I recently asked a few online poker players what they thought was the biggest negative effect that the UIGEA had on online poker. They all gave me a very similar response. They all said that the UIGEA has caused a lot of the action to dry up on many of the top poker sites in the last few years. Simply put there isn’t as many people who come online with the intentions of dropping a few hundred dollars playing poker. The truth is that people may be scared because they think it’s a crime to play online poker in the United States. This isn’t the case for the most part (there are some exceptions in certain States).

For those who don’t know much about the UIGEA I have summarized some of the most important facts for you (taken from a recent article I found in Cardplayer Magazine).

- Facts about the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA)
- Stands for Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act
- Passed by congress on Sept 30 2006.

- What did the UIGEA do?
- Made it illegal for online financial institutions to transfer funds from potential customers to online casinos and vice versa

- What the UIGEA didn’t do?
- The law didn’t ban the playing of online poker

- What were the negative effects of the UIGEA?
- Forced gaming companies to pull out of the United States
- Made it difficult for customers to deposit and cash out of online gaming sites.

- What people did to fight back?
- Over a million people joined the PPA (Poker Players Alliance)
- Members of congress introduced poker-related bills to repeal or clarify the UIGEA, however none of these bills ever made it to a vote.

So what’s currently happening you might ask? Congressman Barney Frank and the PPA have created a bill that is aimed at repealing the UIGEA.

If you want my take here it is. If poker was regulated and people in the US were forced to pay taxes on their winnings this could generate billions in revenue for the US government. Action would once again be like it was pre the UIGEA. Poker is continuing to become more and more popular, with the WSOP bringing in a record in viewership and overall participation. The US gov’t needs to wake up and realize that poker is a game of skill and it is not the same “gambling” that goes in at online casinos.

I really want to see a bill passed into law so that people in the US can once again easily and legally deposit and withdrawal money from online poker sites. However I find it hard to believe that the United States government can actually regulate online gambling.  Here’s to hope that something will eventually happen sometime soon!

Cheers,

Errol

So I just got back from a Vegas trip with a bunch of the boys. The trip was great! While in Vegas I stayed at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino. The first few nights we stayed in a room that was a non pool side view. This wasn’t our best choice as the hotel was undergoing construction. That meant an early wake up by the construction crew. After we complained we got moved to a poolside view. What a difference that made.

The poker lounge is located right off the main casino floor and right down the hall from the parking garage. There is a nice restaurant called pink tacos beside the room as well as a Starbucks located next door. The floor at the Hard Rock are excellent. All staff at the Hard Rock Poker Room seems to be a tight bunch. They are a very friendly bunch.

The games that were spread at the Hard Rock Poker Lounge were $1/$2 nl and $2/$5 nl. The $1-$2 had a buyin of $100/$300 and the $2 -$5 had a buyin of $200/$2,000. What I did notice is that they could only spread a $2-$5 game from Thursday to Sunday in the afternoons to early morning, which is ok because that’s when the Hard Rock gets the majority of traffic. The $1 – $2 spread 1 table in the early mornings and they would have a floor playing as a prop player to get the game going.  I don’t even play $1 – $2 so i didn’t really play at the Hard Rock until the weekend before I went out to the club.

While playing at the Hard Rock Poker Lounge I played $2 – $5 with Jamie Gold. The game was fantastic as everyone had well over 3k in front of them at one point. No clue why Jamie Gold was playing such low limits.  Most of the time i played  $2 – $5 the game was insanely soft. I would buyin for the 2k max and most players had 300 to 500 in front of them.

I did have one major complaint with the poker room. The floor did not really have a solid foundation when it came to a few specific rulings. It seemed to me that the floor basically took the majority of the player’s word when making a ruling. Maybe it was just the one floor I dealt with but that was my general consensus. Most smaller poker rooms generally make “friendly” rullings to appease the majority of the players (to get them to come back).  Stuff like this wouldn’t ever happen if you go to 1 of the 4 top poker rooms in Vegas (Bellagio, Venetian, Caesars, and Wynn).

That being said, the staff at the Hard Rock Lounge were extremely nice to the players. If you had the players they would spread whatever game and whatever limit you wanted. The staff at the poker lounge even walked us in to the Hard Rock club (Body English) on Halloween. It was pretty much the casinos busiest time of the year.

If the Hard Rock ran a $2 – $5 game around the clock every day i pretty much wouldn’t have left the casino. I did extremely well while playing there and the staff made my stay at the Hard Rock a great overall experience.

Oh and I bumped into Daniel Negraunu while playing at the Hard Rock. Apparently he was giving lessons to a contest winner. Here is a pic of me and Negraunu. I played a lot this summer at the WSOP and didn’t stop one pro for a picture. Heck I even played with Phil Galfond and Jamie gold. I guess I just consider these guys to be regular people.

Cheers,

Errol

In Vegas I mainly played cash games at the RIO, Venetian and the Wynn. Yah Yah I should be playing tournaments but I am mainly a cash game player. In total the 2008 wsop had a total prize pool of over 180 million. However we will have to wait for a 2008 main event champ. While in Vegas I played with a bunch of known poker faces and known sports personalities. My most memorable night was sitting down at a 2/5 nl game at the Palms with Adam Morrison from the Charlotte Bobcats and Ron Artest from the Sacramento Kings.

The following are a few pictures that I took during the main event at the WSOP.

Gus Hansen at 2008 WSOP

Dan Harrington at 2008 wsop

Vanessa Russo at 2008 wsop

Picture of Featured Table at wsop main event 2008

Lee Watkinson at 2008 wsop

Kristy Gazes at 2008 wsop

Dave ‘Devilfish’ Ulliott at 2008 wsop

I hope you enjoyed these pics.

Now that I am finally back in Toronto I will be taking some time off from playing live poker and focus on online play.

Cheers,

Errol