Poker Pro Layne Flack Taking Russ Hamilton Heat!

Back in December, poker pro Layne Flack implied poker legend, Doyle Brunson, may have bought his earlier World Series of Poker bracelets.

In an interview with Card Player Flack was quoted as saying:

"Poker pro Layne Flack won the $1,500 pot-limit Omaha rebuy event this year, dismissed the notion that a bracelet could be bought.

'That's bullsh--," said Flack. "It's not like there is no play. The field is huge.'
Flack pointed out that a player can only rebuy when he has as many chips as when he started the tournament (or less), so it isn't as if someone could just buy a dominant stack.

"You want to talk about buying a bracelet? Let's talk about Doyle's bracelet when there were eight people in the tournament," said Flack. ‘The critics should look back in history and see where a bracelet has been bought'."

In a follow up interview with the popular poker mag/website, Flack clarified his earlier comments. He insisted that he respects anyone who has won a bracelet, regardless of the year he or she won it, and talks about the difficulty involved in some of the smaller tournament fields.

Needless-to-say, when Flack first made his comments, Doyle Brunson wasn't exactly happy.

"As a rule, I don't say anything about things people say in interviews. But I can't help being deeply offended by (that) article" Brunson said. "I thought this man was a friend of mine. Back in the early days of the WSOP, I certainly didn't even consider that a bracelet would have any value. I only played in 2 or 3 events a year because Jack Binion expected me to. I actually didn't pick up two bracelets in the 70's-80's because I already had a couple. I never won a tournament that had 8 people in it. There were only 14 entries in a mixed double tournament that Starla Brodie and I won. If I could find that bracelet, I would sent it to Layne and tell him to stick it where the sun doesn't shine."

Gambling911.com reported this weekend that Flack has really taken some flack this past week for an interview that aired on RawVegas.tv, a subsidiary of the uber popular WickedChopsPoker website.

It was the first public interview (err ambush) with accused "insider poker cheat" Russ Hamilton (you might remember his name mentioned during a 60 Minutes segment covering the scandal).

The poker community wasn't necessarily focused on what Hamilton had to say (he didn't say much) as they were with the person whom he played golf with. That would be Layne Flack.

"This crowd already sees Hamilton as the devil," explains Payton O'Brien, Senior Editor of the Gambling911.com website. "They now see Layne Flack as someone who is selling his soul to the devil perhaps."

One member of the PokerRoad forum community had this to say about Flack playing golf with Hamilton:

"Look if people in the poker community want to pretend like it (the cheating scandal) is a big deal in public but then behind closed doors they don't care, why should anyone believe any of these (poker sites) are fair. One of the only reasons we trust sights like Pokerstars or FullTilt is because people like Berry or Ivey say it is a fair game. No outsiders are ever let in to audit it. Now if sponsored pros are hangin' out and being friendly with supposed cheaters or at least some one who is accused of cheating it should make everyone feel unsafe."

Accused 2006 WSOP Main-Event Champ/Renegger Jamie Gold Set To Join UltimateBet?

Remember the scandal in which Gold tried to reneg on his partnership after he won the 2006 WSOP Main Event before finally settling? Well, now he appears set to join cheat-scandal plagued UltimateBet.

Read this:

A lot of speculation has been raised as to how well 2006 World Series of Poker winner, Jamie Gold, is doing financially when it comes to his poker career.

Much of the talk began in early January when, on the new episode of PokerRoad, they briefly spoke about Jamie Gold and there was mention by Ali Nejad mentioned how Gold has gone from having $8 million to nothing.

The speculation surrounding Gold's finances grew more intriguing when it was reported he was seen playing $2 to $5 no limit hold em and $5 to $10 no limit at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas. Supporters claim he's playing these games for pure enjoyment. Detractors claim his "reckless nature has caused him to come close to squandering his entire bankroll."

What we do know for certain is that Jamie has been involved in a plenty of charity poker work of late, which hardly sounds like somebody who is blowing wads of cash at the poker tables. The idea that he is playing $2 to $5 no limit hold em seems to support the notion he has some degree of discipline.

Jamie Gold has also acknowledged that he is looking to team up with a new online poker room, one that does take customers from the U.S.

Unfortunately, these are few and far between. There is Full Tilt Poker, which seems a bit saturated with talent at the moment, PokerStars, Cake Poker, our friends at Doyles Room (now part of Cake), the Merge Network and a handful of smaller card rooms.

Bodog, ranked among the lower top 15 of online poker rooms in terms of real cash players, previously dropped Gold after his big upset win in 2006.

This leaves us with UltimateBet.

Gold acknowledged this week that his charity work involved UltimateBet spokesperson, Annie Duke.

"I was invited to get involved with the Ante Up For Africa tourney on Annie Duke and Don Cheadle's behalf," Gold says.

And while the choices are somewhat limited for the time being, most meet the criteria he is looking for.

"I am looking for, and will find a site that we can all trust, accepts US players, and will teach and support their players without worry of impropriety or monies not being safe," he states.

And while UltimateBet had been involved in a much publicized "insider" cheating scandal last year, that card room feels it has implemented measures to prevent a similar incident from happening in the future, including a change to new software (the Cereus platform).

Gold won the largest pot of any World Series of Poker events and enjoyed a status similar to that of Chris Moneymaker - a player who seemingly came out of nowhere and helped propel the World Series of Poker to that next level. Gold's win had a storyline that drew even more interest to the event when he was forced to share his winnings with a Hollywood promoter he'd befriended back when he himself was a Hollywood agent.

Russ Hamilton Keeping His Mouth Shut About UltimateBet Scam He´s Accused of Masterminding

WickedChopsPoker via its RawVegas.TV arm featured exclusive footage of "alleged" UltimateBet super-user Russ Hamilton after completing a round of golf at a course he frequents (second to last paragraph) yesterday in Las Vegas.

You might recall Hamilton was at the center of an insider poker cheating scandal involving UltimateBet that aired on none other than 60 Minutes this fall.

"One thing from this video is very clear: Russ Hamilton absolutely does not want to discuss his alleged involvement in the UltimateBet super-user cheating scandal," the WickedChops.com poker website points out. "Like, not even a word. And if you're innocent, even if your lawyers tell you not to talk, really, don't you just have to talk? How do you NOT?"

Hamilton, winner of the 1994 World Series of Poker main event, has total live career tournament winnings up to $1.5 million, though he's believed to have amassed quite a bit more via his role in the online poker cheating scandal.

On September 29, 2008, the Kahnawake Gaming Commission stated it had found clear and convincing evidence to support a conclusion that between the approximate dates of May 2004 to January 2008, Russ Hamilton was the main person responsible for, and benefitting from, multiple cheating incidents at Ultimate Bet.

You can watch the exclusive Russ Hamilton video at WickedChopsPoker.com

Do Any Of Those Online Poker and Casino Cheating Gadgets Work?

These days you can hardly search the Internet for anything related to cheating at gambling (online or off) without falling upon an array of google-sponsored websites hawking online gaming cheating devices. What was once the domain of brick and mortar casino roulette computers has largely given way to devices whose sellers claim can do everything from count cards at online blackjack to determine where roulette balls will land on online roulette wheels to teach you how to control virtual world dice in craps games and, of course, to see your opponents’ hole cards at poker, which appears to be the most attractive of all the online gaming cheating gizmos and gadgets for sale.

But, and this is a very big “but,” do any of these gadgets actually work? In prior months I had written extensively, both for Gambling Online Magazine and on my blog at richardmarcusbooks.com, about the brick and mortar roulette computers for sale online. The truth concerning them is that the majority of them do work, but only up to a certain point. The ones for sale on the Internet for a thousand quid or two will overcome the huge built-in casino roulette advantage and even give you a sleight statistical edge, but due to other factors—mainly the imperfect actions of those using them, lack of internal operational security, and the fact that practically all roulette bosses in all European casinos are already keen to this fashion of beating brick and mortar roulette—very few groups employing them make any worthwhile money at it. There is, however, much better and much more expensive equipment that is not for sale online and is quite effective tracking spinning roulette balls, but the playing lives of those operating them is still usually short and most find themselves barred from every casino on the continent before they earn enough to pay off their equipment.

As far as the Internet sale of gadgets for cheating online gambling goes: are their buyers mainly suckers, or is there anything to this stuff? Well, lets start with the most popular of these offerings: software that supposedly allows you to see your opponents’ hole cards in poker games. In light of all the online poker scams connected to this type of cheating, right off the bat the validity of these online cheating “packages” cannot be 100% dismissed. I, for one, can attest to that. Back in 2005, I was witness to a clandestine operation of online cheaters using high-tech software called “Peeker” to see their opponents’ hole cards. At the time, Peeker worked on several sites and no inside help was needed to assist the cheating operation. Although it is true that today’s online poker sites’ security systems are much better than just a few years ago and their source codes more difficult to crack, I do not believe, nor do many people with much more knowledge than I, that effective hole-card peeking software implemented from the outside can totally be rendered useless. But is this type of powerful software really available for sale on the Internet? If so, then why are people selling it? Why are they not just using it?

I do think that some serious hole-card software is for sale on the Internet, but not in the sponsored Google ads you see to the right of your search engine results. Just like there are hidden corners in the cyberworld for terror, hate and child porn material, there are those for people with access to buy highly advanced online gaming cheating equipment, but I assure you that the numbers of people trading in this area are small and the prices big—very big. As for why people are selling it instead of using it, there are a plethora of answers. I would lay odds that some people are doing both: selling some of their equipment while using prototypes to cheat the players on online poker sites and the operators of online casino sites. In other cases, those with the capability to design and develop this kind of software technology just don’t want to use it for personal reasons. They very well might be into other forms of cybercrime such as identity theft and bank and credit fraud. Whatever the case, don’t always assume that the “why are people selling it instead of using it?” discrediting clause means that whatever is for sale is bogus. I would, however, discount the vast majority of cheating software and equipment for sale to the general Internet public.

What about the cheating offerings for online gambling games other than poker? Do they have any validity? Can you count cards and gain an edge at online blackjack with the aid of cheating software? Can you know ahead of time if Player or Banker will win the next hand at online baccarat? Well, to date, I have no concrete evidence of these technologies making anybody any money, although I get e-mails from people claiming they have used them to beat these online games and online roulette as well. Not surprisingly, I have also received e-mails from sellers of various cheating software wanting to post articles on my blog espousing their effectiveness. One person who claims to have written software that will beat online blackjack by exposing the dealer’s hole card even invited me to China at his expense to see his “laboratory”—with the condition that after proving its validity I would write about it on my blog. Honestly, I was tempted, but my schedule is just too hectic to go to China anytime soon.

You’re a gambler, right? And the world is undergoing a severe financial crisis, right? Well, here are two issues that should concern you: How will the slumping worldwide economy affect both brick and mortar and online gambling? And how will it effect cheating in both venues? The answers to these questions might not be what you think. Before we get into how falling financial markets and failing businesses might affect cheating, let’s first take a look at how the global economic swoon is changing overall casino and poker room gambling, both online and off.

As you might expect, brick and mortar casino gaming revenues across the world are sharply down the past few months, but less so in Europe and the UK than in the US and Asia. Some land-based casinos in the most stricken areas have taken drastic measures in what is probably as much the anticipation of casino revenues continuing to fall as reaction to the current dismal situation. The most pronounced of these has been taken by the Mohegan Sun Casino in Connecticut, USA, since its opening one of the most profitable casinos in the world. Mohegan officials have recently announced that all of its employees will be subject to pay cuts in 2009. Whether this is due solely to realised drops in revenue or in conjunction with projected drops, it is concrete evidence that the worldwide brick and mortar casino industry will be suffering somewhat in the months to come.

Another remarkable example of real-world gambling chaos is the boom to bust devolution of the giant casinos in Macau. Just six months ago we heard how revenues and profits of the casinos in this Asian gambling mecca had surpassed those of Las Vegas, becoming the new gambling capital of the world. The children of casino mogul Stanley Ho and others were embarking on yet the development of more billion-dollar casino megaresorts. Growth seemed like it would sprout up forever with a never-ending influx of gamblers from mainland China and the Pacific Rim. Well, that bubble the size of London has burst, and now reports out of Macau say that ex-casino workers are transforming into everything from day labourers to clerks at the post office to simply unemployed. Despite this, Ho’s son and daughter claim they will continue developing billion-dollar projects already in the works.

What about online poker and casinos? How the deflated economy is affecting them is a bit harder to gauge. The problem is that nearly all the news and statistics analysing online casinos and poker rooms comes from online sources, whose accuracy tends to be less dependable than that of real-world news networks. I have read online reports whose data measuring the drop-off in Internet gaming vary from 20% decline to 80%. Whatever the true number, it is clear that online gaming is suffering, although the online poker and casino sites themselves have displayed no signs of panic.

Personally, I would be surprised if online gaming revenues are truly down as much as 80%. Why? Well, first of all, online gambling has proven to be more addictive than brick and mortar gambling—as much for its easy availability as its speed of dealing and playing hands. Furthermore, there has always been a correlation between unemployment and increased online gambling by those newly jobless. To put is simply, people out of work often find themselves more frequently online gambling because they have more time on their hands than when they’d been working. Unfortunately, many of these people dig into their savings to stay in the games when their luck runs bad. Others look to online poker and casinos to make their ends meet while out of work. Of course you don’t need me to tell you that these attempts more often fail than succeed.

But there is potentially an even darker side to the effect on online gambling from the current economic plight. You might have guessed it: I’m talking about the possibility of more cheating and more large-scale online gambling scams. One very notable aspect of this financial crisis is that it has exposed many financial frauds, including perhaps the biggest in history, the $50 billion “pyramid scam” allegedly engineered by American Bernard Madoff that victimised some superrich owners of online gambling entities. As far as actual play on online sites is concerned, the average number of players will, for at least a while, remain lower than in recent years, but the average number of cheaters and scammers will likely rise. We probably won’t see any major inside scams like Absolute Poker and UltimateBet any time soon, but mid and lower-level cheaters using poker bots, collusion and other outside cheating techniques will increase their raids on online poker rooms.

Why am I saying this? Well, actually I am only using real world history to predict the immediate future of online gaming. Since the Great Depression of the late ’20s and ’30s, whenever there are economic struggles and hardships, financial scams proliferate. That’s because in these times people are desperate to earn money—and cheaters and scammers know how to find the ponds these people navigate in search of making money. Throughout history, one of those biggest ponds has been the gambling world, which nowadays makes the online gambling world prime territory for Internet savvy casino thieves.

In addition to outright cheating incidents, there may be other, more severe, problems plaguing the online gaming world if economic conditions don’t improve relatively quickly. That is, we could see (if online gaming revenues continue to fall) a dejá vu of Internet gambling’s early days when a number of online casinos disappeared from the cyberworld without returning funds players had on deposit with their sites. This is not likely but could certainly happen if there is a major failure in the online gaming industry.

So, what’s my advice to you online gamblers during these times of financial crisis? It’s not to panic but to be vigilant when you’re gambling online, especially in the poker rooms. If you suspect cheaters at your table, whether you think they might be “botting” or playing in collusion, your best choice is to move to another game or another site. If you find that you’re continually losing even without suspecting you’re a victim of cheating, still do the same. It could equally be a spell of bad luck or some new online poker scam we haven’t heard about yet. And most important, remember: if you are suffering non-gambling financial woes due to the fiscal crisis, and surely lots of you are, don’t look to gambling, either brick and mortar or online, to bail you out!

Real Human Online Casino And Poker Dealers To Help Stop Cheating! Yes, You Read This Correctly!

Live online casino dealers are now showing up in Online Casinos. Can this possibly stop the cheating? I doubt it!

A new revolution in online gaming began in 2008 and is sure to continue over 2009-–the processes of using live dealers and real cards in an online casino.

One thing that has meant online gaming has not exploded to its full potential is peoples’ natural paranoia – they do not feel they can trust the randomly-generated cards of an online casino, despite it being a far more random shuffle than anything a real dealer could achieve.

Even though independent checks and reasoned logic mean that the majority of online gambling sites will not be cheating their customers, many people still feel nervous. This is why live video feeds of dealers cutting, shuffling and dealing cards make people feel safer about gambling online.

The exhibition at ICE London recently showed that many online casinos have developed and improved upon live dealer software. This time next year, it could be the norm.

Poker Players Alliance Pays For Testimony Of Statistics Profressor Who Says Poker Is A Game Of Skill And Not Chance!

It's All In Attempt To Get Brick & Mortar Poker Legalized Everywhere And Then Online Poker As Well!...Good Luck!

Read this:

Possibly the biggest no-no in a poker game — a no-no that in the days of Wild Bill would get you shot in a saloon — is collusion. That’s when at least two players work together to take money off the other players, either by avoiding each other, dumping chips to each other or downright cheating, as Edward Norton’s character did with Matt Damon’s in “Rounders.”

But Kevin Raley of Windsor wanted to prove poker was a game of skill — and only partly because he wanted to use it as a defense to dodge a professional gambling charge in his criminal trial. He also had another motivation: He wanted to do his part in building what he called a “mountain” of cases of positive verdicts for poker and poker players. As a result, Friday’s jury verdict of not guilty, where the jury stated the prosecution failed to prove poker was not a game of skill, gives more ammunition to poker players who want to see state and even federal laws changed to declare poker a game of skill and not chance.

“The poker players have to work together as a group on this,” Raley said.

Last August, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation and other agencies raided Rafferty’s, 5990 10th St. in Greeley, and arrested five patrons and members of a poker club on professional gambling charges. The club only accepted invited members and required them to read bylaws. Rafferty’s didn’t take any percentage of the game, commonly called a rake. State law prohibits games of chance from being played at bars with a state liquor license. So Raley, with his attorney, Todd Taylor of Greeley, wanted to argue that poker was a game of skill, not of chance. That was important because the state law does not include risking anything of value on contests of skill, speed, strength or endurance. Poker does have an element of chance to it, Taylor said, something he acknowledged in court and knows himself as a poker player.

“That doesn’t mean it’s not a contest of skill,” Taylor said. “Remember the Immaculate Reception? That was based partly on chance. But would anyone argue that football isn’t a contest of skill, speed, strength or endurance?”

Two points in the trial helped his defense, Taylor said. One was when the undercover CBI agent who played in the game told the court he was losing on purpose. It’s almost impossible, Taylor said, to lose on purpose in games of chance. Try it sometime in slot machines or roulette.

The second was testimony from Robert Hannum, professor of statistics from the University of Denver. He’s the author of “Practical Casino Math” and has done a lot of research on gaming modeling and applications. Taylor said Hannum once ran a billion hands in a simulation with two players in a heads-up match. He programmed one player to play his cards randomly, and the other to raise with a certain number of select hands. The player selecting his hands and raising with them won 97 percent of the hands, Taylor said.

The Poker Players Alliance, a nationwide organization lobbying to legalize poker across all states and also online, paid for Hannum’s testimony.

Jury trials don’t make decisions that have precedence-setting power, said Gary Reed, director for the Colorado chapter of the Poker Players Alliance. But it could help the cause of the alliance if decisions like this one keep coming down. Last week, a Pennsylvania judge also ruled that poker was a game of skill, freeing a man who ran a small no-limit hold ’em game with no rake out of his garage. The Colorado chapter would like to see the law changed, declaring poker as a game of skill. That would help protect games such as the one hosted by Raley and the four others who were arrested at Rafferty’s that night.

“We don’t advocate the unrestricted and unlicensed play of poker throughout the state,” Reed said, “but we do think this was the correct decision, and we certainly applaud it.”

It could even help legalize online poker, rather than it be subjected to the federal Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, which prohibits players from transferring money from an American bank to a gambling site. The alliance wants to see poker carved out as a game of skill, something that’s allowed sites to offer fantasy football and games such as solitaire for money.

“I would hope that these decisions would send a message that reasonable people would look at it,” Reed said, “and have it show that reasonable people believe that poker is in fact different than games such as roulette and craps.”

As for Raley, he said he would discuss whether to start up the poker club again with his other organizers once their legal issues are resolved. They intend to resume the game, but they’re not sure. They need to discuss it, together, possibly over a game of poker.

The Global Economic Crisis...How Will It Affect Gambling And Cheating, Both Online And Off?

You’re a gambler, right? (Or maybe a cheater!) And the world is undergoing a severe financial crisis, right? Well, here are two issues that should concern you: How will the slumping worldwide economy affect both brick and mortar and online gambling? And how will it effect cheating in both venues? The answers to these questions might not be what you think. Before we get into how falling financial markets and failing businesses might affect cheating, let’s first take a look at how the global economic swoon is changing overall casino and poker room gambling, both online and off.

As you might expect, brick and mortar casino gaming revenues across the world are sharply down the past few months, but less so in Europe and the UK than in the US and Asia. Some land-based casinos in the most stricken areas have taken drastic measures in what is probably as much the anticipation of casino revenues continuing to fall as reaction to the current dismal situation. The most pronounced of these has been taken by the Mohegan Sun Casino in Connecticut, USA, since its opening one of the most profitable casinos in the world. Mohegan officials have recently announced that all of its employees will be subject to pay cuts in 2009. Whether this is due solely to realised drops in revenue or in conjunction with projected drops, it is concrete evidence that the worldwide brick and mortar casino industry will be suffering somewhat in the months to come.

Another remarkable example of real-world gambling chaos is the boom to bust devolution of the giant casinos in Macau. Just six months ago we heard how revenues and profits of the casinos in this Asian gambling mecca had surpassed those of Las Vegas, becoming the new gambling capital of the world. The children of casino mogul Stanley Ho and others were embarking on yet the development of more billion-dollar casino megaresorts. Growth seemed like it would sprout up forever with a never-ending influx of gamblers from mainland China and the Pacific Rim. Well, that bubble the size of London has burst, and now reports out of Macau say that ex-casino workers are transforming into everything from day labourers to clerks at the post office to simply unemployed. Despite this, Ho’s son and daughter claim they will continue developing billion-dollar projects already in the works.

What about online poker and casinos? How the deflated economy is affecting them is a bit harder to gauge. The problem is that nearly all the news and statistics analysing online casinos and poker rooms comes from online sources, whose accuracy tends to be less dependable than that of real-world news networks. I have read online reports whose data measuring the drop-off in Internet gaming vary from 20% decline to 80%. Whatever the true number, it is clear that online gaming is suffering, although the online poker and casino sites themselves have displayed no signs of panic.

Personally, I would be surprised if online gaming revenues are truly down as much as 80%. Why? Well, first of all, online gambling has proven to be more addictive than brick and mortar gambling—as much for its easy availability as its speed of dealing and playing hands. Furthermore, there has always been a correlation between unemployment and increased online gambling by those newly jobless. To put is simply, people out of work often find themselves more frequently online gambling because they have more time on their hands than when they’d been working. Unfortunately, many of these people dig into their savings to stay in the games when their luck runs bad. Others look to online poker and casinos to make their ends meet while out of work. Of course you don’t need me to tell you that these attempts more often fail than succeed.

But there is potentially an even darker side to the effect on online gambling from the current economic plight. You might have guessed it: I’m talking about the possibility of more cheating and more large-scale online gambling scams. One very notable aspect of this financial crisis is that it has exposed many financial frauds, including perhaps the biggest in history, the $50 billion “pyramid scam” allegedly engineered by American Bernard Madoff that victimised some superrich owners of online gambling entities. As far as actual play on online sites is concerned, the average number of players will, for at least a while, remain lower than in recent years, but the average number of cheaters and scammers will likely rise. We probably won’t see any major inside scams like Absolute Poker and UltimateBet any time soon, but mid and lower-level cheaters using poker bots, collusion and other outside cheating techniques will increase their raids on online poker rooms.

Why am I saying this? Well, actually I am only using real world history to predict the immediate future of online gaming. Since the Great Depression of the late ’20s and ’30s, whenever there are economic struggles and hardships, financial scams proliferate. That’s because in these times people are desperate to earn money—and cheaters and scammers know how to find the ponds these people navigate in search of making money. Throughout history, one of those biggest ponds has been the gambling world, which nowadays makes the online gambling world prime territory for Internet savvy casino thieves.

In addition to outright cheating incidents, there may be other, more severe, problems plaguing the online gaming world if economic conditions don’t improve relatively quickly. That is, we could see (if online gaming revenues continue to fall) a dejá vu of Internet gambling’s early days when a number of online casinos disappeared from the cyberworld without returning funds players had on deposit with their sites. This is not likely but could certainly happen if there is a major failure in the online gaming industry.

So, what’s my advice to you online gamblers during these times of financial crisis? It’s not to panic but to be vigilant when you’re gambling online, especially in the poker rooms. If you suspect cheaters at your table, whether you think they might be “botting” or playing in collusion, your best choice is to move to another game or another site. If you find that you’re continually losing even without suspecting you’re a victim of cheating, still do the same. It could equally be a spell of bad luck or some new online poker scam we haven’t heard about yet. And most important, remember: if you are suffering non-gambling financial woes due to the fiscal crisis, and surely lots of you are, don’t look to gambling, either brick and mortar or online, to bail you out!

Texas Hold'em Soon To Be Legal--In Texas???

Poker Inches Closer To Legalization In Texas!

It is kind of ironic that the state which has given its name to the most played gambling and poker card game in the world, TEXAS hold'em, has steadfastly outlawed Texas hold'em and all other poker and gambling games. But now that may finally change, giving "real" legitimacy to Texas's sons' favorite poker game.

Poker advocates in Texas are making a serious push in the upcoming legislative session to legalize the game, according to a story with the Dallas Morning News.
Currently there is no casino gambling of any kind offered in the state of Texas but the underground poker scene seems to be exploding and with it the amount of police raids. Dallas alone had 10 raids on poker rooms between 2006 and 2007 with a total of 270 players arrested. Poker advocates are arguing that with the newly elected House Speaker Joe Straus (who many see as much more open-minded about the issue than his predecessor) the time is right to legitimize No-Limit Hold'em in the state.

Perhaps the most positive development for poker fans has been that Rep. Jose Menendez has submitted HB 222, which would see poker games operated under the authority of the Texas Lottery Commission. The bill's supporters say that Texas is missing out on a huge financial opportunity and that legalized games would bring more safety to poker players in the state.

"Right now, you don't know what kind of game you're walking into," said Mike Lavigne, Texas director of the Poker Player's Alliance in the Morning News article. "It could be a game with cheating. There could be collusion. There could be guns. The bill gives the players a safe place to plan in an honest game."

Last session the HB 3186 bill (which was similar to HB 222) made it through committee but never to the full House. It was estimated the bill would bring over $1 million to the state of Texas over two years time.

One of the biggest supporters is Dan Michalski, the editor and founder of poker blog Pokerati.com. Michalski is a former Dallas resident and mentioned the danger of not legalizing the game in the article with the Morning News.

"It can turn into a criminal enterprise, which is something we don't want it to be," he said. "When you make something legally questionable it has to underground, it starts to attract people who are looking to make money in an off-the-radar way."

Ironically some of the world's best poker players including Doyle Brunson and the now deceased Johnny Moss and Sailor Roberts all hailed from Texas.

Michalski is encouraging Texas poker fans to write emails of encouragement to both Straus at joe.straus@house.state.tx.us and Menendez at jose.menendez@house.state.tx.us.

PokerPlex In Middle of Online Poker Tournament Controversy!

A $3000 guaranteed freeroll appeared in the lobby at PokerPlex, an online poker room and 72 Poker Plex poker players registered to play. The online poker players battled it out in the Poker Plex freeroll that was said to pay the winner a brand new Rolex watch.

$3000 in prize money was then to be divided up among the 2nd through 9th place finishers. After the tournament, all of the winners recieved their prize monies, and poker player ‘wwwpkr4ucomforum’ began to wait excitedly for his shiney new Rolex to arrive in the mail.

The tournament had a maximum player entry of 1500 people, though there was no marketing, no press releases, no news stories, in fact, I’d never personally heard of PokerPlex before today, so there weren’t a lot of players registered to play.

A few days after playing in the tournament, and taking down first place, the first place winner ‘wwwpkr4ucomforum’ began to wonder when he’d receive his prize, the brand new Rolex watch. He decided to email the poker rooms support for further clarification.

Everyone knows that to be considered a true ballah in the poker game, you must own a bad a$$ watch, this player was no different, he needed his new watch, preferably in time for Christmas! ‘wwwpkr4ucomforum’ said in a public forum that he waited a week for PokerPlex customer support to get back to him and they never did, in fact when he finally did get a hold of them it was via their online chat support system.

They did not to congratulate him on his first place victory, or to tell him they’ve just put his brand new Rolex into the box, and that it sounds simply musical when it ticks. Nope.

The online support agent explained to him that the tournament was somehow scheduled incorrectly. The support agent told him to continue to await further responce, that Playtech had to be contacted, they also promised to compensate the player.

Another week went by. Finally, a representative by the name of Scott replied via email:

I’m sorry for the delay in getting back to you. We have now heard back from Playtech and as this Tournament was a non advertised or scheduled tournament it was not valid and no payments should have been made. Any players that did not withdraw funds won from this Tournament have already had them removed and no further payments are due. Procedures have now been put in place to prevent invalid tournaments running.

However as a good will gesture I have credited your account with 200 EUR and wish you the best of luck in our future Rolex Freerolls.

The would be Rolex winner obviously had some things to say in an email I was unable to obtain thus far, and in reply from PokerPlex came the following:

This is not a joke and we are not treating it as one. As an invalid Tournament it had no monetary value at all. As I stated in my previous email any funds that players were awarded from the Tournament were also removed.

If your Bank made a credit to your account in error you wouldn’t and couldn’t expect them to give you this money just because they had made an error. Like wise, even though Playtech posted this Tournament on the wrong date we are not liable for any invalid winnings. You would have know from the number of entrants and all of the Promotional material that this was not the correct date and that any winnings would also be invalid.

We have given you a credit that we think is fair for your inconvenience considering there is no obligation to give anything”

There is no word yet on how many of the 8 other winners got the money out of their accounts, or how many had it removed from their accounts without their permission from PokerPlex.

20th Guilty Plea in Tran Criminal Enterprise Baccarat Conspiracy Case!

Phat Ngoc Tran, 35, pleaded guilty today in San Diego to conspiring to participate in a racketeering enterprise, the "Tran Organization," in a scheme to cheat at least 12 casinos across the United States and Canada out of millions of dollars, Acting Assistant Attorney General Rita M. Glavin of the Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Karen P. Hewitt for the Southern District of California announced today. Tran admitted that he and his co-conspirators unlawfully obtained up to $2.5 million during card cheats.

A three-count indictment was returned May 22, 2007, and unsealed in the Southern District of California on May 24, 2007, charging Tran and 13 others each with one count of conspiracy to participate in the affairs of a racketeering enterprise; one count of conspiracy to commit several offenses against the United States, including conspiracy to steal money and other property from Indian tribal casinos; and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. The indictment also charged five separate individuals each with one count of conspiracy to commit several offenses against the United States, including conspiracy to steal money and other property from Indian tribal casinos; and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering.

In his plea agreement, Tran admitted that on numerous occasions between approximately October 2002 and July 2006, he participated in gambling cheats together with other alleged members of the Tran Organization at casinos in the United States and Canada. Tran admitted to targeting at least 12 casinos in the racketeering conspiracy.