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Maryann Guberman has been a writer and editor with many gaming publications, including Sports Form, Card Player, Poker World, Player's Panorama and Systems and Methods. She also has written and edited numerous books on gambling.

June 06, 2009

'The Mouth' Roars and So Does Harrah's

Here are two items I never thought I'd put into words: The Mouth deserves attention and Harrah's gets it.

Okay, first The Mouth:

I just finished reading Check Raising the Devil, the autobiography of Mike Matusow, written with Amy Calistri and Tim Lavalli, who, I believe, might have begun a Zen retreat when the last punctuation mark went down. I'm not sure why I didn't want to read this book but I guess it's because I find the guy too annoying, too much enraptured with his image, and not deep enough to warrant the time it would take to get to know him. Yeah, I do know why I didn't want to read this book.

I still think he's too annoying, but that's a personality trait that might never change. And I still believe he's enraptured with his image, but in a positive bent now. I'm not sure about the lack of depth of his character but I think I'm leaning away from this criticism. The confessions in the book lead me to believe there's more to the man than his mouth. Maybe, if there's a partie deux, we'll find out. Maybe we'll see Mike Matusow using, not necessarily his money but his celebrity, for the greater good. (Okay, I'm a do-gooder, and this is a character trait I admire in people.)

What I learned from the book was something I should have known. Mike's a natural when it comes to poker and Mike's bipolar problems are so extreme they effect more than him.

People don't give much leeway to bipolar illness. Those who suffer from it don't need a wheelchair, aren't disfigured and just don't exhibit any physical disability that warrants extra consideration. Bipolar is a disease that messes up the brain and mind and while it incapacitates the sufferer, the observer usually sees the behavior as obnoxious (annoying), inappropriate and work-at-it changeable.

Despite his disorder (which we soon learn was exacerbated by self medication with street drugs), Mike was almost a savant at reading and manipulating poker players. He started his career as a winner and went on a whirlwind trip, winning and spending. (There's a disrespectful name for what happened when Mike came in to money suddenly. I won't write it but basically it means spending money just because you can, on things you don't need that won't last you that long. Those things were parties, drugs, prostitutes, more parties, more drugs and more prostitutes.)

Mike's bio doesn't just give us a lot of insight into how to play poker but it does provide a look at what can happen to players who think they've found the Holy Grail. He openly reveals how he had no life before poker, how poker helped define his life and how he almost destroyed everything poker gave him. Despite the fact that he traveled in high-stakes company, this guy was (and maybe still is) pretty damn naive. Hooked on crack, he thought he was the only person who knew what this miracle drug could do for you. Having hot women slobbering all over him, he thought it was his charm and personality that served the babes up. Being set up by undercover cops, he thought of himself as an innocent and couldn't believe someone would do that to him.

Nope, Mike Matusow's bio isn't about how to play poker. It's more about how not to let poker play you. It's well-written, tightly edited, and very revealing. It's the one book smart guys should read before they put the words Òprofessional poker playerÓ after their names.

Now for the second and much lighter subject, Harrah's:

Online gambling was partially responsible for the popularity of poker among the masses. Many of us were tapping away on our mice or keypads, checking and raising strangers from around the globe from our bedrooms, parlors, kitchens, and anywhere we had good Internet access. Then an upstart player with nothing but virtual experience won a World Series of Poker satellite and rode its tail to a championship.

Hollywood couldn't have written a better script, one that topped the first satellite-to-championship legend of Tom McEvoy, because this one came with a bankable name: Moneymaker!

Fast forward to a time when conservative congressmen, most of whom can't balance their own checking accounts, decide they want to restrict what citizens of the U.S. can do with their money. They tack a few sentences onto a bill that hasn't got a prayer of going down the tubes and suddenly people who play online (Did they really think this bill would put an end to online poker?) begin talking about their success and failure in hushed tones.

It constantly surprised me that casinos in Las Vegas, always looking for an edge, didn't defend online gambling. Granted, the folks who balance the casinos' budgets look only at what's coming and going on the current property, but didn't they see how much wasn't coming? The money that could flow into the land-based building was flowing off to some unknown entities in places like Costa Rica and Aruba and who knows where. Didn't they think about the possibility of having their brand name plastered over every search engine every time somebody googled the word poker or gambling or slots? Why didn't the casino execs, with their great production bonuses see the obvious?

Well, it seems as if Harrah's decisions makers have finally noticed a light bulb above their heads.

On May 22, they announced the addition of Mitch Garber to the position of CEO of Harrah's Interactive Entertainment. (For those who don't recognize Garber's name, he was the CEO of PartyPoker.com.) According to Gary Loveman, formerly of Harvard Business School and currently riding the tails of a gambling explosion as the big cheese of Harrah's, the company is stepping up to the plate because, ÒIt is important we position ourselves to explore new markets as well as new technologies with our best in class brands.Ó

Think about it folks. While this plan gets launched in Europe, can't you just see yourself playing from the U.S. in a U.S. land-based casino in the near future?