COVID-19 (Corona virous) and your home game? (6 Viewers)

[Jake14mw]

Hi all,

My situation is a little different than most. I host an annual all-day March Madness poker tournament on the first Friday of the NCAA tournament. The NCAA announced today that they will still play the tournament, but with no fans. I would not be surprised if it's cancelled before many of you even read this. I will still hold the poker tourney even if they tourney is cancelled.

Have any of you heard anything from your regular players about not wanting to play? I wouldn't think that's happening yet in most areas. Are you planning on changing anything about your home game due to COVID-19? I have already ordered disposable hand towels for the bathroom so people don't share a hand towel. I will also have plenty of hand sanitizer.

 

[Changster]

We are way too degen to care.

 

[ReallyGoodUsername]

Just common sense stuff like if you’ve been feeling at all under the weather or had worked with someone who has, skip the game.

Not knocking the idea but wouldn’t disposable hand towels be rendered useless for two reasons 1) assuming people wash properly before using the hand towels, their hands should be virus free when they go to dry them and 2) would 99% of the risk come from the chips and cards everyones constantly handling even with hand sanitizer?

 

[Trihonda]

This whole thing is stupid... not to discount the fear (which is real, thanks to the media), but it’s a cold/flu, not ebola. By all rights, it’s new and slightly different, but not any more deadly than a bad flu year.

No, not doing anything different with my players. They are expected to wash hands, etc...

Taken from an online article on the virus/statistics, etc...

 

[Eloe2000]

One of my players was going to be overseas for work this week and we joked about him getting stuck. Well, apparently it wasn’t a joke after all.

 

[ReallyGoodUsername]

This whole thing is stupid... not to discount the fear (which is real, thanks to the media), but it’s a cold/flu, not ebola. By all rights, it’s new and slightly different, but not any more deadly than a bad flu year.

No, not doing anything different with my players. They are expected to wash hands, etc...

Taken from an online article on the virus/statistics, etc...

View attachment 421744

Not the right place so I won’t get into more than saying a cruise ship is a totally utterly completely unnatural place to view and measure the effects/rates of the virus for dozens of reasons.

 

[Godzilla28]

#YOLO

We still meet once a week for our $1000 Freeroll Tournament. But the host is not subtle in saying "Stay the F@CK home if you are sick or might be sick!" Plus wash your hands and don't pick your nose.

 

[ReallyGoodUsername]

Plus wash your hands and don't pick your nose.

I can do one or the other, asking both of me is just a bridge too far.

 

[Jake14mw]

Just common sense stuff like if you’ve been feeling at all under the weather or had worked with someone who has, skip the game.

Not knocking the idea but wouldn’t disposable hand towels be rendered useless for two reasons 1) assuming people wash properly before using the hand towels, their hands should be virus free when they go to dry them and 2) would 99% of the risk come from the chips and cards everyones constantly handling even with hand sanitizer?

#1 is a BIG assumption. Do you think everyone washes their hands properly? It just takes one.
#2 I agree with. Cards/chips are more of a problem than the bathroom.

 

[jeff123]

With the NBA postponed or suspended right now I fully expect the NCAA to follow suit. March Madness will probably be May madness or something

 

[RowdyRawhide]

Not the right place so I won’t get into more than saying a cruise ship is a totally utterly completely unnatural place to view and measure the effects/rates of the virus for dozens of reasons.

Except that it is the perfect test...the same people of all ages confined in a space for multiple days...and then isolated to let it play out....as a researcher I don’t think you could ask for a better unstaged example

 

[ReallyGoodUsername]

.

 

[RowdyRawhide]

Ugh... ok here's two off the top of my head that make it completely moot

1) Are the demographics (especially age) of those who go on cruise ships representative of the population as a whole? Nope. Age is the most important factor related to the death rate so how could you possibly hope to come up with a representative death rate?

2) Are the interactions of the test subjects and the ability, willingness, or likelihood to isolate the test subjects on a cruise made aware that the virus is present, are representative of the ability, willingness, or likelihood outside a confined controlled area like a cruise ship? Absolutely not, which makes any spreading factor rate not be representative of those on a locked down cruise ship.

Ugggggghhh!!!!!

I just went on cruise in early Feb

1) the demo graphics are pretty diverse, if anything favoring a higher death rate with this current virus...ie many older people, but there are a fair amount of kids too...probably not an exact population sample, again definitely skewed to a higher death rate with this virus

2). No one is aware of the virus on the ship so they run around for several days like normal...it’s the perfect control group and experimental group and then they are quarantined

 

[ReallyGoodUsername]

.

 

[ReallyGoodUsername]

.

 

[BGinGA]

Our monthly game was this past Sunday; the next scheduled event isn't until early April. I will evaluate and make a go/no-go decision prior to then, based on what happens during the next three weeks.

 

[RowdyRawhide]

1) giant assumption that the one cruise you went on "in early Feb" is representative of this cruise. you generally don't want to make assumptions when doing testing.

2) several days of normal cruise activity isn't anything at all like or at all scalable to human interactions in some place as large and varied as say, the US. just as the ability to quarantine people on a boat is not comparable at all to the US as a whole.

lol

I have to ask “have you gone on a cruise” ...seriously?

I have been on several at different times of the year over the past 15 years. I Don’t recall a huge difference in demographics...if anything slightly higher retired population in non summer months...cruised both carnival and royal.

cruise accomadations are much tighter than everyday interactions...thus would lend to a higher transmission rate in theory... and I know you like those ...the quarantine gives you the results of the experiment....ie everyone infected and NOT infected. If you look at this as an experiment it is what it is.....if you want to compare it to the US currently then you are ruling out a whole lot of non reporting infected people not being taken into the numbers, and if you don’t think they are out there...well then I can’t debate with that

 

[ReallyGoodUsername]

lol

I have to ask “have you gone on a cruise” ...seriously?

I have been on several at different times of the year over the past 15 years. I Don’t recall a huge difference in demographics...if anything slightly higher retired population in non summer months...cruised both carnival and royal.

cruise accomadations are much tighter than everyday interactions...thus would lend to a higher transmission rate in theory... and I know you like those ...the quarantine gives you the results of the experiment....ie everyone infected and NOT infected. If you look at this as an experiment it is what it is.....if you want to compare it to the US currently then you are ruling out a whole lot of non reporting infected people not being taken into the numbers, and if you don’t think they are out there...well then I can’t debate with that

You're right, I'm wrong, email the CDC, and explain this all to them. They must either not know it happened or understand how it's a perfect simulations they can use to extrapolate it to the general public. Adios !

 

[RowdyRawhide]

You're right, I'm wrong, email the CDC, and explain this all to them. They must either not know it happened or understand how it's a perfect simulations they can use to extrapolate it to the general public. Adios !

Don’t let the door hit you on the ass on the way out

 

[APatHand]

This doesn't even touch upon the fact that you're making the assumption that all those people at the CDC and other reporting government and non-government agencies who have masters and graduate degrees in this field and have spent decades studying and working on these threats either somehow aren't aware of this supposed great simulation or despite all their expertise and experience just can't understand all the facts related to it. If this was a more accurate example, they'd use it but they don't and it's likely because it's not a good example.

Sorry for thread jacking @Jake14mw. If there's responses, I'm happy to take it to the Coronavirus thread.

I don't believe you are one bit sorry for jacking this thread. OK, maybe one bit, one tiny bit out of, say 64Kbytes.

 

[ReallyGoodUsername]

I don't believe you are one bit sorry for jacking this thread. OK, maybe one bit, one tiny bit out of, say 64Kbytes.

You're right I wanted this to happen which is why I explicitly said it wasn't the right place to discuss.

I also just deleted any of my discussion about it from this thread but I don't know how that could be since you are so certain I do want to jack this thread. Crazy.

 

[halfbreed]

This whole thing is stupid... not to discount the fear (which is real, thanks to the media), but it’s a cold/flu, not ebola. By all rights, it’s new and slightly different, but not any more deadly than a bad flu year.

No, not doing anything different with my players. They are expected to wash hands, etc...

It's a mistake to say that the Coronavirus is similar to the flu. Even if was similar, the point that people miss is that because it's new, no one has an immunity (either from having it earlier or from a vaccine). Because of this, it's going to spread rapidly without precautions. While those of us that are younger will mostly be fine, older folks might not be. Because of this the danger of a rapid spread is that the healthcare system will get overwhelmed. If everyone gets sick in a short period of time, those who need things like ventilators might not have access to one which would seriously raise the death toll. Slowing down the spread through social distancing (no close contact with anyone you don't live with) would allow the healthcare system to accommodate those that need it.

Yeah it sucks, but the reality is that home games should be put on hold for now. Interaction with chips/cards that other people are handling is bad.

More info (I strongly suggest you check out this very well researched article):
https://medium.com/@tomaspueyo/coronavirus-act-today-or-people-will-die-f4d3d9cd99ca

 

[Perthmike]

View attachment 421763

It's a mistake to say that the Coronavirus is similar to the flu. Even if was similar, the point that people miss is that because it's new, no one has an immunity (either from having it earlier or from a vaccine). Because of this, it's going to spread rapidly without precautions. While those of us that are younger will mostly be fine, older folks might not be. Because of this the danger of a rapid spread is that the healthcare system will get overwhelmed. If everyone gets sick in a short period of time, those who need things like ventilators might not have access to one which would seriously raise the death toll. Slowing down the spread through social distancing (no close contact with anyone you don't live with) would allow the healthcare system to accommodate those that need it.

Yeah it sucks, but the reality is that home games should be put on hold for now. Interaction with chips/cards that other people are handling is bad.

More info (I strongly suggest you check out this very well researched article):
https://medium.com/@tomaspueyo/coronavirus-act-today-or-people-will-die-f4d3d9cd99ca

Exactly this.

 

[Sambukan]

This whole thing is stupid... not to discount the fear (which is real, thanks to the media), but it’s a cold/flu, not ebola. By all rights, it’s new and slightly different, but not any more deadly than a bad flu year.

No, not doing anything different with my players. They are expected to wash hands, etc...

Taken from an online article on the virus/statistics, etc...

View attachment 421744

Well iam sure italy and china wouldnt agree...

 

[johnjohn]

Game on for this week. Players are psyched and need a break from the grind.

btw, try not to watch this video just once.

 

[Josh Kifer]

We're placing bets on the over under on the first case in the state. Wtf are you talking about. This is the wild west!

 

[Josh Kifer]

Game on for this week. Players are psyched and need a break from the grind.

btw, try not to watch this video just once.

Challenge accepted.

Edit - wtf am I doing with my life.

 

[DrStrange]

I host 50+ games a year and play in several dozen more games. It takes a lot for me to make the decision to cancel my games. But I am just now in the process of doing so. The Poker Emporium is closed for the near future.

Why? I was persuaded a article posted by @timinater . < linked below > The math / science scared the hell out of me. I concluded the cost of being wrong was so high that I should take the plunge before it was obvious that I should. Please read this with an open mind and keeping an eye out for the consequences if your strongly held beliefs are wrong. The consequences could be severe.

https://medium.com/@tomaspueyo/coronavirus-act-today-or-people-will-die-f4d3d9cd99ca

By the time it is obvious that action is needed - it will be too late. Worst case if the virus is a nothing burger is you missed out on a couple of games. The worst case in the other direction is catastrophic. You'll have to decide on your own, but for me the answer was clear.

No more live poker for now -=- DrStrange

PS some might note this is a serious shift in my opinion. I am capable of reading new information and realizing I was making a mistake.

 

[Beaniman]

Game on for this week. Players are psyched and need a break from the grind.

btw, try not to watch this video just once.

You sir, win the internet for today. I salute you.

That is all.

 

[1A25R]

Currently in my country all events with more than 1000 are cancelled and for events with 100 + you must request an authorization, which I understood isn't granted anymore Some regions lowered those numbers down to 50 persons (like Zurich)
As result, no more sports, Clubbing, theaters for the time being.
Universities started to do remote classes and companies limited the meetings to max 5 persons and they are spiting work forces 1/2 at work and 1/2 home office
A $5'000 fine is the risk to someone that organized a non authorized events

All that made that people take conscience that the only way to stop spreading the virus is to stay at home, limit travels and avoid contact with other people.
Therefore the amount of people wanting to participate to an event like a poker tournament have dramatically decrease those last 2 weeks.