Party Has Brand New Software

[Content Disclosure: 98% Poker, 8% Life, 3% Waiting for Barney]

As many of my loyal and all of my disloyal readers know, I write for several websites. My two biggest jobs are PokerBlog.com and the Beginner's Blog at OnlinePoker.com. These sites are operated by Party Gaming and in a strange twist of governmental bureaucracy, I cannot play poker on the Party Poker site. Since the 2006 passage of the Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act, U.S. based players cannot access Party Poker. Besides driving many of us a bit nutso over this strange act of governmental restriction on personal freedom, there is also the plain truth that for many poker players Party Poker was our favorite site.

Well here is the current good news/bad news for U.S. players and the good news/great news for every other poker player on the planet. First, there's new Party Poker software, which now makes the Party Poker site one of the most amazing player interfaces anywhere on the web. The tables are faster, more intuitive and just easier to use. The Party Poker lobby also has a new, completely updated design. Play is more fun for all the poker players with Party access. Great job tekkies!

On the other side of the coin, the U.S. Congress after nearly two long years has made its first move to quash the draconian restrictions of the UIGEA. Representative Barney Frank's House Finance Services Committee has reported out a piece of legislation, which begins the slow march back to full access for all U.S. poker players. Once this legislation works its painfully slow way through the legislative process, we will all have access again to the party at Party Poker.

European Union and United States Reach Trade Agreement to Continue Ban of Online Gaming

[Content Disclosure: 100% Poker, 14% Fascism, 9% Stupidity]

The hope of many US poker players was that the huge compensation over the WTO trade ruling would force the Federal government to back off on the UIGEA. Well quietly today the EU and the US have agreed on a trade deal that will allow the United States to continue to block European gaming sites from soliciting customers using US based computers.

The European Union has accepted a compensation package the U.S. has offered, in response to its withdrawal from World Trade Organization (WTO) agreements on gambling and betting services. "A bilateral agreement was signed in Geneva, which provides EU service suppliers with new trade opportunities in the U.S. postal and courier, research and development, storage and warehouse sectors," the Commission said. "The U.S. also made concessions in the testing and analysis services sector."

The WTO ruled in 2005 that the U.S. gambling ban -- which exempts certain domestic services, for online horse-racing -- effectively discriminates against foreign companies seeking to offer similar services in the U.S. market.

The European Union said it will also "continue to press for non discriminatory treatment in U.S. internet gambling legislation."

Meanwhile, a WTO decision on what sanctions the island nation of Antigua and Barbuda may impose on the U.S., over its refusal to allow U.S. citizens to gamble at foreign online casinos, has been delayed, Reuters reports.

Antigua has asked the WTO for permission to impose $3.44 billion in annual trade sanctions, while the U.S. says the country should be entitled to $500,000 in damages.

An Invitation to a Resurrection

[Content Disclosure: 100% Poker; 43% Shameless Self Promotion]

If you are reading this blog entry you know all you need to know today about UIGEA [Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act]. Unless you are one of my non-poker buddies and you are here to see what I have been doing the last few years, in which case you should give me a call and we can catch up.

The transitory governmental restrictions of freedom and in particular the freedom to play poker have made it difficult for many poker websites to stay in business. Not just the actual gambling sites but all of the support sites. Most of those online operations employ or employed writers. I was and am one of those writers.

So I am happy to announce that one of my former poker gigs/sites is coming back to life and I will be the chief blogger again over at PokerBlog.com. That does not mean I will be abandoning this space. I like "Keeping Your Head in the Game" and I will be staying right here. But please come on over to PokerBlog and let me share with you a few of my other inner demons, angels, angles and directions; all directed at poker of course. PokerBlog will be "all poker all the time" which means this space might find a bit more room for the other sides of my life and maybe even some "other" cards.

Stay Tuned--A Seasoned Witch will call you from the Depths of your Disgrace.

Beyond the Angry UIGEA Conversation

There is an interesting debate going on over at Jay Greenspan's Blog. The topic is "beyond the rage at UIGEA". Bill Rini has weighed in and so, of course, has Jay. Some other wild haired radical has joined the noize, you might want to take a look and please join the conversation.

Poker Doldrums, Rumors, Doyle & UPC.

Yes, there are fewer and fewer poker posts on blogs throughout the cybersphere. Yes, it is the UIGEA and the fascist enforcement tactics of the United States government. Thousands of lost jobs, magazines and websites shutting down. Viable businesses banning players from the 50 states of Amerika. While poker flourishes throughtout the rest of the world. But enough of that here are some news tidbits, including one that includes an article I wrote.

Item 1: Last week I wrote an article for PokerNews, which basically said that the Ultimate Poker Challenge had stopped taping their weekend events at Binion's in Las Vegas. Well the UPC folks threw a hissy fit and got out a nasty little press release that denied everything in my article and, of course, contained a big dose of spin. [You know what "spin" is right? "Spin" means lying under the disguise of public relations.]. Poker News, not wanting to get into a pissing contest with the UPC folks, pulled the article. So let me ask the UPC folks, who by the way, have not returned my phone calls. Phone calls they requested I make to them to allow "comment" on the article. Anyway, last weekend at Binions there were no UPC events, not only are they not taping them; they were not held at all. And, there will be no future UPC events spread at Binion's.

Any comment from UPC??? You have my number, just check your message pad from last week.

Now the UPC spin-doctors are going to say that they did this because they have so many shows in the can but let me ask: "Was it really that difficult to look at a calendar and know what three shows a week-end would mean as far as a television schedule? And what about those big banners at BInion's that said: "A year of televised events taped every Saturday, Sunday and Monday." Three taped shows a weekend was the October schedule, in December that was down to two tapings each weekend; and now no tapings and Oh Wait! No tournaments.

Yes, we are all suffering because of the UIGEA. Yes, UPC has lost some sponsors but rather than just step up like the rest of the industry, the folks at UPC when for the spin, I mean they went for the lie and in the course of doing that they basically called me crappy journalist and a liar. So UPC, Bite Me!

Item #2: Call it a rumor or an old rumor or two plus three might equal six. But is it a coincidence that Doyle arrest rumors, which were very, very slowly denied, appeared less than a week before Doyle's Room closes to the US market? Or might it not be the case that rather than bust "The Great One", there might have been a deal made with the federal poker narcs.....

Item #3: They got Party, Paradise, Mansion, Doyle, Green Tie, Tony G's and so many more.... has anyone seen a Full Tilt owner on US soil recently? Well OK, no busts at Stars or FullTilt yet... but please folks let's wake up and smell the coffee, I mean how much of your Neteller money has the Gestapo confiscated?

Carpe Noctem

What have you done today to stop the forces of repression? Does your congressional talking head know how you feel about online poker? Do your Senators know? If not, why not? For better or worse these politicians are the ones who will or will not give us back our constitutional right to play poker.

So give them a call, email or note to let them know you are paying attention and expect them to support your right to donk off your money calling big slick to the river.

What would Richard Nixon do?

Contacting Congress

When Will They Ever Learn

Back in October I wrote an article about how professional poker players were reacting to the UIGEA. One of my favorite quotes from that article comes from Doyle Brunson who said:

"I am a life-long Republican myself and I am voting for the Democrats and I hope all poker players do the same."

Since then more and more players at all levels have come around to this way of thinking, including two of my poker buddies (Wildbill & Debonair). Two more life long thoughtful yet conservative thinkers who honestly feel their representatives at the highest levels are engaged in not just reactionary but even unconstitutional abridgement of our freedoms.

I was talking with Debonair about all of this and I made some reference to anti-war movement of the sixties. He said a more appropriate analogy would be Salem in the 1690's. I have been thinking about that and I agree. The fear of arrest, the intimidation of online site owner's, the blocking of access to our online monies. Why not just burn a big name player? Why not arrest Doyle or a Phil?

What does it say when people who nearly everyone would call "mainstream" or at least part of the center.... What does it say when these people feel the government is acting out of spite and religious fervor to subvert the constitutional guarantees we all take for granted.

Well today I was a bit surprised to receive an email from an old college friend, someone I have not spoken with more than once every five years at the reunions. He wondered if I would be willing to talk with his students in a Constitutional Law class about the UIGEA and its effects. It seems one of this students presented a contemporary case study on the Federal Government's efforts to ban online gaming and several of my articles appeared in his citations.

As I have said before: The dying gasps of a paranoid regime always threatens the rights and freedoms of those who oppose them and historically leads to the defeat of the ruling powers either by election or by revolution. But in the meantime many suffer for no reason, no reason at all.

And to think, all we wanted to do was play poker.

Melbourne Adieu and Hello Berlin

Could it really be the last day in Melbourne? Today is the Final Table of the Aussie Million Main Event and Dr. Pauly and I will be tag-teaming the coverage from the television set green room. Then the PokerNews team will split for places far and wide in Australia before we eventually all wander back to our various home bases. You have haven't checked out the new features on PokerNews, do that, in particular the great new "Hand in Depth" feature (that we will rename soon) and the PokerNews Team Tournament Coverage. There will be more news soon on future tournament coverage from Team PokerNews.

Before wandering off to Sydney, I must say Melbourne impressed me a lot! A perfect sized city with good mass transit, very friendly people (even the poker players) lots or art, culture, food, entertainment, food. A very cool Aquarium, a river running thru the heart of the city; lots of foot and bicycle traffic. I will be back for Aussie Milions 2008.

On the blog front, what with UIGEA and the US Federal Gambling Gestapo busting down door's of mildly related poker sites and owners. Joe McCarthy is smiling up from hell right now. Expect a lot more shocking revelations in the next 48 hours.