Barack Obama is “winning support for his presidential bid from America’s poker players” according to last weekend’s Sunday Telegraph. This pillar of the newspaper establishment reports that “Las Vegas pros” are “putting their chips on Mr Obama, who is himself a skilled player of Texas Hold ‘Em and seven-card stud.”
Read more…
Given what’s at stake (see below), the influence of showbiz was, rather predictably, never far away as this year’s WSOP* main event finally got under way last week.
Perhaps the grandest (or should that be conceited? Ed) entrance was made by Phil Hellmuth who arrived after three hours of play dressed as an army general with 11 stars on his helmet, equal to the record number of gold bracelets he has won at the WSOP*. He was flanked by 11 girls who marched in with him to ESPN’s “feature table”, naturally catching the cameras’ attention. Pretentious? Moi?
Read more…
Poker tournaments, especially the WSOP*, are one of the few games where an associated event can start on 3rd July, yet by 14th July, we will have only reached day seven.
Of course, the reason for this apparent miscount is due to the field size: there are four day ones and two day twos, a calendar-confusing arrangement designed to accommodate all contestants. And how those contestant numbers have grown this year – up by more than 7.6% to 6,844, compared with last year’s 6,358.
Read more…
They have most other things at the WSOP*, so why not a “Player of the Year”?
Well, of course they have this too. This year’s winner was 27-year-old Erick Lindgren who beat Justin Bonomo to win the $5,000 no-limit hold ‘em event on 2nd June and who finished third in the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. event.
Read more…
There’s enough evidence to suggest that more than one author believes there is a direct link between winning at the poker table and achieving success in business.
For example, Greg Dinkin and Jeff Gitomer’s The Poker MBA is compulsory reading at several UK Business Schools, while Aaron Brown’s acclaimed The Poker Face of Wall Street is known to occupy the library shelves of at least two FTSE 100 chief executives. Meanwhile, John McDonald’s 1950 classic, Strategy in Poker, Business & War, is a must-read for those who appreciate an unequivocal connection constantly referred to in David Apostolico’s latest book, Poker Strategies for a Winning Edge in Business.
Read more…
When he set off for Vegas last week with the promise of trying to achieve the first part of his unique double - a WSOP* bracelet (to go with his as-yet missing Oscar), he was given hearty cheers by all of us here at Littlewoods Towers, but we didn’t expect Michael Greco to score quite so quickly.
Read more…
A report by accountants PriceWaterhouseCoopers LLP released on Tuesday revealed that when measured in monetary terms, poker‘s popularity, together with the rest of the gaming industry, continues to grow - and then some. The report estimated that by 2012, the world’s gaming revenue will exceed $155 billion.
Read more…
This year’s split WSOP* (the final table actually takes place in November) has prompted some bright sparks to suggest the re-introduction of a long-discarded protocol last used in 1970 whereby the final table players vote to decide who they believe should be world champion.
This might sound far-fetched, but the first WSOP*, held at Binion’s Horseshoe casino, was won by Johnny Moss (who also won the following year, collecting $30,000).
Read more…
It didn’t take business owner Deepak Thadani long to discover that successful poker players have much in common with successful business people: “It’s not the hands that you’re dealt,” he says, “it’s the way you play them that separates the regulars from the pros. Just like in business.”
Read more…
Pat Dittmar might not be a household name, but as a journeyman poker pro, he’s seen most things over the twenty years he’s been involved with the game. During the same period, it’s evident that he has absorbed everything you need to know about poker’s mathematics.
Read more…
