Poker News Round-up

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Poker News Round-up: Week #14

By Adam Noone, 04/04/2008

The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act is once again in the spotlight this week following a Congressional hearing examining the feasibility of implementing the act. The hearing was titled “Proposed UIGEA Regulations - Burden without Benefit?” and was held by the Domestic and International Monetary Policy, Trade and Technology committee to address concerns that had been raised during a public comment period.

Several representatives of America’s banking system were in attendance and all expressed concerns that the proposals contained within the UIGEA were unworkable. One of the main problems is that as the legislation was rushed through as a last minute appendage to another act, it fails to define exactly what it is trying to achieve. There is no clarification of what constitutes online gambling, leaving institutions such as the banks unclear on what is unlawful and what isn’t. This poses a major problem as they have effectively been put in a position where they are required to police every online transaction and the onus has been put on them to decide what is illegal. With the proposition of facing punishment if they get it wrong, banks would have to err on the side of caution and consequently innocent people may have their accounts closed down. Not only would this place a strain on the relationship between the banks and their customers, it would also involve huge amounts of extra work to scrutinise every transaction. These costs would have to be covered somehow such as an adjustment to the banks’ interest rates, so in the end millions of customers would be affected who have nothing at all to do with gambling. In short, the banks of America do not support this proposal. Even representatives of the treasury also testified that the rules are so unclear as to be unworkable.

This doesn’t mean that the UIGEA is about to be repealed any time soon, but little by little it is being exposed for the shoddy piece of legislature that it really is. Meanwhile Barney Frank’s proposal to replace the UIGEA, the Internet Gambling Regulations and Enforcement Act, continues to attract further backing. This more sensible approach to giving proper regulation to the online gambling industry now has the backing of 47 co-sponsors, many of whom are senators who voted in favour of the UIGEA in 2006.

Meanwhile live poker continues to operate without feeling the influence of the UIGEA too much. Numbers were down at the WSOP main event in 2007 as a result of the act, but there are still plenty of online satellites running for big events. The latest of these was the WPT World Poker Challenge in “The Biggest Little City In The World” Reno. The $7,500 main event attracted just 261 runners, a small field for a WPT event, and the decision to reduce the number of WPT tournaments in the season next year (including axing this event) looks as though it may not be a bad option. Many would not be unhappy to see the back of this event anyway based on some unusual decisions regarding the structure of the tournament. Firstly, all the local satellite winners were seated together on one side of the room whilst the pros were pitted against one another on their own tables. This led to complaints from several players, the most vociferous of whom was Greg Mueller who had to be threatened with expulsion from the tournament if he didn’t stop with his criticism. He appeared to have a valid point though, having been seated with Lee Watkinson, John Phan, Mike Matusow, Alan Kessler, Tony Le, Vanessa Rousso and JC Tran.

Having negotiated his way through his table for the first few hours, at the dinner break Phil Ivey took to the opportunity to relax in his room rather than eat. The rest was clearly needed but overdone though as he fell asleep and awoke later to find that play was well underway again with his stack being blinded away. One of the great advantages of being Phil Ivey though is that it’s possible to oversleep, lose a third of your chips in absentio and then pop back downstairs to turn 11,000 into 180,000 and finish the day as chip leader. This is where another unusual ruling came into play – the seating assignment for the next day was not random but drawn according to a seeding system devised by the tournament director Jimmy Sommerfield. This system keeps the biggest stacks apart by placing the chip leaders at seat three on each new table. The next largest stacks are then assigned all the seat eights and then the lesser stacks fill in the seats in between, with the smallest of all ultimately being given the unpopular seat nine to the right of the dealer. It’s an unorthodox move which favours the big stacks, but it’s not without its supporters.
Another strong showing from Ivey on day two saw him bag up his chips as one of the leaders still, but it was cheeseburger enthusiast Jason “Tiny” Potter who topped the list and received the best table seating for the resumption of play on day three.

Lee Markholt

In the eight previous WPT events in which he has made the money, Ivey has gone on to make the six handed final table in every one of those tournaments. That would not be the case this time in Reno though as Lee Markholt rivered a straight to eliminate him in tenth place. Markholt’s extra chips then put him in a commanding position and as the final table was reached he and Potter held the two biggest stacks, with the dangerous David Pham still in contention.

A swift final table of just 72 hands in total saw Potter go out in fourth as Bryan Devonshire became the man to challenge Markholt for the title. Just two hands into heads up play, Devonshire moved all in on the turn only to find himself drawing dead against the two pair of Markholt who had the luxury of knowing that every one of the 44 cards left in the deck would make him a WPT champion and $493,815 richer.

The WPT events are coming thick and fast at the moment with another main event due in just a few days’ time at Foxwoods in Conneticut. There is also the EPT San Remo, which was sold out well in advance, so there should be plenty to look forward to over the forthcoming week.

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