There’s a lot of political to-do over use of the term “illegal” in connection to online poker — whether that be in proposed legislation or general internet chit-chat. “Playing poker online is not illegal at all!” say the die-hards. “All the UIGEA made illegal was the transfer of funds blah blah blah!” Fair enough, but bottom line is that it’s easier to get weed in this country than it is to get your money off of Full Tilt … interpret as you see fit.

One Pokerati reader writes in with the latest on his difficulty getting $4,500 from Full Tilt into his American pockets:

Update:

After a month of getting the run around trying to make a check withdrawal ftp finally told me they could not and that their problems with the check processor persist. They told me to use the cash pick up option and that through moneygram, i could pick up my money at an authorized agent. I checked and there several in town so I sent a withdrawal request. I was told that once processed the money would be available in one to three business days. It showed as processing for a week and the ftp told me that the transaction was declined. I now have no means to get money out. I put in for a 50 dollar deposit to see if they would take my money and sure enough they did. I have a lot of cash in there and no way to get it out. Suggestion? Any similar stories? Arent you best friends with ftp pros. How can they work this way?

Damn, not good. As referenced in a comment to your previous post, there have been some 2+2 discussions about similar difficulties:

FTP checks thread
Why are there 65,000 people currently playing on FTP when we CANT get paid???

… so your situation clearly isn’t isolated. I personally have some Full Tilt cash supposedly waiting for me at MoneyGram — just haven’t picked it up because non-electronic banking is a pain in the ass and I’ve been “running good” at the live tables and bills aren’t due for a while — will try to cash out this week to see what happens.

As to all the Full Tilt pros being my best friends … absolutely, we are tight-tight and have partied all night long. And yet for some reason they all seem to have changed their phone numbers without telling me. I don’t get it!

What’s going on tonight at the WSOP:

The $1,500 NL Holdem final table just completed and it was down to a Woo and a Wood for the bracelet (w00t!). David Woo from Atlanta, GA defeated Matt Wood from Whitby, Ontario, Canada to win just over $630,000 and a coveted bracelet. Wood has the consolation of taking home almost $390,000 US back to the Great White North. Woo was bolstered when he knocked out the 2nd and 3rd chip leaders (Thom Werthmann and Curtis Early) with 6 left on the same hand, when he flopped the nut straight against top two pair and an open ended straight draw.

Other tournament action on the next page:

More…

On March 6, UltimateBet acknowledged that at least one player exhibited an abnormal winning rate on its site. They noted that a third-party audit was in the works, and a complete and thorough investigation was promised.

A few interesting tidbits:

1. UB admitted that it was made aware of the allegations on January 12. They didn’t begin a formal investigation until March 6. It is now May 15, and not a peep has been heard from UB.

2. There are similarities between the UB scandal and the Absolute Poker scandal that stink of more than coincidence.

3. UB has not responded to inquiries on the subject.

A poster on 2+2 broke down the details of the scandal thus far. And Nat Arem posted on PocketFives that he has information that he simply cannot release (???) but assures the public that UB is working on the issue.

Not good enough. It has been too long. UB made the same mistakes as AP - taking too long to admit the problem, resolve it, and communicate with players about it. It is just unacceptable, and I, for one, will continue to publicize the scandal and recommend that players stay far away from Absolute Poker and UltimateBet. (This opinion does not necessarily reflect that of Pokerati.)

The BTT crew: Poker talk fused with gay jokes and fat commentary was all the rage in 2007.

Some of you have been wondering, why no new episodes of Beyond the Table? Tom, Karridy, and I have been wondering the same thing. It’s been a good run, and with drinks in the air, three guys who clearly love/hate the sounds of their own voices are calling it podcast quits.

Back when we started, our show about poker but not really about poker stood out as revolutionary in a sea of lame poker interviewcasts with questionable audio quality. Soon after iPod sales were booming as more and more of the world got hooked on downloading poker audio with funny intros and Angry Julie cameos. But Tom couldn’t handle the celebrity and Karridy developed a crack addiction lives got busy and producers for Beyond the Table fared about as well as drummers for Spinal Tap. The show hired Shamus at a fraction of a Cambodian farmer’s wage to pump up our numbers — did he ever get his T-shirt? — but with a new generation of poker podcasts getting better and stronger (Lou Kreiger, Gary Wise, 2+2, Pocket Fives, Ante Up, Poker Road, et al) old-school payola wasn’t enough to save us from going out on the podcast bubble.

Listen below to a heretofore unpublished episode (recorded on 2-27, my dream flop) as your favorite semi-amateur yammerers phone it in for the last and final-ish time:

Beyond the Table: Fin

Thanks for listening via RSS, iTunes, play-in-popup, and direct download … we already miss ourselves.

You can still prank call Karridy on the Beyond the Table listener line at 888-820-8091.