Tuscaloosa Johnny's blog

FirePay announced today that U.S. customers will no longer be able to use the service to fund online gambling accounts after President Bush signs the Unlawful Online Gambling Enforcement Act into law.

Ten days after Bush signs on the dotted line, all transactions from online gambling sites into the FirePay accounts of U.S. customers will be declined.

FirePay can continue to be used for other non-gambling purposes by U.S. customers.

The news is another blow for American players hoping the changes would be gradual, but with the inevitable pullout of Party Poker and the elimination of one of the major online poker site funding sources it appears the dominoes are falling quickly.

Et tu, Neteller?

Most of the larger online poker sites have issued statements saying whether or not they will remain open for business for U.S. customers following the passing of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act late last Friday, while customers of other sites wait to hear the news. Some sites are hedging their bets, waiting to see how the law shakes down in the nine months given for financial institutions and internet service providers to seek clarification in the enforcement of the law. Here’s a status report on many of the online poker sites, cobbled together from press releases, statements to the media and other sources.

The Web site EyeOnGambling.com listed a comment from an Absolute Poker official who said, "We want to assure you that Absolute Poker games are still available and that you can continue to enjoy the site as you always have. The new law does not change the legality of playing online games nor will make us close any US customer accounts."

Bodog appears ready to stay at least temporarily while the whole mess is sorted out, but a comment from founder Calvin Ayre to Gambling911.com indicated he’s ready to find other sources of revenue if need be.

"Bodog is a broad based digital entertainment company that has long ago ceased to be dependent on any one revenue channel,” Ayre said. “Bodog will continue to monitor things as they unfold but is not expected to make any changes until our study is completed."

I was among those doing quite a bit of cashing out of online poker accounts this week from sites ending business with us U.S. customers, such as Party Poker. I discovered a nasty surprise, however, when I went to cash those funds out of Firepay and saw a new $10 withdrawal fee for all cashouts.

This fee was apparently added just today. Could Firepay be taking advantage of the hundreds of thousansds or millions of U.S. customers rushing to funnel their money away from online poker sites? I'll let you read what you want into that, but I will share this nugget with you. I emailed customer service tonight and got this response:

Unfortunately this fee must be charged to defray the processing costs associated with withdrawal transactions.

Funny how those processing costs suddenly went through the roof, isn't it?

British royal Prince Charles was left red-faced Monday night after actor Stephen Fry joked about enjoying a game of strip poker with him.

Fry addressed a packed cinema audience at the London premiere of new movie The History Boys, where the Prince had asked him to introduce a short advertisement for his charity The Prince's Trust. But a reluctant Fry revealed:

"There were only two of us who could have spoken tonight. We decided on a game to decide who - the winner got to sit and enjoy the film without a speech. "He (Charles) suggested polo. In the end we settled on strip poker. He saw my low pair and for the first time I understood what a royal flush was."

The Motley Fool, a popular financial investing Web site, published an article today in defense of online poker, likening it to buying stocks and arguing it should have been exempted in this new legislation.

"Frankly, I just find it sickening that such a controversial issue as online gambling was handled with little, if any, debate," author Jeff Hwang wrote.

He also adds this nugget:

"In my opinion, the regulation of online gaming seems to makes a heck of a lot more sense than an attempted ban. It's just not clear to me who this bit of legislation truly benefits, except perhaps a number of politicians up for election in November."

Check out the article here.

You can see which members of the House of Representatives voted for or against the bill that banned online poker and those who sponsored a bill that would have studied the issue further here.

Bodog.com Founder Calvin Ayre issued a statement to Gambling911.com late Sunday night:

"Bodog is a broad based digital entertainment company that has long ago ceased to be dependent on any one revenue channel. Bodog will continue to monitor things as they unfold but is not expected to make any changes until our study is completed."

Similarly, the smaller company Empire Online plc, owner of Empire Poker stated:

"In light of the new legislation passed by the US Congress last Friday, Empire Online has immediately commenced a review of the likely impact on the company's current business activities. Presently it is difficult to assess the exact effect of this legislation, which could have a material impact on future earnings. The Board of Empire Online will continue to take counsel from its advisors on this matter and will update shareholders accordingly."

Most others remain tight lipped for now.

I'm not in Tunica these days, but since I've spent plenty of time in the metropolis, I can report on it by proxy. Here's a report card on the poker rooms of the area. Note that almost all of them feature daily or weekly tournaments so I won't note that feature in these brief reviews.

Gold Strike -- Home of the World Poker Open, formerly of the Jack Binion variety, the Gold Strike poker room is up the escalators from the rest of the casino action, opposite the casino's showroom. The room features close to 20 tables, fit a bit snugly in the available space. $1-$2 and $2-$5 NL games dominate the room, which offers free food service from the tables. The staff is friendly and the games are good. A-

Grand -- The Grand now features a renovated and enlarged tournament area for the WSOP Circuit events, but the general room remains largely unchanged. In addition to the usual no limit and low limit hold'em games, the Grand also offers $10-$20 limit and low limit Omaha games. The action generally isn't as great as it is at Poker Central (i.e. the Gold Strike and Horseshoe) Comps are freely given out, a common occurrence here among the cotton and soybean fields. B

Hollywood -- A favorite of geologists, the low limit games here are filled with elderly rocks. The room even uses the jumbo faced cards for its hard of seeing clientele. At least the room offers sit n gos. D+

Horseshoe -- This used to be the undisputed leader in Tunica poker action, but the distance has narrowed with the improvements across the street at GS and at the Grand. The Horseshoe recently opened a new room in the back of the casino with more space and better facilities though I miss the mural on the wall of the old room. There's plenty of action here and the biggest limit, NL and Omaha games and the free food is best here. A

Sam's Town -- Middle of the road in Tunica poker action, there are decent games here -- better than Hollywood but nothing compared to the top tier rooms. C-

If you've never darkened the doors of the Stardust poker room, you've got only a month left to play some cards there. Officials with Boyd Gaming recently announced that the Stardust, in business since 1958, will close permanently on Nov. 1.

The hotel will be torn down in 2007 to make way for the new $4 billion Echelon Place, a collection of major and boutique hotels, a casino and entertainment, dining and retail outlets. It's been known for at least a year that the Stardust, former home to the likes of the Rat Pack and Wayne Newton, would be torn down, but the date of closure was only recently revealed.

The announcement of the closure has brought out Stardust fans, and apparently the hotel is sold out for its last month in operation.

The casino has a relatively small poker room, but has 10 a.m. tournaments several times a week. If nothing else, go to soak in the history. Earl, one of the dealers there, dealt at the World Series of Poker back in the 1970s and 1980s and shared a treasure trove of stories the last time I played there.

Echelon Place is scheduled to open in 2010.

Robby Gordon's No. 7 car on NASCAR's Nextel Cup Circuit recently got a new look, with the World Series of Poker logo splashed all over the Chevy.

The new paint scheme is promoting the 2006 World Series of Poker telecasts airing Tuesday nights on ESPN. The redesigned look was unveiled at the Sony HD 500 in California earlier this month.

The new design will prominently display the World Series of Poker and ESPN logos on the hood of the car and will feature an additional World Series of Poker logo on a poker chip just above the rear wheels. The rear half of the car is painted green to simulate the color of the table felt.

Harrah's will also display the World Series of Poker scheme at the Banquet 400 (Oct. 1 at Kansas Speedway) and the UAW-Ford 500 (Oct. 8 at Talladega Superspeedway).

"NASCAR fans are the most brand-loyal fans in the world," said WSOP chief Jeffrey Pollack. "There's no doubt that running this paint scheme with Robby Gordon will increase our profile around the world and help drive exposure for our telecasts on ESPN."

You may recall that Pollack (pictured here with Gordon) previously worked for NASCAR, as managing director for entertainment and new media for the sport's digital entertainment division, before becoming commish of the WSOP. Shall we anticipate $7 cheeseburgers and $3 soft drinks at the 2007 WSOP to pay for these advertisements? Only time will tell.

North Dakota State Rep. Jim Kasper says his fellow Republicans "just don't get it" when it comes to Internet gambling.

Kasper calls the proposal "ridiculous" by Rep. Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) that Frist wants to tack onto a defense bill to ban online gambling to pass in the waning days of the 109th Congress.

"The people of our nation want to do what they want to do in the privacy of their living rooms," Kasper told internetnews.com.

Contrary to the intent of his national party leaders, North Dakota will become a safe harbor for Internet poker players worldwide if Kasper has his way.

Kasper plans to introduce bills in the next session of the North Dakota legislature legalizing Internet poker for online casinos that will bring their software, hardware and employees to North Dakota.

That move has been tried before in the state and passed the House, while being trumped in the Senate. Of course, even if that were to become law in the frozen tundra of North Dakota it doesn't do the rest of us online poker playing Americans any good unless we wanted to move there. Any takers?

The Phone March on Washington, a grassroots campaign designed to combat the current internet gambling legislation in Congress and sponsored by the Poker Players Alliance and PocketFives.com, generated thousands of calls by people from all over the country who defended their right to play online poker.

“We’re very excited that so many online poker players and internet gamblers came out in support of the Phone March on Washington,” said PocketFives.com President Cal Spears. “The threat to online poker is real. We hope our Senators heard our message loud and clear today: Do not ban online poker in the United States.”

The bill in question, H.R. 4411, passed the House of Representatives by an overwhelming margin, 317-93, in July. The Senate then went on recess and resumed session just after Labor Day.

“Calling elected officials’ offices shows a great amount of courage and passion for our cause,” said Spears.

The effort caught the attention of several Congressional offices, according to Pocket Fives. A representative from Senator Dick Durbin’s (D-IL) office claimed that the staff had been receiving calls “once every few minutes.” The same was true at Senator Edward Kennedy’s (D-MA) headquarters: “We have received a steady stream of calls all day today.” At Senator Charles Schumer’s (D-NY) office, a spokesperson said they had received “a significant number of calls on the issue.”

Senator Dianne Feinstein’s (D-CA) position on the issue echoed that of the callers today: “The Senator is not in favor of a ban. She favors regulation in order to prevent children from gambling,” said a representative.

“I think we sent a message today,” said Spears. “Once again thank you to everyone who made the Phone March on Washington a success."

Now college students in Virginia can get pointers on hold'em in class before taking the money of their fellow undergrads in apartment and frat house games.

The University of Richmond is now offering a course called "Poker Mania," a non-credited class being offered over three Wednesday nights in October for a $69 fee. The course, offered initially last year, is taught by Scott Redmond, a chartered financial analyst with a deep interest in poker.

The three class focus on the basics of poker, such as the math behind probabilities and odds with discussion on starting hand selections and common drawing hands, poker psychology including learning tells, and formulating strategies based on the lessons taught in the previous two classes. No real money is exchanged in the classes. The course description calls for Monopoly money to be put in play.

Given the options offered by the University of Richmond School of Continuing Studies -- Ice Skating and Intermediate Golf among them -- I think I'll take the Poker Mania course please (as well as all of the Monopoly money of the fish who dare take me on.)

WPT Enterprises Inc. has secured a pair of broadcasting deals to bring the World Poker Tour television shows to southeast Asia.

The World Poker Tour's first season will be aired on Macau Cable in Macau and feature the second season on MediaCorp, the largest broadcaster in Singapore.

The deal in Macau, a special administrative region of the People's Republic of China, is important due to its status as a large gambling center.

"With the long history of gaming in Macau and the recent licenses issued to a number of international gaming giants who will build or run major new casinos, this area is only going to get hotter," Gary MacKinney, WPTE executive director of international distribution, said in a statement.

From Microsoft:

"Texas Hold'em" set a one day record as the fastest downloaded item ever on the Xbox Live Marketplace, with over 100 downloads per minute in the first 24 hours of the title's release. For the first time ever, Microsoft offered a free full-version Xbox Live Arcade game to all Xbox Live members during the first 48 hours following launch.

Xbox Live is the online mechanism for the Xbox 360 in which players can download content and updates for their systems and compete against other players.

I've tried this hold'em game and let me tell you folks, it ain't pretty. You can play single player against seven computer opponents, either in a cash game or one-table tournament format. Like most poker video games the computer's artificial intelligence is quite lacking and your opponents are prone to boneheaded maneuvers. One key to the game is building a bankroll so you can play in bigger tournaments, but you can play smaller games without risking your bankroll as the game buys you in for free. The strategy here is simple: go all in every hand. If you lose, you rebuy. If you win, you cash out. Does this sound fun to you?

The online game is worse, as most human players just play like maniacs since there's nothing at stake. There's no real poker to be played here.

A Greenwood, S.C., man received a 30-year prison sentence after he was convicted of murder for shooting another man during a poker game last summer.

A jury deliberated for more than six hours before finding 58-year-old Freddie Edwards guilty of murder Thursday night, prosecutor Jerry Peace said. Edwards will have to serve his sentence completely.

Witnesses said George Freeman was shot in July 2005 after refusing to follow one of Edwards' poker game rules about putting money into the pot.

After the argument, Edwards went to his house and got a gun, then chased Freeman, who fell down as he tried to run away. Edwards caught up and shot Freeman once in the face, Peace said.

Both men were good people and Edwards just got caught up in his anger, the prosecutor said.

"Sometimes you have good people who do stupid things," Peace said.

Sometimes people take this game a bit too seriously, though in this instance I'm not sure how much this episode was about the poker and how much was the result of a powder keg waiting to blow. It sort of reminds me of an incident in Alabama a couple of years ago in which a man shot his own son in the face after he said something in a smart aleck tone to his dad after the Crimson Tide gave up a touchdown in a game the two were watching on TV. Yep, we take our 'Bama football a little too seriously down here too...

First, GSN brought us the "World Series of Blackjack," now CBS is planning the "Ultimate Blackjack Tour."

CBS will begining airing the program Saturday, Sept. 16 at 2 p.m. EST. UBT will feature professionals from the world of poker and blackjack and pairs the skill of blackjack with the elimination factor of poker. The lowest stacked competitor is eliminated every eight hands, placing a premium on the aggression often seen in the later stages of no-limit hold'em tournaments. Once the players are narrowed down, there is a final "secret bet" that determines the winner of each stage of the tournament.

"Poker has gone crazy," said the "Poker Brat", Phil Hellmuth. "Now you have another tournament game of skill. The UBT is going to be huge."

"The UBT has figured out how to make blackjack exciting for television and I'm absolutely hooked. It was a blast to play and equally exciting to watch," said poker pro Annie Duke.

The ten episodes will feature blackjack experts Ken Einiger, "Hollywood" Dave Stann, Anthony Curtis and Monica Reeves. Poker professionals include former World Series of Poker main event winners Russ Hamilton and Hellmuth, Phil "The Unabomber" Laak, Jennifer Tilly and Duke.

CBS has already committed to a second season of the show.

For more information on the UBT, visit www.playubt.com.

The Beau Rivage, complete with a new house of cards, is scheduled to open Tuesday morning in Biloxi, exactly one year after Hurricane Katrina ravaged the Gulf Coast. Popular tournament director Johnny Grooms said that many of the big cash game players from L.A., the Dallas and Houston areas, and some Vegas guys will be there during the grand opening to check out the 16-table poker room. Grooms will also be in attendance.

The Beau Rivage provided this description of the new facility:

With high ceilings and an open floor plan, the new Beau Rivage Poker Room is by far the most spacious and comfortable place to play poker in the South. And with non-stop, 24 hour a day action, you're bound to find a perfectly suited hand. This smoke-free, exquisite environment features 16 tables dealing a variety of popular games, such as Texas Hold'em, 7-Card Stud and Omaha. Plus, there will be a high-stakes area featuring No-Limit Texas Hold’em and Pot-Limit Omaha, for those looking to really go all in! For your convenience, the Beau Rivage Poker Room provides players with tableside food and beverage service, along with dedicated cashiers, personal safety deposit boxes and private restroom facilities.

The opening of the casino is a big step for the embattled Gulf Coast in its rebuilding efforts as Beau Rivage was one of the top employers in Biloxi and provided millions in tax revenues. The casino had a poker room when it opened in the spring of 1999, but closed the room only months later and hadn't reopened it when Katrina struck last August 29. The posh new room is expected to house the largest games in the area, Grooms said.

2006 WSOP winner Jamie Gold responded to the lawsuit filed by fellow poker player Crispin Leyser through his publicist Saturday. Leyser is suing Gold for half of his $12 million in winnings, claiming the two had a deal in which Leyser would get half of anything Gold won in the main event.

Here's the response from the Gold camp:

"Jamie Gold is disappointed that the plaintiff, a person he has only known since July of this year, has elected to file litigation rather than continue the parties' discussions in an effort to find a resolution to this matter. Mr. Gold believes strongly in the American judicial system and believes that it is better to present his case there than to try the matter before the court of public opinion. He is pleased to have had the opportunity to participate and win the World Series of Poker and is pleased with the quality of the tournament, his outstanding opponents, and Harrah's, the event organizer. Mr. Gold further appreciates the support of his fans and sponsor, Bodog.net, and hopes that this unfortunate litigation will not detract from the outstanding efforts of the entire field of participants in the World Series of Poker."

Unfortunately, I caught a nasty cold that had me down for the count the last two days of the WSOP. I tried to soldier on for a bit on Thursday, but just couldn't cut it and headed for the comfort of my MGM bed.

Like most of you readers I discovered who won the WSOP by logging on and reading PokerBlog. Congratulations to Jamie Gold for achieving the dream 8,772 fellow main event participants had. May Gold be a great ambassador for the game as it gears up for what will be a major discussion with Congress in the coming years on the future of online poker. There's no doubt the effect that the online game has had on the growth of poker offline (8,773 participants in the WSOP being proof number one) and to pull the plug on the online game would certainly reverberate within the real world poker community.

It's always sad to see the WSOP come to an end. There is no other tournament like it in the world; truly nothing comes close. Other tournaments offer trophies, rings or watches to the winners, but there is nothing that compares to a WSOP bracelet. Thousands of professional, intermediate and rank amateur players traveled to their Mecca this summer. Most of them went home empty handed (or with empty wallets), but almost all of them returned with great stories and the experience of a lifetime.

This summer also marked a major change in my life, as my one-year journey through the tournament circuit has now come to a close. I'm returning to Tuscaloosa tomorrow and starting graduate school in a couple of weeks. My goal had always been to play the WSOP main event in 2006 and I was glad I could achieve that goal. No, I didn't go deep in the tournament or become an instant millionaire, but I was able to cash and that was just gravy really.

Thanks to Party Poker and Dan Michalski for putting this blogging team together. I've met new people and made friendships I expect to last for years to come and I've also enjoyed the chance to write about poker and the WSOP on a new platform. As Amy said, this was an experiment that came off very well -- and I hope it will continue.

In about an hour, Harrah's is trotting out all of the living previous WSOP main event champions around the final table.

Harrah's should implement a lifeline for players (a la Who Wants to be a Millionaire?) while they're at it. Each of the final table players could consult one previous champion on one hand before making their decision.

Will Harrah's continue the WSOP trend of spreading the bricks of $100 bills on the table when we reach heads up? Last year, the money was spread across a seperate table from where Joe Hachem and Steve Dannenman were playing, so it would stand to reason the procedure would be followed again. After all, where on the final table would there be room to both spread 1,200 bricks of Benjamins and still play poker?

Last year it took about 15 hours for Joe Hachem to put Steve Dannenman and the rest to bed and take the crown. We've heard that Mike Matusow has said it will take a full 24 hours for the WSOP final table to finish this year, removing any doubt that the poker pro is loony. So what's the guess bloggers and readers? I say 12 hours, that'd be 2 a.m. Vegas time.

Unless there's someone else I am not aware of, three permanent or temporary residents (college students) of Tuscaloosa played in the main event and all three cashed.:

#33 Rob Berryman $329,865
#577 Shannon Shorr $20,617
#770 Yours truly $16,493

Someone find me a city that can top 3 for 3...

The term silly season is borrowed from professional golf, where the few months at the end of the year after all four majors have been played are filled with pro-ams, Stableford scoring systems and made for TV co-ed skins matches.

Well, we've certainly reached the silly season of the WSOP. A star-studded field filled 50 tables of the Rio on the pentultimate day to play the last bracelet event, a $1,500 NLHE, that will be completed today. Many of the pros wouldn't normally touch such a small event, but with no other action everyone's taking their shot at the elusive WSOP hardware.

But no one's treating it too seriously. The pros are joking and meeting and greeting. Even the amatuers are loose, cutting up at the tables as the WSOP comes to a close and the ESPN production crew prepares the featured table for the close of another summer of poker.

The silliness extended to me. I foolishly thought I could beat an A-J with an A-K in my own last ditch attempt at serious coin.

My blog post from yesterday:

Any guesses on how long it will take to reduce the field by nine more? I think they stop for the day at 2:30 a.m.

And from Card Player early this morning:

Wed Aug 09 02:17:00 PDT 2006
Goldberg Eliminated 10th ($1,154,527)

Take that Nemeth.

Leif Force sat to my immediate left for about an hour on Day 3 and shortly after we made the money, he pushed his short stack all in with Q-Q only to be called by a larger stack with A-A. The first four cards were blanks, but Force caught his two outer on the river. Now he will win at least $1.15 million.

How many two, three and four outers did the final 12 players catch in this event to outlast 8,761 players?

Dustin Holmes just busted in 19th place and collected $494,797, leaving us with 18 challengers for the ultimate crown in poker. Players were given new seat assignments and took a 20 minute break.

It took just 3 1/2 hours to lose our first nine players. Any guesses on how long it will take to reduce the field by nine more? I think they stop for the day at 2:30 a.m.

Barracuda just mentioned that Jeffrey Lisandro is going to build houses for a handful of families if he wins big, but he isn't the only one with a heart of gold still alive in the main event.

David Einhorn of Rye, N.Y., who sits on the board of directors of the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research, has said he will donate all of his winnings to the foundation. Einhorn's grandfather suffered from the disease and the poker player wants to help fund the research for a cure.

We'll have more on the philanthropic Einhorn when PokerBlog has a chance to talk with him.

In what could be the quickest day in WSOP main event history, play was stopped at about 5:15 p.m. when Lowell Kim was eliminated in 28th place. The final three tables will play down to one nine-man table tomorrow, followed by an off day on Wednesday and the final day on Thursday.

The remaining players are guaranteed at least $494,797.