Poker Blog and Poker Gossip

On April 7, 2010 France passed an historic bill legalizing and
regulating online gambling, and that included poker.  At the time of the
bill passing people were very excited, as the legalization and taxation
of online poker would put online casino’s into a position of “legal,”
and on the same level as brick and mortar casinos in France.  French
residents were optimistic that the new law would diversify a largely
state run monopoly and give the French consumer more choice in where
they spend their money, while not worrying that what they were doing was
“illegal.”

Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to be how it all
turned out.  As of May 13th 2010 the new law has seen it’s first two
casualties.  As of May 13, both Betfair and Sportingbet (owners of
Paradise Poker) have pulled out of the French market sighting an
insurmountable tax burden and stiff state-run competition. Tim Phillips
(European Public Affairs Director @ Betfair) was quoted as saying  “We
are looking very hard at the French market and how we might operate
within the new licensed regime. Though it’s not impossible for a
newcomer to create a commercially viable business, most projections show
it will be very difficult to do so, given the proposed restrictions
imposed on licence holders.  French legislation will certainly benefit
the incumbent players and the ultimate loser will be the French
consumer. The new law does not adequately open the former monopoly’s
market to true competition from other operators. We hope that the
review, scheduled 18 months from now, will amend the law to address
these flaws.”

Currently in France the application process is
beginning without the full law being decided upon yet, but this much is
known: The industry will be brought in line with live casinos and horse
racing. Taxes will be levied on any licensed regulator so that two
percent of each poker bet and 7.5 percent of each sports or horse racing
bet will go directly to the French government. However, a portion of
those monies will be dedicated to gambling addiction programs.  No word
yet on the cost of the license, but typically these licenses cost a lot
of money up front, and then yearly to maintain. The bill also includes
provisions to address the issue of underage gambling and rooting out
criminal activities.

So, it seems to me that the holy grail of
American Online poker players may be a false hope. After France
legalized the practice, a whole slew of new problems arose.  Maybe
keeping it as a “don’t ask, don’t tell” operation is preferable to
shining a light on an imperfect industry.

I have been thinking about this for a little while now, but with the pending release of the Ipad, and the fact that Ipad and Iphone are virtually the same operating system, i’m wondering if we will soon see the major online poker companies release an app for the Ipad.

I’m Not Crazy

I realise that this has been talked about by many a fanboy – “wouldn’t it be SICK If i could play online poker while i’m on my commute, or waiting in line at the bank!” but the reason i’m bringing this up now is specifically because of the release of the IPad, and the updated Ipod OS 4 release coming this summer.  Why?  Because the Ipad isn’t a phone.  It is a tablet PC, that is meant to be portable, and have 3g capabilities (not the first version, but the IPad v2 release will), but at it’s core it’s a personal computer.  If i’m sitting in my chair, watching the wife watch a movie, and i’ve chosen my Ipad
instead of my laptop, i want to be able to play online poker with it. 
There is a market here, and I’m shocked to see that Full Tilt,
Pokerstars all haven’t yet pushed an app out….even to the Jailbroken community!

Why Ipad poker = Iphone poker

I say again, the Ipad and Iphone are both operating with the same operating system.  If the poker companies make an app for the IPad, you will likely be able to download it to your iphone
without too much hacking / messing with things most people are
comfortable messing with.  It could potentially open up a whole new
revenue / customer base for all of the major online poker / casino
groups and realistically it’s something most people i’ve spoken with are foaming at the mouth for.  So..where is it??

It’s
shocking that it’s taken this long, with the only online poker apps in
the app store being “Free” or poker tracking type software, but
hopefully an oasis ofonline poker while waiting for your wife to try that third outfit on in the changing room isn’t far away.  My fingers are crossed!

PacificPoker.com / 888.com recently rebranded their product (including new software which will be updated to the new colour scheme any day now) and to help launch this they are offering a sweet promotion where players get $8 FREE (no strings attached!!!) just to try them out.  This is a great way to get a free bankroll and start making money playing poker online!

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I hate new years resolutions.  Far too much fluff for my liking…  But poker is a game that is easily measurable, and for players who want to make improvements, setting goals is one of the best and easiest ways to track how you’re doing.  With that in mind, think back to 2009, and to what your goals were at that point in time.  Were you thinking about how to improve your game?  Were you just hoping to play in your first “live” tourney, or make $100 dollars that would go to something other than poker, not back into your bankroll? 

How to set Your Goals
Goal setting is a very personal thing, and one person’s goal may be so far out of reach that it seems like you’ll never get to that level.  An example of this is Daniel Negreanu just outlined his eight goals for 2010.  I don’t want to get into them too much, but his first goal is to win $1,000,000 in tournament earnings.  Not exactly where I’m at in my goal setting, and if I set a goal like that i would be very likely to fail at my goal. 

Make sure It’s Attainable
As i said in my example up there, setting a goal that you’re likely to fail at is self defeating.  Make sure that you’re able to meet your goal, but don’t make it something that is fairly easy to accomplish (how will you improve otherwise?).  Something i like to do is study areas that i avoid looking at in my game (if you’re avoiding doing something, typically it’s in your weakness bank).  SomethingI’m not great at is playing under the gun.  I overvalue hands, or sometimes drop hands i should be playing.  Another area is either tightening up your game (a lot of players play way too loose!), or being able to “Switch up” (play different styles in the same situations) your game.  Now that we know what we’re going to work on..how do we create the goal?

Make Sure it’s Measurable
Simply saying “I’m going to switch my game up a bit this session” isn’t nearly good enough.  First, it’s human nature to default to an already comfortable behaviour.  Second you wont have any idea on how you’re doing on your goal or how it’s improving your game if youdon’t have concrete, measurable milestones.  So, if you’re goal is to improve your under the gun play (like mine is), i would put my goal like this:  “For 2 sessions this week, playing in tournament play, I will do the opposite of my natural reaction (hold or fold my hole cards) and see how it plays out.  I will do this early in the tournament (minimize loss) and do it a minimum of 4 hands through the game.”  After a few weeks evaluate how things are going and using your pokertracker software find out if it’s improving your play at all.  Ask yourself what the benefits and draw backs of what your doing are, and change it up as needed.

Make Sure it’s still Fun!
Sure, we all want to improve, but for a lot of people this is a recreational hobby, and not a way to make a living.  Make sure that you’re taking your game seriously, butdon’t take the fun out of it! 

Think about how 2009 started, and where you are today…and about where you want to be when 2011 starts.

“Maybe the house war is becoming a bit of a distraction and we’re not playing real poker.” – Rosenkrantz

This sums up my feeling on this entire show perfectly.  A house war? A rival house? A “GRIDIRON CHALLENGE!” ohhh…so frightening!  Such exciting TV! But a poker show?  Okay…..

Listen, G4, i get it.  You want to attract dudes who aren’t necessarily into poker, to GET into poker and watch your show.  Here is the thing you’re missing, poker guys want to watch poker.  Not the random stuff they get up to “spice up the show.”  Making the show “spicy” would be some sweet back massages from hot chicks.  Or, having guest appearances for a day by Hellmuth or Negreanu, or any other other “Big” names, and have them comment on the game.  Poker players want to see that shit.  They want to see sick hands, or sick calls, or amazing bluffs.  They dont want to see people playing basketball saying “hey, dude..you know what would be cool?  House war. totally.”  Sorry, i changed the channel at “hey dude…”  because that’s what i do with my friends, and i’d rather be doing it than watching someone do it.  And here is the thing, Non-poker guys could care even less about all that shit, because the poker for them isn’t even the saving grace of the show.

Ahem…girls taking off their panties is great, but make them walk around the house while the guys are playing poker and give them massages.  I’m just saying. 

   
Now on to the poker..

They have lost 84,200 this week.  That’s a lot. 

Here is how the week looks:

Roberts          Down        $4,000
Stern             Down        $33,000
Rosenkrantz    Down        $80,000
Patel              Up            $32,800

Overall total of $114,400 in earnings.

I could go into the matches, but really, i found them kind of boring.  I wish they would start focusing on their goal instead of worrying about the “challenges” and all that other stuff.  They are obviously not taking the game seriously, or don’t really have a good handle on what they need to do to accomplish their goal.  They have a month and 1 week left to make 1,876,000 bucks…and with they way they’re playing, they’ll be lucky to stay in the black (except for Patel…)

I have blogged about this before on Cardkings.co.uk, outlining how the whole outlawing of online poker in the states is basically a temper tantrum.  This is largely because they were making no revenue from the online casino’s, and online casino’s popularity was eclipsing brick and mortar casinos.  So what to do? They make it illegal, claiming “protection” and wait until someone comes up with a model that makes them money.  We are currently in a situation that someone has found that model.  And so, the pending “legalization” of online poker has very little to do with the lobbyist (poker players alliance), or even the average poker player, and much more to do with how well it can line the pockets of the federal and state governments.  (wow, is this a conspiracy blog all of a sudden?! jeez!)

I just came across this article from Poker News Daily, who sat down to speak with Mickey Leibner.  He is a lobbyist for the Poker Players Alliance (PPA).  Realistically it has more to do with “what is a lobbyist” and less to do with “what can a lobbyist do for poker?”, but it may be worth the read.

In a nutshell they are hoping for HR 2266 (which is the bill to delay the implementation of the regulations of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act by one year), and through that find a way to make online poker “legal” and hey, while they’re at it, make some cash for the government!

Here is the interview: ( i was going to link to it, but I’m lazy….and I’m multi tabling…:) )

We hope that HR 2266,  – We’re hopeful that we can get something done on that as soon as we get back from the August recess. That’s the plan. Tell your readers that we’re out there every day and trying to bust our butts to get this done. We’re pretty confident and feel better than we did a year ago at this time.

Poker News Daily: How did you become involved with lobbying on behalf of the PPA?

Leibner: I work with former Congressman Toby Moffett and have been involved lobbying on behalf of the PPA since the fall of 2007. Our policy is that we won’t lobby for any causes we don’t believe in. We want to go on Capitol Hill with clients who have a good story to tell. The PPA and the poker world have a great story to tell. It’s a message of personal freedoms.

PND: You mentioned personal freedoms. Does that resonate with Congressmen when you lobby about the issue?

Leibner: It does resonate. One of the interesting things about this issue is that it truly resonates across the aisle – Democrats and Republicans. I personally am a big-time Democrat, but there are people we meet with on both sides of the aisle that like this issue for different reasons.

PND: What’s an average day for a lobbyist?

Leibner: We do a lot of preparation, like crafting memos for staff and gathering the most relevant information on an issue. One of the things we do is based on our knowledge of a particular Congressman, district, office, or staff member – We tend to tailor what we say so it will have the greatest effect. You want to make sure that you’re using the right arguments with a rural Republican Representative and those are probably different arguments than you’d use with an urban Democrat, for example.

PND: You told us earlier that your firm also lobbies on behalf of environmental issues and other efforts. Is it difficult juggling several different commitments?

Leibner: It’s not necessarily hard and it keeps it interesting. I actually like it because every day is a little bit different. I can wake up every morning knowing that everything I’m doing is something I can get behind and feel good about. That makes a big difference.

PND: How did you begin your lobbying career?

Leibner: I’ve been politically involved for a while. I graduated from college and really didn’t know what I was going to do. I wanted to be in politics. I focused a lot in college on the intersection of technology and politics, so I wrote a thesis on the world of blogs. I was looking at a number of non-profits and organizations outside of the government and I happened to get in with Toby Moffett. It’s neat because the poker issue allows me to work on the intersection of technology and politics.

PND: What is your forecast for the future of internet gambling legislation in the United States in 2009 and 2010?

Leibner: We’re very hopeful and we’re very confident that we can get these laws passed. We have a lot of powerful people on our side, including most notably Barney Frank, who is the Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee. It just so happens that we’re in the midst of the biggest financial crisis in the past few decades. We’re confident that our message is getting through.