Saturday, April 16, 2011

Day 41

Day off from writing.  I spent the morning doing errands; the afternoon I have to tutor.  Act I issues persist but no one wants to hear about that.  The deadline is reset for May 15th, which I feel okay about.

The Justice Department yesterday shut down the three major American online poker sites.  It's unclear how long the shutdown will last.  It may be permanent.  Online poker has been in a legal gray area for a while now, but since there's been no real effort to stop it by the DOJ, a lot of young guys (anda  few women) have developed an entire lifestyle based around playing online.  They 'grind' for a certain number of hours a week, playing (some of them) 30 or 40 tables at a time.  The best at it can earn hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.  If online poker is permanently banned, their way of making a living is over.  Yes, they can play in live casinos, but I doubt many of them will.  It's an interesting story to follow.  As someone with one foot still in that world, I'll keep up with it as it plays out.

I won't make NBA picks because I'm going to end up having the Laker and the Bulls in the Finals, and everyone already thinks that's going to happen anyway.  (Well, actually, no.  In Vegas the Heat seem to be the favorite to win the East.  But I think that's a betting thing--reflecting the ignorance of the masses, as it were.)  Philadelphia was up 15 on the Heat when I just flipped on the game.  Imagine if they get upset in the first series.  What sweet sweet justice.

1 comment:

Dezmond said...

I thought about you when I saw that story. You should open an underground room in your house.