As Kevin points out, I’m helping kick off a new podcast today in pursuit of my aspirations of becoming a talking head who mouths off smugly about things he only kinda-sorta knows about.
The Poker Beat (a Scott Huff joint) will essentially be like Meet the Press or The Sports Reporters for poker. Should be interesting. My segment will be with Scott and occasional 2008 Pokerati poster (and WPT tournament reporter) BJ Nemeth.
Click here to listen live. Eventually the folks at PokerRoad will have it up in podcast form, too, so you can listen at your convenience and/or sync with iTunes. But today is our first go, so everything’s new and rolling out as we go along. But it should be more professional than my previous podcast endeavors — like we have an outline and everything!
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Pokerati’s own Dan Michalski and an all-star cast of poker media will appear on the premier episode of “The Poker Beat” with Scott Huff at 1pm PT Thursday afternoon over at PokerRoad.
The lineup:
John Caldwell (formerly of Pokernews)
Gary Wise of ESPN and WisehandPoker.com
Matt Parvis of Bluff Magazine
Dan Michalski of Pokerati.com
BJ Nemeth of World Poker Tour
and Joe Stapleton of PokerRoad.com with some closing thoughts.
Topics will include the Obama and the UIGEA, the Durrr Challenge, and the L.A. Poker Classic.
KTRH-AM 740 out of Houston followed up the Morning News story about our efforts to legalize poker in Texas with one of their own. In their piece, the opposition claims we poker liberators* are simply seeking a regressive tax that will punish the poor, and calls government “weak” for even considering legalization as an alternative to cracking down.
*my term, not theirs
And now, on the front page of KTRH’s website, their question of the day is:
Should Texas add poker to its gaming lineup?
Click here to vote. At the time of this posting, we’re leading 63-37 … as all of us who understand the skillful application of percentages can surmise, this is hardly the spread of domination we’re looking for. Seriously, I’m sorry to keep whining about this … but it’s a one-and-a-half-click vote … if we can’t nail this one down, we don’t stand a chance in Austin this year.
NOTE: This seems to be a very conservative radio station.
This week we look atthe possibility that the UIGEA will be repealed in sometime in 2009. Plus, great news for online gambling from the US, as the state of Colorado joins Pennsylvania in declaring poker a skill game!
sometimes you climb out of bed in the morning and you think,
I’m not going to make it, but you laugh inside
remembering all the times you’ve felt that way, and
you walk to the bathroom, do your toilet, see that face
in the mirror, oh my oh my oh my, but you comb your hair anyway,
get into your street clothes, feed the cats, fetch the
newspaper of horror, place it on the coffee table, kiss your
wife goodbye, and then you are backing the car out into life itself,
like millions of others you enter the arena once more.
you are on the freeway threading through traffic now,
moving both towards something and towards nothing at all as you punch
the radio on and get Mozart, which is something, and you will somehow
get through the slow days and the busy days and the dull
days and the hateful days and the rare days, all both so delightful
and so disappointing because
we are all so alike and so different.
you find the turn-off, drive through the most dangerous
part of town, feel momentarily wonderful as Mozart works
his way into your brain and slides down along your bones and
out through your shoes.
it’s been a tough fight worth fighting
as we all drive along
betting on another day.
I know January Player of the Year rankings mean about as much as a WSOP main event Day 1 Level 3 chip lead, but still, a quick look at CardPlayer’s 2009 POY, and I can tell you that it looks different from any other year I’ve looked at it this early — with so many non-Americans high on the leaderboard.
We’ll see if this holds up and says anything about the level of skill worldwide … it may just be reflecting the growth of international tournaments. Still … it’s different, and noted.
A handful of us know a little secret … and are preparing morning posts revealing the details of and changes to the WSOP schedule for 2009. There’s plenty of exciting stuff to discuss, but for the most part, I think all in the poker media are respecting the info embargo. But oops … silly to expect an AP reporter (and editors of AP-subscribing papers) to do the same. After all, the organization known for its WSOP drop-ins that always require at least one poker-media-er to give up his or her feature-table seat has ignored similar requests from generals and presidents before … and the local-paper editor(s) who may or may not actually be the ones behind embargo-shembargo decisions could obviously care less about whatever national security interest related to the WSOP is in play.
First, my apologies to any loyal Pokeratizens who may or may not be run out of business in a fully legal poker environ. You know I respect (most of) your game(s) … the Morning News called asking for my informed opinion, and I shared it with the reporter. It seemed like she was unbiased and getting our points — raids+robberies+I-35=bad — but you never know with real journos … there’s always a few quotes that can be taken out of context and/or used against you if they have an agenda. But I decided to take the risk … and I think I’m happy with the results.
Be sure to read the comments, too … 35 of them so far. They are overall very encouraging, particularly because much of the support seems to come from people who care more about proper Texas governance than they do poker. (It certainly doesn’t appear that any representatives will lose any votes over supporting this issue.)
And, of course, if you haven’t sent your email to Joe Straus et al. yet … well you suck here’s the link:
As many of you probably know, one of President Barack Obama’s first acts even before assuming office was creating a National Suggestion Box. And though I am concerned that they’ve already forgotten about it (they haven’t yet changed the header at Change.gov from “President-Elect” to “President”), an issue that’s jumped way up to the top of the list is repeal of the UIGEA. Though I’m not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing, the only folks who seem more motivated are the pot smokers.
1. Ending Marijuana Prohibition (3,550)
2. Commit to becoming the “Greenest” country in the world (199)
3. Stop using federal resources to undermine states’ medicinal marijuana laws (17)
4. An end to the government sponsored abstinence education to be replaced by an introduction of age appropriate sex education. (158)
5. Bullet Trains & Light Rail (434)
6. The permanent closure of all Torture facilities. (Facilities such as: Guantanamo, and Abu Ghraib) (119)
7. Revoke the George W. Bush tax cuts for the top 1 % (119)
8. Get the Insurance Companies out the Health Care (362)
9. Revoke the Tax Exempt Status of the Church of Scientology (545)
10. Bring Back the Constitution! (243)
11. Boost America’s Economy with Legal Online Poker (1,713)
UPDATE: We dropped off the front page, from #9 to #11, in the course of my writing this post. I’d say “damn Constitution!”, but that probably wouldn’t help our cause. You can still vote — here’s a link to page 2 of the list, though hopefully it will become an irrelevant link by Monday morn.
This article breaks down what issues on the Texas Lege’s radar in 2009 — essentially our political competition. Gambling is high up on the list of matters to tackle, but others will be seeking to hoist the gambling flag (for better of for worse). Specifically, The Dallas Morning News explains:
GAMBLING
Is luck in the cards for casino, slot machine bills?
Proponents of expanded gambling in Texas will be back in full force this session, fighting for Las Vegas-style casinos, slot machines at racetracks, tribal gaming rights and legalized poker.
Bills to open casino gambling statewide are unlikely to go far, though the struggling economy may give them slightly more traction. Even if a bill passed, Gov. Rick Perry would probably veto it.
But measures granting special permission for the Alabama-Coushatta and Tigua tribes to reopen their casinos – shuttered in 2002 after a court order by then-Attorney General John Cornyn – may well succeed. The tribal reservations have struggled to fund basic services since the casinos that ran their local economies closed, and very narrowly missed getting legislation approved last session.
Past efforts to legalize slot machines at racetracks have fallen prey to industry infighting, but the horse racers and breeders are presenting a unified front this year. Though they would appear to have an ally in likely House Speaker Joe Straus, who has financial ties to the Retama Park racetrack his father helped found, it’s still unclear what good it will do. Straus has said that in his new role, he will do nothing to further racetrack legislation.
FACT: Advocates of legalized poker have filed legislation to develop a regulated poker gaming system in Texas.
One of the powerful and important people we’re hoping will support a pending bill that establishes a framework for legal poker in Texas is new House speaker Joe Straus (R-San Antonio), who describes himself as a “pass-the-budget-and-go-home conservative”. Sweet, then he should get it: with HB 222, the state increases its revenue while protecting citizens (and their personal freedoms); without it, state and local authorities have to spend lots of resources to ineffectively shut down poker while seeing more and more money shipped to Oklahoma and an increase in violent crime in otherwise peaceful Texas neighborhoods.
Evan Smith interviewed Straus the other day on Texas Monthly Talks. Specifically the new Speaker discusses his views on gambling-related issues (and his family’s long-time involvement with the horse racing biz) at 20:00:
Don’t tell anyone, but psychologically speaking, we want Straus, through the course of the session, to make a subconscious positive connection when he thinks about HB 222 … remembering fondly a flood of intelligent, warm-hearted, well-crafted emails from from frazzled poker degenerates who just wanna play a friggin’ game!!! concerned poker citizens who are proud to do whatever they can in pursuit of a better Texas.
I’ve improved the link, btw, so you only have to click once … type a brief message … and then click send. Two clicks for poker! Customize it to your liking — give’em your name and city — and yo, Texans (and non-Texans interested in playing poker in Texas) … conditions are good for this bill, and we know we are on the right side of the law-to-be. But if we can’t show that we’re serious about it, the number of representatives willing to vote for us won’t matter … because, frankly, we won’t ever get that far without this first step. Need some talking points? Here ya go:
* Poker is a game of skill
* It is being played every day for real money in Texas
* Tens of millions of dollars are passing hands unregulated
* Live poker games are increasingly a safety issue
* Poker could bring in millions of dollars in State revenue, and many more millions in economic impact
The Kentucky domain name seizure case has a verdict, and it’s good news! Also, not such good news for the online poker room Cardspike, as we finally get closer to the truth, and how Casino Affiliate Program’s Lou Fabiano may be connected.
Kevmath: RT @boyand1: #AM250k Payouts are in: 1st gets $2m, 2nd $1.2m and 3rd 800k. 11 players lefts as both John Juanda and Sam Trickett have busted 5 minutes ago
JoeOE18: @Bruce_M_W NO! Ok, maybe. It isn't mine actually, so I have no control over whether you can play or not. But yes, in principle, I suppose. 15 hours ago
As Kevin points out, I’m helping kick off a new podcast today in pursuit of my aspirations of becoming a talking head who mouths off smugly about things he only kinda-sorta knows about. 
As many of you probably know, one of President Barack Obama’s first acts even before assuming office was creating a 
