Poker Inc. to Uncle Sam: Shut Up and Deal
By JANET MORRISSEY
Published: October 8, 2011

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/09/te...-the-game.html

Nice to see poker being talked about in main stream media.

"Mr. Ferguson, whose official first name is Christopher, was the mathematically minded Ph.D.; Mr. Lederer, the strategic Kasparov of Texas Hold ’Em."

Really? Lederer is pretty far from the Kasparov of Hold'em.

Otherwise, good article - encouraging to see that FTP might actually help get online poker legalized in the US.

Thanks for posting

lol kasparov of poker lololol

"IN five-card poker, there are 2,598,960 possible hands. A four-of-a-kind is dealt once in about 4,000 hands, a royal flush once in 650,000. And yet aficionados say poker isn’t really a game of chance."

facepalm

Pretty decent article.

Apparently there was a part, that was cut out, quoting an AP exec saying they 'shortly' will pay out to their players.

Not bad overall.

Chad Hills is such a f'ing moron and tilts me so hard. He essentially admits there is skill in poker while defending his luck position: "True, players can improve their game with practice and so on — but the cards ultimately determine who wins and who loses."

This is straight from FoF. Very sad that the author posted in legislation and didn't ask poker players about skill in poker.

Pretty insulting to Kasparov imo. I don't think there's ever been anyone as dominant in poker as Kasparov was in chess.

Probobly never will be since in poker luck factor exsist while in chess not.

The only way this situation is similar to prohibition is if under prohibition the only alcohol made illegal was whiskey.

I appreciate the argument that poker is a game of skill rather than luck (and believe this), but I'd rather see people asking why so many other forms of gambling are ok (i.e. B&M Casinos, Bingo, race tracks, sports bets, lotteries, etc) but somehow the act of wagering over the internet makes it different and wrong.

The one player Andy Beal would not play was Lederer. So, at least he thought Leaderer was the best limit hold'em player at that time.

That's news to me You'd think the New York Times would fact-check their articles.

The article doesn't wrap its head around the concept of skill AND luck in the same game (or doesn't come out and suggest it), and ends up rife with contradictory sentences. Several times the article makes it clear some people are very good at the game and use it as a main source of income, something you never hear about a bingo player, roulette player, etc. It's probably a good thing that the article begins with the Kasparov comment, flawed a comparison as it is, to set the tone of the article as "this game is not pure chance" and make it look like opponents of the game perhaps don't understand it. Not going to change anyone's mind who's against poker, but not a bad article for those who aren't sure what to think.

The article has its issues, but I'm liking seeing poker show up in the news and get respected... hopefully that's not too generous a term.

Overall good article. Just the sentiment that legalization is inevitable, or even imminent, in a NY Times article is huge.

Not even going to click the link for the article out of tilt for that Kasparov comparison.

"Pushing back are conservative Christian groups like Focus on the Family, which argue that such a step would put a federal seal of approval on Internet gambling, with potentially disastrous consequences."

typical fundamental Christian *******s... MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS... you don't want to play then fk off..

Awesome.

Kasarov has made far more money than anyone else in the world of chess and Lederer has done the same in poker world . Seems like a fair comparison if you discount certain facts about how the money was obtained.

A bit off topic, but should be mentioned:

If you're a republican poker player who believes in less government and deregulation in general, you should look yourself in the mirror, if you want gambling to be regulated.

What happened with FullTilt and UB/AP, etc is what happens when there is no regulation to police business.

This happens in every industry, and without real honest policing of money making entities, they will do everything in their power to make money. In the case of the food industry, they will put our health and lives at risk.

Focus on the family should play Ivey 50k hands. Since luck is such a factor they should be able to beat him.

whoops

.

Ivey obv is Kasparov just without the preparation

The FTP scandal proves that poker is a game of skill. All the skilled owners robbed the fish players blind.