Instapoker

Happy Monday start-of-the-week. Some scattered, click-heavy multimedia poker discourse sucking up my browser resources that may or may not be important to you/sufficiently fill your poker gullet:

Poker rooms have opened up in WEST VIRGINIA to much fanfare, making it kinda like the OKLAHOMA of PITTSBURGH.

WICKED CHOPS/RAW VEGAS have a video interview with MARK SEIF about ABSOLUTE poker … and links to the escalating war of forum words with Neverwin\’s DAN DRUFF.

Meanwhile, last week\’s PPA FLY-IN generated some telling Beltway news coverage of HOWARD LEDERER, ANNIE DUKE, and others eloquently representing the civil rights of non-degenerates by rallying around online poker as a matter of personal freedoms and privacy.

(Comes off much better than expected as a talking point, but we could be biased.)

The meetings seemed effective in persuading representatives to get behind the ROBERT WEXLER and BARNEY FRANK bills and encouraging to the poker ambassadors. Upon returning from the first big lobbying push this session, BARRY GREENSTEIN believes a change in law could be just six months away.

Wait, does this mean it is or is not a good time to buy more PARTYGAMING stock?

No wonder the EUROPEAN UNION might be ready to jump into the American congressional fray, too.

On Greenstein\’s audioblog, by the way, he tells of an UNFAIR and UNFRIENDLY interview — \”a hostile interrogation\” — he and CHRIS FERGUSON had to endure at the hands of FOX & FRIENDS. Perhaps an early reminder that interviews with the mainstream media are a bit different than those with publications and websites that insist on a \”good for poker\” agenda and/or ticking off a big-name pro.

MEAN GENE digs a little deeper into who the poker opponents are and how they play.

COMMITTEE TESTIMONY commences November 6.

Another non-poker news clip giving you a glimpse of the PPA\’s WASHINGTON DC action.

The tired poker metaphors drive MEAN GENE crazy.

And here\’s a debate between HOWARD LEDERER and the Family Research Council on CNBC:

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Click here for the CardPlayer TV info on the U.S. POKER BOWL, the last minute of which includes some brilliant analysis HEAD-BOBBING and fatherly chastising BELLY LAUGHS from the Gentlemen of Beyond the Table, seen here enjoying and post-production happy hour in LAS VEGAS:

Speaking of skillful podcasters, GAVIN SMITH and JOE SEBOK are back … on PokerRoad Radio. SCOTT HUFF also returns to the digital airwaves via the new podcast-heavy site, which looks to be a good alternative blend of poker reality and web-savvy infotainment.

And MICHELE LEWIS has Part 1 of an insightful interview with PAULY, giving us a little deeper understanding of what the poker circuit is really like and what makes its chief chronicler such a compelling character. She\’s also in contention for a Hot Chick Award at WICKED CHOPS.

By the way, for the readers who\’ve been wondering where the FRESH PRINCESS has been, we have been in some intense contract arbitration. Nickname negotiations have been particularly tough, but I think I can safely report we miss each other are working toward a conclusion to the holdout, if not a deal that would make her the A-ROD of POKER BLOGGERS. Also on the table is the relegation of certain blog duties to top-level Pokerati executives:

[Photo: Blurtis]