What I learned in Vegas and the big poker match

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1. It is really fu---en hot.

2. Daniel Negreanu is a great guy and a phenomenal poker player. I had the privilege of watching him play for about 8 hours last night. He completely controlled his table and each time he moved, he controlled the next table. The guy put everyone on tilt, had a great time chatting it up with fans, and consistently took down $3000 here, $5000 there untill he had over $70,000. I don't think he ever risked half his stack. I learned more watching him for one evening than I have reading multiple books.

3. It seemed 50% of the people playing could not afford the $10,000 fee. I've never seen so many winning hands laid down. IF you aren't gonna play KK or call $2000 with AK, don't buy in for $10000 if it means the kids wont eat.

4. I learned that poker players have groupies - mostly hot strippers who follow them around. I also learned the law of yachts applies to poker stars and groupies. See in FL, the law of yachts says if you are on a large boat and a larger boat comes by, all of the ***** will immediately hop overboard, swim, and climb aboard the bigger yacht. It is an amazing phenomenom well proved. Well sorry Dan, when Phil Hellmuth came by to see how you were doing, all your strippers followed him out the door.

5. I have learned that a bunch of guys paying $10,000 to play poker, free alcohol, and 100s of extremely hot chicks in bikinis makes for a great place to be.

In order of worst to best chicks:

Honorable mention: Many small companies with 2-3 chicks. I could not keep track of all.

In 5th place, Fulltilt - a lot of chicks, but just not that hot.
In 4th place, Pokerstars - The roller skates, knee high striped powder blue socks and short skirts were classic.
In 3rd place, Ultimate bet - WOW. Phenomenal little yellow outfits and super hot.
In 2nd place, Bodog - I would actually give UB a slight nod on hotness, but the 2 floor bar where you could pillow fight the girls was stunning. Especially since you could win the bar and lounge! (I have pictures)
And in first place - Milwaukee Best. I mean the girls they sent blew everyone away. Calvin if you were here, you would have fired your crew. MB must have scoured the earth - every one was a perfect 10, and the see through white bikinis did not hurt.

Last place - Sapphires strip club. IF you are gonna send chicks to a convention to represent a strip club, send attractive ones next time.

. I learned that ESPN/Harrahs is playing quite a poker match with the DOJ/US government.

Let's get some background on this match.

Early on the U.S. government played a bluff. They wrote a bunch of media organizations telling them that they MAY be aiding and abetting if they continue to advertise gambling.

Now let's see why this is a bluff:

A. The wire act is completely outdated. As far as I know, (Correct me if I am wrong) no court has decided whether or not it covers internet gambling and certainly not wireless gaming. It has been shown to cover phone internet sports. Additionally, no gambler has ever been arrested by the feds for placing bets.

B. Congress is now trying to make internet gambling illegal. This tends to say it is currently federally legal. Congress does not pass the same law twice. I mean if tomorrow someone introduced a bill to make murder or cocaine illegal, everyone would laugh. People are not laughing at this bill because there is no federal law against internet gambling.

C. Courts have spefically said the wire act does not pertain to casinos.

D. Even the DOJ who enforces the law does not know if advertising gaming is illegal - hence MAY.

E. The DOJ avoided the opportunity to have a court decide when pressed on the issue by CasinoCity.

F. The idea that posting an ad for an online casino is aiding and abbetting is ludicrous. Aiding and abetting was meant to mean helping - buying the murder weapon, accepting the wagers, tying up the victim, etc. It was not meant to inform someone how to do it. Horror movies are not accused of aiding and abetting murder. The local news will tell you nightly how to rob a bank or rape someone yet they are not tried for aiding and abetting. There is no way that someone telling you how to make a bet is aiding and abetting.

So what does Harrah's/ESPN do? Do they fold? No. Do they call? No. Do they go all in and say FU? No. Do they raise - Hell yeah they do.

During the biggest gambling event of the year, they plaster an arena with over 10,000 people with gambling ads for every sportsbook and pokerroom on the planet. Now if they would have just done this, it would have been the all in, but to lower liability, we get a slight raise with a bluff - THE dot.net.

Now let's examine why the dot.net is a bluff.

A. Who the hell decided that .com is illegal, but that .net is legal? Anyone know of any court case ruling? I don't.

B. The idea was that the .net sites don't have gambling content. Well unfortunately, although partypoker may not, I would say 90% of the small companies at the convention center simply moved their normal site to .net.

C. Dot net is getting smaller and smaller. It is also getting into very light colors.

D. It seems that while .com is against the rules, nothing at all is ok. Likewise - Bodog Play with us online is ok and Betus on the internet seemed to fly too.

E. SO what is so bad about .com is it the com? The dot? The whole thing. I mean is bodog. ok? What about bodog com? What about bopictureofdog.com? Now likewise, if you wear a shirt at the event, you msut cover up .com but it seemed just covering up the o was ok so there were lots of Bodog.c-m. Additionally, the spectators had no incentive to cover up anything as they had nothing to lose (Players could be kicked out)

F. Clearly the DOJ/US government knows these are gambling advertisements and so does everyone else. There is no law saying if .com is illegal (Questionable) that .net is ok.

So now what does the DOJ/US government do? Do they fold or do they go all in?

An all in move would mean the indictment of the CEO of Harrahs or ESPN's parent company. A fold would mean advertising internet gambling is legal. There is no inbetween.

If something is tolerated in mass, it essentially becomes legal. Every small site will site ESPN and Harrah's as a defense if the DOJ ever comes after them. Likewise millions - maybe 100 million will see gambling ads on ESPN this year.

My hunch is the DOJ folds. IF they were to go all in, ESPN would fold, but Harrahs would fight. Harrahs biggest commodity is the WSOP and it is 1/4 of what it is now without online participation. If the DOJ goes all in, this one goes to Federal court where Harrahs wins - they are not aiding and abetting. They are not accepting bets or processing money. They are simply stating online gambling is available - this is free speech.



And finally to the RIO - what is up with security? You have 10000 players, many celebs and $80,000,000. You have a rope and maybe 8 rent a cops. I did not see one real cop, no fencing, no metal detectors, etc... You've brought fame to poker, now get with it on security. People were trampled. If there was a fire, everyone would have died. People could have guns in the arena.

-Sean
 
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I am buying Harrah's stock! This poker "thing" isn't going away. I have to bet that the pros are loving all these players as their payday is unbelievable if they get on the right tables.

Great recap of the babes.
 
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Great write up Sean.

If you want to talk about making some serious coin, go to Cardplayer.com & calculate what 9% of all the entry fees adds up to (I think the main event may only be 4%, but 9% is the norm).

MILLIIIIIOOOONNNSSSSSS!!!!!
 
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TTinCO said:
Great write up Sean.

If you want to talk about making some serious coin, go to Cardplayer.com & calculate what 9% of all the entry fees adds up to (I think the main event may only be 4%, but 9% is the norm).

MILLIIIIIOOOONNNSSSSSS!!!!!

I would like to see the local numbers in terms of money generated from the WSOP. We have to talk about $10s of Millions!
 

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Easily 10s of millions.

I've never seen Vegas busy in the summer. It looked like a football weekend over the weekend (Partly poker, partly 80,000 furniture sellers in town)
 

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Excellent analysis. I just wonder about the heat for you. I went outside this morning and it felt cool, relatively speaking. Today and this week is well below what we normally get here so if this is bothering, you really should avoid summers here altogether.

On the players playing tight, remember over half the entrants won spots online. About a quarter are total novices like all these celebrities who don't mind blowing ten dimes on a cool thing to do. The last quarter are serious players who probably are bemoaning the fact that to win poker's most cherished prize they are going to have get awfully lucky.

On the security bit. The Rio did make some rule changes to try to prevent lots of cash floating around. To rebuy you have to use chips. To buy-in, you have to do it at well guarded cages. Players are encouraged to wire in money or take markers to avoid big cash transactions. Most of the cash left hanging around is on the players. There is really only one way out of that area open to the public, down that packed corridor, the one that becomes a stampede during dinner break. They could shut that down pretty good if they wanted to. Those rent-a-cops are there only to enforce the rule that players must wander through the expo to get to the tournament room. The expo people paid quite a sum to be there and this is the way to give them what they were promised, lots of traffic.
 
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Talk about hot. I was in Kansas City this weekend. 103 with a heat index of 112. That was the hottest I can ever remember experiencing.

I just went to cardplayer and they dont' have the totals done yet. I'm going to be interested to see how many millionaires are made from this one tournament. Daniel Negreanu has a total lifetimes winnings in tournaments of 7.5 million. Someone or even 2 people are going to pass him in one tournament.

Has anyone taken in the gambling exhibits that are in town? I would like to see that once.
 
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"In 2nd place, Bodog - I would actually give UB a slight nod on hotness, but the 2 floor bar where you could pillow fight the girls was stunning. Especially since you could win the bar and lounge! (I have pictures)"

Um... post the pics please. heh heh.
 
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Speaking of Negreanu, a guy at his table claims he raised every
friggen hand for 4 hours straight. That is hilarious:



Could you describe your day?
The day was pretty good. Everybody was scared at my table when we were just starting out, but a couple people got lucky. We lost a few people around dinner time but it got real fun when [Daniel] Negreanu came to our table and raised every single hand for four hours straight. He was all the way down to $19,000 at one point, but I just checked and he's back up to $85,000. It was amazing.

http://www.pokerlistings.com/poker-player-interviews/paul-sexton-thoughts-on-the-main-event
 

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How can I post photos? I will see what I can do - they are all from my cell phone... Not the greatest, but not bad...

Dan did raise about 10 straight hands, but on the ones where he got called he generally won. He was getting way too much respect. I could see him laughing when he would raise $2000 out of a 40000 stack and get no calls. If I had been playing, I would have definitely gone all in over him at least once to send a message... And hell maybe I would have knocked him out with some luck.

-Sean
 

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Sportsrmylife said:
Talk about hot. I was in Kansas City this weekend. 103 with a heat index of 112. That was the hottest I can ever remember experiencing.

I just went to cardplayer and they dont' have the totals done yet. I'm going to be interested to see how many millionaires are made from this one tournament. Daniel Negreanu has a total lifetimes winnings in tournaments of 7.5 million. Someone or even 2 people are going to pass him in one tournament.

Has anyone taken in the gambling exhibits that are in town? I would like to see that once.

St. Louis and KC may be the two hottest cities in the USA..............BRUTAL in those cities.
 

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I don't know, it gets a lot hotter in Vegas and Arizona at times.

Nice report. Made me feel like I was there.
 

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sean1 said:
I learned that ESPN/Harrahs is playing quite a poker match with the DOJ/US government.

Let's get some background on this match.

Early on the U.S. government played a bluff. They wrote a bunch of media organizations telling them that they MAY be aiding and abetting if they continue to advertise gambling.

Now let's see why this is a bluff:

A. The wire act is completely outdated. As far as I know, (Correct me if I am wrong) no court has decided whether or not it covers internet gambling and certainly not wireless gaming. It has been shown to cover phone internet sports. Additionally, no gambler has ever been arrested by the feds for placing bets.

B. Congress is now trying to make internet gambling illegal. This tends to say it is currently federally legal. Congress does not pass the same law twice. I mean if tomorrow someone introduced a bill to make murder or cocaine illegal, everyone would laugh. People are not laughing at this bill because there is no federal law against internet gambling.

C. Courts have spefically said the wire act does not pertain to casinos.

D. Even the DOJ who enforces the law does not know if advertising gaming is illegal - hence MAY.

E. The DOJ avoided the opportunity to have a court decide when pressed on the issue by CasinoCity.

F. The idea that posting an ad for an online casino is aiding and abbetting is ludicrous. Aiding and abetting was meant to mean helping - buying the murder weapon, accepting the wagers, tying up the victim, etc. It was not meant to inform someone how to do it. Horror movies are not accused of aiding and abetting murder. The local news will tell you nightly how to rob a bank or rape someone yet they are not tried for aiding and abetting. There is no way that someone telling you how to make a bet is aiding and abetting.

So what does Harrah's/ESPN do? Do they fold? No. Do they call? No. Do they go all in and say FU? No. Do they raise - Hell yeah they do.

During the biggest gambling event of the year, they plaster an arena with over 10,000 people with gambling ads for every sportsbook and pokerroom on the planet. Now if they would have just done this, it would have been the all in, but to lower liability, we get a slight raise with a bluff - THE dot.net.

Now let's examine why the dot.net is a bluff.

A. Who the hell decided that .com is illegal, but that .net is legal? Anyone know of any court case ruling? I don't.

B. The idea was that the .net sites don't have gambling content. Well unfortunately, although partypoker may not, I would say 90% of the small companies at the convention center simply moved their normal site to .net.

C. Dot net is getting smaller and smaller. It is also getting into very light colors.

D. It seems that while .com is against the rules, nothing at all is ok. Likewise - Bodog Play with us online is ok and Betus on the internet seemed to fly too.

E. SO what is so bad about .com is it the com? The dot? The whole thing. I mean is bodog. ok? What about bodog com? What about bopictureofdog.com? Now likewise, if you wear a shirt at the event, you msut cover up .com but it seemed just covering up the o was ok so there were lots of Bodog.c-m. Additionally, the spectators had no incentive to cover up anything as they had nothing to lose (Players could be kicked out)

F. Clearly the DOJ/US government knows these are gambling advertisements and so does everyone else. There is no law saying if .com is illegal (Questionable) that .net is ok.

So now what does the DOJ/US government do? Do they fold or do they go all in?

An all in move would mean the indictment of the CEO of Harrahs or ESPN's parent company. A fold would mean advertising internet gambling is legal. There is no inbetween.

If something is tolerated in mass, it essentially becomes legal. Every small site will site ESPN and Harrah's as a defense if the DOJ ever comes after them. Likewise millions - maybe 100 million will see gambling ads on ESPN this year.

My hunch is the DOJ folds. IF they were to go all in, ESPN would fold, but Harrahs would fight. Harrahs biggest commodity is the WSOP and it is 1/4 of what it is now without online participation. If the DOJ goes all in, this one goes to Federal court where Harrahs wins - they are not aiding and abetting. They are not accepting bets or processing money. They are simply stating online gambling is available - this is free speech.



And finally to the RIO - what is up with security? You have 10000 players, many celebs and $80,000,000. You have a rope and maybe 8 rent a cops. I did not see one real cop, no fencing, no metal detectors, etc... You've brought fame to poker, now get with it on security. People were trampled. If there was a fire, everyone would have died. People could have guns in the arena.

-Sean



Yeah.
 

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TT, no, I am back home - 5 days was as long as I could take. I actually did not gamble much - watched a lot of poker. I think I am burnt out on blackjack - the play 20 minutes, get a bunch of heat wears you out... They need seats at that poker tourney for spectators - my feet are killing me!

-Sean
 

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