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Poker's faces: Are the British about to invade?

Posted: Fri Nov 04, 2011 11:52 am
by John Upham
See http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-15272675

Can chess learn anything from this? I'm sure the answer is "Yes" but are we too conservative to do so?

Re: Poker's faces: Are the British about to invade?

Posted: Fri Nov 04, 2011 12:00 pm
by David Sedgwick
I once bought a percentage of Stewart Reuben on his then annual trip to Las Vegas.

Stewart had made a profit in each of the preceding five or six years. That year he lost (quite coincidentally, of course) and I duly paid up.

I'm too conservative to repeat the experience.

Re: Poker's faces: Are the British about to invade?

Posted: Fri Nov 04, 2011 12:09 pm
by Gordon Cadden
Stewart Reuben was a pioneer in this field. His poker and chess memoirs, can be found in "Poker 24/7", published by D & B publishing.
Essential reading !

Re: Poker's faces: Are the British about to invade?

Posted: Fri Nov 04, 2011 12:37 pm
by Ian Kingston
Gordon Cadden wrote:Stewart Reuben was a pioneer in this field. His poker and chess memoirs, can be found in "Poker 24/7", published by D & B publishing.
Essential reading !
Probably not on the Chief Anteater's reading list.

Re: Poker's faces: Are the British about to invade?

Posted: Fri Nov 04, 2011 12:47 pm
by John Upham
David Sedgwick wrote:I once bought a percentage of Stewart Reuben
Now, how can I use this partial quotation most inappropriately?

Possibly by combining it with the attached image:

Re: Poker's faces: Are the British about to invade?

Posted: Fri Nov 04, 2011 1:43 pm
by Roger de Coverly
John Upham wrote:See http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-15272675

Can chess learn anything from this? I'm sure the answer is "Yes" but are we too conservative to do so?
Surely that's where British chess was thirty to thirty five years ago. A boom of young players becoming world standard professionals either instead of, or following university. Go back forty five years and professional players, even people earning their living from activities associated with chess are few and far between.
..... is what's known as a grinder - someone who doesn't win giant pots at glamorous events,
This reminded me of a chess player or two. :)

Re: Poker's faces: Are the British about to invade?

Posted: Fri Nov 04, 2011 9:49 pm
by Gareth Harley-Yeo
Not that I'll be any great loss to chess but I too have decided to make the switch to poker as a main hobby. :)

Re: Poker's faces: Are the British about to invade?

Posted: Sat Nov 05, 2011 10:15 am
by Neill Cooper
I arrange sixth form maths lectures at Wilson's for local schools.
The most popular ever (about 150 attended) was in April this year when Emma McCoy (from Maths Department, Imperial College) spoke on "Maths in Gambling".

Re: Poker's faces: Are the British about to invade?

Posted: Sun Nov 06, 2011 5:43 pm
by Stewart Reuben
Gareth >Not that I'll be any great loss to chess but I too have decided to make the switch to poker as a main hobby.<

You should buy all my books. But please don't read them. Just follow the First Commandment and you won't go far wrong.

I am pleased to read about Neil's initiative. I have thought of offering to conduct a class about gambling to older school pupils. I've not done anything about it because I assumed schools wanted to keep quiet about gambling. Then, they hope, people won't indulge. A bit like not teaching sex education when I was a teenager.

Re: Poker's faces: Are the British about to invade?

Posted: Sun Nov 06, 2011 6:19 pm
by John Upham
Stewart Reuben wrote:A bit like not teaching s*x education when I was a teenager.
Were the consequences of this decision to be regretted?

Re: Poker's faces: Are the British about to invade?

Posted: Sun Nov 06, 2011 7:15 pm
by Neill Cooper
Stewart Reuben wrote:I am pleased to read about Neil's initiative. I have thought of offering to conduct a class about gambling to older school pupils. I've not done anything about it because I assumed schools wanted to keep quiet about gambling. Then, they hope, people won't indulge. A bit like not teaching s*x education when I was a teenager.
2 years ago she gave a similar talk under the title of 'Praise Bayes', which pupils attended because it was about probability. This year all the other talks were 'Maths in ...' so it seemed sensible to call this one 'Maths in Gambling'.

Re: Poker's faces: Are the British about to invade?

Posted: Sun Nov 06, 2011 7:59 pm
by Mark Howitt
If anyone wants to 'poker network' I'll be happy too- as long as you're not a pedant. Poker is obviously more appealing than chess to young people these days- I've been playing nearly 3 years now and like it :).

Re: Poker's faces: Are the British about to invade?

Posted: Mon Nov 07, 2011 3:00 am
by Phil Makepeace
It's fairly ludicrous that Rupert Elder isn't mentioned in that article.

Re: Poker's faces: Are the British about to invade?

Posted: Mon Nov 07, 2011 2:26 pm
by Louise Sinclair
Poker is great. I still play an occasional game of bitz chess but prefer poker. I haven't done badly from it. As for young people and gambling my brother was 13 when he backed Ben Nevis in the Grand National and he rarely gambles these days.
Louise

Re: Poker's faces: Are the British about to invade?

Posted: Mon Nov 07, 2011 5:23 pm
by John Upham
Phil Makepeace wrote:It's fairly ludicrous that Rupert Elder isn't mentioned in that article.

Phil, Did he really win $54,851 for coming 132nd in a tournament? That is some prize fund!