Ultimate Poker Live -- First hands of legal U.S. online poker dealt today in Nevada!

Today is a historic one for poker players, as the first hand of legal online poker in the U.S. was dealt at the Nevada-based Ultimate Poker at noon eastern.

Here's the 2+2 forum discussion on it, and here is a USA Today article about it.

I tried to sign up for the site to see what kind of error message I might get, and to see if they were running any freerolls for non-Nevada residents as the sites for Golden Nugget and Stratosphere have been doing.

It wouldn't have mattered where I am located, as it turns out because the site tracks your location by your cell phone, and the local tower you use, and there is a problem tracking my service provider (Verizon) at the moment. So if you live in Nevada and use Verizon you are SOL, at least temporarily.

I don't think they are letting anyone not currently in NV play anyway so no freebies for me. You can sign up from any state, but can't play unless you are at this moment in the Silver State.

Tournament takedown at Hollywood Poker Open...BOOM

Technically, not a takedown as we chopped first place four ways, but I did collect $3,200 in winnings from the $245 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo event at Hollywood Poker Open last week.

Was really hoping to capture the trophy, as I was a small chipleader at the time of the chop and do not own a poker trophy, but we dealt one final hand and the high hand got the hardware.

Lots of run good in the event, of course, but I played well, I think.

The Heartland Poker Tour starts today at River City Casino, and I'm headed over there to test my fortunes this evening.

Why Nevada online poker is gravy for non-Nevada residents

I’ve discovered recently why those of us who may have wait a while (and as a likely resident of either Missouri or Alabama for many years to come I may wait a REALLY long time) for our states to legalize online poker can still benefit from games in other states.

Freebies!

Some of the Nevada-based sites already have free-play software up and running. You just go to the website, create an account and load Java or Flash and you’re off and running online, no download necessary.

The sites already in place are ramping up marketing in anticipation of offering real-money games to Silver State residents by handing out a number of prizes in the tournaments. These are given out under sweepstakes laws, which exclude some states – though not Missouri.

Obviously, it’s getting harder to play for real money online so these free sites with free prizes are great for us who still have a competition itch because it gives us something of value for which to play.

Check out online poker here: onlinepoker.de

 The prizes on the free-to-play Nevada sites range from the lame (logo casino swag) to the excellent (how does a $1,000 live tournament entry sound?)

First, you have AcePlayPoker.com, affiliated with Stratosphere (and Arizona Charlie’s), which hands out a lot of free stuff for that north Strip resort (term used loosely).

I kid. I’ve stayed there before and it was perfectly comfortable. The casino is plenty spacious, and I seem to recall the buffet being fairly good. It’s not the Bellagio, but it’s not supposed to be.

So what exactly can you win?

There’s a daily tournament at 9 p.m. CST awarding a $50 Stratosphere gift card to the winner, with the top several finishers winning seats into the Sunday tournament. It has a good structure, averaging 12-15 players and lasting about three hours.

The buy-in is 550 play points, and you can reload for 1,000 every day so you can play this tournament every day without fail. Look for TuscaloosaJo.

I asked the administrator of the Ace Play Poker Facebook page what you can use the gift card for, and he/she said it’s good for rooms and food, but not shows. I’m not sure if you can use it in the gift shop or for such things as tower admission. The best part is that you can stack them. So if you’ve got three gift cards, you’d have $150 you could use at one time for a nice meal at Top of the World or for a room upgrade.

The Sunday tournament’s prize is more specific. As I recall, you win a two-night stay in a room, two free buffets and your choice of two tickets to one of the property’s shows.

So you have six pretty decent chances at free stuff there each week.

They’ve also offered other special event prizes, such as a weekend trip to Laughlin for a Reba McEntire concert and tickets to some NASCAR events at the Las Vegas track.

Golden Nugget has also started its online site, at GoldenNuggetPoker.com.

This has been around several months, and although I got an email about it and tried it when it first launched I quickly lost interest.

They’ve upped the ante, however.

To promote the annual Grand Poker Series this summer, the Nugget’s giving away a bunch of seats into the tournaments.   Every Sunday there’s a weekly tournament with a grand prize of two nights’ accommodation at GN and a $125 entry into the GPS, with second and third places each getting $50 Landry’s gift cards. In the monthly tournaments the prizes are similar, but first gets a $230 tournament entry.

All final-table finishers in those 15 events get seats in the championship tournament, where the winner earns an entry into the $1,080 main event of the GPS and a sweeter hotel stay package. Second gets two nights and a $230 entry and third merits two nights and a $125 entry.

You can buy in directly to these at 105 for the weekly events, 215 for the monthly and 1,100 for the championship.

At Golden Nugget Poker you start with 50 play points each day and can reload once. So a quick double up plus five more points will get you in the weekly event. There’s also daily freerolls (no points needed, so even more free than the other tournaments, which are all freerolls, of course) with each final-table finisher getting entry into the weekly events, and the winner earning a $50 Landry’s gift card and second and third getting GN swag.

You can also get points for high finishes in the weekly and monthly events, gaining you enough to buy into several future tournaments of their kind.

Field sizes: about 150-250 for daily events, 75-100 for the weekly tournaments. I would expect that grow to as word gets out.

So how have I done?

The competition is plenty soft, but I haven’t had a lot of run good lately at the live tables, and it’s evidently imported to the virtual ones, too.

One day last week I managed to finish second in both the Ace Play Poker and Golden Nugget daily events, missing the $50 gift cards at each by a smidge. Then in the first weekly GN event I got fourth, again one spot out of any prizes. At least I have my entry already locked down for the May 27 final so maybe I can find some good fortune and win the main event seat.

I finally snagged a couple of the Stratosphere cards recently, and hope to get some more for dinner at Top of the World when Amy and I take a couples' trip to Vegas at the end of May.

I would expect this kind of stuff to only grow in the coming years, as these Nevada online poker sites will provide good platforms for casino resorts to market their properties.

While only Nevada residents can play for real money, I think these sites will continue to let all American citizens play for free, and offering complimentary rooms and other enticements should draw out-of-state visitors to town, spending more money inside their facilities.

Heck, maybe Caesars will offer opportunities to win World Series of Poker seats for free once they’re up and running online in the U.S.

We can dream.

Grading the poker magazines

During my last poker trip I managed to score copies of all four (I believe there are now four) major poker magazines that are widely distributed to poker rooms around the country -- Ante Up, Bluff, Card Player and Poker Player.

Sadly, Rounder long bit the dust. My gravy train ran off the rails, and at least I didn't get banged up too much    by the con artist who last owned it. He only owed me about $600 when he folded and didn't pay anybody. Others got hosed for much worse...

Obviously, as a former poker magazine "managing editor" (it was a pretty loose term) and an avid poker player, I am always interested in what other poker magazines have to offer. So let's take a quick look at what's available today and see how they compare in various categories:

Ante Up

Content -- Chris Cosenza and Scott Long, the publishers of this Florida-based publication, have focused on the lower-bankrolled, regional-based player, which I think is a smart move for them. Unfortunately, it can make for a rather boring magazine. The brunt of content in Ante Up is written by area "ambassadors" detailing events and personalities in their areas. (Full disclosure: I talked with Chris about doing something for them in the St. Louis area until I learned there was no hope of getting paid for my work.) The ambassadors work for free, which I think is pure marketing genius by Cosenza and Long -- they get most of their content for gratis by puffing up the egos of folks who like to have their pic and name in a national magazine. Ante Up also includes strategy from notables such as Jonathan Little and Joe Navarro, as well as several pages of useful daily tournament listings from casinos around the country. Grade: C-

Design -- Tons of black and white, with only small photos breaking up the text. It's not a thing of beauty...but it's not the ugliest poker magazine, as we shall see... Grade: D+


Bluff

Content -- From the start (about 2005 or so, I think) Bluff has put out a publication with a nice variety of content, from news briefs to feature stories on important topics (recent issue: The Power 20) to tournament coverage to strategy. I've never been a fan of the "party of the month" columns from the likes of Phil Laak and Jennifer Tilley, but I can handle a few turds among the gems. Bluff only include token tournament listings from Vegas, California and Nevada. Grade: A-

Design -- Bluff excels again here, from professional portrait shots (see the recent Power 20 cover) to great graphic design. The layout is lively and pops out. The only knock is the overuse of some generic card and chip graphics for some of the strategy columns. Grade: A-


Card Player

Content -- Now in its 26th year, Card Player is like that warm, fuzzy blanket you grew up with and can't part with. It's a good mix of stuff, but also a fair amount of content I could do without. I'm really digging the Bart Hanson column, as well as a new column on poker rules and etiquette. The hand analyses are cool, and strategy article by the likes of Gavin Griffin and Steve Zolotow are good. On the other hand, there's a fair amount of valuable page space dedicated to profiles of online luminaries that I don't care about. There's a pretty good daily tournament schedule from around the U.S. for those who need it. Grade: B

Design -- Most columns consist of text and mugshots, with the occasional generic photo creating eye appeal.  Like Ante Up, Card Player seems to depend on colorful ad pages to break up the monotony of its actual editorial content -- a bit lazy, if you ask me. Grade: C-


Poker Player

Content -- We got your press releases! We got your grammatical errors! (Can we do without a few of those overused commas Mr. Sludikoff?) There's two main areas of content here: recaps of recent tournament main events, which read as if they were ripped straight from the press release and strategy columns from recreational players. You get the occasional well-written news recap from my old colleague Haley Hintze or trip recap from Russ Fox. The Mike Caro bipolar ask himself questions column every month is tired, and lame. Grade: D

Design -- Oh, Lord, what a mess. This tabloid-shaped magazine looks like old newspaper did when they used to literally cut and paste the text and photos onto large sheets to print before computer software such as QuarkXpress and In Design became available. Caro's column often jumps across three of four pages throughout the publication. Grade: D-


So that's my two cents. I think Bluff is far and away the best magazine, with Ante Up and Poker Player significantly below Card Player.

For the record, my old magazine was pretty fallow from the content standpoint, but had pretty good design. It'd probably fall in the middle if it were compared to the current publications.

Was my arrival in Missouri destiny?

Was reminiscing with a look back at some of my 2005-06 blog posts and found a gem.

I played some $10-$20 limit at Binion's on the final day of the 2005 World Series of Poker, and wrote disparagingly of one guy at my table:

The one seat player wasn’t too sharp anyway. After he heard me speak earlier in the night, he asked me if I was from Missouri. “People from Missouri don’t sound like me,” I told him.

I also noticed that earlier that summer I wrote about a girl at the $1-$2 NL game at MGM Grand who had survived a brain tumor. Where was she from? Missouri.

New Jersey legalizes online poker

Gov. Chris Christie signed the re-configured online poker bill Tuesday, making New Jersey the third state to legalize online poker.

It's a slow comeback, but at least it's something.

Read the PokerNews story on the issue here.

The state senator that pushed the legislation hopes to have games up and running this fall.

World Series of Poker schedule released with some interesting tidbits...

The dynamic combo of Al Can't Hand and Dan Michalski's Pokerati offered some of the down and dirty details of the 2013 World Series of Poker schedule, which was released a few days ago.

A few notes:

Does it surprise anyone that Harrah's (or whatever they calls themselves these days...Caesars Entertainment?) offers a $1 million guarantee tournament that fudges on the numbers? The so-called Millionaire Maker to kick-off things in May will have a buy-in of $1,500 with two starting flights on the same day to allow re-entries. Al notes that the payout structure will be adjusted to award the seven-figure top prize so there won't be any overlays on this thing. You'd figure selling some $10 burgers in the Poker Kitchen would cover any unexpected losses for CE in this thing, but I digress...

On the positive side, the brass figured out how to dissuade men from entering the Ladies Championship. The official buy-in is $10,000, but women get a 90 percent discount, ahem, paying $1,000 to enter. Exactly the same as years past! What are the odds?

Lastly, although it's not a bracelet event, the $5,000 Open Face Chinese poker tournament is getting plenty of buzz. Unfortunately, I can't seem to find the link to my FTP Poker from the Rail blog post in which I gave Chinese poker a very good chance of returning to the WSOP. Just take my word that I prophesied it!

Will these guys be planning the Chinese poker tournament? Count on it.

New Jersey Online Poker?

It appears New Jersey may agree to legalize online poker. Gov. Chris Christie seems on board as long as the state's lawmakers can agree to some of his wishes, which include: -- Increasing the tax rate on online poker operators from the proposed 10 percent to 15 percent -- Putting more of the state's revenue into a program to combat problem gambling -- Adding a sunset provision that would make the law expire in 10 years if it's not renewed by the legislature. It would seem that online poker is likely a go in New Jersey if lawmakers can agree to those amendments to the bill. Read more at PokerFuse.

A Harry Reid bombshell

If you haven't heard the recent news about the alleged $1 million bribe given to Nevada Sen. Harry Reid to push online poker regulation, read this link.

Of course, Reid's staff is denying the claims, but I think we have all heard enough politician lies to have our doubts. And since I'm neck deep in politician shenanigans at Missouri Watchdog you'll have to forgive my overt cynicism here.

That'd be another nasty black eye for our beloved game if one of the few lawmakers pushing hard for online poker regulation was on the take. It would seem to only hurt our chances.

Meanwhile, a Justice Department spokesperson told Card Player that an announcement on the funds remission process for us left holding the bag at Full Tilt is coming "soon," whatever that means. Could be weeks, could be months. But after nearly two years of waiting, what's a little more patience worth?

Since I don't have a 'roll to speak of, it'd be nice to collect my ~$1,500 from FTP, however.

Of Bond, hobbits and poker

Check out online poker here: onlinepoker.de

If you haven't seen Skyfall proceed directly to the theater. Even if you don't like James Bond movies I think you'd enjoy this one. I'm a big Bond nut so as you can guess I thoroughly enjoyed Skyfall.
I'm looking forward to The Hobbit, which I'll probably go see over Christmas break. The Lord of the Rings trilogy was a delight, I think in part for the New Zealand landscape as much as anything else. I'd love to one day visit New Zealand or Australia, but that's no cheap plane ticket.

I haven't played poker in two months -- I mean ANY. Sometimes it's nice to take that break. My new full-time job (check out Missouri Watchdog here) has kept me plenty busy, and our nationwide network just met at the Ritz-Carlton in Amelia Island, Florida, for a conference and a little R&R. It's not a bad gig, believe me, and I get the entire week off between Christmas and New Year's.

I'm getting back on that poker horse this Friday, with a visit to St. Charles, where Harrah's completed its sale to Hollywood. I doubt much has changed over there but the signage. The poker room seems to be running as it was before, from what I hear. Hopefully, I can get done with work early enough to hit the $5-$10 w/ FK Omaha/8 game at Ameristar. It's truly one of the easiest games in the area.
I'm also planning a Tunica trip this January to finally go play in the World Series of Poker Circuit event again. It's been about five years since I've been to Harrah's (it was still the Grand Casino at the time) and I still possess a $100 tournament buy-in chip. Thankfully, those don't have a date on them and they've used the same ones perpetually.
If I'm feeling frisky I might dabble in some casino games, perhaps some leisurely roulette. A good source for information on the game is at onlineroulette.org. I believe that Bond played some roulette in Skyfall, which might be a first for 007 in the series.
I'd love to make a return trip to Las Vegas for a brief time this summer, but we'll just have to wait and see on that one. Family vacations come first. John Harper, who turns 3 on Dec. 8, had a blast at Disney World last month and I can't wait to figure out another cool place to take him -- Las Vegas is not one!

Woody, Buzz, Andy, Jesse and Mr. Potato Head. You guess which is which!

Teddy KGB channels Carly Rae Jepsen

From the Silver State to the Heartland

Will we see online poker in the United States before the end of this year?

Things seem to be moving along quite quickly in Nevada, where the company that owns Binion’s – the birthplace of the World Series of Poker – has now applied for a license.

They’re just one of many who want to offer online poker in the Silver State. I read an interesting Card Player column lately that noted that visitors to the state would be able to play. So even if you don’t move to Nevada and are just on a one-week Vegas bender, you can create an account and play while you’re there.

I hear Delaware’s moving quickly too.

I don’t think I have to worry too much about my home state (Alabama) or current residence (Missouri) legalizing online poker anytime soon. Very red, very conservative.

This is the home of Todd Akin, after all.

It would be great to see the U.S. take back its rightful place as king of online poker. Obviously, while it was never technically legal here (and, of course, not illegal for us Americans to play either) we certainly offered up the most customers.

These days, the top counties seem to be places like Canada, and you can visit this site to see the offerings there, and Australia – click here to see what they’re doing Down Under.

While I look forward to the day I can again play online poker, at the moment I’m looking forward to the Heartland Poker Tour, which hits St. Louis beginning Friday.

Some familiar faces are likely to drop in for the main event that begins Sept. 28, including St. Louis native Greg Raymer, as well as everyone’s favorite, Allen “Chainsaw” Kessler.

Back in my poker writer days, I interviewed Greg on multiple occasions (and hung out with him and others at Hoyt Corkins’ barbecue in the summer of 2006). The first time I met Kessler, in Tunica, he tried to get me to sign up for some rinky-dink online site so he could get a referral bonus. I later interviewed him for Rounder magazine. Say what you will about the “Chainsaw,” he does work to get improvements made to tournament structures, including the HPT.

Building the bankroll

There was no World Series of Poker for me this year, and truth be told, even when I did go in recent years it's not like I had a big-ballin' bankroll.

There is, however, the Heartland Poker Tour.

Now compared to the WSOP or the Venetian Deep Stack or any of the various tournaments I've frequented in Mississippi it's fairly small potatoes, but the HPT being held at River City Casino in St. Louis at the end of the month fits perfectly in my current poker situation.

After diminishing freelance opportunities and the increase for other certain needs (such as diapers) my former poker bankroll slowly melted away as that cash was used to pay for needed family expenses. And the truth is I never really separated my poker bankroll from the cash-on-hand fund and would thus spend that money on anything we needed or wanted to do.

So a poker bankroll? I never really had one. It was more of a collection of poker winnings that could be used for any purpose.

Now we're doing the Dave Ramsey thing, and trying to set a family budget and stick to it. Along with that I'm taking what I have as my current bankroll and finally keeping it separate. (It helps to now have a steady job that also pays me enough to allow me to do this.) No money from the bank account goes in the bankroll, and no money from the bankroll goes toward other expenses.

It will help when I get my old Full Tilt Poker money from the good ol' Justice Department -- definitely a bankroll builder.

For now I'll be trying to build my bankroll this month at the HPT. It's got some $200 and $300 tourneys, lots of satellites (my specialty, I think) and a $1,650 main event with plenty of chances to satellite in.

Call me eager to dig in.

The quirks of St. Louis and Missouri casinos

Watch out now. I had a winning session last Friday night!

After three thudding poker games in a row, I decided I was only going to play some Omaha/8 so I couldn't make some donk all-in call or bluff in NLHE and lose all my chips in one feel swoop. (I have gotten rather good at that lately.)

I tried to get into the 5/10 full kill game at Ameristar, but check this out: I get there, put my name on the list and they forget to call the names as the players leave. By the time they realize this and call me there are four guys leaving the table as the game breaks up. OK, now I see why everyone who plays across the Missouri River at Harrah's disses the Ameristar poker room.

I saw there's a 4/8 O8 game with half kill going at Harrah's so I darted over there. I had to wait awhile so I chilled out to some 3-6 LHE (been a LONG time since I played that.) By the time I got in the O8 game players were dropping like flies, but I ended up playing a Mizzou fan heads up and cleaned him out.

Welcome to the SEC!

I promised a post about the weirdness of the rules in the area's casinos because this place is quite quirky. Here are some of the oddities:

-- No free drinks! What?! You must buy your beer and liquor here, though you will pay a little less than you would in most bars. Example, a Blue Moon in a 20-oz glass is $3.75 or so. As a trade off, they have free beverage stations where you can grab a cup and fill it up with various soft drinks or coffee. No lids, though. They wouldn't want to make it easy for you to leave the casinos with the drinks, now would they? I assume the policies on the paid alcohol and free non-alcoholic drinks must be written into the state casino gambling laws. I understand that you must also buy your drinks in Illinois and Oklahoma so this seems to be common in the Midwest.

-- No buying chips at the tables. And by tables, I mean poker tables. You can buy chips at the table games all day long, but in all of the poker rooms in the St. Louis area you must buy chips at the cage. Why? No clue. This is really annoying at Ameristar because there's no cashier's cage in the poker room. You have to walk about 100 feet out and then back in. On the other hand, at Lumiere Place for some reason you can buy chips at the desk. Why not at Ameristar? Who knows?

-- Cash doesn't play Of course, this is common in several jurisdictions, and really it's not a bad rule because it reduces the chance of you getting passed a counterfeit bill.

I hear rumblings that a new rule may take effect that all electronic devices will be banned at the poker tables. I rarely listen to my iPod while playing anymore, so it wouldn't effect me much, but I'm sure this would highly tick off a number of players.

Harrah's Hotel 3535 coming soon to the Las Vegas Strip?

I got an interesting email from Harrah's Total Rewards yesterday asking me to complete a survey about a potential new casino hotel on the Strip.

I assume this would be in the location of the recently closed O'Shea's, across the street from Caesars Palace. The survey mentions the name Hotel 3535, but I'm not sure if this is potentially a real name or just an idea they're throwing out there. The survey questions respondents frequently on the name itself. (I panned it.)

Among the questions I found interesting were this one:

Which type of casino would you think a casino named “Hotel 3535” would be?

Type 1 (Similar to casinos like Caesars Palace, Bellagio, Wynn, Venetian, Cosmopolitan)

Type 2 (Similar to casinos like Planet Hollywood, Mandalay Bay, Paris)

Type 3 (Similar to casinos like Harrah’s, TI, NY NY, Monte Carlo, Rio)

Type 4 (Similar to casinos like Excalibur, Tropicana, Stratosphere)

I found it insightful how Harrah's evidently categorizes its own Vegas properties. I wonder how the execs there would describe each of these categories.

There was also this:

Here is a description of this new casino and what it would look like inside.

This new casino fuels connection among friends, visitors, and social networks by immersing guests in a world of energetic and eclectic experiences.

The new casino is home to a unique and diverse collection of restaurants, bars, and entertainment experiences that welcome everyone. Guests can fill up on food with a twist, at their choice of lively dining establishments and experience even more entertainment on the casino floor, where the one-of-a-kind dealertainers steal the show. Or they can spend the night bar-hopping with friends new and old as they uncover different and distinct scenes. And with its prime location in the heart of the Las Vegas Strip, guests of this new casino can see, do, and share even more as they explore the destination for socializing, for energizing, and for orchestrating a complete Las Vegas experience.

With something different and intriguing around every corner, this new casino is a gathering place full of accessible yet unexpected discoveries so guests can create and share their unique Las Vegas adventure.

Honestly, I told them it sounded like half of the existing places on the Strip.

I liked this one too:

Now we'd like you to pretend you are an investor of this new casino and you have 12 new ideas to invest in across various activities, amenities, events, etc., available at this property. As an investor, your goal is to attract as many guests to this new casino. Which idea would you invest in first, second, third and so on? Please rank the ideas from most appealing to least appealing.

Pop-up restaurants (i.e., temporary/limited availability outlets featuring local and/or up and coming chefs)

Open lounges with big/oversized couches to encourage socializing

Provide photo booths throughout the property connected to screens that stream guest photos. Guests could also upload these photos to Facebook directly from the photo booth.

A scavenger hunt throughout the property

Interactive and artistic installations

Public auditions to be a dealertainer

Telephones on gaming tables throughout the property that connect to each other to stimulate conversation

Print Tic-tac-toe and Hangman game boards on cocktail napkins

Sponsor a local roller derby

Beer pong tournaments

It would appear from the survey that Harrah's might incorporate ideas from its other properties, such as O'shea's beer pong tournaments or Imperial Palace's Dealertainers into its new property.

The survey also included some renderings:

The St. Louis poker scene

The Kampises are getting settled into St. Louis, having moved our belongings to our Lindenwood Park rental home last Thursday.

We're enjoying city life -- having a large park 100 feet from our house, being able to walk a couple of blocks to a decent restaurant, receiving mail at our door.

It's also quite nice to have a selection of poker rooms within 30 minutes driving distance. While my attendance is bound to be much more sporadic now that my wife and son are with me, I got a good feel for the St. Louis poker scene during my first three weeks of "bachelordom." (I also turned a nice four-figure profit in that time.)

There are four casinos with poker rooms in the general area -- River City and Lumiere Place are along the Mississippi River in St. Louis proper while Harrah's and Ameristar are along the Missouri River in the St. Charles area.

Harrah's easily has the most action of the four, not that surprising given the company's reputation for poker. In fact, Harrah's sometimes has as many games going as the other three combined (information easily obtained by the Bravo Poker mobile phone app as all four use the Bravo system).

There's usually several 1-2 NLHE games going, as well as a 3-6 LHE. The game du jour here is a 1-2-5 PLO game that runs around the clock, sometimes with two tables. On Thursday they rotate PLO and PLO8. (That's the one game I got squished in up here when I flopped middle set and got stacked by top set.) There's a 20-40 LHE game that runs one day of the week -- Wednesday maybe? Harrah's also has daily tournaments with buy-ins of $60 to $160 that draw three to four tables of players.

On the other side of the river is Ameristar, which has a nice but usually dead room. There's normally one 3-6 LHE game and one or two 1-2 NLHE games. A 5-10 L08 with a half kill normally runs Friday and Saturday nights and may be the softest game in the area.

I've only played once in St. Louis city limits -- at Lumiere Place a few blocks north of the arch -- but the action was crazy. The biggest game there is 1-3 NLHE, but straddling is allowed from any position, and players can straddle for $15 if they want (and do, not so infrequently). I played a long late-night session and cashed out a $25 winner after getting up $200 or so. I felt like I should have won a grand, but the cards just didn't work out for me despite the donk action.

I have not played at River City yet, but according to the handy Bravo app the action is one or two 1-3 NLHE tables and a 3-6 LHE (otherwise known as the "who cares" game.) This is a stop for Heartland Poker Tour in late September, however, so I plan to darken its doors soon.

St. Louis & beyond

Wow, has it really been nearly 40 days since my last post?

Well, since May 1 I worked out of a hotel in St. Charles for two weeks, went back home to visit the family, moved into our rental house in St. Louis and lived for about a week there before flying to Providence for a conference with my new job.

And yes, in St. Louis with no family around I did find my way to the poker rooms there quite frequently. I'll share much more on the area poker scene and the quirky Missouri casinos laws with you in future posts.

Did I hear there is a thing called www.wsop.com going on?

Finally, my streak will end this summer. Each of the last two years -- maybe three -- I would say I'm not going to Vegas in the summer, but I would start some other project that would find me with reason to go. Not this time. I've got a great new job, and I just won't have the time.

By the way, you can visit Missouri Watchdog here to see what I've been up to. It's a pretty fun gig as I get to choose what I cover, and once you dig in any state you can find issues relating to everything from open records to extravagant industry subsidies.

While I will miss the WSOP for the first time in nine years, I made my first visit to Foxwoods in seven years Thursday night. The place is as big as I remember, and what's odd about the resort are the floor to ceiling windows with views of the Connecticut woods outside. Clocks and windows are two things you just don't see in casinos.

I have followed the WSOP a bit from afar, and dispensing advice to those I know who plan to go this summer. I was happy to see Andy Bloch finally get his first well-deserved bracelet. I know some point at him in the FTP scandal, but I like to think he was ignorant of the malfeasance. Andy's a nice guy who I don't think would intentionally cheat anyone.

For more poker discussion as I bid you adieu, visit here.

Moving to St. Louis!

Can you believe it? "Tuscaloosa" Johnny is headed to the Midwest!

In two weeks I will become the bureau chief of Missouri Watchdog, the journalism arm of the Franklin Center for Government & Public Integrity. My mission: to uncover waste, fraud and abuse in state, local and federal government in Missouri. Fortunately, the job has a lot of autonomy and telecommute ability so we'll be back in Alabama often for visits. I finish up at the Decatur Daily this Friday and then it's preparation time next week.

We're hoping to rent a house in the city close to everything, but it'll be an adjustment to go from a 2,000-square-foot house to one half that size and a half-acre lot to a postage stamp back yard. But it will be fun to try that for a year and then re-evaluate next spring.

Yes, there's plenty of poker in the area, but I assure you that's only an added bonus and not the reason we're moving! I'll continue to bring the online poker updates here on good ol' Poker Nation, and at a more frequent rate once I get settled.

PokerStars to buy Full Tilt Poker?

Yes, please.

The worst kept secret of the last two days is that the Department of Justice's plan to sell Full Tilt Poker to Groupe Bernard Tapie fell through, largely because the DOJ is negotiating with a bigger fish that is more likely to have the resources to repay all players -- PokerStars.

In my humble opinion, it's certainly a smart move by PokerStars to acquire its biggest rival in a time of great distress, ensuring continued large profits and making it look like a hero in the eyes of hundreds of thousands of online poker players.

Here's an encouraging quote from a Wall Street Journal story on the issue:

PokerStars executives have been conducting due diligence at Full Tilt's Dublin, Ireland, offices for the last few days, according to the person. "Full Tilt Poker is more optimistic than ever that its number one goal will be obtained: Full Tilt players will be repaid," the company said in a statement Tuesday. "Full Tilt Poker has been in settlement discussions with the U.S. Department of Justice. As such settlement discussions are always confidential, we are unable to comment on any rumors related to the details of those discussions."

Maybe I'll get my $1,500 back -- heck, maybe I'll be reimbursed in some way for the $300 in FTP points I had earned (and maybe, um, Blair Hinkle will get his million dollars too.)

Anti-online poker rants from the ignorant

The push for intrastate online poker will inevitably bring out the backlash from some. Several newspapers ran this op-ed in the last week from Robert Reich, former U.S. secretary of labor and professor of public policy at UC Berkeley. In it Reich uses the standard logic from the ignorant of comparing poker with other forms of gambling as if they are equatable. Such as this paragraph:

That decision is about to create a boom in online gambling. New Jersey is close to approving a bill to allow gambling online in virtual Atlantic City casinos. Delaware, Nevada, California and Florida are considering similar bills. Within the year, high-stakes poker will be available on every work desk and mobile phone in the nation.

So Robert, are we talking about online poker or all forms of online gambling because you're mixing and matching here? Yes, I'm calling a former U.S. labor secretary and college professor ignorant. Either he is mixing apples and oranges by comparing poker and other forms of gambling as if they are the same because he truly is ignorant about it, or he does so purposefully to make his point, which would make him dishonest. It's one or the other. The San Francisco Chronicle also ran an editorial against a proposed online poker bill, throwing in the usual comparison to earlier gambling efforts, including the state lottery and the addition of tribal casinos to California.

Some bad ideas just won't go away. Case in point: a revived law to allow online gambling in California. This time around, all the big players - casino tribes, cardrooms and racetracks- want to bring online poker and its devastating social impact to homes and smart phones across the state.

Does the Chronicle have a crystal ball where it can predict that online poker will have "devastating social impacts" in the same vein that slots and blackjack might? How about the boom for others, from the jobs provided for those who run the games, market the games, write about the games, to those who supported their families by playing poker who were suddenly out of a job a year ago? The Chronicle says "there's no reason to double down" now. I can't recall ever doubling down in poker, can you?