Meet Me In Niagara Falls

The weekend of the 13-16th, I'll be in downtown Buffalo.

Let's go get UPS mailboxes in Niagara Falls..... ONTARIO, CANADA.

You can set up your Canadian bank acount online.

As for congress? Throw the bums out.

PPA Alert: It Might Be Going Down Tonight

Just emailed from The PPA Volunteer alert network:

The U.S. Congress is Trying to Ban Online Poker TODAY!

THIS IS NOT A TEST -- Call Your Senator Now

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist is attaching the Internet Gambling Prohibition Act to a bill that is expected to be approved by the Congress early this evening. PLEASE call your Senators today and tell them that they should oppose the Internet gambling bill being part of Port Security legislation.

If the Port Security bill passes, with the Internet gambling language included, your ability to enjoy poker online will be at serious risk.

Each member of the Poker Players Alliance has two Senators which are listed below. They need to hear from you RIGHT NOW! Let them know that you care about your rights to play poker.

Please Call! Tell your Senators to oppose attaching Internet gambling to Port Security!

Link with contact info (pdf)

The Domino Effect & Buffalo With Mullet

William Hill poker just canned US players today - I think exactly 30 days after I signed up for rakeback there. Add UK and Littlewoods.... and half of the Cryptologic sites now hate on Americans. I would think odds favor the other Crypto sites follow suit.

I need to make a decision on the future of my online gaming. A Canadian bank account and mail box might just happen next month. If legislation passes blocking IP's, add a Canadian ISP wireless laptop card is also on my shopping list.

All of these bannings may force me to bonus whore sportsbooks instead. (In New York it is not illegal to place a wager.) Oh, the irony - the pending congressional legislation is designed to stop online wagering. Yet it is getting harder to play poker and easier to place sports bets.

Next week hockey starts up - happy, happy, joy, joy - and The Sabres promised to bring back blue & gold. Oh, they did... with an abomination of a uniform. Although I'm happy they got rid of the angry goat's head logo, the new logo is wildly unpopular in Buffalo. It has been called buffalo with mullet, expunged buffalo and projectile vomiting buffalo, amongst others. Judge for yourself:



Football Lock of the Week: NCAA, Rutgers (-3.5) @ S. Florida. Rutgers might just win the Big East now that Louisville has injury issues. NFL, Vikings (+1) @ Bills. I hate going against Buffalo, but have they won a close game in forever? Uhh... No. [2006 Record 4-3]

Technology Snafu: The Nature Of The Beast

Well, I haven't been able to log into any Crypto site since Sunday morning. Now I cannot log into Pokerrrom cashier (going on 48 hours). Both networks updated this week, although The Crypto problem is a conflict on my laptop. Lesson of the week - always have a backup.

It sucks to be 3 MPP's away from clearing a bonus when you can't log in to finish it and the deadline is approaching. Note to self: Add time management to the list of things I need to improve.

Football Lock of the Week: NCAA, UCLA (-3) @ Washington. UCLA will score bunches of points - they should cover even a close game. NFL, Titans (+11.5) @ Dolphins. Tennessee has improved each week and Miami has not. Too many points for Miami to cover. [2006 record 3-2]

Where Is The Voice Of The Poker Players Alliance?

I watched the re-broadcast of the "60 Minutes" piece on online gaming. This particular exchange made me cringe:

Paradise Poker CEO: I ask anyone, tell me why online gaming should not be regulated?

Lesley Stahl: Well... because it's just bad. It's wrong!

This is the kind of opinionated, skewed journalism online players face in the mainstream media. (I already wrote "60 Minutes" about this piece, but that's beside the point.) Online poker players have no voice in this medium. CEOs of gaming sites usually do NOT represent our point of view.

We are losing the public debate because we have no one expressing our views in the mainstream media.

Where are the talking heads representing the poker players? Isn't that what the PPA is for? I have yet to see a news segment with a player advocate involved.

Phone campaigns and player rallies are nice but our voice needs to be heard on TV via major news outlets. Lobbyists certainly don't mind the face time so get the PPA lobbyists on air. I don't want online poker to be outlawed because some reporter thinks it's bad (amongst other reasons).

I'm Half Packed.....

Some Prima sites and Crypto sites are starting to turn away US customers. If all sites in those networks follow suit, it would put a serious dent in the bonus whoring community.

I see the PPA is running a phone campaign aimed at senators. I'm ashamed to say Hillary Clinton is my senator and she can do pretty much anything she wants, because she has so much political leverage in NY state. Although we have a lame duck Republican governor the state is as Democratic as it gets. (I belong to the Libertarian Party.)

Wouldn't it be funny if the Department of Justice arrested Howard Lederer et al like they've arrested the sports book CEO's? I can just see Mike Matusow, Jesus Ferguson, Phil Ivey and Clonie Gowen all arriving in US federal court dressed in Full Tilt garb. The point I'm making is they're all breaking the same federal law, so be even handed about it and arrest them all.

The legality of online poker has to resolve itself in the near future. Either way I'm covered (Thank you, Canada!) but for now it's putting a crimp in my split-pot style.

Football Lock of the week: NCAA Wake Forest @ UCONN (-6). Although Uconn is a relatively new 1A program, they score points and are tough at home - plus Wake lost their starting QB. NFL Rams (-3) @ 49ers. SF is improving every week but STL has too much firepower and a better defense. [2006 record 3-0.]

Abbreviated Post

I just lost my long first draft, so here's the short version:

I got sick last weekend. I played poker while I was sick. I lost a fair amount, unable to concentrate with my cold. Sick player = bad decisions.

I recovered and played poker the last few days. I made back my losses plus a little more. Healthy player = good decisions.

Moral of the story - DON'T play when you're sick. A good night's rest will go a long way towards helping your game.

Football Lock of the week - NCAA: Pitt (-7.5) @ Cincinnati. Pitt has the edge in offense and defense, while Cincy has yet to prove it can hang in the Big East. NFL: Eagles (-4.5) @ Texans. You'll be lucky if this line isn't 7 by gameday. [2006 record 1-0.]