Obama a poker player/news on American legislation

ZZR1100

this might be old news but i just stumbled on it today.
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2008/nov/25/web-betting-wedge-big-gaming/

also ... http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/barackobama/2252578/US-election-Poker-player-Barack-Obama-has-better-odds-than-dice-man-John-McCain.html

cooker3

I don't think Obama cares much about this. He has far more important issues to deal with.

I think the best hope for UIGEA to be repealed is if it comes under some umbrella act of stuff that came in the last days of Bush's term which can be repealed. The best way of selling it is to claim it's more bureaucracy for the banks and the last thing they need now is more red tape and unnecessary spending.

I have my doubts of whether it will come to pass

ArmaniJeanss

I wonder does he have a boards account? Is he Hotspur?

http://www.newyorker.com/talk/2008/02/04/080204ta_talk_mcmanus
Along with another freshman senator, Terry Link, Obama started up a regular game in Link’s Springfield living room. It began with five players but quickly grew to eight and developed a long waiting list, which included not only Democrats but Republicans and lobbyists. “When it turned out that I could sit down . . . and have a beer and watch a game or go out for a round of golf or get a poker game going,” Obama told the Chicago Tribune last year, “I probably confounded some of their expectations.” But it was no Deadwood. Link, discussing the game over the phone the other day, said, “You hung up your guns at the door. Nobody talked about their jobs or politics, and certainly no ‘influence’ was bartered or even discussed. It was boys’ night out—a release from our legislative responsibilities.”

Obama’s analytical mind helped him excel at draw, stud, and hold ’em, and also at the sillier, more luck-based variants of the game that other players chose, such as baseball. Yet, even with the beer drinking and cigarette smoking, there were unspoken rules of conduct. When a married lobbyist arrived at a Springfield game with a person described as “an inebriated woman companion who did not acquit herself in a particularly wholesome fashion,” Obama made a face indicating that he wasn’t pleased. Link says that the lobbyist and his date were “quickly whisked out of the place.”

Obama never played for high stakes. Only on a very bad night could a player drop two hundred dollars in these games, typical wins and losses being closer to twenty-five bucks. Link describes Obama as a “calculating” cardplayer, avoiding long-shot draws and patiently waiting for strong starting hands. “When Barack stayed in, you pretty much figured he’s got a good hand,” former Senator Larry Walsh once told a reporter, neglecting to note that maintaining that sort of rock-solid image made it easier for Obama to bluff.

pok3rplaya

I'm not so sure it would even be a good thing for us as europeans anymore.