If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

After working so hard to make it on my top ten list Ed Miller seems to have posted something that I disagree with.

It’s the dreaded “online poker is rigged” argument again. Granted, Ed doesn’t say that online poker is rigged but he does stir up the pot a bit. He goes as far as saying that it can be done and an online poker site might do it. Here we have two different questions. The first is whether or not it’s possible and the second is whether or not a site would do it.

In taking on the second question, I’ve always approached this question from the standpoint of a medium or large site. If a player is going to get himself involved with some no-name poker room then it’s a crap shoot. Most people aren’t complaining about rigged games at no-name card rooms. The vast majority of online poker is rigged claims come from people playing on the top 10 rooms.

So, if we’re talking about a top ten room then I would say that the motivation for rigging the game favors not rigging it. As I articulate in a previous post there are so many other ways for a poker room to increase its profits from you that are entirely legitimate. And if you took the time to brainstorm a bit I’m sure you could come up with ten or fifteen more suggestions of minor tweaks the room could make to the game that would generate more hands per hour and/or more profits for the room. Until someone can answer for me why a room would go to all of the trouble to rig the game before having exhausted these other much more simple methods then I simply cannot buy this argument as being logical. Granted, a poker room might act in an illogical manner but if we’re to assume that all actors act in a logical manner then this doesn’t hold up.

The other part of Ed’s argument is that it’s even doable. Of course it’s doable but let’s put the caveat on there that you need to be able to do it AND not get caught. That caveat presents an entirely different problem.

Now, Ed is a man who isn’t exactly ignorant when it comes to software engineering. He has two degrees from M.I.T and used to work as a software engineer at Microsoft. So it’s deceptively easy for one to simply accept it as fact when he says creating a system that could do all of this rigging would be rather trivial. However, I’m not one to simply accept an argument simply based on the source. I put it back to anybody who claims that this would be trivial to at least outline how they would go about solving the problem without getting caught.

See, that’s the one thing missing from every argument from a software engineer regarding building such a system. There’s always some guy who says “I’ve been a coder for a jazillion years and this would be easy.” Okay then, tell me how.

There are some fundamental problems in designing a system that needs to escape detection. First thing off the bat is that such a system would need to follow certain rules in order to determine who to rig the game in favor of and how to rig the games. My theory here is that given a large enough sample size detectable patterns would emerge. So if it is trivial to design such a system then it should be equally as trivial to explain how one avoids creating patterns in the data.

One of the other factors such an argument fails to properly consider is that over 90% of poker players are break-even or losing poker players. So what exactly is a fish? How are you going to rig the game in favor of the fish when there are so many fish and so few sharks? How would you determine which players to rig the action for and which one’s to shaft?

These are the types of questions those who claim it is a trivial task never answer. I would love to see someone draw up a hypothetical model. That would at least be a step in the right direction for those who advocate that online poker is or can be rigged.

I’ll repeat a point I made in Ed’s comments. It is very easy to rig a single hand. It is more difficult but relatively easy to rig the game for a specific player. However it is far, far more complex to rig the game in favor of thousands of poor players.

Just think about the number of hands that have to be rigged. Every time you rig a hand you have to create one or more offsetting rigs so as not to create easily detectable patterns. Eventually, you’re rigging the outcome of every hand dealt.

I do agree that it is possible. I’m sure if you designed an entire system around rigging games it could be done. Like they say about almost anything in technology; given enough time, money, and resources anything is possible. The question is whether or not it’s practical.

Posted on Sep 28.08 to Is Online Poker Rigged?, Online Poker, Poker, Poker Pros | 8 Comments »  

In my never-ending attempted to alienate and piss off people, I thought I would compile of a list of poker blogs that I regularly read.  As the universe of poker blogs has exploded over the last few years I typically find myself reading less and less blogs.  Some, like Hank’s Cards Speak which posts maybe once a year or so are high quality but don’t really post enough to be considered a regular read.  Others (too many to mention) were once regular reads but then slowly expanded beyond poker to the point where it’s not really fair to even call them poker blogs today. 

So, without any further ado, the top ten poker blogs worth reading (in no particular order than the order I happened to think of them):

Guinness and Beer:  I’m not sure if reading Iggy’s blog will make you a better poker player but you sure as hell will have a good time reading it.  Iggy spends his days swilling beer and surfing the web in search of obscure and often humorous poker material and then he somehow finds a common thread between multiple stories and voila you have an uber post.  Your boss will hate Iggy but once you start on an uber post you can’t put it down.      

Dr. Pauly:  Dare I say there is no better tournament reporting around.  I mean who else would write seriously about which poker pros he’s pissed next to in the men’s room at the WSOP?  Most tournament reporting is so dry yet Pauly always finds a way to find a way to make it entertaining. 

N 82 50 24 / Nat Arem Blog:  Posts on a whole variety of topics but always something interesting.  He has a very analytical mind, a wonderful wit, and always seems to be working on something interesting. 

Noted Poker Authority:  I guess this is one of my few hardcore poker blogs.  Ed Miller is the guy who’s book opened up my eyes to a lot of concepts that were lost on me in the Sklansky books.  I like Ed’s writing style and the way he walks you through hands making you think about poker is some non-traditional ways. 

Wicked Chops Poker:  I like WCP for no other reason that I dig their humor.  Granted there are times when I think they’ve milked a joke past it’s expiry date but they do it in a way similar to Family Guy where they intentionally drag out a scene to the point of being uncomfortable . . . but that’s what makes it even funnier. 

Mean Gene:  Gene has a knack for writing quality tournament coverage that I always enjoy.  He’s also a really good guy and it comes across in his writing style. 

Up for Anything:  What happens when you take three talented writers and put them on the same blog?  Up for Anything happens.  Besides, how can I not regularly read the guy who took $700 or $800 off me in one drunken pot or the guy who I had to battle it out with heads-up to take down the WPBT event at the Aladdin? 

Pokerati:  Dan the Man.  Actually, Pokerati is more than just Dan but it’s Dan’s writing that lured me in and has kept me captive. 

Terrence Chan:  Terrence is always globetrotting around the world and playing poker.  Being a fan of both travel and poker . . . natural fit. 

Daniel Negreanu:  I actually wish Daniel would post more poker strategy but I do enjoy getting his take on life and the industry.  He’s surprisingly candid about other players and his personal life and I like reading about that. 

Honourable Mentions

I added this section because some sites don’t fall strictly into the category of poker blogs but are very much worth the read. 

JeremyEnke.com:  Jeremy is the man when it comes to casino and poker affiliate marketing.  His blog focuses a little more on the affiliate side so I had some internal debate if he qualifies as a poker blog. 

Melted Felt:  Some of the best poker parody out there.  It’s like The Onion of poker.  

Poker News:  Not really a blog per se so that’s why it falls into the honourable mentions category.  They have a great rooster of writers who always seem to be the first to have the breaking poker news. 

Poker Prof:  Kind of a cross between a blog and a news site.  Either way, I love Flip Chip’s camera work.  A good read, a good pulse on the industry, and quality photography.  What more can you ask for from a blog . . . I mean news site . . . I mean bloginewsphotograhy site?

Tommy Angelo:  I’m never sure if Tommy is a poker player who teaches life skills or a life skills guru who teaches poker.  He writes with such style and flair the only thing that keeps him out of the top 10 list is that he’s somewhat of an irregular updater.  Then again, knowing your limits and being comfortable with your life balance are exactly what Tommy tries to teach people so perhaps his infrequent posts are just another lesson. 

Posted on Sep 26.08 to Poker, Poker News, WPBT | 1 Comment »  

My friend Jack is from China. When he speaks English, he does so with a very heavy accent, and his word selection has on occasion caused me to reach for my pen to capture the moment. Like this one time…

We were playing shorthanded $40-80 limit hold’em in the middle of the night. A hand came up where I raised before the flop, and I raised on the flop. On the turn, it was headsup, me and Jack. Jack bet the turn and I called. On the river, Jack bet and I folded. Jack showed his cards. He had a very strong hand.

A little while later, the same thing happened. Jack and I played a pot, and on the river, Jack bet and I folded. Again he showed a good hand.

Soon after that, Jack raised from under-the-gun, and everyone folded around to me in the big blind. I folded. Jack showed pocket kings. What he intended to say to me was something that meant “You have a good nose for sensing when I have a good hand.”

What he actually said was, “You smell good.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This post was submitted by Tommy Angelo.  You can find more more blog posts by Tommy at www.tommyangelo.com. 

If you would like to contribute a post to billrini.com please see this page for guidelines.

Posted on Aug 24.08 to Poker | 1 Comment »  

I received an email tonight from Chris at Part Time Poker informing me that the submitted story I posted here titled History of Texas Hold’em was stolen from his site. Not wanting to jump to conclusions I emailed James Hatfield from The Absolute Nuts asking him to clarify. Before Chris James could answer in full James Chris pointed out that several of the articles from The Absolute Nuts appeared stolen.

I checked this out and the most recent post on The Absolute Nuts is an article titled “Starting Hand Nicknames.” I cut and paste the first paragraph and put it into Google and saw the same exact article, word for word, on About.com written by Bill Burton.

The second story on his site, WSOP- History, I did the same and found the same exact story on Poker.com. No author is attributed to this story on Poker.com’s website.

The third story on his site about the death of John Bonetti was word for word copied from the Telegraph.co.uk. Again, no author attributed to the story on the Telegraph.co.uk website.

The next post on his blog about Michael Phelps was word for word the same article on The Australian written by Ben English.

Mr. Hatfield has given no credit to any source. He claims he didn’t know he had to link back to the original source. I can only assume Mr. Hatfield has never written a report in his academic life. Even in primary school they require you to cite your sources in the footnotes or bibliography.

I really wish I could attribute this to an oversight or perhaps even a misunderstanding of copyright law but when someone repeatedly uses copyrighted material without making any reference back to the original source . . . well, that just seems intentional. I mean, there’s not even a “I saw this on . . .” sort of identifier that this work isn’t his.

Mr. Hayfield says on his website:

First thing Id like to say to all that have read my Blog is that I am sorry. I was unaware that i had to include links to site if Used other sites information I will do better in the future. I have since removed all post that did not include a link. Once again I am sorry. They may be re posted in the future with credit given to the original author. I did not mean to offend or cheat anyone

James T Hatfield

I wish I could accept that at face value but James intentionally tried to mislead me. When I go back to our communications prior to posting the article, his first email to me said:

yes i would love to write for you as well anything to get more people to my site

“I would love to write for you” pretty much indicates that he was attempting to have me believe that what he was sending me was his own work.

He sent me an article and then sent me another email shortly after with a subject line “sory i messed up the first draft heres another.” Again, the use of the word draft is meant to imply that he was making revisions to something he wrote. The revision he was making here was that he only copy and pasted part of the original article. He had left off several of the last few paragraphs and his follow up email was simply to include those chopped off paragraphs.

Sorry, but this is one of those pet peeves of mine. I get tired of seeing the words I’ve written on other people’s sites without so much as an attempt to give credit. I can’t even count the number of times I’ve run across Proof That Online Poker is Rigged on message boards and other websites where someone is attempting to take credit for my work.

All of this reminds me of a great quote:

If I plagiarize, it’s only because I like someone else’s idea better than mine and I want credit for it. Anna Chin-Williams

Fortunately, Chris from Part Time Poker has no problem with his article being posted here as long as it’s been properly attributed (which it is now). I would like to thank Chris for his understanding in all of this.

Posted on Aug 23.08 to Poker | 4 Comments »  

Invented by nomadic Druidsin the 3rd Century, its name originally could only be pronounced by a well-squeezed wolf. However, after the “Treat Thy Wolves the Way Thee Would Like to be Treated Act” of early Druid law, the name of the game was changed to “Toth Hoth Thoth” and could be easily spoken by humans, regardless of their being squeezed.

The original Hold em rules vary widely from their current manifestation. It was a game of fear, ritual sacrifice, and rarely involved playing cards. On the rare occasion a “deck” of “cards” was introduced to “Hoth Thoth,” one was guaranteed that all players would be cooked and “eaten on the morrow.” Consisting of one enormous card made of limestone, original Hold ‘Em decks weighed three tons and could only be dealt to a player if the dealer had the slaves necessary to move it (or if the players agreed before the game that should the card be needed, one simply had to point at it, and the others would understand that their “morrow-eating” was imminent, thereby negating the need to tire out anybody’s slaves).

By the 7th Century, Christianity had established itself on the British Isles, and with the consolidation of the old Pagan tribes came the incorporation of many of their rituals. Therefore, Hold ‘Em was an easy choice to make the transition into Christianity. At the request of the church, St. Jack of Canterbury gave the game a face-lift, and the rules were adjusted to fit a Christian model. The deck was expanded to seventeen suits, with number cards reaching into the forties. It was decided to keep the inevitable murder of the players, but it was deemed best that no one be eaten, for sanitary reasons. To pay him for his hard work, St. Jack was burned alive as a martyr: and that’s where we get the expression “pocket jacks.”

Over the next few centuries the game spread across the globe. In Ethiopia, it was used to ward off evil spirits. The Ottoman Empire was so fond of Texas Hold ‘Em that it was often called “Texas.” And then the first World Series of

It was 12th Century China, and the field of competition was crafty, ornery, and highly Chinese. The tournament lasted eleven years and participants were allowed six potty breaks. Favorites to win early on were Jing Ong ‘Ok, Jimmy Ray Tang, Krang Pra Po, Li Lin, and Doyle Brunson. The lead changed hands frequently, with many competitors dropping out due to exploding bladders until the field was whittled down to heads up between Li Lin and Doyle. Then one dewy morning, in the eleventh year, Li Lin went all in on a Dahli Parton bluff. Doyle was about to fold and let him steal the blinds when he changed his mind, took out the revolver he invented, and shot Lin in the face. And thus begun the Brunson Dynasty that ruled China with an iron fist for four hundred bloodstained years.

Inevitably, Texas Hold ‘Em would come to America, and boy did it come hard. It was such a sensation in the original thirteen colonies that its play by the revolutionary soldiers nearly cost America the war.

George Washington wrote in his diary at Valley Forge:

Dearest Diary,

I fear that this cursed Game will ruin our Chances for Liberty from those tax-hungry Britains. I can not recall a Time when the Prospects for Victory was as bleak as they are now. T’other Night, young Johnny and Jimmy Ray were to watch the Ridge over our Camp for incoming Red Coats, and just as Johnny was removing his Britches (for they were engaged in Strip Texas Hold Them) he took a British Bullet in his bare Bum-bum. His alarmed Yawp awoke the Men, and we beat back the Brits, but not without much Cost in Life and the Rumours that Johnny and Jimmy Ray were totally Homosexual with one Another. Not to mention that I e’en caught the Slaves playing Cards as well. Do they not know that we are fighting for Freedom here? I am at Wittingham’s End with this most Rotten of Sports. O what shall I do, sweet Diary? At least you understand me. You are my best friend for Forever.
Hugs and the most tender of Kisses,

Georgie

But the war was saved when Doyle Brunson flew over to England on his enchanted Pegasus and shot Kaiser Wilhelm in the face.

Which more or less brings the game up to date. So please, the next time you play Hold ‘em, take a moment of reverence to acknowledge the bloody centuries that lie beneath every hand you’re dealt. And don’t fuck with Doyle Brunson.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This post was written by Robb Telfer. You can read more quality content like this on the Part Time Poker website.

Posted on Aug 21.08 to Poker, Poker Humor | 1 Comment »  

Boss Media who runs IPN has been ordered by a Maltese court to cease commercial activity from their servers based in Malta before September 18th 2008.  PokerTrillion.com who initiated the suit against Boss Media is hyping up this story to make it seem like Boss Media and IPN will be completely offline on Sept 18. 

According to Gaming Intelligence Group, PokerTrillion.com CEO, Andy Pyrah, said: “Today’s decision will in effect bring down Boss Media’s operation in their licensed jurisdiction of Malta on September 18, and any partner still on the Boss (IPN) Poker Network at this stage will see their service closed down too.”

While it’s possible that Boss could be offline on Sept. 18, I think it’s highly unlikely.  IPN hosts fronts like Yahoo Poker, Virgin Poker, and Paradise so this isn’t some fly by night network.  They may not even have anything important still happening in Malta.  I know St. Minver that is somehow associated with Boss and IPN is located here in Gibraltar so who knows what they have here or there? 

Here’s what Boss Media has to say on their website in response:

Poker Trillion’s recent comments are a reckless attempt to support a legal action that is without merit and initiated as retribution for their dismissal from the Boss Media network. To be clear, player funds are not affected by the current proceedings. All players’ funds are held separately under the control of the Malta Lotteries and Gaming Authority and cannot be seized by any court.

Poker Trillion is a former customer of Boss Media who was terminated because of rake back violations. They have since then repeatedly tried to disrupt the Boss Media business through the dissemination of groundless rumors. In April 2008 Poker Trillion alleged in a press release a claim that among other things, Boss Media player funds were frozen. The allegations were false but typical of the type of tactics employed by Poker Trillion.

So you’ve got both sides of the story.  Who am I more likely to believe?  Well, that’s up to you but I’m inclined to go with something closer to Boss’ version. 

Posted on Aug 19.08 to Online Poker, Poker, Poker News | 1 Comment »  

Looks like the summer slowdown is kicking in.  The overall market was off about 5.5%.  A lot of that came from the 7.5% slide by Stars.  Microgaming had the biggest loss at 10% which followed a slightly down week the prior and an off week two weeks ago.  They’ve slipped below Pacific and seem to be running neck and neck with Bodog for bottom of the pack. 

Source PokerSiteScout

Party probably staved off a loss for the week on the back of its record breaking bad beat jackpot which crossed the $1 million dollar mark.  That comes the week following Party hosting a $1 million guaranteed that they crushed offering a $1.2 million prize pool. 

This week saw the FTOPS IX come to a close with their $2.5 million guarantee being played out on Sunday.  Tilt missed the guarantee by about $60K but they more than covered their loss in fees ($170,800).  It also came at the end of 17 other big events so not a bad. 

Tilt player yuvee04 was impressive winning back to back FTOPS events worth over $170K.

Posted on Aug 18.08 to Poker | No Comments »  

When we see these big guaranteed tournaments it’s often easy to look at the number of people who registered and the amount contributed to the prize pool and make a determination about whether the guarantee was met or not.  While, technically, from a player’s perspective this is all that matters, from a business perspective there is much more going on. 

Let’s say I’m running a $1000 guaranteed tournament with a $100 buy-in.  Obviously at 10 players it’s break even and anything over that is icing on the cake.  And if we have less than 10 players then we say that the tournament is offering an overlay equal to the difference between $100 times the difference in players to break even.

But what you don’t see in this simple calculation is how those 10 players got into the tournament.  If I gave out 2 seats in freerolls then my break even on a $1000 guarantee isn’t $1000 but $1200.  Likewise if I had a 2 seat guarantee qualifier and I only attracted enough players for 1 seat then my break even cost goes up to $1300. 

The reason I mention this is that players can still get an overlay on an event that has met it’s guarantee.  Probably the best way to do that is to play in the guaranteed qualifiers.  Many of these high-profile tournaments have to pump a lot of players in via qualifiers.  I’ll take a stab and say that the industry average is about 70% of a big event’s players are through qualifiers.  That’s a guesstimate because so many other factors come into play.  For instance, a $200 buy-in event will have more direct buy-ins than would a $1,000 buy-in event. 

If 70% of the entries are qualifiers then an event that needs 2000 players to break even will be qualifying approximately 1400.  That’s a lot of qualifier players.  And many of the qualifying tournaments will offer overlays. 

Most sites would rather eat it on the qualifiers where nobody is paying much attention than flop on the guarantee which will most certainly catch the attention of investors, players, and the industry.  Nobody wants to be seen as not being able to make a big guarantee on a marquee event so you could find a lot of value in the qualifiers where they may be giving out a lot of free seats in order to pump up their numbers for the target event. 

Your best bet for value is to wait for something big where the room has a lot of money on the line.  Think along the lines of FTOPS, WCOOP, Party’s recent Birthday Millions, etc.  Obviously the size of the room will dictate how "a lot of money on the line" is defined but what you’re looking for is a period where the room is trying to shovel as many players into an event or series of events as possible.

Then start taking note of which guaranteed qualifiers are missing their guarantees.  Chances are that if it misses once it will keep missing unless some other factor changes.  For instance, a tournament at off-peak hours may miss every day because of reduced liquidity at those hours.  Another tournament might only miss on Mondays.  Figure out the pattern of the losses and get some added value for free. 

Obviously, we’re not talking about a massive amount of EV here but it’s free so why not take it? 

Posted on Aug 17.08 to Online Poker, Poker, Poker Strategy | No Comments »  

The Party Poker BBJP went north of $1 million this week and below is the hand that took it down.  Full house beat by, quads, beat by a royal flush. 

***** Hand History for Game 7299704817 *****

0.50/1 Texas Hold’em Game Table (Limit) - Thu Aug 14 23:11:13 EDT 2008

Table Jackpot 1419013 (Real Money) — Seat 8 is the button

Total number of players : 10

Seat 1: ShoulderGuy ($102.28)

Seat 2: bucktooth1 ($28.80)

Seat 3: judith75 ($67)

Seat 4: wisard333 ($24.90)

Seat 5: pelusin111 ($14.90)

Seat 6: DismasX ($35.25)

Seat 7: fkjnyh ($12.25)

Seat 8: hc8601 ($22.90)

Seat 9: Hiyaall ($28.77)

Seat 10: chimbila007 ($28.30)

Hiyaall  posts small blind (0.25)

chimbila007  posts big blind (0.50)

** Dealing down cards **

Dealt to ShoulderGuy [  Kd,    Kh]

Dealt to bucktooth1 [xx, xx]

Dealt to judith75 [  9c,   9s]

Dealt to wisard333 [xx, xx]

Dealt to pelusin111 [xx, xx]

Dealt to DismasX [xx, xx]

Dealt to fkjnyh [xx, xx]

Dealt to hc8601 [xx, xx]

Dealt to Hiyaall [  Qc,   Ac]

Dealt to chimbila007 [xx, xx]

ShoulderGuy raises (1) to 1

bucktooth1 folds

judith75 calls (1)

wisard333 calls (1)

pelusin111 folds

DismasX folds

fkjnyh folds

hc8601 folds

Hiyaall calls (0.75)

chimbila007 folds

** Dealing Flop **:  [  Kc,   9h,   Tc]

Hiyaall checks

ShoulderGuy bets (0.50)

judith75 raises (1) to 1

wisard333 folds

Hiyaall calls (1)

ShoulderGuy raises (1) to 1.50

judith75 raises (1) to 2

Hiyaall calls (1)

ShoulderGuy calls (0.50)

** Dealing Turn **:  [  Jc]

Hiyaall checks

ShoulderGuy bets (1)

judith75 calls (1)

Hiyaall calls (1)

** Dealing River **:  [  9d]

Hiyaall bets (1)

ShoulderGuy raises (2) to 2

judith75 raises (3) to 3

Hiyaall raises (3) to 4

ShoulderGuy calls (2)

judith75 calls (1)

** Summary **

Main Pot: $24 | Rake: $1 | Jackpot Contribution: $0.50

Board: [  Kc,   9h,   Tc    Jc   9d]

bucktooth1 balance $28.80, didn’t bet (folded)

wisard333 balance $23.90, lost $1 (folded)

pelusin111 balance $14.90, didn’t bet (folded)

DismasX balance $35.25, didn’t bet (folded)

fkjnyh balance $12.25, didn’t bet (folded)

hc8601 balance $22.90, didn’t bet (folded)

chimbila007 balance $27.80, lost $0.50 (folded)

ShoulderGuy balance $94.28, lost $8

[Full House -   Kd,   Kh   Kc   9h   9d]

judith75 balance $59, lost $8

[Four of a kind -   9c,   9s   9h   9d   Kc]

Hiyaall balance $44.77, bet $8, collected $24, net +$16 

[Royal Flush -   Ac,   Kc,   Qc,   Jc    Tc ]

Judith75 wins Bad Beat Jackpot - $354,683.57

Hiyall wins - $177,341.79 + $24 from the POT!!!!

All other players win 22,167.72

Posted on Aug 15.08 to Online Poker, Poker, Poker News | 4 Comments »  

According to the rumor mill, Mason Malmuth has ordered 2+2 mods to pull links to quality strategy posts on the popular message board because they may be impacting book sales. 

There was even a post on the News, Views, and Gossip forum but it says that it’s been moved. 

But if you click on that link it takes you to a page saying that you are not authorized to view the page which seems very strange. 

So I did a search on the person who started the thread, jdrury12, and it says that he has no posts. 

However searching by keyword I do see jdrury12 has been registered on the site since Jan 2008 and has 30 posts to his credit. Weird. 

Obviously this is pure speculation but back in May Ed Miller posted that he had been pressured to pull his strategy articles off his website and put them behind a subscription wall.  Specifically he says "For the last nine months, behind the scenes, I’ve been receiving pressure and threats aimed at forcing me either to shut down Noted Poker Authority or to make the vast majority of the content available for pay only (sounds ridiculous, I know)."  I remember thinking at the time that it seemed odd that anyone would be threatening Miller.  The only conclusion I could come to was that it was from 2+2 Publishing or some other business partner who wasn’t happy that he was giving away so much for free. 

If this is true then I think it’s truly sad.  Not just that 2+2 would make it harder to find quality content on 2+2 but that they would resort to threats aimed at people like Ed Miller.  I credit much of what I know about poker to 2+2 and Ed Miller.  If it hadn’t been for Miller’s excellent strategy posts I would have never purchased his book. 

In a way, if this is true, I think 2+2 is acting like the RIAA.  Instead of being creative and trying to better monetize their content they’re attempting to penalize the users.  And they’re using the same analogies about authors (artists in the case of the RIAA) royalties being impacted to justify their actions.  Obviously Miller didn’t think his website was hurting his royalties but 2+2 did so they allegedly put the pressure on him to put his content behind a paid subscription wall. 

Posted on Aug 13.08 to Poker | 5 Comments »