More than 250 players from 98 towns and four different states drove in to Stephenville, TX, for the 6th Annual Cowboy Capitol Poker Tournament. ($300+0 NLH)
I feel compelled to explain that I am writing this post on my laptop, on the back patio of Risky’s Bar-B-Q in downtown Fort Worth, Texas, during possibly the most beautiful day that Spring will bring to my beloved city. I smile as I listen to one Australian tourist at the table behind me attempt to explain to his mates the American concept of “All-You-Can-Eat Ribs”.
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Doc Fletcher:“It’s like trainin’ a horse. After a while you don’t have to keep whippin’em. They go where you want to go.”
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Zoom up and out to a poetic blend of southern culture and urban bustle that has made my fair city of Fort Worth a Texas jewel, and the subject of 3.4 million Asian tourist photos. Somewhere a diminutive, fair skinned traveler points out the genitalia of the bovine shaped shrubbery (ala Scissorhands), and covers her mouth to giggle before turning and rushing off in very short, quick steps. And I order another Dos Equis.
A couple of blocks away is the ornate and grandiose Bass Hall. The Hall is big sister to the Maddox Muse Center, which was once slated to host, what was at the time to be, the largest poker tournament in the state of Texas; The Southwest Poker Invitational. Well,… Until the powers that be leaned on us, referencing an obscure liquor license, used for the occasional wedding reception, and shut us down and took tens of thousands of charitable dollars out of play. The call came on Friday; The tournament was scheduled for Sunday. Just like that 325 players and countless deserving beneficiaries of the charitable event were sucked out on at the river. I remember well, because it was my tournament. Go Texas!
For those of you who didn’t know Shronk — or perhaps even more so for those who did — Matt over at Life’s a Bluff has dug up a not-too-old “Random Questions” video out of the archives that really tells you a lot about our friend from PokerRoad … who all of us in the poker media will still be thinking about for quite a while as we go about our daily tasks:
Jeff over at LegalizePokerinTexas has updated his site to make it even easier for you to reach out to the 13 key members of the Texas House of Representatives who currently hold the fate of poker in their hands.
If you haven’t done so already, be sure to let them know that you’d really like to see our issues — HB 222 — put to a vote on the House floor so poker players from the great state of Texas can finally have their say.
Click that, and you’ll see a button for “calendars committee” … click that, too, and it will instacheck the right people … so then, all you have to do is press send. You are, of course, welcome to customize the message to your personal liking.
We’re almost there, gang … we’re driving down the field … we need this first down.
For a brief time, next week’s episode of HSP was available on GSN’s Youtube channel. However, that’s been taken down to recirculate elsewhere on the darker corners of the Internet until it actually airs on GSN. Now that’s been rectified, here’s Sunday’s episode:
Doyle Brunson is on the grid, that’s for sure. In his latest blog post, which I read via Facebook, he tells us he’s really getting into Twitter. Here’s his address if you want to follow him: twitter.com/texdolly
In doing so, you’ll learn why he’s not playing in the WPT Championship, and that Phil Ivey lost $1 million in Bobby’s Room last night.
And then, back to his blog, he explains to all the Teabaggers out there why he thinks they should STFU!
I headed over to my CPA to get my taxes done and ran into a traffic jam. Hundreds of people were blocking the streets having what they called a “tea partyâ€. I think they were protesting the current financial crisis our nation is going through, but some of the signs were ridiculous. “Impeach Obamaâ€, “What comes after trillionsâ€, “Stop spending our money†and other statements blaming our president. For Pete’s sake, let’s give the guy a chance to straighten this mess up. I got a lot of heat for voting for McCain, but I knew when I cast a late vote, John didn’t have a chance to win. I was just being loyal to the Republican Party. But now that the nation has spoken that they wanted Obama, we should all support him.
While looking through the list … I realized there are a few people on that committee whom we might need to be extra ass-kissy persuasive with. Most specifically:
McCall
Rep. Brian McCall (R-Plano) — He’s the chair, so he has the power to make our lives difficult. He’s also a very moderate Republican … so he’s open to our ideas, but you may recall we (poker people) unpleasantly bumped heads with him back in 2007. He doesn’t respond well to threats of not voting for him because he won’t go a certain way on a single issue. So the key with McCall is to let him know that yes, this may be a single issue that matters to you personally, but really it might well matter to Texans who don’t even play poker — because of the revenue it stands to generate, the police and DA resources it stands to free up, the state-pride freedom it represents, and the protection it offers citizens who are attending unsafe underground games or even being robbed in their own homes.
Selective aggression … that’s the key here. And it’s again time to make a move. This time, we need to hit up the Calendars Committee. What we’re asking for with them is to get a vote on HB 222 and get it soon. I haven’t crafted my letter yet, but will do so today … in a nutshell I’ll be running down the basics in a single sentence — this bill protects citizens, honors personal freedoms, brings back some pride to Texas, and along with it a bunch of money being dumped in Oklahoma. Will also remind them that this bill has the overwhelming support of the people as well as police and prosecutors, who would greatly appreciate a law that is up-to-date with the 21st century.
Will probably end with something reminding them that this is a perfect example of the kind of sensible government legislation that will show our representatives are capable of looking beyond any controversial rhetoric and doing the right thing … and hey, if we get a vote and we’re wrong, we’ll stop with the email barrages. After all, this IS a grass-roots effort by the people, which makes it very different from the big-money casino bills pending … and they should recognize that.
But really — because this is grass roots and we don’t have the money to pay for a lobbyist to be glad-handing in the back hallways on behalf of HB 222 — we need you Texas-loving folks to get to work over the next 24 hours. (We’ll probably call on you two more times over the course of the next month). We need to hit them up and hit them hard … this is where we got to in 2007, and we did convince them to put us on the calendar, but not high up enough to ever get to a vote on the House floor.
For those that wanted to promote their latest and greatest promotions for their online sites, PRWeb was one of the better places to go for your press release needs. However, PRWeb is located in Washington state, which has a law saying that playing online gambling is a Class C felony. This apparently wasn’t a problem until last week, when the Washington State Gambling Commission apparently sent a cease and desist letter to PRWeb, telling them to knock it off. The Casino City Times and many other sites surely will have more news as this develops.
In what really sounds like an inside job, three armed gunmen (two with masks) broke into a San Antonio home game a few days ago and robbed 15 low-stakes players (1/3 NLH) at gunpoint … but when they attempted to flee the scene, the SAPD was outside waiting to arrest them. Nice! I mean bad initially — the host’s wife, two young children and a baby were also in the house — but in the end all good with no shots fired and no need to call in the SWAT team.
(Note to non-poker media: do the math; $100-$200 per person isn’t “high stakes”.)
A firsthand account of the robbery/bust here. I’ll stay off my political soapbox for just a bit and say only wouldn’t it be nice if you could play poker in Texas at a place that can hire off-duty police officers for security? (Note to non-poker media: There’s a bill in the Legislature right now addressing this issue, fyi — HB 222 — that you may want to tie in to future stories of this ilk.)
He kept repeating, “Don’t move; I’ll kill you, I don’t know youâ€. Maybe it’s just human nature, or maybe I watch too many movies but I couldn’t help but play over and over in my head the different things that could be done to overtake the guy with shotgun. Of course, I knew that this wasn’t smart because these guys were only there for the money and, besides, there were kids in the room. If someone tried to do something and it went wrong, one of the kids could have been hurt.
My first thought when I started reading (and before I knew the cops got’em) was wondering if these were indeed the Dallas Poker Bandits, perhaps just relocating their business because there was too much heat (and a homicide victim) in the DFW area. But the robbery sounds a little too amateur for Dallas’ now seasoned poker criminals. At the same time … there are some MO … so maybe? If you happen to be familiar with any of the Dallas poker robberies, take a look at the news videos here to see if you recognize any of the now un-masked men:
Kudos to the game host for dialing an operator and hiding his phone so the call could be forwarded to police — and nice work by the SAPD not just in ending this situation positively, but also for protecting other games … because as we have seen in Dallas, poker robbers tend not to quit after a single hit. I haven’t had a chance to get the police report yet and find out the arrested people’s names, but this story will continue to have life … not just because of the pending bill that would look to eliminate these sorts of potentially violent occurrences … but also because police are now investigating the legality of the game itself and may or may not press charges against the robbery victims as well.
Good-ish article in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram earlier this month about Sheldon Adelson’s vocal interest in Texas. Adelson, of course, is the Chairman and CEO of Las Vegas Sands Corp, aka The Venetian. Of all the casino billionaires out there, he’s probably shown more than any other a (financial) commitment to poker — not only did he help build the best poker room in Vegas, but he even took a chance on The Real Deal! (Oops.)
Adelson was in Austin the other week testifying before the same Licensing and Administration Procedures Committee that voted 6-3 in favor of poker. You all know about HB 222, but there are actually four gambling-related bills pending in Texas right now:
1. Full-on Vegas-style casino-resorts — 12 of ‘em!
2. Poker
3. Slot machines (VLT’s they call them) in the race tracks
4. Online Lottery
Of these four, poker is a little different, because various authorities in the state have already ruled it enough of a game of skill that it doesn’t require a constitutional amendment. Hopefully, Gov. Rick Perry will see it the same not-quite-gambling way, should we get that far, as he has promised suggested he might-well veto any gambling bills sent to his desk.
Clearly, and for obvious reason, Adelson isn’t letting any political posturing deter his efforts to make Texas more Venetian-friendly. But knowing that … man, yo, Shelly, how ’bout throwing a little scratch HB 222′s way! Think of it as a hedge …
With all the conflicting stories on the web, what are the real chances of online gambling regulation in the United States? Plus, we look at taking a bite out of the Grand Prive Affiliates, and other industry news including the launch of a brand new online casino!
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randompoker: RT @MeanPokerDealer: I think it's SO cool how you guys loop the earbuds around your ears so they're hanging there all not in your ears and stuff. I hate you. 50 minutes ago
Doc Fletcher: “It’s like trainin’ a horse. After a while you don’t have to keep whippin’em. They go where you want to go.”
