I love the wren. I love its cuteness, and how it struts its stuff with its erect tail in the air wagging its derriere in your face. Most of all, I love the way it weaves its nest into the bracken, making it almost impossible to spot.
I want that nest.
I want to be a wren.
I want to fly away and shut myself off from the world.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared the Coronavirus a pandemic after the caseload rose to 118,619, with 4,292 dead.
In a quick response, President Donald Trump addressed the nation, declaring a ban on all incoming European travel beginning midnight, Friday, March 13. The ban will last for a minimum of a month. The UK is exempt.
The NBA suspended the season after a player tested positive.
Italy is on lockdown.
Even Tom Hanks has it.
It’s a nightmare.
How it Affects Poker
Daniel Negreanu had this to say about live poker on Twitter.
You can expand Negreanu’s views to the entire gambling industry. A poker table is a baccarat table is a blackjack table. It is a real problem, and currently, without a vaccine, the best plan of attack is isolation, and that doesn’t bode well for live poker.
PokerStars have already cancelled or postponed a swathe of European events, with the ‘Road to the PSPC’ suffering most. 888Poker has cancelled their flagship 888Live event in Bucharest, and the oldest live tournament outside of Las Vegas, The Irish Open, has also felt the full force of the guillotine.
High profile events still planned to shuffle up, and deal are the US Poker Open in the ARIA, European Poker Tour (EPT) Sochi & Monte Carlo, and the World Series of Poker (WSOP).
While you can see the first two on that list going ahead, if the virus continues to spread throughout Europe, then Monte Carlo will fall. That leaves the unimaginable cancellation of the WSOP. Then again, who would have thought the NBA would cancel its season!
Online Poker: Where Are You When We Need You?
During the DAT Poker Podcast on Wednesday, March 11, Daniel Negreanu urged the US Government to lift the ban on online poker to give people something to do while quarantined.
While the idea makes sense, especially given how hard the virus will impact the ability for people to earn a living throughout the world, one doubts with the panic setting, anyone in the government will have the time to give little old poker a second thought.
While the US government might not notice us, the online poker rooms will. You can expect the movers and shakers to be drawing up blueprints for summer online poker festivals, including the WSOP, who, should the unthinkable happen, could run their entire 2020 WSOP on the WSOP.com platform.
“From what I’m reading, the only real way to curb the growth is a social distance, keeping people away from each other. That’s good for me. I don’t really like people that much anyway,” Negreanu joked on the DAT Podcast.
It’s time to develop a ball and chain mentality. Lock yourself in your little cottage, and start getting used to the idea of wiping your arse with Doyle Brunson’s Super System.
The poker world is in crisis.
The world is in crisis.
Some thought artificial intelligence (AI) was humanity’s greatest challenge. Others thought it was nuclear war. It turns out that those espousing the dangers of a virus wreaking havoc on the world were the smart ones to listen to.
Now, what did they say?