The Voice of Poker

You have to be impressed by FullTiltPoker.com. These folks have assembled some of poker's biggest winners and most recognizable faces (as well as some of the best computer people in poker) and put them to work on an Internet poker site and a variety of other collaborative ventures. One such venture was a half-tongue-in-cheek effort to have poker recognized by the world of international sports as a valid competitive endeavor, perhaps even an Olympic game. If you haven't seen their website PokerinAthens.org, take a peek; it's a hoot.

The fact is, the FullTilt folks are very much on the right track. Poker, like bridge, chess, and many other games, deserves a place in the world of recognized international competition. And to get there, poker needs to speak with a unified voice. Indeed, such a voice must speak for this fine idea, and for many other things important to poker.

That voice, though, can't be the voice of FullTilt alone, or the voice of the World Poker Tour or Harrah's World Series of Poker, or the voice of Card Player, the California Gaming Association, PartyPoker, MGM-Mirage, Foxwoods, or even the dynamic duo of behind-the-scenes poker power, Chip Reese and Doyle Brunson. It needs to be the voice of poker.

Many people lately have been discussing the idea of some kind of association of poker, whether of commercial ventures or players, or both. I doubt that many remember Steve Fox's old National Poker Association, which tried to get this idea off the ground back in the early '90s, including, among other things, an effort to get a health insurance plan for poker players.

The problem with most of the ideas circulating at the moment is that they are proffered by individuals or organizations seeking to aggrandize themselves or consolidate industry power within themselves; they're looking for an edge. And while there's nothing wrong with feathering your own nest, there's a bigger issue at stake: the long-term interests of poker, and, perhaps eventually (as discussed in my recent Internet posts), the survival of poker as we know it.

On one of my many visits to see my friend John in Florida, he flew me to the Bahamas to teach me to scuba dive. (I don't recommend flying with John, but it's OK to go in the ocean with him.) He explained to me that there are no governmental standards for becoming a diver, or even an instructor of divers, or an instructor of instructors (which John happens to be). The dive training industry, led by its largest member, PADI (Professional Association of Diving Instructors), has effectively lobbied state and federal governments to permit the industry to self-regulate. We live in a world where you need a government license to cut hair, but there is zero government regulation of taking 10-year-old kids 60 feet down into the ocean with tanks of compressed air on their backs and exposing them to all kinds of sea life, decompression sickness, and other potential hazards.

Why? Because the dive training industry is organized, and speaks with one voice that's representative of all of its constituents, large and small. As is the case in the world at large, some things are skewed to benefit big players at the expense of small players, but protection of the small players is also written into the various instruments creating industry organizations.

Poker needs to take diving's approach to organizing our industry. It needs to speak with one voice. The value and importance of this cannot be understated. It is the biggest challenge facing poker today.

I question what poker will do if some kind of scandal hits. When the Black Sox fixed baseball's World Series, everybody in the industry lost power, freedom, and flexibility with the creation of the office of the Commissioner of Baseball. When the quiz show scandals hit, despite the incredible popularity of the games, government stepped in and that industry was destroyed and didn't really resurface for more than 40 years. We can proactively avoid these kinds of dire consequences by organizing now.

John and I have spent much of the past six months researching different models for some kind of national poker association. Wrestling, the big diving groups, and NASCAR are organized as for-profit ventures. Indeed, WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) is listed on the New York Stock Exchange. The four major sports don't work as models because they operate as ownership collectives, plus they are set up in such a way that players and owners are represented separately and have opposing interests rather than common interests. Horse racing is run by a mishmash of state organizations that communicate with each other on scheduling, standards, and integrity issues.

When all was said and done, we found three models that we believe would best serve poker: the United States Chess Federation, the United States Tennis Association, and the PGA Tour. All three are organized as nonprofit organizations. All three speak for their game. All three negotiate contracts on behalf of their sport. All three establish rules and standards of integrity. All three regulate international competition and negotiate with the media. Of the three, perhaps the best model is the PGA Tour, because it is structured in a way that permits its members to do some things independently.

One question such an organization must answer is whether it wishes to be an American organization, a North American organization, or an international organization. My own belief is that a United States organization should be created immediately, with creation of and participation in an international association on its immediate agenda. I think there is too much to do on the American scene, that American TV and governmental issues are the biggest chunks of meat on the game's plate, and international matters are secondary. But the people who do the heavy lifting on this project may think otherwise, and prefer to begin with an international approach rather than growing into it. It's not my thought that counts; it's what's best for poker that counts.

One complexity for a national poker voice will be the negotiation of television deals that respect the rights of those who have already established a foothold on TV. It is a thorny issue, but one that must be addressed. Without the participation of well-branded entities such as the WPT and WSOP, the organization will lack credibility. Growing TV poker beyond even its powerful market presence today, probably through negotiating network contracts, would be a major function of a national poker organization. A way has to be found to protect those who have led the way to this point in time, while opening up the field to an even larger presence. As well as the WPT and WSOP each has done, imagine how much more they could do together! Regardless of how this issue is addressed, there is no question that the biggest money, the highest profile, and the greatest growth will be brought to the game if we negotiate as one strong presence rather than many lesser presences.

Another complexity, addressed briefly in my recent column about government regulation of poker, is that the interests of poker do not exactly coincide with the interests of casinos and gaming, whether land-based or on the Internet. While in some cases the interests of the two industries march in tandem, in other cases they are different, and sometimes even opposite. A national poker organization has to speak for poker and poker only, and be separate and apart from gaming. I do not know of anything in the world of organizations, entertainment, or sports that quite mirrors this problem, and we're not going to be able to look outside the industry for guidance here. But there are several incredibly bright minds in the poker world, and I believe that among them, a solution can be found.

So, that is what I propose: an all-inclusive, nonprofit, American or international organization of poker, by poker and for poker, which serves all of poker. It's not an original idea, but it's an idea whose time is now.

The biggest issues such an organization faces are how to fund it, how to staff it, how to ensure that it represents all interests fairly, and what its scope should be. I will in an upcoming column suggest more ideas for such an organization, what the organization should do, how it should be organized, and even some of the people I think should be involved. But this must be a collective effort. It's not what I think that counts; it's what we all together want that counts. I invite you to send ideas or suggestions to me at [email protected] for discussion in future columns. If we do this right, maybe we'll even see some of those FullTilt folks sitting across from each other at the 2012 Olympics.

Roy Cooke played winning professional poker for more than 16 years. He is a successful real estate broker/salesperson in Las Vegas. If you would like to ask Roy poker-related questions, you may do so online at www.UnitedPokerForum.com. His longtime collaborator, John Bond, is a free-lance writer in South Florida.