This week, in gambling news of the weird:

A German gambler called the police for help after he lost his false teeth playing poker.

Link

The Redmen's poker club in Austin, considered by many the successor to the Austin Poker Club (raided almost a year ago), got raided tonight. Link

The Redmen's club operated at a lower profile than the APC; they didn't publicize through a website, they were a little more stringent on membership referrals, and rather than take a straight time charge they had a "voluntary" donation to their charitable organization. Nevertheless, they still had paid, tipped dealers, and even a truly voluntary donation probably constitutes an economic benefit in the eyes of Texas law. (See here for my summary of Texas gambling law).

It's bad news for poker players that in this case, all players were issued citations for gambling (a class C misdemeanor). Typically in the past players have been let go with just a warning, but this may mean that future busts will also see players getting citations and fines.

Whether the case goes to court and the Redmen fight it will likely be determined by the outcome of the APC case, which apparently now has a court date in April. As much as I'd like to see both cases come out in favor of the cardrooms, I don't see how either can get past the very plain language of the law, combined with the existing precedent cases that have ruled on economic benefit.

The Venetian is paying $1m in fines after the gaming board found that executives rigged a 2002 contest to compensate a high roller who had lost a lot of money.

The complaint and settlement show a casino executive hid the winning ticket for the SUV in his shirt sleeve and pretended to draw it randomly. Casino officials reported the incident to gambling regulators shortly after receiving information about the phony drawing.

Link

2 other prizes in the contest were rigged too. Moral of the story: don't buy a new SUV, just high roll at the Venetian?

Classic moments in wagering: an article in today's NY Times relates how Bette Davis' role in a film was won by Sam Goldwyn in a poker match.

In his parents' day, the court was the site of lawn parties. Between sets it was a place for schmoozing and perhaps a game of poker. A 2001 documentary, "Goldwyn: The Man and His Movies," related how Mr. Goldwyn's father got Bette Davis for "The Little Foxes" from Jack Warner because of a poker debt.

Link

Brian Koppelman, writer of Rounders, has a depressing, surprisingly anti-gambling column in today's New York Observer.

I spent years playing cards, shooting dice, betting on anything anytime I thought I might have an edge. Even after it had become clear to me that in the long run, you never really do have an edge, I kept at it. I once bet the best basketball player on Long Island that I could beat him at HORSE if he�d give me a three-letter spot, and lost HOR to HORSE. I played the captain of my college�s squash team in squash, for money, even though I had never held a racquet until that afternoon. I have bet on ball games between teams I knew nothing about, and have walked out of more gaming establishments with empty pockets and maxed-out A.T.M. cards than I really care to count up.

Link

As the author of the most pro-poker mainstream film in recent history, and recently commissioned writer of a TV series about college gambling, I find his column incredibly hypocritical. If he really thinks gambling and poker are such evils, he probably shouldn't have written a movie glorifying a young man's passion to become a professional poker player.

Apparently, all the major poker sites were down today for a period of time. Several posters on rec.gambling.poker are saying it was a distributed denial of service attack by hackers blackmailing the sites. Another possibility is that the hosting center the sites are in (nearly all major online poker sites are hosted out of an Indian reservation in Canada) went down. As of this writing, the sites appear to be operational again. (via Decker's Journal)

There have undoubtedly been recent DDoS attacks against some of the larger sites, notably Party Poker which has had a lot of trouble over the past few days. I can't imagine this hacker group being successful at retrieving money from these guys, though; after the major DDoS attacks on some of the big shopping sites a few years ago, a lot was written and tools produced to prevent DDoS attacks.

Update: Decker has posted a response from Paradise Poker, in which they confirm that they have been hit by DoS attacks.

Low-limit online poker newcomer the 'Flava posts a fan-euphoria post about playing - and beating - Chris Moneymaker at an $11 sit'n'go tournament.

Moneymaker checks. This sets off a red flag in my head, because the last time he checked on the flop, he had a monster hand. But I have trip-nines! Here's my chance!

Link (via lingosphere)

For you Austinites, tonight Crimson restaurant downtown is once again having what's become their monthly poker event:

Cards & Cocktails

This month, celebrate Mardi Gras at Crimson! In the spirit of "Celebrity Poker" & "The World Series of Poker", we've decided to start our own poker night! Tuesday, February 24th, Crimson will host "Cards & Cocktails" - a monthly game of Texas Hold'em with complimentary lessons, your 1st cocktail, and fantastic prizes...all for just $10. Come out and join us for this exciting new event.

Date: FAT TUESDAY (a.ka. Mardi Gras), February 24th - 7pm
Location: Crimson
Cost: $10/person (includes 1st cocktail, lessons, prizes)
RSVP: events@crimsonaustin.com

Crimson is located in downtown Austin on Colorado between 4th and 5th streets.

This is probably an ideal event for total beginners. I have some friends who went last time Crimson held this, and said the atmosphere was relaxed and fun, and there were a lot of first-time players.

from london froggy over at Vagaries of an online poker player:

Don't ever try to play poker online from a hotel in Germany.

(and, coincidentally, the reason he missed the Grublog Poker Classic). Better luck next time! Link

In the aftermath of the first ever poker blogger tournament last night, there has been a fair amount written about the adventures.

First, congrats to Mean Gene for taking down the whole thing! He wins online bragging rights until the next one. Grubby has posted full results here.

Tournament wrap-ups:
Mean Gene basks in his win
The Fat Guy thinks second place sucks
Sean is considering using his winnings to upgrading his blog
The Poker Coder admires Felicia's play
The Penguin is the self-proclaimed Hellmuth of the tournament
Felicia makes some recommendations for tournament preparation
HDouble recounts his tournament highlights
Edward enjoyed going up against me
Iggy also invokes Phil Hellmuth
Chris blames his wife
McGrupp quotes some funny table talk
Rick says he choked. Big time.
Liquid Swords got free poker lessons for busting out first, and followed up his loss with 2 $10+1 sit'n'go wins

Updates:
Dan invites random bloggers to his home
The Daily Grinder had the door to the final table slammed in his face by some unsuited, unconnected garbage
Grubby has posted his well-detailed recount of the tournament
Paulsburbon pleads guilty as charged to the Penguin's accusation of steal-raising

Well, at least for me. I busted out one off the bubble (8th of 32), which in this case was the true bubble since there was even a prize for the bubble boy :(

I had been getting blinded down steadily, and ended up having to go all-in under the gun with K8 clubs, and was called by Penguin's AQo which was good.

Good game all, it was a good time. The main issue I had with the tournament, shared by several others, was that we played 10-minute levels which was pretty fast. I'd prefer to see more of a championship-type structure with much longer levels in the future.

I may have not made the money but I did crack aces with the hammer, which almost made it worth it :)

We're on break... I'm currently the chip leader, after having cracked CJ's pocket aces with my deuce-seven offsuit...

THE HAMMER!

I believe I was the first to win a showdown with the hammer; in which case, I'll be sending CJ a hammer t-shirt to commemorate his knockout :)

The first-ever poker blogger tournament is beginning.

I'm offering a side prize: a 2-7 "THE HAMMER" t-shirt to the first blogger to win a showdown with 2-7. May the best player win!

The World Poker Tour today opened their "Poker Walk of Fame" at the Commerce Casino yesterday. First honorees were Doyle Brunson, James Garner, and Gus Hansen. Link

Am I the only one who thinks Gus Hansen is a questionable first honoree? I guess he's there because he's been the big WPT winner, but if you really want to have a legitimate poker walk of fame, I can think of a dozen people who should easily be included before Gus Hansen.

Nevertheless, it's a great idea and will probably be the #2 poker status symbol behind Binion's Wall of Fame.

Just a month after Harrah's agreed to buy Binion's, they've agreed to sell it to small-time track and casino operator MTR Gaming. Harrah's would keep the World Series of Poker brand under the proposal, and presumably move it to one of their properties on the Strip. However, the deal is getting a lot of resistance from the owners of the land that Binion's is built on. At this point it's unclear what impact this has on poker players. I'll be happy to see the WSOP move to the Strip, regardless of who ends up with the Horseshoe. Link

The new Las Vegas monorail, which is going to run from the Sahara the whole way to the MGM Grand, opens next month. I hope it's open by the time I'm there in mid-March, I'd like to check it out. It's not going to be as convenient for me as the Monte Carlo-Bellagio tram which I used a lot when it was open since I would stay at the MC and play at the Bellagio. It does provide a more convenient way to get from the MGM Grand to the Bellagio, though, as there are stations at the MGM Grand and at Bally's/Paris. I haven't seen the stations, but it sounds like they are pretty much door-to-door stops at the casinos on the route. This article from the SF Chronicle covers more of the social and political issues behind the monorail: Link

Coincidentally, the day that I posted my poker legality FAQ, a planned poker tournament in Lubbock, TX was shut down by the Lubbock DA. Link (thanks, todd!)

The video is worth watching too. I sure hope the quote they used from the Assistant DA was taken out of context, since it's patently wrong.

"In Texas the basic proposition is gambling is illegal," said Assistant Criminal District Attorney, John Grace. Grace warned Jake's with a phone call that what they were about to do was illegal. "There are four kinds of legal gambling in Texas, and its the lottery, horse racing, dog racing and bingo. If it it's not one of those four its illegal," said Grace.

This is clearly false as home poker games and certain other gambling is legal in Texas within the bounds I described in my FAQ.

What's interesting about this case is that the owner is contending the tournament was legal based on the fact that it was a tournament, which is about the only potential loophole I can think of in the given Texas law. If poker tournaments are treated as, say, bridge tournaments or pinball tournaments, then they could be exempt and legal. As far as I know, that's never been tested in Texas courts though, since in all cases the broken laws have been much more clear. I doubt a case would be won if it went to court though, since it's pretty clear that even in a 5-day marathon poker tournament, the outcome is defined partially by chance which under Texas law still makes it gambling.

Outside of the possibility that tournaments don't fall under the gambling law in Texas, this tournament was definitely illegal, since the law explicitly "excludes, among other places, streets, highways, restaurants, taverns, nightclubs, schools, hospitals, and the common areas of apartment houses, hotels, motels, office buildings, transportation facilities, and shops" from the law's definition of private place, which is the only type of place legal poker can occur.

After getting asked many times recently about the legality of poker in Texas, I've put together a long FAQ (see previous entry). It'll be a permanent entry on the left sidebar.

I get a lot of questions about the legality of poker games in the state of Texas where I live. I intend for this to be a fairly complete review of what constitutes legal poker in the state of Texas.

If you're looking for info on legality of poker in other states, my first suggestion is to read the law for your own state. Most states have laws very similar to Texas law, but there are often differences from state to state. Also, homepoker.com has a decent summary of laws in several states here: Link

Now, for Texas. The complete Texas penal code on gambling is here: Link. I advise anyone who's interested in Texas gambling law to read it, it's actually not very long and pretty easy to understand.

Maybe you shouldn't. Maybe you don't. Many people do care if what they do is legal, which is why I put this page together. I just want people to be informed and want to have a single place I can put this info instead of having to regurgitate it every couple of weeks.

You should decide whether it matters to you whether the game you play in is legal or not. I hope I provide enough information here that anyone can make that determination.

In Texas law, a bet is defined as "an agreement to win or lose something of value solely or partially by chance" with a few exceptions. Specifically the law makes it clear that betting on the outcomes of sports events or any other game or contest, betting on on the results of elections, and "betting on any game played with cards, dice, balls, or any other gambling device" is gambling and covered by the law.

So poker is definitely considered gambling in Texas law; the only exception is that poker tournaments or games with no entry fee or any other way to lose money by entering are not considered gambling, and are therefore legal, since you have no way to lose something of value. There are a few bars and restaurants in Austin, for example, that have zero-entry poker tournaments as promotional events. These are legal.

In Texas, as with most states, bingo, lotteries, racetrack betting, and charitable raffles all have their own separate laws and are not covered by the more general gambling law.

Texas law is designed to allow "social gambling". From the law, it is legal to gamble if:

(1) the actor engaged in gambling in a private place;

(2) no person received any economic benefit other than personal winnings; and

(3) except for the advantage of skill or luck, the risks of losing and the chances of winning were the same for all participants.

(1) means the gambling must be on private property; you can't gamble in public, or in an open bar or restaurant, at all. Most bar or restaurant owners don't want you playing poker in their bar even if it's not for money.

(3) makes "house edge" games like blackjack, craps, pai gow, etc. generally illegal. It would probably be legal to have a blackjack game if everybody bet the same amount and the person acting as the house rotated every hand. Certainly almost every type of poker offers all players equal chance of losing and winning so poker is OK here.

It's almost always (2) that makes a poker game illegal in Texas. It's also important to realize that the purpose of (2) is to prevent people from becoming professional gambling promoters -- the law's intent is to allow people to gamble for fun, but does not want anybody to be making a living from running poker games, or being a bookie, etc.

The definition of what constitutes "economic benefit" in (2) is somewhat hazy. Here's what is clear. If there is money raked from pots, or a seat time charge, or a door fee, or a mandatory food charge, or a mandatory "donation", the game is illegal under Texas law since that money is going to somebody, and they are getting an "economic benefit" from the gambling.

It is a little more hazy if you're playing in a game where there's no rake or game charge, but there is a dealer or waitress who is getting tipped. That's probably still illegal. Genuinely voluntary donations, or asking people to chip in for beer or pizza, or selling someone something like cigarettes during the game, probably would still make the game technically illegal but it seems extremly unlikely that anything like that alone would cause a game to get busted.

There has been at least one case where the illegality of a poker game was established. In Gaudio v. Texas 1994, Gaudio was convicted of keeping a gambling place which in this case was an apartment rented to play poker games. The judge ruled that what made the game illegal was that the pots were raked to pay the rent of the apartment and that since not having to pay the full rent of the place was an economic benefit, the game was illegal. The judge also said, though, that even if the pot wasn't raked, the fact that the dealer and waitress received tips probably made the game illegal.

In Texas the answer is yes, but rarely. The only cases in the last several years I've heard of have been two high-profile operations, the Austin Poker Club which was shut down in April 2003 (see here) and the Redmen's club, shut down in February 2004 (see here). Neither has gone to trial yet.

Little one- or two- table home games, illegal or legal, rarely attract the attention of the law anywhere in the US. Larger illegal cardrooms or poker clubs more frequently do because they are a higher profile and easier to prosecute.

The Austin Poker Club was a very high-profile club. They were trying to operate as a legitimate business, including having a public website, a labeled location, membership dues and apparently even paying taxes. The owners believed, and still do, that their club was legal. Only the outcome of the trial will determine that for sure.

Probably not too much. You'd almost certainly be questioned for several hours about the game, probably at a police office. You'd probably lose your buyin and the chips you had in front of you.

In the event you did get any charges, you'd just get charged with Gambling, which is a Class C Misdemeanor (basically a parking ticket, with a fine up to $500).

There's a firsthand account of the Austin Poker Club bust here.

Whether the game is legal or illegal, you'd be in for a lot more hassle. You'd be charged with Keeping a Gambling Place, which is a Class A Misdemeanor (fine up to $4,000, jail for up to a year, or both). You'd have to go to trial and defend yourself. In the case of the Austin Poker Club, it's been a year and they still haven't made it to trial so those things can drag on.

The most common motivation for raking a home poker game, and therefore making the game illegal, is that the person running the game simply wants to make money from the game. A less common cause is that the person running the game is genuinely not aware that what they are doing (taking a rake, charging for food, paying a dealer etc.) is making the game illegal.

If you like playing in a home game with a professional (paid) dealer, the only way to get that is to play in an illegal game (since having a paid dealer by definition makes the game illegal).

Additionally, because the organizers of illegal games are making money, illegal games tend to be well-organized, well-promoted and well-attended every single week. Many illegal games have perks like "free" food, drinks and nice tables and cards that you may not get in a typical home game. They are also typically run well by people who know how to manage a poker game -- rules are more strictly followed and enforced, the game moves faster, etc.

If you're OK with doing something that's technically illegal, and you're OK with the (probably very small) risk that the game will get busted and you'll lose your buyin and possibly get a small fine, the only other downside to playing in an illegal game is that since it's raked it's generally harder to make money there. Illegal game rakes tend to be equal to or higher than the rakes in Vegas and other places where games are legal, and in some cases the rakes are much higher. That can make the game very hard to beat, even for a very solid player. On the other hand, if the game has a lot of poor players it could very well be a much easier game to beat than a typical home game.

You should make your own mind up and decide whether you want to play in an illegal game or not. I have created this page so you can be informed and make up your own mind.

The games that I've held in the past have always been, and always will be, unraked, player-dealt, and 100% legal. I work hard to make sure people have fun at my games and the games are honest and well-run. I'm not trying to make a living from poker, which is why I don't feel like I need to take money from the pots of my games to keep the games that way.

I'd love to see a day when all poker is 100% legal in Texas and professional cardrooms are allowed to operate in the light of day. Until that time, keep yourself informed and make your own decisions as to when and where you want to play poker.

By Texas law, probably not, since you'd be engaging in betting activity in which someone (the online cardroom) is receiving economic benefit. Therefore playing online poker in the state of Texas in a raked online cardroom is probably illegal.

On the plus side, I've never heard of a case in Texas of anyone getting busted for playing poker online. There have been a few cases in other states of online sports bettors and poker players getting prosecuted.

It's unlikely that federal law covers internet poker; CardPlayer writers Allyn Jaffrey and I. Nelson Rose have written many articles covering the topic; the most up-to-date is Rose's article "Is it a Crime to Play Poker Online?"

That's about all the information I have. I hope this is informative to people who want to learn more about the Texas laws with respect to poker. If you have any comments or additions, please email me. See the left sidebar for a link to my email.

Chris Halverson has posted the entire (454 MB) final episode of the 2003 World Series of Poker broadcast on his site! Link

The Bellagio is now spreading $100 buyin 1-2 no-limit hold'em! I love playing this cash game during the WSOP at Binion's. It'll be interesting to see if the game at the Bellagio will prove to be sustainable year-round. It's generally rare to find a sustainable no-limit or pot-limit game in US casinos, including Vegas, because the games tend to be quickly overpopulated with sharks who are adept at very quickly relieving the poorer players of their money. With the influx of no-limit players thanks to televised poker, though, it could prove to be a sustainable game. (via VeganPoker)

Tomorrow night is the next local Austin Poker Meetup. I haven't been for several months, but I'll be there tomorrow. Last I wrote about it was in August last year, when the membership had gone from 10 or 20 to about 87 people in a few weeks. Well, since then the Austin membership has gone from 87 to 251, making Austin the third largest poker meetup group in the US!

If you are in any city in the US and looking for games or players for your game, meetup.com seems to really have gathered steam in many cities so it's probably worth checking out. The meetups I've been to have consisted of a pretty wide slice of people, all interested in playing poker.

Update 2/17/04: the Austin meetup grew to 257 members in the last day, surpassing Houston to become the second largest meetup group in the US!

Update 2/18/04: The Austin meetup had about 15-20 people show up, which is the best poker meetup turnout I've seen so far. 12 of those people wanted to play enough to sign up for my e-mail list, and 2 of them wanted to play enough that they came to my place to join my game straight after the meetup. Another successful meetup.

This hot off the presses of the CardPlayer newsletter:

The CardPlayer.com rumor mill has learned that poker is so hot at Bellagio that the poker room will be expanding with the addition of 10 more tables soon. It's just a rumor, but we'll keep you posted.

I called the Bellagio poker room, and asked the manager there if there was any truth to it. He said "I wouldn't know the answer to that question, but I heard that rumor too."

So it seems likely and is great news for poker players. I would guess that they would be expanding into the sportsbook area where the private horse monitors are, which is underutilized anyway. In related news, CardPlayer reports that the weekly Friday night $500 buyin NLH tournaments at the Bellagio have been getting an average of 119 players! That's huge for a weekly big-dollar tournament.

For those of you who high-roll in Vegas, you should know that the MGM Mirage properties just increased their minimum average bet for attaining RFB (room food and beverage) status.

TI - $200 (was $150)
Mirage - $250 (was $200)
Bellagio - $300 (was $250)

These figures are average bet, minimum 4 hours per day of play.

These are really significant increases, especially at TI -- $200 is much higher than $150 average. Also note that the minimums for RFL (room, food - limited) status are $50 less than the RFB minimums, so those have all increased by $50 as well.

Those numbers above came directly from a casino host. I don't have the figure for the MGM Grand but I think they slot the Grand around the TI, which would make it $200.

When asked for the reason for the increase, the host said "inflation". (Maybe he meant "price inflation" :)

Thanks to loveandcasinowar.com senior casino comp correspondent Jules for the investigative research work.

(Update: I had the amount for TI incorrect; it is now corrected.)

This month's edition of MovieMaker magazine has a decent article on poker movies. In addition to mentions of Stuey and Shade (which is slated to make wide release soon, apparently), it mentions some new films in the pipe which sound interesting:

At least two feature length documentaries are currently being made on poker. Rovin' Gamblers, directed by Rebekah Sindoris, chronicles the lives of six young professional poker players with an unparalleled obsession for the game. Sindoris follows their lives from the tables to the nightclubs to family dinners as they struggle to stay on top of their game. [...]

In addition, MM Publisher Tim Rhys' Taking a Shot takes a look at high-stakes poker players, moviemakers and other mavericks who have successfully gambled on themselves to achieve the American Dream. Rhys interviews stars and analysts from the world of high-stakes and tournament poker, as well as celebrities and entrepreneurs who have unique personal perspectives on risk-taking and its relationship to achieving success, American style. The doc is being shot over a six-month period, and chronicles the fortunes of Rhys' partner and producer, Susan Genard, as she competes in a series of high-stakes tournaments to try to win enough money for her company to produce an independent film!

Link

I don't generally plug online poker sites here, but pokerroom.com has one of the coolest stats features I've seen -- they've measured the Expected Value of all poker hands based on over 100 million actual hands played in their room! Link (via teamfu.freeshell.org)

There's enough information in those stats to write at least a dozen posts. And I probably will.

What's so interesting about them is that they deal with how players actually play these hands, not what the theoretical EV of each hand is.

Which leads me to the point of this post. What do you think the most expensive hand is in 10-handed online hold'em (based on pokerroom.com's stats)? The one that costs players the most amount of money (on average) when dealt to them? Think about it for a second.

If you said something like 72 offsuit, or 23 suited, you're wrong. The most expensive hand in online hold'em is ace deuce offsuit. That's right. In fact, the five most costly hands in 10-handed online hold'em are A2, A3, A4, A5 and A6 offsuit! J5s is the next costliest, followed immediately by A7 and A8.

Based on those stats, the biggest hole in the average online player's game is playing ace-rag, and staying around with top pair no kicker. The other big holes in players' games are playing king-rag, and playing suited trash, especially in late position. When you think about it it's not all that surprising.

"Costliest" here refers to the lowest EV, averaged across playing from all positions in a 10-handed game. The costliest hands on the button are A2o and 84s, as well as A5, 83s, T3s, K2s and pocket deuces.

I'd love the ability to slice the statistics by the EV based on number of pre-flop callers. Then you could see how EV for marginal and drawing hands increases with the number of pre-flop callers.

It's important to note that these figures do not mean there's no way to profitably play these hands. They mean the average player does not play them profitably. However, I feel completely safe in saying that the moral of this post is that when it comes to Ax and Kx offsuit, and suited trash, even when in late position, just don't do it. It's nothing earth-shattering, but these stats should hammer home to you how much these hands cost the average player.

The Chicago Sun-Times ran an interesting article on Barry Greenstein, the poker pro who won the recent World Poker Open. It's written by a reporter who grew up with Greenstein. It has a fair bit more detail than your typical newspaper player profile, including a few interesting quotes and tidbits from his life:

Tournament poker, on the other hand, has a cleaner image, like tournament golf. You don't have to hide anything.

"I used to give money to charity, but I had to lie about how I made it," Barry said. "I didn't want people to know I was a professional gambler. It was like, 'Whose life did you wreck so you could help us?' So I said I was an investor."

Link

Andrei has some interesting thoughts on Paul Phillips' laydown of QQ on the WPT against TJ Cloutier's AJ where TJ had a pair of jacks. There's no end of unintelligent TV poker analysis on rec.gambling.poker and not enough intelligent analysis on poker blogs, in my opinion. Link

More evidence of the growth of poker: Loyola University held an official, university-sanctioned poker tournament with $20 entry and a $3,500 grand prize, and attracted over 180 entrants! Link

Unfortunately I don't think any Texas universities will be running a tournament like this any time soon.

Poker Top10 put up a new top 10 list Thursday: top 10 poker blogs. Definitely worth checking out, and not only because loveandcasinowar.com made number 1 :)

It had been some time since I checked out PokerPulse, which monitors activity on online poker sites. Thanks to papaseraph for reminding me of its existence.

If you play online, you should really check it out. It really shows how successful PartyPoker's advertising has been -- their 24-hour peak is more than 3x the next closest competitor (PokerStars).

I generated a pie chart of the top ten online room's market share based on pokerpulse's reported 24-hour peak number of cash game players:

Pretty interesting. What is absolutely remarkable, though, is to compare it to this chart, which shows market share in a completely unrelated industry - the U.K. auto battery market:

(see here for the report I got the battery graph from.)

Obviously I tweaked my chart to be the same size and format of the battery chart, but I find it astounding to see how similar these two charts are. What does it mean? I'd suggest that the online poker industry is a much more mature market than one might expect, and that its current competitive breakdown may be reasonably compared to those of other mature industries with one dominant player.

With a 24-hour peak total of around 19,000 total cash players, the online poker industry has a long way to grow; that will cause some changes in the breakdown of market share among online poker rooms. Whether Party is able to stay so far ahead of the competition remains to be seen; if I had to put some money on it I'd bet that their subscriber base will continue to increase but their market share % will fall a little bit as competition from the smaller guys continues to grow.

Congrats to grubby over at Poker Grub for doing two of the best things I've seen in poker blogging: first, he's coordinating a poker blogger online poker tournament! Sunday February 22. I look forward to the blog-entry trash talk that will no doubt follow this inaugural event. (McGrupp over at Tao of Poker has already handicapped the event.)

Second, grubby has set up a challenge where he's rewarding people for winning online pots after playing 72o (the hand he wants to officially become known as "The Hammer")!

He's got some other good stuff on his site, it's worth checking out.

For those of you interested in the continuing saga of the Austin Poker Club, 9+ months have passed since it was shut down and they still have not gone to trial. There have been numerous delays and date resets.

The trial date had been set for February 17th, but I just heard from the APC owner that the court date has once again been postponed and they're going to need to go through pre-trial motions before a new date is set.

I expect it will be at least another couple months before they make it to trial. You'll hear it first here since the case seems to have dropped off most other people's radars.

Previous coverage:
austin poker club shut down
austin poker club not going down without a fight
update on austin poker club

Ignatius over at pokersavvy.com has posted the best poker blog roundup I've seen, including a very flattering mention of loveandcasinowar.com! It's highly recommended reading if you're looking for more poker blogs. They've really been taking off recently and Ignatius has compiled the most complete review of them so far. Link

(via SongMonk's Journal)

ESPN announced today that it has canceled 'Playmakers' after one season. ESPN had drawn a lot of heat from the NFL about 'Playmakers'. Link

Oddly enough, though, one of the series in the running for a replacement to 'Playmakers' is a series called 'The Fix'. The commissioned pilot is to be written by the writers of Rounders and is about gambling on college football. Link

I'd love to see a show about sports gambling, but I don't see any way ESPN would go for and risk angering the NCAA after the heat the NFL gave them for 'Playmakers'. The NCAA is vehemently anti-gambling and fights any links between its name and gambling.

The St. Johns Greyhound Park is making a huge investment in poker!

A 30-table poker room will open by the end of February at St. Johns Greyhound Park after a change in state law made the venture potentially more profitable.

Jacksonville Greyhound Racing is spending $750,000 to open the 14,000-square-foot card room, which will operate Wednesdays through Mondays from noon until midnight, said Howard Korman, president.

Link

This is a direct result of the new Florida legislation allowing "large stakes" games of up to $1-2 hold'em. That, combined with the immense popularity boost poker has seen recently, makes more Florida track poker rooms like this likely.

When Mike Sexton (host of World Poker Tour) gets more attention than Tiger Woods!

Soon, a line of young men, asking for autographs and pictures, charged Sexton's table. Before Sexton got to his meal, the waitress said something surprising.

"Last week, Tiger Woods was sitting at that table right next to you," she said, "and none of these guys even approached him or wanted his autograph."

Link

Congratulations to Barry Greenstein, who won $1.28 million dollars in the World Poker Open $10,000 main event! Link

Greenstein is pictured here after beating out Larry Flynt to win the 2003 Hustler Cup $125,000 buy-in 7-card stud event. He's a tournament regular who has a bunch of big-money finishes.

Especially close to my heart -- the Penn Poker Club at the University of Pennsylvania, of which I was a founding member, drew 175 attendees for a free-entry hold'em tournament! The structure (which should guarantee legality in most U.S. states) could be used as a model for other schools:

PokerRoom.com, an online forum to learn and play poker, provided the Penn Poker Club with $2,000 in cash prizes and 150 decks of cards detailed with the PokerRoom.com logo.

Despite the lack of an entrance fee, a $3 donation to the Chess in Philadelphia Schools Initiative was suggested by Graeffe, president of the Penn Chess Club.

Link

The very first Penn Poker Championship was an unofficial event, held in a fraternity house in 1996. It consisted of four tournaments; I won one of them :)

Need some last-minute games for your super bowl party? Well, you're in luck... here are the official love and casino war super bowl party games! The links go to Microsoft Excel spreadsheets of the games, ready to print and play.

Super Bowl Bingo - every player gets a 5x5 bingo card with events that will occur, things that will be heard, and things that will be seen on TV during the superbowl (examples: Patriots rushing touchdown, "Play Action", Previous superbowl footage shown). Every player puts in money, first bingo wins the pot! In the event of a tie, whoever first gets another bingo wins.

Super Bowl Lotto - every player puts in $1 (or whatever you choose) and gets a card with a player's name. Every time that player scores they win $1, every time that player has a possession they can give out drinks to other players.

Super Bowl Prop Sheet - every player puts in money and fills out their picks for the "silly" super bowl proposition bets. Each pick is worth a certain amount of points, winner takes all.

Enjoy!

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