New poll up on the right … Inspired by Duplicate Poker’s, this one has nothing to do with poker, and yet everything to do with poker. Let’s see how Pokeratizens line up with all of America, percentage-wise, come November.

Previous Poll Results

(Am I the only one surprised that Duplicate Poker is still alive and kicking?)

Evidently, Duplicate Poker has players. And 1,639 of them were willing to complete surveys about the upcoming presidential election and their intended votes.

Obama took it by nearly a 2:1 margin – 1,043 votes for Obama, 596 votes for McCain.

Other results of interest:

Stronger ticket: Obama (1,167) v. McCain (499)
Predictions for victory: Obama (1,117) v. McCain (538)
Race as a factor: Yes (737), No (915)
Deciding issues: Economy (602), Vision for America (379), Iraq war (348)
Most decisive voters: Women (575), African-Americans (541)

The survey was conducted from September 4-6, and all respondents were U.S. citizens, 87% of whom were men ages 18-54. Average income of the surveyed was $77K, average education was college graduate, and online poker frequency was twice per week.

Take it for what it’s worth, but it is the first survey done of poker players on the upcoming election.

There are 50 poker rooms in Las Vegas, so we thought you might appreciate the assistance of fellow degenerates in narrowing down the possibilities of where to play when you come to town. The votes have been tallied … and four places stood out above the rest … In what may or may not become a recurring tradition around these parts, Pokeratizens say the Best Poker Rooms in Vegas are:

Gold Medal
The Venetian

Great regular tourneys, Deep Stack Extravaganzas, plenty of all-but-the-highest-stakes action, bottled Fiji water, and maybe the escalator that dumps off drunkenly clad party girls coming out of Tao right in front of The V’s poker room make it far and away the favorite of this website’s readers/players/dealers.

official site / TPA

The separate tournament room really is cool, if not the best in town, and the comfortable multi-tiered cash game area never seems short of action appealing to the masses of big little-stakes players. Great freerolls for regular cash players, too.

official site / TPA

Still home to the biggest games in Vegas (in terms of buy-ins), thereby drawing the most pros and the players who want to challenge/sit near them. Everything Bellagio is always luxe, of course, and their regular $500 and $1k tourneys makes the chance to play for baller money an in-town constant.

official site / TPA

More…

We’re gonna be closing the polls soon, so this is your last chance to stuff the ballot box on the unscientific Pokerati poll wanting to know what Pokeratizens consider to be the best all-around poker room in Vegas.

Look on your right, scroll down (or up depending on when you’re seeing this post), and let your voice be heard. And heard again. The Venetian seems to have the gold medal locked up, but there’s still quite a race for bronze.

NOTE: This poll is only open to the one percent of readers who do more than actually read this site — the ones that leave comments, vote, hack, flame, etc. Elitism has its privileges.

That’s the question this week. Scroll down a bit and over at the right. –>

We know lots of things factor into your decision on where to play — from the stakes to the amenities to the action. So using whatever algorithm you employ in your head, we want to know where it is that you feel like you’ve got to play — or where you really want to play — whenever you come to town. (Or, of course, if you live here … then just what’s your favorite room in town.)

You can actually vote once a day, so have at it however you want: stuff the ballot box for your favorite room, or spread out your votes to show your diggage of multiple poker joints.

See results of previous poker polls here.

The readers have spoken … and 42 percent of you are so damn principled that you wouldn’t even consider accepting tournament buy-ins from Ultimate Bet or Absolute, while 22 percent have a more mercenary attitude and/or have forgiven UB/AP. 18 percent of us aren’t sure, 12 percent have become so cynical that what’s the point of trying to lead a good life, and 6 percent are saying random shit that makes them kinda unclassifiable. So there you have it.

There’s a new poll up (on the right) where I’m curious … with our current knowledge of the poker world, business developments, main-event final-table hype in action, the state of poker on TV, political wildcards, and, of course, intangibles … how big do you expect the main event in the 2009 WSOP to be?

I really don’t know where I stand on this — especially without knowing the backing details and long-term intangibles — nor whether or not it’s even my position to have a stance when I think just about everyone is stupid, lame, and corrupt for working for The Man!. So I have put it to the readers … new unscientific poll on the right, asking how you would handle a potential business relationship with and de facto endorsement of an ethically challenged poker enterprise.

We’ve got a new poll up on the right — go ahead and start your ballot-stuffing as we try speculate wildly on who is most likely to win the WSOP main event. Should be fun, albeit different than our last one, which was actually useful.

For the past week we’ve been unscientifically asking Pokerati readers which site — other than Pokerati, of course — was most essential to their understanding of the summertime poker fun that gives them so much jolly. You can see the complete results here. Nearly 200 of you went through the effort of actually clicking an extra button, and to that extent, amongst the geekiest most intelligent of poker geeks, the sites that matter most, in order of their finish:

Tao of Poker
Pauly’s whole purpose in life is to make me look bad, and hey, it seems to be a worthy pursuit. He wins this poll by a landslide.

Hold’em Radio
I’m scratching my head, too, as I haven’t really seen the folks based at Binion’s paying much attention to the WSOP, but hey, they apparently know how to motivate a portion of the “pirate” web community to outvote PokerRoad, so we’ll give them the props.

PokerNews
They paid a hefty price for the privilege of hiring bloggers to slave away write up hands and keep official chip counts, and it’s clearly worth something to people who care about big-tourney action.

More…

We’ve got a new one up on the sidebar … over there —>

Vote now and vote often … practice for November, or even an excuse not to! (President? No thanks … I already voted on Pokerati.)

A poker room in Hurst (a suburb between Dallas and Fort Worth) got raided Thursday or Friday night. I have few details — perhaps some Pokeratizens can fill us in on the game action, weapons in play, arrests made, etc.? — but according to my source:

Channel 4 said it was a gambling club.
Channel 5 said it was a poker club.

Hmm, makes me wonder if ItsOverJonny may have been right when he suggested that a little extra poker ink tweaks the coppers into action. Not saying that Pokerati or a forthcoming poker documentary is to blame (the doc, after all, wouldn’t be coming out for a long while, and Pokerati generally prefers to pass on responsibility) … but there was apparently a big to-do in Dallas (again) over turning Reunion Arena into a casino … and boom, a few days later, perhaps coincidentally, perhaps not, somebody in some police force decided they didn’t want to look like they were turning a blind eye to “gambling.”

BTW, The Dallas Morning News poll results to the question:

Would you support a casino in downtown Dallas?

So far …

85 percent yes
15 percent no

Pokerati loves to indulge in some unscientific polling … and we have a new one up on the righthand sidebar if you haven’t already noticed. This time we are looking for “the next big thing.” When you think about it, if poker has been anything, it was the first unbridled, boom-market economy of the 21st century. That time has now passed for poker, so presumably something else will take its place.

But we’re not just looking for what will be big — I am pretty sure I was wrong when I declared darts anything close to the next poker — we’re also looking for new niches fueled by a profitable confluence of the internet, TV, hard technology, and live engagement. (Because when that happens, you can also expect a lot of laws and politics to come into play.) To this day, I don’t see why tournament fishing — particularly with the use of “hook cams” that allow you to watch fish contemplating taking the bait — hasn’t taken off. But that probably has more to do with the business behind it all than the thrilling nature of the sport itself.

Anyhow, would love to hear what you think … not just so we can mentally masturbate to the concept of a blog about whatever wins … but moreso because its always refreshing to remember what’s going on outside the poker world that isn’t war.

Watching the Annie Duke testimony (and related non-poker people arguing both sides of pending anti-UIGEA legislation) left me rather impressed. And then I started thinking about Duke’s good work with the Ante Up for Africa charity tourneys … and thus I came to the conclusion … wow, Annie Duke is doing some good stuff these days.

So that has me wanting to know … who currently is the best ambassador in poker? I hate the phrase “good for poker” … that’s the topic of another post, on how it actually hurts the game … but whether it be from a business, political, or game-play perspective, what known poker celeb is using their status to the best of their abilities to make the game better for us all.

Scroll along the right-hand sidebar to let us know your thoughts on who is really representin’.

The listeners have spoken, and it’s official:

16 percent of all poker podcast fans prefer Beyond the Table!*

Woot!

Click for the latest episode of the second-best poker podcast ever!

Or download via Door #2 here.

Extra-fun times this week:

• A show about nothing and where Tom puts his fingers.
• Sal the old man loads up his iPod.
• Dan on “What’s Goin’ On?” in the poker world — EPT London, Jose Canseco, and Absolute super-users.
• The BTT gang ventures back to the online felt.
• Monkey noises with Fake Hevad Khan; Fake Humberto Brenes loves Beyond the Table; and Tom goes hip-hop — calls for death in the name of etiquette.
• Karridy calls for more dead presidents on TV, fewer Full Tilt pros.
• No seat for Karridy in a big-little $5/$10 game.
• Bonus monkey noises from Tom.

* Poker podcast poll results

You may or may not have noticed, but we’ve got a new poll up on the right-hand sidebar, inquiring about your favorite poker podcast. I have to admit, this was kinda a set-up … fully expected Pokeratizens to be biased toward Beyond the Table, and even gave the show top billing on the unscientific poll to help the results along. From there we would totally be able to spin it as: “Poker players say Beyond the Table is unequivocally the best use of their audio time in the world. Other podcasts suck! Must listen!”

But alas, this plan is going awry, as we have run into the collective power of “the Ante Up Nation,” which may or may not be more powerful than Cuba, the WinStar Tribe, or Iran. So as much we hate having to pimp ourselves here at Pokerati, get a couple hundred pixels on over and cast your vote, you know, for whatever show you like best. Beyond the Table honest now. Because if the results come across as anything less than fair, we’ll have to have a do-over.

There was a pretty interesting article in Thursday’s Wall Street Journal about a recent gathering at Harvard University, which set out to bring together some of the brightest minds in academia to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that poker is a game of skill. (Uh duh.) Howard Lederer was the main poker dude on hand, along with famed Harvard Law Professor Charles Nesson, Annie Duke, Andy Bloch, PPA honcho Michael Bolcerek, and a number cruncher who wants to run the math on billions of hands.

The WSJ’s unscientific poll is currently running 77-23 in favor of skill. Read the article and you’ll see this isn’t about rehashing old theories and debates … because really, what do you think the poll results would be if we asked: “Is life primarily a matter of skill or luck.” I am guessing 77-23 might be pretty close to the results here, too.

In the article, Lederer espouses a new talking-point argument that I hadn’t yet heard/thought of:

The “vast majority” of high-betting poker hands, he says, are decided after all players except the winner have folded. So if no one shows his cards, Mr. Lederer says, “can you legally argue that the outcome was determined by luck?”

Cool stuff — and good to see, in the ivory towers at least, a growing recognition of how some of what is currently shaking down in the poker world reaches into important future matters of internet law, international law, international business, and economics.

After his strategy session wrapped up, Prof. Nesson led the group to a bar for drinks. He was delighted, he said, at how the group “pushed game theory to the level of metaphor.” Sipping a scotch on the rocks, he tossed out the idea of creating a poker university, with himself as one of its teachers. Then, “we could infuse all levels of education with the skills that come from poker,” he said.

Did anyone else catch High Stakes Poker 3 on Monday? It’s a great episode this week … with Mike Matusow, Daniel Negreanu, Phil Ivey, Antonio Esfandiari, Phil Laak, et al. We see David Williams needled for his bling, and he retorts by skillfully wielding “the Sang” (9-2 … kinda like the Hammer, only a wee-bit stronger). And then Yukon Brad Booth shows up and buys in with a cool $1 million in cash, suddenly posing a new threat to Brian Townsend’s fortress of bills. Awesome, great poker.

But the real battle in this episode (which repeats tonight) seems to be taking place off the table — between the two announcers, Gabe Kaplan and AJ Benza. If this is new shtick … well then good job, because it’s pretty entertaining. But even better, you get the sense they truly don’t like each other and are in the midst of a career catfight … especially when Kaplan calls out Benza for having his agent complain about Gabe to GSN.

Benza, is actually a pretty interesting sparring partner for Kaplan. For one, he’s a former blogger for the not-so-poker blog Oddjack. Before that, his broadcasting claims to fame included a studio brawl with Stuttering John (from Howard Stern) that eventually came to blows in the hallway.

Click below to see what Pokeratizens had to say about these two just last month:

More…

I was just working up a new poll … something for the non-Texans maybe? … and had a look at the very first poll we ever ran on this site. Interesting (in hindsight):

The first year we’ll see a decline in the number of entries to the main event of the WSOP is:

Started: June 18, 2006
Total Votes: 27

• 2008-2010: 56% (15)
• Go Batfaces!!!¹: 19% (5)
• none of the above¹: 11% (3)
• 2006: 7% (2)
• 2007: 4% (1)
• 2011-2020: 4% (1)

¹ = Added by a guest

Hmm, suspect we’d get different results if we ran it twice.

You may have noticed we have a new poll on the right hand sidebar — looking into the behavior of poker players since the enactment of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act. I know those of you who are voting for the cunniligual entertainment write-in candidate think you’re being funny, but really, stop it! You’re going to skew the results on a very serious matter. Besides, Pokerati feels like we know our readers well, and we’ll bet $10,000 that there’s no way six of you have been, uh, down to Panama with a paid professional in the past 31 days.

LAS VEGAS–It’s time for a new poll here at Pokerati, but before we bid one farewell, because I still haven’t set up the page where you can view previous results on any one poll, I am posting some here. The latest poll — about favorite TV poker shows — was one of the most unscientifically telling:

Pokerati Polling
The Best Poker Show on TV Is:

* The WSOP (ESPN): 18% (13)
* World Poker Tour (Travel Channel): 9% (7)
* Learn from the Pros (FSN): 0% (0)
* Poker Dome Challenge(FSN): 0% (0)
* High Stakes Poker (GSN): 68% (50)
* Poker SuperStars (FSN): 0% (0)
* Celebrity Poker Showdown (Bravo): 0% (0)
* Poker Royale (GSN): 0% (0)
* Inside Poker (FSN): 0% (0)
* Heads-up Poker (NBC): 0% (0)
* World Series of Darts (ESPN)1: 1% (1)
* Professional Poker Tour (Travel Channel): 1% (1)
* Poker Like You Love Her (Spice 2)1: 3% (2)

Total Votes : 74
1 = Added by a guest

The interesting thing is that this show is one of the most cheaply produced. And yet it has all the raw emotions of a home game … and Gabe Kaplan. I’m sure they have little desire to mess with something so successful, but swap out Wil Wheaton for AJ Benza as Gabe Kaplan’s straight man, and you’ve got a super-winner — and a new standard for what poker viewers expect from their coverage.