Poker Shrink

Yes, Virginia there is poker beyond the World Series and there is news beyond Las Vegas.

The very successful European Poker Tour has announced a somewhat reduced schedule for the coming season. The EPT has grown each year but for 2008-09 they have dropped the Dublin Open, reduced the events in Germany from two to one and the Caribbean Adventure is also gone from last year's tour schedule. Here is the EPT schedule for the coming season:

Barcelona Open (Casino Barcelona) - Sept 10-14, 2008 - €8,000
London (Victoria Casino) - October 1-5, 2008 - £5,200
Polish Open (Hyatt Regency, Warsaw) - November 15-19, 2008 - 20,000 PLN
Prague (Hilton Hotel) - December 9-13, 2008 - €5,000
Deauville (Barrière Casino) - January 20-24, 2009 - €5,000
Scandinavian Open (Casino Copenhagen) - February 17-21, 2009 - 50,000 DKR
German Open (Casino Hohensyburg) - March 10 - 14, 2009 - €5,000
San Remo (San Remo) - April 18-23, 2009 - €5,000
Grand Final (Monte Carlo Bay Hotel & Resort) - April 28 - May 3, 2009 - €10,000

All that you give and all that you deal
and all that you buy, beg, borrow or steal.
-Pink Floyd

Anyone who tells you there isn't a dark side to poker hasn't been here. By here, I mean the World Series of Poker. Now to be clear, the World Series is actually one of the brighter and lighter stops in the dark reaches of the vast poker road. But when you put all or most of the great professional poker players in one place for six or seven weeks, well there are bound to be some examples of truly desperate behavior.

Add to the thousands of players, dealers, staff and fans a large and at times articulate poker press; well, we are bound to get some reflections on the darker sides of poker. I hope we in the media are not getting too inbred but I must direct you to some insightful and very dark observations from both Dr. Pauly and the Pack-at-Pokerati. You want the dark side of poker, they will dish it up for you with wit and a wet wipe to tidy up afterwards.

On the other hand, I (the Poker Shrink) am not going to offer up a taste of darkness because you see I don't look at poker that way. I don't believe you can look at the psychology of poker and of poker players if you assume some pathology, illness, character flaw or yes, darkness. Does it exist? Certainly. But beyond the dark or perhaps right beside it there is a unique psychology to the world of poker. Yes, some or all of the lifestyle that poker requires can and does lead a few individuals to some very dark places. The list of casualties is long and will get longer. But as a wise and eloquent sage once said: "You knew the job was dangerous when you took it."

The problem, as I see it, is that very few of the victims ever take a hard, honest look at what poker is really about. Tell me if you would take this job?

On this second Sunday of the 2008 World Series, a lot of attention will be focused on the final table of Event #12: $1,500 Limit Hold’em. Yes, Vinnie Vinh leads going into day three of this tournament but a lot more interest will be paid to the number two man on the leader board, Erick Lindgren. The speculation, of course, is whether Erick can land a second bracelet in less than a week.

A lot of casual observers might see such a double-barreled feat as the result of a good run of cards or just a very good player being overdue. Perhaps a closer look into at just what the first week or so of the Series really looks like to a poker professional like Erick Lindgren might be illuminating.

Friday May 30th, Event #1: $10,000 Pot Limit Hold’em. Erick plays about eight hours before having his set of aces lose to another set with a bigger kicker.

Sunday June 1st, Event #2 Day 1B: $1,500 No Limit Hold’em. Erick is mostly card dead and goes out about mid-way in level three, still time for 18 holes before dusk.

Monday June 2nd, Event #4 (5 PM start): $5,000 Mixed Hold’em. Erick and ninety other players survive day one from a starting field of 332. With 8,400 chips. Erick Lindgren’s name is no where near the top of the leader board; not with the leader over 100,000.

No, I am not rethinking my position on moving the WSOP main event final table to November. I am for it, I have been for it since the first rumors last fall, I remain steadfast in the belief that this is a well thought out move to attract more fans to the Series and to insure continuing television coverage.

What I am hearing from players, both professional and otherwise, is that they are coming around to favor the "November Nine" idea. I certainly understand the initial reaction to such a big change. Lots of folks truly love this game and do not like it changing. I, myself, am not a traditionalist but for a truly moving statement about that aspect of the game, might I recommend an article by Amy Calistri.

As weeks have past and the whole idea has had time to be pondered and debated, more and more players are seeing the rationale for the move. Poker needs a boost and this just might do it. At nearly every table, this move comes up, more and more we hear positive remarks and a good deal of a 'wait and see' attitude. If it doesn't work then they just change it back next year. But it is worth the attempt and I applaud the WSOP staff for moving forward with this; just as I like to acknowledge them for making the summer of 2008 the year of "no tents at the Series". After all, not every experiment works.

I am not so fond of the label: "November Nine". It's just flat and doesn't evoke much. Now if they had asked me for a suggestion, need I point out who came up with Sequestrium last summer? I would have gone for: "The Fall Final". Emphasizes the event not the players and sounds just a bit like The Fall Classic.

It would seem that the good Dr. Pauly and I have been meandering down similar paths regarding how WSOP 2008 will confirm the current state of poker. Fortunately, both Dr. Pauly and the Poker Shrink have Series gigs this year that do not require us to do live tournament reporting. We both bow twice to those intrepid poker writers, bloggers, runners and gunners who are covering the action day to day and hand for hand and we wish them well.

The two doctors are free this summer to explore the deeper and at times darker sides of poker. Together we seem to have come to some of the same conclusions, let me advise those who wish to debate me on the condition of poker in American and around the globe to read what I have to say and then take a look at Dr. Pauly's commentary. We are not here as cheerleaders for poker in general nor the WSOP in specific. It is our job to give you our view from collective years of experience on the poker roads around the world. As I said yesterday, in my opinion, this is the watershed year for poker. Dr. Pauly and I are going to give you what we see happening in Las Vegas this summer as it affects the big picture of poker.

For instance, you find a lot of professional poker players with very divergent views on how poker is fairing these days. The two main camps can be described as:

"The End is Near"
or
"Everything is Fine"

Let me be clear, I do not think the End is Near, however, I do see strong indications that the World Series of 2008 may well be the Last Hurrah of the Poker Boom. I firmly believe numbers will begin to decline as we work our way through the full WSOP schedule and never again will be see a main event as big as 2005-2008. Big tournament poker has jumped the shark, I am only suggesting that everyone involved buy an appropriately sized umbrella.

The players, professional and amateur, who are unwilling to hear this news are not ostriches. They are poker players. However, the professionals I talk to are more than just players, they are in the business of poker and as such must pay attention to the economy of poker.

There is a perfect poker analogy to this economic situation. At the tables, I always marvel at the detail of recall most major professionals have. What they see and remember about poker hands is absolutely phenomenal. I watch the same hands at the same tables and I have a notepad to record anything I see or hear; yet, inevitably when we talk about hands later, they saw more and recall more.

However, away from the tables those laser like observational skills are not always transferable to other aspects of their lives or even to other aspects of poker. I have listened to Daniel Negreanu and Mike Matusow talk about details of the WSOP final table move. Phil Hellmuth has described the marketing issues around publishing poker books. Gavin Smith and Bill Edler have clearly summarized the financial effects of television on poker and speculated on poker after television. These guys pay attention to the whole world of poker. On the other side of the coin, I have had conversations with players who had no idea which tournaments were being taped for television and no concept of why endorsements were or were not given to certain players.

Just because someone can play poker does not mean they understand the financial world of poker away from the tables. Some players are just whistling past the graveyard, hoping for the best and playing their cards. To be a pro at the tables, you play the players not the cards. To be a poker professional away from the tables, you must engage in the business of poker.

I treasure the summer in Las Vegas because they are all here to be asked the same battery of questions. The Poker Shrink will take the pulse of those who play the game both at the table and away from it. I'll keep you informed of what I find and so will Dr. Pauly. The Doctors are in the house.

The 2008 World Series of Poker is off to a great start but when we look back in a few years I predict this will be the year everyone remembers. Already several professionals have told me that they expect this year to be: "the last big year for poker." Why? Well there a number of reasons.

First and foremost, the World Series of Poker is still an American phenomenon. Sure 87 countries were represented at the 2007 WSOP but 95% of the players over the seven weeks of the Series come from the U.S. Right now the U.S. economy is having some hard times. Gas prices are high, prices are up and the dollar is down. This may well be the perfect storm for poker.

Next, the television contacts that have fueled the poker boom are in jeopardy. The WSOP move of the main event final table to November is about ratings on ESPN. If that doesn't work, the decline will be confirmed. In fact, we may know before November just how strong the Series is performing just by watching the registration numbers.

There are other factors. The UIGEA in the States, the continuing trade squabbles among the EU nations, the restricted access to online gaming throughout the Far East, but the highlight of any poker year remains the World Series of Poker. There is no tournament that compares. We may never go back to main events under 1,000 players but the days of 6,000, 7,000, 8,000; those may be gone forever or at least we are on the verge of the Poker Eclipse of 2008.

The summer of 2008 will be long remember as the watershed year of the poker boom. Stay tuned, I will update you on this theme throughout the summer with the numbers and the comments from both players and other insiders who will be living and playing at the Rio for the next seven weeks.

"It was chance created the poker beast; beancounters will kill it."

.
Economics and Poker will clash this summer among the slightly tarnished gaming glitz of Las Vegas. Dispassionate observers of the poker world realize that this may be the watershed moment in the continuation or the demise of the "poker boom" worldwide.

Let's deal with the jingoism first: the United States is not the center of the universe. However, in some areas the U.S. does lead and one of those areas is 'poker as a recreational fad'. The central elements present in the U.S. that have fueled the poker boom are: the high proportion of casinos and card rooms available to the population; a large middle class with disposable income; high amounts of leisure time to pursue gaming as a hobby; relatively lenient social restrictions on gambling. Add to this the holy trinity of: the internet, television hole card cams and Chris Moneymaker; shake and stir and you have the poker boom of the last five years birthed in the United States.

The first nail in the poker coffin was indisputably the passage of the Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act in 2006. While online poker remains available to everyone who is really interested; any trend, craze, furor or fad like all good pyramids needs a constant influx of bodies to provide new fuel and new fodder. The UIGEA strangled that conduit of new poker players in the U.S. and hurt online sites globally that relied on U.S. players. While many internet sites continue to flourish, we all dream of what might have been had the wealth of new U.S. players not been shutoff.

But why will this summer be such a telling moment for poker? Well, the pieces are in place for the perfect storm of economic factors to lay bare the shaky fiscal underpinnings of the poker phenomenon. First and most obviously, the whole world will be watching the World Series, which begins here in Las Vegas in just two weeks. In fact, our first piece of evidence is the change in the WSOP schedule moving the main event final table to November. Clearly, this is an attempt to salvage the declining viewership on ESPN. Sure, sure there are other PR reasons being floated for the experiment but the television numbers don't lie.

While nearly all of the European Union members could be and perhaps should be arguing over the myriad of byzantine online poker regulations; it appears that historical antagonists are now going to verbally spare over the dispute.

The UK House of Lords has condemned the French government and the gambling laws that protect their monopoly on gaming and poker, calling the laws "atrocious." Interestingly, the French have recently given signs of moderating their position and there are certainly more intractable members of the EU on this issue. The French government has certainly delayed its response to pressure from the EU commission on the free trade aspects around online gaming. But one wonders why now? And why point out that the punishment for online gambling is the same as for child pornographers?

Lord James of Blackheath pointed out that the punishment for a French national to place a bet with a British online bookmaker is one year in prison and a Euro 75,000 fine, the same punishment given pedophiles that download child porn.

One wonders if the European Union must now step up and actively pursue one or more countries whose online gaming laws leave them outside the statutory mandates of the EU for free and fair trade.

The Norwegian Poker Championship begins today in Nottingham, England. The Norwegian government has banned poker. The state governed monopoly "Norsk Tipping" does not offer poker and anyone playing poker with money could face criminal prosecution. So, the Norwegian Championship is held outside of Norway at the Dusk Till Dawn casino in Nottingham.

The Norwegian Poker Championship is Norway's largest poker tournament and is expected to attract over 500 Norwegian players. Since the event was launched in 2002, the tournament has experienced rapid growth, this is the 7th running of the event.

With a total estimated prize pool of £350 000, the winner of the Main Event will also receive a complete 2008 WSOP package. The tournament will be covered with live video blogs and full scale TV production of the Main Event final table. A special poker documentary is also planned for the whole 8 day poker festival.

Below is the complete schedule:

This report is offered without commentary or critique. Readers are welcome to draw their own conclusions and scathing commentary is welcome in the comment section. There is a new form of poker being tried in several casinos. The Mirage in Las Vegas is one of the largest poker rooms to give Texas Hold'em Plus a trial run.

"Plus" is played exactly like normal Texas Hold'em except that after the hole cards are dealt and before the first round of betting, each player in turn may discard one of their down cards and replace it for an amount equal to the small blind. The "Plus" bet goes into the pot and the deal then plays out like any other Hold'em hand.

One benefit, of course, is that the house is likely to get a full rake on the game with between $0 and $10 in a $2/$4 game or up to $20 in a $4/$8 game being added to the pot pre-flop.

We observed several tables of "Plus" being played at the Mirage and the most common play was for a player to buy a new down card and then still fold the hand. In effect, as many as 50% of the players were paying a small blind in nearly every hand. Players with an Ace-rag were always willing to buy a new card to go with their Ace.

Hold'em Plus is the first patented poker game played in a poker room, as opposed to table games like Caribbean Stud and Let It Ride. Rooms wishing to offer Hold'em Plus to have to pay a licensing fee to the developer.

"It looks as if the poker boom is surely here to stay."

No that quote and that picture do not go together. I found that optimistic quote while reading my "B" roll of poker blogs and realized it might be time to comment on the growing divide between those who believe the poker boom is still booming and those who are observing what they believe are the ripples after the shark has already reentered the water. [For the purists, I am aware that it was Fonzi what jumped the shark and the shark never jumped anything but Henry Winkler on skis is just not as compelling a picture as Carcharodon carcharias in mid-air.]

So, is interest in poker still going up or is it on the downslide? Well first, it depends. In the United States the trend is definitely on the downside. TV ratings are down; sponsors are bailing from poker shows; tournament buy-ins are off and yes, there are some poker rooms closing. There is, of course, the profound effects of the UIGEA limiting the online access of new players. But in the States the signs are still mixed, new casinos are putting in poker rooms; old rooms are still being remodeled with more space and more staff and some of the smaller tours are doing well. The problem in the U.S. is at the top of the food chain with the World Poker Tour in particular.

In Europe the boom is in full swing, despite the attempts of nearly ever national government to greedily slow down the expansion. The European Union members have been fencing over online poker rights in general and brick and mortar licensing in many instances too. Still the numbers are up on the European Poker Tour but not without some problems regarding size. The card rooms on the continent are not ready to handle 1,000 player tournaments and regional gaming regulators are clearly not as flexible as they are in the States. Remember the World Series of Poker is run in a large convention hall, far from the security of the day-to-day casino operations. Tournaments all over the United States run in big convention halls that few, if any, European casinos have access to without slow moving bureaucratic gaming commission oversight. When it comes to a poker boom; size does matter.

The Latin America Poker Tour (there were two, now one) requires the cooperation and approval of various countries and whatever governmental machinations they might wish to create, invent or impose. Same goes for the various Asian Poker Tours and the melange of countries in Asia that either oppose gambling or wish to restrict gaming within cultural and social boundaries. The boom may well be history in one part of the globe before a single hand of Hold'em is dealt in another.

What does it all mean? We are not completely sure, but we will keep on eye on the various factors pushing, pulling, and eroding the poker boom. One observation is clearly true: Insider's in the poker world have a very different view of the future of poker then does the average player. Not saying the insiders are right, perhaps they are too close to the subject but clearly, things they are a'changin'.

My poker buddies have been having another of our periodic email conversations about a particular poker hand when the term "average stack" came up. Whenever I talk about average stack, there are always players, even very good players who are surprised by the numbers.

Average stack is simply the measure of how many chips each player would have in a tournament if you divide the total chips by remaining players. So you start an event with 10,000 chips each and 500 players, it makes sense that with 250 players remaining the average stack is 20,000. Half the players are out, so everyone should have twice as many chips. Of course, that is not how tournaments actually play and there will be a wide distribution of those 2.5 million chips.

Lots of tournament players keep track of the average stack, it is one of the statistics most good computerized tournament clocks provide. In a smaller field tournament you can keep a fairly accurate count just by knowing the starting field and how many players remain. In big events, you can just consult the tournament clock.

OK, so you have survived Day One of a multi-day tournament and you are just below average stack. What does that mean? Well, what it does not mean is that you are just below the middle of the the field, because average stack is not the middle of the field, at least not once the cards have been dealt. The way poker works is that some player build big stacks and lots of others are short stacked.

In most tournaments at the end of Day One, the average stack will be in the top quarter of the field. On average only around 25% of the field will be above average. If you keep your stack at or around average in the first three quarters of a tournament's playing time, you are actually doing well above average.

As play nears the final table, one of two things will happen to the average stack. Either the 25% rule will roughtly remain in effect and the final table will begin with several small stacks and a couple of big stacks or the big stacks will take out all of the small stacks as play approaches the final table and the final nine will be fairly equal in stacks, as they all have feasted on the short stacks equally.

Note: the longer a tournament runs, the higher the average stack percentage can go. In major tournaments of four or five days, players below average stack will at times be more than 80% of the field.

The World Poker Tour has been making some news recently; let's see what they have been up to. First, they announced that as part of the WPT Championship of the current season six, currently underway at Bellagio in Las Vegas; as part of that celebration, they would be giving all former winners (96 of them!) a WPT Championship bracelet. There will be a big ceremony and nearly everyone has said: "So what? The WSOP gives bracelets, why is the WPT coming out with a copycat bit of bling at the end of six years of tournaments?"

Next, WPT Enterprises announced that Grup Peralada's Casino Barcelona will host its second World Poker Tour event May 21 – 27, 2008. But it really isn't on the official WPT schedule, it will not be taped for television and, well and what? Seems a bit like a placeholder and not a real tour stop.

Finally, there was the announcement of the World Poker Tour Canada. A completely separate Canadian WPT, which will begin on May 5th with the Coast to Coast Poker Tournament at the River Rock Casino Resort. The Coast to Coast Poker Championships will be the first stop for World Poker Tour Canada but no further sites or dates have been announced.

Perhaps before the World Series of Poker gets underway late next month, perhaps we should take a look at the World Poker Tour and see just how well they are doing. Time for a World Poker Tour report card. Coming next week.

There are a lot of poker charity events, I wonder why that never comes up when politicians are gassing off about the evils of gambling?

Anyway, today is not a rant but the announcement in praise for my favorite poker charity event: The Second Annual Jennifer Harman Poker Charity Event to benefit the Nevada SPCA No-Kill Animal Shelter. One of the best run, most fun and best attended charity events in Las Vegas, this year will be held at the Venetian Poker Room, which is just the best room in Las Vegas for such events. Below are the complete details for the April 18th event. If you are intown, see you there.

The Venetian Resort-Hotel-Casino will host the Second Annual Jennifer Harman Charity Poker Tournament on Friday, April 18. The no-limit Texas hold'em poker tournament will take place inside The Venetian Poker Room beginning at 3pm. All proceeds of the tournament and live and silent auctions will benefit the Nevada Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) no-kill animal shelter. The recommended donation to participate in the tournament is $300+30. There will be optional $200 re-donations for additional tournament chips throughout three 20-minute rounds and a $200 last chance add-on. The first place prize is a $10,000 seat into the 2008 World Series of Poker Main Event.

The Nevada SPCA no-kill shelter in Las Vegas gives comfort, food, and veterinary care to thousands of animals every year. Many of those animals thrive in environments without cages. You can find the Poker Shrink hanging out in the cat wing quite often.

"Last year we raised $130,000, allowing the Nevada SPCA to expand their facility," said Harman. "The Venetian Poker Room is a perfect venue, and their professional staff has been very gracious. This year's event promises to be bigger and better and many of my friends will be there to support this great cause."

Preceding the tournament, a red carpet reception will be held inside The Venetian Poker Room from 2 p.m. - 3 p.m. Confirmed celebrity poker players include Daniel Negreanu, Doyle Brunson, Johnny Chan, Howard Lederer, Phil Hellmuth, Jerry Yang, Marco Traniello, Jamie Gold, Hoyt Corkins, Amarillo "Slim" Preston, TJ Cloutier, Todd Brunson, Barry and Allyn Shulman, Erick Lindgren, Gavin Smith, Quin Do, Russ Hamilton, Lacey Jones, Roy "The Oracle" Winston, Freddy Deeb, Kristy Gazes, Antonio Esfandiari, Joe Hachem, Carmel Petresco, Daniel Alaei, Brad "Yukon" Booth, Barry Greenstein, Joanne "JJ" Liu, Layne Flack, Chau Giang, Cyndy Violette, Chris Ferguson, David Chesnoff, David Williams, Chad Brown, Vanessa Rousso, Lynette Chan, Huckleberry Seed, Jennifer "Jenocide" Leigh, Joe Sebok, Eric Mizrachi, John Phan, Jeff Madsen, Scotty Nguyen, Dan "Who's Your Daddy" Fleishman, Men "The Master" Nguyen, Steve Zolotow, defending champion Kirk Morrison, and many more.

The tournament is open to the public. Seating is limited and going fast. Please visit the NVSPCA site to reserve your poker tournament seat today, or call Lisa Wheeler at (702) 327-7250.

Other confirmed sports celebrities include ESPN commentator Lon McCarron, NFL quarterback Shaun King, Burton Snowboards David Driscoll, World Champion snowboarder Jeff Brushie, professional snowboarder Keir Dillon, Olympic snowboard medalist Ross Powers, and professional motocross rider Jimmy Button. Confirmed celebrities and entertainers include "Whale Hunt in the Desert" author Steve Cyr, local comedian Carrot Top, KVBC meteorologist John Fredericks, KXNT talk show host Alan Stock, KDWN's Heidi Harris, and Life's A Bluff comic creator Frank Frisina.

Celebrity tournament director and Tournament Directors Association (TDA) founder Matt Savage will host the tournament. TV Poker and FoxSportsNet hosts Robert Justin Huxley and Kyle Morris will emcee the event. Robert Williamson III will host a live auction during the breaks between tournament rounds, including official Burton Snowboards autographed by attending athletes, "The Simpsons Movie" memorabilia donated by Nancy Cartwright (voice of Bart Simpson), and personal items signed by poker professionals Jennifer Harman, Howard Lederer, TJ Cloutier, and Doyle Brunson.

A silent auction sponsored by Triumph sports includes a "Pete Rose & Jennifer Harman" dinner package with all proceeds going to the Nevada SPCA, a Joe Montana "Stephen Holland" limited edition framed giclee print, a Muhammad Ali & Joe Frasier limited edition framed photo, an "I'm sorry I bet on baseball" official baseball autographed by Pete Rose, as well as official helmets and memorabilia signed by Dan Marino, Dick Butkus, Peyton Manning, Eli Manning, Emmit Smith, Bill Parcels, Phil Simms, LT Adams, Joe Montana, Joe Namath, John Elway, Ladainian Tomlinson, Fred Biletnikoff and Jim Plunkett.

Sponsors and supporters of the Jennifer Harman Charity Poker Tournament include The Venetian, PocketFives.com, Poker Players Social Network (PPSN), Triumph Sports, Who's Your Daddy Energy Drink, Howard and Suzie Lederer, PokerNews.com, The Cartwright Foundation, Poker Road, WPT Boot Camp, NettieScrub, CardPlayer, TinyPrints, Poker School Online, Fundraisers.com, Sabre Design, and Life's a Bluff Frank Frisina.

If you are unable to attend this red carpet affair but would like to make a donation to the SPCA, here is the link. For information on other ways you can directly support the Nevada SPCA no-kill animal shelter contact Doug Duke at (702) 873-7722 or email the NevadaSPCA@aol.com.

The word "professional" usually comes up in poker when we talk about the players. There are "professional poker players", "professional wannabes", and the rest of us. However, true "professionalism" in poker comes from the management side not the player side. How tournaments and cash games are run with a "professional" style and uniformity comes from the individual card rooms, casinos, poker tours, poker room managers and floor staff. Recently, there have been several examples of how the management of the game is not keeping up with the game itself.

RENO: Today marks the first day of the World Poker Challenge in Reno, Nevada. This annual event formerly played at the Reno Hilton and now at the Grand Sierra (same casino, new owners). When the players were seated today, they were given seats based upon when they registered; so the normally late arriving "professionals" were all put at the final four tables and the many satellite winners over the last several months were all seated together. This pattern of registration is nothing new and is handled with a random draw by every other casino we have encountered in the last three or four years. But without some "professional" standards, this unnecessary situation arises. We can only assume new casino ownership, new poker room staff because we know the former poker room manager and he never would have allow this to happen.

EPT: The European Poker Tour has grown too fast. So far they have had to limit the number of seats in most events because they simply cannot accommodate more players. So there is a black market in tournament seats. As the numbers get close to the cutoff, some local entrepreneurs have been buying seats, only to offer them to late arriving professionals at a premium. Scalping seats to the EPT, a good line of work until they institute the "you buy it, you play it" rule, which has been around on other poker tours for years. It is not necessary to re-invent the rules, just look at how other successful tours deal with such situations or hire one of the several highly qualified tournament directors, who have the necessary experience.

TDA: The tournament directors association has been doing a very good job of seeking to standardized rules for running a poker tournament. The problem is that they have not and will not venture outside of that narrow area of concern. They do not feel they should be addressing issues such as the two mentioned above. TDA wants to focus on the actual running of the tournament from "Shuffle Up and Deal" to "We have a Winner." The problem is that many other issues that affect the players are outside of their self-appointed mandate and there is no other organization to address those issues of "professionalism" in poker.

Ten years ago we could have gone a year or more without finding any legislation or regulation that pertained to how we entertain ourselves in our spare time with our money by playing poker. Now you can't go a day without some governmental agency cranking up a new regulation to restrict what free people do with their lives.

Whether fueled by greed (taxes) or political morality (getting elected by imagined "morals" voters), the various governmental regulators continue to act as only out-of-touch bureaucrats can by proposing extreme regulations that address fictional issues around gaming in general and poker in specific.

Here is the latest on the "Poker as Political Punching Bag" watch.

United Kingdom: The UK Office of Communication has announced plans to reclassify gambling channels to the category of teleshopping and advertising.The proposed changes are said to be in the interest of protecting consumers.

The gambling channels would be covered by an advertising code, which is designed to protect consumers against misleading practices. The new proposed rules should have very little to no impact on what the channels are currently broadcasting; regulators will just be making sure they are offered in a socially responsible fashion.

California: The long rumored bill to make online poker legal in California has been introduced in the State Legislature. While the bill would not officially overturn the provisions of either UIGEA nor the much older Wire Act. The measure would provide cover for banks and other financial institutions by giving them another argument that the vague federal regulations are unenforceable and uninterpretatble.

Back in the UK: The Super Casino issue is still hot on the poltical agenda. Prime Minister Gordon Brown and his government are likely to be sued by Manchester, the city who a year ago was awarded the super casino site, when ministers this week confirm that neither Manchester nor Blackpool will be allowed to open a Las Vegas-style gambling resort. Manchester will seek to recover over 250 million pounds spent on the Super Casino previously approve my the UK authorities.

Back in the U.S.: The Poker Players Alliance spent $900,000 in 2007 to lobby the federal government on online gambling legislation.

The PPA, with 800,000 members, lobbied on a bill that would exempt poker from a law that restricts online gambling, and for legislation that would regulate or re-regualte the Internet gaming industry. Since all funds for PPA activities come from members, who we must assume are poker players; this means that $900,000 was taken out of the poker economy to lobby the U.S. government to leave law abiding citizens alone. Land of the free and home of the over-regulated.

The World Poker Tour has released it's schedule for season seven and it is a much reduced tour from season six.

Gone from last year's schedule are:

Mirage Poker Showdown, Las Vegas
Turks and Caicos Poker Classic
Mandalay Bay Poker Championship, Las Vegas
WPT Spanish Championship, Barcelona
World Poker Open, Tunica
World Poker Challenge, Reno
WPT Ladies Night

Here is the Season Seven schedule:

If you wanted further evidence of poker’s continuing growth around the world, look no further than the announcement of the India Poker Tour (IPT). These are four tournaments that will take place in Autumn 2008. Organizers hope to attract the world’s best players to do battle for their share of an expected $1 million.

This is, of course, the first poker tour to be staged in India and hopes to open the world’s second most populous nation to tournament poker. With the success of Indian players in last year’s Asian Poker Classic, the India Poker Tour has been launched in the hopes that the development of poker in India will be "professional, responsible and fair".

The tour kicks off in Mumbai in September and moves on to Bangalore. The third event will take place in Delhi before the Grand Final is held in the beautiful coastal state of Goa.

Imran Hassan, Director of Operations for the Tour said:

“Our goal is to add poker to the pastimes of the card and sport-crazed fans of India. India traditionally has had a long history of being a card-loving nation. So we hope the launch of the India Poker Tour will now help to satisfy India’s craving for skill based card games.”

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Players will be able to quality for the event via live and online satellites, with the online satellites starting in June 2008. Dates and online partner sites will be announced soon.

There is an online poll running that asks the question:

"What is more important, sex or poker?"

In early voting the numbers are 70% sex and 30% poker. Unfortunately the test is what we call a static answer model. Meaning no matter how you consider the question and no matter how many ways you say "Well what if?' or "It Depends", no matter how you ponder or wiggle; you only get to check:

A) Sex or B)Poker

What I would suggest for those serious students of poker psychology and those who consider the answer obvious, what I suggest is that you seriously answer to yourself, in private, behind closed doors, in super secret seclusion --- the following: When you first read the question:

"What is more important, poker or sex?"

How long did you hesitate before delivering the (your) obvious answer?

It doesn't matter which answer you picked. The "Sex" people will say the "poker" answer is crazy and the "Poker" people will say the same about the "sex" people. But for you, deep down inside, sitting alone in your hotel room after ten hours of poker or ten minutes of sex, the real question is--- How long did you really think about it before you answered?

Only you know the answer to that question but I suggest you never tell your partner or your dealer how long you actually hesitated.

I. Nelson Rose wrote a very interesting article last week on the State of Poker. I would like to offer some alternative comments and expository meanderings on some excerpts of his thoughts.

Mr. Rose's words are in italics.

"The European Court of Justice and the European Commission have issued dramatic statements calling for the end of barriers to internet gambling. Some observers see these as the beginning of the end for America's Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act and the opening of doors to internet poker."

I agree with Mr. Rose that there will be a dramatic confrontation within the EU regarding online gaming and perhaps even with a special exemption for poker. I also agree that many in the United States and some Far East nations see this as an opening for them to implement laws and regulations in their own countries.

"These developments are certainly much needed good news for publicly traded online poker companies, like PartyGaming. But I believe people are being way too optimistic in believing that changes in the law in Europe, or even direct challenges from Europe, will lead to any relaxing of U.S. federal prohibitions in the immediate future."

I would go even further and say that positive changes for E.U. member nations poker players will actually have negative consequences for U.S. poker players. You see if the E.U. actually opens up its online gaming operations, the European Poker Tour could very rapidly replace the WPT as the premiere poker tour. Why do you think the WSOP held its first European event this year? A unified and open online poker community under the E.U. auspices could funnel thousands of players to E.U. based tournaments.

The BBC Science website has an interesting test that I invite you to take and report back your results. The test lets you look at 20 faces and activate a micro-video of them smiling. The whole test takes less than ten minutes. Your task, should you choose to accept it, will be to decipher if the smile is genuine or fake.

I will suggest that such abilities away from the poker table is, in fact, a good measure of your skill in picking up tells at the table. You see many poker players believe that tells are indicators of whether or not a person has a weak or a strong hand. Wrong!

Tells are signs of a persons emotions and their reactive behavior to stress and anxiety. The change in their pulse or forehead or mouth takes place much faster than the brain processes: "That two of clubs made my flush."

So my point is that practicing and perfecting your reading skills is something that can be and should be done away from the poker table. If you can catch the fake smile or the nervous twitch of the eyebrow; it really doesn't matter if the person is bluffing with 72o or telling you how much they like your new shoes. The physical tells are the same and reading them correctly is your task.

Let us know how you did on the BBC test. My group of 'Poker Buddies' averaged only 12 out of 20; I need to play more poker with them!

In the continuing and ill-advisted attempt to control the Internet, the new Labour government in Australia is proposing a "Clean Feed." The technically retarded bureaucrats led by prime minister Kevin Rudd are seeking to increase control and censorship of the Internet by regulating Internet Service Providers.

Rudd’s plan is to "require" ISPs to provide “clean feeds” that are free of porn and online gambling sites. Supporters of the plan assure that only sites on a (presumably government authored) blacklist will be blocked, and that citizens can opt-out if they wish.

“The Rudd Government campaigned on a platform promising to speed up Australians’ access to the worldwide web by rolling out broadband around the country, the blacklist enlistment of ISPs would have the opposite effect."

Yet another example of a government with no understanding of personal freedom, much less an technical concept of how the infrastructure of the Internet functions.

Another EU member nation will add poker to its State run gaming site. This time Austria is seeking to control the revenues from online poker.

"Casinos Austria would shortly set up an online virtual poker room on its gambling platform Win2day. Casinos Austria has bought the technology for its new poker offering in Sweden. Casinos Austria would impose a new weekly limit of 800 Euros in bets by an individual as part of its effort to fight addiction to gambling."

As more and more European Union members opt for the State operated gaming sites over free market competition, it is becoming more and more obvious that there will be a boiling point in this trade war that will require the EU as a whole to decide if online gaming is or is not a open trade commodity.

The Balkanization of poker is becoming more and more a real possibility. If this happens everyone will be limited to playing online poker with only members of their own country or cooperative trading nations. The global freedom of the internet may actually meet its first defeat at the hands of governmental controlled poker games.

Absolute Poker has released a statement following the "independent" audit of their insider cheating scandal. The complete text of the release can be found below.

I want to say a couple of things about this entire incident. First, the audit was not independent, as it was done by the same folks who run the Absolute servers and "sanction" the Absolute site.

Absolute employees tried to cover up the cheating incident they knew had occurred. The evidence stands uncontroverted that the first reaction of everyone at Absolute was to deny and cover-up.

Documents and records that would verify the acts of cheating and identify the employees who cheated were destroyed. The argument that this was inadvertent is not to be believed.

There has been no meaningful punishment to Absolute, they are paying a half a million dollar fine, which comes out of one corporation account and goes into another. They do promise not to do it again, where have we heard this before? They are also going through a lot of smoke and mirror public relations effort to give the appearance of genuine concern.

Too little, too late and just too many lame excuses.

Will this happen again in the future at some big online poker site? Yes, it will. There are hackers, cheats and crooks out there looking for security holes in the cyber-systems.

What everyone should look for is how the next site responds to a security breech. Will they deny and attempt a cover-up like Absolute Poker did or will they deal with the issue openly and honestly. The measure of security is trust and trust is earned. Absolute Poker lost my trust and all this corporate double-speak will not gain it back.

My last question is: Why are there still players on Absolute Poker?

[Text of Absolute statement follows the page break.]

As the Shrink has argued many times in the past, the entire "legal" argument about poker as 'game of skill' or 'game of luck" is unproductive and misses the point. The point being that governments anywhere have no right, no business and no mandate to be mucking around if what you do with your time, your money and your life. Yet, again another country of poker players are having their rights restricted based on the bogus discussion of "Luck vs. Skill", this time we take you to Denmark.

The Danish High Court (Eastern Division) ruled that tournament poker is a game of chance, overturning a previous lower district court ruling that, of course, found poker to be a game of skill and games of skill are not subject to Denmark's restrictive gambling laws.

The decision is a setback for the Danish Poker Association which once again finds itself in breach of the Danish Criminal Law. Yes, their existence, including lobbying and speaking out for the rights of poker players are technically criminal under the existing law.

Poker tournament organizers have been sued by, who else, the Danish Casino Association for organizing illegal gambling events. Not that the DCA organizes anywhere near the number of poker events the poker playing public would demand in an open and free marketplace.

There will be another appeal, of course, but in the meantime the estimated half a million Danes who play poker will have to consider whether an evening of enjoyment playing poker is worth arrest and possible prosecution with penalties right up there with auto theft and burglary.

I have been reading all of the year end poker articles and blogs the past several days. You don't need me to give you another recap of the year in poker, so I thought I would look for the one single event or change that has taken place in poker that was the most significant happening in 2007. My pick:

Around the world, wherever governments have attempted to limit access or prevent access to online poker; wherever this has happened, the games have gotten harder to beat.

Sweden, Turkey, France, United States and the list goes on. Whether the government is attempting to set up there own state controlled gaming site or limiting access to 'foreign' sites or seeking to prohibit gaming completely; the effect is the same. If new players cannot easily establish an account the deposit funds the player pool shrinks and the remaining players get better.

This analysis does not even consider the billions of potential players in Southeast Asia and China, who are effectively prevented from accessing online gaming sites, at least until the governmental agencies (Vietnam for instance) are in place to allowed state controlled poker.

With all the noise about "Free Markets" from the various western governments, the facts demonstrate that morality and greed dominate the various restrictions and, so far, none of them are even 50% effective in stopping players from playing. The real effect has been to prevent new players from joining poker sites and therefore depriving them of their basic human right to be free from governmental interference in their private lives.

Of course part of the learning curve of any game involves some losses, without new players the games get tougher and although that may help you take your game to a higher level. It will also stress your bankroll at times.

The bottom line? Prohibition does not work. It never has, it never will and there are certainly better endeavors for Parliaments, Congresses, Legislatures, Commissions, Agencies and Churches to spend time and taxes on.

As the calendar year trundles to a close, I have riffled through my cyber poker files to find these tidbits that never quite made it into a post.

Looking for a really good collection of video poker clips, try Pokah Videos. This is a wide rangIng selection covering almost anything that has made it to the internet. The keyword search works great for finding your favorite player.

In the category of "The Other Side of the Coin" here is a comprehensive article about how the WTO/Antigua decision will affect the recording industry but allowing "legal pirating" of copyrighted material by Antiguan companies. This as the tradeoff to allow the US to keep Antiguan gaming companies banned from the States.

Tired of those poker playing dogs? How about poker playing American Presidents (an EU version soon?). Choose Republican or Democrat players.

Then there was the Drew Carey video defending online poker players and deriding governmental interference in the game.

If you are going to read just one article about the state of poker than this one from The Economist is the one to read.

Shana Hiatt blopper anyone? She clearly had input into which clips made it into this collection because the "wardrobe malfunction" was not included.

On the same day (Friday) the the World Trade Organization affirmed a small (21 Million Dollars) trade award to Antigua-Barbuda, the United States Friday urged Antigua to hold off on imposing sanctions authorized by the WTO in a dispute over online gambling, saying Washington was "revising its WTO commitments."

US Trade Representative spokesman Sean Spicer advised Antigua to delay any action after an arbitrator for the Geneva-based World Trade Organization allowed the Caribbean nation to impose sanctions worth 21 million dollars a year. Spicer said Washington has initiated a formal process at the WTO to revise its commitments and is in talks with Antigua and six other WTO members that have claimed to be affected.

"Once the process of clarifying the US schedule of commitments is complete, any issues in our bilateral dispute with Antigua will be moot, and there will no longer be any basis for suspending WTO commitments."

The action marked the latest byzantine twist in a dispute with Antigua and Barbuda, a tiny Caribbean nation that complained in 2003 that the US ban on Internet gambling violated WTO rules. Antigua has repeatedly prevailed in its bid at the WTO to have the US ban declared improper. But US officials said earlier this year that Washington was not bound to change its laws to open its borders to the Internet gambling industry because of an "oversight" in a decade-old trade agreement.

It would seem that the more action taken by individual national governments the less clear the legality of the online poker industry becomes. Take a look at a few of these comments made over the last several days.

"The US trade representative said press reports had 'misrepresented' an agreement with the European Commission this week to resolve a trade dispute over the US ban on online gambling. A spokeswoman said the agreement, in which the US offered concessions on the postal, courier and other sectors, would not involve "any change" in US law or practice and was simply intended to provide greater legal certainty to some sectors."

One wonders how 'concessions' do not involve 'change'?

When the 2008 World Series of Poker schedule was announced for May 30-July 16th of next year, there was also a mention of two additional pre-tournament events.

"The Amazon Room will open four days earlier to allow for early registration and two special events."

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The first of those events was announced today by the World Poker Association.

The World Poker Association will get ahead of the crowd at the 2008 World Series of Poker with the WPA Superb Satellite Tournament for its members. The satellite will take place May 29th at the Rio All Suites Hotel and Casino-one day before the official opening of the WSOP. It is expected to create a prize pool that will produce multiple seats into the main event of the 2008 WSOP.

Join the WPA as a pro or as an associate member and be part of the WPA's Superb Satellite Tournament at the Rio May 29th.

The WPA is also exploring additional events at the Rio around the time of the WPA Superb Satellite Tournament. So the "early events" at the Series this year may include more surprises like perhaps a Tournament of Champions that was absent from the WSOP in 2007 or perhaps the Ante Up for Africa charity event that is also rumored to be on the 2008 WSOP schedule.