Re: does anyone remember \"george\"?
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Considering the Slovenian government funds poker players/research and assuming a good part of these players are associated with Izmet Fekali and his group, this is a definite possiblity.
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Can somebody confirm this whole Slovenia thing? I remember reading the following Abdul post awhile ago and I (along with most of RGP) assumed it was a joke:
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As I posted previously, I have been living in Ljubljana, Slovenia for
much of the last year. The winter was a bit hard to take, with the
last snow less than two weeks ago. And this language is so hard for me
to learn. But I'm living the dream of a professional nomadic online
poker player, and I look forward to some balmy nights playing poker by
the Adriatic. I don't even bother with travelling to Vienna for live
poker any more, because of the opportunity cost for three hours travel
time each way. Plus, Europeans smoke like there is no tomorrow. So, I
much prefer to play online.
It's kind of old news, but in case you haven't heard, the Slovenian
government is sponsoring a program to train poker players. Slovenia is
a socialist country, at least by American standards, and the government
seems to like to waste money. The government also sponsors billiards
players. The Slovenian poker players have funding for computer
simulations. They get free airfare to travel to tournaments. When you
see them in big games you can be sure they are playing with government
money. The whole thing strikes me as a bit like fusion... sure it
works, but the amount of money the Slovenian government is investing is
far more than the money they get out.
That could change, though, since a big part of the research is bots. I
know at least one bot here is ready for action. Someone here showed me
figures suggesting that as much as 1% of the Slovenian GNP could come
from poker bots playing online poker in the future. I am concerned
that a country (albeit a tiny one) would so aggressively pursue money
that is for some a fun pasttime and for others a serious career.
Are we moderated yet?
--
Abdul
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