American Poker

Two months ago I wrote to Representative Rick Boucher to ask him why he was trying to push for a total ban on Internet Poker, and other restrictions on poker and gambling. To my complete shock he has not even bothered to send be a standard blow off letter thus far. I guess the concept of public servant is lost on him.

But for him and others of his ilk I have found some interesting statistics on the great game of poker in the USA. The following statistics were taken from a poll of nearly 1000 Americans selected at random.

90% of Americans say no to the federal government banning poker.

87% want Americans to be able to play poker events for charity.

18% want a ban on Internet poker.

3% think poker home games should be banned.

27% believe the federal government should control online gambling.

These are the facts. So leave poker players alone and see if you can figure out how to get we the people some affordable health care, or narrow the rich poor divide. There are so many real issues for politicians to be working on, it is shameful that something like this is taking up any of their time.

Check out the Poker Player's Alliance for more information on supporting American Poker.

American Idol

I don’t generally watch American Idol, because after the amusement of seeing the idiots make fools of themselves in the first couple of weeks I lose interest. However, for some reason I ended up watching the show last night and I was reminded once again why I don’t bother to watch the show. The only reason the show exists is because of Simon Cowell. It was his showmanship in England that madethe original show Pop Idol a hit. Because of his work on the show they were able to sell it to the American networks. Now again, thanks to his great work the show is number one in America.

You could easily replace Ryan Toolcrest with any tedious DJ/Presenter. You could easily replace Randy with anyone that could arrange the following words into random sentences, ‘yeah, aaaright, dawg, pitchy, you, the, man, dude.’ Paula could be replaced by any washed up former singer. They would just need to loll around and make patronizing fake affirmations and then clap like a drunk old woman at a bar.

But what really irks me is that Paula and Randy are so damn rude. Every week, every song, Simon sits patiently to render his opinion, something he is paid to do. He never interrupts the other judges. When it is his turn he says what he thinks, and Paula proceeds to flop drunkenly into him like an inebriated teenager. They then both interrupt him to make such asinine comments as ‘aw come on.’

These people need to bow down and kiss this man’s feet for making them rich. Sure they had money, but doing this show is large quantities of easy money for both of them, and they would not have this money without Simon. Sadly they are so delusional they think they contribute to the show and that they are irreplaceable. I believe you could replace all of them except Simon next season and it would still be a hit show.

Ryan, Paula and Randy need to learn some manners and to treat Simon with the respect he deserves.

Atlantic City

When I went to Atlantic City to play in a World Series of Poker Circuit Event I had expected many things. What I didn't expect was that Atlantic City is in fact the epitome of American life. Nothing I have experienced in six years of living in America has prepared me for this mirror to America's soul than a visit to this city.

I arrived late at night and riding in my friends enormous SUV we passed by one slum area after another. A street containing failed businesses, bail bondsman, check cashing services, massage parlors and strip clubs. Among the squalor and the poor rose these enormous casinos; great monuments to the almighty dollar, and a reminder to the poor of their place in society.

We drove in and walked through the comfortable air conditioned walk ways. We were inside, safe, protected, from the world of the prostitutes and crime outside. In fact I stayed there for three days and I never had to leave the comfortable confines of the casino. Moreover, my casino was linked to half a dozen other casinos by a series of walk ways designed to ensure that the 'rich' who could afford to stay there would never have to mingle with the poor outside. For those that cared to notice the chasm between rich and poor was so clearly prominent you could almost taste it. As you walked through the plush sky walks you could take a look at how the other half lived. The poor, the needy, those who had suffered the bad beats of life. If you stopped on a skyway and looked down into the dirty dangerous looking streets the poor were there shuffling around while the lucky few wandered comfortably from one plush casino to another to squander their money merely for entertainment. In fact in the casino people were willing to bet more than what many people make in a week on a single roll of a dice, a turn of a card or a poker tournament.

I'm not rich, I am pleased to say that after many years of hard work I am comfortable, but unlike the evil Republicans, I am capable of realizing that I had help in the path I chose that led me to the point I am at now. My education, my intelligence, my desire and resolve together with a liberal mix of good fortune have taken me to this point in life. But for many they did not have the opportunities that I had, they were born in the wrong area to the wrong family and never got lucky in some of the ways I have.

One of the saddest things about America is the lack of compassion for those less fortunate. For a so called Christian country it is astonishing to me just how the poor are treated. While people like me wager hundreds of dollars for fun, there are people out there who would give almost anything (including their bodies or dignity) for that money.

I've visited many cities around America and have been to ten different states. Atlantic City for me was one of the saddest places I have seen. If you have a reasonable amount of money they will show you a pretty good time. But if you pause and take a look out of the window for a moment you will see some of the forlorn downtrodden individuals who have suffered the bad beats of real life. Unfortunately for most people looking out of the window and thinking gets in the way of the fun.

All that said I had a good time, left up over $500 and enjoyed the poker. I doubt I would ever go again, because Vegas is a lot more fun and these days cheaper to get to.

Comments

In response to one of my Bush posts I got this comment from one of the few remaining Bush supporters in the county. I decided to make my response to the comments a post. I appreciate this person’s feedback, even though I strongly disagree with most of his points. My comments are in blue.

“Maybe we should tax the hell out of internet gambling!”

- Actually that’s a wonderful idea. What the government is doing right now is trying to pass a bill to push internet gambling further underground. This precludes them from the benefit of taxing it and regulating it. It’s a multi billion dollar industry and the government thinks that prohibition and jailing online poker players is the best course of action. Welcome to China.

“Get over it, nothing you say will ever change the way the poor suck off the government, or us.”

- Indeed. But not all poor people are evil spongers. Some people are born into poverty, receive a crappy education, maybe their mother did drugs during the pregnancy and now the kid has a 90 IQ. There are a million reasons why people are disadvantaged, and it is a right wing fallacy to assume they are just lazy. Not everyone is capable of working hard and suddenly getting rich. What’s more my post referred to the Bush program of reducing services such as education grants and healthcare. Things that will create even more poor people that cannot dig their way out of the poverty cycle.

“If people work hard and make their own money.”

- In the ideal world it would be that simple. But there are millions of people in America that work very hard doing two or maybe three jobs and still only make enough to scrape by. Then their car breaks down, or they get sick and have no health insurance and suddenly they have bills they can’t pay and the cycle of poverty begins.

"The rich pay more tax's in one year than you will ever pay in your entire life.”

- Yep, and they can afford it too. If you are Donald Trump and you have to pay several million dollars in tax, that is not going to curtail your life style in any way shape or form. When Bush continues to give tax cuts to the super rich, it really isn’t going to improve their lifestyle in any way. They just get to hoard a couple of million extra that they will never need to use. So why do it? Why not use the money to help the poor and needy to help themselves? Why not use the money to dig this country out of the horrific debt Bush has created?

“These people have worked hard, taken chance's, and they have prevailed.”

- That’s a romantic view of the world. Many rich people are lazy lay-a-bouts whose parents or grandparents worked hard and got rich. Do you think that George Bush worked hard for his money? Every business he ever had was a flop, propped up by his rich daddy.

And for every success story of those who have worked hard, taken chances and prevailed there are a dozen who took their shot and missed. Now they are working in some dead end job they hate wondering why life was so cruel to them. Does this make them any less of a human than those who were more fortunate?

“Our president has done more in eight years for this great nation than anyone has in a long time.”

- Wow, talk about flying in the face of public opinion! Even among white male die-hard republicans Bush’s popularity is at an all time low. I would love to hear from a right winger like you and know what it is that you feel he has achieved. By my way of thinking his legacy will be to have deepened the gap between rich and poor, classified more documents than any administration in history, presided over the worst terrorist attack in our nations history, plunged us into war with some random country based on lies and misinformation, created the largest deficit in our history, made America almost universally hated internationally, sold our ports to some Arabs, cut back government programs that help with health care and education, allowed thousands of Americans to suffer during our worst natural disaster due to incompetent leadership, and done all this surrounded by a bunch of cronies many of whom have no business at all being in the position they are in.

He may have done more in six years than other presidents that came before, but sadly not in a good way.

“The more people with views such as this is what seperate's americans. If you want to converse about problems come to the table with a solution, or you are just another problem.”

- Unfortunately there may be no magic solution at this point. It will likely take years to get the country back on track after all the damage he has done. The solution was not to take the nation down this dark road in the first place. But the best solution I can think of right now is to impeach him before he does any more damage and bring a competent leader in to start cleaning up the mess.

“I do enjoy reading your comments though, it makes me understand why I love this great nation.”

- Thank you. I enjoyed reading yours, and welcome any future comments you might want to make. I value everyone’s opinion even if I strongly disagree with it.

I too love this nation, not because I happened to be born here, but because I chose this place as my home. However, when I see Bush hurting it, I feel obliged to speak out. To blindly support the president for reasons of patriotism is actually harmful to this great nation. We hired him to take care of the country, but history will show that he was woefully ill-equipped to perform in this roll. The damage he has done will take a very long time to rectify.

Who's Da Man?

I have been playing poker now since 2003 and I am pleased to say that practice seems to be paying off.

Last weekend I took part in a tournament staged by a local poker league. I managed to beat 173 players to take first place. My prize is an all expenses paid trip to Atlanta where I will be playing in a World Series Of Poker Circuit event. It's only a little tournament with a $500+$60 buy in, but for an amateur player like me winning my way into such a tournament is a very exciting achievement.

I played my best poker ever in the league game to win my spot. The crunch for me was a pot at the end of the first day (the final hand in fact). I had top two pair on the flop. A player moved all in as a bluff which I correctly read as an act of desperation. Another player called the all in bet and I correctly put him on a flush draw. I moved over the top and went all in myself costing the other player more than half his stack to call. He was unhappy about my play, but called anyway.

The turn was a massive scare card for me as it gave my flush draw opponent the flush he was looking for. But the river gave me the boat and I took down the largest pot of the session making me the chip leader by almost 25%. My stack was over triple the average at that point.

When I returned for the finals I managed to turn my stack from $75,400 to $167,000 in an hour. By the time I went heads up I had around $850,000 and my opponent had $250,000. While he was not a bad player it was clear he had little experienced at heads up play, and was quite easy to read. My aggressive play combined with my scary big stack soon whittled him down to $150,000. I finally put him out with top pair. He was the 11th player I had personally knocked out which won me $50 as the player who knocked out the most other players.

So this time next week I will be in Atlantic City and on Tuesday I will be playing in my first 'real' tournament. Go me!

News Flash

It has taken several years but Americans are finally getting the picture when it comes to George Bush. His new poll numbers are actually the worst he has ever had. I posted this story on ShortNews and decided to re-post it here...

United States President George W. Bush's approval rating has dropped again to a new all time low. According to a poll of 1,018 American adults conducted in late February only 34% of American's believe Bush is doing a good job.

The same survey also noted that 59% of Americans disapproved of his work. Only 30% believed his handling of Iraq was good. 62% stated that efforts in Iraq are going badly. 70% believe that the UAE takeover of American ports should be blocked.

The only good news for the administration was that 67% forgave Dick Cheney for shooting a man in the face. But only 18% said they liked him. 46% of those polled said they had a negative opinion of the Vice President.

The poll margin of error was 3%. [Source]

Stop Screwing The Waitress

The way we treat waitresses and to some extent waiters in this country disgusts me.

Last night I was playing poker in a hotel and overheard one waitress bragging to another that her hourly rate had been increased from $2.13 an hour to $2.16 per hour. She was clearly kidding about the offensive pay increase, but she was not kidding about what she gets paid.

In Tennessee, where I live, it is quite common for restaurants and bars to pay their staff $2-$3 per hour. The rest of their income is derived from the charity of others in the form of tips. In one bar I frequent if a waitress makes a mistake with an order, or a customer leaves without paying the full price of the order is deducted from her tips. I understand this is also a common practice.

Astonishingly after taking home their pitiful wages at the end of the year the federal government will tax them on not only their $2 per hour income but also on their tips. Let's not forget that the tips were gifts for good service, and were not earned wages.

As far as I am concerned any waiter or waitress should be subject to the same minimum wage laws as anyone else. In addition tips should not be taxed. If the government need more revenue they can easily get it by reversing the outrageous and unnecessary tax breaks on the wealthy elite and give it back to the exploited workers who work in horrible smoky bars with crappy wages, no paid vacation, no benefits and dreadful hours.

For more information, take a look at this book.

U.S. Rep. Rick Boucher

I recently decided to write to Rick Boucher, a Democrat from Virginia. He was pissing me off with his mindless Bill to further restrict internet gambling.

Why is this concept so difficult to grasp for these people? Millions of Americans love to gamble. It is part of their heritage. Millions of Americans visit Las Vegas, buy lottery tickets, play in their weekly poker game and so on. Millions of Americans like to play poker, bet sports or gamble on the internet and for some reason the decision is being made that the proper response to this is to restrict the rights of Americans and take away more of their freedom.

Right now in the state of Tennessee where I live, I can go out and buy a lottery ticket and have the chance to win an astounding $365,000,000! I can also go and buy a lottery ticket with a chance to win a trip to Las Vegas and a buy in at the $10,000 main event of the World Series of Poker. Why are they doing this? Because people like to gamble and people love poker.

Yet this Boucher guy thinks that instead of bringing online gaming companies to America, regulating them, taxing them and monitoring what they do, the answer is to outlaw them. To push the problem underground where it can never be properly regulated and taxed. How is this smart?

Right now a bunch of terrorists could open an online casino in Antigua, use it to launder money and then shut it down stealing all the players money. We have no control over it. In fact the World Trade Organization recently told America that trying to block use of such off shore gambling sites is illegal.

So we have a simple choice, try and use prohibition, or regulate, tax and monitor. Is common sense so hard to find these days?

If Rick Boucher ever writes me back I will post his response on this blog. But in the meantime if you believe that prohibition is wrong and that taking away the rights and protection of Americans is stupid why not write to Rick Boucher? Tell him that we would rather wager our money in safe American based, American regulated companies. Tell him that we would rather these companies pay American taxes to help reduce the horrible deficit that George Bush has created. Tell him that freedom is a good thing. Tell him to cut off his comb-over. Tell him to do something useful instead of trying to jail people that play poker online.

"You can not stop the spread of an idea by passing a law against it." - Harry S. Truman