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.)