Poker Blog & Poker Forum

In April 2010 the process of selecting appropriate women associated with poker for the Women in Poker Hall of Fame (WiPHOF) had begun. The selection is over and three women will be inducted into this august group on September 3 in a glittering ceremony at the Golden Nugget Casino in Las Vegas.

The first of the inductees is being given the honor posthumously. She is Billie Brown and would perhaps be unknown to today’s poker generation. Her profile at the WiPHOF web site states that Billie pioneered the marketing of tournament poker in Las Vegas during the 1980s. The guaranteed prize pool concept was invented by her. Billie also created the California State Ladies Poker Championship.

The second inductee is Kathy Liebert. Kathy is a well know figure in poker circles but would not exactly fit into the poker babe mold. With a haul of over $5.7 million in tournament earnings, she has won more money playing tournament poker than any other woman in history. Add to this one WSOP bracelet, one WPT win, seven WPT final tables and the distinction of being the first woman ever to win $1 million in a single poker tournament and you have the perfect recipe for a WiPHOF inductee.

The third inductee, Jennifer Harman, is an out and out poker babe. Her poker achievements are many. They include two WSOP bracelets, three WPT final tables and $2.6 million to her credit. She is among the few women poker professionals who participate regularly in the biggest live high-stakes mixed cash games in Las Vegas, and win. But what endear her to the poker loving public are her antics as a poker babe. Jennifer recently flashed a very attractive cleavage in order to get voted into the WSOP Tournament of Champions. She not only was voted in but did not disappoint her fans by cashing in this prestigious event.

Though a regular at Twitter, there has been no reaction to this stupendous news so far from Jennifer. Her latest message on August 3 said, “Hanging out in Italy with my husband @marcopoker. A lot of beach time.” She deserves the privacy and the rest. The kudos can wait till she is back all rejuvenated and tanned.

Now that the euphoria of the passage of HR 2267 in the House Committee has died down, experts are examining the fine print and opining what this means for the online poker industry. Joe Brennan Junior of iMEGA pointed out one of the most significant amendments. He said, “No one who took a bet or wager on or after the enactment of the Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act in 2006, processed payments, or received ‘assistance’ can be licensed.” This puts two of the largest online poker rooms, Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars, in a tight spot. As of now, online poker in the United Stated without Poker Stars and Full Tilt Poker is inconceivable. Most of the leading poker professionals are brand ambassadors to one or the other. Therefore the industry experts have come up with various suggestions as to how things can work out. The most common expert opinion is that PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker will be bought over by a big US company. Harrah’s, MGM and Facebook are some of the names that have been thrown about. However, one expert pointed out that this would be too big a risk for the buyer, because Mr. Bachus has plugged this loophole in his amendment. Entities that purchase tainted entities, purchase customer lists of tainted entities and purchase operations of tainted entities also cannot be given licenses. Another suggestion has been that PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker can purchase a European company that is eligible for a license and ask its players to join up there. In all this one cannot forget that HR 2267 would never have passed but for the untiring efforts of the Poker Players Alliance. And it is well known that PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker are the biggest supporters of the Poker Players Alliance. HR 2267 has yet a long way to go before it is made law and some way out is sure to be found. Meanwhile PokerStars is putting up a brave front. First of all PokerStars has said that it completely supports HR 2267 and will do whatever it can to try and get the bill through the House and the Senate in this Congressional term itself. Then a statement from PokerStars said, “As reflected in legal opinions provided to PokerStars, its activities in the US are and at all times have been lawful. Therefore the amendment will not adversely affect the availability of a license for a respected operator such as PokerStars.”

Now that the euphoria of the passage of HR 2267 in the House Committee has died down, experts are examining the fine print and opining what this means for the online poker industry. Joe Brennan Junior of iMEGA pointed out one of the most significant amendments. He said, “No one who took a bet or wager on or after the enactment of the Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act in 2006, processed payments, or received ‘assistance’ can be licensed.” This puts two of the largest online poker rooms, Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars, in a tight spot. As of now, online poker in the United Stated without Poker Stars and Full Tilt Poker is inconceivable. Most of the leading poker professionals are brand ambassadors to one or the other. Therefore the industry experts have come up with various suggestions as to how things can work out.

The most common expert opinion is that PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker will be bought over by a big US company. Harrah’s, MGM and Facebook are some of the names that have been thrown about. However, one expert pointed out that this would be too big a risk for the buyer, because Mr. Bachus has plugged this loophole in his amendment. Entities that purchase tainted entities, purchase customer lists of tainted entities and purchase operations of tainted entities also cannot be given licenses. Another suggestion has been that PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker can purchase a European company that is eligible for a license and ask its players to join up there.

In all this one cannot forget that HR 2267 would never have passed but for the untiring efforts of the Poker Players Alliance. And it is well known that PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker are the biggest supporters of the Poker Players Alliance. HR 2267 has yet a long way to go before it is made law and some way out is sure to be found.

Meanwhile PokerStars is putting up a brave front. First of all PokerStars has said that it completely supports HR 2267 and will do whatever it can to try and get the bill through the House and the Senate in this Congressional term itself. Then a statement from PokerStars said, “As reflected in legal opinions provided to PokerStars, its activities in the US are and at all times have been lawful. Therefore the amendment will not adversely affect the availability of a license for a respected operator such as PokerStars.”

The House Financial Services Committee on July 28, 2010, passed the Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection, and Enforcement Act by a vote of 41 in favor and only 22 against. This bill number HR 2267, is also known as the anti-UIGEA bill because it seeks to overturn the provisions of the UIGEA and set up a licensing and regulatory regime for online gambling in the United States.

Though this is only a small step in the journey of the bill, this is the first tangible good news that online poker players have received after the UIGEA was imposed in November 2006. The Poker Players Alliance (PPA) has contributed immensely in gathering support for this bill and its members are naturally overjoyed. The PPA immediately released a public statement. Former Senator Alfonse D’Amato, chairman of the PPA said, “I’m glad the Financial Services Committee today overwhelmingly chose to act and protect Americans as well as preserve the fundamental freedoms of adults and the Internet.” D’Amato also thanked Barney Frank for his leadership of the bill and promised all support in the future. John Pappas, executive director of the PPA, thanked the legislators who contributed to the bill by moving suitable amendments.

Earlier there was a minor hiccup when the bill was not taken up for discussion on Tuesday July 27 as originally scheduled. This week saw an unrestrained support for online gambling and online poker from many different quarters. Major newspapers like the New York Times and the Washington Post carried lead articles. Online poker forums and news sites exhorted poker players to contact their legislators by phone or e-mail asking them to gather support for the bill in the House Committee. Annie Duke, who had testified in the hearing on the bill last week, re-tweeted the message from PPA to all her followers. The message said, “Thank you poker players! The thousands of letters, calls and tweets really made a difference.”

The path of the bill becoming law is a long one. The House Financial Services Committee has to report the passage of the bill to the House of Representatives. The bill will have to be discussed and voted in the House of Representatives. If passed there, it would have to be discussed and voted in the Senate. If the Senate also passed the bill it would go to the President for his signature.

PokerStars is one of the leading online poker rooms. Last week online players discovered a bots ring operating at that site. A bots ring is a set of computers programmed to play poker that participate on the games at online poker rooms pretending to be human players. This is not allowed at any online poker room. The beginning of this revelation is in many ways similar to the super user scandal at Ultimate Bet, but one hopes that it will not end the same way.

The bots were first suspected by a player using the alias “malloc”. He found that three “players” were making near identical moves in fixed cycles. He posted his views on an online forum but did not get any support. Suspicions were aroused on a larger scale when data from Poker Table Ratings (PTR) was analyzed. PTR is a web site that aggregates the moves made by millions of players at major online poker rooms and provides tools for analysis of the moves. PTR was the web site that pointed to the security hole on the Cereus Network, which is now being used by Ultimate Bet and Absolute Poker. Using data from PTR a player “Gugel” demonstrated that the three accounts named by “malloc” were being operated by the same computer program. On the same day PTR published a report that 10 accounts at PokerStars were part of a bots ring. The analysis presented in the report was so detailed and thorough and backed by statistics that there could be no room for doubt. PTR named the 10 accounts in its report.

Despite the PTR report PokerStars did not take immediate action and this aggravated many online players. These players also felt that PokerStars should have detected the bots ring before “malloc” and “Gugel” posted their suspicions, which led to PTR investigating the matter. PokerStars took action only on the next day when it shut down the accounts. A PokerStars representative posted that the online poker room had been seized of the matter and was carrying its own investigations. He said that the poker room had not reacted earlier, as was expected of it, because it wanted to make sure that the bots ring consisted of only 10 accounts.

The incident leaves an uneasy feeling that this is not the end of the matter. There will be the issue of compensating players who lost money on the tables with the bots.