feeling (royal) flush? - the poker sensation

Poker. It conjures up some images doesn't it? Smoky bar back-rooms in 1920's Chicago? Sending the Mafia boys round to collect unpaid debts? Today's images of poker are different.

Aged around 8, I joined a new class at school. Thoroughly by chance I came to sit next to a boy named Leyton. Over the next few weeks, I became friends with Leyton.

Then one rainy day, Leyton showed me a new game his parents were playing. It was called 'Poker'.

Flash forward to early 2004, a communal kitchen in Camden, around 2300.

Sitting at the kitchen table are 5 young men and 2 young ladies. Standing behind them is myself, wondering why I was familiar with the basic concept of poker.

The stakes are not particularly high, with a buy in of £1. Still, this situation is one that was repeated numerous times over the following months. In fact, post-band and songsters, the residents of the ground floor of Dennis Holland Lodge would gather to share drinks and a quick few hands of 5 card stud.

So what has caused this resurgencee in gambling?

How has it come about that a 32 year old IT consultant from Surrey can be the new poker legend? Everywhere you look nowadays poker is in your face. On tube trains, billboards, in newspapers and on TV there are adverts aplenty for online casinos, offering higher and better rates of return than the others. One company, vcpoker.com, uses average run of the mill people to advertise.

Poker high roller Nick "The Greek" Dandalos claims that the next best thing to playing and winning is playing and losing. Then again, he is successful. So are people in it to get rich or for the fun of the game? I suspect the former.

Modern day poker, much like the rest of the internet, allows people to fool others perceptions. If a 57 year old builder from Stoke wants to be a rich and successful property developer from the Docklands, he can be. Online poker makes players faceless and nameless. You can be anyone you want to be.

So is poker the new Pokemon? Or will it fade to relative insignificance like so many fads before it?

Timmy "Three of a kind" Magic

giants fall to padres

It is with great sadness that I report the loss of the San Francisco Giants' chance of winning the National League West Division after a 9-1 defeat to the San Diego Padres. The Giants trail the Padres by 5 games with only 4 games left.

After a good start to the series, with a 3-2 win, the Giants lost 9-6 on Tuesday, despite Barry Bonds hitting career home run no. 708.

A final game against the Padres this evening ends the 4 game series, before a 3 game series against the Arizona Diamondbacks ties up the season.

Roll on the post-season and the World Series, where hopefully the other California teams, the LA Angels and the Padres will prosper!

Timmy "No career homers" Magic

tim's hosting

Due to an exceedingly rude bit of hacking, my hosting service has gone down indefinitely. The result of this is that there are now no pictures on the site at all. Thankfully I have everything backed up, and it will hopefully return soon.

Tim

i'm alive!

Contrary to what some of you may believe, I am still alive. I have had a really busy few weeks with mucho banter going on.

For those who haven't heard, my profile is currently wrong, as I am no longer a lazy, tax dodging student. I have entered the world of not-quite-so-lazy, tax dodging employment. Having dropped out of UCL I am looking for a job (offers glady received, preferably lots of money for minimal effort), so am in the midst of applications aplenty.

Hopefully I'll be back in action on Thursday afternoon to impart some of my famed wisdom (?) to you all!

TTFN

Timbob