The only person I know who can start a sentence with “Well, I'm currently teaching applied game theory in Cambridge,” and have it totally not phase me, is Brandon Adams.  Brandon holds a spot on more of my “The Only Person I Know Who…” Lists than probably anyone I’ve ever met.  In an old issue of Bluff, Brandon and Aaron Brown actually found a way to mathematically calculate the amount of skill vs. luck there is in winning the Main Event, using an applied economics theory called the “Gini Coefficient.” (in case you were wondering, any individual Main Event is around 24% skill and 76% luck."

Back in January at the Aussie Millions in Melbourne, Australia, Brandon and Patrik Antonius were gambling quite a bit on golf, and playing tennis just for fun.  At the time, Brandon was far superior the golfer and Patrik was far superior the tennis player.  They decided to do a combined golf and tennis bet, and attempted to handicap each match so that the golf match and the tennis match were even.  They left Melbourne without agreeing on terms.

One day back in the States, Brandon and Patrick were playing in Bobby’s Room.  Brandon recalls:

“Patrik said, ‘we can't leave until we agree on a bet.’  I told him that we should just play straight up and he said, ‘OK’, with alarming quickness.” 

Most of Brandon’s friends thought he was a dog in the bet; in fact, Kenny Tran, one of Brandon’s good friends, actually bet against Brandon.

The bet would be played out sometime in July.  Brandon and Patrik would play one round of golf for $100,000, straight up, followed by a tennis match, also straight up.  Brandon started taking tennis lessons a few times a week (sometimes with a former touring pro), and has been running and lifting weights.  Brandon told me he plans on kicking his training up-a-notch very soon - “Starting in mid-April, I'm going to play an extreme amount of tennis and golf.”

Having not played much tennis or golf, I naively assumed that it would be much easier for Brandon to get lucky in tennis than Patrik in golf.  Brandon, however, corrected me. “Your take is a bit off – actually it's golf where the worse player is more apt to get lucky.  In tennis, the better player virtually always wins.  That said, I think improvement comes a lot faster in tennis than in golf, and of course this works in my favor. “

I then asked Brandon, knowing what he knows now and where he is with his training, if he would want to buy out of the bet (and if so, for what amount), or if he would possibly want

to up the bet. “I would not raise the bet or buyout.  I believe Patrik would raise the amount.  I will allow myself to tend towards overconfidence and say that I am the favorite here.  My ego will not allow me to believe that Patrik could ever beat me in golf, and I think that in tennis we will be closely matched. “

The bet goes down in mid-July – smack in the middle of the WSOP, and I’m planning on, at the very least, doing a follow-up article.  In the spirit of investigative journalism, I asked Brandon if he would want to do a similar bet with me, but include Tecmo Super Bowl and video editing into the mix.   He declined. 
Told you he was smart.

Growing up, I always thought that politicians were role models.  Apparently, so did someone in the poker community.  Last week, the New York Daily News published an article stating that a woman, Kristin Davis, was being held on money laundering and promoting prostitution charges.  The Daily News also claimed that it had obtained a copy of Davis’ client list.

Although they didn’t reveal a name, the Daily News stated that “a well-known, high stakes” poker player was among the list of lawyers, doctors, and hedge fund managers.  The paper also claimed that the poker player was among Ms. Davis’ biggest spenders.  When the Times contacted the poker pro for comment, he said only, “All I know is what I read in the papers.”

Of course, speculation immediately ensued amongst forum regulars on the web.  By far the popular consensus is that the mystery poker pro is Mr. Steve Zolotow, mostly due to his brief appearance on the HBO series Cathouse, which follows the daily goings-on at a legal brothel located in Carson City, NV.  Steve Z is also from New York, and reportedly still owns a bar there.

I was surprised to learn that a few of my coworkers and poker friends had never heard about a concept, and I’m not referring to a pair against two overcards, I’m talking about “Coin-Flipping.”

I first learned about “Coin-Flipping” sessions in ‘07 while at Aaron Bartley’s house (we were on our way to the NCAA Final Four).  He told me that he would probably be betting more than usual on the games because he “had just won (something) thousand in ‘Coin-Flips’ against Mark Vos.”  After noticing I was puzzled, AB told me that sometimes pros get bored with the amount of “gamble” in normal online poker, and in order to get their “fix “they’ll sit at a table to “Coin-Flip.”  The players usually agree on a set number of hands, and then move all-in before the flop and just let the board run out.  The losing player reloads and they do it again – over and over and over, sometimes for hours.

And to think, I was always taught to AVOID coin-flips.