Houma represent - my hometown (well just south of there actually). Guessing this was quite a while back? (I'm pretty young, so a while back may not actually be a while back, lol.)

Good updates Ben. It's looking like I'll be back in the city next weekend (Dec. 11-13). Can't remember exact nights, but I'll get in touch with you and maybe we can catch up in person. Excited to get back to Harrah's Nola for the first time in a few months. Glad to see you putting in some solid volume - good work man.

I predict that this will be Chapter 27, "Tricks at Troxy's," in your inevitable memoir Poker Stories from Saguaroland. Could easily end up being a multivolume work!

Great news, Jay. Looking forward to catching up. I'll be around.

The Education of a Poker Player, by James McManus (BOA Editions Ltd, 2015, 320 pages)



When I unwrap the present, it turns out to be a pair of Bicycle decks laid side by side on top of The Education of a Poker Player.

“Oh, my dear Lord,” Gramma says, then something else under her breath. She shakes her head, blessing herself.

My parents are silent so far, but it’s clear they are taken aback. Way aback.

Vince Killeen’s birthday gift, a copy of Herbert Yardley’s 1957 best-selling poker primer, is a big deal for the thirteen-year-old. It marks a turning point away from life as an altar boy and future priest towards more profane pursuits—especially gambling and girls. Vince’s coming-of-age is the subject of James McManus’s own Education, a collection of seven linked stories that borrows Yardley’s title (as you might guess, this newer book is more literary than instructive). McManus, as many of you readers will no doubt know, has already penned two indispensable poker nonfiction books: Positively Fifth Street (2003) and Cowboys Full: The Story of Poker (2009). Having written memoir and history, his latest fictional effort can be seen as the last part of a three-genre poker trilogy (http://www.pokernews.com/news/2015/1...anus-23044.htm).

I've admired McManus ever since I picked up Positively Fifth a few years ago. So I was eager to read his latest collection, especially since poker fiction has never quite measured up to poker nonfiction. (Why not? McManus and another smart literary dude consider this question here: http://www.brazosbookstore.com/artic...er-and-writing)

I enjoyed this book a lot. The important thing to know, I think, is that The Education isn't "about" poker in the way that Positively Fifth or King of a Small World or Shut Up and Deal are. You'll find a bit of poker-playing, sure, but the book is more concerned with Vince's changing understanding of the world. And to me, that's a good thing. I remain convinced that poker writing is most effective--and accessible--when it offers a springboard into other subjects: in this case Catholicism, faith, sex, and middle-class American life in the 1950s and 60s.

McManus continues to impress!

Pretty far back - your dad might remember Troxy's. This was around 1970 when I was there. I tried to show the place to my wife once on a trip to New Orleans in the late 80's but it was gone. Someone said it bit the dust in one of the Hurricanes that passed through.

Those were interesting times - public poker was illegal but guys like Troxy operated quite openly. Of course there were rumors that the sherrif was getting a little compensation in return.

I'm looking forward to reading Education. I often hear echoes of conservative morality in "Old School" thinking about poker. Being non-reactive would seem to be the key, in this strand of discourse, as less-disciplined others, effectively "tell" you what cards they have by means of their various eccentricities, griping and drinking. Like a good old banker, insurance broker or lawyer, the irony of the moral (or should I say "model") poker-player engaging in "legalised theft" is more than coincidental. Such a logical circle---one becomes accused of being immoral by acting so morally---functions as a real pinch for those who are learning the game: they discover that the best way of overcoming the "cheated" feeling is to become disciplined, study and simply get better.

Just wanna say I really enjoyed reading your interview with McManus in the Magazine - nicely done Ben! :-)

Interview with James McManus

I interviewed James McManus this month: http://www.twoplustwo.com/magazine/i...es-mcmanus.php. We cover a bunch of topics, including his latest book, The Education of a Poker Player, James Joyce, growing up Catholic in the 1950s and 60s, sex, Chicago sports, calling with jack high (er, I mean queen high), and the future of poker in the U.S. There's even a bonus mini-rant about poker legislation and "butt-ugly hypocrite" Sheldon Adelson!

Thanks for the kind words, Robbie! (which also reminded me to poast the link here )

I think you'll enjoy it, Dr. The book was written at an interesting time in poker's development, when there was less willingness to condone cardsharping and trickery in favor of "clean, honest poker."

I also think you'd enjoy McManus's Education.

Cool interview with McManus! Positively Fifth Street was the first nonfiction poker book I read back in 2009. Very talented writer, I'll have to check out some of his more recent works.

Very much liked your interview with him. Interesting how he connects the ability to narrate with the ability to play poker: the next step would be to have a narratologist make a formal comparison of these types of story-telling.

November Results, December Goals

I logged 130 hours during my November challenge, which stretched a few extra days into early December. During a month that involved lots of swings, supreme rungood was tempered by a nightmarish final weekend when nothing went right. Nevertheless, results were good (+5.5k) and, most importantly, I finally feel home in the room and in Nola. Traveling this year has been fantastic, but it hampered my productivity on the felt and made it tough, if not impossible, to achieve balance. Last month, by contrast, was entirely about the grind and settling into town. I studied in the morning, exercised and ate well, and established a good weekly routine.

Now that I can comfortably buy in deep at 1/3, or play in good 2/5 games, table selection and emotional control seem to be more important than ever. We've all seen the scared nits who cap their winrates by playing in shallower, lower-variance games and the gambooolers who ignore seat- and stack-size considerations in favor of Action. There have been times when I've left a juicy table because of poor seat position and times when I've played 700bbs deep with skilled regs because the whales were just that bad. The key, I think, is checking my ego at the door.

Something else I've been thinking about, because of the absurdly deep games down here, is increased awareness and manipulation of SPRs: which hands match up well with SPR of 5, 10, 20, and how we can manipulate standard spots to achieve desired result (one example would be straddled pot in a loose 1/3 game with, say, JTs and 2k stacks. Is it better to limp, make a sweetener to 15, or make it 40?)

Another topic that I want to explore is game theory and optimal play. Live poker, as we know, should be about exploitation and unbalanced strategies (never bluffing stations, shipping any two vs nits, etc). I want to have a stronger sense of what optimal play and balanced ranges look like. This might mean tinkering with Poker Snowie and checking out The Mathematics of Poker, Ed Miller's Poker's 1%, Will Tipton. We'll see.

None of that will be happening until the spring, though, cuz it's time to transition into writing mode. I have roughly two months to complete a book proposal + writing sample, which will be a grind of a different kind. I've already been combing through my articles, notes, and this blog, and have been reminded of just how much content I can draw from. So thanks, readers, for all your help and insights!

December Goals

*write book proposal
*play two days, 10-15 hours/wk of poker
*watch more NBA

You may not have guessed this, but I'm an elite fantasy sports competitor with an excessively advanced understanding of on-the-court intangibles like courage, leadership, and grit. My teams (Bob's Fools and Fluffey Puppy) are fearsome. Watching more NBA will aid my journey toward Fantasy Glory.

Glad you liked it, guys! I also found it interesting that McManus that links poker and narrative abilities. Reminded me of "How to Tell a True War Story" by Tim O'Brien.

Congrats on the solid November results!

Good luck as you transition into the writing grind. From where does the two month deadline come?

Congratulations on your monthly challenge results! Given the room where you're playing, I agree SPR is a great area on which to focus. From my experience, there were clearly two types of deep-stack players: (1) proish types who were often buying deep while waiting for 2/5 or 5/T and (2) recreational types who were running good and on a bit of an endorphin high. Pretty obvious point I'm making, but the latter type can potentially make some significant errors in deep stack situations, particularly if you're able to 3bet them in position with a hand like JTs.

GL with the book proposal, btw.

TY! The deadline is for an application to the NEH (National Endowment for the Humanities) Public Scholar Program, which supports well-researched books aimed at a general audience. Figured I'd apply since I'd be preparing a similar doc anyway and the description perfectly fits my interests. Since I have almost no oversight or deadlines of any kind (other than those I self-impose), I'm hoping that a "real" deadline will be useful.


TY! Yes, thinking in terms of commitment and value ("What's my hand worth?") is something I'm trying to stay conscious of, since those answers change so much as stacks get deep. I can remember one hand where i flatted in position with 54, sb donks 100 into 200 on 446hh, two stations call, action is on me with like 1700 eff and everyone covers. Value targeting + villain profiling is so important in this spot (I raised small, intending to fold to a 3-bet, not sure if this is the best line but improving in these spots is so huge)

lol, I'm thinking about how the language of poker has found its way into public discourse, went back to a longform podcast with Michael Lewis (http://longform.org/posts/longform-p...-michael-lewis), here's the quote that they excerpted from the interview :

"When you're telling a story, you're essentially playing the cards you're dealt. ... Sometimes the hand is very easy to play. Sometimes the hand is difficult to play. At the end, I just try to think, 'Is there anything I would have done differently?' 'Is there any trick I missed?' If I don't have the feeling that I missed something big, I feel happy about the book."

Bob,

When are you getting back to Tucson? the 1-3 game has been running regularly even during the week, and we've been getting 2-5 off most Fridays (and I gather some Saturdays as well). Better get some before the action guys get broke

Hi jrr,

flying in the 23rd and out the 4th, I think. Dec 26th or Jan 2nd might work for a return to Poker Hell (although it sounds like the games may be improving!)

Not sure which would be best in terms of action, most likely Jan 2. But I'll check with the hard core regs, get their opinion and let you know.

thanks, once they hear a big whale's coming to town I'm sure that will help!

"Edward Snowden's predecessor"

There's a long article in the Dec 19 issue of "The Economist" describing the career of George Yardley, author of the book "Education of a Poker Player" which Bob mentioned ITT.

According to the article, Yardley's main early claim to fame was as a cryptographer who apparently was instrumental in convincing the USG to get heavily involved in codes and code-breaking for intelligence purposes. He established a predecessor agency to NSA, called the "black chamber". And then later he published a "tell all" book called "America's Black Chamber". The article is mostly about the intelligence work but talks a bit about Yardley's poker fame, based mostly on "Education".

Very interesting article if you have access to the Economist.

Bob, either Dec 26 or Jan 2 works for CDS - the "reg" views seem to be mixed as to when action might be best. LMK which works best for you.

Thanks for the link, JRR--I was able to find the article and will give it a read. How about this Saturday for a CDS meetup?

Have a great Christmas!

Saturday is good. If we want a seat in the 1-3 probably need to be there by 5-6 or so, otherwise have to wait until a couple go broke. Usually don't get 2-5 off until later. But any time is ok for me.

Sounds good, I'll shoot you a text on Sat once I know my plans.

Sent from my XT1031 using 2+2 Forums

Bad Bet on the Bayou: The Rise and Fall of Gambling in Louisiana and the Fate of Governor Edwin Edwards, by Tyler Bridges (2001, 422 pages)



“I do not collect stamps, I do not collect coins or racehorses, I do not own boats or do things other people like to do. I do like to gamble.” —Edwin Edwards

In the 90s, gambling flourished along the sandy shores of Mississippi’s Gulf Coast. With help from Wall Street, which pumped millions into the coffers of the nation’s poorest state, a vast complex of luxury hotels and casinos was born.

Across the border in Louisiana, the arrival of legalized gambling was a spectacular disaster. This tragicomic saga, which Tyler Bridges painstakingly describes in Bad Bet on the Bayou, had quite a cast: Governor Edwin Edwards, whose greed outpaced his legendary libido; a line of sleazy politicians; Christopher Hemmeter, a real estate developer and colossal failure; bumbling mobsters, sneaky FBI agents, bewildered state police officials; and Louisiana’s outrageous political history itself, which has been marked by the intermittent flowering and repression of gambling.

Bridges, a Pulitzer-prize winning reporter, covered LA gambling from 1992-96 for The Times-Picayune. He combed FBI wiretaps, conducted scores of interviews, and seems to leave no stone unturned. This results in a mixed bag: a ton of info, rich characterization, and (sometimes) Too Much Information. One reviewer called the book a “slog,” and I’ll concede that the book is excessively detailed. Overall, though, Bridges offers a fantastic resource on a specialized subject.

Louisiana, corruption, and gambling

To a remarkable degree, the political and social history of Louisiana is intertwined with gambling. When Thomas Jefferson bought Louisiana from Napoleon in 1803, New Orleans became the gambling capital of the United States overnight, and it would hold that title for most of the first half of the nineteenth century. By the time poker exploded along the Mississippi in the 1850s, about 400 gaming dens were open in the city. Hundreds of riverboat gamblers plied their trade on riverboats running from Nawlins to St. Louis. Many steamboat captains considered it bad luck to leave port without a gambler on board.

After the war Louisiana, like the rest of the South, was broke. But perhaps the lottery could save them. Banned throughout most of the country, the Louisiana Lottery erupted into a national craze, with monthly drawings becoming grand public ceremonies. By 1889, an astonishing 33 percent of all mail arriving at the New Orleans post office was addressed to the lottery company, which collected an estimated $28 million per year (roughly $550 mill today). Eventually, after considerable public backlash, “the worst gambling scandal in American history,” in Bridges’s words, was shut down in 1893.

In the post-Civil War times, Louisiana politicians allowed the mob to operate slot machines and casinos in exchange for kickbacks. Illegal casinos had operated in New Orleans during the 1950s and 60s. One of the great American novels, and perhaps the best book ever to be written about politics, Robert Penn Warren’s All the King’s Men, is a fictionalized portrait of Huey Long, the infamous Louisiana governor who straight-up symbolizes corruption. Long’s son Earl and Edwin Edwards—who, like the Kingfish, were state governors—were gambling addicts.

In the 1990s, after the Oil Bust of the 1980s devastated Louisiana’s economy, state officials turned to legalized gambling as the economy’s salvation. From 1990 to 1992, thanks to the untiring efforts of then-governor Edwin Edwards, the state legalized a statewide lottery; fifteen floating casinos on lakes and rivers; video poker machines in bars, restaurants, and highway truck stops; and a land casino that promised to be the world’s largest gambling hall.

The Silver Zipper Gets Busy



“It was illegal for them to give, but not for me to receive” —Edwin Edwards

The son of a sharecropper, raised in a home without electricity or running water, Edwin Edwards was a self-made man who, upon entering politics, reveled in high-stakes gambling and enjoyed a long line of mistresses. Unlike most politicians, “The Silver Zipper,” as he was called, defused accusations of infidelity with witty one-liners. My favorite Edwards quip is when he ran against David Duke, a conservative southern politician and ex-Klansman. The two men had one thing in common, Edwards said: “We’re both wizards under the sheets.”

Edwards became obsessed with legalizing gambling in the state. “You don’t like casinos? That’s fine. Many people in good faith are opposed,” he said in a 1990 speech. “But think about the 25,000 people in the city who don’t have jobs. I’m talking about maids, bartenders, waiters, waitresses, taxi drivers, parking lot attendants, hotel employess, restaurant employees, clerks in shops, everybody in the city with basic skills and little education who cannot be doctors or lawyers or engineers or work in a computer factory, but who are looking for something to do” (54). It would turn out that Edwards also had a few ignoble perks in mind.

On June 8th, 1992, pro-casino legislators led by Edwards rammed a pro-casino bill through the House, essentially rigging the election by shutting down the voting booth once they garnered enough votes. In a 53-50 vote, the bill passed. Chaos ensued.

“You’ve got to be kiddng me!” screamed now-Mayor Mitch Landrieu. “You can’t be serious, man!”

“This is a Huey Long vote!” yelled another anti-casino Representative.

“The ****er’s passed,” thought anti-casino lobbyist Tom Spradley to himself. “Louisiana is corrupt, always has been, and it always will be. We’re Third World, and we deserve to be discriminated against by the rest of the country. Louisiana’s heroes are pirates—Jean Lafitte, Huey Long, Edwin Edwards—and they always will be.”

The hubbub surrounding the casino bill was only the beginning. Developers and casino magnates competed for a license to build the casino, which would be perched on a prime slab of land mere blocks away from the French Quarter and the Mississippi River. The much-anticipated casino would be bogged down with endless delays. Once Harrah's Jazz finally opened in 1995 a temporary location, profits were poor and the casino was forced to close that November (http://www.nytimes.com/1996/06/02/bu...pagewanted=all).

You Can't Keep A Good Zipper Zipped

Throughout his four terms as governor, Edwards was unable to resist the temptation of nepotism and kickbacks. He hooked up his four children with gambling-related gigs—especially with those fifteen riverboat casinos scattered across the state—and padded his seven-figure bank account in the process. But the FBI was listening. Armed with wiretaps and damning testimony from The Zipper’s business partners, the Feds pounced in 2000. Edwards was convicted on seventeen counts of extortion and money laundering. The seventy-two-year-old ex-governor faced more than two hundred years in prison.

All was not lost. After eight years in federal prison, Edwards is out and, at a sprightly 88 years old, is back on the prowl. He married a 32-year-old prison pen pal, Trina Grimes, and has talked about re-entering the political fray. #Edwards2016


And what about that land-based casino? Although Harrah’s Jazz closed in 1995, a new casino would open in 1999 on the planned Canal Street location. Despite a hurricane and a smoking ban, Harrah's New Orleans survives today. Who knows? Maybe even you, dear reader, have sauntered inside, purchased a scrumptious treat at the Lucky Dog stand, and tried your luck at the tables.

Harradise beckons.



Notes and Questions
Other books on gambling in the South: How the South Joined the Gambling Nation: The Politics of State Policy (2008)
In 1999, Americans lost 58.2 billion of what they bet, or more than what they spent altogether on movie tickets, music, theme parks, spectator sports, and video games (5). Updated stat?

Cliffs

Bad Bet on the Bayou is a well-written, exhaustively researched book that doesn't quite hang together as a narrative but that, nevertheless, is an excellent resource on gambling in Louisiana.

Intriguing synopsis, seems like the Gulf has a colorful gambling history rich with tales of excess and corruption.

Poker's Place in American Culture

Reading Bad Bet and listening to a recent Thinking Poker Podcast with Martin Harris (http://www.thinkingpoker.net/2015/12...martin-harris/) has gotten me thinking—again—about poker’s place in American culture, especially about what “playing poker” means to most people in society.

Consciously or not, Tyler Bridges's portrait of poker-playing in Bad Bet is one of secrecy, deceit, and infidelity. Again and again, we're presented with an image of good ol' boys hootin', hollerin', and hatchin' schemes. Edwin Edwards hosted a regular poker game at The Governor's Mansion, and it wasn’t uncommon for players to win or lose twenty grand in a night. One disgruntled participant, after failing to get a coveted riverboat gambling license, complained that he should have been playing poker with Edwards and losing heavily.

By 1992, a sixty-six year-old Edwards had already wooed and married Candy Picou, a twentysomething southern belle. He often used a weekly poker game as a cover for trysts. The game would begin at seven, and after an hour or so, Edwards would excuse himself and tell the state trooper accompanying him that if Candy called, the trooper should say that Edwards was in the bathroom.

"Poker night," for Edwards and others, has offered a safe space that's free of wives, girlfriends, and other burdens, a place where they can "be a man." To take a famous example, think of the poker scenes in A Streetcar Named Desire (which, incidentally, was named The Poker Night in early drafts until Tennessee Williams changed his mind).



For a long time—ever since its birth, really—poker has had an air of danger, risk, transgression. One unexpected effect of The Poker Boom, as both Martin Harris and Brian Koppelman have pointed out, is that it legitimized the game in American culture. Poker became mainstream. Thanks Chris M.! Thanks ESPN!

But now, almost five years after Black Friday, is poker returning to the margins? Harris thinks so. So does Koppelman, and he thinks that this cultural shift is a good thing: http://grantland.com/features/the-beauty-black-friday/.

seems like quite the ****show!