I usually hate how the WSOP website starts playing videos even when you don’t ask it to. But today it caught my attention, and before I knew it, was laughing at this funny new (to me) WSOP commercial (and then trying to search for it on YouTube before forgetting why I went to the WSOP website in the first place:
If you’re not already listening … The Poker Beat is on the air now. Good show already:
2+2 is speculating that “Clonie Gowan’s suit against Full Tilt dismissed” [sic].
With the majority of the case being dismissed with prejudice and only Tiltware, Bitar and Lederer eligible for any further action, Gowen’s lawsuit appears to be dead at this time.
And then PokerNews reported “Gowen Lawsuit Against Full Tilt Dismissed”.
These hedlines are for the most part inaccurate, and at a minimum misleading. Clonie’s lawsuit is still alive … the courts have simply stripped out some irrelevant defendants while considering motions for expedited discovery, and her team has 30 days to amend their complaints around the still relevant defendants, i.e. Tiltware, Howard Lederer, and Ray Bitar. These recent rulings may be considered setbacks, but it’s not like she has to start from scratch to “refile”.
Read the court documents for yourself:
Gowen Motions Denied
Gowen Hearing Vacated
Now granted, these are a little confusing, so Pokerati has made half-hearted attempts to contact attorneys on both sides of the case, and have received no response from either. We’ve also contacted insiders on both sides of the case, whom literally say the exact same thing: “It’s definitely not over”. To be sure, on both sides, no one’s celebrating nor stomping about wildly screaming “Appeal!” bemoaning these most recent decisions.
In the meantime, to help us understand, Pokerati has brought in an independent, poker-savvy legal expert from a neighboring state to help translate:
As Kevin noticed early this AM (before my post from yesterday doubting the notion went live), Texas’ HB 222 has moved out of the Calendars Committee and is scheduled for a vote on the House floor tomorrow … which means it really should happen by Tuesday at the latest. Woot! Started to get worried there for a bit, but thanks to readers like you and probably the PPA and many others helping the capitol hallway soldiers … The People of Texas, man! … Step 3 of 6 has been successfully completed.
Step 1: Introduce bill
Step 2: Pass through committee
Step 3: Calendars committee
Step 4: House vote
Step 5: Senate vote
Step 6: Governor’s sig
You can see we still have a long ways to go, but Steps 4 and 5 have to be done for sure by May 23, so this is it … we’re about to see if our hard work first steps in the process properly position us to make it through the next all-important three. And by all means, we have to go undefeated … one loss and we’re dead.
Go here or here to send the whole House of Representatives an email letting them know you hear they’ll be voting on HB 222, and that you will really admire them for seeing the sensibility of this legislation.
Meanwhile, as a reminder why this bill is important, RobD in Austin lets us know:
To put a final nail into the coffin of [any] argument against HB222, I was at a Austin poker game last night and we got robbed at gun point (5/7/09, early morning). It was in a nice neighborhood and is known to regulars as FPC. At least two people got beat up. We’re all lucky to be alive. The Travis county sherrif was called and filed a report.
Interesting article out of Minnesota about how the proposed Berlin Firewall legislation to stop online gambling would force a group of nice young, responsible internet pros (Mike Schneider is the name I recognized) out of their home state. I had heard from our friends at Minnesota Poker Magazine that Minnesota was a mini poker hotspot right now, following in the footsteps of Florida, Oklahoma, and other states that have recently embraced the game.
What I didn’t know before reading the above article is that Minnesotan’s are particularly deft at limit hold’em, apparently because they don’t have no-limit there (yet). Makes sense … when I first met Schneider, it was at the PartyPoker Million, where he won $1 million in what was at the time (2006) one of the biggest live limit tournaments in the world. And semi-verifying this claim … if you look at all the results for the 2008 WSOP, Minnesotans made two final tables, and ideed, one of them was in a limit shootout event.
So duly noted … Minnesota is a limit state. FYI to everyone else.
This is the week … that’s what I’ve hearing from people in Austin and DC regarding legalized racetrack (and Indian Casino) poker in Texas. All seem to be staying on message, too, because that’s the same thing they were saying last week.
But HB 222 isn’t just suffocating at the bottom of the Calendars Committee inbox, supposedly … on the contrary, there’s all sorts of crazy buzzing about. “Chatter” has intensified but gone more private … not much Twittering, just lots of fights and diplomacy on secure Blackberry lines. What I’m picking up via short-wave radio:
It has something to do with the Big Casino bill (also sponsored by Rep. Menendez), which is sitting in the same inbox waiting to be kicked to either the House floor or curb; Gov. Perry (anti-gambling) vs. Spkr. Straus (pro-gambling) drawing either swords or lots, not sure which; talk of a special session, or Secession; month of November comes into play; PPA ready to deploy troops, ammo … time is or is not of essence; something about big games …
For those wondering when HB 222 would make the Texas House calendar, this coming Friday is your lucky day. I’ll leave it to Dan or other Texas legislation experts to interpret the fact that it’s buried on the calendar, but it looks like it’s made some progress, so fingers crossed poker fans
When I first started playing poker it was predominantly in a medium sized club run by a local bookmaker.
The crowd all knew each other pretty well, and there was a decent mix of recreational gamblers, solid amateurs and a few pros. There were also a couple of extremely high risk gamblers, who basically would play any stake available to them for as long as possible.
One of these people was a character I will refer to as ‘Mark’, and his behavior on one particular day can teach us a lot about why and how certain things have to be adhered to in order to win at poker long term.
Mark was a very good poker player at nearly any variant. He was fearless in big bet games, methodical and clever in limit games, and understood high level tournament strategy well. Despite this, he always seemed to be broke, and one particular day of his life shows very well why.
Las Vegas, NV: The Orleans Hotel & Casino will host the 2009 Orleans Poker Open from May 9th – 19th. The 2009 Orleans Open is highlighted by two Championship Events, the $540 Omaha Hi-Lo Championship on Saturday, May 16th and the $540 No Limit Hold’em Championship on Sunday, May 17th.
The starting chip amounts shown below include the 2,500 extra chips for the $10 Staff Bonus. All 12:00 noon events have 45 minute blind levels, 7:00PM events have 20 minute blind levels. Satellites begin on Saturday, Mat 9th at 5:00pm.Â
Kudos to Rep. Barney Frank for introducing the much-anticipated legislation this morning. The Internet Gambling Regulation Consumer Protection & Enforcement Act of 2009 has no H.R. number attached yet, but the process has begun. The name of the bill doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue or make for a nice abbreviation – IGRCPEA? – but might just be referred to as “The Bill” going forward. (Catchy?)
The 48-page bill provides for licensing, enforcement, and consumer protections regarding legal internet gambling, as detailed on the House Financial Services Committee website.
SUMMARY
The Internet Gambling Regulation Consumer Protection & Enforcement Act would establish a federal regulatory and enforcement framework under which Internet gambling operators could obtain licenses authorizing them to accept bets and wagers from individuals in the U.S., on the condition that they maintain effective protections against underage gambling, compulsive gambling, money laundering and fraud, and enforce prohibitions or restrictions on types of gambling prohibited by states, and Indian Tribes.
At the same time, Frank introduced a piece of companion legislation calling for the postponement of UIGEA regulations from this year’s compliance date of December 1, 2009 to one year later. Pushing it to 2010 gives “The Bill” time to progress as it may.
So, it’s on! According to Bloomberg, Harrah’s Entertainment and Youbet.com are already on board and ready to lobby on behalf of this bill. More to come in the weeks ahead, no doubt.
(Note: KevMath beat me to it again! Duplicate posts on this can be forgiven, eh?)
I’ll leave the analysis to those with more expertise in legislation and the law, but Barney Frank has issued two pieces of legislation in regards to online gambling. One bill is simply to delay the UIGEA by one year until Dec. 1, 2010. The more important piece of legislation is the Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection, and Enforcement Act, a summary of which is provided here. The PPA have issued their own press release on the legislation. Plenty more discussion here and elsewhere over the coming months.
The Hard Rock Poker Lounge weekly poker tournament schedule features daily events at 1:00pm and 7:00pm. The poker room also hosts a weekly $5,000 Freeroll Tournament at 4:00pm on Saturday for players who log 20 hours of live play on their Rockstar Club Card between Sunday and Friday. Play 30 hours and receive 1,000 bonus chips with an additional 500 chips at 35 and 40 hours. Freeroll players can also buy a $20 Staff Bonus for 1,500 additional chips. For more info call the Hard Rock Las Vegas Poker Lounge at 702-693-5874.
Hard Rock Poker Lounge Tournament Schedule:
Monday
1:00 PM – $45 Buy-in No-Limit Texas Hold’em Tournament
4,000 starting chips, $5 Bonus for 1,000 additional chips, Play 1 hour of live poker on your Rock Star Card from 8am – 1pm for 1,000 Bonus chips. 20 minute blind levels.
7:00 PM – $50 Buy-in No-Limit Texas Hold’em Tournament
4,000 starting chips, $10 add-on for 2,000 additional chips, earn 500 extra chips per hour (Between 1pm and 7pm) max 2,000 extra chips. 20 minute blind levels.
Rep. Barney Frank is set to introduce his pro-online gaming legislation tomorrow, complete with 10am ET press conference. With any luck, this will get some mainstream news coverage, but we can be assured of at least some C-SPAN live feed.
Someone at Bluff wrote a little ditty about it here, and the official press release from Safe and Secure Internet Gambling Initiative below:
Small ball and long ball poker fundamentally rely on the analysis and knowledge of different types of odds in poker. Long ball simply relies on the odds of the hands of poker.
If you need a brief introduction to exactly what the term ‘small ball’ refers to an introduction can be found here.
Long ball simply relies on the odds of the hands of poker. Long ball just requires you to understand that if you hold aces or kings then you will nearly always have a sizable edge over any hand at the table, and that if you hold any of the other very strong hands (ace jack+ and ten ten+) that you will most likely have at least a 50/50 chance against most hands. As a result you want to build big pots with these hands, and occasionally make a big bluff that trades on your very tight reputation. This is why long ball is by far the easiest style to play when you first begin – as it is not complicated, is pretty mathematically sound, and will yield good results in low buy in tournaments.
The problem with long ball is that it fails to take into account the other key odds principle in playing no limit poker – implied odds. The mathematics of specific hands is largely irrelevant when playing in very deep stacked events, as players can see flops so cheaply relative to their stacks that it gives players a chance to win a huge pot with a marginal hand (and thus cracking the long ball players long awaited aces or kings). As a result, in the higher stakes, deeper stacked events, small ball becomes a much more successful strategy in the right hands.
The poker room at the Wynn offers up two daily tournaments at 2:00 PM & 7:00 PM. The 2:00 PM tournament has a $120 buy-in ($100+20) for 4,000 chips and 30 minutes blind rounds. There is an optional $100/4,000 chip re-buy during the first three levels. The 7:00 PM daily event is a $160 buy-in ($140+20), no re-buys, no add-on, with 10,000 starting chips and 30 minute blind levels. For more information contact the Wynn Poker Room at 702-770-7654.
Backroom Hold’em - Poker has long fought association with cross words http://t.co/1ApiZY97
RT @compncards: Iowa Online Poker Bill Passes Committee - Moves On to House http://t.co/9j87SAZF #poker
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.
@KhanNoaman I only tweeted links to PokerNews & @CalvinAyre articles re: #Montreal lawsuit & the YouTube video of the 2011 Mtl Open kickoff.
