This is a great overview of the rise, rise and fall of Internet poker in the U.S. Which will rise again. There is a saying in poker that there are no “games” of poker. There is only one long game of poker played out in many sessions at many tables, in many different venues, in many versions (stud, hold’em, etc.), with many different opponents. But from the player’s perspective, it’s really just one long game with wild swings (statistical variances). As someone also said, poker is like a sport where while you’re playing your heart out on the field (the skill element), people are shooting at you from the stands (the luck element). But whether you survive long term really depends more on your skill (oh yeah, and bankroll management) than anything else. This movie is about people who understand that. Internet poker in the United States is currently in its zombie or “living dead” phase. It will rise again sometime after the fall 2014 elections when deals can be safely done again on Capital Hill. As you will be able to understand from this film, it’s coming back and it’s coming back big because the money is so big. Gargantuan. A Canadian company just bought PokerStars and FullTilt poker (seen in the movie) for $4-5 billion! in anticipation of Internet poker’s legalization in the U.S. Sheldon Adelson can buy all the GOP pols he wants (Adelson is the bete noir of Internet gambling - his poodle Lindsay Graham just introduced a bill in the Senate to outlaw it; the bill has disappeared into committee and is going nowhere). But the money opportunity here is bigger, immensely bigger, than Sheldon’s casino bricks-and-mortar money - 3rd richest guy in the U.S. Or not. One last word. What does this all mean in the end, if anything? It’s simply another aspect of the American Empire’s descent from a functioning republic into a FIRE economy (Finance, Investment, Real Estate) that no longer produces anything except legal documents. These poker players reflect American reality today. Not unlike that of Rome around, say, 300-400 A.D. How did that work out? Great movie.
Posted on: Tue, 24 Jun 2014 00:59:40 +0000
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