2012 July 30th

An editorial by Stanley R. Sludikoff, Poker Player Newspaper Editor/Publisher

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. —Georges Santayana

 Thanks to a very slow moving US Attorney, we are still in the midst of a major poker industry scandal. Do you remember how electronic cheating was found on the now bankrupt Ultimate Bet/Absolute Poker network? Do you remember how all the customers of those internet web sites did not get their deposit accounts back? Are you still waiting to get your Full Tilt Poker deposit back? Indeed, will you ever get it back? These questions, and their answers, should be at the forefront of your mind if you are contemplating playing internet poker in the future.

by David “The Maven” Chicotsky

At a town hall meeting for the Poker Players Alliance at this year’s WSOP, I heard a speech from Congressman Joe Barton (from Texas), one of the most public and outspoken advocates for legalized online poker in America. After addressing the crowd, he was asked about, “timing,” as it relates to presenting a Congressional bill and pushing it through the House of Representatives and United States Senate. He explained that there is no perfect formula for timing the introduction of a bill to increase the odds of passing both chambers of Congress. However, there are many indicators among political chatter and national occurrences signaling a ripe time for writing new law.

by Lou Krieger

The size of your stack of chips and those of your opponents can have a significant impact on how you play a hand. If you’re playing in a $1-$3 no-limit game and have $300 in front of you, but you have just one opponent who has only $35 left to wager, the effective stack size is $35. That’s all you can win from him and all he can win from you. The maximum potential leverage of a wager either of you might make is only $35.

by Ashley Adams

I just completed a six state poker trip. I flew out to Minneapolis and drove west on (what I had planned as) a six day poker road trip to visit poker rooms in North Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, and South Dakota—four of the nine remaining states in which I had never played poker. I’d gone online to read up on what they spread and where they spread it—and frankly, I wasn’t terribly encouraged. None of those four states had legal public poker rooms that spread no limit hold’em— and there surely was no stud. So I had planned on a relatively bland diet of low limit and low spread limit hold’em. As it turned out, however, the experience was far from bland. It included what I now consider to be the best place in the world to play poker.

By Wendeen H. Eolis

Day seven of the 2012 World Series of Poker (“WSOP”) started with the final 27 players. Among the finalists, the poker gods favored two women but burst their bubble in the 11th and 10th spots. Before the day began, the most adored marquee names had all disappeared. At the close of the WSOP’s summer season, PokerStars’ pros were out of the hunt. And, word was trickling out that PokerStars’  top brass were occupied with more far reaching matters on the WSOP’s last day of summer play.

Is There A Real Deal In The Cards?

There was still no official announcement on the anticipated deal that would turn over to PokerStars the assets of Full Tilt Poker (“FTP”) and no word on the concrete basis on which to believe that  Full Tilt customers were about to see  repayment of their locked up funds.

by Haley Hintze

DELAWARE APPROVES  ONLINE POKER AMID  GAMBLING EXPANSION

 A broad-based expansion of gambling opportunities  was signed into law by Delaware Governor Jack Markell one day after  Delaware’s state Senate passed a House bill authorizing several forms  of online gambling, including online poker. Online casino games and  NFL parlay betting were also included in the bill, which will call for  residents to purchase deposit vouchers from authorized state sales  agents once various online network pieces are up and running.

THREE MONTHS FOR BLACK FRIDAY’S  THREE MONTHS FOR BLACK FRIDAY’S  CAMPOS CAMPOS