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Topic: Why do we talk about Laszlos pizza but not the 1000 BTC poker tournament ? (Read 528 times)

hero member
Activity: 2576
Merit: 643
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I believe, that these events like pizza, poker tournaments and other unmentioned things in their time had their share for BTC popularity.
BTC value is based on how much people willing to pay for it. These stories about 80 million dollar pizza just made the BTC more popular Smiley

There are rumors on the Internet that Satoshi was fond of Poker, and that he a connection with a famous tournament that took place in 2010. That time, the winner left the event with the "useless" prize of 1000 BTC. Guys, who remember about the first BTC Poker tournament, made up their mind to gamble for cryptocurrencies.
I guess it was one of the reasons why crypto casinos are so popular today.
To be honest. The ease of uses and financial potential to skip through economic breakdown which leads to the success story of early bitcoin holder was the reason why bitcoin is more popular today for there no reason why the poker played way back or the pizza bought with thousand of bitcoins was the reason why bitcoin is more popular today.
sr. member
Activity: 882
Merit: 251
I believe, that these events like pizza, poker tournaments and other unmentioned things in their time had their share for BTC popularity.
BTC value is based on how much people willing to pay for it. These stories about 80 million dollar pizza just made the BTC more popular Smiley

There are rumors on the Internet that Satoshi was fond of Poker, and that he a connection with a famous tournament that took place in 2010. That time, the winner left the event with the "useless" prize of 1000 BTC. Guys, who remember about the first BTC Poker tournament, made up their mind to gamble for cryptocurrencies.
I guess it was one of the reasons why crypto casinos are so popular today.
jr. member
Activity: 118
Merit: 6
Trying to make the world better for everyone.
I believe, that these events like pizza, poker tournaments and other unmentioned things in their time had their share for BTC popularity.
BTC value is based on how much people willing to pay for it. These stories about 80 million dollar pizza just made the BTC more popular Smiley
legendary
Activity: 2646
Merit: 1701
https://youtu.be/DsAVx0u9Cw4 ... Dr. WHO < KLF
Well, way before even that tournament happened, people had all kinds of other games and lotteries running on this forum and others, all giving Bitcoin as prizes. Not to mention gmaxwell's Bitcoin faucet (didn't it give out 19k BTC?) or the tonnes of other faucets out there, but the things is, it's easy to give things out online. Long before Bitcoin arrived, people were giving all kinds of digital money online...

But finding someone willing to accept these internet monies for actual physical goods? That was what was so special about pizza and Laszlo.

Indeed. However, the Bitcoin pizza's were also unlikely the first physical goods to be exchanged / purchased with bitcoin's.

The first publicly acknowledged (and/or perishable?) example of physical goods - yes, most certainly.

...

The Worlds First Sudo-Anonymous Poker Tournament ?
Thread started: March 11, 2010, 05:19:07 AM

Pizza for bitcoins?
Thread started: May 18, 2010, 12:35:20 AM
- https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.1153

Get 5 free bitcoins from freebitcoins.appspot.com
Thread started: June 11, 2010, 05:38:45 PM

The first Bitcoin faucet was run by Gavin A. not gmaxwell ... I donated 500 BTC to it ... here ...

My 500 BTC donation to Gavin's Original Bitcoin Faucet is from this wallet ...
- https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.7536

Date: 04/08/2010 18:27
To: 15VjRaDX9zpbA8LVnbrCAFzrVzN7ixHNsC
Debit: -500.00000000 BTC
Net amount: -500.00000000 BTC
Transaction ID: 92435cc4da7808976aa6d3d9c8fb02e7fe23a48b9f9c73145ef738b0d8d977e2
Transaction total size: 1135 bytes
Transaction virtual size: 1135 bytes
Output index: 0

- https://bitcoinnews.com/the-first-bitcoin-faucet-gave-out-5-bitcoins-per-day
legendary
Activity: 2758
Merit: 3408
Join the world-leading crypto sportsbook NOW!
Well, way before even that tournament happened, people had all kinds of other games and lotteries running on this forum and others, all giving Bitcoin as prizes. Not to mention gmaxwell's Bitcoin faucet (didn't it give out 19k BTC?) or the tonnes of other faucets out there, but the things is, it's easy to give things out online. Long before Bitcoin arrived, people were giving all kinds of digital money online...

But finding someone willing to accept these internet monies for actual physical goods? That was what was so special about pizza and Laszlo.
legendary
Activity: 2646
Merit: 1701
https://youtu.be/DsAVx0u9Cw4 ... Dr. WHO < KLF
Full circle ...

Imma post a link to: Topic: Why do we talk about Laszlos pizza but not the 1000 BTC poker tournament ? - here to clarify some history...

Why do we talk about Laszlos pizza but not the 1000 BTC poker tournament ?
- https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/why-do-we-talk-about-laszlos-pizza-but-not-the-1000-btc-poker-tournament-4719415

Due to linked references in this article;
Bitcoin History Part 14: The 1,000 BTC Poker Game
- https://news.bitcoin.com/bitcoin-history-part-14-the-1000-btc-poker-game/
(Also, not the 'first bitcoin to fiat exchange' service as NewLibertyStandard exchange / rates was before 'BitcoinFX'.)

Transactions were made from this 'old' wallet ...
Verifying my (old) zero balance wallet address for blockchain research etc.,
- https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/verifying-my-old-zero-balance-wallet-address-for-blockchain-research-etc-4630066

BTC FTW. Win some, lose some! 'Fun' times and C'est la vie...

P.S. I no longer play much Texas Holdem, much of my original interest came from the math and botting (poker robot) side of things.

P.P.S. Don't tap on the glass, it spooks the fish.

Imma leave this one here and go and play 3D-8L chess instead ...

On the Internet, Nobody Knows You're a Bot
- https://www.wired.com/2005/09/pokerbots/

- https://web.archive.org/web/20140421054708/http://www.hixoxih.com/games/chess/3D8L.htm

Kiss
jr. member
Activity: 224
Merit: 8
Wow that is a huge tournament over there having 1000 BTC as reward. This is something really good on using BTC instead of having dollars in the table or as a reward. As we all know that money nowadays is so  hot that is why in every casino the organizers will going to acknowledge using chips to avoid getting conflict because of the fiat money if being represented.
legendary
Activity: 2646
Merit: 1701
https://youtu.be/DsAVx0u9Cw4 ... Dr. WHO < KLF
...
No shenanigans. I indeed added the 1000 BTC to the prize pool from my own mined coins.
...

Hope you don't regret it and that things turned out better for you than for the Laszlo guy (who ended up basically with no bitcoins when it skyrocketed). But if not for people like you guys, Bitcoin would've never got off the ground.

Thanks for sharing the story.

Welcome! Though I'm pretty much in the same boat as Laszlo in that regard then, what with LR and Mt. Gox, and the numerous other unfortunate issues over the years. Anyhow, I'm still here, mostly as a 'home' BTC miner (need to upgrade) and some basic contracts, shares and alt. coin holdings etc., also finalizing set-up of a crypto / privacy / security related non-profit project, amongst other things.

As a self-employed person I currently spend much of my week juggling crypto payments (and earnings) for services and survival. I guess in some alternative reality I might of achieved more in this community, perhaps I'm just to jaded now.
legendary
Activity: 2352
Merit: 1540
...
No shenanigans. I indeed added the 1000 BTC to the prize pool from my own mined coins.
...

Hope you don't regret it and that things turned out better for you than for the Laszlo guy (who ended up basically with no bitcoins when it skyrocketed). But if not for people like you guys, Bitcoin would've never got off the ground.

Thanks for sharing the story.
newbie
Activity: 28
Merit: 0
Probably because not everybody knows poker. And the pizza was first, and i think nothing will beat the first.
member
Activity: 420
Merit: 13
Silence
Wow, its a big amount of money. I wonder if they still hold those price's and how rich they are now if they still have it.

theymos is already in here that time and until now he is actively supporting this forum as the forum administrator, he deserve's all of his achievements. Kudos to sir theymos!  Smiley
member
Activity: 532
Merit: 15
Thanks for sharing buddy Smiley
member
Activity: 131
Merit: 19
Krypton
I have described the pizza transaction many times to people with success. I'm not sure how to describe this.
legendary
Activity: 2268
Merit: 18492
I've done the same with some later cryptos. Treated them like bottletops. Tipping then like chocolate sprinkles, playing bingo with them and using huge amounts of them to buy trivial things - only for some of them to have some serious value years later. Nothing like bitcoin. But it was fun at the time and have no regrets about it. If it hadn't happened it would have no value now.

It's interesting to consider. If anybody back then knew how much Bitcoin would be worth in the future, none of these type of things would have happened as everyone would just be hodling. But if none of these things happened, would Bitcoin see the growing adoption it sees today?

-snip-

Hey man, next time you run a free to enter poker tournament with 1000 BTC prize money, can you give me a heads up? I'd like to join.  Grin
hero member
Activity: 1190
Merit: 534
I think we should take time to appreciate those who have used Bitcoin as a payment system even in the early days instead of holding their funds and waiting for the price to grow. That's how it should be, now it is our responsibility to do the same and give first preference to use Bitcoin and cryptocurrency as the payment instrument. Well, I am not sure about the legal status of Poker in most of the countries but it is really appreciable to use Bitcoin if playing poker is legal in your country.
legendary
Activity: 2646
Merit: 1701
https://youtu.be/DsAVx0u9Cw4 ... Dr. WHO < KLF
I'd like to stress that this was intended to be a sudo-anonymous tournament and that my word play of pseudonymous was intentional and supposed to be ironic.

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudonymity
and
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudo

i.e. superuser (forum members) and substitute user (computer players) do anonymous Bitcoin poker tournament.  Grin

...

In truth though I really would of liked Satoshi to participate as looking back on it now that would of been something a bit special.

At least no one finished on the money bubble. C'est la vie.
legendary
Activity: 2646
Merit: 1701
https://youtu.be/DsAVx0u9Cw4 ... Dr. WHO < KLF
The big question I have is how the pot was funded with 1,200BTC when only 4 players bought into the tournament. The buy in was listed at 55BTC...so where did the extra ~1000BTC come from to fund the payouts?

I suspect shenanigans.


I will be playing and hosting the game and providing the 1000 Bitcoin added prize pool. You are trying to win my Bitcoins ! Cheesy

No shenanigans. I indeed added the 1000 BTC to the prize pool from my own mined coins.

I'm fairly certain that all of the transactions for the tournament were from this old wallet ...
- https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/verifying-my-old-zero-balance-wallet-address-for-blockchain-research-etc-4630066

I would post the transaction ID's, although that would not really follow the original spirit of the tournament!

...

Before Bitcoin I used to do online poker botting (with some limited robot development) for the OpenHoldem project.

The concept for the tournament (a home style game in reality) was simply my attempt at that time to try and build the forum user base, utility and economy. I was also curious to see if anyone would actually bother to participate. There was literally nothing much to do with your Bitcoin at that time and in hindsight that would of been the better option for me personally too.

Anyhow, the Bitcoin Pizza's indeed remain the first real world example of someone offering up payment for perishable goods with Bitcoin. One always requires beer (free as in) + pizza for a good home game of Texas Hold'em, right? However, it's much more likely that Laszlo was (subliminally?) inspired by the original bitcoin.org website here ... https://web.archive.org/web/20100327210623/http://www.bitcoin.org:80/faq - Read: "... What is Bitcoin’s value backed by?..." and realize that this text also pre-dates Laszlo's offer (even if he does not recall reading it).  Grin

...

Now they are all at it - https://cointelegraph.com/news/kim-kardashian-west-raises-stakes-with-bitcoin-in-charity-poker-night-out - and for some good causes at least.
legendary
Activity: 1274
Merit: 1920
฿ear ride on the rainbow slide
Nice find. At current prices, first place earned about $4.5 million dollars, and at peak prices back in December the first prize was worth about $11.4 million. This means that this tiny 4 player bitcoin poker tournament had more prize money than the World Series of Poker (first prize this year of $8.8 million).

Thank you for that info - that is awesome. I knew there would be someone who could put it into perspective.

This is a great quote: "this tiny 4 player bitcoin poker tournament had more prize money than the World Series of Poker (first prize this year of $8.8 million)."

Well, with only 4 people joining the tournament it's understandable why it's been forgotten.

The big question I have is how the pot was funded with 1,200BTC when only 4 players bought into the tournament. The buy in was listed at 55BTC...so where did the extra ~1000BTC come from to fund the payouts?

I suspect shenanigans.

BitcoinFX provided the extra 1000 BTC - worth at the time very little.

Don't forget that in the early days there were only a few "regulars" in the bitcoin community.

dwdollar is user 24, BitcoinFX user 30, DannyM user 51 and Theymos user 35 is the forum administrator.


because people treated it like a "bottletop" game,,
like hal accepting the first ever tx from satoshi..
 after hal-satoshi tx .. no tx/games/bottletop swaps seemed as important..

but then.. a real deal for real pizza .. that reset the bar to a higher milestone of importance than hals tx from satoshi

after all, you remember your first love/sexual experience.. but after a few meaningless bodily fluid exchanges.. you dont realy treat a meaningless game of strip poker with a pole dancer as something special

and these days.. its bettr to spend time walking into retailers in your town and get them to adopt bitcoin.. rather than find historic events to hope you can energise adoption with stories of the good old days

I've done the same with some later cryptos. Treated them like bottletops. Tipping then like chocolate sprinkles, playing bingo with them and using huge amounts of them to buy trivial things - only for some of them to have some serious value years later. Nothing like bitcoin. But it was fun at the time and have no regrets about it. If it hadn't happened it would have no value now. From that perspective - it is super cool to see it done with bitcoin. Predecessor to all the alt coins - sometimes the history repeats itself. (Not every altcoin will turn to gold - most of them will fail - most alt coins and ICOs are a ploy to exchange your bitcoin for that "magic fair dust" straight from the vacuum cleaner bag)

Talking to the local bitcoin exchanger. He was telling me that he mined bitcoin when they were around $5 and was overjoyed when they hit $20 and sold them for a quick profit. Those with little faith sold them for a quick buck and those with faith would have still traded them but kept some of them.

There are a number of events that are programmed into the media psyche. There have been far more interesting events that took place. This is one of the ones that stood out when I was documenting some of them. here

While I agree that getting your local retailers to accept bitcoin would be practical and productive. I believe that documenting history is important. Assembling stories, legends and timelines while the memory is still fresh and those that lived it and experienced it still can tell the stories.

full member
Activity: 490
Merit: 123
This indeed is very nice find.
So fascinating to look back and  read such post where btc was not even reffered as " real money" and 1000 BTC was chunk change.
legendary
Activity: 2352
Merit: 1540
Nice find. At current prices, first place earned about $4.5 million dollars, and at peak prices back in December the first prize was worth about $11.4 million. This means that this tiny 4 player bitcoin poker tournament had more prize money than the World Series of Poker (first prize this year of $8.8 million).

Yet still, even at ATH prices, the total prize pool (of 1,200 btc, not 1,000 as the topic's title says) was much less than WSOP's total prize pool, so not as impressive and mind-boggling as the world's most expensive pizzas.

But the main reason is what franky1 wrote above.

Still, nice dig OP.
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