Obama, wtf?

Yesterday US President Obama came out with his latest brain-fart of cutting proprietary trading from banks and restricting them from owning or backing any hedge funds or private equities. I mean, what's he been smoking? He's removing prop trading so bankers and traders "cannot gamble with (government insured) depositor's money". I feel that that's unfair categorization. It's true that some hedge funds traders and investment bankers are responsible for the financial crisis. But throwing out a ban like this is like categorizing all hedgies and bankers as evil. It's just unfair. Most hedge funds are less risky than the buy-only mutual funds (because they can hedge their bets... duhh.), and most hedge fund managers are responsible people who take their careers and their investors' money very seriously. To give the impression that by putting a leash on traders he can effectively prevent this mess from happening again is just over-simplifying things and naive.

More importantly, it almost feels like the guy just wakes up with new ideas to mess things around. A few weeks ago we got the bonus tax, which was pretty sick already. (He wants to tax bankers who receive big bonus in 2009 because they're the idiots who got us all into this mess and because the rest of the economy is still suffering from unemployment etc. Again, over-categorization. Maybe the bankers getting the bonuses actually did what they could to prevent the ship from sinking even faster? It's unfair to rip them of their contributions even in a messy situation. Oh, and maybe these bankers actually have their lives depended on the big bonuses? Traders generally make a not-amazing base salary, and their lifestyle and all depends on the size of the check at the end of the year. It's unfair to judge people as wrong because they lead an above average lifestyle.)

I have a feeling that Obama's just throwing out this new prop-trading ban for popularity after the Democrats painfully lost in Massachusetts because they're desperate to do something. All in all, I'm very disappointed and everything smells less and less like democracy and more and more like something else common in China. What happened to checks and balances? Don't get me wrong, I supported Obama during the election and (I think) I still do. I just hope he can get his act together becuase supporters are losing patience.

Bonus: Hilter finds out the Massachusetts Senate seat was won by a Republican

Yeah, some of us might be wishing we've stuck with Hilary instead.

Macau Poker Cup Warmup

OMG awesomeness. I have my buddy Doug in town from Toronto and we planned to go to Macau on the Feb 20th weekend. And then today I saw Pokerstars Macau coming out with a MPC Warmup for that exact weekend! Here's the full schedule:

FRIDAY - February 19

2:10 PM --> FREE-to-ENTER Red Dragon Satellite Special --> Buyin: FREE**
5:00 PM -->Satellite to Red Dragon Satellite Special --> Buyin: $500
8:10 PM -->Red Dragon Satellite Special - 5 SEAT GUARANTEE--> Buyin: $2,200


SATURDAY - February 20

12:10 PM -->Satellite to $4000 KO Bounty--> Buyin: $660
2:10 PM -->Satellite to $4000 KO Bounty--> Buyin: $660
3:00 PM -->1-table satellites to $4000 KO BOUNTY (On Demand) --> Buyin: $880
6:00 PM--> $4000 KO BOUNTY 150K GUARANTEE --> Buyin:$4,000

The plan is to get there on Saturday around noon and have lunch, show Doug around, go to a few casinos, have early dinner, and play in the $4k KO tourney. Inevitably we'll also party after the game and make it crazy! Who else is gonna go pls holla! Let's do some side bets for last longer or most KOs or whatever!

Bonus: 2nd Ultra for all Super Street Fighter 4 characters (except T. Hawk)

cool: Akuma, Cody, Guy, Barlog, Cammy, C. Viper, Ryu, M. Bison, Dee Jay, Ken, Dalsim, Zangief, Fei Long

lame (basically all super projectiles): Chun Li, Sagat, Gouken, Guile, Dan, Sakura, Rose

super lame: Juri (maybe it's just the demo guy being a sucker but it looks like a lot of nothing)

Macau Poker Cup (March 2010) Schedule

Here's what we (at least I) have been waiting for, enjoy.

Macau Poker Cup - March 3 to 7
Draft Schedule

Monday 1-Mar
2:10 PM Phase 1 - Red Dragon Satellite $240 220+20 1-in-5 players get entry to Phase 2 - Red Dragon
4:30 AM Phase 1 - Red Dragon Satellite $240 220+20 1-in-5 players get entry to Phase 2 - Red Dragon
8:10 PM Phase 2 - Red Dragon Satellite $1,100 1000+100 1-in-10 players get entry to Red Dragon

Tuesday 2-Mar
2:10 PM Phase 1 - Red Dragon Satellite $240 220+20 1-in-5 players get entry to Phase 2 - Red Dragon
4:30 PM Phase 1 - Red Dragon Satellite $240 220+20 1-in-5 players get entry to Phase 2 - Red Dragon
8:10 PM Phase 2 - Red Dragon Satellite $1,100 1000+100 1-in-10 players get entry to Red Dragon

Wednesday 3-Mar
12:10 PM Phase 1 - Red Dragon Satellite $240 220+20 1-in-5 players get entry to Phase 2 - Red Dragon
2:10 PM Phase 1 - Red Dragon Satellite $240 220+20 1-in-5 players get entry to Phase 2 - Red Dragon
5:00 PM Phase 2 - Red Dragon Satellite $1,100 1000+100 1-in-10 players get entry to Red Dragon
8:10 PM MPC Event No. 1: KO Bounty Event $2,000 1800+200 $500 per KO

Thursday 4-Mar
12:10 PM Phase 1 - Red Dragon Satellite $240 220+20 1-in-5 players get entry to Phase 2 - Red Dragon
2:10 PM MPC Event No. 2: Charity Event (50K Added Prizes) $1,000 500+500 charity 2 rebuys
5:00 PM Phase 2 - Red Dragon Satellite $1,100 1000+100 1-in-10 players get entry to Red Dragon
8:10 PM MPC Event No. 3: $3000 NLH 200K Guarantee 2 day event 200K $3,000 2700+300

Friday 5-Mar
12:10 PM MPC Event No. 4: Deep Stack 100K Guarantee 100K $1,500
2:00 PM MPC Event No. 3 DAY 2
5:00 PM Phase 2 - Red Dragon Satellite $1,100 1000+100 1-in-10 players get entry to Red Dragon
8:10 PM MPC Event No. 5: Red Dragon $1,000,000 Guarantee, Day 1A 1M $10,000 9200+800 150 player cap
10:30 PM Last Chance Mega Satellite - Red Dragon $2,200 2000+200 1-in-5 players get entry to Red Dragon

Saturday 6-Mar
12:10 PM MPC Event No. 5: Red Dragon $1,000,000 Guarantee, Day 1B 1M $10,000 9200+800
5:00 PM Phase 2 - APPT Macau $950 860+90 1-in-5 players get entry to APPT Phase 3
6:30 PM MPC Event No. 5: Red Dragon Dinner Break
7:30 PM MPC Event No. 5: Red Dragon, Day 2

Sunday 7-Mar
12:10 PM MPC Event No. 5: Red Dragon, Day 3
2:10 PM MPC Event No. 6: $500 Rebuy 50K Guarantee 50K $500 450+50
6:00 PM Phase 3 - APPT Macau $4,300 1-in-10 players get 40k entry to APPT Macau

I'm likely to play Day 1A of the Red Dragon so I can sleep in after the inevitable Friday night party. And yes, they've cancelled the Highroller tourney, wtf am I gonna defend?