Comin' To Getcha

The government is not only trying to get on-line poker players and casinos; now they are passing new rules for brick and mortar casino poker tournaments, as well. The IRS will start requiring casinos and poker tournament sponsors to report the winner's earnings.

Beginning March 4, 2008 casinos and other tournament sponsors must report the earnings of any winner who's prize is more than $5000. Sponsors are not required to withhold any of the earnings; just to report them at the conclusion of the tourney.

If they do not report the earnings they can be held liable for up to 25% of the total earnings. All winners must provide their taxpayer ID or social security number to the sponsor. If a player fails to provide the number, the sponsor is required to withhold 28% of their winnings and send it to the IRS.

By law, you must already report your gambling profits on your taxes. Seems the IRS believes we have been under-reporting our earnings and wants to make sure that they get their share. Another way the government is trying to discourage us from playing poker.

Screw the UIGEA and the IRS. If I want to play poker; I'll find a place to play. At least its out in the open now and not in a back-room of a bar somewhere, like it was in my younger days.

This is Supposed to Be a Poker Blog

This is supposed to be a poker blog, but since I haven't been playing much poker lately, there haven't been too many recent posts. I have been posting regularly to my blog on Yuwie. I also recently started another non-poker blog at this link, HERE. I occasionally will still post to my Myspace blog and will try to post more regularly here.

Some topics for future discussion include the Scotty Ngyuen Open at the Cherokee Casino Resort in Tulsa this spring, the expansion of said Cherokee Casino, and other upcoming poker events here in the Sooner State.

I'm trying to get a list of weekly tournaments throughout the state to post here so that you can always find a game in your area. If you know of any or have links to their web page give me a shout and I'll be sure to include it and give you credit for the info in an upcoming post.

-Hammer

Productive Night

Played again at Sportsbook last night. I first played in a free roll for the WSOP main event qualifier and was busted out in 12th place (1402 total entries) when my AJh went up against pocket 3's. Flop was As Jd 2c and all of my money went in. When I was called and saw pocket 3's, I was estatic. Turn was 6h. And was rivered with a 3d to make my opponent the set. Needed to be top 5 to qualify for the main tourney but thought I played well.
I then played four consecutive sit-n-go's winning three of them. The only one I lost was when pocket 8's sucked out on my pocket A's and I finished fourth. The best tournament I played, I was down almost 3 to 1 in chips when heads up play started and won the whole thing 3 hands later. The person I beat was steaming. Saw them later in another tournament and they were still on tilt.
I finished up the night with a little low limit (1/2 NL) cash game and made $160 in about an hour before shutting down the computer and calling it a night.
If you are not playing online, you should be. There are still a few places that take US players. Check one of them out. You can usually try them out in play money games without having to make a deposit. See how you like the software and the action at the tables. Decide on one or more. Put your money up and play like hell!

Now Playing at Sportsbook.com

There's a great place for American players to play at online.
Sportsbook.com welcomes American players, when so many others have locked us out. And if poker is not your game,
you can play other casino games or bet on sports. Go ahead and follow the link. No, I am not getting paid for this
promo. I used to play at Full Tilt, but have enjoyed sportsbook much
more since joining. They have tournaments each Sunday for a seat at the World Series of Poker main event and you
can even qualify for the Sunday tournament through daily free rolls. What a place. Been having fun there. Hope to
see you soon. E-mail me when you sign up and we'll exchange user names to look for each other.

The Three B's of Poker Threatened

Some of the BS put up by the directors of poker tournaments is getting out of hand. They are trying to take
the "three B's" (banter, bluffing and bullshit) out of poker tournaments.

Daniel Negreanu went off in his blog on the rules brokers and I don't blame him. The crap that these guys
are putting out as rules takes alot of the fun and strategy out of the game.

I just finished reviewing the rules for an area tournament with WSOP implications that had the rule that you
could not talk to any spectators during the hand. Who hasn't been in a situation where you want to talk to a
friend, supporter or heckler during the hand that is sitting on the rail. Maybe instead of talking, someone
could pull a Griffey and throw the spectator his jock strap. The rule makes no sense and takes the entertainment
value down for the spectators. What's next, You cannot stare directly at your opponent?

The crap rules have to be stopped. Boycott tournaments that have dumb-ass rules made by some dumb-ass who
gets frustrated at the table by the three b's. Tournament directors are just poker players who can not stand
up under the pressures of normal poker playing so they become directors to try and fix the things they think are
wrong with poker. Tournament directors have to allow the game to be poker, with all of the
banter, bluffing and bullshit that goes along it and stop trying to turn it into tiddly winks.

Poker Players in Peril

The government is cracking down on online poker sites. Neteller executives have been arrested and forced to shut down their US operations; meanwhile, around ninety million dollars of US users funds are frozen and cannot be returned to their rightful owners. Linking online poker to an outdated law on placing wagers over phone lines is crazy. The law was instituted to curtail the activities of bookies who were taking bets on sporting events. Alot of these bookies were unscrupulous and ran off with their clients winnings. The bigger fish, who had mob ties, were very harsh in their collection methods. These people still exist out there today and you very rarely here of one of them being punished for their illeagal activities that the law was intended for in the first place. Now that law has been applied to online poker sites and expanded to include people who facilitate the fund transfers from the players to the poker sites and back (money laundering?....lol). What's next, a total prohibition on gambling, like we had on liquor in the '20s? There are more than 20 million poker players in the US and they need to join together to fight the injustice that is being carried out by the government. Regulate online poker sites, yes. Prohibit them, NO!

Luckily there is a group fighting for your rights as poker players. They are lobbying congress and working to get legislation passed that will favor the poker player. You can join them and add your name to the list of poker players who are mad as hell and not going to take it anymore.

Visit Poker Players Alliance and fight for your right to play!

Gobboboy Does It....Almost

The final table started like this: Jimmy "Gobboboy" Fricke, 5.175M; Gus Hansen, 4.845M; Andrew Black, 2.1M; Kristy Gazes, 1.05M; Julius Colman, 785K; Marc Karam, 535K; and Hans Martin Vogl, 455K; in chips. First out was Kristy Gazes when her A-Qh ran into Gus Hansen's pocket 9's. No help from the cards and Gazes finishes 7th.
Marc Karam was the next to go when he moved all in with K-Jo only to be called by Hansen with A-9o. The flop was 10-8-5 rainbow the turn a 9 and the river a 4 and Karam ends his day in 6th place collecting 300K Aussie dollars.
Finishing fifth was Hans Martin Vogl. He moves all-in with A-9o and is called by Gobboboy with K-Jo. Vogl gets a 9 on the flop but Fricke sucks out a J on the river to send Hans home with 400K Australian.
Just a couple of hands later Julius Colman was taken out when his A-6o went head to head with Andy Black's pocket Q's. The flop was A-A-Q, the turn a K and the river a 9 and the last Aussie was out of the field in fourth place.
Heading into the 47th hand we were down to three players with the chip count Jimmy Fricke-6,305,000;Gus Hansen-4,800,000;Andrew Black-4,145,000. The chip lead stayed with Fricke but the big hands were few and far between until hand 121 when Fricke raised from the small blind and Black re-raised all-in from the big. When the cards were revealed Black found himself dominated holding K-Qo while Fricke had A-Qh. The community cards did neither any favors and Black ends up in third place winning 700K.
The heads up action was more fast and furious with several all-in bets and lead changes. Fricke starts heads up play with 11.175M in chips to just 3.77M for Hansen. After just a few hands the stacks were almost even with Fricke holding a 300K advantage after Hansen doubled up with A-2s against Gobboboy's K-Qh on a board of A-K-7-8-5. Hansen takes a commanding chip lead, 10.465M to 4.48M only to lose it back on a river suckout by Fricke.
On a flop of J-10-10 Hansen bet 500K and Fricke goes all-in with Hansen calling. They roll their cards to reveal Hansen with A-Kh and Fricke with K-Qo. The turn was another ten and it looked as if this might be over as Gobboboy was down to only 7 outs to win and 2 to split. The river brought the miracle 9 and Jimmy regained the lead.
A few hands later Fricke tried a suckout again on a flop of K-J-6 and Hansen all in He calls with Q-9o. Hansen shows K-10o. The turn and the river provide no help and Hansen is back in control. At this point the chip count was 8.79M for Gus Hansen and 6.15M for Jimmy Fricke.
On hand #168 it all came to and end. Fricke has 3.595M and calls from the small blind. Hansen, with 11.35M raises 470K from the big blind and Jimmy calls. On a flop of Qd-8d-6c Hansen bets out 400K only to be re-raised all-in by Fricke. Hansen quickly calls and shows pocket rockets and Fricke holds 7-9c. Gus has him dominated but Fricke has an opened end straight draw and that is where most of his river suckouts have come from. The turn is a 2c giving Gobboboy a few outs with a four flush but the turn is a 9s ending the run of the 19 year old from Illinois.
Gobboboy collects 1 million Australian bucks for second place while Gus is all smiles with 1.5 million. Fricke had predicted before the event that he would win and almost did. He was lucky on several hands, but in a tournament this size sometimes you have to be.
From the link above you can see a sim of the final hand and read the almost play by play reporting from Pokernews. Later!