Every week I get emails from my readers telling me how wrong I am about this or that. On two occassions I received threats that involved my balls and a knife. Apparently people get very upset when I don't fall in line and print only glorious stories of things that are "good for poker" - a phrase that makes no sense to me... who is this poker guy anyway and why do I care if what I say is good for him?

The absurd decision to sell the “exclusive reporting rights” of WSOP and WPT tournaments has claimed its latest victim.

I logged onto MySpace earlier today to find a message from Jen (Andy Bloch’s better half). The title was “PokerWire.com signs off”. A visit to the PokerWire web site confirmed the news, with the latest post on the blog style site stating that they will only post updates as they are made available by the WPT. Live tournament coverage and the PokerWire radio show will be no more.

It was unnecessary, however, for the site to shut down. As I stated before, you cannot sell the exclusive reporting rights of anything in this country. Anybody is free to report on whatever they want to. The Bill of Rights gave us that privilege a couple of centuries ago. You can limit access to an event, but once the “news” is made public, it can easily be re-reported. Card Player Magazine can’t copyright the chip counts! You can’t own public information! Once they give their live reports, anybody is free to repost the info as “almost live reports”. There is nothing that the WPT nor Card Player can do to stop this from happening.

I still wonder who the braniacs were at the WSOP and WPT that thought it was a good idea to piss off as many members of the press as they could. “Hey let’s rub it in their faces too by sending a press release that says fuck you”. Sounds absurd, but that is pretty much how it went down.

United Sports Media, a Los Angeles based media and television syndication firm (subsidiary of United Multi-Media Investments, LLC), along with World Poker Entertainment Network, has announced today that it has signed an international broadcast agreement with the World Poker Showdown. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed. The announcement was made today at a press conference in Burbank, Ca by Rod Myers, President of United Sports Media.

According to the AP, a Harvard professor has proclaimed that poker should be seen as an educational tool that can build strategic thinking skills.

"It teaches life skills, it teaches numeracy, risk assessment, resource management, and it teaches a lot about psychology," Harvard Law School's Prof Charles Nesson said at an internet conference.

The statements were made during the announcing of a plan to offer workshops to schools and universities worldwide.

Poker "teaches you to rely on yourself, assess the situation yourself and make the play," Prof Nesson said. He said he is forming a "global poker strategic thinking society" that will offer poker workshops. The society would be started at Harvard, Prof Nesson said.

I don't want to get into the habbit of posting video after video, but this one jumped out at me. It starts kind of so-so ha ha-ish, but it ends pretty funny. Oh, and it may not make any sense to anybody under the age of 30 or over the age of 40.

Here's to Poker in the Eighties...

I once posted about Boston Rob giving me the riot act in Costa Rica because I didn't know who or what a "Boston Rob" was. Apparently this guy didn't know who was either. What was he thinking? How could you push a poker god / reality TV king like Boston Rob around like that?

NOT HOT!

Ok, maybe I am going against the grain on this one, but I just don't see what the draw to "Jennicide" is. A few months ago she did a spread for FHM and now it seems that she will be posing for Playboy.

I once played a satellite with her at the Mirage and just shook my head silently while guys at the table giggled and whispered like a bunch of fifth graders wishing they could snap her bra.

I posted the video from her FHM shoot below. Take a look and ask yourself if she is seriously Playboy material.

Not only is she lacking in the looks department, but also in the brains department. Here is an excerpt from the FHM interview...

"I hear about people who win $150,000 in one day and 24 hours later they’re down $500,000. They’re going out and getting bottle service for $3,000 a night and bringing hookers back to their hotel. And they don’t just get the $50 hookers down the street—no, no, they get the $1,500 ones. Obviously that’s not what I’m spending my money on! I’m very lucky—as a female with breasts, I rarely have to pick up a tab. But there’s more to me than my ability to stay up all night and play poker. I have the personality and the looks where I can do other things with my career."

"Personality and looks"? Give me a freakin' break! The only reason that any of these magazines are looking at her is because poker is hot and these magazines always look for the hot girls that are involved in that day's hot topic. Fortunately for her, there are very few hot chicks in poker. Even more fortunate for her, the few hot girls that do play poker all turned down the job! Get a reality check, missy!

Every week we receive dozens of press releases alerting us of new poker products and services. Companies write and distribute these alerts to the press in hopes that the various media outlets will print articles about their new product or service. With that goal in mind, you would think that sending a press release that basically says F-U to the press corp would be counter-productive.

This is exactly what the World Poker Tour did last week.

On Friday, we received a press release from the PR agency that represents the WPT. It basically said that they have sold the exclusive rights to cover all WPT events (and we would no longer be issued press passes). This was certainly not the kind of press release that made me feel warm and giddy enough to share the news with my readers. The only reason that I am writing about it now is because I find the irony (and stupidity) very amusing.

The press release stated that the WPT has sold the “exclusive tournament reporting rights” to Card Player Magazine. How hilarious is that? First of all, you can’t sell exclusive reporting rights in this country. We have what is called the First Amendment, which allows for freedom of the press. Members of the press, or anyone for that matter, can report on whatever the hell they want to, whenever the hell they want to.

The press release goes on to say, “The exclusive coverage will include the only full, up-to-the-minute chip counts available and in-depth hand-by-hand coverage of all regular Season VI WPT tournaments.” Now, what makes these braniacs think that their “exclusive chip counts” can’t be re-reported elsewhere? I guess nobody told them that U.S. copyright laws do not include compiled public data - that’s why it is legal to copy the white pages of the phone book word for word. Another example that comes to mind is when hundreds of sports writers from around the world watch a baseball game on ESPN and write their articles based on ESPN’s broadcast.

Surely, Mr. Lipscomb and company had to know that there is no such thing as “exclusive reporting rights”, so I guess this makes him a genius. Steve was able to find a sucker that fell for the notion that they would be the only outfit in the world that would be able to report on WPT tournaments. I have always had a great deal of respect for the Shulmans (owners Card Player) and still do, but I believe that the Shulmans got bamboozled on this one.

I think that it will be ultra amusing when Card Player’s reporting is re-reported with lightening speed during the next WPT event.

The Good ol' days of easy depositing are back for U.S. online poker players!

I have been excited to do a post about duplicate poker for a while now, mainly because I've wanted to use this pic of duplicate babes for something... but also because the concept is pretty cool and I think that the ease of depositing methods will be good for U.S. players.

Here's an article that explains the concept of Duplicate Poker. It's definately worth checking out.

How Well Do You Play the Six Seat?

Start with your normal multi-table poker tournament. Now, take away the luck factor. Take away the bad beats. What do you have left? The answer is: a true skill game that just happens to be played online and legally in the United States.

Duplicate Poker, the nation's only U.S. based online poker site, launched late last year to a mix of reviews. Some thought the concept of poker without luck was preposterous, while others thought it was genius.

At first glance the style of tournament play at Duplicate Poker might seem a little confusing, but once you grasp the (very) easy to understand concept, you are left with a game of skill that can win you thousands.

Here's the simple concept that you need to understand: while each hand is played against the other players at your table, you are collecting points based on how you fair against the people sitting in your seat at the other tables. For example, if you are in the six seat, you are essentially playing against all of the people sitting in the six seats at other tables.

Here's the kicker - all of the tables are dealt the exact same cards each hand that is played and each hand is started with every player having the same number of chips. Now you have nothing to whine about! There is no more complaining about cold cards or bad luck. It's all about pure poker skills now. Can you make more money with AK than the other guys sharing your position? Can you lay down KK when you know your beat? Can the other players at the other tables? Play the hand better than other players sharing your position at the other tables and you win tournament points.

Anybody with a brain can excel and win money playing at Duplicate Poker. The game is played just like normal Texas hold'em and the concept of winning is essentially the same too - win as many chips as possible in the hands that you win and lose as few chips as possible in the hands that you don't win. Sounds like a silly thing to say, but you would be surprised as to how many people do not practice that thought concept (in any type of poker)!

Perhaps the best part is that your credit card will work at Duplicate Poker! Gone are the days of waiting for some offshore company to draw funds from your checking account. Duplicate Poker is 100% legal in the United States and that allows them to accept MasterCard, Visa, and American Express.

Duplicate Poker also has cash games. Cash games are played similarly to the tournaments; you start each hand with the same amount of chips as everybody else and your wager is actually against other players that share your position (and are being dealt the exact same cards as you) at the other tables.

Just like the offshore poker sites, Duplicate Poker offers a number of different buy-in tournaments and cash games. Create a good poker playing strategy and you will win money.