CasinoGaming.com


	Sundays: Inside Gaming Tuesdays: Video Poker Wednesdays: Off the Shelf Fridays: Richard Eng, Player's Edge Saturdays: Pocket Aces

POCKET ACES

Columns

• Back to Maryann's index

• Back to columnists' index

Maryann Guberman has been a writer and editor with many gaming publications, including Sports Form, Card Player, Poker World, Player's Panorama and Systems and Methods. She also has written and edited numerous books on gambling.

Dec 29, 2007

New Year Wishes

Somewhere back in time, some innovative (okay, maybe desperate for an idea) hack decided to end the old year by offering wishes for the new year for readers. Now I've never known who or how many people read what I compose, so I have been surprised to be granted a wish or two from other writers (and one of them was not very flattering!).

Since I'm still recovering from a record Christmas shopping season and I'm pleasantly exhausted, doing a wish column seems like a good idea. Mind you, it won't be frivolous - at least not every segment will be flippant - but all of it will be from the heart.

Let's get started.

To the people who are supposed to represent me in Congress I wish for a revocation of Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 that most of my reps never read. I also request as part of this wish that instead of a line veto, which is supposed to prevent this kind of chicanery but doesn't, bills cannot have more than one item for approval or disapproval when they arrive on my representatives' desks. In a democracy, underhanded tactics should not be necessary to enact laws. Besides which, what does that kind of action tell me about those guys (and gals) in Washington? Perhaps they can't be trusted?

To the World Poker Tour I wish continued success as it moves from the Travel Channel to the Game Show Network. Both venues are on cable for most of America and not readily available to citizens of other countries. This means many folks don't get to see tournament poker in action. For that group, I add a request that cable networks loosen up a bit and offer more to the people who pay their bills (and salaries).

To the World Series of Poker I wish the organizers rethink the current policy and try not to kill their golden-egg-laying goose. I am not opposed to change; in fact I usually welcome it. But, when change endangers tradition and is instituted solely to make money, I get a little worried. More $10,000 tournament entry fees don't appeal to me as much as more lower buy-in contests. Lower fees allow for more competition and more winners who can eventually vie for the big championship and, like low-limit live action, keep players in action. Wipe out too many $10,000 bankrolls and you wipe out a lot of poker fans.

To all the poker pros in my address book I wish a year (and more) of final table finishes and at least one big win for every three attempts. (I'd ask for more, guys, but there might not be enough tournaments to fulfill that request.)

And to everybody who plays poker this year (and especially for my close friends) I wish lots of success, lots of winning and lots of fun because as we all know, life is too short to spend more than a minute of it wallowing in negativity. As for my enemy (I know I have at least one), I wish health and long life because any harm they do to me or my friends will eventually be done to him as a matter of what-goes-around-comes-around. I just want to make sure he/she is feeling great and still breathing when it happens!

May anyone not mentioned here have a magnificent 2008!