It was a half-joke, designed to illustrate that goals of successful company and successful IPO dump have been conflated the last several years. Ultimately the poker game as you call it is what the people holding the money care about so...
Meaning having their fingerprints on a company that achives the trifecta of being a financial success in terms of profit/FCF, marketcap valuation and also makes a trademark product/service used by everybody.
Eg. Google or Amazon or Facebook.