Pardon me while I work on posting here at Pokerati, but here’s UB’s long-awaited press release:

ULTIMATEBET ISSUES STATEMENT REGARDING UNFAIR PLAY
MONTREAL, CANADA (MAY 29, 2008) — Tokwiro Enterprises ENRG (”Tokwiro”), proprietors of UltimateBet.com (”UltimateBet”), one of the world’s largest online card rooms, today announced the results of its lengthy investigation into allegations of unfair play, which was triggered by concerns about an account named ‘NioNio’. Tokwiro has worked diligently in cooperation with its regulatory body, the Kahnawake Gaming Commission (”KGC”), and with independent third-party experts to conduct a thorough investigation that included a comprehensive review of hand histories and game data, thorough analyses of software and network security, and audits of its security practices and procedures.
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It has been reported (and noted by Kajagugu) that Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy signed with UltimateBet to join its roster of pro players.

The interesting thing here is that most sites release a statement about new signings with a quote from the player. I’m so excited to be a part of this team, or something generic like that. But in this case, the only statement released was from Annie Duke: “A Star Player is one who has an undisputed high level of skill, lots of integrity, and is well respected in the world of online poker. One look at his impressive record reveals that JohnnyBax epitomizes a Star Player and is the perfect addition to our roster of respected and talented poker players.”

Strange that Cliff has nothing glowing to say about UB yet.

Even stranger that Cliff would sign with UB right now. RIGHT NOW. With bloggers calling them out, forum posters in a tizzy, and the poker community as a whole awaiting a non-forthcoming and much-delayed response to the cheating scandal, he signs a deal with the site.

*shaking my head*

UPDATE: Cliff did post the following on 2+2:

“Please understand that I would not sign with UB if I was not confident in current management. My signing with UB is contingent upon a satisfactory resolution of the “superuser” issue. I am hopeful a press release detailing the entire situation goes out shortly, players are reimbursed and satisfied, and UB can move forward and give players what they want.”

Yesterday, Short-Stacked Shamus took us to the quarterfinals of the 64-player Full Tilt Poker tournament.

Later in the evening, it was determined that the four players going to the semifinals would be:

David Singer v. Brian Hastings
Andy Bloch v. whitelime (Emil Patel)

When players returned to the action today, the matches were slow but solid. Patel took control of his match with Bloch and applied pressure until he took it down. Singer dominated Hastings throughout their match and finally claimed victory. That meant that the final round was:

David Singer v. whitelime (Emil Patel)

Both players started with 160K in chips and played 12-minute levels, beginning with a 75 ante and blinds at 300-600. (It was actually interesting to watch the virtual match with a little virtual audience in the background.) Singer jumped out to an early lead and never allowed Patel to gain any ground. In the end, Singer took it with pocket 8’s over Patel’s 10-3 off.

Final payouts:

1st - David Singer $560,000
2nd - Emil Patel $320,000
3rd - Brian Hastings $168,000
4th - Andy Bloch $168,000
5th - Patrik Antonius $96,000
6th - Dani Stern $96,000
7th - mischiefofmagic $96,000 (won a $535 satellite to enter)
8th - mastrblastr

Don’t you hate it when you come up with a great idea, and as you’re making it a reality, you realize that someone else is doing it at the same time? Doh.

Enter Bodog and Full Tilt. Though Bodog seems to have officially announced first, Full Tilt was probably writing its press release as it happened. Both sites are hosting Mini-SOP’s with tournaments that mimic the World Series of Poker at the Rio in Las Vegas, only with buy-ins at 1% of the cost. Both sets of tournaments begin on May 30, the day that the actual WSOP kicks off.

The Bodog Poker Mini-SOP will feature all 25 hold’em events at 1% of the buy-in with three seats awarded to the 2009 WSOP main event at the end of the 2008 Mini-SOP. The series will run from May 30 to July 3.

The Full Tilt Poker Mini Series of Poker will actually feature 54 events, with all corresponding to actual WSOP events except the ladies and seniors events which are converted to open events, and the casino employees event which is nixed. The tournaments will run from May 30 to July 5 and give away one seat to the 2009 WSOP main event.

As you can see, the differences between the two tournament series are huge!

Regardless, both are great opportunities to play online WSOP-light events and take advantage of the many satellite opportunities to get in cheap. Check out Bodog and Full Tilt for all of the details.

After three rounds and nearly six-and-a-half hours of play, they’ve made it to the money, having played from 64 down to 8 in the Full Tilt Poker $25,000 Heads-Up Challenge. Three Full Tilt pros are still alive. Here are the quarterfinal match-ups:

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

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

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

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

Had a pleasant chat with PPA boss John Pappas yesterday about the state of poker legislation. “We have a new website!” he says. OK, that quote’s semi-made up, but he definitely wanted to pimp the Poker Players Alliance’s new forums, benefit packages, and webtronic goodies. Yeah, yeah, website uh-huh … I didn’t tell him that I get most of my PPA on MySpace, where they share rank with Ed, The Poker Atlas, and RawVegas TV.*

Anyhow, in hearing about what they’re trying to achieve, I came to realize just how much progress the PPA has made. There are currently five bills pending in Congress specific to our issue. You can say all you want about the “special interests” … but that’s what we are. And frankly a rather small one in the Beltway schema. Yet those five bills come with 98 unique sponsors — meaning nearly a quarter of the House of Representatives are more than familiar with poker causes and have affirmatively declared themselves on our side. That’s pretty impressive progress over the course of 18 months.

With that said, Pappas doesn’t necessarily expect to see a legally enforceable undoing of the UIGEA this year. Nor do I, nor does Lavigne in Austin, nor does anyone actively working toward that goal. This being a presidential election year, with so many big big issues in play and seats at stake, Congress just isn’t gonna get around to making the world safe for online poker in ‘08. I could be wrong on this — and hope I am — but I’m not. Fortunately the PPA leadership and lobbyists seem to recognize that hoping is seldom a good strategy … and while there’s always a chance poker could hit a political miracle on the turn and river, the PPA should shove all-in! what’s important now for the PPA is putting us in a position to succeed in 2009, when table conditions are sure to have changed.

* Pauly, dude, when are you gonna get on MySpace?

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

A few interesting tidbits:

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

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

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

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

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

James in Dallas sends along a link to some talk going on among not-so-pokery programmer types about how to build a poker bot. (I sent a reply to the Craigslist ad — using a different email address even — but for some reason those poker-bot hawkers haven’t yet replied.)

Anyhow, the code monkeys have been chirping about details for nearly two years, and now, perhaps like scientists working on the Manhattan Project, some are showing their work:

Poker bots, underground online poker boiler rooms, and collusion are a reality. That doesn’t mean online poker’s not worth playing, just that it pays to be educated about what’s possible. Furthermore, there should be public discussion regarding what to do about it because one thing’s certain: computers and programming languages aren’t exactly going to be getting less powerful. The rise of the poker bots is a virtual certainty. I’d like to see the major online poker venues open up their famously vague “bot detection” and “anti-collusion” strategies to public scrutiny, as cryptography and security providers learned to do years ago. The best security algorithms and techniques all have the weight of public review behind them and I don’t see how online poker’s any different.

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…

Four years ago today — on the glorious holiday that is 4-20 — Pokerati went live. Our first post was about a new online poker site that also just went live called Full Tilt. Prediction at the time: “I suspect this site will fare well.”

Boo-yah! Right on target … that’s how prescient Pokerati can be! Granted, we also said the online poker room market was also probably saturated in April 2004 … hey, you can’t hit a home run every time, right?

We’ve gone through lots of changes over the years, and more TK for sure. Personally, I can’t believe I’ve stuck to anything for four years … but it’s amazing what the burning desire to not work ever will do for you. Anyhow, thanks for reading us once or twice during that time. Kiss off, I don’t need you! We couldn’t have done it without you. So thanks again, happy blog-birthday to me. Maybe next year Full Tilt and Pokerati should have their party together.

In this week’s episode:

There’s No Cheating in Online Poker!
Now that we have your attention…
We thought that we should let ya know that some companies are boldly selling poker bot software for under $200, claiming big returns on your investment! Good luck with that! =0)

Our Tribute to the FBI…
We just LOVE the FBI…
I mean, why wouldn’t we love the FBI? They give us so much free comedy material that we would otherwise have to write for ourselves! God bless those brave men and women fighting the tyranny of online gambling!

Washington State to be a Battleground… Again…
The War Rages on…
First, it was J Todd battling the State Gambling Commission over his websites in 2006. Then our friend Nick Jenkins was actually arrested and charged with online gambling in 2007. Now, in early 2008, Attorney and poker player Lee Rousso is challenging the State’s online gambling ban in court!

Troy in Las Vegas writes in with a question about bankroll management that I’m going to attempt to answer: (Stop laughing.)

Dan,

I have a quick question for you… in your opinion what is the best for me to do w/no bank roll…. just able to spend about 200-300 every other week…

a. small (50-60) buy in tournys

b. play one larger tourney (say the venitian) once every two weeks

c. invest my 200 in a ring game some where

or d. none of the above and save my cash til i get enough

if the answer is d…. what is “enough” to play? I have a VERY hard time not playing, but, have been on the roller coaster of up down small amounts til i get felted in cash games (can’t seem to stay away from getting my money in w/the best and not fairing well…. or… when i do well in one session i don’t do well in the next two and get felted)

Just wondering your opinion… thanks!

Troy, you pose an interesting question, because I suspect a lot of folks are in your position, where they have money to spend on poker, but they don’t have a real bankroll. We all hear that you should have $2-3k to play 1/2 — and it doesn’t take long playing to realize those numbers might not be a load of shit — but how many 1/2 players actually have a few thousand bucks in a non-interest bearing poker account?

More…

In this week’s episode:

Congressional Hearings on UIGEA…
Barney Frank Heads to the Hill…
We all know our friend Barney Frank isn’t shy about speaking his mind, calling UIGEA the “stupidest”law ever passed. Now, he’s taking his straight talk about the law before Congressional Committees on the issue. See what was said!

Coverage of the Amsterdam Conference…
Reporting from Amsterdam!
We’re hear and we’re causing trouble! See our exclusive report from the Casino Affiliate Convention, and where J. Todd has been having to spend the night!

Microsoft, we know, likes to fight … and the company fired their first shot against cheaters in their online Xbox Live community by conducting a little neighborhood sweep. They aren’t banning players, but instead dropping their player points down to zero and marking their profiles with the digital equivalent of a scarlet C. Not sure how that would work in poker … but it shows the relevance of poker issues in a non-poker world, and perhaps suggests some potential allies who have an interest our fights. Online gam(bl)ing and online gaming, after all, aren’t that far apart.

Online video game competitions for money are already in play — the Fifa Interactive World Cup, for example, awards $20k to the winner. And the shoot-em-up game Kwari has started offering real-money competition, where you win cash for kills and the house takes its cut by charging you for ammo. Bullets, chips … tomato, D’amato … Seriously, how familiar does this sound:

More…

Bots, colluders, super-user accounts … all things online poker players need to be wary of … and now, according to a presumably well-respected tech site, we also need to be afraid of Trojans. The claim is that poker players have been ripped off for millions of Euros:

“Online poker players are a massive target for hackers. People play it with real money obviously, so they’re a big target. We were just investigating a case where a professional online poker player was attacked by someone he would play against regularly online. And we’re talking about professional players, and big money. Hundreds of thousands of euros on the table at a time,” he said.

“All of a sudden he started losing. He would regularly lose even when he had a great hand – pocket aces for example. If he had an unbeatable hand, the other players would simply fold. And when he tried to bluff, he would lose. He lost a lot of money this way, we’re talking hundreds of thousands of euros.

“This went on for weeks. And when we looked into it we realised that one of the other players at the table had sent him a tool. A calculater to help optimise the poker playing or whatever. And we found that the application included a Trojan.

“Which means that when he was playing online poker against these people who were in another country, the guy could press a button and he would receive a screenshot of the target’s screen. So he sees the hold cards. If you’re playing poker and the other players know your cards, it’s pretty hard to win.

“It’s a clever attack because the hacker could have just stolen the account and moved the money away. But he would have been caught. But this way the target was losing his money to someone else and he didn’t realise it was a con. I don’t think many online poker players realise that those kind of attacks are being done.”

I’m not sure if this article is a good warning or just anti-online poker propaganda. It brings to light a case where online poker was apparently used to launder money to fund insurgents fighting against Americans in Iraq. Yikes.

Sorel Mizzi, courtesy of Betfair

Back in November of 2007, it was reported here and here and here that online pro Sorel Mizzi bought an account from ex-Bluff editor Chris Vaughn midway through a tournament and proceeded to win under Chris’ name.

The sordid details proved that they cheated, lied about it, got banned from Full Tilt, and finally owned up to it. Chris was fired from Bluff, and Sorel went on playing poker on various online poker sites and in live tournaments.

In February, Betfair signed a sponsorship deal with Sorel. Huh? A known cheater who was banned from one of the biggest online sites in the world signed to endorse another online site?

Evidently, Sorel is sorry. He claims to have learned a lesson and writes about it in a recent blog post on Betfair.

You be the judge.

Jonathan Little’s most recent accomplishment was making the “Elite 8″ in the NBC Heads-Up Championship, scoring a $75k payday before being slapped by eventual winner and Full Tilt honcho Chris Ferguson.

While account-sharing is hardly the worst offense when it comes to poker ethics, it is in violation of Full Tilt T&C’s for their pros. So Little, who’s FT stock was on the rise, is now out. Stupid kid Yo, bummer dude.

Confirmed by Full Tilt here.

When a player on Full Tilt Poker plays against and chats with a red pro on the site, it is imperative that they be able to trust that it is really the advertised pro playing the account. Given that Mr. Little violated that trust, we have decided to sever his ties to the site, and close his account.

The first well-known pro to get busted for online account-sharing was Phil Hellmuth (outed here, and confronted about it here).

After that, Howard Lederer reportedly sent out a memo to all the Full Tilt pros letting them know that if they ever did something similar, they would be canned immediately. Little wasn’t part of the team when that went down, so maybe he didn’t embrace the seriousness that Full Tilt places on its integrity. Gotta wonder if these sorts of indiscretions will occur more regularly as Full Tilt continues to sign up more and more pros. Also wonder how long Little’s FT page will stay up online.

Brick-and-mortar tournament success here.

Check it out, in this picture … what two very unusual things do you notice about Tom?

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I rarely post hand histories, but this one is just too good. I am curious what people think of my move on the flop? The set-up: we are on the bubble in last night’s Sunday Million on Pokerstars, and I am sitting in pretty good shape in the top 40 in chips with 487 left (486 get paid) when I am dealt KT suited, aka the ‘new John Brown’. One other somewhat criticalish piece of info (and as a result of playing a PL Omaha game simultaneously) when I made my move I did not realize that ‘2A472′ was in the pot.

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Lou Krieger mentioned this, and I just checked it out and bookmarked it.

iPokerCal is a new website that lists all things poker - internet tournaments, live tournaments and events, and televised poker. It looks to be a comprehensive listing of everything going on in the poker biz, including a page of poker room reviews that will surely be growing as the site expands.

Players have spoken and Steve Lipscomb has apparently listened. As the WPT tries to recover from the fiscal beating it’s taken for the last couple years of generally crappy programming ratings at a time when High Stakes Poker was just finding its stride and the online poker world was in a tailspin … (why did the PPT collapse again? Those shows were great!) … a simple adjustment to a Berman-Lipscomb-Corp. policy stands to put a little more money into players’ pockets. An email sent out a month ago:

Dear WPT Player,

This is a quick email to announce that we are revising the rules for WPT Final Table Player Sponsorship. In previous seasons, pre-approved sponsors were required to send WPT a list of their players prior to the start of each event. If one of the listed players made the Main Event Final Table, the Player would be able to wear the sponsor’s pre-approved logo. No other logos were accepted for that player.

NEW RULES TO WEAR A LOGO:

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A series of deep-stack tourneys just kicked off over at the Venetian yesterday — $300, $500, $1,000 buy-ins and the like — the 2008 Deep Stack Extravaganza I. It was apparently a pretty big deal … I heard two reports — one saying 600 people with 200 alternates. The other claiming 550 players, and yeah, um, lots of alternates it was crazy! I couldn’t make it, however, because I was engaged in an important face-to-face with the Axis of Evil and poker’s hottest new celebrity dictator, Kim Jong Il:

Apparently the North Korean leader was in town to denounce American political sanctions and play $1/$3 No Limit Hold’em at the Rio.

More…

In this week’s episode:

The United Kingdom, where they LOVE this industry…

Better late than never, right? Sorry it’s taken a few days to send a “simple” email, but this time difference has been kicking my bum, as they say… =0)

Well this weeks show is here, and it is the first APCW show brought to you from two continents! Watch J.Todd’s race to London as it unfolds!

China, where they LOVE TO HATE this industry…

What are they doing now? We know they are not the greatest when it comes to human rights, and that intolerance extends to online gaming as well, where this industry is viewed as “undesirable”.

Hope the US Government is proud to emulate one of the most repressive nations in history when it comes to playing online poker.

Finland, where they have NO CLUE about our industry…

Imagine that you’re sitting at home… and you get a letter from the government of Finland! They say you owe one of their citizens money because you beat them in online poker!

Don’t laugh! This is real! And the government in Finland wants to allow players there to recoup losses from other players, credit card companies, and online gaming sites!

Now Ultimate Bet, sister site to Absolute Poker, is under intense scrutiny from the intelligentsia at 2+2 … who seem to be looking — and finding — semi-mathematical proof of another “superuser” account. (Thanks, Enrique, for the heads-up.) Click above to read the thread.

At first it appeared that UB Pro Phil Hellmuth was already speaking out on the matter — but emails supposedly from Hellmuth were quickly discovered to be a hoax. However … that has since led to a real, unofficial response from Phil, shared second-hand from a presumably respectable poster named trambopoline:

Anyways after tracking down Phil at the tables I finally got a hold of him, this time for real. I just got off the phone wiht him after speaking with him for well over an hour. He informed me that he understands I made an honest mistake and totally forgives me, and even informed me to post that he said so. We went over the accounts in question and I got to say, he was very suspicous to say the least. . He informed me that UB has already started an investigation and that info should be released within the next few weeks.

Hmmm … developing …

The Kahnawa:ke Gaming Commission has concluded its investigation into malfeasance at Absolute Poker.

Click here to read the whole thing.

The main conclusions:

1. Beginning on August 14 and continuing for six weeks, various accounts were used to view hole cards, and the person(s) responsible have been removed from any role at AP.
2. After the activities took place, person(s) associated with AP operations deleted records and gaming logs to hamper the investigation.
3. No evidence shows that AP sanctioned or initiated the activities.
4. Principles of AP failed to contact the Kahnawa:ke Gaming Commission within 24 hours of becoming aware.
5. AP reimbursed all players with interest, but anyone who still wishes to make a claim can do so within 60 days of this report.
6. AP has taken appropriate actions to address the “vulnerability in its systems” to prevent this from happening again.

Sanctions against Absolute:

1. AP operations will be subject to random audits of logs and records over the next two years, the costs of which will be paid by AP. The site must also implement a continuous compliance program, and any person(s) responsible for any part of the cheating scandal must be removed from any role at AP, which the Commission feels has been done.
2. AP must pay a fine to the Commission of $500,000 due within 60 days.
3. AP must give a security deposit to the Commission to be held for two years which may be used to offset the cost of any future breaches of rules, laws, and regulations.
4. AP must pay the Commission for all costs incurred through the investigation, including the audit.

Finally, there is a resolution to this matter.

More…

Radley Balko, one of my favorite poker-friendly non-poker provocateurs, is on the radio right now — ESPN 970 am in Las Vegas — talking about poker, online poker, internet gambling, the UIGEA, and presumably how it all ties into other pressing issues that will (or should) be on voters’ minds in 2008.

NOTE: I can’t seem to listen to the station online. “New-to-Vegas,” I claim. Can anyone help? I thought all radio stations were online these days.

In this week’s episode:

US / EU Deal has Serious Issues…

There are some in the European Union who are not at all happy with last week’s announcement of a deal to compensation over the online gambling ban. In fact, it looks like the US may have even mislead the EU on what the deal was about

This could help our industry stay on life support a bit longer… and we’re not dead yet!

Antigua gets $21 Million and Piracy Rights…

The World Trade Organization has decided to allow Antigua to recover $21 million in damages by violating US copyrighted products, just like the APCW predicted in November of 2006!

Antigua was asking for $3.4 billion, and the award is well below that. So can a measly $21 million make a difference at all? Maybe…

Germans Give EU the Finger…
Germany has decided to ban internet gambling as of January 1st, 2008. They say that they have to protect their monopoly, and they expect the EU Court of Justice to come after them… and they don’t care.

More…

In this week’s episode:

The EU Cuts & Runs with a $100 Billion Deal…
The European Union’s $100 Billion compensatory claim against the US over the online gambling ban was a great source of hope for many online gamers. It is no more. This week, the EU reached an agreement with the American government that will allow the UIGEA to go unchallenged by the Europeans, thus preserving the ban on internet gambling and the potential for a future US monopoly of the industry within it’s borders.

So what do Americans do now???
Although losing the potential leverage of the EU is a tremendous setback, we still have five additional things working in our favor. What are these five powerful forces that could still get online gambling back to the US in the near future? Watch and see!

Perspectives Now! Live Radio Call-in Show…
The APCW hosts Perspectives Now on Rounder’s Radio every Tuesday night! Rounder’s Radio is dedicated to poker talk and industry news, and our show is live every Tuesday night at 10pm eastern. Listen live and call in!

Following a pattern established by arena faves Frampton, Kiss, and Cheap Trick, this episode of Beyond the Table captures the group in a rare live performance. With no edits, overdubs, or other studio gimmickry, “Live and Otherwise” finds BTT returning to its off-the-cuff, improvisational roots.

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

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

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

While bills to undo the UIGEA are picking up steam, the Treasury Department is still trying to figure out how to enforce it. And they have to decide on Wednesday if one proposed system of blocking financial transactions will work. Thus, click below to see the letter I just sent out in opposition (with a little help from the PPA). If you would like to do something similar — you have to do it pretty much in the next 24 hours — click here (and scroll down toward the bottom) for instructions on doing your non-lazy-poker-player patriotic duty as an American citizen opposed to bad, non-sensical regulations, policy, and law.

More…

Per the Bluff Media website, Chris Vaughn has been fired from his position as the Bluff Magazine’s Managing Editor due to his role in the Full Tilt cheating scandal with online pro Sorel Mizzi.

Bluff Media, publisher of Bluff Magazine, has made the decision to terminate Chris Vaughn as Managing Editor. In light of Chris’ involvement, recently admitted facts and the feedback obtained from industry professionals, it became apparent that the credibility required to perform the job functions of Managing Editor of Bluff Magazine at our company’s level of standards have become severely diminished. While we regret having to make this decision, we believe that it is the best alternative for all parties involved, including Chris, Bluff Media and the poker playing community at large. We wish Chris the best of luck.

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.

Sorel Mizzi

Chris “BluffMagCV” Vaughn, managing editor for Bluff, and online pro Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi have finally spoken out on the cheating incident on Full Tilt Poker.

They did an interview with PokerNews that was published in two parts: Part 1 described how Vaughn sold his account to Mizzi when he made it to the final three tables, and Part 2 is filled with apologies and regrets from both players.

Highlights (or lowlights, if you will):

• Both players have been banned from ever playing on Full Tilt Poker again.
• Vaughn admits to brazenly lying to Haralabos Voulgaris on the Big Poker Sundays radio program when asked about ghosting – allowing a backer to play for him.
• Bluff is displeased with Vaughn’s actions but will not fire him, only put him on probation.
• Vaughn and Mizzi are sorry.

The Absolute Poker scandal should have been enough. It remains unresolved, though most of the details of the cheating have been made clear, and the poker public still awaits the conclusion of the audit.

Back in early October, there was another mini-scandal on PokerStars. The winner of the WCOOP main event — the largest online poker tournament in history — was disqualified, and “TheV0id” was stripped of his title and $1,378,311 in winnings.

And we have another.

This time the allegations of nefarious online play revolve around Bluff Magazine’s managing editor Chris Vaughn. On 10/21, he took down the $1 Million Guarantee tournament on Full Tilt Poker for $197,984. The following Sunday, he won the Sunday Million tournament on PokerStars for $240,633. Well, it seems the first one didn’t stick.

According to the second place finisher in the Full Tilt event, Soren “Kongsgaard” Kongsgaard, he received an e-mail from FTP stating that Chris - screen name “BluffMagCV” - had been disqualified and “Kongsgaard” was awarded first place money.

Reportedly, though unconfirmed at this point, Chris’ backer, Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi, took over at some point in the tournament and played the remainder of it for him. Chris and Sorel have now been banned from Full Tilt. More details can be found on Sorel’s blog, though it’s not clear who is writing the posts.

Interestingly, Chris was just interviewed on 11/18 by Scott Huff and Haralabos Voulgaris on Big Poker Sundays, a radio show on PokerRoad.com. Haralabos asked him if he’s ever been accused of ghosting, where a person’s backer plays for them, and Chris said, “I’ve been accused of that. I think it’s going to come with the territory when someone relatively unknown wins two in a row… But as far as having someone take over, that’s ridiculous.”

I haven’t played much at PokerStars in a long while … I dunno, I guess I ran out of money on that account last spring — brutal pot-limit heads-up against Gonz — and just stopped playing because I didn’t wanna go through whatever new process to get money back online. But i just got an email from our good friends at Stars, telling me there’s a new way to transfer funds directly to and from your American bank.

Hmm, interesting. At least if it’s anything new it is:

Dear RiverDan72 ,

Instant eChecks is a great deposit option which allows you to make safe and secure electronic fund transfers (EFT), directly from your bank account to your PokerStars account.

eChecks allow you to load your account instantly, (providing you have no past negative eCheck history), so you can hit the tables and get in the game in no time at all!

You may deposit funds into your PokerStars account using eChecks at any time. Simply click on the Instant eChecks icon in the PokerStars Cashier to make a deposit.

If you have any questions about eChecks, please feel free to contact us at cashier@pokerstars.com.

Regards,
The PokerStars Team

Evidently, MTV is seeking online poker players for a reality/documentary series to air on the network. “True Life” is a series that has been running since 1998, featuring stories on everything from interfaith relationships to drug addictions to wannabe superstars.

In the producer’s quest for online players, the company posted a request on the 2+2 forums looking for online players ranging from 18-28 who lead interesting lives.

Ummm, can you imagine the kinds of responses they’re getting?

Well, everyone wants their 15 minutes of fame. If you’re not a world-famous poker pro, this might be your chance.

Business Week is reporting that Harrah’s may be shopping around to acquire an online poker site in the U.K. How awesome for poker would that be? Imagine if Harrah’s owned an online poker site and players from all over the world (except the US of course) could qualify for the WSOP online. I’d take over 10,000 entrants for the next WSOP for any amount you can count.

Interesting article out of Australia about the development of bots at the online poker tables. (via Live Action Poker.)

While this “threat” is real … the truth is bot-prejudice is already taking root in the non-poker world. Think how much you hate it when an automated voice calls you on the phone — guess what, that’s a bot, too. So how these non-human entities get regulated in poker would set some semblance of a precedent for how the non-poker world eventually has to deal with them.

More proof that politics is way more about money than morals … Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick is pushing for three resort casinos in his state. You would think we might say that’s a good thing — especially for Gonz. However, let’s hope it doesn’t pass … because buried deep inside the legislative initiative is a provision that would make it a serious crime to place a bet online.

If it does pass as-is, playing poker online would be punishable by two years in jail and a $25,000 fine. Rep. Barney Frank isn’t happy, because that’s a rake you just can’t beat!

What rubs me a little raw here is the short-sighted ignorance of politicians (and others) who don’t see how online gambling — at least as it applies to poker — actually helps feed their brick-and-mortar interests. I mean that’s just looking at the bucks and bolts of it. Forget about the morally offensive nature of criminalizing any solo activity perpetrated in one’s private bedroom.

What the people who care less about online poker and casinos for the people of Boston should be concerned about is yet another attempt to put laws into play that will ultimately require an internet police force to be set up to patrol our computer screens.

Let’s focus, political people: “Sensible government” is what the voters want to see in 2008! And when the PPA is siding with anti-gambling advocates, you know something doesn’t add up.

It’s been a long time since I posted an online hand history, but if we can’t celebrate this one, then really … why are we here?

(Props to Robert Goldfarb on how I played it to maximize my return.)

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