Zimba Blog:
Since poker's Black Friday on April 15th, I have felt like I've been lost down "the rabbit hole."
Let me backtrack a little to flesh out the metaphor. My 14-year-old daughter is training to become a professional ballerina. She has two main performances each year; the traditional Nutcracker in early December and a different ballet each May. This year the studio director created an original ballet weaving an amalgam of Disney stories with a running theme through them. The lead prince visits a few of the classic Disney stories and their famous heroines looking for his ultimate mate. Along the way he visits Cinderella, Ariel, Rapunzel, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Jasmine, and Belle who for one reason or another don't work out before he finds his true love in the princess from "The Princess and the Pea." In typical Disney fashion, each scene clearly portrays all the good and evil characters we've come to know and love.
The last Disney story scene the prince visits before discovering his true match is Alice in Wonderland. This scene stands out from all the others for several reasons.
1) It is a much longer story, convoluted in plot, with many more characters involved.
2) The characters are more mysterious and morally ambiguous. Determining who is good or bad is much more complicated.
3) The overall ambiance is unsettling, trippy and subversive. It was the only scene to employ special affects to represent Alice in Wonderland's shrinking and a smoke machine to give further mystery.
On April 15th, the American poker public was unwittingly dragged down the proverbial rabbit hole.
1) What was once an uncertain legal environment with respected poker rooms serving a stable community is now deemed illegal and effectively shut off to the majority of players with funds still locked up on two of the three sites. The interim has been confusing and disorienting with no clear end game in sight. Many characters (e.g. PPA, media and industry critics, AGA, online casinos and various state and federal politicians have tried to portray themselves as saviors to orchestrate some reasonable solution. None have been found so far. As Blue Monday demonstrated, the big three U.S facing poker rooms aren't the only poker rooms being targeted and many remaining rooms are imposing new restrictions while e-wallets are becoming highly unreliable.
2) The cast of heroes and villains has been turned upside down. Gone are the days where Phil Ivey, Doyle Brunson, Chris Ferguson, and Howard Lederer are held to unquestioned esteem. Each has had to scramble to protect their personal interests in the light of increasing discord and acrimony with their associated poker businesses. Traditional villains like the corporate land based casino owners are now repositioning themselves to be the new power brokers who will return online poker to the U.S. after being opponents for years. Sponsored and ownership based pros who were highly respected and prized for their poker room sponsorships now are seen as sellouts and complicit in their associated poker room's culpability. The reputation of respected poker sites like PokerStars and Full Tilt have fallen tremendously in the face of bank fraud charges that display a disregard for reasonable business practices. UB/Absolute has been further confirmed to be the villain that many overlooked or justified as still juicy enough to play despite its reputation. Harsh and justified criticism has been leveled at all levels of the poker industry to a point where it is difficult to find guiltless white knights remaining.
3) Much like Alice when she followed the white hare down the rabbit hole, our poker lives have shrunken. The removal of online poker play has reduced the richness of the poker world tremendously. Where players once had tremendous flexibility in what, where and when they play, now options are to play live, move to another country or risk tremendously to play on a fast reducing pool of shaky online poker rooms. While the numbers at the 2011 World Series of Poker may hold up reasonably well this year as players give it an all or nothing/one last chance mentality, it won't be sustainable moving forward as the scores of net losers give up and move on without the ability to refuel online.
Poker players are left dazed and confused. Large sums and many poker bankrolls remain trapped and unreleased on Full Tilt and Absolute. UseMyWallet was one of the last popular e-wallets and has apparently also collapsed with significant player funds held. Remaining U.S.-facing poker rooms are dwindling in option as is the ability to move funds on and off the sites. Many players won't make the transition to or enjoy the live poker environment and drift away without any sense that the situation will be resolved soon.
The latest news from the AGA indicates that possible federal legislation is being crafted to be introduced in the fall to take advantage of a limited political window for possible passage. If passed, it would likely take months if not a couple years to fully implement and replace the online poker ecosystem.
Will the Alice in Wonderland poker player awaken from their dark, subversive and disconcerting journey refreshed and renewed to tackle the new world that will eventually come next? Will poker players who have seen the dark side of poker lose faith in their prior heroes and institutions? With their innocence gone, will the casual poker player or fan return with the same zest? Or will this surreal journey reorient poker players to embrace a new environment where poor business practice, poor customer service, and outright fraud is no longer tolerated. Will poker players become actors for their future and embrace a highly regulated and hopefully more transparent environment?
If we are to climb out of the rabbit hole we find ourselves in, maybe we need to see the absurdity and duplicity of our poker past. We all need to grow up and embrace a more responsible environment that ultimately will be more sustainable. My biggest fear is that in the delayed time it takes for us to find our new way that it doesn't sap the hearts and minds from the community that initially created the initial poker explosion only a few years ago.
Since poker's Black Friday on April 15th, I have felt like I've been lost down "the rabbit hole."
Let me backtrack a little to flesh out the metaphor. My 14-year-old daughter is training to become a professional ballerina. She has two main performances each year; the traditional Nutcracker in early December and a different ballet each May. This year the studio director created an original ballet weaving an amalgam of Disney stories with a running theme through them. The lead prince visits a few of the classic Disney stories and their famous heroines looking for his ultimate mate. Along the way he visits Cinderella, Ariel, Rapunzel, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Jasmine, and Belle who for one reason or another don't work out before he finds his true love in the princess from "The Princess and the Pea." In typical Disney fashion, each scene clearly portrays all the good and evil characters we've come to know and love.
The last Disney story scene the prince visits before discovering his true match is Alice in Wonderland. This scene stands out from all the others for several reasons.
1) It is a much longer story, convoluted in plot, with many more characters involved.
2) The characters are more mysterious and morally ambiguous. Determining who is good or bad is much more complicated.
3) The overall ambiance is unsettling, trippy and subversive. It was the only scene to employ special affects to represent Alice in Wonderland's shrinking and a smoke machine to give further mystery.
On April 15th, the American poker public was unwittingly dragged down the proverbial rabbit hole.
1) What was once an uncertain legal environment with respected poker rooms serving a stable community is now deemed illegal and effectively shut off to the majority of players with funds still locked up on two of the three sites. The interim has been confusing and disorienting with no clear end game in sight. Many characters (e.g. PPA, media and industry critics, AGA, online casinos and various state and federal politicians have tried to portray themselves as saviors to orchestrate some reasonable solution. None have been found so far. As Blue Monday demonstrated, the big three U.S facing poker rooms aren't the only poker rooms being targeted and many remaining rooms are imposing new restrictions while e-wallets are becoming highly unreliable.
2) The cast of heroes and villains has been turned upside down. Gone are the days where Phil Ivey, Doyle Brunson, Chris Ferguson, and Howard Lederer are held to unquestioned esteem. Each has had to scramble to protect their personal interests in the light of increasing discord and acrimony with their associated poker businesses. Traditional villains like the corporate land based casino owners are now repositioning themselves to be the new power brokers who will return online poker to the U.S. after being opponents for years. Sponsored and ownership based pros who were highly respected and prized for their poker room sponsorships now are seen as sellouts and complicit in their associated poker room's culpability. The reputation of respected poker sites like PokerStars and Full Tilt have fallen tremendously in the face of bank fraud charges that display a disregard for reasonable business practices. UB/Absolute has been further confirmed to be the villain that many overlooked or justified as still juicy enough to play despite its reputation. Harsh and justified criticism has been leveled at all levels of the poker industry to a point where it is difficult to find guiltless white knights remaining.
3) Much like Alice when she followed the white hare down the rabbit hole, our poker lives have shrunken. The removal of online poker play has reduced the richness of the poker world tremendously. Where players once had tremendous flexibility in what, where and when they play, now options are to play live, move to another country or risk tremendously to play on a fast reducing pool of shaky online poker rooms. While the numbers at the 2011 World Series of Poker may hold up reasonably well this year as players give it an all or nothing/one last chance mentality, it won't be sustainable moving forward as the scores of net losers give up and move on without the ability to refuel online.
Poker players are left dazed and confused. Large sums and many poker bankrolls remain trapped and unreleased on Full Tilt and Absolute. UseMyWallet was one of the last popular e-wallets and has apparently also collapsed with significant player funds held. Remaining U.S.-facing poker rooms are dwindling in option as is the ability to move funds on and off the sites. Many players won't make the transition to or enjoy the live poker environment and drift away without any sense that the situation will be resolved soon.
The latest news from the AGA indicates that possible federal legislation is being crafted to be introduced in the fall to take advantage of a limited political window for possible passage. If passed, it would likely take months if not a couple years to fully implement and replace the online poker ecosystem.
Will the Alice in Wonderland poker player awaken from their dark, subversive and disconcerting journey refreshed and renewed to tackle the new world that will eventually come next? Will poker players who have seen the dark side of poker lose faith in their prior heroes and institutions? With their innocence gone, will the casual poker player or fan return with the same zest? Or will this surreal journey reorient poker players to embrace a new environment where poor business practice, poor customer service, and outright fraud is no longer tolerated. Will poker players become actors for their future and embrace a highly regulated and hopefully more transparent environment?
If we are to climb out of the rabbit hole we find ourselves in, maybe we need to see the absurdity and duplicity of our poker past. We all need to grow up and embrace a more responsible environment that ultimately will be more sustainable. My biggest fear is that in the delayed time it takes for us to find our new way that it doesn't sap the hearts and minds from the community that initially created the initial poker explosion only a few years ago.
First Zimba Blog: I Want That Feeling, One Time!
Second Zimba Blog: Sunday Poker Diatribe
Third Zimba Blog: Thoughts and Experiences with Cheating in Poker
Fourth Zimba Blog: The Myth of Money Won in Poker
Fifth Zimba Blog: Poker Super Powers - The Cloak of Invincibility
Sixth Zimba Blog: The Good News About The Portuguese Prodigy
Seventh Zimba Blog: Finding Your Place In Poker
Eighth Zimba Blog: Poker Empathy
Ninth Zimba Blog: Poker - A Global Game
Tenth Zimba Blog: 10 Things I Learned From My First Week Not Playing Poker
Eleventh Zimba Blog: The Blame Game
Twelfth Zimba Blog: Commentary On FSG 218 Pros List
Thirteenth Zimba Blog: Poker News or Perspective?
Fourteenth Zimba Blog: WSOP Memories Redux
Fifteenth Zimba Blog: WSOP Memories Redux, pt. 2
Sixteenth Zimba Blog: Grandfathered In
Seventeenth Zimba Blog: Full Tilt Poker and the $60 Million Cost of Business
Eighteenth Zimba Blog: WSOP Bracelet - What is it worth anyways?
