Since I've been pretty busy this year with both work-related and personal activities, I found it very difficult to keep up with what's going on in the poker world.  Some of the threads are just so long and many of the threads are just outright retarded.  But I recently started listening to 2+2's PokerCasts (podcast) and to my surprise, I actually enjoyed it.  I knew it was around for a few years, but they were usually 2-3 hours long and I just never wanted to spend that amount of time listening to 2 guys talk about poker.  But I probably spend AT LEAST that on 2+2 every week and I don't get anywhere near the information content that they cover in the PokerCast.  The last few weeks, Mrs. Fly and I have been going on these 6 hour dates at the Korean bath house (we have another one today), and I wanted to listed to something other than music, while I worked on my book. So that was the perfect time to give it a try.

One time, the two guys (I have no idea who they are, since their names are not prominent on any of the ads) were talking about how Guy Laliberte (founder of Cirque du Soleil) was organizing a $1 million buy-in charity event at the WSOP, and they are expecting on the order of two dozen entrants.  I would've had no idea this was going on. There is just waaay to much info on 2+2 for me to go through.  The Pokercast isn't perfect - they could probably make it just an hour show (instead of 2.5 hours), so there's a lot of fluff and repetitive info.  But at least it's somewhat structured and no where near a big a time-waster as browsing the forums.

But back to Guy... it got me to thinking that some dude who's worth $2.5billion, and who has dropped $5million lifetime at the poker tables may not miss $100mil.  Why $100mil?  IMO, that's all it would take to "save" FT (later post - for now just assume this is "reasonable").  If the GBT deal falls apart, he would just look like a GOD to the online poker community.  Poker players like him anyway because he's a super-nice guy (and it doesn't hurt that he's a fish).  But saving the online poker community would put him on a level of respect that maybe only Doyle has - or higher.  Even if he doesn't want his name associated with an online poker site (he does run a circus after all), surely he must have a brother, sister, friend, or whatever that can be in charge?  And he probably knows a bunch of people with poker business savvy.

And then I got to thinking... even if it isn't Guy, why wouldn't some site with crappy community college software (like iPoker) make a lowball bid?  Cardplayer is implying the GBT deal is unlikely to go through.  FT's value gets less and less with each passing month.  iPoker could use the software, the patent on Rush, and obviously the ALL the ROW customers (see aforementioned later post).  And they already know how to "run" a poker business (kind of).  Eh hem.  What do you expect from community college dropouts?

I suppose this post is just the meaningless ramblings of an old man.  The main point is just to say, when you have the right information sources, it's easier to get ideas and be more analytical and productive.  As much much as I enjoy socializing with other regs in the regs' threads, knowing when Disco's going to order a hooker, Sabr's ass wiping habits and listening to UCD bitch about his girlfriend yet still stay with her is not going to add much value to my life.  As mentioned in my birthday post, I'm getting closer and closer to the grave.  I can't be wasting all that time on 2+2 - I need better time management.  I can listen to the Podcast while Mrs. Fly and the kids are trying to talk to me and kill 2 birds with one stone.  Carpe Diem.