3-Barrels of varying shapes and sizes including a review of a recent Poker Player’s Alliance survey, news of a poker playing Scrabble champion, and why Doyle Brunson is quitting Twitter.
The Poker Player’s Alliance (PPA) recently polled their database of a million plus poker players to gauge how they are feeling about the current poker climate in America.
You can find the full results, here.
Interestingly, 44% of those polled believed that poker is as popular as ever and continues to grow, whereas 44% think poker’s popularity is on the decline and has been since Black Friday.
I guess it depends on how the action has been going for you this month?
The interesting question for me was:
What Are You Willing to do to Help Legalise Online Poker in Your State?
79% said they were willing to contact their elected official via email, phone or social media, but I wonder how true that is. Examining the PPA Twitter feed there is almost a daily request for this action to happen, and if 74% of those polled were swarming all over the elected officials maybe we would hear about it?
It was also sad to see that only 19% would consider donating money to the only organisation in the country trying to help secure a future for poker in the nation. I wonder if this is because of the perceived efficacy of the PPA? And I also wonder if this is an area that Raising for Effective Giving (REG) would explore? If poker was legalised at a federal level how much more money would poker players raise for non-profits like REG?
And why do those polled believe nobody has joined Nevada, Delaware, and New Jersey? 71% think the electorate we rely on to push these bills through the sausage machine hasn’t got the fainted idea what poker is all about, and 57% of them just don’t give a monkey, and I would say both of those numbers are slightly on the lower side.
Poker Star Wins World Scrabble Championship
An old story that is doing the rounds because everyone missed it is that David Eldar is the latest Mind Sports International World Scrabble Champion.
The 27-year-old mid to online stakes cash game player defeated Harshan Lamabadusuriya 3-0, at the finals in Nottingham back in August. Players from over 26 different nations entered the event, and Eldar picked up £7,000 for the win.
Eldar is well known within cash games circles where he has won millions of dollars playing under the pseudonyms Deldar182 on PokerStars and POKERBLUFFS on Full Tilt.
The Australian now lives in London and tells people that he is in the real estate business. He has won $125,000 playing online Omaha cash games in 2017.
The online poker ace is ranked #2 in Scrabble World Rankings after playing 984 competitive games with a win ratio of 67.98%, scoring on average 446.47 points per game.
One more thing that poker and scrabble have in common is the lack of female players in the top tier rankings. There isn’t a single female scrabble player in the World #50. According to an article found in Readers Digest, there is no rational reason for this, given the game is a mind sport, so the author determined it’s because men try harder to win, whereas the women just want to have a bit of fun.
It’s like that in my house, for sure.
Doyle Brunson Quits Twitter
The Godfather of Poker, Doyle Brunson, is taking a break from Twitter after flak rained on his stetson for tweeting the following message in the wake of the Las Vegas massacre:
“Can’t take away our guns. Then only the criminals would have them. I’m gonna talk to security about the hope of having guns in poker rooms.”
Apparently, Brunson has been held at gunpoint five times, and believes it would have been more had the word not got around that he is a man who is not afraid to push a 12 gauge shotgun up your arse.
“I wanna bet everybody that wants to ban them {guns} has NEVER been robbed at gunpoint.” Tweeted Brunson.
But there is a silver lining.
Brunson agrees that assault rifles should be banned, so we won’t be having one of those pushed into our face after bluffing someone on a bad day.
I’m taking an extended break from twitter. It has ceased to be fun.
— Doyle Brunson (@TexDolly) October 7, 2017
I think that’s probably best, Doyle.
