68 AMERICANWAY
NOVEMBER 1 2008
I N V E S T I N G
firstprizeof$12million.Buthedid, andhe
failed topay off Leyser immediately. Leyser
filed a lawsuit and the dispute got settled,
but not without loads of unseemly gossip.
To the old-school poker players, for whom
word is bond, this conflict seemed ridicu-
lous. “Thewhole thing sounds
[
messedup
]
,”
said veteran gambler Billy Baxter not long
after Gold supposedly reneged. “But we
don’t knowwhat the real deal was, and six
million is an awful lot to pay if you think
youdon’t reallyowe it.”
The point being that having things in
writing removes theguessworkand reduces
thepotential headaches.
BEforE INVESTING moNEy
in a gambler,
youneedtobeawareofthepotentialpitfalls.
For starters, this isn’t like buying stock and
being protected by the U.S. Securities and
ExchangeCommission. It’s apretty roguish
investment, and you want to be sure that
your racehorse isn’t going to run awaywith
your money. So invest with someone you
trust, not some dude who approaches you
in theBellagiocoffee shop, claiming tohave
left hisbankroll at his girlfriend’shouse.
You also want to make sure that your
player can do what he says he can. The
tricky thing here is the reality that the peo-
ple you want to back are usually the very
people who don’t need to be backed. But
there are plenty of reasons — beyond an
inability to keep from losing—why a suc-
cessful playerwouldoptnot togamblewith
hisownbankroll.Maybehe’sbeenperform-
ingwell but running badly,maybe he plays
betterwhen someoneelse’smoney isat risk,
maybe his bankroll can’t handle the stakes
of an ideal game, or maybe he simply has
no interest inwithstanding the swings that
comewith certain kinds of gambling. Such
has been the case, at one time or another,
for well-known pros, includingDaniel Ne-
greanu, AnnieDuke, andPhilHellmuth.
Critically,makesure thatyourguy isplay-
ing a game he can beat. This goes beyond
yourplayersticking topoker,blackjack, golf,
and sportsbetting— the four formsof gam-
bling inwhichastutepractitioners can typi-
callyfindedges(besuspiciousofanyonewho
sayshecanbeatcraps)—andgetsmore into
game selection. “When someone talksabout
agoodgame,”I’vebeen toldbymanyapoker
pro, “he’s talking about a game he canbeat,
notaboutagame that iscompetitiveorfilled
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