Being kicked out of a highstakes private home game is one thing, but being publicly outed on Twitter that the reason is nobody likes or trusts you is much worse, as NY Times reporter Ryan Mac found out this week…
You can @ mention me kid.
It’s not personal, but folks don’t like or trust you.
— jason@calacanis.com (@Jason) September 29, 2021
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The “tech dude” that kicked Ryan Mac out of the game is none other than $multi-millionaire Uber investor and poker fanatic, Jason Calacanis.
Co-incidentally enough, 50-year-old Calacanis was a tech reporter back in the early days of the internet, but he soon made his name during the dot.com boom.
That in turn led to him moving in exalted financial circles, and his LA home game boasts some of the brightest minds of the internet generation.
Who is playing in LA’s biggest home games?
Billionaire former Facebook executive, Chamath Palihapitiya, gets a seat, and although we don’t know the exact stakes of the LA tech game, we do know that Chamath is happy playing “as high as $5k/$10k”.
He admitted as much when he played on High Stakes Poker, the $400/$800 stakes quite small by comparison, and both he and Calacanis have been seen on Poker Night in America, with Phil Hellmuth considered a close friend.
Throw in the likes of early-days Google executive David Friedberg, and Calacanis’ fellow angel-investor David Sacks, and you have the makings of what is one of the richest home games on the planet.
Together, the fearsome foursome are known as the All-In Syndicate, the name of their angel investment club a clear nod to their love of poker.
Phil Hellmuth isn’t always available to play, but is most welcome despite his pro status, and has been known to give Calacanis plenty of poker advice over the years.
Roger Sippl, the ridiculously wealthy computer software entrepreneur who has $3.77 million in tournament poker earnings on his Hendon Mob listing gets a game, as does Palihapitiya’s wife, Brigitte Lau.
Getting the poker boot
While billionaire poker amateurs are almost always welcome at poker tables the world over, the same can’t be said for reporters it seems, and the Twitter comments on Mac’s embarrassing ousting were brutal, if at times rather conspiracy-laden…
It definitely is not reported on enough that salaries in journalism are such a joke that the only people who can afford to do it have family wealth, and so weirdly enough stories are often slanted with various biases because everyone has family wealth.
— B (@Vagabending) September 29, 2021
NYT tech reporter Mac isn’t the only one who has been kicked out of the highstakes home game, with Peter Pham reportedly on the banned list too.
Between this and @peterpham not being allowed. Sounds like a spicy clique.
— s.m. (@sho_of_hands) September 29, 2021
Quite what early-stage investor Pham did to get the heave-ho by Calacanis is unclear, but his bizarre beliefs and approach to the coronavirus pandemic would surely see him get a seat at an Alex Foxen and Kristen Bicknell anti-vaxxer home game.
How does your own home game compare to that of the highstakes LA tech dudes’? Let us know on our social media channels and who you’d invite – and ban! – given the chance.
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