The home Internet is out for the second day (thanks, Mediacom), so no pithy or insightful blog post for y'all today. Which is too bad, as I had a great post about Zoroastrian influences on Jewish eschatology all set to thrill and inspire the masses. Oh well!
In any event, I am less than 20 hours from touchdown in Vegas for IMOP-V. Wednesday night I will be hanging with other early arrivers including Santa, Lucky, and River Joe. Thursday night marks official IMOP kickoff, with a pledge test and hazing of the newbies as we welcome them to the IMOP brotherhood. Santa and I are planning to hit up Hard Rock Thursday night pre-opening ceremonies for the PLG/NLHE mix game and maybe dinner at Nobu.
I will attempt a few posts from the road, but your regularly scheduled blogging will be on hiatus until the IMOP World Curling Championship concludes.
(Can't wait to see how many Google searches for "Zoroastrian Curling Eschatology" land here!)
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
March 02, 2010
March 01, 2010
Wine & Whine O' the Week (v. 1.7)
In honor of the upcoming IMOP-V, we bring back a classic IMOP whine from last season's outing. The scene is the Bellagio, at a late morning 2/5 NLHE game. I'm fresh from a nap, but the table is filled with cranky players trying to get unstuck from their overnight sessions. I happen to be wearing a t-shirt that has random paint splotches and the words: "I Just Killed a Clown". Establish loose-stupid image. Check.
After half an hour or so, I get into a hand with a gentleman who was on tilt from running into a string of bad beats and suckouts. He raises preflop, and I call with 5s2s. Flop is A-3-4, giving him top set, and me the wheel. We get it all in on the flop, and my hand holds up as he fails to catch a boat. The guy stands up, mutters a bit, flings his cards my way, and snaps, "You are a f#cking clown!"
Why, thank you for the compliment! But I don't clown around with wine, even one of my everyday "go to" wines, the Mitolo Jester Shiraz 2007. This is a serious, and seriously tasty Australian shiraz, available at a good value price around $15-$18 retail. It's not as "dense" as some Aussie shirazes, with a lot of blueberry and plum fruit, and a subtle note of black pepper. It's light enough to drink alone, but should pair well with most lamb and beef dishes, or spicier chicken and pork dishes.
After half an hour or so, I get into a hand with a gentleman who was on tilt from running into a string of bad beats and suckouts. He raises preflop, and I call with 5s2s. Flop is A-3-4, giving him top set, and me the wheel. We get it all in on the flop, and my hand holds up as he fails to catch a boat. The guy stands up, mutters a bit, flings his cards my way, and snaps, "You are a f#cking clown!"
Why, thank you for the compliment! But I don't clown around with wine, even one of my everyday "go to" wines, the Mitolo Jester Shiraz 2007. This is a serious, and seriously tasty Australian shiraz, available at a good value price around $15-$18 retail. It's not as "dense" as some Aussie shirazes, with a lot of blueberry and plum fruit, and a subtle note of black pepper. It's light enough to drink alone, but should pair well with most lamb and beef dishes, or spicier chicken and pork dishes.
February 28, 2010
Joining the Hive
"You will be assimilated."Friday night I played a short session at The Meadows ATM. It was one of those sessions where you feel like you never do anything right. My first hand, I have Presto and turn a 5 for a nice pot before my chips even reach the table. But then, my stack got flushed. Literally. I ran top two pair, two straights, and a baby flush into flushes, which is not a particularly profitable approach to the game. Thankfully, my Spidey sense kept my losses somewhat limited. The pickle on the sh*t sandwich that was my session was when I flopped an OESD with 64s on a board of 5-3-3. I bet the flop and got a call from an uber-tight player. Turn is a 7. Donkey Kong! I bet, he calls. River is a blank, so I push my last $100 into the $400 pot. He reluctantly calls with ... 73s, and says, "I was worried you had pocket 5s again." I wish.
—The Borg, "Star Trek: The Next Generation"
I headed home to watch some Olympics with the puppy in bed. I fell asleep around 3:00 am, and I woke up around 5:00 am and heard Berkeley on the floor, chewing something. Turns out it was several somethings: a toothbrush, a razor, and ... my BlackBerry. All were in pretty sad condition:
Puppy Chew Toy
As an amusing touch, I checked the still-functioning BlackBerry later in the day, and discovered Berkeley had somehow managed to call one of my friends at 3:38 a.m. and leave a six minute voicemail message, presumably of him chewing and slobbering, but who knows, maybe he barked something insightful. I suspect my buddy was passed out and never heard the phone, or more amusingly, was perhaps drunk and thought he was getting a steamy booty call.
So yesterday I had to venture out in search of a new phone. Since I have AT&T coverage (the sig other has an iPhone), my options were somewhat limited. After some online research, I narrowed my choices down to a couple of BlackBerrys. But the A&T store at the mall across the street only had one of the models I was interested in, and no staff interested in helping me. So, I headed up the street to Best Buy. Turns out they were running a special deal for their Rewards Zone members, where a 16GB iPhone 3GS was going for only $99. So, I went with the iPhone. It took about 30 minutes for the staff to set me up. I left and went to make a call in my car when I discovered the phone was not in the box! Hmmm, awkward. I was heading back into the store when I ran into the salesperson who had assisted me, running out to the parking lot with my phone.
Anyway, I've been hearing iPhone users rave about their phones for several years now, and it always seemed a little over the top, like those too cheerful cult members passing out propaganda on the street corner. Well, in less than 24 hours, I've joined the iPhone cult. The dang thing is just ... slick. The touchscreen is huge compared to the BlackBerry. The interface is incredibly intuitive; no guessing where settings are located as with the BlackBerry. Applications (pardon me, "apps") are easy to find, quick to download, and a snap to install. I've added four apps so far, and none of them took longer than 2-3 minutes total to find and install.
Among the apps I've installed are a free Blogger app (BlogPressLite) that will let me update my blog on the go. I also added a free Google app that will let me access my documents and other Google programs quickly. But, my new favorite app is TweetDeck, which is a huge improvement over the Twitter app I was using on my BlackBerry. TweetDeck took less than a minute to install, as opposed to the BlackBerry where installing a Twitter app required me to find it on the internet, download it, then endure a complicated set up procedure. TweetDeck is also a great app since it allows me to set up different "columns" or groups/categories of people to follow. This enables me to follow the Ironmen separately, for example. Just from browsing the app store, I fully expect I will downloading apps for days, like a puppy looking for treats. Just so my iPhone doesn't become a puppy treat ...
For those of you losers out there who don't have iPhones, go get one! Now!
"Resistance is futile!"
February 26, 2010
Will the Hawkeye State Go All-In with Online Poker?
The Des Moines Register today reported that Iowa lawmakers are drafting a bill that would legalize online poker for Iowa residents. According to the report:
From this description, it appears that lawmakers envision Iowans being able to play on currently established poker sites, rather than having Iowa casinos set up their own online sites.* Presumably, the state would require online sites doing business with Iowa residents to comply with regulations regarding deposits and withdrawals of funds, monitoring for cheating, payment and reporting of taxes, and prevention of underage gambling.
One interesting implication of the proposal is that by legalizing online poker in the state, presumably Iowa residents could also make online deposits of funds which would be legal under the UIGEA. However, the proposal also calls for deposits to be made at local casinos. This in-person deposit rule likely is intended both to prevent underage gambling and to ensure proper accounting for taxes and fees to be collected by the state. As a practical matter, the proliferation of casinos in Iowa the past decade means no Iowa resident is much more than an hour's drive from a casino, so the lack of ability to deposit money online would be more annoyance than obstacle for players.
A potential problem for Iowa's online poker players is that the explicit legalization and regulation of online poker would likely mean that any online poker outside the state-approved system would be deemed illegal. I suspect the state would assert that online poker is currently illegal in the state, but the existence of a legal state-approved system would remove any potential ambiguity about the legality of unregulated online poker play. Also, based on a recent Iowa supreme court decision, it would appear that any unregulated online poker playing would leave players without any legal recourse if they should have a dispute about cheating or withdrawal of funds, since playing on an unregulated online poker site would be be deemed illegal wagering outside the state-approved gaming system.
This proposal offers Iowa online poker players both positives and negatives. The positives would include making online poker a clearly legal activity, instead of letting it occur in a legally nebulous gray zone. Online poker would also be subject to regulation and oversight, particuarly important in light of the Absolute Poker / Ultimate Bet scandals, as well as more garden variety glitches like awarding a pot to the wrong player. Players would have a legal mechanism within the state to enforce their rights if they were victims of cheating, or had other disputes with the online poker sites. Players would also be ensured a fairly easy, convenient, and secure method of depositing and withdrawing money.
On the other hand, the negatives would include forcing Iowa poker players to play online poker pursuant to the state's rules, or not at all. It is doubtful any reputable online poker site would risk doing business with Iowa players outside the state-regulated system. Also, with legalization and regulation comes their red-headed stepchild—taxation. Iowa online poker players who currently play with little or no concern for tax issues would find it impossible to avoid paying income tax on online poker profits, not to mention incurring the nearly inevitable fees for setting up and maintaining an account (after all, that handy regulation doesn't come for free).
The most interesting implication for legalization of online poker is whether the state would eventually legalize other forms of online gaming. For example, Iowa does not permit sports wagering, yet personal experience tells me plenty of Iowans love to put a little money down on the occasional game. Letting Iowans place sports wagers with online sportsbooks—subject to regulation, of course—would seem a natural extension of online gaming. Given the fairly rapid evolution of legalized gaming in the state over less than 20 years—horse racing led to lotteries, which led to slots, which led to table games—the logical question is how long would it be before Iowa allows residents to play blackjack, craps, or slots online?
Nonetheless, all things considered, a state-regulated system permitting online poker playing is a net gain for Iowa poker players. Also, given the state's budget problems along with the popularity of online poker and the general acceptance of gambling within the state, some form of regulation and taxation is almost inevitable for online poker. If legalization of online poker doesn't happen first in Iowa, it almost certainly will occur within the next couple of years in another state (perhaps California), which will start a cascade of other states following suit. Iowa might as well be the first state to go all-in with online poker.
---------------------------------------
* None of Iowa's current casinos would likely have the interest or the resources to set up an online poker site, other than the Horseshoe in Council Bluffs (across the river from Omaha, for my non-Midwestern readers). The Horseshoe is part of the Harrah's family of casinos, and there have been indications that Harrah's has long-term plans to set up an online gaming network.
The idea would allow people to deposit between $50 and $500 into a special account at one of Iowa’s casinos. That account could then be used to play poker online. The restriction, however, is that the person would have to play on a computer that is using an Iowa Internet address.
Playing outside of the state would be prohibited.
—"Iowa Lawmakers Considering Online Gambling" by Jason Clayworth (Des Moines Register, Feb. 26, 2010).
From this description, it appears that lawmakers envision Iowans being able to play on currently established poker sites, rather than having Iowa casinos set up their own online sites.* Presumably, the state would require online sites doing business with Iowa residents to comply with regulations regarding deposits and withdrawals of funds, monitoring for cheating, payment and reporting of taxes, and prevention of underage gambling.
One interesting implication of the proposal is that by legalizing online poker in the state, presumably Iowa residents could also make online deposits of funds which would be legal under the UIGEA. However, the proposal also calls for deposits to be made at local casinos. This in-person deposit rule likely is intended both to prevent underage gambling and to ensure proper accounting for taxes and fees to be collected by the state. As a practical matter, the proliferation of casinos in Iowa the past decade means no Iowa resident is much more than an hour's drive from a casino, so the lack of ability to deposit money online would be more annoyance than obstacle for players.
A potential problem for Iowa's online poker players is that the explicit legalization and regulation of online poker would likely mean that any online poker outside the state-approved system would be deemed illegal. I suspect the state would assert that online poker is currently illegal in the state, but the existence of a legal state-approved system would remove any potential ambiguity about the legality of unregulated online poker play. Also, based on a recent Iowa supreme court decision, it would appear that any unregulated online poker playing would leave players without any legal recourse if they should have a dispute about cheating or withdrawal of funds, since playing on an unregulated online poker site would be be deemed illegal wagering outside the state-approved gaming system.
This proposal offers Iowa online poker players both positives and negatives. The positives would include making online poker a clearly legal activity, instead of letting it occur in a legally nebulous gray zone. Online poker would also be subject to regulation and oversight, particuarly important in light of the Absolute Poker / Ultimate Bet scandals, as well as more garden variety glitches like awarding a pot to the wrong player. Players would have a legal mechanism within the state to enforce their rights if they were victims of cheating, or had other disputes with the online poker sites. Players would also be ensured a fairly easy, convenient, and secure method of depositing and withdrawing money.
On the other hand, the negatives would include forcing Iowa poker players to play online poker pursuant to the state's rules, or not at all. It is doubtful any reputable online poker site would risk doing business with Iowa players outside the state-regulated system. Also, with legalization and regulation comes their red-headed stepchild—taxation. Iowa online poker players who currently play with little or no concern for tax issues would find it impossible to avoid paying income tax on online poker profits, not to mention incurring the nearly inevitable fees for setting up and maintaining an account (after all, that handy regulation doesn't come for free).
The most interesting implication for legalization of online poker is whether the state would eventually legalize other forms of online gaming. For example, Iowa does not permit sports wagering, yet personal experience tells me plenty of Iowans love to put a little money down on the occasional game. Letting Iowans place sports wagers with online sportsbooks—subject to regulation, of course—would seem a natural extension of online gaming. Given the fairly rapid evolution of legalized gaming in the state over less than 20 years—horse racing led to lotteries, which led to slots, which led to table games—the logical question is how long would it be before Iowa allows residents to play blackjack, craps, or slots online?
Nonetheless, all things considered, a state-regulated system permitting online poker playing is a net gain for Iowa poker players. Also, given the state's budget problems along with the popularity of online poker and the general acceptance of gambling within the state, some form of regulation and taxation is almost inevitable for online poker. If legalization of online poker doesn't happen first in Iowa, it almost certainly will occur within the next couple of years in another state (perhaps California), which will start a cascade of other states following suit. Iowa might as well be the first state to go all-in with online poker.
---------------------------------------
* None of Iowa's current casinos would likely have the interest or the resources to set up an online poker site, other than the Horseshoe in Council Bluffs (across the river from Omaha, for my non-Midwestern readers). The Horseshoe is part of the Harrah's family of casinos, and there have been indications that Harrah's has long-term plans to set up an online gaming network.
February 25, 2010
IMOP-V: Git Yer Programs Here!
As some of you may have noticed, I have added some new pages to the blog to provide Ironman of Poker (IMOP) information. By popular demand, we now offer around the clock access to general IMOP information, Ironman bios, and details about the upcoming IMOP-V.
IMOP-V: A Wolfpack of 12 kicks off next Thursday, March 4. Check out the IMOP-V page for tournaments, events, scoring, and a first-ever behind the scenes look into the infamous Ironman Prop Bet sheet.
A couple of tilt-a-riffic events worth noting:
2/4 War: One member from each team will play 2/4 LHE using the "no check, no call" rule. It's non-stop action with mandatory bet/raise/fold options. Sure to tilt some nits.
"I Put You On Aces": Bonus points for saying this to someone while stacking a $100+ pot. (I may have suggested this one to Santa ...).
No IMOP in history has carried this great a risk of physical violence (Santa has set odds at 15/1 on the official prop bet sheet). Hilarity is guaranteed to ensue, or double your money back!
IMOP-V: A Wolfpack of 12 kicks off next Thursday, March 4. Check out the IMOP-V page for tournaments, events, scoring, and a first-ever behind the scenes look into the infamous Ironman Prop Bet sheet.
A couple of tilt-a-riffic events worth noting:
2/4 War: One member from each team will play 2/4 LHE using the "no check, no call" rule. It's non-stop action with mandatory bet/raise/fold options. Sure to tilt some nits.
"I Put You On Aces": Bonus points for saying this to someone while stacking a $100+ pot. (I may have suggested this one to Santa ...).
No IMOP in history has carried this great a risk of physical violence (Santa has set odds at 15/1 on the official prop bet sheet). Hilarity is guaranteed to ensue, or double your money back!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)