The Law of Unintended Consequences as it Applies to the Full Tilt Poker Situation

As many people now know, Full Tilt was crediting player deposits without actually receiving funds. Many poker players knew this fact as every single person in online poker had at least one friend wondering why money wasn't drawn from their bank account by Full Tilt Poker yet they were still allowed to play. The new action today is summarized by The Feld on ESPN. What I want outsiders to understand before they just see the words Ponzi scheme and immediately move on is that this is just an unintended consequence of our corrupt/broken political system and one of it's laws, the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA).

The UIGEA was passed in 2006 and was NOT DEBATED IN CONGRESS FOR ONE SECOND. It sent banks into a defensive mode where they would no longer consider transactions for online poker. Online poker wasn't specifically identified as illegal, but lumped into gambling, a category banks feared to process. This consequence removed liquidity in the online poker world. Poker players need access to their bankrolls to be made available online to play through the swings and now players were forced to get find another way. Some traded cash for online money in unfavorable circumstances or went through some other 3rd party processor that was or wasn't legit(how could you know) in order to keep playing. How to deposit online became a much bigger issue. Several sites left the US and few remained. Given fewer options of sites to play on for US players a few things happened. Serious players had an increased need to have more money sitting in an online account because of the inability to deposit. Poker has swings and you need money to earn in case you have none. Fewer sites and now an increased need for money to be kept into these accounts likely created a windfall amount of cash to be kept on sites like Full Tilt Poker and Pokerstars.

We may never know is how many excess dollars were held in the Full Tilt Poker system by players that feared the illiquidity, but it did happen because of the UIGEA. Did these excess funds in the system contribute to the wild bonuses/dividends/ownership payouts that we are now hearing about or an inflated value of the company? We may never know, but I like to think I kept 500% more money in my account than I would have ever kept if this law didn't remove the ability to deposit what I needed to play for that day. Why would anyone ever take 0% interest in an online poker account instead of using a pay as you go system? We all took our own individual risk in this scenario to earn money or play for fun or whatever your motive, but it would not have been there with proper regulation or even in absence of the UIGEA.

So now a law attached to a Port Security bill probably meant to get some corrupt politician re-elected has in some way contributed to this Ponzi scheme. I can call for more regulation of online poker in the United States, but it's far too late. Instead of doing their job, Washington was more concerned with getting elected and passing bad policy to do so. 5 years of tax revenue and regulation would have gone a long way to preventing the pain many poker players are now feeling.

Know Thyself

By Sunday's end, I sat in silence as disgusted with myself as I've ever been. I've learned through this entire poker experiment that if one thing will burn me in poker, it's not keeping my emotions in check while playing a game that tirelessly tries to light me on fire. Three days of fluky bad beats finally got to me. The worst beat was the crazy Friday Night Fight hand (Full Tilt's $500 tournament) where I lost an AA vs JJ vs Q9 for a triple up with approximately 20 to go in the tournament. I was certainly running below expectation early on Sunday, and my emotions soon got the best of me. By reading through the hand histories at the end of the day (a process by which I review my play), I was looking at an entire different player. It wasn't the player I am or want to be. I was uncharacteristically building big pots against my instincts, gambling in situations where I shouldn't, and by the end of the day, not playing up to my full potential. I can't say how many times I made mistakes, but I wasn't acting like a professional. Being professional means playing through rough swings objectively, staying in the moment, and having a short memory of what just happened. Each new hand presents a new problem that should not carry the weight of any past occurrences. I certainly wasn't acting like it.

It may have been the other stresses of life seeping into my work. No one should ever let their work cross into their personal life or their personal life cross into their work. I was tense and stressed and that doesn't lead to anything positive. The takeaway from of all of this though is that you must "know thyself" in the game of poker. Being truly in tune with who you are as a person, as a player, and as a competitor are so essential to being successful. Being successful in poker doesn't always mean winning on any given day either. That's probably the most twisted thing about the game. Being successful means being professional despite what happens.

After thinking about what had happened, I did some yoga Monday morning to channel the emotions and worries of the past few days. Life has been stressing me out beyond belief and I came to peace with letting it all happen. I kept asking myself what really is the worst that can happen and is it that bad? (wise teacher once told me that) I responded tonight by playing in the moment and not letting the negative throw me into a tailspin. The beats today were just as bad as the days prior, but I played objectively until the last tournament was done. That anomaly that was my emotional unwinding on Sunday was temporarily conquered.

Every poker tournament has it's own life. I've learned that knowing thyself is a valuable skill in poker. It's a prerequisite to keeping an open mind, following the correct instincts, and being in the right position mentally to make correct decisions. The best players out there know who they are, know how to keep negatives at bay, and ultimately, know how to live in the moment.

My Sunday Pledge..Everyone Wins

I read a forum thread on Pocketfives on Saturday with a bunch of poker players pledging money to the Haiti disaster. I decided to donate 5% of my total profits at the end of the day before the day began. As it turns out, Sunday was one of my best Sunday's playing in a while. I was patient and cashed in several tournaments including a 5th place in the Full Tilt Sunday $1 Million Guaranteed. At the end of the day, Haiti was looking at $2650 from me.

I'm going to equally divide this between 3 charities, American Red Cross, UNICEF, and Doctors with Borders. I'm glad several people in the poker community pledged part of their biggest day of the week and number one ranked player "Doc Sands" started off the rally with a simple thread in a forum. Hopefully, everyone out there gives a little to help a country that is desperately in need. After reading through some articles and seeing a 200,000 death toll possible with over 1.5 million people homeless, my heart and prayers go out to that nation. At the same time, it's great to see the good come out from people in the world. The world needs more of that good everyday.