Just Poker Talk

• Absolute Poker Hacked - More Details

The Online Poker World continues to be abuzz with the Absolute Poker situation. On Friday the story hit the newswires. The story about an Absolute Poker employee that hacked the Absolute Poker system to allow himself to play Hold ‘Em at an online table and see all the other players hole cards. Your ‘Dead Money’ blogger has seen the episode referred to as ‘Pokergate’. This is very interesting because large percentages of the online players are well under the 40 years of age needed to recall ‘Watergate’. Here are some more of the details that have come to light over the weekend.

In September 21 year old Marco Johnson asked Absolute Poker for a hand history of a high stakes tournament he had played previously. Marco felt there were too many weird things happening during the tournament and he felt he had been cheated. Marco finished 2nd in the tournament and was awarded the prize money of $20,000. Turns out that Absolute Poker sent Marco was the complete hand histories of everyone involved in the tournament. The hand histories included hole cards for everyone and every hand, IP addresses and email addresses of all participants within an excel spreadsheet. The winner of the tournament was the online player ‘Potripper’ who won the tournament and the $30,000 1st prize. Johnson turned the spreadsheet over to New York attorney Serge Ravitch a professional poker player who also moderates 2 + 2 Poker Forum.

“In the last hand, he just blew it. He made a gigantic call with 10 high. The chances of winning a hand like that are something like one in 1,000. It was obvious he was cheating,”

Source: ABC News Online

Johnson also provided the excel spreadsheet to a poker blogger Nat Arem who looked at the IP addresses. Arem also discovered that at every table Potripper was at also included another user that other players could not see at the online table. Aren traced the IP address of the observer back to location of the Absolute Poker servers. One last little item and I am not sure of any significance is that Mark Seif was in the hand history provided.

Ravitch the attorney estimated that online players lost between $500,000 and $1,000,000 over a two week period though he informs ABC he can’t be sure when the cheating started.

Absolute Poker has reportedely promised an official statement regarding the hacking and what remedies will be undertaken to reimburse players that were involved. Also Absolute Poker has said that the security glitch in the servers has been closed, though the online community is waiting for the official statement to hear and see the proof. Former Director of Operations at AP AJ Ripper was named in the ABC story as the owner of account Potripper. Additionally an IP address was linked to part owner Scott Tom who AP says has not been involved with the company for over a year. Investigations are continuing to ascertain if these people were involved or if somebody else was using their accounts.

Go to this Just Poker Talk Post to see the recreation of the hand histories and see how easy it was for Potripper to win the high stakes tournament.

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Your ‘Dead Money’ blogger Michael has played at Absolute Poker, but certainly not at the high stakes tables so I probably never contributed any funds to Potripper.

Feel free to add any Poker related comments, they are welcome always.

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• Absolute Poker is Hacked by Employee

An Absolute Poker Employee hacked the online poker site. The employee modified the site and provided the ability for the employee to play on the site and see the hole cards of the other players. Internet forums had been discussing this possibility for almost a month. Previously Absolute Poker investigated the allegations and reported: 

“The result of our investigation is that we found no evidence that any of Absolute Poker’s redundant and varying levels of game client security were compromised. In other words, we have determined with reasonable certainty that it is impossible for any player or employee to see whole cards as was alleged. There is no part of the technology that allows for a “superuser� account, and there is no way for any person to influence the game software to their advantage.�

Source: MSNBC

New York attorney Serge Ravitch informed Absolute Poker that he felt cheating was going on. Ravitch informed MSNBC that Absolute Poker initially denied any cheating had occurred or was even possible. In fact according to the MSNBC story, Absolute Poker found no evidence that client security having been compromised. Absolute Poker went on to say that with certainty it was impossible for anybody to see other players hole cards. Also they said there was no way to modify the Absolute Poker game software to gain any advantage.

Absolute Poker provided hand histories to one of the players that had reported cheating. The hand histories provided hole cards for all the players and IP addresses as well as email addresses of the competing players. MSNBC requested an independent review of the re-created tournament and expert Ray Cooke, ex-head of security at Planet Poker online site, came away convinced that the hacker can see the hole cards. Here is the recreation provided by YouTube.

This video is one of four videos of the recreations. Here are links for the other three.
Absolute Poker two of four
Absolute Poker three of four
Absolute Poker four of four

This week a spokesman for Absolute Poker has informed MSNBC on the condition of anonymity that the hacker was an employee of the company who did it to prove it could be done. The spokesman said:

“This is literally a geek trying to prove to senior management that they were wrong and he took it too far,�

Your ‘Dead Money’ bloggers concern with this hacking is that it will make it more difficult to get the UIGEA repealed anytime soon. Also this will provide fuel for the online poker opponents to keep preventing US players from playing online.

Here are some other Just Poker Talk posts regarding UIGEA.

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• Payouts at WPT Turks & Caicos Poker Classic Lowered

Only 137 players entered the WPT Turks and & Caicos Poker Classic. The Champion was to be Guaranteed $1,000,000 and $25,000 entry into the 2008 WPT Championship in April. With the 137 players paying the $7,500 buy-in the WPT reported that the prize pool was only $996,675 well short of what would be needed to pay all the players that would usually cash in a Tournament this size and the winner $1,000,000. To solve the issue the WPT gave the final 100 players 4 options to select from for the payouts. 

Here are the options the players had to decide on:

• Option 1:

Winner take all $996,675.

Your ‘Dead Money’ blogger assumes that this Option did not get much support.

• Option 2:

Final 10 players get paid with the payouts being:

1. $426,675
2. $225,000
3. $125,000
4. $70,000
5. $50,000
6. $30,000
7. $25,000
8. $20,000
9. $15,000
10. $10,000

• Option 3

Payouts would only be for the WPT 6 Player Final Table with the payouts being:

1.  $436,675
2. $225,000
3. $125,000
4. $90,000
5. $70,000
6. $50,000

• Option 4

The last Option was to have the last 9 players cash with the payouts being:

1. $436,675
2. $225,000
3. $125,000
4. $70,000
5. $50,000
6. $30,000
7. $25,000
8. $20,000
9. $15,000

Not sure how the vote totals turned out but the Final 100 players ended up selecting Option 4 and 9 players will cash. The Tournament end on Sunday September 30th, 2007.

As of this post 43 players remain. You can see the current chip counts here.

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• Poker is it Luck or Skill the Debate Continues

 PokerPro Magazine has an analysis of the Luck vs Skill in Poker written by Tony Guerrera that is very detailed and is an excellent thought provoker. Your ‘Dead Money’ blogger when it comes to Poker of course isn’t very Skilled or Lucky it seems. Do yourself a good deed and click on the link and read the entire magazine article. 

You know about Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) that has caused many Online sites to not allow US players to play any longer at their site. If Poker can be proven to be a game of Skill, Congressman Robert Wexler’s HR 2610 Skill Game Protection Act will have a better chance of succeeding. That success will hopefully open the Online sites up again. Here are some of the points made in the analysis.

• Games of Skill

Wikipedia’s definition of a Game of Skill:

as one in which “the outcome is determined mainly by mental and/or physical skill, rather than pure chance” “games of skill can be mastered, and when two parties engage in a game of skill, the party with the higher level of skill is favored to win”

The analysis talks about Chess and Sports as the examples of Games of Skill that nobody debates. In the article Tony makes a point about the difference in the skill set of the competitors and the likeliness the less skilled competitor will prevail.

“games of skill can be mastered, and when two parties engage in a game of skill, the party with the higher level of skill is favored to win”

• Games of Chance

Wikipedia’s definition of Games of Chance:

“A game whose outcome is strongly influenced by some randomizing device.�

Tony talks about these games as the ones the games that random events determine the outcome. You know, shooting craps, playing roulette, playing the lottery, etc….You probably played lots of these Games of Chance.

The analysis moves onto Probability and Expectation Value (EV) and how Poker Players that are very skillful master this ability and apply it to Poker playing. The article goes into much mathematical detail about how to determine Probability and EV. 

EV = (Payout of Outcome #1)(Probability of Outcome #1) + (Payout of Outcome #2)(Probability of Outcome #2) + … + (Payout of Outcome N)(Probability of Outcome N).

I recommend you go to the story to better understand the EV formula, he provides examples.
The last part of the article provides extensive discussion about:

• The Poker Playing Process

Tony outlines the four sections that make up The Poker Playing Process.

1. Putting your Opponent on hand distributions
2. Evaluating your hand relative to opponent’s hand distribution
3. Predicting how your opponent will respond to each of your possible actions
4. Executing the line of play yielding the highest possible EV based on 1,2 and 3.

Tony explains each process expertly and makes numerous great points. This leads to the Summary section and we see these items:

The big difference between poker and other well-accepted games of skill is that chance events appear to have a much bigger effect on poker outcomes. However, the proper way to view poker decisions is to consider EV, which is a quantity that only makes sense when considering the long run.
accomplished poker players make decisions yielding higher monetary EV than those made by their less skilled counterparts, resulting in them making more money in the long run.

Since money is the metric by which score is ultimately kept, poker is, therefore, as much a game of skill as chess, basketball or any another commonly accepted game of pure skill.

Great analysis by Tony.

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• WSOP Europe Main Event Final Table Live

Click =====> Final Table Live to see the Final Table hands played via PokerNews ‘PokerCast’. This neat online function shows each hand of the Final Table. You see each player and the amount of chips they have to start the hand, the seat position, the blinds and antes, the flop, turn and river and of course the bets for each round. If there is a showdown you see the hold cards. You also have the ability to skip to specific hands and speed up the playback. Your ‘Dead Money’ blogger found this tool very useful and interesting. I will be studying each hand in detail just in case I ever go up against Annette_15 in a $5 SNG. Check it out, quite a neat tool to have for review of the Final Table. Great Job PokerNews.

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Feel free to add any Poker related comments, they are welcome always.

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• Negreanu Recommends Changes for WSOP Main Event

Daniel Negreanu authored an article in Card Player Magazine and he made some recommendations for changes to the WSOP Main Event. He hopes to help to keep the Main Event as the Worlds most Prestigious Poker Event. He expresses two major concerns: 1. legislators point to the Main Event as proof that Poker is not a game of skill   2. will the Main Event hold people’s interest when each year complete unknowns win the title. Daniel makes good points in the story and makes three recommendations:

1. Raise the Buy-In

Daniel doesn’t like this suggestion but notes that the $10,000 buy-in for the Main Event makes it tied for the 4th largest buy-in for a WSOP event when you add in re-buy events. He also has a blurb about the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. event.

Also, $10,000 in 1970 represented a huge buy-in event, but by today’s standards, it’s just another tournament. In fact, the World Poker Tour boasts two well-attended events at Bellagio with bigger buy-ins than that (the $25,000 WPT Championship and the $15,000 buy-in December event). In fact, in both Europe and Australia, there are events with bigger buy-ins than $10,000 source

2. Slow it Down

Daniel talks about this years change to double the chips for the Main Event but also double the blinds and how that didn’t change the amount of play you get. He provides a structure he would like to see used to allow more Poker to be played.

I think the best way to crown the “world champion” is to add more play, especially in the early levels. In fact, the typical WPT event has more play than the WSOP main event. source

3. Change the Format 

Two ways to change the format were discussed by Daniel. 1. Separate heats, i.e. 60 tournaments each with 100 players and if you make it to the final 10 of a tournament you cash. The winner of the heat makes the Main Event Final Table. 2. Make the Main Event a Total Shootout. Daniel felt a major problem with Major Tournament Poker is:

is that they often reward those who “hide” or “squeak into the money” by avoiding confrontation. With a shootout, that becomes impossible, because in order to win, you have to do well in shorthanded situations. source

Your ‘Dead Money’ blogger isn’t sure about Daniel’s Change the Format idea but the other two ideas would be great. Take a look at the story and see what you think.

Feel free to add any Poker related comments, they are welcome always.

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• Moneymaker, Raymer and Hachem - How they became Champions

PokerStars spokespersons Chris Moneymaker, Greg Raymer and Joe Hachem got together and made brief videos discussing how they became WSOP Main Event Champions. The videos are provided by PokerTube. No big secrets are given away during the videos but they are interesting. Over the years you probably have heard that Moneymaker won his seat to the WSOP Main Event through an online satellite, but did you know that he was disappointed when he found out that he won a seat instead of the $10,000 in cash? Raymer lets the viewer know that he briefly thought he was beaten on the hand that won the Main Event for him. Hachem discusses flopping a straight and trapping Dannenmann to win the title.

Chris Moneymaker

Greg Raymer

Joe Hachem

• Your ‘Dead Money’ blogger Michael will be studying these videos with an eye towards figuring out how to win the WSOP Main Event next year or at least a Sit and Go.

Feel free to add any Poker related comments, they are welcome always.

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• Review of Caesars Poker Room

I found this review of the Caesars Poker Room over at Up For Poker. Blogger Otis goes into a lot of detail with his review. Your ‘Dead Money’ blogger has lost some of his money in Caesars Poker Room.

Otis breaks down the review into:

• The Good

Otis likes the structure of the mid-day tournaments as you get to play lots of poker. The dealing staff is very competent and the payouts very good.

It was not a push and hope fest after the first level. In fact, it took us more than six hours to reach the final table and the winner was not declared until two hours later. Frankly, I’m not sure if I’ve found more play for such an inexpensive buy-in in any daily tournament. source

• The Bad

Discusses the inability to broker deals effectively. Harrah’s eliminated paying out a different amount than the percentages listed in the payout schedule.

Harrah’s ended up cutting a deal that requires them to pay out exactly the percentages listed on their payout schedules. If you ask a poker room manager at Caesars about this, he will tell you that the Nevada Gaming Commission requires Caesars to follow these rules and at no point will Caesars pay out an amount different than listed on the payout schedule. source

Seems like this came from all the deals at the WSOP that caused IRS to get involved. Otis goes on to explain that yes you can still broker a deal, but somebody has to sign for the actual top amount listed by Caesars and it impacts the ability to get all involved to agree to the chop.

• The Ugly

According to Otis the Juice Caesars collects is too much in fees. He provides details and ends the section with this quote:

I believe in the staff and dealers getting their tokes, but when the juice on a $120 is that big, convincing folks to tip any more is going to be hard.

I no like-a da juice. source

Up For Poker is an enjoyable blog to read and this was an excellent review of Caesars Poker Room.

Feel free to add any Poker related comments, they are welcome always.

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• Card Player Magazine - Todd Brunson and UIGEA

Todd Brunson joins a long list of Poker Players that bash the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) in this story in Card Player Magazine. Like many others Todd recommends getting U.S. regulation to online Poker and of course then letting the United States benefit by taxing the online Poker industry. He makes many of the same points that have already been made by others but says it a little more forceful. He indicates the elected officials that forced the UIGEA through with the the Port Security bill are ’small minded’.  

When these small-minded congressmen couldn’t get the bill through by itself, the proper, legal way, they attached it to a popular defense bill to increase port security. What does Internet gaming have to do with port security? What a cheap, slimy move!  source

In an earlier post I asked you to go to Poker Players Alliance (PPA) site and register to join the PPA and fight against UIGEA and while at the PPA site: Use the site to send letters to your elected Congressmen to support HR 2046 the Internet Gambling Regulation and Enforcement Act and HR 2610 the Skill Game Protection Act. It is not too late to assist the PPA to get UIGEA modified to allow Online Poker. Please do it today.

Feel free to add any Poker related comments, they are welcome always.

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• $821,000 Bad Beat Jackpot won

Absolute Poker’s Bad Beat Jackpot had risen to $821,670 before it was claimed on Wednesday August 29th, 2007. Online player KADI suffered the bad beat but was rewarded with half of the 65% of the Jackpot awarded to the players at the table. KADI received $267,042. The winner of the hand received 25% of the Jackpot totaling $133,521. The remaining players at the table each received $33,380. 

25% of the Bad Beat Jackpot is rolled over to the next Bad Beat Jackpot and 10% is taken by Absolute Poker.

KADI ended up with a Straight Flush to the 10 and was beaten by a Straight Flush to the King. You can click ====> here to read Absolute Poker’s web report.

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• The Stages of a Poker Player - Ray Zee

Two Plus Two Internet Magazine reprinted this story from author Ray Zee in the August issue. Ray originally authored the story in 2001 before the massive Poker boon. He had many requests to re-print the story and the requesters indicated how much the article had helped their Poker game.
The beginning of the story discusses how important it is to pay attention to the game. No headphones because those make you less attentive to the surroundings. Ray also indicates how he went through all the stages in his Poker career. Ray talks about how important each action in the hand is as it has a direct effect on whether you win or lose the hand and ultimately whether you are a profitable Poker Player. Ray indicates how it is paramount to get or save a bet during the hand. Even now 6 years after originally writing the story he still sees players just calling or checking and missing bets. Click ====> here to read the article.

Stages of a Poker Player

• Total Beginner

Plays too many hands and too loosely, raises foolishly, calls when they should raise. Takes these players a while to learn Poker is more than catching cards.

• Tight Player

Almost all successful Poker Players go through this stage. These players win a fair amount of time due only to their tight play and bad opponents. It is in this stage that the emerging good Poker Player learns that making good plays adds to the profits. Bluffs, speculative raises and some experiments gets the Tight Player headed to the next stage.

• Advanced Stage

Player wins more often, pushes marginal hands and every hand looks like it has value. The Tight Player is long gone. Winning the pots are easy with skillful manipulation. Ray indicates here the player has taken a big step back and long leap forwards at the same time.  The advanced stage, if the player plays too loose, might cause the player to lose his bankroll and never recover. But if the player gets through this stage successfully they move on to the next and final stage.

• Expert Stage

Incorporates tight play with imagination win pots without the best hand. The player has become tight and aggressive. Bluffs, Semi Bluffs and Raises to knock out better hands, good calls at the end are traits shown in this stage that were missing in previous stages.

Ray ends the article by letting the reader know that very few players achieve the Expert level and it takes much work.

Your ‘Dead Money’ blogger can only be classified as a Total Beginner. Take a look at the story and see what you think. I know I will have to get to work to move up from ‘Dead Money’ to Donkey as the summer ends and Poker Tournaments get back on the front burner.

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• YouTube of Poker after Dark with Phil Hellmuth

Here is a 3 part video of an appearance Phil Hellmuth made on NBC’s Poker after Dark. Phil has lots of issues with his table mates. The video is found on YouTube. I have put links below for all 3 parts.

Phil Hellmuth Blows Up On Poker After Dark Part 1 of 3

Phil Hellmuth Blows Up On Poker After Dark Part 2 of 3

Phil Hellmuth Blows Up On Poker After Dark Part 3 of 3

The video captures typical Phil Hellmuth table behavior. Complaining about his tablemates. He even goes so far as to inform NBC that he will not be back for any Poker after Dark tournaments. I always find these ‘Acts’ by Phil to be very entertaining and humorous. It took me a long time to come to the conclusion that his table-side manner is all an act. One of the opponents even says Phil is just doing it for more TV time. Phil is not the worst at the table but he is in the top 10. Just as he is in the top 10 Hold ‘Em players worldwide.

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• PTS Reservation Service Announced

PokerNews is reporting today that PTSeats Reservation Service is now accepting Poker Tournament Reservations for the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City. The site is reporting that other Casinos in Vegas are ‘Coming Soon’ to the Reservation Service. No more getting to the Tournament site an hour early to ensure you don’t get shut out of the tournament. The PTseats accept credit cards. Poker Tournament buy ins have always been ‘Cash Only’.

The site charges a fee based on a percentage of the buy in for the tournament being ‘purchased’. A quick check of one tournament shows that for a $300 (+$50) tournament, the service charge for providing the seat is $14. So, to buy in early for a $300 (+$50) tournament will cost you $364 via the website. Once you buy in, the website sends you a printable ticket, which you present at the casino with your table and seat number already assigned.

Rather than for just local daily/weekly tournaments, one area this service might be especially good for is for preliminary events to tournament series. For example, right now players can buy in to many of the prelim events at the USPC (held at the Trump Taj Mahal) direct through the website. source

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• Absolute Poker ‘Bad Beat’ Jackpot nears $700,000

The Absolute Poker (AP) ’Bad Beat’ Jackpot that grows at a rate of $2,000 per hour will reach $700,000 sometime early on Tuesday if no online player suffers a bad beat. Absolute Poker an online poker room that still accepts U.S. players instituted a ‘Bad Beat’ Jackpot in late June of 2007. AP has already paid out $1.4 million in the jackpots.

Here is information from AP that explains the ‘Bad Beat’ Jackpot.

HOW IT WORKS

Look for our new ‘Bad Beat Jackpot’ tables and watch our jackpot grow. We’ll collect $0.50 from the pot of each raked hand that is raked .25 or more. The poker jackpot will keep growing until someone hits an unbelievable bad beat.

What constitutes a bad beat? If you lose a hand holding four eights (8888) or  anything better, that’s a bad beat. But at these tables, your luck couldn’t be better.

Thanks to your bad beat, everyone at the table will win a piece of the distributed jackpot. And you’ll take the majority of the prize.

As soon as someone hits a qualifying bad beat, 65% of the jackpot will be shared between everyone at the online poker table where the bad beat went down. 25% will go towards the next jackpot and 10% will go to the house.

We’ll take the new amount and divide it amongst the players seated at the Bad Beat Jackpot table.

• The loser of the hand – ie. the bad beat victim - will take 50% of the prize
• The winner of the hand will take 25% of the prize
• The rest of the players seated at the table will share the remaining 25%

Your ‘Dead Money’ blogger will be heading to AP to see if I can get a bad beat. I get beat all the time at the tables, so I just have to hope to flop quad 8s or better and have somebody hit a straight flush. I can get all my poker loses back in one ‘Bad Beat’. That is my plan and I am sticking to it. I think it is a good plan. Certainly better than my current plan of trying to win enough playing at the tables to retire from blogging.

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• New York Congressmen Oppose Poker Ban

Congressmen Steve Israel and Pete King a democrat and republican from New York both have expressed their support for Representative Barney Frank’s Internet Gambling Regulation and Enforcement Act (IGREA) HR 2406. They published an editorial titled ‘Web Gambling: Tax, don’t Ban’ in the New York Post.

The congressmen find irony in the enactment and enforcement of the UIGEA.

“Years ago, the Treasury’s Secret Service agents used to help Harry Truman put poker games together in the White House,� they wrote. “Now they’d be locking him up.�

The two legislators believe there are more important items on the American agenda.

“Frankly, federal law enforcement officials have bigger fish to fry,� they stated.

Protecting the President, investigating counterfeit money and tracking terrorist financing were mentioned as better ways of spending U.S. funds.

American history and the basic right of privacy were cited.

“In the end, there is the question of how much we want government to be involved in our private lives: For many, playing poker with friends on the Internet is a way to unwind at the end of the day,� the men said. “Technology aside, Web gambling isn’t so different than the way Americans have relaxed and enjoyed the company of friends for decades.� source

In an earlier post your ‘Dead Money’ blogger requested that you support the Poker Players Alliance (PPA)  by going to their site and joining the Alliance. Also at the site you can easily send a letter to your representative to support HR 2406 and HR 2610 ‘Skill Game Protection Act’.

Now you have two New York Congressmen that are supporting your ‘Dead Money’ blogger. If you like playing online Poker go to the PPA site and register and send those letters to your congressmen to get the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) changed.

Feel free to add any Poker related comments, they are welcome always.

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