"Given this, everybody assumes that others will help out, that their contributions don't matter in the grand scheme of things, and they don't make them. Individuals are actually being Game Theory Optimal in not participating, but as a group, we all do a lot worse with a group of listless GTO participants."

This statement seems false to me. Show me the math.

"If you tell a bunch of poker players that you're helping out with the PPA to make internet poker legal, most of them will think that you're a moron who isn't having any effect."

I must be conversing with different poker players than you.

I don't think it's a good idea to explain why not acting is rational and argue the case for the individual not acting, that's not productive in this thread. Suffice to say it's like voting, it's an irrational action if you only care about the chance your vote matters. Luckily most people care about more than that which in turn leads to a better than GTO outcome for groups of people who are able to enhance the social and personal value of voting. That's what we have to do here to get more people participating, in addition to the other recommendations.

Here's what I wrote to CNN to all sources linked. I didnt take a ton of time with it but any feedback would be cool.

Fight for Poker Rights: Thursday, June 2nd:

I just updated the PPA pre-written letters to Congress and other lawmakers. They will be there only until Rep. Barton's poker bill is introduced to the House (in other words, not very long), so let's all get this new letter out. As always, they are at www.theppa.org/takeaction.

Recurring actions we can take:

• Let's continue to own a lot of Facebook pages (senators, Congressmen, Congressional committees, etc.):
  • The House Financial Services Committee's Facebook page is here.
  • Let's get some posts on the House Committee on Energy and Commerce page (here)
  • The Dept. of Justice's page is here.
  • Senators' FB pages: Senator Facebook Listing
  • We need lots of posts on the issue of poker and lots of "liking" of pro-poker comments.

Thanks!

+1

sounds promising

KK I'm all up on there liking poker posts.

we should all try and contact matt damon and get him to take a shot on full tilt. just got to give up 1 movie salary to pay all of USA

Wow mers, any hate i ever had towards u is now gone. Very well put and i couldnt have said it better myself.

It's very telling that a thread such as this gets 1/10th the views of a thread about Juanda having a verbal disagreement with some fat slob.

April 15th were the indictments, right?

made my rounds for the day and wanted to pop in and say thanks Rich. keep up the good work.

ya, I just messed up there

Thanks!

Fight for Poker Rights: Friday, June 3rd:

The newly updated PPA pre-written letters to Congress and other lawmakers are up. They will be there only until Rep. Barton's poker bill is introduced to the House (in other words, not very long), so let's all get these new letters out. As always, they are at www.theppa.org/takeaction.

If you sent yours in yesterday, please use today to encourage friends, relatives, coworkers, your significant other, fellow posters, coworkers, and anyone else you can find to join us in sending these letters to their lawmakers.

Recurring actions we can take:

• Let's continue to own a lot of Facebook pages (senators, Congressmen, Congressional committees, etc.):
  • The House Financial Services Committee's Facebook page is here.
  • Let's get some posts on the House Committee on Energy and Commerce page (here)
  • The Dept. of Justice's page is here.
  • Senators' FB pages: Senator Facebook Listing
  • We need lots of posts on the issue of poker and lots of "liking" of pro-poker comments.

Thanks!

Even more telling is the bazillion people making comments on Ivey's Facebook page versus the hundreds to thousands of people making pro-poker comments on various government Facebook pages.

A way-too-large percentage of people are still sitting around and hoping that someone else wins this fight for them.

COME ON TWO PLUS TWO LET'S GOGOGOGOGOGOGOGO!

To those who doubt that writing letters and sending emails is pointless, try this on for size.

I have emailed Senator Tom Carper in the past and have gotten the standard "I will keep your views in mind" type respose. Last month I had a conversation with an aide in the Senator's office (http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/57...-hole-1028120/) and learned that the Senator was not involved in the matter and had not paid much attention to the matter.

Last night I sent the PPA form emails again - no personal edits, no extended effort, nothing more than a minute of my life. This morning I got the response below. Yes, it is a form response, but note how different it is compared to just five weeks ago.

Folks, they are listening to us. Guys like Senator Carper, who did not have a formal stance before, are starting to hear us.

I don't know what the hell is up with all of those asteriks. That isn't how the original email is formatted.

I agree, and I think part of this problem can be helped by mersenneary's suggestion of creating measurable short term goals:

Whether it's out of apathy, laziness, or just a sense that a "GTO strategy" for taking action is to do nothing, a tiny percentage of the potential lobbying force of poker players on 2p2 is actually taking action.

This is easily evidenced by the "13 people like this" etc on facebook comments. It would be great to see 100+ new comments on these facebook pages each day along with 100+ likes on every comment.


So, let's set some measurable short term goals for the next week.

For myself:

Post at least 1 comment per day on the House Financial Services FB page, the Energy and Commerce FB page, and 3 different senators or congress people. I will cut and paste the same message. Time required for action: <5 minutes.

At the end of the day, go through the Committee's FB pages and like all pro-poker comments. Time required for action: ~5 minutes.

Send off the PPA take action pre-written emails each day. Time required for action: <5 minutes.


For the group:

It's difficult to dictate what the goals of 'the group' i.e. 2p2 / poker players in general should be, but I think getting up to at least 30 'likes' on each and every pro poker comment by the end of the week is a reasonable and measurable goal.

Get over 400 "supporters" on popvox for H.R. 1174 by the end of the week. There are 348 currently. Our percentage has been slipping steadily from a high of around 92% support, to 86% support currently. This site automatically sends emails of 'support' to your representatives. Send this to your friends and family if you have not already... it's super easy and the site is pretty neat. https://www.popvox.com/bills/us/112/hr1174

It would be great to get a baseline number from the PPA on how many emails are being sent through their system per week. We could then make a measurable goal to increase that by volume by 5 or 10%. Can you help with this TE?

My goals are to keep up with what I have been doing and come up with more ways to support regulation of online poker in the US.
I too share the frustration that more people care about a fight John Juanda gets into than Fighting for their freedoms.

go vote here and "appreciate" pro-poker comments
https://www.popvox.com/bills/us/112/hr1174

Thanks for the taking the time to review this Mersenneary. It's much appreciated!

It's actually not a PPA action. It's my personal action that I develop with the 2+2 community. I've been posting or recording for podcasts Fight for Poker Rights since the passage of UIGEA. Not only does this predate my PPA Board membership -- it predates by PPA membership entirely. While I do want everyone here to participate, I created it specifically to provide actions for those who are self-motivated to step up for the right to play.

Participation has been increasing. We have a Skype discussion group behind it as well. We've not yet galvanized the entire community, as you note. It's my hope that we'll make that happen via continued growth and attention to the issue.

Mason has offered great support for this initiative. I hope everyone will take his advice and participate:

Two Plus Two Poker Strategy Magazine - June 2011 Publisher Note
by Mason Malmuth

Two Plus Two Magazine, Vol. 7, No. 6
http://www.twoplustwo.com/magazine/issue78/

As most everyone knows, the current news concerning online poker is not good. In addition to the original indictments issued on April 15, 2011, another set of indictments have been issued this last week of May. However, we at Two Plus Two don’t think that everything is lost for US players, and The Engineer has started a Daily Action Plan for those of you who are interested in bringing this cause to Congress. See the top of each forum for the “Fight for Poker Rights” announcement and we hope that many of you choose to participate in whatever The Engineer suggests....

PPA asks that everyone write and call their lawmakers, write to media, etc. Fight for Poker Rights is different. It provides smaller, more specific action items that allow us to focus our efforts on more accessible targets. After all, it takes just a few letters to media with requests to cover specific stories to let them know that their readers/viewers care about this issue. Similarly, filling an entire House committee's Facebook page with pro-poker comments and having no anti-poker comments in reply makes a difference.

That being said, this is a community effort. I hope everyone will think about ideas they'd like to see in Fight for Poker Rights. Simply PM me, post them here, or share them within the Skype group. In fact, it's hard for me to come up with new stuff every day, so I welcome this greatly.

I also hope everyone will promote this (in a non-spammy way, of course).

Unfortunately, that's not a new problem. I try to lead by example, as do many here. I hope that, in the aftermath of Black Friday, more will do the same.

Same problem as #2, largely. It's easier to let others do the heavy lifting. However, there really is a benefit to us all acting together. It helps us win our right to play and it helps us optimize the legislation that gets us there.

I don't know about that. PPA has supporters and detractors. I do recognize issues in perception. In fact, that's why I've moved into a bigger role at PPA. It's to address this very concern.

It is my hope that I'll succeed here, obviously, but in the mean time there is no reason for anyone not to support PPA's drive for legislation.

That sounds like a good suggestion. I'm all in favor of metrics.

I'll see what I can do. Thanks!

Fight for Poker Rights: Weekend of June 4th:

The newly updated state level PPA pre-written letter is up. As any federal bill with contain some mechanism to permit states not to participate if they don't wish, it's up to all of us to demand that they do!

So, let's all send this letter, plus send the other two if you've not yet done so. Again, these will be updated when Rep. Barton's poker bill is introduced to the House (in other words, soon), so let's all get these new letters out.



Also, please encourage friends, relatives, coworkers, your significant other, fellow posters, coworkers, and anyone else you can find to join us in sending these letters to their lawmakers!

Recurring actions we can take:

• Let's continue to own a lot of Facebook pages (senators, Congressmen, Congressional committees, etc.):
  • The House Financial Services Committee's Facebook page is here.
  • Let's get some posts on the House Committee on Energy and Commerce page (here)
  • The Dept. of Justice's page is here.
  • Senators' FB pages: Senator Facebook Listing
  • We need lots of posts on the issue of poker and lots of "liking" of pro-poker comments.

Thanks!