Amazing. Didn’t think it could be done. Yet the entities at Wicked Chops keep getting better and better at this whole video talk format, and if you look/listen closely you might start to believe that they’re actually not unintelligent, uninformed, uncouth sexist, racist wankers. Clearly WCP’s marketing department must be going ape-shit over this travesty and calling for someone’s firing if “the entities” are gonna go on-air every week and disgrace the Wicked Chops brand.

For those of you who didn’t see it — or get to watch in full — here’s an hour and 40minutes of the masters of poker low-brow taking on the headier issues of the poker day … with their special guests this week Annie Duke, John Pappas, and me … joining the crew for my first ever video Skype at 53:00 if you’re short on time and have to get right to the good stuff.

Also fans of @JessWelman will wanna be sure to check out the early part of the show, where she makes her debut appearance delivering news briefs and tackling matters of poker pop culture such as Beth Shak’s forthcoming season on Miliionaire Matchmaker.

* Seriously, not sure what I kept looking at way up in the sky. Video-chat clearly adds 10 pounds.

Really you should probably tune in every week … but especially this week, as yours truly takes his talking head to a new level — joining the dudes from Wicked Chops, the PPA’s John Pappas, and Annie Duke. (I’m pretty sure I’m the Skype video-chat guy with Annie in studio.)

HR 2267 will be the topic du jour … looking forward to it for sure! Say what you will about Annie Duke (I generally do, both good or bad), but she’s one of the few big-wig pros with whom I can engage in an intelligent conversation about hefty and heady matters. The others tend to either be so caught up in their own world it’s at best a 1.25-way convo, or they say little more than what their keepers (or kept) are putting out in press releases. You don’t have time for that!

More info about today’s show here … which is also where you can pass on the questions you’d like Annie or the WCPs to theoretically address. (I’m telling you now, it’s hit or miss with me today, as I likely won’t be listening so much as I’ll be tending to my hair in the little Skype video chat square.)

Also making her debut on the show will be Jess Welman, my very favorite Poker Beat cohort who happens to be a 20something red-headed female.

Uh, hairy times … not just because Wicked Chops is making a big leap in confronting their their long-held follicular prejudices — I guess we all were a little inspired by Chesea Clinton’s wedding — but also because there’s a lot to discuss about poker, politics, online gambling, and a shifting mutibillion-dollar industry … all the stuff that matters occasionally at the very bottom of a mainstream news budget.

Should lead to some top-quality discourse and debate. Or if we’re lucky, one of us will start throwing chairs.

T.W.I.P. streams live at 4pm PT here.

Witht the June 1 enforcement deadline fast approaching, PPA Executive Director John Pappas lays out a new strategy for dodging the UIGEA:

They’re sending a petition around Congress requesting an exemption from the UIGEA for online poker and “peer-to-peer” games. Procedurally, this is similar to what got us that first six-month delay. And while it seems like a bit of a hail mary — starting off with just 22 signatures – if the PPA pulls this off it could be huge. Just guessing a bit here, but an exemption for poker, an ex post facto carveout essentially, seems like it would be a serious reversal of power akin to a middle pocket pair turning a set against an Ace-King that connected on the flop.

Haven’t spoken to anyone about this yet, but I think the big telltale sign here will be whether or not Harry Reid gets on board. He’s the guy other Dems (like my rep, Dina Titus, who recently signed on as a co-sponsor to the stalled Barney Frank bill) often look to for direction. Supposedly the rumors we’ve been spreading about his support for online gambling (and a possible poker-only bill) have been “greatly exaggerated”. And if you recall, his longtime big supporters at the American Gaming Association want more online gambling for sure, but only after this June 1 D-day passes.

Some pokery political types are in London right now for the International Gaming Expo. Figure out for yourself why there might be foreign interest in the likes of the Poker Players Alliance, right as this bill gets ready to go into “mark-up”. Our pal J. Todd is there and he tracks down PPA Exec. Dir. John Pappas to talk about the 2010 Barney Frank bill, what’s the strategy behind it, and what makes it different from previous online poker legislation.

It’s apparently all gonna be twitter-based this go-round — www.tweetforpoker.com.

Good interview helping mak sense of it all:

The Inside Deal makes its to its second season on ESPN.com with Joe Cada and John Pappas appearing on the show.

The PPA is giving a heads-up that they’ll be needing your help in coming weeks. Apparently, Barney Frank’s HR 2267 will be coming for a committee mark-up vote.

If I remember correctly, mark-up is where the committee votes yay or nay on moving the bill forward, but everyone, regardless of how they’re voting, gets to pipe in with what elements they’ll need to see in it to vote for it on the floor. So you know, maybe some sorta protection for the kids has to be included, or money for the Indians … that kinda thing.

Here’s PPA honcho John Pappas letting you know that anti-anti-poker legislation — a licensing and regulating bill — is indeed moving forward in 2010:

Here’s this week’s episode, discussing the delay of the UIGEA, an interview with John Pappas of the PPA and other stuff. Parts 2 and 3 appear on the next page.

More…

That’s what we wanna know … do you think this UIGEA enforcement deadline is gonna pass with out much ado? Efforts to delay this by a year seems to be the current push … though that’s essentially running it through the executive branch … a lotta different interests in play there. And, of course, Congress is still in session … do you see any chance that anyone can close the deal through legislative means? Barney?

Here’s the PPA ED John Pappas giving a little more insight on what this date means to the folks in Washington DC, and what the PPA is doing to fight it. But damn, with the clock having been called, will it be enough?

Don’t forget to vote — right over there, on your right. I mean sheeyot, if you can’t click a button a couple inches away … then maybe we’re due to get exactly what we deserve?

Look for tells on Pappas’ face for any reads on how he might really see the situation.

You can see how the debate over online poker regulation is getting more sophisticated. (And it makes a fun subplot during these times of health care debate.) While our side has effectively taken the argument away from our opponents about needing to protect children and potential addicts (and John Pappas’ TV skillz have gotten more polished), Les Bernal of Stop Predatory Gambling is now claiming the online poker model is unsustainable because it relies on 10 percent losing players to profit. (I think Full Tilt and PokerStars would respectfully disagree.)

While the opposition argument may be one of those frustrating argghs from someone who clearly just doesn’t get it — poker profits are based on rake, not degenerates who can’t afford their next buy-in — you can see we are moving to that next necessary phase of poker enlightenment, which is separating poker from other forms of gambling.

Congressional staffers hold the keys to Representative doorways, and one of the first steps this week was educating these gatekeepers on WTF we’re talking about. Not the issues at hand per se — yay personal freedom and taxation! — but the logistics of regulating the pokery brand of internet commerce (while protecting players and children, keeping addiction in check, generating tax revenue, etc.).

Joining Annie Duke and PPA Exec. Dir. John Pappas for the panel discussion — attended by some 50 or so congressional staffers — were:

· Dr. Parry Aftab, Executive Director, Wired Safety (www.wiredsafety.org)
· Stuart Dross, Vice President, Cigital (www.cigital.com)
· Paul Mathews, independent consultant, former executive with International Game Technology

On Thursday, The Minnesota Department of Public Safety decided it was dropping its attempt to force ISPs to block several online gambling sites to Minnesota residents. The PPA press release can be found below.

UPDATE: Not so fast, my friend. Apparently, the Minnesota DPS hasn’t officially dropped its effort, but its expected to happen by early next week, stay tuned for further updates.

More…

Leftover but good-for-viewing vid … PPA Executive Director John Pappas on CNBC … not just speaking on behalf of the latest Barney Frank legislation, but establishing the baseline for where discussion on these matters begins … it’s good to see the mainstream Wall Street press at least understanding the basics so they won’t have to waste their time filtering through the first line of crap the opposition throws their way:

via Wicked Chops.

Also … more online poker issues being laid out for the non-poker public in ESPN: The Magazine. And the Washington Post is letting people know that the American masses have spoken — directly to Barack Obama — and they want two things to get this country back on track: legal pot and legal online poker money transfers.

Thanks, Huff, for the latter link.

The PPA just put out a statement, regarding actions yesterday in Kentucky that shows the Governor has no intention of backing down on his desire to seize control of 141 gambling-related internet domains located outside of Kentucky, and America for that matter. Yee-haw! I’m tellin’ ya … it’s off to the Supreme Court we go on the way-bigger-than-poker issues in play here.

(Anyone wanna agree on a bet over the internet and transfer funds via PayPal?)

Though I’m not totally sure, I think Kentucky higher courts work like volleyball, or tennis after deuce. If you can win two points in a row, you win outright. The state of Kentucky won the first case, and had we lost our first appeal, we’d be dead. But we won … so now it’s their serve, and if we win that — the appeal to the appeal — I think then they can go no higher (can someone confirm this?). But if they win, then we can appeal to the state Supreme Court, yadda yadda.

Anyhow, John Pappas taunting Kentucky gov. Steve Beshear — reminding him he has an election in the not-too-distant future, and a plausibly disgruntled citizenry to answer to:

PPA Statement on Commonwealth of Kentucky Appeal of Domain Name Seizure Ruling

WASHINGTON, DC. (January 21, 2009) – John Pappas, executive director of the Poker Players Alliance (PPA), the leading poker grassroots advocacy group with more than one million members nationwide, today issued the following statement regarding the appeal filed by the Commonwealth of Kentucky in light of yesterday’s ruling by the state court of appeals overturning a lower court decision allowing the Commonwealth to seize Internet gambling domain names.

“Kentucky residents should be outraged that the Commonwealth is investing another minute of time and another dollar of scarce resources in this quixotic case. The appeals court’s sound rejection of the Commonwealth’s case should have ended this legal debacle in its tracks. Unfortunately, the Governor and the hired-gun attorneys want to drag their ultimate defeat to another venue at the expense of Internet freedom and the rights of law-abiding Kentucky poker players.”

A copy of the Commonwealth’s appeal can be found at www.pokerplayersalliance.org.

BTW, for those in need of a lexicographic refresher, here’s a definition of “quixotic”.

I recently discovered some new tricks on YouTube, so … In what is sure to be as critically acclaimed as Lucky You, here’s a glimpse of the American political system in action, as seen at a semi-private PPA get-together on Day 1B of the 2008 WSOP main event (July 4th) … where a poker activist braintrust confabbed down the hall, in the Palazzo Suites, about Beltway procedure and parliamentary strategy moving forward:

(click twice for bigger)

A moving and dramatic civics lesson, to be sure. Starring Al D’Amato, Howard Lederer, and Annie Duke. Special appearances by Phil Hellmuth and Jeffrey Pollack as The Commish.

For those that want to get an early jump on Monday’s story in the Washington Post about attempting to legalize online gambling, preferably poker, it’s now available here.