Whats lower than nuthin?

I'm not gonna rehash the same old things everyone else has been saying about the latest power grab of our elected representatives and their bureaucratic minions. Suffice to say that the past 20 years have seen repeated actions by the people we elect to make our lives easier actually making our lives harder. The UIGEA is just another example of how our government knows what's best for us more than we do.

I do believe the government has a case against the big 3. Face it, you may hate UIGEA but it became the law of the land and it appears all of the major poker sites stomped all over it. I doubt any criminal prosecution will take place but you can bet any assets they have in this country will be gone. Combine those losses with the lack of cash from US players and I have to think PS, UB, and FT are pretty much done in the US market which will then open the way for the local casino companies to open up online poker as soon as Congress "saves" us from the horrors of unregulated offshore online gaming.

I hate to be a conspiracy theorist but this all could have been done years ago without having to go through all the rigmarole of UIGEA. Congress could have opened up a regulated US industry in a heartbeat but if they did that they would have opened up the market to the likes of Full Tilt and Poker Stars as well. And as established big boys on the block, it would have been difficult
for Harrahs or Wynn to catch up to them. But in making them criminals, Congress can now block them from establishing a US presence once they open the market to online gaming. Which gives the local casinos a leg up in the battle. The reason I think a conspiracy is going on (or at least the right palms are getting greased) is because by opening the market years ago, the government could have made all that tax revenue. Why should they care if they are getting the tax money from Full Tilt or Harrahs or whoever, taxes are taxes. So pardon me if I seem a bit paranoid here.

But enough of that. Last weekend the PQ and I decided to head down to Sarasota to play in their Saturday night tourney. I wish I could say it was a successful day but it was not. I played ok, not great. I have been working on changing my game and made a couple of good plays but also a couple of dumb ones. I did get an all in with Aces over Kings and take a huge chunk out of a guy but that is about the best I got. I didn't get a ton of good hands and never caught with my small pairs all day. PQ got knocked out when she ran JJ into AA. I ended up going out a good bit later when I ran AQ suited from the button into AA in the big blind. That just sucked. I had seen this lady push hands like K9 suited and J10 but of course this time she's sitting on the big ones. Oh well.

We played some 1-2 no limit for awhile but I could never hit a hand worth a damn. I did make a couple of aggressive plays to get people to believe I had a hand but I couldn't do that too often without showing an actual hand. I got short stacked and took a stand with A9 on a 9 high flop. Got called by one clown with crap who of course went runner runner for a 7 high straight. That was my night in a nutshell. I didn't feel too bad about my play, just disappointed in my results.

Tax day has finally come and gone. Phones today were maybe half as busy as yesterday and the previous couple of months. I spent today getting caught up on workflow again. I have some more catching up to do but I am getting a handle on it. Got a call today from a financial advisor who had a former client looking for their cost information. Not a big issue but the lady had something like 14 accounts. Then I asked the advisor the big question, how long ago did she transfer out. Turns out she transferred her accounts out in June of 2007. FOUR YEARS AGO!! And only now is she trying to get her cost information, probably because she sold a bunch of securities and needs the info for her taxes. It never ceases to amaze me how long people wait on these things. People, you gotta pay your taxes sometime, unless of course you are like John who works with me. Lately his mantra has been, Buy High, Sell Low, and never have to worry about taxes.

Well it's getting late and I'm getting tired. I hope everyone is dealing with things ok. Good Deadliest Catch tonight. Stay lucky you nuts, luckier than me at least.