I caused a bit of a stir by being open about my concerns with online poker. That seems to always get people up in arms. There are a couple main points I wanted to make.

One is that playing online for profit is very difficult these days because there are some groups that have found ways to cheate or to use collusion to their benefit. Also, there are some well-financed and very hard-working pros with great poker skills, and vast databases of information on every player they play against. After you play with them for a while, they'll have a good idea how to play against you. They'll know how often you fold, raise preflop, and much more.

With the possibilities of being cheated and also of going up against these computer whizzes, who often honed their computer-gaming skills playing extremely complex computer video games, it seems that online poker is a tough nut to crack for most people right now.

One other event which tightened the games up a bit was the passage of the Internet-gambling prohibition in Congress in 2006. It made it much harder for people to deposit money to play. Guess who found it more difficult to fund and play on online account, the recreational players or the pros?

If your goal is to deposit less than 1% of your bankroll and play very low stakes (relative to your bankroll) simply for entertainment, then I think that's fine. If you want to make money online, you better be ready to work hard, 'cause I think it's tough these days.

One last point which I wanted to make in my previous entry is that I have concerns about the Kahnawake Gaming Commission. As I understand it, many of these online sites have their computer servers operated out of a server farm on Indian land outside of Montreal. The KGC is the governing body for this area and supposedly requires regular certifications and audits to allow these online-gambling sites to operate. They intimate that one of their goals is to protect the games.

Well who has access to what is what I'd like to know. If I was an agent for the KGC, could I see the poker hands on any poker site with servers in my jurisdiction? Would I need that level of access to ensure fair games?

The Absolute Poker fiasco was truly a nefarious coup because Absolute denied up and down that there was any compromise of its security or systems whatsoever. Once there was incontrovertible evidence to show that someone did have a major cheat code into their system, then did they change their tune. At least when Bubba said, "I did not have sexual relations with that woman," it could be argued that sodomy with a cigar or even oral sex was not really sex. When Absolute said, "Our system was never compromised. It was just a few new poker players who played extremely bad poker and were extremely lucky," they were lying through their teeth.

If the KGC is truly a regulatory body for online poker, how could it have let Absolute get off so light unless they are either corrupt themselves or at least supremely incompetent?

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