On Wall Street, you have to know when to hold ’em and know when to fold ’em — stocks, that is.
But hedge-fund wunderkind David Einhorn, 43, took that saying to the green felt last week at the three-day World Series of Poker No Limit Hold ’Em event in Las Vegas.
At a $1 million buy-in to play, this was the richest poker event in history, and the Greenlight Capital CEO held his own, coming in third out of 50 players and winning a tidy sum of $4.35 million.
Einhorn was said to be donating his winnings to a Boston-based charity, City Year, which works with public schools to reduce student dropout rates. — Post staff
Wallflower
Sizzling actress Mila Kunis, who just helped “Ted” reel in $54 million in its debut weekend, is being sought after by high-end luxury brands, including LVMH, which is looking for a new female face.
Armani Exchange, which has a roster spot to fill while Megan Fox gets closer to motherhood, is also rumored to be interested in providing Kunis (pictured) with some hot threads for an upcoming campaign.
So why on earth would she be telling media outlets she doesn’t think she’s attractive?
“[Kunis] is red-hot right now. This is the time for her to cash in, and she’s out there scaring people away who want to throw money at her,” a former Armani exec told On the Money.
“I know [Armani] has been eyeing her for quite a while. She needs to take advantage of becoming an A-lister.”
Kunis’ worth is north of $30 million, an amount that could double if she starts taking luxury offers seriously.– Joseph Barracato
Financial ‘Damages’
Over its past four seasons, the TV show “Damages” has featured echoes of real-life financial scandals, from Ted Danson’s Enron-esque CEO to the Madoff-like Ponzi scheme in Season 3.
This season, which premieres Wednesday on DirecTV, seems to promise a return to Wall Street, as it involves an investment bank employee, played by Jenna Elfman, troubled by her firm’s conduct with insider information.
According to co-creator/executive producer Daniel Zelman, the show’s focus on finance comes from a combination of recent scandals and the character of powerful lawyer Patty Hewes, played by Glenn Close.
“I think we created a character in Patty who gravitates to the financial world because she’s obsessed with taking on bullies, and one of the ways that people get bullied is through the economy . . . and some of that’s built into the financial system,” Zelman told us at the premiere of the show’s fifth and final season.
For Close, the financial storylines are compelling because “it’s something that I think everybody’s invested in — I mean literally and figuratively — especially now.”
Both Elfman and Rose Byrne, who plays young lawyer Ellen Parsons, did specific preparation with real-life counterparts.
Elfman talked to her “financial friends” in order to “understand the stakes” for her character.
And Byrne said she met with a female attorney in New York “to get back in the head space of . . . somebody who does this for a living.” — Hilary Lewis
Sequoia’s roots
For legendary Silicon Valley venture capital firm Sequoia Capital, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, venture investing is a guessing game.
Still, the fortunes that have been reaped by Sequoia — from the IPOs of Apple in 1980, Cisco and Yahoo! in the 1990s, Google in the past decade and more recently LinkedIn — are many.
But unlike many rivals on Sand Hill Road, Sequoia resisted the temptation to invest at inflated prices — which now have some shareholders facing big losses.
According to 24-year Sequoia veteran Doug Leone, commenting to Bloomberg about the IPO mania of the past year, “There’s a number of companies clearly that we wish we had invested in either at the early or at the moderate stage.
“And there’s a whole bunch of companies that we’re glad we did not chase at the very high stages,” Leone continued, “either to buy a poster for our website or because we actually thought that investing in those stages would generate a return that would satisfy our own investors.”
Leone called May’s long-awaited Facebook IPO a “reality check” for the investors and entrepreneurs who bought into the hype of the $100 billion valuation.
“There are such things as revenue, growth and profitability that the buy side looks for,” he said. — Post Staff