Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- Why Saudi Arabia would want to invest in Elon Musk and Tesla

- The official announcement of the PawSox coming to Worcester. And what the new ballpark will look like.

- Trump Administration could be nearing a new NAFTA deal with Mexico

- Mysterious X-37B military space plane nears one-year in orbit. Do we already have a Space Force?

- Interesting interview with Tao of Poker founder Pauly McGuire. (Long read)

- So Colin Kaepernick turned down a chance to play for the Broncos. Anyone who feels sorry for Kaepernick is a sap.

- Things that make you say WTF!?!?

Tao of Poker

Pauly at Tao of Poker seems to be saying goodbye.

I admit to living vicariously via Pauly and I'd be sad if he's all done with this poker reports from points far and wide. But my sadness would be selfish and I know the feeling he has. Is this scribbling here worth the time and effort? Shouldn't I be using this time more productively? Shouldn't we all be using out time in more worthwhile pursuits?

If it is the end of The Tao of Pauly - thanks for the laughs, insights and all-around good times. May the road rise to meet you Pauly and may the wind always be at your back no matter where that road takes you.

Cheers

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting and thought I'd share.

- Awesome people hanging out together - these pictures were really cool

- Guy finds out at age 42 that his dad is Ted Nugent

- Improv Everywhere: The Mute Button - this was just awesome. What a great idea.

- The Stories Behind 10 Interesting Numbers in American Culture

- The WSOP has started in Las Vegas and a very interesting story is developing regarding Phil Ivey who is boycotting the WSOP and suing Full Tilt Poker. As always the best place for WSOP news is the Tao of Poker: WSOP Day 1: Welcome to the Jungle & Phil Ivey's Titanium Balls

Las Vegas



This book is at the top of my summer reading list.

Friday Morning Links

Some interesting reading on a Friday morning.

- Michaela Murphy and THE Kennedy's (PDF) - very amusing story

- The Philosophy of Knish - giving Joey Knish from Rounders his just due

- How the NFL mismatches have been killing the sportsbooks - though I fully expect people to turn around and give that money right back to Vegas or Joey Bag-o-donuts.

- Interesting look at the strange happenings in the Northwest where seven human feet in sneakers have been found washed up on shore in the past 2 years

The Poker Hall of Fame

Pauly has a vote on this year's Poker Hall of Fame ballot. Check it out and offer him your opinion.

I would vote for Phil Ivey and Barry Greenstein with the third vote going to Dan Harrington, Mike Sexton or Eric Seidel. Daniel Negreanu will be a Hall of Famer but he's not as good a player as Ivey and he hasn't had the length of contribution to the game as the others listed above.

WSOP Main Event

Just a reminder that today is the start of the World Series of Poker Main Event.

As always - the best place to follow the WSOP is over at Dr. Pauly's place the Tao of Poker.

I'm not misogynistic but the only prop bet I have on the WSOP Main Event is that no woman will make the final 25 (-$185). Just a numbers thing. I'm pretty sure the guys out number the gals by at least a 25-1 ratio.

Excellent Poker Story

You have Phil Ivey, a Las Vegas dancer making $50,000 the hard way, beer pong and a guy named Doug getting dumped by his girlfriend for being a jerk. How can you resist a story with all those plot elements?

Good stuff.

Otis on Poker

Brad 'Otis' Willis fills in at the Tao of Poker with a memorable introductory piece. One line really struck home with me;

Freud told us that no one can keep a secret, that, even if they can keep their mouth shut, "betrayal oozes out of... every pore."

Whether you are playing poker, are in sales or a cop on a beat - people do try to tell their secrets even when they are keeping their mouths shut. All you have to do is learn how to read the signals.

I also got a kick out of the fact that the piece was posted at 4:20 am.

Eric Drache

Eric Drache finished 2nd in the 2009 $10,000 World Championship Seven Card Stud event in the WSOP. I had never heard of Eric Drache until I read this fine piece by Benjo over at the Tao of Poker. I was intrigued by a guy like Drache who literally invented tournament satellites, who helped produce the greatest TV poker show ever (High Stakes Poker) and who had once been responsible for running the WSOP itself.

Benjo told a story of a nice guy who had lots of old timer Vegas guys rooting him on to what was hopefully to be Drache's first WSOP bracelet. The old timers told stories about Drache like the following:

"And he was taking care of the people working for him, too," continued Thor. "One Christmas, he was short of money to pay the dealers their bonuses. He knew those people were like any other people and had been gambling, or doing whatever else they were doing. They were short of money, and he didn't want to leave them broke for Christmas. So what did he do ? He went on the street, and borrowed several dozens of thousands of loan-shark money to give to them. He had to pay juice for months after that, but it didn't matter. Cause he made his people happy for Christmas."

The story begs the question of why he was short of money in the first place. I was curious - so I looked around the Internets for more information on Eric Drache. Wikipedia had this nugget on his page:

In the middle nineties he was prosecuted on federal tax fraud charges and lost his Nevada gaming license as a result, which is required to work in casinos.

Take everything you read on the Internets with a grain of salt (especially Wikipedia) but I found this nugget via a Google search and the picture of Eric Drache seemed to come clearer:

Eric Drache was put in charge of the WSOP. What a joke this was. Poker was now controlled by cheats. It was always controlled before, but it was not this well organized. Eric Drache was a compulsive sports better and soon was losing more at sports than he could steal or cheat. On the occasion that he was let go from the WSOP after running it for years, he had sold many seats for a discount for a quick monetary fix. He must of sold twenty to thirty WSOP $10,000 seats for $8,000 cash before the event. After losing the money he was in a bad situation. Jack Binion covered the loss and nothing was told to the public. However, Eric Drache was no longer running the WSOP. This is the reason that Eric Drache was no longer in charge of the WSOP.

The picture now seemed more fleshed out and understandable. Pure speculation on my part but it seems like a nice guy with intelligence who had skills in poker but who fell prey to a lack of skill in picking winners in sports betting. Using money from the dealers Christmas bonuses or from discounted entries for the WSOP Main Event to be replaced when the Raiders or Lakers or the Yankees or whoever covered the spread. Of course in the gambler's mind it is always "when" and not "if" and when the "whens" fail to pass you end up borrowing money from loan sharks or getting fired from your gig running the WSOP for skimming from the entry money.

The fall and redemption of a guy like that would seem to make a great Hollywood story line. Of course to make it a true Hollywood tale - the guy who invented the tournament satellite would have to win a satellite to get into the 2009 WSOP and he of course would not finish 2nd. In the movie version - he'd have to win it. I'd go to see a movie like that.

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

From Coco Crisp's Twitter account I learned that he likes to play World of Warcraft and that he has a pet Chihuahua. I'll never be able to look at Coco Crisp the same... The World Series of Poker is off and running. Just a reminder but the best place (in terms of writing, humor and updates) to follow the WSOP is at The Tao of Poker... Speaking of poker - when I first read this story I was disgusted. After a minute I was amused thinking about the irony of socialism on a small scale running smack dab into police state tactics (or in this case State Police tactics). A charity poker game run by a cooperative with proceeds from the event to feed the poor raided by the state police because the Sisters didn't have the proper papers - yup. Look out South Berwick Strawberry Festival Committee - you're next!... All week I've been meaning to write a review of Bottom of the Ninth: Branch Rickey, Casey Stengel, and the Daring Scheme to Save Baseball from Itself. I read the book over two days and could not put it down. Excellent history and insight into a period of baseball history which has largely gone overlooked. I recommend the book heartily...

WSOP - And We Have a Winner!

I won't spoil it for you if you are waiting to watch the final table action on ESPN but Pauly has the results and the play-by-play over at Tao of Poker.

As always - good stuff from Pauly.

WSOP - Then There Were Two

The final table is down to heads-up action.

It took 169 hands, but the heads up match is set. Play is over for the night and will resume tomorrow. The final two are Peter Eastgate and Ivan the Russian.

The Final Two:
Peter Eastgate (Denmark) - 79.5M
Ivan Demidov (Russia) - 57.725M

1st Place - $9,152,416
2nd Place - $5,809,595

As always - the Tao of Poker with Dr. Pauly is the only place to follow the action.

WSOP Main Event

Pauly at the Tao of Poker has a recap of the first day of the Main Event at the WSOP.

The Tao of Poker is THE place to keep track of the WSOP. Bar none.

WSOP HORSE Day 1

Pauly has some great perspective about Day 1 of the WSOP HORSE event.

Unless Norman Chad is bringing his A game - there is no better poker writer on the planet than Pauly. He's the only place for me for WSOP news and updates.

Stool Pigeon's and Clit Panda's

Paul is out reporting on the WSOP. He's too cool to use the word pigeon and the word "fish" is worn out. He has some suggestions for some new names for dead-money suckers.

His rant made me think of "stool pigeons". I once cared enough to post about the history of that term.

Maybe future generations will wonder about the origin of the term Clit Panda? I hope they give Pauly the credit.

Archie Karas

Pauly spins a great yarn about Archie Karas and how he turned $50 into $50 million before blowing it all.

The post is Exhibit A on why Pauly is the best poker writer going.

Phil Ivey Bets Big on the Lakers

I'm hoping Phil Ivey loses lots of money on the NBA Championship. From the Tao of Poker:

A trustworthy source confirmed that Phil Ivey bet $2 million that the Lakers would win the NBA championship. That was before the final began. He's in the hole 1-0 after the Celtics took game #1. He's gonna be sweating the game big time on Sunday. FYI, I bet the Lakers in game 2. If Ivey is betting them, so am I!

I guess I'm rooting for Pauly to take a hit too. Nothing personal. I'm just a Celtics fan.

Online Poker Cheating

If you player online poker at UltimateBet or Absolute Poker - I'd suggest you stop and cash out your account. Read this post and you'll understand why.

I believe that it is important for online poker players to know about the unethical business practices of UltimateBet and Absolute Poker. It is also imperative to understand that these unscrupulous activities are not an indictment on the entire online poker industry. As you read this thread please keep in mind that UltimateBet and Absolute Poker are owned by the same company. They are also regulated by the same puppet regulatory commission. Most poker sites are run with the utmost integrity and security. UltimateBet and Absolute Poker are the exception and not the rule.

I urge the concerned reader to pass word of this summary on to other interested parties. The spread of this information will ultimately protect poker players from unknowingly exposing themselves to the corruption detailed below.

I've stopped playing online (mostly because I don't have the time) and stuff like this make it less likely that I'll be going back for a while.

HT Tao of Pauly

WSOP Day 1A

Pauly has a post up about day 1A at the World Series of Poker. As always a very interesting read. I probably could have done without the image planted in my mind of Wayne Gretzky getting a blowjob (I know I'll end up having a dream where the Great One is making the "O" face and then suddenly breaks out singing O' Canada). If this doesn't make sense to you - I should mention that Janet Jones Gretzky busted out of the tournament in day 1A.

Pauly mentioning that Doyle Brunson and Johnny Chan busted out in Day 1A reminded me of a prop bet they had over at Bodog. Basically it was a "last longest" bet among the former Main Event Champions. I thought Brunson and Chan were bad bets (I forget their odds) because people would be gunning for the right to say they busted out these famous poker players. Besides Brunson and Chan probably would prefer to make money on side cash games than sit through the circus that the Main Event has become. Chris Moneymaker, Jamie Gold and Robert Varkoni are sucker bets. Lightning won't strike twice for those guys. Greg Raymer and Joe Hachem are good bets but my money would have been on Juan Carlos Mortensen (I think he went off at 3-1).

Hey - speaking of Doyle Brunson - what ever happened to those stock manipulation charges in regard to his supposed take-over of the World Poker Tour?

Pauly mentioned Bobby "the Owl" Baldwin in his post. This was a name I was not familiar with but am now fascinated with. I just ordered his book Tales Out of Tulsa but I am more interested in reading his biography (maybe Pauly or Michael Lewis could write it). Those are the types of books I love to read.