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Howard Stutz
Internet matters for U.S. poker
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For a brief moment at last week's World Series of Poker finale, the game's past and future shared the stage at the Rio.
Doyle Brunson, poker's 78-year-old patriarch, received a warm ovation as he took part in the night's Poker Hall of Fame induction ceremonies.
As the festivities ended and the final three players for the Main Event took their seats, Brunson passed 22-year-old German college student Pius Heinz. In a matter of hours, Heinz would be crowned poker's newest world champion.
Brunson learned the game on the back roads of Texas. When in Las Vegas, he is often found playing in the high-stakes cash game rooms at Bellagio and Aria.
Heinz learned the game on the Internet at home in Cologne, Germany. A member of Team PokerStars Pro, Heinz spends much of his free time competing in online poker tournaments.
Brunson is never seen without his signature cowboy hat. Heinz wears a hoodie.
Brunson won the first of his 10 individual event championship bracelets at the World Series of Poker in 1976. "Texas Dolly" has cashed in 34 tournament events, earning more than $2.9 million over 35 years.
Heinz won more than $8.715 million early Wednesday morning.
Brunson owns two Main Event titles. His last came in 1977, 12 years before Heinz was born.
Heinz symbolizes the game's future.
Before winning the $10,000 buy-in No Limit Hold'em World Championship, Heinz cashed in one World Series of Poker event, earning $83,286 in June for a $1,500 buy-in no limit game.
His previous success came on the Internet. The activity is legal in much of Europe.
Internet poker -- or the lack of opportunity to play online legally -- could be a reason U.S. players seem to be losing their foothold on a game considered historically American.
Access to Internet poker shrank considerably in April when federal prosecutors indicted the operators of PokerStars, Full Tilt and Absolute Poker and cut off their contact to U.S. citizens.
Full Tilt and Absolute Poker did not refund U.S. gamblers money they had on account with the websites. Both companies ceased operations.
PokerStars refunded Americans more than $100 million, and continues to flourish in Europe.
American poker players have a few options -- play on unregulated, shady poker websites; venture into traditional casino poker rooms; or try free-play poker platforms, such as Facebook and Yahoo.
The Internet, however, has become the training ground for poker champions.
Four of the past seven World Series of Poker Main Event winners are from countries outside the United States where Internet poker is legal (Joe Hachem, Australia, 2005; Peter Eastgate, Denmark, 2008; Jonathan Duhamel, Canada, 2010; and now Heinz). All got their start or found success on the Internet.
Even Michigan resident Joe Cada, the 2009 champion, said he learned the game on the Internet.
Only three Americans made this year's Main Event final table of nine players, which had representatives from seven countries. Of the overall starting field of 6,865 players, 66.6 percent were from the United States.
Ben Lamb was the only American player who began play Tuesday along with Heinz and the Czech Republic's Martin Staszko.
"I've played against Lamb, I don't know the other two," Brunson said, when asked about the final three.
Lamb, who was sponsored by Aria, is a regular player in the CityCenter resort's high-stakes poker games. So it figures he'd sat across the table from Brunson at least a few times. Before April, Lamb said he played Internet poker.
Brunson isn't what you would consider an Internet poker aficionado.
Several years ago, he licensed his name and likeness to DoylesRoom.com, an Internet poker website based in Cyprus.
However, according to Card Player Magazine, he was pulling his name from the site last May when a federal grand jury in Baltimore indicted the operators of DoylesRoom for allegedly running an illegal gambling business and money laundering. The domain has since been shut down.
Caesars Entertainment Corp., which owns the World Series of Poker, has been the gaming industry's leading advocate for Congress to legalize Internet poker. Others, such as MGM Resorts International, Boyd Gaming Corp., Fertitta Interactive and developer Donald Trump have joined the effort.
If they fall short, an important learning tool for American poker players may be lost.
Howard Stutz's Inside Gaming column appears Sundays. He can be reached at hstutz@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3871. He blogs at lvrj.com/blogs/stutz. Follow @howardstutz on Twitter.
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Not sure if Vegas was biting the hand that feeds it or if it was planned all along to first ban online poker, get rid of the offshore companies, and than Vegas biggies waltz in to set up "SAFE" online poker sites. Does anyone really doubt that online poker fueled a surge in brick-n-mortar poker playing all over the country? The casinos have benefited greatly.
yo coloma......can you be more specific?.....just how and why is it "difficult" to stop cheating in live games?....i submit that it rarerly happens and if it does it is caught quickly and is decisively handled......however, it is concievable that in a ring game that there could be multiple players all playing in the same location and sharing their hole cards and acting accordingly......or a multi account user playing more than one seat in a game would have an unfair advantage....or simply two people sharing info via the telephone as a hand is being played could make a decisive difference......so THERE IS AND ARE WAYS to cheat online however the possibility of collusion or cheating in a large tournament seem to be diminished considerably just because of the sheer numbers, but if any two people who do cheat should end up on the same table in latter stages of the tournament then there is a big possibility of cheating and altering the course of events.
It is difficult enough to stop cheating/stealing in LIVE poker games. But, it is impossible to stop cheating in ONLINE poker games.
you can still play on pokerstars for play money, which is not the same of course. I loved they had penny games & tournaments where you get "tickets" to get into the main money tournaments & eventually into the live in person tournys. There is no doubt you become a far better player from the online games. Pius won $700k it said playing online. What exactly is the GOP protecting us from? Oh that's right, its not really us but yet again their money grubbing sponsors.
Poor, poor poker players-- all bankrolled up and no place to play, tsk, tsk. That which I have noticed is that Europeans, having learned how to play poker on the Internet do in fact come to Las Vegas to play in live cash games. So, I suppose if American players want to be where the action is, I guess they will have to come to the mecca for poker players, Las Vegas. The WSOP is not an online event, so I suppose the Internet can only take a poker player so far. Also, the ban on Internet poker playing in the U.S. has been a boon for the poker rooms in Las Vegas because it has brought players back to the card rooms. That is a good thing for the casinos in increased poker drop and for the dealers who benefit by having work.
The learning tool will not be lost, I have used offshore acct. in the past for sposts, I have had a hard time collecting MY MONEY, Playing poker is the same,only the house can cheat, and they do, Face to face in a casino is the only way to play, MGM,the Donald,Gary Lovechcks,Fertitta What do they all have in common.The companys are all in bad shape, Do you think the big O will let the boys play poker, 11/18/11/ big NO, Not going to happen,Gary