what I don't understand is why a flush beats a straight. Seems like it is a hell of a lot easier to hit a heart than it is a seven.
He, Lederer and Ferguson were the big 3 at Full Tilt Poker. If Lederer got 40 mil, Bitar did as well. If not for Poker Black Friday, taking that kind of distribution with the amount of money they were making, would have been justified. Being the house in online poker is the biggest edge any trader ever gonna get. It was a license to print money. PokerStars didn't even blink when they agreed to bailout FT for 3/4 of a BILLION dollars.
Ranking hands is done by calculating the number of possibilities in 52 card deck. There are twice as many ways to get a straight than a flush. Flush has 5108 poss vs a straight which has 10200. But if you think only in terms of the number of outs after flop of a flush draw vs a open end straight draw, then the flush draw has better odds. 9 outs vs 8 outs.
the fact that you explained that so eloquently shows that you are orders of magnitude brighter (no pun intended) than shopster
I'm waiting for the CNBC's American Greed episode with Bitar, Ferguson, and Lederer to come out...that will be a doozie