Local boy makes good

Capital Times:

LAS VEGAS (AP) -- Phil Hellmuth Jr. has become the winningest World Series of Poker player ever, beating 2,627 other players to win his 11th series tournament and move past Doyle Brunson and Johnny Chan in the bracelet race.

Hellmuth, a 42-year-old who dropped out of the University of Wisconsin-Madison to play professionally, won a $1,500 buy-in No Limit Hold'em event, beating Andy Philacheck at the final table to take home $637,254 in prize money, which was deposited on the felt in customary fashion. ...

Hellmuth, known in poker circles as the "brat" because of his complaints about opponents' play, appeared to live up to his nickname in the win.

"As I told him, he only called seven people an idiot on the way to winning it," Brunson said. "There's no put-on with him. He says what he thinks and he doesn't attempt to be diplomatic."

My last dropout story concerned Bill Gates, from Harvard (who just got an honorary doctorate, apparently after threatening a hostile takeover of the University). This is one of ours, at UW. (Would he have learned nicer manners had he stayed?)

Not everyone requires a college degree. Follow your bliss.

Theorizing Poker at the Harvard Faculty Club

Eye On Gambling : Online Poker is a game of skill, says Harvard expert

Four-time poker champion Howard Lederer makes a plush living playing cards. His scholarly calm at the table has earned him the title 'The Professor,' along with $3.3 million in tournament prize money.

Just don't call him lucky. To describe poker as anything but a game of skill, he says, 'is just wrong.'

Now poker fans in academe are jumping in to help prove that point, most recently with a daylong 'strategy session' at the Harvard Faculty Club bringing together poker pros like Mr. Lederer, game theorists, statisticians, law students and gambling lobbyists.

'The purpose of this meeting,' said Harvard University Law School professor Charles Nesson, kicking things off beneath the dusty visages of long-dead Harvard poets and divines, 'is to legitimate poker.' To do that, Prof. Nesson and his fellows hope to show, statistically, philosophically, legally and otherwise, that poker is a game in which skill predominates over chance.

It is the straight flush of poker theory -- and just about as elusive.

Not my game, but more interesting than most college sports...