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Insurer For Sale
Sep. 23rd, 2008 07:23 amAIG's new CEO Ed Liddy will announce next week which bits of AIG are up for sale. Rumours are swirling that Manchester United is going to buy the UK life assurance intersts of the company. AIG employees will be required to wear Manchester United shirts to work (although for formal meetings a suit with the executives name and staff number stitched on the back will be allowed). In addition, AIG will have "club days" wear clients of Manchester United will be able to attend important pricing meetings, claims discussions and staff evaluation sessions.
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I keep forgetting to mention that the FT Magazine on Saturday had an article on BadBeat, the operation that backs a number of players. I assume this is the deal that Ben Grundy has signed. What the management of this operation say makes a frightening amount of sense (most players play too high for their bankroll; they want to play $25-50 even though they have a higher EV multi-tabling $5-$10; there's far too much testosterone and far too little business sense, and so on), and I do hope that most people pay no attention. I've always felt that my edge has been in the fact that I don't suffer tilt to the same degree of other players and I don't have this desperate desire to play at higher stakes. Or, to put it bluntly, I am not a gambler. I know that we see the headlines of youngsters who shot up to the highests levels, and this selection bias leads any number of writers to advise "taking a shot" far earlier than is wise.
The Badbeat team also took note that one of the major flaws in these hotshots is that they don't play enough. They are, in essence, lazy (and this character flaw is what attracts them to professional poker in the first place. Or, to put it another way, people with a strong work ethic do not tend to become professional poker players). BadBeat instills discipline into these players, demanding a rather pathetic number of table hours a month (I waltz through the number required and hold down a full-time job at the same time). But what I like about the business model is that it looks to me that BadBeat keeps the rakeback. That, if you like, is the small print. At high stakes it won't make much difference to most players, but, over the whole year, you are probably looking at $5 per hour rakeback per player. If 95% of players win over the whole year (and that's a matter for the player selection process), then that would all add up.
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++++++++++++
I keep forgetting to mention that the FT Magazine on Saturday had an article on BadBeat, the operation that backs a number of players. I assume this is the deal that Ben Grundy has signed. What the management of this operation say makes a frightening amount of sense (most players play too high for their bankroll; they want to play $25-50 even though they have a higher EV multi-tabling $5-$10; there's far too much testosterone and far too little business sense, and so on), and I do hope that most people pay no attention. I've always felt that my edge has been in the fact that I don't suffer tilt to the same degree of other players and I don't have this desperate desire to play at higher stakes. Or, to put it bluntly, I am not a gambler. I know that we see the headlines of youngsters who shot up to the highests levels, and this selection bias leads any number of writers to advise "taking a shot" far earlier than is wise.
The Badbeat team also took note that one of the major flaws in these hotshots is that they don't play enough. They are, in essence, lazy (and this character flaw is what attracts them to professional poker in the first place. Or, to put it another way, people with a strong work ethic do not tend to become professional poker players). BadBeat instills discipline into these players, demanding a rather pathetic number of table hours a month (I waltz through the number required and hold down a full-time job at the same time). But what I like about the business model is that it looks to me that BadBeat keeps the rakeback. That, if you like, is the small print. At high stakes it won't make much difference to most players, but, over the whole year, you are probably looking at $5 per hour rakeback per player. If 95% of players win over the whole year (and that's a matter for the player selection process), then that would all add up.
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