Mean Gene

Let's Ask Some Stupid Questions

November 1st starts the novel-writing sprint, so I've been focused on getting ready for that and I've been neglecting this blog here. Hopefully what I write will be of interest to my poker-playing audience, as well as the unwashed masses.

Red Sox won the World Series. During a lunar eclipse. This after months filled with hurricanes, earthquakes, and volcano eruptions. Anybody have the Book of Revelations open? Which of the Seven Signs are we up to?

Congratulations to the Red Sox Nation, only had to wait 86 years for a title. Compare that to the fans of my team, the Pittsburgh Pirates, who have gone 25 years without a title or World Series berth, and with no hope of that happening in the very near future. Or very distant future. If you asked me to place an over/under bet on when the Pirates will next win a World Series, and the line was "A Century", I'd take the over in a heartbeat. Pass the bet down through the generations. No way the Bucs can win under the current economic conditions. No way the Bucs can win with the current ownership. In 100 years gorgeous PNC Park (by then probably called Wal-Soft Empire Park, along with every other structure in the US) will be as venerable as Fenway, and filled with fans trying to think back to the days of Cap'n Willie and the Cobra. One big difference--I'm not going to teach MY kids to pine and wait and pray for the day the Bucs win again. "Go watch the Steelers, live a normal life, and if some miracle happens and the Pirates make a run, jump on the bandwagon and then jump off as soon as you can manage". Not very honorable, maybe not a good "life lesson", but the hell with that. You only get so much psychic capital to work with in your lifetime, can't go blowing it all on a no-chance baseball team. That's what the Steelers are for.

OK, to the stupid questions I said I'd ask. Some of the things I'm writing about I'm not an expert on, and have no easy way of becoming expert. Like, I found out how high the Bloomfield Bridge was in 1940, but even the Internet doesn't have ALL the answers.

So, here's my one question, which, I hope, at least one of you knows the answer to: At WPT events, when its down to one table, just six players, do the hosting casinos offer odds on the remaining players? Like, can you lay a bet at 3-1 on Gus Hansen, or 150-1 on that Internet qualifier with huge pit stains showing through his shirt? I concede this may not seem like a hugely important question, given the times we live in, but a point in the plot may turn on the answer. I thank you, whomever you are, in advance for your gift of knowledge.

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