The Gambling Tales Podcast Rocks

The new Gambling Tales Podcast hosted by Special K and Falstaff is up to three episodes now. The pair is cranking them out once every two weeks, and so far they’ve created three enjoyable shows. Definitely worth adding to your queue of other poker/gambling podcasts, I’d say.

One aspect we amateur podcasters notice right away is how good the show sounds in terms of audio quality. They’ve fashioned a very nice set-up with regard to recording, and you’ll notice right from the first show how cleanly everything sounds in yr earbuds.

That’s also some rockin’ guitar in the show’s theme.

So far it appears the format is for the pair to banter a bit at the start about current happenings in the poker/gambling world, then have an interview, then come back with a segment in which they discuss some historical gambling tale or personality.

The first episode (11/7/09) was recorded back before the World Series of Poker Main Event final table played out, and so that’s the focus of their conversation at the start. They then invite long-time blogger BadBlood. He tells his story of getting into gambling and specifically poker, then shares a gambling tale involving a particular hand he once played. They then wrap up this first show with a look back to the origins of gambling, sharing references found in Greek mythology and the ancient world as well as some later precursors to gambling.

The second show (11/21/09) follows a similar pattern, with some initial discussion about how the business of gambling is being affected by economic woes, followed by an interview with Dr. Pauly. Again, Pauly is invited to talk about his first experiences with gambling, then he shares a tale not about himself but about Gus Hansen. This one concludes with some discussion of the 18th-century Venetian rake and memoirist Casanova, focusing in particular on his penchant for gambling.

The most recent “Show 003” (12/7/09) begins with some talk about the Poker Hall of Fame and Mike Sexton’s induction, then has a neat interview with David Schwartz who heads up the Center for Gaming Research at the University of Nevada Las Vegas. Last spring I wrote a little about my visit to the CGR where I met Schwartz, who authored a terrific history of gambling called Roll the Bones. The show ends with some talk about that famous poker player Wild Bill Hickok.

Special K and Falstaff have a good rapport, and I can tell (and appreciate) how the shows have been carefully edited as well so as to make the listening even more enjoyable.

Hearing these first few episodes made me think a little of the old Card Club on Lord Admiral Radio show -- one which some of us recall as an early example of poker podcasting that also focused on a couple of amateur players having fun talking about current topics as well as the occasional historical item. Gotta love the whole DIY thing, as well as the fact that the GTP is looking to offer something original and different from your average poker podcast.

Cool stuff. Certainly the kind of show those of you who happen to listen to The Hard-Boiled Poker Radio Show would enjoy, I imagine. You can find the show in iTunes via a search, or click here to reach the show’s blog.

The Sklansky Minute and John Cage’s Indeterminacy

Our buds Special K and Falstaff have a new podcast, peoples. It’s called the Gambling Tales Podcast and Episode No. 1 is now available. I’ve been up to my eyeballs with work, but am going to be listening to this sucker (finally) in the car this morning.

I’m reading that there is some November Nine talk in there -- some pre-final table predictions, I believe, so we can listen and admire their accuracy, or goof on their folly. There’s a tale about the origins of gambling. And there’s a conversation with Bad Blood. Check it out!

Speaking of podcasts, one of my favorites is still the Two Plus Two Pokercast, which remains one of the most consistently good ones for news, interviews, and the occasional strategy stuff. Of course, I’ve been a fan of Mike Johnson and Adam Schwartz (the hosts) since their earlier show -- called Rounders, the Poker Show -- which they began way back in the spring of 2005. That one followed a similar format at the TwoPlusTwo show, other than usually running about an hour or so (if I recall) rather than the two-plus hours they normally go with this one.

The TwoPlusTwo show began in January 2008, and is now approaching its 100th episode. A regular feature of the show is something called the “Sklansky Minute” in which the highly regarded poker author, David Sklansky, offers strategy advice, theoretical broodings on human behavior, or perhaps a Zen koan.

I’m joking about the Zen koans, of course. Or maybe not. Here’s the beginning of a Sklansky Minute, this one from Episode 88 (the one with Tommy Angelo):

“Major tournaments have gone to great lengths nowadays to -- for lack of a better word -- prevent ‘hanky-panky.’ [Pause.] But there is one thing that they allow to this day that is an invitation to cheat. [Pause.] I speak of making change with your neighbor, a transaction that is rarely watched closely....”

And so forth. Those of you who have heard the segments are familiar with the Sklansky’s very deliberate, almost cautious-sounding style of speech. Not sure if he reads from a script or not, but the effect is the same regardless.

Anyhow, I had sort of a strange association come to me as I was listening to a recent Sklansky Minute, one which actually might help explain the “Zen koan”-like feel the segments sometimes have for me. While listening I was contemplating how there must be 60 or 70 of these little segments by now, and suddenly I found myself thinking of the avant-garde composer John Cage, in particular his work Indeterminacy, a Folkways recording of which was made (with David Tudor) in 1959.

The work has a long, interesting history which I’m not going to rehearse here. If you are curious, you can check out the website “About Indeterminacy” for more. The work is structured around a series of very short anecdotes or stories or musings or what have you that Cage wrote. On the recording, he reads 90 of them, while David Tudor provides random musical accompaniment on the piano (and various other noise-makers).

The pieces are of different lengths, yet all are read so as to fill one minute exactly. That means some are read quickly, while others contain lengthy pauses. To give you an idea of what a “Cage Minute” is like, here’s an example, the second one on the recording:

“You probably know the one about the two monks, but I’ll tell it anyway. They were walking one day when they came to a stream where a young lady was waiting, hoping that someone would help her across. Without hesitating, one of the monks picked her up and carried her across, putting her down safely on the other side. The two monks continued walking along, and after some time, the second one, unable to restrain himself, said to the first, ‘You know we’re not allowed to touch women. Why did you carry that woman across the stream?’ The first monk replied, ‘Put her down. I did two hours ago.’”

If you want to hear Cage reading them (and Tudor’s accompaniment), here is a YouTube clip featuring the first ten stories from Indeterminacy:



As I say, a few more weeks and Sklansky probably will have 90 of his “Minutes” to string together. Perhaps he should hire Tommy Angelo to provide musical accompaniment and make his own avant-garde recording?

Of course, maybe the prospect of listening to a long sequence of Sklansky Minutes doesn’t sound too thrilling. In which case, let me share another one of Cage’s stories from Indeterminacy:

“In Zen they say: If something is boring after two minutes, try it for four. If still boring, try it for eight, sixteen, thirty-two, and so on. Eventually one discovers that it’s not boring at all, but very interesting.”

(EDIT [added 12/4/09]: Shortly after this post, Sklansky contributed an especially idiosyncratic Minute to an episode of the Pokercast, prompting a thread on the forums about the segment. Eventually *TT* posted a list of all of the Sklansky Minutes -- about forty of them, which you can see here.)

2008 WSOP, Day 8: Keep Up the Pace

The first day of Event No. 11, the $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em Shootout, went reasonably well, I thought. Steve and I managed to keep up with quite a lot of the action at all 36 tables.

I was particularly proud of the fact that we got just about all of the final hands on all of the tables, and also caught most (not all) of the bustouts of the big names. Have gotten comments from several folks that the two of us are churning out posts at a high clip, which I’m glad to hear, as I don’t necessarily have a feel for how fast or slow it all appears.

As I’ve said before, it gets a bit hectic just trying to keep up, never mind be clear (or even witty or creative now and then), so getting to the end of the night with a sense that we’ve “covered” the action reasonably well is definitely satisfying.

Speaking of getting to the end of the night, we had one of the 36 tables linger well past all of the others, extending our work shift an extra three hours or so. Mike Sterling and Gregg Turk kept their heads up battle going for something like four-and-a-half hours before Turk finally won his way into today’s Round 2, and so we all stuck around to the very end to make our coverage complete.

The schedule of play for this event is kind of curious, I think, as players began yesterday with 10,000 chips and blinds of 100/200 in Level 1. The announcer at the start described the structure as “slow” and I reported him saying that in the blog, but soon after play began players were complaining that they only had 50 BB to start -- not enough (thought some) for a $5,000 buy-in event. (I reported those complaints, too.) I noticed posters debating this topic a bit over in the Two Plus Two threads sweating Event No. 11, as well.

But while starting with 50 BB might indicate a “fast” structure, I think the structure did slow down somewhat thereafter. Seemed that way, anyway. We noticed that once tables got down to four or fewer players, in most cases the blinds were quite small relative to the stack sizes.

For example, most of the tables were at heads up by Level 5 or 6 (each level lasted an hour). The blinds in Level 5 were 300/600, meaning the two players, who together had 100,000 chips, had an average of over 80 BB. Depending on the players’ styles, that could (and in some cases did) lead to some lengthy heads up battles. I think it was Level 7, when the blinds were 1,000/2,000, when Sterling and Turk started their heads up marathon, at which time they each had about 50 BB. Still allows for a lot of play heads up, yes?

Kind of curious to hear what people’s opinions are on this issue of the structure being fast, slow, or both. Today the schedule of play is almost identical to that of yesterday. They are starting with 100,000 chips today rather than 10,000, but the blinds and antes have all been multiplied by 10 as well. One big difference today, of course, is that they’ll be starting six-handed, rather than ten-handed as they did yesterday. (There are a couple of small differences with regard to the antes, too, though they aren’t terribly significant, I don’t think.)

I was pretty whipped by the time we wrapped things up around 11:30 p.m. We had not gotten a dinner break, and I hadn’t brought a lot in the way of snacks and whatnot, so I essentially hadn’t eaten anything since that bowl of Golden Grahams early yesterday morning. But some of my buds from the Vegaspalooza gang were descending on the MGM to play a mixed game, and I did want to get over there at least to meet some of them, if not actually play a bit.

So after a quick run over to my temporary summer digs, I drove up to the strip, parked the rental at the MGM, then walked the long, long walk from the parking deck to the poker room where I arrived some time after midnight. Put my name on a long list for the 2-4 mix game, then rang Gadzooks up on the cell to find out where they were. The other side of the poker room, she told me, all gathered at a table in the back. I made it over and finally “met” ’Zooks, Columbo (of the terrific “One Minute-Mystery” one can hear on Ante Up!), Falstaff, and a few others. The PokerGrump was there as well (with whom you’ll recall I’d got together last week).

The H.O.R.S.E. game was wild and loose and despite my fatigue I sincerely wished I could have gotten in on it, but I understood why no one was giving up their seat. Too damn fun, clearly. I enjoyed hanging out, nonetheless, chatting with ’Zooks, Falstaff, the Poker Grump, and fellow PokerNews blogger F-Train who arrived shortly after I did. All cool folks whom I hope perhaps to see again before they all go back home some time next week.

The game broke up about an hour after I arrived, as a number of the contingent had plans thereafter to visit one of the many adult-oriented establishments one finds in Vegas. Though invited, I took a pass -- Dr. Pauly, I clearly ain’t -- and made it back to the home-away-from-home by 2:30 or so, at which time I cooked up some pasta and finally fed myself.

I see the PokerGrump has a write-up of the night (with pics), and Gadzooks just posted a synopsis as well, if yr interested. And I’m sure all of the others will be chronicling Vegaspalooza on their blogs as well, so follow them links, too.

For now I think I’m gonna grab a bite, as I know now not to count on that dinner break later today. As Vera reminds me, I have to take care of myself if I hope to keep up.