Sorry for the delay between posts, but I figured I would accumulate some tourneys so that I had something to talk about given that I only get in 2 a day. So first the good news. My PLO game is getting much better. I am now consistently running deeper, however the play in the tourneys is still absolutely confounding. I am getting closer, but the frustration level is getting pretty vertical. I am getting much faster at reading people so I am adjusting my value ranges pretty quickly (and appropriately so far) but just not winning all the flips. The Freerolls are basically a turbo format so I know that I am going to have to get lucky a bunch near the end, just isn't happening yet. I am still contemplating jumpstarting the Ferguson Challenge a little bit here and skipping the freeroll part (debating if I just want to deposit the equivalent of a "Freeroll win" and move to the next stage). Haven't made up my mind, but I think I will by this weekend.
In other news I got my Pokerstars cashout so if you haven't tried or were holding out, it seems to work. Didn't take very long at all (2 days total I think for me). I haven't checked on FTP yet, mostly as i have been pretty busy lately so I will check in on that this weekend. On the legislation/regulation front I have been watching a lot of interesting discussion and debate go on, but mostly at the state level. I would highly recommend for those on twitter following @CKrafcik if you are interested in the learning more about what is going on regarding the legal debates. He is a reporter for a Internet Gaming Legislation publication and I have followed his work for quite some time. Very intelligent guy, and incredibly knowledgeable. He has been on QuadJacks Radio a ton in the last couple of weeks so if you delve into their archives I am sure you will find him. Anyhow, it looks like Iowa is working a bill which contains Internet Poker, but is primarly focused on Horse betting so it will be interesting to see what comes of the debate (I believe it is on the agenda for the State House today) and more interesting for me is that the NJ proposal is being discussed with Gov. Christie today and they are working on a plan for re-introduction. In case you don't know, or knew and forgot, NJ is going to have a state wide referendum on the November ballot asking the residents of the state about legalizing Internet Gaming within the state based out of Atlantic City. There is some additional provisions in there as the bill is principly focused on defining the infrastructure for sports betting and would go into effect if the state wins its suit against the Federal Ban, but it does offer some real hope.
US Congress is debating the debt ceiling this week and probably for at least the next 6 weeks so I wouldn't expect that anything else is going to get discussed in House Finance (remember this is where a regulation bill would have to come from) so for now I would anticipate Federal action to be moving at a less than zero pace. I know it is a little counter intuitive, they are debating the financial crisis so why not discuss a revenue generating proposal you ask. Well it turns out what they are debating and working through isn't actually anything budgetary or anything to work toward a balanced budget. The debt ceiling discussion that will be occuring is a debate about changing the law to redefine the maximum allowable debt the US is allowed to carry. The position we are in right now is that we will hit the current ceiling in about 6 days based on the last math I saw. What happens if we hit it…nothing good. Essentially what happens is that we are going to default on some financial commitment. basicall the US will fail to make a mortgage payment and the financial universe is not going to react kindly. Just the same as we all have individual credit ratings, Countries have individual bond ratings based on their ability to pay them and make good on the claims, if we miss the payment, we get dinged. If we get dinged the associated interest rates on our loans go up. Here comes the trouble part, if our rates change we instantly will default on all of them. Currently our debt makes up about 42% of the budget, imagine if all of our loans go up just a small percent (.25%-.50%). A small number times a huge number gives you a big number and a big problem. So the discussion for the next couple of days is expected to be raising the debt ceiling enough to debate for a month a more permanent number (basically waiting for some math based on the active proposals to come back). Based on the news and reporting I have seen expect this debate to be wrapped up by early June, which will then leave the last 3 months of the summer session for discussing and working on the current proposals (Sen. Ryan and Pres. Obama's). Once the summer session wraps up in late August things are going to stagnate for sure as everyone is going to switch into election mode. January is the New Hampshire primary and the kickoff of the Presidentail Nomination cycle so this is going to be a big time from September-December for all of the would be candidates to declare, fundraise, build infrastructure and begin the campaign push. Not a lot of time in their for their current day jobs. We will have to see if someone tries something during the September-December end of year session, but I wouldn't hold my breath. All of the big wigs are going to be out fundraising and pushing for candidates in their states so there isn't going to be a lot of folks left to do work in Washington.
Well that is all I have today, I'll be back over the weekend and let you know if I am going to skip step 1 to avoid throwing my computer out a window. This is the Gman signing out!