Current News

The question poker players should be asking as Barney Frank's bill to license and regulate the Internet gambling industry heads to a markup on Tuesday is not whether the bill will pass but whether it will move forward in a form players would want.

Frank wouldn't call for a vote if he didn't think the bill will be approved by the House Financial Services Committee that he chairs.

The focus of the Poker Players Alliance since Frank's hearing on the bill last Wednesday has been to push for amendments to benefit its members and fight against amendments that could be detrimental.

The biggest concern is that someone adds an amendment to prevent existing poker operators – namely PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker – from being licensed. This was a talking point of several committee members at Wednesday's hearing.

"These entities should not be invited to play a role where they are going to have to act as policemen," said Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.). "We don't want former criminals deputized as cops."

"I would not be surprised if someone tried to add a provision like that, but I think we have a strong argument against it," said John Pappas, executive director of the PPA. "The bottom line is this legislation should not decide who and who should not apply for a license. When they apply, if it is decided they are not suitable to get a license then they won't. But they shouldn't be prevented from applying. The PPA thinks as many people to apply for a license is good, that it breeds competition."

Pappas wouldn't say what elements the PPA is trying to add to the bill. In the past, he has mentioned that the PPA would push for an amendment stating that the Wire Act does not apply to horse racing. The wording is in the Menendez bill in the Senate, and would help in getting the horse racing industry's influence behind Frank's legislation. The PPA also has mentioned seeking to remove the player penalty for people depositing to unlicensed sites that is currently in the Frank bill.

John Campbell (R-Calif.) said Wednesday that he would be proposing an amendment. Pappas said the PPA supported Campbell's amendment but would talk to him about the loss limits he mentioned Wednesday. Loss limits obviously can be a tricky idea, since $1,000 is a lot to some people while $100,000 is not much to others. However, Pappas believes Campbell's amendment is key to gathering more Republican support.

"I think we'll see an amendment offered by Campbell including some consumer protections that I believe will make the bill more palatable for members of Congress, particularly on the Republican side, who may want to support the bill but need the cover of a strengthening amendment," Pappas said.

The markup of HR 2267 is one of six markups scheduled in the committee on Tuesday, making it difficult to project when the bill will be addressed. It's possible, with that many bills, that the markup of HR 2267 could be held over to another day. Progress on Tuesday can be monitored from the House Financial Services Committee website.

Source:  http://www.pokernews.com/news/2010/07/barney-frank-s-internet-gambling-legislation-markup-8605.htm 

Unlucky at Cards. Lucky at Love.

TV Commercials are supposed to draw and hold attention. Sell a product and hopefully be entertaining on some level. What do you think of this banned commercial.

Say it ain't so! Poker players use drugs in an effort to sharpen their Texas Hold 'Em and Seven-Card Stud skills. So says a new study from Nova Southeastern University in Florida that reports that 80 percent of poker players use performance enhancing drugs. The press release reads:

Poker players are using drugs such as marijuana, cocaine, amphetamines, Valium, and other prescription medications, as well as substances including caffeine, energy drinks and guarana to get an edge over their opponents....

Respondents included professional poker players, semi-pro, amateur, and recreational players. Regardless of one’s status, an overwhelming majority of poker involves some amount of money, Clauson said. The players surveyed played poker --- largely no-limit Texas hold’ em ---- both in person and on the Internet. Most were males in their mid-20s.

About 73 percent of the respondents said they used drugs and other substances to focus and concentrate better. The rest used these products to calm their nerves, stay awake, and improve memory.

The results suggest that the use of substances to improve poker performance is widespread, especially at higher stakes,...

What kind of gambling role models are these guys and gals?! Can it be long before an outraged Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) [MLB steroid YouTube alert] drags these gamester scoundrels before his Congressional committee and demands that the Poker Players Association require pre-game drug testing?

 Source: http://reason.com/blog/2010/06/02/new-sports-scandal-poker-playe 

Police say a man who fatally shot a suspected robber after another person was killed during a Dallas-area poker game is not expected to be charged, according to the Associated Press.

Mesquite police say Tracy Moore, 35, who lived at the apartment, was shot and killed early Tuesday by a man who allegedly tried to rob the players.

Police say another man, Jerome Johnson, 34, shot and killed the robber.

Police say Johnson has a concealed handgun permit and was not arrested in the apparent self-defense case. A Dallas County grand jury is expected to review the shootings.

The name of the robbery suspect was not immediately released.

For a 51-year-old preacher, Pat

Pricia Clark was a pretty sharp poker player.
Maybe too sharp, the woman accused of shooting her apparently thought.Rosie Morris, 46, was charged with murdering Patricia Clark during a game of poker, according to police. 
Patricia Clark was accused of cheating at poker and was fatally shot in the back at this house located at 9320 S. Ridgeland. 
(Keith Hale/Sun-Times) 
After accusing Clark, of the 1300 block of West 108th Place, of cheating her and three other gamblers out of an $800 pot, the alleged killer shot Clark in the back Thursday night, Clark's family and police say.
Two days after what was supposed to be a friendly game of cards at a pal's home, Clark succumbed to her wounds Saturday night at Christ Hospital in Oak Lawn.
Rosie Morris, 46, of the 9300 block of South Ridgeland, was charged with murdering Clark, according to police.
Clark's grieving husband, James Clark, said she "didn't cheat and didn't need to cheat, she's just very good at cards."
His wife -- who preached at several South Side churches and had recently started a business selling candy -- was invited to the home in the 9300 block of South Ridgeland on Thursday to collect an outstanding gambling debt of $300 from an "old friend of 20 years," James Clark said.
When the friend invited her to stay and play some more, she agreed. Four hours later, she had cleaned up.
Morris angrily accused her of cheating, authorities said. But Clark said she had won fairly and demanded to be paid.
As Clark went to the freezer to get some ice, Morris went to a bedroom, got a gun and, without warning, shot Clark in the back, firing three more times into Clark's head and chest, her husband said.
Morris initially fled but later turned herself in to police, authorities said.
James Clark said his wife was a beautiful person who had lost one of her two sons to murder but had helped raise a dozen foster children and "would take homeless people in off the street and feed and cloth them."
He described her shooting as "cowardly."
 Source: http://www.suntimes.com/news/24-7/2361864,CST-NWS-cards07.article

                 51-year-old preacher & poker player                                             46-year-old murderer & scumbag                                     

                                Patricia Clark                                                                               Rosie Morris

The former Sen. Al D’Amato is getting ready for his upcoming trip to Washington — State, not DC — and is calling the online poker troops to action in Olympia, for the PPA’s rallyin support of Lee Rousso at the state Supreme Court. 

A law that Washington passed in 2006 — the Internet Gambling Ban, making it a felony to play a computer game online — regardless of where you stand on poker. But we’ll have to see how the non-poker masses take to one man’s challenge the constitutionality of such a government intrusive.

Stossel outs himself as a recreational poker player in an episode of his namesake show on Fox Business that aired Thursday.

His efforts to bring the online gambling issue to the fore last week extended far beyond his own show. Here he is on The O’Reilly Factor:

Coming this summer on http://rightnetwork.com is a new show politics and poker. We can only hope that there knowledge of politics is greater than their skill at poker.At the poker games I sit at. We usually try to avoid the subject of politics and religion. These two subjects seem to start trouble every time they are discussed. But I don't think we have to worry about this show, everyone at the table seems to be on the same side of the issues discussed.

Barney Frank has scheduled a hearing of his House Financial Services Committee for Friday to discuss Internet gambling. This hearing won't be the promised markup of HR 2267, Frank's bill to license and regulate Internet gambling. That will still be to come. This hearing will focus more on HR 2266, Frank's bill to delay full implementation of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act. Frank's intent in holding the hearing is unclear. Remember that Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-Ala.), requested then that a hearing be held discussing UIGEA with representatives of the Treasury Department and Federal Reserve Board present. Bachus was the ranking minority member in the committee who was the principal opponent of Frank's regulatory bill in the hearing held last December. Advertisement "This hearing is a final opportunity for committee members to learn about the issue," said Michael Waxman, spokesperson for the Safe and Secure Gambling Initiative. "But it's also at the request of Spencer Bachus. Frank is going through the motions and acquiescing to a request of a ranking member." The hearing could also be a response to news that the regulations, set to go into full effect on June 1, would not get another delay because of a deal between Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Sen. Jon Kyl (Ariz.) to stop Kyl from holding up Treasury nominees. Frank told PokerNews of that deal in an interview last month, and it was later confirmed by The Washington Post. John Pappas, executive director of the Poker Players Alliance, said last month that he hoped Frank would hold a hearing where people from the banking industry who are imposed with enforcing the regulations could discuss their problems with that assignment. It was Pappas' hope that the hearing would strengthen the PPA's position to petition the Treasury Department asking Geithner to clarify what constitutes unlawful Internet gambling before pushing it forward. Waxman believes that, even if Bachus has negative intentions in calling for the hearing, the result of the hearing will be positive for the Internet poker industry. "Any discussion on UIGEA is good because no one is making a logical and conclusive argument that UIGEA has been successful," Waxman said. "Most everyone, especially in the financial sector, has argued that UIGEA is burdensome and unlikely to succeed in its mission, which is to stop Americans from gambling online." The hearing, scheduled to begin Friday at 10 a.m. in room 2128 of the Rayburn House Office Building.

Source: http://www.pokernews.com/news/2010/04/barney-frank-schedules-hearing-to-discuss-internet-gambling-8145.htm 

Police are investigating a report of three or four suspects who robbed multiple victims in the midst of a card game at a Northwest Austin home early Saturday morning, according to an arrest affidavit. 

The suspects forced their way into a home at the 8000 block of Northforest Drive, near the intersection of West Anderson Lane and MoPac Boulevard (Loop 1), sometime before 1 a.m., the affidavit said. 

Victims and witnesses said the suspects came into the home displaying handguns and rifles and took money, cell phones, purses, wallets, credit cards, debit cards and identification cards, the affidavit said.

About an hour before the robbery occurred, a police officer observed two vehicles — a black, four-door Toyota Avalon and a 1990s four-door BMW with large after-market wheels — parked close to the residence. The officer made contact with the driver of the Toyota, a black male who had an African-sounding accent, the affidavit said. 

The same officer responded to the robbery call, and recognized a similar description from victims and witnesses that the suspects had African-sounding accents, the affidavit said. Subsequently, police visited the home of the owner of the Toyota, but have not located the driver, the affidavit said. 

At 4:30 a.m., a Travis County sheriff’s deputy, aware of the call, spotted a 1997 BMW matching the description of the robbery call, at the McDonalds-Chevron station at 15900 N. Interstate 35, the affidavit said. The vehicle was registered to a Osarodion Osagie, the affidavit said.

It said the officer conducted a traffic stop on the vehicle, and upon searching the driver, who went by Osaro Osagie, discovered $1,000 in cash in his jean pockets and a credit/debit card belonging to a victim at Northforest Drive. 

During a visual search of the vehicle, the officer could see the handle of a Glock semi-automatic pistol sticking out of a McDonald’s bag along with a magazine with bullets sitting on the floorboard of the vehicle, the affidavit said. 

Osagie, 22, was arrested for credit card or debit card abuse, a state jail felony, the affidavit said. 

The aggravated robbery is part of a “still active and ongoing investigation,” the affidavit said. 

Get the latest crime reports in your neighborhood with the Statesman's Crime Tracker.

Source: http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/blotter/entries/2010/03/29/police_investigate_card_game_r.html 

Source: http://www.thereporteronline.com/articles/2010/03/28/entertainment/srv0000007917393.txt

Is your Poker game  Legal.

This is one of the best guides I've found on the legality of  poker games in Texas

http://loveandcasinowar.com/blogarch/000467.php

For regular players that's a no-brainer, but showing that skill wins out has proven surprisingly difficult for mathematicians. Now two studies that tapped the vast amounts of data available from online casinos have provided some of the best evidence yet that poker is skill-based. Many hope that the results will help to roll back laws and court decisions that consider poker gambling, and therefore illegal in certain contexts. 

Most players insist that poker is predominantly skill. 

"I depended solely on that skill for my food and rent," says Darse Billings, a former professional player who co-founded the Computer Poker Research Group at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada. 

In many jurisdictions, however, poker websites and organised games are heavily regulated or even banned under gambling laws, partly because chance is considered the dominant factor. 

Source:  http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=7270357&page=1 

The thinking on Capitol Hill, or at least within the PPA lobby, is that Rep. Barney Frank may no longer fight to prevent implementation of the UIGEA after Sen. Kyl and Treasury Secretary Geithner reached a pact in which Sen. Kyl would not hold up Treasury Department appointments and Geithner would not block the UIGEA’s implementation. Rep. Frank now states that implementation may create more animus toward the legislation, and ultimately result in a quicker repeal. (That’s what he’s saying at least…) Here’s a thought. Congress recently announced that with health care behind it (in theory at least), it will now turn to revamping the U.S. financial system. Couldn’t Congress make repealing the UIGEA part of this overhaul? Decreasing burdens on the banks and alleviating costs has to be high on their agenda, no? If Sen. Kyl could tie the UIGEA to a completely unrelated bill, Rep. Frank should at least try to tie repeal of the UIGEA to related legislation.

Source:  http://www.pokerlawbulletin.com/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/07/german-poker-heist-armed-_n_488765.html

Richard Nixon was a Poker player and it's been said that he used his winnings to help finance his political campaigns.Republican or Democrat, Right, Left or Middle of the Road. Poker has Roots all across America.

 Gunmen broke into a high-stakes poker game around 11 p.m. Dec. 9. Wearing masks, they entered the apartment, assaulted some of the players and then took off with more than $20,000 in cash.

Source:http://www.kxan.com/dpp/news/crime/Masked-gunmen-rob-high-stakes-poker-game

House Financial Services Committee: Key Issues
December 07, 2009, Matthew Kredell 

Let's take a closer look at some of the key issues to come from Thursday's House Financial Services Committee hearing regarding poker and Internet gambling bills. Many of these points are likely to come up again when chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) and the committee take up the topic next year.

* FBI papers: Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-Ala.), online poker's staunchest detractor in the committee, focused on a letter he received from Shawn Henry, assistant director of the FBI Cyber Division. The letter focused on the possibilities of cheating and money laundering in online poker while also dismissing the ability of sites to prevent minors from playing.
Advertisement
 

The letter is full of inaccuracies such as the claim that "For age verification, the possession of a credit card is usually the only validation these sites require." This assertion is probably surprising to the many readers who have sent copies of their driver's license and a utility bill showing age and address to make a withdrawal from a site.

The Poker Players Alliance turned Henry's letter around as reason to support the legislation, stating in a press release that each of Henry's concerns would be better addressed by licensing and regulating the industry than by prohibition. The FBI letter and the PPA's response can be viewed here.

* Funding from Harrah's: In watching the hearings, the only time Bachus appeared to claim a small victory was when he received admissions from witnesses Kevin Whyte (National Council on Problem Gambling) and Parry Aftab (Wired Safety) that their organizations received funding from casino giant Harrah's. Harrah's has shown interest in getting into the online poker industry if the proposed legislation passes.

While the way Bachus coaxed the admissions out of the witnesses made these admissions seem like a feather in his cap, PPA executive director John Pappas questioned the point. "Would it be inconceivable to think Anheuser-Busch funds Mothers Against Drunk Driving?" Pappas said. "Of course not, because it wants to support responsible use of its product. It seems like the responsible thing to do, not something to be criticized."

* Bachus' weak witnesses: Out of the seven witnesses, five were chosen by Frank and two by Bachus.

Frank's were all effective, despite Bachus' attempt to discredit some as being paid for by the gambling industry. Each had a calculated and specific focus.

Whyte to talk about how legislation would help monitor and support problem gamblers;

Aftab to counter Bachus' claim that legislation would hurt children;

Professor Malcolm Sparrow (John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University) to provide an academic study;

Samuel Vallandingham (Independent Community Bankers of America) to present the view of the banking industry; and

Michael Brodsky (youbet.com) to show how online gambling is working in a similar industry.

It is baffling as to why Bachus would call Robert Martin, tribal chairman of the Morongo Band of Mission Indians. Martin and Morongo oppose federal legislation yet have been trying to push similar legislation at a state level in California so the Indian tribes can start a poker site.

After Martin rambled through his claims that federal legislation would protect foreign operators at the expense of American jobs (Harrah's doesn't seem to think so), Frank called him out on his hypocrisy. Thus, Martin did nothing to help online poker's opposition.

Bachus then called Jim Dowling, an expert on money laundering, to talk about the perils of money laundering in Internet gambling. Dowling's testimony didn't seem to have much teeth, especially considering that Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.), the former chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, followed by speaking in favor of the legislation.

Perhaps Bachus couldn't come up with better witnesses with only a week's notice of the hearing and the Thanksgiving holiday. One has to think that Bachus and the opposition will come out stronger next time around.

* Frank's unflattering comparison: In his Libertarian view that the government shouldn't be going into people's homes and telling them what they can and cannot do, Frank compared Internet gambling with buying alcohol and watching pornography on the Internet.

"Now we're pegging gambling to pornography and booze, like why can't we do one more bad thing," said Joe Brennan Jr., chairman of the Interactive Media and Gaming Assocation. "I'm a father and a Catholic. I'm not looking to lead the world in online sin. I don't see the logic of saying this activity is legal offline but should be immoral and illegal on the Internet."

* Federal or state issue?: Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) said he thinks Internet gambling should be decided on a state-by-state basis, the same way regular gambling is handled. This line of thinking is one to watch, more so than Bachus' stated concerns of child endangerment and money laundering, both of which would be handled better under the watchful eye of U.S. regulation. The states argument could end up being the biggest obstacle to federal legislation.

* Credit card quandary: Rep. Chris Lee (R-N.Y.), who has yet to voice a stance on the legislation, said he didn't think online gambling should be allowed by credit card. His point was that people get in trouble when they gamble via the unsecured loan of a credit card, and then taxpayers can be on the hook if they don't pay. Lee said he was OK with online gambling via debit card. Whether or not his point has merit is open to debate. It makes sense to gamble only with money one has; however, credit cards are a major part of society. If someone has a problem, he or she can max a credit card shopping just as easily as playing poker, but we're not going to outlaw shopping with a credit card. If not allowing deposits by credit card is what it takes to get online poker officially legal and regulated in the U.S., it's a worthwhile concession. Most credit cards have been blocking Internet poker deposits for years anyway.

Source :  http://www.pokernews.com/news/2009/12/house-financial-services-committee-key-issues-7643.htm

PPA's John Pappas sheads a little light on what this date means to the folks in Washington DC, and what the PPA is doing to fight it.

The Poker Players Alliance's petition to delay the fast-approaching compliance date for the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act received a boost Monday when all six Kentucky congressmen submitted a letter to U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to support pushing the Dec. 1 deadline back a year.

Many members of Congress, including House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.), already had given letters supporting the petition filed jointly by the PPA, National Thoroughbred Racing Association and American Greyhound Track Operators Association. What makes this letter different is that it cites a specific example of the law being misapplied.

The Kentucky congressmen -- Geoff Davis (R), Harold Rogers (R), Ben Chandler (D), John Yarmuth (D), Edward Whitfield (R) and Brett Guthrie (R) — were angry that MasterCard had stopped processing transactions with the code used by the U.S. horse racing industry in preparation for UIGEA's enforcement, despite horse racing receiving an exemption in the legislation.
Advertisement
 

"This letter cites a specific incident where overblocking occurred, so I think that could be particularly powerful with the organizations (Treasury and Federal Reserve Board)," said PPA executive director John Pappas. "But I think the letters from others will carry just as much weight."

Ironically, Kentucky is the same state whose governor, Steve Beshear, has been crusading unsuccessfully in court to seize 141 Internet Gambling-related Web sites that include PokerStars.com and FullTiltPoker.com. Attack the horse racing industry and Kentucky changes its tune.

With the Thanksgiving weekend upon us, only a few business days remain for Geithner to stop the UIGEA from taking effect. He would need to make a ruling by Monday of next week. MasterCard's blocking of horse-racing transactions is a perfect example of why U.S. financial institutions are not prepared to properly enforce this vague law — and why a delay is necessary.

Geithner could pass on making any ruling by Monday, letting the UIGEA go into effect, but Pappas said he believes a decision will be made one way or the other by Wednesday.

Source;  http://www.pokernews.com/news/2009/11/six-kentucky-congressmen-support-pushing-back-uigea-deadline-7585.htm

 The GOP’s Bad Bet Against Online Poker
by Rich Muny

The GOP has historically been the party of limited government and personal responsibility. President Ronald Reagan said it best in his frequent citations of Thomas Paine’s famous axiom – “the government governs best that governs least.” Unfortunately, the party moved away from the limited government conservatism of Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan during the George W. Bush Administration. In fact, the 2008 Republican Party Platform regrettably went so far as to advocate a federal prohibition of online poker.


Poker is not a crime, nor should it be. Millions of Americans – including the president and many in Congress – play the game at their kitchen tables, on the Internet, and at their local card rooms. It is a great American pastime. During that failed era of big government “conservatism”, however, some big government social conservative groups like Focus on the Family wished to use the power of the federal government to stop Americans from playing online poker in their own homes.

 Source: http://biggovernment.com/2009/11/10/limited-government-conservatism-internet-freedom-and-online-poker/

By Michael Hiltzik

October 19, 2009


No issue brings out America's talent for self-deception like gambling.

To persuade ourselves that we can keep this particular sin under control, we sequestered casinos in isolated places like Las Vegas and Atlantic City reachable only by superhighways, and isolated them on riverboats where not a single card could be dealt or slot lever pulled until the vessel left the dock.

In Mississippi, the law used to say you couldn't have a casino unless it floated on water. After Hurricane Katrina forcibly relocated a few of these sin barges onto land, the Legislature, reading the disaster as a sign from God, revised the law to let them stay put. (The riverboat states, similarly, eventually allowed their floating casinos to remain dockside.)

Then there are the Indian tribes that have fewer members on their rolls than slot machines in their multimillion-dollar casinos.

Which brings us to Internet gambling.

Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) and Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) have both introduced bills in Congress to lift a federal ban on much online play and clarify the law, which is even murkier than it is for physical casinos, if that's possible. Their goals include taking a piece of the action for the U.S. Treasury, on the political principle that sins always seem less deadly when there's money to be squeezed from them. The consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers estimated in 2007 that legalization could yield as much as $43 billion in tax revenue over 10 years if it includes sports betting, $34 billion even if it doesn't.

Another impetus is that new Federal Reserve and Treasury Department rules requiring banks and other financial institutions to block gambling transfers will go into effect Dec. 1, and the banks are screaming bloody murder about the added regulatory burden.

Internet gambling is one of those issues that shines a light on the distribution of juice in Washington.

The repeal bills delight casino companies such as Harrah’s Entertainment, which is hankering to expand its thriving poker business online and has spent about $1 million this year alone to lobby Congress for legalization. But they also leave intact a ban on Internet sports betting, which pleases outfits like the National Football League, no slouch in the Washington lobbying game.

It's fair to say that the American approach to Internet gambling, which is legal in much of the rest of the world, is absurd. (Indeed, the federal ban placed the U.S. in Dutch with international trading partners that host online gambling companies, which have complained to the World Trade Organization that it violates trade treaties the U.S. signed.) State laws are wildly inconsistent and sometimes hypocritically excessive.

"Martians might have a difficult time understanding that if you play poker online for money in the state of Washington, you're committing a class C felony," Joseph M. Kelly, a gambling-law expert at Buffalo State University in New York, told me. "That's the same as rape."

The Government Accountability Office, surveying the legal landscape in 2002, found that five states specifically outlawed Internet gambling: Illinois, Oregon, South Dakota, Nevada and Louisiana. (Washington enacted its ban in 2006.) Gambling in physical casinos was legal in every one.

On the federal level, conservatives in Congress slipped an Internet gambling ban onto the books in 2006 by quietly attaching it to an antiterrorism bill no sane lawmaker could oppose.

That federal law, the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, has numerous flaws. It saddles financial institutions with the duty of enforcement by barring them from "knowingly accepting payments" derived from "unlawful Internet gambling." But it doesn't define what is unlawful.

It exempts fantasy sports and "skill" games, for example. But where does that leave the most popular online game, poker? The new regulations seem to outlaw the game, although its aficionados contend that it's a game of skill pitting player against player. They contend it's been swept into the gambling ban by lax regulation-drafting.

"This law and these regulations are simply a fraud," says Howard Lederer, a world-class poker player on the board of the Poker Players Alliance, a Washington group that claims 1.2 million members. "People who had a moral agenda wrote laws and regulations that were vague. And banks, which have the sword of Damocles hanging over their heads and no clarity, are probably going to block poker transactions."

As for other games, the Justice Department bases its position that all Internet gambling is illegal on the 1961 Wire Act, which outlaws the use of telecommunication services to place bets. But federal courts have upheld Wire Act prosecutions for sports betting alone, leaving unclear whether other online gambling is actually illegal under federal law.

Banks and credit card issuers aren't happy about having to screen billions of financial transactions for signs they're gambling-related starting a few weeks from now. An officer of the American Bankers Assn. told Congress last year that the proposed rules have "no prospect of practical success" in fulfilling the explicit rationale for the 2006 law, which was to combat money laundering.

Kelly thinks it might have the opposite effect. "You diminish reputable payment processors and replace them with those who don't leave a paper trail," he says.

It's not as though the federal ban can wipe out online play any more than Prohibition wiped out drinking. It just deprives players of the protection of a U.S.-regulated environment. Gambling sites are generally regulated by their home countries -- Britain, Ireland and Caribbean states such as Antigua among them -- but that's far to go for redress.

"If a player feels cheated, he'll stop playing on the site," says John Pappas, executive director of the Poker Players Alliance, "but without U.S. oversight, he can't file a claim in an American court." The Frank and Menendez bills would require sites serving U.S. players to accept U.S. legal jurisdiction in return for licensing.

Certainly Internet gambling has its hazards, including the prospect of addictive playing and the enticement of minors. But banning the pastime forces these problems into the shadows where they're harder to address and makes it impossible to enlist the industry in helping to fight them.

It's doubtful that Congress will act in time to put off the new regulations, especially given the more pressing issues on its plate. But next year isn't too soon for it to relearn the lesson of every attempt to enforce a morality that most people don't share. If you can't eradicate, regulate -- and take a big chunk out of the wages of sin while you're at it.

Source:http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-hiltzik19-2009oct19,0,1924643.column

This article in the Washington Post is what poker needs if we are to change the tide in or fight to reform poker laws.

By George F. Will
Sunday, August 16, 2009


Howard Lederer, a.k.a. "the Professor," is a professional poker player, not a gambler. If Congress will acknowledge this distinction, it will rectify one of its recent mistakes.

In 2006, Congress, cloaking cunning with moralizing, effectively outlawed Internet gambling by making it illegal for banks or credit-card companies to process payments to online gambling operations. This was more than moral pork for social conservatives. It also blocked online competitors from poaching gamblers from the nation's most aggressive promoters of gambling -- state governments. They are increasingly addicted to revenue raised by lotteries -- the 42 states that have lotteries spent $520 million in 2007 promoting them -- and from taxation of other legal gambling. The law exempted Internet state lotteries and two powerful and vocal interests -- online betting on horse racing and some fantasy sports betting online.

Having turned gambling, which once was treated as a sin, into a social policy, government looks unusually silly criminalizing online forms of it. Granted, some people gamble excessively (although not nearly as many people as eat excessively). Granted, gambling becomes addictive to a small minority (although it is not nearly as addictive as smoking and drinking). Granted, gambling is morally dubious when it is only the unproductive pursuit of wealth without work (although gambling is productive of pleasure for tens of millions of Americans for whom it is a frequent pastime). But never mind whether government should try to tightly circumscribe a ubiquitous human activity that generally harms nobody.

 

That is beside the point that Lederer and the Poker Players Alliance are toiling to make, which is that by sweeping online poker into its proscription of online gambling, Congress committed a category mistake. Congress, Lederer thinks, should revisit the work of John von Neumann (1903-57), the Hungarian-born mathematician who, after working for the Manhattan Project on implosion design for the atomic bomb, became a defense intellectual specializing in the relevance of game theory to strategic thinking. Chess involves logic; roulette involves probability theory. Poker involves logic, probability and something pertinent to military and diplomatic strategy -- bluffing.

Von Neumann's "Theory of Parlor Games" (1928) and, with Oskar Morgenstern, "Theory of Games and Economic Behavior" (1944) established the field of game theory. Another of today's leading professional poker players, Chris Ferguson, is the son of a mother who is a mathematician and a father who teaches game theory at UCLA.

When you play chess, Lederer says, there is symmetry of information: Both players have all the information provided by the location of the pieces on the board, and both are equally ignorant of the opponent's intentions. A computer can be programmed to "play" a powerful game of chess, but not of poker, wherein your opponents' cards are concealed.

Lederer is confident that a brain scan of someone playing poker would reveal a lit-up frontal lobe but the lobe of someone watching television would show up cool blue. A poker player -- unlike someone playing roulette, a lottery or "video poker" (which Lederer says is a misnomer; it is a game of chance governed by a machine) -- is trying to apply skill, acquired by experience, to increase the probability of winning each hand.

The son of an English teacher at St. Paul's School in New Hampshire, Lederer decided to spend a year studying chess before matriculating at Columbia University. Instead, he discovered poker. He started at Columbia but left, reasoning that he had found his vocation. He has won about $5 million.

But what is his stake in decriminalizing online poker? After all, he plays much more on green felt-covered tables than online. His interest is threefold. First, his libertarian temperament -- he lives in Las Vegas, where almost anything goes -- is offended by mother-hen government. Second, he wants as many people as possible to have access to poker's delights. Third, the more poker players there are, the larger will be the ranks of competitors, and the television audiences, for professional poker competitions. Hence the larger will be the potential winnings. This year, Lederer says, there were 6,494 competitors in the World Series of Poker Main Event, down about 1,000 from 2006, largely because more players used to win their $10,000 entry fee in online tournaments.

It is a poker skill to know when to hold 'em and when to fold 'em. Congress probably should fold its interference with Internet gambling and certainly should get its 10 thumbs off Americans' freedom to exercise their poker skills online.

Source:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/14/AR2009081401933.html

"Ever since the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act was passed by Congress three years ago, poker advocates have been trying to distinguish poker from other forms of gambling as a skill game."

"This only makes sense. As pokers players, we have a sense of pride that our success on the felt -- virtual or otherwise -- is based upon our analytical minds. It is insulting to us for poker to be grouped with other casino games that, at best, offer only the opportunity to maximize one's chances."

You might want to think twice next time before you blurt out "Gamble,Gamble,Gamble."

Source; http://www.pokernews.com/news/2009/10/should-poker-put-the-skill-game-issue-aside-7451.htm

A Dallas federal judge called James McDaniel "inhumane and barbaric" after sentencing him to life in prison Wednesday for plying Southern Methodist University student Meaghan Bosch with drugs and dumping her body near Waco after she fatally overdosed.A federal jury convicted McDaniel, 49, in June of causing Bosch's death. Construction workers found her body May 14, 2007, in a portable toilet in Hewitt, just south of Waco.

Evidence showed that as her family, friends and police frantically searched for her, Bosch lay in McDaniel's duplex, barely breathing and nearly comatose from drugs. At one point, McDaniel, gun in hand, kept two men from taking her to the emergency room.

"When you realized that she was not going to wake up, you covered your tracks," said U.S. District Judge Sam Lindsay. "You did not intend for her to die, but you put her in that position."

    McDaniel

  Bosch

Source:http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/102809dnmetmcdaniel.25cc870fd.html

Happy Halloween fellow rounders. Here's hoping you get more treats the and tricks. The treats I'm talking about are huge stacks of chips and the tricks I'm talking about are of course "bad beats." I ran across this horror movie villains playing poker pic. Hope you enjoy it.

/files/3254813/uploaded/horror movie poker.jpg

It's time for people to lower their expectations about when licensed and regulated Internet poker will be available in the United States. It's not going to be this year. It probably won't be next year, but it will likely happen eventually -- at the government's pace.

Poker lobbyists and advocates such as the Poker Players Alliance and the Interactive Media Entertainment and Gaming Association have made a lot of progress with Congress, learning to play the political game and getting their message out to attract some influential allies.

However, when a group that has been largely apolitical appears on Capitol Hill for the first time, it takes awhile for its cause to be widely accepted and adopted.
Advertisement
 

"In the next 5-to-10 years, I'll be very surprised if there's not universally available and regulated access to iGaming in the U.S.," iMEGA chairman Joe Brennan Jr said. "But it's going to take time. Everyone wants this to move at Internet speed, but it will move at government speed."

The movement to legalize online poker might have made more progress this year if not for the nationwide economic crisis. Congressman Barney Frank (D-Mass.), poker's biggest supporter in the government, is also probably the busiest man on Capitol Hill at the moment. As head of the House Financial Services Committee, the country's financial issues need his attention. He wanted to hold a committee hearing on his Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection and Enforcement Act this year, but his focus has to be elsewhere.

Progress over the next year promises to be equally difficult.

The PPA's focus for the remainder of this session of Congress will be on delaying the Dec. 1 compliance date for the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act. Any time Frank has for poker also will go to this more pressing issue.

In 2010, it will be an election year. Many Democrats who won their seats in the last election did so by narrow margins in usually conservative areas. Republicans hope to chop away at the Democratic Majority. It's unlikely that these Congressmen with tentative holds on their seats will support a controversial topic when it could be held against them in the campaign. No matter how unfair an allegation, no politician wants to face a television ad stating that he or she wants to make gambling available to children.

Perhaps an opportunity to make some headway in Congress might come in 2010 before re-election campaigns begin. However, it's likely some economic issues from this session of Congress will spill over to next year and, again, take precedent.

So, theoretically, we're now looking at 2011. And even when a licensing and regulation bill does go before a vote of the full Congress, it may take a few tries to get it through. The UIGEA didn't get through Congress until 2006, but its architects had been trying to pass anti-poker legislation for about 10 years.

While Internet poker awaits its time in Congress, movement could occur at the state level. Cash-strapped California briefly looked into intrastate online poker this year and could take a more serious look at it next year. If states begin to license and regulate online poker, that could influence Congress.

"If the states start getting into it and it takes off, that will show the need for federal legislation," Brennan said. "If I had to place a bet today on where it is going to start, my bet would be on the states, not on the federal government."

In the meantime, continued presence on Capitol Hill by poker lobbyists could keep the Department of Justice from going on the offensive against the game by showing that the country is headed in the direction of recognizing online poker's legitimacy.

- - - - - - - - - -

Brennan indicated that iMEGA isn't planning on following up on the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals decision to uphold the UIGEA.

"At this time, we're not inclined to appeal to the Supreme Court," Brennan said. "We just don't feel we have a strong enough hand to be able to appeal this thing. The decision was on pretty narrow statute grounds."

source:  http://www.pokernews.com/news/2009/10/federally-regulated-online-gaming-laws-may-take-years-to-mat-7413.htm

Twitter has pretty much exploded into the new "it" thing for everyone to do. Everyone tweets these days from news outlets to football players to poker players. Doyle "TexDolly" Brunson is one of the biggest if not the biggest name in the poker world. People are certainly interested in following Brunson. According to Gambling911, he had about 16,000 followers on Twitter last week and as of today he is up to 45,491. He's raking in followers as fast as Ivey's been raking in chips on Full Tilt this week. Over the last few days he's been entertaining us with blonde, brunette, and redhead jokes.

Brunson isn't the only poker playing tweeter with a huge following though, Joe Sebok (@JoeSebok) leads the way with over 900,000 followers.

Our Star Tweet Tracker nicely gathers all of your favorite poker players tweets on one page.

After all this Twitter talk, you're probably itching to follow PokerNews and always be up to date with the news. Don't forget to sign up for The Nightly Turbo newsletter too!

source:    http://www.pokernews.com/news/2009/10/the-nightly-turbo-jennifer-harman-naked-phil-ivey-s-running-7366.htm

This article directed at District attorney's around the state, seems to be aimed more at video poker and eight liners than toward live poker. Poker is mentioned and the information in the article may be of use to poker room entrepreneurs. Restaurant and bar games are also mentioned. What is not mentioned is that prosecutors have all but given up on making felony convictions in these " gambling" cases. And at least in the major cities around Texas, police have stopped the raids on poker rooms.

http://www.tdcaa.com/node/2872 

source;   http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/091909dnmetlonestar.3b4fd5e.html

Lone Star Park, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization earlier this year, said Tuesday that Ada, Okla.-based Global Gaming LSP has agreed to be the stalking horse bidder in the sale of Lone Star Park.

A stalking horse bidder is a bidder chosen by a company in bankruptcy to submit the initial bid when the company is sold at auction.

Global Gaming LSP LLC is owned by the Chickasaw Nation. Terms of the bid were not disclosed.

The final auction of Lone Star Park is expected to occur in New York with Miller Buckfire & Co. overseeing the auction.

The agreement signed with Global Gaming LSP says Lone Star Park will continue to operate in Chapter 11 until a sale is completed.

In March, Lone Star Park announced that its parent company, Magna Entertainment Corp. and some of its subsidiaries filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

The park continued to operate, noting that no assets or accounts were frozen

source;    http://dallas.bizjournals.com/dallas/stories/2009/09/14/daily24.html

he circuit judge overseeing the appeal of five Mount Pleasant poker players convicted earlier this year has decided to reverse the players’ convictions.

In a letter that supports the argument that Texas Hold ‘Em is a game of skill, not one of chance, Circuit Judge R. Markley Dennis said this week it is his opinion the state Supreme Court would likely adopt “the dominate factor test” in deciding the case.

Under the dominate factor test, Texas Hold ‘Em is not gaming or gambling, the judge wrote, which would make it illegal under state law.

He also said the law covering the play “is ambiguous and must be construed in favor of appellants.”

The decision is not Dennis’ final order on the case and he asked that the attorneys for the five players to prepare a proposed order for his consideration and review.

Poker advocates have argued that “Hold ‘Em” differs from other poker games because of the bluffing, betting and card know-how involved. They were not quick to declare outright victory because appeals are likely to be pursued.

The five players were among about two dozen people charged in a Mount Pleasant police gambling raid on a private home in 2006.

source: http://www.postandcourier.com/news/2009/sep/18/five-mount-pleasant-poker-player-convictions-rever/

With the date for banks to comply with the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act nearly two months away, the Poker Players Alliance is turning its full attention to delaying the regulations until legislation to legalize and regulate online poker can be addressed in Congress.

The PPA is working on a new strategy that may be able to put off the Dec. 1 compliance date without needing HR 2266, the Reasonable Prudence in Regulation Act, to pass through Congress.

"There are other ways to get it done that include bypassing the legislative process," PPA executive director John Pappas said. "There's no point in revealing the strategy until it has been deployed. We've had some discussions with Congressman Frank about things he can do to help encourage the Treasury Department to accept 2266, and hopefully he will."
Advertisement
 

Pappas said he hopes to have the new strategy in motion within the next few weeks. The focus on delaying the UIGEA could slow Frank's other bill, HR 2267, the Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection and Enforcement Act from being heard in committee.

The Reasonable Prudence in Regulation Act has been picking up momentum since Congress resumed three weeks ago, adding eight co-signers to bring its total to 43.

- - - - - - - - - -

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) offered an amendment in the Senate Finance Committee that would dedicate the tax revenue generated through implementation of Frank's Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection and Enforcement Act to fund health care reform through the America's Healthy Future Act of 2009.

It is doubtful that HR 2267 can be advanced soon enough to be included in the health care bill, considering that Frank's bill has yet to come up for committee discussion, but at least a senator is thinking of ways money from legalizing and regulating poker can help other areas of the country that need assistance in these tough economic times.

"We're encouraged that someone in Congress is recognizing there is revenue and a reason to do this," Pappas said. "There's a whole policy discussion that needs to take place before this is tacked on to the health care bill. It's optimistic to think he can do that and get it on, and I don't think it will happen."

source: http://www.pokernews.com/news/2009/09/a-new-strategy-for-the-poker-players-alliance-7305.htm

"You never got me down, Ray. You hear me? You never got me down." -- boxer Jake LaMotta, as played by Robert De Niro, after taking a beating from Sugar Ray Robinson in Martin Scorsese's film "Raging Bull."

The U.S. Department of Justice likes to consider itself the heavyweight champion of the legal world. When it comes to getting in the ring, the DOJ has no concern for putting on a good show for the crowd. The DOJ wants to end the fight with one quick knockout blow, collect its prize money and bask in the headlines.

The online poker industry took the full force of a punch in June when the DOJ's Southern District of New York seized $34 million in payments that were on the way to approximately 27,000 poker players. Yet the poker sites kept operating as usual and the players kept posting their blinds. Within days if not hours, the $34 million taken was back in the poker accounts of the players courtesy of reimbursements from the poker sites, which showed customer service that would put most U.S. companies to shame.
Advertisement
 

You never got us down, DOJ.

"If you're the Justice Department, you've got to wonder what you're going to do for an encore because, if you were looking for some shock and awe -- trying to get the same effect as when they took down Neteller -- I would not say they achieved that goal," said Joe Brennan Jr., chairman of the online poker advocacy group Interactive Media Entertainment and Gaming Association. "This industry is starting to toughen up and took this shot pretty good."

The DOJ used to cause much more damage when taking a shot at the industry. In 2007, the DOJ seized $60 million of poker players' money from Neteller, then the largest processor to get money from players to poker sites. That move impacted the industry for months as sites scrambled to find new ways to handle transactions, many casual players were scared away and American players had money they may had depended on held in limbo for around five months.

In 2006, the mere threat of getting into the ring with the DOJ caused Party Poker, then the largest poker site in the world, to leave the U.S. market.

Through those battles, poker has developed a stronger chin.

The window for the DOJ to bully the industry may be closing. With overblocking from the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act expected in December and people's fears of further seizures, Brennan expects processing to migrate offshore and out of DOJ's reach.

"If everyone goes to offshore banking, what is the DOJ going to do," Brennan said. "If you want to cash out from crazypoker.com, or whatever, and the operator sends a paper check from the First Bank of England or Gibraltar or something like that, as long as you're OK with the inconvenience of having to wait up to 30 days for the check to credit to your account, there's nothing they can do. The only contact (the DOJ will have) left with the industry will be the players, and the Wire Act doesn't apply to players. The Illegal Gambling Business Act does not apply to players."

Adjustments by the poker industry won't be able to dodge that feared DOJ left hook forever, but they may be enough to last until legislation to legalize and regulate online poker passes through Congress.

source:   http://www.pokernews.com/news/2009/09/Online%20Poker%20is%20Prepared%20For%20a%20Fight-7268.htm?comm-page=1#comm-form

Recent seizures of internet gambling funds related to the payment processor Account Services do not appear to be the end of the U.S. Government’s war against the industry. This week, it was revealed that funds in six more accounts had been seized.

 source- http://www.pokernewsdaily.com/federal-officials-seize-additional-internet-gambling-funds-5207/

Senator Proposes Use of Internet Gambling Revenue to Help Fund Health Care Reform

 
(Washington, D.C.– September 21, 2009) An increased focus on the benefits of Internet gambling regulation are expected as the Senate Finance Committee considers a proposal introduced on Saturday to use Internet gambling revenue to offset the costs of health care reform. The amendment offered by Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) would dedicate Internet gambling tax revenue generated through implementation of the currently pending Internet Regulation, Consumer Protection and Enforcement Act (H.R. 2267) to increase low-income subsidies provided through the America's Healthy Future Act of 2009. A PricewaterhouseCoopers analysis shows that collecting taxes on regulated Internet gambling would allow the U.S. to capture up to $62.7 billion over the next decade.

“We applaud Senator Wyden’s proposal to collect and put to good use tens of billions in Internet gambling revenue that would otherwise be lost in the underground marketplace,” said Michael Waxman, spokesperson for the Safe and Secure Internet Gambling Initiative. “The Senate Finance Committee should approve the resolution, finally putting to an end a failed prohibition on Internet gambling that leaves Americans unprotected and unlicensed offshore operators as the only beneficiary in a thriving marketplace.”

The Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection and Enforcement Act of 2009 (H.R. 2267), introduced in May by House Committee on Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank (D-MA), would establish a framework to permit licensed gambling operators to accept wagers from individuals in the U.S. The legislation mandates a number of significant consumer protections including safeguards against compulsive and underage gambling, money laundering, fraud and identify theft. Additional provisions in the legislation reinforce the rights of each state to determine whether to allow Internet gambling activity for people accessing the Internet within the state and to apply other restrictions on the activity as determined necessary.  

A companion to Chairman Frank’s legislation introduced by Rep. Jim McDermott (D-WA), the Internet Gambling Regulation and Tax Enforcement Act (H.R. 2268), would raise revenue for the U.S. Treasury primarily through ensuring that applicable individual taxes, corporate taxes and license fees on regulated Internet gambling activities are collected. Without this legislation, this revenue will remain uncollected while millions of Americans gamble online without consumer protections.


 
The Safe and Secure Internet Gambling Initiative promotes the freedom of individuals to gamble online with the proper safeguards to protect consumers and ensure the integrity of financial transactions. For more information on the Initiative, please visit www.safeandsecureig.org. The Web site provides a means by which individuals can register support for regulated Internet gambling with their elected representatives.

 Source: http://www.safeandsecureig.org/

This article targets video slot machines. But the rhetoric seems to be familiar. The same arguments are thrown around whenever poker reform is debated. The Republican Party has long been an adversary to the Gambling Industry. In the poker games I tend to frequent the demographics of politics seems to be evenly mixed between Democrat and Republican. To the point of limiting discussion of politics at the tables. I've seen many heated arguments over political subjects. But among both Democrat and Republican poker players seem to be united about poker reform in Texas. 

http://www.texasgop.org/site/PageServer?pagename=library_gambling

Barron Glenn Boutte. He's the 24-year-old shot and killed while attempting to rob a Houston underground poker room earlier this month. His shooter is not being publicly identified, though police have determined Boutte's death a matter of self-defense. Club 203, where the fatal shootout occurred, has been indefinitely shut down.

A few more details about the thwarted robbery, coming to us now secondhand, as opposed to thirdhand ...

Apparently the robbery suspects confronted a player leaving the game in the parking lot, and a scuffle ensued. The first shots were reportedly fired at the door to gain entry, and the robbers continued shooting into the air once inside. They did indeed shoot one patron in the leg when he was slow to get on the ground as ordered.

Boutte's armed nemesis and several others were smoking in the break room when the melee went down. One robber supposedly told these players they'd better not be coming out without cash - thinking maybe they were hiding it - and that's when the poker-room hero emerged brandishing his own gun.

Boutte was shot at least four times in the abdomen and made it out to the parking lot before falling and dying.

A nervous wave has washed over the Houston poker underground - with action slower than normal, and some rooms looking to hire visible security.

Source: www.pokerati.com

Barron Glenn Boutte

<center><small> <form method=get action="http://search.dmoz.org/cgi-bin/search"> <input size=20 name=search> <input type=submit value="Search Open Directory"><br> <a href="http://dmoz.org/"><b>dmoz.org</b></a> </form></small></center>

In an effort to be more informative and above all to serve the poker community, we will continue to offer helpful links to sites

https://www.online-poker-rules.net/blog/

If your planning to open your very own poker room or just want to impress your friends at your next poker party. You should start with the basics.If you are starting a poker room learning to deal correctly may be one of the small problems you'll come across. We want to be helpful.

http://www.howtoshuffle.com/

Instead of a head long plung into the pool. Change must be made incrementally.Why does our government balk at even the thought of Poker law reform. Can you say Player Apathy. The poker resistance, led by the Poker Players Alliance and the Interactive Media Entertainment and Gaming Association, would like nothing more than the opportunity to argue in a United States court that poker is a game of skill and its online play is not prohibited by any federal law. But little haed way can be made until we as players stand united.

http://www.pokernews.com/news/2009/08/the-fight-to-legalize-poker-in-united-states-continues-7108.htm

  U.S. District Judge Denise Cote said DeRosa-Grund showed a "disregard for the judicial process," and could have learned about the alleged conflict of interest had he not shown a "lack of diligence in obtaining discovery."

 http://www.courthousenews.com/2009/08/17/Producer_Loses_Appeal_of_Judgment_for_Poker_Pro.htm                                                                                                      

President Obama is known to play poker on occasion. This may have prompted this political satire based picture. Looks like he's gonna pretty good hand. Pre flop.

 President Obama- Only Plays Premium Hands

Mark Twain famous American author, in his short story The Science vs Luck looks at the sticky problem of luck vs skill. It seems that we can't seem to find new problems to steam over, we recycle them over and over.

Title: The Science vs Luck
Author: Mark Twain

[Written about 1867.]

At that time, in Kentucky (said the Hon. Mr. K-----); the law was very strict against what is termed "games of chance." About a dozen of the boys were detected playing "seven up" or "old sledge" for money, and the grand jury found a true bill against them. Jim Sturgis was retained to defend them when the case came up, of course. The more he studied over the matter, and looked into the evidence, the plainer it was that he must lose a case at last--there was no getting around that painful fact. Those boys had certainly been betting money on a game of chance. Even public sympathy was roused in behalf of Sturgis. People said it was a pity to see him mar his successful career with a big prominent case like this, which must go against him.

But after several restless nights an inspired idea flashed upon Sturgis, and he sprang out of bed delighted. He thought he saw his way through. The next day he whispered around a little among his clients and a few friends, and then when the case came up in court he acknowledged the seven-up and the betting, and, as his sole defense, had the astounding effrontery to put in the plea that old sledge was not a game of chance! There was the broadest sort of a smile all over the faces of that sophisticated audience. The judge smiled with the rest. But Sturgis maintained a countenance whose earnestness was even severe. The opposite counsel tried to ridicule him out of his position, and did not succeed. The judge jested in a ponderous judicial way about the thing, but did not move him. The matter was becoming grave. The judge lost a little of his patience, and said the joke had gone far enough. Jim Sturgis said he knew of no joke in the matter--his clients could not be punished for indulging in what some people chose to consider a game of chance until it was proven that it was a game of chance. Judge and counsel said that would be an easy matter, and forthwith called Deacons Job, Peters, Burke, and Johnson, and Dominies Wirt and Miggles, to testify; and they unanimously and with strong feeling put down the legal quibble of Sturgis by pronouncing that old sledge was a game of chance.

"What do you call it now?" said the judge.

"I call it a game of science!" retorted Sturgis; "and I'll prove it, too!"

They saw his little game.

He brought in a cloud of witnesses, and produced an overwhelming mass of testimony, to show that old sledge was not a game of chance but a game of science.

Instead of being the simplest case in the world, it had somehow turned out to be an excessively knotty one. The judge scratched his head over it awhile, and said there was no way of coming to a determination, because just as many men could be brought into court who would testify on one side as could be found to testify on the other. But he said he was willing to do the fair thing by all parties, and would act upon any suggestion Mr. Sturgis would make for the solution of the difficulty.

Mr. Sturgis was on his feet in a second.

"Impanel a jury of six of each, Luck versus Science. Give them candles and a couple of decks of cards. Send them into the jury-room, and just abide by the result!"

There was no disputing the fairness of the proposition. The four deacons and the two dominies were sworn in as the "chance" jurymen, and six inveterate old seven-up professors were chosen to represent the "science" side of the issue. They retired to the jury-room.

In about two hours Deacon Peters sent into court to borrow three dollars from a friend. [Sensation.] In about two hours more Dominie Miggles sent into court to borrow a "stake" from a friend. [Sensation.] During the next three or four hours the other dominie and the other deacons sent into court for small loans. And still the packed audience waited, for it was a prodigious occasion in Bull's Corners, and one in which every father of a family was necessarily interested.

The rest of the story can be told briefly. About daylight the jury came in, and Deacon Job, the foreman, read the following:

VERDICT:

We, the jury in the case of the Commonwealth of Kentucky vs. John Wheeler et al., have carefully considered the points of the case, and tested the merits of the several theories advanced, and do hereby unanimously decide that the game commonly known as old sledge or seven-up is eminently a game of science and not of chance. In demonstration whereof it is hereby and herein stated, iterated, reiterated, set forth, and made manifest that, during the entire night, the "chance" men never won a game or turned a jack, although both feats were common and frequent to the opposition; and furthermore, in support of this our verdict, we call attention to the significant fact that the "chance" men are all busted, and the "science" men have got the money. It is the deliberate opinion of this jury, that the "chance" theory concerning seven-up is a pernicious doctrine, and calculated to inflict untold suffering and pecuniary loss upon any community that takes stock in it.

"That is the way that seven-up came to be set apart and particularized in the statute-books of Kentucky as being a game not of chance but of science, and therefore not punishable under the law," said Mr. K-----. "That verdict is of record, and holds good to this day." 

-THE END-

In the July 2005 note Berns, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, wondered -- as many others did -- if the July 1 retirement announcement by Justice Sandra Day O'Connor meant that Rehnquist, who was then battling cancer, was "well enough to continue to serve on the Court?" Berns added, "While on the subject, could it be that the time might come when you might again join us at the monthly poker game?"

http://legaltimes.typepad.com/blt/2009/08/missing-rehnquist-at-the-monthly-poker-game-.html

Another bad poker movie, struggling student finds way to pay for med school by using skills taught to her by loser father.

Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ)

"Pulling Internet poker out of the shadows and into the light of the law, we have the opportunity to help our economy while protecting our families," Menendez said. "By bringing these games of skill into the mainstream, we can generate billions in revenue for businesses and the Treasury during these tough times."

http://www.pokernews.com/news/2009/08/a-closer-look-into-the-internet-poker-and-games-of-skill-act-7037.htm

In the ongoing battle for poker players rights. We hear arguments on both sides as to whether poker is a game of skill or is gambling. Should we not be focusing on this issue as it is a key in most states including Texas. Whether promoting gambling is against the law. If poker is a game of skill, which those of us who play and most people who have watched poker being played. Longer than flipping past W S O P events being broadcast on TV. The question seems to be a what needs to be done, to make this happen. In the '80s bingo had similar problem. And after years of debate and controversy was regulated by the Texas Lottery Commission. 

http://www.usaplayers.com/news/2009/gambling/august/courts-determine-poker-a-game-of-chance-not-skill-10749.html

Lawrence Burns, 65, was found guilty of gambling yesterday, despite arguments the real-money tournaments he organized were not gambling because poker is a game of skill. After 2 1/2 days of testimony, the Westmoreland jury took less than 2 1/2 hours to return a verdict. 


Though a judge will determine Burns’ sentence, the prosecutor has said he does not believe the offense merits jail time. Burns plans to appeal the court’s ruling. 
Though the results of the case are not too promising , we should probably all take note: while it’s not too hard to convince judges and juries that poker is different from slot machines, lotteries, craps, blackjack, roulette etc. we may even convince them that Texas Hold’em events are games of skill such as pool, darts and golf (where the pros generally win, but an amateur can always get lucky) — we’re always gonna have a really hard time persuading them to believe that poker isn’t gambling, game of skill or not those of us to play, know it as a game of skill and rely on that skill to be successful.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09225/990677-100.stm

Ignorance of the law, they say is no excuse. But as far as the poker laws go here in Texas. Ignorance may not be the problem. The question is often is this a legal game or not. How do we know for sure. So I submit for your inspection. The current gambling laws here in Texas. It may alleviate some confusion. But most likely will only add to the confusion. Good luck.

http://www.gambling-law-us.com/State-Laws/Texas/

On August 6, 2009, Senator Robert Menendez (D.-NJ) introduced his proposal to legalize Internet gambling in the U.S. Senate. The bill, S.1597, is supposed to be a companion bill to the measures introduced by Barney Frank (D.-MA) and friends in the House of Representatives. This is the common way laws are made in Congress: Similar bills are discussed simultaneously in the two houses and then reconciled in conference committee. It makes everything go faster and neater.

But the Menendez bill is to the Frank bills what a hurricane is to a summer squall. At 91 pages, it is longer, and more comprehensive, than all of the other proposals put together. Although it still needs some revisions, it answers many important question left unclear by the proposals in the House. Yet, it also is more limited, starting with the fact that it would only authorize Internet poker and other games of skill.

http://www.compatiblepoker.com/poker-rumors/menendez-bill-barney-frank-bills-on-steroids/1693

You have to love a game that can segway into foreplay with out missing a beat.

Makes you wonder why this show hasn't been picked up yet.

For the most part the boss gamblers who thrived in Texas in the 1950s and 1960s were congenial to outsiders who wanted to sit in their games. As long as you didn’t get caught cheating or shoot anyone, you were usually welcomed with open arms. However, things were a little different in Bexar County, where Tom Moore, Slim Lambert, and Red Berry were the boss gamblers for over a decade. They were a bit more proprietary than their peers, and for good reason.

http://www.pokernews.com/news/2009/07/from-the-poker-vaults-boss-gamblers-bexar-county-6874.htm#add-form

T.J. Cloutier  be teaching a World Poker Tour boot camp here in Dallas at the Airport Hyatt hotel over the weekend of August 8-9. This is one of the few camps we've held outside of casinos, and They're expecting a good turnout for it. Linda Johnson, Jan Fisher, Nick Brancato and T.J. Cloutier will be instructors.

http://news.pokerpages.com/index.php?option=com_simpleblog&task=view&id=4272

Found this on the net.  Police raids on poker rooms. Can we find humor in a "Class C Misdemeanor"crime? Or the fact that it is considered a "crime."

  According to one half of the David Levien and Brian Koppleman writing team "Rounders 2"  may be at a theater near you. Players could expect a new flood of interest in the game if this should happen. Dust of your Teddy KGB imitations.

http://www.pokerlistings.com/irounders-2i-a-reality-42927

Players of Facebook Texas Hold‘em, have been selling chips which technically have no real value- which is why they don’t worry about US gambling laws, but this hasn’t stopped enough users from trying to sell their virtual chips online (through blogs and Ebay)to begin issuing law suits against numerous individuals for selling people play money Facebook Texas Hold‘em chips.Facebook not only begin banning players who are caught chip dumping, but now to even drag such sellers into court. 

http://www.pokerroad.com/news/posts/zynga-texas-hold-em-maybe-a-little-too-popular

(Texas Poker Revolution Forum) New Threads To Serve Poker Community

Our website has added new threads (Texas Poker Revolution Forum) in order to better serve our readers in their areas. Communication is of paramount important if we are to change things here in Texas. The new threads are categorized according to region.Click tab at top of page "News By Region" if you are unsure of which region you are in.

1.Panhandle Region

2.Prairies , Lakes & Piney Woods Region

3.South Texas & Gulf Coast Region

4.Big Bend & Hill Country Region

Please use this forum to network poker games in your region. Pass on information about games in your town. Where the fish are. Were the shark swam. Were the donkeys roam. Form poker leagues. Pass on general information about the rules and etiquette of the game. Organize rallies and protests. Any pertinent poker information for your city, town or area.

A few months ago. I was contacted by Mike Lavine, Treasurer for Texas Poker PAC. it seems that Emily Ramshaw reporter for The Dallas Morning News, was interested in doing a story on underground poker here in Dallas. She wanted to sit in on the game and get some facts for her story. I did my part and the story was printed a couple of days later. Normally when underground poker establishments get press it's usually after the venue has been robbed or raided which puts a negative spin on these games. It's refreshing to see what can happen when members of the poker community and news media cooperate, for the benefit of the more informed public. 

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/dmn/stories/0125dntexpoker.42f94ae.html#slcgm_comments_anchor

Pokers elite are in Washington this week for "National Poker Week," the group has set up nearly 100 meetings with members of Congress and their aides, and plans to present a petition to President Barack Obama on Wednesday that had more than 350,000 signatures at last count. Famous poker players such as Annie Duke, Howard Lederer, Andy Bloch and Greg Raymer are participating as well.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iKBjA4Mkj4PqRQcqKU3td5QsqzswD99ISG2G0

Poker Players Alliance Chairman and former Senator Alfonse D’Amato made an appearance on the famous Howard Stern Show

 D’Amato and the following statement:

“I can’t think of a more fitting way to kick off National Poker Week than having my friend, Howard Stern, become a member of the PPA. I think him for having me on his show this morning and for supporting the PPA’s efforts to protect the freedom of American citizens to play the great game of poker at the time and place of their choosing - a freedom Congress voted to take away… With Howard Stern as a member of the PPA, it shows Congress and the public that protecting Internet poker is about more than just poker - it’s about protecting Internet freedom and personal responsibility.”

http://news.bluffmagazine.com/ppa-gathers-in-dc-to-launch-national-poker-week-howard-stern-joins-ppa-6357/

We're trying to do our part for National Poker Week. and what better way do that then to give you information on how to get in touch with the politicians who are instrumental in making changes and reforming poker laws. For you on line players please get in touch with your representative in Congress via this web site:  
http://www.congressmerge.com/onlinedb/index.htm

Find out where they stand on online gaming and why they feel this way. What motivates their decisions on this issue. In preparation for this you not want read this article. 
http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/2006/6/2006_6_38.shtml

The best way to overcome ignorance and complacency is through facts and action. Let your representative know that you support Barney Frank and his legislation for online poker reform.

 Join the thousands of poker players from across the country who will raise their voices to help keep America's most popular game legal during National Poker Week. Take Action Now and Contact Your Legislator:

 http://www.capwiz.com/pokerplayersalliance/issues/alert/?alertid=13690391&type=CO

For those of you who play the Austin area. I have a lead for those of you who want to find games. It's the "AUSTIN POKER ALLIANCE" they're fighting the good fight in Texas capital city. Check the site out. Be a part of the growing Austin poker community. Building a stronger poker community in Texas is what this site is all about. We need your participation. As do our friends in Austin.

World Championship NL Texas Hold'em (Event 57) 
  Final Table  November 7 - 10

1.Darvin Moon 58,930,000

2.Eric Buchman 34,800,000
 
3.Steven Begleiter29,885,000
 
 4.Jeff Shulman 19,580,000

5.Joseph Cada 13,215,000
 
6. Kevin Schaffel 12,390,000

7. Phil Ivey 9,765,000

8.Antoine Saout 9,500,000

9. James Akenhead 6,800,000

 
 
Buy-in: $10,000
  Prizepool: $61,043,600
  Entries: 6,494     

                        Final Nine

One of the hazards of playing poker in Texas. Though we don't talk about it very often, is the hazard of the crooked game. In the movies Cincinnati Kid and Rounders, " mechanics" are able to manipulate the deck at will and through sleight of hand change the outcome of hands involving large sums of money. Often times it's very difficult to spot a mechanic, often a player feels he's been cheated but had as no proof. But most of us have experienced a mild form of cheat in the form of collusion. These usually take place in a home games or bar games. Most underground poker establishments try to run honest games, because if they don't word travels quickly and spells certain death to the game. You run more of our risk of being cheated in deal your own games than in a dealer run table.

Though this story is not from here in Texas. This is an example of the kind of over exuberant law enforcement, that we sometimes have to put up with here in Texas. In this case "Johnny Law" took a bite to out of crime and possibly caused some folks to go hungry. I guess it's a case of the ends not justifying the means. But you have to admit the officer looked very sharp and I'm sure he was just doing his job.

Texas vs. Southwest- How Texas Stacks Up




As I was crunching the numbers for Texas vs. U.S. article on Monday, I thought I wonder how we're stacking up to our neighbors across the border. I think the results speak for themselves. But I did want to throw out some facts as food for thought. Three out of our four bordering states have casinos and you would think, that would give them and a advantage. Even if you put the four bordering states together as far as population, square miles and major cities. We still beat them, put together they can't match our stats in any category. I think this is a lot to the quality of play here in Texas and the amount of poker being played here in Texas. In home games, underground games and on the Internet, Texans are playing poker and outplaying our neighbors. When my buddies and I go on trips to neighboring states to play in their casinos. We joke about taking that state's money and bringing it back to work here in Texas. 


2009 WSOP State vs State

State       Players     Bracelets    Cashes    Winnings
Texas       1,950          3            293      $5,078,092
Louisiana     111          1              31         $841,456
Oklahoma    164          0              22        $487,893
New Mexico   106          0              16        $460,371
Arkansas        75          0             10         $114,859

Today, the Poker Players' Alliance holds a press conference in Las Vegas to announce the dates of the National Poker Week.

The National Poker Week is a "coordinated grassroots advocacy effort focused on educating lawmakers in Washington D.C. on the benefits of protecting the game of poker."

It will take place on July 19-25.

The National Poker Week is a combined initiative by the Poker Players' Alliance and a couple of politicians: congress woman Rep. Shelley Berkley and former Senator Alfonse D'Amato, chairman of the PPA.

At today's press conference in The Rio All Suites Hotel, Rep. Shelley Berkley, Alfonse D'Amato and PPA Executive Director John Pappas as well as a number of poker professionals are present to discuss the initiative.

The press conference takes place at 11 AM in Pavilion 11 in the WSOP main hallway area.

Interested parties are to contact Teresa Schofield at tschofield@theheraldgroup.com.

For more information see the PPA homepage.

http://theppa.org/press-releases/2009/06/22/ppa-announces-national-poker-week-july-19-25/

Poker Tee Shirt "All In For Texas Poker"
Texas Poker Revolution Logo with our favorite two word expression "All In For Texas Poker." displayed on the front this 100% cotton, double-needle stitching throughout, seamless rib at neck, shoulder-to-shoulder tape. Great addition for any Poker players closet.Wear This to your next Session and Scare the Donkeys half to death. Let the world know you Dedication to Poker Reform.
10% of Proceeds go to promote legislation for Texas Poker Reform.

         "All In For Texas Poker."

The Southern District of New York has frozen funds in several banks used by PokerStars and Full Tilt.
In response to this PokerStars and Full Tilt, are not currently allowing customers to select the eChecks option. This may cause temporary inconvenience to some online players. But for the long-term, chances are but they will not lose their bankroll. This is most likely a U.S. Attorney trying to make the news, and should have no real long-term effect on the on line poker industry as a whole. The problem seems to be that poker players and the poker industry are easy targets for politicians looking for headlines. Whether on a national level or our local Main Street. Here in Texas from time to time you'll see local police departments taking a bite out of crime by arresting poker room operators and ticketing players. The laws are so vague that the charges usually don't hold up. But it allows a district attorney or police chief to dance in the spot light for their 15 minutes. We as poker players must stand together and work toward change. You can get involved with The P P A ( Poker Players Alliance )@http://theppa.org/, on a national or statewide level. You may also signed the petition, here on this website.



http://www.pokerpages.com/poker-news/news/poker-players-alliance-criticizes-seizure-of-online-poker-players-money-31715.htm


http://www.pokernewsdaily.com/united-states-federal-government-freezes-30-million-in-online-poker-funds-2830/


http://www.cardplayer.com/poker-news/6925-ppa-disappointed-by-seizure-of-online-poker-funds

So you want to make the final table at the World Series of Poker. Here are a few pointers that should help you make progress. Watch this and make the right plays at your next session.

Poker Tee Shirt Texas Poker Revolution

 This suggestion on how you and help poker reform in Texas, will require a little action. Though it may be new to some of you who play online. Find a live game in your area and start to play. You may find games in your area in several ways. Craig's list is a good avenue, in the community section, look under activities partners or general. http://geo.craigslist.org/iso/us/tx 
You may also find games on Meetup.com, join the group and go to the game http://poker.meetup.com/cities/us/tx/
Talk to people about poker. Your friends at work. Friends at the bar. Friends and church. If you don't talk about poker you'll never find a real live game. And you'll miss out on one of the most enjoyable pastimes. By talking to people, you'll probably soon find a game in your area. Asked to be part of it. Offered to host a game. If you hear of a game at your local lodge. Find out how you can join the lodge. Good things in life, hardly ever just fall in our laps. We have to get out and "Do."
Playing online is a great way to get hands in. I play on-line from time to time. But for me there is no substitute for face-to-face live-action. There's a social aspect. You make new friends. Real friends. People you can get to know. Go out to breakfast with. There's the game improvement aspect hope, on-line player have a good grasp of the basics of the game. What they lack is subtle nuances. It's very difficult to pickup tells online. No mannerisms to read. Anyone who plays poker gains knowledge every time they play. I personally don't learn as much about poker online as I do in live play. So get off the computer, it's a beautiful day to get out and play some poker. 

HB 222 is not the only business the Texas House of Representatives didn't have time for this year. They seem to be bogged down with attaching the voter I.D. bill to any legislation that has an opportunity to pass. Texas House of Representatives is not the podium for political agenda.Texas House Reps. can't make time for much-needed legislation in the regular session and Governor Perry may order a special session. Poker and politics make strange bedfellows. I bring this up because of an editorial the was in today's Dallas Morning News section 14 A. By Jack E. Pratt, Texas Gambling Association President. To get anything done here in Texas poker players must be unified. We must support as a group, both financially and through action in the legislation that has a chance to be passed.  

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/texassouthwest/legislature/stories/DN-meltdown_03tex.ART.State.Edition1.50f75f2.html

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/texassouthwest/legislature/stories/DN-winnerslosers_02tex.ART.State.Edition2.50b3fc4.html

When you think of Texas poker. Few players have impacted the sport with a magnitude of Thomas Austin Preston, Jr., a.k.a. "Amarillo Slim," you can no little else about poker and still know the name"Amarillo Slim," He has built a reputation with his poker play and his personal life. As with many sports legends, he has had a rocky personal life. Respected by his peers for decades, he has in recent years, drawn much negative press. Unlike some sports legends, who fall from their pedestals. Amarillo-slim has always had a less then sparkling reputation. He embodies an image that most folks have for poker players in general. Good or bad everyone has reputation. As someone once said "any press is a good press, just hope they spell your name right in the newspaper. " As with players of any sport we can to be lumped together.Though poker has grown in popularity and has made great strides in mainstream acceptance. We may find it difficult to shake off these negative stereotypes.

<http://pokerroad.com/blog/daniel-negreanu/posts/amarillo-slim>
<http://www.pokerlistings.com/a-legend-lost-amarillo-slim-breaks-his-silence-pt-1-38457>
<http://www.homepokergames.com/slim.php>
<http://www.pokerpages.com/articles/interviews/amarilloslim-part1.htm>

Texans aren't the only ones, with a bill that stalled in their house representatives. South Carolina's representatives seem to have the same mindset as to Texas reps. In February a South Carolina judge found that even though poker is a game of skill the five defendants arrested in 2006 for playing poker in a private residence were still guilty. The laws in South Carolina are more strict than here in Texas at this time. This will come up again next year in 2010 for them. For us Texans, we'll have to wait for 2011. Will we be ready. Do we have a plan. Not only will we be reporting news. We will outline a plan of action. Our first step is involvement. A base group that we can build on. Feel free to get involved. E-mail us @ tpr.man_ed@yahoo.com Post on our forum. Post responses to our articles. If you're not playing face-to-face, real live poker you're missing out on an aspect of the game you don't want to miss. You use our forum as a platform to start home games and card rooms in your areas We will assist you in getting started. Contact us. 
South Carolina Poker Bills
 SB 560, which would allow charity events and fundraisers for non-profit organizations, religious groups, or fraternal organizations to use casino-type games like poker.
SB 535, which would legalize poker games in private residences as long as no house odds or bank are being used.
http://chronicle.augusta.com/stories/2009/05/27/met_525394.shtml

Related News:
http://news.bluffmagazine.com/south-carolina-poker-bills-in-holding-pattern-until-2010-3696/
http://www.pokernewsdaily.com/pennsylvania-judge-rules-poker-is-a-game-of-skill-941/
http://www.pokerstrategy.com/news/world-of-poker/South-Carolina-Poker-Bill-Passes-Senate_19897

Doyle Brunson, what more needs to be said. When John Q. Public thinks about poker, the image that comes to their mind is of "Doyle." When you have 10 - 2 as your hole cards, who do you think of. Doyle is the face that most people would put on poker. And that's appropriate. He is the consummate elder statesman of poker.Not only his record of wins and cashes in W S O P and W P T events. His appearances on Poker after dark, High-stakes poker and TV commercials. These make him a celebrity. Doyle has risen to superstar status. Doyle has been instrumental in bringing poker out of dark back rooms and into the living room of American families.  His long been an advocate for Texas poker. In an interview he did several years ago he talked about poker as it once was. How friends and family would look down on you if you were professional poker player. He goes in detail about how wild and unpredictable poker use to be here in Texas. Robberies and Raids. For those of us who remain here, and choose to be poker players. These things aren't memories, they are an undercurrent. Something that is always there underneath the surface. We hear rumors and see news reports. And we pray it doesn't happen to us.  If your a professional poker player it would be part of doing business. For the rest of us who play for entertainment, because we love the game. It's a hazard, and unnecessary danger we are willing to put up with. Our other choices are to give up the game entirely or play less frequently. What better time than while the W S O P is going on. To remind folks what Doyle Brunson has done for the game. He's a legend and more than that a hero. Yes, a poker hero. I wear a ball cap and not a cowboy hat. My hat goes off to Doyle. 

 Doyle Brunson's- WSOP Player Standings
Name                Bracelets         WSOP *ITM         Total Earnings
Doyle Brunson       10                     31                $2,808,945

* In the money

 Doyle Brunson's-WPT Player Standings
Doyle Brunson  
Career Earnings              $2,010,872 
Cashes                                 6 
Final Tables                          3 
Titles                                   1

 Doyle Brunson's-Total Tournaments Played 36 
YEAR TOURNAMENT PRIZE MONEY
1976 10,000 No Limit Hold'em World Championship $230,000
1977 10,000 No Limit Hold'em World Championship $340,000
1977 5,000 Deuce to Seven Draw                           $80,250
1977 1,000 Seven-Card Stud Split                          $62,500
1978 5,000 Seven Card Stud                                 $68,000
1979 $600 Mixed Doubles (with Starla Brodie)         $4,500
1991 2,500 No Limit Hold'em                                $208,000
1998 1,500 Seven-Card Razz                                $93,000
2003 2,000 H.O.R.S.E.                                          $84,080
2005 5,000 No Limit Shorthanded Texas Hold'em    $367,800
2005 Event #14 - No Limit Hold'em WPT Event Hold'em $563,485
2006 WPT No Limit Championship H.O.R.S.E           $58,585
2006 WSOP No Limit H.O.R.S.E. Hold'em              $274,650
2006 Event # 45 - WSOP No Limit Hold'em H.O.R.S.E.  $3,372
2007 Event #26 - WSOP H.O.R.R.E. Omaha           $9,024
2007 Event #50 - WSOP Pot Limit Omaha Hold'em $123,967
2008 No Limit Championship NBC Mixed                $25,000
2008 Event # 8 WSOP Mixed Event H.O.R.S.E.        $16,243
2008 Event # 45 WSOP H.O.R.S.E. Championship H.O.R.S.E.$124,320

http://www.worldpokertour.com/Search/Players.aspx?q=Doyle+Brunson&p=2

For You W S O P fans, here's a link. Were you can vote on your favorite player to be inducted in the Hall of fame. Just tell them the name of the person you are nominating and give(up to) 250 words on why you think that person is deserving. Nominations can be submitted from May 26-July 2 and  the Top 10 nominations will be announced during the Main Event of the World Series of Poker. In November, during the final table of the Main Event, the two finalists will be inducted as the 2009 class of the Poker Hall of Fame.

http://www.worldseriesofpoker.com/pokerhalloffame/halloffamevoting.asp

I know we have a lot of online players. I dabble from time to time. Some players fund their live play with on -line winnings. It's a great way to get hands in, when you don't have time to get out and play. Other folks make living through on-line play. Here's an article you online players should be interested in.

http://www.pokernews.com/news/2009/05/politics-and-poker-online-again-in-2010-6601.htm

 In case you missed it, it's been plastered all over the Internet. Here's the clip of Joan Rivers calling poker players " white trash." I don't think Joan Rivers is an unbiased source, nor does she represent a fair cross section of American society. But I do think it's damaging to poker as a whole and poker players, when we are all put into a box. I think Joan fails to realize when she categorizes us. If we are trash, we are not only white trash we are also yellow, black, brown and red trash.Also, I think she fails to realize that poker players cross all boundaries of financial status, class, sexual orientation, religion, occupation and race. But again, she represents the old white woman with multiple plastic surgerys demographic. Not a very high percentage of the populace.

There are some poker advocates that would say that the game keeps you young. Our senior players tell me that it keeps their mind sharp. Go to any poker room around the state and you'll see retirees engaged in raising, betting or folding. The banning of this commercial is an example of a society that takes itself far too seriously. I'm not saying that the poker play in this commercial is a reason it was banned. Here in Texas strip poker is OK, if played in a home setting and of course the stakes aren't monetary. 

Ah, fond memories. When I was a child, I could hardly wait for the Sunday paper to arrive. So I could pour through it. It's something I looked forward to it all week long. These days, when my wife asks what part of the paper I want, I tell her "sports and funnies. " Here's a comic from a few months ago, I thought readers would be interested in. It comes from an unlikely source.

The message I'm getting, is it's OK to play cards as long as no money is on the table.

What is the link between Star Trek and Texas Poker. Any time poker and poker players are portrayed in Movies, TV or the News. The general public takes away an impression away from the experience. The impression is ether good or bad. Apparently from the description in this article and these clips, Star Trek The Next Generation portrayal of poker was beneficial in several ways. Poker was an outlet for the crew, a way to vent frustration, avert monotony and relieve tension. Apparently this weekly poker game, was for the senior staff. Which nullifies Joan Rivers comments about all poker players being "trailer trash". The senior staff members also seemed to take away life lessons from poker play. These are all good things. When positive press and depiction start to sway the public's impression of poker and its players. We're headed in the right direction.  

http://www.pokernews.com/news/2009/05/poker-pop-culture-star-trek-the-next-generation-6576.htm

Those wacky Swedes. Sounds like they're on to something. Two gentleman are charged with sponsoring a poker tournament for 700 people. They go to trial and charges are reduced. We can learn much from our fair haired brothers. If relevant testimony and evidence are given in poker cases. Justice is served. The cause of poker reform is also served. Sometimes we need to take the highroad instead of the path of least resistance in order to get the necessary results. 


http://www.cardplayer.com/poker-news/6784-swedish-court-rules-poker-is-skill-game

Well they're fighting the good fight in South Carolina. Every inch we move toward legitimizing the game and moving away from" It's purely a game of chance" is a step forward. 
http://www.cardplayer.com/poker-news/6165-39-guilty-39-poker-players-39-ecstatic-39-with-verdict

The poker world is buzzing, we can only hope that the buzz. Starts of swarming effect that stings the representatives of the Texas House, into action next session.

http://www.pokernewsdaily.com/poker-bill-hb-222-removed-from-agenda-in-texas-2515/

http://www.cardplayer.com/poker-news/6790-texas-poker-bill-dies-without-a-vote-in-the-house

About 1 1/2 years ago 2 lodges and a bar were raided on Friday night. I have personal experience with raids as I was in a lodge that was raided about 2 1/2 years ago. And on the Friday night in question, we were playing in close proximity to the bar that was raided. Here in my hometown, we've had multiple nights of raids. Usually on Friday night. Usually two to three in one night. Players get tickets. Management and dealers go to jail. The players that go to court, the cases get dismissed. The management and dealers, their cases are pleaded down or dismissed. Shortly after the Friday night raid Drew Carey did this video on Reason .TV.

http://reason.tv/

Most poker players, if the play the game for a while, learn to take table talk and bad beats with an unspoken sportsmanship. It's a shame when things get out of hand and it puts a tarnished on the game as a whole and and the people that play it. 

http://www.myfoxhouston.com/dpp/news/local/090517_poker_game_argument_leaves_one_dead

You have to give props, to Rep. Jose Menendez. First for having the courage to submit this poker legislation. Not once but three times. It's what we used to call "taking a whooping on principle." I'm not a big fan of legislative TV or videos. But as I watched last Friday hoping to catch the couple of minutes of light HB 222 saw in the chamber before the coffin lid closed once more,time of death 6:05 p.m.May 15th 2009. Something caught my attention and you have to watch for it. I guess there's not a lot of humor happening on the chamber floor. Most of the bills were discussed and debated with a sense of respect for the bill and for its author. These include among others. HB 662 Operation of a motor vehicle by a person under 18 years of age while using a wireless communications device and HB 836 Relating to hunting of feral hogs by helicopter.While shooting feral hogs from helicopters may not seem funny to those on the chamber floor the poker bill met with jokes and an out right flippant attitude. That angered me. Again praise for Rep. Jose Menendez for his intelligent response.

Below is a link to the full days session.

http://www.house.state.tx.us/media/chamber/81.htm

05/15/09 2:25 p.m.- 6:59 p.m.

But in grain this in your memory. Most of these representatives don't feel that poker room legislation deserves a fair hearing. They don't see a problem with our tax dollars going across state lines, especially in this depressed economy where cities and towns have budget deficits. If we ever want to make headway, we have to bring home to these representatives the benefits Texas poker reform would bring, financial and humanitarian. 
You Tube & Pokerati made your search easier by this clip. 

 I was eating at an Indian food restaurant in my neighborhood, and as I ate, I was watching the local news channel on their TV. And the thought came to me, I don't believe I've ever seen a sports story on the local news about poker. It struck me as strange. No matter where I go to play poker. Inevitably we're gonna be watching sports on TV. The type of sport depends on what time of year and what night of the week, sometimes we're watching two or three different games or sports at one time. Most poker players have an interest in sports. And from what I understand poker is one of the most popular. In the past five years poker motivated TV has grown from a seed to and oak tree. On any given night you can watch high-stakes cash games or multi million-dollar tournament on TV. Here is my point if a golfer from Texas wins the Masters the local news is all over it. Not so, if a local poker player wins a major tournament. For any major sport with as much TV exposure as poker is now enjoying, it seems like it would be a lock. Our local news stations do not cover poker events with the same intensity that they do other major sports. Now maybe they don't consider poker a major sport. Maybe they think it ranks with bowling, dart's, pool or volleyball. I'm not besmirching these sports, they have their following And we have ours. I think that perhaps local TV sports journalists, may need a little nudge into the 21st century, where poker is on TV 24/7/365 and a growing share of commercials have poker stars as spokesman or as prominent figures in their ads. Just a thought.

I like to think of myself, as a glass half full kind of guy. And also a realist. So let's concentrate. On what good has come about in the past two years. If we forget the past we're doomed to repeat. And insanity is doing the same thing over and over expecting different results. Though it's true we didn't get much further than the last time. We made some new allies. We have changed the public's view on poker and poker players. If only a little. We've got a good foundation to bill. But before we start nailing the frame work, let's have an open dialogue. On what the basic things we want out of this legislation. On poker in general in the state of Texas. A vision let's say. A game plan for the future of poker in the state a Texas. 
We know from experience, what can happen if you begin a project without thinking it through, thoroughly. So let's say goodbye to HB 222 and start thinking of a brighter future.

We're not gonna be playing and poker at the racetracks any time soon. And more or less nothing else is gonna change as far as poker is concerned, any time soon. Representatives do what they do. And we do what we do.Poker bills have been morphed into something other than their original form in order to have any hope of passing the floor. The term " it's out of our hands" comes to mind. But was it ever in our hands. I personally don't think it ever was. And I'm just as guilty, as anyone else for not getting involved. But at least for me that's gonna change. Every poker player has to be an opportunist, you have to know when your opponent is weak, and capitalize on that weakness. But on the opposite end of the poll, you have to know when your opponent is strong and get out of the way. That's what we have to do now. But we can start preparing for the next go round and make sure we're prepared. In the next few months, hell right now! I'm and ask you to get involved. I'm in a keep asking you again involve. Your going to get tired of me asking you to get involved. Hopefully once you get involved, you'll bring others on board. As I said I'm an opportunist. It's not by chance, this Web site sprung up. I'm hoping that the anger the large number of poker players are feeling right now will be put to good use. And be the spark that fires us on to victory.

http://pokerati.com/2009/05/14/rip-hb-222/

http://www.pokernews.com/news/2009/05/texas-poker-bill-dies-for-2009-6566.htm 

In an effort, to pass on information that is useful as well as topical. I submit this tool. It may be very helpful to your game. 

http://www.pokernews.com/poker-odds-calculator.htm

The folks at http://www.pokernews.com have been gracious enough to allow us the use of their Poker Odds Calculator. " May the chips flow, as the current of a mighty river".

The trial of James McDaniel accused of causing the overdose death of Southern Methodist University student Meaghan Bosch has been postponed indefinitely. James McDaniel describes himself as a professional poker player. He apparently owned a poker room near SMU. 

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/DN-smudrugs_21met.ART.State.Edition2.4a8a2cd.html

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/tv/stories/DN-regionalrdp_08met.ART.State.Edition1.4cbcc92.html

Having been a resident of this state most of my life, it is my considered opinion the laws of this state are generally 100 years behind the times...It's time to catch up with the 21st century and legalize gambling.

http://thisisthelaw.wordpress.com/tag/antiquated-laws/

http://thisisthelaw.wordpress.com/2008/07/07/bergen-county-blue-laws/

http://thisisthelaw.wordpress.com/2008/06/17/cat-bells-are-required-in-cresskill-nj/

http://thisisthelaw.wordpress.com/2008/05/02/sweet-home-alabama-is-where-it-is-illegal-to/

http://thisisthelaw.wordpress.com/2008/09/22/judge-orders-victim-to-pay/

I want to get on my soap box, and you're saying to yourself, "when aren't you", on my soap box that is. I want to talk a little bit about priorities. Now where I come from the school of thought is this. That one should have but one primary purpose, and that all other things should fall after that. Now what that primary purpose is for everyone is often different. For some it is pursuit of selfish things, for others it is a common good. Some claim that family should come first, while others say that serving God is the primary thing. Now I'm not going to debate what that primary thing should be for each individual. Each person through their own experience must find their own answer. And you're saying to yourself " he's getting awfully deep, is he still talking about poker". Now I know that for for me personally I can serve my community, my family, my friends and God.And do all those things effectivly and enjoy a poker game when money and time allow. I've been blessed with a little of both.   Now I'm not saying that some folks don't overdo the poker thing, they live and breathe it, talk about all the time. Try and get them on another subject and they avoid it like the plague. Poker is thier life. For those folks yes poker maybe a problem, but it's not their main problem. Their main problem is a lack of something else. If they were not playing poker, surely they would be involved in something more distructive and dangerous , to themselves and others.Now to my point, I'm talking now about the folks who have some perspective on life. They play poker as a pastime. It's not their primary thing. It somewhere down the list. I don't know how far down the list, but usually it follows God, family, friends, job, community, country, political party and religious affiliation. Now you can put these things in any order you would like, add or subtract. All that I'm saying is poker should not the first on a persons priority list. Now having said that, I'll say this. If poker is on your priority list. And you play,oh let's say, a couple of times a month, once a week, or every few nights a week. Then perhaps you should, put little effort  towards, letting others know what the game means to you. And if you love the game as I do. Maybe, that means you put a little more effort than that. But how much effort you put toward poker reform. That's for each person to decide. In the light of their own experience.

America has long been called the melting pot, in which the world's immigrants come together and become a nation, proud and strong. When you think of a melting pot, it brings forth images of precious metals heated down to their molten form and put in the molds to solidify. The roots of poker reach back to European aristocrats. Poker is a true product of the American spirit. Those who battle so diligently to keep others from this sport. I truly believe do not know its history or its effect on those who have played, and will continue to play. Just as our fathers and their fathers fought for freedom, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. So we must muster up the troops and do battle against those who would keep us from those freedoms. Poker has a rich and deep history, I feel should be imparted. 

http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/2006/6/2006_6_38.shtml

Gov. Rick Perry is attempting to block HB collect 222 in the Texas House of Representatives, this is as of Friday May 8, 2009 .  
Please contact Gov. and let him know:
1. Don't block action on this bill. 
2. Texans should be allowed the opportunity to play poker in Texas.  
3. The Texas House of Representatives should be allowed the opportunity to vote on this bill

governor.state.tx.us/contact/
Texas House of RepresentativesTexas House of Representatives

Telephone 
Information and Referral Hotline [for Texas callers] :
(800) 843-5789

Citizen's Opinion Hotline [for Texas callers] : 
(800) 252-9600

Information and Referral and Opinion Hotline [for Austin, Texas and out-of-state callers] :
(512) 463-1782

Office of the Governor Main Switchboard [office hours are 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. CST] :
(512) 463-2000

Citizen's Assistance Telecommunications Device
If you are using a telecommunication device for the deaf (TDD), 
call 711 to reach Relay Texas

Office of the Governor Fax: 
(512) 463-1849

Mailing Address 
Office of the Governor
P.O. Box 12428
Austin, Texas 78711-2428

Delivery Address 
Office of the Governor
State Insurance Building
1100 San Jacinto
Austin, Texas 78701 

Twitter Rick Perry http://twitter.com/GovernorPerry

Now I ask you, Why would members of the Chickasaw and Choctaw tribes have an interest in Texas politics. Well, for those of us to pay attention. We know. They want the streams of money to continue to cross the Red River. And they're willing to throw money and influence toward those who would keep Texas poker legislation at a standstill.

Oklahoma tribes with ace up sleeve.

Top Recipients of Oklahoma Tribal Money
Amount

(’07 - ’08) Recipient (Party) Tribe

 _____________________________________________
$35,000 Lt. Governor David Dewhurst(R) Choctaw 
$25,000 Stars Over Texas PAC(R) Choctaw 
$20,000 Lt. Governor David Dewhurst(R) Chickasaw  
$15,000 TX Repub. Legislative Caucus(R) Chickasaw  
$10,000 Attorney General Greg Abbott(R) Choctaw  
$10,000 Sen. Kip Averitt(R) Choctaw  
$10,000 Sen. Kim Brimer(R)* Choctaw  
$10,000 Rep. Tom Craddick(R) Chickasaw  
$10,000 Sen. Bob Deuell(R) Choctaw  
$10,000 Sen. Kevin Eltife(R) Choctaw  
$10,000 Sen. Chris Harris(R) Choctaw  
$10,000 House Dem. Campaign Com.(D) Chickasaw  
$10,000 Sen. Jane Nelson(R) Choctaw  
$10,000 Sen. Tommy Williams(R) Choctaw  

  *Lost 2008 election. 
 
Here's a link, that should be informative.

http://info.tpj.org/Lobby_Watch/03-19-09_gambling08contrib.html

On each side of any hotly debated issue, you'll find opinions and viewpoints that differ greatly. Here are some folks whose ideas oppose ours.

http://texansagainstgambling.org/

http://offthekuff.com/wp/?p=14423

and you wonder why I urge others to get involved. These folks are organized. Well funded. And are not afraid it rattle their swords.

Welcome to our new Web site. We hope to be on the cutting edge of Texas poker news and reform. We want everyone interested in poker to get involved. And become a part of the Texas poker revolution. If you're tired of just sitting on the sidelines waiting for the laws to change in Texas' you're in the right spot. But we need your involvement. We need folks to submit articles, pictures, breaking news, blogs, forums and ideas. If your ready for change in the Poker Laws of Texas', we're the ones who have to make it happen. We can't expect others to have our best interest at heart. If you're asking" what can I do to help" here's what you can do to start. Just pass the word via e-mail, word of mouth , telephone, newspaper, forum posts, TV and radio. Anyone you can think of that has an interest and poker. Tell folks" I've just found this Web site texas poker revolution.com and they want us to get involved". Just think if we can get 10% of those people who play poker or would like to play poker on a regular basis in the state of Texas was a great beginning that would be. All we're asking for is a few minutes a day and little Texas know how. We Texans are steeped in a tradition of revolutionaries who didn't just let things happen the made them so. If you wanna get involved and be a part of this thing.

Contact us via e-mail at tpr.man_ed@yahoo.com

I know of North Carolina's long way from Texas. But I saw this and it reminded me of Texas. http://www.ncwanted.com/ncwanted_home/story/5021091/ Up here in my neck of the woods. We've had several robberies of poker rooms in the past few years. The last one was only a couple of months ago. They were astonishingly similar to this one. Let's hope they get these guys. Are not sure if N.C. is a concealed carry state. I'll have to do some checking. I do know for sure that Texas is, and the thugs who been pulling robberies in my community are blessed, that they have not been met with hot lead yet. The article says that the police are treating the owners of the property and the patrons as victims. I have noticed that most members of the press tend to vilify poker players. I know, the way a lot of us like to play poker, straddles the line between legal poker and that which the state of Texas, believes is illegal. But these folks in North Carolina are setting and playing poker, a game that was born in this country, has a rich heritage. Legal or illegal, poker has been played by presidents, senators, Congressman, lawyers, judges, policemen, FBI,ATF,CIA agents, , all branches of the armed forces, Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines. My father and uncle used to tell me stories of how they played poker on ships and at landing fields and World War to break the tension. Sahel news media feels that it's necessary to put that us in the same category as rapists, murderers, thieves, drug dealers, prostitutes, pimps, pedophiles and CEOs who steel their companies blind and leave employees and stockholders with nothing. I don't know about you, but I have a problem being put in that class. If we're going to get the laws to change, we have to start by changing people's hearts and minds We at as productive members of the need to speak out all that will listen. And tell them that's enough were not allow that to happen anymore. You can't Paint me with that brush!

Video Link: Click Here

If you're one of those people who likes to have people over, to play a friendly game of poker. This story should steer the B-Gebers out of You.

Click Here

About three weeks ago I had a pleasure, of playing in a tournament. It was hosted by a charitable organization. It was held in a livestock auction barn. They had over 250 entry and although the temperature was in the 40's it was very well attended, which surprised me. I don't get out of the city much and when I do, it's for poker or pleasure. Not that pokers not pleasurable, but you and have to have other interests. A friend of mine told me about the game. He had played there last year, and said that it had been going on for six years. His brother plays in that area and had told him about the tournament. In order to enter you had to mail 2 money orders, 1 was for the entry and the other was for administration. are probably should've gotten a little bit more sleep the night before, but our running game and it went on until about 4:30 a.m.I made it home, blinked my eyes and the alarm was ringing. My friend" Fast"Eddie and I met at my house at about 6:45 a.m. the day of. With a cell phone in hand "Fast" Eddie at my side we attempted to find a place. We had general directions and were in contact with the my friend the navigator by phone. We met at Mickey D's at the last town to have some breakfast, and pen down the final directions. and as we drove off the highway on to the gravel road, I wondered what I've got myself into. I feel pretty much at home anywhere. I've played quite a few places casinos, under ground poker rooms, bars games and home games, and variations of all these. To but as we pulled up to the gate, I did this would be added to the list of new experiences. From the gate we could see the gravel parking lot, already full of pickup trucks with the few cars sprinkled in. There was a gentle man at the gate, he checked our names off his list and motioned us in. We parked and headed inside. I really thought I had dressed warm enough, but I began to wish for a down jacket and long underwear. It was freezing! Now as I said it was in a livestock auction barn, and they're not known to be well insulated. So it was as cold in there as it was outside. There were about 30 tables set up at one end of the barn. And all around the tables were kerosene and propane heaters. About halfway down a barn they had struck up a tarp as a barrier to the cold, but it only went up to about 10 ft. from the top of the roof. We were assigned seats and my friends and I'm milled around for awhile mainly standing next to the heaters. I found my way to my table, found my seat and sat down. They brought us over a plastic bag full of chips. And said that the No. 4 seat would be dealing. I felt pretty good about that, I'm a better player than I am a dealer. Though I do both from time the time, I don't like to play and deal with the same time. It throws me off my game. We started with 10 thousand chips and the blinds went up every hour. So it was a much slower pace than I'm used to. For the most part, every once play was pretty tight, at least in my table. And from what my friends told me later, that was pretty much the norm. Well, I could bore you with intricate hand by hand details of how I slowly bled away my chips. But mostly I lost them to a lady at our table. She's a solid player, and every time I went up against her I was destined to lose. Sometimes it's just like that. I played my cards right and so did she. We kept butting heads. And she kept winning the races. I got knocked out just-in-time for lunch. So I filled up as much as a could, on a barbecue. I thought I I might hang out and play in the cash game and an may be recoupe buy in. There was already one table running but it was full. Both my friends were still in the hunt and I began to doubt whether I could make it a home without nodding off at the wheel. So I bid my farewell and headed home. All and all it was a fine tournament, it was a little different than I was used to. But, hay, I thrive on new experiences. And this certainly was a first for me. 

http://pokerati.com/2009/04/21/stephenville_2009/#more-6795

I was up in Oklahoma, on Tuesday last week, I only have one reason to go to Oklahoma in the middle of the day. I had some hours to kill and couldn't find a game here in town. So I took the hour and 20 minute drive north across Red River to the tent with the big wall in front of it. Played for a while and the conversation got around to what I do for a living, and not being shy I told them that I was starting an on-line news service and poker reform Web site. Course of the nine players at the table 6 of us were from Texas ( which is a little above average) and the Texas players began discussing whether Bill 222 had a chance of passing ( probably not) and if so, would it make it past the governor's desk (not a ice cube's chance in hell). Now those that know me, know that I am not afraid to speak my mind, sometimes disregarding consequences and so I did, now don't get me wrong, I want the bill to pass, I personally don't care much for the drive up to Oklahoma , now I'm sure the people who live up there are proud of the state and are happy to be there. but as for me I have no reason to be there other than to play poker. If I do well and bring back some of the Oklahoma dollars then alll the better, I've sure left enough of my money up there for them. When I do travel there I don't stay to see the sights or scenery, though parts of Oklahoma are beautiful, I spent some vacation time in the past on their lakes,fishing and camping.. In other words I have no reason to be there other than to play cards. I am a student of human nature and in discussing poker and Texas politics with my fellow Texans wherever they may be, I try to temper my past experience with poker players with more optimism, then perhaps I should. As I said I want the bill pass and the reason I don't believe it will. Is not a lack of sympathetic support, it comes down to financial support and action. We can sit around the poker table till doomsday, talking this thing to death, and it won't get it done. We have to get behind it body, soul and pocket book.

I think it's important, that Texas poker players be informed, so we are posting the bill in its entirety.

Read It, Print It, Discuss It, how can poker players in Texas be better serve, and thus better represented by this bill. Please let us know what you think. We need your input. . 

(You could check the status of the bill here. )
http://www.legis.state.tx.us/BillLookup/History.aspx?LegSess=81R&Bill=HB222

(Here is a link to Jose Menendez website.)
http://www.house.state.tx.us/members/dist124/menendez.htm

  81R1565 YDB-D
 
  By: Menendez H.B. No. 222

Click Here For The PDF Version on Bill No222