Not so Fast: British Fristians Toss Monkey Wrench into UK Supercasino Plans

Thanks for tuning in. We had a bit of unexpected break there, during the week, for unexpected reasons. And now, back to the chase...

You've all heard the bit about UK wanting to become the world's leader in the online-gambling industry? A much-ballyhooed meeting of almost three dozen interested countries was hosted last fall at the famed Ascot horsetrack, with UK official Tessa Jowell trumpeting the accord as the true legitimizing if international online gambling, complete with plans to allow online firms to set up shop in the UK and be licensed and regulated under the flag of one of the world's most austere nations. In somewhat related news, Jowell helped champion a plan for 17 new "supercasinos" to be built throughout the UK; the first license was issued to Manchester.

It looked like the dawn of a new day, and perhaps a shot fired 'cross the bow of the U.S. A statement to Uncle Sam tp basically get his bearded face out of his ass, if you will.

Well, the UK has some anti-gambling forces, too, and collectively, they've managed to undo much of the progress that's been made.

First came the news that Gordon Brown, Minister of the Treasury, saw fit to impose a 15% tax on gross revenues on all online firms, bringing it on a par with bookmaking shops and the like, but providing no incentive whatsoever for major online firms to leave island abodes where they can obtain a form of regulatory oversight for perhaps one fifth the cost. In fact, the move will have the opposite effect, as seen in the quickly following announcement that Sportingbet PLC will leave its mainland corporate presence behind, moving off to friendlier climes.

Expect other major UK-based companies to follow. No online site can give up 15% juice off the top and remain competitive in an increasingly pressured market.

Of course, Gordon wasn't done there. Gordon, who also holds the title of Exchequer of the Royal Prince's Jewels (or somesuch), is a conservative Presbyterian with a staunch anti-gambling upbringing, and he's one of the Labor Party's bastions in pretty much working against the gambling industry as a whole.

Gordon's recent budget did more than just deep-six any expectations that the UK would become the focal point of online gaming; he also introduced a series of heightened levies against land-based casinos that makes the supercasinos unlikely to thrive. Gordon did away with the bottom tier of taxes, and increased the top-level rate from 40% to 50%, which puts the very financial existence of major Vegas-style casinos into doubt. One source notes that given such a rate, casinos are unlikely to be able to reserve space for anything but the highest-volume games on a square-footage basis. This means that these supercasinos could, in one scenario, be nothing more that huge slot-machine halls rather than the tourist destinations they were designed to be.

Brown's tax-levy salvo turned out to be the first shot in an all-out Labor Party effort to overthrow the entire supercasino concept, and in a narrow, three-vote victory on Wednesday, they succeeded in scrapping the original measure. Labor officials seized upon a controversy involved in giving the first license to Manchester, rather than Blackpool --- as if Blackpool wasn't going to get a casino in the near future anyway --- and have now succeeded in tearing down much of the structure previously in place. It was an effective display of building a bloc for deconstructive purposes, suggesting the Labor Party's been taking notes on how Israel's Knesset does its biz....

Three steps forward, two steps back. If that sounds like a song you remember from your earliest school days, then you've got the picture. We've said it so many times it hardly bears repeating, but what the heck: Online gambling remains a controversial, hot-button issue.

And nothing is ever set in stone.

The Return of the Top Ten List: Greg Raymer's Cracked Poker Stars Password

Yeah, yeah, it's that time again. Last week we reported that Greg Raymer had had his account broken into and its contents, purportedly over $100,000, temporarily being dumped into a thief's account before the quick actions of onlookers and Stars security returned the funds to Raymer.

There's been considerable speculation over exactly what Raymer's password was, though he somewhat abashedly admitted it wasn't the toughest password to crack, though that situation has since been corrected. Since Raymer hasn't been forthcoming with the now-useless password, we'll offer up a Top-Ten list on things it could have been. Maybe. Possibly. Oh, hell, not at all, but we're going to have fun with it anyway.

The top ten choices for Fossilman's cracked Poker Stars password:

10) no1wptfan
9) TrilobiteMe
8) secretgophersluvr
7) [spacerentedto2+2]
6) eatthisariah
5) Ih8flushchasers
4) fixedlimitsux
3) robberfoiler
2) waybetterthanMikeytheChimp
1) dannegreanuisaturnip

Over/Under on the NETeller Payoff Date?

NETeller announced earlier this week that they have signed agreements with the U.S. Attorneys Office of Southern New York that should pave the way for a repayment of frozen funds. The press release issued by the company is available here, should you desire reading about the piece, but we'll give you the facts and the commentary and save you the effort.

Essentially, NETeller will create a plan sometime within the next 75 days to repay all frozen funds. NETeller is also bringing on a third-party auditing firm, Navigant, to assist with and oversee the process. This does not mean that you will see your NETeller funds in 75 days (or rather 70 days and counting), but as that period expires you should at least be able to have a realistic expectation as to when your funds will arrive.

I don't think it will take place electronically, unless an entire new processor is brought online specifically for this purpose. Rather, I expect that all U.S. customers will have to go through a re-verification and re-authentication process, and will receive checks for their remaining balances. At that point, NETeller will depart the business, never to return.

Timeframe on that process? This uneducated guesser thinks it could stretch out by as much as an additional 90 days, due to the perceived demand for the frozen funds.

As to anyone with funds still frozen on one of those NETeller debit cards, who knows what's up with that. Such transfers actually left NETeller at the time they were loaded onto the card, which came from one of several third-party banks issuing debit cards on NETeller's behalf. Those cardholders likely require a separate process to get those funds back off the card, unkess a recertification of user accounts also includes a reactivation of the cards, something I deem unlikely.

In any event, the tunnel stretches on for a bit, though there is a hint of brightness down there at the end. We'll have to wait a bit longer, all of us.

EU Battles Continue over Online Gambling Uniformity

KAP likes to be global in our view of all things poker, so we return again to the burgeoning poker market of Europe and the acknowledgment that things over there aren't always rosy, either.

A number of European Union member nations are answering various levels of complaints brought about them by the European Court of Justice, the international body with trade-dispute oversight. It always plays out the same: This or that or the next European government tries to protect its own state-run lotteries or betting shops, usually arresting and levying fines against the purported violators, who are quite legitimately licensed under EU accord but licensed in another country. The Italy-vs.-Placanica case (involving the arrests of three UK-licensed Italian bookmakers) was decided in favor of Placanica, but more countries than you could shake a handful of Olympic torches at are currently being called to task by the EU for their protectionist policies.

Without getting into the specifics of each complaint, a partial list of countries deemed to be violating EU treaty accords governing the free exchange of services (which includes online gambling) also includes Finland, Hungary, Denmark, Germany (PokerStars.de anyone?), Sweden, France, Turkey... and that's just off the top of my head. Not all these countries are full EU members, but the point is that the EU is evolving into the bastion of freedom in online-gambling matters that we'd really like our country to be. Russia is not a EU member; if it were, its plan to create four "gambling zones" spread across the country would likely be called into question.

The battle for freedom and trade equality in the matter of online gambling is a slow process. Right now, a lot of these countries seem ready to milk their own illegal policies for all they're worth, even if not all countries seem as openly defiant of the EU as, say, France. The tug of war will go on for years.

Planet Poker Bids Adieu

After nine years in the business, the longest-running online poker site has decided to pull the plug on its real-money offerings. Planet, long delegated to the lower tiers of online-pokerdom in recent years, nonetheless remained the first online poker site for many veteran players.

Planet sent out a brief e-mailing to its customer base, announcing the closure. It read as follows:

After 9 years in business, Planet Poker has made the difficult decision to cease real money operations. Management regrets this decision but the impact of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act in the U.S. leaves no reasonable alternative.

During the past several months, Planet Poker explored every reasonable option to continue real money operations. This included working with other cardrooms and ecommerce processors to find solutions to the issues existing in the industry today. Unfortunately, no viable solution surfaced.

As always, your funds are safe and secure at Planet Poker. We are pleased to announce that we have made arrangements to allow players to transfer remaining funds from Planet Poker to another cardroom. Please sign into Planet Poker and select the "Transfer Now" button to start the transfer process. Alternatively, you may elect to cashout remaining funds via the Cashier page.

Real money tables and tournaments will continue at Planet Poker through to 31 March 2007, but effective immediately you can no longer make a deposit.

Please click here for complete information regarding this announcement.

Thank you for your support during the past 9 years. We recommend that you transfer your funds to another cardroom so you can continue to play for real money.

Planet Poker will continue to offer you the best "Play for fun" poker on the internet and hope to see you frequently at our tables. We hope to return to real money operations when the legal climate is clearer.

We wish you the best of luck and hope your online poker playing continues to be enjoyable.

Planet Poker Management

Planet is cited by most sources as being the first online poker room, though a few people claim that another site, Delta Poker, was the first. In any event, Planet was damaged by revelations several years back that its RNG algorithm was not complex enough to provide a 'true' shuffle, with a sophisticated hack emerging that was able to predict cards as they came off the deck. (Today's RNGs are much more complex.) Combined with software soon surpassed by other sites, Planet was never able to reclaim its early edge.

Planet has negotiated a deal with Bodog to transfer remaining cash balances over to that site. Early reports are that Bodog is offering a complimentary 10% bonus on top of any balance transferred.

BLUFF, WSOP Almost Ink Media Pact

Want to know what to call a deal that's been agreed upon in principle but has yet to be signed? Today's preferred flavor is "executing a non-binding letter of intent."

One of the worst kept secrets of recent weeks has been the knowledge that as far as primary media provider at the World Series of Poker, it's going to be BLUFF in, Card Player out. Finally, with the ink not only not yet dry, but not even out of the pen, the WSOP has acknowledged the obvious and stated that BLUFF will be handling the primary media duties.

Perhaps BLUFF will be contracting out some of the secondary chores that arise from a project as large as the WSOP, though it's likely that we'll not see a duplication of the "Craig's List chip-counting interns" situation from last year. Card Player hired lots of cheap labor last year, and by and large, they got what they paid for.

Here's your token quote, which all press releases are required to have. (It's in the bylaws of the American Press Release Writers Association.) "Bluff shares our vision for bringing WSOP content to every medium that matters," said Jeffrey Pollack, commissioner of the World Series of Poker. "Over the next four years, this alliance will help us connect with our players and fans in new and exciting ways, and further increase the value and relevancy of our global brand."

BLUFF will also take over WSOP Europe and the WSOP Circuit events, and it looks like the magazine will also manage (and perhaps upgrade) the WSOP's own offerings at worldseriesofpoker.com. The press release confirms that the deal is to be for four years, 2007-2010 (or technically, early 2011), but there is no concrete information yet on exactly how much BLUFF paid for the rights.

Raymer’s Poker Stars Account Hacked by Interloper

Electronic railbirds were offered a curious sight on Sunday, being witness to “Fossilman” (better known as 2005 WSOP Main Event winner Greg Raymer) seemingly dumping all his money to an unknown player in several high-stakes heads-up Stars sit-‘n’-go tournaments.

It must have seemed like a good idea at the time. Several onlookers noticed the same odd behavior and massive dumping of Raymer’s account contents and notified Stars security, which quickly froze the account of the player, screen-named “Ikeyrson.” Stars security in turn notified Raymer himself, who had been playing VIP and TLB matches earlier in the day but had logged off to watch a golf tournament. [Image source: gregraymer.com]

According to Raymer, who confirmed the incident on a popular poker forum, the interloper(s) made multiple attempts at guessing Raymer’s Stars password, and finally succeeded. However, cracking the account of a high-profile player with such a following made little sense, as Stars security received dozens of e-mails about the chip-dumping and froze the “Ikeyrson” account before any of the stolen money could be moved to third parties or off of the site. Funnier still, one forum poster wondered why the thief didn't just initiate a direct transfer of money through the Stars cashier, rather than risking being noticed in this way.

Raymer himself was practicing on a local golf range when he received phone calls about the matter from his wife, father, and at least one Stars representative.

All of the stolen/dumped funds were quickly returned to Raymer’s account. European Internet laws governing Stars likely prevent the firm from releasing the name of the purported thief, pending further investigation into the matter.

"WPT Seven" Move For Summary Judgment

Calling them the "WPT Seven" ought to wrankle both sides a bit.

What the moniker refers to, of course, is the group of seven leading pros who filed an antitrust action against the World Poker Tour last July, calling a special press conference at the WSOP to annpnce the suit. The seven players are Annie Duke, Andy Bloch, Joe Hachem, Howard Lederer, Chris Ferguson, Phil Gordon, and Greg Raymer, and the WPT is, well, the WPT.

Very little had happened in this case once the initial noise had subsided, until this past week, when the seven players filed for a summary judgment in their complaint against the WPT. Moving for a summary judgment implies that one side believes that their case is so strong that there's simply no need to proceed to trial; in these cases, the evidence is purported to be so overwhelming that the judge can rule on the matter without going through the bother of the complete trial.

However, lawyers often make a grandstand play with the "summary judgment" card, using it as a chance to grab some headlines, or to try to tip a case headed strongly in the opposite direction. In the most recent poker example, Jamie Gold's lawyer filed for a summary judgment in the matter of the $6 million dispute with Crispin Leyser and basically got laughed out of court for his trouble.

This one's unusual because antitrust matters are rarely so simple. It seems unlikely that the matter could be resolved so clearly and easily, which means it's most likely an attempt to focus a spotlight on the matter and force the WPT to deal with the situation. In the very likely event that the motion is denied, then this becomes a no-news news story... and it's been that type of a week.

Northern Ireland Poker Championships Called Off Under Last-Minute Pressure

Weirdness occurs on the other side of the pond, as well. While many outlets have been reporting on the Indiana private-club game that netted arrests of several dozen poker players (including an off-duty cop), that one doesn't offer anything new. But something did unfold this morning that's rarely seen --- the cancellation of an entire national championship under the pressure of authorities.

Players preparing to begin the Northern Ireland championships were dismayed to find the event cancelled less than an hour before play was to begin, with Irish police threatening the casino with closure --- citing lack of proper permits --- should the event go forward. It's interesting because this "Northern Ireland" championship had already been moved out of Northern Ireland to just south of the border with Ireland (not the Northern version), precisely because the legality of the event within Northern Ireland was an unsure thing.

Unfortunately, the replacement site didn't work so well either. The alternate venue, the City North Hotel not far from Dublin, was all set to go, until Gardai (Irish polish officers) arrived to put the kibosh on the festivities. Players were given a £100 bonus over the refund of their £1,100 entry fee, which still doesn't take into account all the lost time and travel expenses for the players.

Most accounts say that the hotel lacked the proper permits for the event, but Nicky O'Donnell over at pokernews.uk asserts in his write-up that North Irish authorities may have reached across the border in an attempt to stop the action. (I've worked with Nicky; he's more than a wee bit Irish himself.) That assertion has yet to be confirmed, although Nicky did note the recent breakup of a major Northern Ireland poker club also fits the pattern.

However, it appears that the viability of Irish poker events is now up for debate. Who says the UK is the current bastion of freedom regarding poker? Add this event to the arrest and conviction of the owner of a London club/restaurant serving a healthy dose of poker, and it's clear that the issue of poker's legality is far from decided.

CardPlayer-Based Commenter Rips BLUFF, WSOP

Maybe Card Player should just stick to the print edition, since they're having a bit of trouble figuring out this Internet thing. A recent bit of hilarity quickly made the rounds behind the scenes, all starting with a post made over at thepokerbiz.com on the topic of BLUFF's being awarded the main media rights to the WSOP.

BLUFF may well have secured the rights for the next four years, though no announcement has been made and, to date, there's been no report of the deal being inked. Card Player, though seems a bit like a spiteful cat when it comes to dealing with other poker media, slashing out when it doesn't get its way. The disgraceful Belsky/BLUFF video was the latest example, until....

A poster using the name "Artie Fufkin" (a lame This is Spinal Tap reference) submitted this as commentary to the post: "Awarded?” Buying an overpriced package from the cash hungry WSOP is hardly a coup. More realistically the folks at Bluff have bitten off more than they can chew. Would not be surprised if the fees bankrupt them. Bluff is mediocre at best, as is the WSOP, and the whole thing looks like an impending slow motion train wreck."

Only one prob: The thepokerbiz.com managers just checked their logs to see what the IP address was for the computer used by the commenter. Lo and behold, it came from the Card Player offices. And because it's not every day that a smaller site gets a gift like that dropped into their laps, thepokerbiz.com devoted a whole second post to the discovery. I don't blame 'em a bit.

I'm pretty sure that BLUFF and all other magazines (and poker websites) expect to be called mediocre by CP, but I'm guessing the World Series of Poker wasn't too pleased. I believe this one qualifies as a "hot potato," doesn't it? And that's not even talking about the failure to hyphenate compound adjectives, which is the really serious crime here, let me tell ya....

Continuance Granted in NETeller Case

In the midst of a big weekend for sports bettors, having some marginal connection to college hoops, the safest bet of all was that the U.S. would request a postponement in their continuing case against the two NETeller founders arrested in January.

Call it a slam dunk, a click to pick, a five-star special or whatever. This case wasn't going anywhere on Friday except to a later date, the optimism of some pundits notwithstanding. The case against NETeller founders Lawrence and Lefebvre is now scheduled for a hearing on April 16th, at which time we MAY learn whether the U.S. authorities plan on filing charges in the matter.

So anyone with funds frozen at NETeller... your funds are still sitting there, just like the million that once sat in the plexiglass horseshoe at Binion's.

Customer discontent continues to grow and fester. The emerging NETeller Customer Coalition is the latest hat to be tossed into the NETeller ring. This group, though still in the "talk" stage, is beginning to explore possible avenues for action against NETeller. Good luck to them, because such a process would likely be as arduous as the other matter referenced above.

WSOP Hosts Media Teleconference

The World Series of Poker hosted a teleconference this morning for interested media, with a bit of speech-making, a few minor announcements, and some general plesantries, except for one online-site rep who got bounced from the proceedings after identifying himself (schmart mooove) and asking a rather pointless question. More on those funnies in a bit.

Dan Michalski over at pokerati.com already has a rather detailed overview of the proceedings, which lasted about 45 minutes. Included as speakers were WSOP bigwigs Jeffrey Pollack, Howard Greenbaum, Jack Effel and Gary Thompson, and what Michalski reported as about 30 various and sundry poker writers. (I'm shocked it was that low a turnout; even for something as predictably blah as a teleconference, I'd have expacted 75 or 100. Silly me.) Michalski is also threatening doing the poker world a commendable service to put up an audio of the call, should you really want to listen to it. However, I'll just go over a few of the things from the teleconference that stuck in my mind:

1) New card set-ups every day: One of the recurring complaints from last year was the low quality of the cards in use. This year, the cards are going to be new at the start of every day's play, and the WSOP also just announced a new deal with card-provider U.S. Playing Cards for KEM-quality cards that will create a new "Poker Peek" line of cards, to be used as the official cards of the WSOP. It ain't the "new deck every 50 hands" as recently proposed in the pending Texas state poker legislation (good luck with that one, by the way), but it's still an improvement over '06, when one well-known player earned a penalty by intentionally trashing a deck he thought had passed the point of being suitable for tourney play.

2) Don't be looking for hospitality suites from places like Stars and Full Tilt, sites that currently service U.S. online poker players. When asked, Pollack said, "You're not going to see very much of that."

3) Any reference to 10,000 players is a "target," not a "cap." (Cue last year's frantic and erroneous inquiries concerning an 8,000-player cap here.) The Rio is building a "poker superstructure" on site that is designed to house future years' needs. This time around, the poker area will include expanded room for tournament, satellite and cash-game play, with 258 tables designated for tournament use.

3a) Michalski is a smartass. , God bless 'im. Damn, but I laughed when I saw this.

4) Way to endear yourself, Pacific Poker. 'Twas Pacific who interloped the teleconference, with the site rep asking, "That means we're okay, right?" in referring to the policies referring to non-U.S.-facing online sites. The rep was told to depart the conference, but we now suspect that the now-disappointed site will exact its revenge, most likely by spamming the WSOP into submission and scraping all worldseriesofpoker.com content onto 10,000 bogus ".info" sites paid for with stolen credit cards.

5) Harrah's intends to borrow dealers and floor staff from other Harrah's locations, to lessen the impact of temporary (and in some cases, marginally talented) staff.

6) Multi-table satellites (two-table and three-table), with buy-ins as low as $125, are likely to debut this year.

7) More starting chips for the low buy-in events. A corresponding higher level of starting blinds will disguise the impact during early rounds of play, but the higher amount of starting chips is supposed to allow for the insertion of extra rounds in the intermediate levels that expand the period when real poker play is important.

8) An AP guy seemed relativly clueless about the concept of an "open registration" tournament, wanting to know what the prize pool and/or first prize would be, months in advance of the event itself. (*sigh*)

9) Pollack made a point of noting that ESPN may well have its own apparel policy, over and above the changes made by the WSOP itself. So, who will be the first wag that shows up with a shirt bearing eight separate patches, each one with a single letter that collectively spells out F-U-L-L-T-I-L-T?

10) It took roughly 35 minutes for the phrase "chip-related fiasco" to be introduced to the conference. New chips will be used this year, and both dealers and tournament directors will be trained with the intent of avoiding a repeat occurrence of last year's "fiasco."

11) Amy Calistri will have Hershey's Chocolate to enjoy in the media room. According to Ty Stewart, one of the folks responsible for negotiating WSOP corporate deals, "Not just bite-sized. Full bars."

EU Case Draws Line in the Sand Against Member Nations' Gambling Monopolies

Not receiving as much coverage as it deserved this week was a ruling issued by the European Court in a case involving Italy. For the U.S. poker player in the short term, it has little immediate importance; for the U.S. player in a timeframe covering years, it was a big deal.

Italy came out the loser in this one, in a case where they attempted to criminally prosecute agents of UK betting firm Stanley Leisure Plc, who were accepting bets on Italian soil. Italian officials said that they only they could issue the gambling license, and the three defendants argued back that their UK-issued license was quite valid under the terms of the EU trade agreements governing member nations.

The defendants won. It's a huge decision in favor of online gambling being treated as legitimate trade spanning international boundaries, and is likely to be a leading indicator of the EU's stance concerning similar practices by the United States in the almost-certain event that related disputes continue to evolve and work their way through the World Trade Organization.

Countries like France are probably a bit peeved right now. Member nations with big national lotteries they wanted to protect tried to minimize the impact of the decision, as one might expect, but it was a rare instance of justice actually winning out. Here is a French translation of our PokerStars download guide called "Telechargement PokerStars" and why in the world does Italy, of all places, have a stick up their arses about online poker? It's so bad that Stars has to utilize Poker Check Raise.com so italians can download the software (scarica poker stars gratuitamente)" :-)

It means nothing for U.S. poker players today, tomorrow, or next week, but we should all be happy about this one, nonetheless.

D'Amato Does Exclusive Interview with Card Player

Along with the news that former Senator Alfonse D'Amato had signed on as chairman of the Poker Players Alliance came reports that an exclusive interview with D'Amato with an unnamed media outlet would soon appear. The interview was to be D'Amato's unveiling to the organized poker world, like Cinderella being announced at the top of the ballroom steps.

If you had any doubts that the unnamed media outlet soon to unveil the D'Amato interview was any other than Card Player, well, you just haven't been paying attention. The interview is up now, should you care to visit, and it's scheduled (with added material) as Card Player's next cover story.

This is so good it should be award-winning, so let's create one: The 2007 Beachball Award for Softest Interview in a Non-Competing Category, for those instances when the normal use of the phrase "softball interview" just doesn't suffice.

Pudding, kiddies, I love it. It's not bad, or wrong, it's just vacuous. Card Player certainly has a fiduciary responsibility to the poker world, and publicizing D'Amato's new and welcome role is also certainly helpful. That said, the interview further cements the uncomfortably tight relationship between CP and the PPA itself, as noted in this lead-paragraph line from Allyn Jaffray Shulman, the interview's author:

"Shulman sits on PPA's board and was granted the first official interview with D'Amato after he took the position."

Good deed, lousy form. Despite Card Player's eminence within all of poker, the more that the PPA is viewed as a mouthpiece for Card Player, the less effective it will be at claiming any right to speak for poker as a whole. Card Player isn't doing anthing to disavow this, either.

I'd like to see the PPA succeed. Really, truly I would. But confound it, I've seen so many instances lately of ham-handed, hidebound amateurism by the organization lately that I'm beginning to think they're just never going to see the light. Maybe Senator Pothole can do some good, but I suspect he's going to have to give the PPA a crash course in how professional lobbying and public relations really works. Lobbyists pull down big bucks for what is essentially a soft science, often with little or no concrete results. It looks like D'Amato's going to be earning his money, in more ways than one.

Despite the fact that the interview is pap, it does contain one nugget. Mentioned in passing by D'Amato is that not only is the UIGEA protectionist, it is in fact discriminatory, penalizing (as an example), a handicapped person who might not have ready means to visit a casino. It's something that's occurred to me previously, as well.

I can't prove it, of course, but in the day or two prior to the time Lou and Amy asked me to appear on Hold'em Radio, I was wracking my brains trying to come up with possible interesting topics to discuss. This is something that occurred to me then, having just prior to that stumbled across a forum poster of one such handicapped player bemoaning that very fact.

I'd make a lousy cause celebre, but a handicapped poker player denied one of his few recreational outlets would play to the crowds a whole lot better. It would be terribly dirty pool to suggest anything as crass as putting a quadriplegic poker player in front of a computer, pencil strapped to the poor guy's head allowing him to play, but then again, it was equally crass for a Senator Frist to boogie on down to the Katrina aftermath, posing in front of carnage withe admonition to his cameraman to "Get some destruction in the back." (I'm not sure of the exact quote, but he said something to that point.)

So maybe D'Amato has some dirty pool in mind. If so, good for him. The other side did it first, and this is one battle the poker world won't win by making nice. It needs to fight fire with fire.

No, That's Greg, GREG!!! Raymer

"I will name him George and I will hug him and kiss him and squeeze him and brush his pretty fur and..." --- from a famous Bugs Bunny cartoon.

George, you say? George? This week's best chuckle comes to us courtesy of the Carroll County Times, pride and joy of Westminster, Maryland. They ran a nice interview today, featuring the 2004 World Series of Poker Main Event champion, George "Fossilman" Raymer. [Image source: gregraymer.net]

Of course, after a few respondents pointed out that they were morans (with a nod and a wink to Wil Wheaton), they quickly got the thing corrected.

Jamie Gold Mentions Leyser Suit in Video Clip

There's nothing quite like a great inside joke. Such is the case with a recent short video on YouTube, entitled "Jamie Gold on Crispin Leyser."

In the clip, one sees Gold's lips move and sounds coming out, but even though the two are in perfect sync, the words still make no sense. When asked about the Crispin Leyser lawsuit and eventual settlement, Gold states that, "The press made it out to be a big thing; it wasn't a big thing."

I love this guy.

But the gem of the video? That comes seconds later. Gold is being interviewed by one of the RawVegas.tv girls, an edgy site we've mentioned more than once in recent weeks. The interviewer asks Gold about Wicked Chops Poker, Gold responds that, "Wicked Chops [is] Wicked Chops. They talk shit about me all the time. Good for them."

Not long after that, Gold looks down at the interviewer's mike and sees the "RawVegas.tv" logo embossed thereon, and then adds, "RawVegas.tv --- RawVegas.tv I love."

I, for one, get a kick out of the fact that Chops chose to post the clip under the "wickedchops" YouTube account, not that I can say for sure that he personally did the deed. Still, one can only imagine Chops peeing his pants from laughing so hard when he saw what the Gold video clip contained.



Think someone ought to tell Jamie? What, and spoil all the fun?

D'Amato Finally in as PPA Chairman

A couple of days late with this one, but there's still plenty of meat on the bone. On Monday, it was finally announced that former Senator Alfonse D'Amato is taking over the chairmanship of the Poker Players Alliance, and will therefore immediately cure all ills currently afflicting the online poker world.

No, no, I made up the last part.

D'Amato is indeed onboard, however, a savvy, colorful pol with strong business and Congressional connections who will likely help poker more than he will hurt it. For its part, the PPA has been more forthright in recent weeks in stating that creating an exemption or carve-out for the online version of the game is one of its most important goals. Still, annointing D'Amato as poker's savior is a case of unwarranted optimism --- not only is online poker unlikely to get the carve-out it so desires, at least in the near future, but D'Amato himself is hardly a saint. As a politician he makes a good lobbyist.

D'Amato long ago acquired the reputation of a not-quite-clean pol, not that's there anything un-American about that. More specifically, though, was the not-often reported tale of the inquiry launched when it turned out that D'Amato frequently hosted high-stakes cash poker games featuring himself and several lobbyists pursuing his favor, the games held in his Congressional office. One can only surmise that D'Amato ran an inordinately high number of successful big-pot bluffs and boasted an ROI (Return On Investment) percentage the likes of which the rest of us can only dream. D'Amato's gone on to host a semi-celebrity home game featuring pal Howard Stern (the shock jock, not the Anna Nicole shyster), and a rotating lineup of maybe-famous types such as Dominic Barbera, the Lon-Guyland lawyer whose 15-minutes-of-fame clients have included Jessica Hahn and Joey Buttafuoco.

That said, D'Amato still can't help but give the PPA a heightened sense of professionalism and respectability, something that the PPA itself surely needs, given the organization's other recent missteps.

Sure, NOW We're Like France --- Heat Put On Online Gambling Firms to Vacate the Virtual Premises

Thinking that the United States is unique in its protectionist stance regarding online gambling is, in a word, erroneous. France has taken equally strident steps in recent months to bully and brow-beat online firms into getting the hell out of L'Dodge, even as France is more closely bound by the European Union free trade agreements governing such matters, agreements that France played a pivotal role in creating in the first place.

Sounds familiar, doesn't it? No doubt you'd be shocked to learn that France has two-state run monopolies it's trying to protect. As with the U.S., free trade is only to be acceptable if the trade runs in a certain direction, either coming into the country in its majority or significantly increasing the bottom-line value of a major corporate entity. Other than that, it's a case of, "Pardon moi, but you really didn't believe us, did you?"

No, I never had a doubt. France's bully-boy tactics began last year with the arrests of two senior executives of Austrian online gaming firm Bwin at a press conference last year, announcing a sponsorship deal with a French soccer club. The arrests, with the case itself still pending, forced the scuttling of several similar dealers between major online companies and high-profile French soccer clubs and other concerns.

Earlier this year, an important French Presidential wannabe with a Fristian conservative streak, Nicolas Sarkozy, made an anti-gambling plank a strong part of his continuing push to power. Sarkozy, unlike Frist, remains both a serious threat to come to power and a possibility to inflict further damage to the online gaming world. French authorities continued their push by putting enough pressure on the people involved to force the cancellation of the recent European Poker Tour Deauville event, which was to be held just a week ago at the Casino Deauville. Another significantly impacted party was EPT title sponsor Poker Stars.

Last week, word emerged that former 888 Holdings CEO John Anderson has been summoned to an "interview" with the French authorities, and it now seems as if France has extended similar "requests" to as many as 20 other companies, with the implied message that the alternative to showing up for the interview is having an arrest warrant issued. One company not mentioned among the 20 is PartyGaming, although Party is certainly receiving attention of some unwanted sort. A week or so back, Party notified its affiliates that no new French customers would be accepted, and now it seems, Party has quietly taken down its French-language web site. Party remains adept at fleeing at the first sign of a bumpy road, even as a mercenary firm such as 888 Holdings shows a willingness to stand up and fight against France within the EU's framework.

However, the battle over online gaming is likely to challenge the very framework of the EU itself, which in a worst-case scenario will become as toothless as the United Nations. And you thought that playing pocket jacks was a chore of major significance....

Of all things, though, why is this the issue that France chooses for embracing and emulating the U.S.? Sheesh. I'm not radically anti-France, being a bit more global in such matters than say, my father, who served in the latter stages of World World II and whose opinions of France were set in stone when he was spit on by a French child while on parade march. To this day my father makes two exceptions for things Viva Francaise --- french fries and french toast.

And onward. Back next week with some more goodies, promise.

2007 World Series of Poker: Pre-Registration Opens, Updated Rules Released

After a couple of tiny technical snafus, the World Series of Poker now has full access available on their home web siteto the registration forms and rules for the 55 events comprising this year's WSOP. The schedule's been out for a while, but now any players anxious to get their ducks in a row can get their forms filled out, wire some money over to the Rio, and start ticking off the calendar days until June.

There's also been quite a bit of anticipation about new rules changes, and yes, there are some. So without further word noise, here are the things I've found most interesting:

A) A new $10,000 "WSOP" lammer will be introduced. The more I've thought about this, the more important I believe the news will be, particularly if the lammer becomes the only form of payment for the $1,000 satellites that increase in number as the Main Event approaches. Many players live at the satellite tables rather than play the smaller events, and with smaller-value lammers in use (as in previous years), the result was that most satellites saw deal-making and chops occurring. That could get cut back a bunch this year, forcing players to work out the majority of the cash balancing among themselves.

It also reduces the possibility that lots of players will accumulate high numbers of $10,000 lammers, just because there aren't that many chances to use the things, once earned. WSOP events with $10,000 or higher buy-ins number exactly two: the high-dollar H.O.R.S.E. tourney and the Main Event. While there will certainly be some peddling of them between players, the network for these is limited to a few hundreds, or maybe a couple thousand at most. Perhaps the $10K lammer will only be an option for receiving a payout, not a requirement. Otherwise, it would work contrary to the announced expansion from 200 to 300 tables for WSOP tournaments, satellites, and associated cash-game play.

B) Dress-code "liberalization"? Well, that's how it's pitched. But essentially, the new dress code seems more like this: "No smokin', spittin', hollerin', cussin', boozin' (unless it's Miller stuff), pimpin', insultin', gamblin' on other things, shootin', lustin', fartin', pimpin' t'other type, or gettin' us in trouble with the Feds. An' you kin wear a small patch for t'other stuff." Every year "Rule 34" seems to correspond to something noteworthy, and this year #34 is the dress-code code. Let's put it here in it's entirety:

34. Tournament participants may wear apparel with multiple logos, patches or promotional language. However, no individual logo, patch or block of promotional language is to be larger than 12 square inches. In addition, all logo, patches and promotional language are strictly prohibited if they:

(a) Contain any false, unsubstantiated, or unwarranted claims for any product or service, or make and testimonials that Harrah's, in its sole and absolute discretion, considers unethical;

(b) Advertise any habit-forming drug, tobacco product, handgun or handgun ammunition;

(c) Advertise and malt beverage or any non-alcoholic product containing the name of a liquor product other than Milwaukee's Best Light or another product of the Miller Brewing Company;

(d) Contain any material constituting or relating to a lottery, a contest of any kind inwhichthe public is unfairly treated or any enterprise, service or product that abets, assists or promotes illegal gambling;

(e) Contain any material that is defamatory, obscene, profane, vulgar, repulsive or offensive, either in theme or in treatment or that describes or depicts repellently any internal bodily functions or symptomatic results of internal conditions, or refers to matters that are not considered socially acceptable topics;

(f) Advertise pornographic products of any kind;

(g) Include any element of intellectual property without the owner's consent to such use or gives rise to any claim of infringement, misappropriation or other form of unfair competition;

(h) Disparage or libel any person or product;

(i) Advertise a dot.com gaming site that conducts business with U.S. residents;

(j) Are or might be injurious or prejudicial to the interests of the World Series of Poker, the Rio, Harrah's or its affiliated companies or are otherwise contrary to honest advertising and reputable business in general. This includes but is not limited to the name or logo of any person or entity that uses or has used the trademarks, trade names or logos of Harrah's or its affiliated companies without written authorization from an authorized officer of Harrah's;

(k) In addition, all logos, patches, and promotional language for any dot.net website must contain a clear and visible "dot.net" suffix at least the same size as the site name;

(l) Harrah's reserves the right at all times to impose a ban on any apparel deemed objectionable by Harrah's, in its sole and absolute discretion.

Maybe Miller should be recruited on behalf of forces combatting the UIGEA; they certainly know how to create a nice carve-out. And guys, while blue jeans seem to be acceptable, we're still waiting for word for you on Dockers®.

C) Harrah's also seems to have shifted its time-out penalties for various forms of bad behavior away from pure minutes (typically, multiples of ten minutes), to a "missed-hand" format, which means that a player in violation will be told to sit out one or more laps. This negates slow-play by other players who side with the penalized player, for whatever reason, and who would stall to minimize the impact of the time penalty.

There a few smaller changes as well, but these are the most noteworthy things.