Dave Mark Discusses Strong Community at Horseshoe Council Bluffs
PokerNews caught up with Dave Mark of Omaha, Nebraska to discuss what makes Horseshoe Council Bluffs special.
"The room in general here is kind of interesting. Over the past number of years, I would actually put up sign up sheets for WSOP, where a lot of people would write when they're going to be out there, what events they're playing in. And it turns out that we didn't know this until we started keeping track of people who were cashing, that we had over 60 people every year that would cash in WSOP events."
He went on to explain that the tight-knit community goes beyond the felt, with players even forming study groups to improve and bounce ideas off of each other.
"One of the things that I also find interesting about our local community here is, even outside of the casino, there's a lot of home games, a lot of leagues and stuff like that, and it's a huge community, but there's also groups that get together and study. You know, that they're not even playing. They're just going through videos online, they're doing hand histories, discussion about different strategies and trying to improve."
"I mean, when we play our Saturday Fat Stack, you know two thirds of the room, and we've all played together, which of course, makes it even more difficult just because we all know each other. But, you know, as far as RunGood and the WSOP Circuit and everything, we love having them here."
Mark also talk about his career background and the parallels it has with the game of poker.
"I actually do artificial intelligence consulting for the video game industry. I work for game studios around the world. I've been kind of semi-retired since I almost died seven and a half years ago when I got hit by a car. But the interesting thing is that I found that doing the AI stuff that I do, artificial behavior, math, the psychology involved, the game theory involved - that's poker."
"I tell my wife my social life right now is actually over at at the Horseshoe, especially since I haven't been working as much. And when you work for game studios around the world, it's not like you're seeing the same people every day."