- Death pools - a ghoulish twist on college basketball
tournament pools - are nothing new to the Internet. Participants typically
throw a few dollars into a pot and guess when various newsmakers will die
for cash prizes and bragging rights.
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- Now, Luke Heidelberger is taking this morbid game to
an all new level with the Indo-Pakistani Death Pool.
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- Just guess the exact time the first bomb detonates and
you win. It's that easy. You don't even have to guess who strikes first.
Just make sure to also guess how many millions of innocent people die -
that's how a tiebreaker is decided.
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- Are you sick yet? Heidelberger hopes so.
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- To be sure, Heidelberger's stab at dark humor is intended
to get people talking about how close we're coming to nuclear war in South
Asia.
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- "My little death pool isn't encouraging the Indians
and Pakistanis to nuke each other. I'm just trying to emphasize how absurd
this whole thing is in my own small way," he says.
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- "If the leaders of those two countries are going
to be so stupid and so arrogant as to gamble with the lives of millions
of their citizens in a deadly game of nuclear brinksmanship, why shouldn't
we gamble too and at least have some fun with it? At least my game might
get people talking."
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- Heidelberger, a 28-year-old computer programmer from
Indianapolis, says he's not affiliated with any political group. This is
just his own personal statement and in keeping with his own personal favorite
statement on war, Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove.
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- "I'd like to think that Stanley Kubrick would join
the pool if he were still around," said Heidelberger. Still, his girlfriend
isn't so sure. "She's a little afraid of a backlash."
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- War: The Sport of Kings
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- Ghoul pools existed way before the Internet. European
nobles were known to bet on everything - including the outcome of wars,
sometimes referred to as the "sport of kings."
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- Compared to the bigger games on the Internet, the Indo-Pakistani
Death Pool is small potatoes. The prize is only $120, and Heidelberger
put up most of the money himself.
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- "You don't have to pay to enter," Heidelberger
says. "You can contribute as much as you like - or nothing - and you
still make a profit on the war."
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- As of June 25, 303 people had entered the pool. The latest
contestant, according to the Web site, was Andy Huchings of Buffalo, N.Y.
He predicts the first nuclear bomb will fall on Nov. 19, causing one megadeath.
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- "Megadeath" is Cold War-speak that means 1
million in casualties. Many entrants are guessing that the first strike
will yield 30 megadeaths.
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- 'Death Pool' Dave's Banner Year
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- The serious death pool players aren't really interested
in Heidelberger's site. The prizes are small, and many players say it's
more fun to pick on celebrities.
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- "Famous people are going to die no matter what.
This is our little way to thumb our nose at the Grim Reaper," says
"Death Pool" Dave, one of the high-profile gamblers on the Internet's
death pool circuit, who's appeared on dozens of radio and TV shows.
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- The Detroit health-care researcher says he won't give
his full name. "I'm sure my company doesn't want people to know that
one of their researchers plays the death pools," he says.
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- Popular picks in the death pool world include aging celebrities
like Katharine Hepburn, former President Ronald Reagan, Muhammad Ali and
Bob Hope.
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- In a typical game, you give the pool a list of celebrities
and earn points for each death. Usually, the points are determined on a
"Minus 100" rule. When Mafia chief John Gotti died recently at
age 61, Death Pool Dave earned a cool 39 points.
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- "Everyone picks Bob Hope. But he's 99, you only
get one point," Dave says.
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- Should Hope reach his 100th birthday - and The Wolf Files
ardently hopes that he will - he'll still be worth one point.
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- Cash Payments for Inside Information
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- The big death pool scores come when younger celebrities
meet an untimely passing. Dave hardly cried when Alice in Chains singer
Layne Staley died at 34 of a drug overdose earlier this year. He won $15,000.
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- Some rock fans sent Dave nasty letters. "They said
I was a sadistic necrophiliac. But I say that's beating a dead horse,"
he said, adding that Staley "threw his life away" with drugs.
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- Dave says he zeroed in on Staley after an EMS worker
told him that he had been to the singer's home and saw that he had gangrene
on one arm. "I paid that guy $2,000 for that information," he
says. "I usually don't give that much. But this information was that
good."
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- With the $13,000 win, Dave could be headed to his best
year since 1999, when he won an equal amount, largely based on the death
of John F. Kennedy Jr. in a plane crash.
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- "It's not just drugs we're looking at," Dave
says, referring to the 20 or 30 serious players around the world with whom
he competes. "We're looking for telling articles in local newspapers
that show the sort of lifestyle that might lead to an early death. We're
also looking for insider tips who can tell us something that the rest of
the world doesn't know."
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- High on his current list are former baseball star Darryl
Strawberry, actor Robert Downey Jr. and Stone Temple Pilots singer Scott
Weiland, all of whom have a history of drug abuse. "Strawberry is
a good pick because he's under 40, he's had colon cancer and he's suicidal,"
he says. "I guarantee Strawberry doesn't field forever."
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- Dave says that a friend of Downey's complained for putting
him on his list. "I told him when Downey proves that he's cleaned
up his act, I'll take him off my list."
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- Honor Among Ghouls
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- If there is any honor among Dave's peers, it's that they
resist average people who are thrust into the headlines. Nobody was betting
after journalist Daniel Pearl was abducted in Afghanistan several months
ago.
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- "With the celebrities, it's fair game," Dave
says. "I certainly have pity for the Pearl family and their loss."
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- Even with tensions heating up between India and Pakistan,
Dave says he has no desire to join the Indo-Pakistani Death Pool. "I
don't get the point, what if there is no nuclear bomb? Nobody wins. Why
play?"
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- Still, Dave checked if there were any newsmakers in the
area who might be good candidates for his regular ghoul pools. "You
never know," he says.
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- Heidelberger, however, says he's hoping that the bombing
never comes. In a perfect world, India and Pakistan will disarm and he'll
throw a "nonproliferation party" with money in the pot.
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- "Unfortunately," he says, "I'm a pessimist.
Someone will win my contest and the rest of the world will lose."
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- Of course, if the world ends, all bets are off.
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- Buck Wolf is entertainment producer at ABCNEWS.com. The
Wolf Files is published Tuesdays. If you want to receive weekly notice
when a new column is published, join the e-mail list.
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- http://abcnews.go.com/sections/us/WolfFiles/wolffiles.html
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