Quote:
Originally Posted by insidemanpoker
Honest Q: Why does anyone hang around with this guy?
Part of the old crew. The 40-or-so degenerates who would see each other at casinos in the early 90s across the country, and most likely, taking action with one another. If you go on youtube and searc for 95-98 WSOP vids, you can see these two, Lederer, Seidel, Seed, Matusow, Duke, Hellmuth, etc.....all drinking, eating together, etc.
This was all before everyone became famous, developed egos (think Duke v DN on rec.poker), and the debts between each other probably got bigger as the internet games got astronomical (and this carried to the high stakes rooms).
Poker, in a sense, is much more "tigher" today with the money today than back then, although more money flows into the industry now (thank you, Federal Reserve).
Back in the 90s, TMK, *everyone* had pieces of each other, at least amongst the pro community. You'd have a field of 300, with 100-175 of the people taking some piece of each other either by staking or share selling.
With the fields being so big today, as well as internet kids/cliques developing their own wealth(s), you have much more diversity of people playing on their own dime(s), taking shots. Also now with the internet pokerz being killed in the US for the most part, the flow of cash WILL start to de-leverage, as we just cant transfer stakes/debt payments on Stars with the snap of a finger. You also had 3rd Party put options style betting on ChipMeUp (now banned in USA), which will further cut bullets from players' bankrolls.