To those of us who remember going to bed each night serenaded by Ted Koppel’s voice on ABC’s “Nightline,” the latest film by Ben Affleck will bring back vivid memories.
Yet remarkably, even though we remember how the Iranian Hostage Crisis turned out, the personal stories and occasional acts of heroism behind the daily headlines remain mostly untold and little known.
“Argo” tells the griping story of a secret CIA-led mission to rescue six American hostages who managed to escape the doomed American Embassy on the day it was swarmed by an Iranian mob, which eventually led to a 444-day stalemate for those left behind who remained trapped in captivity. The six consular workers who managed to slip out a side door, just as the Embassy compound was being stormed, hid away for more than two months. They were housed at great risk inside the Canadian Ambassador’s residence, in Tehran.
Unfortunately for the hostages, the time clock is ticking. The Canadian Ambassador receives word that his mission is to close, leaving the hidden Americans in a proverbial lifeboat, now suddenly taking on water.
This sets into motion one of the oddest alliances ever for a clandestine operation, bringing together intelligence officials working alongside Hollywood insiders who must concoct a phony film as a cover story. The wacky idea is to pretend to make a movie in Iran, and smuggle out the American diplomats.
Here’s the final video I took on the night of Greg Merson’s amazing victory in the 2012 world poker championship.
We are arranging for Merson to pose in front of ESPN cameras and photographers in front of $8 million in cash. I am caught handing over the WSOP gold-platinum-diamond bracelet designed by Jason of Beverly Hills to Merson has he strikes the champion’s pose.
Congratualtions to Greg Merson, the 2012 WSOP Main Event champion and WSOP “Player of the Year.”
This short 80-second video was taken just moments after Greg Merson, a 24-year-old poker pro from Laurel, Maryland became the 2012 world poker champion. His victory took place on the Penn and Teller Stage at the Rio in Las Vegas.
This vantage point shows ESPN cameras and some stage direction in the show’s closing moments, following a record-setting final table that lasted 399 hands.
Jake Balsiger, a 21-year-old college student at Arizona State University, had a chance to become the youngest world champion in poker history. However, he ended up finshing in third place, which paid a nice consolation prize of nearly $4 million.
Balsiger lasted nearly 11 hours in a three-handed marathon that set the record as the longest span ever recorded without a bustout in the Main Event Championship.
After he was eliminated at 5 am on October 31, 2012, I shot this short video of Balsiger at his press conference at the Rio in Las Vegas. Considering the battle he’d endured and the disappointment he must have felt at having played so long, and still finished third (he actually had the chip lead at one point), Balsiger appears remarkably positive and upbeat.
I think this video is the perfect testament to a remarkable young man who enjoyed an incredible once-in-a-lifetime run at the World Series of Poker.
Note to readers: I shot this video on Monday night, just as Michael Esposito busted out of the 2012 world poker championship in seventh place. The video shows Esposito leaving the ESPN stage area after being inteviewed by Kara Scott. He is escorted out the back door and to waiting family and freinds, as well as a press conference. The WSOP’s Seth Palansky, who accompanies Esposito in this short video, tries to make the walk a little less disappointing.
I’m doing something unusual this year, which is covering the championship from the audience’s point of view — which means writing and reporting on the atmosphere and happenings inside the Penn and Teller Theatre, rather than just the stage and final table. I’ll also relate some behind the scenes news.
40 WINS – 32 LOSSES – 2 PUSHES —– (+ 11.575 units / 1 unit = $100)
STARTING BANKROLL: $10,000.
CURRENT BANKROLL: $11,575.
BEST BETS OF THE WEEK: 4-3-0
5 wins and 4 losses (1 push) last week. I did manage to gain +8.8 units which is the real goal. As this NFL season approaches the midway point, it’s nice to be in the black in all categories.
On to Week 8 — Making 9 bets and wagering $3,330.
Note: All wagers are for amusement-purposes only. I bear no responsibility for those who may decide to follow my plays.
Yesterday, sports bettors got a rude awakening. They weren’t just thrown under the proverbial bus. They were mauled by a 16-wheeler of steel-belted radials encrusted with heavy snow chains. Then, the bus cranked into reverse and the helpless collective known as the “American sports bettor” was flattened again.
In case you missed the news, sports gambling faced its own “vice squad-lite” version of so-called “Black Friday,” when authorities in New York went after several agents alleged to be involved in offshore sports gambling. The net of dozens of arrests stretched all the way from the East Coast to Las Vegas, and even entangled Cantor’s head of sports wagering.
My reaction to yesterday’s news wasn’t so much one of surprise, but rather mild curiosity as to why it took law enforcement so long to clamp down on a blatantly conspicuous activity that’s unequivocally forbidden in most localities and states, as well as outlawed nationally by the infamous 1961 Wire Act.
A few years ago, I penned an editorial for Bluff magazine on the odd and uneasy connection between two gambling sectors — poker and sports wagering — when it comes to fighting for legalization. Given the renewed timeliness of this issue, I thought it might be a good day to revisit this subject.
Hitchens, who died nearly a year ago, penned some 15 books over the course a bombastically bountiful career that spanned nearly three decades — the first half spent in the U.K., the nation of his birth, and the later half in the U.S., the country to which he eventually attached himself as a naturalized citizen. But his real citizenry was to free thought, ideas, and debate.
The short-lived Players Television Network debuted at the 2005 World Series of Poker.
I was asked to moderate two panel discussions, which were later broadcast via “On Demand.” The first show was on the late-great poker legend, Stu Ungar.
The second show (featured here) was a panel discussion about the business of online poker.
I wasn’t at all prepared to assume the role of moderator. I recall leaving the rigors of my job at the WSOP for an hour or so, getting abruptly fitted with a microphone, and then walking out and taking a seat in front of a live studio audience and rolling television cameras with no script.
The good thing about the unrehearsed format is that everything was spontaneous. The bad thing is the show could have been much crisper had I been prepared. Looking back now, I certainly would have asked more penetrating questions than what appears here.
Fortunately, the three guests who appeared on the online poker segment were outstanding. Tony Cabot (one of the world’s top legal experts on online gambling), Mike Sexton (then a consultant to PartyPoker), and Dan Goldman (then a consultant to PokerStars) were all in top form.
Even though this discussion might seem dated now seven years later, it holds up remarkably well over time. Many of the things discussed that day have happened, just as predicted.
Here’s that panel discussion from 2005 that runs about 40 minutes in length.
