Tom DiCaprio

my extended X account since I follow a lot of X'ers especially the card collecting community. main account is @tomdicaprio , spy novelist & avid card collector.

[shobhanai @HeyShobhan]

In 1986 a guy got kicked out of every casino in Vegas for counting cards. So he flew to Hong Kong with $180,000 and started betting on horses instead. He walked away with almost $900 million.

It's Bill Benter. He figured horse racing was just another counting problem. Same math, more moving parts.

He and a partner showed up with $180k and a computer. Benter spent years teaching that computer to guess one thing, the real chance each horse had to win. If his number was better than the odds the bookies gave, he bet. If not, he skipped it.

That's the whole trick. Expected value.

EV = p · b − (1 − p)

Only bet when your win chance p, at odds b, is worth more than your chance of losing.

This recording was never meant to be some hidden gem. Nobody expected Professor Tsitsiklis to hand the whole foundation away in 45 minutes, but that's exactly what happens on the board. Students in that room pay over $80,000 a year to sit through it. It's free right here. It's free right here.

Every quant, every professional bettor, every hedge fund analyst started with this exact hour. Benter just watched it and actually did the homework.

Almost nobody knows this lecture even exists. Watch it before it gets taken down.

The answer is in this video.

[Tom DiCaprio @DicaprioTom32]

The 1985 Transformers Cards Collectors Are Chasing 40 Years Later https://t.co/kG6Dz5ugQf

[Tom DiCaprio @DicaprioTom32]

@VinnysCorner1 Joe Montana

[Tom DiCaprio @DicaprioTom32]

This is one very cool factoid that needs to be shared.

[the Sports ON Tap @thesportsontap]

Ichiro Suzuki used an interpreter for 19 seasons in America.

He speaks English perfectly well. He chose not to use it publicly on purpose.

"When I'm being interviewed, presumably it's because people want to know how I feel about something or what my motivation is, not because they want to hear what I sound like in English. I wouldn't be true to the task if I responded in my unrefined English."

What almost nobody knew is that he'd also picked up Spanish, and he was using it on the field constantly.

Not from a textbook. He learned it by ear, from teammates, the way he learned everything else.

Raúl Ibañez described the process.

"He'd overhear us Latin guys talking and he would imitate it exactly the way that we said it and then he'd ask, what does that mean? Everything that he does, he tries to do it exactly perfect. So it only makes sense that he would do that when he's trying to speak Spanish."

Back in 2003, Ramón Santiago was in his first full season with Detroit when Seattle came to town. Ichiro led off the game with a single, stole second, popped up out of his slide, and deadpanned at the Dominican shortstop.

"No corro casi." Roughly, I don't have my legs today.

Two pitches later he stole third on those same legs.

"I knew he always spoke through an interpreter," Santiago said. "And that was for English, so of course I never imagined he could speak such nice Spanish."

Carlos Peña was playing first for Tampa Bay when Ichiro beat out one of his infield hits, looked over and asked him, in Spanish, what exactly he was looking at. Peña had to clamp his mouth shut to keep from laughing on the field.

Miguel Cabrera once called Ichiro ugly in Spanish while he was on the bases. Ichiro's response was not printable.

He always said he couldn't actually hold a conversation. That wasn't the point.

"I feel a bond with them. We're all foreigners in a strange land. We've come over here and had to cope with some of the same trials and tribulations. When I throw a little Spanish out at them, they really seem to appreciate it, and it seems to strengthen that bond."

Then he gave the other reason.

"And besides, we don't really have curse words in Japanese, so I like the fact that the Western languages allow me to say things that I otherwise can't."

At the 2004 All-Star Game in Houston, the seven Venezuelan All-Stars gathered for a photo.

Somebody waved Ichiro over.

They put him in the middle.

For more stories like this, follow us on any platform @thesportsontap

[Tom DiCaprio @DicaprioTom32]

@ATRightMovies Nighthawks

[Tom DiCaprio @DicaprioTom32]

@BBGreatMoments Babe Ruth

[Baseball’s Greatest Moments @BBGreatMoments]

Three complete game wins in a single World Series, that's what Bob Gibson delivered on top of a 1.12 ERA in his historic 1968 season.

Decades later Madison Bumgarner turned in a 0.25 ERA across the entire 2014 postseason.

Who's the better big game arm between the two.

[Tom DiCaprio @DicaprioTom32]

Mark McGwire Cards are Surging: His 5 Fastest Rising Cards This Year https://t.co/oVZobQVoS8

[Tom DiCaprio @DicaprioTom32]

@no1caresabtmich @DiscussingFilm What movie was this scene in? I definitely want to see the entire movie!

[Tom DiCaprio @DicaprioTom32]

We all learn something new every day.

[the Sports ON Tap @thesportsontap]

TODAY IN SPORTS HISTORY: 107 years ago today, a 21 year old shipping clerk talked his boss into giving him $500 for football uniforms.

That meat company went out of business two years later.

Its name is still on the field every Sunday.

August 11, 1919. Green Bay, Wisconsin. Population around 15,000.

A group of local athletes crowd into the editorial room of the Green Bay Press-Gazette. Most of them are former high school players from Green Bay East and West.

Two men called the meeting.

Earl "Curly" Lambeau was 21. He'd been a standout at Green Bay East, then went to Notre Dame and made Knute Rockne's varsity team as a freshman, before a brutal case of tonsillitis ended it and sent him home.

He needed a job, so he took one as a shipping clerk at the Indian Packing Company, a canned meat outfit.

But he still wanted to play football.

The other man was George Whitney Calhoun, the city editor at the Press-Gazette. A newspaperman who could put anything he wanted in front of the entire town.

They'd been talking about it all summer. Calhoun started running ads in his own paper inviting players to show up.

Then Lambeau went to his boss and asked for money.

The Indian Packing Company gave him $500 for uniforms and equipment, plus use of the company athletic field. There was one condition.

The team had to carry the company's name.

Two days later, the Press-Gazette referred to them in print as the Packers for the first time.

That's it. That's the whole origin. A canned meat sponsorship agreement.

They played home games at Hagemeister Park, which had no real seating. Fans stood along the sidelines and passed a hat around to pay the players.

They went 10-1 that first season.

In 1921 they joined the league that would become the NFL. They immediately went broke and forfeited the franchise, and Lambeau had to scramble to find new backers to get it back.

Meanwhile the Indian Packing Company was already gone. Sold to Acme Packing, and out of existence by 1921.

The sponsor lasted about two years. The name has lasted 107.

And the rest of it is the most improbable story in American sports.

Green Bay is the smallest market in the entire NFL, by an enormous margin, in a league where every other small market team folded or moved decades ago. The Duluth Eskimos. The Pottsville Maroons. The Canton Bulldogs. All gone.

The Packers survived because in 1923 they did something no other team has ever done. They sold shares to the public and became a community owned, non profit corporation.

No billionaire owner. No threat to relocate. The fans literally own the team.

That's why they're still there.

Thirteen NFL championships, more than any franchise in history. Four Super Bowls. Curly Lambeau won six titles as coach before he resigned in 1949, and the stadium carries his name. Vince Lombardi won five in seven years, and the Super Bowl trophy carries his.

Don Hutson. Bart Starr. Reggie White. Brett Favre. Aaron Rodgers.

All of it traces back to a 21 year old with tonsillitis asking a meatpacking plant for uniform money on this day in 1919.

The oldest team name still in use in the NFL belongs to a company that has not existed since Woodrow Wilson was president.

For more stories like this, follow us on any platform @thesportsontap

[TP35 @Tp35Cards]

4,000 Follower Giveaway!!!

For all the support this community has given me, I wanna give back to Y’all.

1st Place: JSN Optic Holo 🔥
2nd Place: Khaman Maluach XFractor🔥

How To Enter
Like ���️
Retweet🔁
Follow ✅

Winner will be drawn on 8/15 at 2PM EST

GOOD LUCK!!!

[ClevelandCollector @Chuckmanintexas]

Fastest giveaway ever. Went ahead and did 6 instead of 5. Yall are fast, but not as fast as I am at packing cards up 🤣 I hope you all enjoy and remember to be kind and spread joy.

[Skruluz @skruluz]

So lucky that I have My own Local Card Shop in my basement!
Show off how you display your collection!
@CardPurchaser

[RetroCardSnaps @RetroCardSnaps]

How fun would it be to go back in time and visit your first hobby shop?

[Tom DiCaprio @DicaprioTom32]

@HawkEmDownChris Cal Ripken, Jr and Joel Youngblood

[Sports Card Nation Podcast @Sportscardnati1]

As hobbyists we can turn this $2 card into a $40-$50 one but we can't wield our power to send a message to grading card entities that enough us enough. #thehobby

[Andrew Fillipponi @ThePoniExpress]

Steelers insider Rich Walsh gives out the QB rotation for Thursday Night:

-Mason Rudolph plays 1 or 2 series.
-Drew Allar plays the rest of the 1st half.
-Will Howard plays the entire 2nd half.

I'm pumped to see Allar and Howard for the 1st time. Appointment preseason viewing.

[E! News @enews]

Adam Sandler and Jackie Sandler attended the New York City premiere for their new movie ‘Don't Say Good Luck’ alongside daughters Sunny Sandler, 17, who stars in the project, and Sadie Sandler, 20. https://t.co/T1yOESl3mm

[CFB Kings @CFBKings]

Florida will wear throwback uniforms this fall commemorating Steve Spurrier’s 1966 Heisman season 🐊👀