PPA Congress Ratings!

Check to see if your congress person is good or bad for online poker here! Of the three listed for my zip code one got an F- (ACK!), another got an F and another got a B.

Unlawful Internet Gaming Comment Response

Recently London Dave put up the following comment:

Dave
What is your take as an American online pro, and implications for you.


Compliance 12/1/09

The Department of the Treasury and the Federal Reserve Board today announced the release of a joint final rule to implement the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006. The Act prohibits gambling businesses from knowingly accepting payments in connection with unlawful Internet gambling, including payments made through credit cards, electronic funds transfers, and checks.

The Board and the Treasury are required by the Act to develop a joint rule in consultation with the Department of Justice. The final rule requires U.S. financial firms that participate in designated payment systems to establish and implement policies and procedures that are reasonably designed to prevent payments to gambling businesses in connection with unlawful Internet gambling. The rule provides non-exclusive examples of such policies and procedures and sets out the regulatory enforcement framework. For purposes of the rule, unlawful Internet gambling generally would cover the making of a bet or wager that involves use of the Internet and that is unlawful under any applicable federal or state law in the jurisdiction where the bet or wager is initiated, received, or otherwise made.

Compliance with the rule is required by December 1, 2009.

http://www.federalreserve.gov/newsev...20081112a1.pdf

London Dave

For those of you who have forgotten or didn't know the story of the Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act here is a brief summary of the story. When the UIGEI passed in September 2006 as a last second addition to the Safe Port Act of 2006 (tell me that's not total bullshit!) it called for the treasury department to figure out a way to police transactions related to online gaming within 270 days. Banks everywhere cursed under their breath at the super conservative republicans who snuck this garbage in there.

As soon as this legislation passed a movement to get it repealed started. The Poker Players Alliance was created. To make a long story short on that front there are now over 1,000,000 members with a former US senator as the leader. The PPA is constantly lobbying in Washington and pushing forward the cause and fighting for the rights of poker players in the US. Check out their webiste here for all the latest news about the legality of online poker.

Nothing happened for about 50 of those 270 days, then a bunch of bad stuff happened. Neteller and Firepay the two leading processors of payments from customers to online casinos (and vice versa) decided overnight to block US users. Then one by one all of the publicly traded poker sites (including party poker which at the time was by far the industry leader) either shut down completely or blocked US users which turned them into poker ghost towns. This was a major boon for the privately owned websites who's market share got a major boost overnight.

Around this time the games got really tough. Some casual players fearing they were breaking the law stopped playing. Others ran out of money in their account and weren't willing to jump through the hoops to get more in there. All of a sudden if you were in the US the only way to get money into your account was to send the website a money order when before that it was a few clicks and the money was instantly available for play. There were still games to be played, but the easy money started to dry up.

For a good while everything was quiet as far as the UIGEA was concerned. The 270 days came and went and nothing changed. Then came a light in the distance! A savior! A miracle! INSTANT E-CHECKS! All of a sudden it was back to instant transfers right from your bank account to the website.

Gradually the games got better and then there was a bit of good news. A few of the websites that had blocked US users, unblocked them and came back into the fold. To me this was a major sign that the UIGEA was something that was going to be on the books, but didn't really have any teeth.

The news of this week is that the government has set the date of December 1st 2009 for compliance. This seems very similar to the deadline of 270 days. Well guess what, we're coming up on 800 days and all they've done is set a new deadline!

Maybe the biggest problem the government is going to have is the banks don't want any part of this! They don't want to have to review every single transaction to see if it's related in some distant way to online gaming. And even if they did want to check everything out, I'm not sure they could stop it without tremendous effort and cost. With all the trouble in the banking system these days I can't imagine anyone pushing for anything that would make it tougher and more expensive for banks to do business.

When I cashout my checks don't say Pokerstars.com Internet gaming. They say KJR financial or CRQ corp. or BRG group. I don't know if it's ever said the same thing on top of any two checks I've received. Furthermore, the checks themselves all look different and they come from a wide variety of banks.

On the other end when you make a deposit to the website it doesn't say anything at all about gambling on your statement. It says netvibes or intertainment or whatever.

Right now there are no fewer that 6 bills in congress related in one way or another to repealing the UIGEA and/or creating a regulated form of Internet gambling in the US. With the new congress and new administration coming in who knows what might happen.

The two biggest things I have working in my favor are 1) Poker is a skill game and 2) just about no one is in favor of a ban on Internet poker. There has been much talk that even if other online gambling gets squashed somehow that a niche will be carved out for poker since it's a game of skill. The main group of people who are in favor of a ban on online poker are religious Conservatives. In congress those people are on the way out or their power has been greatly diminished. The people who are against it are the banks, the poker players, and most important of all people who think Americans should be able to spend their money however they want to!

Anyway, to sum up I'm not worried. I think things will remain as they are or get better for me. Since I pay my taxes I'm not worried about the government taxing and regulating the industry. If the government licensed a regulated Internet gambling it would be worth billions of dollars to them and everyone in the industry knows that it would bring in so much new money to the system that the extra taxes would hardly matter.

I'm not sure if I really responded to your comment or not Dave. Let me know if there was anything specifically that you'd like me to comment on additionally.

What's left in the FTOPS X?

Tonight I have Event #18 which is $322 Razz. After that I have four events left: $216 NL Hold'em, $109 PLO with rebuys, $129 Knockout NL Hol'em and the "main event" which is $535 NL hold'em with a guaranteed prize pool of $2,500,000.

The real main event is the $5,200 NL hold'em 6-max two day tournament that goes off on Saturday (and Sunday if you make it that far). Despite my big hit early in the FTOPS, I'm not ready to fire five large on one online tournament. But I am going to take about $1,000 and play a few $300 or $500 satellites to see if I can win my way into the field (unlike in the WCOOP if I win a seat I'm actually going to use it!).

I still have loose plans to go play a $1,000 tournament at Lucky Chances Casino in Colma, CA on Sunday the 23rd, but it's close an hour away depending on traffic and I have some concerns about showing up and having the tournament be sold out (they limit it to about 200 entrants since they only have so many tables). If I'm feeling super motivated I might haul myself out there a few days ahead of time and sign up early.

Even if I blank the rest of the way the FTOPS X has been an unqualified success. But let's hope that's not going to happen!

FTOPS Event #13 Recap

I'm going to make this short since I slept in until noon today and I really need to get to work. I got off to an awesome start in the $535 HORSE tournament, running my starting stack of 5,000 all the way up to 20,000. Then I got done in somewhat by the crazy play of one opponent when I had a draw I couldn't fold (tip: if it's capped three way on 4th street in 7 card stud DON'T RAISE AT EVERY OPPORTUNITY WITH ONE PAIR OF 3'S THE REST OF THE WAY!)and party by a weak tournament structure.

Fulltilt has done a really poor job setting up the blind increases in all the FTOPS tournaments. In the tournament in which I finished second earlier in the FTOPS with 8 players left the average stack was 15 big blinds! This is plainly absurd for tournaments that are supposed to be a big deal. With stakes like those it's hard to play a hand without getting pot committed.

Along those lines there's no way with more than an average stack you should be able to get most of your chips in on one hand in a limit tournament well before you make the money. If this were a $50 HORSE tournament fine, but for $500 it would be nice to have a little more room to maneuver.

Anyway I came up short in the end. No FTOPS until Thursday night for me.

FTOPS X Event #12 Recap

ACK! Major collapse! Here's what happened in Hand of the Day #4!

I was crusing along nicely in this one when a rather inocuious hand led to my demise. With blinds of 120/240 I was in the small blind with 77 and an almost twice average stack of about 20,000. The button who had about 35,000 chips open raised to 560 and after thinking about reraising I decided to just call. I was hoping to keep the pot small and either get to the showdown cheap or take a stab at the pot and pick it up with a bet.

The flop came down KQ3 with two spades. I checked and my opponent bet about 800. I decided to just call again with the thinking that if he didn't have a K or a Q it would be hard for him to bet the turn and if he did bet the turn I could then fold with some degree of confidence that I was beat.

The turn was a 7! "AH HA!" I thought. Now I was hoping he had something good enough to pay me off. I checked, my opponent bet 2,100 and after a short stall I made it 6,000 to go. When he called me I thought "He's got a king! I've got him now! Double up here I come!"

The river was a third spade and an instant after I'd moved all in I thought "Oh shit, I hope he wasn't calling me with the flush draw that just got there!" I was so focused on the big cards and thinking that he'd connected with the K or the Q that for some reason I totally ignored the flush draw. When he called me with no hesitation I was pretty sure I was dead. To add insult to injury he had T7 of spades meaning that I only had one card in the deck that could make me a set and cost me all of my chips.

This is not one of those hands where I can go away thinking there was nothing I could have done differently. I certainly could have reraised before the flop which probably would have won me the pot right there. And even if it didn't the hand would have played out differently which might have allowed me to either bet enough on the turn to get rid of my opponent or end up saving some of my chips. Also while I might have had to call an all in bet on the river had I checked, I suspect my opponent would have bet less than my whole stack. I'd probably be left with only 3,000 or 4,000 chips, but that's better than zero!

While it might seem like kind of a weak play there is some merit to just folding those stupid sevens before the flop! After all part of good poker is avoiding tough decisions and tough situations, and there aren't too many spots where 77 is going to play easily out of position against a big stack.

Hopefully the HORSE tournament tonight will go better!

Thanks for the Comments!

Thanks to all of you who've posted comments recently. I spend a fair amount of time writing these posts and it's always nice to know that people are reading them and rooting for me!

Recently I checked the stats that the website keeps regarding readers and this month I've had about 125 unique users come to check out my blog. That means about 100 people I don't know are reading about my ups and downs. I'd like to have that number up to 1,000, but I'd probably have to post everyday and get a little more meat in terms of strategy tips to do that.

Anyway thanks again for the comments!

Event #12 Underway!

Event #12 ($216 1/2 PLO 1/2 PLH) started with 936 players. After an hour of play I'm in 12th of 728.

I got off to a super hot start. About five minutes in I got KK was up against AQ and I think another hand with a Q in it. The flop came down Qxx and I got all of one players chips and about 40% of the other's! That took me from 5,000 chips to about 12,000 and put me in first place where I stayed for about 40 more minutes.

In the first Omaha round I, busted someone and went from 12,000 to 17,000. I got dealt KKxx and I was up against ATxx with the AT of hearts. The flop came down KQx with two hearts and we got it all in on the flop. The turn was a heart, but the river paired the board and I took down a nice pot.

In fact now that I think about it, I've gotten about a few hours worth of monster hands in the first hour. I had 22 twice, limped both times, and flopped a set both times, once making quads on the turn. I had other hand where I got dealt JT vs KQ. I made the nut straight and my opponent made two pair.

The only hand that really went against me was one where I flopped the nut flush in the Omaha, I was up against a smaller flush and he made a runner, runner full house.

Hopefully the good luck continues!

FTOPS Events #10 &11 Recap

Not a very exciting day in the FTOPS. In event #10 ($322 Mixed Hold'em) I ran my starting stack of 3,000 up to about 4,500 before losing half of what I had when I missed a nut flush draw. The rest went gradually, mostly during the limit rounds where I raised with a few hands, missed and was forced to fold once I ran into resistance. My last 1,000 chips went in with KJ suited in the NL round, I got called by AJ and that was it. I finished about 400 of 667.

In event #11 ($1060 NL Hold'em) I only lasted half an hour. I've played something like 60 tournament with buy ins of over $1,000 and this is the quickest I've ever been eliminated. I lost half my chips with KK vs 44 when the flop came down with a 4 on it and the rest eventually went in with AJ vs 77.

On the other side of the coin I did win a little over $2,000 in the cash games today so I'm exactly feeling bad.

Tomorrow I have $216 half pot limit hold'em, half pot limit Omaha at 11 and $535 HORSE at 6. These are two tournaments that both look very interesting to me. Hopefully I can do something good in one or both of them.

FTOPS Events #10 & #11 Preview

Event #10 is $322 Mixed Hold'em and is underway with 667 entrants. This is great news since they came up well short of the $250,000 guaranteed prize pool. In fact there is a $35,226 overlay which is about $53 a person. This might not seem like a ton of money given the stakes, but it's not nothing.

Event #11 is the biggest on my schedule (assuming I don't win my way into the $5,000 event) and is $1,000 NL Hold'em. I have no idea what size field we might be looking at at 6 pm on a Monday but they've guaranteed 1.5 million dollars so they must be expecting 1,500 players. Right now there are only 243 signed up so I'm drooling over the possibility of only 1,000 showing up. Now that would be an serious overlay.

Sunday Tournament Recap

Forgot to mention that I made the money in the $215 Sunday Warm up finishing about 300th which paid a little over $600.

Yesterday I felt like I played really well all day, but just didn't get any cards. What I got I made the most of, but you can only do so much with well timed bluffs.

When I got a few hours into the $530 NL tournament on pokerstars I finally started making some hands. We started with 995 players and 10,000 chips each. I doubled up early and by the time we were down to 400 players or so I was in 8th place with over 50,000 chips. I hovered right around that level for a while and with 300 or so players I had an interesting hand come up (Let's call it hand of the day #3)

The blinds were 400/800 with a 25 chip ante and I was in the big blind with 94 offsuit. The player one off the button raised it to 1,800 and it was folded over to me. At first glance this looks like an easy fold right? After all I have 94 and it's not even suited.

That was my first instinct as well, but after some thought I decided to call. There was already 3,425 in the pot and it would only cost me another 1,000 to see the flop giving me close to 3.5 to 1 immediate pot odds. But that's not all that was working in my favor. I would expect my opponent to bet the flop if I checked close to 100% of the time. I knew that if I hit I would win much more than the 3,425 in the pot. Also 1,000 was only 2% of my stack so I could easily afford take the chance here. If I had the same matematical situation, but it was going to cost me 10% of my stack I would almost certainly fold. Furthermore my opponent started the hand with 12,000 so no matter what happened I could only be wounded, not killed in the hand.

So I called and the flop came down 9 9 9! HA! I was hoping my opponent had a pocket pair which would mean I was all but certain to get all his chips. I checked an my opponent bet small, about 2,000. This was an obvious time for a slowplay. If my opponent missed he might bluff again on the turn or he might make something. The turn was a ten and I checked again. I was sad to see my opponent check behind me. The river was a small card and I bet 2,000 hoping to get paid off by a hand like AK. Instead of calling my opponent moved all in! It took about a nanosecond for me to call and when the cards got turned over I saw he had AA! HA!

Unfortunately I was on the other side of a bad beat a little later. The tournament paid 144 spots and while I'd started out with a great stack, I started to slip a little and everyone else started to catch up as we got closer to the money.

With 156 players left the blinds were 1000/2000 with a small ante. I got dealt KK in early position and raised it to 6,000. I was shocked, horrified and delighted all at the same time to see the player on my immediate left go all in for 55,000! I started the hand with a little over 40,000 and of course I called.

I thought my opponent could have had anything from 23 to AA and had no idea what I was going to see when the cards got turned over. It turns out I was up against J9 suited which meant I was 80% to win before the flop. After the flop which was 952 I was 82% to win. The turn was a 5 which made me 95.45% to win since a 9 and a 9 only would make my opponent the best hand. But that's what the river was and I was out. CRAP!

The edge of the money was $850, but that's not how much I lost in this pot. How much was that pot worth? Well it's pretty easy to figure out in this situation. There was $500,000 in the prize pool (Exactly $500,000 since that was the guarantee and we came up 5 players short of the 1,000 needed to make it) and I would have had almost exactly 1% of the chips in play. Since no money had been paid out yet that pot was worth about $5,000! ACK!

The total damage on the day was -$1,892. Double ACK!

The good news is my $10,000 starting bankroll for the FTOPS (I'm going to call it the FTOPS for simplicity even though I'm mixing in other stuff) is at $40,389! Hard to be upset about $1,900 when you're ahead $30,000 for the past few days!