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Met my sisterfriends at the casino last weekend for a girlcation (good times).  We were chatting with one of the craps dealers and after finding common ground in poker he told me what had happened Friday — PokerStars, Full Tilt and Absolute Poker and others have been forced to block access to US players.  Enlarge the image to see the big nasty message you’ll see if you visit any of these websites.

From what I understand, there’s been a federal law prohibiting banks from accepting funds from, or transferring funds to “known gambling sites”. A special code was supposed to be used by these companies in transactions identifying them as gambling sites so banks could deny accordingly.  Allegedly these sites used some creative workarounds. And addition to the federal law, states have their own online gambling laws. Washington, of course, taking the “no online gambling” stance. Due to a court battle lost by some brave gambling soul who was hoping to change all that last year (nice try), Full Tilt and some other sites denied access to Washington State players they had previously let in. I quoted an article below with some useful links for anyone who is in the position of being more than curious… (see original article at onlinepoker.net)

Notice: View Poker Sites Still Accepting USA Players

Following the culmination of a year long grand jury probe, PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker have now been forced to block access to their sites for all US players.

US Congress introduced the UIGEA in 2006 making it illegal for their citizens to gamble online but nevertheless many poker rooms still continued to target and operate in the US market against the law.

However, not only have three of the world’s biggest poker rooms now suspended their US operations but the sites’ creators are also facing a range of charges including illegal gambling, money laundering and bank fraud.

Thus far, the poker companies have had 76 bank accounts in 14 countries shut down, interrupting the flow of billions of dollars to their sites. According to authorities, the sites are accused of disguising gambling payments and deceiving banks into processing the money by creating fake corporations and web sites claiming to be selling unrelated merchandise, such as jewellery and golf balls. Apparently around a third of these payments would then show up on the poker companies’ books as revenue.

As U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara explains, the defendants “concocted an elaborate criminal fraud scheme, alternately tricking some U.S. banks and effectively bribing others to assure the continued flow of billions in illegal gambling profits.”

The US government has now determined to go after more than $3 billion in money laundering penalties, and have so far arrested 11 people who could each face at least 30 years in jail. These men include PokerStars’ Isai Scheinberg and Paul Tate, Full Tilt Poker’s Raymond Bitar and Nelson Burtnick, and Absolute Poker’s Scott Tom and Brent Beckley.

As the crack-down on online poker continues, US poker players have been waking up to the reality of not being able to play at their favourite sites. In the meantime, the defendants seem to be denying any wrong doings and assuring their customers their deposits would be kept safe.

For instance, a PokerStars statement read: “Please be assured player balances are safe. There is no cause for concern. For all customers outside the U.S. it is business as usual.”

In the meantime, US players can visit this page to find a list of poker sites still accepting usa players.

Last night I stayed up late playing poker with Tarot cards.  I got a full house and four people died.  ~ Steven Wright

Submitted by one of my good poker-playing buds.

I logged onto Full Tilt Poker last night to play for a little bit and found I had been banned!  I guess Washington state doesn’t want me to relax and unwind.  Here’s the deal:

Online poker players in Washington State are agonizing over being banned from playing on Full Tilt Poker last week. This follows PokerStars ban of Washington State players in September.

The state Supreme Court upheld Washington’s prohibition on Internet poker and online gambling back in September, prompting these sites to take action. Washington residents can play from outside the state on Full Tilt, but PokerStars blocked all Washington residents from playing for pay.

This court case was prompted due to a lawsuit by a Renton poker player challenging the state’s 2006 ban on online gambling.

I started playing online about 5 years ago for play money on Party Poker.  After getting the hang of that I went to Full Tilt and deposited $200.  For the past 4 years I’ve been playing online to relax, usually in tournaments with anywhere from $5 to $20 buyin.

After trying to login last night and finding I’m not welcome (sniff sniff) I withdrew the $186 remaining dollars from my account. Bummer.  That’s all I can say about that.

Mary Kate had the best hand on June 11.  STRAIGHT FLUSH…  we’ve seen less than 5 of these in the 4 years we’ve had this game going.

This was awesome.  I’ve seen someone profit from this dealer faux pas before.  My first card was dealt face up, it was an ace.  In this game we allow the player to choose a redeal or play the hand with the one card exposed.  The face up ace can give the table just enuf info to hang themselves when they hit top pair and there’s no ace on the board.  My second card was another ace… shabam.  Who would think that’s what I had?  Luckily no one at this table.  Blinds were $1 & $2, I raised to 10 preflop… folded around to cutoff who called, just the 2 of us.  My opponent is loose, tricky and unafraid, and had my chip stack covered threefold.  Flop: 9 9 K rainbow.  Not sure who bet first, it’s kind of a blur at this point, I’m worried about abundance of 9′s on the table… but glad an ace didn’t come to scare him off.  At any rate we each add $20 to the pot.  Turn: 9.  Crud.  We each add $40 to the pot.  River is a blank, I check figuring maximum value is already on the table and if he has a 9 I’m going home. He checks and turns over Kx, sweet. I think he put me on AK to check the river behind, or he was just being nice.

It’s amazing how lessons in poker can be applied to life.  I read an article in Card Player magazine about “Bad Beats” and paraphrased it below.  If you’re not a poker player, a bad beat is where one person has the best hand but the other person ends up winning.

If you are an 80 percent favorite in a hand, you’re going to lose 20 percent of the time, not an insignificant amount.  In these situations you generally want all of your chips in the pot… but you’ll have to suck it up one-fifth of the time.  Bad beats are part of the game.

Think of bad beats as your tax for getting the money in with the best of it, for which you will be substantially rewarded in the long run.  Take them in stride.

Wow, words to live by.