The Inner Table

[The Inner Table @TheInnerTable]

Open AI's ceo dropped out of Stanford.

He later said he learned more playing poker with classmates than he did in lectures.

He said, Poker taught him how to notice patterns in people and how to make decisions with very imperfect information.

That's literally his job now.

One of the biggest VC's of SF hosts one of Silicon Valley's most famous home games. Phil Hellmuth, a 17-time World Series champion, has said he struggled to beat it for years.

David Sacks and Jason Calacanis play regularly. Their podcast is literally called All-In.

Bill Gates played through his Harvard nights.

This isn't a coincidence.

Poker is the closest thing to building a company in real time.
You never see the full picture.
You read people.
You manage risk.
You commit when the odds are right, and you walk away when they're not.

Coders have been training for this game their whole lives. They just called it debugging.

So we're building a home for it.

The Inner Table. Coming soon....

Take your seat. 🃏

[vibhu @vibhu]

Harkirat is building India's first streaming poker set & brand, and he's raising capital for it on @solana with @backabledotbiz.

If you don't know him, he's a tech YouTuber with > 500,000 subs.

I recently met Santhosh Suvarna, India's top earning player of all time, who became a viral sensation @wsop this summer.

Because of players like him, poker is exploding in popularity in India.

[Ownership @ownershipfm]

Inner Table founder Kirat on using celebrities and live streams to set his poker studio apart in a market where every studio looks the same:

“Unfortunately, if you go to a poker studio, there’s not something very unique that you can do. The good thing we have is a bunch of influencer and celebrity connects.”

“If you really look at it, it’s very commoditised, right? Every poker studio is better than the other when it comes to decor. There’s no real way to separate them.”

“What I’ve learned over time is what real poker players are looking for is a lot of normies, or what are traditionally called fish, to play with. That’s how you attract the best.”

“The best poker players, they don’t want to play against regs. They want to play against new people, people who are playing casually and for leisure.”

“India is a very celebrity-driven country. Everyone wants to see themselves on YouTube. If we start a tournament, we would have motivations other than money to reach the final table, just to be on the channel.”

“Mostly you’ll see in India, any channel that does well follows 3 years after a channel that did well in the US. MrBeast did well in the US, you’ll find someone who’s doing the exact same content in India in 3 years.”

“It’s a blue ocean market in general. Competition doesn’t change much here. The market is pretty big.”

FT @kirat_tw @TheInnerTable

[Kuleen ◎ @knimkar]

We are still doing our diligence on @TheInnerTable but one pleasant surprise from the process: i gotta say the @backabledotbiz UI is amazing

hats off

[Ownership @ownershipfm]

Ownership Podcast S2 E2: Kirat (@TheInnerTable)

"Taking poker mainstream, one studio at a time."

00:00 Intro
01:00 @kirat_tw's background: Superteam, Backpack and a 600K YouTube channel
02:16 From Goldman to Gather Town to Backpack
04:56 Surviving FTX and going all in on YouTube
06:02 What The Inner Table is and why poker
06:49 How India banned online poker but legalised offline studios
08:03 The economics of a poker studio
09:43 Kirat's poker history and what the game teaches founders
13:29 Bigger ambitions beyond one studio
15:52 What makes The Inner Table different
18:48 Community, licensing and the launch timeline
19:56 Why Kirat chose MetaDAO and Backable
21:29 The raise: terms and what $100K builds
23:11 What early success looks like
24:15 The biggest risk: regulation
26:22 Where crypto could fit: token perks and freerolls
28:01 Why back The Inner Table and closing thoughts

This show is sponsored by @MetaDAOProject

[Backable @backabledotbiz]

The Inner Table (@TheInnerTable) ICO opens tomorrow at 17:30 UTC!

The Inner Table is a poker and entertainment brand founded by @kirat_tw, building physical and online poker studios across India. Read all about it here: https://t.co/vjgdsQkhU7

[Harkirat Singh @kirat_tw]

Launching tomorrow

[Ownership @ownershipfm]

InnerTable founder Kirat on how India's online poker ban opened a "blue ocean" for offline poker studios:

"Around last year is when a regulation came out, and anything related to or close to gambling, or even games of skill, got banned, including poker. But there was no regulation around offline poker."

"Every state will decide on its own whether or not playing Texas Hold'em is considered to be a game of skill or not. And if it is deemed to be a game of skill, then yes, you can start offline places where people play these specific games."

"It started off with Karnataka, then Uttar Pradesh, recently Haryana. That now covers 4 to 5 states, around 10 to 20% of the Indian map."

"Poker studios are fairly profitable. Most of the revenue comes from a 5% rake. It's a very blue ocean business. If you start one, you'll definitely be profitable."

"Even if you have probably 100 people stepping into your poker studio every day, in a country like India, you can make at least $200K a month in top line, probably more."

"We're starting in Noida or Delhi with our very first studio. We're going to start live streaming offline poker events in the country, to make it more mainstream."

FT @kirat_tw @TheInnerTable

[MCG @MCGlive]

Current trending on https://t.co/iG7NP6nwNc

1. robinhood:0x2d8d6f4a93acd7a916a5a654ec8b690ba3b3eadd @StaticsProtocol
2. robinhood:0xf44702b17d9abd53815f703e772f35e9c71a53af @axol_io
3. $POKER @TheInnerTable (@backabledotbiz, @MetaDAOProject Eco)

959 Traders accessed Signal this week. Add a Signal page to your website https://t.co/X430J07eUL

[The Inner Table @TheInnerTable]

Open AI's ceo dropped out of Stanford.

He later said he learned more playing poker with classmates than he did in lectures.

He said, Poker taught him how to notice patterns in people and how to make decisions with very imperfect information.

That's literally his job now.

One of the biggest VC's of SF hosts one of Silicon Valley's most famous home games. Phil Hellmuth, a 17-time World Series champion, has said he struggled to beat it for years.

David Sacks and Jason Calacanis play regularly. Their podcast is literally called All-In.

Bill Gates played through his Harvard nights.

This isn't a coincidence.

Poker is the closest thing to building a company in real time.
You never see the full picture.
You read people.
You manage risk.
You commit when the odds are right, and you walk away when they're not.

Coders have been training for this game their whole lives. They just called it debugging.

So we're building a home for it.

The Inner Table. Coming soon....

Take your seat. 🃏

[MCG @MCGlive]

Tomorrow on MCG

$POKER | @TheInnerTable w/@kirat_tw

📅Monday, 19th October
🕒12:30PM EST
📍Tune in here

Stream presented by @fomo and @MetaDAOProject

[The Inner Table @TheInnerTable]

CRAZY BUT TRUE: POKER EDITION ♠️

5 poker stories that sound fake but are 100% true 🧵

1.
In 1876, Wild Bill Hickok, one of the Wild West’s most famous gunfighters, was shot dead in the middle of a poker game.

Legend says he was holding aces and eights. Poker players still call it the “dead man’s hand.”

2.
Before he was president, Richard Nixon served in the US Navy in WWII and won so much at poker that he saved thousands of dollars.

He used that money to help pay for his first election in 1946. He won.

3.
In 2003, an accountant named Chris Moneymaker paid just $86 to enter an online poker game.
He won a seat at the World Series of Poker, his first real tournament, and walked away with $2.5 million.

4.
In 2019, Bryn Kenney was about to win a poker tournament, so he made a deal to split the prize money just in case.

Then he lost. He still took home $20.5 million for 2nd place, more than the winner got.

5.
The chance of being dealt a royal flush (A-K-Q-J-10, all the same suit) is 1 in 649,740.

Which one surprised you most?

[The Inner Table @TheInnerTable]

First thought when you look down at these bad boys?

[The Inner Table @TheInnerTable]

https://t.co/uIkxcN2lb1

[The Inner Table @TheInnerTable]

https://t.co/uIkxcN2lb1

[The Inner Table @TheInnerTable]

The thesis

[Harkirat Singh @kirat_tw]

Life update https://t.co/Cn6yaly8pU

[The Inner Table @TheInnerTable]

The Inner Table Poker Studio. See you soon in Gurugram ♠️

[The Inner Table @TheInnerTable]

The Inner Table Poker Studio. Opening soon in Gurugram. ♠️