In May 2009, poker players Dennis Chae and Jeff Kim sued five L.A. County casinos — the Bicycle, the Commerce, Hawaiian Gardens, Hollywood Park, and the Hustler — arguing that the $1 taken from the pots in jackpot games didn’t jibe with the casinos’ claim the games did not require a purchase to play. Judge Emile H. Elias ruled both that players couldn’t sue to recover gambling losses, and that Chae and Kim “chose to play the games despite the knowledge that they would be charged” the jackpot fee.

In a state law dating back to 1989, jackpot games are considered “illegal lotteries” in California if they require a fee to win. Since the mid-1990s, casinos have therefore advertised poker games in which a jackpot is taken as “no purchase necessary,” a disclaimer which apparently includes a promise to deal jackpot games without a fee upon request.

Sounds sort of like those giveaways at McDonald’s in which one doesn’t technically have to buy a Big Mac and fries to play, but folks rarely ask to play without buying something. As Commerce Casino general counsel Andy Schneiderman explains, “there are very few players, if any” who request to play jackpot games without paying the fee. Schneiderman also notes that all the games the Commerce offers “are approved by the state, including jackpot games,” and so the casinos were confident they’d win the case.

Read the full article here.

Aside from addressing Pennsylvania now saying poker is a game of chance and Massachusetts’ efforts to criminalize online poker during the “News Briefs” segment, the panelists this week spent most of the show focusing on a couple of other downer-type stories that inspired the episode’s title.

First up was that federal grand jury’s investigation of Full Tilt Poker regarding possible money laundering and gambling violations. Then came talk about Everest Poker’s lawsuit against the WSOP over the Everest logo not appearing in broadcasts of the Series on French television.

Discussion of those topics begins around the 22-minute mark. Dial in a couple of minutes before that to hear The Darkness’ much more optimistic (and rocking) message of belief in a thing called love.

The Poker Beat
4/8/10

As Stephen A. Murphy over at CardPlayer suggests, this news perhaps comes as a bit of a head-scratcher. But then again, poker players have come to expect high variance when it comes to state courts’ attempts to decide the issue of whether poker is a game of skill or chance.

Reversing a ruling from early last year, a Pennsylvania appeals court this week ruled that poker was more chance-based than skill-based, thus making it a form of “unlawful gambling” according to the state’s predominance test. The court voted 2-1, with Judge Robert Freedberg authoring the opinion. “While the outcome of poker may be dependent on skill to some degree,” wrote Freedburg, “it is predominantly a game of chance.”

The ruling thus goes against the January 2009 decision in the case concerning a private home game of $1/$2 no-limit hold’em. In that one, Judge Thomas James explained that “in conjunction with analyzing skill versus chance… it is apparent that skill predominates over chance in Texas Hold’em poker.”

The Poker Players Alliance chimed in to express “disappointment” in the ruling. The defendants’ lawyer has suggested the case will likely be headed to the state’s Supreme Court.

Read more about the Judge Freedberg’s decision over at CardPlayer.com.

This week Juan Carlos Mortensen, a.k.a “El Matador,” successfully completed a third big stage in his World Poker Tour career, besting a field of 143 players at the WPT Hollywood Poker Open in Lawrenceburg, Indiana to take down the $393,820 first prize. That makes three WPT titles for the Ecuador native, tying him with Gus Hansen for the most ever.

As B.J. Nemeth noted in his WPT live reports, the win also makes Mortensen the all-time money leader in WPT history, bringing his total earnings to $5,754,308. Mortensen’s other WPT titles include a victory at the WPT Doyle Brunson North American Championship in 2004 and a win at the WPT Season Five Championship at the Bellagio in 2005.

B.J. also points out that Mortensen has now amassed more than $9.6 million in career tourney winnings. In other words, he’s killing.

Add to all of that Mortensen’s pre-boom WSOP Main Event title in 2001, and he’s certainly helped his candidacy for such things as the vote for the 2010 WSOP Tournament of Champions (where as of this moment he does appear among the Top 50 vote-getters). Not to mention helping his cause for possible Poker Hall of Fame consideration.

For more discussion of “El Matador” — as well as the WSOP TOC and other pokery topics of the day — check out this week’s episode of The (award-winning) Poker Beat.

Earlier this week one member of the group of alleged thieves — a 21-year-old man of Turkish origin — turned himself in and identified his three accomplices. One, 20-year-old Ahmad el-Awayti, was arrested on Wednesday. The fourth member of the group, Jihad Chetwie (aged 19), remains at large.

In an article titled “What Poker Can Teach Us,” James McManus (Positively Fifth Street) shares a number of arguments on poker’s behalf, suggesting how poker helps us in various areas such as politics, business, and even in the struggle to come to a better understanding of the human condition.

The article adapts material from McManus’ long-awaited, forthcoming history of poker, Cowboys Full: The Story of Poker, which finally hits the shelves later this month.

For the third straight year, “poker” was the most-searched term on the ’net, according to the search engine Lycos. Rounding out the top five were “Paris Hilton,” “YouTube,” “Golf,” and “Sarah Palin” (you betcha).

Soon after comes 2003 American Idol runner-up “Clay Aiken” in 7th, by which search one might also find news about 2008 WSOP bracelet winner Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond, I suppose. And despite the fact that her online poker site was shut down in late ’06 and her marriage to poker player Rick Solomon was annulled early in ’08, “Pamela Anderson,” somehow remains popular on the intertubes, coming in 9th.

See the rest of Lycos’ top 50 search terms here.

As the pair discussed various promotional opportunities — as well as the distractions of the economic crises and presidential election that punctuated those last couple of weeks prior to the final table — Palansky stated how he had some news to “break” on Wise’s show. Per Kevmath’s transcription:

SP: We had a player booked on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, they chose not to do it.

GW: Are we allowed to ask which player it was?

SP: I don’t want to name names and get into that for anyone. We also had the Ellen DeGeneres show booked with another player, who chose not to do it.

GW: Why were these players choosing not to do these shows?

SP: That’s something that the players and their agents and advisors, etc. that should be in the position to answer….

Palansky goes on to “express a concern” that the unnamed players didn’t seize the opportunities to appear on the mainstream shows. “They’ve got to take advantage of the opportunities that get presented to them,” said Palansky. “And it’s unfortunate that in situations where we had a successful pitch and an opportunity for our players to be on that national stage, they chose not to.”

Discussion has ensued on the 2+2 forum (where Kevmath’s transcription of the pertinent passages, unabridged, can be found).

Ed. Note: See Shamus’ own more detailed, existential thoughts on the making of a more-than-poker TV star here.

In the grand tradition of Rocky Balboa, Return to Mayberry, and The Brady Girls Get Married, your favorite poker podcast returned today with a brand-spankin’ new episode. Five months after announcing their “retirement” — has it really been five months? seems like three — the group collectively determined the whole is worth more than the sum of the parts, and have thus decided to try and recreate the adventure, the thrill, the magic that is Beyond the Table.

Or, as Tom puts it, “We all got bored with our lives.”

The return show finds our intrepid trio (plus Sit-N-Go Steve) in classic BTT form, managing to cover a wide range of topics despite (or because) Dan is sitting on his mute button. Following the awkward reintroductions (“uh… do I know you?”), the fellas discuss the recent WCOOP successes of Tom (a.k.a., “luvgamble”), team poker tourneys, political prop-betting, the differing concerns of amateurs and pros at the WSOP, and UB cheating scandal rumors.

They even get down to brass tacks and answer some poker-related listener calls, suggesting that if you were to call the listener line — (888) 820-8091 — they might well answer your question sometime during the next six months or so, too! You can also email ’em at theshow(at)beyondthetable(dot)com.

Andy Bloch vs. FinddaGrind (Patrik Antonius)
David Singer vs. mastrblastr
Brian Hastings vs. mischiefofmagic
Ansky451 (Dani Stern) vs. whitelime

Each of the eight is guaranteed $96,000 for lasting thus far. Those who make it to the semis and lose will earn $168,000, second takes $320,000, and first a cool $560,000.

Today’s event attracted a number of other Full Tilt pros. Gus Hansen, Phil Ivey, David Benyamine, Erik Seidel, Nick Schulman, Erick Lindgren, Chris Ferguson, Huckleberry Seed, Nenad Medic, Peter W Jepsen, and David Oppenheim were each knocked out in the first round. Max Pescatori, Taylor Caby, Eli Elezra, Steve Zolotow, Gavin Smith, and Brandon Adams each won one match before losing in Round 2. And Peter “Nordberg” Feldman and Howard Lederer made it to Round 3 before falling.

Follow along with the other railbirds on Full Tilt Poker and/or over at Two Plus Two.

Well, here’s what looks to be a ray of hope. (At least for those of us who like to play online poker.)

Late this week, Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) and Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) proposed a new House bill, H.R. 5767, the sole purpose of which is to stop the feds from finalizing regulations for the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006. The bill comes on the heels of last week’s Congressional hearing at which multiple witnesses — including several representatives of U.S. payment systems and a couple of those involved with authoring the regs — communicated pretty loudly the unfeasibility of the UIGEA in its current state.

In fewer words than this post contains, H.R. 5767 pithily prohibits “the Secretary of the Treasury and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System from proposing, prescribing, or implementing any regulation” the feds come up with regarding the UIGEA. As yesterday’s press release from the House Financial Services Committee states, “it was clear at the [April 2] hearing that the regulations are unworkable for the financial services industry, and this bill would, therefore prohibit their implementation.“

No word as yet on how fast this sucker may climb its way up the Congressional ladder, but given the overwhelming response against the UIGEA following last week’s hearing, it seems H.R. 5767 may have a lot more initial backers than those other anti-UIGEA bills (like Frank’s Internet Gambling Regulation and Enforcement Act).

We’re happy, right? Okay, so we’re not laughing ’til we wet ourselves. But we are smiling again. I guess there’s life beyond Beyond the Table . . . .

First, a U.S. District Court Judge threw out the Interactive Gaming Media Entertainment and Gaming Association’s case against the U.S. government. You might remember iMEGA had attempted to have the UIGEA’s implementation postponed until it could be determined whether or not the law was unconstitutional. (They had some other points in there, too.) The case was dismissed, but iMEGA was recognized as having “legal standing” and so will surely continue the fight.

Meanwhile, we learned this week what the American Banking Association had to say about the proposed UIGEA regulations. Recall that back in October, the feds presented their proposed regulations & asked for comments. The comment period ended in mid-December, and now the Secretary of the U.S. Dept. of the Treasury and the Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System are considering those comments as they prepare to “finalize” the UIGEA.

The abridged version: the ABA thinks the UIGEA is not A-OK. Gives the banks too much to do — more than they can feasibly handle. In fact, the ABA believes the UIGEA will place most banks in what they call a “compliance trap” and thus do more to hurt the American payments system than it will do to stop folks from gambling online. Read Haley Hintze’s PokerNews article & also check out the full text of the ABA’s comments over at Kick Ass Poker.

And for more from those comments to the UIGEA regs — including some of what the “webmaster of the popular blog Pokerati.com” had to say about ’em — check out Jason Kirk’s article over at PokerListings summarizing them all: “Stakeholders sound off on UIGEA regulations.”

Beyond the Table listeners heard Dan mention Part I in the most recent episode, and how despite referring to 100-plus players the article failed to name a certain 2007 WSOP Player of the Year and BTT co-host.

So I had something to look for here in part II. Let’s see . . . over 50 names highlighted in this one. No way. Yr kidding me . . . .

I think I know what the lost Angry Julie segment might have been about.

What the hell?

After a brief rundown of the several January tourneys presently ongoing, Tom offers some winning wisdom regarding tourney selection. Then, prompted by a question from Karridy, there follows a smart, insightful discussion about differences between cash game players and tourney players. Yeah, I know. “Smart” and “insightful” usually ain’t what us BTT fans are looking for. But there it is.

Next the trio turn their attention to Dan’s first poker session after moving to Vegas, as well as the rambling, gambling fortunes of Dan’s friend, Bob. The show concludes with a stunner of sorts regarding CardPlayer’s recent 12-page, comprehensive overview of “Poker’s 2007 Odyssey: A Review of the Year’s Historic Events.” (Hint: The article ain’t as comprehensive as one might have hoped.)

Oh, there were opportunities for the hosts to get away from the pokery content. Other topics arise, such as Dan’s sex life, Barack Obama, and froteurism. (Not at the same time. Ahem.) But somehow none of these offered enough turbulence to divert Beyond the Table from its poker-specific flightpath.

Do let the BTT hosts know how you feel about this strange new development by calling the listener line at (888) 820-8091 or emailing theshow(at)beyondthetable(dot)com.

Co-hosts Karridy, Dan, and Tom collectively look ahead to 2008 by diagnosing one another’s poker games (and/or lives). In so doing, the trio take turns enacting each of the roles typically occurring in yr basic health care scenario — patient, physician, and insurance provider.

For example: Dan spends most of the episode as patient, sharing relevant details about his history and identifying his goals moving forward. Tom acts as Dan’s physician, offering tips for how Dan can improve the health of his bankroll in the coming year. Meanwhile, Karridy explains to Dan the limits of his coverage. Thus when Dan says he’d like to make a final table of a “major event,” Tom assesses the likelihood of such an occurrence (given the patient’s current vital signs), while Karridy reminds Dan he can’t afford to enter that many “major events.” And so forth.

A quiet time of year poker-wise, so not a lot of hard-hitting news in this week’s episode. There is some discussion of the 2008 WSOP schedule, details of which were largely gleaned from Craig Cunningham’s blog. Head over to C.C.’s site for more such info. And perhaps a Christmas carol, too.

And remember you can always send your own diagnoses of BTT (including how new producer Ryan is doing) to
theshow(at)beyondthetable(dot)com and/or call ’em in to (888) 820-8091.

The set gets going with a raucous medley of blues-based numbers, including soon-to-be-classics “Queens Done Done Me In (Again)” — featuring a solo from Little Tommy Schneider — and the Askenasy-penned “I Think My Hair Has a Mind of Its Own.” The group then transitions into a surprisingly peppy version of “House Hoppin’ Blues” chronicling Dan’s recent move Vegas-ward.

From there the boys turn topical, with rockers “Flight of the Dragon” (noting David Pham’s having locked up Player of the Year), “Enjoying the Game” (an homage to Chip Reese), and “Guilt Trip” (regarding the Vaughn-Mizzi account-purchasing affair). As an encore, the group surprises the audience with a new title, “Fortune’s Steward,” a brief romp recognizing Falstaff, author of PokerStage and tireless organizer of the recent WPBT Winter Gathering.

Be sure to catch this important live document of the power trio’s development, circa late-2007. And be sure to email your feedback to theshow(at)beyondthetable(dot)com and/or call the listener line @ (888) 820-8091.

Whether you think Tom is full of applesauce or not, his idea clearly demonstrates how the hosts of Beyond the Table are willing — indeed, eager — to think outside the box, to push the envelope, to destroy old paradigms . . . .

You know. Screw with us.

Which is why we get not one but two new shows almost simultaneously. Though one isn’t a “real” show. That’s right. The one on which Tom, Karridy, and Dan all appear — titled “BTS: The Cheating Beating” — should not be mistaken for a regular installment. (BTS = “Beyond the Show.”) Listen to hear the trio’s sober debate on ethics and online poker. (Full summary here.)

Meanwhile, we are to understand the one featuring Dan and guest co-host Robert Goldfarb — “Booty Call” — to be a “real” episode. What makes one “real” and one not? Hard to say, although it appears we’ve got ourselves an indisputably authentic BTT show whenever Dan gets drinky and starts talking about strippers, Scotty Nguyen bobblehead dolls, yard sales, religion, Tom’s POY chances, and/or hits his mute button.

Don’t trust me, though. Go listen to both and decide for yourself. And tell ’em what you think — about blind structures, strippers, “reality,” etc. — by emailing theshow(at)beyondthetable(dot)com and/or calling the listener line — (888) 820-8091.