PokerJobber

Last night 60 minute’s Lesley Stahl did a story on internet gambling. I didn’t think this was a very good story, it was just reporting what people already know…that millions of people gamble online and that all of the online casinos/cardrooms are overseas because the U.S. has laws prohibiting internet gambling in the U.S.

The simple fact is people will gamble regardless of almost any laws banning it in the U.S. 48 states have some sort of legalized gambling be it the lottery, bingo, or actual casinos with slots and table games(Utah and Hawaii are the only 2 states with NO gambling whatsoever) - many citizens are only a few hours from a casino of some sort. In under 2 hours I can gamble on horses and play slot machines at charles town races and slots or drive under 4 hours to get to Atlantic City and gamble on almost anything I desire. The United States is sending mixed signals to it’s citizens that gambling is bad so you can’t do it everywhere…but not THAT bad so we’ll allow some form of it just about everywhere.

60 minutes reported that internet gaming companies will make 10 billion in profits this year and that 80% of that money comes from U.S. citizens (none of which is taxed by the U.S.). The two main arguments against internet gaming that I heard from this story were “it’s bad for you” and that underage kids can do it too easily. I will dismiss the “it’s bad for you” argument right now since that is a moral judgment that the U.S. government already allows us to make on our own with legal gambling so prevelant in our country. But how will we keep underage kids from using these sites? Legalize and regulate online gaming so it is harder to register for these sites without first proving who you are. This obviously won’t always work and not all the sites will follow the U.S. laws - but many will.

Nigel Payne, CEO of Sportingbet, a UK based internet gaming site was interviewed for the story had this to say…

“I often say to people, ‘Please give me one solid plausible argument why you shouldn’t regulate it.’” And Payne rejects the argument that it is bad for you. “If you regulate it, you control it. If you regulate it, you set limits. Is that bad, when the comparator is ‘Ah, just let them do what they want.’ Is that really bad? I don’t think it is.”

The story grouped all gambling in the same boat and I suppose that is because many people see playing poker the same as pulling a slot machine. There are two big differences between poker and every other game in a casino, one is that is you are not playing against the house and the other is that in the long run poker is a skill game. There is no doubt an element of luck in poker, but luck only goes so far. If a player continuously gets their money into the pot with the best hand they may still lose some of those hands when the cards are played out, but this isn’t unlucky, this is expected 1 out of a 100 times if that hand had a 99% chance to win. I see online poker in a different light than other games (I don’t play any other casino games online besides poker) - but I think those that are skilled can be profitable unlike other casino games. But who knows - maybe this thinking is just a degenerate gambler rationalizing his activites - but that decision should be mine to make.

Bottom line is the U.S. government is losing out big time by not legalizing and taxing online gaming. They are here for our physical safety and not to impose their perceived morals on its citizens.

I had a very uneventful night at the Clarendon Grill tournament tonight. I was getting a pretty horrible run of cards for most of the evening so I played a pretty low percentage of hands. I used the tight image to bluff at a few hands a build my stake a little bit.

The blinds go up very fast at these things, about every 10 or 15 minutes. When the blinds wree at 500 - 1,000 I had only 4,500 left and was dealt in the big blind… definately not a premium hand. Four players limped into the pot for 1,000 and Katie put in all of her chips (1,500 total). I decided the pot odds were good enough ($6,500 total) and if I was going last any longer, this would be the hand - I moved my remaing $3,500 in. The player to my left called and everyone else folded (besides Katie who was already all in) making the pot $13,500 total.

I was thrilled to see that both players held A2 offsuit greatly helping my odds. Flop came with one spade. Turn was the giving me a flush draw, an inside straight draw, and 2 live cards for 17 total outs. With 42 cards unseen in the deck that gave me a 17/42 chance of winning (about 40%). Well surprise surprise that last card was a blank. Katie lasted a few more hands and busted out with (all-in pre flop) when someone else hit trip sevens on the river.

Play was surprisingly decent at my table…no drunks going all in this time. I didn’t see chopper around either, maybe I’ll catch him at Bailey’s tommorrow night. Maybe I’ll be the drunk going all-in every hand tommorrow…seems to work for some people.

Being Tuesday in Arlington can mean only one thing… free poker night at the Clarendon Grill! The National Pub Poker League (NPPL) runs the games at 7pm and 10pm. If you thought a table full of drunks were loose with their chips, wait till you play with a table full of drunks not playing with real money.

I’ve been to about a half-dozen of these events around the Arlington area and you start to see a lot of the same places. I’ve been attending as often as I can to get as much live play as I can (even if the play is pretty bad overall) since the closest live, legal cardroom is Atlantic City. I need to find a good underground club in DC… The grill gives out bar gift certificates to the top 2 finishers and the final table finishers get varying numbers of NPPL points depending on the number of player participating. These points are redeemable for prizes and other items - If you are ranked high enough the league invites you to a World Series of Poker freeroll with the winner receiving a buy in to the main event.

Players come in many many forms - my favorites are the guys who possibly live outside in their car (if they have a car)…or at least look like it. One in particular I played with (I’ll call him “Chopper” since he was missing most of his teeth) he just loved going all in - didn’t matter how many chips he had, what cards he had, or if he even looked. He went all in 5 or 6 times in a row without looking, when he was called he kept winning. He was winning with the worst hands and when he finally lost he actually started with the best hand. Didn’t matter to him though, he was there for the (non-free)booze and the fun of it.

I’m not saying there aren’t solid players that come to these events, there are. There are some very good players - but mostly play is all over the place. Setup is usually 9 tables of up to 8 players each (72 total for the arithmatically challenged). Each player starts with $4,000 in chips, blinds start at $25 -$50 and increase varyingly between 10 and 25 minutes..usually starting slower and picking up the pace as the night goes on (I think the guy running it usually realizes the game won’t end as early as he would like so he picks up the pace). Good time overall.

While reading Dr. Pauly’s WPT Foxwoods Day 1B live blog I won a deck of World Poker Tour playing cards. Unfortunately my cards won’t be delivered by Shana Hiatt, but by the burly USPS postal woman. Surprisingly enough I won it by spotting a typo in a picture that mispelled the word “official” (…offical). Why is this surprising? Well seemingly every time I post a blog, Stanus points out my faulty english, mispellings, and typos.

Dr. Pauly’s poker blog Tao of Poker is one of the more well known poker blogs around and one that I read pretty regularly as he shares two of my big interests, poker and jam bands. Another blog I’ve been into lately is Table Tango written by Linda Geenen, a poker dealer at the Bellagio. She has lots of good poker stories and frequent run-ins with professional players. I will be adding good poker links as I find them - I’m the first to think of this groundbreaking concept, I know.