Blogger Coverage of the WSOP is Just Terrific

Once again I am in awe of the work done by the bloggers at the World Series of Poker. Last year I was astounded at how Pauly McGuire all by himself was able to provide better, and more in-depth coverage than many of the larger media outlets, some of which had a dozen or more reporters running around gathering information.

The bloggers are an incredible bunch. Often treated like pariahs by the mainstream media, and frequently given short shrift by Harrah’s, they have a love for the game and a willingness to find both fringe and mainstream stories that other’s can't or won’t. One of the reasons is that bloggers never sleep, or seem not to anyway.

Though I’ve been lumped in with the bloggers by others discussing WSOP reportage, but the truth is that I don’t measure up. Not at all. I sleep. I keep somewhat normal hours. I don’t hang around the media room until 3:00 am and then show up again the next day just a bit later than the crack of dawn.

In fact, I’m not even hanging around for the remainder of the series. When the WSOP wraps up this year, I’ll be on a cruise ship in the Mediterranean. But I’ve been there for a week. I have the color, look, and feel down pat, and I’ve got a handle on the major issues that are spinning about the WSOP’s poker games like planets circling the sun. What I don’t have is comprehensive play-by-play coverage of the main event and the fringes of the event that make for such lively reading.

For that, you need to Google Pauly McGuire, Tim Lavalli, Amy Calistri (my wonderful radio co-host on Keep Flopping Aces, which airs worldwide over the Internet every Thursday on www.holdemradio.com at 9:00 pm Eastern Time, and is also available in archived form as well as in podcast on iTunes), Jen Leo, Jay Greenspan and any of the other bloggers who are nose-to-the grindstone every day at the WSOP.

They are providing the best, most in-depth, and most richly-textured and hued WSOP coverage you could hope to find. Read them. You’ll be glad you did.

What the Anti-Gambling Factions Say About HR 4411's Chances for Passage

Sometimes it’s interesting to see how the other half lives, so I decided to see what the Congressional and the anti-gambling factions are thinking about the chances of HR 4411 passing the Senate anytime soon.

Sources in Congress have been quoted as saying that HR 4411 -- sponsored by Reps. Bob Goodlatte, (R-VA), and Jim Leach, (R-IA) -- is unlikely to pass the Senate before the summer recess begins Aug. 7.

Chad Hills, an analyst for gambling issues at Focus on the Family Action, said, "We've been trying to get this bill through the Senate before it recesses. We're hearing now that it may be stalled — and won't be considered."
Brian Newell of the Family Research Council says that some senators are anonymously trying to "deep six" the bill, and unless the Senate leadership makes the bill a priority, it is unlikely to pass.

That’s good news for people like you and me, who want to defend our right to play poker online and keep a nanny-state mentality from passing another sumptuary law that no one really needs.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, as we reported earlier in this blog, did not include HR 4411 in his priority legislation, which means it’s probably not going to pass in 2006.

But the battle is not the war, and similar legislation is almost sure to be introduced in 2007. That’s why you should join the Poker Player’s Alliance by clicking your way to http://www.pokerplayersalliance.org. While you’re at it, you can click your way to a letter sent in your name to your local congressional representatives. Please let them know how you feel about this legislation. Every little bit helps.

Competing Agendas at the WSOP

It’s the first day of the World Series of Poker and in case you missed it, it’s no big deal. They’re repeating it four times over the next few days, just in case you missed anything.

There’s an excess of energy in the halls, in players walking and talking of everything and nothing that’s important. There are all kinds of World Series of Poker souvenirs in the stores, more souvenirs than you would find at a baseball game.

There’s even the World Gaming Exposition next door, which is filled by most of the major players in the poker industry and some vendors that are not really players at all. All of the online poker sites are represented, at least they are represented in their dot.net (rather than their dot.com) camouflage.

But that’s not enough. Sometime during the first day, Harrah’s came round and made all those players wearing dot.com shirts cover the “dot.com” representation, turn their shirts inside out, or change their attire. I watched representatives from Poker stars run round the room with black duct tape for players who won their way into the main event via one of their satellites. I imagine all the other sites were doing the same.

Back in the dark ages of the World Series of Poker, which was about four years ago, this was simply a poker tournament that received some, but not much, press coverage. It was funky, informal, there was ease of access, and everyone worked with each other for a common goal.

That’s all changed. It’s hard to get this big without that happening, and now there are so many stakeholders in the WSOP that differing objectives are always going to be in place. Toes get stepped on. Feelings get hurt. Bad decisions are made because holding the best and most important poker tournament in the world is no longer the only goal. A multitude of stakeholders inevitably leads to somewhat competing goals and objectives.

1. Harrah's want to turn profit and to brand themselves with the cachet of the WSOP, while branding the WSOP with their unique identity.
2. Harrah’s shareholders want to earn a return on their investment.
3. Players want a poker tournament.
4. ESPN wants to produce TV programming.
5. Dealers always find an issue regarding the status of their employment or their pay every year.
6. Big and small media comes into conflict each year. Bigger, traditional media that can promote ESPN’s coverage and the Harrah’s brand, and media that pays for some form of exclusivity want as much of that as they can get, even if it cuts off blogger access. Unfortunately for the poker fan, blogger reports are usually more insightful than "big media" end products, simply because they have a better knowledge of the game. (I find the reporting of people like Tim Lavalli, Amy Calistri, Pauly McGuire, Jen Leo and other bloggers much more worthwhile a read than mainstream coverage.)
7. Fans of poker want to be able to see the tournament, which is something that's damn near impossible with the set-up in place now. Some sort of arena seating plus TV monitors and lipstick cameras would be a terrific addition to next year's event. If this can be addressed, perhaps the promoters can provide increased media access too, thus solving two problems at once.
8. Vendors of everything from online poker rooms, to magazines, to affiliates, to apparel manufacturers want an outlet to show and sell their wares.

While I was musing about the WSOP, it was interesting to pick up a newspaper over breakfast and find that there was still a real world with real-world issues going on. Israel called up 30,000 reservists. Floyd Landis' incredible Tour de France victory may be in jeopardy over allegations of doping. Finally, I found an issue that tied all of this together.

Jack Binion, the guy who helped build the WSOP to what it was a few years ago was named chairman of Wynn International and senior executive for it’s Asian operations and development. If you’re having trouble making sense of the title, it means that Jack is now the king of hosts in Macao, and tasked with luring the highest of the high rollers into the new Wynn property in Macao which is slated to open on September 5th. This means Jack Binion will go mano-a-mano with Stanley Ho, the gaming king of Asia – or at least he was until Wynn threw down the gauntlet.

Will North Dakota Be A Safe Haven For Online Poker

Last night on Keep Flopping Aces, the internet radio show that airs weekly on www.holdemradio.com at 9:00 pm Eastern Time, I interviewed North Dakota state representative Jim Kasper, who’s sponsoring legislation that would make his state a safe harbor for any online poker site willing to locate their servers there and use North Dakota’s state owned bank – they are the only state in the country that owns its own bank – to safeguard player funds.

Jim Kasper’s Efforts to Make North Dakota a Safe Haven for Online Poker
Kasper tried this a year ago. His bill cleared the state’s House of Representative but failed to clear the North Dakota Senate after a letter sent by the United States Department of Justice warned that online poker “may” be illegal according to the Wire Act.

Nobody believes the Wire Act covers online gaming, not even US Representative Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), who along with Congressman Jim Leach of Iowa is sponsoring legislation that would amend the Wire Act of 1961 to cover online gaming. After all, if the Wire Act did cover online gaming, the Leach-Goodlatte bill would be redundant.

This time Jim Kasper is ready for the Department of Justice and is educating his colleagues about the issues. North Dakota’s Attorney General is ready to take the US Department of Justice to court if this law passes and DOJ tries to hinder their efforts based on the applicability of the Wire Act.

Kasper Needs Support from Online Poker Firms
So what else does Jim Kasper need to succeed? Only the cooperation of the online gaming industry. In order to craft legislation that meets the needs of players and industry both, he’s seeking input from the leading online poker firms who would reap the rewards of locating in North Dakota should his bill pass in 2007.

In part, this blog post is also an open letter to representatives of the online gaming community. I’m urging you to reach out to Mr. Kasper. His email address is: JMKasper@amg-nd.com.

I’d love to see online poker firms come home to the United States and bring jobs and capital with them, while providing a safe and regulated online gaming experience from within the United States.

Here’s How You Can Help
If you are reading this and are associated with an online poker firm, please contact Jim Kasper and see what you can do to help. You might just reap the enormous rewards of being first into the market if his bill becomes law in North Dakota.

If You Want to Listen to the Interview
If you missed the show when it aired live, you can go to www.holdemradio.com and listen to it in the show vault archives. You will also be able to lsiten to it as a podcast on iTunes in a few days. The interivew with Jim Kasper actually began on Wade's Words, which airs immediately before Keep Flopping Aces, and continued after the break on Keep Flopping Aces. It's informative, worth listening to, and if you are involved with an online poker site, you can help by getting involved with Jim Kasper's efforts to provide a safe haven for a US-based, regulated online poker industry in North Dakota.

(1) Gaming Expo (2) Will North Dakota Lead the Way To Legal Online Poker

There's too much to see. Really. The World Series of Poker's Gaming Life Expo is almost too big to take in all at once. All the usuals are there, from big name players such as Doyle Brunson and Chris Ferguson, to firms selling poker sunglasses, and stress balls. All the poker magazines are represented; along with everything from mouse pads shaped like miniature poker table, to -- of all things -- superglue.

I still haven't figured out the connection between superglue and poker but I'm working on it. Maybe the next time I'm dealt aces I'll glue those pocket rockets to my hands and keep them for the rest of the session.

Here are a few small scoops for you:

1. Sometime in September, I'll begin a regular column for Poker Player Magazine, which makes me a colleague again of Mike Caro, Ashley Adams, and a few other folks I really like and respect. Poker Player's publisher Stan Sludikoff is also a strong adherent and defender of a free press, and while it may not mean all that much to most folks, to poker players who are also writers and writers who are also poker players (I haven't quite figured whether I'm one of the former or the latter), it does mean a lot. Poker Player is very widely distributed, so look for me in your neighborhood card room in about six weeks.

2. www.Holdemradio.com, the Internet radio station that carries Keep Flopping Aces, the show that Amy Calistri and I host every Thursday night at 9:00 pm Eastern Time is moving its base of operations from Austin, TX to Las Vegas, NV. I know that bodes well for the show; a presence in Las Vegas is important for a poker radio station, and advertising should be easier to come by than it is in Austin, which has a huge music scene but not much in the way of poker.

Speaking of Keep Flopping Aces, in two hours I'm going to interview State Representative Jim Kasper from North Dakota. In 2005 Kasper sponsored legislation that would have legalized online poker in North Dakota for any online poker room housing its servers there, allowing them worldwide access from their American base.

His bill passed the House, but was defeated in the Senate when the US Department of Justice, mustering up all the scare tactics it could, sent a letter to North Dakota's Attorney General stating that the proposed bill "... could be in violation of federal laws."

This year Kasper is behind an initiative to achieve his goals, and says, "If the Department of Justice or Congress try to stop us, it is my intention that the State of North Dakota initiate legal proceedings in federal court, to have them rule on the Constitutional issues."

This should be a fascinating interview on a topic that couldn't be more timely. If you get a chance, go to www.holdemradio.com and listen to the show live. If you miss it when it airs, you can also listen to it in the archives or as a podcast in iTunes.

I've gotta prep for the interview now. More tomorrow.

My Air Conditioning Dies in the Desert...How Rude!

I'm back in Las Vegas. I got up very early this morning to get a start while the day was still relatively cool. "Relatively" is the operative word here; it's been really hot in Palm Springs this week, with the temperature hitting 120 degrees just a few days ago.

Just after I left the Indian gas station at Cabezon (gas on the reservation is always cheaper than the White man's gas. I don't know why, but it is), about 30 miles into my trip, I noticed things beginning to get a little stuffy inside my car. With the temperature hitting 100 degrees that early in the morning, there was no way I was gonna drive with the top down, so I cranked up the A/C. Nothing, nada, zilch, zero, not a darn thing. No air conditioning.

It was completely gone. So I rolled down the windows, got some fresh, warm air, which was much better than no air at all, and toughed it out to Las Vegas where I arrived feeling like a soft-boiled egg. I've already made an appointment to have the A/C fixed when I get home, but for now, I'll just tough it out.

When did we all become so soft? What did we do in the days before air conditioning? How did Bugsy Siegel and Virginia Hill drive back and forth from Beverly Hills to Las Vegas in the 1940s, when the Flamingo was under construction? They didn't have air conditioned cars in those days, did they?

Maybe they drove at night, when the desert cools down a bit. Maybe they didn't care. Maybe Bugsy was tougher than me. Maybe he only came to Las Vegas in the winter, when it's not hot at all.

Who knows? I've gotten my air conditioning rant off my chest, so now it's time to head on over to the Rio, to the World Series of Poker and see what the day has in store.

Eagle on the Hunt....

I just love this shot. It was taken by Bob Wilson, of Wilson Software, www.wilsonsoftware.com/the company that makes Turbo Texas Hold'em.

Bob took this in Alaska, in February 2005.

Good News! H.R 4411 Not on Senate Republican Priority List

Although H.R. 4411 passed the House of Representatives by a 317-93 vote last week it appears unlikely pass the Senate prior to their month-long recess beginning August 4.

This bill was not one of the priorities mentioned by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) during a Tuesday meeting with reporters. During that session, Frist outlined the measures he is hoping to wrap up before the August recess. His priorities include passage of energy and defense appropriations bills, a military construction appropriations bill, and an extension of the estate tax repeal. H.R. 4411 was not on Frist’s short list.

Although backers of the H.R. 4411 are trying to muster support for it more than one Republican staffer has been quoted as saying that they don’t expect it to pass in the next two weeks, and that this bill is not on their schedule.

The Senate bill is very similar to the bill that was approved earlier in the House of Representatives. It would prohibit most forms of Internet gambling and make it illegal for banks and credit card companies to make payments to online gambling sites.

Congress has precious few work days remaining in 2006 because of the congressional elections scheduled for early November. Senators return from vacation in September for several weeks, then adjourn again before the elections, and return in December prior to a Christmas recess.

Can Mikey the Chimp Win the World Series of Poker?

Word has it that a chimp named Mikey will play in the 2006 World Series of Poker main event. I don’t know if this is true, but that’s what I’m hearing. It’s not that weird. I recall when it was all the rage to try to have a chimp – or a dog – get into the records of a college and receive a degree on graduation day.

That stunt was pulled off successfully on a couple of occasions, and if folks can figure a way to make that work, why not get Tarzan’s and Jane’s little friend to show the world that he has the card sense to pull himself through this event, even if the banana breaks are few and far between.

A press conference is supposed to be held Thursday, so more information may be available then, unless this is just a rumor and the folks behind it are just trying to monkey around with us.

So how would you feel if you entered busted out of the WSOP’s main event before Mikey the chimp? Actually, most of have seen players bust out of a tournament before some of the late arrivals or no-shows, so is being beaten by a chimp any worse an assault on the ego than losing to the man who wasn’t there?

But what if Mikey gets lucky and wins? Will he write a book? Will he get a big money deal with an online gaming site? Will all of us be dragging our knuckles and scratching our ribs in a pale and pathetic imitation of Mikey the chimp as we nibble bananas at next year’s main event?

Does the WSOP Need an Ombudsman?

I received this announcement today from the World Series of Poker.

“The planet’s richest and most prestigious gaming event is attractingthousands of customers from around the world,” said World Series of PokerTournament Director Bob Daily. “To accommodate them and provide the bestpossible customer service, we’ve set up a player services desk that will beopen 18 hours a day.”

Customer representatives will be on hand to respond to player questions, comments, concerns and suggestions about tournament operations, live game orsatellite play from 8 a.m. until 2 a.m. daily. In addition, Daily andmembers of his tournament staff will be available to answer player questionsabout what happens on the tournament floor.

Bad Decisions
While I think this is a terrific idea, and I applaud the World Series of Poker for setting up an advisory council of players to provide input and insights to Harrah’s management about how things should be structured at a tournament the size, scope, and importance of the WSOP, some of the day-to-day decisions that have been made by the management of the WSOP have been atrocious.

A proposed last-minute change of an event from a no-rebuy tournament to one featuring rebuys is horribly wrong. For some entrants, the initial cost might represent the top of their budget, and to announce that a no rebuy event will now have rebuys at the eleventh hour is unconscionable and smacks of the worst sort of bait-and-switch advertising. How anyone could make this decision is mind-boggling.

An equally bad decision was the one in which the shoot-out format tournament was changed from having 10 players per table to six. Yes, I realize that management retained the right to do that, but c’mon; all signs pointed to a 10 player per table event, and to reduce it to six players per table in order to pass more players on to the next round was a very poor choice, as was escorting Harry Demetriou from the room for bitching about it. Sure, his criticism was over-the-top, but it’s as much an indictment of the WSOP’s decision making process as it was an outburst that Harry could have handled in a better way.

Better Communications Needed on Both Sides
What’s missing here is not player input. Regardless of the work done by everyone involved in the planning of this event, these issues could not have been envisioned. So it’s not a problem with planning; it’s an issue of communications between management and players, between customer and vendor, between host and guest.

Why an Ombudsman is Needed
Issues such as these can only be resolved on the ground, when they occur, and not by advanced planning. I’d like to suggest that the World Series of Poker add an ombudsman, or a team of them, so that someone is around to ameliorate these kinds of issues whenever they arise during the tournament. If that requires a 24/7 presence, so be it.

And what’s needed is someone who is neither a player nor a representative of management, but it needs to be someone with good common sense, the ability to think on his or her feet, and a willingness to make tough decisions in the heat of battle. If Harrah’s agrees with my idea, I’d be glad to share with them my short list of people who could fill this role and do it justice during next year’s event.

Cool Picture of the Week

I don't know what it is about this picture, but I never tire of looking at it.

Is Congress All Hat and No Cattle?

Congress has some lofty goals. They want to discourage gambling addiction, prevent young people from the mire of gambling debt, and close the pipeline to off-shore gambling operations.

Although the House passed a ban on Internet gambling by a 317-93 vote last week that would prohibit the use of credit cards or other electronic funds to settle online wagers, and add the Internet to the Wire Act, it won’t accomplish the House of Representatives’ goals. And it shouldn’t. Hey, it’s my money and if I want to use it to play poker, why does Congress think they need another sumptuary law to prohibit it?

It’s election time, that’s why. Congress always comes up with some funny stuff between July 4th and November elections. Some pundits have opined that the best thing for the country would be to lock Congress in a dungeon from Independence Day and Election Day and we’d all be better off for it.

This bill, like the cowboys say, is all hat and no cattle. It passes the buck of regulation to the banking industry by requiring them to keep track of financial transactions but provides no resources for them to accomplish this. It’s an unfunded mandate, and those sorts of things are never popular with the folks dragooned to serve as government’s factotums while given no tools to do the job.

Because online gambling operations reside outside the U.S. this bill is likely to meet with little success. And it’s hypocritical too. After all, while poker is covered by this bill, other forms of Internet wagering, such as horse and dog racing, state lotteries, and some fantasy sports leagues get a pass.

Did the House approve this bill as a way of distancing themselves from the shadow of disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who killed similar legislation in 2000? Representative Bob Goodlatte, (R-VA), one of the bill’s sponsors, seemed to think so when he said that passing this bill would "… expunge a smear on this House."

I’m confused. Wouldn’t passing a stronger ethics bill prohibiting lawmakers and their staffs from accepting pricey junkets be a better way for members of Congress to keep the phantasma of Jack Abramoff at arm’s length? I think so. But then I’m not some angst ridden, symbolism-over-substance elected careerist looking to shovel shit on someone else’s shoes while having the taxpayers shine mine.

I’m just a writer and poker player, not a member of Congress, and I suppose I should know better.

Pro Players File Antitrust Suit Against World Poker Tour

Three days ago seven of poker’s biggest names filed an antitrust complaint against WPT Enterprises (the World Poker Tour) in federal court in Los Angeles.

The plaintiffs, Chris Ferguson, Andy Bloch, Annie Duke, Phil Gordon, Joe Hachem, Greg Raymer, and Howard Lederer, allege that the WPT and the casinos have unlawfully conspired to eliminate competition for the services and intellectual property rights of top professional poker players and that casinos have agreed with the WPT that they will not host any non-WPT televised poker tournaments. They also claim that the WPT and casinos conspired to fix the price and other terms and conditions under which the plaintiffs and other professional poker players are forced to give up their valuable services and intellectual property rights in order to participate in WPT tournaments.

So what happens here, and what does this all mean? Amy Calistri and I discussed this issue on our radio show, Keep Flopping Aces, on www.holdemradio.com last night and we each came to similar conclusions.

When most people hear the word “lawsuit” they think about who wins and who loses. Antitrust complaints tend to be very costly for both sides, and can drag on for a long time. While each side can make some strong points in their favor, the players and the WPT will do better in the long run if they are able to build a positive relationship with each other.

Players need to earn money in WPT events and the WPT benefits from having notable names in their televised events.

I am almost certain this case will never see the inside of a courtroom. It will be settled. That makes this lawsuit part of a continuing spate of negotiations that began a while ago, when the players went public with their issues and the WPT countered with an “open letter,” which said, in essence, “We are really on your side; we are the good guys. Trust us.”

While each side needs the other, this lawsuit is a really powerful blast fired by the players. They are represented by the law firm of Dewey Ballantine LLP, a heavyweight in this field, which was founded in 1909 and is an international law firm with more than 550 attorneys. Lead counsel Jeffrey Kessler has represented NFL, NBA, and other players in similar antitrust suits.

A web site for this suit has been established and you can read the complaint and keep track of other developments at http://wptlawsuit.com.

I think the players have leverage on their side. Their case is strong and the WPT can't help but look like the heavy in this drama. Even if the case were to come to court and the WPT were to prevail, it could prove to be a public relations disaster for them.

HR 4411 Does Not make Playing Online Poker Illegal

H.R. 4411, the Leach bill which was amended to include some of Rep. Goodlatte’s language, passed the House of Representatives by a vote of 317-93. Here’s a summary of the bill, with my comments in italics:

Online gaming sites may not accept payment from a United States financial institution. The United States has no jurisdiction over any online gambling site because they are all outside of the United States. Try as they might, Congress cannot enforce laws on business outside the United States.

Financial institutions may not transfer funds to online gaming sites. Banks and credit card companies already refuse to send money to offshore sites. That’s why offshore third-party financial intermediaries, such as Neteller, were created.

The 1961 Wire Act would be amended to include the Internet and to prohibit games “predominantly subject to chance.” Determining what is, and is not a game of chance will require expensive, time consuming litigation.

Internet service providers and other technology providers will be required to block access to online gambling sites when requested to do so by a law enforcement agency. In my opinion, this is unenforceable, and represents an unfunded mandate that will prove prohibitively expensive if ISPs and others are asked to serve as deputized officers for law enforcement. It is very costly, and not at all in their self-interest to do this.

The Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve will have 270 days to issue regulations outlining policies and procedures that could be used by financial institutions to identify and block gambling-related transactions that are transmitted through their payment systems. This will not be done in any meaningful manner.

The bill exempts lotteries, horse racing, and the stock market. If sports betting or internet poker is immoral and a danger warranting this kind of legislation, why are horseracing, lotteries, fantasy sports leagues and a few other things not a danger?

If online gaming is destroying the moral fiber of society, as its proponents say it is, why doesn’t the bill contain provisions to provide assistance to problem gamblers? It does not, and its legislative intent is incongruent with some of the reasons cited by its adherents. The level of hypocrisy surrounding this bill is such that one shouldn’t be surprised when the stated target of the bill and its actual legislative aim are entirely different.

Cato policy analyst Radley Balko writes, "Web-based gambling is still a $12 billion industry. And so just as has happened every other time our government has attempted to ban vice (see illicit drugs, prostitution, and alcohol), efforts to ban online gambling have not only failed, they've created more problems than they've solved."
Balko continues: "The funny thing is, online gaming sites are begging to be legalized and regulated. A better approach would be to allow them to set up shop in the U.S., contribute to the U.S. economy, be regulated by U.S. markets, and be subject to U.S. courts. Of course, that approach would require Congress to treat Americans as adults, and understand that we ought to be free to spend our own money as we please. Even in ways some morally crusading Congressmen happen to find distasteful."

And what might be the strangest stroke of all, there’s no provision in the bill that prevents you from playing online poker, or renders the game of poker illegal. If this bill were to pass the Senate and become law — something neither I nor more seasoned Congress-watchers predict — we might have to jump through a few more hoops to move our money offshore in order to fund our online poker accounts, but we would not be violating any law by playing poker.

Will Automated Poker Tables Replace Dealers?

Are Poker Dealers Redundant?

PokerTek has signed a three-year contract to provide its fully automated poker table, tables to Carnival Cruise Lines, which operates 21 cruise ships.

Automated tables allow poker players to play cash and tournament games around a real poker table without cards, chips, or dealers. Each player control his or her actions on a personal touch-screen monitor, while a flat-screen television in the middle of the table shows communal cards, button position and where the action is.

Carnival’s 2,758-passenger Carnival Victory received the initial installation, with other ships slated to receive this technology based on the success of the first installation.

Hollywood Park Casino in Southern California has agreed to undertake a 90-day trial of six of these tables. Automated tables are also in place at the Seminole Hard Rock casinos in Tampa Bay and Hollywood, Florida, and at three Winstar Casinos in Oklahoma.

Irreverent picture of the week: WSOP cocktail waitress

Here's a typical World Series of Poker cocktail waitress. So if you guys can't decide whether to go to Las Vegas for the WSOP or not, maybe she'll serve as an inducement!

So what if the glass she's carrying is half full -- or half empty, however you choose to see it -- the balancing act is terrific, don't ya think?

The beat goes on at the WSOP, but I'm headed home for a week

A really Bad Choice of Roads
I’m home. After Amy Calistri and I broadcast our radio show, Keep Flopping Aces, on www.holdemradio.com, I got in the car and headed back to Palm Springs, a 275 mile jaunt across the desert.

There are two ways to make this drive and I took the wrong one. You can take I-15 to the I-10 and it’s all freeway, or you can go through the desert, passing spots time has forgotten, such as Amboy. The back road through the desert saves 50 miles, but takes the same time because the desert roads won’t support freeway speeds. Because it was getting dark, and the roads through the desert are not lit, not well-traveled, have no services, and cell phone reception is dicey at best, I took the safe bet and decided to take the freeway home.

It was OK until I got onto the I-10 and was nearing Redlands. The freeway, which is four to five lanes at that point was narrowed down to one skinny little lane for a night construction project that looks like it will be going on for months. So what should have been a 10-minute segment of my drive wound up taking more than an hour as cars and trucks filtered into one lane. It was the bad beat of my trip, and even if I had to drive slowly though an unlit desert road, I would have been way better off going that way and missing all that construction traffic.

If any of you are planning on taking the I-10 in the Riverside, Redlands, San Bernardino area at night, you might want to call Caltrans first and see if there’s a way to avoid this bottleneck.

Who's dealing the cards at the WSOP?
There might be a bottleneck at the World Series of Poker too. Some dealers appeared to have walked off the job or are staging an informal work stoppage over a dispute about wages. I don’t know the details, but there were fewer dealers on the floor yesterday than were required.

I walked into the casino in early afternoon looking for a hold’em game. The board for $20-$40 hold’em was as long as your arm, and so were the boards for most games. But I looked around and saw that a number of tables were simply unoccupied. The Rio couldn’t have wanted it that way, because an empty table means a loss of revenue at that spot. It was clear to me that the board was long enough to support an additional five $20-$40 games, and the combined waiting lists for that and other games would probably have been sufficient to fill all of those empty tables.

This is an ongoing story. Amy and I talked about it on the air last night, though we had no real details behind it. We certainly noticed the effect on the floor because more games could have been spread if dealers were available, but at this juncture I’m not sure about the underlying issues, nor what discussions aimed at rectifying these issues may be underway. I’m not the kind of person who sees conspiracy under every rock, and I’m hoping this issue is more a misunderstanding that can quickly be cleared up than anything else. After all, everyone has poker to play.

Is the USA missing the revenue boat?

In my opinion, The House of Representatives folded a $6-billion hand by passing legislation aimed at killing online gaming in the United States. 799.

Although unsuccessful in the past with similar legislation, the House passed this bill by a vote of 317 to 93, adding the Internet to the 1961 Wire Act. If enacted into law, the bill would make it a felony to transmit bets by wire or online. The bill now moves to the Senate for consideration there.

The U.S. government walked away from a chance to regulate online gambling and gather the tax revenue from the $6to $12 billion that’s estimated to be generated by online gambling in the U.S.


The Brits took a different tack and opted for regulation rather than prohibition. As a result they will reap a harvest of tax revenue as well as see more capital formation in the UK and more online gaming sites going public in the UK and listing on the London Exchange. Jobs are created too, and economic benefits will accrue to the Brits because they opted to regulate online gaming rather than follow a course of prohibition, a course that carries a history of failure.

At the World Series of Poker, a continuing story

Yesterday I had breakfast with some of the sharpest minds in poker: Jim Brier, Barry Tanenbaum, and Dr. Al Schoonmaker. I like to get together with these guys whenever I’m in Las Vegas, and we usually meet for breakfast and breakfast usually lasts until lunchtime.

Every time I think I know it all, I realize I don’t, and chatting about poker with these guys always imparts new information and reinforces what I know at the same time. It’s like going to the chiropractor and having your back adjusted, except talking to Barry, Jim, and Al adjusts my poker game and gets it back on track.

After lunch I hotfooted it over to the Rio where the seniors event and the $50,000 HORSE event were slated to start. I wondered how many poker players would plunk down that kind of buy in, and I figured the number would be somewhere around 100. Word has it that one-hundred-forty-something signed up, and starting with 50,000 chips gave the entire field a lot of play.

As for me, I played poker in one of the myriad side games at the Rio. It was an Omaha/8 side game that got short handed and then rebuilt again before I had to leave to attend a seminar Barry Tanenbaum gave at the Poker Stars Hospitality Suite.

At the table next to me, there was a player who had won a WSOP bracelet some years ago, and was playing in a mid-limit game. He’s one of those guys who seems to have dropped from the radar screen of notable poker players. He was under funded, and judging from snippets of information I was able to overhear, is scuffling and scamming to get his head above water.

These are some of the stories you don’t hear too much in poker; but they are to be found all over the poker world if you look closely enough or just overhear the right combinations.

Barry Tanenbaum, my breakfast companion, gave one terrific seminar for Poker Stars. If they bring him back to give more seminars at their WSOP hospitality suite and you’re in the area, you should attend. I guarantee that whatever your level of skill, there’s something in what Barry will say to improve your game.

House Passes Internet Gaming Bill

The U.S. House passed H.R. 4411 in a 317 to 93 vote. The bill, sponsored by Jim Leach, R-IA, prohibits banks and credit card companies from processing payments for online gambling bets and includes portions of Bob Goodlatte’s HR 4777, R-VA. The Goodlatte provisions will mandate force Internet Service Providers to block access or disable hyperlinks to Web sites that offer online gaming.

The legislation has a cutout that exempts wagering on horseracing over the internet, as well as betting on online lotteries, and some fantasy sports. Although poker is clearly a game of skill -- not just a random gamble -- it is prohibited under this bill.

Leach's bill also plays into an international tgrade dispute between the U.S. and Antigua that has been going on for a few years now. "I'm very surprised and quite disappointed that the U.S. Congress would be pushing full force ahead," said Antigua Finance Minister Errol Cort.

The dispute that’s flared up between the U.S. and the small Caribbean nation centers around the United State’s unwillingness to drop prohibitions on Americans placing bets in online casinos. Antigua is waiting for a World Trade Organization tribunal to see if the U.S. has complied with the trade group's ruling.

The United States contends that Internet gambling should be prohibited because it violates some U.S. state laws. Antigua contends that if some forms of Internet gambling, such as horseracing, are kosher, all forms of online gaming ought to be OK.

This bill is not law yet. It still has to clear the Senate, which might not happen. If the bill becomes law the enforcement cycle will begin, and along with it, the cat and mouse games. While it will prove difficult for the US to make the provisions of this bill a reality, the United States will permanently lose all chance of regaining the economic advantage that the Brits have by virtue of their decision to legalize, regulate, and tax this industry.

A Wonderfully Long Day in Las Vegas

Never Enough Time to Sleep
For me the World Series of Poker is always about getting less and less sleep, regardless of whatever good intentions I might have had to begin the day. Yesterday was another of those days.

I was up early to have breakfast with Dean and Ellen, who run the PokerAnalysis Forum. A number of forum participants where there, some of which I knew from online play such as Iron Girl and ShayaBaby, but had never met in person before. We got a table for about 16 people in the Sao Paulo Café, which worked out well, because it was before the Rio got too crowded.

Max Shapiro and Barbara Enright threatened to join us, but didn’t appear on the scene until long after breakfast was over and I bumped into them in the main hallway leading to the World Series of Poker.

Yesterday’s event was sold out and with the restart from prior days events it meant that there were no tables available for side games.

Aimlessly Chasing Amy...
I hung out at the Rio for a while. Actually I was aimlessly chasing Amy Calistri (pun intended), my radio co-host on Keep Flopping Aces, which airs each Thursday night at 9:00 PM EDT on www.holdemradio.com, but she wasn’t in any of the obvious places like any of the hospitality suites or the media center.

And I Found Wil Wheaton instead
I did run into Wil Wheaton, who has morphed his career from playing Ensign Wesley Crusher on Star Trek: The Next Generation into a writer and representative for Poker Stars. I told Wil I’d like to get him on our radio show, and he’s eager to do it, so that remains a future programming segment.

Playing Poker at the Wynn
By this time I was itching to play some poker so I hotfooted it over to the Wynn, where they had a $30-$60 hold’em game going. I found it typical. Most of the folks at the table knew how to play, but one or two of them tended to stay with their hands a bit long than I would. There weren’t any serious fish in that game, but there was some money up for the winning.

After losing a big hand when my A-Q dominated an opponent’s A-9 only to see him pair his kicker on the river, and losing another with a nut flush draw and two overcards that never panned out, I slowly eked my way back to a win for the day.

I love playing at the Wynn. Self-parking at the north end of the property leads you right to the poker room without having to stroll through the entirety of the casino to reach it. The lighting is terrific, the ambiance is good, and the room has a very relaxed feel, and they had a lot of games going, which, I suppose, is the norm for Las Vegas during the World Series.

A Pilgrimage to the Gambler's Book Store
After I had my fill of playing, I dashed off to the Gambler’s Book Store so I could get there before it closed. Going there is a pilgrimage of sorts for me. They carry more books on more gaming subjects than any other book store in the world, and they have scads of books on the old days in Vegas, when it was mobbed up and the wise guys ran things very differently than things are run now.

If you’re a fan of poker, any other sort of gambling, or if you just share in America’s ongoing, never-ending fascination with the mob, you need to call them at 1.800.522.1777 and request a catalog. If you’re in Las Vegas, they are located at 630 S. 11th Street, just off Charleston Boulevard (one block west of Maryland Parkway).

I recall the old days, before 2003, when I’d read every new poker book that hit the shelves. Then I’d read it again. And I’d read it once more for good measure. By the time I’d red it three times, a new book would generally be available.

Now it seems like there are three or four new poker books each month, maybe more, but regardless of how much time I dedicate to reading them, I’m hard pressed to keep up.

As a reader, I’m delighted to have this much available to me. As a writer, it just makes it more and more difficult to get my own books into the spotlight. I suppose that’s the inevitably of progress and the mainstreaming of poker. It had to happen, and over all, I’m happy for it.

Live, World-Wide, in Real Time Over the Internet: It's Hold'em Radio
I left the book store to check out what was happening over at the mobile holdemradio.com broadcast center that’s set up over in the Imperial Palace. An interview was just concluding, and Wade Andrews, who runs the station, asked me to give him as much of a report as I could muster on the WSOP and my day. I was then dragooned, along with Nana (who is living history book about poker and Las Vegas) into filling in for the hosts of the Cap & Tater Show.

This was an enjoyable hour. We talked about everything from how the WSOP was so different before corporatization, to the Goodlatte and Leach bills that were combined in the US House of Representatives and now look like they will go (and hopefully die) in the Senate.

It was a nice hour, with lots of comments from listeners.

But today is another day. I’ll play some poker, interview Howard Schwartz of the Gambler’s Book Store, and find my way to a luau that’s somewhere nearby this evening. As for sleep, that’s another story.

At the World Series of Poker, Part I

It's like I never left. I arrived at the World Series of Poker to a Deja Vu felling of having been gone only momentarily, instead of an entire year, and it all looked the same.

The tournament room is the same, only this year they managed to squeeze 208 tables inside it instead of the mere 200 last year, and to tell you the truth, I don't know where or how they rearranged things to allow an additional 80 players to be seated in the room.

It was full. It always is. Sunday was the start of the ladies event, and more than 1,100 women entered, nearly double the size of last year's field. The $10,000 pot-limit Omaha event also started yesterday. Another corner of the room featured the final tables of a no-limit hold'em tourney that began a day earlier.

Those tables not give over to tournament play were filled with cash games. But some things were different, and better. Logistics include additional bathrooms, and breaks that were sequenced so that everyone wasn't running to the john or on a dinner break at the same time.

Press credentialing was smooth, and the media room was well appointed, although I fear it will be grossly inadequate to handle the crowd expected to cover poker's big kahuna, the $10,000 buy-in, no-limit hold'em tournament.

I'm staying at the Imperial palace, which really ought to be torn down and rebuilt. It's been expanded so many times over the years that it resembles a rabbit warren, with blind-alley corridors, and banks of elevators that take you everywhere you don't want to go, but seldom to your destination. I'm here, rather than at the Golden Nugget, my usual Vegas digs, because www.holdemradio.com has set up a remote broadcast facility here for the duration of the tourney, and I intend to do as much broadcasting as I can, both live interviews and taped stuff that can run later on "Keep Flopping Aces," the show Amy Calistri and I host every Thursday night at 9:00 PM EDT.

All I did yesterday was shmooze and chat; I didn't play a single hand of poker. But I intend to rectify that today. I might go over to the Venetian. I've never seen the room and hear it's spectacular so I hope to give it a try later. Hold'em radio has a party yesterday evening, and I hung out there with Program Director Wade Andrews and Jennifer Shoots who hosts a sports show every Thursday night that follows "Keep Flopping Aces" in the time slot.

But I didn't last long. I was tired and trundled off only to play two hours of online poker before crawling off to sleep.

Hitting the Road for the World Series of Poker

Packed and Ready
I'm about to pack and hit the road for Las Vegas and the World Series of Poker. I'm glad, too. I can't wait to play some face-to-face poker. This year I've been writing -- one book out and three more in the works -- so most of my playing has been online recently. That's not bad, but I really miss the social aspect of the game.

Besides, the WSOP is almost turning into a convention for the poker business -- a chance to talk and shmooze with people I haven't seen since last year.

Redneck Wedding
With all the wacky weddings I've seen in Vegas, I still haven't seen anything to equal this one. It's the ultimate Redneck Wedding. I wasn't there. I don't know the couple, or even their dog, and I've never been inside their trailer. But it's an instant classic, redneck wedding picture.

When you look at it, just remember: If you think you're own life is hanging on the edge and slipping, it probably can't get any worse than this!

Movie Screening
I've also go an invitaion to a private screening at the Palms of No Limit, a poker documentary that interviewed me, as well as a gazillion other poker people, and I'm eager to see it. It's set for July 26.

Radio Broadcasting
But before that, I intend to play some poker and do some more radio broadcasting. www.Holdemradio.com, which hosts Keep Flopping Aces, the weekly poker show co-hosted by Amy Calistri and me every Thursday night at 9:00 PM Eastern Time, is setting up a remote broadcasting facility in Vegas for the WSOP, and so I'm planning on spending some time there. The broadcast facility will be headquartered at the Imperial Palace, so if you see me over there or at the Rio, please come over and say "hello."

Tournaments, Cash Games, Sats....decisions, decisions, decisions
I don't know if I'll play in any WSOP events this year, or just play side games and satellites. I'll make my decisions on the fly, on the spur of the moment.

I'll have my laptop with me, so I can stay on top of this blog. And for all of you who read this blog and keep me supplied with the incredibly wacky pictures I've been posting once a week or so, keep 'em coming.

Two Anti-gambling Bills Combined into One

Two anti-gambling bills combined into one
Congressmen Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) and Jim Leach (R-Iowa) combined their Internet anti-gambling legislation into one bill and are looking forward to a full floor debate, perhaps as early as next week.
The Internet Gambling Prohibition and Enforcement Act (H.R. 4411) aims at cutting the flow of money from U.S. gamblers to offshore Internet gambling sites. Payment systems and financial intermediaries used to fund online gaming accounts would face criminal penalties for completing a transaction to an offshore gambling site if this bill were to be enacted.

The bill requires that procedures be put in place to block transactions to offshore gambling sites, and will also expand the scope of the Wire Act — which now bans sports betting via telephone — to cover poker and other forms of Internet gambling.

Leach and Goodlatte, both longtime foes of Internet gambling, introduced anti-gambling measures in the past, but none have been enacted into law.

Congressman Goodlatte’s assertions are dead wrong
"Gambling on the Internet has become an extremely lucrative business," Goodlatte said. "These offshore, fly-by-night Internet gambling operators are unlicensed, untaxed and unregulated and are sucking billions of dollars out of the United States."

Not really! Most of the online poker sites are big business. Many online gaming sites are publicly held corporations trading on the London Exchange. The only reason they are “…sucking billions of dollars out of the United States” is that they are not legal here. All that’s needed to keep those jobs and capital on our shores, and to raise tax revenues in the process is to legalize, regulate and tax online gaming, much as Britain has done.

The banking industry is not happy about this bill
The banking industry isn’t very happy with this bill. “The added burden of monitoring all payment transactions for the taint of Internet gambling will drain finite resources currently engaged in complying with anti-terrorism, anti-money laundering regulations and the daily operation of our bank," Samuel Vallandingham of the Independent Banks of America told lawmakers at hearings held earlier this year.

Vallandingham asked whether legislation would "efficiently regulate the targeted behavior at a level which will justify the time and expense required by community banks to comply with another level of regulation."

American Gaming Association’s plans are doomed for this year
The American Gaming Association also called for a congressional study to determine the feasibility of perhaps regulating online gambling, much as Nevada and other states oversee rules for brick-and-mortar casinos. Nevada Reps. Jon Porter, a Republican, and Shelley Berkley, a Democrat, joined forces this spring to introduce legislation establishing a study commission.

But their objective is doomed this session now that House Republicans have made anti-gambling legislation part of their conservative.

David Stewart, an attorney representing the American Gaming Association said casinos plan to watch this unfold, then figure out their next move. If Internet gambling legislation is not approved this year, Porter and Berkley would "be in fine shape to go forward" with their push for a study, Stewart said.

Antigua pushes the World Trade Organization to find the US guilty of trade violations
While all this is going on, supporters of online gaming are also looking to the World Trade, where the small Caribbean nation of Antigua is pressing its claim that the United States is violating trade agreements by trying to block access to online gambling.

Lance Armstrong's Mailbox

Because the Tour de France started this week, I thought I'd share a picture of Lance Armstrong's mailbox with poker fans and cycling fans alike.

(1) Party Set to Acquire Gamebookers; (2) PPT Makes TV Debut July 5

Party Gaming Acquires Gamebookers
Rumor has it that Party Gaming is about to acquire online sports book Gamebookers for about $92 million. An announcement is expected within in the next two or three weeks.

Party Gaming recently raised $500 million to help it finance a series of acquisitions and Gamebookers is the first. This will allow Party to diversify its business away from America, which accounts for more than three-quarters of its turnover. Gamebookers does not take bets from American customers.

Gamebookers recently joined the Microgaming (Prima) Poker Network, but I’m assuming a change will be in the works there if the deal with Party goes through.

Professional Poker Tour Makes TV Debut Tomorrow
The 24-episode season of the Professional Poker Tour premieres on the Travel Channel at 9:00 PM EDT July 5, the spot formerly occupied by the World Poker Tour. New WPT episodes will air in the winter.

One major difference between the WPT is several that the PPT is not open to the public. Players earn their way in by succeeding on the tournament circuit. PPT players do not pay an entry fee; it’s a freeroll and the winner receives $200,000 along with a $25,000 seat to the WPT World Championship.

The PPT will be shown in five two-hour episodes, and will show each tournament from start to finish, with more than 200 players qualifying to compete in the PPT’s first season.