Some readers upon seeing this title might think that only cultural icons — e.g., Cher, Madonna, Elton — are recognizable by just one name, so who’s “Billy”? But if you’ve been involved in the sports betting world for all or part of the last four decades, Billy is all you need to hear to know […]
Posts by
The Joy of Sports Betting
Last night I watched the World Baseball Classic (WBC) semi-final between Japan and Mexico. I think it was the most perfect baseball game I’ve ever watched. The next day I’m still coming down from the excitement. Coming back from 0-3 and 3-5, Japan won with a walk-off double by 24-year-old Munetaka Murakami, MVP and Triple […]
Poker’s Black Eyes
Years ago at the start of the poker boom, I had an idea and outlined a yet unfinished novel about a huge-prize-money televised poker tournament where the hole-card feed was compromised and a player won through cheating. My message was that it wasn’t inconceivable that this could occur and tournament organizers and TV producers needed to […]
The Moss Game
Old-time Vegas poker players will remember different games they played over the years: the infamous razz at the Stardust in the ’70s, 7-stud at Caesars and later the Mirage, and PLO at the Golden Nugget in the ’80s. Personally, I spent untold hours at the 4-8 limit Omaha straight high game at the Nugget, before […]
Is Kill Phil Relevant in Today’s Poker To...
Poker is an American game that blossomed in the Old West and on the Mississippi riverboats of the 1800s. Cheaters ruled in those days, to the point where poker was widely known as “the cheating game.” For more on this, see my post “The Cheating Game.” Fast forward to the 20th century and poker was […]
Sports Books Rule!
Ok, that title is misleading. This blog is about sports book rules. I think every avid sports bettor has experienced the frustration of dealing with the inconsistencies in rules, whether among U.S. books, among offshore books, or between U.S. and offshore books. While some obscure situations can arise in any event that aren’t covered in […]
The Main Event Part 2
In Part 1 of this blog, I discussed the WSOP Main Event (ME) from an observer’s point of view. Now I want to look at the ME, as well as the entire WSOP experience, from my perspective as a player. As a kid, the anticipation for Christmas started at least a month before. As a […]
The Main Event
The WSOP Main Event (ME) is the pinnacle of the poker world and has been since its inception. It was the first-ever freezeout poker tournament and in the modern poker universe that features many thousands of tournaments every year, it still maintains a stature far above any other. It’s also been a huge part of […]
World Series of Poker: Old Guys Rule!
[Editor’s Note: This post is penned by Blair Rodman, co-author of our tournament-poker strategy book Kill Phil and our upcoming book All About Sports Betting. Blair has blogged about the WSOP in years past and we welcome him back from his self-imposed hiatus.] I hadn’t played a poker tournament for about five years, for a […]
Remembering Darvin
If you’re a fan of the World Series of Poker, you might remember the improbable run made by a Maryland lumberjack named Darvin Moon made in the 2009 Main Event, finishing 2nd to Joe Cada. Darvin was an absolute amateur who rode an incredible lucky streak to get to the final table, making for great theatre. […]
Never miss another post