HF2370 now Bipartisan

DFL State Representative Robin Brown has signed on as a co-author to Republican State Representative Pat Garofalo's bill banning internet gambling investigations and enforcement without prior legislative approval.

We'll continue to track this bill and story.

Cognitive Dissonance at the Minnesota Department of Public Safety?? And, Other Recent Gambling News

In late 2007, I was in my second-to-last semester of my Masters Degree. I did a paper on online gambling and was privileged to interview Mark Shields - at the time the Director of Alcohol and Gambling Enforcement Division (AGED) at the Minnesota Department of Public Safety (DPS) - note: he's still at DPS (apparently now the Executive Assistant to the DPS Commissioner). The interview, with his permission, was recorded. Who knew I'd need to reference the thing 18 months later? I can't immediately find the full 25 or minutes, but I do still have the three excerpts I used for a presentation. I've put them (to the best of my memory) in the order they occurred. Here they are (about 30 seconds or so each):

http://la.gg/upl/spirited_debate.wav

http://la.gg/upl/sky_didnt_fall.wav

http://la.gg/upl/regulate_it.wav

As you can hear - Mr. Shields - once head of AGED (through at least mid-year 2008) and now top assistant to the DPS Commish - believes regulation is the way to go. To be fair, he did stress that such a position didn't necessarily reflect his personal morals on gambling, but rather that it was/is futile to try and stop - he spoke of the "genie being out of the bottle" and of the impossibility of trying to recork it. Perhaps his staff position change and the DPS's new tactics are related?? In any event - seems to me to be a full blown case of cognitive dissonance coming from the DPS.

On another rational front - State Representative Pat Garofalo has introduced House File 2370 which would stop DPS from taking their proposed ISP-blocking actions (see our post below from May 2. The bill has had its first reading in the House and was referred to the Commerce and Labor Committee.

Lokimon Takes Monday Madness HA Match On Full Tilt!

In a unique CPL Monday Madness on Full Tilt (always on Monday at 9:30pm eastern in the Private Tourney section) the CPL dabbled in Pot Limit HA!

We had a great turnout with 16 folks signing up!  In the end Lokimon would take 1st place playing his normal uber-conservative style of poker...but he did turn on the agressive jets later in the match.

The tourney went just under 2 hours...and we are happy to report that the CPL fared pretty well with Billy68 taking 3rd place...and 4 of 6 making the final table.

Dudeman1228 fell to the second place finisher from the WSPL Ventrider...in a sick sick two-outer (95.5 to 4.5) that gave Ventrider a bigger Full House....and sent Dudeman to the Observer Rail....

However....Dudeman would be avenged.....

In heads up play that lasted a mere 9 hands....Lokimon tore up Ventrider scoring the pot in 7 of those hands including the finishing blow....top pair over an inside straight draw.  

And Dudeman smiled....

Great tourney to everyone!  

See ya next week for another NLHE match during the CPL Monday Madness!

CPL Monday Madness!! - The HA Edition

This week it's half Hold 'em and half OH - it's HA. The password as always is:

CPL

Join us at 8:30 pm Central - FullTilt - Private Tourney tab.

Karaoke Phil "schools" Poker Pro David Bradley

Seen here - our own Karaoke Phil pushes "very talented Limit Hold ‘em player" and FullTilt poker pro David Bradley off his hand on the semi-bluff in this $3.30 HOSE tournament. Click on the picture to make it larger:

Karaoke finished just outside the money on this one, but bested Bradley again, finishing 18th out of 132 players to David's bust out in 27th.

Karaoke continues his self-exploration in the wake of putting in, arguably, the worst-ever CPL session.

Fwd: URGENT - Minnesota Poker Players Need to Take ACTION!

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: PPA Member Alert <email@pokerplayersalliance.org>
Date: Thu, Apr 30, 2009 at 8:12 AM
Subject: URGENT - Minnesota Poker Players Need to Take ACTION!
To: Mark Cardenas 

Dear Mark, The Poker Players Alliance (PPA) has just learned that Minnesota's Department of Public Safety (DPS) Alcohol and Gambling Enforcement Division (AGED) served written notice to all Internet service providers (ISPs) forcing them to shut down and block their customers access to online poker sites in the State. The AGED also announced that they will be prohibiting Minnesota poker players from accessing their online poker monetary accounts.  This is an outrageous attack on Internet freedom, personal liberty and the First Amendment.  Please take a moment right now and call, John Willems, Director of AGED (651) 201-7529                AND Governor Tim Pawlenty (651) 296-3391 Tell them: You are a poker player and you vote You strongly oppose their efforts to force ISPs to block your access to poker sites They do not have the right to dictate what you do in the privacy of your own home They do not have the right to withhold your money from you Poker is a game of skill and NOT ILLEGAL in the USA or Minnesota Please abandon this misguided effort to censor the Internet and nullify personal freedoms Your opinion matters. Your calls matter. The rights of Minnesota poker players are under attack. Join the Minnesota PPA Facebook page to get the latest news and start discussing the issue with your fellow players. Our opponents go to government to take our rights from us.  We need to do the same to keep them.  Please call now. (To leave feedback about your call, click here) Proud to play, Matt Werden PPA State Director MN@pokerplayersalliance.org   PPA Facebook | PPA Myspace | PPA YouTube | PPA Twitter | PPA FriendFeed

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Mark
cardenas.mark@gmail.com

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CPL Director's Mark Cardenas and Phil Fuehrer
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