Poker Industry

Online Poker in 2013

Several years ago I wrote a couple of articles about the gap between online poker software and what players had come to expect from other, non-poker related, products. You can scan over…

Greg Raymer's Prostitution Arrest

Unless you've been living under a rock the last couple of days, you've probably heard that 2004 WSOP Main Event winner, and all around good-guy, Greg Raymer was busted in a prostitution…

A Peek Behind PokerTracker 4 With Tarix

Back in a previous life I used to teach scuba diving as a hobby. That's where I met tarix. He was a video game software engineer and I was managing a software development team at eToys.…

Black Friday, Affiliates, and New Markets

While the impact on poker players and poker operators has been well documented not only in the poker community but also in the mainstream media, not a lot has been said about how…

Roshambo Bot Always Wins

Someone has created a rock, paper, scissors (Roshambo) bot that wins every time. View the original embedded media

Jonas Odman, VP of Bodog Network and Anonymous Tables

I just got done reading Inside Poker Business' interview with Bodog VP, Jonas Odman and I really thought it was very interesting. Mostly because Bodog reveals their true motives for…

Phil Galfond's, Let's Make Some Changes

Phil Galfond recently wrote an excellent blog post that I both wanted to draw some attention to as well as respond to as Phil invited other people to share their thoughts. In a nutshell,…

Getting a Fair Game in Online Poker

The other day, myself, Kim Lund, and Taylor Caby on Twitter talking about Bodog's Patrick Selin's remarks in a recent interview where he referred to winning players as "sharp players."…

What is a Professional Poker Player?

I've been doing a lot of light reading lately and nearly every poker magazine article is written by "a professional poker player." Likewise, watching many of the televised poker events…

Oh Behave

"You have to write something on your blog about live players." A friend said that to me the other day and while I normally don't do requests I thought it was a timely subject as many…

Is Zynga Ready For Real Money Poker?

Despite having already written a post about why I don't think Zynga will be a major player in the post-US legalization world , I still get asked by people what I think about the company.…

Who to Blame for Black Friday?

One of the things people have been reluctant to address is who is to blame for Black Friday and its aftermath. Well, I've done a little investigation and I can say with certainty I know…

What You Could Buy With the $150 Million Full Tilt Owes Players

The PPA is Spiraling Out of Control

It is in times of trouble that you truly learn the nature of people (or organizations). Since Black Friday I think we've seen the character of a lot of organizations. Stars stepped up to…

Player Account Segregation Explained

There seems to be some confusion about what player account segregation means and how this all plays out in the recent DOJ action seizing bank accounts and poker sites being unable to pay…

Online Poker is Illegal

Online poker is illegal in the US! There, I said it. The PPA is never going to say it. The online poker sites are never going to say it. And many players and industry people have…

Grading the Performance of Indicted Poker Sites

We've had a few weeks to see how each of the indicted online poker sites would handle themselves in a crisis and I think it's been long enough that one can grade their performance. Below…

Interesting Black Friday Links to Share

Wanted to show a little link love to some people who have written some really great stuff recently. First off, Dr. Pauly (don't call him Paul) has a bit of a rant about PokerStars…

Do Some Promotions Violate Lottery Laws?

I was just thinking about this the other day but I remember some poker rooms running promotions where you earned tickets and then those tickets would enter you into drawings for prizes.…

F-Train's Analysis - A Search for a Victim

I was reading F-Train's analysis of the charges brought against Stars, Tilt, and Cereus and while 90% of the time I think he's dead-on, this time I think he's letting his emotions get in…