Poker Player Alert!
If you are either a U.S. poker player or a non-U.S. poker player who would like to play against the rich and fishy U.S. players again, then you need to take a minute to read this blog. I will keep it short and precise because there is something you need to do.
There is a lot of angry noise about the outgoing Bush administration passing a lot of regulations in their final days in office, including finally coming out with the rules for the 2006 Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act.
Well, first the facts, this happens every time a U.S. President leaves office. This is not unusual and there will literally be hundreds of new regulations put in place in the next two months. Just another dirty side of American politics.
However, the UIGEA is already law, what has been offered up, as of yesterday, are the first "proposed" implementation guidelines. But here is the important thing to know: These are proposed rules and are now open to public comment by anyone. All you have to do is take a minute or five and write that you are opposed.
To be sure the American financial industry is opposed and they will say so loudly and publicly. But you are against these rules too and you have the right to be heard and you don't need to be a U.S. citizen. Below are the means to forward your comments and an additional link to the Obama Transition Team to let them know of your concern.
Probably the easiest way to communicate your thoughts is via email to regs.comments@federalreserve.gov, be sure to include the docket number in the subject of your email, it is R-1298.
There are also two websites for offering your comments either the Federal Reserve or the Federal RuleMaking Portal. Just follow the instructions to "comment".
To copy the Obama people, use this link.
And finally, if you would actually like to read the proposed rules, here is the site.
World Poker Tour in Trouble
If you're like me, one of the first big things to come out of the poker boom that really got me hooked on poker 24/7 was the World Poker Tour (WPT) TV show. Whether it was the charm of commentators Mike Sexton and Vince Van Patton or the shows ability to turn no-name amateurs into instant celebrities, I still to this day make sure that every episode of the WPT makes it way to my DVR.
Unfortunately, the WPTE (World Poker Tour Enterprises), the parent company of the WPT, has not been having a great economic year.
Third-quarter revenue for the company is down 39% to $2.7 million, almost half that of last years $4.4 million. The company sites a decrease in domestic television license fees and lower domestic sponsorship fees as the reason.
The first casualty of the WPTE financial hardships will be the WTP-branded online gaming website, which is in the process of being shut down for good. To try and recover from their decline, WPTE President and CEO Steve Lipscomb has announced plans to expand their reach into the Chinese market, as well as produce a new poker TV show for the Fox Sports Network, which will include 13 one-hour episodes.
No word on how/if this is going to affect their main WPT TV show, so die hard fans like myself should keep their fingers crossed that one of the biggest shows that put TV poker on the map will continue to live to fight another day.
November Nine “Live”: Final Thoughts
At 10 PM on a Monday night in Las Vegas, two players got together to play some heads up poker. One was from Russia, the other from Denmark. All of the players with big followings of family, friends and fans had been knocked out the day before. This heads up match was going to take place in the 3,000 seat Penn & Teller theatre, which had been a good venue for the nine player final table but was potentially going to be a big empty hall for the late night heads up match.
As the up-close-to-the-stage bleachers were being seated with the remaining friends and family and the ESPN crew got their establishing shots and the Harrah's officials prepared for their last introductions of the very long 2008 World Series.... as all of that preparation went on up on the stage.... Down on media row, I stood there talking with Dr. Pauly, Brad Willis, Michael Craig and Jen Newell. It was about ten minutes before the scheduled start of the Final, no really, Final Table. We all stood there looking up into the vast balconies of the theatre and we shook our collective heads at the sight of the thousands of poker fans who had come out.
I don't know what this says about poker in general or whether the November Nine was a success or not. All I can say is that on a late Monday evening in November, with only two players remaining to play for the World Series of Poker main event championship. There were and are enough poker fans in Las Vegas to fill the theatre and categorically settle all the cynical over/under bets on the crowd size. I don't know how this will all play on ESPN tonight, but at the Rio last night, it was a pretty good show with a great audience.
November Nine: Starting Stack = Finishing Position
One of our favorite statistics to follow at final tables is the comparison of how starting chip stacks compare to final finishing position. Here are the starting chip stacks for the November Nine. We will update the finishing positions as they occur.
#1 Dennis Phillips 26,295,000 3rd on hand #169
#2 Ivan Demidov 24,400,000 playing 2nd hand #274
#3 Scott Montgomery 19,690,000 5th on hand #119
#4 Peter Eastgate 18,375,000 playing Champion
#5 Ylon Schwartz 12,525,000 4th on hand #155
#6 Darus Suharto 12,520,000 6th Place on hand #105
#7 David Rheem 10,230,000 7th Place on hand #76
#8 Craig Marquis 10,210,000 9th Place on hand #52
#9 Kelly Kim 2,620,000 8th Place on hand #53
November Nine “Live”: First Impressions
Yes, it is finally here!
Just a few quick notes from inside and outside the Penn & Teller theatre at the Rio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.
-the place is packed! there are literally hundreds of fans in line for the seats still available;
-final table players have brought large contingents of family and friends;
-the most impressive group has to be the white shirted St. Louis Cardinal red hat wearing Dennis Phillips gang, which easily numbers over 300;
-the press box at the top of the theatre is really a good place to watch the whole scene, but there are really no good media seats in the house, because the main stage is set up for ESPN and the limited audience allowed in the three bleacher sections set up beside it;
-early professional sightings: Phil Gordon, Evelyn Ng, Barry Greenstien, Jerry Yang, Hevad Khan (all the final table players from 2008 were invited to attend);
-the crowd is very noisy, they have even given out those annoying bang sticks, not to mention cow bells and fog horns; this will not be your usual final table.
Cards are in the air at 11:10 AM local time (PST). Read no more today, if you want Tuesday's telecast to be a surprise.
World Series of Poker: Finally Table
The 2008 World Series of Poker Final Table is finally here. I want to go on record as repeating my first impressions of the delayed Main Event, I think and thought it as a bad idea. The promotion and hype of the "November Nine" never materialized. No one outside of poker knows this is about to happen and those in and around poker are not exactly enthused. Last Friday night at my regular home game, I gave the boys a short Main Event Final Table quiz.
1. When is the final table showing on ESPN?
2. When is the final table actually being played?
3. Name as many of the participants as you can.
Now my poker buddies read a blog or two; they damn well better read this one. They have been to major tournaments and know a fair amount about big circuit events. So they are average poker fans.
-All but one of the gang knew the ESPN show was this Tuesday.
-No one knew the Sunday-Monday actual play schedule.
-Several knew it was not being played Tuesday but when was anyone's guess.
-They did not know that live blogging was being allowed (so if you want Tuesday night to be a surprise, make this the last poker blog you read until then).
-As for the players? Dennis Phillips is chipleader; Chino Rheem is an L.A. pro; the Russian did good at WSOPE; and, er, umm...six other guys.
The final table begins Sunday morning at 10 AM local Las Vegas time. There will be a lot of live media present. They will continue play from where they stopped in July with the two hour levels and regular breaks until they are down to a heads up match.
The two remaining players start up again at 10 PM (yes that late!) on Monday night and play it out. The ESPN broadcast follows (nearly live) Tuesday evening.
Comments and complaints may be directed to whythehelldidtheydothis@harrahs.com
By the way, the staff of PokerBlog were surveyed and the results are:
Cranky Olde Coot - Against the delayed format.
Poker Shrink - For it and will be present at the final table.
Lindy Librarian - Wants to give it a chance.
Lenny - Will there be free food and booze?
What does the U.S. election mean for Online Poker?
Now that the dust has cleared on the federal elections in the United States, what does the new political line-up in Washington D.C. mean for online poker?
First, the news is mostly good. The democrats will have increased majority is both houses of congress as well as President Obama in the white house. Democrats are generally more favorable to a regulation of online gaming as opposed to a prohibition. Additionally, almost no one wants to put excess regulatory burden on the financial system during the present economic crisis, which is exactly what the draconian provisions of the Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act attempted to do.
Second, the various congressional committees that dealt with the various potential regulations of the internet and commerce are all in the hands of committee chairmen, who favor online gaming. Also several of those committee will be gaining new members, who politically will be expected to follow the party line on more liberal and open internet gaming politics.
So, what to expect:
-unless the old administration acts before January 20th to get out policies and guidelines based on the two year old UIGEA; expect such rules to never see the light of day under the new administration.
-expect several bills to hit the new congress early in 2009 with slow but steady progress through the cumbersome approval process.
-breakthroughs in trade policy negotiation on online poker with both the European Union and other jurisdictions, like Antigua.
Will it happen soon? No.
Will it happen? Yes, definitely yes.
Opening & Closing Poker Markets
When the new more open U.S. government takes over next year, there is every belief that their national prohibitionist position on online gaming will at some point be reversed. Eventually the U.S. will regulate the online poker industry for U.S. players.
Let me suggest that this will make similar decisions in all parts of the world much more difficult. Let's take Sweden's Svenska Spel gaming monopoly for example. Despite EU pressure Svenska Spel and other national owned and operated gaming monopolies continue to both operate and exclude other online sites from operating within certain geographic boundaries.
There are advantages to government run sites. A uniform, non-English language is often used. Social and moral concerns are addressed within the strictures of a unique cultural set. And the government makes a lot of money on the rake.
But here comes the not too distant crisis of conscience and of pocket book. As far as online poker, the U.S. constitutes the largest revenue stream and dollar for dollar, euro for euro, lira for lira, peso for peso; the Americans gamble for more cash then any other nation on the net. This, of course, has to do with multiple factors of disposable income, as well as high speed internet penetration.
The problem? Do you want to keep these American gamblers out of your market, when they could substantially increase your revenue by inviting them in?
Well no, you say, bring them in to our website.
Here is the problem that all nations will face in the new unfolding open online marketplace. Countries, like the US, will ban your site, if you ban their sites. So Svenska Spel will have to let their citizens out, if they let others in. This will be a hard decision for some national gaming monopolies but the change in the U.S. law will also make the overall EU decision easier. The monster revenue potential of opening to the United States market will be just too much to ignore. What will break down trade barriers is not thoughtful regulation but the specter of lost profits.
EU Negative Report on Online Poker
The European Parliament's Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee will meet next week in Brussels to consider a draft report which seeks a European Parliament Resolution on 'the integrity of online gambling'. The report is clearly not favorable to online gaming and online poker. And although the report is not binding on future Commission action, the report reasserts all of the negatives used by opponents of online gaming and freedom of the internet. Once again we are to be protected from ourselves.
There is a separate political issue involved here that does not get much press and that is the EU Commission and the European Court of Justice are overwhelmed with gaming cases. Every country wants to assert it sovereign rights over gambling issues and every other country wants everyone else to honor those local and jingoistic regulations. Unfortunately, the EU was established, at least in part, to lower such lower tariffs and trade laws but with gambling there is the miasma of the moral and social order to be considered.
Rather than seek to revolve issues of regulation and fair business practices, the Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee has chosen to go with the reactionary position of prohibition.
"Member States have a legitimate interest in monitoring and regulating their gambling markets in order to protect consumers against addiction, fraud, money-laundering and fixed games as well as to protect the culturally-built funding structures which finance sports activities and other social causes," and "underlines that online gambling operators should comply with the legislation of the Member State in which they provide their services."
The report goes on site the nebulous fears of all prohibitionists:
"Online gambling is likely to give rise to risks to consumers and that Member States may therefore legitimately restrict the freedom to provide online gambling services in order to protect consumers."
Fortunately, the EU Parliament tends to act in the best interest of the whole of the EU populations, whereas the Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee tends to put forward the interests of individual member states, many of which seek to retain their own national gaming monopolies.
Online gaming continues to be the single largest unresolved issue before the EU Commission with no real signs of any movement towards an open market solution at this time.
Poker on the Fringe
I guess its close enough to All Hallows Eve to offer up some of the stranger happenings and non-happenings in the wide world of poker. Out there is the hinderlands, in the casinos and card rooms; tournaments and cash games; all kinds of happenings strange and stranger take place. Here are just a few:
Clonie Gowen won a poker tournament and I don't mean a six handed game in someone's garage; though she is invited to my garage any night of the week. I just need a one hour notice to take my cobalt medicine.
Clonie took down the $5,000 World Poker Open at the Gold Strike Casino in Tunica, Mississippi. One hundred and seven entrants took on the WPO, which used to be a big tournament on the circuit but has fallen by the regular tour wayside with so many other events vying for players this fall. But Clonie has always considered Tunica her home poker grounds. I even took her out a few years back with Kings over Queens; you know she can hold a grudge. Anyway, the wonderous Ms. Gowen took it all down after entering the final table with the chip lead. She takes home a $183,224 championship payday and gives me a reason to use her photo, which is why this item made it onto my fringe list in the first place.
Lots of casinos offer beginner's poker classes. Well actually many rooms have a sign up that says they offer instruction but new players are usually too embarrassed to actually take them up on the offer. But the Commerce Casino has created Poker University. Well maybe not quite a university but a weekly two hour class for beginner's that will actually give them the necessary skills to sit down at a low limit table. The 'University" runs every Tuesday, is limited to 25 students and is run in an isolated area of the casino, so they participants might actually be able to learn a trick or two.
From the Commerce press release: The University will feature poker comedian Roger Rodd - to provide a little levity to the proceedings - but will also be an intensive training course for newcomers to the world of poker as well as those intermediate players who need a little brushing up on their skills. Rodd is no stranger to the poker world; known as Hollywood’s “Instructor to the Stars,” Rodd has taught the game of poker to Hollywood’s brightest personalities and also served as poker coach for the movie “Lucky You,”
OK, so the mention of Lucky You is what set off my fridge-o-meter here. Those folks in Hollywood just never know when to leave a truly enormous flop off of their resume.
Finally, this really fridgy item. It seems the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, a political entity recognized only by Turkey, has begun to host poker tournaments and has "applied to the World Poker Tour" to organize a WPT event. OK, so we have the mere mention of region? province? country?, which might insight civil war. The violation of several national gaming laws on gambling and in particular a ban on tournament poker and an invitation to all of folks, the WPT, which is floundering on its own in the U.S. We all know how much thoughtful planning leads to a good, solid bankruptcy filing. Rube Goldberg would be proud of this and so would the International Monetary Fund. Hey, speaking of that, how about a huge charity poker tournament to bail out the world economy.
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WSOP Info is your source to online poker news and information regarding the WSOP 2008. The World Series Of Poker is the largest Poker event in the world.
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