Saturday, March 04, 2006

Poker cover

Many people know, or know of someone like this. A young man, typically in his 20s. He lives a flashy lifestyle. Thick wad of cash in his pocket. He drives a BMW yet has no visible means of support.

You know what he does for a living. He's a dealer, a player, a hustler. Now when someone does this it can be a bit awkward to discuss his livelihood. A standard response if it comes up at say a house party is for him to say he does "import export". That explains the odd hours he keeps and his lifestyle. It's also code word, a signal for the person he's talking with to quickly move on and change the subject.

Now poker opens up new opportunities for the gangster to use as a cover. Instead of "import export", a hustler could instead claim that he's making $100 an hour "playing poker on the Internet". There are certainly people out there making that much and more on the Internet, so it is plausible. Also that would neatly explain how he could be hanging around the mall during the weekdays wearing designer clothes and driving a Benz. He can just claim that he likes to play late at night when there are lots of drunks online who are easier to beat.


One last thing about gangsters. They are apparently pretty good to play pick up hockey with. I heard a story about some guys who rented the ice for an hour a week. The way it worked was everyone paid up front for the season which was around 25 ice times. The cost was $200 per person. The organizer walked up to the player to get the money for the ice time.

The gangster pulls out a 2 inch thick wad of cash. He peels off three $100 bills and hands them to the organizer. The organizer says, "Uh, its only $200." The gangster waves him off and says, "Just keep it." So playing with gangsters made it a bit cheaper for everyone else.