Yep, the WPT is opening a U. S. facing site, not a full poker rooms, no cash games, tournaments only udsing the same model as Card Player, Ultimate Bet and many others.

Quote from story; "With comfort, we can provide something that the Justice Department says is not illegal."

Story here in USA Today:

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/poker...ur-stats_N.htm

obg

From terms and conditions of ClubWPT

You Do Not Need to Join the Club to participate in tournaments. Alternative means of tournament entry. OFFLINE, NO-PURCHASE-NECESSARY, METHOD OF ENTRY: As an alternate means of entry into Club Tournaments, a player must:

Register at ClubWPT.com as a free player and download and install the software; and

For each period that you want to participate in Club Tournaments, send a 3 inch x 5 inch card on which the player has legibly handwritten their ClubWPT Username, First and Last Name, Complete Mailing Address (e.g. Street, City, State, ZIP code), Email Address, and Date of Birth. The card must be placed in a envelope, and mailed to PO Box 30488 Las Vegas Nevada 89173.

No photocopies, reproductions or facsimiles of the 3 inch x 5 inch card are allowed.

The usage of a service to provide the production of the 3 inch x 5 inch card will not be allowed.

For each individual registration, the Player will be given a 30-day period of Membership to Club Tournaments.

The period will begin on the Monday following the day the mail-in entry is processed.

Approved mail-in entries will receive Tournament Points in accordance with Section 1.4 above or will have access to any tournament points they have accumulated in the past if greater than 500 Tournament Points.

Tournament Points accumulated during previous periods will remain with the players account.

ClubWPT.com will post a listing of all upcoming tournaments in the game lobby. The game lobby is viewed by accessing the game software and clicking on the tournament game links.

ClubWPT.com shall not be responsible for late, lost, illegible, incomplete, stolen, misdirected, mutilated or postage-due mail. ClubWPT.com will advise you of your eligibility dates by email. The odds of winning any prize will be the same by mail in entry as by online membership in the Club. The odds of qualifying through a qualifying tournament will be the same by mail in entry as by online membership in the Club, and all participants entering through this means will be accorded equal opportunities to participate and win in events held at ClubWPT.com, and will depend on the number of entrants.

The WPT is very sneaky, and they obviously have explored all laws and statutes, and have bypassed it successfully

Nothing sneaky at all, according to the quote the DoJ says it is not illegal.

Besides, the WPT is just on in a long list of U S based subscription sites, they are just the biggest company to do so.

Heck, even Dale Earnhardt Jr. has one, http://www.vlpclub.net/.

obg

Of course my state is one of the 14 or so that does not allow. I think we who live in these states are pretty much screwed for the long term

The funny thing is, I live in Georgia and cannot play at ClubWPT, but can play at the rooms that allow Americans, yet ban certain states.

Why doesn't Pokerstars or even (maybe) Bodog open one of these clubs at their .net sites? It seems like it would make crossover to regular poker more likely for club members. Also, the .net sites would then be able to offer payment by cc, making things more confusing for enforcement of the UIGEA.

Having looked into this pretty deeply, even having signed up for the two week free trial just to see what the deal is, here's how it works:

1> The software is a re-skin of Ultimate Bet. Yes, they chose the crappiest architecture out there.

2> The tournaments are a collection of freerolls and "point" tournaments. They have NLHE and Elimination Blackjack. Freerolls give out either "points", small cash prizes ($10), or entries into bigger tournaments. "Points" tournaments offer larger prizes or are satellites with more winning seats.

3> All accounts get 500 "points", and you can win more points even above 500. One minute after Midnight on any day, if your account has fewer than 500 points it is refreshed to exactly 500.

4> The better-paying "points" tournaments have buyins larger than 500, enough that you have to actually win points in other tournaments to afford them.

5> There are no "point" cash games, and the sit-and-go buyins are tiny, so there's no way to chip dump to cheat the point system.

6> Most of the prizes suck -- there is nothing huge available.

7> The games are amazingly soft. But, what do you expect when they pay out somewhere between a freeroll and a $1 donkament?

Now, relevant to the quoted text above, it appears the only difference between sending in a 3x5 and paying the $20/mo subscription is with the fee paid you get a magazine subscription, some Vegas coupon books, and membership in some gaming site that is probably worth less than being a registered P2Per.

The skin I suspected, same as Spade Club (Card Player subscription site) and ClubUBT, same thing except the latter makes no secret it is affiliated with UB, even Phil H. is there.

Having tried out the ClubUBT and Spades Club, yes, soft and lots of donks making playing a real game next to impossible. The, well they were suited mantra is prevelant chasing an odd flush, gut shot straights and such and those do hit the proper percentage, just don't be up against one of those players, they are rampant. That and calling all the way to the river.....

obg

When I'm playing what amounts to a glorified freeroll, the last thing I want to do is avoid getting into pots with gutshot chasing donkeys.

Seriously, when trying that site out last night, on three separate occasions I stacked people who called with one naked overcard and no additional draws. When I say "soft" I mean they were idiotic. A real money game that played like that would be a dream come true!

No, I mean be careful when in a hand, play soft until the river, granted, I like them too, just gotta be wary, they just won't fold and always all in, over and over, playing Bingo.

I have won a few dollars at the CP site, they re running games daily, small, a 500 on Sat and a 1K on Sundays and have added a 3K game of some sort, I goof off there if nothing else to do.

obg