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Predictions

by Brett

Mon, Jun 13th 2005 10:24am





Funded By Texas Hold 'Em Or Just Bluffing The Press?

from the poker-face dept

Venture capital may be on the rise again, but it's still a far cry from the heady dot-com bubble days. So entrepreneurs are relying on more clever ways of funding their startups. For example, one company claims they've sustained their company by playing online poker. If true, this would not only be one of the most loco funding stories, but it gives more credence to the idea of a poker bubble, in which everyone and their mother is either playing poker or launching some kind of poker venture. Of course, the story itself has the air of publicity stunt written all over it, like the myth of eBay's founding as a way to collect Pez dispensers. The idea that you could consistently win as much as these guys are claiming sounds pretty dubious. Maybe they're just seeking out neophytes, suckers, and drunk Americans at 4:00 AM, but you have to wonder how long that can last. The odds are just not that much in their favor. Regardless, the eBay example shows that a willing press can help propel an interesting story -- true or not -- to legend status. Even if it turns out to be false years later, oh well. The PR gimmick has already done its job.

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    dorpus, Jun 13th, 2005 @ 12:09pm

    Generalized Estimating Equations (GEE)

    If we wanted to determine the effectiveness of educating children on the dangers of gambling/ smoking/etc., what is the best way to conduct the experiment? We could have education seminars in half of the classrooms, but then the control groups and treatment groups would not be perfectly equal, owing to classroom effects. Instead, we should teach only half the kids in each classroom, then gamble on whether they will turn into addicts later.

     

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    Director Mitch, Jun 13th, 2005 @ 9:59pm

    The FedEx Story is True

    There is the (I believe true) story of the FedEx founders not having enough to make payroll and going to Vegas, winning it big, and living to fight another day (I believe it was roulette and not poker, but a Google search confirmed only the Vegas part and not what game it was)

     

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