Key Takeaways The Million Lottery In 1694, the English government had a problem familiar to governments throughout history: it needed money, and it needed it quickly. The solution was, on the face of it, ingenious. Rather than simply taxing the population, it created a lottery. The Million Lottery sold 100,000
Key Takeaways The $55 Seat There are times when, as a poker commentator, you find yourself reaching for superlatives before the cards have even been dealt. Staring at a table chockablock with the game’s elite, there is an understandable temptation to wax lyrical about the talent on show and a
The Original Doomsday Clock There is a particular kind of fear that doesn't require anything bad to actually happen. You don't need the missile to launch, the siren to sound or the mushroom cloud to appear on the horizon. Sometimes it is enough to know that these things could happen,
Manuel Ferrari’s Million-Euro Moment The dust has finally settled on another Pokerstars EPT Barcelona, the centrepiece of the European poker schedule each year, and it didn’t disappoint, producing stories aplenty, not least in the Main Event. Italian pro Manuel Ferrari came to the final table as chip leader but he
Your face, my thane, is as a book where menMay read strange matters. To beguile the time,Look like the time; bear welcome in your eye,Your hand, your tongue: look like th’ innocent flower,But be the serpent under’t.” ~ Lady Macbeth The Serpent There is a type of poker player who
The Noumenal Realm In the Critique of Pure Reason (1781), Immanuel Kant introduced the idea of the noumenal realm as reality as it exists independently of human perception. He argued that while people can experience and understand the phenomenal world through their senses and reason, the noumenal world, or the
Opaque A few weeks ago, I wrote about Crispin Rovere’s first investigation into CoinPoker and the uncomfortable questions it raised about the relationship between offshore gambling, poker content creators and the people willing to put their reputations on the line for a sponsorship cheque. The central warning of that piece
Dragon Teeth In Greek mythology, Cadmus is celebrated as the founder of Thebes, but before he could establish the great city, he faced an extraordinary challenge. After slaying the sacred dragon of Ares, he was instructed by the goddess Athena to sow the dragon's teeth into the earth. Rather than
Trust Poker players are decision-makers. We make fast decisions under pressure, staring at a screen full of tiled virtual tables. We tank long and hard over tough decisions for chunky percentages of our net worth, glaring at our opponents across the green baize. There are, however, different but certainly no
A Main Event Day 7 Surprise Just over a week ago, the World Series Of Poker dived head-first into their umpteenth controversy of the Vegas Summer when they surprised the 62 remaining players in the Main Event with an ‘Action Clock’. For 57 years, there had never been any fixed
Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.“ ~ Abraham Lincoln Brain Trust During one of the short breaks at the recent PokerStars Open Malaga event, myself and Dara O’Kearney had a great chat with tournament director Nick O’Hara.
The Story We Wanted Last year, Leo Margets gave the poker world the story it desperately wanted. The Spanish poker pro did not set out to become a symbol. Quite the contrary. On the latest episode of ‘The Chip Race’, she talked about how she actually balks at the idea
