On that day, we went out to a shitty diner and had shitty food. I was moping the whole time not only about having a good % of my bankroll stuck, and possibly gone, but also about the shittiest pizza I had ever eaten. My wife had wanted to try the diner out for months, claiming it had gotten some good reviews online. Of course I told her that there is no such thing as a restaurant like this that is any good. I just had a feeling.

Turns out, I was right.. AND on top of the mediocre food, it turns out that the owner of the place is a Boston Bruins fans and was proudly displaying one of their jerseys on the wall. UGh. What a day.

After dinner I went back home to practice my F5 pushing skills once more. The apocalypse was here and I needed to feed my addiction to speculations. It’s all we really had at this point… and sharing our shock and fear together. The hornet nest had been disturbed and now everyone converged onto NVG to know what the hell was going on.

In the next weeks, things became a bit clearer and some of us got lucky and were able to play again online. It was really fishy for the first month and the games were really good. The situation, after all, wasn’t that bad I thought. I felt very lucky for myself but also really pained to see my American friends unable to play and stripped out of their freedoms. It was brutal for them and I really hope the situation gets better in 2012.

Anyway, over the next months I got really depressed about poker and what I was doing for a living. The games seemed bad everywhere with very few fish and lots of good players around. My problem there was that while I do not mind playing really good players, I was never a high volume player and thus with smaller edges I tend to just avoid the games as I seem unable to grind for hours and on numerous tables. It’s a leak of mine and I am quite upfront about when people ask me to play 3-4 tables.

The relatively dry games led to a very poor work ethic and a black cloud hovering around my mind. The new reality of poker had the opposite of a desired effect. I got lazy about my game, about studying, about everything. I had lost my desire to crush and instead just wanted to get by with the minimum amount of effort. Coincidentally, I had my lowest volume of hands in the last 2 years during last summer.

I was still doing well results wise so, at the time, nothing seemed to be wrong to me. I was down on poker without really admitting it to myself. But, money was still good and I was still winning, so no problem, right? Well, not so much. It had a couple of very negative effects, and the main one was the huge gap between the positive feedback I was getting from my results and the negative factors I was ignoring because it was comforting to me. These included having a very poor work ethic, low desire to succeed, having goals and being confident in my game. All very important things to long-term success.

In October, I had my first really big losing month with poker. I ran really bad and, of course, I blamed it on variance. However, in retrospect, I can see how Black Friday eventually led to my demise, not only psychologically but in a bigger and far-reaching way. The way I handled myself in the face of adversity was poor, at best.

In the end, after 8 months, I am very thankful Black Friday happened, and this, of course, on a personal level only.

In the last few years, I have been able to notice silver linings much better than before, where negative was negative, and that was the end of it. Black Friday forcefed me a couple of very positive realisations:

1. I was lazy and depressed because things looked bad to me. In these situations, being down about the way things are does only one thing: it makes them worse. How can someone achieve anything when negative thoughts have built a camping site in your head? In the last month I have regrouped myself and I have been working harder than ever before. Not only with poker but also I have approached the whole situation with the idea that indeed, pressure can create diamonds, but only when you have the right mindset: a positive, constructive and hopeful one.

2. This year has taught me that the way I approach EVERYTHING in my life is how I will approach my work. So now instead of half-assing something simple like folding clean clothes, I do it well and do my best to be on top of the chore. It showed me that if I want to perform at my best in poker, I need to do my best in every aspect of my life, instead of being one of those people that focuses entirely on one thing and fails miserably at everything else.

3. It humbled me. Past success is not a guarantee of future success. What I do right now, in this moment, is the only thing that matters, the only thing I control and if I want to be successful at poker, my actions need to stay in line with this goal. As a result, I’ve cut out almost all of my video gaming time. It was fun, but I’d rather focus on more important things now like writing, reviewing hands and studying.

A few months ago I would have never written any of this, but I realize now that every single time I have faced adversity or negativity in my life, it has taught me something extremely valuable. The perspective I take on the situation can be the difference between the apocalypse and an enriching and positive experience. Since I *do* have a choice and can control this, I now choose to take option B. I choose to make the best lemon juice I can make.

In the end, is there a better way to better yourself and know more about who you are, and what you could be?

I’m not a religious person, but Christmas is always a special time of the year. For me, it serves as a reminder to appreciate all the good things I have in my life, as small as they might be. While we should strive to do this every day, sometimes things get in the way.

It’s good to remind ourselves that if we are healthy and have a roof under our head, and food to eat, that we were a dealt a premium hand. 

I wish you all a great holiday season and all the best in 2012.

3 very important things I have learned in the last 14 months as I have embarked on a journey to master myself when it comes to poker induced emotions, but also just life in general. Obviously, there’s a lot more to it, but I’d like to share some of the main things I have learned about playing for a living and doing it in a healthy way.

1. Think positive: Probably the most important factor in anyone’s success in life. The classic self-help guide “Psycho-Cybernetics” describes this the best. There’s a reason why this book is still as relevant and powerful as it is today. Buy it today, even if you hate reading books. I guarantee it will change your outlook on life.

Anyway, thinking positive is even more important to a poker player than the average person. Every day we have to deal with losing and since it involves money it usually hurts more. Being a positive person can have an immense impact on not only how you deal with loss but also how well you perform in every single thing you do.

Once again, keeping it short: buy the book. Change your perspective. Profit.

2. Breathing: Breathing is pretty cool, try it once in a while, it will relieve your stress and re-focus your energy. Breathe in, count to 5, release and exhale for another 5 seconds. Do that before, during and after sessions and I promise it will help you tilt less and play better.

3. Make time for yourself: Being a professional poker should involve a lot of work and effort, but not to the expense of your time. Time that could be used for exercise, stretching, eating and fresh air, should be fully used. It’s not only good for you but it will make you feel better inside and outside and as a result you’ll play better. Instant profit in the wallet and also life expectancy. Pretty good thing to strive for.

Short and sweet.

gl

To me, perspective is what creates these pivot points. For every single experience or situation we face, we have a choice on how we approach it. Will it be positive or negative? This choice will greatly define not only the kind of lives we live but also what kind of person we are and will be. How we approach everything on very general and broad terms will always spread to the smaller every day situations that we encounter. In the end, it’s these every day things that will end up defining what tomorrow will be like.

Just think of your perspective as a megaphone that shouts marching orders to you, consciously or not.

While this basic concept applies to pretty much everything we do or think, from the food we like to the kind of career we choose, I would like to talk about how it relates to things we face in poker every day.

Let me give you a very basic example of a pivot point in poker. You lose a big pot because villain made a very bad play but won the hand anyway. The pivot point would offer us two choices: to get pissed off because we lost the hand, or we remind ourselves that we played the hand well, take note of what villain did and move on, still focused and still positive about future hands.

Another example.. Mr. Bob has been crushing the games for 2 years now with a huge sample size to back it up. On the 3rd year he breaks even for a long time and starts to doubt himself. This is a very important pivot point since it might define his poker results for the next year, or more. Will he wallow in his “misery” and feel bad for himself or will his perspective be a constructive one where effort and a positive outlook are kings?

These crossroads happen dozens of times each day in all areas of our lives. How do you approach them? You can see how the way we approach them might have huge impacts on our lives and, specifically to poker: how much success we will have playing it.

All this sounds very simplistic because it is.

Despite all the confusions and uncertainties in our lives, our perspectives can be manipulated to our liking and with it, we can achieve anything. All it takes is the right mindset and the right approach. It can sometimes takes a lot of energy but, in the end, it really is just like flicking a light switch. The rest of the work will take care of itself because once we open a light, it spreads to everything else around it naturally.

Once this happens, anything is possible. Even the slightest change in how we approach something can set off a chain reaction in our lives that might positively affect so many things in the long run that we will have completely forgotten how it all started. These a-ha moments where we can see where our perspectives have been negative or wrong are extremely valuable because once the seed has been planted, our minds will organically seek ways to reach those new and more positive outlooks and ways of living and thinking.

Some lights might be harder to switch on but that is only because we have been programmed since childhood to think certain things. Maybe you were always picked last in gym class and now you feel like you can’t possibly be great anything. Perhaps you won a marathon when you were 16 and you believe you’re able to do anything and be the best… the older the perspective the harder it is usually to change it but also, to recognize it.

We often believe that things have been set for us and that we’re just living out the course of our lives, but there is a lot more control to it than we think. And this includes control over our poker results. Luck is just an illusion. It’s what we do that really ends up defining how well we do and if all the right perspectives are aligned the same way, then great results can be achieved regardless of natural skill level, bankroll or stakes.

The amount of work we put in and the discipline we have with poker are all results of having a constructive and positive approach to what we do. If we start to feel negative about it, how can we possibly reach our full potential? By letting negativity creep up into our minds, we just invite it to taint everything we touch, off and on the tables. What else in our minds could we tweak to achieve our goals with poker and in life?

In the end, every single thing we do is connected together. Everything. And if your goal is to become a better poker player then I would invite you to look at every part of your mental game and seeing where your perspectives might conflict with your end goals. Are you able to face adversity in a positive and constructive way? Do you understand and accept variance? Are you managing your time well? Are you living a healthy lifestyle? All of these are greatly affected by if your outlook is positive or negative.

Everything is worth looking into, as you might learn a thing or two about yourself along the way.

gl

One advice I would have for any aspiring players is to not schedule your time around poker but to, instead, schedule your poker time around yourself.

What I mean is that instead of aiming for the highest amount possible of hands played per day, aim for having the highest quality of life without hurting your profits in a substantial way, and this, for a very long period of time.

Simple things like stretching or heck even eating can easily get in the way of certain sessions. Just taking the time to do these two things every day will greatly enhance not only your game’s quality but also your health.

Sometimes in the middle of a long session it’s best to just step away from the computer for a while. Since you plan on playing as a job, it means these breaks will become increasingly important as playing poker for a living can be quite destructive for your health physically and mentally, that is, if you don’t put your quality of life first.

I probably speak for myself and many others when I say we poker players tend to forget about those kind of things.

gl

Some guys, like myself, probably thought that their wedding day would not change much in their relationship and that “it’s just one day”. Maybe for some people that is true, but for me it had a very special meaning, not only for our relationship but also because I was officially accepted into her family. Chinese families can sometimes be difficult to “infiltrate” because they tend to be cautious people. I never really felt like they accepted me completely, but after the wedding it changed entirely. I guess I proved to them that I could take care of her. I got the eldest’ blessing and that meant the world to me.

He told me to take good care of his favorite niece.

The wedding, coincidentally, came as I open a new chapter in my life. I am 31 now and for the first time in my life I feel like a Man. I married the right person, I am healthy and I got great families and the best dogs in the world. I have a reasonable amount of money in the bank and I am generally a smart and successful person in every career I have chosen.

What happens when one becomes content in life? Is it ever wrong to just settle for that? What if it truly makes you happy? What’s next? Surely there must be some other “level” to complete right? Sometimes it feels like money can be the only goal we strive for. More money equals more and better things! Sadly, this kind of thinking is being bombarded to us every way possible, every single day. It’s hard not to get seduced and I am no different than most people there.

But, I have come to a point in my life where my drive to make money has been overtaken by an unrelenting desire to constantly search for the holy grail: peace of mind. It was always easy to aim for dollar figures because those goals were concrete and real. I can say I want to make a million dollars and I could just formulate a plan to get there. But there is no plan for finding one’s true calling and achieving “Nirvana”.

In the end, it’s very possible that true happiness and contentment are not reachable in a concrete and permanent sense, but rather that they present themselves piece by piece in different aspects of our life and that it’s up to us to appreciate them for what they truly are. I have become better at this but I cannot help but feel abit lost when it comes to my future. What do I do after poker? There’s so many options but I have yet to find one that would truly make me happy… aside from very artistic jobs that would likely come with a very low pay check. For example: I have a secret desire to become a film maker, but most of them are broke.

On one hand I need to provide for my family and my future kids through hard work and financial rewards.. but on the other I seek peace of mind and spiritual restfulness more than anything else. I would love to dedicate a part of my life to just Being in the purest sense of the word, but too often the other part of me wins over it and I start stressing about things. And when I do, I miss so many of the beautiful things around me.

I guess this is what they call a “midlife crisis” in the movies. I don’t buy it. I think everyone out there is struggling with some parts of their lives, who they are, what they’re doing, etc… No one has solved life yet, but it doesn’t stop all of us to keep trying anyway. For me it’s trying to find a balance between responsibilities that are increasingly present and having the mindfulness to deal with it well.

In the end, if I had to, in a short paragraph, state what I have learned over the last 31 years about the purpose of life to one of my kids, I would say this:

Always be good to yourself, and to others. Share all the love you have to everyone and everything around you. Be generous and kind. In the end, it’s the only real currency of the world. Appreciate every moment you have, good or bad, because it might just be the last thing you do.

Whenever I start to worry about my future or worry about money or if what I am doing is “the right path”, I just remind myself that if I am a good person in this life I’ll have been successful… the rest is just getting in the way. It might sound like really idealistic thinking but in the end is there anything else we can truly control? Does anything else really even matter?

These sort of thoughts are part of my daily mental grind. It might not make sense to read all this but that is because it can be all confusing and muddled.

Legislation is the best method to combat botting
It’s becoming pretty clear to me that in regards to the creation of an unbeatable and undetectable bot, it’s not a matter of how anymore, but when it happens. Bots will become perfect poker players and it is impossible to enforce an efficient policy against them. Right now, our only solution for a healthy game is having legislation in place to protect us. We need penalties handed down by the governments to be extremely harsh, on par with bank fraud and money laundering. Players have to be afraid of becoming caught. The consequences need to make someone really think 6 times before cheating.

You and me could probably make millions selling cocaine but we don’t do it because 20 years in a prison doesn’t exactly appeal to us. With harsh penalties and prison time, it will cut down the amount of botters drastically, based on the fear alone.

Regulatory Body and Security
Additionally, strict security measures should be created, managed and enforced by one regulatory body and one security department overseeing every poker site nationally. This would help make policy enforcement and technology development more effective. It would also be one designated place for all users to address their concerns to. Right now if you get screwed by a poker site, who do you go to? The police?… lol. Nah, you go to NVG.

Legislation and Governments
We need legislation for online poker to survive in the long run. I think a lot of us are currently in denial that online poker is seriously sick right now. Not tomorrow or in 5 years. Some of us just want to keep the dream going for a while more. We’re still making money. Less than before but it’s still better than a “real job”. Yes, it’s probably going to be OK in the next year or two, but beyond that, who knows? I think a year ago our answers would have been very different from today.. Personally, I am rather split on where I stand regarding poker’s future online, but I am hoping for something to validate dedicating myself to this game in the long-run.

Having our governments regulate poker will probably suck in many ways but it will be a sacrifice worth doing for all of us. I am personally pretty tired of putting so much of my networth on the line with people from god knows where who are doing god knows what with MY money. I’m also tired of seeing so many scumbags get away with stealing MY money. I know you are too.

Trade-off of Legislation
We’ll have to give up some of the benefits we have had from playing online poker for a living. Like a monitored tax rate, a much smaller player pool, no more HUDs and a high rake. But, if nothing is done, in the near future it won’t be so much about grinding our dollars online, our focus is going to be about protecting the integrity and viability of our game. There is no integrity in the game if it’s possible at any time that who you’re playing might be an unbeatable bot that no one can stop if he gets by the cracks. And, as usually computer-savvy people, we all know people who want to cheat something online always end up getting past them.

*The Pickle
In general, I feel like we’re reasonable people. I think we can accept some part of the pie to go to the cheaters who risk 10 years in prison to make money. They’re idiots and if they get caught that’s good, right? I’m not one of them so I don’t care what happens!…

….And this is the pickle in the jar. How many citizens will go in jail for nothing because they were accused of running illegal software? How do determine accurately who is guilty? or innocent? How do you prove it? Can it be 100% accurate? Probably never. How do you determine what punishment someone guilty receives? How much botting is too much botting? What if your patterns of play are supremely efficient and very advanced? Are you a bot? Is he a bot?

This is a social rights issue and I can guarantee that with harsh penalties handed to players deemed guilty, the social rights groups will have a field day with this. As they should, too often people will give up their neighbor’s freedom in exchange for their own. There will be innocent people going to jail because of the inconclusive nature of determining cheating online. Especially when you can bypass human detection systems so easily and everyone will report everyone else as bots.

Reasonable doubt
This reasonable doubt over justice handed down could be a big problem to any future legislation. Our dear politicians might just decide that there’s no way to police the games properly enough to ensure consumer protection and that would be sayionara to online poker. GG. This issue of bots will be a huge factor in deciding the faith of online poker. The balance between punishing and injustice needs to become a big part of the conversation if the US goes forward on tough poker legislation. We need to protect the industry by having harsh penalties for cheating, yes, but not to the point where innocent people get thrown in jail for years. We can never justify injustice done to others, for the sake of a game, a career or paying our bills.

Self-policy would NOT work
I heard one of the panel members on the Commission say that sites should employ a self-policy approach where people can blow the whistle on players suspected of botting. This would not only never work due to technical reasons but also because you would have people report bots left and right.. whoever they have lost to. It would be a mess and should never be any part of a comprehensive anti-bot policy.

1-2-3 Strike System: Still Harsh but More Fair
To smooth out the issues of injustice I suggest having a one strike system. If you get caught using a bot the first time, you receive a notice and your software becomes locked until you have spoken to a security expert who has been trained in investigative techniques. This expert will ask you some questions and then see if it was a technical issue on the computer or something else that triggered the bot detection. IF someone gets caught twice they go to court to answer to the charges. It could be a 3 strike system as well if people want a softer stance. In this case would you REALLY want to test your bot out at all anywhere? If the site uses randomized daily checkups, server-side, on their software to detect bots, how could you ever make your bot adapt? You would be unable to bypass the security because you wouldn’t know what it is going to be that on that day. It’s encrypted at the highest level possible. So now you don’t just need to be a botter, you need to be a hacker as well.

I use to be opposed to legislation because I didn’t want my government to come ruin the party. But now I think we need the goverments to step in and give us some reasonable but effective protection, otherwise we’ll be the ones closing the light on the way out.

Bots have become increasingly proficient at the games and with this more potential money is to be earned which in turn increases the efforts of bot makers.

Here’s what we do know:

1. Bots have been crushing the MSNL games on iPoker and Ongame for months now. Here’s the thread about some of them with a graph showing a group of those bots are up 500k+ this year alone over 1.5M hands. http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/56/medium-stakes-pl-nl/alarming-news-about-botting-ongame-1112918/
They never tilt, rarely go on downswings and can play 24/7 if they want. The networks don’t care about them since they generate rake. These bots take money away from fish and regulars alike, and there are dozens of them playing hundreds of tables across multiple networks. I don’t know how much Pokerstars is affected at this point, as they seem to care more about bots than anyone else.

2. These bots are being programmed by teams of programmers who are organized and determined. There’s so much money at stake here that it would be foolish to not think otherwise. Just take a look at this forum dedicated to poker botting: http://pokerai.org/pj2/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1

3. In NL there exists a Nash Equilibrium. In simple terms it means that there is a perfect strategy that can be utilized by a player to be completely unexploitable by any player at any time. This is something that would take a human years and years of studying and practice. For a bot all it takes is super smart people who happen to be really good at poker and mathematics as well. It can be done and my bet is that they are getting close enough that most MSNL regs will not be able to beat these bots. They keep getting better and adjusting to the other players in more and more efficient ways.

4. Here’s the online poker killer and what I have been losing sleep over this week: THESE BOTS CAN BE UNDETECTABLE AND WILL PASS ANY SINGLE SECURITY TEST GIVEN BY POKER SITES. Why? There are many ways to go around any site security out there. It’s simple, they can play these bots themselves on their own computer on one account and just print money forever. Alternatively, they can hire people to carry out the bots’ decisions on their own account, in their own home, in exchange for an hourly. They will pass every security test because to the poker sites these people will appear completely legit since they are real people with a real bank account, ID, address, etc…. But in reality the real player is the bot’s web interface that they query for each decision they face.

For a long time now I knew bots existed but I never thought they would become so good so fast. It is going to kill online poker and I honestly have no doubts that it will. There is no way around it given the nature of computers and how botters can get around security so easily.

It’s only a question of time before the games are saturated with near-perfect players who never tilt, are rarely exploitable and can play 24/7 if they choose to. Heck, they might even be saturated with them already. It wouldn’t shock me if a good % of the winning players on all networks are bots. People are selling these bots to others and every day are sharing info between themselves on how to make them better…

Some people are emailing poker sites to ask them to do something about these bots.. I think it might thwart some of the lesser botters out there, but there are some excellent ones out there, no doubt. They’re sucking out all the money out of the poker economy and there’s nothing we can do in the end.

Please someone tell me that there’s a way around all this.

So I guess I’ll start this update by talking about poker. Post-Black Friday things changed a lot. For HU games it has definitely been more vacant than usual. I think it’s part laziness but my volume dropped considerably in the last 2 months. I cannot get myself to grind 6-max and I won’t touch PLO or tourneys.. so I am not sure what else to do. I just hope the American Government gets his act together quickly and we’re able to all play again… wishful thinking.

Ironically, I don’t think I have ever played better than I have in the last 2 months. My leaks still remain emotional moreso than technical, but that’s always going to be a work in progress for the foreseeable future. I started to quit regs when they get a good start and I don’t. Ivey style. I figure if I am going to play someone who is good, it should be on my terms. It probably plays against me in the long run because I then negate the edge I may or may not have on someone.. so on average I think it costs me some immediate potential returns, but it also gives me emotional and session +EV because I never let myself get too upset about my results. Ideally I could balance both this and also putting in more volume. Eventually I will. Also I think some people might perceive it as being lame or just “scared” but that is not the case, this is because I know myself and how I react to certain things regarding my confidence.

Obviously my income this year will be much less than last year’s. On top of breaking even for 108k hands this black friday really narrowed my chances of topping what I made last year. In the end it is fine, but I can’t help but feel disappointed in the sense that I always wanted to “progress” and reach “higher numbers”. I totally expected to make more each year, but that obviously doesn’t make much sense in the real world. Over time I did realize that this year has been amazing in terms of growing as a person, being more happy in life in general, etc.. so in the end even if I make less, I will have made more.

I am totally rambling here.. I am tired and it’s warm. Here’s some random thoughts to finish this up. I don’t have the mental capacity to construct phrases right now.

- re: Haseeb/Girah/JM drama: Haseeb is an egomaniac and thinks he’s the king of the world, Girah seems like a nice guy but that’s what makes him such a good con artist, Jungleman seriously needs to hire me as his life coach.

- It’s going to be fun how everyone is going to be paranoid after all of this came to light.. I got coaching requests this week and I was paranoid about some of them (Portugal student? What? run!)

- I did something bad to someone about 12 yrs ago, like I willfully did something wrong to them and never believed for years that I ever did that. Basically the only bad thing I have ever done to someone. So I emailed him this week to finally do right to him because I couldn’t just live with it. Basically I took $1k that should have belonged to him but didn’t know any better when I was 18. I told him I would send him a check and I apologized. He replied that he had already gotten that money back then and that I never even ripped him off. Total relief and the realization that my record is still 100% clean in terms of doing wrong to someone like that. Still, the intention was there and it is still a mistake I regret now.

It’s funny how you can change in 12 yrs and how the person you use to be seems so different that you wonder how it got to the point you are in now. That’s growth… you have to extend your roots all over the place before you become a big strong oak tree. (Haseeb would be proud of this glorious metaphor!)

- Never buy a black car.

- During our trip we couldn’t stop talking about how we miss our dogs.. This is what I missed, them waiting for us to get up every single morning with such excitement:

There’s been a lot of rumblings about RB accounts, FTP staff playing during work hours, etc.. and FTP’s support has always been KNOWN to be terrible. Yet, nothing was done and nothing ever said in public by any of their representants. I don’t know, to me if I was going to put my name on something I would make sure that everything is worth associating myself to.

- It seems like everything FTP did was in their own self-interest (and by their I mean mostly the owner). Remains to be seen if he’ll run off with some money or if he’ll try to sell it to whoever and cut himself loose. It’s just sad that, once again, money rules people’s minds and will push some to royally screw others just to make some money. It’s so sad that it happens so often and disapointing that so many people only care about money and never think about others.

- There’s probably a lot of shady things FTP did that we still don’t know about.. and when the info does come out I bet a lot of the site’s faces will look really bad. According to what I read on 2p2, it’s very possible Patrik Antonius was managing/selling a bunch of 100% rb accounts along with some FTP staff. Benyamine playing on 1M+ credit… What else were they doing? Cue the denying game…

- IMO FTP’s image just took a huge hit, and whoever was interested in buying them probably just lowered their bid offer. The only positive conclusion for us players is that FTP changes ownership + pays out ALL players ASAP. Anything else spells doom for them..

- You’ve got to be a greedy fuck and also an imbecile to screw up a MONEY PRINTING business like this.