2009 Poker Year in Review — Part II

“Can’t read my, can’t read my, no he can’t read my poker face …” – Lady Gaga

Poker Face, the international hit bellowed out by 23-year-old pop sensation Stefani Germanotta (better known as Lady Gaga), was one of the biggest songs of 2009. No matter where you went, you couldn’t help but hear that Lady Gaga wanted to “play hold’em like they do in Texas” or that she was “bluffin’” with her “muffin.”

It was an odd mantra for the centuries-old game that became a global obsession this past decade. Besides getting its due time on the radio, poker was also a hot topic in the media in 2009, as many newspapers reported on the latest insults that show-business personality Joan Rivers was throwing around in her verbal warfare with poker pro and fellow Celebrity Apprentice finalist Annie Duke. In fact, poker was the central theme in nearly a dozen TV shows, as the game experienced a bit of a renaissance in terms of TV content in 2009.

With constant exposure to the game, many countries and even a few state governments in the U.S. decided to address poker in the political arena. While Part I of the “2009 Poker Year in Review” (which appeared in the last issue) focused on tournaments and poker’s battles in the courts, Part II here will focus on the game’s growth, while highlighting the major stories from the latter part of the year.

New Shows Offer a Different Kind of Poker Programming
As has been typical, 2009 featured plenty of poker programming. The World Series of Poker and the World Poker Tour returned to TV, High Stakes Poker continued to thrill fans on the Game Show Network, and Poker After Dark remained a late-night staple on NBC.

But 2009 also witnessed a slew of new poker-related programs, and the promise of similar shows in the years ahead.

Poker players were in hot demand for reality TV shows in 2009, as two of the most popular reality shows on television featured poker-playing contestants. UB pro Annie Duke traded jabs with Joan Rivers for the majority of an 11-episode season of Celebrity Apprentice, and Maria Ho and Tiffany Michelle teamed up for the most recent season of the CBS hit The Amazing Race before being eliminated in sixth place.

PokerStars and Full Tilt launched their own poker game shows — titled PokerStars Million Dollar Challenge and Face the Ace, respectively. While Full Tilt’s show never garnered the ratings it expected, the PokerStars series — featuring Daniel Negreanu — attracted more than 2 million viewers for each new episode that was aired.

The industry also witnessed the arrival of some mainstream poker-news-style shows. ESPN’s Inside Deal was produced weekly online and ran through the November final table of the WSOP, while UB made an agreement with Fox Sports Net to run its Poker2Nite news series.

Perhaps the most innovative new poker programming was the series 2 Months, 2 Million, a G4 TV show that featured four online poker pros as they tried to strike it rich while living it up in Las Vegas last summer. While the series showed how nerdy online pros can be, it also offered a unique portrayal of the industry that was rarely seen on previous poker-related broadcasts.

Just when it seemed like you couldn’t find more poker on TV, Vanessa Rousso appeared on an E! entertainment show in November, and Mike Sexton announced that he would host a new poker-related game show in 2010. If there’s one thing that’s certain, it’s that poker and its players can still garner big ratings.

Russ Hamilton Named in UltimateBet Scandal
It had long been rumored, but the Kahnawake Gaming Commission finally confirmed the allegations in September. Russ Hamilton, the 1994 WSOP main-event champ, was the man “primarily responsible” for the cheating scandal that rocked the online poker community.
Nearly two years after the scandal was first uncovered, the Kahnawake Gaming Commission — the tribal organization that oversees UltimateBet and Absolute Poker — released what it called its final decision on the controversy on Sept. 11.

“In total, the Commission’s investigation revealed 23 accounts that had a total of 117 usernames that were used by the responsible individual(s) to facilitate the cheating incidents,” the report stated. “The incidences of cheating began in June 2003 and continued until December 2007.”

The Commission did not publicly release the names of anyone else associated with the scandal, but it did say that it handed over the names of 31 individuals who were “associated” with Hamilton to the authorities. However, it has yet to identify which authorities it was working with.

World Series of Poker Europe Main Event: Barry Shulman Wins it All; Daniel Negreanu Becomes All-Time Tournament Money Winner
In October, Barry Shulman defeated one of the toughest final tables in one of the most prestigious tournaments in the world. In any year, winning the WSOPE main event and defeating Daniel Negreanu heads up for nearly $1.3 million would be an impressive accomplishment. But the fact that Shulman did it in 2009, the same year that his son Jeff Shulman made the final table of the WSOP main event, was incredible.

The father-son duo may not be poker’s most well-known family — Doyle and Todd Brunson probably hold that distinction, while Howard Lederer and Annie Duke, and Barry Greenstein and Joe Sebok aren’t too far behind — but when it came to tourney results in 2009, no pair could claim to have had a more impressive year.

While Negreanu’s runner-up finish was especially disappointing for him, since it was his second second-place finish for a WSOP bracelet in 2009, he did pass Jamie Gold as the all-time leader in tournament prize money won with his WSOPE score.

“That is something that I am proud of, especially with the way that I got there compared to some of the other people on that list,” Negreanu said. “The winnings that I have come from winning year in and year out.”

Let There Be Poker
It wasn’t a good year for many people. Around the globe, unemployment rose, pennies were pinched to make ends meet, and governments looked for new sources of revenue. And in that search, many governments found poker.

The U.S. government took positive steps toward explicitly legalizing and regulating online poker, thanks to the diligent work of the Poker Players Alliance and its million-plus members. (Read PPA Executive Director John Pappas’ editorial that appears within this review story.)

In May, Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) reintroduced legislation that would regulate the industry in the U.S., and held a hearing on the topic in December. His committee is expected to vote on the proposal this year.

While the federal government in the U.S. has started to take serious steps toward online poker regulation, many state governments have already passed legislation that has expanded live-poker options.

Residents passed referendums in both Pennsylvania and Ohio in 2009 to expand gaming options. Pennsylvania will start running table games, including poker, at its racetracks in 2010, while Ohio voters agreed to a proposal to institute four casinos in the state. There is no guarantee that Ohio will house legal poker games, but the new law certainly is a step in the right direction for poker players in the state. While poker already was allowed in some form in Colorado and Florida, the states agreed to loosen betting limits and buy-in restrictions in 2009.

While it was mostly good news in the States, poker advocates faced more than a few obstacles abroad.

A new law in Russia forced all casinos to shut their doors on July 1. With reports that the casinos benefited organized crime, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin made the decision to relocate all gambling to specific, undeveloped areas of the country.

Ireland’s government threatened to ban online poker in April unless the sites forked over more money in taxes, but didn’t follow through on its threat. However, Poland did decide to outlaw all online gambling in November.

The conservative Australian government inadvertently leaked an Internet blacklist for its citizens in March that was compiled to allegedly combat child pornography. However, many other controversial sites, including many prominent poker sites, were included on the extensive list. While it was heavily criticized, the government said it was planning on going through with its censorship, as of December.

However, many countries couldn’t pass up the extra revenue that online poker offered. In January, the Czech Republic officially legalized online gambling, while the French parliament approved a bill to legalize and regulate online poker in October. Italy also continued to grant licenses to individual companies looking to start poker sites in the latter half of the year.

PartyGaming Buys the World Poker Tour
Once PartyGaming completed its acquisition of the World Poker Tour in November, more than a few poker players let out a sigh of relief.

Many anxieties that grew over concerns of how the WPT would run under new ownership evaporated after it was announced that PartyGaming, the well-capitalized, publicly traded company that was instrumental in establishing the global online poker market, was taking the helm.

But the bigger story in this acquisition was the speculation that perhaps this was a sign that PartyGaming would return to the U.S. market. The site had closed its doors to American customers following the passage of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) in 2006.

PartyGaming’s Chief Marketing Officer Chris Welch said that a return was exactly what the company had in mind.

“This is the first step toward us returning to the United States,” said Welch.

Only time will tell if the U.S. government acts on pending legislation to explicitly legalize and regulate the industry in 2010, but PartyGaming’s actions in 2009 show the poker community that it is clearly positioning itself for a big return if and when it is able to do so.

Joe Cada Becomes Youngest WSOP Main-Event Champion in History
Move over, Peter Eastgate.

Just one year after Eastgate supplanted Phil Hellmuth as the youngest player ever to win the WSOP main event, 21-year-old Michigan pro Joe Cada took down the main event in thrilling fashion to replace Eastgate as the youngest player to accomplish that task.

While some players at the November final table said they would probably lay low after the main event, even if they won, Cada has traveled the media circuit, appearing on FOX, CNN, and even the Late Show With David Letterman.

Displaying the desire to become an ambassador for the game that has treated him so well, he met with members of Congress soon after his win to speak on behalf of the industry and to promote the regulation of online poker.

Daniel Alaei Wins Five-Diamond World Poker Classic; Eric Baldwin Captures Player of the Year Award
Known for his cash-game talents, Daniel Alaei still craved a major-tournament win. With an exemplary performance at the last major event of 2009, the California pro won the WPT Five-Diamond World Poker Classic and more than $1.4 million.

“I’ve been wanting one of these for a while. I was basically the only one of my friends who didn’t have one,” said Alaei after his WPT win.

He topped a tough final table that included Scotty Nguyen, Josh Arieh, Faraz Jaka, Steve O’Dwyer, and Shawn Buchanan. Arieh gave Alaei a tough battle heads up, but ultimately fell when his pocket sevens were unable to improve against Alaei’s pair of tens after the last of the chips went in on a 10-high flop.

With the win, Alaei completed an impressive year, finishing the Card Player 2009 Player of the Year race in sixth place and chalking up more than $2 million in tournament earnings.

And since Cornel Cimpan, Yevgeniy Timoshenko, and the other top contenders weren’t able to make the final table of this prestigious event, Eric Baldwin clinched the Player of the Year award in the final major event of 2009.

A Landmark Year for Poker
By John Pappas, Executive Director, the Poker Players Alliance

Poker players like you from across the nation made their voices heard loud and clear in 2009 — and it pleases me to no end to celebrate a great victory with you. Together, we have successfully petitioned the Department of Treasury and the Federal Reserve to delay the implementation of the flawed Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) for six months. This is a great win for advocates of poker, and also for the membership of the PPA, as it shows that our voices are being heard and that we are a powerful and credible constituency.

From your home computers to the steps of Capitol Hill, you have rallied behind this great American pastime that has been misunderstood and subjected to misguided regulation by policymakers for far too long. As you know, the UIGEA was introduced hastily in 2006, and features vague language that adversely affects the rights of online poker players. The UIGEA would limit what adult citizens can do in the privacy of their own homes and would demonstrate the inherent safety issues that a policy of prohibition yields for underage and problem gamblers — neither of which is protected by the UIGEA.

I believe that the history books will show 2009 to be a landmark year for the poker community — and this is in no small part a result of the dedication of poker players nationwide. Hundreds of thousands of you have sent letters and called your members of Congress, voicing your support for poker and asking for theirs. No longer is online poker the poor cousin of policy debates; through our commitment to protect this great game, we have made the licensing and regulation of online poker a mainstream issue. It was the top technology issue and the 11th issue overall in the White House Citizens Briefing Book — a transition initiative by the Obama administration that allowed the public to submit proposals dealing with the concerns that most resonated with them. We have powerful allies in Congress who not only support poker, but have led efforts to keep it legal. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) and House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) have both introduced legislation to license and regulate online poker. In fact, Chairman Frank is committed to moving his bill, H.R. 2267, through his committee before the year is out.

Awareness in Washington, DC, was further amplified by National Poker Week, July 19-25. More than 35 PPA state directors and more than half a dozen professional poker players, like Howard Lederer, Annie Duke, and Greg Raymer, went to the nation’s capital to advocate for poker. More than 100 meetings with congressional offices were held, and attendees were pleased to join forces with wounded U.S. soldiers to raise $35,000 at a charity tournament benefiting the USO of Metropolitan Washington and Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

National Poker Week extended beyond Washington, DC, as more than 210,000 letters were sent by poker supporters. Just as the popularity of online poker reflects citizens evolving with these Internet-reliant times, poker players made use of social media tools for activism purposes. MyPokerStory.com was unveiled to give everyday Americans the chance to share video testimonials about what the game of poker has meant in their lives. Additionally, the “Tweet for Poker” movement, launched just recently, has given more than 1,500 PPA members an instant means to appeal to their lawmakers on behalf of poker rights.

Looking ahead in 2010, the fight is not over. While we have a great champion in Chairman Frank, all poker players in America must contact their members of Congress to urge passage of his bill as well as that of Sen. Menendez. These two bills, H.R. 2267 and S. 1597, respectively, must be brought to the floors of the House and the Senate for a vote. In addition, we must continue to voice our opposition to the UIGEA, and underscore the fact that it is nothing more than an ill-conceived prohibition that will do nothing to protect the vulnerable communities that poker’s most vocal opponents talk about. We have won a great battle in delaying implementation of the UIGEA for six months, but the war is not yet over.

We continue to see efforts at the state level to ban online poker, either through regulatory fiat such as the actions by Kentucky Gov. Beshear to seize domain names of online gambling websites or through law enforcement cracking down on innocent home games by using antiquated laws. The PPA is actively involved in legal and legislative efforts in a variety of states to protect your right to play poker, but will need your help to make sure that your local and state lawmakers also know that you are a poker player and a voter, and that this issue is important to you.

While we believe that politics are best left out of poker, ensuring that the right legislation is put into place is a roadblock that must be overcome. While 2009 was a landmark year for the ever-expanding Poker Players Alliance, now more than 1 million members strong, continued efforts are more important than ever to capitalize on opportunities and “call” new challenges presented on the state and national level.

Poker is not a crime, but to rest on our laurels would be just that.