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.

Interesting article out of Minnesota about how the proposed Berlin Firewall legislation to stop online gambling would force a group of nice young, responsible internet pros (Mike Schneider is the name I recognized) out of their home state. I had heard from our friends at Minnesota Poker Magazine that Minnesota was a mini poker hotspot right now, following in the footsteps of Florida, Oklahoma, and other states that have recently embraced the game.

What I didn’t know before reading the above article is that Minnesotan’s are particularly deft at limit hold’em, apparently because they don’t have no-limit there (yet). Makes sense … when I first met Schneider, it was at the PartyPoker Million, where he won $1 million in what was at the time (2006) one of the biggest live limit tournaments in the world. And semi-verifying this claim … if you look at all the results for the 2008 WSOP, Minnesotans made two final tables, and ideed, one of them was in a limit shootout event.

So duly noted … Minnesota is a limit state. FYI to everyone else.

While Full Tilt was proudly amassing bracelets and getting its customers to “play with the pros” a few years ago, and PokerStars was doing its best to put champions on its roster … PartyPoker was going the other way; they marketed themselves as a site for the masses — unashamed by the unaccomplished nature of their player pool. The one exception — the one pro Party claimed as their own — was Mike Sexton, who had been consulting with them since their earliest days.

He eventually cashed out much of his interest (damn UIGEA) … but now, perhaps as a sign of things to come or perhaps just out of fondness for the way things once were, Mike Sexton has re-upped his relationship with Party and will be representing them as an official face and host on the site.

More details from Party below:

More…

I’m not sure if the technical definition of decimation is to reduce something by 10 percent, or to 10 percent of what it once was. Regardless … I was just checkin’ out some poker-site traffic graphs the other day (what, you don’t check out poker-site traffic graphs?) and found a rather interesting unscientific visual representation of the industry, and the scale by which it’s been reduced since late 2006:

First, we see American traffic to FullTiltPoker.com. Interesting … they apparently did a good job of growing in the aftermath of the UIGEA — or at least regaining what they lost — and have stayed relatively steady, with hints of slight growth, in the past two years.

Now we see how Full Tilt compares to PokerStars.com. Again, this is not scientific, and it only represents a sampling of web traffic, not on-the-table real-money action … though we can only presume the two correlate.

Now add PartyPoker to the mix, which, as we all know, pulled out of the US, and … wow … 75.6 million vs. 1.4 million … I think we get a clearer picture of just how much was lost, and perhaps, how much stands to be gained.

The Atlantic has a post about a section of a chapter of a book that may have figured out why America and the world has gotten in a total economic mess ever since George W. Bush Osama bin Laden Chris Moneymaker won … bridge helped pull us out of the Great Depression, apparently, and poker has taken us the other way:

Yet in the first decade of the twenty-first century contract bridge is in serious decline, viewed as a game for the elderly, with few younger enthusiasts. In contrast, in recent years poker — and especially its twenty-first century variation, Texas hold ‘em — has surged forward. These games are played by individuals for themselves alone, emphasize a type of deception variously called bluffing and “keeping a poker face,” and are generally played for money.

[...]

if card games played by millions of people shift the role of deception, wouldn’t we be naive simply to assume that such shifts do not also occur in the world of commerce?

Now before you get all up in arms at the absurdity of blaming a whole subculture that just so happens to take pleasure in raping their friends and stealing from the blinds with total junk hands, I think we should consider taking the heat on this: Yes, absolutely, poker is to blame. We totally fucked up. Oops, sorry about that. But we get a bailout now, right? Please send a few hundred billion care of PartyPoker and the World Poker Tour.

Online poker software creator Anurag Dikshit agrees to pay off the US gov for his “crimes”.

From the Financial Times: Party Poker co-founder Anurag Dikshit will appear in the Southern District Court of New York Tuesday to plead guilty to violating the Wire Act, pay a $300,000,000 fine and cooperate with the Department of Justice in the hopes of avoiding a 2-year jail sentence.

Dikshit currently owns 27% of Party Gaming, but it appears he won’t have to divest his holdings in Party after pleading guilty. Ruth Parasol and Russ DeLeon, who also co-founded Party Poker, don’t appear to be near any type of settlement with the US government. Party Gaming has been negotiating with the Department of Justice for some time now; could this mean their eventual return to the US if and when Internet gaming is regulated?

More on this developing story later…

UPDATE: Party Gaming has released their own press release stating that they are still in final negotiations with the US Dept. of Justice in terms of a settlement, and that they will pay a substantially lower amount to the US government than Dikshit. At the time of this update, they’re up over 25% in trading today.

5pm UPDATE: Dikshit has entered his plea, and is free on a $15m bond, which limits him to travel within the European Union, India and New York. He has also already paid $100,000,000 with another payment due in 3 months, and the rest by September. Also, he’s scheduled for sentencing December 16, 2010. Further details here.

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]

Though I don’t think I’d be remiss to say we former Party players miss those pong-poker-era avatars on PartyPoker, the non-American site has upgraded their table interface, and via the official PartyPoker blog, (perhaps in anticipation of an American return?) here’s what guys like Bill Rini have been working on:

Serious question — don’t claim to have a clue — but am curious to see whether or not overcoming an American political hurdle (but still not near the finish line) moves the market needle overseas.

I wonder if we’ll see an impact on Party Gaming’s stock price. Trading in London closed today at 186.75 … down 1.19 percent, before this vote had gone down, of course.

My microbial knowledge of international securities gut says it would be a good time to buy. But does this accomplishment in Washington DC mean much more than a flop to the businesses heavily vested in HR 6870′s movement through the system?

We’ll see, I suppose.

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:

What is the United States Department of Justice doing with an investigation of Google and Yahoo? Speculation is there may be some trouble for their years of accepting online gambling advertising. Subpoenas and depositions have been given! We have that story, plus updates on the Bodog situation, Party Gaming troubles, the Gambling Wages Challenge, and other industry news.

More at APCW.org

Why was Party Gaming named in a US Lawsuit this week? What’s the deal with Bodog? Where are we with Gambling Wages? All the answers and online gambling news from APCW.org.

There will be a day not too far off — in our lifetimes for sure, as the technology is already in play at 7-Elevens in Taiwan — when our cell phones and wallets are one in the same. No wonder there are so many issues about the transfer of funds via satellite, internet, bad beats, etc.

Check out the quality of poker on the iPhone (via Pokerazzo):

Damn, we’ve come a long way since the early days of PartyPoker, which graphics-wise seems more like pong, or at least Pitfall.

UPDATE: Dude, that sucks … don’t know why he would turn of the embeddability … but here’s the direct link to this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6r_Er2wwAMg

It certainly seems that way … either that or they’re just going through some rocky times that the tough-do-it-my-way billionaire who built the company didn’t want to be part of. [Gambling911]

Reading this story makes a couple things “obvious” to me:

1. The US.gov is serious about the illegality of sports wagering online, as it really is the only thing clear in previous legislation.

2. Online poker sites that accept US players are having a hard time getting new players, because the American market is tapped out, and if you were a newly addicted European, why would you choose any site that runs into potential trouble from US.gov when you can play on super-legit home-continenters such as PartyPoker, Ladbrokes, 888, etc.? The exception to this, of course, are PokerStars (because they’re so damn big and have all the champions) and Full Tilt (because they have all the pros).

3. Pete Sessions’ HR 6663 really is a sensible piece of legislation in that it makes everything clear (even though it may not cow-tow to a few special-special interests): it spells out more clearly than anything else — sports betting on the internet is bad, online poker is fine, and other games need to be decided.