The PPA has learned that the U.S. House of Representatives’ Subcommittee for Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade will hold a hearing on Internet gaming on Tuesday, October 25, 2011. The subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee will bring forward a variety of witnesses to discuss regulation of Internet gaming and gather information for a future hearing to examine the merits of Rep. Joe Barton’s Online Poker Act of 2011 (H.R. 2366).

At the time of this email the witnesses for the hearing are still unknown. The PPA and its lobbying team will continue to meet with members of the subcommittee and their staffs leading up to next week’s hearing. We will be asking PPA members whose U.S. Representative is a member of this committee to contact their member directly before the hearing. Please check the PPA website and your inbox for future announcements about this very important hearing.

We have a nice opportunity to make ourselves heard today, so I encourage everyone to participate. CNN is airing this evening’s GOP presidential debate live from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET from the Venetian in Las Vegas. CNN is seeking questions for candidates via the CNN Politics fan page on Facebook, Twitter (using the #CNNDebate hashtag), and their website. So, let’s all submit some pro-poker questions. As this debate is being held in Las Vegas, our issue will be seen as topical.

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For those who missed it:

A review from Wicked Chops:

If Anderson was straight, and if Anderson awarded a “winner” to these types of segments, Maria clearly would’ve “won” the segment by being the hottest in the group BY FAR. Anderson would be like, “Thanks panel for all of your interesting points. You are all successful woman who should be role models to the young girls of America. Maria, I will award you winner of this segment for being the best looking while making your valid and intelligent points.”

So many jokes to be made about BJ’s Guide to Women in Anything … but regardless, he hooked his pal @MariaHo up with a little cheat sheet to help her prep for her appearance on CNN (“Breaking into the Boys’ Club”). Click below to read it all — a glimpse at what kinda study goes into appearing on TV news as “yourself”, and a pretty good breakdown of a minority’s influence on the game.

(BTW, semi-related but kinda an aside … Kathy Liebert, arguably the most successful on-the-tables female in history … is currently in strong chip position at a final table (5 remaining at time of press) in a $2,500 Foxwoods event. While reading the BJ guide, you can follow her ride as we are on Twitter here.)

BJ’s Guide to the History of Women in Poker

By BJ Nemeth

HOW MANY WOMEN PLAY

1.  In major tournament fields (WSOP, WPT, etc.) women usually comprise about 3% of the field. There are no official stats kept.

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Shoot, I hadn’t even finished writing up my Amazing Race elim post yet … and already, Maria Ho is off to do a pretty major nationwide TV appearance … and it’s supposedly not even related to The Amazing Race.

She’ll be appearing on CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360” tonight at 10 pm ET/7 pm PT — as part of a panel about women in male-dominated professions. She is scheduled to appear alongside Suze Orman, Dee Dee Myers (the first female White House press secretary), and a neurosurgeon.

Here’s CNN’s teaser for the segment.

Freshman Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) fears online gambling, but hopes his TV show does as well as 2 Months 2 Million.

I’m not sure how much we’re supposed to be sayin’ about this … it seems like a major change in online-gambling law could still be in play in 2009 … but if so, our peeps in DC may be trying to keep it all on the downlow. At least that’s what a staunchly anti-gambling Republican in Utah is trying to suggest.

“I’m raising the red flag,” Chaffetz told the Deseret News on Wednesday. “I feel the imperative to get this organized before it is too late.”

Rep. Jason Chaffetz is speaking to his constituents sounding the warning bells that the billions and billions from online gambling that government just may not be able to say no to could dramatically alter everyone’s way of life. And he doesn’t just mean the positive stuff that we see from being able to play in safe and secure US-based games …

Chaffetz says a chance meeting he had with Frank makes him worry that unlike similar past efforts that went nowhere, Frank is deadly serious about legalizing online gambling this year, and it could come up quickly without much time to organize opposition.

“I saw him in the airport in Salt Lake a number of weeks ago,” Chaffetz said. “I said, ‘Barney, what are you doing here in Salt Lake?’ He was traveling back from Las Vegas, which led to our discussion about his Internet gambling bills.”

Chaffetz said, “He assured me that come this fall, he would be getting these bills through his committee, and I believe him … He may be bluffing, but we can’t afford to take that chance.”

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“This has an unfortunate and real potential of happening,” he said. “This is a big deal. I can’t impress upon you how big of a deal this is.”

Wow. Cool. Awesome. We know we have public support for “our issue” and in general our facts fall on the right side of the law … so I gotta think we only stand to benefit if a guy like Chaffetz is using Frank’s efforts to rally his own base in preparation for 2010 … because really, isn’t that his game here?

Link props: @TheEngineer2008.

UPDATE: Chaffetz is on Twitter, too, as @JasonintheHouse. And he’s also star of a new reality series on CNN called “Freshman Year”.

It is TV ratings season … and mainstream media folks tend to figure a few times a year that gambling stories are “sexy”.

The anti-old-rich-white-guy filmmaker appeared on Larry King today … and as we’re now just some two weeks away from the presidential election WSOP main event final table, he was busy educating the non-poker public on why the little guy doesn’t stand a chance against the big guy relative stack sizes and the importance of game selection.

Check it out … the poker talk begins at about 1:45, and is used to explain something about the evil ways of Wall Street and their control of the rake.

He made his appearance in part to promote his new net-distro film, Slacker Uprising, about rallying the next generation of voters online poker players.

Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) just gave his address — not nearly the tear-jerker CNN analysts predicted it would be — and Rep. Robert Wexler (D-FL), speaking from the floor of the DNC, immediately followed as a guest on Hannity & Colmes. Wexler, of course, is the sponsor of the ever-pokery HR 2610 (Skill Game Protection Act) — he definitely knows what’s up, and what’s wrong, with current online poker law. However, in his time with H&C, he did not bring up poker. He spoke instead — with Kool and the Gang’s “Celebration” blasting in the background — about the importance of universal health care, Barack Obama’s selection of Joe Biden as a running mate, and women’s rights.