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The Sudden Death of An American Pastime

Earlier this month, thousands of Americans, without any warning and without doing anything wrong, suddenly lost their jobs. In the course of a few hours on the afternoon of April 15, potentially billions of dollars were frozen and an entire industry was wiped away. But unlike other recent economic casualties, this one had nothing to do with the recession.

I’m one of the people whose world was upended. That’s because I’m a professional poker player. For the last year, I’ve made a living playing No Limit Texas Hold’em tournaments, mostly online. But …