It is with the deepest sympathy to the Gold family that we regret to report that poker champion Jamie Gold has lost his father, Dr. Robert Gold.Dr. Gold, who suffered from ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease), was a big part of what pushed Jamie to win the $12 million WSOP prize money. After winning the WSOP Jamie dedicated the victory to his father who had been unable to attend and called him immediately after winning.

“He absolutley loved it - he’s over the moon,” Gold said of his father’s reaction. “I made him really, really proud and he couldn’t be happier for me.”

During and after the WSOP Jamie continually made reference to his father as his source of motivation and the main reason for wanting to win.

In lieu of flowers, please consider donating to the ALS Foundation in the name of Dr. Robert Gold.

Originally Syndicated via RSS from Bodog Beat

The Game Show Network announced that “High Stakes Poker” will air on January 15 with new players at the table, such as Phil Ivey and 2006 World Series of Poker Main Event winner Jamie Gold.

A total of 14 new players have been added to those who played during the show’s first two seasons. The players enter these cash games with their own money, buying in from a minimum of $100,000 to $1 million.

Commentators Gabe Kaplan (pictured left) and AJ Benze will provide game analysis, with Kaplan taking his turn at the table for some games this season.

The third season will emanate from the South Point Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. It will show at 9 p.m. each Monday night.

Originally Syndicated via RSS from Lou Krieger’s Poker Blog

Since I went to the trouble of spouting my big mouth about security, I thought I might post some ideas that I recommend to others. The disclaimer is that I’m not 100% compliant with my own suggestions so do as I say and not as I do.

I tend to break my passwords up into three groups:

* Very Secure
* Moderately Secure
* Throw Away

Very Secure is basically any account that involves money or might involve people being able to get at my money. For instance my online poker accounts would be considered Very Secure. I also consider my email account Very Secure because someone could request a password reminder from a Very Secure account be sent to my email address.

Moderately Secure would be accounts for message boards, websites, and other misc places where I frequently log in. I tend to classify any site where I trust the source as Moderately Secure. Yahoo’s My Yahoo, my AOL IM, and other accounts fall into that category.

Throw Aways are sites I do not know very well, don’t plan on having a long relationship with, or simply think might be a little dodgy.

I use three different methodologies to generate passwords for each. Someone who figures out a pattern in my Throw Aways won’t be able to figure out the pattern used for my Moderately Secure and Very Secure accounts. The best way to describe it is via an example.

Let’s say I use the following pattern to generate memorable passwords for each site:

Very Secure: I might pick a passage from a book or a famous quote and use the first letter of each word along with a date or memorable number. Let’s say that the phrase I select is:

If there wasn’t luck involved I would win every one.

Since I have to keep the password to about eight characters, I’ll just take the first four words which gives me:

itwl

Now I pick a number. A good way to randomize it a bit might be to incorporate the number of characters in the name of the site in the number. So, let’s say this is my Neteller account. There are eight characters in Neteller. So I take eight, plus, let’s say my favorite number (seven) and the 25th (Christmas). Now I have 4 numbers that I’ll mix into the four letters, which gives me:

i8t7w2l5

It’s rather random, customized for each site, and relatively difficult to guess. I might even go the extra step and mix it up even more by capitalizing either the consonants or vowels depending on the first letter of the site’s name. So if I were to employ that here, Neteller starts with a consonant so my password is now:

i8T7W2L5

At ABC Poker, my password would be:

I3t7w2l5

For Moderately Secure sites I might pick a different phrase and different numbers. I might also forego the capitalization or do just the opposite (capitalize vowels when the name begins with a consonant).

For Throw Away accounts I would just tend to use the first four letters of the site name combined with my birthday or some other easy to remember four-digit number.

The advantage of this is that the level of sophistication goes up as the risk of unauthorized account access goes up. Additionally, there’s a reduced risk that if someone gets my ABC Poker password that they’ll figure out my Neteller password. And the beauty is you could even write down your little pattern as a reminder in such a way that even if someone ran across it they wouldn’t necessarily be able to decipher it.

If I had to leave myself a note on my password scheme I might just write down:

If there wasn’t luck involved . . . 7 – Xmas

In the absence of any other information, it’s highly unlikely anybody would be able to reverse engineer your password for any site (unless they read this site and you didn’t change up my recommendations even just a little).

I might even just abbreviate it as:

Luck

Anyone who ran across my little note would have no clue.

I also use a tricky little trick to secure my credit and bank cards. With so many cards, I often forget the PIN so I use a labeler and put the PIN on the card. But instead of just putting the actual PIN on the card, I add a number to the PIN. Let’s say that my PIN number is:

4567

I add the same number to all my cards: 55

4567 + 55 = 4622.

Now when I pull out my card and look at the PIN I’ve put on the card, I just subtract my seed number and I have the correct PIN.

The reason I like this one is that it adds an extra security level to the card. Most ATM’s freeze the account and confiscate the card if you try the wrong PIN three times in a row. Whoever steals my ATM card and tries to use it will automatically try the wrong number thinking I’m a complete idiot. Hopefully, he’s stupid enough to try it three times and losing the card in the machine.

Anybody else have any suggestions on security precautions you regularly take?

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Originally Syndicated via RSS from Bill’s Poker Blog

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I wanted to do a follow up post because in my haste to get a post out before heading out for the evening I may have not fully articulated my points. My bad and this is an attempt to correct that oversight on my part.

So first off, let me explain a little bit about my background. I am not a security expert but I have designed and architected systems which hundreds of millions of dollars have passed through. I’ve worked with some absolutely brilliant security experts as well as several hackers infamous in the hacking community. I’ve had real-world experience with hackers launching coordinated attacks on systems I’ve helped design (which was well chronicled) and probably the greatest compliment I’ve ever received is from one of the people behind the attack complimenting us on our security. In the entire time I have been involved with software development, I’m unaware of a customer losing even a single dollar due to security issues associated with a system I’ve helped architect. I mention this not to impress but to impress upon people that I know a little something on the topic of which we’re speaking.

Now DuggleBogey’s main contention is he felt that Full Tilt should have taken measures to prevent his loss. In fact, he says:

I would like to see Full Tilt Poker do more to protect your money, should you decide to leave it at the site. Something simple like having the option to prevent “foreign” IP addresses from accessing your account. Just a simple check box that says “Only allow US IP addresses.”

First off, DB has learned that the IP address that accessed his account was from Colorado. But the key word there is “protect.” Full Tilt along with 99.9% of sites that deal with money require something called authentication. You must supply a valid login and password in order to gain entry to your account. My bank account in the US is with one of the largest banks in the world and all they require from me to access my accounts is a valid account number and a valid password. This is pretty much the standard. DB was fully aware that FTP didn’t have this “foreign IP” option, yet, out of conditioning from dealing with the other 99.9% of the financial world he felt verification via login and password was sufficient to let him sleep well at night. I sleep fine at night though my banking information is secured by only those two items.

It was only after he was ripped off that he felt that Full Tilt owed it to him to take extra preventative measures. Measures that would have proved pointless since the attack happened from a computer based in the US (according to his own research and comments left by his readers). So, again, we return to the question of what his expectation was from FTP.

What this meat of this issue comes down to is this statement by DB:

I’m certainly not saying that any other poker room would handle this any differently, or that another poker system is safer that FTP. I actually thought that FTP was different, somehow better than most places that would just say “you’re screwed, we’re sorry.” I was DEAD WRONG. My bad.

What this really comes down to is that DB wants FTP to make him whole. I’m pretty confident that FTP didn’t say “you’re screwed.” If they did, that guy should be fired. But I know the guys in fraud at FTP and I can assume DB is projecting here. That being the case, my point in the previous thread holds. Nobody, and I mean nobody, is going to refund your lost funds if they have no way of getting them back from the people who benefited from this security breach. PayPal isn’t going to refund you for fraudulent activity that had nothing to do with them. DB recommends withdrawing your funds to Neteller but they aren’t going to refund your money either if they can’t recapture it from the hacker. In my previous post I wasn’t saying that one is more secure than the other. I was saying that their policies regarding fraud are the same (or similar).

Another main contention by DB is that because FTP can’t tell him how this hacker got his login and password credentials that FTP is somehow guilty of something (or that it’s cause for suspicion). At the very least, he implies that they can be viewed as partially responsible for his loss. Now, let’s put ourselves in FTP’s shoes for a moment. Someone says they’ve been ripped off. You check your records and someone successfully logged in using a valid username and password for that account. The rightful owner of that account now demands to know how someone could have gotten his login and password. Assuming you are unaware of a security hole in your systems and barring a massive number of similar complaints, you can only assume that the problem is on the user’s side.

I mean, come on, let’s think about this logically for a moment. Some guy has found a way to hack FTP. Instead of going for Phil Ivey’s account which probably has hundreds of thousands of dollars in it you’re going to expose your hack via donking off $500 in a $2/$4 NL game?!? Which sounds more plausible, DB’s security was compromised or FTP’s? DB’s ignorance of how it happened is not evidence that it didn’t happen.

And that brings us to another point. DB fortifies his claim with a link to someone who also got ripped off on the same day and roughly the same time he did. But if you go to the other guy’s site, he indicates that he and DB know each other from a secondary source, PSO (which I assume is Phantasy Star Online, a World of Warcraft-like game). So two people who also have associations with each other outside of FTP got ripped off using similar methodologies. I’m no Colombo (sorry if you’re too young to get the reference) but this is starting to sound like a problem not originating at FTP. In fact, as you read on in the posts of the guy who also got ripped off, he has sneaking suspicions about who’s behind it and, unlike DB, he’s starting to conclude that it has nothing to do with FTP.

Furthermore, rather than immediately jumping to the conclusion that FTP’s site had been compromised he at least entertained the idea that the hack could have happened elsewhere. After several exchanges with FTP’s fraud dept he posts:

I received a reply from Full Tilt which leaves me to believe that they are not responsible for the fraud.

In another post he goes on to say:

This confirms that I am absolutely not responsible for what happened to my money. Someone, somewhere, screwed up. We have a pretty good idea about who that might be, but we won’t point more fingers just yet.

Our likely suspect who lives in Pennsylvania doesn’t seem as likely either. Why would he move funds to Vietnam, when he recently moved to Pittsburg and looks like a good guy? A bit of a loser, but a good guy nonetheless.

Assuming DB’s problems and this guys problems originate from a similar source, it’s starting to appear that not only are there other people to suspect, but that this issue involves a host of compromised computers (the thefts on FTP occurred from a computer in CO, while money is being diverted to Vietnam). So far, I’ve yet to see a post from DB willing to consider this explanation.

I know, at least now, that DB is going to view me as some evil person but these are, as ugly as they may be, the facts. I know I sound cold and heartless for not unquestionably backing someone I know but the 12 years I’ve spent building secure systems tells me something smells funny here. I don’t fault DB for being upset and pissed off about what’s happened to him (I certainly would be) but at the same time I worked at the company that he’s intermittently disparaging and I know most of the people who he’s calling into question. If the problem is on their end they will make him whole. I have zero doubt about that in my mind. If the problem is not on their end I think he’s being entirely unfair in terms of his expectations. And currently, the facts support it not being FTP’s fault so I think DB is out of line until more facts are presented that actually support his assumption/accusations.

Originally Syndicated via RSS from Bill’s Poker Blog

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For those of you who may have missed it, fellow blogger and WBPT’er DuggleBogey got Fristed recently. Someone logged into Full Tilt Poker as him and dumped DB’s bankroll (or at least the part that he had on FTP). While I feel for him, the flip side is that there’s really not a whole lot FTP could do to help him.

I’ve seen several people on his blog comments mention things like blocking foreign IP addresses from logging in and a bunch of other measures that on the surface seem like good ideas but when you cater to a worldwide customer base and you’re dealing with millions of customers one must weigh the benefits vs. the costs. Many players, like myself, travel quite often. I would be pissed if I constantly had to contact FTP to authorize my new IP address.

The responsibility to securing login/password information rests with the account owner (barring someone breaking into FTP and stealing the data from the servers). Obviously either DB didn’t use a strong enough password or someone/something was able to access his computer and snag the information (keystroke logger, Trojan horse, virus, etc). You certainly can’t expect FTP to be responsible for securing every user’s computer. That, IMHO, is an unreasonable expectation.

What you can expect from FTP is a thorough investigation combined with professional communication. I have obviously not been privy to the exchanges between FTP and DB but it seems that may be where things broke down. Of course, DB is making posts on his blog with titles that might lead people to believe that FTP itself is not a safe place for your money so part of this miscommunication could be from his side as well.

Bottom line is that if someone breaks into your account and chip dumps to another account as a way of getting the money from one account to another then FTP should be able to recover the funds from the dumpee. If the guy simply goes onto the site and gambools it up on your dime, what is a reasonable expectation for FTP to do? How would you feel if some donkey spewed several BB’s your way and you got an email the next morning telling you that said donkey was actually a hacker and they are taking back all the money you won from him!

According to DB FTP has supplied him with the hand histories that show the unauthorized user wasn’t dumping to any particular person. Yet, DB says that he’s forced to take FTP’s word that this dirtbag simply wanted to gambool DB’s money away. I can only assume that he’s implying that he thinks FTP may have doctored the hand histories. Knowing DB I don’t really think he believes that but obviously this has to be an emotional experience so what he writes on his blog may not be the same conclusion he comes to in a week or two when he’s had some time to let it all sink in.

While DB does make a valid assertion that when you put your money on any online poker site you are not putting your money in a bank, I think he implies an invalid conclusion that the site has the responsibility of protecting your funds. The funds are sitting in a bank account and from that perspective they are well protected. Barring the site being a complete sham and the owners running off with your money, YOU are responsible for picking a hard to guess password, not giving that password out to anyone (either knowingly or via a phishing scam), and securing your computer in such a way so that someone cannot obtain your password data. FTP is responsible for requiring that anyone wanting to access those funds present a valid login and password.

The unfortunate part is that DB seems to believe this is FTP’s fault. In reality, no matter what poker room he plays at, if someone logs in with valid credentials, they control those funds and can do the same thing. But this isn’t unique to online gaming. If someone logs into your PayPal account, tough luck. While your bank or a particular merchant might do so as a matter of policy, in most cases, there is no obligation on the merchant’s part to make you whole or to even investigate.

So what can we learn from this experience? Well, first is that this type of fraud is possible. Second is that unless someone chip dumps to a specific person, you pretty much have no hope of recovering your funds. More importantly though, we can take away from this that you should make the effort to come up with a hard to guess password. Once you have a hard to guess password you need to make sure you don’t do things to make it easy to steal that password. Don’t click on links in emails and input your password into a webpage. Don’t click that little checkbox that asks if you would like to save your password (this was why I raised a red alert when one company decided to store your password unencrypted). Use a virus scanner and make sure that you’re cautious about what software you’re downloading.

It’s sad that it takes something like this to wake people up to computer security but hopefully DB’s experience can help you avoid having it happen to you.

Originally Syndicated via RSS from Bill’s Poker Blog

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Last night was the big company Xmas bash. Some readers may find this hard to believe but once I found the bar I didn’t leave; even for dinner. A bunch of us headed over to the casino afterward and hit the -EV games.

I bought in at a £5 table for £100 and felt shortstacked as everyone around me was buying in for £300 and £400. After donking off about £50 I went to the cage and bought in for another £300 which they gave to me in those cool little rectangle cheques.

It was late and the casino was near closing (4am) when I went on my run. I ran that remaining £50 from the first buyin into about $350. I gave about £50 of it back when the dealer called “Last Hand.” I put £100 out there and watched as the dealer got blackjack and sent us packing on a losing note. Still, I ended up £200 (about $392) which puts be about back even. Obviously the first session at the casino was a complete fluke and really my fault because I hadn’t properly put myself into a -EV mindset.

WINNING BLACKJACK TIP: If you play a –EV game while in a –EV mental state (completely ripped) you have a massively positive expectation due to the fact that two negatives equal a positive.

-EV Black Jack * -EV Mental State = +EV

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Originally Syndicated via RSS from Bill’s Poker Blog

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This weekend marks the third WPBT Winter Classic in Vegas. Up until this event I had seen every Winter and Summer classic since inception (and even won one). And dammit if I’m not pissed that I couldn’t make it this year. I wanted to but I had just put way too may hours in an airplane seat the last couple of months to want to jump on yet another 11 hour flight. That and asking for more time off at a job you’ve just started after flying back to LA for an extended weekend for a funeral would have been pushing it a little too far.

I received a dial-a-shot call from Iggy and Amy but at 7am local time I guess I completely tuned out the ringing of the phone. I hadn’t thought about the WPBT event much as it was always a 1-outer for me to be able to go this year. Now I have to say that I hate all of you people for having fun. Damn you.

I will be back though. The next Summer Classic awaits.

Originally Syndicated via RSS from Bill’s Poker Blog

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WARNING NO POKER CONTENT

This is a long overdue follow up to my post London and India.

Over the next several days I would come to hate the Marriott. Not the entire chain, just this hotel. It’s out in the middle of nowhere on the other side of Husain Sagar lake yet they don’t even have a sundry shop in the hotel. For something as simple as a pack of gum I have to get in a cab and travel into town (more on that later). But that’s just a minor annoyance. Eating at the hotel has almost driven me to tears. Tears of laughter or tears of frustration I’m not quite sure but the tears have certainly welled up.

First there’s the hotel restaurant. I’ve come to refer to eating there as an hour with the 30 Stooges. Everyone tries to be helpful but they plainly know nothing about serving food. For instance, this morning I went down for breakfast. It’s a buffet and the place is all but empty. They seat about 40 tables and there are diners at perhaps 10. I’m shown to a table and I set down my newspaper and go to the buffet. As they serve about 90% Indian food and 10% . . . non-Indian food (sorry, I’m just not sure how to describe it but it doesn’t fit into any neat category) the pickings are slim. They’re even slimmer when they serve cereal but they’re out of milk and they have pancakes but no syrup, which is about 50% of the time.

I return to my seat with the only edible and available things at the buffet, a few pieces of melon and some hash browns, and they’ve seated someone else at the table. I don’t even bother asking or attempting to claim my seat. I grab my newspaper and move to the next table. The waiter who is seating someone at MY table makes no apologies or even attempts to determine why there was a mix-up. I could see if none of my stuff hadn’t already been at the table how he might conclude that it was my mix-up but there is a newspaper plainly laid out and a napkin already unfolded where I was sitting. Whatever.

I go and sit at another unoccupied table. A different comes over and asks me if I would like coffee which I am enthusiastically appreciative of since the last few times I’ve been down for breakfast I’ve been unable to flag a waiter to get me coffee. He brings a coffee cup but no coffee. But, he doesn’t just bring the coffee cup; he moves all my food and place settings around so to position the coffee cup in front of me as if it’s the main course. He never returns with the coffee. I can’t be sure if that was some sort of joke on me or the pinnacle of incompetence.

As I mentioned, there’s about 10 diners in the restaurant yet there are 7 wait staff and 4 managers bossing around the 7 wait staff. Yet, I still can’t summon someone for my coffee or even for a glass of water. They’re busy flying around the restaurant like they’re working the Friday dinner shift at the trendiest restaurant in SOHO. I still can’t figure out what the hell they’re accomplishing since it’s a buffet. All they have to do is get coffee and water and clear the tables yet those simple tasks are exactly the tasks they are failing to perform (except for the table clearing which they seem to excel at). When I’m done with my melon and hash browns a waiter comes over and takes my plate. He hands it to a second waiter who hands it to a third waiter. All this manpower to clear one dish and yet I still can’t get a cup of coffee!

Then there was the morning that they forgot to open the flue on the wood-burning stove they use and filled the entire restaurant with smoke. My eyes and throat were stinging from the harsh fumes and I had to cut my breakfast short because I thought I was going to get sick.

The managers are right up there on the incompetence bar. If there’s one thing you learn – very quickly – is that you should never, ever, ever look unsure. If you’re going down the buffet line and you realize that you missed grabbing a box of cereal, it’s just best if you do without (at least on that trip to the buffet). If you even pause to consider going back for the cereal one of the managers will swoop down on you.

Manager: Can I help you, sir?

Me: No. I just wanted to get some cereal.

The manager is now standing between the cereal and me and as I try to slide by him to the cereal he puts on one of those body blocks bouncers at nightclubs put on you when you aren’t on the list. I bob to one side and he counters. I bob to the other side and he counters.

Manager: We can bring it to your table.

As a result of the prior bobbing and weaving, the manager has dangerously invaded my personal space. If this were in a bar or a nightclub this is the type of personal space invasion that usually precedes a fight.

Me: No, I can get it myself if you could please move out of the way. It’s literally five feet from me but you’re blocking me from getting it.

Manager: Oh sorry, sir. Is there anything else I can get you?

Me: No.

When I simply couldn’t take it anymore I decided one day to screw eating in the restaurant for dinner that night and I would splurge having a nice, juicy burger in my room. I had seen burgers on the room service menu and that entire day I couldn’t do anything but think how blissful it would be to sink my teeth into a glorious burger. The entire ride home from the office I was craving that burger. I could taste it. I could feel the juices dripping over the sides of my tongue as I bit into it. It was going to be heavenly. I get back to the hotel and race up to my room. I grab the room service menu and double check that they have my salvation. I call room service and ask for the Marriott Burger, well done. “Sorry sir, we have no burgers today,” was his response. I hang up the phone as I violently throw the room service menu across the room.

But it’s not just the food service. Everything is a tragic comedy. When you pull into the hotel compound they have the guy with the mirror on a stick checking under the vehicle for bombs. First, I can tell just by looking at how this guy goes about this business he has no clue whatsoever as to what he’s looking for. I’ve been in the military. I’ve passed into secure areas in a vehicle and the attention to detail and seriousness of a MP looking for a bomb under your vehicle and this kid who isn’t even looking down towards the mirror is frighteningly obvious.

Then before you pass into the hotel you have to go through a metal detector. If you’re white, the metal detector buzzing is no cause for further investigation. If you’re not white, buzzing gets you some extra attention with the wand. Why? I have no clue.

Anyway, back to the trip.

Sunday I hire a car and driver for the entire day for a whopping $20. I ask him to take me around and show me the sights. First the driver, Bapu, takes me to the old part of town. We parked the car next to a leper clinic and walk across the street to Charminar, a monument built in 1591 by the city’s then Muslim ruler Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah.

Being white made me stand out like a sore thumb though. I even had people coming up to me and asking if they could take a picture (which they called snaps) with me. It also brought out the beggars which were, by far, the most aggressive that I’ve ever encountered anywhere in the world. They followed me for blocks at a time. When we walked over to the Laad Bazaar and then to a mosque I was again followed.

Next we went to Golkonda, a ruined city and fortress. Built in 1143, it spans a very large area and is a constant uphill trek. Bapu gave me little facts about each area and he listened in on some of the tour guides to fill in what he didn’t know. Here again, my whiteness was a draw of much attention. Little children would stop dead in their tracks and smile and say hello. One Indian woman who was with her husband saw me and giggled as she walked past. I could see as she walked by that her head and body kept turning as I passed and when I turned around she was standing there still giggling. Then her husband whacked her on the head with his newspaper and said “Don’t be rude.”

As we left Golkonda a young dog walked right out into the middle of the street and lay down in the road. One motorcyclist swerved to avoid it but Bapu hit his breaks and honked his horn until the dog moved. He looked back at me in the backseat and said “He just laid there in the road,” as he shook his head. I responded back “Well, he’s never going to grow up to be a big dog if he keeps doing that.” When the dog finally got up out of the middle of the street and returned to the sidewalk, a small boy, maybe 6 years old, holding his mother’s hand, kicked the dog in the face.

We ended the day going to Lumbini Park. We took the boat out to the massive Buddha statue in the middle of the lake. Standing close to 60 feet tall it can be seen from almost anywhere around the massive Hussain Sagar lake. The statue is carved out of a single stone and the man-made island was constructed in the middle of the lake as its home.

I wasn’t sure how to fit this in but Hyderabad drivers have to be some of the best (or worst) drivers in the world. There are simply no traffic laws. I’m sure laws exist but you won’t find anyone following anything close to a traffic law. The rule of the road is you can drive anywhere and any way you wish as long as you don’t cause an accident. Only three lanes on that highway? That’s surely enough room for five cars and a motorbike. Motorcycles pass so close that you can smell what they had for lunch when they whiz by your window.

Personally, I would go insane driving in Hyderabad. I would be a complete nervous wreck driving just 5 miles. Instead of blinkers, people honk to let you know that they’re passing or coming up behind you. Traffic is nothing more than a long series of horns blowing signals to other drivers. People drive inches from your vehicle and zip in and out of traffic with absolutely no regard whatsoever for those white lines painted on the pavement. The night I arrived in Hyderabad the taxi driver honked at every vehicle and pedestrian he passed. I thought to myself “What an asshole,” but I would soon learn that this is how they do it. Many vehicles even have “Sound horn please” on their bumpers begging other drivers to alert them to their presence by tooting the old horn.

The rest of the trip was fairly uneventful. I spent most of my time here working though I did leave the office one evening for dinner out on the town. I’ve heard that there’s some sort of nightlife here in Hyderabad but I was too buried to make it out anywhere. Maybe next time.

Originally Syndicated via RSS from Bill’s Poker Blog

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Here’s an email being sent out by the Poker Players Alliance

Dear PPA Member:

In 2007, the Poker Players Alliance will be undertaking a nationwide campaign to raise awareness and recruit new members. While we have strong membership in nearly every state, we want to formalize our presence by establishing Directors, Representatives at the State, Regional and local levels who will work directly with us to help grow and represent the organization. Since the PPA is a not-for-profit organization, this will be a volunteer position. Member representatives will receive guidance and support from the PPA.

The new State Directors will play an important role in the future of the Poker Players Alliance. As the recent election showed, poker players are becoming a voice that cannot be ignored. Harnessing that power on a state-by-state basis will be an essential element of our continued success.

The PPA is interested in:

Motivated and energetic individuals who are passionate about promoting and defending the game of poker.

Individuals who are creative self-starters and are able to organize others, and activities at a local level.

People who are politically connected to their elected officials, or have a willingness to engage political figures on poker issues.

People who will be comfortable talking with the media, both print and broadcast, on issues important to the poker playing community.

If you are 21 years old or over and feel you fit this description, the PPA wants to hear from you. Please send us, via e-mail (rep@pokerplayersalliance.org), a 250-500 word essay on why you want to be and should be a PPA State Director (please put “State Director” in the subject line). All PPA members who submit an essay will be given careful consideration by our selection board.

Please include your name, address, state and zip code in your e-mail and the role for which you would like to volunteer. If you have your membership number please include this in your e-mail.

The deadline for submission is January 5th, 2007.

Decisions will be made by mid-January.

Thank you for all you do for poker. We look forward to receiving your essays over the coming days!

Best regards,

Michael Bolcerek, President
Poker Players Alliance

Unfortunately I no longer live in the US or I would be all over this.

Originally Syndicated via RSS from Bill’s Poker Blog

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Here’s some fun chat from a recent game:

Man, I really hope I win this hand.
My grandmother needs an operation.

LOSES HAND

Damn, no boob job for grandma.

Originally Syndicated via RSS from Bill’s Poker Blog

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