Lock Poker giving up, returning to the scene as "Superwins"?

[haleylh]

It's kind of sad to realize that's where the poker industry sank to, post-UIGEA, when a person such as Larson was able to establish a strong US-facing toehold. For a few months there Lock might have been the largest US-facing site. While the PPA and I are likely to have another major disagreementp very soon, I do agree that the Lock experience is a made-to-order object lesson arguing for proper regulation and legitimacy.

I hope we won't have a major disagreement. Feel free to reach out to John Pappas or me if you have any questions.

P.S. Your deconstruction of Thackston's collusion argument was terrific.

I know that, and I really don't have any personal dislike for you or John. You're protecting your self-interests, financially and professionally, and that's how it goes.

Now, and this should probably go in that other thread, but since you've addressed me here, that's fine. I'm mindful of that attack piece John spewed at me via P5s regarding my series last year, and all the wrongful stuff it contained. I just left that matter sit after that, because I figured more of the story would come out. And now it has. I'm also now aware that virtually everything I asserted as being probable in that series last year is factually true, despite the attacks. There are some things that John said that were technically true in the very narrowest sense, but can now only be properly understood as lies of omission and misdirection.

I also saw Sanimar's comments over there in the other thread. The problem with his complaints is that the sites I write for want me to write long-form, and if I tried to tell this tale in four sentences, I'd spend twice as much time explaining things after the fact anyway. So sorry, Sanimar, can't help ya. (Odd, I just checked, and that post has now been deleted. But whatever -- I get what he was saying and there's some merit to it, but I still can't comply.)

But I haven't written the whole story yet, and part of that is that I needed to allow at least 24 hours for Ifrah to respond to a formal interview request. He didn't respond, and I didn't expect he would anyway. John sort of forfeited the right for me to need to approach him in a similar manner after that attack-dog stuff last year. He never did have a right of first refusal, if you get what I'm saying.

Now, I also get that your post above is something of a peace offering, and while I don't mind the thought of that, the truth is that it wouldn't matter because of anti-poker forces larger than any of us. It took me maybe three days to stumble across that report, even if I did have the advantage of knowing what to look for. It was just part of my simple searching for new poker news on Google. How long do you think it's going to take for all of Adelson's minions to find the same stuff, dig through it, and find the soft spot?

Not long at all. Better prepare for it. Good chance someone among all those anti-gambling Utahns already sent it in his direction.

You have to remember that all these national reports are very public in reporting the state of Utah's calls to reopen the federal probe into the possible bribery attempts of Reid and Lee, and that points right to the poker stuff. We're not talking Haley's blahblah Poker Blog or any of the small poker sites I write for, we're talking ABC News, FOXNews, the Washington Times and a slew of others. The Utah legislature has already issued a call to the feds to reopen the investigation, and I'm sure you know that. There will be political pressure.

Pappas will most likely become collateral damage when that happens. It doesn't matter a bit that Pappas and Ifrah got their names yanked from that report, and Dave Deitch is only listed as a "consultant". (Not sure if Deitch or Zwillinger is the other gaming attorney referred to in the report, but it really doesn't matter.)

It's all gonna come out. It might take weeks, or months, maybe even another year or two. But you and I, Rich, we can't stop it. Best we can do is cut our losses.

It gives me no personal joy to have to write any of this stuff. On days like this, I can assure you that if I had independent means, I would walk away from poker and never look back. That said, someone has to write the truth about these stories, and I'm one of the people that is currently stuck with it. Maybe I'll win the lottery. If that happens, the poker world would never see me again other than peeking down at a couple of hole cards.

Frankly, I wish I wasn't on the apparent lead within the poker world on this story. It's no fun at all. But it is, right now, my job.

I look into the tea leaves and I can already see that likely scenario where Pappas is forced to resign, and frankly, the sooner he considers doing that, the better off the PPA would be. It doesn't matter what he actually knew or when. He's compromised, and he has been ever since he went to Utah. Utah! Insanity.

I have no doubt Pappas was ordered to go, and he knew it was a tar pit and didn't want to, but he went anyway. People do lots of stupid things for paychecks; it's the way of the modern world. If I were pressed to offer an opinion, I personally think Ifrah is to blame for a ton of the whole Black Friday mess, but apparently Stars thinks he's wearing a Teflon coat. You'd have thought after shelling out $700 million they'd look for alternatives, but no. Elie was already being monitored, and it took a special flavor of greed to ignore that risk.

It's going to be a loss for poker because John is articulate and intelligent and more than a match for the likes of Andy Abboud on an even platform. I don't know if you're up to that task, or what the PPA itself will do when that day comes. But I can see it coming.