Many of our lives changed five years ago today, as George W. Bush signed the Port Security Act into law.
At the time, many wondered if this marked the end of online poker, which had been booming at a rate that woulda had virtually the entire planet + Jupiter playing by now. Ironically, what was supposed to be a death knell for online poker would actually be what made several of my friends and colleagues (temporarily) rich … and the principals of Full Tilt and PokerStars and Ultimate Bet (momentarily, in the scheme of things) extremely powerful.
Let’s have a little flashback, shall we … to slightly more innocent-til-proven-guilty times … commemorating this uber-significant day in poker history:
On this episode of the Cold Call Show, Adam Schoenfeld and Brandon Gerson join Bryan Micon for some clean snappage. We kept the segments moving with Karina Jett, Allen Kessler, Melanie Weisner, and other assorted Jews. John Gumption tries to get the skinny on the MGM tourney series, and Menachum is unreachable. DraftDay.com rap-ad is dropped and instantly goes platinum.
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Mark and Matt are finally talking about more than just Full Tilt this week with stories from around the poker legal landscape. They also discuss the Poker Hall of Fame nominees as well as the WSOP-E prelims.
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The big news this week is PPA’s meeting with the Department of Justice regarding player funds locked up on Full Tilt Poker, Absolute Poker, and Ultimate Bet. Needless to say, this is at the forefront of the concerns of the membership and of the PPA, so I am pleased to report that your PPA has been proactive in pushing for restitution for our members.
From Executive Director John Pappas:
“We still have an open dialogue with [the DOJ] and look forward to more productive conversations down the road. We plan to follow up to make sure the DOJ gets a guarantee that players get restitution through any deal with new Full Tilt management.”
The big news last week, of course, was the signing of the acquisition agreement between Groupe Bernard Tapie and Full Tilt Poker. Player repayment is being promised by the parties involved. Here is a quote from a Washington Post article on the matter:
Full Tilt said the agreement includes a plan to repay balances of players worldwide who haven’t had access to their gambling funds since April.
Needless to say, it is my hope that we all get repaid in full as soon as possible. More specifically, it is my hope that the Justice Department will, once obtaining iron-clad guarantees of repayment from any party wishing to purchase Full Tilt Poker, work to fast-track settlement of all outstanding issues. As the DoJ has identified players as the victims in all of this, I expect they will welcome a settlement that addresses player restitution.
LAS VEGAS–This week J Todd travels to the Global Gaming Expo. In his exclusive video interview with Andre Wilsenach, the CEO of Alderney Gambling Control Commission, Mr Wilsenach clearly points the blame at Full Tilt Poker for their ‘deceptive’ reporting and business practices. However, this leaves many to wonder if the AGCC really believes they are free of blame in this situation, and how “regulation” will change in the evolving online gambling and poker industry.
Won’t this be extra fun when you can make these kinda wagers on your mobile phone? Oh, wait, with Leroy’s app you can, anywhere within Nevada state lines, so the army of Aliens camped out at Area 51 should have no problem betting on Ben Lamb and/or Badih Bounahra without revealing themselves to all of humankind.
Nevada Gaming just approved some new wagers for the November Nine … some of which are obv, and others that may or may not be a little more silly.
The redevelopment of the the Palms Poker Room continues. While some of us can’t wait for the state-of-the-art-in-2003 room to step into 2005ish with the coming addition of an electronic Bravo check-in system … Joe, Bobby, Eldon and crew are pushing forward with their plans to bring non-$20,000 tournament action back to the Palms … starting with a Tuesday-night $100 HORSE tournament.
They say $100 HORSE at the Palms is the Colonial Yellow ’79 Cadillac of Poker.
It may not be PLO, but hey, I’m no one-trick pony. More like a half-trick pony, lol. But regardless, I’ve been meaning to sack up and get more live, low-stakes Razz under my belt. (I dominated the $1,500 event in the ’07 WSOP for Playstation — won a bracelet and everything!) The tournament is just a couple weeks old and supposedly has gotten a great response from the start: three tables of tournament action last week, followed by a $4/$8 HORSE cash game as players started busting.
Something similar expected tomorrow. RSVP on Facebook here … and/or just show up @ the Palms tomorrow at 7:30pm.
CORRECTION(S): I got a few factoids wrong. According to Michelle Lau’s FB invite …
Every Tuesday night 7:30, last week was our first tournament. Also Palms is gonna spread a HORSE CASH game at 5pm ($4/8) Come on down, lots of fun and very playable structure.
I just got back from my first live poker session in I don’t know how long… almost two months I think. I took an extended hiatus from the game for a couple of reasons; a) my dad was in town for a while and we went sightseeing here in Vegas and in Los Angeles; and, more important, b) my finances just weren’t where they needed to be.
(The shorter version of that story is “I went broke.”)
I was making too many mistakes away from the felt and living a lifestyle that just wasn’t sustainable on my “salary”. I definitely wasn’t going super crazy or ballin’ out of control by any means. But similar to the way a small preflop error can compound on itself and become a large, costly session-killer, smaller mistakes away from the tables can quickly add up and drain a poker player’s bankroll. This shouldn’t be news to any poker player, but when you live in a city like Las Vegas and you like being social and experiencing what the city and life itself has to offer, you have to constantly check yourself.
I look down at 6s7s for my first live hand in two months. Forget that I’m in early position, I can’t help it… the suited connectedness was overpoweringly sexy.
One guy I was hoping to find at G2E this year but did not was this guy …
I don’t remember his name and certainly not his email address … but I met him last year at the same conference, where he was trying to sell his Nevada Gaming license … plate! I seem to remember him saying something about acquiring it back in the 90s. And I recall he was asking $5,000 — for the set! Or maybe that’s what he paid for it, and definitely wanted more? I know I’ve got those notes somewhere … but guessing if he wasn’t trying again to sell them this year he musta found a buyer?
I’ve heard it can be kinda cut-throat in the high-risk-high-reward Nevada license plate futures market.
After hearing AGA and Big Casino big dogs barking up a big game about coming federal poker legislation, Mike went to a G2E session offering an almost opposite perspective on the “inevitable” future of fully legalized online poker in the US.
Attorney Tony Cabot moderated a debate between I. Nelson Rose and Martin Owens, two venerable internet gaming counselmen who’ve been following the legalities of internet poker (worldwide) since long before the DOJ knew the names Isai Scheinberg, Ray Bitar, et al.
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Rose took the strongest position that the federal iPoker legislation stirring up so much excitement is going nowhere … at least not before we see state-by-state legalization … kinda like what happened in the Washington DC, only less sketchy and corrupt?
It’s all about the money, Rose and Owens say. Supposedly horse racing — with maybe a little Powerball lottery mixed in for liquidity’s sake– is where we’ll find the model for the intrastate internet poker … 7-year timeline for laws to populate across the continent … Keep your eye on Iowa as the dark horse in this race.
On another thrilling episode of DonkDown Radio’s “The Cold Call Show” we talk with Andrew Wiggins, part of the ownership that is DraftDay.com – a new online fantasy site. We also check in with Crazier Mike, and actually briefly connect him to the real Crazy Mike. Amanda Musumeci, sports picks with Menachum, and moar!
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Have a listen to the premiere episode of Pokerati “all up in” @G2EVegas. Still workshopping the title … but come along for the ride as I find a sucker friend and colleague to fill me in on what’s been going on at the Global Gaming Expo in Las Vegas.
In this first episode, Mike, aka Lavigne in Austin aka @AustinML, discusses a session titled:
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It featured Frank Fahrenkopf from the AGA, Caesars’ DC powerhouse Jan Jones (the former mayor of Las Vegas is recipient of this year’s lifetime achievement award), a lobbyist for companies looking to do business with licensed casinos, and a guy representing Native American interests. Here why they all seem convinced that intrastate online poker is going nowhere, but interstate online poker is right around the corner.
Some of you probably remember Mike Lavigne. He’s not much of a player (lol), but the former Texas state director of the PPA and fellow co-founder of the Texas Poker PAC, has been part of Pokerati since way-back. And with my government and public relations cronie in town for G2E … well, it made me think we needed a cheap knock-off of Tao of Pokerati, obv — not just to keep me posted, but to let the busy people out there doing real work get a taste of the wonk-fest and sales orgy going on at the Sands Convention Center this week.
G2E is arguably the biggest annual confab of gaming industry brainpower in the world … and though some may find it hard to get interested in a Las Vegas convention that doesn’t even include a poker tournament … what goes on here will be affecting your poker (and overall casino) experience in the future whether you like it or not.
Full Tilt makes all the headlines once again on this week's Rabbit Hunt, as Mark and Matt try to dicipher the latest news. The AGCC decided to revoke FTP's license, but is a buyer finally ready to purchase the beleaguered site? Find out about this and more on this week's Rabbit Hunt!
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I found this out via PartTime Poker, which seems to be doing a pretty cool monthly bit over there — breaking down player standings across four different ranking systems, each with their own calculation biases and level of subjectivity in determining the best poker players in the world.
Perhaps surprisingly, I still recognize most at least half of the 21 names comprising the four different Top 10s … but I’ll bet the rest of the world surely doesn’t. There’s a reason, after all, Jason Mercier doesn’t even have a Q-score.
So with subjectivity in mind … best player, winningest player, field strength, skill measurement, tournament luck, run-good ratios, late position likability, backer’s credit score …
JoeOE18: Had a great session with Deus Ex. Then got to another boss. Contemplating giving up and moving on to something fun. Wish there were cheats. 17 hours ago
The big news this week is PPA’s meeting with the Department of Justice regarding player funds locked up on Full Tilt Poker, Absolute Poker, and Ultimate Bet. Needless to say, this is at the forefront of the concerns of the membership and of the PPA, so I am pleased to report that your PPA has been proactive in pushing for restitution for our members.
