When you’re toiling away at your grand masterplan it is great when you get some external validation.  It’s not always directly related to where you are, but it still makes you feel that you might be on the right track.

And some validation came today for Texas Holdem Investing when Zappos was acquired by Amazon for $920m.

Well done to Zappos and their CEO – Tony Hsieh – who wrote the following CEO Letter about the deal.  Techcrunch also writes about it in detail and the inimitable Seth Godin also blogs about it in terms of the incredible culture that Zappos have developed in his piece entitled “When you buy Zappos what do you buy?”

And the Texas Holdem Investing validation?  Well Tony Hsieh says that he has learnt a huge amount about the business world from poker – and he is even writing a book about it!  Competition I hear you say.  Well not really because it will be a different space.

If Texas Holdem Investing even creates 0.1% of the value of Zappos, well the Masked Financier will be happy.

You can see Tony’s musings on business and poker at the following blog posts:

• Everything I know about business I learned from poker
• Poker, business and life – it’s never too late to change tables

Now, maybe I’ll get a new pair of shoes…

Marketers often talk about creating a brand, and that’s what I’m trying to do with Texas Holdem Investing.

“They” (the marketers) say that an important part of developing a brand is to have “hooks” that remind people of your brand.

Well I’ve just found my musical hook – “The Gambler” by Kenny Rogers.

“The Gambler” is one of most legendary country music songs ever written and the album with the same name hit number 32 on About.com’s list of the top 200 most influential country songs ever.

Investors could do well to read and absorb the lyrics of this song – the man speaks the truth!

For some fun and diversion myself amidst all of my “serious” posts, I decided to pen my own version of the lyrics inspired by the mythical figure of “The Trader”, an mysterious and sphinx like character who is the equal of The Gambler.

I hope you like them and might learn from them.

And perhaps some day I’ll do my own karaoke version for YouTube – wearing a purple jacket just like Kenny!

The Trader – By The Masked Financier – May 2009

On a hot summers evenin on a steakhouse down near Wall Street,

I met up with the trader; we were both too wired to sleep.

So we took turns a starin at the quotes on the Bloomberg

Til boredom overtook us, and he began to speak.

He said, son, I’ve made a life out of readin annual statements,

And knowin what the profits were by the way the CEO’s talk.

So if you don’t mind my sayin, I can see you’re out of aces.

For tastin some your Lynch Bage Ill give you some advice.

So I handed him my bottle and he poured himself a half glass.

Then he took out a Cohiba and asked me for a light.

And the room went deathly quiet, and his face lost all expression.

Said, if youre gonna play the game, boy, ya gotta learn to play it right.

You got to know when to hold em, know when to fold em,

Know when to walk away and know when to run.

You never count your money when youre sittin at the Bloomy.

Therell be time enough for countin when the stock exchange is closed.

Now evry trader knows that the secret to survivin

Is knowin when to cut a trade and knowin when to stay.

Cause evry trade’s a winner and evry trade’s a loser,

And the best that you should aim for is 10-15 a year.

So when he’d finished speakin, he turned back towards the Bloomy,

Crushed out his Cohiba and zoned into the flow.

And somewhere in the darkness the trader, he broke even.

But in his final words I found an ace that I could keep.

You got to know when to hold em, know when to fold em,

Know when to walk away and know when to run.

You never count your money when youre sittin at the Bloomy.

There’ll be time enough for countin when the stock exchange is closed.

You got to know when to hold em, know when to fold em,

Know when to walk away and know when to run.

You never count your money when youre sittin at the Bloomy.

There’ll be time enough for countin when the stock exchange is closed.

Texas Holdem Poker has achieved iconic status in the world of pop culture, with many films, books, and songs created either directly about the game or with references to it.

This is another one of the reasons why Texas Holdem is a great medium for learning about investing. Because it is cool! And investing is not (well I think it is but not everyone does)!

Anyway, one of the things I’ll be keeping track of on this blog is where Texas Holdem “turns” up in popular culture. And it might mean that I’ll have some links to “cool” and “exciting” sites!

As a start to this part of this project, I want to talk about Lady Gaga’s latest song – “Poker Face”. This song is pure Texas Holdem from the first line of the first verse. And in the video you can see that the game they are playing (not for money though) is Texas Holdem. So congrats to Lady Gaga for promoting awareness and making cool my favoured way of teaching people how to invest.