Holiday Spirits

How to play Holiday Spirits

For so long, CalvinAyre.com has been a beacon in the poker reporting landscape but as the outgoing incumbent of this position of privilege, I haven’t been at the centre of this role for so long as to claim anywhere near all the credit.  

A huge thanks for his outstanding reporting on this site should go to Lee Davy, who for many years, brought poker to life on Calvin Ayre. I personally owe a huge debt of gratitude to Lee for the efforts he made in not only making me feel so well prepared to take up the mantle when he moved on to pastures new, but in establishing the Calvin Ayre brand so well for so many years within the poker world.

Ours is a niche industry, but it is a wonderful and welcoming one, and Calvin Ayre has been a huge part of the poker industry in my time, too. The name has opened doors, helped me speak to some of the biggest and best poker players from around the globe.  

About Holiday Spirits

I concede, CEOs know much more about business than I do. That’s why they are business leaders and I am not, nor will I ever be. So who the hell am I then? I will say confidently, I absolutely know my place in this world. It is as clear to me as the sun. I may not understand much about doing business, but I know what money is, and I know what money is not. I know what happens to unbacked paper currency when governments shut down the world and blast currency from monetary firehoses all over the world until we are all drowning in it. It dies.

Are you listening, Oh you gaming industry execs? If you’re a CEO reading this, or a CFO, and you’re struggling with shut down casinos and mounting debt, I’m talking to you. You have only a few months at most to protect your companies from a hyperinflationary nuclear bomb that is about to go off and destroy everything in its path. The fuse is being lit as I write this. I will now describe the fuse.

About 18 months ago I wrote this weird, esoteric, wacky article. I made the case that once U.S. dollar interest rates went negative, all commodities would warp into backwardation. Meaning, the spot prices for all commodities would become more expensive than their futures price. This is now happening. Almost all commodities are now in persistent backwardation. All grains, sugar, lumber, and cotton; energy including natural gas and both Brent and WTI crude oil; base metals including copper, tin, and iron ore. They are all in backwardation now, and some have been that way for months now. The CRB commodities index is now climbing at its fastest pace ever, doubling since March.

How to play Holiday Spirits

I may have started life in the industry as an outsider, but that is far from the case now. Those initial conferences were frightening, but they pushed me to meet people, and what I discovered was an industry built on community.

Now, when I attend conferences, I look forward to seeing people I genuinely consider friends, not just business contacts. One such friend is Gali Hartuv, CEO and co-founder of WarriorLab. We met at a conference and immediately hit it off. We now host regular monthly webinars about the iGaming industry,

I have also been impressed with the number of like-minded, empowered female CEOs and leaders I have met. I was recently added to a WhatsApp group exclusively for C-level women in iGaming. When I joined, there were already 150 women in the group, and I was told it started at just 20.