I left out all the political stuff you should be reading — trust me, lots of casino-y biz and law going on — and instead am emptying out my frivolous notebook (some of it) and giving you a good-ole-fashioned link dump … full of random timely poker buzz that, imo, is def click-worthy.

The LAPC and NAPT/Venetian Deep Stacks may be on-hype right now … but some of the most fearsome high-stakes competition going on in Vegas is shaking down at the M Resort. You can follow the quirky, made-for-TV Premier League on PokerNews.

From the Dept. of: That’s Different

The PokerNews hand reporters have been allowed to see the hole cards and whisper them in Tony G’s ear write about them. (Usually, if reporters are so privileged to see inside the security truck, they usually do so with a promise not to divulge hole-card info.) It didn’t take long for the players — who are stripped of their cell phones and PDAs upon entering the set — to check laptops for the revealing live updates while on breaks or out of a hand/scene.

PartyPoker is clearly trying to pump up Luke Schwartz’s badboy image — taunting him for his ineffectual come-ons of Kara Scott. Here he is on the tricycle Tony G brought for him to ride out on:

Also, btw, check out the PartyPoker blog … where Warren from Party is shedding some of his corporate stick-ness to share some real life-on-the-PartyPoker-trail shtick. AKA Warren “the” Lush and “Fun Warren“.

Pokerati Restaurant Review

M Resort Buffet

It’s not quite Wynn or Bellagio-level … but it’s pretty close. And for a $14.95 lunch/$22.95 dinner, the extra touches — beer and wine available buffet-style, too, and a cappuccino bar — make the pig-it-up-dude! offerings worth wading through the hordes of senior-citizen locals who show up en force to let clever packs of bikers know, hey, this is our joint!” They also do the Tina Martini live cooking show there, which makes the M Resort’s Studio B like the Steel Panther of Buffets.

Price: Freeroll
Food: A-Q
Atmosphere: set of 4s
Service: 9-9

Another new-to-me blog I’ve been enjoying of late: crAAKKer
I am become Death, destroyer of Aces, slayer of Kings, tilter of D-bags

PokerListings has a solid (and controversial amongst people who think they know such things) list of Top 10 Players to Watch in 2010. I don’t think the haters get it … That is who Matt Showell and his people will be watching — whether you like it or not, bitch.

Spoiler Alert:

1. Phil Ivey
2. Cole South
3. Yvgeniy Timoshenko
4. Annette Obrestad
5. Jason Mercier
6. Matt “ADZ124″ Marafioti
7. Isildur
8. Nanonoko
9. Jeff Madsen
10. Lex Veldhuis

Tao of Changerati

Start listening to Lost Vegas: The Podcast, with Pauly and Change100, around the premise of pimping his forthcoming Lost Vegas book. It’s about a blogger living with his blogger girlfriend while he endeavors to spread his poker genius worldwide. She has a way of laughing at him like no one else can, as if she’s seen his junk or something.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

ALT HED: The Sonny and Cher of Poker?

Rumorati

From our secret sources on the ground at the LAPC: “Amanda leatherman out at wpt. will be the new hosetess for napt on espn2. Wpt will have a temporary hostess at celeb invitational and is looking for a full time hostess”

If you want to follow the real, non-poker Premier League, you should be getting into Soccerati.com. Especially if you want to bet on soccer. UEFA Champions League getting underway.

We wouldn’t mind more followers @Soccerati on twitter, too. Might even start to send out some tweets as important games kick into high gear.

The Soccerati roster currently includes AlCantHang and JoeSpeaker … with The Rooster headed to South Africa for World Cup 2010 and thus still in negotiations over starting minutes with SangyFarha and DA Hasselbaink.

And, poker blogger creative success story …Chris Hanel — aka Pokergeek and one of some 30something bloggers who over the years have graced these not-so-hallowed Pokerati pages, btw, albeit briefly — is getting big internet kudos for his Hitler video of all Hitler videos, as featured on the ever-viral boing-boing:

via Mean Gene

Even though I’ve gotten hooked on two-minute video interviews and have kinda taken a personal change-of-interest-pace and started paying attention to actual tournaments … big names are starting to win at the LAPC, WSOP-Circuit Tunica is kicking it old school, everyone wants to know how the Venetian Deep Stacks is gonna shape up with PokerStars heading to town, and I really gotta make it over to the M Resort to check out this whole PartyPoker Premier League thing … I still tune in almost-weekly to APCW Perspectives Weekly for a little catch-up on the international poker and online-gambling-related political scene for 10 minutes at a pop:

This week J Todd keeps us abreast of California and New Jersey’ desires to get in on the online gambling game from a state-size perspective, updates us on the online gambling fund-transfer cat-and-mouse game with MasterCard and Visa getting more serious (just three months before they are legally required to do exactly what they are trying to do), fingers the Eldorado Casino as a potentially shady site to avoid, and tease me with some affiliate business stuff that I don’t really care about but am interested to watch because of the hidden-camera + foreign-accent nature of the upcoming interview.

Here are a few other semi-related newsy links about how things are going elsewhere in the poker world:

The Mayor of Baltimore is pushing for poker+table games despite the governor of Maryland having less of an interest in making expanded gambling a priority.

Michael Barnier, the newly appointed EU Internal Markets Commissioner, promises to straighten out inconsistencies in European online gambling laws.

Police in suburban Alabama are cracking down on / raiding the real-money tournament scene there.

Here’s a quick rundown of what’s going on in one of the hungriest industries out there, and, game of skill or not, the parent biz of our beloved little poker world:

ALABAMA — A small little gambling fight is going down in the land Spencer Bachus represents, over a matter of semantics, technology, and the millions of dollars bingo machines represent. Bingo is legal in ‘bama … but should video bingo be? The fight is a dirty — complete with one agency repeatedly trying to raid a well-monied operation that believes it’s on the right side of the law.

CHINA — After a slow start, gambling revenues in Macau are reaching record levels.

IOWA — The Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission’s computer system got hacked, and they’re blaming China:

Chinese foreign ministry officials strongly disputed the report, issuing a statement calling it “full of bias and ulterior motives.”

Personal information in the breach included names, Social Security numbers, home addresses and dates of birth. Most of the people in the licensing database are Iowa residents, but it also includes residents of Illinois, Minnesota, Nebraska, South Dakota, Wisconsin and other states, Ketterer said.

The list includes workers such as card dealers, slot machine technicians, jockeys, trainers and owners of horses and greyhounds.

LOUISIANA — The New Orleans-to-Shreveport casino-biz is in a definite recession, one not planned for when the state planned on becoming the central-coast alternative to Las Vegas and Atlantic City. They blame Texans for not gambling enough Oklahoma and Mississippi for cutting in on their action.

NEW JERSEY — Big fight going on over laws related to the building of Revel — the east coast’s $2.5 billion version of CityCenter. Should be an interesting development to watch go up (or down) as New Jersey fights to stay competitive with the smaller casino operations set to open shop in Delaware and Pennsylvania, but not Maryland.

MARYLAND — Gov. Martin O’Malley is saying Maryland’s not gonna jump into the gambling expansion fray, despite assertions that his state is gonna lose out as neighboring locales up their casino offerings to include table games + poker.

OHIO — As we know, Lyle Berman has effectively bought himself a piece of all the newly legalized action to come in Cincinatti, Cleveland, and Toledo. But he’s run into some blowback over the location of a new casino in Columbus. The constitutional amendment voters approved in November called for a full-blown casino-resort downtown, but now a referendum on a May ballot will decide if the Penn Gaming development should be moved to a blighted part of the city.

Related: “It’s Lyle’s Ohio Now”

UNITED KINGDOM — Once upon a time, Great Britain was leading the world in all things online gambling. But regulations and tax issues are messing that up — and it’s turning into a battle of Labour vs. the Tories for the UK’s gambling future. Good rundown on some British gambling-law history and where the different parties stand on gambling in the UK … as the rest of Europe catches up.

Sure, we know Isildur1 was like sooo 2009, but couldn’t help starting the new year checking out this breakdown of the biggest online poker hand in history. The video replay (with decent commentary) includes the two hands of Pot-Limit Omaha that led up to $1.3 million going in on the flop between the mystery Swede and Patrik Antonius on Full Tilt:

Instapoker

A few other interesting links of late:

The upcoming LAPC is the best tourney-fest since sliced bread/the WSOP?

A guy who could pass for Phil Ivey’s dad at a Bob Marley concert.

NBAers Gilbert Arenas and Javaris Crittenton draw guns in what could be a standoff over poker debts?

Bill Rini has a well-thought-out response to the datamining issues raised by Beanie’s Pokerati op-ed.

Apparently our good friends across the pond are a bit more optimistic about the notion of the US opening its online gambling market in 2010 than we are … and in preparation, the buzz around England is that Betfair — the British online poker-and-more company and title sponsor of WSOP-Europe — is getting serious about making an estimated £1.5 billion ($2.5 billion) initial public offering.

The intent would be to raise capital in preparation for all sorts of crazy consolidation and forthcoming acquisitions in the online gambling sector.

At least one Betfair exec dismisses the talk as little more than speculation, despite meetings with Credit Suisse and other banking advisors that have the European financial press getting their knickers in a bunch as “companies seek to position themselves to enter the world’s biggest gambling market.” Should the rumored floatation happen, it would be the first major listing on the London Stock Exchange since the global economic collapse.

$400k HORSE

At the same time, Betfair last week made another move toward American soil by pledging $400,000 to the New York (Horse) Racing Association as an overlay should two specific horses face off against each other in October at Belmont Park:

Rachel Alexandra, the first filly to win the second leg of horse racing’s Triple Crown since 1924, has won her last eight races. Zenyatta is undefeated in 12 career starts, including the 2008 Breeders’ Cup Ladies Classic.

LOL, I didn’t even realize they had ladies events in horse racing!

Across the Chunnel: Refashioning French Poker

Arnault.

Betfair also just got themselves approved to enter France’s online gambling market, which is set to open next year … apparently with some nice poker-friendly alterations to the rake. (The new French law originally had players paying tax on every bet and raise, on every street … which can totally screw with your pot-odds calculations!) Helping get Betfair to the front of the French licensing line, with a better rake structure no less? Heavy lobbying efforts from billionaire bling merchant Bernard Arnault, CEO of Louis Vuitton, 10 percent owner of Betfair, and the 15th richest person in the world.

New-and-improved Yahoo! Poker Coming Soon

We’re talking Yahoo! Uk & Ireland, of course, not Yahoo! USA. The British arm of the web behemoth just re-upped its partnership with GTech G2, for two years, to provide real-money gaming options — and part of that deal includes plans to unveil a fully downloadable real-money Yahoo! poker room, not just the (lame) in-browser version currently available.

Magazine Moguls Jump into Mobile Gambling

PartyGaming CEO Jim Ryan recently said that the biggest threat to established online gaming brands comes from major media outlets, not current competitors. And sure enough … Dennis Publishing — the mega-magazine company behind Maxim, MacUser, Computer Shopper, Bizarre, Men’s Fitness, and more than a dozen other publications (including PokerPlayer, Inside Poker Business, and Stacked) — just launched its Monkey Mobile Casino, offering real-money online gambling on handheld devices. (The current issue of Monkey, fwiw, features a picture of Lady Gaga’s recent nipple slip.

The Swedish Taxman Cometh

Meanwhile, the Swedish Tax Authority (Skatteverket) has been studying all forms of internet commerce tax evasion since 2007, and has concluded that online poker companies with offshore servers are one of their biggest sources of uncollected e-commerce taxes.

Happy Saturday, ya’ll! This is Dan here, taking over for KevMath this morning so he can enjoy a well-deserved day off to show him who’s boss. So here we go, recapping last night’s action from the Amazon room and beyond … (brought to you by the internet):

Players to Watch

Brunson

Lisandro

Rouhani

Smith

Schneider

Vahedi

Brunson Bracelet Countdown

In the $10k 7CS-HL (or “Split” as @TexDolly calls it) Doyle Brunson is going for his Hellmuth-tying 11th bracelet, while Jeff Lisandro looks for his second of 2009 while making a surge up the Player of the Year leaderboard. Below’s who’s left. No plans yet (as far as we know) for Bluff or ESPN360 to be carrying this live — though we wouldn’t be surprised if that changed should Brunson and/or Scotty Nguyen make the final table.

Abe Mosseri 950,000
Jeff Lisandro 786,000
Doyle Brunson 525,000
Farzad Rouhani 494,000
Yan Chen 476,000
Perry Friedman 378,000
Lyle Berman 333,000
Scotty Nguyen 298,000
Frank Mariani 267,000
Justin ‘Boosted J’ Smith 237,000
Mike Wattel 96,000
Anthony Rivera 92,000

Rouhani, btw, is Iranian. In case you poker-only degens weren’t aware, there’s some big shit going down in his homeland right now — and to some extent (especially after Iran’s protesty soccer team got eliminated from World Cup contention this week) isn’t a 7-Stud Hi-Lo World Championship exactly what that country needs?

Advanced Beginners

In $2,000 NLH, 17 (out of 1,695) players remain — competing for prizes ranging from $21k to $586k. You may not recognize many of the remaining players in this one, but most have found success in smaller tourneys, circuit events, and, of course, online. Spread around the final two tables, there are zero bracelets in the mix, 49 WSOP cashes, and six WSOP Circuit money finishes. The favorite is probably Jordan Smith (from Texas!). Click here to follow throughout the day and see who’s really ready to step up on a bigger stage.

Oh Brother, Who Art Thou?

In the $2,000 Limit Hold’em event, 107 out of 446 players remain. David Baker is the chip leader, while some known names still alive in the field waiting to get eliminated include Scott Lazar, Rafe Furst, Diego Cordovez, Phil Hellmuth, Greg “FBT” Mueller, John Monnete, Marcel Luske, Maria Ho, Daniel Negreanu, Mike Schneider (part of some strange Minnesota Limit Posse), Shannon Shorr, and Abdol Vahedi — who for the moment we are presuming is Amir Vahedi’s brother or at least cousin, as both Iranians hail from Sherman Oaks, CA. Day 2 gets underway at 2 pm pacific — click here to see who else is left in the field and where they’re sitting.

So there you have it. Hopefully KevMath will be back next week, or otherwise you may never have it again.

Yours truly, meanwhile, got a call from some of his old homies and will be playing (poker, not basketball) in an NBA charity event later today.

Just some early-morning semi-pokery stuff that’s caught my eye … actually, first part’s not so pokery, but I think a lot of poker fans might be curious about this upcoming ESPN piece on the governor’s efforts in Delaware to bring sports betting to that state:

(And no wonder Doyle Brunson loves it in Montana.)

E:60 Delaware Betting Preview

And this job ad, for a new position in London … Investigator – Poker Specialist. I don’t have much to say about the specific position (London usually means PartyPoker, but not always) … except that I’ve never seen such a title before. New.

Key Responsibilities:

• Fraud prevention, detection and investigation
• Understanding of international online payment methods
• Knowledge of Money Laundering detection and regulation
• Knowledge of foreign language/customs
• Experience of reading Poker hands in relation to chip dumping cases.

First, a link from the San Antonio Express-News showing that our efforts to legalize poker in Texas are taking hold:

Legalized poker rooms in Texas closer to a reality

And in Florida, which is in the midst of its own mini-poker boom after legalizing the game a couple years ago, is continuing to improve the game, pushing forth legislation to raise cash-game limits and allow for bigger buy-in tourneys:

Florida House plan raises poker stakes

What’s particularly interesting about Florida isn’t so much the poker, but the tax-tweaking related to it. And with that, the ussual opposition seems to be taking a different tack:

The House plans to expand poker and lower the tax rate are paired with an effort to shut down blackjack tables at Seminole resorts.

Fellow Republicans in the state Senate, though, have a different vision. To maximize revenues, senators want to authorize full casinos at Seminole resorts, complete with craps and roulette, as well as blackjack at South Florida tracks and bingo-style slots at facilities across the state. The Senate goes even farther than the House, allowing no-limit poker wagering.

Meanwhile, a pretty good summary of gambling-related initiatives in Texas comes from an email sent out by our opposition in the Christian Life Coalition. And the poli-blogger who subscribes acknowledges that while he is plausibly opposed to much that has to do with expanded gambling in the state, he still endorses Jose Menendez’s HB 222:

Of all the various gambling expansion options I’ve seen, allowing for poker seems to me to be the most sensible and least potentially harmful. Plus, as a bridge player who has had the chance to play for money legally, I think poker is a legitimate game of skill and should be treated as such. In fact, poker players in Pennsylvania and South Carolina recently won court rulings that agreed poker is a game of skill. As such, it’s not clear to me that the AG’s opinion would agree with the CLC about the inherent level of chance here. Of course, I Am Not A Lawyer, and Lord only knows what Greg Abbott will do.

Yeah. People are starting to get it. Go Poker!

Coming soon, at least in theory …

Poker Face Wine — my guess: an Australian Shiraz.

Bingo Poker – some silly card game. Knowing nothing about it, I give it no chance of catching on … with anyone.

Multiple Round Pokers — a casino-game variant of poker, played against the house and without shuffling? Plural? I don’t really get it, but I kinda like the bad beat bonus circle!

UPDATE: Oops, the above is from 2006. I guess it didn’t catch on …

Round Card Poker — either poker baseball cards or maybe a Magic: The Gathering-style game? Possibly just cards cut in circles?

With a cold coming on, I juiced up on cold medicine and headed down to Commerce Casino last night for the pre-tournament WPT Invitational cocktail party. In more of a stuffy-headed fog now, I give you a few observations from the festivities:

photo: pokergossip

William Hung was the first “celebrity” I noticed, as he arrived as soon as the red carpet was ready for action. And the poor guy was the only one from the red carpet featured by Perez Hilton today, and not featured in a particularly good way.

Food was excellent as usual, with a random assortment of Asian and Greek set-ups, along with the yum-yum appetizers floating around the room on waiters’ trays.

No DJ in the outdoor area like last year’s event, but it actually made for a more conversation-friendly atmosphere on the patio.

Wicked Chops scored seats in the tournament. I spent way too much time trying to figure out how that happened.

photo: pokergossip

Reports of the demise of the Phil Laak/Jennifer Tilly relationship were evidently untrue, as the two looked typically couple-y as usual – Jennifer in a beautiful outfit, Phil in saggy jeans and a hoodie.

Some celebrities on the “confirmed” list were no-shows, such as Camryn Manheim, Montel Williams, and Nelly. (Yes, I was more than disappointed about one of those absences!)

CORRECTION: Manheim was there, and Jen was still disappointed. -DM

Shannon Elizabeth and Derek Hough are still a couple and just as adorable as ever, with Shannon checking on Derek and his amateur poker experiences throughout the evening.

Contrary to all reports from the tournament, Antonio Esfandiari was not the first person eliminated from the tournament, as Mike “SirWatts” Watson (former WPT champion) was out of the tournament and standing with us at the bar when that announcement was made. Ouch.

New to my social radar were Mike Watson and Shane Schleger, both of whom were introduced to me by Gavin Griffin and Kristin Roberts and very nice to chat with.

Also met Jamie Gold for the first time, who was extremely friendly and psyched about his Aced Poker affiliation, though my question about his possible ownership in the company was met with the standard “details of the contract cannot be disclosed” line. Good brief chat anyway. (His calling card gives him the title “Poker Philanthropist.”)

Mekhi Phifer took the reigns during the rebuy period, grabbing the mic and encouraging players to rebuy (or even just donate) to his charity, The Vine Group, to help educational efforts in Africa. He was a great spokesperson for the organization and raised $78,270 for it, while managing to maintain his usual humble but outrageously sexy demeanor.

A few people have asked me WTF I’m talking about saying that November 2008 will go down as an historical month where everything changes/d. To spell it out, you have:

The November Nine — historic simply as it pertains to the conclusion of a single not-so-little tournament that seems to be the barometer for all things related to the poker industry.

Midnight Rule-push for UIGEA Regs — we’re just one of 100 single-issues affected by the Bush administration’s attempts to party it up like frat boys and trash the joint before checking out … but regardless, it means we have a whole bunch of additional clean-up to do.

60 Minutes/Washington Post Exposés — whether it’s determined to be fair-and-balanced good-for-poker coverage or a damning hatchet job hacked with a double-edged blade of lies … the Thanksgiving weekend stories represent the official exposure of the online poker biz, hairy warts and all, to the non-poker world.

Clonie Gowen vs. Full Tilt Lawsuit — a loyal soldier turns on her poker-biz commanders, with attempts to air grievances in American court threatening to bring the multibillion-dollar operations of a super-private jurisdictionally challenged business into the public domain. While FTP reps actively petition the Feds to let them open these books but only if they can pay extra taxes, the former Full Tilt covergirl arms herself with a taser gun and takes aiming at a Red Pro.

Formation of Cereus — the two most scandal-ridden online poker sites officially join forces to create a recovering cheater supersite, flooding their own tables with “refund” money to keep the action moving.

Plug Pulled on PokerBlog.com — hardly the biggest deal in the bigger picture … but PartyPoker’s apologetic canning of Dr. Tim represents a new fiscal reality facing even the most legitimate of online poker sites and their workers.

Introduction of HB 222 in Texas — Take 2 on trying to bring the game that had everything to do with the creation of an $18 billion industry (subject to all the hubbub above) back home where it belongs.

All this, of course, is going on in the midst of a major lawsuit related to internet authority in Kentucky — where unprecedented government action has shaken up/down the online poker industry, forcing noticeable shifts in business ops and resource allocation. Clearly:

Just got back on the grid and playing electronic catch-up … here are some of the things that are making good browser viewing, but not quite stimulating a full-fledged post:

Jay Busbee (from Bluff) has a good State of the Poker Union address on ESPN.com, where he officially declares the poker boom dead. Also interesting to see ESPN, for the first time I remember in a long-long while, running (non-affiliate) PokerStars ads. [ESPN.com]

Poker Shrink Cranky Olde Coot has a good post wondering why FIDPA still hasn’t made the “new rules” they’ve long ballyhooed public. [PokerBlog.com]

Full Disclosure: FIDPA is one of my MySpace friends. [MySpace.com]

Liberal columnist Michael Kinsley shares a story about John McCain going on some extremely unpresidential tilt at the craps table. (The TJ Cloutier of Politics? Tons of success, a sometimes dangerous love of craps, and never quite able to win the Big One?) [The Daily Beast, via Huffington Post, via Short-Stacked Shamus]

Beyond the Table has a new home online. [Podcast.com]

I think Dr. Pauly’s starting to get a little miffed at me for not working out some production kinks and posting our re-constituted incarnation of Tao of Pokerati, but I think I can make him feel better by simply reading his blog. [Tao of Poker]

With all the talk of what really goes into a world-record endurance poker session, I forgot to send y’all to live-forum coverage of The Poker Den 3 — PartyPoker’s 36-hour high-stakes televised cash game. [MatchroomPoker.com]

Dutch Boyd apparently bought Steve Hall’s Pokerfolio in a semi-hostile takeover. Poor Steve … but he has found a new home for his poker updates/pictures of attractive Asian female dealers. [Pokerfolio.Spruz.com]

Also, the X-10 electronic table — a knock-off of the PokerTek PokerPro popping up in so many places — sharing the same name as a hidden camera used by so many pervy peeping toms before a few lawsuits encouraged them to re-market themselves as a security device. [SlipperyBrick.com]

And long overdue, here’s a great tale of a totally degenerate poker blogger/gambler rescuing his bankroll by poetically chasing/hitting the Station Casinos bad-beat jackpot. [TheTrooper97, via Up for Poker]

There’s more, too, coagulating in my bookmarks and inbox. News stories, forum threads, tourney results … Who knows … maybe I’ll get to them for your reading pleasure, but as is always the case from Head Slacker at this Little-Ole Poker Blog, no promises. It’s good to be back with you all.

LATE ADDITIONS:

Lacey Jones is getting ready for her co-hosting duties of Real Deal, the pokery interactive musical at The Venetian, which kicks off next week. [PokerListings.com via LasVegasAdvisor.com]

She also hosted an interesting event at Cathouse (as simply Lacey J) where women showed up for a seductive-attire contest where the winner got a boob job. [Photobucket.com]

Meanwhile, there was a hardcore SWAT-team poker raid in Fayetteville, NC. A firsthand account as well as some non-poker media coverage here and here. [Triangle Poker Journal]

Ahh, remember the good-ole-days when there were only like three stories at a time coming in on the Google News Alerts for “poker”, and only like three bloggers who had signed up for them? Me neither … it was never quite like that (but close) … and though I make no promises to keep this up on a daily basis, in an effort to inform the poker-news-hungry to the best of my abilities keep my open browser tabs to a minimum and my email backlog < 500, I will try to provide you some basic links to the plausibly worthwhile shizznit shaking down:

CardRunners and StoxPoker have joined forces to create a poker-training supersite. [PokerOnAMac.com]

Original PartyGaming honcho Anurag Dikshit — creator of some of the earliest online poker software — is one of three Indians to make Forbes’ list of 34 web-innovator billionaires … as well he should be. [MSNBC]

More on the Fed’s aggressive pursuit of Bodog — including criminal investigations on the company and Calvin Ayre. [Forbes.com]

Barney Frank has re-introduced the Payments System Protection Act, a revised version of HR 5767, which was shot down in his own committee earlier this year. [PokerNewsDaily]

Las Vegas visitation is down — to its lowest point since the start of the Iraq war. [Las Vegas Advisor]

And thus it only makes sense that LV gaming revenue is down — 14 percent this time — for the 7th consecutive month. [Forbes.com]

You know those new poker rooms popping up in Arizona? Well the Pascua Yaqui tribe doesn’t like them and is trying to get them shut down. (Funny: the mayor of Phoenix is named Phil Gordon.) [Zonie Report]

Poker parties and poker school are all the rage in Croatia. [CroatianVillas.com]

FUN RUMORS: Apparently Johnny Depp is quite the poker player, but he’s having a hard time getting alt/indie band We Were Scientists to pay up the $28k he beat them out of. (But all debts have been settled with Orlando Bloom, whom he supposedly beat out of $800k during the filming of Pirates of the Caribbean.) [Online Casino Advisory]

And in hardly related non-poker news … Sarah Palin’s teenage daughter’s pregnancy … do we want to start this century off in a world where teens (sometimes) use birth control and occasionally have an abortion or one where we preach abstinence and then glorify/celebrate the shotgun wedding? The MySpace page of the potential VPson-in-law Levi Johnston: [NYPost via HuffingtonPost via Kevin Allen/Sun Times]

“I’m a fuckin’ redneck” who likes to snowboard and ride dirt bikes.

“But I live to play hockey. I like to go camping and hang out with the boys, do some fishing, shoot some shit and just fuckin’ chillin’ I guess.”

“Ya fuck with me I’ll kick [your] ass,” he added.

He also claims to be “in a relationship,” but states, “I don’t want kids.”

Perhaps we all have something to learn from a billion (Non-American) Indians. Not only did “these people” give us one of the founders of PartyPoker and hundreds if not thousands of terrible customer service reps, but also they made what is arguably the best condom commercial ever:

Good morning. I hope you are having a wonderful day. I am here at the WSOP in the post-wee hours … pretty much just to show up Pauly. And to that extent, I’m gonna bounce around the room a bit, saving and posting as I go along …

Speaking of … funny coincidence. As I was writing this, I had my iTunes on random, and this dueling-recorders interview between me and Pauly in 2005 just happened to come up. Good stuff-ish:

Stupid interviewing

OK, so anyhow, yes … the early hours at the WSOP … things never stop here in the Amazon room, but they do slow down dramatically — no tourneys going on, just five tables of cash action, ranging from a 2/5 NL game where the tired players are mostly just trading chips for the benefit of the rake … to a $25 7-stud game where stacks are in the thousands.

As much as I generally don’t like mornings, the pace here during this time is much more my speed.

The media room at this time:

dscf1162

While just about every change at the WSOP this year has been an “improvement,” one terrible thing — no more free coffee for the media 24/7. Making matters more difficult pre-poker times: the kitchen is closed.

The added bathrooms for the WSOP are a reminder of poker’s trailer-park roots (and its outhouse present).

But poker players expect certain niceties, so where else but the WSOP can you expect to see a port-a-pot with hardwood floors?

UPDATE: The slow period must be over … a sixth table just opened up in the cash area — it’s either a 2/5 or 5/10 game. That’s kinda funny, btw, to think how slow five tables is here — and yet how thrilled any poker room I know would be to be spreading 5 tables of NL (ranging from 2/5 to 10/20), some Omaha, and a big game of 7-stud hi/lo?

6:25pm Edit: Unfortunately Tom’s out, he took AcKc against 3s3c and the board ran out 7 high.

9:20 Edit: Current chip leader is Tony LiCastro. He took down a huge pot with 10-10 v AA and KK to take his stack to over 310k. When he was last seen at the WPT Foxwoods in 2006, finishing 2nd to Nick Shulman, his standard play was to move all-in (which is more difficult in pot-limit) expect him either to keep building his stack or busting short of the money.

Here’s some links from around the WSOP, wishing I had a whiff of Tom’s POY banner:

Daniel Negreanu’s provided his own live updates, including news that Phil Ivey’s offering was offering 1.8-1 odds to anyone interested that he’ll win a bracelet this year.
More…

I probably should have posted this first, but since Dan twisted my arm encouraged me to do some posting here on Pokerati while he’s busy with the WSOP, I figured I’ll give it a shot.

On the heels of UB’s press release (found below): The CBC radio show Search Engine did a report on the Mohawk Internet Technologies server farm on the Kahnawake reservation. Not surprisingly, it took quite a bit of time and effort to be allowed in.

Now for some WSOP stuff:

The poker room opened yesterday, and here’s a soft opening report as well as some pictures from LasVegasVegas’ own FlipChip.

Taking place right now is the $500 WPA Poker super-satellite and seminar with Mike Caro.

For those hoping to get a seat at Saturday/Sunday’s $1,500 NL event, there’s rumors that the event will be capped at 4,000. Brasilia (which has 65 tables) is being used for other purposes until June 12, which would explain why you’re not seeing as many $1,500 events until after June 14.

ESPN.com’s poker staff held their 3rd annual WSOP Fantasy draft and the crew over at Wicked Chops Poker attempted to live blog it. Gary Wise provides a preview with his 2008 WSOP storylines.

More to come later tonight (if I’ve figured all this stuff out).

I like to troll Craigslist every so often for some hot, anonymous NSA poker action. Not looking for games — there’s no shortage of ‘em here in LV — just wanting to take the pulse of what people are pushing related to poker. Look at the ads all together and you get some interesting tells on the state of the poker world and its semi-anonymous inhabitants:

There are a lot of chips , tables, fancy custom tables and chips and tables for sale, of course, and for $15 a made-for-TV WPT video game. WSOP: Tournament of Champions for the Playstation goes for $8

For $150k you can have documentary footage of the rise and fall of Jamie Gold.

A WSOP baby’s blanket.

More chips, from the Aladdin, and from the Atlantic City Playboy Club. “Omaha Table” from Sante Fe Station.

Perhaps frighteningly, there are even poker bots for sale. At least one suspicious reader is questioning whether or not this is legal.

More…

Some interesting developments in the off-the-table workings of the online poker world. Millions of votes and billions of dollars at stake:

BARNEY FRANK’s bill is picking up steam — with 44 cosponsors. Not sure of the party breakdown, but the willingness of others to sign on suggests undoing the UIGEA could be a good “sensible government” issue that, frankly, is easier to deal with than so many other pressing political concerns.

Meanwhile, the conservative anti-gambling forces are starting to organize their troops and take fighting against us a little more seriously. Poker enemy FOCUS ON THE FAMILY is calling gambling “out of control” (via Citizen magazine) — possibly because our political successes are a chance for them to raise funds regardless of the results.

They do, however, remind everybody that you have until DECEMBER 12 to let the feds know what you think about the online gambling issue. (Anyone got a link to a email-your-rep thingy?)

And here’s an interesting article from a decidedly non-poker source about how the UIGEA has been responsible for getting rid of spam. While ZDNet’s RYAN NARAINE guest-posting expert on INTERNET SECURITY makes some good points about how some semblance of internet regulation was able to put poker spammers temporarily? out of business, he carries on to show he doesn’t really know what he’s talking about:

[The UIGEA] effectively caused the death of numerous black hat SEO companies–comment spammers. Perhaps the UIGEA measure against processing of payments proved too difficult to overcome. Not being a lawyer I can’t say exactly how UIGEA caused this death. No matter, US online gambling operations were effectively destroyed.

Spam decreased. The underlying cause for that was that the clients weren’t there due to the inability to process payments because of the online Casinos law.

Not only black hat SEO companies suffered, many spam operations lost clients. There is nearly no more Casino spam in our mail inboxes. Isn’t that grand?

Um, yeah. Wanna make a wager about the casino spam? It just took a break … the pathetic side of the industry shifted around about, that’s all. But by his grand logic, we could get rid of all spam by banning all sorts of stuff on the internet. This is semi-true, but would require the U.S. enforcing its laws beyond its borders … which is part of the problem we currently face.

Anyhow, his GADI EVRON’s semi-informed ignorance is indicative of the types of landmines the poker politicos will have to avoid this year.

A few click-worthy items populating browsers throughout the poker world this week:

The WSOP-Europe is kicking off right about now — with a £2,500 HORSE event. Click here to follow that action. Then comes £5,000 PLO and £10,000 No-Limit Hold’em. Remember, that’s $20,000 to US Americans.

And click here to see Gavin Smith topless pictures from the LAUNCH PARTY for the WSOP-E, held at PURE in Caesar’s the day after the end of WSOP-LV.

PAULY will clearly be having a terrible time covering the three bracelet events in LONDON:

Ahh, London …

PARTYGAMING’S stock has been sinking. And upon reporting half-year earnings last week, the company that was minting more money than they knew what to do with a year ago is operating in the red.

PartyGaming also made a pretax loss of $32 million on revenue of $212.5 million, down from revenue of $662 million before the U.S. clampdown a year ago.

Maybe we just miss the good-ole-days with some good-ole-friends (half of whom no longer work for Party), but Pokerati says Party is still a BUY! (The Motley Fool agrees.) We first thought that, of course, shortly after the stock plummeted to 26. We acted on it at 36, then thought it again at 56. Currently trading at about 28.5.

Meanwhile, PartyGaming continues to seek retroactive amnesty from the US DOJ for its execs.

The BRITS are having to come up with corporate policies these days to deal with online gambling in the workplace. Uncertain waters … but depending on how the cards fall, its theoretically possible that multitabling while on the clock could get you some paid leave.

Gah, you just gotta love the LIMEYS. Their government is also funding a program to teach tight play and bankroll management — “responsible gambling” they call it.

All this coincides with some new gambling laws that went into effect September 1 across the UK.

With companies from GIBRALTAR now allowed to advertise in England, PARTYPOKER (and PARTYBETS) will be turning 70 official UK soccer clubs’ websites into affilliates. But footballers better not be punters … an unusually bad game could land players who bet on their own action in jail for two years.

The latest from J TODD and the Affilliate Wolverines at APCW:

In and outside of TORONTO, police seem to be in the midst of a POKER CRACKDOWN that seems all too familiar ’round these parts. NEW JERSEY police doing the same thing.

Only difference was in DALLAS it made for good TV. (Old article, but one I just stumbled across, and found interesting in light of the Dallas SWAT poker raids.)

In MISSOURI, where what appears to be a $20 (w/ rebuys) barbershop tourney has the barber headed to an actual trial, facing felony jail time.

USA TODAY has an article about how fraudsters are using bots at online poker sites not to beat the game, but to launder money by programming them to PLAY badly. A little confusing, but read the comments for how poker players respond to any anti-poker propaganda written by someone who may or may not understand how internet poker works.

An editorial in NEW YORK NEWSDAY about how it’s time to regulate online poker. This viewpoint has little to do with your rights to play, but the legitimacy of the WTO if the United States doesn’t either re-legitimize online poker or ban all forms of online gambling, including what’s currently allowed under the UIGEA.

The claims against the US from the European Union and Antigua and Barbuda exceed $22 billion. Japan, Canada, Macau, Costa Rica and India will each be asking for a few billion as well. So far the US hasn’t put up much a defense beyond “not paying.”

In other legal issues, Bodog lost a PATENT INFRINGEMENT lawsuit … and their domain! Try it yourself … Bodog.com no longer exists. Now you gotta go to newbodog.com.

Apparently the HOLLYWOOD Set is still learning to love poker — as actress JESSICA BIEL found herself pulled into a game — reportedly with pros, but whom I don’t know — at the opening of the Ivy Hotel in SAN DIEGO. The girlfriend of JUSTN TIMBERLAKE is new to poker, and started out doing really well before she lost all her chips.

Did you know Jennifer Tilly is 48-years-old? Never woulda guessed it. She’s about to turn 49.

Oh, speaking of Hollywood … almost forgot to drop a name. Robert Wilonsky — the only Batface home gamer with his own Wikipedia entry — has started a new gig on national TV, filling in for Roger Ebert on Ebert & Roeper for the rest of 2007. Very cool! Congrats, Big Bob. With all his exposure to C B A-list actors, I wonder why he hasn’t learned how to pretend he doesn’t have a really big hand sometimes when he does. Click the pic for a funny-ish Robert Wilonsky highlight reel.

One year after the poker laws in this country changed … TODD BRUNSON gets on the anti-UIGEA soapbox. From his efforts to be an ambassador:

By the way, if you work for the Treasury or Justice Department, or any gaming control commission, please disregard that comment about “anyone with a brain.” I realize that it’s the politicians who are passing the laws, and you guys are just doing your jobs (and doing them well) by enforcing them. I also realize that you guys are much more powerful than a poker player, and could crush me like a bug. Please don’t hurt me.

LAS VEGAS–Just like old times … I’ve got so many super-fascinating browser tabs open I can’t keep up with them all. So please, allow me to unload:

The major tournament action underway is the LEGENDS of POKER at the BIKE in CALIFORNIA. Perhaps we’ll swing by …

MIKE MATUSOW, with his second-place finish in the main event of the BELLAGIO CUP III, is no longer broke. Apparently his $670k payday left him with 50 grand all to himself. In the real world this means he now qualifies for a loan. In the poker world it means he no longer does, unless he goes broke again.

DANIEL NEGREANU’s got a pretty good skill column this week, talking about manipulating table image to better reap the rewards of shifting gears. Hmm, something to think about?

From the Dept. of: Awesome … PHIL HELLMUTH will appear on The Surreal Life. Might an ass-kicking be inevitable, as he moves into a house with RANDY “Macho Man” SAVAGE, MISS CLEO, NANCY MCKIBBEN (who?), DABNEY COLEMAN, and the uber-pumped CARROT TOP.

BILL RINI, whom I consider an expert in matters of online cheating, has up a video that I thought was informational warning about a new form of MARKED CARDS circulating. But upon closer look, turns out to be just an ad hawking the illicit poker gear (compliments of GOOGLE).

Interesting (biased?) article here on what Google supposedly does to keep online poker seekers away from the bad poker sites.

Speaking of cheating … has anyone heard word of who might have been the high-stakes players allegedly swindled in major cheating scam at the BORGATA? Famed cheating consultant STEVE FORTE, of course, was one of the guys busted, even though he uses the journalist’s beloved excuse of “I was just working on a story!” Suddenly scary: the notion of tapping into hole-card cams.

Suddenly needed: a big-time poker security accreditation system?

Check it out … DUGGLEBOGEY is back to his old tricks sticks:

Glad to see the return of some more friendly faces.

Here’s a great article on the rise and fall of an ONLINE PRO — how you can go from $10k to $1.5 million and back down again. It coincides with a semi-related story about KaiBuxxe / RealAndyBeal — a 22-year-old Austrian and former MAGIC player who is tearing up the world of POT-LIMIT OMAHA.

And BRIAN TOWNSEND (aka “sbrugby”) — an online superstar turning to live games — is in the midst of a $3 million downswing. This according to his own blog. [via PokerKingBlog]

Dude, tell me about it … I’ve been running similarly bad:

POKER IS HARD!

Looks kinda like a PARTYGAMING stock chart, no?

SHANNON ELIZABETH was unable to play in the Victoria Poker Championships in AUSTRALIA … because she got carded at the door and didn’t have her ID. The male contingent of Pokerati has always wondered why ladies go anywhere without their license/passport/prescription.

Speaking of Australia, it may have slipped under your radar that the AUSSIES, along with CANADA and MACAU, have joined the WTO dispute against the UNITED STATES over the UIGEA. The beef started by ANTIGUA and BARBUDA seems to be growing some teeth, as others fighting against the chief enemy of AL QAEDA include COSTA RICA, INDIA, and … the EUROPEAN UNION. Think this fight isn’t about the future of international online economies as much as it is about poker?

A group called IMEGA continues to challenge the controversial internet law in court, and have their fingers crossed that a federal judge in New Jersey will issue a TEMPORARY RESTRAINING ORDER in September.

Speaking of lawsuits and court actions in September, attorney and PPA representative LEE ROUSSO has a hearing set for his suit, which challenges the Constitutionality of WASHINGTON STATE’s law that makes playing online poker a felony on par with CHILD MOLESTATION.

A CARIBBEAN BUSINESS CONGLOMERATE will be entertaining a bunch of AMERICAN CONGRESSPEOPLE in November to explain Antigua’s WTO stance, among other things. In attendance will be CHARLIE RANGEL (D-NY-Taxes) and BENNIE THOMPSON (D-MS-Homeland Security),

AMERICA ONLINE wants in on online poker. Or at least online SPORTS BETTING, as AOL has entered into an internet bookmaking contract with a GERMAN company, FLUXX, which will target punters in the UK.

A good article from the BRITISH PRESS here — describing the UIGEA as a “TROJAN HORSE” given to the European gambling industry.

Meanwhile, British online gaming company WILLIAM HILL says they are having a hard time keeping poker players, because the EUROS really want to take on the AMERICANS (at Bodog, for example).

Over in the PHILLIPINES, they have (finally) opened up a bar-and-grille with amateur Texas Hold’em tourneys (scroll down near the bottom).

The nightly non-wager Hold ‘Em tournaments at the Player’s Den hope to further sharpen the skills of the Pinoys in this ultimate mind game where we can eventually excel worldwide.

Mabuhay!!! Be proud to be a Filipino.

You may notice a lot of linkage today from this PokerKing guy. He has a lot of good stuff to read, including this article on why JERRY YANG is bad for ONLINE poker. Maybe maybe not, but I tend to agree with the wisdom of LOU KRIEGER, who recognizes that poker is a long-term game, and Yang couldn’t have come at a better time.

Here’s one of the more balanced takes on the JERRY YANG FOR PRESIDENT campaign.

LAS VEGAS–Funny how being in Las Vegas has put me so out of touch with all the poker news. I think there are some big tournaments going on, online poker execs in the courts, business deals shaking down, but I’ve got little to report other than poker being played. Still, it’s been kinda interesting to see who you run into at the tables around this town:

The first notable I ran into was OREL HERSHEISER, who apparently just moved here to Las Vegas and sat to my left in a 1/2 NLH game at RED ROCK — fresh after being denied selection into the baseball HALL OF FAME. I tried to play the not-knowing-who-he-is thing — “You lost a vote? Were you running for city council or congress or something?” — but he would end up busting me out when I tried to run a little STOP-N-GO. As I pushed all-in, he asked, “How much money do you have?”

“Um, I’m all-in. About $140 more,” I said, pointing to my stacks.

“No, I mean other money. Because we can make a little side-bet away from the table,” he said, upon showing me THE NUTS.

Red Rock seems to be the OFF-STRIP place to be. On my second post-WSOP outing there, I ran into GARY THOMPSON — World Series of Poker media master and tournament overlord. He was wearing comfortable jeans, loafers, and a button-down shirt while playing 2/5 NLH. With about $800 in front of him, he said he was “down a couple hundred.” But it wouldn’t take long for him to grow his stacks, and a few hours later, he had moved up to the 5/10 game and had what looked to be about $2k.

On that same day, I saw A GUY I BUSTED at the Rio. He was a good player who went with the whole BLACK HOODIE and SUNGLASSES kinda thing, while saying almost nothing and acting with stoic (but angry) CHRIS FERGUSON-like motions. He was playing 1/2 NLH and nursing about $200.

Over at THE VENETIAN in the 2/5 game, I found myself up against a WSOP Dealer — SHAI the ISRAELI GUY. He was sick when I pushed all-in and convinced him to fold his top-pair-top-kicker that would turn into TOP BOAT … only to see the guy who took down the pot from me win with KING-HIGH. A couple hours later I was playing a goofy hand with K-6 offsuit in late position, the flop came K-7-K … he checks, I bet, he raises big, I call. Turn is a 6, he pushes all-in, I call … at which point he shows his POCKET 7s. The table cheers for a FOURTH SEVEN, but it doesn’t come and I send him to the ATM.

One table over, KARINA JETT’S MOTHER was playing — beyond her typical quiet game, she was practically falling asleep at the table (at 3 AM) while nursing about $400. She may not remember this, but she won a $15 PROP BET from me once over a RULES DISPUTE. (My bad … I thought I knew stuff.)

Back at RED ROCK a couple days later, I ran into ABRAHAM, and he really deserves his own post, because he tilted the table unlike anything I had ever seen — and even managed to invoke mockery from a cute young girl who wasn’t playing. Basically imagine the worst personality and poker characteristics of ME, TIM ROGERS and EON MARSHALL all wrapped up into an obnoxious kid who graduated from high school in 2003 and is well aware that he looks like STU UNGAR. Then give him a lot of chips. (His behavior and play was so table-altering it had me interrupting TOM SCHNEIDER’S vacation in ST. THOMAS for some emergency coaching … who advised me well until I played back without paying attention to a guy to my left who had pocket kings.)

I really wanted to KILL THIS KID, or at least make him cry. And so did everyone else — especially the old (presumably) gay man who he busted by calling a $260 raise pre-flop with 2-3 suited only to flop two threes. But he can’t be all that bad, because without provoking from me, he at one point shouted, “THE HAMMER!” with glee. Hey kid, if you are reading this, what I told you at the table after you “bluffed” me with pocket-5s and then taunted (it took me a good five minutes to lay down Ace-high) still applies: “I look forward to seeing you get your education.” Punk-ass. Like seriously, you had at least two of us at the table contemplating how one might go about rolling you in the parking lot.

One of the cool things about Red Rock is that when you need to shake off a bad beat or just step away from a dipshit the table to refocus, you can go BOWL A GAME 24 hours a day — for $3 +$3.50 for shoes. That seems like positive EV.

The picture above is from a day I didn’t actually play poker … but I did walk through the poker room just for funsies after bowling, and whom should I run into but NOLAN DALLA, longtime Dallas poker expat and WSOP media guru, legendary sports handicapper, and Stu Ungar biographer. He was wearing CARGO SHORTS, a frumpled shirt, and seemed pleasantly drinky while playing 5/10 NLH with a couple old friends from POKERSTARS.

“I’m stuck $800 but having a great time!” he screamed upon embracing me with a BEAR HUG. “Isn’t this a great casino!?! Hey everybody, it’s Dan from Pokerati!”

Murmur?

“Oh, right …” Nolan said. “Didn’t mean to blow your cover.”

I also ran into STEVE HALL one night at Red Rock, too. He was playing PENNY VIDEO SLOTS. He had a big hit of some sort of crazy picture combinations that won him about $60.

And then to top it all off, I went to CAESAR’S PALACE with DON JONES (of Rounder Club fame), LEIGH & BRIAN from the Poker Atlas , DOCTOR STEVE, and former Absolute Poker marketing chick JEN TIDWELL to play in their 50-player-max $65 tourney. We all had 10 percent of each other, which proved irrelevant as our top player would bubble.

I was the first to bust out (of the tournament) and would take a seat playing some 2/5. Of all the poker tables in Las Vegas … what are the chances that DAN BALLENGER (aka HONG KONG SUE, father of SON OF SUE) would get seated at my table? It would take more than a full orbit before he realized he was sitting with a fellow BATFACE. He bought in for $500 and cashed out a couple hours later for a little less than that. HKS got most of those chips from me … calling a $100 bluff with second-pair-no-kicker (what was I THINKING!?!) … and then bluffing me out of a $400+ pot on the river, getting me to lay down aces. He mucked at the time, but told me as he left that he pushed all-in for his remaining $135 with an underpair. Wish I hadn’t asked, because it had me semi-tilting for a good 30 minutes or more. I know he was just trying to be nice, but still …

Then JASON from JACKIE’S (in Dallas) and “RICKY ZILEM” showed up. They were just walking through checking out the action. Fancy running into these guys here. Chris/Ricky, said, “I did what nobody does when they first land in Vegas and took a nap.”

Ah, indeed.

Small world. Good times.

UPDATE: Players are headed to returning from dinner break. JOSH EVANS is up to roughly 360,000. JERRY RANDACK is hanging on with 50something-thousand. PRIMO appears to be out. Quite a few pros are thriving … over/under on the number of known names who make the final table: 1.9. (This unofficial line could move.) People to watch today include:

TODD BRUNSON, DANIEL NEGREANU, LUCKY LIU, THOR HANSEN, CHRIS FERGUSON, ROBERT VARKONYI, CHIP JETT, BILL EDLER, CARLOS MORTENSON, JC TRAN, TED FORREST, CHAD BROWN, JOHN MURPHY, MIKE LAING, FABRICE SOULIER, a bunch of other “ferriners,” CHRIS MONEYMAKER, LEIF FORCE, et al.

They look to join JOHN DUTHIE, HUCK SEED, Dallas guy VANDY KROUCH, JAN SORENSON, BERRY JOHNSTON, ROBERT MIZRACHI, TOBEY MAGUIRE, JASON LESTER, BILLY BAXTER, SCOTTY NGUYEN, and too many others to name. Still early, I guess … even though we’ve whittled through nearly 3/4 of the field.

Chris Moneymaker, against the wall, wondering who’s going to be the next … him.

LAS VEGAS–Even though the World Series has suddenly kicked into a serious, all-about-poker phase, there’s a lot of interesting stuff going on off the tables that you might want to check out between refreshes for Day 2 main-event updates.

The Fresh Princess and I sat down for an interview yesterday on WSOP TV. It ran live but the archives aren’t up yet. We had some tough acts to follow, going on after former Sen. Al D’Amato of the PPA and Rep. Robert Wexler (D-FL):

Then, right before we were about to go on, JEFFREY POLLACK showed up wanting to chat a bit:

Speaking of … THE JEFFSTER has a new blog post up … always a worthwhile read, considering that he has more influence on the future of poker than just about anyone else.

According to USA TODAY, all is well in the poker world … in fact, better than expected based on the 2007 main event numbers. Can you imagine what this event woulda been if there wasn’t a UIGEA and PARTYPOKER pull-out? Logistical nightmare, to say the least.

An interesting article here about DAVID SINGER being denied his requested MAIN EVENT REFUND for theoretical inconsistencies in rules about cell phone and text messaging usage.

Meanwhile, poker media, players, and officials are abuzz about a CBS SPORTSLINE article about the INHERENT, OVERLOOKED EVILS of poker.

No worries. People said the same things about ROCK ‘N’ ROLL and JAZZ. Such are the archetypes of American culture. Hey, check out this neato “antique” book I just bought:

The USA TODAY reporter obviously doesn’t read blogs. For example, over on WiseHandPoker, MARK NEWHOUSE spells out why DUSTIN “Neverwin” WOOLF may or may not be a shyster — accusing him of owing lots and lots of money and calling his friend a SCUMBAG.

That’s good stuff, no!?! Kinda like sports/politics/business.

UPDATE (4:39 pdt): JOSH EVANS still kicking ass. 300k in chips puts him near the top.

LAS VEGAS–Day 2b action is well underway about to get underway. In fact, it probably already will be so by the time this post is finished. It rained last night in Las Vegas — I knew it would!

Today, like yesterday, is all about the serious, “somber” poker. Most of the folks who got chips early by getting lucky will be getting knocked out. Short stacks will consistently be all-in. And serious players with a real chance of going deep will figure out if they’ll be nursing their chips into the money or making moves to put them in a position to really contend.

2007 WSOP Player of the Year TOM SCHNEIDER, by the way, is out. Happened a few hands after the dinner break, at which point he told me he was so beat down from the World Series that he didn’t really care if he got eliminated, because it would mean he could go home. Shocking with that attitude that he didn’t win.

Perhaps RANDY BROWN will do better. He starts today with 67,000 chips.

UPDATE: TBR is out. Lost every hand he played, he says. Got it all-in on the button, pushing with pocket 9s into a single-limped pot. The small blind woke up with Kings, the big blind with Aces. The BATFACES officially go 0-fer in the 2007 WSOP, but win the award for best hats.

Better luck next year, “The Big Randy.” You seem to have Day 1 figured out, but can’t make it through Day 2 with terrible cards unless you have a tiny, tiny stack.

TBR, by the way, was sitting virtually back-to-back with SHANNON ELIZABETH throughout Day 1. Nice! Go Poker!

Oops, zoom lens malfunction … Anyhow, yes, SHANNON ELIZABETH is out.

JOSH EVANS (below, left) will be a guy to really watch, as he carries 240,000 chips into Day 2 … with the money just a day-and-a-half only a day away.

And another North Texas pokerer fighting to make it to the pre-money bubble is JERRY RANDACK (right). Considering that he took 2nd place in the 2007 Pokerati Invitational, we like his chances.

Dallas big-game player PRIMO is also still alive. He’s seen here tearing up the $5/$10 NLH cash game (moments away from bluffing — oops! — away more than $1,300 in a hand).

We’re still looking for VANDY CROUCH — seen here, cashing in the 6-handed No-Limit event — who is rumored to be protecting some 240,000 chips.

UPDATE: I mean not like right now. He finished Day 2a with about that many. He makes it to Day 3 — where the fight for the money begins!

For those who may have missed it, ROUNDER CLUB representative CHRIS COMO did not move on to day 2. Despite building up his stacks and taking control of his table, he got beat down toward the end of the day, and, in the end, surrendered them to online powerhouse CARL OLSON.

LAS VEGAS–Yesterday was kinda a crazy day — full moon and all — and today looks to be just a shade less looney.

Play has just three hours ago gotten underway in the last $1,500 NLH. According to Mean Gene:

Eerily Quiet
You put 3,000 people in a room you’d think there’d be a bit of noise, but as with the other $1,500 events we’ve covered the room falls nearly silent when play begins. For so many of these players this is their first World Series event and while they have their game faces on, it takes some time for them to find their voices. A dry mouth will do that to you.

The final table of $1,000 7-stud Hi Lo gets underway at 3 pm. This was supposed to be just a two-day event. TOM SCHNEIDER entered into nine-handed play last night (with a random fifth alternating between two tables) as the shortest stack; he’ll take his seat as the CHIP LEADER.

Hoyt Verner 129,000
Scotty Nguyen 203,000
Hieu “Tony” Ma 60,000
Saundra Taylor 202,000
Tom Schneider 275,000
Tommy Hang 110,000
Miguel De La Cruz 253,000
Woody Deck 110,000

SCOTTY NGUYEN should be sober by then. He gave Tom a lot of chips as he got drinky and aggressive in the wee hours, turning over bluff after bluff as Tom drank with him and laughed it up while rebuilding his stacks.

Dallas poker lady SONG WEBB, by the way, won $4,498 for finishing 26th; and OLIVER TSE (who started the day at Tom’s table) scored his first WSOP cash (in 11 tries) with a 21st place for $5,106.

Oliver stuck around last night long after he busted because, in his off-the-table attempts to become the BRIAN BALSBAUGH of non-American players, he was chasing down a couple GERMANS fighting for a seat at the final table.

Click here to follow today’s bracelet-eyed action semi-live.

Garthy giving a shout out to the Batfaces.

Getting underway about an hour ago is the final table of $5,000 Short-handed No-Limit Hold’em:

Seat 1: Greg Pohler – 655,000
Seat 2: Alex Bolotin – 2,010,000
Seat 3: Gioi Luong – 570,00
Seat 4: Bill Edler – 535,000
Seat 5: Dutch Boyd – 705,000
Seat 6: Erik Friberg – 2,795,000

Some friendly North Texas faces made quite a showing in this event …

Raj Kattamuri (left) finished in 13th place, winning $27,031. Vandy Krouch got $16,766 for finishing 26th. And GREGG MERKOW eeked into the money — 78th place, $6,159.

Other notable cashers include: Tobey Maguire, Vicki Coren, Jamie Gold, Scott Clements, Men the Master, Justin Bonomo, Phil Hellmuth, and Dustin Woolf.

Day 2 of the $2,000 NL Hold’em event is rolling — playing down from 147 players to a final table. This event also featured a ROUNDER CLUB cash: GINA Salinas-Torres won $4,080 for finishing 180th. Way to go, Gina!

Check this out:

A drunken THOMAS WAHLROOS showing how the Euros like to have fun fucking with HELLMUTH …

[via Shuttergypsy]

The EUROS are arriving in force. ENGLISH-ONLY is becoming more and more of a rules call throughout the Rio and Las Vegas. Just ask STEVE WONG, who finished 7th in the SHORT-HANDED event, or MARCEL LUSKE, who fell short of winning a bracelet yesterday in $2,000 Omaha Hi Lo …

LAS VEGAS–The $50k HORSE event finished up this morning … and FREDDIE DEEB is officially crowned the best all-around poker player in the world for the time being.

You can only presume HARRAH’S OFFICIALS are breathing a sigh of relief — after having pimped the tourney as the biggest deal, it makes a much better story to give the title to an immigrant who came to America to save his family from war and turned to poker as a way to make good while AMERICAN IMMIGRATION BUREAUCRACY futzed around with his ability to earn a living.

Had JOHN HANSEN won, the story would’ve been about a relatively unknown bad-ass from the NEW YORK hardcore poker underground. Less savory.

Speaking of LEGALLY QUESTIONABLE poker players, did you know drug kingpin JIMMY CHAGRA — released from prison earlier this year — played in the SENIORS EVENT?

He was on “Talkin’ Trash” with BRIAN WILSON just a couple days ago. [via Gary Wise on 2+2.]

JEFFREY POLLACK did a little semi-live blogging from the HORSE final table. Maddest props to the Commish — not only for letting us know what he heard from the poker-players town hall, but also for providing his first-ever outbound link. Puts him on a short-list of people who just-might qualify for Pokerati posting privileges some day. We’ll be watching as he continues to cut his Wicked blogging chops.

In the meantime, The Jeffster tells us:

1. There is insufficient play in the middle levels of limit games and too much in the beginning.

2. There are some instances where the color-up process isn’t being handled correctly.

3. The tent is not a comfortable place to play.

4. There needs to be more room between the spectators on the ropes and the players.

5. The next day’s breaking order should be posted when an event ends for the night.

6. We need to improve media access to final tables.

7. The sequestered tables are tough to cover for the media and follow for the fans.

8. Tournament clocks should be more visible.

9. The Amazon Room is too cold.

10. We should continue and better publicize escort service to the parking lot late at night.

Yesterday’s “other” bracelet went to a guy named SAIF AHMAD, who won the $2,000 Limit Hold’em event with relative ease.

View from the rooftop of Pokerati’s VEGAS EDGE bureau:

ERIC ROSENBERG poses an interesting question on his new-ish blog — about why official poker “stats” don’t subtract known tournament buy-ins from “winnings.” The WSOP, of course, has records of every bracelet-bound buy-in … so it could be done. Likewise, they bar-code initial seat cards, so it’s theoretically possible to provide PokerNews or whoever with the basic info on every single player whose chips they try to track.

Maybe next year?

Rosie has also spurred further conversation about BACKING-DEAL DISCLOSURE — specifically as it pertained to BILL CHEN’S WSOP-approved chip-dumping agreement. It’s not about gratuitous rabble-rousing so much as it is about decisions that will affect the future of poker, regardless of what they are.

So the $1,000 7-Stud Hi Lo continues today. Pokerati’s own TOM SCHNEIDER sits down with 4,300 chips. We’ll find out if North Texas pokerer DAMON RAMIREZ is still alive. And DOYLE BRUNSON takes his second stab at bracelet #11 with 10,700 chips. Pokerati fantasy man STEVE WONG also ain’t too far behind.

Follow the 7-Stud Hi Lo action today here.

Today’s other tournament action:

Day 1 of $2,000 No Limit Hold’em
Day 2 of the $5,000 World Championship of Short-handed No-Limit Holde’m.

And the final table for $2,000 Omaha Hi Lo gets underway, with at least one familiar professional face, who will see if he can hold on to the chip lead.

Seat 1- Martin Corpuz, Jr. 292,000
Seat 2- Ming Lee 373,000
Seat 3- Mitch Maples 70,000
Seat 4- Thang Luu 238,000
Seat 5- Jess Robinson 255,000
Seat 6- Frankie O’Dell 318,000
Seat 7- Marcel Luske 427,000
Seat 8- Marvin Ryan 104,000
Seat 9- Stuart Paterson 58,000

LAS VEGAS–Here’s what’s going on today at the WSOP, and some of what’s recently gone down leading up to it all:

A Canadian Polack named LUKASZ DUMANSKI won the $1,500 Omaha Hi Lo event. Go non-American players!

The $50,000 HORSE final table has been set.

Interesting field and chip situations …
Amnon Filippi 4,015,000
Freddy Deeb 3,500,000
Kenny Tran 2,445,000
John Hanson 1,995,000
David Singer 1,330,000
Bruno Fitoussi 895,000
Barry Greenstein 750,000
Thor Hansen 40,000

(Pokerati fave GABE KAPLAN went out on the final table bubble, in 9th place.)

Click here to follow the coverage of today’s action, where they will continue to mix games and not play a final table of just no-limit hold’em. Any odds on what will be the final game?

You’ll notice that TOM SCHNEIDER is not there. He went out early in Day 2. He was in the Big-little-big one for $34,000. The rest went to a smattering of backers, to whom 9 percent was available for $5,000. Can Tom build on his early WSOP success and make that third final table without dropping below the six-figure mark? After paying taxes, BACKERS, and living expenses associated with moving to Las Vegas for two months, mixed with tournament buy-ins, cash-game losses, and fancy scotches for Dan … the money can go fast during the WSOP.

But busting out early did allow him to play the $2,000 Omaha Hi Lo, which, after a night of drowning his sorrows followed the next day by a cash-game all-nighter, he played with “no sleep”:

Tom went out toward the end of Day 1.

Lori from Carrollton was dealing — with new hair no less:

She seems to be having a pretty good time — seen here sweating Pokerati fantasy poker favorite STEVE WONG, as he plays $50-a-point Chinese:

Day 2 of Omaha Hi Lo gets underway at 2 pm pacific, 4 pm central.

Day 1 was a pretty relaxed, jovial affair … presumably because it was a relatively low buy-in for the big-time pros who had busted out of the $50k HORSE event. Very fun and chatty. On a break PHIL HELLMUTH and ROBERT WILLIAMSON III had a semi-private discussion about sponsorship deals and the logistics of autographing products en masse. (The easiest are things you can sign with one hand, and slide to the side with the other.)

Robert is selling pieces of himself in by-the-inch embroidered increments. I should probably get a better picture of his jacket …

Here are the patches Hellmuth will be wearing in the main event — 13 of them so far:

Many of these are companies selling Phil’s products, but still, let’s face it, the NASCARIZATION of poker is here. Now if only the non-online-poker companies will buy in.

At the 2007 WSOP, patches are the new body paint.

The other final table today is in the $2,000 Limit Hold’em event — no known pros in this one.

Getting underway at noon is the $5,000 World Championship of 6-handed No-Limit Hold’em.

And the 5 pm (Vegas time) tourney is $1,000 7-stud Hi Lo (aka Stud 8 aka Stud 8 OB aka Stud 8 or better).

JEFFREY POLLACK has a new post up on his “blog” (yo, dudes, they’re called “posts,” OK? Get with the program … a single memo ain’t no blog, but a collection of such theoretically could be)– where he informs the poker world (at 10:30 pm last night) that there will be a “players town hall” at 10:30 am today. I’m a bigger fan than most of the poker’s most corporate representative, but either he doesn’t realize that poker hours dictate that the vast majority of players won’t see this, which is pretty bad … or he does, which is worse. But still, we kinda like The Jeffster’s relative openness in his “blogs” .:

[STEVE ZOLOTOW] was so honest with me that he started our conversation by asking for my boss’s phone number so he could call to recommend that I – and every other key WSOP executive – be fired.

Pollack, of course, ain’t going nowhere — at least not for a while — but can you imagine if the “blogs” on worldseriesofpoker.com had comments?

UPDATE: Amy informs me that the players town hall was actually held yesterday … 11-and-a-half hours before Pollack’s post went up. Nice … Here ye, hear ye!

Don’t forget to follow my following the cash game action at the Rio. It’s a little awkward poking around these games with a notepad and camera, because a lot of people make their livings at these tables and don’t really want people to know that they are good.

One such player I am following is “TEDDY,” who has become a fixture at the $100/$200 Limit Hold’em table. He’s a trip. We’ll leave it at that for now.

I’ve had a decent run at the cash games myself — except for the two times I lost, which negate a big fat win, seen here:

My second-favorite hand was dealt by Linda the Dallas dealer … who flopped me a straight and said, “I knew you had Q-J when you said, ‘This is probably a pretty bad call,’” as she shipped me a $300 pot.

Favorite hand of the night would come a little later upon busting out the dude in the background for another $600.

By the way, if you like the photos, you can see more of what Pokerati sees by checking out our FLICKR gallery.

In other news, ERICK LINDGREN beat PHIL IVEY in a $340,000 golf course prop bet. RAM VASWANI chits presumably in the mail.

LAS VEGAS–As the WSOP rolls through Week 2 (of 7), we’re in the midst of some hi-technology upgrades here at Pokerati, like signing up for FLICKR. Sorry it has taken me away from giving you all the lowdown. I also blame Tom and Michele for doing well. Very distracting to pay attention to your friends/correspondents.

TOM SCHNEIDER, interestingly enough, is atop the leaderboard in the WSOP Player of the Year Standings. Dude, wow. Keep it up. He busted out early — almost by design — in the $1,500 Pot Limit event today. (So early that PokerNews didn’t even take notice.) He’s now getting started or the $3,000 World Championship of 7-stud Hi Lo.

Click here to follow.

Also, check out my coverage of the WSOP CASH GAMES over at PokerWorks. Fun!

And this is a must-must-click for fans of THE BLUFFSTER. It’s NOLAN DALLA’S new web show that starts off with a Masterpiece Theatre kinda thing in front of a fireplace, before he walks into banks seeking loans to play in poker tournaments. Interesting perspective on what JAMIE GOLD is trying to overcome.

Headed to AUSTIN in a few hours … cards go in the air on Tuesday for a high-stakes political game that I sure-as-heck don’t wanna miss … $1 billion and the future of Texas Texas Hold’em is on the line. Like seriously. No April foolin’.

LYLE BERMAN, CRANDELL ADDINGTON, MICHAEL BOLCEREK, ERICK LINDGREN, Dallas DA CRAIG WATKINS, CLONIE GOWEN, Pokerati, et al. will be making the push for [tag]HB 3186[/tag] in front of the Licensing and Administrative Procedures committee.

Poker we know can make good TV, and you can find the live House video stream here. I get roughly THREE MINUTES to state my name for the record, tell bad beat stories, and scream “Go Batfaces!”

Hold’em Radio (which started in Austin) has moved into a NEW STUDIO in Las Vegas — at Binion’s, right by the poker room. Very cool! Live poker radio 24/7 and subsequent podcastable shenanigans just got more interesting.

Check this out … seen on I-20, en route to SHREVEPORT … a BAPTIST CHURCH dropping [tag]the hammer[/tag] in a cyber-evangelical effort to save degenerate gambling souls:

Two weeks ago, the GARDAI in NORTHERN IRELAND forced the cancellation of a similar not-so-underground event.

ONLINE GAMBLING is running into some problems in the CZECH REPUBLIC. But the companies behind the betting industry there are circumventing the legal nuisances by setting up shop in MALTA.

OK, circling back the globe … here’s the article (scroll down to the very bottom) … they are now running SATELLITES to the PPT (emphasis added):

Airport Casino Filipino Parañaque will host the first Metro Manila satellite/qualifying tournament for the 3rd Philippine Poker Tour (PPT) Million-Peso Hold’em Championship on March 31, 2007. Registration starts at 1 p.m., and tournament at 2 p.m.

[...]

Details of prize structure and tournament rules for the 3rd PPT Million-Peso Hold’em Championship are posted in the official PPT website, www.PhilippinePokerTour.com.

Meanwhile, POLAND is joining forces with ENGLAND, and I think ITALY … taking steps to officially legalize and regulate online gambling.

Speaking of ENGLAND, they’re getting on the charity poker kick there, too, raising tens of thousands of pounds for kids with learning disabilities via a PARTYPOKER televised event.

In CONNECTICUT, they’re using poker to send Pee Wee baseball players to COOPERSTOWN.

PHIL HELLMUTH is breaking new ground in non-pokery poker marketing … having just signed an ENDORSEMENT DEAL with an energy drink called “Pro Player.”

Could ENERGY DRINKS be the next poker? They’re exploding like online poker rooms in 2005, and there’s too much unregulated profit margin in these arguably addictive chemical products (that teens love!) for the Feds not to eventually take note/want their cut.

It’s been way too long since I’ve done an Instapoker. Please bear with me as I delete emails and close down a random assortment of open tabs in my browser:

An interesting site about high-stakes online play.

IGGY is back posting at Guinness and Poker. Good for him … that’s where he belongs. Of course he should know that no one will believe word of his “retirement” ever again.

Another site that previously disappeared has since transmogrified … WPBT headquarters. (World Poker Blogger Tour, for those who don’t know.) Not sure who’s behind the new WIKI or where they’re going with it, but we’ll be clicking every once in a while to see what’s going on. (Go DOT-INFO!)

NETELLER is now pulling out of CANADA (where they are based) and TURKEY (which has arguably the toughest INTERNET POLICE FORCE out there.

Gambling 911 reports that there’s no record of Neteller funds seized by the United States. Disconcerting if true. A Neteller Customer Coalition has formed to, er, do something about it and/or at least have a place to bitch.

CHRIS FERGUSON’s boring table demeanor:

It supposedly SNOWED in LAS VEGAS yesterday.

And that comes just two weeks after the purchase of a DISNEYLAND-size swath of land on the SOUTH STRIP to become the site of a monstrous pee-recycling environmentally friendly indoor water park and “snow dome”. Via some presumably stoked BRITISH SNOWBOARDERS.

American poker money is getting more expensive. ULTIMATE BET has altered its affiliate agreements for US players, subtracting for “overhead.” UB was kind enough to let inform its AFFILIATES three weeks after the policy went into effect:

March 13, 2007

Attention Affiliates… Regarding US Traffic Only!
Effective: Thursday, February 22, 2007

UltimateBet is still holding a strong position in the U.S. market providing poker players from around the world with the very best online poker experience. We are 100% committed to staying in the U.S. and provide your players with the easiest, fastest, secure deposit and cashout options. However, in light of Neteller and other popular ewallets leaving the U.S., our processing fees have increased upwards of 5 times. These costs are higher due to the new and only deposit options available to U.S. customers, some of these deposit options also require UltimateBet to cash guarantee all funds – please note we keep a cash reserve to cover all of our player balances.

Due to this increase in costs, UltimateBet has amended its terms and conditions so we can stay in business to enable you and Ultimate Bet to keep making money and not be forced to leave the US market.

Calculation of Net Revenue has been amended to reflect the following:

All Affiliates are paid on net revenue. Net revenue is calulated by taking the gross revenue an affiliate’s player generates and subtracting any processing fees which can include:
Merchant processing fees;
Charge backs;
Processor default;
Tourney deductions;
Any other agreed upon deductions.
The amount of these deductions will be taken off of Gross Revenue. At that point the remaining number is considered the Net Revenue. You, the affiliate, will be paid based on this net revenue number.

Please see the example below:

Gross Revenue generated by the affiliate’s U.S. players.
Minus Processing Fees.
Minus tourney deductions and any other agreed upon deductions.
= Net Revenue.
You, the affiliate, are then paid their RevShare on this net revenue.

Last, we will combine your U.S . commission with your Non-U.S. commission for your total payment.
UltimateBet has the most competitive merchant processing in the industry – i.e. your customers will be able to deposit and cashout better with UltimateBet than any of our competitors – this means higher customer lifetime values and bigger checks for you that will continue!

By staying in the U.S., UltimateBet is making the commitment to allow you to continue to make money!

Your non-U.S. traffic will not be included in these changes. This is only for U.S. traffic.

Effective: Thursday, February 22nd!

Should you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us!

The UltimateBet Team

Speaking of ULTIMATE BET, I think this is the kind of questionable appropriation of the WSOP LOGO that HARRAH’S says it will frown upon vigorously be trying to stop:

(Note: No offense to MEAN GENE, who is just doing his job.)

Speaking of jobs, PAULY, OTIS, and the SHRINK are kickin’ it in MONTE CARLO.

And Pauly has an awesome interview with the hip-hoppinest PROFESSIONAL KENO PLAYER, who happens to be from TEXAS.

There’s more stuff going on, of course … but I think that’s good for now.

About a million major poker developments have taken place over the past couple weeks … but before we get to those, there are some important links out there that I have been neglectful in sharing:

First off, check out RawVegas.tv … a great new “I-TV” channel put together by CHOPS (from Wicked Chops) and BRIAN BALSBAUGH of Poker Royalty.

Poker is just a small part of it all, really … but on this week’s episode of “Prop Bets,” JOE SEBOK takes GAVIN SMITH for $3,000 by eating an extra half of a fajita, and DANIEL NEGREANU now keeps his videoblog there, too, where you can see him do things like shave his head.

MICHAEL CRAIG has amicably parted ways with the festive gang at PokerWorks — he can probably feel pretty good knowing that it essentially took nine top-quality bloggers to replace him. He’s now blogging for Full Tilt.

Poker author JAY GREENSPAN has gone indie with his new blog, Annals of a Fish Hunter. Read his first post on how it’s a bad time to launch a new poker blog and you’ll be hooked.

Speaking of new blogs, the venerable POKER SHRINK is back to blogging. I always enjoy Dr. Tim Lavalli’s neurological analyses of poker, but have missed the unfiltered rants and insights that made him the most prolific poster over at our beloved-but-dormant PokerBlog.

Over at Up for Poker, CJ has blog-ficially changed his name to LUCKBOX, and apparently has begun thinking about life beyond The Hammer … with some fresh and familiar faces bringing us a new sports blog and Hollywood blog. Doesn’t he know sports is just a fad?

And speaking of Up for Poker … if you haven’t read it already, check out “The Last Poker Game” by OTIS … as he turns his adventures in the Carolina underground into some of the best, most colorful poker writing we’ve seen in long time. Think secret lovechild of ERNEST HEMINGWAY and ANDY GLAZER. Can only wonder what these two mighta produced had either one of them stuck around long enough to start a blog.

UPDATE: PokerBlog alum Jen Leo got herself a presumably sweet new net-geeky gig — writing the Daily Deals travel blog for the L.A. TIMES.

Perhaps her crossover into mainstream media has inspired others? I got no fewer than six LINKEDIN invitations today from bloggers. Never thought I would have so many friends contemplating the concept of a “job.”

It’s snowing outside. If you don’t mind, please bear with me as we shut down about 30 open Firefox tabs that Pokerati has accumulated over the past few days.

First off, happy February 14. If you do a Yahoo! or Google image search for “valentine poker” (quotes excluded) here’s the first thing you see:

HOLLAND has officially legalized online poker, licensing the game to its government-run land-based casino. This development comes shortly after a round of raids on AMSTERDAM home games. (See the connection?)

UTAH has no intentions of legalizing gambling, but the state did amend some recent legislation to ensure that AMATEUR TEXAS HOLD’EM is allowed in bars.

Meanwhile, WYOMING is one step closer to legalizing “social” cash games in bars and restaurants, though big tourney action may still be outlawed.

A lot’s going down in MACAU, which apparently generated more gambling revenue than LAS VEGAS in 2006. This sorta expansion has Virgin pioneer RICHARD BRANSON putting a few billion into the Asian gambling pot.

But Chinese casino mogul STANLEY HO isn’t gonna let the round-eyes gank all his action.

JOHNNY CHAN has plans to eventually open shop in Macau (and elsewhere) — has partnered with the makers of The Block to create “the world’s first poker hotel.” Tourney director extraordinaire MATT SAVAGE is part of his team — we can only hope this doesn’t mean all of China will be taught to do the flop one card at a time.

Here’s a pokery valentine, from CUBA:

Speaking of communism, you probably have heard by now that the US ATTORNEY’S OFFICE has seized $55 million worth of Neteller funds as evidence.

About $520 of that belongs to yours truly. I suppose that makes me COLLATERAL DAMAGE in the [tag]War on Poker[/tag]:

Here is what Neteller has to say about how and when we will get our money.

Amy and the Shrink have an update on the investigation into a seriously BOTCHED COLOR-UP during last year’s WSOP main event.

It coincides with news that HERSHEY’S has been named the Official Chocolate of the 2007 WSOP. Mmmm, two million extra chocolate chips!

POKERTEK, makers of dealerless electronic poker tables, is being sued by TELLIS, a TEXAS-based software company that doesn’t even have a website.

Haley continues to investigate the legal battles between HARRAH’S and FREDERIC SCHIAVO over the rights to WSOP.COM.

This valentine from PKR.com suggests that while a man’s hand may seem stronger than a woman’s … it’s still possible that she’s holding the nuts:

UPDATE: Just re-watched the vid, and the lady actually would need some help on the turn to make her straight-flush.

Did you know the proportion of WOMEN PLAYING POKER continues to grow? The XX-chromosome set reportedly represents 30 percent of online players now.

BRANDI HAWBAKER, cute-as-pie poker girl and Full Tilt nipple-cover model, has reportedly found a new way to fund her bankroll by stripping at SPEARMINT RHINO. (Congrats on the new sponsorship deal!)

Remember, on February 14 and forever …

Trying to clean up the place for a few new bloggers has left so much poker news passing us by. So in no particular order of importance, you might be curious to know:

CHARLES BARKLEY had a good weekend in Las Vegas, pocketing $700k on mostly blackjack. No word on where he played or how much he was betting per hand.

The first WSOP poker-bloggy marriage is set to go down, between the “all over the place!” JEN LEO and Stone Temple Pilots roadie-cum-PokerNews editor JOHN CALDWELL. Word spread via AMY C … should make for a festive Day 1B of the WSOP main event.

JAMIE GOLD has settled his case with CRISPIN LEYSER — no more lawsuit for the $6 mil … they’re gonna chop the pot instead. We’ll try to find out for how much, but clearly neither was going to win at this point, and any two SEMI-SERIOUS poker players can see the folly of letting LAWYERS take such a high rake in a heads-up match.

There’s an interesting tournament going on at THE BIKE … the $10,000 Poker Netcast HEADS-UP CHALLENGE. GAVIN SMITH sucked out hard on CLONIE (J7 vs AJ — 7 on the turn, 7 on the river) to knock her out.

Hey, check it out … a new generation of NEGREANU FANS are being bred educated at CANADIAN universities.

Despite CALVIN AYRE’s semi-fugitive status in the US, the COSTA RICAN billionaire is fixin’ to bring BODOG to AMERICAN TV starting next week.

By the way, what does the United States National SOCCER TEAM love to do while traveling? They play poker. (Or shall we say Pele poker?)

A PENNSYLVANIA JURY decides it’s not right to bust out of a poker game and return to shoot people. Duly noted.

THE WSOP CIRCUIT main event is underway in COUNCIL BLUFFS, IOWA. Pokerati finds it interesting that the WSOP in (what is essentially) OMAHA has no Omaha.

Note to self: WIN MORE. Lose less.

An interesting outline for HOW TO TAX online gambling from our good friends in HUNGARY. Summation: Take 30 percent.

Not surprisingly, LAWYERS with expertise in gambling are a hot commodity these days.

And anti-online gambling laws aren’t stopping Americans from trying to gamble online. Just ask SCANSAFE, a company that blocks employees of other companies from pissing off online while at work. (Looking at Karridy.)

COLLEGE KIDS at SYRACUSE are saying the same thing … they can’t be stopped!

But here’s a good article that looks into the hard-number connections between online gambling and TERRORISM.

The LA TIMES has a good op-ed on the ridiculousness of preventing wagers on the SUPER BOWL — more than $5 BILLION slipped through unchecked hands untaxed, experts say.

And here’s a quick little item that shows how/why US ATTORNEYS are trying to draw a connection between online betting and Al Qaeda-suited.

That should be enough for now. But as always, there’s more TK.

Oh, wait, almost forgot … Starting tomorrow, you are supposed to BOYCOTT online poker through SUNDAY. Oh, wait, no you’re not.

Good morning. I’m not used to being up this early after a full night’s sleep … so let’s get to poker:

They’re down to 18 at the WPT’s WORLD POKER OPEN @ the Goldstrike in TUNICA. “The Catfish” is in the lead, followed by JC TRAN, DANIEL NEGREANU, AMIR VAHEDI and others.

In LONDON, they’re halfway through the INTERNATIONAL CASINO EXHIBITION, where 25,000 poker-bizzer types are contemplating a not-so-American gambling future.

Here’s some good discussion from a British STOCK FORUM about the big dip PARTYGAMING’S stock just took. A lotta mixed reactions. The Motley Fool has more on PRTY.L as well.

Something you may have missed but still worthwhile … the CC Times’ top 10 people of they year. BILL FRIST takes the crown, while other notables include JEFFREY POLLACK, CRISPIN LEYSER, PAMELA ANDERSON, and gaming CEO’s MITCH GARBER and DAVID CARRUTHERS.

Prosecutors in ALABAMA are promising a hardcore crackdown on poker rooms and the like after some recent court rulings. Still waiting word from TUSCALOOSA JOHNNY on whether or not he’s scared.

Speaking of court, WOODY the Pokerati commenter is at trial today, as in right now, in DALLAS for his involvement in the GOOD FELLOW’S raid. He’s pled NOT GUILTY, and the TRAFFIC COURT hearing his case isn’t used to having SWAT TEAMS testify.

Back across the pokery pond, at least one writer has figured out that the new buzz about GAMBLING ADDICTION in the UK has little to do with medicine and more about doctor-types looking to cash in on the “CRAZE.”

And hey, it’s WEDNESDAY, so don’t forget to tune in to Hold’em Radio at 7 pm central tonight for “Beyond the Table,” where we should have a very interesting discussion with BRIAN BALSBAUGH — the Gonz lover most important guy in poker who doesn’t know how to play the game.

It’s official … my online gambling days are done, at least for a little while. I tried to deposit some more money into ULTIMATE BET, but to no avail (despite following instructions and agreeing to an extra fee). Even if someone could walk me through it, it’s simply too difficult for this not-quite-winning online player to go through the hassle.

UPDATE: CardPlayer reports that online tourney fields took a sharp hit this weekend. Expect those numbers to further dwindle as WEAKER PLAYERS exhaust available bankroll.

Read into that what you will. Here’s the latest update on how you can still deposit (and redeposit) to your various online gambling accounts.

And here’s a tech site reporting on the reporting that alternative methods still exist (at least for now) and concluding that online gambling still ain’t goin’ away.

More influential NON-POKER sites are taking note of developments in our little pokery corner of the internet. They may not know what to make of it all yet, but they seem to recognize its far-reaching relevance.

So far, the NETELLER news has inspired SLASHDOT readers to post 579 comments.

It took less than a few days after the most recent blow to legitimate online poker sites for SPAM from the criminally minded, fly-by-night operations to arrive. Below is an example of a site that for obvious reasons shouldn’t even be considered a viable alternative:

—–Original Message—–
From: Ian Hardin [mailto:allenipbo@tftdisplays.com]
Sent: Sunday, January 21, 2007 7:49 PM
To: danm
Subject: US players are welcome

hi
(download), start playing
US players are welcome
most fair casino
you don’t know internet at all if you don’t know this casino

http://greatdefisha.org

Go ahead and click the site (assuming you feel good about your SPYWARE/VIRUS protection) … I did, and it wasn’t even operable yet.

The BRITS, we know, are all about online gambling. And one of the thing they’ll likely be doing with all that TAX REVENUE the UK gains — besides making sure their players can be confident they are dealing with a safe, fair, legitimate site — is helping doctors help the tiny (but still sizable) percentage of people who have true GAMBLING ADDICTIONS.

We can expect plenty of stories like this one to emerge — about a 53-year-old lady lawyer in CALIFORNIA who just got sentenced to NINE YEARS in prison for embezzling $900k to fund her internet gambling addiction. (I wonder how many of her tainted dollars got dispersed directly or indirectly into any of our online accounts.)

Some states in AMERICA are starting to realize that the new anti-gambling law doesn’t prohibit INTRAstate online play … and that could open the door … for something.

MICHAEL BOLCEREK (of the PPA) was in attendance at the NATIONAL CONFERENCE OF STATE LEGISLATURES last week, where talk of UIGEA enforcment was a hot topic, and he introduced elected officials to the concept of RESPONSIBLE GAMBLING.

Related to that concept, LOU KREIGER has a good post on when to leave a juicy game. He played in the Poker Authors Challenge at BINION’S yesterday. (No word on who won.)

But as it currently stands in the new legal environment, it’s not about who you play with or how you play. Just ask ANTHONY HALL, who has been warning our CARIBBEAN cousins for a year that an important industry to the region’s economy was being threatened by American politics and law enforcement.

Meanwhile, CRYPTOLOGIC — based in the same CANADA that is home to Neteller — has staked its claim in the yet-to-be-tapped CHINESE poker market.

Did you know the editor of POKERPAGES is also a stand-up comedian?

Not to be confused with the JUSTIN WEST who ran for Texas governor.

And speaking of Poker Pages, KAELAINE kicks it old-school and has a nice tourney recap of her victory in a MEDIA FREEROLL in TUNICA. What’s interesting about this quick-blind freeroll is that the field grew … and that the WORLD POKER OPEN folks now pay out a cash prize ($1,000) to the winner. (I’m pretty sure this is new.)

And speaking of OLD SCHOOL, I found this 2005 discussion about when online poker will peak both naive and prescient.

Likewise for this 2005 article in Time … declaring how the BRITS are leaving us way behind in the online gambling world … and giving a little more insight into the factors in play before the CRACKDOWN on poker really kicked in.

BEST POKER SHIRT ever? I gotta get me one of these. (Go Polacks! Go “the dan” circa 2004!)

Click here to see the worst.

All the legal hubbub hasn’t stopped DOYLE BRUNSON from spreading the poker gospel to Hollywood (via UTAH) with a charity tourney at the SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL.

Back in DALLAS, a charity called BEA’S KIDS held an old-fashioned charity tourney (c. 2004) this weekend … where players actually paid money to compete for real prizes … a big-screen TV, trip to Vegas, stuff like that. There was no police raid on the illegal/tax-deductible attempt to raise money to send poor kids to summer camp.

Speaking of kids … here are some more MUSICAL CHIPS:

Online legalities not withstanding, teenagers are the future of poker/doing the “chip dance.”

The wheels of poker keep on turnin’. Proud Mary keeps on burnin’ Let’s get right to the news that may or may not be important to you …

PARTYPOKER is moving and shaking with business deals to solidify its presence in ASIA.

INDIA is booming — clearly, it’s the next Czech Republic/Thailand/China/Tibet all rolled into one — and 34-year-old PartyPoker co-founder ANARUG DIKSHIT plays a significant role in this presumably hot emerging economy. (via Forbes)

Here is a video of PartyPoker big-whig BD GOEL leading a panel discussion at a conference for the Bollytech elite:
NOTE: The interesting stuff starts about four minutes in.

And here is a video of some dancing poker chips:

(via LazyDork.com)

Soccerati is one of my new favorite websites — awesome name, by the way — because there’s more to life than just poker, DAVID BECKHAM is coming to America, and I’ve been playing a lot of FIFA ‘07 on the XBOX 360.Click here to see semi-naked pictures of his wife, VICTORIA, pka POSH SPICE. (Welcome to the United States!)

SEAN SALMON is my new favorite MIXED MARTIAL ARTIST. I just learned who he was yesterday last week, and on January 28 he’ll step into the UFC Octagon sporting Guinness-and-Fighting apparel.

Speaking of Indians … Sen. DAVID VITTER (R-Louisiana) wants to introduce legislation to limit campaign contributions from NATIVE AMERICAN TRIBES (the kind that run casinos and send money to TEXAS Republicans to keep the busloads of players coming).

Pokerati is monitoring PARTYGAMING STOCK these days, in part because we just purchased some, believing the company is primed for rebound. But PG co-founder VIKRANT BHARGAVA might see things differently, having just sold a majority of his stake for $100 million.

Meanwhile, the BRITS are cracking down on amateur PUB POKER. Wait, we thought the UK was poker’s biggest ally. Poker world still TOPSY-TURVY.

So here are some more dancing chips:

And this video reminds us we’re still waiting for a true RON CEY of poker to emerge:

In NOVA SCOTIA, authorities are warning bar owners that the ROYAL CANADIAN MOUNTED POLICE will come after them if they keep hosting Texas Hold’em tourneys. (Can’t tell if they are talking about no-money games, too.) The government-poker shakedown seems to be worldwide.

Last year, police in SOUTH CAROLINA were raiding poker games. With trials still pending for 18 arrested players pleading not-guilty, Rep. WALLACE SCARBOROUGH (R-Charleston) is drafting legislation to legalize “recreational” poker games, in the state’s first major revision to its gambling laws in 200 years. (TEXANS, of course, should take note.)

The issue is near-and-dear to OTIS, who hails from the Cocks-loving state and points us to a quality story by BOB PAJICH at CardPlayer (Kudos Bob, and kudos CP, for all the real journalism poker’s mounting legal issues are bringing out in “The Poker Authority.” Refreshing!)

WEST VIRGINIA is also preparing for more-legal gambling, and declare INDIANA, MISSISSIPPI, LOUISIANA, and SOUTH DAKOTA as the models of regulation to follow.

Here’s a video showing the effects of drugs and alcohol on spiders in a way that may or may not apply to plenty of poker players:

Thanks, Tom, for the link!

OK, that’s probably enough for now.

Welcome back. Have you been keeping up with what’s been going on in the poker world? I didn’t think so. Shame on you.

ESPN ran some sort of COUCH POTATO CONTEST. The winners (Go Cats!) say poker reruns on TV were an essential part of their sedentary success.

RUSSIA has banned online gambling and poker.

But ITALY has gone the other way, with online poker officially becoming legal this week. The country is now preparing to auction off 17,000 gambling-related licenses. Coming soon: the first-ever quadrillion-lira raise.

So what-da-fug is going on in EUROPE? Newsweek has a solid article about what amounts to a multi-government shakedown of our favourite multibillion-Euro industry. It is shamefully hypocritical kinda funny when the French arrest people not for doing something wrong, but for doing something first.

To some extent, it’s not too different from what went down in the UNITED STATES in 2006. Here’s a great wrap-up of the most significant War on Poker (and online gambling) battles of the year.

And here’s the YEAR IN REVIEW from the European business perspective as changing game situations accelerate the passing of chips amongst the moguly cyberpoker set. Telling.

If you haven’t read it yet, be sure to check out ALLYN JAFFREY SHULMAN’S journalistic chat with the president of the AMERICAN GAMING ASSOCIATION. She provides a great behind-the-scenes glimpse how a bad anti-poker law really came to be. Part 1 here. Part 3 here.

Meanwhile, a GERMAN COURT is saying the country needs to update its laws to handle the new face of online gambling.

Speaking of courts, a BALTIMORE company is suing the SEMINOLE INDIANS and the HARD ROCK CAFE people, accusing the two casino entities of business collusion.

And JAMIE GOLD is still waiting for a Las Vegas court to decide the fate of half his WSOP winnings. According to the judge, who recently denied Gold’s motion for injunctive relief:

“His [Gold's] actions, in the court’s view, do not give the plaintiff [CRISPIN LEYSER] much assurance that the money would, in fact, be available in the event of a judgment in his favor,” Hunt said. The judge also commented that Leyser is likely to win his claim to the $6 million, saying, “The likelihood of success weighs on the side of the plaintiff [Leyser].”

An AMATEUR poker tourney in COPENHAGEN, DENMARK has run into legal troubles, even though no money was involved. The winner of the tourney was actor MADS MIKKELSON, who played a JAMES BOND bad guy in “Casino Royale” — and now he reportedly has to pay a fine.

So with so much going on across the poker pond, the place to be this January happens to be TUNICA — the World Poker Open is kinda like the Winter Olympics to the WSOP’s Summer Games. Lots of Batfaces will be there, along with plenty of pros, donkeys, and fish.

The place not to be, online at least, is apparently POKERROOM.COM, as the 2+2 FORUMS are calling out the site on an alleged tournament bait-and-switch. Would be bad enough to change the prize pool before cards go in the air. But taking money away from the winner as if he were ZEEJUSTIN? Very uncool — and presumably costly in the long run.

A while back BILL RINI did some funny (and spot-on) separated-at-births. Another good one: CAN KIM HUA and KIM JONG IL?

By the way, not sure if Pokerati ever told you, but IGGY came out of retirement. He’s blogging with LINDA GEENEN’S estimable gang over at PokerWorks. And those of you who are into watching sweaty semi-naked men grinding on each other to the point of exchanging body fluids should check out Iggy’s new Ultimate Fighting blog.

UPDATE: Iggy has more on the PokerRoom scandal, and the response from the site’s FOUNDER, who is apparently dismayed at the internet vitriol. NOTE: Money winners have since been un-unrefunded their winnings as per DAMAGE CONTROL.

AMY CALISTRI has a good article (notably labeled as “opinion”) on PokerNews about the NFL’s role in passing the UIGEA.

UPDATE: Holy shit, Amy’s gone to PokerWorks, too … and so has Change100! And Joe Speaker and Maudie! With Linda’s growing collective of real talent, might we be seeing the emergence of a true competitor to CardPlayer? At a minimum, the woman trusted to handle some of the biggest pots in history has assembled an diverse array of voices that matter … and might be setting a standard for a new and credible form of alternative alternative media in the process.

UPDATE: Some additional coverage — and quality commenting — on the Dallas poker raids. [CardSquad.]

Heading out for a little family-time vacation … but before I go, here’s a round-up of what others have been saying about the triple-hit to Dallas poker.

OMAHA, Nebraska–Enjoying a little family-time vacation. Hope you are, too. But before I head out to the local church and then casino, here’s a round-up of what others have been saying about the triple-hit to Dallas poker last week.

First, the news videos — CBS 11’s exclusive live coverage of DALLAS SWAT vs. glass walls and poker … and NBC 5’s less dramatic report.

The second CBS story (they led with it twice) here.

UNCLE BARKY reminds us that these televised raids happened to coincide with SWEEPS. Ah, now it makes sense. Brought to our attention by Texas Gigs. MIKE ORREN’s sibling site PegasusNewswire is also on top of legislative developments.

Some relevant numbers related to the Dallas SWAT offensive

November poker arrests: 20
Ticketed players: 79
Cash ceased: $43,929
Weapons found: 0
Drugs found: 0
Players with outstanding warrants: 0

A SMART PERSON over at ScienceBlogs offers more numbers:

Dallas is one of the most violent cities in the nation, with a violent crime rate 3 times higher than the national average. The murder rate of 20.2 per 100,000 people is nearly 4 times the national average. Rape occured in Dallas about 50% more than the national average, while robbery and aggravated assault were more than double the national average.

That PISSES OFF The Fat Guy … but we already knew that.

Here’s what the kids at 2+2 are saying. A few more firsthand details, a spoiled Vegasite who doesn’t get the whole UNDERGROUND thing, and a New Yorker calling NYPD SOFT compared to Dallas. (”And I thought the NYPD was rough, [but] we had it easy compared to those raids.”)

Speaking of NEW YORK, a Long Island VFW game also had masked, gun-wielding men bust in and take almost $40,000 on the same night of the Dallas raids, but their guys were ROBBERS, not cops.

This comes via Part-time Poker Forums.

Peeps are also talking about it on East Texas Poker.

And Weston Poker, of course.

Over at the Google version of RGP, GARY CARSON says, “People attempted to run from a Dallas Swat team and aren’t dead? Wow. Lucky mother fuckers.”

REASON MAGAZINE is really unhappy about the PARAMILITARIZATION of America’s police forces. More than 50 comments about the Dallas raids from non-poker people.

Did you know the Dallas SWAT team has a 1959 tank built by ROLLS ROYCE in its arsenal? ATLANTA SWAT has two of ‘em.

Speaking of Atlanta, earlier this week plain-clothes vice cops in that city busted into the wrong house with guns drawn, and when the 92-year-old resident OPENED fire on the intruders, Police blew her to KINGDOM COME.

The BRITS are gunless pussies concerned about American SWAT teams killing innocent citizens as if they were IRAQIS.

Back to poker … at least one HOUSTON ATTORNEY is concerned about DPD tactics, and points to a map of botched police raids in the United States.

But we shouldn’t have to worry about Dallas SWAT making any MISTAKES — they train in Oregon.

Of course that doesn’t make THE GERMANS feel any better about what went down in Dallas.

BIG BOB WILONSKY was one of the first to spread the word about Dallas poker woes to our local non-poker brethren.

The POKER PLAYERS ALLIANCE BLOG has been with us the whole time, too.

A forum of POKER AFFILIATES talking about us.

So is POKER LISTINGS.

LOU KREIGER has some intelligent thoughts on the matter — and his commenters are clearly smarter than Pokerati’s:

According to the reporters, last year, 3 people were arrested and 8 citations were issued. This year, 31 people were arrested and 180 citations were issued. Now, a reasonable person might ask, what’s changed from last year.

The answer, they now play poker at two Indian Casinos in Oklahoma, an hour from Dallas!

Last, before heading out, I wanted to point out that the DALLAS POLICE are kinda-sorta on our side, making the argument for legalizing poker when LT. CHRISTINA SMITH says:

“Poker is not regulated, so these people who are running these poker houses charge a lot of money, [and] there’s no way to check to see if what they’re doing is proper.”

That, of course, is our point exactly. And that SWAT teams probably aren’t the best allocation of resources to attempt to do so.

The Blogfather tributes keep scrolling in … and this one is just a little sick. But so a-little-sick that it’s pretty downright awesome. I bet it makes a lot of poker bloggers out there wish we could die, too! OK, maybe not quite … but really, am I the only one who’s just a little bit jealous that Iggy gets to leave this life of thankless typing?

(Last time I saw Jeremy – one of the very first greats to go down — he seemed pretty dern happy.)

Not sure who created the video below, but I found it via Otis at Up for Poker. Be sure to read Otis’ own Iggy eulogy as well … as is always the case, writing-wise, he knows how to best express what is going through so many of our hearts and minds.

ALT HED: Good Fold?

These items should’ve gone up last week, along with others, but they did not.

The Asian Poker Tour is ready to kick off in SINGAPORE next week.

With big tourneys beginning to sprout up around the world, will the WORLD POKER FINALS really be true to its name? $10k main event starts Sunday.

In CANADA, they’re getting a little scared that Canucks are actually making a living at poker. “Alarming number”?

Here’s a more positive take on the Great White North’s new addiction.

It cracks me up when people in the poker “business” call me up, ask me how’s it goin’, and have no clue that anything with poker has really changed. Ha ha, ha ha, idiot friends. Oh well, very politicky these days:

From the Dept. of: “Wish I Could Be There” … members of ZZ TOP, PANTERA, ANTHRAX, and KISS will be pokering it up for VH-1 in LAS VEGAS today.

And click here to read about some POSSIBLE COLLUSION at the FESTA AL LAGO main event.

The “big” tourney going on right now is the WSOP CIRCUIT @ CAESAR’S INDIANA. You can follow the action via SPACEMAN’S coverage for Bluff.

A couple days ago, in the competing WPT event, CANADIAN SOREN TURKEWITSCH won the NORTH AMERICAN POKER CHAMPIONSHIP. (Prediction for the 2007 WSOP: Year of the Foreigners.)

Londoner ROLAND DE WOLFE won more than €550,000 in the EPT-DUBLIN tourney.

But CANADA may not be full-on poker-friendly, as the ONTARIO province is pushing a bill to BAN ONLINE GAMING ADVERTISING.

But ask the online pokerers here in AMERICA … according to the AP, any online gambling ban won’t work.

So maybe Ontario is already changing its mind. At least a few CANUCK OFFICIALS say so … they just want to regulate, not prohibit.

Because in an unreguated environment, apparently HACKERS are shaking down online gambling sites for RANSOM.

That probably has something to do with why GREAT BRITAIN is spearheading an effort for INTERNATIONAL REGULATION of online gambling.

The UK is hosting an ONLINE GAMBLING SUMMIT this week. 32 COUNTRIES will be there, none of which are the UNITED STATES.

The BRITISH CULTURE SECRETARY recently spoke vehemently against America’s passage of the UIGEA, likening it to booze Prohibition. (Go Redcoats!)

Their MANTRA TO WOO gaming companies: “We won’t put you in prison.”

Perhaps surprisingly, CHINA seems to agree that the UIGEA is a bad idea. (Good essay, originally from the LA Times. Must Really-should click.)

I mean MY GOD! Even the METHODIST CHURCH is supporting REGULATED online gambling.

The main concern, of course, is keeping the KIDS from getting ADDICTED. So what are we gonna do about the latest poker game for the XBOX 360 LIVE?

Here’s one more pro-poker editorial from the LA TIMES.

Yet over at CBS NEWS, their poker corresepondent is just now publishing his WSOP main event trip report. Like seriously, I don’t get it. (Note: He didn’t win.)

If you want to keep up with all the latest PARTYPOKER News that’s fit to print (complete with PARTYGAMING stock info) you can follow my INSTAPARTY coverage over at PokerBlog. The latest: Party is discussing a merger with 888, parent company of PACIFIC POKER.

While Zac knows how to use the internet, MAINSTREAM MEDIA (surprise!) does not. This should mean more jobs for professional bloggers, but the fact that we developed our HIGHLY SPECIALIZED SKILLS because we don’t like to work could cause a problem.

Meanwhile, MARK CUBAN has commissioned the UTA physics department to study the new NBA balls.

Last, be sure to click here, because as AUSTIN PETE points out, SWEET TEXAS JIMMY and I are lovers friends again, and his new website(s) could use a little surge in traffic. But note to Jimmy, this makes us even for that Natural Light you gave me in 1989.

Some of the stuff on my screen(s) right now / a couple days ago … none of it is really relevant any more.

The MAINSTREAM MEDIA is starting to realize … hey, wait a minute, this “enforcement act” is pretty much unenforceable (legally speaking, of course).

This coupled with the market assessment that hey, $6 BILLION IN DEMAND ain’t just goin’ away.

Meanwhile, they are starting to speak in poker metaphors in QATAR. Financial analysts are apparently spreading the word. (Can we say … وقع فى النفس الرهبة, (مرعب, مهيب Asian poker, baby!

Here’s an old CardPlayer article by MIKE SEXTON. It’s about BILLY BAXTER and his fights with the IRS in the ’80s. In both federal district court and then at the U.S. Court of Appeals, judges affirmed that poker was indeed a game of skill (and thereby taxable as income, not windfall). The Feds threatened to take it to the Supreme Court, Baxter said “bring it!”, and the government folded.

Non-poker news crossing the sightline:

HARVARD LAW preparing for more politics and international courtroom scuffles.

Enron big-man JEFFREY SKILLING didn’t cause near the fiscal damage of a BILL FRIST, but he’s getting 24 years in the slammer/Club Fed.

LORETTA NALL, Alabaman for Governor:

Early in her campaign, she talked about how her misdemeanor arrest for marijuana possession in 2002 led her to start the U.S. Marijuana Party.Then she entertained readers of her campaign Web site with lots of information about her personal life, including a discussion of why she doesn’t wear panties.

Am feeling very video-ish this evening … I may or may not explain why later (but it has something to do with particle physics, Ronald Reagan, and the now-defunct Superconducting Supercollider). Anyhow, have a look at some of the more relevant poker vids I’ve come across in recent days:

NOTE: These come from Bill Rini, Change100, Wicked Chops, and other link-clicky sources.

Rep. RON PAUL (R-TX), opposing anti-online gambling legislation …

Rep. BARNEY FRANK (D-MA), making some pretty strong arguments on why banning online gambling (heretofore called the UIGEA) would set some pretty bad precedents …

The MCLAUGHLIN GROUP declaring 4-1 (with PAT BUCHANAN as the lone dissenter) the UIGEA as bad legislation and insisting there’s no way it will pass …

ALT: “Wrong!

And here’s an intelligently crafted creative endeavor (by the “Association of Professional Casino Webmasters”) outlining the hypocrisy of Sen. BILL FRIST (R-TN) and Rep. BOB GOODLATTE (R-VA) …

Click here to see the other UIGEA videos created by these folks.

This kinda random fun one shows LEE JONES, poker room manager at PokerStars, taking on Frist with a big stick …

Another politician speaking out — Rep. SHELLEY BERKLEY (D-NV) making the most of her one minute at the mic …

And last but definitely not least, check out this (sorry, non-YouTubed) clip from The Daily Show revealing why GEORGE BUSH clearly doesn’t play (good) poker, but does understand collusion.

I start my morning these days checking out the PartyGaming (PRTY.L) stock price. They’ve dropped from the 47th largest company out of the FTSE 100.

Not to be confused with OLIVER FTSE.

People in BALTIMORE like to play Bridge. For money, I think.

A little confused by who wrote this, but here’s a click-worthy analysis of online-gambling legislation impact. It was either former senator JOHN DANFORTH or JOE HACHEM.

And speaking of DR. BILL FRIST, he says, “Go Taliban!”

MORE TK …

Wow, for the first time, the non-poker media is actually paying attention to non-poker issues. The result is some incredibly insightful stuff and the occasional pure bullshit:

First off, DICK MORRIS has an interesting column — penned a few days before the Safe Ports Act passed — asserting that were BILL FRIST still a doctor, he would be sued for malpractice for his tactics.

A finance site claims there’s nothing illegal about offshore banking poker middlemen (such as Neteller, Firepay, et al.).

But that didn’t stop NETELLER’S stock from taking a big hit.

Meanwhile, PARTY GAMING canceled its Oct. 31 dividends as it begins to shift some business gears. Here’s the best story I’ve seen so far explaining their numbers and future plans.

The blogging community in BUFFALO theoretically wants to engage in debate, but you aren’t allowed to use the word “poker”.

It is, however, good to see NON-POKER BLOGGERS calling a spade a spade and recognizing political fucked-uppedness.

British columnist SIMON YOUNG is questioning America’s whole “land of the free” concept.

The CALIFORNIA COUNCIL ON PROBLEM GAMBLING believes regulation would do more good than prohibition, particularly when it applies to the internet.

AWARD for WORST JOURNALISTIC ANALYSIS: In Washington State the owner of the DRIFT-ON INN says his poker room has been hurting, and the online ban should be a boon to his business. Apparently he sees the fact that 80 percent of his customers play online as the reason they don’t play live more often, CHRIS MONEYMAKER be damned.

Though NEVADA casinos used to think online gambling hurt their business, now they realize how important online is to them and how much a ban could hurt their business.

We probably shouldn’t forget that JC TRAN won $670k last week in the World Championship of Online Poker. Kinda ironic that this event was such a smashing success?

The MOTLEY FOOL has a sober, intelligent analysis of it all.

In SOUTH KOREA, they are declaring online gaming ready to go bust. I, of course, blame SANG.

Here’s a quality essay from a kid at UCLA. The multi-generational nature of poker suggests the issue will be around for quite some time.

Kinda interesting to see the MIDDLE EAST TIMES declaring that the ban on online gaming is destined to fail.

Of course BUSINESS WEEK sees plenty of loopholes, too.

The TECH MEDIA agrees that this law is unenforceable.

Of course that doesn’t stop the hurt for legitimate gaming executives in Europe, who are (finally) asking the governments of the UK and EU why they haven’t done anything to stop this mess.

MARKETING COMPANIES are also sure to be hurt.

Another sober, non-poker analysis — seeing this as an issue of PURITANISM and PROTECTIONISM.

More on protectionism.

A July column by SEN. JON KYL likening internet gambling to crack cocaine, which received negative response from Republicans who actually believe in smaller government. (Uh-duh, if crack and poker are the same, crack is cheaper and therefore comes with a more positive EV.)

Seriously, shame on me for leaving you all in the dark for so long? How can you know what’s happening in poker if I don’t tell you?

First off, the major tournament action going down is in TUNICA. PokerBlog, of course, is the place to go if you want that event brought to life. Oh, and here at Pokerati … where MANNY THE MINNOW tries to cut his non-Belo blogging chops.

The WCOOP (World Championship of Online Poker) is underway … and kudos to PokerStars, as it looks like they have successfully turned this cyberspace happening into a real, noteworthy poker event.

Semi-big tourney going on for DEALERS ONLY at BINION’S in Las Vegas.

Quality article in the new issue of TIME MAGAZINE on why poker is good for kids … and why parents who don’t get this are bad [my assessment, not theirs]. They’ve even got links to a quiz to find out if your kid gambles too much. (Hi mom!)

Here is probably the worst rap song about poker you will ever hear … by a guy named NICK DUGAS who claims to be “the king of poker” and “rich as shit.” Have we jumped the shark sandwich yet?

STAN SLUDIKOFF writes a pretty straightforward editorial explaining to JAMIE GOLD why he’s on the poker shit list. Relatively bold for a scion of the non-non-poker media to say as much.

Across the Atlantic, poker seems to be where it was here about a year ago — with BRITISH AUTHORITIES (reluctantly?) cracking down on PUB POKER games, at least until the laws change.

But GUINNESS AND POKER don’t necessarily go hand in hand. Iggy has taken a day job (but won’t let that get in the way of his uber) and British politician ZAC GOLDSMITH is trying to explain away affair murmurs to his-wife-the-Guinness-heiress by saying he has been busy organizing a charity poker tourney with the hot 22-year-old ROTHSCHILD HEIRESS (who happens to be his brother’s wife’s sister).

His black Vespa scooter is often to be found parked outside her red-brick property.

In American poker gossip, the story of Dallas expat CHANTEL MCNULTY and hardcore rabblerouser NEVERWIN has become chatter-du-jour for recovering porn addicts at 2+2 while DUSTIN WOOLF is experiencing the other side of airing out dirty laundry on NWP.

SMARTER KIDS at 2+2 will keep you posted on poker political flux. Very hairy right now, or not very hairy at all. Either way, online poker scary.

Maddest props to VICTORIA COREN, who won the EPT main event in LONDON — not only does the 500,000 prize make her the biggest female winner in European history, but also she is a poker columnist by profession, which makes us like her even more.

When asked what her plans were after the lucrative win, she said: “To go and play in other events and probably never achieve such an impressive result again, like Joseph Heller after he wrote Catch-22.”

OK, I think that’s good for now. Back to work …

Oops, I knew that couldn’t be everything:

The IRS just got underway with its PRIORITY GUIDANCE PLAN. One of the things that will be discussed over the next year are new rules pertaining to poker tournament winnings.

Some colleges are banning laptops in class — in part because of internet poker play. (Perhaps SHANNON SHORR is doing the right thing by quitting school and JEFF MADSEN is a sucker?)

Local and FEDERAL authorities worked together to raid a couple poker games in ALASKA last week.

The first hearing in the CRISPIN LEYSER vs. JAMIE GOLD lawsuit takes place in LAS VEGAS on friday.

DANIEL CRAIG, the new JAMES BOND, apparently likes poker — and we are supposed to give a shit.

(Doesn’t he know that, thanks to JAMIE GOLD and DREW BARRYMORE, Hollywood poker is like so 2004/05? Just ask BEN AFFLECK.)

Here’s more NON-POKER media on the legal struggles we all face. And here’s a story about the new lives of online poker felons in WASHINGTON STATE.

All this while prosecutors in COLUMBUS, OHIO NEBRASKA are reconsidering the legality of amateur poker games in bars — in part thanks to some money-wielding players at a golf course.

And SOUTH KOREA’s prime minister is apologizing for letting gambling in his country run amuck and hurt the low-income earners. HAN MYEONG-SOOK, however, does not include live poker as part of the problem.

It’s getting harder and harder to keep up with what’s going on in the poker world. Thank goodness I didn’t decide to try and cover football … because that would be near impossible. In no particular order of importance:

ANNA BENSON is no fan of Wicked Chops Poker. For shame.

But Wicked Chops knows its PR (that’s what they do for their day jobs) and thus they have mad respect for RICHARD LEE’S crisis management chops.

Note to San Antonio TV news and Police Department: 6th place does not make someone a “world champion.” If this were the case, OTHER would be the World Champion of Presidents.

Bic Lighters are about to go poker-crazy. They gave a lot of their fire-sticks away at the WSOP, but sadly, most of them had to be left behind at McCarran International Airport.

The US SENATE reconvenes next week. With legislation to ban most semblances of online gambling on its agenda, our future is currently in their hands.

Anti-poker bill sponsors REPS. JIM LEACH (R-IA) and BILL FRIST (R-TN) are holding a “field hearing” in Iowa today (Thursday) to hear what the people have to say about the matter.

Oops, I’m wrong … the field hearing isn’t about listening to the people — it’s about rallying support for the anti-online-poker measures.

Note to supporters of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act: Build more jails.

Meanwhile, in DENVER, a SWAT team busted a small-stakes poker room. No word on whether or not this bust was made-for-TV as was the case in DALLAS. Had the cops known they would have found cocaine, they probably would’ve used smaller artillery.

Note to poker-room operators: Dudes, keep the coke out of your game. (Adderall, after all, is a much better poker drug.)

STEVE HALL has become addicted to homemade Bollywood movies. He also thinks Mansionpoker.net might be hurting for money and running a scam.

He also has an intersting list of well-known pros who failed to cash throughout the entire WSOP:

Liz Lieu
Eli Elezra
An Tran
Gus Hansen
Alan Goehring
Kenna James
Al Ardebili
Norm Ketchum
Antonio Esfandiari
Scotty Nguyen
Ram Vaswani
Noah Boaken

BATFACES who faced similar fates include:

Troy “Darling” Phillips
The Big Randy
Scott Fawcett
Eric “Tulsa” Celeste
Dan Michalski
Eric “the Freeze” Pfeifle
Dan “Hong Kong Sue” Ballenger
Todd “Tiny B” Phillips
“Gentle” Shane Keller

On the pre-eve of WPT Ladies Night — the event that made her famous — CLONIE near-bubbled in the WPT Legends of Poker.

Go Dallas Poker?

It’s been too long since I’ve kept you all posted on news. So here’s at least a piece of what’s going on:

The mainstream media is taking note of various WSOP shenanigans … CNN reports that a LAS VEGAS JUDGE has issued a temporary restraining order forbidding the Rio from paying any of the $12 million it is holding in JAMIE GOLD’S name.

Does anyone get the sense that, if anyone, it will be some lawyers getting rich off this year’s record prize?

In other news, CLONIE is doing pretty OK at the Legends of Poker as they start Day 2.

LAS VEGAS–The craziness continues to build. We’re just two weeks away from when the real carnival begins. Whatever you do, please don’t take the brown acid:

There are MARKED CARDS all over the place at the WSOP. I’ve seen them in every cash game I played. ANDY BLOCH got a 10-minute penalty at the start of the HORSE event for raising a stink about the easily dented COPAGS. Even DOYLE BRUNSON voiced his disgust — no new decks for the biggest tourney buy-in in history? — as did ANNIE DUKE.

Click here to follow the action today, as they get to a final table, and maybe a winner. DOYLE is still alive, along with many other big names. ROBERT WILLIAMSON is the lone DALLAS guy.

In the big $50k HORSE event, RODEEN TALEBI learns that prayer is not always the best strategy.

TEXAS DOLLY seems to be a little on edge (with HARRAH’S?). He reportedly was also screaming (several days ago) at a diminutive bathroom-attendant lady who wouldn’t let him use the indoor men’s room — holding up his crutch while balking at her suggestion that he walk the 200 yards to the outdoor facilities.

A scene from the MILWAUKEE’S BEST LIGHT GARAGE (which is just before the bathrooms). You can see why I don’t mind the walk.

Here is another shot.

An intelligent poker-playing attorney with GAMING INDUSTRY insight pointed out to me yesterday that the AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT could be used to defeat the GOODLATTE BILL … denying online poker could be denying certain citizens their right to comfortably play the game.

ALLYN JAFFREY SHULMAN (Barry’s wife) offers a solid explanation of legally unenforceable problems the bill faces.

Last week’s issue of CardPlayer featured DOYLE BRUNSON on the cover wearing his 10 bracelets. Brilliant idea — presumably taken from FULL TILT’s ad campaign launched about a month earlier. Only problem … Doyle has given nine of his away. Look closely at the cover and you will see one of those bracelets belongs to JOHNNY CHAN. And seven other were borrowed from BILLY BAXTER for the photo shoot.

THUNDER KELLER has a forum post for people to mock CardPlayer’s live coverage.

But gotta say, as much as bloggers love to hate CardPlayer this year, they really are doing a nice job getting their site back in working order. Chip counts and prize payouts and individual players are easier to follow now (wait til they start getting into the money), and the CHIP-STACK HISTORY feature is actually pretty cool.

GREG MERKOW is kicking butt in the $2,500 6-max NLHE event. GLYNN BEEBE from AUSTIN is too — showing he’s an upwardly mobile Texan that shan’t be ignored. Visors are apparently back in poker style.

HARRY DEMETRIOU has a significant open-letter outlining his BEEFS with the WSOP — and specifically why he didn’t play in the HORSE event. A $2k juice does seem a bit extreme.

Even MIKE SEXTON is (diplomatically) pointing out the important issues poker faces in its immediate future.

POKERBLUE is addressing one potential problem head-on — publicly announcing the stake that each of its players will have in each other at the main event. Wonder if FULL TILT will do the same. Their private-company money breakdown — complete with $120k “buy-ins” seems a bit “mysterious.”

I haven’t watched TV — save for a little poker on in various bars — for two weeks. From what I understand, the world may or may not be blowing up. It kinda doesn’t make sense to me, because here at the WSOP, there are tons of Arabs, Jews, Degos, Polacks, Blackies, and Bumpkins — and everyone seems to get along. Where else can you find such a diversity of people sitting around playing a game?

To the driver of the elegantly pimped ROLLS ROYCE parked in PHIL IVEY’S spot … your alarm is going off. It may or may not have something to do with a certain BLOGGER trying to look inside.

My personal LAS VEGAS/WSOP roller coaster bankroll-impact log. (Current.)

JUSTIN WEST writes a great recap of day 1 of the HORSE event. He’s an out-of-nowhere aspiring ANDY GLAZER with a refreshingly real voice, and he’s got solid blogger chops whether he wants to admit it or not.

A little more than two years ago, ANDY GLAZER committed suicide. It took a while for the poker world to admit as much publicly. The game seems past the point where sugar-coating was the standard. (Andy would have wanted it that way, right?)

Frightening resemblance: JUSTIN and MIKE PAULLE.

JENNIFER TILLY has been good to poker — credit her for significantly improving the hotness of women in the ladies event (and, of course, the quality of all x-chromosome play).

Her belt buckle. The bottom reads “will kick your ass!” No wonder the UNABOMBER’s in love.

LORI the DEALER may not have gotten married in Vegas, but one couple did — in the Rio poker room at the WSOP.

THE FAT GUY has re-done his website. (It was my privelige being his GUINEA PIG.) On it he brings up a really good point about the ridiculousness — and legal questionability — of a SWAT TEAM being used to bust-up a poker game.

GRUBBY has gotten a sweet gig designing slot machines.

Don’t forget to check out the Vegas Vacation recap fun at THE BATFACES.