Interview Announcement

Greetings!

I would now like to take a moment and announce that Wizard has conducted two interviews that are must-reads on our sister site LatestCasinoBonuses.com:

The first of these two is with Stanford Wong:

https://latestcasinobonuses.com/news/interviews/interview-with-stanford-wong

While the second is with Ken Smith of our recently acquired BlackjackInfo.com:

https://latestcasinobonuses.com/news/interviews/interview-with-ken-of-blackjackinfo-com

Please take the time to enjoy these two interviews, and thank you for your kind attention.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t this paragraph I copied below from that interview being written by the same person that went broke recently and was asking for donations to support his family on this site?

Not a good referral coming from him, is it?

“To fast forward to today, I count six of your books on my shelf and two pieces of software. My own advantage play career, and it is a stretch to call it a "career" in my case, was largely following your footsteps. From blackjack, to video poker, to tournament, to sports betting, you blazed the trail for me at every step. So, thank you for being an inspiration to me. Had it not been for you, I probably would have never became so mixed up in the world of gambling, which has served me very well.”

Quote: blackhole

Correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t this paragraph I copied below from that interview being written by the same person that went broke recently and was asking for donations to support his family on this site?

Not a good referral coming from him, is it?

“To fast forward to today, I count six of your books on my shelf and two pieces of software. My own advantage play career, and it is a stretch to call it a "career" in my case, was largely following your footsteps. From blackjack, to video poker, to tournament, to sports betting, you blazed the trail for me at every step. So, thank you for being an inspiration to me. Had it not been for you, I probably would have never became so mixed up in the world of gambling, which has served me very well.”

So. I think this is a small and disingenuous twisting of events, and I'm going to discuss them from my perspective.

Mike is very good at what he does and is well-respected in the industry. If he wishes to pay tribute to someone who went before him and gave him something to model on, it is a high compliment to that person. And I think Mike's time as an AP, though he says it was unsuccessful, makes his work better and more useful by having that experience.

What Mike self-admitted many times was that he was not good at monetizing his work on these websites. He asked for suggestions from the members for months on ways to make the sites pay, after financing them from his own pockets for years, once Cyprus nationalized their banks and confiscated a huge amount of his money.

We gave him many suggestions. Among them, dozens of us offered to do paid subscriptions or donate towards his expenses. He reluctantly agreed, after a lot of discussion, to accept donations, because he wanted to keep the websites free.

He was approached by Joshua Chan as a businessman who DOES know how to monetize websites, with a proposal that included retaining both the sites as they were, and the Wizard himself, and a large cash price. I don't know how anyone would have turned that down, but it was very difficult for the Wizard to say yes.

It appears to me, 2 years later, that Joshua has been a white knight. He/they have allowed the websites to remain largely autonomous, the content to grow, the forum to continue without editorial footprints. The Wizard has the income and resources he needs to continue. And we have a free place to have discussions. Including you making snide comments like the above. Seems like a win to me.

Quote: blackhole

Correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t this paragraph I copied below from that interview being written by the same person that went broke recently and was asking for donations to support his family on this site?

I consider this to be very insulting. However, as a matter of policy, I like to show extra restraint when the insult is of me, so will let this off with a warning and a statement that I will be watching you very carefully. Consider yourself invited to leave voluntarily.

Also, thank you Barbara for the kind words of explanation and support.

p.s. The ban given was for a personal insult in this post.

some interesting answers by Mr Wong here. Surprised by his answer on dice influence

Quote: Zuga

some interesting answers by Mr Wong here. Surprised by his answer on dice influence

Really? I doubt many others were. Not that they agreed, just they were not surprised by his answer!

He had seemed to walk back his opinion and had a bit different answer on whether dice control was possible, or if an edge was attainable on a GWAE show back when shack was a host. Maybe he was just trying to avoid disagreement with Mike knowing he was very skeptical.

Anyways, I enjoyed both interviews.

Best one

Nowadays, I can see six of your books and two pieces of software on my bookshelves. I mostly emulated your advantage play career, though it would be a stretch to call it a "career" in my situation. You paved the way for me at every turn, whether it was in blackjack, video poker, tournaments, or sports betting. So please accept my gratitude for inspiring me. Without you, I doubt I would have become so involved in the gaming industry, which has been quite beneficial to me.

Quote: eni0

Nowadays, I can see six of your books and two pieces of software on my bookshelves. I mostly emulated your advantage play career, though it would be a stretch to call it a "career" in my situation. You paved the way for me at every turn, whether it was in blackjack, video poker, tournaments, or sports betting. So please accept my gratitude for inspiring me. Without you, I doubt I would have become so involved in the gaming industry, which has been quite beneficial to me.
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Glad I could be a help.

Quote: blackhole

Correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t this paragraph I copied below from that interview being written by the same person that went broke recently and was asking for donations to support his family on this site?

Not a good referral coming from him, is it?

“To fast forward to today, I count six of your books on my shelf and two pieces of software. My own advantage play career, and it is a stretch to call it a "career" in my case, was largely following your footsteps. From blackjack, to video poker, to tournament, to sports betting, you blazed the trail for me at every step. So, thank you for being an inspiration to me. Had it not been for you, I probably would have never became so mixed up in the world of gambling, which has served me very well.”
link to original post

Black hole, is that your nickname or is that the name your mother gave you. I'm betting on your mother..

Quote: EvenBob

Quote: blackhole

Correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t this paragraph I copied below from that interview being written by the same person that went broke recently and was asking for donations to support his family on this site?

Not a good referral coming from him, is it?

“To fast forward to today, I count six of your books on my shelf and two pieces of software. My own advantage play career, and it is a stretch to call it a "career" in my case, was largely following your footsteps. From blackjack, to video poker, to tournament, to sports betting, you blazed the trail for me at every step. So, thank you for being an inspiration to me. Had it not been for you, I probably would have never became so mixed up in the world of gambling, which has served me very well.”
link to original post

Black hole, is that your nickname or is that the name your mother gave you. I'm betting on your mother..
link to original post

Personal Insult, 7 days.
Extenuating factors: 6 year old post from a banned member