Poker in a Post-Allegedly-Ponzi World

No, this will not be some insightful, informative post on where the online poker industry is at present.  Quite frankly, I could care less about online poker at this point.  I do still play the occasional game with my son, but it is not really challenging me at all.  I am out of work, with no bankroll, and a place to play poker only 20 minutes away.  Is this the definition of hell?  Maybe if I was as poker obsessed as I was 4 or 5 years ago, the answer would be yes.  I am finding I can live without poker.  Not that I want a pokerless existence. 

The main problem I have seen and continue to see with online poker is not getting the website to run a clean game and keep their books straight.  The main problem is cheating players.  And it is not just that they cheat.  It is the erosion of trust the sites have because they allow cheating to go on.  This is the reason that when I was playing with real money, I was playing the lowest stakes (that and lack of bankroll).  Why would I want to play in the middle or upper levels when I know there are easy ways to cheat and get away with it.  I don't consider myself too much of a mark.  I am always trying to figure out how thing can be done and cheating with online poker seems to be a fairly easy thing to do. 

Legislation:  Do states really believe they can make money with online poker limited to their own state?  I am not sure how.  The big sights had one thing going for them.  They had tons of players, at all hours of the day and night.  You wanted to play a game, it was there.  With State-limited poker, there would be a lot fewer players out there, fewer games, fewer dollars to rake.  And cheating would still occur.

What is the solution to online poker?  I don't know.  At the very least it needs to be heavily regulated, audited, and policed.  I think the best level to do this in the US is to do it at the national level.

Enjoy the Pokery Goodness,

mortal_one

Death of Online Poker: Day Zero

With the indictments today of the Big Three online Poker providers in the US today, there is a virtual blackout of online play.  I am sure you can still feed your urges at some of the smaller sites, but I would not encourage it.  This is the reason I have played very little with real money since UIGEA was passed by congress.

For details on what is happening, I suggest you got to Pokerati.

Enjoy the Pokery Goodness (just not online for the time being)!

Can't Log in To FTP

Maybe it is just me. For the past 4 days I have been unable to log in. It tells me there is updated software. When it tries to download I get the message "Problem decompressing archive, please try again later.

Maybe I should remove FTP software from my laptop and try to load it again. If that does not work, I will contact FTP.

Enjoy the Pokery Goodness! (even though I can't)

Thank You for the Referrals

In April, this humble blog got referral traffic from the several sites. These are sites that have a lot more poker content than I do. Please check them out as a way of thanking them for linking to me.

Tao of Poker
PokerParty Blog
Pokerati

Here comes the subtle hint: If you would like to see your site listed here next month, put me on your blogroll.

Enjoy the Pokery Goodness!

Poker Blogger Tournement Series

I won't be playing in this series, but if you like poker, and you blog, you might consider it.


See the banner above the posts. Unfortunately it is too wide to display here.


The reason I will not be playing is:

I have no legal way of transferring money to Bodog for the entry fees. (Thank you US Congress! - note the sarcasm)

Enjoy the Pokery Goodness!

Please note that I received no consideration - financial or otherwise for this post. This post was made as a courtesy to a fellow blogger, a real poker blogger unlike myself. Have fun Nadia!

Poker's Popularity

It seems to me that Poker is not as popular as it was last year or the year before. Revenues from online sites are down. The number of entrants in the WSOP main event was down this year. Ratings for poker programming is down this year as well. I am not saying that poker has "jumped the shark", just that it is not as popular.

I see that there are two reasons, one major and one minor. The minor reason is the unpopularity of last year's champ of the WSOP main event Jaime Gold. I have no comment on him one way or the other. The fact is that he did not generate as much excitement in his win as did Hachem, the previous winner.

The main reason is what I call the "Stupidity of Congress". In putting the screws to financial institutions who do business with legitimate online poker sites. This caused Party Poker to drop all their US clients to play money status. And caused Neteller to basically do the same. This cut about 80 to 90 percent of the online players out of the game. If they are not playing online, they cannot win seats to the main event and they tend to forget about poker.

I know I have not played for real money online since Congress passed and the President signed the bill into law. And I have watched far fewer hours of poker on TV since then.

If only I could find a good home game.

Until then, Enjoy the Pokery Goodness!

Updated Site

The good folks at Poker Source Online sent me an email earlier in the week. They have re-done their site. Go check them out before you sign up to play online. They have some good deals.

I have not had a chance to play in the last week. I have been busy filling out applications, interviewing, and doing taxes. Still no job! If anyone knows of an online job or a job in the Eastern Panhandle of WV, I would be very appreciative if you would send that information my way.

I will be making some time later in the week to play.

Enjoy the Pokery Goodness!

Poker Source Online

This might interest one or two of my new readers, and maybe one or two of the long time readers.

The other day, I received an email from the good folks at Poker Source Online. It said they are in the process of renovating and changing their site. In the past, they have offered good deals for new player (money for signing up on various Poker sites) and for rakeback deals.

I did not find PSO until after I had signed up, and I have not played enough to take advantage of their rakeback deals.

They expect to roll out the new site on or about February 1, 2007. I will give you more information when and if I get it.

Enjoy the Pokery Goodness!