Oh, and the penalties for running an underground game will go up. Dramatically. The state won’t brook competition with its new Golden-Egg-Laying Goose.

Save the check. How about you just buy me a drink at the first legal card room in Texas. After all, istn’t that the happy ending you’re really looking for?

So now I’m out $10. Damn it.

That’s what I love about you Dan. You are so friggin’ easy to tilt.

Best of luck.

P.S. Loved the comment about the gated community – too classic.

(really, i say that with love.)

special interest, maybe. but fast buck? as someone who began working on this three years ago, i should probably resent that statement.

and the sub-special interest of electronic tables … well they just kinda lost! though electronic tables would still be an option for the race tracks, where PokerTek stood to make money was in being able to sell/lease their tables to bars. but that provision has been scrapped in a compromise toward passage. so while yours truly may be happy that we are getting this bill closer to law, lyle berman presumably isn’t at this point.

with this bill we (poker people) are just playing the same game that the education and health care and textile industries are — on an admittedly much smaller scale — not to mention various businesses that want to see certain roads and bridges built, for example.

would you rather we not be at the table at all and just leave the future of poker in the hands of Big Casinos, who have been ineffective in pushing their agenda for the past 12 or 16 years?

I can respect that you may think I’m wasting my time — along with the real politicos in the trenches in Austin … but heck, you could make that argument for just about any of my pursuits or endeavors! After all, I’m just a friggin’ blogger!

This bill is just playing on poker players’ emotions for someone elses fast buck.

as to never getting a winstar? it may take time, but florida’s racetrack rooms (and scene) continue to get better and better. winstar itself started as shit, and since has grown into arguably one of the great poker rooms in the country.

as to the job creation bullshit, well, frankly, i am shocked that you of all people wouldn’t have a firm grasp on how much of the poker economy — and ancillary economic benefit — exists off the tables.

so you have a great home game … sounds like one of the best anywhere. very good for you. i presume it’s in a nice neighborhood and possibly even a gated community, so you don’t feel the need to hire security. but so what … therefore you don’t think the rest of us should have a chance to begin to create a similarly comfortable poker environment? well fine then … i won’t be inviting you to the grand opening freeroll of the Pokerati poker room in 2016ish or so. How you like them apples? Hater.

Of course I’ve also played a Dallas home game where 5 figures traded hands during the course of a single day — at a single table of six players.

Neither game raked and both of them beat any poker room I’ve ever played in.

If the bill passes — you’ll never get a Winstar. You’ll get some sleezy race tracks rooms at best.

And that crap about job creation is bullshit — and we all know it.

do you really not see the difference between a kitchen-table home game and a full-fledged poker room? i’m convinced the kitchen-table crowd will happily pay a little rake and/or entry fee for the games and services provided — and they should have the right to do so!

hey, if i’m wrong, i’m wrong … go capitalism! but i feel pretty confident that a well-run, regulated poker room in texas would be a profitable enterprise.

And I don’t know of a case in Texas where a legal game has been raided.

But now that option has been removed, too. So why am I still good with it? Because though home games are generally legal, and tournaments like the one in Stephenville can be pulled off without running afoul of the law (especially when the Sheriff helps you run it), bottom line is that poker in Texas is still nowhere near as good as it is at WinStar.

That’s what we want … the ability to have our version of WinStar. We want to be able to host regular cash games, and big-big tournaments. (Bonus for all the money it brings in to the state.)

You can claim poker is legal in Texas (just like people can claim online poker is technically legal) … but the bottom line is the games at WinStar don’t get raided by cops, they don’t get robbed by gunmen … and though I’m sure Indian casino operators aren’t the cleanest people in the world, you can be confident you are sitting in a game run by mostly legitimate people who have a vested interest in not screwing you over.

Just because a rake subtracts from your personal EV doesn’t mean it doesn’t have a purpose. It’s what pays for a nice environment (chairs, TVs, automatic shufflers, food, etc.) and allows people to hire true professionals to run great events (TDs, floor staff, dealers, security, et al). Honestly, if you already have a place where you can play a 10-table $200 Omaha-8b tourney in Austin, then you are right, you don’t need this bill!

OK, bad example, because frankly I doubt we would see the above-described tourney right from the git-go … but that’s the point … if we have one motto here at Pokerati it’s “In Pursuit of Better Poker”, and that’s why we are so behind the legislation … because I sincerely believe that HB 222 becoming law would make for better poker in the state of Texas. And without a doubt, I definitely hope to be one of the people making money by providing good poker services in Texas the way some poker professionals in Oklahoma are. But just because it might be a few more years (or never) before I could open up The Pokerati Poker Room and host a WSOP Circuit event there, that doesn’t mean I’m going to abandon “the cause”.

Speaking of causes … don’t you feel you, as a citizen of the Republic of Texas, should have the right to play a tournament at a race track if you so chose? The personal freedom shit ain’t exactly a joke either, ya know?

I love poker. I love Texas. I love that poker is already is legal in Texas. Why would I give a crap about paying a rake to race track owners — or any of y’all who are trying to make a buck from this bill?

Honestly, I figured that the only true chance we had was with racetracks and Indian reservations. What about bingo halls though? I wouldn’t mind my Auntie Mildred handed me a bad beat and fistpump with dabber in hand.