and what percentage of NVG do you think consists of poker pros? I'd be very surprised if it was more than 5%

don't spend enough time in nvg to know that but if you spent time on it searching here you could easily find many bonafide pros stating something to that effect about perkins

also, doesn't really change what I personally witnessed first hand - it doesn't represent everyone but there's a small and vocal minority of players who insist someone who would could cold call a 4! with A7o can't be a smart person in real life

I'd think running those private games does hurt the whole poker industry. Poker has gotten very predatory over the years and it's sad to see this is how it has become.

sure but think about why those games are running to begin with.

last year in vegas during the 5 diamond there were about 8 euros who came together to grind plo at aria. one of them actually had a pulse the other 7 were bots. i was in Vegas for a about ten days but a friend of mine told me they were still there after christmas.

i also remember a different time a couple of super tight euros always playing together who despite the fact they vpips under 10 percent of the time each were in way too many 3 way pots together. one night the game broke and they both just dumped all of their chips in the same euro bag together. no counting just straight dumped them.

i'd say above 2/5 this is mostly true. the pros in general as you move up are going to be smart, more comfortable in life and "get it". Of course not all of them.
A young kid who has done well in poker for a year or two playing a bigger game is often the exception to this as he thinks he's some life crusher since he's made good money at a game never running bad in his short career and the guy who can lose more in a vegas weekend in the pit than he makes in a year playing poker is an idiot.

Additonally you're right that most of these people are at least somewhat nice to the whale to their face, a lot of them will make comments about how dumb the whale is when they leave/go to the bathroom etc.

As far as Perkins- it's obvious he is extremely intelligent and successful but did run extremely well in life. That's not a knock on him at all. To make the kind of money he has that's going to be true for anyone and he would tell you the same thing. But if he just ran normal he'd still have millions.

They just have a very different business plan than you or a lot of other players. That starts with the simple fact that they don’t care about how poker in Las Vegas looks in 5 or 10 years. They don’t have to because their objective is to make as much tax free money as they can right now and then use that money to move to on to other things. The long term sustainability of poker at the other end of the world doesn’t really matter if you’re not in it for the long run and (almost) none of them are.

If you play from the same bankroll, which is perfectly fine, there’s no real reason to count the money before it goes into the bag. You’re working for the same business after all.

imo not really. it isnt the same as playing the same table with a horse bc while there may be some opportunities for the staker to do some funny things vs his horse seeing as he either gets the chips or the MU, the horse is still incentivized to play purely for himself, no reason to collude bc horse and staker are each seeking their own personal ev

when you are all sharing a bankroll and sitting at the same table, seems like a huge conflict of interest if you are evenly sharing all combined profits

wait what. No, not even close, it's not. Luckily it does not happen much as far as I know. I know about one group that played from the same roll, I've played against them a lot and I'm pretty sure they didnt really abuse it. Most of us (euros coming to play in the US) respect the game.

Also, in my experience, people who need to cheat tend to be lazy/incompetent and suck in poker anyway. Still bad for the games, but not as bad as it could have been.

I was a Euro coming to play in the US before getting a permanent residence here..

People play from the same bankroll all the time. Both live and online. The standard example is husband and wife at the same table.

glad you saw the light and reformed your heathen ways

I am an Euro and this is exactly the reason I don't play poker anymore, except for 2/4 limit at the GN or Flamingo.

Last years I am more then happy to donk it off at double zero roulette and get a free room, instead of playing in a pokergame with scumbags.

would the same hold true if there are 8 people at the table, and they use various gestures to indicate when to raise each other off a hand in order to get the 9th player hooked? Seems a little sus.

I remember a case of this happening in the UK @ the London Mayfair, prior to the team being banned. They've now moved on to the vic iirc.