photo: Jen Browning

Shame on me. On August 5, I was wishing the best to my good friends at PartyPoker, who turned 7 years old last week. But I forgot about Pauly – a presumably better friend and fellow blogger and my personal podcast partner and guy whom I speak with regularly and read sometimes as much — whose poker blog, Tao of Poker, celebrated its 5th birthday on that very same day.

(Yeow Yao, sorry dude, I’m not too good with birthdays unless MySpace reminders are involved.) But yo, happy B-day, man … and thanks for all the weed inspiration, ass-kickings, and entertainment you’ve provided all these years.

While I don’t think any of the poker-blogging “old dogs” ever thought when they started that they’d still be around after five — we gotta still be in single digits for the electronic scribes in this niche who have reached that milestone — I’m sure now his fear is that he will still be around when Tao turns 15.

UPDATE: Also happy birthdays to Jennicide (Aug. 10) and Marco Traniello (Aug. 14).

For the 36 40 percent of our readers who happen to be non-American, we probably don’t do enough to keep you up-to-date on the goings-on of our good mates at PartyPoker. Their stock seems fine (at least better than the WPT’s) though it’s a bit of a dumb-count — the price recently skyrocketed due to a reverse split. Anyhow, our favorite site based in Gibraltar is celebrating its 7th birthday this week. Congrats! Seriously, there were at least a couple weeks in there where I wasn’t so sure you were gonna make it to 6 … but glad you guys are still around, albeit a smaller version of yourself. Miss you lots!

The annual celebration isn’t quite what it used to be, of course. Back in the day they sent thousands on a sweet cruise. This year they are splashing cash-game pots (today, with $300 every 77,777 hands), giving away PartyPoints, and inviting folks into a $7,777 freeroll. Aww … so sad/cute. It is leading up to something big, however … on Sunday Party’s having a “big” $1 million tourney — that’s a full one-third the size of the big annual tournament at WinStar this year! (Wow, think about that. Seriously. Wow.)

Anyhow … PartyPoker turns The Big 7 this week. Let’s all take a moment to reminisce and rejoice:

I continue to work the hallways and set up executive-journo shop this time outside the payouts cage — where Pauly teaches me how to figure out who’s really backing whom … but not before we get distracted by a player sponsorship deal taking shape right before our very eyes, as a PartyPoker representative exchanges pleasantries with guys who clearly love the show Entourage agents from Poker Royalty. (Nothing would become of these pre-negotiations, however, as the lone remaining PartyPoker player would go from chip leader to out in 71st place in less than a day — falling just 62 spots short of the ever-valuable final table that various poker bizzers are jockeying for a piece of.)

Episode 27: Payouts and Payoffs

Yeah, here he is … Mike Wilson, from Canada. Funny(ish) guy. Glad to see he’s still kickin’ around the WSOP.

From Pokerblog.com:

Party Player Profile: The Foot
By: Dan Michalski – August 04, 2006

Mike Wilson from Canada did not make it to Day 3, but he considers his first WSOP a success regardless. As a competitive bridge player, he’s no stranger to big national tourneys. But Texas Hold’em is relatively new to “The Foot.”

He started playing online after leaving a local casino “ticked off” — not just because they wouldn’t accomodate his special needs, but because, he says, they were jerks about it in the process. So he signed up with PartyPoker because he just wanted to play the game like everyone else. After playing online for less than a week, he won a 3,500-player Party freeroll and a seat in the main event at the WSOP.

(Harrah’s, by the way, was accommodating, allowing him to have a friend sit nearby simply to help him push in big stacks of chips when necessary, and restack them when he won a pot.)

As mentioned, Wilson’s been eliminated. But he’s still in Vegas and can likely be found rolling the dice at a nearby craps table.

RIP, B oDiddley…

What’s going on at the WSOP today while reading Gary Wise’s new blog and Mean Gene’s latest post makes me wonder if I can claim to be a poker pro because I cashed in a $2.20 180-runner SNG on Stars.

Action is underway in the first of two bracelet events that begin today, the $1,500 PL Holdem event. 714 started play today, and just 5 hours in, less than 300 remain. (Payouts can be found after the jump). Play has also just begun in the $5,000 Mixed Holdem event, while day 2 of the $1,500 NL event has reached the money, with eliminations coming fast and furious now that the bubble burst.

More…

Joe in New York writes in with some clarification about Kwari – the online shooting game played for money with full awareness of the relevance of the UIGEA, despite its not-so-pokery nature.

Hey Dan,

Hope all is well. I just checked out your column where you mentioned Kwari had launched services and want to provide a little more information so your readers do not get a bad experience. Currently, Kwari is only available in the U.K. The US version has not launched yet. While you could download the game and play for money in the US, Kwari does not encourage this. If you log in the United States, there will be some serious lag issues as the games are based in the UK. Kwari is expected to launch in the United States towards the end of the summer. Thank you for your interest in Kwari and if you have any questions, please let me know.

Best,

Joe

Thank you, Joe. Will be interesting to watch how the concept of professional online gaming develops. Hey, I noticed that Kwari is based in Gibraltar … Be sure to tell our good friends and your presumable neighbors at PartyPoker we say hi before you shoot them for fun and duckets!

Crap, thought I was on to something … PartyPlaystation.com belongs to some dude in Alabama, not Gibraltar.

UPDATE: Here is some more about how Microsoft’s cheating crackdown is being perceived by gamers.

I used to do business with the underground poker rooms in Dallas. I use the phrase “do business” lightly, as it generally meant these guys were willing to front me a couple hundred bucks whenever I needed a rebuy, which may have just been good poker. Regardless, I decided to leave all those red chips behind to work for PartyPoker — one of the biggest companies in the UK until Uncle Sam threatened to imprison my new bosses if they didn’t get out of Dodge by sundown. Bummer.

So now I have moved to Vegas — follow, the legal money, baby! — and find myself writing about bars, shops, restaurants, nightlife, etc. (among other things - sign up if you already haven’t). Good times, right? Maybe … but PURE — the swanky, Batface-friendly nightclub immediately next door to the Caesar’s Palace poker room — just got raided last night by the IRS.

More from the LV Review-Journal here.

Wha? The Feds also hit the Pure offices … seizing computers, paperwork, and presumably DNA samples. Perhaps coincidentally — or not — all this comes less than 48 hours after Dubai World, the Middle Eastern company that invested $5 billion into MGM/Mirage, reportedly bought a 50 percent stake in the Light Group, the biggest nightclub confecture in the world.

Yeow. This apparent shakedown has to be about way more than drunken chicks from Nebraska pretending they are Paris Hilton and slutting it up for guys who can thumb their noses at $350 bottles of Red Bull-and-vodka. But then again, maybe not.

July 2007: Gavin Smith, partying like a rock star at Pure.

One of Pokerati’s goals for 2008 is to re-introduce the phrase “in your kitchen” to the poker lexicon. (Basically it means “having someone’s number” — and the ability to play head games to the point that you have a specific opponent making all the wrong moves against you.) While we haven’t yet heard it much at all around the various tables in Las Vegas, we are delighted to see the whole kitchen concept starting to rear its head in England, where our good friends at PartyPoker have introduced the idea of “bageling” Phil Hellmuth.

Click below to read all about how its been shaking down in the Party Premier League in Leyton, where on non-poker days the Party-sponsored Leyton Orient have been kicking arse and are looking strong as they seek promotion from League One to the Champions League. Though things aren’t going as well for my beloved Wigan, the likelihood that they could be relegated as my second-beloved Leyton gets promoted, thereby putting them in the same league is kinda exciting regardless of all the great poker that is getting played overseas.

I still find it funny that the currency used in the Party Premier League is dollars, not pounds.
More…

As Pokerati slowly but surely gets settled in to our new Las Vegas digs, we’ve started thinking about the next Pokerati Invitational … and specifically how to keep it legal. Kinda funny, but that was pretty easy to do in Texas … just throw a tourney with no entry fee or any other sort of rake and it was all good — whether it was held at Adam’s house, the Lodge, Sadler & Carter, or the Platinum Room. Dealer tips and money that was taken out of the prize pool to be put back in in the form of a medieval battle helmet trophy or fancy sandwiches … well that may have been legally questionable … but we somehow managed to stay clean as I threw an event once a year for all my best poker friends/clients/colleagues and anyone else’s butt that may have needed kissing. Good times!

Anyhow, I’m trying to figure out what’s possible here in Nevada, where all things “gaming” seem to be heavily regulated. Like can I throw my own event, at a house, if I so choose? With my own dealers? Or if I go to a casino, do I have to take an entry fee?

These questions are semi-rhetorical for now, as I study up on how things work in the Silver State … where as far as I can tell it is still illegal to play online. (Who knew?!? I thought they changed that law, but apparently not. I was kicking ass on Full Tilt just yesterday!) You know what has me shaking my head is how I made a conscious choice way back when to ditch the Dallas underground in favor of the online world. Shortly thereafter, my bosses at PartyPoker were deemed serious criminals if they didn’t get out of Dodge by sundown. So now in an attempt to go totally legit, I have come to Las Vegas, where, heck, just about everything is legal … and lo and behold, there’s still a lot of gray areas — not to mention people who live and work in them.

The WSOP is about 4 months away, so naturally people are starting to make plans — including PartyPoker. Two interesting things about their latest WSOP announcement: 1) win your way in early so you can buy your own plane tickets for cheap; and 2) Party continues to try and further embed themselves with Phil Hellmuth.

Party used to be the site that didn’t attach themselves to any pros other than Mike Sexton. And they used to pay for your travel when you won a satellite online. Now they are trying to put it in your head that it’s normal for the player to take care of that.

Click below for the full press release.

More…

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.

Tom loves nothing more, I am sure, than getting a call from me late at night to relay a bad beat story. One of the things he’s been on my case about lately is the concept of running it twice and/or offering insurance. (Say I get it all in with a straight against another dude’s trips.)

“Did you ask, did you ask? Did you tell the dealer to stop dealing?”

The answer’s always the same … I did, and they said no … this always seems to baffle him, as if he doesn’t realize why a 2/5 game simply isn’t big enough for poker room management to overlook Chickasaw Nation gaming regulations that prohibit side bets.

Anyhow, I know and get how running-it-twice works and am still trying to get my hands around the insurance concept … and thus I was particularly interested in this episode of Premier League Poker (a British knock-off of Poker after Dark) in which Phil Hellmuth wins the hand but loses his $4,000 insurance bet, happily he contends:

The video’s kinda old, but hey, it’s new to me … and we haven’t paid much attention to what’s going on over at the PartyPoker tables ever since they bid us farewell. So unbelievable … crazy hands and crazy beats are still happening! Check it out below … this hand took place on one of Party’s many European infomercials televised events:

Wow, it’s like an underpair beats an overpair almost 20 percent of the time or something! Nice hand.

OK, upon further research — was looking for the exact percentages — this is not the first time this hand has come up. Something similar shook down in 2002. That, of course, is the year that PartyPoker officially launched. Um, can we say scripted? Obviously.

(But clever touch adding in the pocket 5s and 7s … it almost threw me off track.)

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–”Have you seen a big black Navigator come back here?” asked Craig Abrahams, the official WSOP “new media” guru. My answer was no, with a joke about being a white navigator, which clearly didn’t amuse him. He was waiting for the money to arrive.

They’re down to six players in the 38th annual World Series of Poker. To follow along online live-blogging style, click here. Or for $20, you can watch the action on a one-minute delay — without hole cards — here.

Here’s how the final table started off:

Seat 1 - Raymond Rahme - 16.32 million
Seat 2 - Alex Kravchenko - 6.57 million
Seat 3 - Lee Childs - 13.24 million
Seat 4 - Jerry Yang - 8.45 million
Seat 5 - Lee Watkinson - 9.925 million
Seat 6 - Tuan Lam - 21.315 million
Seat 7 - Philip Hilm - 22.07 million
Seat 8 - Jon Kalmar - 20.32 million
Seat 9 - Hevad ‘Rain’ Khan - 9.205 million

And here’s where it all stands at 5 pm Vegas time, with five four players left, whereupon they have all crossed the millionaire’s line:

Jerry Yang - 69,790,000
Raymond Rahme - 29,890,000
Tuan Lam - 18,105,000
Alex Kravchenko - 9,700,000

FUNNY: Somewhere out there the ESPN live feed can be seen for free. Benjo informed us of this with his angry Frenchman’s smirk, and when ESPN’s Andrew Feldman, with great concern, asked for the link, Benjo responded [thick accent here], “I am note go-eeng to tell you!”

Anyhow, eventually Ty Stewart, the official WSOP marketing maestro, did drive up — in a white BMW SUV (not a black Navigator) and started unloading the metal money suitcases. (Properly branded with a Milwaukee’s Best Light logo.) He grabbed three of them out the back, at which point I joked vociferously, “That’s one million, two million, three million …” Not even a smile … but he did walk off into a tunnel while leaving the back of his SUV open, at which point I mustered up all the discipline possible not to grab a money suitcase to find out if they were fully loaded or not.

Inside it’s another story. All about the money — but not necessarily the $8.25 million at stake for first place …

More…

LAS VEGAS–Throughout history, the WSOP has been dominated by Texans and Jews. At least one side is doing its part to keep that up this year, as eight Texans made it through to Day 5. One guy who probably didn’t get the coverage he deserved is Jared Hamby, known both live and online as “The Waco Kid.” Like Josh Evans, he too happens to be a Jackie’s alum. (Funny to me how reminisces of Jackie’s sound the same as non-Texan reminisces of PartyPoker. Ahh, yes, the good-old-days [of 2006] … )

Anyhow, mad props to Hamby, who finished in 88th place, winning $82,476.

I’ll be competing in at least one event in the 2007 WSOP — $1,500 NLH on June 16. Exciting! Even more fun is that it’s all being made possible by our new-good-best friends at Milwaukee’s Best Light. Mmm-mmm. When you think about it, it really is an amazing beer. Go MBL! Guinness-shminness! The Euros will love this stuff!

As part of this sponsorship, I’ve agreed to donate half of any winnings in Event 27 to a reputable charity of my choice. Also cool because, you know, you gotta give to live, right? So it’s on me to figure out who gets Pokerati’s highly anticipated largess. (Milwaukee’s Best Light needs this info by Today morning, fyi.)

More…

I think I’m flummoxed. I mean sure, SEO is so 2006 … but Pokerati’s traffic has been growing, our content has been improving, other blogs continue to find reason to link us up, and we’re ready to bust nuts at the super-big frickin’ WSOP! Yet in the eyes of almighty Google, we are less than we once were — as Pokerati’s “page rank” has dropped from 5 to 4.

This may not mean much to most of you, but it’s kind of a bummer to poker web geeks, especially those of us who just finished reading Search Engine Optimization For Dummies. You see, we have long been a 5 here at Pokerati, and frankly, kinda felt like we should be a 6 … or at least wanted to become one because all my friends were 6s. But Big Brother Google must have recently recalibrated its algorithm or something, because their page ranks have dropped, too. Check it out:

Pauly dropped from 6 to 5
PokerProf — from 6 to 4 (LasVegasVegas dropped from 7 to 5)
Bill Rini — from 6 to 5
The Fat Guy — from 6 to 5
Iggy — from 7 to 5
PokerBlog (run by the SEO team at PartyPoker) — from 6 to 4
Wicked Chops — from 5 to 4
PokerWorks — from 6 to 5
CardPlayer — from 7 to 6
Bluff — from 6 to 5
worldseriesofpoker.com — from 7 to 6
PokerStars Blog — hanging tight at 6
Up for Poker — hanging tight at 5
The Poker Biz — from 4 to 3

More…

Lest we forget that poker is going on in places other than Texas, Harrah’s has revised its payout structure for WSOP bracelet events. Donkey Bomber was just bitching about the the disappointment of his buddy Mike Wattel’s $300k payday (for 6th place in the WPT Championship) … and less than a week later the WSOP steps forth with a pro-friendly plan to differentiate itself from its biggest brand-name competition.

I know the pros like to say they are always trying to win, but really … they are trying to get the max return on their investment of time and money. So if you have, say, an 80 percent chance of winning $100k and a 5 percent chance of winning $1 million, what’s the better prize to go for? This is simple Deal or No Deal math, even according to Sklansky. Making the payouts a little less top-heavy hass gotta change at least a few players’ near-bubble strategy, no?

Harrah’s explanation of how the new payout system would have applied to last year’s main event field:

Overall, 846 players last year would have won substantially more money – in some case, more than double – what they collected in 2006. The top 27 players would have received less, however.

For example, the 2006 Main Event would have paid $22,266 for 873rd through 775th places, up from $14,605 or $15,512. Places 82 through 73 would have paid $126,173, up from $66,010. First place would have paid $10,028,715, down from $12 million, while second place would have been worth $5,442,769, compared with $6,105,900.

By the way, semi-related … interesting to see all the PartyPoker ads all over the (new and improved) official WSOP website.

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.

The World Trade Organization has confirmed that the United States and our laws against online gambling violate international trade agreements.

I’m not really sure what this latest “ruling” means for all practical purposes … I guess we’ll see in coming years just how much clout the WTO carries. The US has about 14 different appeals and redraws should they choose to even acknowledge the decision has been made. But a most basic translation of the WTO message: The rest of the world thinks the US is wrong when it comes to the prohibition against online gambling — well the rest of the world except for Turkey and France — and the world may soon authorize the mighty nation of Antigua to try and wield fiscal harm in an effort to get America to change its protectionist ways.

Hey, the world loves an underdog, right … ?

PartyGaming’s stock surged more than 10 percent on the news.

Interesting story in today’s New York Times about Alberto Gonzales, the beleaguered U.S. Attorney General … “whose tenure at the Justice Department may still be in peril as lawmakers in both parties have called for his resignation, questioned his credibility and raised doubts that he can lead the department.”

Gonzales, of course, is a key factor (if not driving force) behind the crackdown on online gambling. So you gotta think getting rid of him would be a good thing, right? But we should also remember that, especially in the Bush administration’s waning years, just because there is a call for a resignation hardly means it will happen. And when a bureaucracy is troubled, just like a field of donkeys, they are apt to make rash, harmful decisions. So while maybe Gonzales (who was in Houston yesterday) may not be able to explain his mysterious firings, he conceivably could press even harder against online gambling just to change the subject.

My read on Alberto (in the face of growing criticism): total landmine.

NOTE: Perhaps coincidentally, perhaps not … PartyGaming’s stock went up 2.5 percent when the NYT story broke.

From across the pond:

And as if our Euro friends weren’t having enough fun, here’s a hidden message relayed by Roland de Wolfe as Phil Hellmuth was in the broadcast booth:

Kinda big news being discussed over at 2+2. That’s about all I know right now.

Could be good news for the likes of “No Americans!” sites such as PartyPoker (which had a reportedly two-year $20 million deal in place last year) if the 2007 WSOP does indeed turn out to be the Year of the Europeans.

NOTE: Party’s stock has been up big over the past week. And Pokerati’s secret robots tell us that they have made some adjustments to their corporate blog in recent weeks.

This play-it-ultra-safe decision from Harrah’s should have a big impact on the Gaming Life Expo as well. Oh yeah.

It didn’t take long for the latest U.S. Department of Justice anti-online-gambling action — subpoenaing at least 16 European banks that did business with PartyGaming, 888, and others — to rub some powerful Brits the wrong way. Though the UK banking industry and their political cohorts could presumably care less about poker, they are publicly balking at the insinuation that the US has any semblance of jurisdiction:

Alan Duncan, Shadow Trade and Industry Secretary, said: “There is growing suspicion that the US Department of Justice is using its muscle in a highly unpleasant manner, and is targeting financial institutions beyond their own shores in a way that cannot be justified. I hope the Department will stop and review its approach so that its behaviour doesn’t sour relations between us.”

via Bill Rini

Of course if online gambling sites don’t feel safe in London, they can always set up shop on Sealand. Thanks, Shuttergypsy, for the link!

NOTE: The DOJ’s legal requests hardly constitute economic warfare … but they are hurting (at least temporarily) the legitimate British businesses that prosecutors want to make the bad guys.

John writes in with more about the Neteller arrests, and word of interruption to at least some poker lives:

Hey Dan,

I’m surprised you haven’t commented on this yet. Apparently effective Jan. 16th, 2007, the instaCASH option at Neteller is no longer available to US customers. This coincides with the arrests of two former executives of Neteller, who were passing through a US airport, that no longer work for the company. Apparently this was phase two of a plan they implemented last year after the passage of the UIGEA and not related to the arrests.

http://www.pocketfives.com/96A9211C-39F7-40B7-B787-15FDB5B5E918.aspx

Interesting stuff. I wonder how this news will further affect online poker. There seems to already be some Chicken Little “sky is falling” posts around where people are feverishly trying to get all their money back on home soil in the wake of this news.

-John

Just logged in to Neteller to see if I noticed any difference … was greeted by a screen informing me I could raise my deposit limits. Specifically, “You are eligible for a higher weekly instaCASH limit!” the page says. “Would you like to upgrade … ?”

Interestingly enough, however, I do have one instaCASH transaction still pending that probably shoulda cleared by now. Note to Adam: It may be another day or two before you get your money.

I can tell you that almost exactly one month ago, PartyPoker informed its contractors that they would no longer be able to pay us via Neteller. And they were pretty emphatic about not using it any more, even though for many of the PokerBlog crew (we finished working Dec. 14) these were to be the last payments they’d receive. Gotta wonder if this was just coincidence, or if PartyGaming might have been given a heads-up that something with Neteller was afoot.

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.

OK, no need to freak out, but the Port Security bill that also makes any semblance of online gaming illegal seems to be going into effect sooner than many political typicos (self included) imagined possible, and that has big-time internet poker execs scrambling as the European markets are about to open.

The bill will likely be signed into law in two weeks, and it will go into effect immediately … at which point Congress will have nine months to figure out with internet companies and others how this is all going to work. It’s gonna be interesting, I’ll say that much:

PartyGaming, the operator of the world’s biggest online poker site, said that if President Bush ratifies the law - expected within the next fortnight - it would immediately suspend all real money gaming business with US residents.

LAS VEGAS–Actually, I kinda like the name “Dartiste” — but that’s not really relevant right now. What is relevant is that darts is a great game, and while I don’t see it ever growing into “the next poker,” I do see it growing into something culturally special.

In fact, can’t believe I missed it, but just a few days ago at the Mandalay Bay was the PartyPoker.net Las Vegas Desert Classic. PartyPoker … darts … Las Vegas … very interesting.

All the right elements (and mechanisms) seem to be in place — the websites, the TV coverage, the anybody-can-play factor … could a new steel-tip scoring system be the darts equivalent of a hole-card cam?