Yes, I'll respond in the next week or two. Thanks for your patience.

Rapini's post "LA is the one with legal poker," which he posted in the LA vs Austin Poker Scene thread when he locked it, is not accurate. If I were Rapini, I might call it "posting intentionally inaccurate information" and infract it, though I don't believe there was actually an intent to lie.

Austin has legal poker, even if you ignore the legal grey are of the "private card clubs." Home games where no one makes money off providing the game are completely legal in Texas. Sure, these games might be hard to find, compared to the card clubs and the advertised underground games (different than legitimate home games because they take a rake), but they definitely exist.

We have had many long discussions about this. We ended up in the same place we started.

* Posts about legal, authorized, licensed casinos and card rooms belong here.
* Posts about home games where no rake is taken belong in Home Games, and will be moved there.
* Posts about unlicensed, underground rooms or games where rake is taken, whether in a "gray area" or obviously not legal, are not permitted here and will be locked or deleted. I suppose there may be other forums here on 2+2 where it may be appropriate and allowable to discuss them (maybe NVG or a LC thread somewhere) but it is not permitted here.

Rapini did exactly what needed to be done in this case, though perhaps he could have added an extra word in there to say "legal casino poker" or something.

If you believe that casinos or card rooms are now authorized in TX (or anywhere else), and are no longer in the gray area or worse, we are all ears.

Can you point me in the direction where texas card rooms are being talked about? I for one am very interested to discuss them or at least learn about them.

Sorry, it was a thread in our mod forum from back when we were discussing the reorganization of the forum, from about a year ago.

We were discussing whether to have a new "Unregulated Venues" forum to hold posts about gray area rooms and possibly dedidedly illegal underground games, but TPTB decided they didn't want it.

Though in reviewing it just now, I see that Home Poker forum also allows discussion of pay to play rooms, so rather than closing/deleting those threads here we can also move them to Home Games. Though pretty much everyone agreed it was a bad fit because they are decidedly not home games, but it is the best/only place for them at the moment. So...you might check there. Here is the TX thread: https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/1...texas-1670355/

I don't have time to do it right now, but when I do I'll copy our discussion from the mod forum and PMs last year about this issue to refresh your memory. (Or you can search for it if you'd prefer.) Home games belong in Home Poker. CCP is for "Discussions of the activities, rules and etiquette of Live Casino and Cardroom Poker Venues."

EDIT to add: You might remember that I'm very much in favor of a forum for discussion of illegal/gray area/etc. poker, but that's not what CCP is for. Although TPTB might not agree, I personally think pretty much everything should be allowed to be discussed on 2+2 somewhere.

That was not my point. I specifically said that your statement is innacurate "even if you ignore the legal grey area of 'private card clubs.'" I was speaking about legal home games.

I'm not upset that you locked the thread because it was discussing a topic that's verboten for C&CP (the Texas card clubs). If I were a mod in this forum, I'd have locked it too. I'm simply saying that there is completely and unequivocally legal poker in Austin. I have friends who have played it.

I'll admit that I was snarky in the way I said it, as I believe that you assume intent to misinform too often, but my only point was that your post was incorrect. I would have posted that in the thread, but it was locked.

The locking post you were looking for was something like "Texas card rooms are of questionable legality and it has been determined not to discuss them ITF. I'm going to lock this thread, as there's really no way to discuss Austin poker without getting into those rooms."

Or maybe, if you wanted to also offer advice, it would be more like "LA has legal public-facing card rooms that won't close down. Austin's poker scene is less stable, with card clubs that operate on highly questionable legal grounds, and unraked home games, while completely legal in Texas, can be hard to find. I'd stick with LA. And now I'm going to lock this thread because <note about not discussing those clubs in C&CP>."

I changed it so it's correct. Thank you for bringing that to our attention.

You're welcome. Sorry for doing so snarkily.

FYP

Here are your suggestions:

Here is the nut low's ""correction"":

Why even bother?

And within hours, the very last post I made in the Casino & Cardroom Poker forum was deleted. Typical. Like a dog who feels the need to hike his leg and mark his territory.

Have fun guys! I'm out.

Rapini didn't delete it, I did. But yes, bye.

You are going to have to work much harder to surpass the nut low. Keep trying. Don't give up. See ya!

I’m not really following this thread, I will just add that I stopped posting in the B&M forum a couple years back because of a similar issue. I posted a response to a dealer in the “break room” thread about a story he was relating from the room where he works. Apparently my post was deleted and I remember being admonished because my location shows where I play and it could thus be discerned where this person worked. I was reprimanded at the time that disclosing where someone worked was against the rules did B&M, which seemed ridiculous to me (since it was inadvertent), but I just stopped posting here as a result.

Interesting, but when a moderator tells where someone works, it's just fine...

I'm guessing it would have been fine for holmfries as well if he did so to show that someone had bias in response to his or her misleading statements.

Just a note that it has now been more than two weeks since the above post.

We're still circulating PMs about this. It hasn't been ignored/forgotten. We're all just really busy so it's been slow going.

ClickItBak made a baseless attack on my integrity. In my enthusiasm to correct misinformation and defend myself from that attack, I used information available to me as a mod that identified this poster's past casino employer. While I still believe it was important to address the baseless attack, I should have gone about it differently. We three mods have discussed it with Mat, and we've decided that it is more important that we continue to protect the anonymity of non-famous posters in this forum, as per our forum rules. In the future we will try to ensure that we do not publicly share identifying info in our posts, even if it means we have to be less clear or vague in our posts. I apologize for my use of the identifying information and it won't happen again.

I think what you are trying to say is that ClickItBak is a pos who deserved anything you happened to do to him.

Except, you used a tool you aren't supposed to use as a rep of 2+2. So now you need to grovel or stop being a moderator.


You have 2 co-mods. I'll wait for opinions from all before making any further decisions.

There has been a clear double standard in regards to one mod for some time. I am hopeful this latest action will be the final straw but we shall see.

Considering this had dragged on for a month shouldn't the groveling grace period have passed by now?

Halfway across the river, the frog suddenly felt a sharp sting in his back and, out of the corner of his eye, saw the scorpion removing his stinger from the frog's back.

"What did you do?" croaked the frog in dismay, "Now we shall both die! Why on earth would you do that?"

The scorpion hissed, "I tried to resist, but alas I could not help myself. It is my nature."

Your actions have opened 2+2 to potential civil liability. I know with my employer that it isn't a matter of just doing my best to avoid deliberately exposing private information. The first offense is cause for dismissal without review.

Sorry for the unclear/wishy-washy language. Hopefully the last sentence of that post leaves no room for doubt though: