The Muck

Opinions

Real stories, real numbers, an actual argument about what they mean. Not satire - see a daily brief or The Side Pot for that.

Five Votes and Fourteen Months to Fix a Rounding Error Five Votes and Fourteen Months to Fix a Rounding Error Congress just voted to fix a tax rule whose entire substance is the gap between 100 and 90. It took over a year, and five people still voted to keep it broken. Seymour Flops · 09/19/26 The Cheap Tournament Is the Expensive One The Cheap Tournament Is the Expensive One A decade of rake data landed this week, and it says the same thing every recreational player already suspected: the smaller the buy-in, the bigger the cut. Seymour Flops · 09/19/26 Barring the Pros Didn't Make This Fair. It Made It Honest. Barring the Pros Didn't Make This Fair. It Made It Honest. A $500,000 heads-up tournament with no professional players pays fourth place more than a real Main Event paid for outlasting 278 people. Nobody planned that as an insult. That's what makes it worth sitting with. Seymour Flops · 09/19/26 The $250,000 Amateur Event Has an Approval Committee The $250,000 Amateur Event Has an Approval Committee At this buy-in level, money stops being the gate. Being deemed amateur enough is. Seymour Flops · 09/19/26 A Champion Every Two Hours and 56 Minutes A Champion Every Two Hours and 56 Minutes Jeju's festival grew from 87 events to 123 this year. At some point a trophy stops being a title and starts being a receipt. Seymour Flops · 09/19/26