Rudy Edwards

My roommate needed a ride to our old hometown, so I took the opportunity to go see my family for a few days with someone coming along to help the ride go smoother. One of the reasons I wanted to become a pro poker player, is that it would free me up to see my family more often. It hasn't really happened that way so far, but I've taken some steps to correct the problem. I've had a cable modem installed, and bought a cheap used computer to bring to my old house. My folks haven't caught on to the whole World Wide Web thing yet, so I get a chance to show them what they're missing.

I didn't bring my database with me, so I installed a license of Pokertracker on the computer, Hooked up Full Tilt, and 4 tabled some 2/4 during my spare time. I didn't get a lot done. It's not fun returning to a single monitor 17" CRT system after having played on a good system for a time, and the hands seemed to drag by.

Then, my father came in to watch me play. I hadn't realized that he had never seen me pokering before. He last played a hand of poker in the 1960s with his army buddies, and not being a TV watcher he's never seen a hand of Texas Hold Em. I had a lot of fun explaining the basics, and learned how easily I get trapped into using lingo to describe poker.

By the end of the session, I was having reasonably advanced discussions with him about basic strategy. He got to see me get smashed by quad Tens when I flopped Aces full of tens, and picked up quickly why it wasn't a big deal and I didn't get upset. He had gotten very good at predicting starting hands that should be folded, and seemed to have a quick instinct for the simple math of limit poker. The best part is, I left some Sklansky books behind, and as I was leaving to come back to Atlanta, he'd already gotten through the first few chapters of Small Stakes HoldEm.

Some of my favorite memories in the world are of philosophical discussions with my father, and most of the life changing epiphanies I've had have come in talks with him. If he gets excited about poker, I can imagine having incredibly productive strategy dialogue with him, which has to be the best way to improve your game.

Even better, it will make going home more likely to be profitable rather than a drain on my money, enabling me to do it considerably more often.

I received an email from Full Tilt Poker today, that began "You should be outraged that the U.S. government is infringing on your personal rights and telling you how to use your hard-earned money." It went on to say that they feel the UIGEA doesn't legally affect poker, but there should have been a specific exemption for poker in the act. There was mention of a bonus for signing up for the PPA, which has announced that it's goal for this year is to get poker a skill exemption from the UIGEA.

I'm not sure I know where to begin here, so I'll just start right smack dab in the middle. Our rhetoric in defense of our rights has been terrible. The UIGEA, and the seizing of our Neteller funds in transit, have been brutal attacks on our rights by our own government. Every time someone makes the argument that poker should be exempt from the UIGEA because it is a skill game, is hurting our cause. It is a skill game, and you could make fine argument that the justifications stated for the UIGEA shouldn't apply to poker, but that's selling out. You only get it one way, you can defend our rights to "use our hard earned money" or you can claim that Poker should be excepted from this bill because it's different from gambling. It's not OK to make both arguments, because if you believe in the first principle, then you are saying that you are willing to sell out those who are being oppressed for the games they enjoy that are of lesser skill?

Lobbying for a "Poker Exemption" to the UIGEA is ceding that our government has the right to impose it's religious based restrictions on our liberties, but that our game shouldn't qualify as one to be attacked. So if there is a carve out for Poker from the UIGEA, we're going to let our government stop Americans from sportsbetting online? Are you just trying to selfishly save the thing that matters to you, or are you actually standing up for a principle that matters? The skill involved in poker has nothing to do with whether or not it's ok for a government to impose it's will on the liberties of it's citizens.

I'm not a member of the PPA. They don't speak for me. As a matter of fact, they clearly speak with a voice that I disagree with, and now that I am being offered a profitable bonus by Full Tilt to join the PPA, I feel that my lack of membership in the PPA is a more clear statement of that.

Since when has the proper response to a tyrant or bully been to politely ask that they oppress someone else more deserving?