July 8, 2008

How to win at games of chance

Time Magazine has an article on how John McCain, no surprise, loves to roll the dice in casinos, while Barack Obama played poker every Wednesday night in Springfield with other legislators and lobbyists. Most nights Obama won.

In fact, that would have to be just about my number one tip on how to win at gambling: Be a state legislator and play poker against lobbyists.

My published articles are archived at iSteve.com -- Steve Sailer

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

I wonder if Obama ever played poker at the Purple Hotel.

Anonymous said...

The Wire had the corrupt mayor call a poker game with all the developers when he was short on campaign cash with the implication that this was a regular shakedown.

Definitely the sharpest show ever aired. The themes from this blog were on display. The funny thing is that the show is actually popular with liberals (it got a mention on stuffwhitepeoplelike).

-Steve Johnson

COOL BOY said...

I'd bet that McCain is one of those people who is incapable of understanding basic probability. A deeply superstitious man who likes to pontificate about his 'system' for craps. He sounds like someone with too low of an IQ to understand independently random events. He was ranked 894 out of 899 at the Naval academy. I think it is safe to assume he only got into it because his father and grand father were admirals. What would you guess McCain's IQ is? I'd guess the average IQ for the naval academy is about 115? McCain's achievement level was in the bottom .5% (a little worse actually) assuming IQ at the Naval Academy was normally distributed with a standard deviation of 15 points that would put McCain at about an IQ of about 76.

Winston Groom must be tickled at having been so prescient. Admittedly it would have made sense if Gump had married for his money and had been born to a prestigious military family. Then again Gump never got to be President. You talk about Obama failing his way up. McCain's greatest accomplishment was getting his plane shot down.

Anonymous said...

Ha! Play against lobbyists and ya win! "Why Sen.Obama,you are quite the poker player---youve got a real poker face!!" "Did I ever tell you about the time I confronted a car filled with angry disaffected black youths? Its in my book..." "Your book? Oh yeah,great book,just great. BTW can I put in another order for 50 or so? For Xmas gifts." " Certainly. Now about those youths. I felt empathy,concern,I was deeply troubled about the future course of their lives,about their,you know,being disaffected and all." "Do tell!" "But there was something more...I admit I felt a twinge---of fear. That,my friend,is where the poker face is needed. Those years of growing up hard,growing up mean,running the streets...thats where they paid off! Now...who's in? Aces high,my friends..."

Anonymous said...

A few years ago Rick Reilly of Sports Illustrated wrote a really weird column on poker superstar Phil Ivey, who is mostly black. At one point he said something like "Oh, and another thing: he's black." As if it was a really big deal that a black man could play poker.

It would seem that liberal columnists like Reilly are more shocked than the actual KKK by this fact, and perpetuate the stereotype more than the KKK too. I'm not American, so the column was a real headscratcher for me.

Ah, I found the article:

"One of the hottest tournament poker players in the world happens to be black. Three weeks into this five-week chipathon Phil Ivey, 25, from Atlantic City, had already won three two-day tournaments, not to mention made it to two other final tables. He'd be the first black to win the five-day championship event."

Great, then twenty five years from now we can haul ol' Phil out to present the gold bracelet on the occasion of the "25th anniversary" of a black man winning a poker tournament, sort of like how they dragged Doug Williams out this year to present the Super Bowl trophy on the 25th anniversary of a black QB winning the superbowl. We can all gather around and marvel "he speaks so well!" and "he's so well spoken!", it will be fun!

sportsillustrated.cnn.com/inside_game/magazine/life_of_reilly/news/2002/05/14/life_of_reilly/

Jewish guys are good at cards too, but their friends in the media go through hoops to hide that fact:

"f there's anything we can learn from 21, it's that Hollywood won't give an Asian man a starring role unless it calls for someone who can do karate while getting berated by Chris Tucker.

In fact, 21 gives us perhaps the greatest whitewash in recent Hollywood history--a broad, sweeping stroke of Caucasian across the majority of the cast.

The real MIT Blackjack Team was almost totally Asian"

Wrong. JP Massar and the other ringleaders were Jewish, the Asians were basically hired help.

www.cracked.com/article_16478_7-movies-based-on-true-story-that-are-complete-bullshit.html

Anonymous said...

Michael:

I'd guess the average IQ for the naval academy is about 115? McCain's achievement level was in the bottom .5% (a little worse actually) assuming IQ at the Naval Academy was normally distributed with a standard deviation of 15

And you'd guess that their mean three-mile run time is 19 minutes, with a standard deviation of 6 minutes (or whatever it is in the general population), right?

COOL BOY said...

And you'd guess that their mean three-mile run time is 19 minutes, with a standard deviation of 6 minutes (or whatever it is in the general population), right?

Nope that would be really dumb of me. The mean IQ is 100 I spotted the naval academy a full standard deviation maybe a little more is appropriate but probably not much more. The big difference is that using the populations standard deviation is probably a mistake because higher education institutions have people not just of better abilities but of more similar abilities. At any rate my comment was a joke. I don't think McCain is actually as dumb as Forrest Gump. I do think he is probably much dumber than Obama though. Magna Cum Laude from Harvard law is quite a trick in a way that pretty much the worst in the naval academy when your dad got you in isn't.

Thanks for playing though!

Anonymous said...

Off topic, but Jim Geraghty over at NRO's Campaign Spot has an interesting take on Obama's curious habit of quoting anonymous Republicans when he wants to make Republicans sound bad.

assuming IQ at the Naval Academy was normally distributed with a standard deviation of 15 points that would put McCain at about an IQ of about 76.

Why would IQ's of USNA midshipmen be in the normal range?

Even if they were, your numbers assume that everyone who started with McCain finished with him, when certainly quite a few, perhaps dumber or less motivated than Mccain, were kicked out.

AmericanGoy said...

niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice

m said...

Michael, I think Steve may have covered this but mccain's Iq is in the high 120's if not 130's...also when you end your rants with phrases like "thanks for playing" it is incredibly smug and queer.

toooodles

Anonymous said...

Micahel,
Its not Obamas IQ which bothers me. I don't want to live under black leadership because black culture and black political systems suck. I'm from South Africa so I should know.

Anonymous said...

"McCain's achievement level was in the bottom .5% (a little worse actually) assuming IQ at the Naval Academy was normally distributed with a standard deviation of 15 points that would put McCain at about an IQ of about 76."

If he had an IQ that low he would never have got his jet off the deck, let alone be able to crash the damnned thing...

Anonymous said...

It's been pointed out here that McCain's class rank suffered from penalties levied against him for non-academic conduct.