1. Stop using the term “fish” to describe anyone, recreational to pro, regular to tourist.
2. Never berate anyone, ever. It’s just poker, next hand.
3. You dont have to talk, but if you do, be courteous.
4. Respond nicely, the recreational players are here to have fun.
5. Say “nice hand” and actually mean it.
6. Gamble it up with them now and then, they are there to gamble.
7. Relax, you might be there to make a living, but have some fun.
8. Some are there for competition, be a good sport.
9. Take the sun glasses off (esp when playing online poker. )
10. It’s a game. Games are meant to be fun. Make this a priority for the recreational player.

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Tags: online poker, Poker

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Tags: online poker, Poker

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Now that I have found a home for my Fantasy Sport fix on DailyFantasyStrategy, I’m going to take this blog back to what is should be, a poker and life blog. Onto my re-opening topic:
____________________________________
Do NOT expect a new online poker boom!

The powers that be are aligning themselves after the DOJ cleared its view on the Wire Act (but pertaining to lotteries) to finally embrace online poker and the railbirds are chirping, wondering, speculating, arguing and discussing what the future of online poker will and should look like. Well I can tell you one thing, there will be no new poker boom.

Why?

This change is going to happen slowly, very slowly, OK not pre-internet slow, but slow for the rapid pace we are on now. We have seen the seeds of change planted in Nevada (Nevada Gaming Commission Proposed Regulations for Interactive Gaming) and the District of Columbia. Some rumblings that states like Iowa and New Jersey are not far behind.

Bills will we written, rejected, debated, rewritten, rinse-repeat until everyone agrees a form of online poker will be passed in THEIR STATE. And then once the rules, licences, and platforms are up and running, such gambling will only happen within the respective state(s) (through state IP addresses.) As it’s been speculated, and seems quite logical, there is another well established industry of gambling that states may align themselves when it comes to this new online poker market, the state lottery systems.

The first state-run lotteries were established in the 60s, factually 1964 by the State of New Hampshire and then followed by New York in 1967. The first US joint lottery formed in 1985 and the bigger lotteries, ie MegaMillions and Powerball, weren’t formed till the late 1990s. Many, like U.S. Digital Gaming‘s Chairman, Richard D. Bronson agree that online poker will take this route:

Richard Bronson Discusses DOJ Wire Act Ruling on CNBC from Mark Rivers on Vimeo.

You can read a recent interview with Richard Bronson here on PokerNews: Click Here and I suggest reading “The Bronson Bulletin” as well.

So what does all this mean?

There will not be a “Boom”, it will be more like a snowball, a slow moving snowball, to get any resemblance to what online once was. Let’s hope you live in a state that will jump on board once the forces of online poker convince the lottery forces that online poker will be good, not bad for them. Hopefully online poker promoters can convince governors like Martin O’Malley of Maryland (Maryland Governor Opposes Online Poker to Protect Lottery) that future lotter sales could be great when teamed with online poker. Just think, MegaMillions reaches 240million and you can buy a $1 ticket in a click:

It will take some time but It’s going to be a fun ride!

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Tags: Black Friday, online poker, Poker

There is a new trend in the fantasy football market, instead of season long fantasy football, you can wager (yes legally), on daily fantasy sports.

In fact, good ol’ Billy First, actually put an exemption for wagering on Fantasy Sports right into the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA)

§ 5362. Definitions
In this subchapter:
(1 ) BET OR WAGER.
The term ‘bet or wager’—
(A) means the staking or risking by any person of something of value upon the outcome of a contest of others, a sporting event, or a game subject to chance, upon an agreement or understanding that the person or another person will receive something of value in the event of a certain outcome;
(B) includes the purchase of a chance or opportunity to win a lottery or other prize (which opportunity to win is predominantly subject to chance);
(C) includes any scheme of a type described in section 3702 of title 28;
(D) includes any instructions or information pertaining to the establishment or movement of funds by the bettor or customer in, to, or from an account with the business of betting or wagering; and
(E) does not include-
(i)….(viii)

(ix) participation in any fantasy or simulation sports game or educational game or contest in which (if the game or contest involves a team or teams) no fantasy or simulation sports team is based on the current membership of an actual team that is a member of an amateur or professional sports organization (as those terms are defined in section 3701 of title 28) and that meets the following conditions:
(I) All prizes and awards offered to winning participants are established and made known to the participants in advance of the game or contest and their value is not determined by the number of participants or the amount of any fees paid by those participants.
(II) All winning outcomes reflect the relative knowledge and skill of the participants and are determined predominantly by accumulated statistical results of the performance of individuals (athletes in the case of sports events) in multiple real-world sporting or other events.
(III) No winning outcome is based
(aa) on the score, pointspread, or any performance or performances of any single real world team or any combination of such teams; or
(bb) solely on any single performance of an individual athlete in any single real-world sporting or other event.

You can read the entire UIGEA bioler plate here.

So I have spent the last few weeks playing daily fantasy baseball on FanDuel. The system is fairly easy, you pick options using a salary cap system. There are HU, 5-man, 10-man and multiplayer tournaments. I deposited $100, and have already withdrawn $150 (which I received near instantly) using my PayPal account.

Probably best to show by example, so here are my lineups for this weekend in to different salary caps:

Salary Cap: $60k

Salary Cap: $60k

Salary Cap: $55k (expert)

Hopefully my skills will shine this weekend, good luck everyone!

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Since April 15th, known as Black Friday in the online poker world, it has been common place to slam the Department of Justice’s indictments that cause Poker Stars, Full Tilt, and Absolute/UB to leave the US online poker market.

Comments regarding the DOJ and Black Friday often evolve around, “they took our jobs!” and “fck the DOJ” etc.

Well, on Black Friday, if anyone said to me that Full Tilt Poker would not be able to pay back US players and then it would be shut down completely, taking all players bank rolls with it, I would have laughed. FWIW, if anyone said, “Absolute/UB will just disappear w/everyone’s money.” I would have said, “yeah that’s sounds likely.”

I am a serial optimist and have been through this entire fiasco.

Until now.

Before I continue I will say it is sad I cannot give my business to Poker Stars, as they are obviously the ones who shine in this story. PokerStars was returning US players funds to by the end of April and came through with flying colors.

But now, its pretty clear that the number you had in your Absolute/UB and Full Tilt bankroll balance was completely fictitious. Just a clicked number, video game points, a smoke show, a mirror game, complete and utter bull shit. There is really no other way to describe it.

Why did this happen?

There is no regulation. First and foremost. There are no rules, no universal governing body, nothing in place to protect the US players. None. In fact it seems like no one is likely even going to be held accountable, sadly.

So now, more than ever a case for reglating online poker can be made. (for a great read on this, check out DeucesCracked coach, Vanessa Selbst, who is finishing up at Yale Law, post here: Case for Regulation of Online Poker (2009 law school paper.)

And for this reason I would like to thank the DOJ.

Sooner or later there will be online poker, in fact, there will be online everything once the old guard dies off. (see my rant “Death first, then freedom.“)

After this black market period, I say black market as there are still some sites that are US facing. (view them, Click HERE.) We will eventually have a regulated form of online poker. Will this be optimal for the former US online poker players? Probably not. But it’s quite obvious it is 10 fold from where we were, especially in the light of how Full Tilt has fallen on the face of the Earth. And hopefully the natural order of business competition will make things more and more optimal.

So the next time you think, ‘the DOJ took our money….they took our jobs.’

STOP.

The money was never there and the job had no security system backing it.

Thank you DOJ.

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Tags: Black Friday, department of justice, Full Tilt poker, Poker, uigea

Just had to share these, they are really inspiring. Thank you for sharing Rick Mereki.

MOVE from Rick Mereki on Vimeo.

LEARN from Rick Mereki on Vimeo.

EAT from Rick Mereki on Vimeo.

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After watching a few days of ESPN “live” coverage of the World Series of Poker Main Event, it’s pretty clear we are looking at the future of televised poker. I say “live” as it’s on a 30 minute delay for obvious reasons (to protect the games integrity).

Quick aside, congrats to my friend Dave Tuchman for his play by play work. You can follow Dave on twitter, click HERE. I just wish they would get Bart Hanson to do the commentary, he did a GREAT job during the 50k 8-game final table. But I digress…

For the first time you are hearing poker terms regularly like: Fold Equity (the percentage of equity you have from the pot based on how often the opponent will fold) and Polarized Range (Taking an action with only really strong or weak hands, and nothing in the middle.) These terms will be googled, researched, and then studied by those who are watching and never heard of them. Our complicated poker language will become more and more common place.

This will only expand the game. This is good for the game of poker. The more people in the game, the more we show how beautifully complicated it can be. The more will start to believe how much skill is in the game.

Its Poker’s time to shine.

If you are still in the Main Event, Good Luck! And, represent us well!

Added: Quick shout out and a thank you to Shaun Deeb who took one of the worst beats on a ESPN live table, or any table for that matter. (His AA lost to A6 in a HUGE all in preflop pot.) But Shaun’s a pro’s pro, kept his cool, counted out his chips, and even though I know he wanted to scream, he got up and just calmly walked away to cool down a bit.

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Tags: ESPN, main event, WSOP

OK, yes, shocking title but bare with me here.

Obligatory pre-post WARNING: This post is a bit of a rant, bit of my ideas, bit of truth, bit of something to teach, and hopefully some I can learn from as well.

Now for as long as I have been learning about economics there have three fundamental building blocks to economies, in no order:

I feel it is pretty clear we have a fourth, fundamental building block of economics.

Some might argue that the Internet is just another form of infrastructure, like how good roads, railways, and water passages have helped build economies. But the brick and mortar infractrures dont make money by themselves. They are catalyst to speed economic growth up. OK, yes, these statements make the internet sound like freeways on steroids but the internet does more that than.

It educates. It manufactures. It extracts.

It employs.

Some day all the old guard will finally die off. And most of the industrial world will be full of leaders who never new life without the internet. All laws will have an undertow that the internet will guide, it will be the, beg my misnomer, natural way of things.

/rant

Ignore this, that’s fine, I may be just dying to play an hand of online poker anyway.

Thanks for reading,
Joe

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If you missed SNL last night, Justin Timberlake is ON FIRE and great to see Lady Gaga getting very involved and Jimmy Fallon back for a spot.

WARNING – NSFW

Another chapter in the Digital Short w/Andy Samberg and Lady Gaga cameo.

This What’s that Name was fantastic:

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