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Inside the New York Underground

Comments (5)
by , Mar 25, 2009 | 2:34 pm

Semi-related to all the activity going on today … there’s a great story in Salon about poker:

A city awash in cards
Inside New York’s underground poker scene, where no one thinks about the recession, or their rent money, when there’s a good hand to be played.

Hi, my name is Jim, and I have a gambling problem.

I told myself the last time was the last time, but here I am, in another bind: $1,000 in chips resting anxiously on the felt in front of me, and the ace-queen of hearts in my hand.

My lone opponent is Al, an egg-shaped old wiseguy who breathes heavy when he has a winner. Right now he’s taking up most of the oxygen in this three-story walk-up.

The rational part of my brain is screaming at me. “Fold, you stupid motherfucker. That’s half a month’s rent you are about to toss into the pot on a draw.” But Al is legendary for losing and that’s all the compulsive part of my brain can focus on. “Maybe he’s bluffing,” it whispers. “Move all-in.”

Read more …


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  • http://taopoker.blogspot.com Pauly

    Great story? Pathetically mediocre at best

  • http://pokerati.com/about-us/#danm DanM

    Dude … non-poker media. And I haven’t read anything from you in Salon about the New York underground.

  • http://hardboiledpoker.blogspot.com/ Short-Stacked Shamus

    Yea, I was kind of surprised by how generic the piece turned out to be. Could’ve been about a hand played just about anywhere in the world, actually. (Not to mention the hand could’ve been explained better, too — even taking into consideration the non-pokery context.)

  • http://www.ftrain.blogspot.com/ F-Train

    Not only was the story kinda meh, but I feel like stories about the NYC underground rooms have been done to death at this point. Three of four years ago this story would have been more noteworthy.

  • http://pokerati.com/about-us/#danm DanM

    OK, a-holes, I admit I didn’t read it all the way through. (Sorry readers, I’ll do better next time.)

    But still … interesting to me that they would run it now. Go poker?