Friday night’s 12,500-chip starting stack at The Orleans.

Ragin’ Cajun: Friday Nights at the Orleans

Those on the lower-stakes Vegas grind often rave about Friday night at The Orleans. Large field, good structure, big prize pool. A friend advised that I arrive early because the event fills up so quickly. I parked around back almost an hour before the 7pm start time, and after securing my $125 entry, sat at a bar near the food court with T.G.I. Fridays, Fuddruckers, Baskin Robbins, Sbarro, Subway — yeah, real Cajun cuisine.

On this night there would be 270 players, with first place paying about $8,000. The floor supervisor said re-entries were possible but improbable because of a long list of alternates. As we got underway, two locals spoke conspicuously about a mutual friend who was playing a $250k buy-in event in Australia (the Aussie Millions high-roller event, won by Phil Ivey).

Of The Orleans’s comparably tiny entry fee, $100 goes to the prize pool, $2 goes to tournament “players of the month,” $13 goes to the house and $10 goes to staff. The tournament can often last until mid morning, but my run in the event would be a quick one, as I never dragged a pot and busted 5 minutes before the first break.

Saturday afternoon’s 4,500 stack at Golden Nugget

Saturday Shorty at the Golden Nugget

You can validate parking at just about any casino downtown, but that validation is only good for 3 hours. Since I intended to take this thing down — the $65 Saturday No-Limit Hold’em event at the Golden Nugget — I parked in the free lot at El Cortez and made the short walk to Fremont Street. I suppose I could have chosen to valet, but then I’d miss the “experience” of strolling past showgirls in mink coats, checking out Mardi Gras bead souvenirs, snapping a picture of tiny Elvis or Pirates of the Caribbean Johnny Depp and basking in all that neon.

The Golden Nugget poker room sits in a casually lit atmosphere with an appropriately golden hue. I noticed a sign for a $100 event every Sunday at 9am. Wait, are there people in Las Vegas who actually wake up early enough to play that?

I plopped down $65 for the 3pm freezeout, where I ran into a local grinder who had crippled my stack the night before at Orleans when he flopped a flush against my third-nut flush draw. He was downtown to play the uncapped buy-in cash games, though, and not punish me for tournament missteps. The Nugget might be a small room, but its one of the few 1/2 games in Las Vegas with no max buy-in. Still, it wasn’t like people were buying in big just to bully. Most of the big stacks were playing less than $1,000 deep, grinders picking off tourists $100 at a time.

Turns out, Saturday’s $65 event really costs $105 if you want a legitimate shot at taking it down. The entry fee gets you just 4,500 in starting chips (not even 100 BB!), but anytime within the first hour, an additional $40 will get you 4,000 more. At my table, the lone player who chose not to add on would be the first player eliminated after the break.

The tournament’s turbo-like structure would prove much more difficult than the field — 20-minute levels, doubling blinds, with a small starting stack — but most of the players probably didn’t know the difference. In one hand, I watched an extremely nervous guy check-call an A-7-A-8-8 board while holding A8. I guess he was worried about his kicker more than being accused of soft-playing his opponent on the beige felt emblazoned with logos from the glory years of televised poker (Poker After Dark, High Stakes Poker, WPT Boot Camp), much of which was shot here.

There was no tournament clock in sight, so we had no idea how much we were playing for. After surviving the first hour, I approached the tournament director to ask him how many people entered and what first place paid. There were 30 entrants, with 4 spots paying out and the top prize of $1,150. Of that entry fee, 3 percent went directly to the house and $5 from each entry went to the dealers.

I clung to my tiny stack as blinds escalated, but struggled to find spots to pick up chips, and eventually would exit in 13th place before heading back toward the El Cortez.

Sunday night’s 10,000 stack at Venetian

Dizzy Deep Stack Sunday

I called Mandalay Bay and inquired about their 5pm $100 bounty event. For every player you knock out, you receive $25. Sounded cool, and I’ve never played a bounty event, so I headed over. Unfortunately, with only two other players signed up, the tournament didn’t make.

With a limited list of Sunday night tournaments, I broke down and threw out my plan to avoid Venetian’s Deep Stack Extravaganza because I knew for sure there’d be action. (They run the Deep Stacks four times a year, with a few dozen tournaments each time, so it’s sort of like a “daily”.) And after my run in smaller events at Stratosphere, Orleans, and Golden Nugget, it seemed the right time to see how I could perform with the low-stakes sharks — so many of whom dressed the online poker nerd part.

Perhaps strangely, this go-round all Deep Stacks events are held on the casino floor at the Palazzo. The $175 7 pm event gets you 10,000 starting chips. Out of the entry fee, $20 goes to the house and $5 is for “staff bonus.” The 30-minute levels start with 25/50 blinds. A rebuy is allowed within the first hour-and-a-half. On this night, the tournament was relatively small — with just 87 entrants, and about a $4,000 first prize — but still more sizable on most fronts than all the other regular tournaments in Las Vegas.

The field didn’t seem as tough as I imagined, but in my first four attempts to raise preflop, I got 3-bet three times. So it definitely played differently than the Stratosphere. My previously “deep” stack shrunk to about eight big blinds, when I got it in with AK against A3 and JT. The king-high flop looked great, but the Q turn and A river delivered a crushing blow. Two hands later, with less than a big blind left, my pocket deuces got cracked to end my tournament dreams … at least for the night!

But shuffling past the tournament rope to exit, my 0-5 start didn’t feel all that bad. The competition was surprisingly soft, and I was OK with my play. But without anything to show for my roughly 12 hours of play, I grappled with shouldering the weight of the grind. Two more days left in this week-long experiment — Caesars Palace and Bellagio next — and I have confidence that, with a little help from the cards, I can make a score.

Though I’m sure plenty will disagree with the above analysis, I’ll take the upward Super Bowl trend for Nevada sports books as a win.

Meanwhile, semi-related but not really, Delaware is looking into how the new DOJ Wire Act interpretation (heralded by online poker types) could actually help the state offer more-better sports betting options to the masses via the internet.

Hard to tell if this game in Northeast Harris County was truly a family poker night in a residential neighborhood or underground poker room … but either way, sad as it is in the face of death and painful injury, you gotta believe there is more to this story:

In a story that ran on April 15, 2010, Johnny Hughes told a San Antonio newspaper that the violence in Texas poker rooms was reaching a fever pitch — quite different (and potentially more deadly) than the fights and robberies he had witnessed over the previous 50 years of playing un-legalized Texas poker.

I think we’re up to at least five deaths by gunfire in Texas poker games now, over the past few years.

But what stands out most to me is a line from one of the opponents of any measures for California to finally get serious about regulating online games within their own borders:

“We don’t want to see any of it,” said pastor James Butler from the California Coalition Against Gambling Expansion. “Pretty soon they’ll have an app that will allow you to connect instantly to a casino or a gambling site. Want to lose your home? We have an app for that,” Butler said.

Emphasis added. Not sure if we should tell the fine pastor that they already do have such an app — all over the UK to be sure, and in Nevada you can bet sports for real money anywhere you want using your Droid or iPhone with Leroy’s App. (It just turns off when you get to the California border — amazing that crazy technology these days!)

OK, I shouldn’t mock … because we all remember the saying from the days leading up to the UIGEA: “click a mouse, lose your house.” That language stuck in the anti-gambling forces rhetoric for years, pretty much until Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-AL) tried to take it to a new level by claiming 1/3 of all college students who tried online gambling attempted suicide. That, of course, didn’t stick … and since then pro-online gambling forces have made tremendous inroads, with a message that has been quite refined since online poker’s post UIGEA starting point, which pretty much was: WTF?

But don’t expect the opposition to remain stagnant. The closer we get, the more you can expect them to up their game, if not simply because mainstream media often call various sources to get more than one side of a story … and because election years generally tend to be good fundraising periods for people in the morality business.

You can tell Mr. Butler is currently workshopping the opposing message:

“Is there going to be a guarantee that anyone in California who receives social assistance will be banned from those sites? Or will basically the California citizens be subsidizing somebody else’s gambling behavior?” said Butler.

Fascinating point, actually. We are talking more than 2 million people in California, mind you, receiving some sort of government aid. So should we strengthen online gambling bans (against all) to make sure those on the public dole can only play games meeting standards of appropriate bankroll management?

PokerStars did not comment on plans for what could’ve been had the US government allowed them to make food stamps redeemable for T$ and/or VIP swag.

I haven’t quite yet figured out if and how this is different from an IPO. But I do know these sorta things don’t happen in a vacuum. And considering the last time Caesars — soon to be better known on NASDAQ as CZR — looked serious about going public was the last time they had reason to believe passage of online poker legalization was imminent (Dec 2010) … uh, um, gahhh! So much going on, so many old docs to look at, so much for Kevmath to hopefully fact-check … my head is spinning with the possibilities! (And I can only wonder who Barack Obama met with on the side when he visited Las Vegas long enough to stay the night in the suburbs a couple weeks ago,)

Probably not a bad time to remember that Caesars was a public corporation (called Harrah’s) that went private almost immediately after passage of the UIGEA, controversial legislation that leveled the impact of the biggest online poker sites in the world (at the time).

Read below for an official press release.

Caesars Entertainment Corporation Publicly Lists Its Shares

LAS VEGAS, Feb. 7, 2012 /PRNewswire/ — Caesars Entertainment Corporation (“Caesars” or the “Company”) announced today that its common stock was approved for listing on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol “CZR” and its offering of 1,811,313 shares of its common stock was priced at $9.00. Gross proceeds from this offering will be approximately $16 million before deducting the underwriting discounts and commissions and expenses.

Caesars also granted to the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to 271,697 additional shares of its common stock at the initial price less underwriting discounts and commissions.

In addition to the shares to be sold by Caesars in this offering, shares held by certain existing investors representing approximately 27.8 percent of the Company’s issued and outstanding capital stock have also been registered for resale, of which approximately 18.8 percent are now freely tradable, with the remainder becoming freely tradable 180 days after completion of the offering described above.

Credit Suisse and Citigroup are acting as joint book-running managers and representatives for the offering, BofA Merrill Lynch and Deutsche Bank Securities are acting as joint book-running managers for the offering and KeyBanc Capital Markets, Lebenthal & Co., LLC, and Ramirez & Co.,Inc. are acting as co-managers for the offering. The offering will be made only by means of a prospectus. Copies of the prospectus related to the offering may be obtained, when available, from: Credit Suisse, Attention: Prospectus Department, One Madison Avenue, New York, New York, 10010, or by telephone at 1-800-221-1037, or by email at newyork.prospectus@credit-suisse.com; or Citigroup, Attention: Prospectus Department, Brooklyn Army Terminal, 140 58th Street, 8th Floor, Brooklyn, New York 11220, or by telephone at 800 831-9146 , or by email at batprospectusdept@citi.com.

A registration statement relating to these securities has been filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”). A copy of the registration statement can be accessed through the SEC’s website. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy these securities, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation, or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction.

About Caesars Entertainment

Caesars Entertainment Corporation is the world’s most diversified casino-entertainment provider and the most geographically diverse U.S. casino-entertainment company. Since its beginning in Reno, Nevada, more than 73 years ago, Caesars has grown through development of new resorts, expansions and acquisitions and now operates casinos on four continents. The company’s resorts operate primarily under the Caesars(R), Harrah’s(R) and Horseshoe(R) brand names. Caesars also owns the World Series of Poker(R) and the London Clubs International family of casinos. Caesars is focused on building loyalty and value with its guests through a unique combination of great service, excellent products, unsurpassed distribution, operational excellence and technology leadership. Caesars is committed to environmental sustainability and energy conservation and recognizes the importance of being a responsible steward of the environment. For more information, please visit www.caesars.com.

This release includes “forward-looking statements” intended to qualify for the safe harbor from liability established by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. You can identify these statements by the fact that they do not relate strictly to historical or current facts. These statements contain words such as “may,” “will,” “project,” “might,” “expect,” “believe,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “could,” “would,” “estimate,” “continue” or “pursue,” or the negative or other variations thereof or comparable terminology. In particular, they include statements relating to, among other things, future actions, new projects, strategies, future performance, the outcomes of contingencies and future financial results of Caesars. These forward-looking statements are based on current expectations and projections about future events.

Investors are cautioned that forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance or results and involve risks and uncertainties that cannot be predicted or quantified and, consequently, the actual performance of Caesars may differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the following factors, as well as other factors described from time to time in the Company’s reports filed with the SEC (including the sections entitled “Risk Factors” and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” contained therein):

the impact of the Company’s significant indebtedness;
the impact, if any, of unfunded pension benefits under multi-employer pension plans;
the effects of local and national economic, credit and capital market conditions on the economy in general, and on the gaming industry in particular;
construction factors, including delays, increased costs of labor and materials, availability of labor and materials, zoning issues, environmental restrictions, soil and water conditions, weather and other hazards, site access matters and building permit issues;
the effects of environmental and structural building conditions relating to the Company’s properties;
the ability to timely and cost-effectively integrate companies that the Company acquires into its operations;
the ability to realize the expense reductions from the Company’s cost savings programs;
access to available and reasonable financing on a timely basis;
changes in laws, including increased tax rates, smoking bans, regulations or accounting standards, third-party relations and approvals, and decisions, disciplines and fines of courts, regulators and governmental bodies;
litigation outcomes and judicial and governmental body actions, including gaming legislative action, referenda, regulatory disciplinary actions and fines and taxation;
the ability of the Company’s customer-tracking, customer loyalty and yield-management programs to continue to increase customer loyalty and same store sales or hotel sales;
the Company’s ability to recoup costs of capital investments through higher revenues;
acts of war or terrorist incidents, severe weather conditions, political uprisings or natural disasters;
access to insurance on reasonable terms for the Company’s assets;
abnormal gaming holds;
the potential difficulties in employee retention and recruitment as a result of the Company’s substantial indebtedness, the ongoing downturn in the gaming industry, or any other factor; and
the effects of competition, including locations of competitors and operating and market competition.
Any forward-looking statements are made pursuant to the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and, as such, speak only as of the date made. Caesars disclaims any obligation to update the forward-looking statements. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date stated, or if no date is stated, as of the date of this press release.

But what about the rest of ‘em?

You can currently find Jerry Yang, the 2007 WSOP’s biggest winner and #20 on the all-time poker tournament money list, bussing tables while commanding an otherwise lackadaisical staff (according to Yelp) at Pocket 8s Sushi & Grill in central California. Um, pass the yum-yum sauce?

Via Pokerati’s resident Vegas grinder-thug @AndrewNeeme:

Poker Fish: You wouldn’t believe how many of Jerry Yang’s relatives are always hitting him up for free sushi.

There we go. Not one paragraph in and I’m already enjoying a new vitality. The chocolate macguffin remains wrapped in its brown paper bag and yet I’ve remembered what it is I love about writing. Sometimes we just need a little encouragement. Well, now that I’ve dealt with that personal crisis, pull yourselves together and lets get on with the news.

The Aussie and the Ivey

Yes, that’s a Christmas pun. So what? I’m recycling. Besides, I’m sure plenty of us media types put a resurgent Phil Ivey in our letters to Santa. After finally emerging from a cash game in Macau hiding, Ivey arrived at the Aussie Millions to play in one of his first major events since Black Friday. As if to make everyone else look like rank amateurs, Ivey waltzed into his most profitable month of tournament poker. After tumbling out of the $100k event, Ivey won his buy-in back by finishing 12th in the Main Event and then grabbed another $2,000,000 for winning the 16-player $250k tournament. Some guy called Oliver Speidel won $1.6m in the Main Event, but his name does not rhyme with ‘cor blimey’ so nobody cared. [Wicked Chops]

The French Channel

The Frenchy bit of Canada and the part of the British Isles closest to France have enshrined a new era of cooperation. The duo have agreed to routinely share information and expertise relating to online gambling regulation. Ontarians don’t have anything to actually regulate yet, but plans are afoot for a province-wide service later this year.

A little to the Southwest of Alderney sits another British Crown Dependency. Back in 2008, Jersey announced that it was providing egaming licenses, just like its little brother Alderney. Their overtures had not attracted any big names until Playtech took the plunge earlier this week. It’s not exactly clear what Playtech will do with their new license, but my guess is that it has something to do with wagering money over the internet. [Gambling Kingz] & [iGaming Business]

Gaming Gongs

“Oh my god! Are you the Galaxy Macau Integrated Resort?! Winner of the 2012 International Gaming Award for Casino/Integrated Resort of the Year? Can I get your autograph?”

That’s the sort of attention the Galaxy Casino is going to have to put up with from now on. Crazy people asking buildings for autographs. Signature hunters will have better luck with Sam Trickett, who was announced as Player of the Year at the European Poker Awards. Other prizes went to Ilari Sahamies, Natalia Nikitina, and Bertrand Grospellier. [European Poker Awards] & [International Gaming Awards]

Poker’s Impending Loss

Finally, something very very sad. Thor Hansen, the doyen of Norwegian poker, has been diagnosed with terminal cancer. A veteran of Vegas casinos, the 64-year-old has two WSOP bracelets to his name and more than a few friends in the poker community. Hansen will long be remembered as pivotal figure in the growth of the European game and an inspiration to the Norway’s new poker generation. [Card Player]

Nothing funny to say after that. See you next week.

Below is our second DC Update for 2012 available exclusively to 2012 PPA members.  Because we’ve received so many questions from members about PokerPAC and how and why it’s important in our fight for the game we love, I’m providing this week’s DC Update with a bit of background on PACs generally, and specifically why PokerPAC is so important.

PPA DC Update | February 1, 2012 | Bryan Spadaro | Poker Players Alliance

While I am not technically a lobbyist for the PPA, I am excited to write this week’s insider piece to our membership.  This week’s piece is about Political Action Committees, or PAC’s, an area in which I have expertise.

As the Republican primary race continues into 2012 you’ve undoubtedly heard a lot about PAC’s and Super PAC’s, and the role they play in deciding the outcome of these primary races.  A bit of history first.  PACs were first created under the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971. A PAC enables likeminded individuals to voluntarily pool their financial resources in order to contribute to candidates running for federal and state offices.  This allows corporations and associations, who are barred under law from using their own business (corporate) funds, to create a connected entity that can raise and then disperse funds to candidates they want to support.  This is exactly what PokerPAC is, the connected PAC of the Poker Players Alliance.

One of the questions I hear most about PACs is “where does the money go?” Well, as PPA’s PAC director, I can say, contributing it is a lot easier than raising it.  First, it is important to know that every dollar PokerPAC raises is contributed to candidates and campaigns that support the rights of poker players.  No money PokerPAC raises is used for overhead, salaries, compliance, marketing, etc., 100 percent goes toward the fight for our game.  Another way to answer the question is to look back to the 2010 elections, and explain some of the ways we spent PokerPAC resources.  In the 2010 cycle, PokerPAC endorsed 58 candidates.  1) In many cases, we contributed money directly from the PokerPAC to the campaigns of our endorsed candidates.  This is most common and perhaps most effective way we can support a candidate. 2) Also, in every PPA-targeted race we sent an endorsement email to all PPA members living in the district (or state) letting them know why we support the candidate and encouraged the local poker players to support them too.  These “in-kind” emails cost money and a small percentage of PokerPAC resources went to pay for these endorsements.

In a few cases the PokerPAC went “All-In” for candidates. 3) In Nevada and Colorado, two of the closest Senate races of 2010, the PPA supported candidates who were strong supporters of your poker rights and their challengers were opponents of your freedom to play online poker.  Leading up to Election Day we hosted events for the candidates so the poker community in that state could meet them and learn about why they deserved a poker player’s support.  4) PokerPAC also used resources to run online advertising and phone calls letting poker players know to support our candidate.  In both races we won!  And both Senators have acknowledged PokerPAC’s role in helping them win their races.  That is about as good as it gets for a PAC Director like me: to know that the actions we took had a direct, positive, and tangible effect on a very important outcome.

That is why we ask for your support of PokerPAC, and why it is so important to go beyond your $15 annual PPA membership.  I hope you found this piece to be interesting and informative, and as always, if you have any questions, please send them to email@theppa.org, and we will be happy to answer them for you.

Thanks again for your 2012 membership.  If you haven’t done so already, please consider becoming even more involved with the PPA by becoming a contributor to PokerPAC, the PPA’s political action arm.

Proud to Play,

Bryan Spadaro

Disclaimer: You can only contribute to our Political Action Committee if you (i) are a United States citizen or landed immigrant (e.g., hold a green card), (ii) are over the age of 18 years, (iii) are a member of the PPA, and (iv) are not a government contractor. You can only make contributions from your personal funds; you may not contribute corporate funds or funds from other prohibited sources. Contributions are not tax deductible. You must also provide where indicated your full name (i.e., first name, middle name or initial and last name), your mailing address, your occupation, and the name of your employer.

And we have a bonus late episode — the Micros’ pitch for people to vote for them in the 2011 Bluff Readers Choice Awards, where Rose, Chase, and Tommy somehow got lumped in with all the podcast/video/live radio newsy shows (in the category The Poker Beat always dominated) and cleaned up.

Enjoy, if you haven’t already.

And if online poker isn’t gonna be at least a bullet point to the national conversation now … well then, really, perhaps poker players will be getting exactly what we deserve?

This Saturday, February 4, 2012, the Nevada Republican Presidential Caucuses will be held throughout the Battle Born State. These caucuses will elevate Nevada into the national political spotlight, with all four candidates making appearances in the state in the next few days.

Governor Mitt Romney

It is important that Governor Mitt Romney, who has a commanding lead in electoral votes, hears from you today that he should support your right to play on safe, U.S. regulated online poker websites.

Let’s welcome him to the Battle Born State with an overwhelming response in support of federal licensing and regulation of online poker in the U.S. There are two quick and easy ways to send your message to Governor Romney.

Facebook: You can click here to go to his Facebook page and send him this fully editable message:

Governor Romney please support my rights to play online poker on U.S. regulated websites. Supporting U.S. regulated sites is the only way to protect consumers, prevent fraud and generate billions of dollars in new tax revenues without raising taxes! Supporting federal regulation of online poker is smart public policy.

Twitter: you can reach him via Twitter by sending him the fully editable message below:

@mittromney Fed efforts to regulate online #poker is smart public policy. Stand with me in protecting consumers and personal freedoms!

Don’t forget, the other three candidates’ opinions matter too. You can send them a Facebook or Twitter message as well by following the links to their respected social networking pages.

Senator Rick Santorum

Senator Rick Santorum does NOT support your freedom to play online poker in the U.S. To watch his interview on Face to Face with Jon Ralston were he clearly states his opposition to federal regulation of online poker click here.

Facebook You can click here to go to his Facebook page and send him this fully editable message:

Senator Rick Santorum please support my rights to play online poker on U.S. regulated websites. Supporting U.S. regulated sites is the only way to protect consumers, prevent fraud and generate millions of dollars in new tax revenues without raising taxes! Supporting federal regulation of online poker is smart public policy.

Twitter Click here to send him a fully editable message below:

@RickSantorum your non-support of a reg U.S. online #poker market only hurts consumers and families & goes against principles of freedom.

Congressman Ron Paul

Congressman Ron Paul is a long time supporter of your rights to play online poker and currently is a co-sponsor of H.R. 2366, Internet Gambling Prohibition, Poker Consumer Protection, and Strengthening UIGEA Act, which is pending before congress.

Facebook You can click here to go to his Facebook page and send him this fully editable message:

Ron Paul, THANK YOU for supporting my right to play on a U.S. based regulated online #poker site!

Twitter Click here to send him a fully editable message below:

@RonPaul THANK YOU for supporting my right to play on a U.S. based regulated online #poker site!

Speaker Newt Gingrich

Speaker Newt Gingrich has yet to announce his policy on whether he supports regulation of Internet poker. The PPA has reached out to his campaign and will notify you when we learn of his opinion.

Facebook You can click here to go to his Facebook page and send him this fully editable message:

Speaker Newt Gingrich please support my rights to play online poker on U.S. regulated websites. Supporting U.S. regulated sites is the only way to protect consumers, prevent fraud and generate millions of dollars in new tax revenues without raising taxes! Supporting federal regulation of online poker is smart public policy.

Twitter Click here to send him a fully editable message below:

@newtgingrich Fed efforts to regulate online #poker is smart public policy. Stand with me in protecting consumers and personal freedoms! 

With the political spotlight shinning bright on Nevada for the next few days we, as dedicated poker players, need to make sure that the presidential candidates understand that our right to play poker should not be impeded upon. Together we can make a difference. Take action today!

Proud to play,

Lupe Soto
Nevada State Director

• Dan Savage’s “It Gets Better” campaign to stop gay teenagers from killing themselves
• Russia’s Wintertime Spring to prevent Vladimir Putin from regaining power
• The Occupy (New York) movement spreading worldwide

Though personally I see Occupy ultimately going the route of Woodstock ’99, overall it’s a good crowd for poker to be runnin’ with. And that sorta social climbing didn’t come because of a Guinness World Record, crazy prop bet, or even a celebrity charity tournament; being on the national radar (in the right way at the right time) comes because of consistent and steady efforts to awaken the right people to what really is total government bullshit! political injustice.

The Stratosphere’s quaint 10-table poker room sits in the back of the casino, past a row of slot machines, craps tables, another row of slot machines, down the ramp past Roxy’s Diner, near the escalators to the Top of the World restaurant — just before the Double Down Pit and Back Alley Bar. On Thursday, there was a sole 1-2NL table of action about 30 minutes before the nightly tournament.

You’d hardly know that this room has supposedly become the new Sahara when it comes to Las Vegas’ most popular small buy-in dailies — with the 7pm event drawing consistent fields of 50 players or more.

I approached the podium and purchased a seat for the event. The buy-in is $45 for 4,500 in chips, plus a $20 add-on that gives you 4,000 more chips, which you can purchase any time within the first hour. (There’s also an option for unlimited re-entry within that time frame.)  With 20-minute levels, that add-on is necessary, especially considering there are no automatic shufflers in the tournament tables.

The rake is taken out of the initial buy-in, $7 of which goes to the dealers and poker room staff and $10 of which goes to “Uncle Stratosphere,” according to shift manager Jennifer Mrkvicka.

“All of the add-on goes to the prize pool, darlin’,” she said. “We don’t touch any of that.”

I think she calls everyone darlin’.

The starting stack was green, black, grey and pink. Blinds started at 25/50. There were 69 entrants, eight of whom got paid. My table started 7-handed, a mix of tourists and locals and no apparent pros. Top prize was $1,221. Not bad if you could hang on.

The man to my left, a local in a knit cap and scarf, would not stop talking.

“I’m only a TDA card holder,” he announced.

Me: What’s TDA?

Poker Tournament Directors Association, obviously.

Mr. TDA would go on to double me up while holding 10-3, misread his hand for a straight and double another player up, then announce “re-raise” when in fact he was making the first raise.

He had a friend across the table.

“They call you Boomer?” I asked.

“That’s my poker name,” he replied.

Just before the first break, Mrkvicka announced that there would be pizza. And it was good.

Shortly after we ate, Boomer was eliminated, which pleased a few of my table mates.

My stack rose and fell for three hours, and I could play a hand or two, despite the quickly escalating blinds. But I couldn’t find spots to build a stack, and things got desperate on the first hand after the third break. I had only 4 big blinds, and I moved in with J9. The big blind called with pocket kings, and my hand did not improve. Finished in 16th place, not far from the money, but not quite close enough, either.

Next stop in my quest to find the best place to cut my tournament teeth is the Orleans, where I hear the 7pm $125 tournament is “juicy”, drawing upwards of 300 players every Friday.

Crushed, beaten, annihilated, squelched, wrecked … you feel helpless and empty and start questioning what you’re doing with your life and why you’re wasting so much money.

A new year is supposed to be a time when everyone is feeling the most hopeful and positive and have the brightest outlook on what the next 12 months may hold. I try to put a positive spin on everything and especially the things I write on twitter and in this blog with an audience in mind. I’m sure there are some people who take joy in other people’s down times because it makes them feel better about their own situation. But I just think it’s a better EV play to try and inspire people rather than give them something to wallow in.

I wish I could follow my own advice, but today I don’t see how.

We can at least start off at the highest point, which is right before the calendar turned a page to 2012. Following the win streak that I wrote about last time, I went through an extended break-even stretch that lasted through early/mid December. There were lots of ups and downs and I never gained any traction for about a month straight. A win followed a loss which followed a win followed by a loss, over and over. Finally, and without even really realizing it until after Christmas and just before New Year’s Eve, I strung together another double-digit win streak and took my total winnings to their highest point since I took my two month hiatus. It wasn’t a ton of money, as the vast majority of all my sessions played are $1/$2NL, $1/$3NL, and $1/$2NL-PLO. But I was proud that my results showed such a nice overall uptrend, and was able to break out of a couple of sideways movements on my graph.

Things could not have taken a more drastic turn as they have in the year 2012. I’ve played almost every day, and have posted a grand total of one winning session. And none of the losing sessions have been small losses. Pick any word with a negative connotation, and then break out your thesaurus and go through the list of synonyms for that word: crushed, beaten, annihilated, squelched, wrecked … All these words weigh on me and make me hang my head and stare at the hideous carpet of various Las Vegas casinos as I make my walk of shame to the valet. It’s infinitely worse than a break-even stretch because it piles and compounds on itself so quickly — you feel helpless and empty and start questioning what you’re doing with your life and why you’re wasting so much money.

I don’t bombard twitter with bad beat stories because we all know the beats need to happen in order for poker to exist. There needs to be a luck factor in order to attract casual players and for us to be able to make a living playing the game. I know this, you know this. My buddy Jaymes knows this. But I don’t give a fuck as I bombard his text message inbox with beat after beat in an effort to release the pain.

KK < AT aipf

JJ < A8 T64 guy floats flop and magically finds an A.

You get the idea.

To crawl out of my hole, I was grinding at Treasure Island the other night. If you play 60 hours in a week there, they pay you $599 cash back, and I was putting in some hours after a long session earlier in the day. I had already dusted off one buy-in thanks to a superfish waking up with AA vs my JJ on a board that made it difficult to get away from.

I had about $250 in front of me when the action folded around to my button in our 5-handed game. I opened the action for $10 (which was a smallish raise for this game) with 3h5h looking to bring in the weak player in the big blind. The small blind, who was the only other decent player at the table, reraised to $25 and I made the call after the big blind folded. I’m looking to connect hard in some sort of pair/two pair/combo-draw fashion or else I’m dumping the hand, as I know the sb isn’t looking to waste time getting into a leveling war when there are 3 fishy players at the table. The flop comes A35 rainbow, and he checks. I don’t know why but he likes to check for deception more often than he should, in my opinion, and I already know that all the money is going in at some point. I check back and the turn is a 7. We waste little time; he bets $30, I raise to $75, he snap shoves. Just after I make the insta-call he asks, “Do you have AK?” which immediately defines his hand as AQ. I hold up my cards so he can see them and I say “Two pair…” just before the river falls, which I quickly follow up with “…no good” as we both identify the Ace.

I’m sure it was written all over my face before that last hand even started. The start of 2012 was the worst 1.5 weeks of poker in as long as I can remember, with every session ending deeper in a darker hole. Grinders know never to say “sorry” when they beat someone in a hand because it was exactly what they’re trying to do and will try to do it again the next time. But when that ace fell on the river and I immediately got up to leave, the guy who won the hand patted me on the shoulder and said “I’m sorry.”

I didn’t have it in me to say “It’s ok” or even anything at all. I just put on my backpack and trudged out of the poker room, head hanging and eyes staring at the casino carpet. Wondering what the hell I’m supposed to do.

Aside from making industry lobbyists flush, the governor claimed the Full Monty approach to gaming would generate $1 billion in economic activity. Of course estimated gaming-related revenues have to be taken with a grain of salt. In the fictitious town of Lake Wobegon, all the children were above average. When it comes to gaming revenue estimates, every state and municipality assumes an above-average piece of the pie, ignoring the expansion plans of its neighbors. Read More States Betting on Casino Gambling for Jobs, Revenue.

Not everyone stands to gain. NY currently has nine Indian casinos, five of which are run by the Seneca Nation. The Seneca have a 21-year agreement that gives them exclusive territorial gambling rights. After Cuomo’s speech, they wondered if their gambling treaty would end up being one more “broken promise.” Ouch.  You can read more about their anxiety: Governor Andrew Cuomo’s Gambling Push Opposed by Native American Tribes. 

Atlantic City can’t be too happy about Cuomo’s plans. It is already seeing some of its gambling revenues poached by Pennsylvania slot parlors and NY’s Racinos. But apparently Las Vegas is putting on a good front. This week, Howard Stutz writes, Gaming’s Spread No Threat to Strip.

New Yorkers will undoubtedly get an earful about the societal costs associated with the expansion of gaming. In fact, it has already begun. The New York Post op-ed page is one of the first to ante up with The House Loses.

The biggest potential winner will be Genting New York, a subsidiary of the Malaysian Genting Group. Genting recently opened the racino at Aqueduct raceway in Queens, NY. The company has committed $4 billion to build a new convention center on the site, betting it will be able to combine it with a full-fledged casino operation. It should come as no surprise that Genting greased the skids a little before the announcement of Cuomo’s State of the State address bestowing the virtues of the new convention center and expanded gambling. For the details, read Bloomberg’s Genting Almost Doubled New York Lobbying Costs Before Cuomo Plan. 

It may take awhile before New York can pass a constitutional amendment to expand gambling. My guess is that will be just fine with gaming lobbyists.

I want to explore the level of competition, how much play I can get for my money and whether the payouts are worth the grind.

I’m going to play at least a week of dailies around Las Vegas. Mostly, I plan to play on the Strip. But I also want to hit at least one event downtown and check out the action at an off-strip casino or two. I’ll avoid the WSOP-circuit events in town and Venetian’s Deepstack Extravaganza Series, as to stay out of the path of sharks.

If I happen to get knocked out early, I’ll do some follow-up reporting on the pay structure.

My first event started at 7 p.m. Wednesday, a $125 buy-in at Aria. The blinds opened at 25/50, with 30 minute levels.

Folks in town told me it’s one of the better events for the money.

10,000 Starting chips in the daily tournament at Aria

Wednesday’s tourney found 80 entrants, with the top 9 making money. First place paid $2,677 after play wrapped up around 3 a.m. Mine ended about an hour in, after 7-4 crippled my A-K.

Twenty minutes before cards hit the air, I received my entry card: Table 5, Seat 9.

Doyle Brunson and Eli Elezra were playing 400-800 mix one table over, and my seat directly faced them. Could I focus on cards with The Godfather sitting inches away?

I set my Vitamin Water squeezed on the felt in front of my seat.

“Excuse me, sir. Are you here for the tournament?” a floorman asked.

Yeah.

“We’ve moved your table. It’s all the way on the other side of the room.”

OK. Nice view of the coffee bar, and a rainbow tower of green, black, blue and yellow chips that added up to 10,000.

Even this close to the rail at Aria, I won’t smell the cigarette smoke outside the room.
I figured I was at a great starting table after three players had open-limped the button, and one woman paying more attention to the noise in her headphones than the cards on the table let her stack bleed quickly by chasing gutshots.

I would get nowhere near the top, however, as I ran into a kid with what’s known as fancy play syndrome.

He began the near-knockout hand with the 10,000 starting stack. I had a few more.

The dance started with his casual 2.5x raise from the hijack seat. I tried to wrest control with a three-bet on the button, holding AcKh. His four-bet earned another raise from me. He thought momentarily and shoved. I called instantly.

He turned over 7c4c, and the flop looked good: AhAd5s.

He said, “nice hand.”

No, not yet.

Turn 2.

Dealer: “He still has outs.”

No. No.

River: 3.

No. No. No.

I was eliminated a few hands later when the same villain beat my 77 with AQ. With luck like that, I opted not to rebuy.

Tonight, I’m going to hop in the 7 pm, $45 tourney at Stratosphere, which some players are calling the new Sahara, because of the small buy-in. With a little luck, I’ll get past the second level.

Check my twitter feed @randompoker for updates from the felt.

The Facebook-facing poker site’s interest might seem reasonable in light of the Department of Justice’s recent re-interpretation of the 1961 Wire Act, limiting the scope of its prohibitions to sports betting. But there is also a more cynical interpretation of Zynga’s announcement.

With its stock price languishing after its initial public offering, Zynga needed a growth storyline that shareholders might believe. I could write more about why Zynga’s announcement may be more of a semi-bluff than a made hand, but an online gaming insider has done that already. Bill Rini asks Zynga Ready For Real Money Gaming or Trying to Hide Failures? 

The veiled implication is Wynn’s sizable donation might have been less than philanthropic – bordering on a ”pay to play” ante to retain favor in the world’s most lucrative gaming destination. (The competing Las Vegas Sands’ Macau operation is currently under DOJ and SEC scrutiny for possible infringement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, as referenced here in a Wall Street Journal blog.)

Wynn claims Okada’s lawsuit is just a smoke screen to mask the fact that Okada had been working behind Wynn’s back to develop a casino in the Philippines. You can read all the tawdry details in A Partners’ Fight Erupts at Wynn.

How will it end? Perhaps better than Steve Wynn’s marriage. After all, Wynn recently told the press, “I love Kazuo Okada as much as any man that I’ve met in my life.”

Wynn shares have since recovered from the drama at the start of January, but still have a ways to go in 2012 before reaching 2011 highs.

Millions of Aussies

Stereotyping Alert! I’m sorry about this. As an Englishman, I am legally required to bring up barbies, funny accents, and convicts any time anything Australian comes with 4 feet of me. It’s a bother, but what can you do. Those British pros down at the Aussie Millions must be having a torrid time, the place is crawling with them. Even the Canadian Daniel Negreanu is obsessed with their the eccentricities.

Thankfully the Aussie Millions Main Event is currently providing an excellent distraction. For example, despite the fact than an antipodean gentleman currently sits atop the Day 2 standings, the world’s loudest nation has been characteristically hogging the limelight. First up, American Dan Smith won the 22-man $100k High Roller event for $1,000,000. Then Phil Ivey, who can make headlines by just turning up, went and put himself second in the chip count at the end of Day 2. [Poker News Report]

Bwin Bust-Up in Porto

Enough of that Southern Hemisphere nonsense, time to head back to Europe. More specifically to Portugal, the land of cocks. Their government has bowed to pressure from local casino operators and decreed that Bwin’s sponsorship of Portuguese football is illegal. The ruling stems from the fact that, as an external operator, bwin.party are subject to no regulations and pay no taxes in Portugal.

Bwin claim that the ruling contravenes EU free-trade laws, but have agreed to acquiesce to the command for now. As lucrative as Portuguese sports sponsorship is, panic may break out if the same idea occurs across the border in Spain. Bwin are the shirt-sponsors of Real Madrid, arguably the most popular soccer team in the world. [Card Player]

Bet Fairly at London 2012

If I leave my flat, wander out on to the street, and look to the North East, I can see the Olympic Stadium glowering above the rooftops. I’ve spent the last two years watching it progress through various stages of construction and with the big event just a few months away, other spheres of Olympic influence are making their final preparations. In the online gambling world, Betfair have teamed up with the International Olympic Committee to monitor suspicious betting activity which might indicate a rigged event. [USA Today]

South Korean Supercasino

The unfurling success story that is Macau is bound to inspire many imitators. First in line are South Korea, who plan to build a $3 billion dollar casino resort right next to their busiest airport. The Incheon International Airport Corp. hopes to shamelessly pray upon frazzled businessmen staggering out of long haul flights, by ushering them into land of flashing lights, comfy beds, and empty wallets. Hey, if it worked for China, it can work for you! [Yahoo]

Team Poker at the Pleasure Beach

And finally, a British city most famous for its tower is hosting a cool team poker event. With backing from lovely poker gent Neil Channing, the Team Poker Tour UK allows Brits to compete in small teams, with the top 3 aggregate squads taking the biggest chunk of the prize pool. It’s worth noting that Dan emailed me to specifically to flag this up and I really can’t figure out why he’s so interested. [Team Poker Tour UK]

I’m going to do my best to stay put from now on, so look forward to your regular dose of Wider World next week. Until then, do whatever the nurse tells you to and everything will be just fine.