![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
(Warning - slight hints of grumpy old man mode to follow):
It was serendipitous that Big Dave wrote about the problem he had with running a poker-related operation — that he did not like most poker players. For, that very night, a fight broke out at Gutshot. One of the participants (well, alright, the bloke who started it) then apologised on the Gutshot forum, said that the two of them had shaken hands, and that he hoped that would be the end of it.
Where are we, in some sink estate pub where you could guarantee a brawl every weekend, but that was okay because a few hours later everyone would be good mates again? I've written several times that poker has, unfortunately, become the new football. A place that people go with their mates for a night out.
I fear that I may have been doing football a disservice.
Gutshot could be playing with its reputation here, as well as future attendance. I for one don't fancy the idea of attending a poker club where there is a vague chance that a fight will break out.
Now, tempers get frayed. And some people resort to violence. They aren't the people I would invite to dinner, or people I would dream of doing anything socially with, but I accept that they exist and, if they are producers, it would be silly to ban them. Fights have broken out in the Vic, Bellagio, and many other places where poker is played legally, simply because a certain proportion of society resorts to physical violence when they get annoyed. In that sense, I guess that I was naive to think that Gutshot would be any different.
+++++
Warren Buffett has bottled it. The archetypal "long view" man has (partially) crapped out of his short dollar position after it has cost Berkshire Hathaway about a billion bucks. This may or may not be related to the fact that hurricanes Katrina and Rita hit Berkshire for $2.99bn, which, even for Berkshire Hathaway and its cash pile of $20bn, is a little bit irritating.
As with stockmarkets, the time to make your move is when the last bear has thrown in the towel. Is this the time?
With ¥/$ at nearly 118, I think that it might be. There just isn't that much downside to that level (of course, I said that about oil when it broached $55, and I was wrong there, but I have a better feel for currencies than commodities)
It was serendipitous that Big Dave wrote about the problem he had with running a poker-related operation — that he did not like most poker players. For, that very night, a fight broke out at Gutshot. One of the participants (well, alright, the bloke who started it) then apologised on the Gutshot forum, said that the two of them had shaken hands, and that he hoped that would be the end of it.
Where are we, in some sink estate pub where you could guarantee a brawl every weekend, but that was okay because a few hours later everyone would be good mates again? I've written several times that poker has, unfortunately, become the new football. A place that people go with their mates for a night out.
I fear that I may have been doing football a disservice.
Gutshot could be playing with its reputation here, as well as future attendance. I for one don't fancy the idea of attending a poker club where there is a vague chance that a fight will break out.
Now, tempers get frayed. And some people resort to violence. They aren't the people I would invite to dinner, or people I would dream of doing anything socially with, but I accept that they exist and, if they are producers, it would be silly to ban them. Fights have broken out in the Vic, Bellagio, and many other places where poker is played legally, simply because a certain proportion of society resorts to physical violence when they get annoyed. In that sense, I guess that I was naive to think that Gutshot would be any different.
+++++
Warren Buffett has bottled it. The archetypal "long view" man has (partially) crapped out of his short dollar position after it has cost Berkshire Hathaway about a billion bucks. This may or may not be related to the fact that hurricanes Katrina and Rita hit Berkshire for $2.99bn, which, even for Berkshire Hathaway and its cash pile of $20bn, is a little bit irritating.
As with stockmarkets, the time to make your move is when the last bear has thrown in the towel. Is this the time?
With ¥/$ at nearly 118, I think that it might be. There just isn't that much downside to that level (of course, I said that about oil when it broached $55, and I was wrong there, but I have a better feel for currencies than commodities)
