Feds crack down on gambling - Pro poker player suggests not to play online

[clevfan]

Feds crack down on gambling

Kate Williamson, The Examiner
Feb 20, 2007

SAN FRANCISCO - After San Carlos professional poker player Jim Rashleger lost $600 as part of a federal action against online gambling this year, he took what seemed to him the logical step to continue his profession. He got out of the house and traveled to the card rooms.


“My advice for anybody right now is to not play online anymore,” Rashleger, 58, said. “I’m just going to go play at casinos. It’s more lucrative that way anyway.”

People such as Rashleger, a retired construction worker, have local card room owners paying attention to see if the fallout from the Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act of 2006 will benefit them. Results so far are mixed, with the owners of Colma’s Lucky Chances card room saying they’ve seen a business increase that they think may be related, while staff members at Artichoke Joe’s card room in San Bruno and Garden City Casino is San Jose say increased television publicity for poker is more responsible for new players filling the seats.

Rashleger may still get his money back, but he doesn’t know when or how much. He formerly played poker online at UltimateBet.com, with Isle of Man-based firm Neteller.com acting as the financial intermediary. In January, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York began a court-ordered seizure of up to $55 million of Neteller’s funds as part of its investigation against the company’s two founders. The firm said in a release this month it cannot pay back its customers’ money until an unknown future date.

It also ceased U.S. business operations in January, the result of the federal act introduced by then Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and signed by President George Bush in October 2006. The act disallows electronic banking transactions related to online games of chance, and has prompted a massive pullout of online gambling companies from the U.S. market.

Rashleger disagrees that poker is a “game of chance,” rather than skill, but is taking his business to San Jose’s Garden City anyway. He said he chose that card room because it has more players and smaller-stakes games than other card rooms.

At least one local card room believes there are others like Rashleger coming in the doors.

“They have seen an increase in business, and believe it to be a result [of the act],” Lucky Chances attorney Harlan Goodson said. “They do believe it is attributable to the clamping down on Internet gaming.”

Others aren’t so sure.

“It’s totally speculative and anecdotal,” said Frederick Wyle, the Chapter 11 trustee for Garden City, which is moving out of an eight-year bankruptcy. “It’s very difficult for us to pinpoint an interest in business on any particular cause. We’ve heard that [online gamblers may be coming in], but we’ve also heard that people who want to continue online gambling find ways.”

He said the business has increased slightly recently, but attributes a greater overall business over the last six months or more to television shows about poker.

[stevo]

So instead of Mom or Dad in their den playing they have to leave the house if they want to play.

Thats beneficial. Let espn make these wonks look like heroes on a turn of luck (dont give me the "were different its a skill crap") and get people hooked on poker and then make them play in some shithouse.

[indio]

stevo, i take it your not a poker player. Believe me sir, poker is a game of incredible skill. The beauty of the game is every individual hand has an incredible amount of luck, every tournament has a degree of luck, but the decisions you make over and over and over again determine your degree of profitability or loss at the end of the year. Many players win decent incomes each and every year, while some lose each and every year, this is not by coincidence or that some people are lucky or some are unlucky. the mathamatical variances in poker add psycological skills to the needs of a player( how does one handle a bad stretch of variance). The randomness also attracts players of lesser skill to play ( and pay) where very few other games can bring varying skill levels together. My own profit yield improved from 28% in 2005 to 33% in 2006 and that was achieved through improvement in my game.

you must remember that when you see tv tournaments, they are almost always final table edited broadcasts that have 6-9 players left from an original field of 300 or more players. by the time they start taping the final table, 8 or more hours have been played and the blinds have gotten so big that it usually results in a plethora of all-ins and luck plays a huge part. But remember, to get a chance to get lucky, they had to play pretty well for 8 hours or more to get that chance and had to make many tough desicions that might have seen them long gone if they made just one incorrect call. while anyone can win a tournament, very few can put themselves in a situation to "get lucky" and win large $ on a regular basis. If you want to compare it to sucseesful sports handicapping, it would have some similarities. If you showed highlites of how ATS contests were decided ( the meaningless last lay-up, the intentional safety with :20 on the clock,etc) it would appear that it was all luck. But as you know, to achieve profitability in sports handicapping requires not only the ability and research to win games at a 55-60% pace, but also the work involved to get the best prices, discipline to avoid no-edge wagers simply for "action" and of course most importantly, money management.

so please stevo, give us winning poker players just a little credit for the hard work we've put into our craft.

[stevo]

Many players win decent incomes each and every year, while some lose each and every year, this is not by coincidence or that some people are lucky or some are unlucky.

I know how to play every poker game. I've played online and a bit live. Incredibly short roi for me time spent. There is some simple math about why I may not prefer poker.

Don't deny your quote and glad if you are one of them. Seriously. If you can do the gig rake it in.

So how good did Phil Helmuth do when asked if he could tell when someone was lying he ddnt know. I think he went 2 for 10.

If you see the same guys over and over and are a pro then tells and skill play a part sure. I'm sure you know what you are ding Indio. My point was mainly now a parent who playsrec wise has to be seperated from their family JUST to lose some cash

How many people stand a chance playing poker longterm and winning % wise?


You can have your due and dont mean to insult anyone. I'm just definately not one to lead the masses to this ala espn so i can pick the pocket of some slug. Just not my gig. Dont need to put that time in. You can though.

Glad its working for you. I'll give you your due on money management , badbeat etc, you need all those and they arent easy........but you dont get around it boils down to luck for most winners and that just doest turn me on.

[stevo]

Poker players please dont take it to personally. My gambling hero is Doc Holliday. I'm looking at a sketch I purchased on my wall now.

There was a great line in Tombstone by him but cant remember it.

Something to the effect that poker was the play and the rest of the games at that time were for suckers.

[Buck Swope]

Guy must be a bigtime player with that $600 balance and all

Googled (btw is this officially a verb now?) his name and got 0 hits

I'll bet $500 that Jim is Kate Williamson's boyfriend and she was hardup for some gambling story. Winner pays via Neteller.

[indio]

Originally Posted by stevo

Poker players please dont take it to personally. My gambling hero is Doc Holliday. I'm looking at a sketch I purchased on my wall now.

There was a great line in Tombstone by him but cant remember it.

Something to the effect that poker was the play and the rest of the games at that time were for suckers.

yeah, i love tombstone. the line was during a conversation between wyatt earp and doc holliday discussing earps new job as a pharoh dealer that went something like this:

EARP : " your the one who said gambling is an honest trade"
HOLLIDAY: " no, i said POKER is an honest trade, only a sucker would try to buck the odds"
EARP : " Well it's not like anyone is putting a gun to their head"
HOLLIDAY " that's what i love about you wyatt, you can talk yourself into anything."

my favorite line of that movie is right after holliday shoots johnny ringo dead after their showdown he says " i believe the strain was more than he could bear"

as long as this movie was brought up, i'm curious if anyone knows how the game pharoh was played, i have no clue but it must have been popular in saloons and gambling joints in the late 1800's

[stevo]

Thatsd the quote Indio.

Great movie and no I dont know how they played pharoh.

There were some GREAT lines in that movie and the one you metion was one.

I also like

"i'm your huckleberry" when he challenges Ringo when Ringo was hassling Wyatt.

[Rebel Yell]

Faro (card game - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

[Highwayman]

Recommended viewing:

High Rollers: A History of Gambling

Episode: High Rollers: A History of Gambling.

You can bet on an exciting two hours as we expose the history of gambling in America. Since the first racehorses arrived in colonial Virginia in 1607, to 1998, when 48 states allowed some form of legalized gambling, moralists and risk-lovers have waged a continuous war. Hear both sides as we explore our national need to roll the dice.

Rating: TVPG

Running Time: 120 minutes

Genre:Society & Culture

High Rollers: A History of Gambling - High Rollers: A History of Gambling.

[Uncle B]

Originally Posted by Highwayman

Recommended viewing:

High Rollers: A History of Gambling

Episode: High Rollers: A History of Gambling.

You can bet on an exciting two hours as we expose the history of gambling in America. Since the first racehorses arrived in colonial Virginia in 1607, to 1998, when 48 states allowed some form of legalized gambling, moralists and risk-lovers have waged a continuous war. Hear both sides as we explore our national need to roll the dice.

Rating: TVPG

Running Time: 120 minutes

Genre:Society & Culture

High Rollers: A History of Gambling - High Rollers: A History of Gambling.

if thats the one i am thinking of, it really is a great program...


hard to keep track of these History Chanel shows though.. they will put out 3 or 4 similar programs in a short period, and almost every time they are great viewing, but, hard as Hell to keep track of which title is which sometimes.

Pretty sure this is the last one i saw though, and it was very good.


Btw, i notice a lot of times the website will show or say 'not scheduled' for 2 weeks, etc.., but, sure enough they will have it on sometime in the 2 or 3am slot.

next time i catch it, i'll try to remember to post an alert here.