Dec 12

going to aussie millions

Category: Uncategorized

going to aussie millions for the second half of january.  i’m so excited – it’s been a long time since i’ve taken a serious poker trip like this, and it’s been a long time coming.  i’m going to try to play as many events as i can, though getting some sun (and sadly writing a paper) have to fit in there as well.  who all is gonna be out there?

i’ll update more on poker when i’m out there for sure.

btw yesterday i went to mohegan sun to gamble with a few friends from school.  played 1-2nl for way too long, was sober, didn’t catch any hands, lost everything when i did, and ended up – $900.  decided to put $1k on a hand of blackjack since i have this theory that if i win the flip, i’m very happy to be unstuck for the trip, but if i lose, i don’t care much between -$900 and -$1900… so the small vig i pay is more than compensated by the emotional EV.  that’s how i justify it anyways.  well aaaaanyway i put the $1k down, of course peel a 10 against a 4.  double it, obviously. dealer rolls 4 8 7 for the nice sweat on 19 and then exposes my face down card – 2 for the 12.  gg me.

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Dec 12

border patrol

Category: Uncategorized

i’m just going to post stories when i hear about them.  feel free to read or not read.  fwiw, i am planning to write about poker again soon as well.

Canadian Sci-Fi writer gets beaten up at US border

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Dec 2

2010 Rebellious Lawyering Conference (RebLaw!)

Category: Uncategorized

Hey so I’m working with 6 other students to plan this conference called RebLaw, which stands for the Rebellious Lawyering Conference.  It’s the largest student-run public interest law conference in the country, with over 700 people attending last year.  We just got registration up, so come check out the site, and if you’re interested in the law at all, come check out what is sure to be a really awesome conference!

RebLaw 2010 Registration

2 comments

Nov 21

arrested. and new computer, yay.

Category: Uncategorized

yeah, so i know you’re all curious about the subject line.  i DID finally make the switch to mac, with a shiny new macbook pro and an imac.  saying goodbye to the horror that is the dell computer company.

oh, right, the arrested thing.  i’m mostly blogging about this now to serve as a tool of memory for the events of the evening, so it might not be as reflective as i might like.  but i plan to reject plea bargain offers unless they require me to do very little on my criminal charges, and file a § 1983 claim against the officer, so it’s important that i recall the specific events.

so basically we were throwing a party at this kid chris’s house, and at about 1AM it gets broken up by the cops; i guess we were too loud.  so two officers come by.  i ask officer 1 what the problem is, and she just tells me i have to get out of there.  i asked her why i had to leave and she wouldn’t answer me.  stepping aside, i said “i’m not in anyone’s way right now, not obstructing anyone, but i’d just like to know what the issue is.”  still, she ignored me.

i proceeded to talk to cop 2 and he was actually quite pleasant, and we were beginning to talk through what was happening and why our party was being broken up.  then cop 1 comes back over and orders me to leave the apartment.  i step outside the apartment and wait for everyone to filter out.  when they do, i ask cop 1 one more time what the issues is and once again she refuses to answer.  i then ask for the officers’ name and badge numbers.  joe something, cop 2, gives me his name.  i ask for cop 1’s (her badge number, 057, was on her uniform, but no name tag).  she says nothing.  i ask her three times for her name and nothing. they get into an elevator and i get in with them, once again asking for her name.  joe tells me “you got my name, what more do you want?” and i said i just wanted her to comply with the law and give me her name.

they get out of the elevator a couple floors up, as do i.  i ask her one more time, when she comes over to me and grabs my drink out of my hand and throws it in the trash, saying “you don’t need that anymore!” she then grabs my arms and pins me against the wall.  she goes to get her handcuffs and restrains me by holding me by my neck, choking me.  i had difficulty breathing.  i said “What the hell????” and she told me if i didn’t shut the hell up she was going to stun me. She then threatened to taze me one more time before putting me in cuffs and sending me downstairs.

i was brought downstairs by joe and another cop.  i kept pleading with joe to do the right thing.  i told him that as people we are often confronted with these situations where we know what the right thing is and it’s sometimes hard to do, but that we should take the higher road.  i know me, my life has changed for the better considerably once i made the recent choice to always strive to do the right thing.  even if it sometimes lands me in prison, i guess… so after pleading with joe and telling him repeatedly that he knew i had not done anything wrong and especially nothing to merit this treatment… joe, the formerly nice cop #2, now just kept saying “i gave you my name and you knew her badge number” as if somehow that addressed the issue of whether or not i deserved to be choked, threatened with a tazer, forcibly restrained, and arrested (i now know my charged – resisting arrest, disturbance of the peace, and trespassing…)

downstairs, i was detained in a police car for maybe 30 minutes with my handcuffs tightly behind my back.  i turned over on my stomach to get comfortable. eventually the cop came down and asked me why the fuck i was lying down.  she ordered me to get out, and without talking to me, proceeded to take my things, search me, and send me in the truck.  i ended up in the police station 20 minutes later.

the police station was fine, nothing too notable i guess.  i was in a cell by myself for maybe about 2 hours.  there was some discussion in the cell next to me about bagging up crack and all the babies this woman had with various fathers, i don’t know.  they were really loud and i could only get them to quiet occasionally by kicking the top bunk of my bed until the sound was so loud that they got the hint.  i couldn’t do much or focus really, but it wasn’t so bad.

beth and seth came down to take me out of there.  i’m lucky to have friends as good as them.  they told me later they came down to bail me out and the officers told them that i said i was fine with staying until midmorning when the bail guy came and he would release me for free.  beth was like hell no she did not say that, let me actually talk to her.  so then they came up to me and asked me if i wanted her to post the $5k and she needed cash, or if i wanted to just wait several hours there.  i said hell no i’m not waiting, and beth and seth went to my place and got the $5k.  thankfully beth knows me and knows i did not actually say i would stay there.  but it’s pretty amazing how every step along the way, some cop was lying about something…

i have nothing more to reflect right now.  tomorrow morning is harvard-yale and i hope to be too drunk to think about this, as well as too drunk to be tired after not sleeping tonight.  my court date is next wednesday, which means i will be late to thanksgiving festivities so i can say the famous words “not guilty” in the oh so majestic court of law that is the New Haven County Courthouse.  until next time…

17 comments

Oct 9

fuck the police.

Category: Uncategorized

On July 16, 2009, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., a world-renowned Harvard University African American studies professor, was arrested outside his own home for disorderly conduct after a verbal confrontation with Cambridge police officer Sergeant James Crowley, who was investigating a call about a possible burglary.  Gates returned home from a trip to China to find the front door to his home jammed.  With help from his driver, Gates forced the door open and entered the house.  After receiving a call from neighbor Lucia Whalen that two men may have been breaking into the house, Sergeant Crowley and several other police officers arrived on the scene at approximately 12:45 PM.  The specific details of what occurred in the confrontation differ between Crowley and Gates, but Sgt. Crowley contended that upon arriving at the scene, he asked Gates to step outside and Gates refused, claiming that Crowley was targeting him because of his race.  He wrote in his police report that Gates was aggressive, yelling very loudly, threatening him repeatedly, and ignoring his warning, which led him to arrest the Harvard professor.[1]

Even if we assume the facts in Crowley’s reports are accurate, is yelling very loudly and threatening him repeatedly on Gates’ own doorstep against the law?  The crime for which he was charged prohibits people from acting out in ways that unreasonably disturb the public.[2] Even a portrayal of the incident most favorable to Crowley’s account (that Gates raised his voice, commented, “You don’t know who you’re messing with,” accused Crowley of racial bias, and stated that Crowley had not heard the last of him[3]) does not support the conclusion that Gates violated this law.  Bloggers across the world criticized Crowley for arresting a black man for talking back, and on his own doorstep to boot.  But despite the outrage of the public, Leon Lashley, the African-American police officer who was present for the arrest, stated that he supported Sgt. Crowley’s decision to arrest Professor Gates “one hundred percent.”[4]

Is this surprising?  It is so clear to anyone with a knowledge of the law that talking back isn’t a crime, but apparently, it isn’t that clear to those who should know – the police.  Criticizing, yelling, and even insulting are not crimes, but they are treated as if they were every day.  People are arrested on their doorsteps for merely challenging an officer’s behavior.  When it’s Henry Louis Gates Jr., we hear about it.  When it’s the untold stories of the every day lives of tens of thousands of Americans, it goes unheard.

I have had the misfortune of trying to assert my rights with New Haven police officers on a number of occasions.  The first instance came at the beginning of second semester, on the first day of classes.  My friend Gabriela and I were walking to class, and we tried to cross the street in a construction zone, where there happened to be no temporary sidewalk.  A New Haven police officer yelled out at us twice, and then on the third time we heard him.  We turned around.  “What the hell are you doing?  Cross at the crosswalk!”  Immediately we walked across the sidewalk onto the south side of Elm St.  As we begin walking up the sidewalk, the cop yells at us, “Are you Yale students?  You must be Yale students.  All you Yale students got thick skulls.  You have real thick skulls, you know that?”  I immediately walked back, despite Gabriela’s pleading with me to just ignore it and continue on.  I’m sick of the tension between New Haven and Yale that I’ve felt here as an undergrad years ago and now as a grad student.  I’ll be damned if I’m going to let a police officer instigate tension where it should not even exist.

“I’d like your name and badge number,” I said.  He looked at me and then looked away.  “I’d like your name and badge number.”  He looked at me and laughed.  He said “my badge number is six-six.”  (Funny as it is, this did turn out to be his badge number, but it sounded absurd to me at the time).  I replied, “please give me your name and show me your badge.  It’s ridiculous that you think you can instigate fights with students for no reason.  I’m not some fifteen-year-old kid who’s going to be intimidated by you just because you’re a cop.  You know, being a cop doesn’t give you a right to be a dick!  That isn’t how it works!”  Those were my words.  Some could say I called the police officer a dick, but as far as I’m aware, that still is not a crime.  He replied, “oh I’ll show you how it works.”  He pulled out his radio, and began to talk to someone.

At this point, Gabriela was pulling me away and we headed up Elm St.  We made it one long block when we were stopped by another officer demanding my driver’s license.  I told him we were late for class, but he insisted that we stop.  I gave him my ID.  I told him that we hadn’t done anything wrong and we needed to leave, but he said that we would be the judge of that.  Before I knew it, there were two more police cars and four more cops with us.  I saw the original cop head up towards us and I told him to do his job.  “What’s my job?” he asked.  “Your job is to protect the community and keep it safe, not to start fights with Yale students.”  “Oh yeah? I’ll show you what my job is!”  He comes up near me and tells me to get in the police car.  I asked him what for and he told me to just get in the fucking car.  I started walking to the car when all of a sudden, he grabs my arm.  I yell at him to get off me.  He squeezes it even harder and I’m yelling at him to get the fuck off me.  I look at another cop for support, giving her a “aren’t you going to do something?” face, but she just says “get in the car.” I was so enraged I would have hit him if he’d held on much longer, but thankfully he released me.

I got in the car and the cops spoke to Gabriela.  I didn’t hear what had happened, but I learned later that they were going to give me a disorderly conduct violation and take me down to the courthouse, but once they got to talking, they found out we were law students.  After twenty minutes in the car, I left with a jaywalking ticket.  I went down to court to fight it and speak my mind, but after waiting in line in traffic court for an hour, one promise that I learned my lesson and would never jaywalk again, and I was out the door.  I’d saved $75 but I hadn’t brought anyone closer to justice.

I thought about filing complaints and lawsuits but life as a busy law student got the better of me.  That was spring of 2009.  Fast forward to the fall, and I’m lucky enough to have had 2 1/2 incidents in the span of a month.

The first one and a half were somewhat minor.  There was the time I was crossing the street and the cop almost ran me over when he ran the red light without looking, and of course without sirens on.  I managed to jump back in time and escape danger.  That kind of driving from a civilian would have landed her at least a sweet ticket, but more likely a reckless driving citation.

Soon after that I was leaving a bar late on a Thursday night on Crown St.  I saw a classmate of mine being hauled off in handcuffs, so I wanted to see if I could get more information.  I was told to “get the fuck off the street” numerous times.  I very calmly let this officer know that I was merely curious as to the whereabouts of my friend and the circumstances surrounding his arrest.  She told me, “he’s going down to holding and if you don’t get the fuck out of here right now, you’ll be there too.”  My friend wound up dragging me away, but before that night I just didn’t realize that standing on a street for thirty seconds or concern for the whereabouts of a friend were illegal.  Ignorance of the law is no excuse, I guess.  I later learned that my friend’s violation for which he was arrested was being snarky to his arresting officer.

Fast forward to last night, three weeks later.  I head to BAR for my weekly rotating law school drinking festivities.  Outside the bar and waiting for friends, I decide to have a cigarette.  I’m standing somewhat near the bar in a huge crowd of people.  There are two people near the door – one is the bouncer, and one is standing near him chatting with him.  Both are in plain clothes.  The guy standing near the door tells me to go smoke my cigarette over by the parking meter (which was about 20 feet away).  I look at him and turn around and take a couple of steps away.  At this point, an officer standing near the door, tells me to go further away.  I then walk to the curb and finish smoking my cigarette and checking my phone.

When some friends show up, I chuck the cigarette and go to follow them inside.  The random dude who told me to leave apparently works at the bar, and even more apparently was not pleased that I didn’t listen to him when he told me the specific place where I should go stand to smoke my cigarette.  He told me I couldn’t come in and join my friends.  I asked why and he said that I was rude to him.  He told me I had to leave the area, and of course I did not immediately move on some random kid’s instructions when all of my friends were inside the bar.  He motions to the cop to “explain it” to me, and the cop informs me that I am not allowed inside.  I told him that it was unreasonable to not let me inside just because I didn’t move a specific place, and he said it didn’t matter (You’re not allowed to discriminate in public accommodations on the basis of sex or sexual orientation, and I’m pretty sure I fit the bill of a woman talking back and challenging the authority of a man.  And even if it wasn’t sex- or sexual orientation-based, you have to have a rational basis to exclude other than “I didn’t like the way that person looked at me.” (Because that’s usually pretextual)).  It’s not shocking to me that he thinks he knows the law better than me (which he decided to tell me multiple times).  If police officers do whatever the hell they want, and they get away with it 999 times out of 1000, then it doesn’t really matter what’s written down in some old dusty book in a library.  Whatever he says is the law.

I remained completely calm while he raised his voice to emphatically explain the reasons why I wouldn’t be allowed inside.  After apologizing to the bouncer and having him deny me entry further, I explained to the cop that I didn’t know he was affiliated with the bar since he was a random guy in plain clothes in a herd of people.  The cop summed it up with catch phrase learned from McGruff the Crime Dog’s “take a bite out of crime” campaign, “ignorance is no excuse.”  If it had been even a little bit relevant, I might have credited him with the 90’s cartoon reference, but he didn’t even get the context right.  Besides, I was only bewildered and speechless when he told me that I had to “leave immediately,” that I just stood in awe for a moment.   I told him that I was going to continue to wait for my friends, and remember, unlike Gates, I wasn’t even raising my voice in any way.  Still, I didn’t leave the sidewalk (we were to the side of the bar at this point, rather than directly in front of the door).  At this point, he pulls out his handcuffs and walks within 1 foot of me.  He commands, “you have ten seconds to leave this area.  Ten.  Nine.  Eight.  Seven. . .”  So I walk away.  I go to the curb where I yell to him that he has no right to do that.  He doesn’t look at me.  I walk up to him again and ask him for his name and badge number.  Detective 514, last name Bullock.  Well, at least he managed to do that right.

I tell him that it’s bullshit how he’s trying to intimidate me for no reason.  Apparently, intimidate was the buzzword that set him off (under police codes in some cities including NYC, police officers are forbidden from harassing and intimidating civilians without suspicion of a crime), and he yells that he wasn’t intimidating me.  At this point, I burst into tears from being so upset, and I ask him what else counting down to ten with handcuffs in my face could mean.  Now there is a scene being formed – the crowd is circling around, seeing me yell at this cop with tears streaming down my face.  Not liking the scene, he gets his handcuffs out again, and walks behind me down the street.  I briskly walk, in tears, back down Crown St, where Detective Bullock finally gets bored of the harassment and walks back to BAR.  I end up in my apartment a few minutes later, in a hysteric state, where my roommate Helen consoles me.

Some Gates critics said that he should have been calmer during his incident with Sgt. Crowley.  “He’s fulfilling the prototypical role of an angry black man.  Only by stepping outside the stereotype will he begin to change minds” is how the story goes.  First of all, it isn’t the responsibility of citizens to guarantee the respect of their own constitutional rights by acting with a certain demeanor.  But even if it were, my experience tells me it wouldn’t have made a damned bit of difference.  In the first interaction I raised my voice out of anger, but in the other two, I made it a point to remain completely calm, without ever raising my voice.  Still, mere disagreement was the citation.  Challenging abuse of authority was the crime.

I’m an upper middle class, privileged, white woman in the best law school in the country.  I get harassed when I assert my rights, but at the end of the day, I walk home a little bruised, emotions a little uneasy, but I’m a better person for it.  I’m starting a career working against police misconduct and government abuse of authority and discretion, and I have these New Haven police officers to thank as the motivating force.  But every time I leave an interaction, I think about all the people who are harassed on a daily basis because they don’t have the means to fight it.  People arrested outside their doorsteps because a cop didn’t appreciate the way they looked at him.  A woman without the means to sleep safely at night given a citation for disorderly conduct because she finally caught some rest on the green past the hours where it was legal not to have anywhere else to go.

Cops do whatever they want, and courts don’t bother to stop them.  “We have to show extreme deference to these people, who have such tough jobs, keeping order in our society.”  But the deference shouldn’t come from courts.  They already get enough of that from every day life.  They honestly believe pulling out their handcuffs and getting within one foot of me is all right.  They honestly believe that arresting a black man for disrespecting them on his own porch is within the bounds of the law.  And they believe this because there is not enough accountability to make anyone think otherwise.  Police misconduct is rarely litigated in the courts.  Every time one illegal random search produces a drug bust and that defendant challenges the search in court, you can bet there were thirty other illegal searches where no drugs were produced, the public never heard about them, but people left feeling like their government and police were out to hurt them rather than protect and defend.  I never wrote about these incidents until there were just too many of them.  Others never write at all.  The real police misconduct is going on in daily life and it creates a conflict-ridden environment where “fuck the police” rolls off the tongue more easily than “love.”  If we want accountability, the least courts can do is recognize that extreme deference ultimately providing a total safeguard is the last thing we need (after all, internal processes don’t usually reprimand the offending officers, and even when they do officers can rely on courts to let them off the hook).

I don’t know what the answer is.  Maybe the responsibility is of the courts in the few cases that make it there.  Maybe it’s greater accountability for individual police departments.  Maybe it is somewhere else.  But wherever it is, all I know is what I have learned.  Officer 66, Detective 514, the other officers who nearly ran me over or threw me off the streets, and everyone else: this shit has got to stop.


[1] Cambridge Police Incident Report $ 9005127, July 16, 2009, available at http://www.samefacts.com/archives/Police%20report%20on%20Gates%20arrest.PDF (last visited Aug. 9, 2009)

[2] Mass Gen. Laws Ann. ch. 272, § 53 (2009), states:

Common night walkers, common street walkers, both male and female, common railers and brawlers, persons who with offensive and disorderly acts or language accost or annoy persons of the opposite sex, lewd, wanton and lascivious persons in speech or behavior, idle and disorderly persons, disturbers of the peace, keepers of noisy and disorderly houses, and persons guilty of indecent exposure may be punished by imprisonment in a jail or house of correction for not more than six months, or by a fine of not more than two hundred dollars, or by both such fine and imprisonment.

[3] Cambridge Police Incident Report, supra note 1.

[4] Obama Backs Off Words in Scholar’s Arrest, MSNBC, (July 24, 2009) http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32122967 (last visited Aug. 9, 2009)

8 comments

May 6

Finished up duck soup, coaching going well, almost done with 1L!

Category: Uncategorized

The subject pretty much sums it up.  I’m glad we finally worked out all the kinks on the audio for the last episode of duck soup, though it’s troubling that I’m still having a lot of problems making these videos on my laptop.  It’s really amazing how many things can go wrong with computers, given the way people think of computers as not being able to make mistakes.  They don’t make mistakes in the same way as humans, but it isn’t far off – randomness pretty much dictates a lot of the problems, and they’re so damned finicky!  I’m concerned because I had planned to do some initial work on my series in Argentina and Vegas (and I don’t even think I’ll have my desktop in the end of the summer in NYC), so hopefully those will get worked out.  I thought duck soup turned out to be a great series, and the final episode was a testament to that.  Audio problems in 6 + 7 especially aside, definitely check it out if you haven’t already.

My other poker news is pretty limited – coaching is going very well.  I only have two students right now actually (and I’m willing to take on a couple more, now that the summer is approaching).  I think both of them are making a tremendous amount of (demonstrated) progress, so kudos!  It’s also reassuring to me as a poker player/coach to know that I can still make very noticeable improvements to their games despite not playing as much myself.   Otherwise, not much to report.  I went to foxwoods with a professor and some classmates and played 1/2NL the other day.  Lost like $1500 occasionally spewing early for fun/image, but then legit running 2 pair into better (and betting a crapload because of my image) over 10 times.  Let’s just say I’m glad it was 1/2NL!!!

So I’m almost done with my 1L year, which is ridiculously exciting.  The past month has been a lot of work for me, mostly because of the really cool work I’m doing.  I have written a bunch of memos, one research paper, and have done a huge amount of research/work on another.  Classes end tomorrow and now I’m studying for finals, which end on May 18th.  Tomorrow night is Law Revue, which is a big comedy show that people put on in the law school every year that parodies professors and such here.  I can’t disclose too much, but I’m playing Elena Kagan (former dean of Harvard Law School) in one of the sketches.  Going to rehearsal last night made me realize how much I missed sketch comedy – both writing and performing.  The sketch is really funny and the people working on it were a lot of fun.  So that’s exciting.

Then after it all ends, on to the summer.  I’m heading down to Argentina right after classes on a law school exchange program called Linkages.  We hosted people from all over Latin America early in the semester, and now it’s our turn.  If anyone has suggestions of awesome things to do in Buenos Aires (I have a lot of good things to do, but if you know of some activity/bar/restaurant that is particularly noteworthy), they should leave a comment or email me or whatever.   After that, I’m off to Vegas for like 5 days or something to get my WSOP fix.  Sadly, I can’t defend my bracelet or the 10k HU or play in the women’s event.  Hopefully I’ll stay stateside and be able to make it out there for those tournies next year.  After my poker fix, it’s back to NYC to work as a legal intern at the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund.  I haven’t spent the summer in NYC really ever, and I’m going to live in Manhattan, which I’ve never done before either.  I’m ridiculously excited for that as well!

Ok, that’s all for now.  [Insert standard promise to try to post more].

xo,

V

2 comments

Apr 19

nbc hu appearance

Category: Uncategorized

It’s on the NBC sports website.  If you go to nbcsports.com/poker, and click on watch 2009 hu championship, my segment is less than a minute.  I’m in the diamonds bracket, end of part 5 and beginning of part 6.  All in all a pretty disappointing tourney AND appearance.  I thought Oppenheim was acting especially douchey/cocky, which I can’t deal with, so I didn’t really talk much.  So not a very exciting appearance, all in all.

So it goes.  Back to the law school grind.

4 comments

Mar 7

lol donkaments… sigh.

Category: Uncategorized

a little tilted about the whole nbc hu thing – i drew layne flack who didn’t show due to a late night drunk driving debacle, so i faced off against david oppenheim.

i bluff raised a river early against a pretty obvious weak hand, and he called and i was down 3:1 in chips early.  i fought back with a few value bets (this guy was NOT a folder), and had a very slight chip lead when the deciding hand came:

i had 47dd, limp the button, he raises 850 more at 2/4 and i call (19.2k stacks eff).  flop is 479ss, he bets 1400, i make it 4500, he ships AI and i snap obv.  turn K and river he binks a K OBV… so down to like 800 and i pushbot up to 2700 and lose with Q7o to A6o.  GG.

I’ll post more thoughts later (especially about the layne flack situation – i think the policy of letting a player not show up and get his buyin back AFTER the draw is known is really messed up for pretty obvious reasons), but i’m sort of tilted right now so I’m going to chill out and maybe drink before getting started writing a memo all day tomorrow.  because THAT’s what i want to do in las vegas!  argh…

2 comments

Mar 4

off to vegas!

Category: Uncategorized

hollaaaaaaa

oh vegas i have missed you.  i don’t know why; i can’t explain it; but believe me, from the bottom of the heart, it is true.

if any of you fools are out there right now and i havent been in touch, call me!

xoxo

- V

1 comment

Feb 25

jeopardy rant

Category: Uncategorized

how do such stupid fucking people get on jeopardy???? it is unreal to me.  unfuckingbelievable.

on monday, the scores going into final jeopardy were:

10200, 10800, 21600.  the 10800 btw was the 2-time defending champ.  if 1 and 2 tie btw, they both come back the next day – so the 21600 person is betting 0 always.  somehow, the 2nd place woman gets it right BUT DOESN’T BET IT ALL and comes in 2nd place.  HOW ARE PEOPLE SO FUCKING STUPID?  IT BLOWS MY MIND!

anyone who watches jeopardy with me knows how much i rant about people who don’t bet well in jeopardy.  they never bet nearly enough on daily doubles, despite being like 75% or better to get them right.  for a lot of people, that screws them in the end.  and fair enough, some people are “risk averse” (read: don’t understand strategy.  risk aversion should play no part, since the players never actually have the money – they only have a score which will allow them to win an amount of money equal to that score should they emerge the winner, thus making poor strategy decisions is actually “riskier” than losing the “money”).  i understand some people aren’t as tuned in with betting as i am.  but this final jeopardy blunder is seriously inexcusable… it really.  just.  blows.  my.  mind.

8 comments

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