>"bdhabm" wrote:
>
>> Well, first we got rid of Rob Singer and now we have this
>> nonsense from Frank about 3000 hands per hour and
>> dehydration and so forth. What a crock of you know what. If
>> all of this is true, maybe Franks boss (the money man) of
>> the team he "managed" can chime in and verify that all this
>> is true.
>
>Please disregard this post by bdhabm, who has ignored
>previous politeness requests and won't be allowed to post
>anymore on vpFREE.
>
>vpFREE Administrator
This seems like an overreaction on the administrator's part and I'm
surprised more people haven't expressed the same thing that bdhabm
did.
I was Frank's "boss" and "money man." I was very impressed with him
at first. I distinctly remember one day, just after the previous
manager of my team in Las Vegas had quit/gotten fired, and I wanted
several players on the 6-coin quarter progressive at the Frontier. I
never liked calling many people and organizing something like that but
I believe I wasn't calling Frank to do that, but just to play. I
don't know who initiated the conversation about him organizing it or
why, but that became the primary focus of our conversation. With what
was, to me, very appealing self-confidence and initiative, he
volunteered to organize it and it was a breath of fresh air to me. I
distinctly remember him asking, even before we had officially agreed
that he would do it, "how many people do you want" there? I
immediately took him up on the offer. I don't remember if we made any
agreement on what he would get out of it at the time, but, either then
or soon afterwards, we agreed that he would get a certain share of the
net win that resulted from his organizing. I believe it was 25%. The
results started out very well. I think he won something like $80,000
in a few weeks, his share of which I believe was $20,000. We never
discussed one aspect of our agreement, which was, after he had taken
his cut of the winnings, if he then lost it or some of it back, he
would either owe his share of the difference back to me or at least be
obligated to stay, even if he didn't want to, until he had won the
succeeding loss back. Following that win, he lost back about half of
it, his share of which would have been about $10,000, and then he
quit. I believe he wrote in his book that that organizing effort was
just too much work. That doesn't surprise me, since it was possibly
similar to how I felt. But now, I believed he owed me something. He
had taken his share of the initial win but hadn't offered to do
anything about the succeeding loss. Maybe he quit because he didn't
want to face the obligation that I believe he knew I thought he had.
I can't remember what steps I took to try to resolve the situation,
but by the time a $5 play at Caesars Tahoe came up soon afterwards, I
didn't want to do business with him, any more, because of the
situation. He asked me to bankroll his play on it and I, surprised
that he had even asked, turned him down. Many pros were on that play.
I don't remember how I heard that he did what he did about that play,
but I've never heard it be disputed, either, and it was consistent
with many reports of his actions following it. If Frank disagrees,
I'd like to hear it. I believe he went to management at Caesars Tahoe
and told them that many pros were playing there. I regard that as the
cardinal sin of a professional gambler. Straightforwardly competing
is fine, but involving management in that way isn't. In the following
months, the manager of my team in Reno told me that Frank tried, at
every opportunity, to go to management and get us kicked out. I
believed her and it solidified my antagonism toward him that still
remains. But who knows? Maybe she was lying or had wrong
information. I believe Frank's partner told me that he did that
simply because it made good business sense to him. I've always liked
his partner, but even he and I had friction because of his involvement
with Frank.
Although I'm not the one to ask about Frank's "3000 hands per hour and
dehydration," which came after we had mostly parted ways, I find many
of Frank's claims difficult to swallow. His frequent claims to have
managed the biggest progressive team ever are somewhat exaggerated, if
only in emphasis. He either implies or says that he did it for longer
than he did. Unless he means another team besides mine, which I've
never heard of, he only did that for a few weeks and I'm skeptical
that mine was the biggest one ever, anyway. It's like having a
business career for 20 years and making the cornerstone of one's
resume something that one did for 6 weeks and quit because one didn't
like it. I think he wrote that he played on a single line quarter
progressive that reached $46,000. The highest quarter progressive I
remember was at Harvey's, with 5% meters, which got to $13,000 or so.
Maybe Frank's report is accurate. But I'd bet on it being an
exaggeration. I remember $1 progressives that high, but no quarters.
I believe in forgiveness. I've struggled, including with Frank, to
live up to it, but I believe revenge and holding a grudge are always
wrong. My opinion of Frank has long since disregarded the $10,000
I've always thought he owed me in one form or another. That was more
the "trigger" of my souring towards him and maybe it was just a
misunderstanding. And trying to get my players kicked out is also
(mostly?) "water under the bridge" by now. I'm willing to assume that
he wouldn't do either of those again. But his braggadocio is like
nails on a chalkboard to me. I also believe, again without always
living up to it, in being humble and unassuming. He says that he
regrets making his speed of play so phenomenal and that it is a "sore
subject" to him, but my impression is that he loves talking about it.
I played on the same bank of Loose Deuces machines that he was playing
on on February 14, 2007. I heard him say that he played "very fast."
Couldn't he just ignore the subject if it's so painful for him? He
has been referred to in recent posts on this board as the "smartest
man." For all I know, he's probably in the running for that. I've
heard he's also an expert with computers. Does such a smart man
really not realize how insulting it is to tell a group of video poker
players that he regrets not being a world class violinist because he
has wasted his life playing video poker? Wouldn't it be more classy
to let other people find out about his skill as a violinist and video
poker player instead of broadcasting it so frequently? I think
something that I read in the last few days "pushed me over the edge"
into writing this. Frank wrote that he thought "everyone knew" where
Jackpot Joanie's is. As bdhabm wrote about Frank's claims about his
speed of play, I'm convinced that's a total crock. I'm not the best
scout, but I'm fairly well informed and I had never heard of Jackpot
Joanie's before. I'm confident that if we took a poll of vpFree
subscribers, I'd be in the majority and I'm equally convinced that
Frank is well aware of that. Frank's comment can be translated as
"I'm aware of something that few people are and the value, to me, of
revealing that fact to everyone far surpasses any loss, to me, of
revealing the play to everyone, but I hope everyone believes that I
really thought everyone knew about it." As many people who know him
agree, that's typical of Frank. Frank probably has many superior
skills, but spiritual excellence isn't one of them.
I hope this wasn't too much "dirty laundry," but, since I was asked, I
wanted to get as many details as possible clarified.
