Many of our lives changed five years ago today, as George W. Bush signed the Port Security Act into law.
At the time, many wondered if this marked the end of online poker, which had been booming at a rate that woulda had virtually the entire planet + Jupiter playing by now. Ironically, what was supposed to be a death knell for online poker would actually be what made several of my friends and colleagues (temporarily) rich … and the principals of Full Tilt and PokerStars and Ultimate Bet (momentarily, in the scheme of things) extremely powerful.
Let’s have a little flashback, shall we … to slightly more innocent-til-proven-guilty times … commemorating this uber-significant day in poker history:
Unconfirmed … but that’s the word we’re spreading, based on possibly drinky information from a semi-reliable source, a presumably reliable source, and a plausibly reliable source.
The status of PokerPages has been up in the air ever since they announced they’d be closing up shop effective Oct. 31. That day passed and they still kept publishing — and even sent two reporters to cover the November Nine. But no original content has been put up on the site since Dec. 3. Everyone was expecting some sort of sale, and now that has apparently gone through.
PokerPages, of course, is one of the oldest poker information sites on the internet — having reported on tournaments since 2000 … and having built a massive tourney/player/results database in the process.
What PokerStars plans to do with a site they haven’t yet told many people they’ve bought (or intend to buy) remains to be seen.
Meanwhile, the transition from NeverwinPoker to Donkdown seems complete — with the old NWP forums successfully transfered over to their new home. Donkdown is now a Bryan Micon and Todd Witteles (aka “Dan Druff”) joint, with no more Tony G or Dustin Woolf, who is now the lone face for his namesake site.
Oh, and our once-superbeloved PokerBlog.com … yeah, they’re apparently gone. For at least the past week, visiting the site gives you this message:
Fatal error: Table ‘./pokerblog/cache’ is marked as crashed and should be repaired query: SELECT data, created, headers FROM cache WHERE cid = ‘variables’ in /home/pokerblogcom/public_html/includes/database.mysql.inc on line 66
R.I.P. Yeah, seems kinda appropriate. PokerBlog was/is a PartyPoker operation … but now they seem to be focussing blogging efforts on their more official company blog.
UPDATE: PokerBlog is back. Looks like we can expect some WPT coverage there.
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:
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.
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.
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:
Tim Lavalli and Amy Calistri just put up some pretty good investigation of the $2 million worth of extra chips that mysteriously appeared during the main event of the WSOP. Must read. They narrow it down to 22 minutes where the badness comes into play — and though I have only skimmed parts 2 and 3, apparently they also dismiss the possibility of cheating.
You’ll also find continuing discourse on the subject on PokerBlog. Dr. Tim says:
I wanted to give you a heads up on this before it hits the net. Amy & I have been working on a series of articles about the 2 million extra chips on the table in the WSOP Main Event. In about an hour Pokernews.com will be putting up the first three articles, this got a bit rushed because Harrah’s has figured out that we have them by the short hairs and they were going to make a statement. There will be two or three more articles in the next week or so.
Everything that pokernews is too chicken to print will go on PokerBlog and I intend to start the discussion on PokerBlog as soon as the articles go up.
LONDON–Not sure if I mentioned this to those of you who aren’t following the “professional” action over at PokerBlog, but I jumped across the proverbial pond to check out the PartyPoker.com World Open (taking place in the bar of a minor-league soccer stadium). My kinda gig, obviously.
Anyhow, even though this is my first time in London, I haven’t yet seen many sights. But I was able to experience some British culture from my hotel room, where I found myself strangelypathetically totally captivated by The Poker Channel on TV.
Now here’s the sad part … what I was watching was simply an online tournament. The “Online Series of Poker” — a small buy-in satellite to a WPT event in Paris.
Can you guess who I was rooting for? Sadly, “hammer” turned out to be a dead stack — a player who wasn’t even there. Kinda funny to see the broadcasters both championing and questioning his “amazing” and “quick” folds before they realized he wasn’t playing.
So now here’s the thing … this really was fascinating, and educational. What made it so was the commentary and analysis by Trevor Harris and European pro Carlo Citrone. Sure, you might find yourself laughing when these British-accented dudes talk about “cooldude” being put to the test by “funkymonkey” and “Big Tilts” … but as they critiqued the play and you could see all the cards, for me, personally, I saw them insulting with good reason a lot of plays (and calls) that caused me to pause, thinking, “huh, I do that sometimes. I guess I can see now why I shouldn’t.”
LAS VEGAS–There’s a PartyPoker player still alive in the main event that we are following on PokerBlog. His name is Richard Wyrick — a very nice fellow I met on the PartyPoker Million. Anyhow, he is getting pretty short-stacked, and I just got off the phone with him. I was kinda tickled when he made it into the money after we had a strategy discussion the night before. I felt I had something to do with his success, but I wasn’t going to say anything, because deep down inside, I know that I sometimes think every woman wants me, too … so who knows what he really thought of my drivel.
(My advice there was a page stolen from Subway Jon as he coached La Sengphet through the bubble of the Ladies event.)
Anyhow, as I was saying, I just got off the phone with Richard. Apparently I am his coach. So I just told him that he has to be looking to push all-in. (His M is equal to about 6 right now.) Look to attack medium stacks, I said. In general, play super tight, but look for situations where your cards don’t matter … and if you’re forced to move all-in with a weak hand, you’re better off playing 5-7o than K-10s.
So with Wyrick calling me for advice, he is obviously doomed. But if he makes the final table, then I am a genius. And then, of course, all the girls will really want me.
ALT HED: Go Big Dick!
UPDATE: I just checked on my bandwagon protege … He looked at me and motioned with his fingers that he had 450,000 left in chips. Blinds are at 10k/20k +3k, and he’s UTG. Ever the coach, I nodded, tapped my index finger to my forehead and mouthed the words, “Play smart.”
LAS VEGAS–Thum is griping that Pokerati’s not keeping up with the WSOP news. (I miss you, too, Tummy!) What he says couldn’t be further from fiction. You see, I’ve become rather busy here at the World Series. What started out as a simplish gig doing the PartyPoker corporate blog has transformed into spearheading a new project called PokerBlog.com. Go there for a little more thorough coverage. Or at least more regular coverage …
But with his tactful reminder, I feel like I do need to give a little something more to the readers. So here’s a recap of what’s going on right now at the Rio: lots and lots of poker. But no cash games — all tourney tables today.
Oops, my camera accidentally went off here.
Not enough? OK, I think I can find something here in the lost archives … ah, yes, here it is. There’s been much talk about Clonie’s sexy Maxim photo shoot this year. But did you know she did a lingerie photo shoot a while back with Pokerati? Sure, she may have been a little drinky at the time, and possibly unaware that the shoot was going on … but that didn’t stop the good times at last year’s La Riata in Dallas.
Oops, this time my zoom lens accidentally went off.
LONDON–Not sure if I mentioned this to those of you who aren’t following the 
