For My Son

With so much bad news coming out of the poker world this year, I wanted to try and cheer you all up by sharing with you a very special piece of writing that I came across last year on an online poker forum. What makes it so special is that my father Peter wrote it - and I didn't discover he had done so until one of my friends told me about it. Needless to say, I was delighted!

Every time I feel that I'm under pressure, or if I feel miserable, I open up this file and read through it and it instantly cheers me up. I know that all of my family are proud of my achievements within the poker industry, but perhaps none more so than my Dad. So, without further ado, I'd like to present to you ... "For My Son".

My father and I at the 2010 Aussie Millions Player Party

My poker journey started like most players my age (47) when my parents and I played cards together, a common pursuit for my generation. We played games like 500, Euchre, Cribbage, Poker, 21, Acey-Deucey, etc. on a regular basis.

My father especially liked card games, he was very skilled and very passionate; a great 500player who could count cards and knew how and what to play to achieve maximum points.

Dad was a taxi driver and a gambler of sorts. He liked the gallops, blackjack and played poker (five card draw) at night with the other cabbies. I don't know if he had ever heard the term "rounder", but my father has long since passed. Pity - I lament that he is not here to play Texas Hold'em with his grandson and me, I am sure he would have loved the game as we do.

That brings me to my eldest son. At about 19 or 20 he announced that he a was taking a job at Crown Casino as a croupier, then later (after I left Crown) he announced that he was becoming a pub poker Tournament Director. A what? At this stage I knew very little about the game, apart from a bloke called Joe Hachem who had recently won a major poker game in the USA (that game being the 2005 World Series of Poker, of course).

At about the same time Casino Royale came out Landon announced that he was writing articles for Bluff Magazine and my interest to try this "new" game was raised again.

I saw it advertised around the local pubs and clubs in the Goulburn Valley (Shepparton) area and had seen it on TV, but due to work commitments never got the chance to play.

Finally in about April 2008, I got the opportunity play my first APL game and by year's end I had won the venue (very surprised) without ever winning a tournament and earned the nickname "Mr. Consistency".

January 2009 started with my first APL tournament win at a hotel in Wangaratta, followed up with a win in the monthly regional final.

During the weekend of the 2009 Aussie Millions, I played my first APL State Final and was picked out, along with twenty other lucky APL players, to play heads-up against Patrik Antonius.

I had never heard Landon so excited when I called and told him who I was playing and he was even more excited when I called him again and said that I had beaten him! Later that same evening, Landon invited me to be his guest at the Aussie Millions after party … very cool.

From that point on I decided that this was something more than just a casual pastime and like most players I looked for more games to play. Home games, online, Crown Casino etc.

In May 2009 I played my first real tournament at Crown Casino; my son asked me to be his partner in the teams event during the Melbourne Championships, we finished 15th & cashed for $500; certainly not a king's ransom, but it paid for our buy-in and petrol. Not too shabby!

In August I played in the APL Wild Turkey Grand Slam, finishing 56th and cashing for $1500, despite being card dead & cold-decked late on the second day… but that's poker!

My goal now is to win a position on the APL Team that will compete at the 2010 (or 2011) WSOP … fingers crossed!

Over the past months I have emailed and met some of Australia's best players. What an extraordinary bunch of people! Despite being a "fish" I have been welcomed and treated with respect; when I have asked questions to help my game, I have received a wonderful response ... many thanks to you all.

I hope to play larger tournaments and sit across the felt from you; time and money being the only obstacles. Hopefully I'll be able to win a satellite into the Aussie Millions or similar.

Everyone has a story of how and why they started playing; there is hardly a poker player in the game that has not seen Rounders or played with mates at a home game, complete with a BBQ or pizza, copious amounts of alcohol, bad beats and laughter.

We all want to play in the big tournaments, but there is nothing that beats playing with friends ... and nothing better than playing cards with your son.

More on Black Friday

Finally, I can actually blog something! Phew!

I have been absolutely flat out reading through as much information as I can about the "Black Friday" issue, trying to answer questions from friends and family members and being inundated with phone calls, text messages and emails.

Given the magnitude of the situation, and also the fact that it's still so fresh in everyone's minds (it's just over a week since the DOJ laid the smackdown on the "Big Three"), even I can't tell what's going to happen in the future. Will online poker eventually be legalised in the USA? How much will the sites suffer because of this? How will this affect everyone in the poker industry in the short and long term? Will I still be in a job after all this? Could a similar thing happen in Australia?



Honestly, I couldn't tell you. Purely because I feel that I am not qualified to do so (despite having been in the poker industry for so long). There is a lot of information out there that you should read first and then you should make up your own mind about it. Below are some links to some of my choice articles and blog posts that I've read about the issue:

PokerNews: http://www.pokernews.com/news/2011/04/online-poker-big-three-indicted-10218.htm

Press release from the US Attorney's Office (Department of Justice): http://www.justice.gov/usao/nys/pressreleases/April11/scheinbergetalindictmentpr.pdf

Change100: http://potcommitted.blogspot.com/2011/04/end-of-poker-world-as-we-know-it.html

The Curious Capitalist - Time Magazine Online: http://curiouscapitalist.blogs.time.com/2011/04/19/keeping-us-safe-from-poker/

Bill Rini: http://www.billrini.com/2011/04/16/fallout-full-tilt-pokerstars-pullout/

Five Thirty-Eight - NY Times: http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/20/after-black-friday-american-poker-faces-cloudy-future/

Infinite Edge: http://www.infiniteedgegaming.com/random-thoughts/about-time/

Relentless Defence: http://www.relentlessdefense.com/our-team/kevin-j-mahoney/commentary-on-high-profile-cases/u-s-attorney-s-office-on-tilt/

Reuters: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/21/us-usa-antigua-poker-idUSTRE73K6Z020110421?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&ca=rssvzw

The Australian - although not strictly speaking related to the US issue, it does ask the question as to whether something like this could happen in this country: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/local-banks-handling-us-online-poker-bets/story-e6frg6nf-1226042446419

Hopefully after this Easter break, I'll be able to settle down a bit and get back into more regular blog posts and videos on YouTube again. It's been a crazy couple of months, that's for true. In the meantime, I'm working on another post for tonight - that will be up very soon!

BREAKING NEWS: Poker's "Big Three" Sites Indicted by FBI

I know that I said that I wouldn't be blogging about poker on this site, but considering the circumstances, I'm sure you'll understand that I'm making an exception in this case.

For you see, the poker world has woken up this morning to the news that the FBI have indicted the founders of PokerStars, Full Tilt and Absolute Poker on a plethora of charges, including money laundering, bank fraud and illegal gambling. All the latest updates can be found here:

http://www.pokernews.com/news/2011/04/online-poker-big-three-indicted-10218.htm

Now, I'm no expert on gaming legislation, but I have been involved in the industry for almost a decade. From what I've read this morning, I can make the following observations:

• It seems that only the domain names of the information websites (PokerStars.com, FullTiltPoker.com, etc.) have been seized by the FBI and NOT the clients (i.e. the poker software). If you try to log onto these sites, you'll be greeted with a big WARNING banner. The .net and .org sites have not been affected.
  
  
• At this stage, there have been a few reports coming out on various forums that players in the US are unable to withdraw funds from the accounts, nor can they obtain software updates from the client.
  
  
• This does not affect players in Australia (at least, from what we've seen so far).
  
  

So what does this mean in the long run? In my opinion, I think we're about to see the "Prohibition era" of online poker in the US. However, like the ultra-conservative quest to rid the country of alcohol, it won't work. Eventually, I think this will lead to proper liberalisation and regulation of the industry. For now though, we're going to see a very big change in the poker market - and it couldn't have come at a worse time, given that we're less than two months away from the start of the World Series of Poker.

What you can expect to see when you try to log onto the Big Three's domain names. THIS IS NOT A HOAX (April Fool's Day was over two weeks ago).

I'm definitely going to look more into this next week, but for now, I strongly suggest keeping up-to-date via the link above for all the latest developments. But what I will say is this - given the stance taken by the Australian government in relation to online gaming (i.e. they are keen to take up similar legislation based on the US), now is the time for everyone in the poker industry to set aside their differences and come together to fight for their right to exist.

It's time for us as an industry to work together and come up with a solution that will greatly benefit everyone and give us as individuals the right to safely and securely engage in online poker, just as the UK, France and Italy have done.

***

On a brighter note, I'm about to head out to the Royal Derby Hotel in Fitzroy this afternoon for the 2011 Victorian Deaf Poker Championship. At this stage, it looks like we've got about 40-50 players lined up for the event, which is great news! Deaf Poker Australia is going from strength to strength, with plenty of big live events, Deaf Club games and home games popping up all around Australia.

The online poker games are also very popular, with an average of 40 players taking part every Sunday night in our regular DPA Online Series games. The Australian Deaf Poker Championship is also shaping up to be a huge event - the Deaf community are thrilled that this event will be held in Adelaide Casino and we're now expecting to make that magical 100-player mark, or at least break the record for the most players in a Deaf poker event in Australian history.

So if you're in the Fitzroy area tonight, drop in and check out the action! The $45 Main Event kicks off at 7.30pm (registration 5.30pm - open to all Deaf/HI/HOH players), with $10 satellites to the Australian Deaf Poker Championship running on demand.

I'm confident that tonight's tournament will be a smash hit and I wish everyone the very best of luck, but I apologise in advance for my Auslan skills - I've only completed the Level One course, so I'm still learning - please forgive me if I stuff up!

Long Time Between Drinks

It's been almost a month since my last post and I apologise for the delay. It's been a hectic couple of months and I must admit, it's been very difficult to cope sometimes, but now it's high time I got back into regular blogging and video stuff.

There's been a particularly exciting development today, but I can't share too much just yet. All I can say is that it's HUGE. In the meantime, I have been busy at school and have handed in the first couple of assessment pieces. I'm going to share one of those pieces with you now. It's my first Journalism piece entitled: "You'll Find a Way."

This is a personal narrative piece I wrote about my experiences growing up in primary school. They have been marked, but I don't know what my mark is yet, on account that I was sick last week and class was cancelled tonight. I'll let you know ASAP. In the meantime, please enjoy.

YOU'LL FIND A WAY

When I was little, I loved to read and write. In Grade Prep, I was always picked out to read fairytales aloud to the rest of the class. By Grade Three, I was reading novels. I'd constantly write stories, plays, poems and even articles for the school newspaper. I was a smart kid, and naturally, this set me up as a target for bullies.

I was beaten, had my lunch money stolen and had my pencils and books ruined, but while the bruises and cuts healed and all my worldly possessions were replaced, it was the verbal abuse that hurt the most. The funny thing was that the worst of it wasn't from my fellow students – it was from my teacher.

Her name was Mrs. Lawless. Lawless by name, lawless by nature. From day one, for reasons unknown but to her, and possibly Satan, she just had it in for me. If I so much as sneezed, she'd start screaming at me, forcing me run out of the classroom in tears.

I'd run and hide either at the back of the oval, or inside the tunnels in the playground, wishing that I could just disappear. But the principal would always find me, take me into the staff room and give me a glass of milk and Tim Tams to cheer me up. Sure, why not bribe the kid with food, that'll solve his problems.

Tim Tams: cures what ails ya!

Try as they might, my parents couldn't do anything either. They'd meet with the principal and tell him what had happened, but Mrs. Lawless would sit there, barely batting an eyelid as she put on the innocent act, refuting everything that my parents said. “Without actual evidence ,” the principal said, “There's nothing that I can do.” On and on like this it went – and then one day, Mrs. Lawless truly crushed my soul.

The Royal Children's Hospital was holding a writing contest, where the winning stories would be published in a book. I had stayed up late every night for a week writing my story about a boy named Matt, who got to ride in a racecar around the Calder Park Thunderdome. Matt was real – I'd met him through my uncle, who was his foster carer. Matt had cerebral palsy and I wrote the story from his point of view.

I poured my heart and soul into it, making it the very best I could. Everyone that I read it to almost burst into tears, including my uncle, who was very much a blokey bloke. I knew that I'd done Matt, and the story, justice. I went to school the next day, bursting with happiness. I just knew I had a great chance to win.

All that disappeared when I stared into Mrs. Lawless' cold, dead eyes. She snatched the papers from me, glanced at them threw them back into my face as she said: “This is shit.”

That was the moment where I lost all hope in becoming a writer. All the pain and suffering from this bitch set the tone for the rest of my school life, which was a living hell.

I fell into depression (and even further into the wrong crowd); wagged school, smoked pot, snuck into nightclubs underage, rebelled against my parents, ran away from home; did terrible things that were completely out of character and never even graduated Year 12.

Yet, I discovered that no matter what life throws at you, no matter how despondent you may become, if you work hard enough and battle through those tough times, you can always find a way to turn everything around – and for me, that was the day I got my first full-time job as a croupier at Crown Casino six years ago.

Since then, I've worked in the poker industry as a dealer, tournament director and now, journalist. I've travelled all around Australia and South-East Asia to the region's finest casinos, interviewing and writing about the world's most prominent poker players at all the hallmark events. I'm also the editor of a magazine and I'm about to have a book published.

At the recommendation of my employer, he said I should go back to school. “Get the credentials behind you,” he said, “It will give you the skills you need to become a better writer.”

And that's why I'm studying at RMIT. Through my new career, I've rediscovered my passion for writing. I'm not worried about Mrs. Lawless any more. I've moved on. I'm exactly where I want to be, on my own terms – and it feels good.

However, if I do see her one day, I'll be sure to give her the finger and let her know exactly how I feel, proving to her that try as she might, she could not break me. You might call that immature; I call it closure.