Author Topic: With Online Poker Vanquished It's Come To This  (Read 577 times)

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Offline trapeze

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With Online Poker Vanquished It's Come To This
« on: April 27, 2013, 09:19:41 PM »
Some history and then a review:

The poker boom of the last ten years was created by three things.

One was the "lipstick" cam that could be tucked into the rim of a poker table in front of each seat. This allowed viewers for the first time to see all of the action at a table...to know who had what, what was being played and what was being folded. For players and casual viewers this was fascinating.

The second thing was the creation of a circuit of tournaments that ended with a championship, all televised on the Travel Channel with the World Poker Tour. And it was truly a world wide tour with stops in the Caribbean, France and the UK as well as Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Atlantic City.

Finally, online poker sites began to pop up all over the place. Party Poker, Ultimate Bet, Absolute Poker, Poker Stars and Full Tilt Poker were the big sites and there were hundreds of smaller sites. There were easy ways to transfer money in both directions, lots and lots of players and great games could be found all of the time.

That all changed in 2006 when the Republican controlled congress enacted (and GWB signed) the Unlawful Internet gambling Enforcement Act or the UIGEA. This was done (if you can believe it) in a pathetic attempt to bring "values voters" to the polls in 2006 so that the Republicans could somehow maintain control of congress. Eventually, federal district attorneys used the UIGEA to shut down all US online poker.

Thanks, Republicans. Assholes.

Anyway, since then it has been difficult at best and since April of 2011 it has been impossible to play poker online in the US. People such as myself (I don't live anywhere near a place with live gambling) who enjoy poker have been left with zero options. Unless you want to play amateur games at friends' homes which are sadly an exercise in patience for good players who like serious competition.

How desperate am I to play online? Well, not hugely desperate but I did decide to give an alternate system a try recently. The World Poker Tour people put their heads together and came up with a sort of ersatz online poker experience called "Club WPT." It is legal because it operates as a sweepstakes of sorts. Anyone can play at no cost at all in certain tournaments. For a monthly fee players can participate in unlimited play (which enhances your opportunity to win prize money). This last part is what makes it actually work. Free poker play isn't poker but when there is something (anything) of value at stake then players will play realistically. I have been playing at the site for a couple of weeks now and I have been mildly surprised at the experience. Not as good as the traditional online poker of days gone by but under the current (sh*tty) circumstances this is probably as good as it gets. It has been good enough that I have logged in and played on most days. It has been great to have that end of the day, put up my feet and play poker with a good cigar experience again.

So...if you enjoy an online poker playing experience you may want to give this a try. As I said, you can play for absolutely nothing or you can subscribe for unlimited play.
« Last Edit: April 27, 2013, 09:22:48 PM by trapeze »
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Offline Alphabet Soup

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Re: With Online Poker Vanquished It's Come To This
« Reply #1 on: April 27, 2013, 11:52:23 PM »
I don't gamble - at least not any more than what you can say about attempting to survive in the Age of Øbomunism, but I never had any problem with others throwing their money away. I agree that the pubbies were particularly stupid when they promoted UIGEA.