A moment with

Announcement! Launch Countdown: 96 Days

Tom “Lifesagrind” Jenkins has started an online business/website and has asked me to be a part of it. I loved the idea so much that not only am I joining the work team, but I have also become an investor. I am honored that he has asked me to be a part of it.

It’s called Poker Tech Reviews.com (henceforth to be called PTR) and its purpose is to provide in-depth and knowledgeable reviews about everything poker. Tom has been blogging about this no-cost (or in reality, low-cost) start-up for about a month. The strategy is to lay it all out there in the open for everyone to see. We want everyone to know what it’s about, that way we can easily get feedback to let us know if we are going in the right direction. You can read about everything we are doing on The PTR Blog.

We are planning to fully launch the website in July of this year, which will coincide with the seating of the final table of the Main Event of the World Series of Poker.

Here’s the deal: We can’t do this alone. Tom is a computer guy and will be coding the website. That alone is enough to do for two people. He has also brought me on as manager of Market and Sales as of March 20th. (He has been patiently waiting for me to get settled into my new house, and I thank him for doing so.)

So this is an appeal to you, my dear poker readers, my friends. We need some help in a few areas (listed in order of need):

1. a graphic designer to help with Logo/banner design, and overall site design (we need you now)

2. spreading of “The Word”; talking about the site (we hope all bloggers will help with that)

3. advertising and sales advice/assistance

4. other investors

5. direct advertisers

6. review writers (who will be paid for each review)

At this time we cannot guarantee cash up front for this work, although future compensation is negotiable. All serious inquiries about anything listed (or not listed) are open for discussion. (Trading advertising for work, you want to join the team, etc.)

We have 96 days and BOOOOOM!

PTR the website!

If you want to be part of something cool from the very start, email Tom or Michael at pokertechreviews-dot-com.

Gun "Control" Does Not Work

I couldn't have said it better myself.

Glenn Reynolds (of Instapundit fame) in the NY Daily News:

On Monday, as the news of the Virginia Tech shootings was unfolding, I went into my advanced constitutional law seminar to find one of my students upset. My student, Tara Wyllie, has a permit to carry a gun in Tennessee, but she isn't allowed to have a weapon on campus. That left her feeling unsafe. "Why couldn't we meet off campus today?" she asked.

Virginia Tech graduate student Bradford Wiles also has a permit to carry a gun, in Virginia. But on the day of the shootings, he would have been unarmed for the same reason: Like the University of Tennessee, where I teach, Virginia Tech bans guns on campus.

...

"Gun-free zones" are premised on a fantasy: That murderers will follow rules, and that people like my student, or Bradford Wiles, are a greater danger to those around them than crazed killers like Cho Seung-hui. That's an insult. Sometimes, it's a deadly one.

Need more proof? Washington DC.

I Smell Bacon

The Club For Growth has compiled a record of how each member of the U.S. House of Representatives voted on the 19 anti-pork amendments presented by Rep. Jeff Flake. So, how did our local Congressman, D-Norm Dicks, do?

Unsurprisingly, he refused to vote for a single one of the 19 anti-pork amendments. He went 0-for-19 in voting against pork, a perfectly lousy record of not opposing the wasting of your tax dollars.

While I appreciate Representative Dicks bringing money to our district for important projects, he needs to learn that the old way just will not work anymore. Earmarks, or pork, are not the way politics work anymore.

Mr. Dicks, if you have a project you'd like funded federally, please go through the proper channels and don't just arbitrarily add it to other random pieces of legislation. Transparency is the key in this day and age.

And so you know, this is not a partisan issue....this is MY issue with YOU. No more PORK!

Note: Logo and some text liberally borrowed from BillHobbs.com. Thank you.

Oh, and enough with the threatening to ban online poker. It's not gambling.....it's a skill game. Unlike your current job position.

Rivered Again

The Sonics have been sold (down the river). It's a he said/I say situation.

Howard Schultz (selling owner and chairman of Starbucks) said that he would do his best to find an ownership group that would keep the Sonics in Seattle.

I say bullsh*t. He sold the team to Clay Bennett's ownership group that has been wanting an NBA team since Katrina. They'd take the Hornets if they could get them. Howard Schultz sold the Sonics for money. His group bought them for $200 million in 2001. 5 years later his group is selling them for $350 million. It's a tidy profit for a team with such a rotten lease deal at an aging Key Arena.

Howard Schultz said that he thinks the new ownership will keep the team in Seattle because they will have better success getting a new arena deal with local politicians.

I say bullsh*t. The new ownership has one piece of leverage, that's the threat of leaving (which is what they want anyway). Howard Schultz sold out the City of Seattle to a group in Oklahoma City that wins either way. Either they get the sweet new arena deal in Seattle that includes 100's of millions of dollars in public money or they move the team to their hometown.

Howard Schultz said, "....But I believe strongly this new group has a commitment to staying, provided elected officials meet him halfway."

I say bullsh*t. He knows damn well what's gonna happen. The Oklahoma City group will not be able to get the deal done in 12 months that the Schultz group couldn't get done in 2 or 3 years. The team name should immediately be changed to the Oklahoma City SoonerSonics.

The team and NBA commissioner David Stern both have said the current KeyArena lease is the league's most unfavorable and must be changed - or better yet, a new place must be built with a new lease - for the Sonics and Storm to remain viable in the region.

I say bullsh*t. The City is the landlord. Instead of holding the Sonics to the lease they could have reworked it somehow. Instead of the Sonics trying to get "new" money, why didn't they figure out a way to redo the old lease?

So much for the Sonics 40th Anniversary season coming up. Nobody will be there to watch.

This whole ordeal stinks to high heaven. The only thing worse is Los Angeles not having an NFL team. But let's face it, Washingtonians care about Californians as much as Canadians care about French people.

Letter Written

Don't know if it works, but it's worth a shot! My Letter to The Editor of the Tacoma News Tribune....for your enjoyment.

It's Time To Relay!

For the next 36 hours straight, I'll be at Mount Tahoma High School in Tacoma. This is the final weekend in a year of fundraising.....

With the help of family, friends, co-workers and poker players (and most people I know are more than one of those things) I personally raised $3,608.40 in the fight against cancer.

Thank you all so much for helping me!

If you live in the Tacoma area, please come visit us at the Relay. It is a fantastic community event....there will be food, fun, games and thousands of people all committed to removing cancer as a cause of death to humankind.

Until Sunday, I bid you all a good day/night.

Bad Law Spelled Out

Read the law (S-6613) as passed.

It is really just an amendment to a previous poorly written law (RCW 9.46.240 and 1991 c 261 s 9) that states:

"Whoever knowingly transmits or receives gambling information by telephone, telegraph, radio, semaphore or similar means, or knowingly installs or maintains equipment for the transmission or receipt of gambling information shall be guilty of a gross misdemeanor subject to the penalty set forth in RCW 9A.20.021: PROVIDED, HOWEVER, That this section shall not apply to such information transmitted or received or equipment installed or maintained relating to activities authorized by this chapter or to any act or acts in furtherance thereof when conducted in compliance with the provisions of this chapter and in accordance with the rules and regulations adopted pursuant thereto."

The new law (S-6613), on Page 1, Lines 17 & 18 added some words (in bold and underlined below):

"Whoever knowingly transmits or receives gambling information by telephone, telegraph, radio, semaphore, the internet, a telecommunications transmission system, or similar means, or knowingly installs or maintains equipment for the transmission or receipt of gambling information shall be guilty of a gross misdemeanor subject to the penalty set forth in RCW 9A.20.021: PROVIDED, HOWEVER, That this section shall not apply to such information transmitted or received or equipment installed or maintained relating to activities authorized by this chapter or to any act or acts in furtherance thereof when conducted in compliance with the provisions of this chapter and in accordance with the rules and regulations adopted pursuant thereto."

So basically, they are saying that blogging about playing online poker, or talking about it on the phone, or discussing it on the radio, or printing a column in the paper about online poker strategy is illegal.

The consensus is that the State of Washington is going to do much about this. Unfortunately, the consensus is wrong.

According to this column in the Seattle Times on June 15th, the State of Washington has already indirectly forced the taking down of a website that they didn't like, IntegrityCasinoGuide.com owned by a man named Todd Buotte. In an article in the Bellingham Herald state officials called his website out as illegal. I am looking for a copy of that article to verify what exactly was in it.

The Seattle Times column also mentioned that the state is intending to hire an investigator to enforce the new law. (No mention if they are going to call him SS.)

I believe the State of Washington is serious about the matter. The other major change in the law is to raise the maximum penalty from a gross misdemeanor (county jail, max. 1 year and $5000 fine) to a Class C Felony (state correctional facility, max. 5 years and $10,000).

Why do I believe they are serious about it? What other laws are considered Class C felonies? To name a few: Possession of depictions of minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct, child molestation, rape, perjury, unlawful imprisonment, and assault.

See what I mean? Bad Law.

It's the Law, Stupid!

A recent law was passed in Washington State which directly affects a fun hobby of mine. Until now, I haven't really commented on it. At least in public, anyway.

So here goes.

The law stinks. It's unconstitutional. The government has ticked me off. And I'm going to do something about it.

If you want to help me strike down the unconstitutional law that makes it illegal for me to type about poker on this blog, then drop me a line.

We are gonna need money and organization. I don't know how it's going to work, as I've never petitioned the government for change....but I'm going to give it a whirl.

I ask of my friends in the poker community to help. Some of you work in important places. Please ask around and find out if anyone from within wants to help.

Contact me if you have any helpful information: ez-cure@excite.com.

Thanks.

More to come.

Women in Black

There are a group of people (not just women) that stand on the corner of Point Fosdick Road and Olympic Drive every Friday here in my town of Gig Harbor. I had always wondered what they were about. Well, I now know, and I'm passing on some information.

They are the Women in Black (and their Male Wussy Friends). They stand in black and in silence (thank God!) in unity against the war in Iraq. Well, against any violence of any kind, I think. I don't know for sure, because they only hold a sign that says Gig Harbor in Black, and they never state what their cause is. At least "real" protestors yell and stuff so you know where they're coming from. (Of course, "real" protesters are usually high and like to break or burn things.)

The thing that burns ME is that pacifist half-wits like the ones that stand on one of my local street corners are protesting U.S. "aggression" in Iraq (according to their own website). Here is their voice, in their own words:

Mount St. Helens May Erupt!

This is no joke.

If live around there, please be careful! Or, if you are ike me, pack up the car and get the hell out of there! (And try not to pee yourself.)

Thanks to Glenn Reynolds for the tip.