The cold weather is bearing down on the East Coast, and sadly there are still thousands of residents who are without power or even warm homes due to the destruction of Hurricane Sandy. This past weekend, PPA Grassroots Director Drew Lesofski hand delivered hundreds of fleeces, hoodies, and other winter-weather clothing to communities in need. The items were made available thanks to a very generous donation of clothing from PokerStars to help those in need.

Upon receiving the boxes of fleeces and hoodies from PokerStars, PPA connected with local charities in New Jersey to distribute these items. Drew met with hundreds of families who stood in line at a local American Legion Hall in Keansburg, NJ to distribute the PokerStars items and other donated goods. “Warm clothing is a cherished item for those affected by the storm and the community was so grateful for the donations. I am proud that we could help, even in a small way, those who have literally been left with nothing due to Sandy’s devastation,” said Drew.

The New England Town Hall is upon us. PPA Executive Director John Pappas, Director of Grassroots and External Affairs Drew Lesofski, Litigation Support Network Director & Board Member Patrick Fleming, several PPA state directors and I are all gearing up to head to greater Boston to spend this Saturday afternoon with the poker community. We are all looking forward to meeting many of you there, sharing all that PPA is doing, and answering all of your questions!

The Town Hall event itself is free. We are hosting an optional charity poker tournament after the meeting. The tournament will be a lot of fun and will help support a great cause, but please be assured that you do not have to participate in the tournament to attend the Town Hall.

Please let us know if you plan to attend the Town Hall and/or play in the charity event so we can ensure enough space. Contact us TODAY at townhall@theppa.org.

Location: Clarion Inn Hotel Conference Center (link)
595 North Avenue
Wakefield, MA, 01880
Phone: (781) 245-6100

Date: Saturday, December 1, 2012
Town Hall and Q&A: 4pm ET
Charity Poker Tournament: Immediately following the Town Hall
Structure: $100 buy-in, 10,000 chips
Twenty minute blinds
10% of players will be paid

This will be a great opportunity to come meet your national PPA representatives and get the latest information about the current poker landscape!

It has been a busy few weeks in the poker community, to be sure. With the Full Tilt Poker sale to PokerStars, the continued growth of the #Fight4Poker daily action plan, and growing momentum of poker legislation in Congress, we can all see the impact of our efforts.

I urge everyone to keep it up. The work we do at the grassroots is what keeps the pressure on Capitol Hill. This month, let’s all try to meet with our elected officials (or at least their staffs). They are home for the August recess and will be through September 7th, so it is a great time to make the visit. PPA Director of Grassroots and External Affairs Drew Lesofski sent you a letter on this important grassroots initiative last week (here), so I hope you have been giving it some serious thought.

Your congressman and both of your senators are home meeting with constituents, hosting town hall meetings, and attending local community events. This is a great opportunity for all of us to meet face-to-face with our lawmakers to discuss the importance of passing federal online poker legislation this year. It is also a great opportunity to express support for the game itself, be it online, bricks-and-mortar, home games, etc.

PPA has made scheduling meetings easy. Simply click here to find your elected representatives’ office phone numbers, addresses, and other information. When you call to set up your appointment, simply ask to speak with the lawmaker’s scheduler and ask to schedule a face to face meeting in the district office.

PPA has made meeting preparation easy as well. Simply click here for talking points, a summary of legislation in Congress (H.R. 2366, Rep. Barton’s Online Poker Act), and the recent letter from the Fraternal Order of Police to Congress in support of licensing and regulating online poker. You can print them in either color or in black and white. With that, all you will have to do is tell your lawmakers that you support online poker and that they should too. It will not be a debate. Rather, they will seek to hear you out as a constituent.

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Last week, I shared the news that you are cordially invited to the PPA Town Hall meeting in Las Vegas at the Rio during the World Series of Poker® on Saturday, June 30th, starting at 12:15 pm. I also mentioned that I would share details as they come available, and I have a great detail to share this week:

Key poker supporter and sponsor of H.R. 2366, the Online Poker Act, Congressman Joe Barton (R-TX) will address the group and is looking forward to meeting you!

This free town hall event will include a discussion of the issues facing the poker community in Nevada and across the nation. Executive Director John Pappas, Director of Grassroots and External Affairs Drew Lesofski, Nevada State Director Lupe Soto, and I will be on hand to answer your questions regarding your poker rights. Please be sure to make plans to attend this important meeting. If you are in the Las Vegas area that day, I hope you and your poker friends will attend!

RSVP: nvtownhall@theppa.org (RSVPs are not required, but please try to let us know if you are planning to attend.)

This is a great opportunity to meet your PPA representatives and to get the latest information on the poker legislative landscape. The first 25 people who show up will receive a free PPA t-shirt! Everyone in attendance will receive a free PPA patch. We will be providing light refreshments as well.

I thank everyone who took the time to stop by the PPA WSOP booth this past weekend to discuss the poker advocacy effort and what they can do to help further the cause!

We will be back for the weekends of 6/29-7/1 and 7/7-7/9 (the opening days of the Main Event). If you are in the area one of those weekends, I hope you will stop by to talk to us about the fight. We will have PPA patches available, so please pick one up to show everyone at the WSOP that you are proud to advocate for our rights as poker players and enthusiasts!

Make sure to check the PPA Facebook and Twitter pages for up-to-the-minute info on everything we are be doing at the WSOP , to see great pictures, and to follow our real-time take on all that is going on at the WSOP

PPA is excited to announce that we will hold a town hall meeting in Las Vegas during the World Series of Poker®. The Las Vegas PPA Town Hall Meeting will be at the Rio on June 30th, immediately following the “shuffle up and deal” command – the command to be given this year by key poker supporter Congressman Joe Barton (R-TX)!

PPA Executive Director John Pappas, PPA Director of Grassroots & External Affairs Drew Lesofski, and I will be on hand for a detailed discussion on all that PPA is doing. We will be taking lots of questions and look forward to a great dialog with everyone. Please plan to attend if you are in town for the WSOP. John, Drew, and I hope to meet you there!

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I have some exciting news to share. PPA is kicking off the PPA Town Hall meeting tour this month. PPA Director of Grassroots and External Affairs Drew Lesofski and I will be traveling to various cities across the country to meet with the poker community, to hear your concerns and answer your questions in person, and to share all that PPA is doing.

The kickoff will be in Tampa, FL, on May 23rd, followed by a Fort Lauderdale, FL town hall on the 24th. We will be joined by poker coach and mindset expert PPA FL State Director Donna Blevins (PokerMindsetAcademy.com). Aside from great discussion, as an added bonus Donna will offer a one-hour complimentary poker training session! So, I hope everyone in the area will join us for a great evening.

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Barack Obama was taking questions from the masses today in 140 characters or less. It really is a rather unique evolution in political communication. It’s not too different from standing on a soapbox back in the day … except here the crowd is millions strong, and – bo has enabled his @replies.

The PPA rallied the troops to make sure that of the millions tens of thousands of people jumping up and raising their hands with a question, at least one that got heard was about online poker:

Don’t forget today at 2PM EDT, President Obama will be hosting a Twitter town hall and answering questions tweeted to him. Please take a moment to use Twitter to submit a question asking the President if he supports licensing and regulating online poker by clicking here. To follow the Town Hall as it happens, please click here.

Let’s make our voices heard. Tweet your question to President Obama now!

Proud to play,
Drew Lesofski
Director, Grassroots and External Affairs

I sent mine in. No answer … but we’ll see if @BarackObama maybe includes @Pokerati in his next #FollowFriday.

UPDATE: Follow this guy, New York Times politics blogger, to see what questions got asked and how they got answered.

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Good op-ed piece by Rich Muny (@TheEngineer2008) that lays out the current poker argument on our issue. Nothing you haven’t heard before, but Muny’s not preaching to the typical choir … he’s addressing conservative small-governmenters and in addition to laying out some legislative history, explains why (spoiler alert:) regulating online poker and gambling ≠ wild, rights-infringing government expansion.

The GOP’s Bad Bet Against Online Poker

You know, I’m obviously not running the poker-political show, though I do try to follow it. And I’m starting to think it’s time to amp-up the aggression on a grass-roots level. Drew Lesofski, the PPA’s director of grassroots and external affairs may not be as visible as the typical spokespeople (Pappas, Frank, D’Amato, Raymer) but he’s effectively rallied the troops — on state and federal levels — and while I’m pretty sure the new tweetforpoker.com has a purpose … bottom line … and this is only me talking here, not the PPA … might it not be time crash a few tea parties?

The message:

Take our goddamn fuckin’ money! And take it now! We want our damn personal freedoms back, and yeah, we expect America to be a better place to engage in a recreational activity legal in 48 states than Malta. We want to pay you, and those who oppose this pursuit don’t have to pay squat. And even though we don’t expect these bogus societal problems to emerge … hey, guess what, if they do, we’ll pay to clean’em up. Cool?

Hey, have you met our new 21-year-old posterboy Joe Cada? Pretty good kid …