Poker and gambling

I love Vegas, or should I say, I love certain gambling games.  I’ve never spent more than a few days in Vegas though, and I’ve always heard people talk about Vegas as being depressing if you really took a hard look at it.

PartyPoker’s IPO cashed big (see "Online Gambling Shares Climb 11% in Debut Day – New York Times", June 28th).  How big?  The IPO gave it a market cap of $9 billion US.  That’s US$800mil more than the market cap of Harrah’s, the casino gaming behemoth everyone talks about.

I am, of course, hype-deficient in many ways.  The current outrage over poker robots ought to not bother anyone.  You’re talking about a piece of software that is, by nature, going to fall into set patterns.  You shouldn’t be particularly bothered, and it should improve your game quite a bit.  I suspect you’re more likely…

Link: LOYAL TO THE GAME – Los Angeles CityBeat. LA CityBeat has an article about prop poker players, players paid by the casino to fill empty poker tables to keep slow games going.  Props play with their own money and get a small hourly amount from the casino, never enough to cover their losses. As…

There’s a good article in RS about the history of Dutch Boyd and his crew. For non-poker fans, Dutch Boyd is an infamous player who’s poker site went bust, leaving many players  who had poker money in the site holding un-recoverable debts. You’ll get your dose of schadenfreude (see definition) if, like me, you were…

There’s a piece in Salon ("Earning $58,000 an hour") about the founders of PartyPoker.Com, a former porn actress and a graduate of India’s most prominent technical college, IIT.  Their stakes on the company will be worth about a billion pounds a piece after the IPO, though they aren’t being allowed to cash out all of…

This story, from CNN/Money, covers the planned IPO of online poker juggernaut Partypoker.  (see PartyGaming plans June IPO, employees foresee big win – Jun. 2, 2005) To give you an idea of how much money flows through this place, consider the online monitoring site, PokerPulse.com, which functions as a sort of analyst for online poker…

The World Series of Poker (WSOP) starts today.

Many people don’t realize that the WSOP is pretty much not a single game, but in fact a month long series.  Check the schedule out.

June 2, Thursday 1 Casino Employee No-limit Hold’em $500
June 3, Friday 2 No-limit Hold’em $1,500
June 4, Saturday 3 Pot-limit Hold’em $1,500
June 5, Sunday 4 Limit Hold’em $1,500
June 6, Monday 5 Omaha Hi-low Split $1,500
June 7, Tuesday 6 Short Handed (6/table) No-limit Hold’em $2,500
June 8, Wednesday 7 No-limit Hold’em w/rebuys $1,000
June 9, Thursday 8 Seven Card Stud $1,500
June 10, Friday 9 No-limit Hold’em $2,000
June 11, Saturday 10 Limit Hold’em $2,000
June 12, Sunday 11 Pot-limit Hold’em $2,000
June 13, Monday 12 Pot-limit Omaha w/re-buys $2,000
June 14, Tuesday 13 No-limit Hold’em $5,000
June 15, Wednesday 14 Seven Card Stud Hi-low Split $1,000
June 16, Thursday 15 Limit Hold’em Shootout $1,500
June 17, Friday 16 No-limit Hold’em Shootout $1,500
June 18, Saturday 17 Limit Hold’em $2,500
June 19, Sunday 18 Seven Card Stud Hi-low Split, 2p.m. start $2,000
June 19, Sunday 19 Pot Limit Omaha $1,500
June 20, Mon. 20 Pot-limit Hold’em $5,000
June 21, Tuesday 21 Omaha Hi-low Split $2,500
June 22, Wednesday 22 No-limit Hold’em $1,500
June 23, Thursday 23 Seven Card Stud $5,000
June 24, Friday 24 No-Limit Hold’em $2,500
June 25, Saturday 25 Pot-limit Hold’em $2,500
June 26, Sunday 26 Ladies Event No-limit Hold’em, 2p.m. start, 1 day event $1,000
June 26, Sunday 27 Pot-limit Omaha w/re-buys $5,000
June 27, Monday 28 Limit Hold’em $5,000
June 28, Tuesday 29 No-limit Hold’em $2,000
June 29, Wednesday 30 Seven Card Razz 1 day event, 2p.m. start $1,500
June 29, Wednesday 31 No-limit Hold’em-Short handed 6/table $5,000
June 30, Thursday 32 Omaha hi-low split $5,000
July 1, Friday 33 No-limit Hold’em $3,000
July 2, Saturday 34 Seniors No-Limit Hold’em, 1day event $1,000
July 2, Saturday 35 Pot-limit Omaha, 2p.m. start $10,000
July 3, Sunday 36 Limit Holdem $3,000
July 4, Monday 37 No-limit Hold’em w/re-buys $1,000
July 5, Tuesday 38 Super satellite day (10a.m./3p.m./8p.m.) $1,000
July 5, Tuesday 39 No-limit 2 to 7 Draw Lowball w/re-buys $5,000
July 6, Wednesday 40 Super satellite day (9a.m./2p.m./9p.m.)
July 6, Wednesday 41 Media/Celebrity Charity Event at 6p.m. (one day event and I’m playing in this one!!)

No-limit Texas Hold’em World Championship Event:
July 7, Thursday 42 Day 1A, The first 1,000 – 2,200 play down to 500-650 $10,000
July 8, Friday Day 1B, The second 1,000 – 2,200 play down to 500-650
July 9, Saturday Day 1C, The third 1,000 – 2,200 play down to 500-650
July 10, Sunday Day 2, Start with 1,500-1,950 play down to 500-1,000
July 11, Monday Day 3B, Start with 500-1,000 play down to 200-400
July 11, Monday 43 No-limit Hold’em, 1 day event $1,500
July 12, Tuesday Day 4, Start with 200 – 400 play down to 100-150
July 12, Tuesday 44 No-limit Hold’em, 1 day event $1,000
July 13, Wednesday Day 5, Start with 100-150 play down to 27
July 13, Wednesday 45 No-limit Hold’em, 1 day event $1,000
July 14, Thursday Day 6, Start with 27 play down 9 @ Binions Horseshoe
July 15, Friday Day 7, Final table @ Binions Horseshoe

(I got the schedule from Tao of Poker: A Poker Blog)

As a teenager my most prevalent emotion was disillusionment.  Disillusionment with parents, teachers, political leaders, all of the above.  This creates a sort of cynicism that settles into a deep melancholy that will leave you about the time you leave college and realize you can’t get laid anymore because of your mopery.  (that’s pronounced "mope-er-ee", the state of actively moping.  A phrase the retired NYC fraud cops who worked at Goldman Sachs taught me…)

I bring this up beacuse I’ve just had the sort of experience that would have onset the disillusionment of twenty years ago.  Today, I find it produces nothing but a little empathy for the patheticness of the speaker.

Who is this mystery person who created such a nostalgic emotion in me?  I bring you one of poker’s young guns, Antonio Esfandiari and his secret club and personal lifestyle philosophy, "Rocks and Rings".

Go check out the SI special on poker.  I particularly love the guy who has lost a hundred grand. Where does a college student get a hundred grand?  While this one character is the least sympathetic in the story, it’s because he’s a gambling addict.  Blackjack, horse racing, and poker, he’ll bet it all, and he’s either lying or got some infinite source of funds that in fact he can lose.  Mr. Glass, anyone?