South Carolina poker call to action
I am naturally suspicious of people who use phrases like “call to action.” It’s one of those marketeer phrases that makes me cringe. That said
if you are a South Carolina poker player or one who travels here to play in some of the best home games around
you should be interested in this. Moreover
if you live in Greenville
South Carolina and don’t join me on Monday night
you don’t care about poker and your right to play it. Monday March 30 at 5:30pm
South Carolina Senate President Pro Tem Glenn McConnell will be holding two public hearings on a bill that would legalize home poker games and also expand charity gaming (including charity poker tournaments) in South Carolina. I will be there and you should be
too. Here’s why. Every Monday night I play in the best home game I’ve ever known. The action is great
the location is perfect
and the players are great people. The game has been running for years and shows no signs of dying off. There are games like it all over the state–friendly folks who just want to play cards in a safe environment. Under South Carolina law
local law enforcement could come in at any time and cite every player for violating the state’s gaming law. That we’ve never been raided is no great comfort. Even though this is a friendly game where the only rake goes to pay for drinks and snacks
it is still illegal. And if you think the local constabulary won’t bust a game of this sort
you are sadly mistaken. Last month I covered the trial of five people who were playing in a $20 max-buy no-limit hold’em game in Mt. Pleasant. The max rake on the game was 50 cents and the house owner
according to several people who testified
stopped taking rake the moment he had enough to cover the pizza and beer. The players were put on trial and
despite the magistrate’s obvious distaste for the law
convicted. [See the April issue of Bluff Magazine for my article on the trial.] A few years back
I held what was then my annual Bradoween poker tournament. It was not a huge affair. We had 43 people from around the country in town and crowded into my small house. The buy-in was insignificant and I charged no juice. People from other states laughed at me when I took the buy-in cash to my neighbor’s house and left it there. They laughed harder when I programmed my police scanner to listen for a raid and put a couple friends outside to watch the door. If I had watched myself that day
I might have laughed
too. It was ridiculous. It was a game among friends that wasn’t even charging for the BBQ and sweet tea. Still
if the raid on a similar game in Greer (a nearby suburb) a couple months before was any indication
I stood an uncomfortable chance of getting busted. It had happened to one of my friends just weeks before. He’d been playing in a similar game and had been handcuffed in front of his wife and kids. To people in less-antiquated states
this probably seems inconceivable. The simple fact i this: playing any game with cards or dice in South Carolina (read: Monopoly
bridge
poker
etc) is illegal. President Pro Tempore Glenn F. McConnell
a Republican from Charleston County
wants to change that. His bill would decriminalize social gambling (including poker) in a private homes where no rake is taken. It would also allow for charity poker tournaments for churches and charities like the Lions and Elks Clubs. Opponents of the bill suggest that opening the door to kitchen table poker is the equivalent of opening up the state border to the likes of MGM and Harrah’s casinos. Nothing could be farther from the truth. You can read the full text of the bill HERE. The language is specific
more restrictive than even I would like
and would in no way allow for casinos in the Palmetto State. All of the above is to say nothing of the rampant hypocrisy surrounding the debate. South Carolina is a lottery state. The South Carolina Education Lottery program is lauded by many of the same p
eople who fight against decriminalizing home poker games. It’s nearly impossible to go to a convenience store or turn on a TV without seeing an ad for South Carolina scratch-off tickets or Powerball jackpots. Make no mistake: South Carolina is
in fact
a gambling state
as long as the state is taking the rake. McConnell held a hearing on his bill in Charleston last week. If news reports are to be believed
the pro-poker crowd outnumbered the anti-poker folks by 20-1. The Greenville hearing could be a lot different. The Upstate of South Carolina is a great deal more conservative than the Midlands and Low Country. In the past
I’ve seen giant protests over similar issues. Even the legislators are worried about bringing the issue to Greenville. Said Senator Robert Ford to Charleston poker players
“Y’all get a couple of buses. I’m always afraid of Greenville on these kinds of issues.” It’s my hope that we won’t need Charleston poker players to defend our rights to play in Greenville. I know there are hundreds of poker enthusiasts in the Upstate who care about this issue. The question is
do you care enough to show your support in public? You don’t have to speak. You don’t even have to give your name. You only have to show up. It won’t take but a couple hours out of your day. I know poker is a solitary pursuit
but the battle to legalize it is not. Don’t be the kind of player who complains but does nothing to remedy the situation. If you don’t show up
don’t complain about the law. When you finally have Republicans and Democrats agreeing something needs to be done about the antiquated South Carolina gambling laws
you know it’s time to give just a little bit of yourself. So
you coming? Monday
March 30th 5:30-7:30 pm Greenville County Council Chambers 301 University Ridge Greenville
SC 29601 The South Carolina Poker Players Alliance is trying to get a good idea on who might come. If you’d like to RSVP for the hearing
you can do so HERE. If you have any questions
feel free to leave a comment here or send them to my e-mail address: rapideyereality — @ — gmail dot com
Dead Again
(Posters Warning : CJ told me this blog now has a more diverse focus. I still plan to stick to gambling in some sense. Because I am a problem gambler
this still leaves an immense range of topics about which I can
and will
post. I just felt like writing again.) I saw a wookie bounce off the hoods of three cars. He streaked past me
with clumped hair flapping and woozy knees wobbling
presumably running FROM something that only he could see. With wookies there’s an equal probability that he’s running from : A) The Law. B) His Past. C) His Imagination D) Soap. He’d just run down our aisle when he darted between cars
bouncing off one
into another fender
then off a hood. I thought he got away. I later heard he was slammed down by three cops. For those of you playing at home
that’s “A”. Now
generally I like to get all settled in before wookie watching
but since this is the first Dead tour in years I was prepared for anything. My wife
brother and I got to Greensboro at least 3.5 hours before showtime. Presumably enough time to either drink a dozen beers or wait once in the porta-potty line. The good news is that most of the salesmen were pretty savvy. That’s unusual for a wook. The two most active undercover cops were a big burly guy in a yellow shirt that said “Dead” and another guy
also burly
but at least 6 foot 6 with a crew cut and a blue ‘do rag. I saw douche-rag guy hit up one pipe vendor near our car. Pipe vendor was holding his glass in a black case and strolling down our lane when douche grabs a random pipe and whips out a wad of cash. My car was blasting tunes at the time and I couldn’t hear everything said but I saw douche-rag point several times to the “bowl” portion of this young wooks glass. Wook
again
was savvy. The only part of the conversation I actually heard was wook telling cop
“T
hese are for tobacco man. I could hook you up with THAT if you want.” Cop grabbed his money back from the wook
put the glass back
and stormed away without a word. That’s the gamble that is the Dead lot these days. I remember back in the day
we’d see more of everything than you can imagine ( I mean wow
really
everything) and the cops did nothing. It used to kinda freak me out the way cops would just ignore all the obvious
illegal activity at a GRATEFUL DEAD show. Maybe Jerry was responsible for greasing the locals
but the cops ain’t cool these days and they haven’t been for quite some time. Granted
like the wookies themselves
some people deserve what they get. One kid
a girl who I’d say was about 17
came by our car holding a ticket in her hand. She showed it to me….busted for drinking in the lot. Now
here’s where she got super-extra-mega-dumb. Her girlfriend was in the process of getting busted by yellowshirt guy (who again
could have just worn the uniform for all the subtlety he brought to undercover work) and our kid goes up to give her friend a hug. During the bust. While holding an open beer. Sigh. These are tomorrow’s leaders. So once inside we take totally excellent floor seats just to by the soundboard (Philside) and I continue the now standing bet I have with Pauly. We each pick 3 songs for 1st set opener. 3 more for second set. 3 more for encore. I took $20 off him when Phish opened with Fluffhead at Hampton. We pushed all three for the dead. Here’s the setlist for those who care : Set 1 Music Never Stopped Jack Straw> Estimated Prophet > He’s Gone > Touch of Gray I Need a Miracle > Truckin’> Miracle Set 2 Shakedown Street All Aong The Watchtower Caution Jam Drums Space Cosmic Charlie New Potato Caboose Help on the Way > Slipknot! > Franklin’s Tower Donor Rap Encore: Samson and Delilah Some notes : I love Music Never Stopped but am unable to NOT hear Donna scream OHHHH YEAH at crucial parts of the song. I’m not sure what that means. I’ve never actually SEEN Donna but that’s what years of bootleg cassettes will do for a man. My brother and I really
really
really
really
really
wanted to see Estimated Prophet simply because we like screaming AH NA NA NA NA along with Bobby Weir. We’re amused by simple things. He’s Gone was written long before Jerry died but when you’re touring without him you do know the audience assumes it’s ABOUT him now….right? Miracle was the highlight of the first set. I got stuck in the beer line during Touch of Grey and missed part. In fact
I missed so much that I missed Truckin’. I was so oblivious to it that I PICKED Truckin’ as one of my 3 second set openers with Pauly. It was a dumb bet. I enjoy the song Shakedown Street very much. I also Enjoy All Along the Watchtower and Warren Haynes really shredded it up on this one. Caution was awesome and this is the best thing about having Warren play with the band. He can actually sing the blues. Not the douchey Bobby Red Rooster blues but the good ol’ Pigpen brand. If you get to see the Dead this year
hope that they play this song. During Cosmic Charlie my wife said
“you know the DEAD never played this but all the after-bands (Phil
Ratdog
the Dead) play it all the time. I wonder why.” Then they played New Potato Caboose. Wow. I don’t even own a bootleg version of this soon. I couldn’t remember the name until it was half-over. I do remember that “touching makes the flesh cry out loud.” That counts for something. The band started the Help>Slip>Frank at 11:30. That’s 4 hours in. My brother and I assumed all day
it being Easter and all
that we’d see either Promised Land (my guess) or Greatest Story Ever Told (his). Samson and Delilah is what we got. C’est la vie. This is the kind of crap I blog about now. It did contain some gambling. That counts.
Game Review: Wii Sports Resort
My shoulder hurts. It’s probably the number one reason why I fi
nd Wii Sports Resort to be one of the more realistic sports games I’ve ever played. The pain I feel in my shoulder is similar to the pain I experience after a round of frolf. Is that sad? Disc golf is just one of the two dozen plus games offered on Wii Sports Resort. There’s bowling
golf
ping pong
archery
canoeing
water skiing
and more. And most of the games offer multiple variations. The key to the game is the Wii Motion plus. It’s a piece of hardware that connects to the bottom of the traditional remote. It’s probably what the Wii was supposed to be when it was initially released
but the technology wasn’t there yet. Now
instead of just tracking motion up and down and left and right
the game can sense when you turn your wrist. This makes games like frolf and bowling and ping pong just about as realistic as they get. If you’ve got a Wii
I’d suggest you get this game. But if you do
be sure to the get the new version of the game that comes with the second Wii Motion Plus. For someone reason
the first release of the game included just one
which didn’t make much sense. You can order the new version on Amazon for about 70 bucks. It’s worth it. And my next Wii purchase? I’d expect it to be the New Super Mario Bros. I’ll let you know how that game plays as soon as I get my hands on it!