Congress to resume their session; let's get ready to rumble

With the U.S. Senate scheduled to reconvene next week, opponents of HR 4411, a measure that restricts Internet gambling by Americans and burdens the private sector with unmanageable reporting requirements, are gearing up for a fight.

Small and big bankers alike stand opposed to HR 4411
It’s not only poker players who stand in opposition to this bill. The Independent Community Bankers of America, an advocacy group representing 5,000 small community banks, says it would be difficult, if not impossible, for banks to police electronic payments to casinos because the transfers are not coded to show what type of business is on the receiving end.

The banks are also unable to prevent physical checks from being employed to move money into gaming accounts, though the proposed law might require them to do so. Banks would need to constantly update names of online casino operations in order to comply with the law.

Laura Fisher, a spokeswoman for American Bankers Association, the organization representing the nation's major banks, said that any decision to require the blocking of electronic payments and checks would be onerous. "You are talking about manually checking 40 billion checks a year for the payee and making an assessment of whether it's for an Internet gambling site or restaurant."

So does the US Chamber of Commerce
In addition, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the nation’s largest business advocacy group, in a recent letter to U.S. senators, expressed concern about deputizing banks "to enforce social policy."

Ellen Zimiles, chief executive of New York-based Daylight Forensic & Advisory, which advises banks on regulatory compliance said that HR 4411, "… would be extremely challenging, and it would take their efforts away from all the other things they're trying to do right now," such as helping authorities flag terrorist financing.

According to Ms. Zimiles, “it is already difficult for banks to identify electronic transfers involving people and groups that are on government lists of known terrorists and drug dealers. Besides overhauling their systems to block online gambling payments, the banks would need constantly updated lists of names of known online casino operations. If they're not given exact names to look for, it's a needle in a haystack."

And politics does make for unusual alliances
Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass, a liberal democrat, in a statement reminiscent of what one would have expected from the late Barry Goldwater, the father of the conservative movement, was quoted as saying, "What kind of social, cultural authoritarianism are we practicing here? The fundamental principle of the autonomy of the individual is at stake."

How to Improve the World Series of Poker

After some time for reflection during priod following the WSOP, let’s look at how the World Series of Poker might improve itself next year.

Make it a spectator sport:
I’m not sure just what they should do, but the WSOP needs to make the final event more audience friendly. The current ESPN soundstage at the Rio does not allow an audience to see anything. Whether some sort of arena seating is the answer, or an arena coupled with Diamond vision monitors to show the hands held by the participants would help. While you’d have to shield the players from comments by the audience, that could probably be accomplished by using clear Lucite walls, or by creating some sort of a white noise barrier between the spectators and players.

More HORSE events:
Keep the $50,000 HORSE event and add some others. There’s no reason why they shouldn’t have HORSE events for lesser buy-ins too. It’s popular, and makes sense if for no other reason than to fight the trend to nothing but hold’em in these tournaments.

Eliminate duplicative events:
With more HORSE events on the schedule, it would make it possible to eliminate duplicative events. There’s no reason why there should ever be more than one event of the same game and same buy-in at the WSOP. I’d like to see only one $1,500 buy-in no-limit tournament, for example, so the winner could at least claim exclusivity as that year’s champion in that event at that given buy-in. There’s only one $50,000 HORSE event and only one $10,000 no-limit hold’em event. The same should be true for all WSOP events.

Have a $10,000 buy-in event for each form of poker played at the WSOP
While they’re at it, the WSOP should consider holding a $10,000 buy-in event for each game played at the WSOP. This would up the prestige factor and perhaps bring back some interest in those forms of poker that are being obviated by the concentration on Texas hold’em. A $10,000 buy-in event each week or so at the series would also keep interest up during those lagging middle weeks, when things are a lot quieter than they are at the beginning and the end of the WSOP.

Add a heads-up event
Why not add a double elimination heads-up event, with either a $10,000 or $50,000 buy in to keep the entries down to 256, and certainly no more than 512. A double elimination format, like the college world series, would reduce the element of luck to some degree, and allow someone who loses in an early round to play his way back into contention through the losers’ bracket and perhaps even win the tournament.

Show some leadership
I would hope the WSOP would show the leadership required to make this event the major tournament series for all of poker, and not fall prey to becoming the World Series of Hold’em. If you think that can’t happen, take a look the upcoming California State Poker Championship at the Commerce Casino. It runs from September 5-24, and will be an all hold’em tournament.

I don’t want to see many of the other forms of poker dry up and blow away, and I’m hoping the WSOP will help keep all the current forms of poker alive, and even bring back some of the moribund games, such as five card draw and five-card stud, just for a little variety in what’s becoming a monotonous march of hold’em games across the poker landscape.

Med. cruise picutres - 8

Venice from the Grand Canal










Gondola navigates a small canal
The Doge's Palace, aka the Palazzo Ducale, constructed between 1340 and 1440.
Gondolier beneath our window at the Hotel Ala, Venice 

Med. cruise pictures - 8

Venice from the Grand Canal











Gondola in Venice canal
The Doge's Palace, aka Palazzo Ducale. Constructed between 1340 and 1440





















Gondoliers beneath our window at the Hotel Ala, Venice. 

Med. cruise pictures - 7

The Bridge of Sighs, Venice. It leads from the Doge's Palace to the prison and was named after the sighs coming from those last glances of freedom as they were led to the prison.



















Campanile di San Marco, St. Mark's Square, Venice
The Best Western Hotel Ala, at Campo Santa Maria del Giglio. Our digs in Venice.

Street scene, Venice 

Med. cruise pictures - 6

Kusadasi, Turkey
The Acropolis, Athens








Acropolis detail

The highest spot in Athens..... 

Med cruise pictures - 5

Hagia Sofia and the Blue Mosque, Istanbul




Istanbul

Istanbul from the Golden Horn
Topkapi Palace: This building housed the Sultan's harem

Med Cruise pictures - 4

Street scene on the Isle of Capri
Mykanos harbor





Mykanos, Greek church

Mykanos: windmills used for power a few hundred years ago. 

Med. Cruise pictures - 3

Detail from Golden Doors, Florence





















Trevi Tountain, Rome
















Sidewalk cafe, Rome
Vatican 

Med. Cruise Pictures - 2

Excavating ruins at Pompeii

Marseille








The Intrepid Travelers in France













The Ponte Vecchio, Florence 

Mediterranean Cruise Pictures -1

Buildings designed by Gaudi in Barcelona.
Florence








In front of the Pantheon, Rome
Interior detail of the Pantheon 

Cruising the Mediterranean - 3

“Hey, Deirdre,” I yelled to my wife who was leaning out the other window of the hotel, “They think we’re natives.” We were in Venice, at a small boutique hotel located at Campo Santa Maria del Giglio, just about a 15 to 20 minute walk from St. Mark’s Place.

The hotel was funky, and it’s in two sections. One, the newer section, looks like the hotel ween viewed from the canal, but the room we’re staying in was located in the older section and looked like it might just be another apartment lining the waterway.

Three gondolas were daisy-chaining their way up the canal, and one of the gondoliers was playing the accordion and singing to a group of Asian tourists. We began applauding when he finished singing, and shouted “Bravo” at the top of our lungs. All the gondola passengers turned our way and began snapping pictures of us as though we were native species and not tourists just like them. We blew kisses there way, which they loved, and that was our quintessential Venetian moment.

Venice is a very strange place. It’s a city made for walking, but getting around takes some time, especially if you’re schlepping suitcases, because there are no roads and no cars in Venice. When our cruise ship docked in Venice, we were bussed from the unloading point to another terminal, where we took another bus to Piazza le Roma. From there we had a choice: we could take a water taxi — a speedboat of sorts — for 60 euros, or a water bus for five euros each. We opted for the water bus, which dropped us less than 50 yards from the hotel and gave us a nice, leisurely tour of the Grand Canal to boot.

The walkway between Campo Santa Maria del Giglio and St. Mark’s Place was lined with one expensive boutique after another. What was amazing was that outside of each store there were guys selling knockoffs of the same merchandise, all apparently with no hassle from the police or the shopkeepers. So if you didn’t want a Fendi handbag, or a Gucci wallet, or something from Prada at a couple of hundred to a couple of thousand euros apiece, you could buy knockoffs on the sidewalk for the equivalent of $20 and up.

We toured the Doge’s Palace, aka, Palazzo Ducale, which in on one side of St. Mark’s Place. It also included a walk across the inside of the Bridge of Sighs to the prisons across the canal. They told us these were the new prisons, about 500 years old now, and were built to provide more humane treatment for those who were incarcerated. I shudder to think what the old prisons must have been like, because in the dungeons we visited, a year’s sentence would probably amount to a lifetime.

Getting home was an adventure, as we figured it would be with all the new security measures in place. We dragged our bags from the hotel over a few bridges to the Water Bus station, where we could catch transportation to the airport for 12 euros each. A water taxi would cost 90 euros, and while it was faster, we allowed plenty of time for the water bus ride.

Our connections routed us from Venice to Frankfurt and then to Los Angeles. Getting to Frankfurt was no problem, and when we made our reservations we thought the 90 minute layover between flights would be more than sufficient. Before the latest Al Qaeda incident, it would have been enough, but when we arrived at Frankfurt there was a long, long line for passengers heading to the USA and UK. That was just passport control, and although it moved rather quickly, another, slower line followed. This one was for passenger screening. Everyone was screened with a wand and bags were routinely opened up and checked.

The German screeners were thorough, fast, effective, and efficient. Our gate was right near the screening area, so we didn’t have a long walk once we completed the screening process. Lucky us. They were boarding the flight as we walked up to the gate. Eighty-eight minutes of our ninety minute layover was consumed by the screening process.

My advice to you: If you’re flying overseas, or making a connection in any EU country to the US or UK, allow yourself at least two to three hours for the process. The lines we stood in were filled with folks who had missed their flights and now had to find alternative ways to get home. Not a pretty picture, but a stark reflection on the times we live in.
The flight home was uneventful and we arrived on time. The driver from the car service was waiting for us and we arrived home safe and sound, right on schedule.

Later today or tomorrow I’ll post some of the pictures from our vacation. We were gone 17 days and loved every minute of it.

Cruising the Mediterranean - 2

We're docking in Venice later this morning, the last port of call on our cruise. After a day-and-a half here, we'll be flying home and arriving in Los Angeles Tuesday afternoon, assuming no airline issues.

When I left off we were in Mykonos, which was only a half-day stop. Our next port was Istanbul. I'm not quite sure what my expectations were for that city, but Istanbul exceeded all of them. The place is big. With a population of 15 million it's like New York-and-a-half, but it's quite modern and all the sites we wanted to see, such as the Blue Mosque, St. Sophia, and Topkapi Palace, were all closeby.

Though a predominantly muslim country, Turkey has a secular government and a long tradition of Muslims, Christians, and Jews living side-by-side in peaceful coexistence, so it's a model for a more harmonious world that other nations might follow. The only drawback to Istanbul is it's traffic, which is horrendous. About 400,000 people move to the city each year, and the infrastructure has not kept pace with developmen. They are in dire need of more roads, more subways, more bridges spanning the Bosphorous (Lots of folks in Instanbul live in Asia and commute to Europe each day to go to work; it doesn't seem strange to them, but somehow it amazes me).

Istanbul would take a week to really see , but I was very impressed and would go back to visit again in a heartbeat. One neat things about Istanbul is the Grand Bazaar, with more than 4,000 shops in a maze of narrow streets -- though all indoors and air-conditioned -- it is probably the world's first shopping center, albeit it one that's thousands of years old.

Our next stop was Kusadasi. Until lately Kusadasi's sole claim to fame was that it was near Ephasus, the site of some significant Roman ruins. Since Istanbul (Back when Istanbul was Constantinople, which was after it was Byzantium) it served as the administrative center of the Eastern Roman Empire. Because of that, Turkey has significant Roman sites, and Ephaus is one of them. But Kusadasi is now becomming a Turkish Riviera of sorts, with lots of new beaches and second homes being gobbled up by Europeans. You can buy a pretty nice villa with a pool for 250,000 Euros or less, so it's a real bargain compared to European and American real estate. The town is new, clean, and full of new houses, condos, a made-for-tourism paradise, sort of like Cancun was originally.

After Kusadasi we spent the day in Athens. Athens and Pireaus (it's port area) were really spruced up for the Olympics and it still looks like everything had been freshly painted for our arrival. We walked and climbed to specacular views of the city from the Acropolis, which towers above it. It looked just like all the tourist photos you see, and when I get home I'll post some shots from this trip here on the blog.

Yesterday was spent at sea, aa welcome rest from the nine, ten, and 12 hour days of walking from one attraction to another. Today is Venice. So is tomorrow. Then it's home.

I've got lots of catching up to do when I arrive, but I'll try to get all the pictures posted by the end of the week or the beginning of the following one.

Cruising the Mediterranean - 1

Mykonos was hot, sticky, blue, and white. Everything looked like it does in the postcards, except that the town is dirtier than I expected, especially after spending the day before on the Isle of Capri. Both are small islands with large summertime populations, but Capri is decidedly upscale while Mykonos lives off the cruise ships and backpackers and is a lot dirtier. All but the jewelry stores, that is. They line the streets and alleyways of this blue and white town, where every shopkeeper has a friend in New York, or Chicago, or Detroit, or Los Angeles.

Yesterday was spent at sea and it was a welcome relief from the first few days of the cruise that left everyone tired of the crowds and tired of walking and standing in line. But I'm not complaining. After all, who knows when we'll get to see some of this again so it's worth all the hassle. I can certainly use the exercise.

We arrived a couple of days early in Barcelona and really fell in love with the city. Before the cruise began, I read Colm Toibin's Homeage to Barcelona, which is one part love story with the city, lots of history, and insights into the Catalan culture. Even after reading Toibin's book, Barcelona was an amazing surprise, from all the Gaudi-designed buildings to the Picasso museum, to alley-width streets with small restaurants and cafes that pop up in the least expected places. It's a real night city too; most people don't even think about dinner until somewhere between 9 and 10:00 PM, and the cafes and restaurants are still serving dinner well after midnight.

Barcelona manages to combine sophistication with a very cool, laid back attitude. We stayed in the Hotel H-10 Montcada for two nights before the cruise, right on Via Laietana which is a main street bisecting the Gothic District, where according to Toibin, there was a major shootout during the early days of the Spanish Civil War.

Our ship sailed at 10:00 PM Tuesday night and arrived in Marseille the next day. We found a taxi driver named Patrick who spoke only German and French, but between sign language, our Spanish, and all of us wagging heads, we managed to get in a great tour of the city.

Marseille was followed by a long day in Florence. Actually, the ship docked an hour's ride from Florence, where we walked the town from one end to the other, across the Ponte Vecchio, which is lined with gold merchants on either side of the bridge. We also waited in line more than 3 hours to get into the museum to see the statue of David. But that meant we couldn't get to see some of the other museums, which, of course, means a return trip to Florence sometime in the future because it's a place that requires a few days, at the very least, to see most of it.

Rome was busy, beautiful, and amazing with the narrowest of streets opening into the widest of plazas. It is all beautiful, from the Trevi Fountain to the Church of St. Mary of the People, to the Pantheon, to the Vatican. I only wish we had more time there. Rome was a long and wondrous 12-hour day of touring, but to do it justice, Rome really screams out for a week or two of intense exploring and adventuring.

By the time we reached Rome we were getting used to the fact that all things are relative, especially when considered from the perspective of the automobile. A VW bug is a large car in Rome, while a Smart Car seems average, and compact means the ubiquitous scooters that dart everywhere and are really the only kind of motorized transportation that is suited for the very narrow streets that predate the automotive age by nearly 2,000 years.

The day after Rome found us on a tour of the Amalfi Coast with stops at Pompeii, Salerno, and a short boat ride to the Isle of Capri. While I was generally aware of the archeological excavations at Pompeii, I was astounded at how large the city was when it was buried by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius nearly 2,000 years ago. Most, though not all of ancient Pompeii has been recovered, and it's well worth the time to spend a day going through that ancient city.

I've been diligently taking photogrphs, though the computer center on board this ship does not offer any access to a USB port and I won't be able to upload pictures until I return to California in mid-August.

So you'll have to do your armchair traveling via words alone until then. I'll post pictures when I get home -- presuming the current travel restrictions allow me to get home -- and once that'd one I'll get back to poker content.

Right not we're on our way to Istanbul. Stay tuned. There's more to come.

H.R.4411 OK for now; I´m in Barcelona today

Time to exhale, but just a little. Congress recessed for the month of August without doing anything really stupid, like passing H.R. 4411. They return in September, but here´s hoping they are so consumed with elections that they ignore this bill.

As I write this, I´m in Barcelona, and incredible city that manages to be both relaxed and sophisticated at the same time. Seen a lot of architecture by Gaudi, and am heading off to the Picasso museum today, before we board the cruise ship. We´re staying at the H-10 Montcada that´s pictured above and is somthing between a boutique hotel and a full-sized one, in a terrific location -- right in the heart of the Gothic Quarter within walking distance of most of the things we wanted to see.

There´s a 2000 year old church across the street that was built by the Romans, cafes on each and every corner, and free high-speed Internet access in the lobby. That works for me. I didn´t bring my comptuter with me on this trip, merely my flash drive, but I have everything needed to stay in touch and I can follow the WSOP online. It´s as least as good a view as I´d probably have with the restricted access at Harrah´s.

Packing for a Vacation

Making Ready For a Cruise

It's time to pack! We're leaving on a Mediterranean cruise tomorrow and hooking up with my oldest and best friends, Rick and Barbara. I've been best friends with Rick since we were in third grade, and I know Barbara since she was 15.

We're meeting in Barcelona and spending a day or two there. The cruise leaves Barcelona and stops at Marseille, Rome, Naples/Capri, Mykonos, Istanbul, Ephesus (Kusadasi), Athens, and Venice. It's 12-nights.

It's not a poker cruise, but that's OK. I'm pokered out right now, having come back from the WSOP, having finished three book manuscripts that are with the publisher now, and I'm ready for some fun and relazation. The ship, the Grand Princess, has an internet room, and if I'm sufficiently motivated, I'll post some things from sea. If not, I'll get some sort of travelogue posted here when I return.

Hold'em Radio is Packing Too

I'm not the only one packing. Hold'em Radio is moving to Las Vegas from their current location in Austin, TX. Wade Andrews at Hold'em Radio is looking forward to it, so am I, and so are many of the others involved with the station.

Las Vegas provides much better access to guests and poker events too. Look for new, improved, and better coverage of poker when the move is complete. In the meantime, you can still tune into www.holdemradio.com and listen a "best of" series, and you can also select archived programs, or listen to past programs in an iTunes podcast.

See you all soon. I'll post some of the pics I take when we return.

91 Percent Favor Legal Online Gaming

CNBC Poll Shows 91 Percent Favor Legalized Online Gaming
An overwhelming majority of Americans want online gambling legalized in the United States. According to a CNBC poll conducted last week, when asked, “Should all online gambling be legalized in the United States?” 91 percent said “Yes,” while only 9 percent said “No.”

A Wall Street Journal Poll Earlier This Year Showed Similar Results
That should send a strong and compelling message to the US Senate as it considers the Goodlatte-Leach bill, H.R. 4411. CNBC’s poll is the latest in a series of polls demonstrating overriding support for legally regulated online gaming in the United States. Earlier in the year, a Wall Street Journal poll showed 85 percent of the respondents opposed to an online gaming ban.

This Should be aClear Message to Congress
It should be clear to the US Senate that the vast majority of Americans do not want prohibition, especially not one as hypocritical as H.R. 4411, which allows exemptions for horseracing, fantasy sports, and state-run lotteries.

So why does Congress continue to push this kind of legislation? Are they that out of touch with their constituents? Of course not. But they are conducting business the way elected careerists always do: They pander to special interests.

Some supporters of this legislation claim it’s in response to a problem gambling epidemic. But they offer no evidence of this plague, and there’s not one provision in the bill designed to offer help, counseling, aid, or assistance to addicted gamblers.

H.R. 4411 Was Designed and Written to Satisfy Special Interests
Provisions designed to exempt special interests fill the bill. They include state lotteries, horse racing, and fantasy sports leagues — as if there were no gamblers that had “problems” with the ponies or the lottery, which typically offers the worst rate of return a gambler can find.

More than 80 countries, including the UK, now regulate or are about to regulate online gambling.

The UK Model is the Way to Go
In my opinion, legalized and regulated online gambling — the UK model — is the best way to prevent gambling by minors and to identify problem gamblers. Prohibition, by comparison, will only drive online gaming further underground, with all hopes of safety, regulation, and the identification and treatment options for troubled gamblers lost in a rigged shuffle.

Some Responses to "Are We Having Fun Yet?"

I got some amazing responses to my “Are We Having Fun Yet?” post. The responses were all across the spectrum. And maybe they’re all correct. Anyway, FWIW, here are some of the tidbits I received.

1. I never met a stranger I didn't like. I played in a WSOP satellite last week and once the ice was broken, most of the players took off their poker face; their Elvis sunglasses and had a good time.

2. You make some excellent points Mr. Krieger. However, you miss the most obvious one. Harrah's doesn't give a rat's ass. As long as there are fresh fish, the sharks will put up with the inconveniences. Everything that has been posted about this year's WSOP has proven that Harrah'slacks the will and capability to properly manage tournaments this size. Probably the best example was changing a PLO tournament that had beenadvertised as no rebuy to a rebuy tourney, then when players alreadyregistered complained, changing it back and adding a rebuy PLO tourneythe same day and splitting the fields up.

3. I think Danneman showed that "fun" is in the eye of the beholder. The more things change, the more things change.

4. Are the media folks having fun yet? Who cares. Are the old timers that have been playing for the last 20 years having fun yet? Ditto.

This has become a people’s game and thousands of every day folks are havingthe time of their lives with a chance to become a millionaire. They spenda fraction of the buy-in online to enter tourneys that qualify them for apaid vacation to Vegas and a seat in a $10,000 poker tournament thatanybody can win.Damn right they are having fun yet.

5. Fun for who, you and your pals? You sound like one of those college losers in green corduroys and a rippedup tee who keeps whining about how miserable he is now that his favoriteband hit it big. If you'd open your eyes a bit, you might see all thosenew/young whoever’s getting the big poker tournament experience for thefirst time in their lives.......and having the time of their life doing it.Get over yourself.

6. Excellent post Lou.

The WSOP: Are We Having Fun Yet?

Are we having fun yet? The diminution of the fun factor as the World Series of Poker grows ever larger is one of the themes echoing through the halls of the Rio recently.

It’s coming primarily from players and media members who have a long association with the WSOP, and are in a position to compare the current state of this event with the good old days — which, in case you’re wondering, is anytime from the WSOP’s inception through 2003.

Right now the WSOP is less fun and more like real work. A Canadian player I’ve known for some time was lamenting the loss of informality the WSOP used to have, when you knew everybody and everyone knew you. Now my friend feels like a stranger in a shopping mall the week before Christmas, beset by throngs of people who are pushing and shoving, and the informality and joy of the event is lost somewhere in the shuffle. While my friend is not a professional player in the sense of earning his entire living from poker — he has another career — but he does supplement his income with his poker winnings, writes extensively about poker, and helps promote the game wherever and whenever he can.

Whether the loss of the fun factor is a result of the WSOP’s corporatization, or the just something that comes with the territory when an event becomes so large that it cannot be planned, managed, administered, or run informally any longer is an open question. Perhaps it’s a mix of both, but pinpointing the reason does nothing to ameliorate longings for the good old days.

I remember eating breakfast in Binion’s coffee shop with a couple of other media guys in 2002 or 2003. When we were finished we walked up to the cashier, flashed our media badges, signed our checks, and walked out. We could have eaten ten breakfasts a day with that kind of system in place, but everyone knew each other; there was a modicum of trust in place, no one pushed the envelope too far, so it worked. What might have been lost in efficiency when compared to a system that would have required meal tickets to be issued to media members each day was offset by the informality, easy of administration, and the goodwill that was engendered for the WSOP. We loved it, and it was fun.

With the advent of the Gaming Expo, which I love — it’s a terrific addition to the WSOP and necessary for the growth and development of poker as an industry — the licensing of all sorts of direct and ancillary rights surrounding the WSOP, and ESPN’s need to produce compelling television, something has been lost and I’m wondering if we can ever get it back.

The fun factor is hard to define, and harder still to measure. But when it’s missing, everyone knows it, and everyone who experienced it in the past longs passionately for its return.

Bigger does not always mean that the fun factor will be lost or ignored. But it’s a challenge building it into an event that threatens to spiral out of control with each additional player who signs up for an event. The Grateful Dead never lost that informal, funky, friendly, down-to-earth sense of being regardless of how popular they were. Neither did Willy Nelson or Bruce Springsteen. Disneyland tries its best to retain that sense of personalization and fun, though it’s admittedly hard when you’re running a theme park with a gazillion visitors coming through the gates each year.

Minor league baseball does it with fan-friendly (though admittedly hokey) promotions in a way that major league baseball never can. But MLB tries. They have scads of promotions, from fan photo days and bobblehead doll giveaways to all sorts of other events designed to narrow the distance between the guy buying the tickets and the players on the field.

Can the World Series of Poker get back to the way it was? I don’t think so. In fact, I don’t want to see that kind of shrinkage. After all, no one wants to return to the days when 300 entrants into the main event was considered a big turnout. But there is much that can be done to regain much of the intimacy that has been lost over the past few years.

At this point in its history the WSOP appears to be a prisoner of its own success. Everything has grown so very large so quickly, except for the fun factor. That’s been shrinking. I’m hoping that Harrah’s sees the need to bring it back, and understands its importance in the WSOP experience.

If they can grow the WSOP while retaining a player friendly sense of informality, and raise the fun factor in the process, perhaps my Canadian friend, and others I’ve talked to who expressed very similar opinions, will come back next year instead of seeking out other venues for their poker fix.

When that happens, the answer to the “Are we having fun yet?” question will be a resounding “Yes!”

U.S Chamber of Commerce Opposes HR 4411

Dow Jones reported that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce wants the Senate to amend the Internet Gambling Prohibition and Enforcement Act, saying it would impose a "substantial regulatory burden" on financial institutions. This is the “unfunded mandate” that this blog has been discussing for quite some time.

World's Biggest Business Group Opposes HR 4411
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which is the world's largest business federation, represents three million companies. They’ve are part of a growing list of trade associations that oppose parts of HR 4411, the Internet Gambling Prohibition and Enforcement Act.

The U.S. Chamber warns that obliging companies to investigate whether transactions are related to Internet gambling, could "require substantial changes to the system by which such instruments are processed. Clearly, the costs of these changes would be significant," the Chamber said. "We are writing to strong urge the Senate to amend this legislation to clarify with certainty that the bill will not require financial institutions to block non-coded transactions."

Banker's Group Opposes it Too
In a separate letter, the Independent Community Bankers of America told the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, and the Senate Committee on the Judiciary that the bill creates an "impossible compliance burden" and threatens to subject banks and electronic processors to potential criminal liability.

I’m thinking the pressure is beginning to mount on this bill and that it is dead for this session. But 2007 is another year, and the online poker community as well as the efforts of the Poker Players Alliance need to be prepared to fight this battle again next year.

Sandwich Art: Now We've Seen Everything

This "sandwich art" is some of the coolest stuff I've seen. There's more of it too, and whenever I get hungry from too much blogging, I'll post another picture of this edible art.

WSOP Player Tossed For Pocketing Chips

Give credit where credit is due. Although we’ve been dissing the WSOP for a number of poor decisions during this year’s WSOP, such as changing a no rebuy tournament to a rebuy event at the eleventh hour, they did make a good decision earlier this week, when a floor supervisor caught a player shoveling chips into his pocket and immediately disqualified him.

The guilty party claimed to have heard it was OK to do this in the WSOP, which is tantamount to Floyd Landis claiming that elevated levels of testosterone are OK in the Tour de France. The guilty player was immediately disqualified and his chips were confiscated and removed from the table. An announcement was made about this being the first disqualification of this nature in the WSOP.

It’s gone on before. Let’s face it. Chip dumping is a dirty little secret that’s been treated with a pair of don’t ask, don’t tell kid gloves in the past, so it’s good to see someone tossed from the event for his actions. While the guy may have been naïve, may have been stupid, may have been acting innocently, the fact remains that he is accountable for his actions and has to live with the consequences.

I’m glad the WSOP had the guts to man-up and toss the guy rather than give him a warning. If there are no consequences for people’s behavior, their behavior is unlikely to ever change.