Poker Blog and Poker Gossip

It is official.  I posted a few days ago regarding the imminent delay of UIGEA, however the particulars have been announced, dates have been set for hearings in the House Financial Services Committee to discuss HR 2266 and HR2267, and this may even lead to a discussion in Congress. 

Congressman Barney Frank (D -MA), one of the main reasons this delay happened in the first place, stated “The Department of the Treasury and the Federal Reserve Board of Governors deserve a great deal of credit for suspending these midnight regulations promulgated by the Bush administration which would curtail the freedom of Americans to use the internet as they choose and which would pose unrealistic burdens on the entire financial community.” and further “This will give us a chance to act in an unhurried manner on my legislation to undo this regulatory excess by the Bush administration and to undo this ill-advised law.”  It is nice to see such a level headed response from a Congressman who obviously can see the benefits of regulation and legalization in this matter. 

SSIGI (Safe and Secure Internet Gambling Initiative) spokesman Michael Waxman stated “We see this move by the Obama Administration as a decision to halt implementation of UIGEA in order to give Congress time to enact an alternative approach of regulating internet gambling instead of prohibiting it.”   And PPA (Poker Player Alliance) chairman Alfonse D’amato stated “PPA is continuing its efforts to urge members of Congress to implement thoughtful and effective regulation of the online poker as opposed to outright prohibitions, which history has shown do not work.”

It appears that the world is a little less crazy than it was.  Leaders are realizing that prohibitions on something that can garner a huge amount of political favour as well as tax capital is silly, and are starting to see the benefits of working with online poker providers / the people that represent them to get a mutually beneficial solution to the problem. 

We still have to wait and see what the outcome is, but based on the last few days turn around, it seems like it will be a favorable fix.

I spend a lot of time on this blog writing about legalization of on-line poker, criminalization of it, and the fact that there are groups out there dedicated to changing peoples outlooks on online poker.  Well, it looks as though the US government has listened to the hard lobbying by the Poker Players Alliance and has taken it seriously.  It was reported by Gambling911 that the US Treasury Department is expected to delay implementation of the Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act (UIGEA) by 6 months to further investigate the pros and cons.

The UIGEA would require banks to stop online poker and other gaming transactions via credit cards, effectively removing the ability of US players to fund any online accounts for that purpose.  However in recent months, the UIGEA guidelines have been changed, and no longer include wires and bank checks as part of the scope of the UIGEA.  The UIGEA, when it was passed in 2006, made some forms of online gambling illegal, but exempted others such as horse racing and state lottos.

So, Happy Thanksgiving USA.  People are lobbying for you, Governement is listening (sort of), and hey, your belly is full of Turkey, and hopefully your online account is full of money!

If the sweet lifestyle of a poker player with lazy days, and grueling 9 hour sessions of online poker nights aren’t enough to lure you into the world of online poker then Matt Vengrin’s story is for you!

“As a poker player, I know how fierce competition can be,” said Vengrin. “Just like playing in the World Series of Poker, these girls are in for a grueling but fun weekend and I’m excited to be an integral part of the experience.”  Yep, I have no doubt that the 24 year old is ahem..excited..about the upcoming experience.  I mean, the girls we’re talking about are aged 15-19, and i’m sure that the 2 million Vengrin has amassed over the last 2 years may give him an extra shot at having a more in
imate knowledge of Miss Teen USA (after the contest has been judged completely impartially, of course!).

Most recently, Vengrin finished strong in the Main Event of the 2009 Aruba Poker Classic, a $5,500 No Limit Hold’em tournament held at th
Radisson Aruba Resort & Casino. Vengrin collected $13,820 for his 27th place finish.

Being surrounded by beautiful women is anything but foreign to Vengrin. The poker professional sits alongside Lacey Jones, one of the hottest women in poker, on Absolute Poker’s team of pros.

Maybe sign up at Absolute poker, use their buddy software and ask vengmoney (Vengrin’s online account w/ absolute) how the judging went!

With most states and the Federal Government in desperate need of cash, and the well organized machine that is the PPA, it appears that most “Experts” agree that legalizing online poker is an inevitability.

Andrew Parmentire and David Katz were on CNBC’s “Closing Bell” making these arguments, and i believe they are right on the money.  This discussion started with Parmentire stating that Chairman Barney Frank put the bill out there, and a lot of other factors are lining up very well.  Harrah’s is showing that they have an online strategy, and with a workable strategy, and a huge need for state and federal cash flow it is just a matter of time (and additional financial stress) until online gambling is legalized.
With the Democrats pushing social programs and no new forms of revenue for the federal government to fund these programs; and with Gambling in the US becoming a more acceptable consumer product.

During the interview, Katz made some excellent points about the longevity of “Brick and Mortar” casinos, the capacity with which they can grow to serve the needs of the many, and the way that online gambling can help to increase revenue through both creating jobs in the economy (someone needs to run the servers, work at call centers, design the programs, etc), and creating new publicly traded companies to invest in.

Excerpt from the interview:

Katz stated to CNBC viewers “Gambling in the U.S. has become a far more acceptable consumer product than it was five or ten years ago. That said, we really are much more focused on the publicly traded companies and that would be the brick-and-mortars like Harrah’s as well as the game providers and the technology companies that support those industries.”  Harrah’s inked an agreement with 888, the parent company of Pacific Poker, to fill its online gaming needs. 888 is a publicly traded company in London, where it can be found under the same three-number acronym. Katz explained that with casinos slowly reaching their limits in the live space, the switch to the Web is inevitable: “If you go to the Bellagio, they have a couple of hundred seats to sit in, so there’s a physical constraint. If you look at the number of states out there that are considering legalizing gaming, they’re going down every year. There’s a finite opportunity for the brick-and-mortar guys to expand in the United States and at some point, they have to start thinking globally.”

With the December 1st deadline of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) looming, and Geithner and Bernanke not yet responding to the PPA’s request that the December 1 deadline be postponed a year, this fight is just heating up.  Things have changed a lot since 2006 with the UIGEA was first approved in the House of Representatives, and it will be interested to see if the bloated government is willing to act for the betterment of itself and it’s people.

Full Tilt poker is the place to go when you’re looking for amazing action, and incredibly large pots.  Last night was no exception, with the record for largest online pot ever being taken down by Antonius for $878,959.  

The action took place across 4 $500/$1000 Pot-Limit Omaha tables, with 6 pots of over $500,000, and another 6 over $400,000.  At the end of the evening, Antonius walked away with over $2.4 Million and a record that will be difficult to beat.

To put it in perspective, in 2008, in one night the record for largest online pot ever was broken 3 times.  “durrrr” kicked off the action with a hand that set the record with a $618k pot over “LarsLuzak“. “durrrr” held A-9 for two pair and picked off a very large bluff attempt from “LarsLuzak“.  Just before Ivey’s record setting pot, John Juanda won a monster $678k pot off of Tom “durrrr” Dwan.  Juanda was holding KK, and Dwan was holding AA.  Dwan looked good until the King peeled off on the river, and Juanda took the pot down. Phil Ivey finished the evening, and walked away holding the record at $687,000, after his set of 10′s held up to Juanda’s second nut flush draw.  

So, the next time you’ve got 100 – 200,000 to  sit down at a poker table, and feel like trying for the record, i suggest you head on over to Full Tilt.   And, if you don’t have that kind of money, but you do want to watch people swap crazy amounts of cash over cards, you should also head over to full tilt.  Looking at the biggest (most money) hands in online poker, the only poker room you’ll find listed is Full Tilt Poker.

With the WSOP all wrapped up, and no more speculating to be done, news in the poker world has been a little slow.  And, with the explosion of poker related TV, i’m  having a tough time believing that Annie Duke’s seminar “Use Poker Skills for Life” hasn’t already been picked up by SPIKE tv or some other gambling network.  It seems like a simple enough jump to make, and with a credible name attached (Such as Annie Duke) seems like a slam dunk (more for people who don’t actually play poker, but still). 

As it stands, Annie Duke is the host of the whole evening, which includes a benefit for the Decision Education Foundation.  Duke will be joined by Howard Lederer, Andy Bloch and Ali Nejad as speakers throughout the night.  The event takes place at the Commerce Casino in L.A. and is a free presentation starting at 6:30pm.  Guest entry is on a first come first serve (up to 80people). 

My question is this: What poker skill translates into real life the  most for you?  Do you find yourself more analytical than most people when looking at situations? Do you find yourself more willing to take calculated risks that other people see asreckless?  Let me know in the comments!