The final ten names on the ballot for the WSOP Poker’s Hall of Fame class of 2010 are:  Chris Ferguson, Barry Greenstein, Jennifer Harman-Traniello, Dan Harrington, Phil Ivey, Linda Johnson, Tom McEvoy, Daniel Negreanu, Scotty Nguyen and Erik Seidel.

The ballot now goes to the Poker Hall of Fame Governing Council and is then sent to the 16 living Hall of Fame members and a 17-person media panel. The top two vote-getters will be inducted, assuming they receive a majority of the vote.

Criteria for selection into the Poker Hall of Fame include:

• A player must have played poker against top competition
• Played for high stakes
• Played consistently well, gaining the respect of peers
• Stood the test of time
• For nominees who are not players, they must have contributed to the overall growth and success of the game of poker, with indelible positive and lasting results.

Mike Sexton was 2009’s lone inductee, and the 38th member elected since the Poker Hall of Fame was established in 1979.

I don’t have a vote, but if I did, I’d have a tough time choosing between Tom McEvoy, Linda Johnson, and Dan Harrington.

The American Gaming Association (AGA), the trade association that represents major, US brick-and-mortar casinos, is involved in discussions with those in Congress who support a regulated and legalized US online gambling industry.

In the current edition of eGaming Review, AGA president Frank Fahrenkopf’s (pictured left) comments criticized the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act’s (UIGEA) lack of clarity, and in a quote that should win the hearts of online poker players everywhere, said that regarding amended legislation, “on balance, if we could only get poker, the [AGA] board would be very satisfied.”

But AGA’s posture won’t make friends everywhere, especially with online sites that continued to cater to US-based customers since the enactment of UIGEA in 2006.  According to Fahrenkopf, discussions to prevent those sites from profiting when new legislation is implemented are underway with those lawmakers supporting a repeal of UIGEA, and that “no existing licensee would be able to sell their player database, buy their brand, or license their software.”

Fahrenkopf also told eGaming Review, “I have talked to legislators who say, ‘So, you deny someone a license because they have been operating in violation of US law, that’s a penalty for what they did. But if you let them turn around and sell their assets, and make millions of dollars, they have benefitted from violating the law, they shouldn’t allow that.’

“I have not seen things that are specifically drafted, but I should tell you that discussions of that nature are taking place inside and outside Congress.”

My own take on all of this is positive. It appears that all the forces are continuing to line up in support of repealing UIGEA and replacing it with a law that would eventually license and regulate online poker in the US.  While I’m convinced it will happen, I’m not sure when these changes will become reality.  It will probably not happen in 2010, and will undoubtedly take longer to become a reality than I’d like, but nevertheless, all the leverage seems to be moving in the right direction these days.  It’s just that we’re looking at the turning of slow moving wheels—but at least they’re beginning to move, and in the right direction too.

“In the town of Springhill, Nova Scotia,

Down in the dark of the Cumberland Mine,

The day still comes and the sun still shines,

But it’s dark as a grave in the Cumberland Mine,

Dark and quiet as a grave in the Cumberland Mine”

—Ewan MacColl, Springhill Mine Disaster

In his classic coal mining ballad, Springhill Mine Disaster, Ewan MacColl writes of a mine collapse in Nova Scotia in 1958.  In that cave-in, twelve miners were rescued after eight days, and they never reopened that mine.

When the San Jose gold and copper mine’s collapse in Chile left 33 miners trapped in the dark, the miners survived by rationing a few days’ supply of food for two weeks, and passed the time playing poker. Estimates reckon that the Chilean miners will be underground for four months before they can expect to be pulled 2,000 feet up a narrow hole and rescued.  Although they now have food, water, and light, it’s poker that figures to keep them sane.

Enjoyable activities are one way to triumph over trauma, according to Elements Behavioral Health, a California treatment center. According to the center’s website, “Whatever it is that you know your loved one generally finds enjoyment doing, make it a point to encourage this kind of activity.”

For the miners, poker fills that need. So when the miners say, “Keep those cards and letters coming,” I’m guessing they mean fresh decks of cards as well as those written to lift their spirits.

The Morongo Band of Mission Indians, located in Southern California east of Los Angeles on the road to Palm Springs, has been pushing an Intranet poker proposal in the state legislature for a few months now.  Twenty-one tribes recently joined with them in a California Intertribal Intrastate Poker Consortium.

But tribal politics are thorny, and other tribes strongly oppose the idea of legalizing online gambling, contending that it would hurt bricks-and-mortar tribal casinos.  “We have 21 tribes at this point,” said Morongo spokesman Patrick Dorinson, who anticipates “quite a few more,” adding that some of these tribes involved had “substantial gaming interests in the state.”

The tribe is working with state senator Rod Wright on a bill. Wright, as you may recall, introduced an Internet poker bill (SB 1485) in early Spring, but he couldn’t gain any traction and cancelled a hearing before his own committee. The tribe, however, is courting Wright in hopes they will become front-runners if Intranet poker in California is eventually legalized.

The Morongo band is trying to pass an online poker bill before the legislative session ends August 31.   If not, the tribe plans to try again in 2011.

I’m hoping it does … but I’m not betting on it—not by a longshot.

Just as an indicator showing how much impact the July 1 law changes in Florida have had for poker in the Sunshine State, the World Poker Tour® (WPT) and Seminole Gaming announced a multi-year alliance, adding a televised stop in to the current WPT Season IX tour schedule.  This will allow players in Florida to participate in a televised $10,000 buy-in WPT tournament at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood from April 27 – May 3, 2011.

Recent changes in state law detailed in previous posts removed caps from betting limits, including tournaments, and have extended the hours of play.  Florida, the fourth most populous state, looks poised to become one of the hottest poker markets in the nation.

The WSOP circuit tour, now entering its seventh season, has made a number of changes and the 2010 schedule will include at least 12 tour stops, with a handful of others expected to be announced in the months ahead.

This year’s format includes a cumulative rankings system throughout the season that awards points for each official open event, with four different ways to automatically qualify.

A season-ending national championship tournament for 100 players who automatically qualify via cumulative rankings or performance-based criteria is also new for 2010, and the televised national championship tournament will be played at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas prior to the commencement of the WSOP and feature a $1,000,000 prize pool.  A WSOP gold bracelet will also be awarded.

Four regional WSOP circuit championships with a $10,000 buy-in are new to this year’s schedule.  They include ttwo-hours of national television coverage per stop.

Standardized structures and pay-outs will be used at all events; with the main event lowered to $1,500, excluding regional championships, This was done to encourage larger fields and more players attending multiple stops on the tour.

“We recognized the WSOP Circuit Events needed a shot in the arm, and we believe we’ve responded with steroids,” said WSOP Vice President Ty Stewart.  “The new model is exactly what the WSOP is all about, giving poker players of all bankrolls the chance for compete for the kind of fame, fortune and respect that comes only with a WSOP bracelet and a national television audience.“

The 2010-2011 WSOP Circuit tour begins on August 19, 2010 at Horseshoe Council Bluffs in Iowa and continues through May 22, 2011 at Harrah’s New Orleans.

WORLD SERIES OF POKER 2010-2011 CIRCUIT TOUR SCHEDULE

The National Football League, one of the staunchest opponents to Barney Frank’s Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection and Enforcement Act, which would establish mechanisms and procedures to license and regulate online gaming, has changed its stance.

An amendment to Frank’s bill by Rep. Peter King (R-NY) explicitly prohibiting companies licensed under the legislation from offering sports betting—except for pari-mutuel racing—was what the NFL was looking for. Frank’s bill was passed by the House Financial Services Committee on July 28.

The first version of Frank’s bill included online sports betting, and the NFL quickly voiced its opposition.   Frank then removed sports betting from a subsequent version to focus on poker and casino games, but the league’s position remained unchanged.

But Rep. King’s amendment appeased the influential and contentious NFL, which opposed online gaming since working a fantasy football carve-out into the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act and then supporting the bill’s passage.

I just returned from BARGE, the Big August Rec.Gambling Excursion to Las Vegas that’s been going on since 1991.  What began when a few participants of the rec.gambling usenet newsgroup who were attending a computer graphics conference in Las Vegas got together grew from a private poker tournament with about 10 players, to an event attracting 200 or more attendees with its own traditions, jargon, and zany, madcap, non-stop fun.

The official schedule of BARGE events is, of course, supplemented by numerous informal events, often organized on the spot, by attendees.

• Binion’s: Tuesday, 8/3/2010: Limit Badugi @ 7:30pm. Entry: $50 + $10 + $5
• Binion’s: Wednesday, 8/4/2010: Blackjack Tournament @ 11:00am. Entry: $50 + $10
• Binion’s: Wednesday, 8/4/2010: Video Poker Tournament @ 3:00pm. Entry: $40 + $10
• Binion’s: Wednesday, 8/4/2010: Draw Lowball Tournament @ 7:30pm. Entry: $60 + $15 + $5
• Binion’s: Thursday, 8/5/2010: Team CHORSE @ 11:00 a.m. Entry $400 + $20 per Team
• Binion’s: Thursday, 8/5/2010: Limit 6-game @ 7:30 p.m. Entry: $75 + $20 + $5
• Binion’s: Friday, 8/6/2010: TOC™-style @ 10:00 a.m. Entry: $75 + $20 + $5
• Binion’s: Friday, 8/6/2010: Symposium @ 4:00 p.m. $10 (“Symposium” is a code name for a Calcutta auction at which participants in the main event are auctioned off to individuals and syndicates—and purchased players have the right to buy back some of their own action—to create a second prize pool)
• Binion’s: Friday, 8/6/2010: Annual BARGE Board of Directors Meeting @ 6:00 p.m.
• Binion’s: Friday, 8/6/2010: TOC™-style (Finals) @ 6:30 p.m.
• Binion’s: Saturday, 8/7/2010: No-Limit Hold’em @ 10:00 a.m. Entry: $100 + $20 + $5
• Binion’s: Saturday, 8/7/2010: Significant Others Hold’em @ 11:00 a.m. Entry: $20 + $5
• Binion’s: Saturday, 8/7/2010: Banquet @ 7:00 p.m. (speaker: Barry Tanenbaum), $20
• Binion’s: Saturday, 8/7/2010: No Limit Hold’em Finish (if needed) @ 10:30 p.m.
• Binion’s: Saturday, 8/7/2010: Expanded Cash Game Roster @ 10:30 p.m.

I didn’t arrive until Thursday, which was when the majority of attendees pulled into town.  My wakeup call Thursday morning was early—5:00 a.m., to be exact—to allow me sufficient time to make it to Binion’s in time for the Team Chorse event in which six-player teams engage in a variety of games, with one player from each team playing one of the six games in the rotation.  It’s a great time to talk to a lot of players you see maybe once a year in Las Vegas because there are tables for flop games and tables for stud games in the rotation, so there is downturn between whatever orbit you’re scheduled to play in.

My team, the Coney Island Whitefish (named for the used condoms that floated through the New York City sewage system back in the days when it used to empty out right into the ocean at Coney Island, to the dismay of the beach’s swimmers) didn’t come close this year, but there’s always 2011 to look forward to.

Thursday evening was a six-game tournament, comprising hold’em, Omaha/8, razz, 7-card stud, 7-stud/8, and chowaha.  The latter is a hold’em variant and a BARGE staple, played with three boards, two turn cards and one river, and if you’ve never heard of it, here’s a link you’ll need to get started: http://www.wolfspokerpage.com/chowaha/.

I managed to finish fifth, but that meant not leaving the table until 2:30 a.m., so it had been a long day. By the time I got to bed it was probably 3:15, so I had about three or four hours sleep that night because my body is used to rising early, and besides, I had to play in the 10 a.m. Tournament of Champions-style event Friday morning.

Three to four hours sleep per night is about par for BARGE, though some people never seem to sleep at all.  I did not do anything in the Friday tournament, but busting out early gave me an opportunity to indulge one of my favorite Las Vegas activities: going to the Golden Gate—Las Vegas’ oldest hotel and casino—and pigging out on their inexpensive shrimp cocktail in the casino’s art-deco style.

When I got back to Binion’s I played cash games and just bounced around with no real results other than enjoying the games, the people, and Binion’s poker room.  The poker room loves us.  One of the BARGE traditions is to always toke the dealers when they come into the box and again when they leave, as well as when you win a hand.  Oh, yeah, we also toke them randomly too, which is one of the reasons the dealers wish BARGE was a month-long event.

Saturday is BARGE’s main event, a no-limit hold’em tournament where I lost the majority of my chips early on when I reraised with pocket queens after my opponent had made a smallish bet into a flop of three blanks.  Since he made a smallish raise before the flop, I figured it was a standard continuation bet and assumed that my pocket queens were at the top end of his wagering range, since the only hands ahead of me were pocket aces, pocket kings, or an unlikely set of rags. The latter were a real longshot because it would have meant he raised from early position with a very small pair before the flop.

My bad.  He had pocket kings. A queen never came and I was very short, and went out not too long afterwards when I had to make a stand with A-4 suited and the blinds staring me in the face.

The good thing about the early bust-out was that the cash games were calling me, and this time they were rewarding.  I won during the afternoon in a mixed game that was populated almost entirely by BARGEers, and following the banquet, which featured Barry Tanenbaum as guest speaker (If you’ve never attended a Barry Tanenbaum seminar, you’re missing a lot.  He’s a great teacher with an encyclopedic knowledge of poker, and extremely witty too), I found an empty seat in a no-limit hold’em cash game with three locals in addition to the BARGE players. Two of the locals didn’t seem to understand us at all, played very predictably, and went broke. The other local was having loads of fun, drinking way too much, and losing a few buy-ins in the process.  I played until I was too tired to concentrate at all, got up, went to bed, got the requisite three hours sleep so I could get up, drive back home and reenter the real world.

BARGE is always great fun, and if you’ve never attended, you might want to make a point of showing up next year.  Here’s a link to BARGE history, glossary, traditions, and the event schedule: http://www.barge.org/.  You can also connect with the BARGE mailing list, so you won’t miss a thing as you plan for next year.

The House Committee on Financial Services approved HR 2267, Rep. Barney Frank’s Internet Gambling Regulation and Consumer Protection and Enforcement Act.  This bill, which passed by a 41-22 vote, would regulate internet gambling activity in the US and require licensed operators to put in place safeguards to protect against underage and problem gambling.

Chairman Frank’s legislation, introduced in May 2009, would establish a regulatory and enforcement framework for licensed gambling operators to accept bets and wagers from individuals in the US.  The legislation reinforces the rights of each state to determine whether or not to allow online wagering within that state and to apply other restrictions on the activity as determined necessary.

As a companion to Rep. Frank’s bill, HR 4976, the Internet Gambling Regulation and Tax Enforcement Act of 2010 introduced by Rep. Jim McDermott (D-WA), would ensure the collection of license fees and taxes on regulated Internet gambling activities.

According to a Joint Committee on Taxation tax revenue analysis, regulated internet gambling is expected to generate as much as $42 billion in federal government revenue over its first 10 years.  Additionally, a recent analysis by H2 Gambling Capital predicts that online gambling regulation would create as many as 32,000 jobs over its first five years.

An amendment by Rep. John Campbell (R-CA) was approved to further strengthen the legislation’s consumer protections, including a requirement for licensed operators to have each customer choose his or her loss limits before being able to play on-line.

The legislation has the support of 69 bi-partisan co-sponsors.  Support for the legislation was also announced last week by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Financial Services Roundtable, and the National Association of Federal Credit Unions.

“The Committee’s bi-partisan vote to approve Chairman Frank’s legislation is nothing short of historic,” said Michael Waxman, spokesperson for the Safe and Secure Internet Gambling Initiative.  “With Congress bitterly divided and only a handful of bi-partisan bills coming out of the Financial Services Committee, we’re pleased Committee members from both sides of the aisle were able to come together to advance this important legislation.”

The House Committee on Financial Services announced today that the Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection and Enforcement Act (H.R. 2267)—legislation introduced by Chairman Barney Frank (D-MA), pictured left, that would regulate gambling in the United States—will be marked up on Tuesday, July 27, 2010 at 10:00 am in Room 2128 of the Rayburn House Office Building.  The mark up, which comes on the heels of yesterday’s hearing on the legislation before the full Financial Services Committee, is a critical next step for the bill to become law.

The legislation, introduced by Chairman Frank in May 2009, would establish a framework to permit licensed gambling operators to accept wagers from individuals in the U.S.  Since its introduction, a bi-partisan group of 69 co-sponsors has signed onto the legislation. A recent analysis by H2 Gambling capital predicts that Internet gambling regulation would create as many as 32,000 jobs over its first five years.

In May 2010, the House Committee on Ways and Means held a hearing to discuss a companion piece of legislation to the Frank bill introduced by Rep. Jim McDermott (D-WA), the Internet Gambling Regulation and Tax Enforcement Act of 2010 (H.R. 4976).  This legislation would ensure the collection of license fees and taxes on regulated Internet gambling activities.  According to a tax revenue analysis conducted by the Joint Committee on Taxation, regulated Internet gambling is expected to generate as much as $42 billion in federal government revenue over its first 10 years.

“This mark up demonstrates that Congress is serious about moving Chairman Frank’s bill forward and establishing a strict regulatory framework for Internet gambling activity,” said Michael Waxman, spokesperson for the Safe and Secure Internet Gambling Initiative.  “The passage of this legislation would be a win-win as it will protect consumers, create an estimated 32,000 new jobs over five years and provide federal and state governments with as much as $72 billion in new revenues over ten years.”

For more information please visit www.safeandsecureig.org.  The Web site provides a means by which individuals can register support for regulated Internet gambling with their elected representatives.