1. If you want to get rid of somebody who is bothering you just loan them some money.

2. The best way to lose a friend is to loan them money!

Two rules to live by.

Kudos.



He who is without sin...



Or lend them money with no expectation of getting it back. The only reason to lend a friend, (or family), money.

Then don’t lend them money. A friend will always be at the bottom of the list of paying back for someone in money trouble. Because it’s the least threat to them. The least consequence. Any money you lend a friend, be prepared to write it off. Otherwise, don’t lend. Or be sure he knows you’ll break his kneecaps.

It’s not a case of them being evil or disrespectful to you. They’ll generally always pay if they can, but you’ll always be at the bottom of the list. It’s a case of what is the least threat. It’s never about trust. It’s always about mutual self interest.

True.

Nah dog, either they have discipline with money or they don't. A lot of people just lack a lot of the basics of discipline including money. Just assume from the get go that everyone you meet lacks disciplines and you will never be disappointed, only impressed when someone shows themselves to not be a trash person.

Pretty standard way of doing business in the degen world.

Saw Eli countless times playing mixed in Bobbys Room and High Stakes area of Bellagio in recent months. Might not equate to him having much money since could easily be staked but yeah.

ok still won't buy your shitty book

No one says you have to buy the book, and if it makes you happy, 2+2 took a significant monetary loss on this book because when these problems began it killed the book sales. Also, I spent several hundred hours of my own time working on it which I now consider wasted.

Does this make you happy?

Mason

Significant monetary loss for basically a self published book? Like a few thou? That is not significant, if it was any different you are doing it wrong.

Actually that is very significant.

No. We lost over $15,000 on it. The book has a color insert which made the printing very expensive. We printed 4,000 books and given the royalty that the author gets we need to sell about 2,300 books to break even and I think we're around 494 sold. We also had some unexpected legal expenses of approximately $1,500 relative to the book. (And by the way, I own the publishing company. So any losses on a book like this all come from me.)

And the real shame of all of this is that the autobiography is quite interesting. Normally, we don't do books like this but at that time I had some free time and thought that if we were to do the book well, and this included a lot of editing since Hebrew is a tough language to translate into English, we could sell enough to break even. And just breaking even on this book was our goal.

By the way, our books are much different from being self-published. First, a number of people in addition to the author(s) do work on them, and this includes editing, and for our other books, through reviews and comments back to the author (where he's often required to do rewrites). Second, authors do not receive royalties from self published books. Third, its' rare for a self-published book to be associated with the type of website that we have.

And lastly, we're now selling about 2 books a week.

Mason

Implying breakeven at (2300-494)/2 or 903 weeks unless the trend changes.

lol use your main account next time

I agree. The emphasis on my statement should have been ‘..if they can’. Which is why you either shouldn’t lend friends money or do so with no expectation of getting it back.

I bought it last week and have finished half of it so far, a good book. Very very strange read given I followed this and the other thread since the begining. The parts about debt and other pros calling him one of the most standup men in poker is particularly interesting because either taking debts and never paying them back is so par for the course that other pros don't consider it scummy or they just lie for whatever reason.

Hi thrasher:

As I have stated before, if we at 2+2 would have been aware of the problems that this thread discusses, we would not have done this book. We have also had problems with the translator (of the book) which are also not appreciated.

However, we originally did the book because we found much of the story quite interesting, and that hasn't changed. So, I'm sure you'll enjoy the second half that you haven't read.

Best wishes,
Mason

I have always liked Eli. I know you guys enjoyed watching him battle vs tom dwan on high stakes poker. he was the one guy that stood up to dwans bullshit bluffing. Had no clue he had a book but I will buy it and read it. I am big fan of Cole too I have his book downloaded as well. Its to bad when things like this happen. high stakes poker is low volume. Very high variance kind of a loan situation. I am sure Cole learned a lot from this. And now that Eli no longer plays high stakes poker hes learned from it as well. Hopefully they can work something out in the future.

Wow 494 copies sold. It seems like it might be an interesting book. Wasn't he an officer in an elite unit of the Israeli Army?

From what I have seen of his play on TV, in MTTs, cash, and mixed games, he seems more like a wealthy amateur. I would have a hard time believing he won at high stakes. So the controversy doesn't completely surprise me.

Basically, his NLHE and mixed games play are way too loose. There are probably other leaks, but I don't see how you can win playing that way. I assumed he had from money businesses, and maybe he did, but that wasn't enough.

It helps if you borrow lots of money, and don't pay it back

Hi deuce:

In the book he essentially says this except he claims to be a strong short handed mixed games player.

Best wishes,
Mason

Except, it does not always work like that. Sure, if you are a 9 to 5 paperpusher/square who enjoys playing 1 2 NL at your local cardroom for fun and betting $50 or so on a game here and there, you can do well living by this rule.

However, if you do real estate or you run a store, or you play mid/high stakes poker or you do most other cash businesses, you will have to occasionally do things on credit with your friends/business partners/customers. Otherwise, you are just not going to be very successful.

That's the difference between 1% and the rest of the population. When Carl Icahn attempts a leveraged takeover, his friends/business partners will gladly help him with $10-$20Mil here and there and vice versa.

Similarly, if you are not going to post bail for your day one, when they get a DWI or something, are they really your day one?

What problems has Robbie Strazynski caused Mason? He always sells himself as this paragon of poker virtue so that’s an interesting comment.

I actually would have liked to have bought this book. Dude's had a very interesting and unique life. Unfortunately, with everything that happened, every time I read something in the book I would be asking myself 'is he making this up or did it really happen?'

Hi Hendricks:

I think I’m going to leave it at this. Let’s just say he was not happy with the AMA thread.

Best wishes,
Mason

Hi Chris then:

Let me try to answer your point this way. People who write autobiographies do sometimes embellish what is written. But this book has two Israeli co-authors and a translator. So, if it was full of falsehoods it would mean that these three other people would have to be fooled.

Best wishes,
Mason

He has to be a decent player with 4 WSOP bracelets. However, if you have money from a business, you can play a lot of WSOP events. There are a lot of grinders who could win bracelets if they played a lot of events. If you have money, you can also play high stakes and play loose. Playing loose might be less of a disadvantage short handed, but generally there are better players at the same stakes short handed and there is more bluffing. I wouldn't stake him in a 3-handed $3K/6K mixed game with Doyle and Ivey.

He was an early TV pro and Full Tilt pro, but is he a top player, a businessman with a gambling problem, or an average pro playing too high stakes?

I am sure what he is saying is true, but some people might wonder based on what happened if he was really a special forces officer or maybe an ordinary private.