I’ve fielded a ton of questions from poker players over the last month or two regarding the status of online poker. If you recall, the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act was delayed from December 1, 2009 to June 1, 2010 to give legislators more time to figure out a solution for regulating online gambling.

It appears as if June 1st will pass by without regulation, which means banks will be forced to stop transferring money to and from online gambling sites (most already have complied, out of fear). This does NOT mean online poker is illegal — it’s simply more difficult to deposit money.

Now, however, Rep. Jim McDermott has introduced “tax-related” regulation for online poker — a bill that would go hand-in-hand with Senator Barney Frank’s bill that is designed to regulate the industry.

From CardPlayer.com:

Rep. Jim McDermott (D-WA) introduced an updated version of his poker tax bill late last week, adding a new tax that would specifically benefit state and tribal governments if Congress passed legislation to explicitly legalize and regulate online poker.

“The major reason (for the updated bill) is to make it possible for states to have access to online gambling revenue,” McDermott toldThe Hill.

Rep. Jim McDermott

McDermott has introduced tax-related legislation on poker before, and this bill is designed to serve as a companion bill to Rep. Barney Frank’s bill that would regulate the industry.

Online gambling advocates hailed it as an important step in the battle to regulate online poker.

“This legislation is a win-win for federal and state leaders, providing an opportunity to regulate a currently offshore and underground industry, protect consumers, and put to good use tens of billions (of dollars) in otherwise lost revenue,” said Michael Waxman of the Safe and Secure Internet Gambling Initiative.

McDermott’s bill, called the Internet Gambling Regulation and Tax Enforcement Act (HR 4976), calls for a 6 percent tax on deposits that would directly benefit state and tribal governments. Just like his previous poker bill, there will also be a 2 percent federal tax — of which a quarter will be allotted to foster-care programs.

“I wanted to help out foster kids,” said McDermott. “I have always watched them get the short end of the stick.”

The bill is estimated to raise approximately $30 billion for states and tribes over the next 10 years. Along with other taxes and federal licensing fees, online poker regulation is expected to generate $42 billion in federal revenue over 10 years, according to the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation.

“At a time when many policy makers are faced with significant budget shortfalls, it is only common sense to choose regulation that will generate new revenues and create new jobs currently offshore as an alternative to layoffs, program cuts, or imposing broad-sweeping taxes that may further depress struggling families and businesses,” said Waxman.

Frank (D-MA) showed his support for McDermott’s legislation by immediately signing on as a co-sponsor. Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) and John Larson (D-CT) have also signed on as co-sponsors.

“Given the many critical government programs currently going under-funded or not funded at all, Internet gambling regulation should be given fair and immediate consideration,” McDermott said when he introduced his first poker-related piece of legislation of the session in October. “Prohibition in various guises has failed before and is failing once again. There is a better way.”

McDermott said he would move forward on his bill after Frank’s bill was marked up. Poker Players Alliance executive director John Pappas told Card Player that he was optimistic that would happen this spring.

For more information regarding the fight to regulate online poker in the U.S., visit the Poker Players Alliance website.

Twice during the month of March at Grand Casino Hinckley, MNPokerMag POY tournaments ended with a heads up battle between John Frelix and Dave Danielson (PHOTO). Both times Frelix came out victorious.

The first of two was the $100 buy-in on March 6th. 34 entrants began and Frelix took home the $1,460 prize after outlasting Danielson.

The second of two matches was the $300 Grand Stack on March 28. There were 32 players entered and again Frelix came out on top for a $2,880 payday.

Danielson still pocketed $2,800 and 9 POY points for his two runner-up finishes.  Danielson now has 5 POY tournament cashes so far in 2010 and is ranked in the top 20 in the state.

Frelix tallied 11.5 POY points for his two wins.

Scott Heiligman makes a big surge with his 2nd place finish at the $440 Running Aces Pot ‘O Gold tournament vaulting him into 2nd place overall in the Player of the Year race.

Everett Carlton (photo) has been the model of consistency though and withstood the big push by racking up six total POY cashes to date.

With BIG points on the line at the Minnesota State Poker Tour coming up April 7-11, there are a ton of players within striking distance of Carlton.

Dave Rutledge of North Mankato, MN just hit paydirt with a 2nd place finish and a $37,969 score in Tama, IA just moments ago where Meskwaki Casino is hosting the Heartland Poker Tour.

Rutledge, owner of an insurance agency had to face a battle tested final table. Previous HPT winner Jason Fish busted 4th, and Rutledge had to battle last week’s HPT runner up at Shooting Star Bryan Reisner, of Illinois, heads up. Reisner entered heads up play with a big chip lead and found a way to hold on for a $75,938 pay day, just 7 days after his $24,260 2nd place finish.

Other notable finishes:

 16^th – Matt Hyland – $2,152

17^th – John Morgan – $2,152

30^th – Everett Carlton – $1,392

They are down to 3 at the Meskwaki HPT, MN’s Dave Rutledge is still alive.  Jason Fish of Iowa, a former HPT champ was eliminated 4th.

Rutledge is fighting for a $75,938 first place prize.

The $1,100 buy-in Meskwaki HPT event  is now down to their final table of 6.  The only Minnnesotan still standing is 54-year old Dave Rutledge.  Rutledge, who owns an insurance agency is at his first HPT final table. 

Bryan Reisner of Channahon, IL is the current chip leader.  Reisner took 2^nd place last week at Shooting Star for $24,260.

268 players rolled into Meskwaki Casino Saturday for the HPT main event.  There were many Minnesotans on hand to take their shot at the title: Everett Carlton, 3 Putts, the Hendrickson clan (Dan, Derek & Darren), John Morgan, last week’s HPT Shooting Star champ Matt Alexander, Fall Poker Classic champ Naser Alkahtib, Mille Lacs HPT champ Matt Hyland, Babe O’Gorman, Sting Ray, Robbie Wazwaz, myself and many more.

Play started at 3:00, they were playing down to the final 30 (money) last night.  I busted with 85 remaining when my KQ of diamonds ran into a set of 6’s on a K high flop.  When I left, Alkahtib was rolling along at around $100K after flopping the nut straight versus a set of 9s.  The board failed to pair and Alkahtib raked a big pot.  Everett Carlton was short stacked but still alive.  John Morgan was average stack and I believe Hyland was still surviving as well.

MSPT Mille Lacs & 2-time HPT champ Jeremy Dresch (bachelor party in Vegas) and 2009 Meskwaki runner-up Tim Peters were not in attendance.

Check back later tonight for results and a recap.  Hopefully one or more of our MN players can make a deep run!

This is somewhat old news by now, but Carlos Mortensen recently won his third career World Poker Tour event by conquering the WPT Hollywood Poker Open for $393,000. Mortensen is also the only player in poker history to win both the World Series of Poker Main Event and the World Poker Tour Championship.

In his illustrious career, Mortensen has scooped more than $9.5 million in tournament winnings.

All Time Tournament Money Leaders:
1. Phil Ivey – $12,799,787
2. Daniel Negreanu – $12,502,375
3. Jamie Gold – $12,218,754
4. Peter Eastgate – $11,308,359
5. Joe Hachem – $10,670,474
6. Scotty Nguyen – $10,595,845
7. Allen Cunningham – $9,923,700
8. Erik Seidel – $9,593,024
9. John Juanda – $9,579,464
10. Carlos Mortensen – $9,526,262

PokerListings.com posted an interesting piece on Thursday about “El Matador,” who might just be the most underrated and under-appreciated player in poker.

By Matthew Showell, PokerListings.com

Carlos Mortensen is an interesting player. He’s one of the most feared and winningest pros on the live tournament circuit but he keeps such a low profile we often walk right by him at live events.

He’s not a talker, and with the exception of the occasional dry one-liner when he’s forced to fold a hand or when he picks up a big pot, it’s rare to hear him speak.

Mortensen just took down his third WPT open main event title at the World Poker Tour Hollywood Poker Open in Indiana. That ties him for most WPT wins along with with Gus Hansen.

Mortensen is a big name, no doubt, but we don’t think he gets the credit he deserves. We’re going to take a closer look at his record, and why he belongs among the most elite live poker tournament players on the planet.

This is the story of a truly successful poker player.

The Beginning

Rumor has it that in the late 90s Mortensen moved from Spain to the US to pursue his poker career.

His first WSOP cash was a final table in 2000 in a $3k No-Limit event. He finished 7^th for $22k and change. He managed to stack another $20k or so in cashes before the end of the year.

It looked like he was off to a good start, but 2001 would be the year that really cemented his future as a professional poker player.

In the first few months of 2001, before taking down the WSOP Main Event, Mortensen stacked more than $160,000. He won a $300 prelim at the LA Poker Classic for $116k plus a $1k No-Limit event at the Bay 101 Shooting star for another $44,000.

Then he went to the World Series of Poker and won $1.5 million at the big dance.

In the years between that and his next truly big score Mortensen made over $760,000 in tournament cashes. In that time he was at two WSOP and one WPT final tables, winning his second bracelet in the process.

More Major Tournament Wins

It was in Las Vegas in October of 2004 when the Matador took down the $10k Doyle Brunson North American Championship for a cool million.

Fast forward two and half years and $990,000 more in earnings and we find Mortensen at the $25k WPT Championship. First place was an astounding $3.97 million. Ship it to Mortensen.

Mortensen had two of the three biggest titles in the poker world, and his chance at the third had slipped through his fingers just months before when he finished 11^th at the EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo.

Not Slowing Down

Carlos Mortensen continues to post huge results wherever he goes. Case in point, the most recent WPT main event in Indiana.

He is a beast at the live tournament tables. People are scared of him, and for good reason.

We’ll be following Carlow Mortensen and everyone else with our live coverage of the 2010 World Series of Poker so don’t miss it.

This is a follow-up to the blog I wrote Thursday called “How Often Should I be Cashing?”  My friend and fellow poker player TP made a great comment on that blog regarding what to do if you are skilled enough and/or get lucky enough to house a big payday? 

His comment was this:

Something I would add from experience……when you do hit that big payday – don’t get cocky! It’s easy to do after a big win, you think you’re the “MAN” but reality hits hard when you go card dead for a longer streak than you’ve ever had.  And keep your bankroll in check, it is easy to lose site of the big picture when you have a lot of cash on hand  

This is a phenomenal point and I wanted to discuss this further.  How you react or what you do after winning a big tournament can be just as important as how you got there. 

I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve see players work so hard to finally have their day, they win $30K, $40K, $80K and then spend the next 6 months blowing that money faster than Latrell Sprewell. 

My interviews often go like this:

Me:  “So Joe Schmoe, congrats on your win and all that money, what next?”

Joe: “I’m on the next flight to Vegas!” 

I’ve had to battle these demons myself.  We all want to be rich and famous wearing Full Tilt patches on ESPN. 

We want to buy cars, buy clothes, eat fancy dinners, etc. thinking this game is easy and the paydays will keep coming one after another.  We’ve figured it out!  

We quickly forget about the hundreds of tournaments and variance it takes to finally have this day.  So instead of treating our newfound bankroll as a savings plan, we treat it like it will be a bi-weekly pay check. 

As poker players we often play out of our bankroll to play in $500 or $1,000 tournaments here in this state.  The reason we do that is because those tournaments offer much better structures.  Most $65 tournaments are free-for-alls.  If you find a $65 tourney locally that lasts 20 hours please let me know, I’m in.  

Realistically most players are playing $500 or $1,000 tournaments with a $10,000 or less bankroll.  And we know statistically that’s not the right thing to do but we all want to hit the big pay day and we love the rush of big time poker. 

Far too often, I see players win $30K or $40K and instead of staying at the same $200-$1,000 tournaments where they should be with that size of a bankroll, they jump to playing $2,500-$5,000 events.  They are on cloud 9 believing they are the best poker player since Stu Ungar (who went broke many times by the way).  

Disclaimer: I do know that $40K is technically not a large enough bankroll to regularly play in $1,000 events.  But its reasonable and we’re all going to do it so keep quiet.  If I go 0-40 then it is what it is. 

So do me a favor, if you are skilled and lucky enough to hit a nice payday and the $30K to $80K is your bankroll, don’t be dumb.  If you have to go to Vegas to get your fix, play in the $300, $500 or even $1,000 Venetian Deep Stack events or the Caeser’s Mega Stack tourneys.  These are fantastic and you’ll be exercising much better money mgmt.  

There’s no need to head straight to the Rio for the $2,500 WSOP prelims or the $5,000 NAPT or WPT events.  Yes you’re good, we get it, but after an 0-10 stretch which is very common you’ll be back to grinding the $65’s. 

Not to mention, the skill level is far less in the $300-$1,000 live tournaments where you should be able to enjoy success more often while still playing a solid structure.

Canterbury Park has announced they will be hosting a 10th Anniversary NLHE tournament on Sunday, April 25th.

This will be a $500 + $50 + $10 starting at 10:30 a.m. with a Guaranteed 1st place prize of $10,000. 

The 10th Anniversary Tourney will be eligible for MNPokerMag POY points.

For more information, visit:
www.canterburypark.com