us believe things that we want to believe, just because they are much better than the reality. At the poker tables, it is crucial to have a balanced mind set … otherwise we will most likely not be able to play our best game. But we shall also stay critical at any time so we don’t get overwhelmed by the heat of the moment, because we would not be able to make a reasonable and unbiased decision.

It is part of our human mind though that we let feelings and emotions take over control and influence our decisions, they might not always be the most logical choice … the good point though is that this separates us from the robots and machines. We all make mistakes and they are part of the learning process called “life”. You might ask what this has to do with poker, well there are a lot of similarities at the poker table as well and our emotions might play a bigger role than we actually imagined or expected before.

There are a few possible options to increase our odds and improve that sense for reality, but you can’t really learn that from someone else … you can get advice and take classes in Yoga or Meditation or anything else that helps to find the way to your inner self and establish the much needed balance of body and soul. But it is up to you to find your own way to discover that and it will probably never be as good as the skill that some people have in their veins by default. This talent is a gift and some people know to use it, others don’t even realize that they had this skill at all.

Poker is a game where you have to combine a lot of different things at the same time and should always make the most logical choice based on your experience and knowledge, sometimes it does help and you need the balls, gut feeling or killer instinct. But in the long run, you need to control your emotions as good as possible and keep them out of your game, because they would just be an unwelcome distraction that lets you lose the focus for the important decisions.

It is a fact though that our expectations will always be higher, because we tend to be competitive and value ourselves above the rest. That is part of our nature and mentality and only the best can have a reasonable and unbiased point of view about the own skills compared to your opponents. We always want to win and expect that the better hand preflop always wins … the Aces getting cracked by 35 off suit is not part of the plan and a very unpleasant side effect that we always gonna complain about in a forum or on a blog. We also blame our opponent and claim that he / she is much worse and should have never even been involved in the hand. 

But the reality is quite different and maybe we let them catch up because we misplayed the hand? 

Sure, bad beats and suckouts happen and that will always be a part of the game … but you need to analyze if you might have not played the hand as perfectly as you thought it was at the point it took place. The more we learn about this game and the more knowledge we pick up, the better our understanding for the game and all its aspects (including bad beats) and take everything more relaxed. 

It’s a tough pill to swallow when you realize you might not be the best player on this planet and maybe not the most talented one, but with hard work you can increase your chances to become more successful. You always have to be realistic though and don’t expect to win every game … sure we always play to win, but not even the Pro’s won every single tournament that they participated in. But compared to the average player, they pretty much know what they are doing and work on their game every single day. It is just a matter how serious your approach towards poker is and what your goals are.

Is there any specific reason why you actually play? And if so, what do you expect to gain from playing poker or is it just a way to burn some time and escape into a different world where all other problems don’t expect while you are playing. The reason we play does have a serious influence on the understanding of the game and it is hard to change that predefined tuning, because it was already established in our mind. What happens when we wake up and get confronted with the reality or how does our understanding of the game grow with the experience and knowledge we gain whenever we play or deal with anything poker related.

Does your poker experience also have any influence on your approach to solve other issues in real life? Maybe it changes your attitude towards some aspects of your life and you didn’t even realize it yet? Online poker is as real as live poker, because your mind will always be busy and occupied … but the own thinking process and the conclusions that you take out of it are one of the most crucial steps to improve and also help you to solve other problems in different areas of your life that seemed fairly impossible before.

Once you have realized why you actually play poker you can take the next step in order to improve on your specific level, you don’t have to be perfect but everybody loves to be competitive at everything they do. So why not putting up some effort and find out where the own border between illusion and reality is? Fully understanding your decisions and everything that surrounds you make the exercise and experience by far more worthwhile … .

Don’t be lazy and take everything for granted or that it gonna be the same just because it always did in the past … life is by far too short to stand still. Sometimes the reality might hurt, but that is part of the contract you signed and you can’t always pick the easy way unless you don’t care at all.

Thanks for your attention, any feedback is highly appreciated.

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Self imposed isolation

There is one place where everything is possible. And that place is deep within you.

There is barely anything worse than limiting you, it is part of the human nature though that we are afraid of the unknown and fear what impact it might have to our comfort zone. It is so much easier to pick the easy way because it means less time and work that we potentially have to put up.

You might wonder what this got to do with poker. Well, at poker everything is possible as well and it is up to us what we make out of it. It is not about the cards that we get dealt, it's about the way we play them! Many players just complain about bad beats, but they barely analyze their own game because all they see is that their Aces got cracked by xy. They limit themselves because they are not able to look beyond the horizon and try to find a reason why this actually happened.

Most players though don't respect the game and their opponents and wonder why they don't get respect themselves ... well the answer is pretty simple: Don't isolate yourself and build up knowledge about all aspects of this game. One of the first lessons are manners and the respect for the game and their opponents. It is pretty easy to pick up the basics and basically everyone can learn how to play, but it does indeed take a life time to master. 

Some do have a talent and the gut feeling that it takes to be successful for this game and you can barely learn that ... you either have that killer instinct or not. But all other aspects of that game can be learned ... as long as you are not lazy and willing to invest some time, money and work into your education. There are so many places online where you can learn more about this fascinating card game, yet many don't realize how much they are isolating themselves.

There are many different approaches though to get better. Some prefer playing and you indeed gain a lot of experience, it is much easier nowadays with online poker where many grinders play more hands in a month or year than live players will ever have in their lifetime. Another option is reading books ... the disadvantage there is that it is mostly biased and just the opinion of the writer and you shall not believe everything that is written in there and take it for granted. You have to draw your own conclusions out of it, otherwise it does not help you towards your own game. Or can you sit at the poker table all the time and got Harrington On Holdem right next to you and check for the right chapter every time you play a critical hand?

Training sites and coaching are getting more and more important nowadays and you can learn a lot on the big sites out there. Because what can be better than watching more experienced players and listening to their thinking process? Last but not least ... the interaction with other players. It does have its advantages and disadvantages, especially if you are not open minded and can't take criticism. But sometimes it does help a lot to discuss specific situations with other players to get another view and more feedback. 

Most players though don't prefer the last option to improve their game, because they take the criticism personally ... but why did you post the thread / blog / whatever in first place than? You can't really expect that everybody will agree with you ... every feedback can be valuable, even though it might mean that it does expose a leak and weakness in your game. If you accept that and respect it, it may be an asset towards your game and will help you to improve. Don't be afraid though to share it with others, nobody is perfect and we all make mistakes ... but we all share the same passion and are students of this game. 

Nobody ever said it gonna be easy ... most things in all aspects of our life are complicated. But if we never risk anything, how can we really expect that things will improve? There is no gift package around the corner, it might hurt though when we discover everything beyond our horizon and we may as well get hurt. But those are the lessons that life offers to us and when we learn from those mistakes and experiences, than we do also have a serious chance to improve.

If you just give up and don't want to improve, than that is absolutely fine ... but please don't complain about the own situation than because it is only up to you to change this. Nobody else can do this for you ... because if that was the case, than you didn't learn anything and will fail in the next possible scenario again. Don't always depend on others, be more self confident and take care of yourself ... you are responsible for your own success and if that requires more work and effort, by all means go for it and don't just close your eyes!

I know it can be tough and it is against our human thinking ... because who really likes to get told that he may not be as good as you thought you were. But not every criticism is bad, it is a matter of fact that you won't always get just positive feedback ... but it is up to you how you handle the negative feedback. Also, don't take the positive feedback as granted, analyze if it was just a friend trying to be nice or if was really intended that way. But don't block yourself from interactions with others that do have the same passion ... that is the worst thing that you can do to yourself and it might not be possible to repair the damage later once it has been caused.

Thanks for reading. Any feedback is highly appreciated

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