Poker Mac

Where to now?

Mac Poker players have had increasing options, until recently.  Mac compatible rooms were available at Full Tilt, Pokerstars, Ultimate Bet, Absolute Bet, Bodog, and more.  But the greatest player  counts were at Pokerstars and Full Tilt.  Since the indictments of Black Friday, these options are limited.  Rooms still open to US players include Bodog and the Merge network sites (including Carbon poker, Aced and Lock poker) which all have OS X clients.  Cake poker network sites are still open to US players using a PC emulator.

Where are folks actually playing?  Well 2+2 polled over 300 readers and the majority seem to be on Merge (4561 players online at the moment according to Merge), in second place is Bodog (935 seated players according to Bodog) and in third place are the cake network sites(1908 players according to Cake).

Beyond the 2+2 poll, pokerscout is reporting as still open for US play: Cereus (Absolute and UB), and several much lower volume sites such as: enet poker, everleaf poker, yatahay, world poker exchange, and betraiser).  Absolute and UB have disclaimers that US players are not playing on their sites, but rumors are that you can still play real money on these cereus sites.

Where are you playing?  Are you enjoying going back to using an emulator?  Comment below.

The day of reckoning is here.  The end of ages.

The FBI has seized the domain names of pokerstars, full tilt, ultimate bet and absolute poker, and the US attorney for Manhattan has indicted 11 principals from these sites.

“As charged, these 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. Moreover, as we allege, in their zeal
to circumvent the gambling laws, the defendants also engaged in massive money laundering and bank fraud. Foreign firms that choose to operate in the United States are not free to flout the laws they don’t like simply because they can’t bear to be parted from their profits.”

- Preet Bharara,  US Attorney

FBI Warning at Full Tilt, Pokerstars, AP, UB

The interesting part is that these indictments come in an era of increasing support of online poker.  Although a lot of the firepower against poker has come from the government, it is a bit ironic that the nation’s capital just made online poker legal within the District of Columbia.  In addition there have been quite a few bills introduced that are meant to repeal the very laws under which these online poker site principals were indicted.  In 2009, congressman Barney Frank introduced HR 2267 (The Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection and Enforcement Act of 2009), intended to repeal UIGEA.  In the same year, senator Menendez introduced S.1597 (The Internet Poker and Game of Skill Regulation, Consumer Protection and Enforcement Act of 2009).  Although there was a lot of disagreement in the poker community about Harry Reid’s bill, his Prohibition of Internet Gambling, Internet Poker Regulation, and Strengthening UIGEA Act of 2010, but in the end it was designed to provide long term protection for online poker.  Most recently, congressman John Campbell, along with Barney Frank and others have introduced a new bill, HR1174 (Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection, and Enforcement Act) to provide for legal online poker.

With advocates and opponents of online poker in a state of equipoise, it was shocking when these measures were taken yesterday.  But not everyone was shocked.  Many in the poker community had heard rumors of the secret grand jury in the Southern District Court on New York.  Ftrain alluded to this back in december.

People who are getting nervous?  Probably Howard Lederer and Chris Ferguson.  Not sure why Doyle’s room didn’t get tagged, but maybe they aren’t worth the effort?

How about this guy? Daniel Tzvetkoff, est. net worth ~ 1 billion, was arrested a year or so ago for similar charges.  The kicker is that he was arrested after the FBI reportedly was tipped off that he was in country by, you guessed it, FT, PS, AP/UB who were in disagreement with Tzvetkoff about recent transactions.  He was incarcerated without bond because his wealth made him a flight risk.  A few months later, he is released, and shortly thereafter all of the online sites he was managing payment processing for were indicted.  If I were this dude, I’d be sleeping with an RPG.

Meanwhile, back in Kansas, all hell breaks loose.  2+2 is aflame.  Affiliates are losing their biggest market.  Girlfriends, wives and mothers everywhere are saying “I told you so”.  My client hasn’t been closed yet, and I am still sucking out on the river on Full Tilt.  Sorry ’bout that.